Anyways, Jackie Estacado's at the museum to 'off the Japanese Mafia - the Yazuka, but Sara's there. The Witchblade freaks out and Jackie defends himself, meanwhile, Ian Nottingham sneaks up behind them and absorbs the Darkness. It turns out that Ian Nottingham's body is built to absorb powers like the Darkness and such. The Darkness leaves Jackie, but at an unexpected turn of events, the Witchblade leaves Sara too. Since these two forces are cooperating for the first time, armageddon is suppose to happen. Jackie and Sara grab Ian (who looks like he's having the time of his life) and try to re-possess their powers. Jackie succeeds, but the Witchblade senses doubts in Sara's mind and stays on Nottingham.
6 issues later. Nottingham and Sara are both experiencing problems with the Witchblade. Sara is suffering from withdraws and Ian with the fact that he is the first guy the Witchblade likes. Nottingham gets hired to kill a police informant and he does - but not without intervention from Sara. She blasts off one of the gems on the Witchblade and Ian dies. The Witchblade reunites with Sara and Sara ponders how the Witchblade will react now without one of the gems.
New York Detective Sara Pezzini came from a long line of cops. Her dad was mysteriously murdered when she was 12, and she has been carrying the psyche trauma ever since. One night with her partner, Michael Yee, they stumbled onto a criminal meeting, where all the criminals were trying to put on the mysterious Witchblade (left). Unfortunately, their left arm was ripped off for trying. Michael Yee was found and captured, and then executed. In a vain attempt to save her partner, Sara Pezzini flung herself in front of the dying Michael, taking many bullets as well. On the brink of death, trying to reach for a weapon, the Witchblade slowly crawled toward her, and put itself on her. She was healed, and then murdered the crap out of the criminals, and then fell unconsience.
When she woke up, Sara was in a hospital, and the multi-millionaire Kenneth Irons had sent her flowers. She went down to the police department and found the deceased body of her partner in the morgue. The Witchblade, sensing her emotions, re-animated Michael's body. Shocked by this, Sara threw the Witchblade in the furnace. Later, she was kidnapped by Ian Nottingham - an English assasain familiar with Japanese martial arts. She was brought onto a boat where she was forced to put the Witchblade back on! She unwitting escaped with the help of Kenneth Irons, whom she didn't know he was present on the boat. During Michael Yee's funeral, Kenneth Irons introduced himself and brought her to his personal office. In there, he showed her evidence that the Witchblade existed through the ages. In an attempt to control the Witchblade for himself, Ken Irons had a brief moment of control of the Witchblade, but then had his arm ripped off like the others. It then dawned on him that the Witchblade prefers to be worn by women. He apparently died after being thrown out of his building by his personal bodyguard - Ian Nottingham!!!
A few months later (in comic time), a meeting of the crime lords of New York in a museum required the appearance of Jackie Estacado - hitman of one of the Mafia families and wielder of the Darkness!!! The Darkness is similar to the Witchblade except it's sexually transmitted through the Estacado family. It goes like this: If you possess the Darkness, and you're a guy, and if you have sex with a girl, despite any condoms and stuff, the Darkness will be carried to her child (which will be a baby boy), and instantly kill the last wielder of the Darkness. It's a pain, but the Darkness in a way, is more powerful. Using the Darkness, Jackie Estacado has created countless weapons, and created sentient beings which resemble goblins. The big problem with the Darkness is that anything created by it, will be destroyed in sunlight. The Darkness and the Witchblade seem to be locked in eternal combat, using its current hosts to kill eachother.
