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TRANSCRIPT:
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Act I

Open in a sushi restaurant. Sara is out on a lunch date with a man named Andy.

Andy: Thanks for taking the time to break some bread.

Sara: It's my pleasure.

Andy: So, how you been?

Sara: I can't complain.

Shift to see that Sara and Andy are being observed through the frosted glass of a nearby booth.

Andy: Well, I can. I miss you.

Sara: Get out of here.

Andy: I do.

Sara: Come on, Andy. A babe magnet like you? I find that hard to believe.

Andy: Believe it, Pez. Why haven't you been returning my calls?

Sara: I've just been a bit off my game lately. I haven't quite felt like myself.

Andy: You seeing someone?

Sara: Oh, yeah. The heavy bag in the precinct gym.

Andy: That's one way of alleviating the stress.

Sara: Yeah, it works.

Sara takes note of the shirt a young man at the next table is wearing - a hand dripping blood.

Sara's unseen observer is, of course, Ian Nottingham. Watching Sara with Andy, he has a memory flash from his childhood. The child Ian is in helm and breastplate practicing (or playing) with a sword. The sword, helm and breastplate are child-sized. Irons comes up and grasps Ian's sword hand and kneels beside him. The child Ian raises his visor.

Irons (in memory): Don't ever believe you are protected. No matter what you wear, no matter how you shield yourself ...

Irons rips the breastplate from Ian and sets it to the side.

Irons: ... never forget ...

Irons takes a dagger from his left sleeve with his right hand.

Irons (holds dagger up to Ian): ... you are an impossibly fragile, soft, pale, hairless organism with no natural defenses.

Irons plunges the dagger into the breastplate. He picks up the breastplate then turns it over to show Ian.

Irons: Like something you'd find when you turn over a rock, hmm?

Irons moves to sit on the lower library step and maneuvers the child to stand between his legs.

Irons: Always remember - the less emotional attachment you have, the less vulnerable you'll be. Isolation is safety.

He lowers Ian's visor.

Back to present-day Ian spying on Sara.

Irons (memory voiceover): Virginity is invulnerability.

Cut to an armored truck sitting in front of a bank. The driver is eating a sandwich. One of the guards is at the bank entrance, his hand on the butt of his pistol. Two bicyclists going in opposite directions pass in front of the bank. One uses a silenced gun to shoot the guard at the door and the guard making the delivery to the truck. As the guard making the delivery collapses, the second biker takes the case he was carrying.

{Pause for opening sequence.}

Back to Sara and her lunch date. Her cell phone rings and she retrieves it from her jacket pocket.

Sara (into phone): Yeah? Oh ... I'm on my way.

Sara (to Andy): I got to go.

Andy: What are you doing Saturday night?

Sara: Playing bingo. (smile)

Andy: Got a better idea.

Sara: Well, ah ... call me.

Andy: Yeah.

As Sara leaves, she glances at the booth where Ian is sitting. Ian watches her leave.

Cut to Irons' house a bit later. Ian is standing in front of a covered object on a small table. He's wearing a black button-down shirt with a large crest or other device done in gold thread on the left side.

Ian pulls the cover off and drops it to the floor. Revealed is a large vase containing a clear liquid and Kenneth Irons' severed hand. The hand has a band of studded metal around the wrist. Ian stares at the hand then runs his right forefinger around the rim of the vase, producing a clear ringing note.

Ian pulls the right sleeve of his shirt back to the elbow then lowers his hand into the vase. He traces the scar on the hand with his forefinger. Suddenly, the hand in the vase grasps Ian's. Ian struggles to get his hand free.

Cut to an abandoned factory. The two thieves are kneeling on the floor, the stolen goods between them. We'll learn this later, but the shooter's name is Green and the other is McGill.

McGill (reading): "Pay to the bearer upon demand, $50,000 US."

McGill has a handful of the documents.

McGill: One for you ... (hands Green one) ... one for me ... (sets one aside) ... one for ...

Shift to see Ian on the stairs leading down to where Green and McGill are.

Ian: ... me.

Both stand and look up at Ian.

McGill: Ian, long time.

Ian: Don't worry. I wouldn't take your money. I was being facetious.

Ian's vocal inflections are like nothing we have heard from him yet.

McGill: You're making a joke. That's a first. You finally getting some, Ian?

Ian: I have, in fact, met the woman of my dreams. But, in answer to your question, not yet. I have a proposal for you, more lucrative than your current ... enterprise. Interested?

McGill: Is this a mission for you or your supposedly missing boss?

