The Buffyverse Comics in Time-Line Order (Roughly) Literature references and annotations by Dick Grune, dick@dickgrune.com. Last update: Wed Dec 27 09:19:42 2017. These references and annotations were originally intended for personal use and are presented here only in the hope that they may be useful to others. There is no claim to completeness or even correctness. Each annotation represents my understanding of the text at the moment I wrote the annotation. No guarantees given; comments and content criticism welcome. Kel McDonald, Yishan Li, "Buffy, the High School Years -- Parental Parasite", Comic, Dark Horse, June 2017, pp. 78. Buffy's mother gets possessed by a cuclidus demon which tries to push Buffy out of the nest. Guess who won. Question: how did Joyce get into her night gown? Kel McDonald, Yishan Li, "Buffy, the High School Years -- Glutton for Punishment", Comic, Dark Horse, Oct. 2016, pp. 78. The Home Ec (= cooking class) teacher Mrs. Miller, known for her delicious cookies and fair treatment of students, did not show up, and her replacement, Mr. Blake, is an oversized bully, running any attempt at cooking by the students into the ground, until Maria bakes the perfect cookies. Then Maria disappears. In the meantime Buffy, on patrol in the early morning, hears the baker of the Just Desserts bakery call for help. She finds him besieged by an oversized tiger, and attacks the beast, only to find that its pelt is invulnerable and all weapons break on it. Xander solves the home cooking assignment by handing in cookies from the bakery, which win him high praise from the teacher. Then Xander disappears. Buffy, Willow and Giles manage to connect the dots, and raid the Fry the Tiger Café, where they indeed find Mrs. Miller, Maria, and Xander, all cooking tidbits for the tiger. Willow prepares an eclair with bottles of bleach and ammonia in it, and serves it to the tiger. When the monster chews the eclair, the bottles break and produce chlorine gas. The demon chokes and Buffy can take it down. Faith Erin Hicks, Yishan Li, "Buffy, the High School Years -- Freaks and Geeks", Comic, Dark Horse, June 2016, pp. 78. Slighted by the bouncer of a chic vampire club, four high-school age vampires decide to kill Buffy to gain status in the world. Their leader, Hester, uses a misunderstood remark by Willow and Xander to damage Buffy's self-confidence and her relationship with her friends. Using a spell book and an figurine bought on the internet, Hester manages to lure Buffy into a magical square, and by sacrificing her three minions she changes the figurine into a ten-feet tall warrior. The first thing the warrior does is to eat Hester, but he then turns against Buffy, and throws her into the street, where he follows her, only to be overrun by a car with Giles, Xander and Willow, who came to the rescue. The clean-up was a lot of work. Tom Fassbender, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Out of the Woodwork", Comic, Titan Books, 2002, pp. 220. Set after Buffy season 4. In the heat of the summer Sunnydale becomes Bug Central. Taking Back the Night: At a school party Ron Borchinsky makes sexist remarks to his friend Cole (friend of agent Finn) and to a young lady, who slaps him in his face. The young lady goes out into the night, and is attacked by a red scaly monster. Buffy fights the monster which makes off with a brown bowling ball bag. When Buffy comes to tend to the young lady, she finds her covered in small flies. While the Scoobie gang theorizes about this phenomenon, Buffy and Willow go to Prof. Walsh's anti-rape rally "Take Back the Night". But high on the bleachers there is a strangely shaped figure with a brown bowling ball bag, and soon swarms of midges begin to fill the auditorium. People panic, and the figure tries to make off with Willow, but Xander distracts him. Buffy tries to stake him but hits the brown bag instead, which splits open and showers a girl with millions of midges. A hexagonal block falls from the bag and Buffy picks it up. Then she starts to fight the monsters, who speak a strange language, in earnest, and when the police arrive, Ron and Cole lie unconscious and three monsters lie dead. Buffy states: "Well boys, looks like I took back the night". Lost and Found: Summer's here and Buffy is bored; Giles offers to take her to a guitar-playing performance of his, but Buffy flees the premises. In an alley (McCollum Lane) two vampires kill a tramp and steal a ring from him. After his performance Giles is met by Rebecca Stansberry, a tall and slender fellow librarian who wears an amber pendant with an insect in it. Meanwhile Riley and Cole are patrolling the town, and when they enter McCollum Lane they are attacked by the ghost of the tramp, who demands his ring back, and the attack leaves Riley in a coma. Giles introduces Rebecca to Buffy and Willow, and takes Rebecca out for dinner. Buffy is worried sick about Riley, but Willow finds the address of the ghost and both go out to look in McCollum Lane, where they run into Xander and Anya. The ghost appears and Buffy attacks it, only to find that it is not evil, and only wants his ring back. Meanwhile Giles and Rebecca are in a restaurant, discussing the relative merits of Cutter-Sanborn versus Dewey Decimal, Rebecca fingering her amber pendant. Buffy beats up a few vampires for information and then dusts the vampire with the ring. She hands the ring back to the ghost tramp, who moves on happily to a higher plane, but to Buffy's deep disappointment this does not get Riley out of his coma. Rebecca promises Giles to stay in Sunnydale for at least a few weeks, they part with a kiss, and Giles walks home with a smirk on his face, unaware of the monstrous shadow behind him which looks suspiciously like Rebecca. Invasion: The next evening the Scoobie gang is digesting the information that another giant insect creature has been found, when Rebecca comes in to pick up Giles, talking condescendingly to the "kids" and urging Giles to hang out with people his own age. With Riley out of commission Cole patrols alone and runs into three giant bugs; he fights, but loses and is infected with bugness. Prof. Warren Whitcomb, entomologist, is interviewed on Sunnydale TV; at the mixer after the interview Whitcomb spots Rebecca, who is delighted to see him. [Here one of the text balloons is pointing at the wrong person; DG]. Tara and Anya begin to voice their suspicion of Rebecca. At a suggestion of Rebecca, Giles and she take a walk through the park, but are attacked on a bridge by half-Cole half-giant bug. Giles thinks he can handle him but is thrown into the pond. Meanwhile Buffy is sitting gloomily in the park, Spike's efforts to cheer her up making her mood even worse, when they are attacked by various giant bugs, and much fighting ensues, leaving Buffy and Spike unconscious. Hive Mentality: The moment one of the monsters puts its foul appendix to Buffy's neck, she wakes up and kicks the bugs to kingdom come (or thereabouts). Giles mobilizes the Scoobie gang into a search for Rebecca, and they find Cole, unconscious and changed still further. For want of a better idea they put him in Oz's cage and bring him some take-out. In his lab Prof. Whitcomb is dissecting one of the giant bugs, having removed a hexagonal crystal from its body, when there is a knock on the door. The visitor startles and frightens him. Buffy has brought Giles an interesting part of a bug, but he is too tired to examine it. He doesn't get any rest, however, since Spike comes in, but before he can tell Giles what he knows about this kind of bugs, Buffy, Xander, and Anya come in to enquire after Giles's progress, and before Spike can tell them what he knows Willow and Tara come in to tell that Cole is turning into a bug, kind of superfluously. Frustrated, Spike draws his own plan and sneaks off, pinching the keys to the cage from the table. Tara finds in a book that these giant bugs are Urukhai [courtesy of Tolkien, I suppose] and goes off to buy ingredients for a magic insecticide. Xander proposes to let the Cole bug go, hoping he will lead them to the hive. Willow and Tara bond over the preparation of the insecticide, while Xander modifies some equipment from his work to deliver it, with Anya sitting admiring on the work bench, and Buffy and Giles select weapons -- the Scoobies are ready for bug war [the best drawing in the book]. Cole is released, they follow him into the sewers and into the hive, where they meet ... Out of the Fire, Into the Hive: ... Prof. Whitcomb, tied up as food for the bugs, and speaking for the Queen, a swollen insect, saying that is is all Buffy's fault (as if anybody doubted that), because she took the hexagonal crystal. Riley wakes from his coma and sneaks out of the hospital. Spike has remembered something about the crystals from an affair Drusilla had with a three-eyed demon in Rio, retrieves one from the package that Buffy had sent to Giles, and is surprised by Riley. Spike brings Riley up to date, and they go and join fighting the bugs, which have made off with Tara. Xander does a lot of good with his insecticide spray-gun, but when a super-giant bug attacks Buffy it is brought down by another bug. Buffy recognizes Cole but Spike kills him with a blow of a pickaxe. Buffy is dismayed at first but then descries Riley, and is delighted. The crystal leads them to the source of the bug magic, and while Buffy is using her axe to "unplug" them, Giles shoots Whitcomb with a bow and arrow. The bugs collapse, Tara is retrieved, and the Scoobie gang regroups outside the sewers, mourning the loss of Rebecca Stansberry but still being suspicious about her role, when suddenly somebody calls from across the street, and ... there is Rebecca, right as rain. Questions are asked , but she answers she was attacked and woke up in the hospital. She leaves telling Rupert to get a real life and if he ever thinks of leaving Sunnydale he should call her. [Rebecca's story is totally lame. Attacked by a bug and not infected? And who brought her to the hospital? Either it's a ramshackle plot or something far more sinister was going on and Rebecca is the Bug Queen.] Peter David, "Spike vs. Dracula", IDW, 2006, pp. 120. Five short stories about the quarrels through the ages between Spike and Dracula. Chapter 1: Vlad Tepes, aka Dracula, was deeply attached to the Gypsy seer girl Magda, of the Romani clan of Kalderash, until the day in 1898 when he found her and her whole clan murdered. A vision left to him by Magda informs him who the murderers were: two vampires, Darla and Drusilla, and he is bent on revenge. In a book shop Spike and Drusilla find a copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Spike buys it for Drusilla, but since it is signed by the author it costs 11 quid. Spike and Drusilla have an appointment with Darla to go to a performance of "Giselle" by the Blinnikov World Ballet Corps but Darla does not show up. The reason is simple, she is being seduced by Dracula while thinking it is she who is doing the seducing. She takes Dracula to Spike's apartment for further seduction, where they are surprised by Spike and Drusilla returning home. The Count immediately turns to seducing Drusilla, much to her delight, right in front of Spike, and a violent quarrel ensures, in which Dracula throws the Dracula book, gift from Spike to Drusilla, into the fire. Spike attacks Dracula shouting that he owes him 11 quid, but is also thrown into the fire and has to jump into the Thames to get extinguished. Dracula moves the ladies into a carriage and drives them to one of his castles, in Yorkshire, not knowing that Spike is riding with them, on an axle under the carriage. In the castle Dracula gives a three-people party, mesmerizes the two ladies, hands each a stake, and hypnotizes them into killing each other, when a flaming arrow crashes through a window: Spike has shown the villagers what a vampire can do, reveals that the biggest vampire of them all is in the castle, and now there is an angry armed mob outside. Dracula has to flee and Spike takes off with the ladies through a back door, leaving a note informing Dracula who ruined his party and reminding him that he owes him 11 quid. Spike 1 - Dracula 0. Chapter 2: In 1934 in a letter to Darla in Berlin, Spike writes how Dracula has become famous in America, not through his own exploits but through theatre performances by Bela Lugosi. He and Drusilla went to watch such a performance, and while Drusilla chatted with a young boy next to her, a Edward Wood, he spotted Dracula himself in the front row. The count was seriously miffed because Bela Lugosi was more impressive than the count himself, so after the performance the count repaired to Bela's dressing room to kill the actor. Spike writes how they fought, how the count first changed into a wolf and then into a giant bat, jumped onto a low-flying stunt plane, got his scarf caught in to propeller, and was ground to smithereens. Dracula's plan to kill Bela was then continued by Dracula's vampire lady, but Drusilla wanted Bela for herself, staked the lady vampire, and threw herself on Bela, only to be surprised by young Ed who had followed the "nice lady". Ed grabbed a crucifix from the prop table and pressed against Drusilla's cheek, causing her to leave screaming. At school Ed writes an essay about his trip to the theatre, but has to write lines for his effort, for making up stories. Spike 2 - Dracula 0. Chapter 3: It is 1943, Darla is missing in Berlin, and Spike comes to investigate. In an SS uniform he lifted from an SS officer who dared to ask him for his Ausweiss, Spike explores the town and finds Dracula waiting for him, stating that one of his brides, Anselina, is also missing, taken by a special unit of stormtroopers that caters to the Fuhrer's interests in the occult, and after the usual unpleasantries the two decide on a temporary truce. Using Spike's uniform and Dracula's knowledge of German they try to bluff their way into the camp where the ladies are kept but that plan fails of course, and they have to resort to the usual violence. Inside they not only find Darla and Anselina, but also a werewolf with a soldier's tag Private Nathaniel Osborne. Spike frees the werewolf, steals a motor-bike with sidecar, and together they drive to freedom, while Dracula changes into a giant bat and airlifts the ladies out. Once back in Berlin, Spike gets an offer of free virgin blood from the Prince of Lies, which he accepts, leading him into "Why We Fight", Angel 5.13. Dracula makes a deal with Hitler in which Hitler agrees to spare the "requested gypsy tribes" and Dracula agrees to no longer defend vampires, and as a bonus throws in the promise to "grant him eternal life when his assailants come storming in". Spike 2 - Dracula 1. Chapter 4: Rome, 1959, and La dolce vita has arrived. Drusilla, in turtle neck pullover, and Spike, with Mastroianni sunglasses, are doing the Via Veneto, when Spike is separated from Drusilla, and is politely invited to follow a