When you get down to it, ultimately there is no good or evil, only a matter of perception.

Vampirella had heard the word before, but of all the times she had heard it used this was the first time she had thought it was a totally suitable word for a situation. 'CLUSTERFUCK'. That's what this was, a clusterfuck. In a clusterfuck, nobody knows whats going on and a lot of the time the line between things get confused and people get killed. Unless you're immortal. If you're immortal then things are worse.

And things were definitely worse now. The Devil appeared. The Devil disappeared. The Devil was her father. There were two Darkness vessels. One of the should have been her subject and it appeared that he had just killed the wielder of the Balance. The Angelus and the original Darkness host were somehow incapacitated There were even what she presumed were mortals involved in the battle. This wasn't a clusterfuck, it was a clusterfuck with shit on top.

She saw the blade of Darkness pierce the Witchblade bearer's back and time seemed to stop. She was aware of everything but couldn't move. She didn't feel the need to move anyway, only to observe. Her observation, would be recorded in the history books of the vampire nation so that no one would forget that the Angelus erased the curse that the Darkness placed on their race.

* * *
Dani was in a few places at the same time and it was a very strange feeling. Her mind was still mostly dealing with the images that had been showing themselves to her, images that had been shared with Jackie Estacado showing what the Darkness was, what It intended and what It had done.
Her body was still aware of what it was doing and it was standing up again but her mind and body were only connected by the thinnest threads of awareness.

Another part of her was aware of sacrificing itself to bring Light to the Dark. It felt Itself burning the demonic energies of the void from Estacado's body. This part felt a deep satisfaction at having completed what It felt was a debt. This was the warrior aspect of the Angelus that had been Flame.
Instictively Dani knew that Flame was never meant to be a part of the Angelus, the warrior had always been the soul of Howard Stern and now that it felt that it had completed the task that it deemed necessary for redemption. It went to where all souls go when then time on Earth is done.

There was a consciousness in her body. It wasn't anything that she consciously governed with her mind but was more like a body consciousness. Her body rose and glided to where the Witchblade lay, she touched it there-by touching the bearer as well and in doing so, burned through all the demonic Darkness toxins in Ginger's body.

She glided to Vampirella and place her hand over Ella's heart and when she removed it there was a burning sensation in Ella's chest. She then moved to where the new holder of the Darkness was and she seemed to connect the invisible flame that was burning in theVampirella's chest to the other vampire. Light exploded out of Darko's head and the burning string connecting the two vampires joined the Light. Vampirella felt that cleasing Light disolve the aeons old curse that had afflicted all vampires, but even as she felt that she she felt something else, something old and rotten. She closed her eye and sighed, Satanna had lied to her again.

* * *

Darko had been ecstatic when he thought that he'd delivered a fatal blow to the Balance but somehow the bearer didn't die, the Angelus had thwarted him again, anger consumed him and he screamed in frustration. This was what Vampirella had been waiting for; she attacked.

The Darkness had been severely weakened as It had already lost one host and It couldn't think clearly, for this reason Darko only had the abilities of a vampire, however the Darkness had corrupted the soul of the once lucid magician and without the Darkness to assist him in thinking, he was just another mad vampire.

Without the Darkness to enhance him Darko was no match for queen of the vampires and she literally tore him to shreds. Her hands morphed into claws and she ripped his body over and over again. Her powerful jaws locked onto his jugular, ripping it out of his body, spitting it into the flowerbed. She then poised her arm directly above his heart and rammed her claw into it.

The Darkness had been trying but hadn't been succeeding to reconnect to Estacado but the Celestial fire had made that all but impossible. When It realised that It's only viable host was in danger It left Estacado and tried to flow back into Darko.

The Darkness, Demon of the void no longer had a body as Adam had been freed and It's only hope of remaining on the earth plane resided with the body of Darko. However It was confused and tried to put it's entire essence into the vampire's body.

If the Angelus hadn't been there there is no saying what would have happened, but she was and she was not happy with what the demon was doing. The pent up energies that been stirred up by the battle were now channeled out of the destructive pattern and instead of causing a natural disaster not seen since Pompeii, these energies erupted out of theAngelus in the form of Light enveloping the Darkness, engulfing it completly. Almost.

What little bit of the demon was left flowed into Darko healing his wounds and in the process thourougly stripping away what remained of his soul. It was no longer the vast powerful demon that it had once been. The darkness was no more. It was not dead however, but it would be many millenia before it became powerful again. Until then better to run away and fight another day, and that's what the body that had once been Darko's did — it ran.

* * *
The Light had been like a battering ram and Jackie Estacado felt like an overtenderised piece of meat at the butcher shop. The demon that he had such problems with had been exsorcised from his body but, he wondered what did this mean in the greater scheme of things. He was a mob boss, he liked the power and freedom. He liked that he wasn't burdened with the moral issues that the 'white hats' were. He was glad to be rid of the demon, but without the personal power it had given him how was he to ensure that he wouldn't be assasinated by one of his own people and killed by the competition. He decided that he would only deal with it when it became an issue.