Ian: Perhaps both. Where is Moby?

Green: Uh, what's it to you?

Cut to the front of the bank. Sara arrives and shows her badge to the uniform at the perimeter. She nods to Jake, who is taking a statement from a witness. She continues walking to stand over the guard shot nearer the street. She looks up to see Lazar crossing a parking area. Danny walks up to her.

Danny: How was lunch?

Sara: Short.

Danny: Want good news?

Sara makes an affirmative sound.

Danny: We got it on video.

Danny glances over her shoulder. Sara turns and sees a camera mounted on a pillar in front of the bank.

Cut to the precinct. Danny, Sara and Jake are watching the video of the robbery.

Danny: Hoo ... that was pristine. They were quick and clean. They had good intel, they took bearer bonds, nothing else.

Jake: And they used jacketed ordinance. No one really does these days except us and soldiers. I'm thinking military.

Sara: That's a good thought.

Jake: Thanks.

Sara: How'd you come up with it?

They all smile and go back to watching another replay of the robbery. Sara notices something.

Sara: Hey, whoa-whoa, whoa. What is that? On his forearm?

Sara pauses the picture. They all look closer.

Cut to Ian and the robbers in the abandoned building. Ian has moved out of the shadows of the stairs to stand looking out of a window in an eerily familiar pose. He is wearing a gray three-piece suit. Hector Mobius walks in.

Moby: A family reunion ... my first ever.

Ian turns from the window.

Ian: Mobius. I have a mission which I cannot complete personally. The subject is a police detective who is making my life ... complicated.

McGill: Yeah, they tend to do that.

Ian takes a large leather bag from the windowsill and tosses it to the floor.

Ian: Two million in clean, used, non-sequential cash. You three may work out your division of the bounty.

McGill (walking toward the bag): While you work some alibi, leave town, step out of the spotlight for a while?

Ian starts walking away from the window toward Moby.

Ian: My motives are none of your concern. This detective does know me, although she's not currently hunting ... me.

Moby: She?

McGill: You want us to whack a woman?

Ian is standing in front of Mobius by now and speaks to him.

Ian: Not a woman, the woman. Primal, original, warrior-goddess. Do not underestimate her. Her name ... her name is Sara Pezzini.

A brief flash of Sara walking unscathed through Mobius' flame from the other timeline. {Did Moby see this?}

Moby: We accept.

Moby (to the others): Divide the money in thirds.

Moby (to Ian): There is a condition. Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Do you know the myth?

Ian: Gilgamesh, the warrior king ...

Moby: ... from Sumer. He loved a wood-nymph named Sehren whom he could never catch nor possess. His unrequited passion was so great, he could no longer govern his kingdom.

Ian: Mobius, ever the poet.

Moby: So he summoned Enkidu, the master hunter, and ordered him to kill Sehren so Gilgamesh could be free from his all-consuming lust.

Ian draws a pocketwatch on a chain from the vest of his suit.

Ian: If your condition is that I have to listen to your babble, it may prove too harsh.

Moby: Gilgamesh repented his decision and tried to recall the hunter. But it was too late.

Ian: Your point?

Moby: Once we leave this place, Sara Pezzini is a dead woman. No turning back. No recalling the hunter. That is my condition.

Ian: Then a dead woman she is.

Cut to Sara and Danny's office at the precinct. They are at their desks when Jake taps on a window.

Sara: Yeah?

Jake walks in waving a photo, which he puts on Sara's desk. Danny and Jake gather round.

Jake: Check it out.

Sara looks at the photo. It is an enlargement of the shooter's forearm. There's a tattoo on it..

Sara: It's a dragon, a black dragon.

Witchblade vision: a street performer blowing fire; a reptile morphing into Ian's face; Moby watching from a building corner; a painting of a dragon; Moby in his welder's mask; Sara walking through flame.

Back to Sara.

Fade.

End Act I.

Act II

Open with Sara at Gabriel's flipping through a book of photo plates. There is a Talismaniac.com logo on the front.

Gabriel: If you buy the whole set, I'll cut you a deal.

Sara: Oh, yeah? What kind of a deal?

Gabriel: Hmm ... two million, all in. They'd cost you twice that much if you bought them singly.

Sara: Oh, fantastic. You take checks, right?

Gabriel (laugh): Right.

Sara turns to a picture of a large stone construction.

Sara: Huh ... What is this? It's not Egyptian, it's not Mayan ...

Gabriel: Uh, no. It's Sumerian. That's the palace of Gilgamesh, 2700 BC. That's where all this stuff came from.