gentleman. When he forcibly refuses he is kidnapped, but kills his kidnappers except one, whom he forces to reveal where he would be taken. The unfortunate thug shows him to a helicopter saying that it is just transporting a statue [as in the movie] to the count who lives in a villa on Cyprus [this must be Capri, not Cyprus, given the distances and the landscape there; DG]. Spike jumps on the statue, recognizes it as depicting Count Dracula himself, and rides on it to the count's villa, where he is welcomed by Drusilla playing the harpsichord, and an elegant gentleman, the Comte de Saint Germain. The Comte (and not Count Dracula as Spike had guessed) had invited Drusilla for a night of beautiful music, and had arranged for her companion to be entertained by Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren. But through his rash actions Spike has spoiled that opportunity, much to his chagrin. Although Spike enjoys the musical piece "A Sun Effulgent", composed by the Comte and played by Drusilla and him, he still wants to take it out on Dracula, and smashes the statue, thereby releasing Dracula himself, whom the Comte had imprisoned in it... Spike 2 - Dracula 2. Chapter 5: The year is 2003, and Sunnydale has sunk into the ground, taking with it substantial real estate owned by Dracula and insured by Wolfram & Hart. Since W&H is of course reneging on the insurance, the count himself makes a personal visit to the W&H office. Harmony goes through all kinds of antics to get private time with the count, but he is received by Angel who reveals to him that the Sunnydale disaster is caused by Spike, and that he is in the building. A fight ensues between the corporeal Dracula and the incorporeal Spike, which Spike manages to deflect to Angel. Dracula takes Fred hostage but Angel convinces Dracula that he, not Spike, is the enemy, and Dracula lets Fred go. Spike continues to tease Dracula, and to nag him about the 11 quid. Dracula haughtily throws him $20, which Spike tries to pick up, finding he cannot, because he is incorporeal. Spike 2 - Dracula 3. James Marsters, Derlis Santacruz, "Spile -- Into the Light", Dark Horse, July 2014, pp. 72. Spike, having just obtained a soul in Africa, is kind of at a loss what to do with it. He ends up in Greenville, just one of those towns, hungry and out of money, but his newly obtained soul prevents him from stealing and murdering. On top of that the sole (pun?) of his boots gets loose, so he limps and/or stumbles. Too bad all around. Seeing a young lady being assaulted by two hoodlums, he manages to take the two out in spite of stumbling all the time. The lady introduced herself as Dylan, and she is grateful, but no food and no money is coming forward. In his search he comes across a pawnshop, where he remembers to have hidden the loot of a robbery from his soul-free days. Also, there are a pair of fine boots in the window, just his size. So he tries to talk his way into the shop, but is chased out by the Chinese owner lady. Then luck seems to be with him: he sees a baby being abducted by a zipper monster, and we all know zipper monsters are very fond of babies. Spike rescues the baby in spite of his loose sole, but when he returns the baby to its mother and hopes for a reward, she sees his vampire face and thinks he is another monster. When he is waling the streets completely in a dump, he is invited in by Dylan, who shows him some of her paintings, until he notices that one wall of her room is a mirror. Panicked he hides in the kitchen, and Dylan invites him to come outside and see the miracles there. One miracle is an olive tree, the only one in 100 miles around, and the other turns out to be a ... sunrise. Smoking, Spike flees the scene, only to find shelter in the hide-out of the monster. He fights the monster in broad daylight and beats it. Dylan leaves with the rescued children, but Spike is badly burned. Living on rats he recovers, and tries his luck again at the pawn shop, this time with the proposal to share the loot. They accept, but when the money has been dug up, they claim it's their money, call the police, and Spike has to flee. But the owner husband takes pity on him, comes after him and presents him with the boots from the window. With his luck improved he sends farewell flowers to Dylan and leaves town. Joss Whedon, Brian Lynch, Franco Urru, "Angel -- After the Fall, Vol 1 (cover: The Man and His Dragon)", IDW Publ., 2009, pp. 192. This volume immediately follows Angel TV Season 5, and should thus be named Season 6; but it coincides with Buffy Comic Season 8. Some volumes don't have titles; identifications have been added. In retribution for Angel c.s.' attack on Wolfram & Hart at the end of Angel season 5, the Senior Partners have thrown L.A. into Hell. This mainly shows by greater chaos and more monsters in the streets than usual. The vague and sketchy drawings in this series match that atmosphere perfectly, but I'm not certain that's on purpose. The stories get increasingly erratic as the series progresses. Chapter 1: With an incorporeal Wesley breathing down his neck, and with Connor, Gwen, Nina, and a dragon as unexpected assistants, Angel is helping the helpless. This involves killing the son of Burge, the demon Lord of Downtown L.A. Chapter 2: Fearing that Burge may set his revenge upon Connor, Angel travels to see him in Santa Monica. They fight a group of lords, some of whom have speech defects. They find a strange writing on the wall which leads them to Beverly Hills, where they find Spike surrounded by dozens of Playboy models all chanting "Bloody Hail", and living under the protection of a completely crazy Illyria. Angel and Spike argue, which annoys Illyria who attacks Angel. Chapter 3: Angel and Illyria fight, using guns and kitchen knives, and Angel is losing, when his dragon bursts in and beats Illyria. Connor reconciles Spike and Angel, who, now having nothing to do, challenges the assembly of all lords of L.A. except one, the Lord of Silverlake (one of the best pictures in the book!). Chapter 4: The lords each provide their champions with a Hagun's Shaft. Angel is approached by two gorgeous ladies sent by the Lord of Silverlake, where he discovers Lorne, who has made this spot an island of heaven in hell. Groosalugg appears, to help Angel. In the meantime Gunn blows up the Wolfram&Hart building, making Wesley fade away. Chapter 5: Wesley gets his head chewed off by the Senior Partners for not preventing this mess. The lords start the fighting by trying to kill a civilian, but Angel, riding his dragon, saves him. The lords chain up the dragon since according to the challenge Angel has to fight alone. Lorne is pulled out of his depression by his muses. The lords bring in a T. Rex and Angel is losing, but Groosalugg frees Angel's dragon, on the principle that cheating is allowed in hell. Lorne's rousing speeches reach everybody, and soon Spike, Illyria, Connor, Lorne, Gwen, and Nina join the fight on Angel's side. In the middle of the fray Wesley appears, which gives Illyria such a start that she turns back into Fred. Joss Whedon, Brian Lynch, "Angel -- After the Fall, Vol. Two, First Night", IDW Publ., 2009, pp. 192. Intermezzo, describing how some of our protagonists experienced their first night in an L.A. dunked into Hell. It comes with comments on the stories by the script writer Brian Lynch. Some stories are divided over several installments. Betta: Betta (the telepathic fish) survives everything by manipulating the minds of any intending to harm him. Spike: Spike likes it in Hell: his wounds are gone, his jacket is clean, and he can enjoy the sunshine. At dawn he finds Fred, but as he rescues two damsels in distress, she turns into Illyria, much to the distress of said damsels. Connor: Connor starts looking for Angel, but while reminiscing about his sex night with Cordelia he is attacked by an army of disgruntled Wolfram&Hart mercenaries. Further see "Kate". Lorne: Having taking a taxi to Silverlake, he arouses the people there to slay all monsters, and they succeed. A sorceress casts a protective spell, and a piece of heaven in hell is born. Wesley: Wesley finds himself in Arcadia with Fred, but soon detects it's all fake, courtesy of Wolfram&Hart. In "reality" he is a non-corporeal employee of W&H, and pseudo-Fred is his company wife, consistently calling him "Honey". Kate: Coming upon Connor beset by the mercenaries, she blows off the head of the mercenaries' boss, rescues Connor, and sends him on, well-armed. Gwen: Protected by the LISA device, she is in the middle of a petting session with a Nate, when L.A. is thrown into hell. Her LISA device fails, causing her inadvertently to kill Nate. She is seriously pissed and is determined to take it out on anybody. Civilians: A weirdo proclaiming the end of the world finds his prediction coming true, but adapts by now proclaiming the end of the end of the world. Gunn: Gunn finds himself heavily bandaged in a hospital room, when a visitor shows up, who is slowly breaking the news to him that in order to save his life in the battle he was sired at the behest of W&H, so he is now a vampire. Joss Whedon, Brian Lynch, Nick Runge, "Angel -- After the Fall, Vol. Three (cover: Snow on Hell.A.)", IDW Publ., 2009, pp. 192. Chapter 1: With Illyria reverted to Fred, and the servants of the war lords attacking Angel, Angel discusses Connor's yearning for Gwen with him, until the war lords lose patience and point their Hagun's Shafts. Angel teases them a bit further, they all fire their shafts, and ... they die horribly (except the loan shark, who dropped his shaft). Turns out Hagun's Shaft is a suicide device for bored immortals. Gunn stole them from a W&R warehouse and had them secretly distributed as Trojan horses. The lords may be dead but their minions are not, and much fighting ensues, with Fred turned back to Illyria. Still, all of L.A. recognizes Angel as their savior. Chapter 2: Sensing that there is still a concentration of power somewhere in L.A., Angel and Nina set out to find it, calling in help from all and sundry, including Dracula. In the end they find it, in the form of Gunn and a band of very well trained slayers. Angel is shocked to find that Gunn is now a vampire. Chapter 3: Gunn tells that he had been mortally wounded in the fight in the alley, and that the powers that be had arranged for him to be sired in order to survive. On top of that they had given him visions about how to save L.A. Angels doubts the visions and questions their source. This angers Gunn, and they fight, leaving Angel severely wounded, and human, and dying. Chapter 4: Angel has a hallucination in which he is visited by Cordelia, who tells him she is sent by the powers that be to ease his dying, but he refuses. Wesley tells Gunn his visions are actually from W&H, and were meant to keep Angel alive for the fulfilling of the Shanshu prophecy. Angel gets a glimpse of the prophecy, sees himself destroying L.A., and turns to Cordelia, and says: "I'm ready to go." Joss Whedon, Brian Lynch, Stephen Mooney, Franco Urru, "Angel -- After the Fall, Vol. Four (cover: At Your Service)", IDW Publ., 2009, pp. 192. Chapter 1: Upon Angel's decision to die, W&H sends a huge army, threatening his friends. With his friends in danger and his dragon dead Angel cannot afford to die. Spike returns to the locked up slayers to fight them but is killed. Five minutes later he shows up alive again, accompanied by said slayers. It is revealed (in Chapter 2) that Gunn has been training the slayers by letting them repeatedly kill in a 5-minute time loop set up for him by Illyria. Gunn fakes remorse which causes Illyria to turn into Fred again, and Gunn kills Fred, which is all part of his Plan ... Chapter 2: ... to obtain a Fred- and internal conflict-free Illyria, who should then do his bidding and use her time-shifting abilities to move time back to before everything went wrong. But Illyria has her own idea of resolution: end time at all. That's fine with Gunn, because it still fits his Plan. Chapter 3: Illyria has turned into a monster, murdering left and right. Betta, Spike and Wesley bombard her with memories of Fred to subdue her enough to allow W&H to drop a building on her. Connor dies in a fight with Gunn, and by now almost everybody of the living is dead. Chapter 4: Wesley, under the pretext of warning the armies of W&H to keep Angel alive at all cost in the battle to come, suggests a way out to Angel. Angel and Gunn fight, and Angel makes sure he is killed ... forcing W&H, who need him alive at any cost, to reset time to the fight in the alley at the end of Season 5. So they are back in the fight against the forces of W&H, with the rain pouring down on them, but they remember precisely what happened in L.A. in hell. With Illyria's help they win the battle but Gunn is mortally wounded. With W&H defeated, they want to raid the their medical supplies to cure Gunn, but when they reach the place they find an empty lot with a sign: "Doublemeat Palace Coming Soon". Gunn is in the hospital, and when Angel wants to visit him he is beset by grateful L.A. citizens. Chapter 5: Angel and Nina dig into the mystery of the disappeared W&H building, but get nowhere. There is some clean-up to do, a resurrected war lord or two to kill, but with Illyria guarding Gunn in the hospital, Angel is free to go back to heading his detective agency. Kelley Armstrong, Dave Ross, George Freeman, "Angel -- After the Fall, Vol. Five, Aftermath", IDW Publ., 2009, pp. 192. Back to relative normalcy. Just naked female assassins, real angels, etc. Chapter 1: With the help of police detective Kate Angel sets up office in an abandoned church, but it turns out his clientele consists solely of fans who want to take a selfie with him. When Kate and Angel run into their first scantly clad lady in real distress, they find the attacker is not a demon but a human with gross habits. Then a sleek and glib pair turn up who offer them a job to handle "apocalyptic fall-out". On the condition that the pair protect them against bothering fans, Angel, Kate, and Connor accept. Chapter 2: Asleep in bed Angel is attacked by a naked female assassin. They fight but the assassin sometimes strikes cat-like poses. She reveals that she owes a debt to the lord of Sherman Oaks and it is he who wants Angel dead. She has an idea to pay her debt and at the same time get the angry demon lords out of Angel's hair. In the meantime they begin to find out what apocalyptic fall-out is. The reversal of the L.A.