Original Series - Page 4 #33 - August 1999 Part 8 of 10 Cover Sara runs to Drexler’s to find Lisa, she tells her they have to leave before Gallo (see #9) finds her. Before they can leave Gallo appears but Sara manages to get him away from the flat. In Lower Manhattan Jake’s closing the net on Taylor, who’s been caught at an S&M club. Sara goes to see Irons at a restaurant to talk about her father and Siry. All she gets from him is a name. She investigates and finds Siry killed this man too, a cult member. The only lead is a former cult member Anya Bronte who Sara asks if she knows Irons, she clams up but does tell her to find Level 42 (see #16). As Sara touches her the Witchblade tells Sara to kill. Anya runs away and into Shine who’s used her, but she’s outlived her usefulness. Level 42 are one half of the cult from the Bronx, who are now trying to bring about  a cataclysm, and to do so they need to find the Noble Ones. They hunt out special men and women and ‘enhance’ their abilities, against their will. The new gem is begging for death and violence and Sara is trying desperately to control it. She returns to the station and finds Eric, and the Witchblade goes to attack him... #34 - September 1999 Part 9 of 10 Cover Sara eventually controls the Witchblade but not before it scratches Eric. He offers to help her wield it and learn to control it. Level 42 are experimenting on Shine, pushing his body to its limits. Sara goes to meet Jake at the station where Taylor’s been taken. He’s confessed to 3 murders without questioning, Sara is there to witness the confession is his own. Sara goes to find Julie and asks if she knows about Siry and their father, which she does. Later she gets a call from Eric asking her to come down to a mortuary where Anya Bronte’s murdered body lies. At the service Irons gives the eulogy and while he is speaking Sara is hearing voices in her head, urging her to give up the Witchblade. She comes back to the real world and passes out... #35 - October 1999 Part 10 of 10 Cover In a dream Sara sees a group of shadowy figures experimenting with the Witchblade. When she wakes she finds Eric looking after her, he asks her about her history with Irons and then reveals he also possesses a Witchblade-like weapon, which is how he killed a man in L.A. He begs Sara to run away with him so they can each use their powers to their full capabilities. Jake is with Julie who’s planning a move out to L.A., Julie tells him that when Sara was 13 she was abducted for three days by her female therapist who was never caught. Sara attends Anya Bronte’s wake and on entering the church she hears sounds of a struggle and breaks down a door, inside she finds Nottingham and another man. Sara fights Ian, who tries to warn her away from the church and informs her one of the gems in the Witchblade is defective and that Irons will use it to try and control the Witchblade for himself. Below the city a man named Bijik is being escorted to a receiving room. Bijik can smell fear and can use his power to kill a person from the inside out. Irons is furious to find that Bijik is in New York, while on the T.V. the new D.A. is laying out his commitment to bringing down organised crime, much to organised crime’s disgust. #36 - December 1999 Witchblade/Darkness Part 1 of 4 Cover D.A. Hardy is beginning his fight against organised crime by bringing down Don ‘Frankie’ Franchetti, and his star witness is Jackie Estacado. Sara’s been assigned to look after Jackie while he’s in protective custody. Following her meeting with the D.A. Sara gets a call from Ian asking her to meet him at a Japanese club. When she gets there she meets the Empress who tells her she is to be sought out and that the Empress is betting on Sara to win. In Caulty Tower Irons is being visited by a former friend and cult member Dr. Nolin. The doctor believes he has found two of the Noble Ones and that the third is the Darkness. He wants to begin research on Sara and the Witchblade, which angers Irons who views Sara as his property, the two obviously share a great rivalry where the Noble Ones are concerned. Eric is around and still talking about his plans for his and Sara’s future, Sara’s starting to find him creepy. Sara then sets off to take Jackie to the safe house and can’t reach Jake who’s meant to be covering for her – Jake is otherwise engaged with Julie. Whilst transporting Jackie there’s a crash and he disappears, and an FBI agent named Carla shows up and wants to find him too. Jackie is taken down into the sewers by a creature and the two ladies follow. The creature fires at Sara and hits the Witchblade’s new gem, causing it to work properly. Sara catches up with the guy but Carla is hurt and she has to go back for her. Witchblade/Darkness #1 - December 1999 Witchblade/Darkness Part 2 of 4 Cover Jackie has been taken by the Clan Necrobi, a cult whose members live off the sexual energy of their human victims. The creature which took Jackie is called Cull. Cull wants to defeat the Triarchy of Witchblade, Darkness and Angelus. The Witchblade stands as the balance between the Darkness and the Angelus and is therefore of particular interest to Cull. We learn that Carla’s fiancé was murdered by Jackie and that she made a deal with Cull to get her revenge. The pair go to a Chinese lady for information and are attacked by her protector, whom Sara kills. Cull visits the Heart Necrobi, the ruling elite of the cult, with a proposition; He will use the Witchblade to control the Darkness and thus control the Triarchy and prevent them from destroying the Necrobi. Sara and Carla find the Necrobi but before they can find Jackie they are captured by Cull. He offers to save the human victims if Sara helps him by breaking Jackie… (Check out the art, seems like an excuse for cheap dominatrix stuff if you ask me!) Darkness/Witchblade #1 - December 1999 Witchblade/Darkness Part 3 of 4 Cover Sara’s torture of Jackie continues, with Cull waiting for Jackie to break so he can carry out his plan. Elsewhere Irons and Nolin continue fighting over Sara, Nolin knows magic and between them they manage to bring down the room. Sara’s continuing torture of Jackie makes her stronger but also makes the Darkness stronger and Jackie breaks his chains and the Darklings appear. Sara and Jackie fight each other, and Cull senses a change in the triarchy. He enters the room anticipating a broken Jackie but instead finds Sara about to kill Jackie. Cull forces Sara away from Jackie, whom he wants to place