Sara: Hmm.

Gabriel: Ah ...

Gabriel turns to pick up a small statue.

Gabriel: ... this is the reason you dropped in. Her name was Sehren. She was a woodland goddess.

Sara takes the figure from Gabriel. The statue is dual faced.

Gabriel: She became Artemis to the Greeks, Diana to the Romans.

Sara notices a familiar-looking bracelet on the statue's wrist.

Sara: My God. That's ...

Gabriel: Oh, yeah. So the legend goes.

Quick Witchblade vision: painting of a wielder in ancient times, bare-chested on horseback; masked man in a tunnel; painting of Joan of Arc; painting of a Chinese or Indian wielder; masked figure in the tunnel with a torch; Chinese or Indian wielder.

Sara (softly): The Huntress.

Gabriel: Very good. Goddess of the moon, as well. I'm right, aren't I? You felt drawn to come here today, huh?

Sara (small shake): Uh, actually, I was just doing shoe leather on a case. Um ... what do you know about dragons?

Gabriel is nonplused for a moment. He puts the statue of Sehren back on the table. He starts walking to a display of dragons.

Gabriel: Oh, um ... well ... the dragon is the greatest divine force on earth. Its breath bestows life. It's called Sheng Chi.

Sara: So, they're actually a positive force?

Gabriel: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Uh ... unless you're a black dragon. (close up of a dragon figure) Black dragons are serious trouble.

Sara squats in front of the small black dragon statue.

Sara: What kind of trouble?

Gabriel: Cause drought, famine, pestilence, end of the world, stuff like that. If you see a black dragon, do not piss him off.

Sara (small laugh): Yeah, I got it.

Sara turns to look at the statue of Sehren.

Sara: Well, um ... how much for the little lady?

Gabriel: Ah, sorry. She's already sold.

Sara: For more than I make in a year, right?

Gabriel: Ten years.

Sara turns to look up at Gabriel.

Gabriel: I'm just the middleman.

Cut to Sara back at her desk. Danny is also at his. Jake is walking around the office with file folders in his hands.

Jake: The Black Dragons. Elite special forces, an entire unit of killers. They were formed in the wake of the Gulf War in an unusual collaboration with some private investors.

Danny: They do time in Afghanistan?

Jake: Nah ... never got their chance. They were decommissioned pretty quickly.

Sara: How did you learn all this?

Jake: From an old girlfriend. She does sensitive work inside the Beltway.

Sara: Gee ... you broke up with her?

They all laugh.

Jake: Very funny.

Sara: Sorry - you were saying?

Jake: Anyway. They were an experimental unit, drawn from all the services - SEALs, Rangers, Force Recon. They underwent heavy psychological training, drug therapies, maybe even genetic engineering. Though that's unconfirmed.

Danny: Our tax dollars at work.

Sara: Yeah, really. Well, who held the leash?

Jake: The program was run privately by ... Vorschlag Industries.

Jake lays a photo of Kenneth Irons on Sara's desk.

Sara sees Irons as she saw him at their last encounter - wielding the Longinus Lance as he attacked her and getting his hand cut off.

Sara's right hand is fisted and shaking slightly as she looks at Irons' photo. She looks up and Jake is still speaking, but she can't hear or understand. Danny looks at her and frowns. Sara pushes herself up from her desk and walks out. Danny follows.

Danny (concerned): Hey ... hey.

Sara turns back.

Sara: What? Danny, ah ... I know somebody on the Vorschlag payroll. I just thought I'd ask around.

Danny: Fine. Check it out.

Sara turns once more to leave, then faces Danny again when he calls her name.

Danny: Sara.

Sara: What?

Danny: Have you heard of a fugue?

Sara: Sure. Music. Bach, right?

Danny: Right. Also psychology. Freud ...

Sara shakes her head with an "I'm not following you" look.

Danny: You're stressing, Pez.

Sara looks around to see who might be listening.

Sara: Hey, Danny. I'm fine.

Shift to see Jake in their office eavesdropping.

Sara: I'm fine. Oh, but thanks for your concern, Sigmund. Come on, man.

Sara leaves. Danny turns back to the office and gives Jake a shrug.

Cut to Sara walking in a park. She's hearing the female voice speaking in Latin {?} again.

Jake (in voiceover): They underwent heavy psychological training, drug therapies, and maybe even genetic engineering.

She stops and sees Ian walking over the crest of a small hill. He's still in the gray suit, only now with the coat folded over his left arm.

