OH MY GOD. IS THIS AN UPDATE I SEE? JESUS CHRIST! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

On a more serious note, if I keep getting nice reviews *hint* maybe I will update with more regularity.

I was writing this chapter after reading the others, and I realized how Mary-Sue-esque Natalie seemed. All pretty and smart and talented… and I decided to darken her past up a bit. I mention that she lived in Japan for a while. I say that she was kidnapped and that was when her parents died and she was sent to an adoptive family.

On a different note:

What the fuck happened to Sarah!

I'll just tell you what happened, iight. Sara began to have a relationship with Ian. Irons was ignorant of this fact for a long while. When he found out, an injection was administered to Sara (on the sly) that made her see things. She hallucinated various things that eventually led her to believe the cycle in which the Witchblade rests would be broken at her death. Deliriously, she took her own life using the short-blade that the Witchblade comes equipped with. As she died, the Witchblade sent her a vision of what happened. Ian was furious. Irons did not appreciate that. He got rid of him after little deliberation, and got a new, updated version of the assassin. (Long eyelashes to protect his eyes, thicker skin to protect his body, etc.)

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SUMMARY OF THE PAST MONTH

     Kat didn't know what the fuck was going on. After a crash course at the academy, she was put on the task force. Coincidentally, she was partnered with a woman named Cheryl, and her sidekick Natalie. The lack of rotation guaranteed closeness for the partners. What she couldn't get was Natalie. She would talk to herself. She could type at least 600 words a minute. Sometimes she seem to know stuff before it happened. It was crazy! Maybe Kat needed to lay off the websites that were sure to leave her wondering if she was psychic or not, but she could have sworn…

*

     Cheryl was really starting to work her nerves. With the dinners and bars and even the shopping trips, she was slowly driving Natalie crazy. She was going to snap any day now. Maybe not now, maybe not next week, but soon. She could tell. What with the camera she found position with a wonderful view of her steamer-stall, Alex was being of no help. Maybe Irons is the pervert, but Alex was just as bad. Turning up when she was changing clothes or working out, bringing her rose hybrids, buying her home gym equipment, he even bought her a new bike. Natalie was flattered to an extent, but this was bordering on psycho. The problem was, it was wearing her down.

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     Okay. Maybe the new weights were a little much, but it's not like she won't use them. Alex didn't understand why she was so angry with him. He thought she'd like them!

*

     I'll get her. I know I will. Maybe not for a while, but Natalie Demino is as good as mine.

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Chapter Seven:

Maybe, If I Put My Arms Like So…

    A 27-year-old man was found in an alley on the corner of Broadway in a black Versace suit and gator boots. Rich for certain. Why his wallet was found intact with five hundred dollars was the question. The wealthy man was Internet tycoon Tyler Summit, the owner, or former owner, of Digi-Indie, a software distributor. That was the only reason homicide and the cyber-crime units were teaming up for the time being. Natalie was not enjoying it.

     "So," David Potter drawled, "how about me and you go get a bite to eat?"

     Normally, Natalie would at least go out on the one dinner, but the thought of Alex following her around changed her mind. "No thanks, maybe some other time." Subconsciously, she knew she had feelings for the assassin. Romantic feelings. But she didn't know how to make it right in her head to go along with her heart.

     "Girl," Cheryl exclaimed, "how can you not like him! He is too sexy!"

     "You go out with him, then." Natalie looked back at the body of the man. "Did they take a blood sample?" Cheryl shook her head. "Get a syringe from the M.D. He was more than likely poisoned. No outside markings are seen." Natalie yelled at the uniform nearest to her. "I don't want him moved until we get the sample back, okay. Rope off the area."

     Natalie felt the Witchblade nudging her consciousness. 'Not now,' she told her. "I'll be back, Cheryl. Make sure nobody goes too close, iight?" Natalie jogged to the jeep Cheryl and the kid arrived in, and popped the lock.

     Tyler was sitting in front of a familiar desk. The electronic whir Natalie had come to hate revealed Irons to the man. He frowned as they talked. Natalie could hear nothing, though. Irons smirked at the much younger man's back, and leaned forward into his desk. 'I want him disposed of,' Natalie finally heard.

     The Witchblade jolted her to a vision of a very short, very dark man in a restaurant. He slipped a tiny piece of a leaf that looked very similar to parsley on a plate left unattended. Seconds later, Tyler Summit sat in front of the plate and took a bite of the pasta.

     'It can't be traced,' the Witchblade told Natalie. 'It will look like a heart attack. There is no proof.

     'But he is known for taking very, very good care of his body. Even if a heart condition runs in his family, it wouldn't manifest in his body. It would be too suspicious. People will wonder why he was in the alley anyway,' Natalie answered the blade.

     'A prostitute was paid to say he was with her. She will say when he fell and wouldn't get up, she ran away to avoid police.'

     'So there is no way to prove it was the bastard?' Natalie asked.

     'You got it in one,' the blade answered.

     A knock at the door jolted Natalie from her conversation.

     "We've got to get back to the station," Kat said looking at the detective uneasily.

     "Come on, then," Natalie answered and gestured to Cheryl. She slipped the key in the ignition. Kat still had a funny look on her face. "What?" Natalie asked.

     "Nothing. Nothing at all," Kat answered with a slight frown.