BIOGRAPHY - Page 6
Dane’s life with the Avengers and occupation with Sersi and Crystal had led him away from other aspects of his life. Victoria Bentley and his squire Sean Dolan still lived at and cared for Garrett Castle near Washington D.C., but Dane had mostly neglected the training of his squire or the feelings he and Victoria once shared. A convocation of wizards attacked Avengers Mansion and Garrett Castle, seeking the power of the Ebony Blade which the Black Knight had returned to its stony sheath. While Dane was busy with le Sabre and other foes at the Mansion, Sean tried to defend Lady Victoria and her butler Catherwood at the castle, but his limited training failed him. Bleeding and disarmed, Sean reached for the Ebony Blade and pulled it free, transforming himself into a supernaturally powerful form called the Bloodwraith.
In this new incarnation of the sword’s blood curse, Sean derived the knowledge and training of Sir Percy and other wielders over the centuries, but also became the embodiment of the sword’s bloodlust. Bloodwraith killed the men who threatened Victoria and Catherwood, only for the sword to hunger for the blood of his friends as well. Black Knight and the Avengers arrived to confront 
the corrupted squire, but Dane could not reclaim the Ebony Blade now without taking up the blood curse again. His hesitation gave Bloodwraith an advantage and “Sean” defeated Dane in a duel. Bloodwraith took his leave for the night, claiming Valinor as his new steed and leaving the Black Knight to follow and rescue his friend from the curse another day. [Avengers (1st series) Annual #22]
Sersi had been a flighty hedonist before the Avengers, making her an unusual match for the team. She had grown more aggressive since Galactic Storm and the ramifications of this reached the team during a mission to Polemachus. Black Knight used his scientific expertise to help the Imperion Arkon stabilize the energy-giving rings of Polemachus. Dane had to coordinate Crystal and Sersi’s powers for the process, which made for a tense series of exchanges between the three. A rival of Arkon’s named Anskar believed the gods wouldn’t be satisfied until a human sacrifice was made, though, and he murdered a girl named Astra before the Avengers could stop him. In her rage, Sersi in turn incinerated Anskar where he stood, taking vengeance for Astra. [Avengers (1st series) #358-359]
The Avengers’ by-laws against killing had been waived once for Operation: Galactic Storm, but not this time. Sersi fled the consequences at first and Black Knight pursued her alone to gauge her feelings. Sersi was distressed by her actions – not repentant, per se, but afraid she was out of control when she acted. Sersi confessed her fear that she was going insane and Dane promised to help her through it. Sure enough, while Sersi agreed to return to Avengers Mansion and face judgment, she had a spell on the Quinjet flight back. Sersi experienced a manic episode, attacking Dane and the other Avengers before being brought down temporarily through the use of force by a returning Vision. [Avengers (1st series) #360]
As Black Knight and the Avengers tended to Sersi’s mental health, they received a visit from her people, Ikaris and the Eternals. Ikaris preferred to keep Sersi’s condition a private Eternals matter, but he relented when Sersi called Dane her intended Gann Josin. The bond of the Gann Josin was the ultimate commitment of soulmates in Eternals’ culture, the intimate synchronization of brain wave patterns between two lovers. Typically a ceremonial gesture of bonding, the Gann Josin had practical 
considerations in this case. Ikaris and the Eternals feared Sersi was beginning to suffer the Mahd W’yry, a form of mental degradation among Sersi's people. Although powerful and immortal, the Eternals' minds were still human at their core and the accumulation of millennia of experiences could bring about effects similar to senility or dementia. Ancient law decreed the afflicted would be cleansed and killed, before their madness could affect the Eternals’ collective unconscious.