Gabriel (in voiceover): If you see a black dragon, do not piss him off.

Ian stops in front of Sara and removes his sunglasses. He folds the glasses into his gloved left hand with overly precise movements.

Ian: You wanted to see me?

Sara: Show me your forearm.

We get the Witchblade's auditory cue as Ian just looks at Sara. Sara reaches for Ian's arm, which he pulls up and away from her.

Ian: Magnificent. It's learning to use you.

Sara: You got it backwards, Ian.

Sara grabs Ian's right wrist with her own right hand.

Ian: We're not enemies yet, Sara. So the use of force ...

Ian clasps her arm with his hand and pulls her a little closer.

Ian: ... however intoxicating, is inappropriate ...

He jerks her even closer for a moment.

Ian: ... yet.

Sara (somewhat puzzled): You talk like your boss ... your late boss.

Ian remembers being a child with Irons and looking at a turtle while saying the following.

Ian (voiceover): Thank you for the compliment. Hearing Mr. Irons speak was like experiencing ... a Bach fugue.

Sara: May I, please, see your right forearm?

Ian raises his right arm. The cuff on his shirt slides back to reveal a black dragon tattoo on his inner forearm.

Ian: Black dragon, rampant.

Ian lowers his arm and flicks the cuff forward.

Sara: You get that in the service?

Ian: Badge of honor. Brothers in life, brothers in death.

Sara: Look, I want the names of all the Black Dragons. You guys stay in touch?

Ian: Not in a way you would understand. But when one of us has a need, the others all know about it.

Sara: The same way you know about me?

Ian: No bond compares to ours, Sehren.

Sara: What did you just call me?

Ian: Sara. That is your name ... this time.

Sara snorts, shakes her head, and turns her back on Ian for a moment. When she turns back, she sees Ian disappearing over the crest of the hill.

Sara starts walking back along the path through the park. She stops and looks around, trying to spot something that has caught her attention subconsciously. She looks at the Witchblade, but it is inactive.

Sara: Learning to use me, my ass.

As she walks on, we see right behind her in the tall dead grass and low brush a man in a camouflage poncho. He gets up from his crouch to follow her, keeping himself in the underbrush. A little further down the path, a second man in camouflage breaks from his perch on a hillside to follow Sara also.

Sara's pace on the path has picked up speed and she continues to look all about her. She hears the sound of a dog barking and stops and turns toward the sound. On another path a short distance away is an elderly man walking his dog and someone roller blading. Sara continues walking, but now her pace is more relaxed. She approaches an underpass, her two shadows still following her. She stands at the entrance to the underpass and looks at the Witchblade. The stone comes alive {though it is hard to see in the bright sunlight} and we get the auditory cue for the Witchblade. Sara backs away and runs up the hillside instead of walking under the bridge.

Shift to see that Mobius has taken a position in the bridge supports with a cocked crossbow aimed at the path that Sara would have taken. Green and McGill, the men in camouflage, trot up under Moby. They hold up their arms in a "What happened?" pose and Moby lowers the crossbow.

Shift to see Sara running up a set of steps. She pauses and sees Lazar at the top of the steps. Sara turns her head to look behind her then continues up.

Fade.

End Act II

Act III

Open in Vicky Po's lab. She is looking into a microscope when Jake enters through the door behind her.

Vicky: Hey, don't knock. Nobody minds.

Jake starts looking at her bookshelves.

Jake: You got a medical dictionary?

Vicky: You mean, like a book, Jakey? How quaint.

Jake takes a book and starts flipping through it.

Jake: Yeah, I gotta look something up.

Vicky turns away from her microscope and toward Jake behind her.

Vicky: Hey, what do you need? Come here.

She gets up and gestures for Jake to join her at her computer.

Jake: Under psychology, look up "fugue state".

Vicky: Hey, ah ... so, by the way, how's Pez doing?

Vicky brings up a medical database on the computer. Jake is standing behind her left shoulder. Vicky has the database search for "fugue state".

Vicky: Her friend, Andy, called. Said she seemed a little off or something.

Jake: Yeah. Pez is Pez.

The search is finished.

Vicky (reading): "Fugue state : a pathological response to trauma characterized by dissociative amnesia."

Jake: Amnesia, I know. What does dissociative mean?

Vicky: It's the feeling of being detached from reality.

Jake: Great. Keep going.

Vicky (reading): "From the Latin verb, fugire, as in fugitive or refugee. Fugue symptoms can be further broken into depersonalization, the sense of not knowing who you are or of questioning long-held beliefs, and derealization, in which the victim perceives reality in a grossly distorted way."

