Irons continues to twist in silent agony as Sara is stretched like she is being crucified. A vine of the blade wreathes her head, and when Gabriel comes to the door, another piece stops up her mouth so she can't cry out. Gabriel tells her through the door there's a test she has to go through, a dangerous and unpleasant test. She can't answer, and Gabriel, thinking she wants to be alone, offers her an ear, a cup of coffee, or anything, then goes away.
Sara sees Stonehenge and Druid ceremonies amid fire, and she walks through a winter-laden forest. Cathain stops Sara in her tracks, she is young, impassioned, pure and innocent in her power. She asks Sara why she is crying? Sara replies death follows her, but Cathain says no, she follows death, she followed it even before she had the Witchblade, and then she kneels before a fire, while Sara insists everyone she befriends dies. Cathain tells her death is not evil, as she seems to believe, and asks Sara if she knows her purpose? Sara repeats Jeanne's words with some disbelief, she is to rid the world of insanity, and Cathain asks would Sara die for this? Sara says yes. She mentions Conchobar, she and Cathain loved him, can she get him back? Cathain's face starts to break - she says yes, and disappears.
Nottingham watches outside Sara's window, and in a lightning flash, sees a reflection of Danny, watching from behind him. He spins, and realizes it was Danny's ghost he glimpsed. He affirms that Sara has more than one person looking out for her: he advises Danny to watch her well, then leaves. Danny stares after him - then takes Nottingham's place at the window.
Dante asks why is Jake here? Jake deliberately misunderstands, Dante asked him to meet him there, and Dante expounds why is Jake a cop? Jake proclaims himself a 'neat freak', he wants to make his corner of the world orderly. Dante cogitates: he's heard worse reasons. Jake returns the favor, and Dante replies nothing else ever seemed worthy, this is a sacred trust, a brotherhood. Jake agrees. Dante asks, if Jake agrees it's a brotherhood, why does he protect Pezzini? Jake says, "Because, she's one of us." Dante refutes that: he weaves a tale about a deal he and Orlinsky made with a local pimp to return a runaway girl back to her family, and Sara treated it like a payoff, threatened Orlinsky with IA or his wife, and Dante asks Jake, is this someone who is part of the brotherhood? Jake hedges, why is Dante telling him? Dante takes a different tack, he climbs on a soapbox that cops aren't paid well, can't raise a family, can't take care of their own, and Jake's eyes gleam as he gives Dante more line, what is Dante's solution?
Irons is bent again, following as Sara's arms are twined across her chest. Nottingham runs into his office, and Irons asks weakly why has he returned? Nottingham hangs back, he can't do anything for her, but Irons says he should be protecting her from everyone else. Nottingham is strangely child-like and resentful - Sara already has a guardian angel! Irons rebukes him, he was the perfect scout, never second-guessing, and Nottingham is defiant, he is what Irons has made him: but now, he has the capacity to evolve, because Irons made it so, but Irons is derisive.
Dante asks Jake if he knows about the Praetorian guard, the Roman elite forces that protected the Caesars - and had the power to overthrow the Caesars, if necessary. Jake muses that was a big responsibility, and Dante says to embrace the philosophy. Jake feints, he's had too much to drink, what is Dante talking about *now*, and Dante says it's a one-time offer to join an elite group of cops who reap the harvest. Jake asks if they're vigilantes? Dante says Sara is a vigilante, they're a team. He shows Jake a 45mm bullet with a black bull etched on the side, and tells him they call themselves the White Bulls. Jake says the bull is a sign of masculinity, virility, "manure," and Dante chuckles politely. Jake feeds the line, how does it work? Dante continues, the White Bulls kill the guilty, they reap the harvest, and he warns Jake that if ever he finds a shell casing at a murder scene with the bull, walk away, no questions. Jake acts duly impressed.
Sara is in a bedroom, while air raid sirens flare; she picks at the sleeve of a Nazi uniform on a chair. Elizabeth Bronte approaches her - this is a sassy woman, not a girl, or a victim of a cause, but an independent, intelligent, strong woman who fears little and few. Sara is pleased to see her, this is her grandmother, but Elizabeth refutes the notion, she's not her grandmother, she *is* Sara. Sara asks is she re-incarnated, but no, Elizabeth says the idea of re-incarnation is inaccurate. She explains that time is not a straight line, but if Sara would view time as a roll of film, each frame is a life, and if the reel is wound to run in a line, there is the illusion of continuity, but if the reel is wound differently, frames can touch each other at the same time - each life can touch another, over and over, as many frames as there are, even though the lives are different in linear time, they are the same life living in the same time. Sara reflects: time has been slipping sometimes forward or back, and Elizabeth smiles: it's a gift of the Witchblade she never learned to control. Sara asks if she is alive or dead, and Elizabeth responds she has died a thousand times and lived a thousand and one. Elizabeth asks Sara what would she feel if she died, and Sara says she would feel relief from the burdens of the world, and also disappointed, because she has not finished - and Sara realizes, she is not Elizabeth's re-incarnation, she *is* Elizabeth... and Cathain... and Jeanne... and all the other women who have or who will wield the Witchblade. Elizabeth heartens Sara: follow the guidance of the Witchblade.
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