-to-hell situation has been faulty, leaving some people mentally damaged, and it is our trio's task to find them and bring them to St. Luke Hospital. They are joined by Gwen, who is fully electric again and distrusted by everybody. Next Angel introduces the fifth member of the team, Dez, jaguar woman and naked assassin. Then Angel and Dez kill the lord of Sherman Oaks, making it look as if some other lord had hired Dez to kill him in such a way that the blame would fall on Angel. This set up the demon lords against each other, leaving Angel and Dez alone. In St. Luke Hospital Angel is addressed by a patient with a message from ... Cordelia. Chapter 3: Gwen has been secretly following Dez and finds her changing a caught human into a gorilla. Angel distrusts the hospital and sets up facilities of their own. Kate and Gwen capture Dez in jaguar form. The patient, James, claims to be an angel and needs help to rid the hospital from an demon infestation, and Angel obliges. The sleek pair gives Angel a new job: cooperating with James. Chapter 4: The team realizes that the oddly behaving people are actually animals that have turned semi-human in the reversal of the Hell moment, which means Dez is innocent. James's mission is to bring back the potentates, sent to L.A. for apocalyptic fall-out correction, but who have been indulging in random demon clean-up. Lots of confused fighting ensues. Chapter 5: Angel, Kate and James find the potentates killing humans as well. They step in, fight, and in the middle of the fight a representative of the White Hats appears, and explains that the potentates have taken the opportunity to also kill some people who in the near future are going to commit heinous crimes. Neither Angel nor Kate want to have any of this. The potentates stop fighting and concentrate on reverting Dez to her jaguar state, calling her an abomination. Connor fights them and Angel and Kate joins him, but Jams points out that Dez's spell is already fading, and they don't need to bother. They however loudly claim the right to do continue doing such things in the future, and now the team starts to fight them in earnest. Seeing that the only way to make Angel change his mind is to kill him, they retreat. The sleek pair, who are probably the Colorless Hats, evaluate the situation and proclaim him master of his own rogue team, asking him: "What will you do with them?". He answers: "Fight for what's right." Brian Lynch, Franco Urru, "Angel -- After the Fall, Vol. Six, Last Angel in Hell", IDW Publ., 2009, pp. 192. Vol. Six consists of four separate stories, detailing the adventures of several persons just after the return of L.A. to relative normality. Chapter 1, Become What You Are: Gunn, heavily wounded in Hell L.A. is in a hospital in a coma, and visitors get fewer and fewer. But when a demon tries to kill him, it turns out Illyria has been guarding over him from distance. Non, ex-lord of Beverly Hills, appears and heals Gunn, in the hope of obtaining a promising evil ally, but post-hell Gunn wants nothing of it. Illyria steps in and kicks Non out, although she had to punch out a dragon to do so. They hand in Non to the Mosaic Rehabilitation Center for the Supernatural, and Illyria takes her first driving lesson to get in touch with her human/Fred side. Chapter 2, Drusilla: Just before L.A. is thrown to hell, Drusilla is found heavily wounded in the streets, with wounds that suggest somebody tried to stake her with a sword, unsuccessfully of course. (She describes the incident in the comic "Spike", #4, pg 23.) Given her behavior she is admitted to the psychiatric wing of a hospital. While doctors are discussing her condition, she starts killing off staff left and right, seduces the head psychiatrist, steals her folder, and kills a lady psychiatrist, in whose handbag she finds a revealing blue dress. She changes into it, sticking the folder in her belt. In her new attire she continues her rampage, but the scenes more and more remind her of her past and cause visions. The remaining doctors start a therapy session, but Drusilla is getting visions of L.A. going to hell, drawing dragons and masses of people marching on the hospital. She admonishes the doctors "to run", but while they are interpreting her drawings in psychiatric terms, L.A. goes to hell. The doctors flee the advancing masses, leaving Drusilla to be molested by them. As a good psychiatric patient Drusilla withdraws into her own fantasy world, her family home in Victorian England, where she plays with dolls and wonders "How long will this last?". As the Buffy wikia points out, a name plate in the fantasy shows that Drusilla's family name is Keeble. Chapter 3, Boys and their Toys: Groo informs Angel that the Flaming Sword is missing, and that someone may be out there wanting to kill Angel with it. While his staff are discussing a plan to locate it, Connor has already found it on the Internet: it is in the auction room of a Sci-Fi and Fantasy Con. At the con Angel and Groo meet Spike, who came to watch the movie "Last Angel in Hell", and Jeremy, who is dressed as a wizard. Angel receives a death threat and Jeremy, always with the loopy ideas, suggest that they all dress up as somebody else, using the costumes that are handed out for free. Spike dresses as Angel and Jeremy as a Kung-Fu master. But the costumes are handed out by two villains who possess the head of Janus, which will change the wearers of the costumes into the real items, thus providing said villains with an army of supermen. Groo locates the people of the death treat, and proclaims: "All slaying must take place off convention premises." Then the villains activate the Janus spell and Spike turns into Angel. Fortunately for the reader, the highlights in his hair stay white (and those in Angel's hair are brown). Much confused fighting ensues, with aliens from the planet Skrum, and a real demon sent to kill Spike. Angel, still himself, tries to find the magic object, but fails in the ruckus. Then he sees a small boy in the wizard costume Jeremy came in, and asks him to do a locator spell. The spell works, Angel finds the Janus head in his hands and crushes it, returning everybody to normal. Groo retrieves the sword, and Angel and Spike leave, the latter musing on being the former. Chapter 4, "Last Angel in Hell": With one in every three people in L.A. being a script writer, somebody made the trip of L.A. to hell into a movie, starring Nicholas Cage as "Angel Cartwright", Jorge Garcia as "Gunn/Cordelia the Dragon", and Supervamp Lady as "Spike"(!). Totally camp, totally a hilarious parody on Hollywood. Dating back the first vampire to the dinosaur era, the movie finds Angel, cop and hero of the underdog of L.A., in his wedding suit with his bride Sara (M.G.?). When she opens her mouth it shows fangs, which he calls "spikes", and since then her name is Spike. The wedding guests turn out to be a bunch of vampires and their padre, using the unabridged version of the bible, sends L.A. to hell. After some unsubtle plugs for Doublemeat Palace, Angel finds out guns don't kill vampires, but then he gets help from Gunn and Fred, played by a black actress, wearing an "Illyria industrial body armor". They find out Satan is holding a Charity Ball where he collects souls for "soulbloode". Angel sneaks in but is seduced by a woman, who turns out to be Spike, now Satan's girl friend. Although Angel kills some body guards, he is thrown of a cliff. His friends shoot the devil with a nuclear device, but the devil boasts that only his Cursed Hell Dagger can kill him, only to find that it is missing. While Angel vouches to single-handedly take down the devil Spike gives him a parting hug, slipping the Cursed Hell Dagger into his pocket. Gunn, with fire from his dragon form and Fred with her electric field, corner the devil, allowing Angel to stab him with the CHD, all with neat texts like "I'm a vampire but you suck", and "The devil is down, let's minimize his minions". Three month later Angel presents his team with a pregnant Spike, while the ghost of Wesley warns them for the coming of the Wolf, the Ram, and the Heart (sic!). Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 8.1, The Long Way Home", Comic, Dark Horse, 2008, pp. ~100. The rise and fall of "Twilight", a mysterious evil power, the nature of which is not revealed until Angel & Faith, Vol. 9.3, "The Hero of His Own Story". Season 8 finds Buffy heading an 1800+ slayer army, fighting the usual baddies. Part 1: Buffy's army, under remote control of Xander, attacks a castle in which monsters house who have kidnapped and possibly killed humans. They kill the monsters but find that their victims, dead indeed, were actually attacking the monsters. These attackers wear a strange curve-and-line mark. Meanwhile the US army investigates the remains of Sunnydale to find out how Buffy destroyed it so nuclear-attack-like, and find a crazed-out Amy. Part 2: Giles, Buffy, and Andrew try to get the unruly slayers organized, each in their own way and with varying success. When Buffy is distracted by a quarrel with Xander, Amy, sent by the US army, captures her using magic confusion. She ties Buffy up, gives her nightmares and then decides to kill her with a dagger. Xander, recovered, barges in with a couple of slayers, and wounds Amy with an arrow. The dagger breaks on Buffy's body, but Buffy remains in a sleep from which only "a kiss of true love" can awaken her. Demons under Amy's command attack the command center, and she proclaims that nobody can take her on. Willow arrives and says (of course): "I'd like to test that theory." Part 3: Buffy's nightmares continue, but under the influence of Ethan Rayne they turn into erotic dreams about her and Angel and Spike, chained together. Willow and Amy fight, and Willow wins, but Buffy is still asleep, dreaming about a giant mouse treadmill. Xander organizes an all-eyes-shut kissing session to wake Buffy up and it works, thanks to an anonymous kisser. Willow does a spell to find out where Amy came from, but it backfires and Willow and Amy get sucked back to where Amy came from, the military installation under Sunnydale, where they are met by Warren, still skinless but ready to take a surgeon's bone saw to Willow. Part 4: When Warren was skinned by Willow in 6.21, Amy provided him with magical protection, which she supports all the time. While Warren is torturing Willow at the installation, Buffy's mystics are trying to reopen the portal through which Willow and Amy disappeared. The army know that Buffy + army will follow, and Buffy + army know they are expected. The army has installed a giant laser gun, but when the mystics get through and the laser gun fires, it turns out Xander has installed a large parabolic mirror and the laser beam is reflected right back, making mince meat of a large part of the military installation. Buffy confronts Amy but gets paralyzed by her. Willow makes Amy see her mother instead of Buffy, which confuses her, and Xander throws in a flash grenade, ending the fight. Amy and Warren flee through a portal, and Buffy and general Voll have a talk, ending with the general saying "You are at war with the human race", to which Buffy answers: "Oh ... kay...". The Chain: The history of a nameless slayer, told as memory fragments as she lies heavily wounded or dying far underground. This is the linearized version: When all Potentials are activated by Willow in 7.22, a nameless girl is swept off her feet and ends up unconscious on the ground of the schoolyard. But when she comes around, she sees a run-away truck and whisks away her friends from in front of it and stops the truck. She is enlisted, trained, and found to be a good substitute Buffy, to serve as a decoy. Her task will be to prevent the underground army of Yamanh of Hoht to rise to the surface. She descends into the earth, and after being interrogated in the nude by the head of the Slime-Slug Clan and with the help of a faerie called Tink she is admitted to the lowest region, where she finds Yamanh. They fight and he slays her, but when he thinks he has won, an army of slayers descend on him and his ilk, brought in by Tink and her folk. Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, Joss Whedon, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 8.2, No Future For You", Comic, Dark Horse, 2008, pp. ~100. Season 8 finds Faith freelancing as a killer of demons, especially those who are after children. Part 1: After a failed children rescue operation Faith is approached by Giles who tells her forthright that he needs her to take out a rich English rogue slayer, Lady Genevieve Savidge. Giles puts her through a lady training, and stops when she has the right British attitude. Part 2: Faith, as Lady Hope, a viscount's daughter, bluffs her way into a society party revolving around Lady Genevieve, but is spotted and watched by the Lady's riding master Roden and his two evil stone giants. While Faith is gathering courage on the balcony, Lady Genevieve shows up and the two of them get on marvellously, chatting away about an Amy Winehouse concert, when she is pulled into the air by the two gargoyles. She takes a hair pin out of her hairdo, and deflates one of the gargoyles, so all drop to the ground. The second gargoyle lifts her up again to gargoyle height and a third arrives. Faith taunts them both, and in their frenzy they both storm at her and collide in mid air, reducing themselves to a bunch of rubble, falling to the ground and taking Faith with them. Faith comes around in a bedroom in Lady G.'s mansion and is introduced to Lady G.'s plan to kill Buffy, whom she sees as a threat to her coronation as Queen of the Slayers. Part 3: While Faith is fretting that Giles wanted her to kill Genevieve who wants to kill Buffy and therefore sent her just to protect his Golden Girl, i.e. Buffy, Genevieve explains to Faith that Buffy deserves to be assassinated, not mundanely killed or murdered. Genevieve and Faith get chummier by the minute, having a bath in a luxury bath tub. Rather than taking Genevieve to Buffy, Roden uses a spell to transport Buffy by portal from the castle in Scotland to the mansion. Here we get a first glimpse of something that was kept secret in the TV series: Buffy has a weak stomach and throws up when transported through portals or interdimensionally. Genevieve attacks immediately, but Buffy wins and as she is about to kill Genevieve, Faith jumps from behind the arras and pushes Buffy through the window into the swimming pool, saving Genevieve's life. Faith tries to argue with Buffy but Buffy sees her as part of the evil slayer's club she seems to have landed in. Fighting in the pool seems to sober them up a bit, but then Buffy gets transported back to HQ by Willow. She arrives barfing, and in the mansion Genevieve comes at Faith with a battle axe... Part 4: Faith kicks Genevieve right over the swimming pool through the roof of the conservatory where the fight continues amidst statues of Lady G. Genevieve rams the battle axe into the stem of a tree and uses the handle as a springboard to launch herself at Faith. Outside, Giles, unable to reach Faith calls HQ and gets Buffy on the phone who chews him out for his underhanded action with Faith. Still fighting, Faith lands in the rose bushes, recoils, and kick Genevieve high into the air. She lands with her back on the battle axe, and is dying. Faith orders Roden to heal Genevieve, but he refuses saying that since she won, she and not Genevieve is