Jake (softly): No kidding.

Vicky (reading): "Irrational behavior can persist during the episode, which can last from a few moments to several months."

Vicky frowns and shakes her head.

Vicky: This is weird stuff, Jake. Who is it you're asking ...

Vicky turns to see Jake walking out of her office.

Vicky: ... about?

Cut to Danny exercising alone in the precinct gym. He is dressed in loose black exercise pants and sneakers. His hair is fastened back in a spiky knot. His bare chest and arms are covered in sweat, indicating he has been working out for a while. He begins going through a martial arts practice routine. {Not certain of the discipline, but it looked like Tae Kwon Do.}

Danny finishes and gives a small bow to his imaginary opponent. In the background, Sara is standing on the short flight of stairs leading to the precinct. Sara applauds softly and Danny turns and smiles.

Sara: That was beautiful.

{Thank you, Will. That was beautiful. I'll never look at Danny quite the same way again.}

Danny: Thanks.

Sara starts down the stairs.

Danny: To do a form properly, one must visualize a score of attackers coming at you from all sides.

Sara (smile): Ah ... it's a piece of cake for me.

{OK, just had to say it - the writers messed up. There is no way an experienced cop, with obviously a moderate amount of martial arts instruction, would have been taken so completely by surprise in an alley at night with a man presumably attacking a woman the way Danny was in "Emergence." All right, back to the story.}

Sara hands Danny his towel from a weight bench then sits down.

Sara: So, I looked up "fugue". I'm kind of worried, Danny.

Danny: Sounds like a response of a healthy person. Probably means you're OK.

Danny moves to walk away, but Sara turns him back by momentarily grasping his right wrist.

Sara: Yeah, hey. I'm not OK.

Danny frowns.

Sara (little laugh): This Black Dragon thing has me kind of freaked. I don't really know what to do.

Cut to Sara and Danny's office some time later. They, and Jake, are going over some of the Black Dragon files.

Sara: Talon Green? Is he our shooter?

Jake: We think so.

Sara flips to the next file.

Sara: Hmm ... Lennox McGill.

Jake: Both Navy SEALs.

Sara pats Jake on the shoulder and moves to sit at her desk.

Sara: We owe your girlfriend a big, expensive dinner.

Jake: Ex-girlfriend.

Sara flips to the next file.

Sara: Whoa! Hector Mobius ... (laugh) ... There's a typo here. It says his IQ is 200. That is a typo, right?

Danny: No typo. Check this out.

Danny tears a narrow strip of paper from a notebook on his desk. He holds the paper up to Sara.

Danny: The Mobius strip - ordinary piece of paper. Nothing wrong here, right?

Sara gives a short nod.

Danny: But when it gets twisted and loops back on itself ...

He suits actions to his words and presents the now connected strip to Sara.

Danny: ... it becomes endless. And infinite.

Sara: Twisted and looped.

Sara glances between Jake and Danny.

Jake: Psychological training and drug therapies. Green and McGill are wanted for robbery and murder in three states.

Sara looks at the files again.

Sara: And Mobius?

Jake: No record.

Sara looks up, surprised.

Danny: If I had a 200 IQ, I wouldn't have a record, either. There is one more surviving Dragon.

Sara flips to the last file and notices the picture there. It's Ian, of course.

The phone rings and Jake picks it up.

Jake (into phone): Homicide. McCartey.

Jake listens for a bit while Sara reads over Ian's sheet.

Jake (into phone): Who is this?

Jake takes the phone from his ear and shares the results of the call with Sara and Danny.

Jake: Anonymous caller. Said we could find the Black Dragons holed up at 19th and Marginal.

Cut to 19th and Marginal. Sara, Danny and Jake enter the space by pushing aside hanging white canvas sheets. Jake and Danny are both carrying shotguns while Sara has her pistol out. {OK, where is everyone else? Backup, anyone? You know these people are dangerous!}

Sara and Danny crouch behind objects on the floor, but Jake stands. A sound is heard in the distance. Sara goes over to Jake and pulls him down.

Sara (low, to both): Pincers. Wide. Retain visual contact.

They move off slowly, Danny on the left, Jake on the right, and Sara going down the middle. They each inspect their own section of the quiet building.

After a bit, Sara hears and sees someone opening a roof access door. She decides to go up and investigate. {What happened to "retain visual contact"?} Danny can't believe that she is going up the stairs.

Danny (whisper): Sara, what are you doing?