all the souls of his prisoners in so he can destroy the Witchblade and Angelus and gain rule over the Heart Necrobi. Sara jumps in front of Jackie and ‘catches’ the souls, while in the background Carla is about to taker her revenge on Jackie… Darkness #28 - January 2000 Witchblade/Darkness Part 4 of 4 Cover Sara continues to hold out against Cull, while Carla tries to kill Jackie, who then turns the tables on her. Jackie and Carla then exit the room, leaving Sara to look after herself. Carla explains her vendetta against Jackie, and in the process realises that there are more important things to worry about and goes back to help Sara. Jackie emerges from the sewer after having briefly searched for Sara, but the Darklings convince Jackie to go back in and fight Cull. Sara is almost broken when Carla reappears and shoots Cull, but he’s too strong and knocks her aside, Jackie then enters and rips the ‘bad’ gem from the Witchblade, giving Sara complete control. Together they take Cull apart and rescue Carla and the other humans. (I think this story was complete rubbish, wish I hadn’t wasted my money on the issues!!) #37 - February 2000 Part 1 of 2 Cover Sara muses on the events of the second Witchblade/Darkness crossover and experiments with her control of the Witchblade. She then sees army helicopters and follows them to a stakeout. Two men have already been killed when she arrives but the officers there refuse her help, so she goes it alone in secret and takes down a half man/half bird creature. Whilst washing herself in the street Sara’s approached by a Chinese gentlemen named Tsin who explains that the demons are coming into New York because of Sara’s showdown with the Darkness. He takes her to his base of operations and shows her his ninja who are trained to fight demons. Part way through his explanation demons attack the base and the man allows himself to be killed by them… #38 - March 2000 Part 2 of 2 Cover Having seen Tsin killed Sara continues battling the demons. Some escape so she and two of the ninja pursue them into the woods. The other ninja stay behind and reveal a hidden statue. Back at Sara’s precinct the fill-in chief is getting an earful from Jake, accompanied by Julie, who wants to know why no one is trying to locate Sara. Sara and the ninja track the demons to a cave and manage to kill some of them but one of the ninja is killed. Back in New York Jake meets with Eric, who tells him to leave Sara alone and then attacks him with his weapon and pretty much tells Jake he’s fired, Jake responds by shooting Eric in the head. Sara gets back to the ninja school and finds the remaining ninja have been turned into demons too, she kills them all and then Tsin speaks to her from the statue, telling her to smash the statue to set him free so he can continue his fight in the world between earth and the underworld. #39 - May 2000 Cover Monster Mart Cover Sara resolves to take down Gallo and goes to Drexler to get help in doing so, seeing Lisa for the first time in ages in the process. When she returns to the precinct she gets a warning from the chief about Jake’s behaviour and about her work. Drex gives Sara a name which she follows up, only to find an old man. He has photos of himself with prostitutes, one called Sandy, who he was set up with by his doctor. When Sara speaks to the doctor she finds he was setting up patients with prostitutes paid for using public money, and that the pimp involved was Gallo. A few internet searches later and Sara finds out that Sandy was murdered and the crime never solved. Sara tracks down Gallo and using the Witchblade gets a confession out of him which she tapes. Two weeks later Gallo is sent down for first degree murder. #40 - June 2000 Part 1 of 2 – All new creative team! Keu Cha, Veitch/Jenkins Cover A club’s been burnt down and at least 20 people killed, Sara’s been assigned to work the case with a Fire Marshall named Blake. At the scene an equilateral triangle has been found etched on the wall. Sara feels the crime has been committed with a deeper motive than just arson. Through some internet research Sara finds the triangle “signifies the element of fire, and is linked to the divine power of the gods.” Out of the city at a truck stop a trucker chats to a crew-cut man about his flammable cargo. Sara and Blake are starting out on a stakeout when the Witchblade wakes up, but Blake won’t let Sara leave. They then hear a report of a tanker coming into the city and go to investigate. As they get closer Sara jumps from the car, the Witchblade ready for action, and then the tanker explodes… #41 - July 2000 Part 2 of 2 Cover In the aftermath of the explosion Sara explains to Blake about the Witchblade and the motivation for the attacks. The crew-cut man now has the power he desired but wants more and travels to a nuclear plant. Sara and Blake go down into the rubble and hear that there’s a state of emergency at a nuclear plant. They hijack a news helicopter and fly out. Once at the plant Sara and the Witchblade remove the man’s power while Blake makes the plant safe. However Blake gets exposed to radiation and is killed, causing the Witchblade to giggle. #42 - September 2000 Part 1 of 5 "A Cold Day in Hell" Cover Sara and Jake get assigned to a particularly bizarre case – a postman has died from an apparent massive heart attack, but during the autopsy a Pez dispenser is found in his heart, how it got there a mystery, and inside it there’s a message which reads “Only for you, Sara.” The next morning Sara is woken from a sleep filled with nightmares by a call from Jake, there’s been another murder during the rush hour – a man’s been impaled on a wall, a Pez dispenser stuck in his chest… #43 - November 2000 Part 2 of 5 "Single Bullet Theory" Cover The latest victim’s Pez dispenser also contains a message for Sara; “Why did you treat me that way, Sara? I love you.” The pair are no closer to understanding what’s going on, and things get stranger when Siry reassigns them following an order from on high. In their new office Sara gets an anonymous call regarding the Witchblade. Sara goes to visit an ex-cop come crack addict who had a real talent for complicated cases and lets him see/hold the latest dispenser. He becomes possessed by the murderer who tells Sara he wants her. The next day Jake and Sara find out some odd details about the second victim’s death and subsequent treatment. Sara wakes from nightmares again to find the murderer has been in her bedroom and left her another note.