clearly the right person to eliminate Buffy, offering her a black book with the Twilight emblem on the cover. Faith refuses and Roden has her strangled by another gargoyle but the gargoyle is stabbed in the back by Giles with an oversized pair of garden scissors. The gargoyle disintegrates and Giles uses a spell from the Twilight book to make Roden explode. Back in his apartment Giles and Faith realize that they have both fallen out with Buffy, and they come up with the idea to become the Avengers, John Steed and Emma Peel. On a lone mountain top Lieutenant Molter, arriving by helicopter, reports to Twilight, floating in the air, that "his goons have failed and Buffy is still alive", but he explains that not Buffy but the goons were the target. Ms. Molter is nonplussed. (Note: Lieutenant Bennett A. Molter is an author of books about WWI airforce.) "Anywhere But Here": Puzzled by what "Twilight" may mean, Buffy and Willow set off to consult the demon Sephrillian who sports four TV screens for eyes and who knows everything because he jumps between times. Since it is quite a journey and to distract Buffy while she is flying with Willow, they play the fantasy game "Anywhere But Here", where we learn that Buffy's favorite movie star is Daniel Craig and Willow's is Tina Fey. Sephrillian lives at the top of an endless staircase that starts in a shed on the English coast, guarded ("minded") by Robin to keep it stable. Willow and Robin greet each other as old acquaintances although they have not yet met but know they will have; this is what you get with temporal displacement and so. The staircase is infinite but fortunately Sephrillian meets them halfway, although "fortunately" may not be the right word, since he attacks them right away. Still Willow poses the question "What does Twilight mean" and Sephrillian has the answer: "The death of magic". Sephrillian declares them liars because their heads are not made to contain the truth. To prove what liars they are, he shows them how Buffy acquired the money for her organization (not from a donation but from robbing a vault in Switzerland), what Willow lied about (having an affair with Aluwyn), and how Dawn lied about how she became 25 meters tall (not by sleeping with her boy friend Kenny but with his room mate Nick while drunk). Then Sephrillian comes with his conclusion: he now knows the weaknesses of mankind and welcomes the coming war. Buffy begins: "Hail Mary..." (thanks to https://usaerklaert.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/hail-mary-oder-warum-kluge-damonen-american-football-gucken/ for explaining the cultural reference), Willow conjures up a magic sword and throws it to Buffy who decapitates Sephrillian. The whole place blows up, and since they probably never left the shed, they are back outside with Robin. They think Robin will hate them for it, but she is actually grateful to them for giving her some free time until her next assignment. Drew Goddard, Georges Jeanty, Joss Whedon, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 8.3, Wolves at the Gate", Comic, Dark Horse, 2008, pp. ~100. Vol. 8.3 starts with a single episode: A Beautiful Sunset Buffy is depressed: Simone Doffler is besmirching the good name of slayers, she reminds herself of her "Thomas Crown Affair", her relation with Willow is "complicated", there are kiss issues with Satsu, and Dawn is getting drunk in a Scottish barn; in short, life sucks. To cheer Buffy up Xander has found her a vampire nest and Buffy jumps in enthusiastically, but finds herself followed by Satsu, who lands on her face in the Scottish mud. Buffy tells her she (Satsu) is in terrible danger. Why? Because she is in love with Buffy, and that never ends well. She is immediately proven correct by Twilight diving from the air and smashing Buffy into a tomb. Satsu attacks Twilight but is defeated instantly. Twilight and Buffy fight and although Buffy is losing she continues to loud-mouth him; they seem to know each other very well. Twilight tells her that one slayer at the time is OK, that with her slayer army she has upset the natural order, and that it is his task to correct that. He then disappears into a Beautiful Sunrise. Satsu and Buffy recover in sick bay, and when Xander points her to the field where hundreds of happy slayers are exercising she says "Yay me". Wolves at the Gate, Part 1: The Tokyo Affair. Xander and Renee are standing watch shoulder to shoulder as they see wolves arrive at the gate. Buffy and Satsu have an intimate night in bed, and decide to keep it a secret. And Willow brings in Andrew flying. When she lands she is attacked from behind by a Japanese punk girl. Xander and Renee see the wolves turn into (Scottish) fog, Andrew sees wolves running down the hallway, and all three barge in on Buffy and Satsu. Then Dawn peeks through the skylight, and Willow comes falling through the roof and says: "Why are you naked in bed with Satsu?". Now Buffy is seriously pissed. The fog changes into a Japanese op who then steals the scythe. They fight, the op gives the scythe to a panther which runs off with it and hands it to the Japanese punk girl. Holding war counsel the Scooby gang realizes that there is only one vampire with the ability to turn into wolves, fog, etc., Dracula. Xander sets out by helicopter to go and talk to him, with Renee keeping an eye on him in view of past events. Dracula greets him: "Hello, manservant." Part 2: An old man is sitting in a despondent mood in a Transylvanian mansion but when he sees a heli land on a nearby hill, he puts the bottle aside and transforms himself into the well-known and vigorous Dracula. In talking with Xander he realizes that some Japanese, in a game of Pai-Gow, cheated him out of some of his powers. In Tokyo a Japanese slayer, Aiko, gets Buffy a name: Toru, the guy who stole the scythe, a name she obtained by dismembering a large number of Kabuki demons. While Buffy + army is flying (by military plane) to Tokyo Aiko tracks Toru. But Kumiko, the Japanese punk girl, and Toru use the scythe and a red lens to de-slayer Aiko, and Toru kills her. Part 3: The world wakes up to a horrible sight: the dead body of Aiko, strung up on a Tokyo department store. Buffy is devastated and sits freezing and holding a wake over Aiko's body in a temple, when a time-zone-confused Dracula steps in and offers a spell to contain vampires who can change into fog. While the enhanced Japanese vampires prepare a giant version of Toru's lens, Buffy et al. capture such an enhanced vampire, using Renee as bait. The vampire tells them that Toru wants to de-activate all slayers, using the giant lens and the scythe. While her crew make plans to fight the enhanced vampires, Buffy points out that only one thing matters: getting the scythe back. For that they need a big distraction, which Willow is going to provide: using a lengthy spell she transports the 25 meter tall and proportionally wide Dawn into the middle of the vampires who flee like mad. Buffy + crew walk into Toru's lair where he stands with the scythe in his hand. Buffy walks up to him and grabs the scythe, but Toru and scythe turn out to be projections. Then the real Toru steps forward with the real scythe and kill Renee with it. Part 4, Conclusion: While Renee lies dying and Xander is devastated, Buffy tries to protect Xander and Renee, but Dracula takes over, sending Buffy away to get Willow so she can do a spell that Dracula knows to take the Dracula powers away from the enhanced vampires. Willow is fighting Kumiko in mid-air and she discovers that Kumiko and she are both disciples of the Snake Goddess. Buffy, telling herself that the skyscraper she is standing on is just a diving board, dives at them and stakes Kumiko, who beside a witch is also a vampire and so susceptible to staking. Unfortunately Willow has lost consciousness and they are falling towards the ground. In the meantime 25 meter tall Dawn tramples the hordes of the enemy until she is met by a mechanical copy of herself, Mecha Dawn, a sight not seen since Godzilla. With instructions from Andrew, Dawn defeats the Mecha Dawn. Since Kumiko is missing Toru himself starts casting the spell to take away all slayer powers, while his side-kick Raidon directs the activation of the giant lens from HQ. Before Toru can finish the spell Dracula rushes in, wrestles Toru to the ground, and sends the scythe flying for Satsu to catch. In the very last moment Willow wakes up and transforms the sidewalk into a water basin cushioning their fall. They catch Satsu and the scythe, and try to stake Raidon but he turns into fog. Dracula instructs Willow how to use his sword to direct the spell into the giant lens, greatly magnifying the effect. Instantly all enhanced vampires are reduced to normal vampires and Buffy et al. start enthusiastically killing them. Raidon comes after Buffy but Willow stakes him from behind. Toru attacks Dracula but the latter hacks off Toru's hands and feet, leaving it to Xander to perform the final kill. As night falls, Dracula returns to his ship, Willow renews her relationship with the Snake Goddess, Buffy and Satsu spend a last night in bed, and Xander scatters Renee's ashes. Joss Whedon, Karl Moline, Jeph Loeb, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 8.4, Time of Your Life", Comic, Dark Horse, 2008, pp. ~100. This volume takes place partly in Scotland and in New York in the present and partly in Haddyn (Manhattan) two centuries in the future, which makes it awkward to summarize. One is tempted to write things like "At the same time two hundred years in the future...". There are no classical unities in these tomes... I'll linearize; this is a summary, not literature. Part 1: Buffy et al. are eating Scottish-Chinese take-out in HQ, with Willow reporting about a mystical message saying that the scythe must be found in New York, while it is not missing at all. Leah bursts in calling everybody into the woods, where Dawn has turned from a giant into a centaur. Warren shows his weapon of Buffy destruction to Twilight. Buffy and Willow fly to New York, with Buffy getting more and more excited. They are met by Kennedy, and Willow explains temporal anomalies to the New York crew with Buffy off to a mysterious appointment. Buffy returns from her date in a revealing party dress, and senses danger, but before she can change into something less comfortable, she is replaced by a horrible monster -- finding herself, scythe in hand, fighting in a weird environment with a similar woman, equally scythe in hand, who calls her a "lurk". In Scotland centaur Dawn and Xander see Warren's weapon hit the HQ castle. Part 2: Xander races into the ruins which are engulfed in green flames, where he finds Rowena leading the evacuation through the tunnels. The flames turn into cobra-faced soldiers and the situation becomes untenable, but centaur Dawn comes barging in and rescues Xander on her back. They are pursued by the green flame army. In 23rd century New Haddyn (Manhattan) the half-slayer Melaka Fray and her sister Erin are chasing a van with vampires and monsters, and while fighting them discuss their brother and second half-slayer Harth and a mysterious dark old woman with whom he seems to conspire. They read in an old book about a place where the old woman appeared, so they set out to investigate. Melaka finds a horrible monster there, and while she fights it, it is replaced by Buffy in party dress. They fight but Buffy recognizes the moves, understands the situation and convinces Melaka to stop. At Melaka's home they talk with her mentor/room mate/merman Gunther who is more interested in Buffy's party attire but still gives them some hints about the old woman. Harth has a negative philosophical discussion with the old woman who turns out to be Dark Willow. Part 3: Buffy and Melaka set out to catch a couple of vampires to squeeze them for rumours, using a stolen flying car. They find a group but rather than capturing them, Melaka helps the victims, when Dark Willow intervenes and takes Melaka to a rooftop and offers to show her something: the end of her world if Buffy returns to her world. Buffy, alone in the car, crashed it, and returns to Melaka's flat, where she is met by Erin. They have a chat about sisters when Buffy is zapped in the back by Melaka. In Scotland Xander and Dawn meet the Wood Men who try to scare them away, but they tell them they are fleeing from something much scarier. In New York Willow consults with Aluwyn, and she learns that she should not look into the future when she retrieves Buffy. The suggestion is made that this consultation is during sex with Kennedy. Part 4: In Scotland Xander, Dawn, and the Wood People are helped by a coven of wiccans who lift the magic off the Cobra soldiers, so they can now be beaten. In Haddyn Melaka has brought Dark Willow with her, Buffy comes around, Harth show up and everybody has questions. While everybody accuses everybody of lying, Melaka's pet spider monkey unties Buffy's bonds, and then Gunther barges in. A fight ensues, and Buffy escapes. She hitches a ride on a flying car and arrives at the rooftop only to find Melaka there. More fighting ensues, but Buffy wins, only to find Dark Willow in her way. Buffy asks her why she has forced her to come there and then shown her the way out, but Dark Willow says: "It's a long story". Buffy sees her responsibility in her own time line, not in Dark Willow's Haddyn, kills Dark Willow, and returns home, leaving Melaka and Erin to puzzle over Dark Willow's motives. "After These Messages ... We'll Be Right Back": After an especially tiring bout of monster reduction Buffy drops like a log in the first bed she sees (Xander's) and dreams. She dreams she's back at the beginning of season two, and her Mom is trying to get her to school in time. She meets old friends, Cordelia, a very un-dark Willow, and an old enemy, Principal Snyder. Buffy and friends are off to a party but are stopped by Giles who has dug up a prophecy saying that the Disciples of Morgala will stage another apocalypse this night. Buffy finds the three disciples and slays them in grand style, but Giles points out that the Disciples of Morgala worship a dragon and that no dragon was seen. Buffy shrugs and continues on her way to the party, when she meets Angel who congratulates her on defeating the Five D.o.M. At the party it hits her that Angel said 5 and she killed 3. She finds the other two creeps who leer at her and tell her she's too late and they have already called Morgala using a big red jewel. Morgala shows up and his teeth alone are almost as tall as Buffy. The dragon takes Buffy high up into the air, Buffy finds the red jewel in the forehead of the dragon, and kicks it out, which makes the dragon go poof. Buffy plunges to the ground, to wake up to Xander's attempts to get her out of his bed. Buffy has a happy reunion with her surprised friends, for whom she was asleep only for seconds. Joss Whedon, et al., "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 