Shift to Jake. He hears a noise to the side of where he is investigating. He goes looking for the source and a sliding metal door is closed behind him, cutting him off from Danny and Sara. He runs a forearm into the door, but it does not help. {Um ... sliding door, Jake.}

Cut to Sara on the roof. She walks around the roof with her back to a glass-encased area. Behind her, on the other side of the glass area, we can see Moby with his crossbow. Moby shoots at Sara through the glass, but the bolt is deflected by the Witchblade. Moby takes off running and jumps off the edge of the roof. At that moment, Danny exits the roof stairs and pumps a round into his shotgun. He runs to the edge of the roof and Sara joins him there. They look down, but there's no Mobius.

Sara is about to go over the edge of the roof when Danny hauls her back.

Danny: What are you doing? Their turf, their rules, bad plan.

Sara: It was Mobius.

Danny: Are you sure?

Sara walks over and picks up the bent metal crossbow bolt.

Danny: Wonder how he missed?

Sara gives a little shrug, drops the bolt, and walks off.

Cut to Sara walking into Gabriel's place. There's loud music playing. Sara plugs her ears with her fingers.

Sara (shout): Gabriel! Gabriel!

Gabriel walks in from another room and gives Sara a little finger wave while retrieving the remote to his TV. He turns the volume down.

Gabriel: You know, if it's too loud, you're too old.

Sara: Tell me the Sumerian story. The one about the wood goddess.

Gabriel: Uh, OK, um ... The king, this hero, Gilgamesh, fell in love with Sehren, the goddess. But she kept running away from him, too fast to catch. Eventually his lust drove him nuts, so he went to his best friend - this hunter dude named Enkidu.

Sara: And he put out a hit on her, right?

Gabriel: Basically, yeah.

Sara: So, you kill the thing you love? What is that about?

Gabriel: Well, supposedly, he was temporarily possessed.

Sara: Well, I thought myths were supposed to lift people up, educate them.

Gabriel: Well, yeah, but I think they're also supposed to help people deal with unacceptable feelings.

Sara: Like incest?

Gabriel (small smile): Uh-huh.

Sara looks to the table where the Sehren statue was before.

Sara: Where's the statue?

Gabriel: Uh, gone. Shipped.

Sara: Oh, yeah.

Gabriel: Yeah, you know, uh, funny thing ...

Gabriel taps his head with his right forefinger then strokes his chin with his right hand.

Gabriel: ... the courier that picked it up? Security guy from Vorschlag Industries. It's Kenneth Irons' company, right? I mean, ex-company. I mean ... he's dead ... right?

We see Ian holding Irons' body.

Sara: Right. Thank you.

Sara walks off.

Gabriel: Sure. Any time.

Gabriel turns the music back up.

Cut to Sara riding her motorcycle in front of the Vorschlag building {I'm assuming}. Ian is there, swinging around a street sign pole. Sara pulls in front of him and stops.

Ian: Good day, Sehren.

Sara: Nottingham, what is going on? For weeks, you show up at the weirdest times, and you tell me that your mission in life is to protect me? Then you sic the Black Dragons on me? What is up with you?

Ian: My father told me never to discuss criminal activities with members of the police force.

Sara: Speaking of your father - who you, by the way, are showing a startling resemblance to - how's he doing ... Ian?

Ian has another memory from his childhood. Kenneth Irons is playing the piano when the child Ian sneaks up behind him with a sword. Irons stops playing and turns in mock surprise. This has the feeling of a favorite game.

Irons (memory): Haa!

The child Ian thrusts his sword at Irons, then pulls it back.

Irons (memory): Aww ... Ohh!

When Ian inspects his sword, there appears to be blood on the last three or four inches of the blade. Irons looks shocked and looks down to see a large blood stain on his shirt. {Never could figure out if this was a truly hideous joke on Irons' part, or if he was really stabbed.}

Back to Sara and Ian.

Ian: Knowing him, he'd find hell to his liking.

Sara closes the visor on her helmet, spins her bike around and drives off down the street, popping a wheelie. Ian watches her go and Lazar watches Ian.

Fade.

End Act III

Act IV

Open with Ian once again sitting in Irons' carved wooden chair. He doesn't look so good this time. He sits slouched in the chair and seems to have difficulty breathing. He drags himself from the chair and crawls on his knees, straining and trembling, to the table with Irons' hand in the vase.

Moby (in voiceover): Once we leave this place, Sara Pezzini is a dead woman. No turning back. No recalling the hunter. That is my condition.