Black Knight and the Avengers defended Sersi from this fate and so Ikaris imposed the Gann Josin on Dane and Sersi before departing. The Black Knight was forcibly changed into the role of Sersi’s soulmate and keeper, his stable brain wave patterns intended as a counter-measure to help keep her unraveling mind stable as well. The most intimate of bonding, normally intended for willing parties in a marriage of equals, was instead abruptly forced upon Dane as he barely understood what was happening. Dane left Sersi and the others to spend the last few moments he would ever have alone with his thoughts before the bond fully formed. Crystal, however, 
followed. She confessed her reunions with Quicksilver had failed and Dane admitted he had used Sersi to try and get over Crystal, only to get in over his head. Dane and Crystal gave into their feelings for one moment and kissed, for they believed they were alone. They were not, as Sersi and one other watched from a distance. [Avengers (1st series) #361]
The other voyeur was Anti-Vision, a Gatherer who had secretly replaced the Avengers’ Vision some days prior. Proctor wanted the Swordsman killed before he revealed too much to the Avengers and this sadistic synthezoid doppelganger was all too willing to commit the act. After critically wounding Swordsman, Anti-Vision indulged his whims and attempted to force himself on Crystal. The elemental fought back and the Avengers recognized the viper in their midst. Anti-Vision was disabled by Sersi and the Avengers prepared to force their latest prisoner to lead them to Proctor and the Gatherers. [Avengers (1st series) #362]
Despite the return of Captain America, the Black Knight remained in command of the Avengers in the field, given how the team had evolved since Cap’s departure. With Anti-Vision’s directions, the Avengers were able to ambush the Gatherers at Proctor’s citadel in the Andes Mountains. Dane used his scientific expertise and strategic acumen once more to outfit the Avengers in advance for their expected opponents. The Black Knight keyed his photonic sword to the power field of Magdalene’s lance, neutralizing one foe’s weapon. He also equipped the entire team with psionic armor head gear, protecting them from the psychic assaults of the Gatherer Cassandra, who felled them before. Dane’s proficiency as a leader gave the Avengers an edge against the opponents they 
were prepared for and quickly led them to rescue the real Vision, but nothing could prepare them for meeting Proctor for the first time.
The enraged Proctor eviscerated Anti-Vision for failing him and descended upon the Black Knight. Proctor was livid when he saw Dane’s transformed eyes (the mark of a Gann Josin) and furiously declared HE was Sersi’s only true soulmate and first Gann Josin. Sersi had remained behind at Avengers Mansion for psychological testing and couldn’t refute this, but Proctor’s raving soon indicated he, like the rest of the Gatherers, was from another reality. He tried to claim that Sersi’s madness was a universal constant and that one reality after another had fallen to an Armageddon caused by an Eternal gone insane. Proctor even revealed He-Who-Dreams, the comatose Watcher called Ute, who supposedly was caught in Sersi’s rampage and now helped Proctor locate his Gatherers, the last survivors of worlds destroyed by alternate versions of Sersi throughout the multiverse.
Proctor’s bold claims seemed to find support when the Black Knight suddenly lashed out at Captain America. Although Dane had felt crowded and judged by the Avengers’ former field leader, Proctor swore the manic violence exhibited by the Black Knight was the result of Sersi’s madness seeping through their mental bond and infecting him. Although he seemed desperate to get the Avengers to believe him about Sersi, he couldn’t be bothered to hide from Magdalene that 
he sent Anti-Vision to kill her lover, Swordsman. She abandoned Proctor to return to Swordsman with the Avengers. Proctor seemed a madman pointing fingers, but he left Black Knight and the Avengers with lingering doubts about Sersi’s true nature and the threat to come. [Avengers (1st series) #363]
The mystery of the Gatherers had to wait, for the Avengers hadn’t even left the Andes before being attacked by a squadron of Kree Sentries. Admiral Galen-Kor and the Lunatic Legion had come to 