He arose from where he was slowly, feeling as if a steamtrain had just hit him and walked over to where Butch lay with Stephanie lifting his eyelids and looking at his pupils. Estacado reached her and dropped to his knees in front of his friend.
"What's wrong with him?" he asked.
"He's alive, but unresponsive," came the reply.
Butch was strong and there was no way he could be comatose, it had to be something supernatural. "Did you do this to him?"
Steph looked at him with disgust in her eyes.
"Unfortunately not. I put him to sleep but I feel that his comatose state is probably due to later events."

Her feelings guided her correctly. Bablioni had been deeply influenced by the Darkness, in fact, if Estacado hadn't been chosen by the entity all those years ago, Butch would have been. As Estacado's second in command, Butch had received extra abilities from the demon to ensure a suitable bodyguard for it's host. But at the moment the Angelus gave Adam his freedom causing the demon to lose it's body, Butch who was already in a chemical induced slumber had no way of holding onto his waking consciousness as the demon's influence left his body and he fell into a coma.

Estacado screamed in frustration, he wanted to lash out at something, anything. He knew, however that out of the entire gathering of beings here he was the weakest and lashing out would only cause him more pain but he didn't care.

Stephanie was able to sense the adrenalin that drove Estacado's emotions and she was ready for the blow when it came, she understood the reason that he lashed out. She understood it was nothing personal but this was the man that had kidnapped her, who had planned to do who knew what to get what he wanted from her. So instead of moving out of the way she caught his fist in a vice-like grip and crushed it.

Vampirella saw this and a sort of prescience came over her, in the back of her mind she heard Satanna say, "One door closes and another opens."
"We need to have words Satanna," she thought to the other woman. "I don't appreciate being lied to."
There was a pause and then Satanna replied, "Technically I didn't lie to you, but yes we will speak at a later time."
She continued, "Now did you note the sign?"
Vampirella sighed. "Yes mother."

* * *

Ginger was talking to the new Angelus for the first time and what the woman told her was astounding. It seemed that she wasn't the only one to undergo a gender change, but what was more astounding to her was the Angelus's willingness to let a human take charge of the energies of the First Light. It seemed that the Angelus had made a good choice in choosing Dani to hold the power. The Darkness had been confused as to the Light's strategy and had therefore overextended It's resources.

It now appeared that the Angelus had human knowledge and emotions, oh yes, she was still immortal and more focused on the soul but she seemed to have found the ability to see reality not only in black and white. She had now found a balance and although human life wasn't the thing she would focus on, she now had a better understanding of emotion and would be less likely to kill when pursuing justice.

Talking to Ginger, Dani suddenly realised that her part in this whole mess was over with. She understood that there were others who still were going to deal with their own issues; Vampirella had the vampires to sort out, and Steph had her own issues which, hopefully Dani could help with. But the Angelus's worries had always been the Darkness and for the moment the demon of the void was so diminished that it would be centuries before it would concern her again.

"It was really good to meet you Ginger, I'm glad that I got to meet the bearer of the Witchblade and I'm sure we could be friends, in the past the only time that the artifact bearers got together were in times of crisis. In the past I would have said 'I hope you realise I'm not being rude when I say that I hope we don't meet for a long time, if ever. '
Now that we've ended the Darknesses foothold hopefully that will change, so if you're ever in Australia, drop by and we'll go out."

Ginger smiled and gave her a hug, "I'm glad we were able to help out. Keep well."
She walked over to Brent, who was looking somewhat overwhelmed. "Is this what my life is going to be like now that I'm your...uh...travelling companion?" he asked.
"It depends on whether you want to stay, if you leave now you won't have to deal with all the crazy things that the Witchblade gets involved in."
He smiled at her, "Oh I think I'll chance it, besides," he winked at her, "I still haven't given up trying to talk you into spending the night with me"
"Why sir," she said as if she were a southern belle, "Ah must protest. Trying to seduce a young innocent girl like myself."

The car that they arrived in was somewhat damaged... well...a lot damaged actually and she was already planning to get a new one because Rourke was sttill after them. New ID's and a new car would do them the world of good if they were to begin a new life.

* * *
Dani wasn't sure how to deal with Estacado but she decided she better do something. She supposed wiping his memory might be something she could do, but as she was crossing the room Vampirella intercepted her.
"Let me deal with him...there have been...certain portents involving that one. Dani could sense the new power that Vampirella wielded and she looked in her eye, "Be careful. Absolute power corrupts absolutely- don't become a stereotype." It didn't make much sense but Vampirella understood what she meant.

* * *
Steph had been touched by celestial fire before so it would be safe to travel 'Angelus air'. She turned as Dani touched her shoulder, "Ready to go?"
Stephanie nodded and they went through the portal. It was mid- afternoon when they arrived back in Australia, surprising a group of schoolchildren and their teacher who was a catholic nun. 'Oh dear', thought Dani I so don't want to deal with this.'
She looked at the nun and the children smiled and disappeared with Stephanie appearing in her living room.

She looked at Stephanie and said, "I need a holiday."

Here ends "What Light Through Yonder Shadow...". The epilogue will be act 4.