We get a flash of Ian's response at the time.

Ian (memory): Then a dead woman she is.

Back to Ian and Irons' hand. Ian is still shaking and has a film of sweat on his forehead. He raises his right hand to point at the hand.

Ian: You made me do this.

Cut to the Dragons' lair. Mobius walks in to find Ian waiting for him. Ian stands hunched over with his hand to his head.

Mobius: The intelligence you provided was incomplete. What is this weapon she bears?

Ian attempts to neaten his appearance by tucking his disheveled hair behind his ears.

Ian: Something the Krupps ... Colts ... and Kalishnikovs of the world could never produce.

Moby: You relish riddles. I prefer answers.

Ian: Some riddles have no answer. If the hunt is too difficult, and you wish to break it off, I will understand.

Moby (wonder): You love her.

Ian (nodding): Yes.

Moby: Better to love the moon. She is easier to touch ... warmer, too.

Ian: Sara is the moon.

Moby: Sara is a tigress. He who loves a tigress becomes a part of her ... after she kills and consumes him.

Moby takes a deep breath and lets it out.

Moby: We have a compact, Ian. Unbreakable.

Moby turns away and Ian moves to stand in front of him again.

Ian: You and I make our own rules.

Mobius: Not and honor the myth.

Ian (whisper): Let us make a new myth.

Moby: The locales change, the heroes change, the very gods change ... but the myth remains constant.

Ian: Let her live ... please.

Moby: Can the hunter recall the arrow to the bow?

Moby walks away. Ian watches him go, frowning and weaving on his feet.

Cut to Sara, Danny, and Jake back in their office.

Danny: So, what's your take on the ambush?

Jake (little shrug): It just doesn't track.

Sara: I'll say.

Sara's cell phone rings and she gets it from her back pocket.

Sara (into phone): Hello.

It's her friend, Andy. He's calling from some place outdoors.

Andy: Pez.

Sara: Hey.

Andy: We still on for Saturday night?

Sara: Oh, yeah, I guess so. Uh, listen, I'm kind of in the middle of something. Can I call you back?

Andy: You OK?

Sara: Yeah. I'll call you back, all right?

Andy: Yeah. Yeah, OK.

Sara: Bye.

Sara disconnects.

Danny: {So how come ...}

Sara's cell phone rings again. Sara grunts and answers the phone.

Sara (into phone): Yep.

On the other end of the line this time is Ian Nottingham.

Ian: Sara, I, I need to see you.

Sara turns to Danny and Jake.

Sara: Uh, just a sec, guys, OK?

Jake: Yeah.

Sara walks off a few feet.

Sara: Nottingham, what is with you? You know, I knew you were strange, but you're acting like ... like Irons.

Ian: I made a terrible mistake. I need to see you. I'm in the precinct parking lot. Please come.

Sara disconnects. Ian is shaking as he puts on his sunglasses and he wraps his black overcoat tightly around himself. Sara soon joins him outside.

Sara (pissed): What? You wanna apologize for putting a hit out on me?

Ian is hunched over, rocking back and forth, rubbing his inner right wrist with his left hand. He doesn't face Sara.

Ian: Have you ever felt true shame, Sara? Have you ever done something for which there was no redemption?

Sara: I've killed a few people. I'm not particularly happy about that.

Ian: Have you ever desired someone so intensely, that it became overwhelming, maddening ... made you lose your mind, your reason, your self?

Sara: Are you trying to tell me that you got a crush on me?

Ian removes his sunglasses and turns to Sara:

Ian: I'm trying to tell you, I'm being crushed! By a savage longing. And that I, who am supposed to be your protector, a sibling of sorts ... have unleashed an arrow that could end your life.

Ian drops to his knees.

Ian: But it wasn't me, Sara. I was possessed, by a black energy so dark ...

Sara takes a look around the parking lot to see if anyone is witnessing this. Ian is hunched over, face nearly to the ground.

Ian: ... it was not me.

Ian straightens up on his knees.

Ian: I have forsaken any possibility of forgiveness, but I will ask for your understanding.

Sara: Please, I don't understand any of this.

Ian: Yes, you do, Sara. Give me your hand.

Sara just raises her brows.

Ian: Please. {She'd have to be made of pretty stern stuff to resist those puppy dog eyes.}

Sara places her right hand into his two bare hands. Ian looks at her hand with the Witchblade on it.

Ian: Sara, the Witchblade enables you to look into the darkest recesses and the sharpest schisms in the human heart ... into the labyrinth of pain, passion, fear and confusion within all of us.