8.5, Predators and Prey", Comic, Dark Horse, 2008, pp. ~100. This volume consists of five separate entries, describing the downfall of the slayers society at the hands of Twilight, the humans, and internal dissent. Harmonic Divergence Using her twin assets (two too cute doggies) Harmony charms and bites her way into the life of TV producer A. (Andy) Dick. Tabloid photo's introduce the public to the thrilling habits of vampires, who have learned to bite without killing. Harmony gets her TV show, but is attacked on screen by a freshly activated and unexperienced slayer. They fight and Harmony makes the slayer fall into her own stake. The public sees the slayer as the mean attacker of the harmless and charming vampire, and a TV host is quick to generalize that to all slayers. Harmony's TV ratings go through the roof, much to the dismay of Buffy c.s. Swell Refers to both the cuteness and the overwhelming numbers of the Vampy Cat Play Friend. In Tokyo a four-armed monster steals a bag from an armored truck, but Satsu cuts off the arm holding the bag. After chucking the now three-armed monster into the bay, she and Kennedy open the bag to find it contains a Vampy Cat Play Friend, a vampire-like fluffy Japanese puppet. The next morning Satsu is acting strange, all-out traditional Japanese girl available for marriage, wearing a furisode, preaching marriage and babies, and ranting against slayers and lesbians. Kennedy tries to calm her down but her concern leads to a fight, Kennedy kicks Satsu in the stomach, and Satsu spits out the Vampy Cat, which in the night has secretly crept into her. Kennedy cleaves it in two and it is filled with green gore. Satsu c.s. follow the lead to the company where the truck came from, and find that half a million Vampy Cats have just been shipped on the Daikaiju (= Big Monster) to Buffy's location in Scotland. They land on the Daikaiju, bringing some explosives, but before they can use them the zombie crew attack them followed by thousands of Vampy Cats. They keep killing them off, but then a huge Vampy Cat rises up, consisting of the rest of the Vampy Cats, shouting "We are the Legion, Hail Twilight". Satsu lights a flare, the super Vampy Cat mocks her "sparkler", but has misunderstood: the flare alerts the submarine which Satsu had retrieved from some vampires who had stolen it from the Koreans. The slayer crew of the sub launch two torpedoes at the Vampy Cat ship which is blown to smithereens, including the super Vampy Cat. Harmony grabs the opportunity to depict the slayers as mean and abject toy killers. Predators and Prey Andrew alerts Buffy to the fact that he knows the location where one of Simone Doffler's aids, Nisha, is held captive by a Ragna demon. They plan to free Nisha, and hope she will lead them to Simone. Buffy and Andrew go on a road trip by plane, train, and car, to a place near Milan, Andrew showering Buffy with geek talk all the time, which captures Buffy's interest only when the subject is Daniel Craig. They find Nisha, but it turns out to be a trap, first engineered by Andrew to catch Simone but now used by Simone to lay her hands on the Ragna demon. Simone stuns the Ragna monster and transports out, but Andrew has put a tracer on the (metallic) monster, and the trail leads to a very Italian island. A small girl explains that all the other inhabitants have fled, and Buffy promises to have a talk with the bad lady. Under a lot of awkward talk from Andrew they walk into the Opera House where Simone is expecting them with her army of 16 slayers. Simone wants Andrew, Buffy refuses of course, and they fight. Simone loses, but pulls a gun on Buffy. She is about to shoot Buffy when a bunch of slayers burst in, Andrew's Italian squad, alerted by Xander. Buffy disarms Simone, but when Simone thinks Buffy is going to shoot her with it, Buffy shoots the stunning device on the Ragna, setting it loose. They leave the island regretting that they have not been able to retake the island for the inhabitants. Safe Faith and Giles find Courtney, a young slayer in distress but when she is really threatened her slayer reflexes take over and she says that she is not ready for the "slayer sanctuary" yet. Giles gets curious and they decide to investigate. Courtney knows the slayer sanctuary is in Hanselstadt, and it is a safe house where slayers can go who do not want to slay. It is run by Duncan Fillworthe, an acquaintance of Giles, and they are invited for dinner, but there are no slayers in sight. They are told they are all in the library, but Faith and Courtney get suspicious and go off to said library, where they are met by a monster which feeds them hallucinations. Faith fights a vampire and fails to kill him, which fills her with regret, and Courtney is already full of self-reproach over the divorce of her parents. And the monster feeds on these feelings, as it did on the feelings of inadequacy of all the slayers that went to the sanctuary. Giles discovers the secret but Duncan comes after him with his cross bow. Faith, who has liberated herself of her feelings of guilt and thus of the monster, kicks Duncan into the many arms of the monster, while Giles is trying to protect Courtney. Duncan shouts at Giles that he is sorry for leading all those slayers to the monster, which allows the monster to devour him. Using the cross bow as a stake Faith then slays the monster. The monster gone, the vampires rear their ugly heads again, Faith mobilizes the villagers and Courtney, summarizing slayerdom in four words: "Aim for the heart". Living Doll An old man looking like the doll maker of Pinocchio finishes a doll looking like Dawn, under her protest. In Scotland Buffy c.s. is preparing to rid the country side of the Judas Cradle vampire clad, whose presence may endanger Dawn, who is missing. Dawn tries to stage an escape from the doll maker, but fails, since the other dolls see him as their father. Buffy c.s. make quick work of the Cradle clan (a total of 6 vamps) and Buffy + Xander go off into the woods to find Dawn. Andrew poses as a student trying to rent a room in Kenny's place, Dawn's tricewise ex boyfriend. While chatting amiably he puts four Yoda statues in the corners of Kenny's room, which Willows uses as totems to transport the contents of the room to HQ, using the Witchcraft 101 spell "Erehavoteg". Kenny reveals his form as a tricewise and much explaining follows. While Xander bemoans the fact that he can these days curse in British English, Buffy and he find the doll maker's cottage with assistance from a wood creature (they throw him into the shrubbery and he crashed through a window of the cottage, thus revealing the location). Xander is shot down by poisonous arrows shot by dolls and Buffy rushes towards the cottage only to be bested by Kenny in his impressive tricewise form. The moment Dawn says: "Sorry" the spell breaks and Dawn resumes her natural form. Dawn apologizes for having had sex with Kenny's friend Nick, saying she isn't ready for a relation yet. Kenny understands and they part friends. Dawn expects to be chewed out by Buffy, but Buffy only says that she has a thousand soldiers but only one sister, and she cannot keep her safe, and that that drives her mad. Harmony Bites: Three very short items. 1. Harmony does audition for a role in "The House of Blues" but makes a mess of it. On her way out she meets an ungrateful vampire she has sired a few months ago, and who tries to stake her, but the stake has two sharp ends and she stakes him. She calls Clem to drive her home, in spite of the fact that he is out on a date. He obliges, but she bitches all the way, and in the end they part company and go home separately, Harmony in the car planning to bite and kill Clem when she comes home, Clem in subway and bus knitting a sweater. When they meet in the dark house, Harmony bites, only to get her mount full of sweater wool. They burst out laughing, make up, have a meal together, and Harmony announces that she has got the role and that they are going to invite a bunch of slayers for her first night. 2. In a short promotion gig for the Vampy Cat from Santorio Corp., Sachiko is bullied by three neighborhood nasties and is given a Vampy Cat by a friendly neighbor to console her. When the bullies harass her again her Vampy Cat fights like the devil and chases them away, making Sachiko very happy. 3. In a three-page promotion leaflet for "Harm", a glossy dedicated entirely to Harmony we get the titles "Q&A with Harmony Kendall", "Slayers: Why They Hate America", and "Top Three Slayer Public Enemies" (Buffy, Faith, and Kennedy), an announcement for "Harmony Bites", Season Premiere, and an ad for Vampy Cat. Jane Espenson, Georges Jeanty, Joss Whedon, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 8.6, Retreat", Comic, Dark Horse, 2008, pp. ~100. A sorry story. The less said the better. Part One Buffy has a new magically protected HQ in Scotland. Giles and Faith get beaten in Berlin and Andrew and his crew get beaten in Rome, and both converge by low-life transport to the Buffy HQ, as do all demons of Scotland, attracted by the magic emanations of the Buffy team. They fight, the HQ is bombed, and Buffy c.s. flee in the Korean submarine, to Oz in Tibet. How do you flee to Tibet in a submarine? You have Willow dumping it magically high in the Himalayas. Part Two Willow has sent out mental images of the slayers drowning in the fall of the Scottish HQ, which are picked up by Amy, but Twilight doesn't buy it, saying that he knows Buffy well enough to know that she will not die without sending out magic waves. A technician and Amy then determine that the slayers moved to Mongolia. But they cannot find them there and they kill the technician. In Tibet Oz tells the Buffy crew how he learned to drain his magic powers into the earth to get rid of the wolf within him, and Buffy and the slayers decide to do the same to stay off the Twilight radar. Part Three Andrew has the feeling that there is a spy among them, and starts documenting the new life the slayers are leading, hoping to film dissent. He finds plenty of dissent; none of the slayers like to be drained of their powers by doing hard menial work. Then he realizes that actually the most loyal looking person might be the spy, and he goes after Willow. But when he is reporting his findings the Siamese cat goes poof, and it is clear that it was Amy all the time. Part Four Now that their secret of their location is out, and with their magic drained, the Buffy army turns to modern weapons, partly vandalized from the Korean sub, and partly swapped with villagers for electronics from the sub. But Twilight comes with a complete army, and the slayers have no chance against them, not even when they roll a torpedo downhill against the tanks. They need their magic badly and Buffy finds out that their magic, though drained, was absorbed by three Tibetan Bon goddesses buried millennia ago. Buffy and Willow summon them, and three huge terrifying garishly colored figures appear. Part Five The tables have turned, and the army flees. Buffy, Willow and Satsu take a jeep out into the battle field to pick up a wounded soldier, who turns out to be Riley, Buffy's undercover man with Twilight (and Buffy's mysterious date in Time of Your Life, Part 1). But then it becomes clear that the goddesses do not fight on Buffy's side, they just fight. While the army is rounding up what is left of the slayers, the blue goddess picks Buffy up, looks her straight in the eye, and drops her to the ground, knocking her out. When she comes around, she is covered with snow. Looking around she finds that she is high up in the air, seeing the goddesses and the army camp deep below her. Harmony Comes to the Nation As a guest on a TV show Harmony points out that vampires need to kill to live, but slayers kill by choice. Always Darkest Buffy dreams that the priest Celeb marries her to skinless Warren in a chapel full of creepies and Elvis, while Angel and Spike are making out in the aisle, and she immensely enjoying being a bride. Next morning scowling at her breakfast she says "Everybody die always" (a reference to her mode of speech in "Beer Bad"). The strip ends with "Fin" rather than "The End", indicating that this is a Film noir. Brad Meltzer, Georeges Jeanty, Joss Whedon, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 8.7, Twilight", Comic, Dark Horse, 2008, pp. ~100. A very confusing story; I don't know what I can say. Turbulence High up in the sky, Buffy finds she can fly, and land even better than Willow. It is clear she has her powers back and then some. Willow's powers are also restored, in a burst of green light. Buffy apologizes to Oz for bringing war to such a peaceful place, but Oz says she's not the first one to bring war tot Tibet. Meanwhile the Bon goddesses run rampant. Willow and Buffy put them back where the belong, in the earth, by digging a deep hole and just punch and shove them into it, under the amazed eyes of the rest of the crew. Chapter One: Buffy Has F#@$ing Superpowers Indeed, the cat's out of the bag. While Xander tests Buffy's new superpowers and the crew quarrels, Amy, Warren and a general spy on them, having mysteriously penetrated the guarded perimeter. Willow finds dead slayers in many places on earth. Faith, Giles, and Andrew suddenly find themselves in a hall with comic-strip-like machinery, which Andrew recognizes immediately as built by Warren. Conclusion: They are in Twilight's H.Q. Buffy finds Amy, Warren, and the general, who tell her that Twilight has chucked them out, and they want to join Buffy's side. Willow realizes that Buffy absorbs the powers of those dead slayers, which makes Buffy freak out, and Andrew realizes that the three of them have been swapped for three people from Twilight's crew, allowing them to get inside the perimeter. Chapter Two: The Master Plan While Twilight is explaining the master plan to Giles and Faith, mainly using his fists, Andrew sneaks away to pick up the comic book superhero outfit that comes with the comic book machinery Warren and he designed, and attacks Twilight with it, to no avail. Faith kicks Twilight in the groin, also to no avail. As soon as Satsu has determined the location of the Twilight H.Q., Buffy enters it, flying through the concrete wall. She begins by mocking him on the lame name Twilight, but then he takes off the mask and reveals himself to be ... Angel. Next they start behaving like gods in the creation myth of some primitive people: they fight, have sex, and ... Chapter Three: Them F#@$ing ... create a new universe. While Giles comments on the situation by expounding a flimsy theory about the balance in the universe being disturbed and the universe reacting to it, our merry couple climaxes (Buffy emits an empty text balloon) and they arrive in an Arcadian landscape in matching garb. Giles may have had a point though, since the creation of the new universe has made the present one superfluous, and all kinds of demons begin to rain down on earth. The Final Chapter: The Power of Love Buffy is very suspicious of this new paradise universe and expects the orcs to come over the hill any moment. That does not happen, but she discovers that this universe adapts itself to their thoughts and moods. Worried about her friends she desires to see them, a rip in the canvas allowing her to see them appears, and they are sorely beset by monsters from all over the old universe. Angel tries to convince Buffy that this is no longer her problem and that she is meant for higher purposes, but she won't have any of it, and steps through the rip, back into the old universe. Angel follows and together they do serious damage to the monster population. But Willow points out that there are innumerable many of them, and it seems they will have to fight forever, when a grim-looking space ships lands, and Spike steps out, proclaiming that he can end this Twilight crap. Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty, Scott Allie, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 8.8, Last Gleaming", Comic, Dark Horse, 2008, In which almost everything goes to pieces. Part One: A short prequel, taking place before season 8 starts: Angel, totally bemused, is catapulted to earth through the letter O of HOLLYWOOD, and finds he has super-powers: he easily rights the damaged letter, and without losing one breath rescues a crashing passenger plane. A talking dog, a rescued talking flight attendant, and several talking park animals tell him he is going to serve a higher purpose, but Angel protests. A bespoke tailor sows him a cape and mask. Reluctantly Angels dons cape and mask, and Twilight is born. Another short prequel, taking place after 8.5 but before 8.8: Spike arrives in London in his bug-manned space ship (actually an intergalactic escape pod of the Senior Partners, which Spike liberated in Spike (IDW) #6 & #7), reads about "terrorist Buffy Summers" and "Harmony's Beauty Tips", sees the only photograph of Twilight in a newspaper, immediately recognizes him as Angel, and rushes to Buffy's help. Spike explains to Buffy, not mincing words, that she and Angel are in big trouble because all incoming monsters are looking for the source of all magic, and that he and the rest of the drew of his space ships is hurrying to get there first. This object is the "Seed of Wonder", it is located under Sunnydale, and it is in the custody of ... the Master. Part Two: Buffy, enjoying the shower in Spike's space ship, is nevertheless sorely displeased they are going back to "Suckydale" as she puts it. Spike explains that the Seed acts as a cork to keep creatures from other dimensions out, and that if the incoming monsters remove it, all hell can come in. While Buffy is having erotic dreams of Spike and Dawn is having horror dreams of the bugs that man the space ship, Willow gets into a trance in which Aluwyn tells here that if the Seed is destroyed rather than removed, magic disappears from this world and no magical creatures, pleasant or nasty, can get in any more; this includes Aluwyn... The first words Willow utters when she comes to are "We have to protect the seed". Under Sunnydale, Buffy and the Master fight, and while Spike distracts him, Buffy beats him into a pulp. Angel is fighting incoming monsters on the bottom of the Sunnydale crater, when he is approached by an Azlan-like magic lion, who claims to be a form of the Twilight universe, calls him "Father" and demands him to take up his parental duties, or else. Part Three: While the Twilight-lion is working on the "or else" part at the expense of Angel, Buffy and crew try to explain to the Master that they have not come to remove the Seed (to help establish Twilight, as he thinks) but to defend it and prevent its removal. Monsters drop in on them and Dawn get wounded. As the enter the chamber of the Seed, the Master's power increases and Buffy's decreases by what Willow calls "Buffy Kryptonite". Angel, though trying to refuse the lion's orders, gets under its influence. On the space ship Warren, Amy and the general, who have discovered that the seal under which Willow left them is broken, assault one of the bugs, and escape. Xander takes Dawn to a military field hospital where they meet the general who has broken up with Warren and Amy because "their agenda does not fit with that of the US in this conflict", and he suggests to Xander and Dawn to destroy the Seed to stop the fighting. While Willow summons the power of the Seed to help protect it, Buffy and Spike, having gone to the surface, fight monsters when Angel shows up. Buffy and Spike greet him happily but are beaten to the ground: he is Twilight again. Part Four: While Amy and Warren have eclipsed to Venice, where they are having coffee in front of the San Marco, innumerable fights are going on on and under Sunnydale, the parties being Buffy, Spike, Faith, Andrew, on the ground; Angel; incoming monsters; Giles leading earth demons, who do not want incoming monsters either; and Willow, the Seed, the Master, underground. Most fights go badly for our friends. Angel kills the Master, again, and Buffy cheers, but kicks him senseless. Giles has obtained the scythe from Faith, and wants to get it to Buffy, since its power increases the nearer it gets to the Seed. Xander advises him to throw it to Buffy, who is in lethal combat with Angel, but Giles wants to "be there for Buffy", and steps between the two. Angel snaps his neck, and upon seeing Giles dead Buffy in utter despair grabs the scythe, destroys the Seed, and all magic is gone. The incoming monsters retreat; Willow falls from the air; Warren's magic skin dissolves as does he; the wiccans lose their magic and their connection to Sunnydale; Willow realizes that she will never see Aluwyn again; and the Twilight lion slinks off like a beaten dog. Xander descends into the chamber of the Seed, where he finds Buffy curled up in anguish, Giles dead, Angel catatonic, and the scythe broken. Part Five: Months later Buffy is back at being a barrista, and is glad she is no longer responsible for 1800 slayers. But many of those slayers are less glad, and feel betrayed: no more new vampires to slay. Buffy has heart-to-heart talks with Kennedy, Willow, and Dawn, with only Dawn understanding. Giles' will is read, and it turns out he left almost all his possessions to Faith Lehane, and the book Vampyr to Buffy, because she is The Slayer. Faith takes upon herself the task of taking care of Angel, who is a mental wreck, thus starting the series "Angel and Faith". But with the demise (?) of Twilight the troubles are not over. Spike comes to warn Buffy that someone is coming for her. When Buffy goes out patrolling, a bunch of disgruntled slayers come looking for a fight with her. Buffy does not want to fight them but they attack all at once, and Buffy disables then all with one complicated move. And when the general steps out of an elevator on his way to retirement he is shot by a freaked-out slayer with a machine pistol. Commitment through Distance, Virtue through Sin: We finally get some hints of what was behind Twilight. Riley Finn, on a mission for Buffy, and his super-spy wife Sam drive through the corn fields of Iowa to an old nuclear missile site. Meanwhile Angel, half dressed as Twilight, is discussing the Twilight plan concocted by Whistler, telling him he does not like it because it means pulling the wool over Buffy's eyes. But Whistler claims it is "the only thing with a chance of working", and Angel gives in. From the nuclear missile site the trail leads to a (Pacific?) island, where Angel is awaiting them with his army, into which he enlists Riley. Jeff Parker, Christos Gage, "Willow: Wonderland", Comic, Dark Horse, 2013, pp. 124. Season 9 Willow's magic-seeking walk-about. Previous: Disenchanted of a world without magic, Willow joined Angel and Faith [in "Family Reunion"] on a trip to Quor'toth, where she charged up a bit on black magic, which was converted to (kind of) white magic with help from Angel. Now the problem is how to get more magic and to get it to Earth. Part 1: Using the magic she picked up in Quor-Toth, Willow enters a realm in which magic is still strong. She casts a tracking charm to find the source of the magic and meets Marrak, a shady wizard stranded in this realm. They are attacked by a young hiberrax, roughly the size of a 15 tons truck. Willow freezes the beast but Marrak kills it. They meet the Caterpillar, who spouts Lewis Carroll-isms, when the mother hiberrax arrives... Part 2: Mother hiberrax eats Marrak, but Willow uses a prey-inversion spell, which causes the predator to explore while leaving the prey unharmed. They follow the divination track, and after encountering a scary false portal and equally scary nightmare birds, they come at the Witches Paradise, where they find Aluwyn, the green snake goddess, and many other witches. The witches repair the scythe, Willow uses it to cut a portal to our world, but after allowing a short glimpse the portal closes again: it cannot be established because there is no magic at the other side for a foothold. Part 3: The witches console Willow, and show her the women's paradise they have created. She immerses herself more and more in the coven, having magical adventures in sexual bliss. Marrak, possessing one of the nightmare birds, enters her dream and reminds her of her friends stuck in a world without magic. Part 4: Willow realizes that she has lost sight of her mission, and after some discussion Aluwyn lets her go. She teams up again with Marrak, who is much darker now, since he has been feasting on nightmare birds, but who also has discovered the "Liminal" world, where magic is even purer. There Willow becomes pure white, meets her black self, and finally sees Marrak for who he is: Rack, her magic dope peddler from "Wrecked" [Buffy 6.10]. Part 5: Rack gets hold of the scythe, but when he tries to use it to cut a portal to Earth, the present universe itself blocks him, and Willow and Rack duel. Willow wins on arguments but Rack wins on force. In the end the universe sends both to their destinies/destinations, Willow to Earth, where she arrives with her own magic but without restoring it to the world, and Rack to parts unknown. Georges Jeanty, Karl Moline, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 9.1, Freefall", Comic, Dark Horse, 2013, pp. ~130. Part 1: Buffy parties heavily and is accosted by a demon charged with collecting her study loan. Part 2: Buffy meets officer Dowling, who chases vampires, and Severin, who turns them into zompires. Part 3: Buffy is stalked by a demon by the name of Eldre Koh, and Severin gets out of hand. Part 4: Buffy fights Severin, Spike and Eldre come to the rescue but officer Dowling shoots Severin, who turns out to be on the payroll of Simone. Slayer Interrupted: Buffy has slayer dreams and finds out she is pregnant. Karl Story, Andy Owens, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 9.2, On Your Own", Comic, Dark Horse, 2013, pp. ~130. Part 1: Buffy works out her pregnancy problems with Robin, the son of the black slayer Nikki, decides to have an abortion, and asks Spike to accompany her. Part 2: Officer Dowling gets into a nasty fight with zompires and Buffy and Spike come to the rescue. Buffy looses an arm and finds out she's not pregnant but a robot, thanks to Andrew swapping her to protect her. Apart of Me, Part 1: Buffy chews out Andrew and officer Dowling finds his partner zompired. Buffy-robot traces her human body, which is captured by Simone. Part 2: Buffy-robot finds Buffy-human, only to be caught and bound by the latter. Part 3: Buffy-robot manages to free herself and they fight, but are interrupted by Simone with a machine gun. Spike and officer Dowling come to the rescue and Simone flees for unknown reasons. Andrew swaps the minds of the Buffies and the now fully human Buffy hands in her resignation as a barrista. Dexter Vines, Georges Jeanty, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 9.3, Guarded", Comic, Dark Horse, 2013, pp. ~130. Part 1: Buffy takes up a job as a body guard to a young Internet billionaire, Theo Daniels, who claims Wolfram and Hart is trying to kill him. Part 2: Theo has become a billionaire by setting up a site for demon social networking, Tincan, but it has gotten out of hand and he now wishes to take it down. Part 3: Buffy, Kennedy, and Eldre help him, but Eldre sees profit in cooperating with the demon world. Part 4: Buffy and Kennedy win anyhow, Eldre disappears in a hole with part of a demon, and the Tincan server goes up in flames. Buffy gets an offer from Kennedy's security firm, but declines: She's the slayer. Karl Moline, Andy Owens, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 9.4, Welcome to the Team", Comic, Dark Horse, 2013, pp. ~130. Part 1: While Buffy is helping Officer Dowling slay vampires, she is suddenly transported to L.A., by none less than Illyria, who, like Buffy, still has magical powers. Part 2: Buffy is met by a group of entities, the last who have magical powers left: d'Hoffryn, Buddha, God, Ganesha, etc., and they are threatened by the Syphon who wants to extract their magic to go to the past to save his girlfriend. While Dawn collapses from an unknown illness, the team (Buffy and company) attack the Syphon, but walk into an ambush. Part 3: The team is saved by Koh of the Nitobe. It turns out that Dawn's body is shutting down due to lack of supporting magic. The team tries to draw out the Syphon, but they get separated due to magic interference. Part 4: Illyria is de-magic-ed by the Syphon, and the team abandons Buffy, Koh, and Illyria as failures. The Syphon has teamed up with Simone, a rogue slayer, and with Dawn fading away, Xander feels more and more useless. The Watcher Willow returns from wherever she went ("Willow", 2013), and thinks her magic is coming back, but she fails to cure Dawn, which makes Xander feel even more desperate. Simone and the Syphon convince Xander they have common interests: going back in time to save their loved ones. Andrew Chamblis, et al., "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 9.5, The Core", Comic, Dark Horse, 2013, pp. ~130. Part One: Xander literally drops in on Buffy, who is sitting outside the hospital where Willow is using her new magic in trying to cure Dawn. He explains that Simone and Severin have tried to get him on their side and steal the Vampyr book for them, but that of course he refused, when a loud "boom" announces that Willow has exceeded her daily allowed dose of magic, leaving Dawn reinvigorated but not cured. Willow realizes that she needs to seriously top up her magic, and Xander comes with the idea to consult the Vampyr book, where they find info on the "Deeper Well", a tomb for the Old Ones, who were entombed there long ago together with all their magic. The team set out to its entrance in the Cotswolds, to get Willow some magic, leaving Spike to baby-sit on Dawn. Unbeknownst to the team Xander has informed Simone and Severin of the existence of a