I wish to thank Maggie Finson for letting me use her character. The Darkness, The Angelus and The Witchblade are all the property of Top Cow which is a subsidiary of Image Comics. Dynamite Entertainment has the rights to Vampirella. I do not intend to profit from this story.

My friends always called me Ginger but the truth is far more complex.

Ginger is actually the name of the woman I fell in love with and while we were on an archeological dig searching for an artifact known as the Witchblade, we were murdered. One might ask who's 'we' when there's only me.

I was a professor of archeology at one of our nation's fine educational establishments. Which one no longer matters as does the name of said professor that used to be me. Ginger was my TA and we had just found the Witchblade when intruders demanded that we give them the artefact. In the end we were shot Ginger died with me.

However the Witchblade is some sort of supernatural object and I didn't die, but I did end up with Ginger's body as my own while my own male body did die. The jury is still out to whether Ginge is totally gone, I guess only time will tell.

It's been over a year since my gender bender and I have one companion who knows the truth about me. His name is Brent and he's super cute, he's also ex-military and handy to have around in a fight. He's great in bed as well, at least I'd like to think so. Ta- da, that answers whether I've adjusted to my new life- yes- I love being a woman.

At the moment, Brent and I are on the way to Dallas. It seems that the screwball- Rourke is his name- that killed me (well, sort of) found out the assumed name that I was using and is after me again. So this is the second time that I've had to up and change my whole life around due to that fucking asshole Rourke. So the plan is to get new identities in Dallas through some contacts that I have there.

These were the thoughts going through Ginger's head as she drove down the dusty highway toward Texas. It was the beginning of October and the weather wasn't too cold but she had been getting hotter and she didn't understand why. The Witchblade had also begun to act strangely, she felt a sudden twitching in the the actual bracelet and an urge to change destinations to New York.

She turned to Brent, "The Witchblade is sentient and sometimes it wants me to do certain things that make no sense until they happen and sometimes they make no sense at all. But always it has benefitted me to listen to what it wants."
"I don't know about that," he replied, "I don't like following something for no reason."
Ginger thought this funny, "Didn't you do that in the marines?" she said with a smile to let him know that she wasn't serious."
"In the marines there is always someone higher up who knows the reason for doing what we do. I have faith that the commanders generally know how best to deploy the troops acording to the information they receive." In response the Witchblade hummed as if it was telling her that it was the general of it's own army.

They were just about to leave Oklahoma and enter Texas when her foot 'slipped' and the car stalled. She knew straight away that it was the Witchblade's doing. She realised that it would not leave them in peace until it got what it wanted.
"Brent, it seems like we're going to New York."
"Okay," he replied, "If you really think it's the best idea. But we're going to have to get the car to a garage."
"No, now that we've decided to go to New York the car will work again." She was right. The vehicle started on the first try as they began heading toward New York City.

"It's going to take us about fifteen to get to our destination," said Brent, "maybe we shoud stop for some fuel and food."
The Witchblade gave a disgruntled hum but Ginger supposed the artefact knew about the human need for food because it had bonded to so many humans before. They pulled up tothe next station to fill up and buy some stuff to eat.

They were drinking coffee when Brent saw a cloud of dust in the distance and pointed it out to Ginger. With the enhanced senses given to her by the Witchblade she could tell that the dust was stirred up from the four vehicles coming toward them. "We have to go. Now!" She said tensely. They got back into the 2-seat Mersedes with it v12 engine. Five minutes later there was no sign of anything behind them. Three hours later they were entering New York City with the Witchblade directing them to Jackie Estacado's mansion.

* * *

Flame had had enough of serving the Angelus, he had tried to put aside his prejudice about her being a lesbian but was unable to do so. He had begun to isolate himself from the other Angelus warriors and had decided that he would go out fighting instead of having to continue to serve a divine being who had so obviously strayed from the path of righteousnous.

Finch was aware of Flame's prejudice and had taken steps to ensure he didn't cause problems. She didn't like doing this but one of her abilities as second in command was to acertain thoughts of her warriors if they could be compromised in battle. So before leaving Australia she had asked for volunteers to stand in the first line of attack in case of a battle and Flame was a volunteer.

Dani had given Flame a second chance, a chance at redemption. He liked the woman who embodied the Angelus but he was unable to in good conscience serve a being that was doing something that, in his eyes was an abomination before God. He wondered if he died in service of the Light if he now would be admitted into heaven.