Ian raises his face to look at Sara.

Ian: Into the savagery which cannot be caged, tamed ... or denied. But the most terrifying thing is to look into one's own heart. Look into your heart, Sara. Look into your heart and tell me you understand. Look into your heart and tell me you understand.

Sara gets flashes of : her battle with Gallo's men at the Rialto; her smashing Connor Duryea's face into a bar mirror; crushing Dominique Boucher's ceramic snake underfoot; kicking Dominique; throwing one of the Isaacs through a standing mirror and skewering another with the Witchblade; shooting Fiona; sitting in her shower thinking that she needed to change.

Back to Sara and Ian.

Sara (weakly): Yes.

Sara (stronger): Yes.

Ian rises to his feet, still holding her hand.

Ian: Thank you.

Ian kisses the back of her hand then lets it go.

Ian: Good-bye.

Ian turns slowly, maintaining eye contact, then walks away, still a little unsteady on his feet. Sara watches him go. Lazar walks up, also watching Ian go. He turns to Sara and nods once to her. Sara leaves. {I thought she looked sad, but maybe not.}

Cut to the abandoned building at 19th and Marginal. Ian walks through the canvas hanging at the entrance. He has his black overcoat pulled tightly around him. All the other Dragons are there.

Moby: So ... it comes to this, my brother.

Ian shakes his head.

Ian: I don't want to fight you. I just want to call off your mission to kill Sara.

Moby: I told you from the beginning. That is not possible.

Ian: It is possible. Hector ... you are a myth. You have your own condition, your own rules. You can reconsider.

Mobius (hoarsely): I cannot!

Mobius: You are different from me. You did not receive the same programming. There is no fail-safe.

Ian: I was deluded when I came to you. I was following through on some order, some impulse, that I don't even understand!

Moby: The only way for you to save your beloved Sara is for you to kill me ... or die trying.

Ian: Then so be it.

They run at each other, flinging their overcoats from them as they go. They meet and strain against each other like stags at mating time. Moby eventually pushes Ian away. Ian comes right back. He and Moby continue to contend against each other, Moby generally getting the upper hand until Moby lands a right to Ian's head that drops him to the floor. As Ian is rising slowly on hands and knees, Moby hits him in the middle of the back, dropping Ian flat to the floor once more.

Ian struggles to rise again and Moby lets him this time. Ian stands in front of Moby and raises his chin. Moby palms Ian's face and slams him back to the floor. {Excuse me? These are men with genius-level IQs?}

Moby walks over to a large chunk of concrete with rusted rebar sticking from it. There is the sound of a motorcycle approaching as Moby picks up the concrete chunk over his head.

Sara drives through the doorway and stops very abruptly, catapulting herself headfirst over her handlebars. She flies into Moby's chest. Moby falls back and the concrete chunk falls onto his chest.

Sara removes her motorcycle helmet and Green fires his crossbow at her. Ian rises from the floor to take the bolt himself. He falls back and Sara cushions his fall. Green reloads his crossbow. Sara sets Ian on the floor as McGill pulls a pistol out of his waistband.

McGill fires once and a new form of the Witchblade deflects the shot. The Witchblade now leaves most of the hand free. There's just relatively thin tendrils connecting the bracelet to an area over Sara's first knuckles. Green shoots another crossbow bolt at Sara.

Sara catches the bolt and throws it at McGill, catching him in the abdomen. She pulls her own gun and shoots Green twice. Both Dragons go down.

Sara turns her attention to Ian. His eyes are closed and he does not appear to be breathing. She turns her head and sees Lazar on an upper level looking down. Sara turns back to Ian and grasps the bolt where it enters Ian's chest with her right hand, which is still covered with the new Witchblade form. We see the stone in the Witchblade come to life as Sara pulls the bolt out of Ian with a grunt.

Ian takes a gasping breath and his eyes flicker open. Sara drops the bolt and Ian turns his eyes toward her. His look is one of utter devotion. Sara glances up at Lazar to see him walking away. Sara nods slightly then looks at Ian again.

Cut to Sara's apartment. She is lying on her couch with the Witchblade between her hands. Her phone rings and she lets her answering machine get it.

Sara's voice (on machine): Pezzini. Go.

Andy (over machine): Pez, it's Andy. It's Saturday night. What happened to you? Hope you get back to feeling like yourself, and whoever it is that you've been feeling like ... well, maybe she can return my call. Later.

Sara looks at the Witchblade.

Fade.

End Act IV

END OF EPISODE

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