second entrance, in New Zealand. And it is there where Simone, Severin, and the general attack. Part Two: The team is met at the Cotswolds entry by d'Hoffryn and a group of guardians, who have no intention to let Buffy pass, not even to get the small bit of magic needed to cure Dawn. Fighting ensues, d'Hoffryn is surprised that Willow possesses some magic, and Willow is surprised that a Zen demon can do some fighting. Meanwhile at the other entry Simone c.s. is met by a single guard, a little girl with a balloon / a tentacled monster. Simone shoots the monster to pieces and Severin drains the girl of her magic, thus removing the only guard. Eldre Koh and Illyria had gotten word that the Deeper Well was under attack, and had come to its rescue, only to find that the attacker is Buffy. They immediately choose her side, and, with much misgivings on Buffy's side, begin to do serious damage. Meanwhile Dawn is fading away more and more, and Spike begins to record his memories of her on a tape recorder. Xander is getting impatient that Simone and Severin haven't succeeded yet, and that they haven't gone back in time yet, but when Buffy proposes an attack plan that will get Willow and Illyria in to get the magic for Dawn but will probably get her killed, he blurts out that he cannot let her do that because he has already saved Dawn. And so Xander's treason is revealed. Part Three: Simone and Severin make progress at the south side with Severin getting giddy with power and so do Buffy and Willow on the Cotswolds side, by passing d'Hoffryn. Spike finds that the recordings of his memories of Dawn have faded too, and Buffy and Willow can no longer remember the name of Buffy's sister. Xander is put in the care of the Zen demon, who advises him to let go of his anger and accept his place in the universe. Then Xander gets a telephone call from Spike telling him that Dawn is doing badly and that in reality Simone intends to use the magic for turning slayers into vampires, slaypires. Xander releases his anger by asserting the place of his fist in the universe and joins the fight on Buffy's side. Koh and Illyria join Buffy and Willow in their descent into the Deeper Well. Simone indeed abandons Severin, finds the right holding cell and releases the demon Maloker, creator of the first vampire. When Xander reaches Buffy, they find the bleeding body of Simone ... Part Four: ... who intentionally has let herself be bitten by Maloker and who now turns into a super-slaypire, claiming she was chosen as a slayer, but chose herself to be a super-slaypire. Fighting on several fronts ensue, with Buffy and Xander fighting Simone, Koh and the rest of Buffy's team fighting Maloker, Willow being knocked out by a wave of magic, Illyria diving down to the core where Severin is overloading on magic and threatens to explode and rip time-space apart, and Dawn having become invisible. When Willow comes around, she finds a new seed of magic glowing red next to her, but it tells her it will take millennia to ripen, and Dawn needs magic now. Willow devises a plan to hasten the ripening process by using the magic collected by Severin, and dives after Illyria, who immediately grasps the plan and agrees to stay down with the small seed and feed Severin's magic into it when he explodes. Buffy's battle with Simone goes badly, and although Xander scores a partial victory by remembering Dawn' name, Buffy ends up being gored by Simone with her own scythe. Part Five: With d'Hoffryn, Koh, and Xander fighting Maloker and Simone, Illyria warns them to get out immediately since when Severin explodes the blast will kill everybody in the shaft of the Deeper Well. Buffy is recovering rapidly from her wounds but when Maloker grabs her in his fist and threatens to crush her Koh cuts off Maloker's finger, releasing Buffy. Willow uses d'Hoffryn's staff as a high-speed tractor to get them out of the well, and in the last second Buffy manages to stake Simone. Then the Deeper Well blows up, Illyria keeps her word, the seed takes root, and magic is restored. Back in San Francisco Willow performs a seance to give Dawn back her magic, but nothing happens until they find Dawn just standing among them, very surprised why everybody is staring at her. They find the Vampyr book all pages blank, but in Santa Rosita the first evolved vampire rises... Jane Espenson, Karl Moline, Andy Owens, "Love vs. Life", Dark Horse, 2013, pp. 24. In Santa Rosita, gay pseudo-slayer Billy, his friend and pseudo-watcher Devon, his grandmother Sky and their friend Katie try to rid their town of a zompire infestation, using such original weapons as a small van with a battery of stake mounted on the front. When they discover that zompires are "mortally" afraid of fires, they erect bonfires all over the place. Christos Cage, Rebekah Isaacs, "Angel & Faith, Vol. 9.1, Live Through This", Comic, Dark Horse, June 2012, pp. ~130. Freed from the influence of Twilight, Angel deeply regrets the misery he has caused, and has decided to at least make amends by resurrecting Giles. Part 1: While wrapping up some loose ends left by Giles, Angel and Faith run into two human-demon half-breds, Pearl(f) and Nash(m), who had just murdered all slayers from Nadira's group. Part 2: Faith and Nadira bust a drugs deal, but the buyer brought a semiautomatic, and wounds Nadira. An unknown (Angel) decapitates the buyer, and Faith is left with the goods, a (broken) vial of fresh Mohra demon blood, a super-regenerative material. Angel and Faith start searching for this demon, with the unspoken intent of using the blood for Angel's plan; but so do Pearl and Nash. Part 3: Angel and Faith find the demon, held captive by a mobster, at an auction of his blood. They free the the demon, hoping he will help them fight their way out, but he kills himself. All hell breaks loose, and the Pearl and Nash enter. Part 4: Faced with an angry mob and two psychopaths, Faith uses a ruse to escape. She and Angel descend into the basement where they find several horribly misshapen victims of the over-active Mohra blood. These are now invincible, since any wound heals immediately. They clean out the mob and chase Pearl and Nash away. Angel finds a way to put them out of their misery. Giving up on the idea of using Mohra blood, they return home where Angel asks for "a spot of tea". In Perfect Harmony: Harmony, now a reformed vampire, appeals to Angel's detective capabilities, to stop the person who is blackmailing her with sex tapes from a former life. After some amusing adventures in which nothing much happens, Angel discovers that the perp is no less than Harmony's personal assistant, the loose-skinned demon Clem from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, who'd hoped to impress Harmony by "solving" the case. Harmony forgives him and gives him a raise out of somebody else's money. Christos Cage, Rebekah Isaacs, "Angel & Faith, Vol. 9.2, Daddy Issues", Comic, Dark Horse, June 2012, pp. ~130. Part 1: Very crazy people turn up in the streets of London, and an unshaven man asks around looking for Faith. One of the crazies gives Faith a name: the Mother Superior. Angel and Faith track her down and find her to be Drusilla, and she is perfectly sane and reasonable. Part 2: Drusilla keeps a Lorophage demon as a pet. These demons feed on trauma, which they extract from their victims, who then die. Drusilla tamed this one to let the victim live; for most people this takes away all mental problems, and Drusilla has fans to prove it, but some get a lot crazier. The unshaven man finds Faith and turns out to be her father. Drusilla offers Angel to relieve him of his traumas but he refuses and Drusilla orders the demon to desist since she does not want to cure him by force. Part 3: Faith's father did not show up out of fatherly love, but because he is in trouble with a mob boss, and wants Faith to kill him saying she has killed before. Faith is furious, but then the gangster arrives. Angel interferes, the gangster pulls a shotgun on him, and Faith chops off his arm. In utter despair of first having found her father and then having lost him, Faith runs to Drusilla for solace and a cure. Drusilla asks if she is certain, Faith says yes, and the demon takes away the troubles in her soul. Part 4: Angel barges in, too late, on a happy Faith. Angel demands that Drusilla undo the treatment, she says she cannot, and Angel starts forcing the demon to give back Faith's traumas. Drusilla decides that this has gone too far, and orders the demon to cure Angel, so "we can all be one happy family". At the words "happy family" Faith flips and attacks Drusilla, allowing Angel to force the demon the apply the cure to itself. The demon evaporates, and everybody gets their traumas back. Drusilla's entourage now suddenly consists of crazies, who attack Angel and Faith. They escape by setting the house on fire; Drusilla sneaks out, completely her old crazy self again. Women of a Certain Age: Returning home, Angel and Faith find Lavinia (Vin) and Sophronia (Sophie), two great-aunts of Giles from the 19th century. But they look straight from Ab Fab, due to deals with rejuvenation demons, deals payable upon their first grey hair. With magic gone from the world that grey hair has arrived, and the demons bash in the door (several times) to collect. A&F make minced meat of most of them, but one demon, whose price for the Talisman of Horkoth had been a kiss from Lavinia gets his payment amidst a cheering crowd. The aunts then tell how Giles at an early age had shown his ability to handle magic by helping to subdue a light demon using the Shard of Stronnos. The ladies give Angel the Shard. Then there is a knock on the (repaired) door and outside stands Willow. Christos Cage, Rebekah Isaacs, "Angel & Faith, Vol. 9.3, Family Reunion", Comic, Dark Horse, June 2012, pp. ~130. Part 1: Willow is on a mission of her own: to bring magic back to the world. Her plan is to restore her own magic first. To that end she needs to go to the only place with magic accessible in a non-magic way: Quor'toth, and the non-magic way is Connor, Angel's son. Angel objects vehemently, but Willow promises him the use of her scythe in reviving Giles, and they team up for the duration. Leaving Gunn in L.A. as an anchor the four enter Quor'toth. Part 2: While Willow is recharging her magic, they are attacked by assorted monsters, until they run into a pack of dog-like demons who worship Connor as their savior. Willow is done recharging and wants to move out, but many of the worshippers have been made prisoner by the evil and will be executed at dawn. Connor feels responsible and stays to save them, and the others join him. In the meantime Lavinia and Sophie find their London home burglared by Pearl, Nash, and Whistler, who seems their boss. Part 3: Heavy battle ensues on Quor'toth, during which the four try to work out their personal problems. Then Quor'toth himself shows up, and while fighting him and freeing the prisoners Willow overcharges and turns Black Willow. In London L&S find that Whistler has stolen all their magic possessions, which he intends to use for his own plan to improve the world. Part 4: Black Willow conquers Quor'toth (the monster) and establishes herself as the new god of Quor'toth, threatening Angel and Faith. Angel goes vampire, bites Black Willow, and drains enough blood to calm her down. Willow goes on to a less violent magical world (see "Willow", 2013), and Angel, Faith, and Connor go back to L.A. Meanwhile in London Nadira finds one of her slayers killed by Drusilla. The Hero of His Own Story: Part One, Whistler: In a diner in L.A. Whistler tells Angel that he, as a child of a pure-blood demon and an agent of the powers that be, has the calling of maintaining the balance. Buffy destroying the Seed of Magic has made that impossible any longer and Whistler's solution was to create a New World. His attempt through Twilight has failed and he is now going to try by himself. Whistler and Angel argue and they tell each other to go to hell. Part Two, Pearl and Nash: Oklahoma 1935, on the worst day of the Dust Bowl, an emaciated farmer woman summons a demon and requests him to make her pregnant, resulting in the twins Pearl and Nash. They get children but all of them are killed by demon hunters. In despair they team up with Twilight, but that too fails. At their mother's death bed they swear "salvation and revenge". Victor Gisschler, Paul Lee, "Spike -- In a Dark Place", Comic, Dark Horse, 2013, pp. 124. How Spike lost his space buggy. Part 1: Spike has ordered his space ship to the dark side of the moon so he can pine over Buffy and contemplate the lyrics of the Pink Floyd album in the proper place, but this worries his bug crew who dislike a depressed captain, and try to cheer Spike up by upgrading Buffy's solar deck so it can be used by a vampire. Meanwhile a group of Ninja sturgeons (yep) are looking for transport and, having spotted Spike's space ship, they attack. The bugs open a space door to go out and fight, but seeing the enemy they flee in panic. Spike, always a burning cigaret in hand does damage to the sturgeons' attack lizard (yep), but is knocked out by the biggest brute, who prepares to jettison Spike as dead weight. Part 2: Spike teases the head sturgeon that he and his band will never get back to their dimension because all magic is gone, when the big ugly blurts out that they are going to Sunnydale to find shards of the Seed and use them to get home. Spike convinces them they need him to find the shards, and they take him to Sunnydale. In the meantime the bugs manage to grill one of the sturgeons using Buffy's hair spray as a flame thrower. Spike and the remaining sturgeons find the chamber of the Seed devoid of shards, but are met by a very beautiful and very charming lady, who immediately reveals that she too was stranded and has been looking for pieces of magic, but that somebody had cleared out the place before her. The head sturgeon does not believe her and chooses his default option, Kill'm both. The charming lady turns into a flying monster and attacks the "Battle Chief of the Fighting Sturgeons" but he beats her to the ground. While he is gloating over his victim, Spike kills him with a sword in the back and decapitates him for good measure. The lady introduces herself as Morgan, a succubus, and Spike and she are getting comfy, when the roof collapses and Pearl and Nash drop in. Part 3: Spike reminisces how in 1953 in Rome he saved Pearl from a black widower demon, but Nash interrupts him saying he thinks Spike has the shards and will he please hand them over. Rather than fighting them Spike pushes over a piece of wall which makes the whole chamber collapse. Pearl and Nash are buried under the rubble but Spike, Morgan, and the bugs escape to the space ship. There Morgan charms Spike, but the bugs mistrust her influence on Spike, and take steps. Part 4: Morgan wants to use the Hellmouth on Easter Island to go home through, and to humor her Spike takes