* * *

As soon as Estacado put on the aspect of the Demon, Darko felt the call of darkness calling to Darkness and he went to Estacado's aid. It was still daylight however, and he had to travel the way every human did as his vampire speed would only come into effect at night. He left what he had come to call his"base" on the fastest motorcycle that he owned without even noticing the traffic accidents he caused.

It was testament to how much he had let the Darkness overtake him for whereas before he felt only disgust and scorn for Estacado, he now regarded him as a brother. Estacado shared something with him that made them family and family were meant to look out for each other- even if it meant killing them. But for now the Darkness wanted Estacado protected.

* * *

The Angelus stood facing Estacado her fury pouring off Her in flames of Light, She was going to destroy the Darkness bearer now. As she raised her hand to begin her attack a sharp jab of anger cut through Her mind like a knife. 'Don't renege on our contract Lillith,' Dani warned.

The Angelus didn't think of heself as Lillith, that was a name that humanity had labelled her with but Dani had explained that humanity uses names and labels to connect with others and, she accepted that name. The afore mentioned contract stated that She would become one with Dani and that Dani would be in command of the Angelus force. The Angelus had accepted Dani and Finch's terms as she thought that she needed a new method to break Her stalemate with the Darkness.

Estacado saw The Angelus raise Her arm to attack and he called forth Darkness to protect himself. The Darkness came to his protection flaring up to defend him and plunging half the room into shadow.

Butch Bablioni had come in too see what had happened when Stephanie blindsided him. Butch was not a small man and his years of working alongside the Darkness had made him stronger than an ordinary person but Stephanie was not an ordinry person, in fact, she was his opposite just as Estacado was Dani's. However due to the manipulations of a madman, Stephanie had other aspects to her that Butch didn't have.

While Butch's superior strength, speed and agility were greater than Stephanie's, she had mutated DNA and she could make her own pheremones. Butch stood and faced her while rubbing his jaw, he lowed his hand and narrowed his eyes and before she could even register it his hand lashed out knocking her accross the room.

Stephanie was dazed and Bablioni grabbed her hair before she could clear her mind.He swung her around by her hair like an olympian throwing a shotput. He released her and she went flying across the room and right through the hole in the wall where the car had crashed and landed in the flower bed. Butch stormed out to put an end to to the little bint- that was his slip up.

As she fell into the flower bed the odour of the flowers brought her back to herself and she was prepared for the man when he reached her. She let out a muscle relaxant and she had to dodge about for the 30 seconds for it to take effect. Although Butch was faster,stronger and more agile than the ordinary human, so was she. The only problem was he was still faster and stronger than her but she managed to evade him for ten seconds.

By the time he managed to hit her the muscle relaxing pheromone had begun it's work and the what would have been a punch powerful enough to break her bones, was now just a very painful blow. She shook it off and carried on dancing out of his way and at twenty seconds when the punch landed it was like she was being hit by a child.

At twenty- five seconds Butch could no longer lift his arms, at twenty- eight his legs collapsed under him and at thirty he was asleep. Stephanie looked around and said to no one in particular, "Has anyone got a blanket?"

* * *

If anyone could see over the walls of the manor that Estacado was residing at, they would have seen something that had not occured since the eruption of Pompei- a battle between the Darkness and the Angelus. Of course Flame was about to be the first angelus warrior to attack the Darkness without the Angelus being absolutely certain of every move he would make. He lead half of the warriors to attack the lesser darkings while Finch attacked the greater ones.

Battles between these two entities always caused natural catastrophes, the temperature of the Earth's core beneath New York was already rising. And no one would realise anything was wrong until it was too late. Dani could feel what was happening and realised that she had to end this before things got out of control.

"Jackie," she called to him across the room, "You're going to lose a lot of business if you destroy New York." This made him pause but in It's fervour to rid itself of It's ancient enemy the Darkness had already taken over his physical body.

When he didn't answer the ancient part of the Angelus that humanity knew as Lillith showed this to Dani. Suddenly Dani recalled something she had learned when she first became the Angelus. She call out to the First man, "ADAM, I WOULD TALK WITH YOU!"
Estacado froze, and darkness began to gather in the room more deeply.

"WOMAN, I AM NO MORE ADAM THAN YOU ARE LILLITH" came the voice out of thin air.
"AND YET YOU WEAR HIS FORM. BUT," she continued "THERE IS SOMETHING ADAM ALWAYS WANTED," The command was instantaneous and Flame realised this is what he was meant to do, he called all the senior warriors to him and they launched themselves at the deformed monstrosity that had once been the Man Adam. "I GIVE YOUR SHARE OF THE LIGHT.

The Darkness screamed, the Angelus screamed and the devil apppeared.