Hey- finally some answers. I know you've been cursing me ("Kalder, that heartless bitch, writing two tantalizing lead in chapters and then leaving us hanging!") I do apologize. I have the entire story written out long hand, as computers tend to snuff out my creative juices, so the trouble has been with finding the time to type and upload. I am embarrassed to admit, that, at my best, i can manage a measley 30 wpm. So once again, sorry for the delay.

And once again-the disclaimer- I made up the story and a couple of characters. The witchblade and all those charaters and backround stories and everything are not mine, nor do I lay any claim to them, other than that they give me great enjoyment.

And so, without further ado- Chapter the 3rd.

Neither woman spoke until they were outside the precinct building. Sara turned to her companion "If you don't mind, we could go to my apartment. Keep things more private."
"Yes, I think that would be wise."
"Do you have a car?"
"Yes. Well, barely." Adrienne indicated a junk-heap parked nearby.
"Oh. Well just trail my bike."
"All right." Both seemed far too involved in her own troubled thoughts to notice Ian Nottingham behind them.
Sara opened the door to her apartment and ushered Adrienne in. "Come in. Sit down. would you like something to drink? Tea?"
"Yes, thank you. Wait, no. i don't want to put this off any more. Please, Miss Pezzini. Sara? Come and sit down." Sara sighed and sat down next to her guest.
"What is it you want to see me about?"
"I don't know how to start, how to say, it's too..." she handed sara some dog-eared papers. Sarah looked at them curiously.
"These are birth certificates...what..." she found herself looking at her own adoption papers."
"Your mother, your biological mother, is mine as well. I'm your sister. And I can help you, with, with the gauntlet." Sara laughed weakly.
"I believe you. And I would even without these," she gestured to the papers. Sara looked up then, at Adrienne's face. "I doubt...Maybe you can explain...All I have is bits and pieces; riddles."
"I can tell you what I know; about our family, about the power you wield, about me. It isn't much in the long run, I suppose, but I won't speak in riddles, and maybe what I say will fill in some of the blanks."
"You said we share a mother?"
"Yes. Your father was twenty, engaged to my... to Mother. She was seventeen and just out of highschool. I don't think he ever knew she was going to have a child; he enlisted, shipped out, and was killed before he set foot in a combat zone. A plane of paratroopers brought down.
Mother fell apart. She wasn't all that stable to begin with. Her parents arranged to have the baby adopted, and once that was settled and you were born, Mother was sent to England to live with an aunt." Adrienne stopped, and looked up from her hands which she had been studying as she spoke. "She had visions. All her life. Of what you would become. But her mind was never strong, and it drove half mad, seeing those things, what you would be put through. She told me once how she felt so guilty, bringing you into the world to shoulder such a destiny. 'I gave her a name and a prayer,'she said. 'I knew I could never give her the strength she needed. But he could.' She meant your father, Mr. Pezzini.
Four years later she married a Russian rigger, Alexi Grevkin. My brother Sasha was born a year later, and my sister Kata the following year. I was born four years after that. And Mother had another breakdown. It was my great-aunt who raised me, really. And she was a witch." Sara broke in.
"I'm so sorry..."
"No, you misunderstand. She was a practitioner of an ancient and obscure craft. She taught me- said I had been born for it. I didn't know quite what she meant then, but it didn't matter. I loved it; the images, the languages, the legends, the rituals, all of it. And she would send me abroad, to study with various friends of hers. I thought I must have been the luckiest girl, to see so much of the world and to learn so many fascinating things.
When I was sixteen I learned of the Witchblade, and that you would wear it. I began to comprehend the purpose and importance of my arts and skills. I worked harder. Eventually I earned myself a degree in mythology from Trinity College, and from there went into bibliopolics. The following year I spent nursing my aunt, until her death.
When I began to have visions; repetitve dreams, I knew it was time to find you. And so I have. I am humble servant to the wielder, and adoring baby sister as well."
"Whah!? I don't know what to...where to..." But Sara knew the young woman was telling the truth. She had seen the story herself, in flashes, as she listened. Adrienne bent her head.
"I'm sorry. It's too much," she gripped Sara's hand. And then they were both overcome by the power of the witchblade. Across the city, Kenneth Irons gripped his desk in shock. The scar on his hand reddened.