Earth to seek misguided revenge on the Avengers for the destruction of the Kree Empire. As the slayer of the Supreme Intelligence, Dane felt the greatest responsibility for the Kree’s vendetta. The Avengers coordinated a search for the Legion and pinpointed an Omni-Wave signal in upstate New York. Sersi wanted to join the away team, but Black Knight still hadn’t forgiven her for forcing the Gann Josin upon him and feared she might behave erratically. Indeed, Sersi experienced a sudden jealous rage over Dane leaving with Crystal, forcing him to calm her mind with his own thought waves. Dane and Crystal’s unit were captured by the Lunatic Legion, who had brought their own Nega-Bomb to Earth for revenge. Dane was able to call out to Sersi through the Gann Josin, leading her and the rest of the Avengers to the Kree’s second base. The Lunatic Legion were driven off Earth and the Nega-Bomb disarmed, putting off the consequences of Galactic Storm for yet another day. [Avengers (1st series) #364-366]
The Black Knight returned to Garrett Castle and apologized to Victoria Bentley for not coming clean to her sooner about his relations with Crystal and Sersi. While they were talking, an alert told Dane that Sean Dolan had accessed his bank account in Manhattan. Black Knight followed the trace and found Bloodwraith fighting with Deadpool. Sean had turned into Bloodwraith again to fight two other mercenaries who were competing with Deadpool for the secrets of Tolliver’s will. Bloodwraith killed those evil men, leaving the Ebony Blade thirsty for more souls. A three-way duel 
between Dane, Sean and Deadpool came to a conclusion after Bloodwraith blindly struck behind him when someone grasped his shoulder and ended up killing Victoria. She had followed Dane to try to save Sean and her innocent soul temporarily cleansed the bloodlust from Sean’s mind. Still, the Black Knight swore he would kill his squire the next time he saw him, as the shamed Bloodwraith fled to pursue his own goals once more. [Avengers (1st series) #366]
In time, Charles Xavier’s warning about the Acolytes came true. The mutant fanatics’ rogue former leader Fabian Cortez seized power in the politically unstable island nation of Genosha, igniting a bloody civil war. To protect himself from retaliation by Magneto and his followers for past crimes, Cortez kidnapped Luna from Avengers Mansion to use as a living shield. Crystal was prepared to violate the United Nations’ order for the Avengers to stay clear of the Genoshan crisis and Black Knight convinced Captain America and several other Avengers to join them in breaking S.H.I.E.L.D.’s blockade.
Genosha was in chaos when the Avengers arrived, made worse by the coming of Exodus. 
Cortez’s rival and new leader of the Acolytes, Exodus was a phenomenally powerful mutant who battled first War Machine and then Sersi to a standstill. Black Knight found Exodus personally confounding, as he couldn’t shake the feeling that the two men had met somewhere before. After finding and killing Cortez, Exodus seized Luna and prepared to annihilate the entire island with his mutant powers. A raving madman, Exodus held off the Avengers and X-Men alike until a telepathic assault by Charles Xavier stumbled Exodus long enough for Black Knight’s neuro-blade to deliver a crippling shock. Dane rescued Luna yet again and returned her to the grateful arms of Crystal and the equally-concerned Quicksilver. In parting, Exodus took a petty shot at Pietro Magnusson, a telekinetic burst that nearly killed Quicksilver. It was the Black Knight who stepped in and resuscitated Quicksilver, saving the life of Crystal’s husband. [Bloodties crossover]
After receiving a priority alert from Lemuria, the Avengers were caught in a trap by the Deviants, hereditary enemies of Sersi and the Eternals. Their priest-lord Ghaur wanted to create his own Uni-Mind and used brain-mines to seize the will of the Avengers. The Eternal Sersi, the Inhuman Crystal, the Olympian Hercules and the pinnacle of humanity in Captain America were merged into a Uni-Mind construct under Ghaur’s control while Black Knight and Giant-Man were forced to fight in the arena. The Gann Josin bond between Dane and Sersi helped to shatter the brain mine’s control of the Black Knight, letting him and Hank Pym break free. This connection even allowed Black Knight to summon into existence an energy sword, derived from Sersi’s powers with the attributes of his normal blade. Ghaur’s Uni-Mind failed because the Gann Josin prevented Sersi from being completely subsumed into his creation so long as Dane remained free. The Black Knight and the Avengers were saved by the Gann Josin, but Dane became increasingly aware he did not understand the long-term effects of this bond with Sersi. [Avengers (1st series) #370-371]