the ship there, knowing full well that she cannot achieve anything because there is no magic left, but the suspicious bug crew plot on. The attraction of Spike to Morgan is growing mutual, and Morgan realizes that now that she has a purpose, making Spike great, she does not need to return to her own dimension. But to her horror Spike takes a pass, saying that each perfect moment with her would just remind him of his imperfect but real life with Buffy. Morgan is deeply insulted but says that she'll manage and go back to her dimension, and that is the moment that Spike realizes that she has a piece of the Seed and can indeed open the Hellmouth. Spike fights Morgan to prevent her from opening the Hellmouth, and the bugs come to his aid by catching Morgan in an electric net. But they have again underestimated the succubus, who shreds the net and jumps through the glass of the space ship onto the island. Part 5: Morgan uses her shard, a spell, and a password, and the stone heads of Easter Island come to life. But when she commands them to open the Hellmouth for her, they attack her instead. As Spike points out, passwords let you pass, not command. The bugs bring in the space ships, guns blazing, and the stone heads are reduced to rubble, which ... reassembles into one single giant stone head. The space ship continues its attack but is flung aside by the giant and is heavily damaged. Morgan changes into her flying monster form and airlifts Spike out. All bugs but one, Sebastian, leave the ship using escape pods, and the lone kamikaze bug rams the crippled space ship into the giant stone head, pulverizing it. The stranded bugs decide to settle on the island, and Morgan apologizes and makes another attempt to team up with Spike, which he declines. She realizes she cannot compete with a memory, but makes another attempt, to which Spike reacts with "Sod off". Which she does, still expressing hope for better days. While alone on the beach reflecting on life in general Spike gets a telephone call from Angel in London, requesting his help (Angel & Faith, Vol. 9.4, Death and Consequences, end of part 3). Christos Cage, Rebekah Isaacs, "Angel & Faith, Vol. 9.4, Death and Consequences", Comic, Dark Horse, June 2012, pp. ~130. Part 1: Using sword and flame thrower A&F retrieve the Crown of Coils from a creepy-crawlies infested cave in Peru, the N-th object for their mission of Vol. 9. They try to dig up the N+1-th object, the body of Giles, but find the coffin empty.Their subsequent discussions are interrupted by Nadira barging in with the dead body of one of her slayer, Marianne, and demanding that the focus of the mission be switched to her. In the middle of the ensuing fight one of Nadira's slayers gets a call saying that Plan B is Go. Nadira & girls drive the body to a very English mansion in Guildford, where they are received by what seems to be Giles. Part 2: Although Nadira has her suspicions, Giles paints magic symbols on the body, among them the sign of Eyghon. A&F browse the guest book of Giles' funeral and find an impossible name: Ethan Rayne, who was already dead at that time. Marianne is resurrected in seconds but turns out to be a friendly but empty shell. Nadira attacks Giles, who calls in his goons and then his Eyghon-possessed friends. Nadira brushes "Giles" aside as a pawn demanding to see whoever is in charge, and Eyghon appears. Part 3: Having located Eyghon through a library book, A&F drop in on the fight and manage to extract Nadira and four of her slayers, while Eyghon keeps the others as hostages. On their way out Angel makes a telephone call for help. From the short moment Faith was possessed by Eyghon, she remembers his plan: he had made a deal with Whistler, each getting half of humanity, Whistler for his New World and Eyghon to possess. Alasdair Coames explains that Eyghon can only be killed by decapitation and that he cannot possess vampires with a soul. Then the called help arrives, Spike, the other vampire with a soul. Part 4: Nadira gives Spike a Vorpal blade, suitable for decapitating Eyghon. Now they need to kill Eyghon and capture Giles and the possessed slayers without harming them. Then Eyghon attacks, preceded by his army. The possessed slayers and Giles are netted and handcuffed, and Angel and Spike attack Eyghon, but they have miscalculated and Eyghon takes possession of Spike. Faith knocks him out of action by kicking him in his balls; seems to work even for possessed vampires. She throws the Vorpal blade to Angel who decapitates Eyghon with it. Due to the Tooth of Ammut through Angel's nipple, Giles' soul enters Angel on the death of Eyghon, throwing Angel into a catatonic fit. (Is this a soap or what?) Nadira's slayers, sick of seeing more and more of their fellow slayers killed under Nadira's command, walk out. Spike and Faith: With Angel alternating between catatonic and crazy it's now up Spike and Faith. Alasdair Coames thinks it's impossible to transfer Giles' soul directly from Angel in this state, so they need an "essuary" for temporary storage. The only one known is in the possession of the "Enders", and Spike and Faith retrieve it with extreme prejudice. With Spike guarding Angel in the basement, Alasdair, Lavinia, Sophie, and Faith perform the transfer to the essuary. Angel recovers and texts the perpetually grouchy Spike Harmony's telephone number, for "a good night without thinking", which the two enjoy ostentatiously. Christos Cage, Rebekah Isaacs, "Angel & Faith, Vol. 9.5, What You Want, Not What You Need", Comic, Dark Horse, June 2012, pp. ~130. Part 1: With Giles' body on the table and his soul in the essuary, the resurrection crew bickers about where to get the magic to perform the ritual, and Spike gets a telephone call that Dawn is very ill and he rushes off. Alasdair is forced to volunteer his magic artifacts and Lavinia and Sophie are called in for their memories of Giles. Just when they start the ritual Whistler, Pearl, and Nash drop in and start stealing all the artifacts. A&F fight them, leaving the others to finish the ritual. Having stolen all, Whistler c.s. leave, and the others watch the result of their labour. Part 2: With Lavinia reciting the final spell and with nobody present who remembers the grown-up Giles, they find they have resurrected him as a 12-year old. They soon find out his mind is mature-Giles, but especially Faith finds out his body is a teenage boy, to great embarrassment of both. Whistler is starting his own plan to save the world by forcing magic down everybody's throat, but our heroes have few magical weapons, and Lavinia and Sophie stock up on Molotov cocktails. Using a lodestone Giles locates Whistler's party... Part 3: ... which is already in full swing, with Whistler having concentrated all of Alasdair's artifacts' magic into a glowing ball. While Faith and Nadira fight Pearl and Nash, Angel argues and fight with Whistler, who changes into his demon form. Giles, Alasdair, Lavinia and Sophie arrive by car, and after a lot of fighting and pyrotechnics the magic ball almost breaks, snowing magic on the inhabitants of Hackney, who promptly change into monsters. Part 4&5: Lavinia and Sophie go out into the streets to help the wounded like they did during the blitz while the fight for the magic ball continues. It threatens to explode, Whistler has a moment of lucidity in which he sees the horror he has caused, and in the explosion he absorbs all the magic energy, which wounds him lethally. Nadira is in hospital, badly wounded; Lavinia and Sophie are interviewed on TV; Giles and Faith go to the US to join Buffy; and Angel goes off to help the helpless. Victor Gischler, Will Conrad, "Angel & Faith, Vol. 10.1: Where the River Meets the Sea", Comic, Dark Horse, Dec. 2014, pp. 134. While Angel is in London fighting the fall-out of Whistler's bomb of magic, Faith has joined Kennedy's Deepscan security firm in the US. Angel and inspector Brandt are investigating a pixie gang leader Corky, who seems to be bottling magic collected from shreds of magic brought in by whoever he can threaten. His investigation leads him to Nadira, who has survived her overdose of magic, which is now tattooed in the left half of her body, and who is now a mystic running a shelter for magic-refugees. Nadira explains to Angel that this part of the world is now "where the river meets the sea", where there are strange currents, and where strange animals mix. Together they bottle Corky, with neither of them knowing how they did it. The now desintegrating gang leads Angel to the client for the bottled magic: Amy. When Faith finds out that the rock star she is protecting for Deepscan is actually a demon having an under-age girl friend, and that Deepscan knew about the first half and suspected the other half, she walks out, but Kennedy runs after her and shows her a file that she thought might get Faith interested again: private Riley is missing in the jungle of South-America. Victor Gischler, Will Conrad, "Angel & Faith, Vol. 10.2: Lost and Found", Comic, Dark Horse, May 2015, pp. 134. Hired out by Deepscan to Reese Zane, daughter of pharmaceuticals magnate Walt Zane who is missing in the jungle of Suriname near the Coeroenie river, Faith joins a search party only to become leader of this party through the death of the previous leader at the hands of members of a vampire tribe. Although wisdom would dictate to pull back, Faith and Reese push on, the first wanting to make resolve issues with Riley and the second to find her father. Find him they do, as the leader of the vampire tribe and a vampire himself. Since vampires don't get ill, he thinks vampirism is the best cure of all illnesses, and when he tries to bestow this cure on his daughter, she stakes him. They free Riley and Faith tries to apologize, Riley accepts but says there was no need, and he is past it. Angel finds out that Amy needs the bottled magic to bring Warren back (is this a soap or what?) but in secret she also wants to set a trap for Willow. Angel and Amy fight, but when Angel loses, he steals Warren's remains. Eldre Koh enters the scene searching for Illyria, who has information about who framed him for the murder of his family and fellow villagers. Angel enlists Alasdair's help to fight Amy, and he offers a Najakot demon, who destroys magic. Amy lures a willing Angel to her den to force him to cooperate with her on her plan, but he refuses and brings on the Najakot instead. When Amy beats the Najakot and inspector Brandt with policemen with guns, Angel flees, and Amy plots to get to Willow. When Angel returns he announces to bring the "big guns", Amy expects to see Willow enter, but instead Nadira enters. Amy, in rage, throws tons and tons of magic at her, but she remains unperturbed, and when Amy is exhausted she flees as a rat. Angel leaves the remains of Warren in the care of Alasdair, and when he walks home through the London night mist, he spots a figure who might be Faith, but when she turns around he sees ... a frightened Fred. Victor Gischler, Will Conrad, "Angel & Faith, Vol. 10.3: United", Comic, Dark Horse, Oct. 2015, pp. 134. Still London, Magic Town. A mixed couple (i.e. human/non-human) is attacked by hoodlums and saved casually by Eldre Koh. When they find he is wandering aimlessly, they point him on to Nadira. Faith, jet-lagged, is crashing with Lavinia and Sophronia, and her first day with Reese Zane's new branch in London is a success. While Fred remembers more and more about her life as Illyria, Reese sends Faith to talk to inspector Brandt, who sends her on to talk to Nadira, where she meets Angel. As the title says, United. Then the only one missing from the plot enters: Eldre Koh, who immediately recognizes Illyria in Fred. Eldre tells the story of his life as a young man, how he, having left his village for a warrior initialisation rite and then returning home, found everybody dead and the village in ashes. The overseer investigating the matter has a culprit ready: Eldre, who is accused of having done this deed in warrior frenzy. Thus Eldre was condemned and imprisoned for eternity in a magical stasis, until ... Buffy ended all magic. And now he walks the earth seeking vengeance on whoever killed his family and framed him. Fred, through sharing her body with Illyria, however, knows the culprit: Illyria, and while she tells this to Angel, Illyria tries to surface but Fred fights her back. Faith convinces Fred to let the lab technicians of Zane Comp. do some measurements on her, but the procedure awakens Illyria, who takes over Fred and starts tearing the place apart. With Angel distracting her, Faith using her slayer power, Eldre cutting away at her with his magical knife hands, Reese Zane driving her car into her, and Fred fighting her in their head, they manage to overpower Illyria. But it gave Nadira and her friend, Magic Town, a real fright. Kel McDonald, Will Conrad, "Fight or Flight", Comic, Dark Horse, Oct. 2015, pp. 24. To give Fred some rest and to get a grip on his bad dreams, Angel takes Fred on a trip to his home town, Galway, Ireland, where they take up lodgings in an old dockside inn. Fred takes the "1753 Massacre Tour" the place offers, guided by the daughter of the innkeeper, while Angel stays in the hotel to research bad dreams on the Internet. Angel finds that the hotel personnel lives in mortal fear, while Fred experiences floods of magic when she is scared for fun by some antics staged by the hostess of the tour. Angel suspects somebody is using the blood of Gachnar (Buffy TV 4.4) to store fear, and Fred makes the connection with the jokers jumping out of shadows to scare the tour guests to produce that fear. While deliberating what to do they are crept upon by the bell boys, Angel is hit over the head and Fred is abducted. Angel wants to rescue her (of course) but Fred shouts: "Trust me". The boys take Fred downstairs to the kitchen where granny is bleeding Gachnar. Angel gets hold of Gachnar, and squeezes him, releasing all the fear he holds. The witches (landlady, daughter, and granny) pick up the fear and try to control Angel and Fred with it, but then Illyria emerges, who makes short thrift of them. While the paramedics receive the bell boys, Angel and Fred discuss how she again regained control. Then Spike phones, asking Angel if he has bad dreams too.. Victor Gischler, Cliff Richards, Will Conrad, "Angel & Faith, Vol. 10.4: A Little More Than Kin", Comic, Dark Horse, March 2016, pp. 134. Magic Town, where every waiter and every landlady reminds you you're in Magic Town. Those Who Can't Teach Teach Gym: Faith has a week leave from Zane Comp. to think about their offer of a permanent job, when she is asked by Brandt to do some investigation at St. Cuthbert's School, where students turn up dead. Faith, thinking about Angel's dreams of killing high-school students, agrees, and together with Fred they go at it, first in a students cafe where they immediately run into an altercation with a obnoxious student who soon shows his fangs, new style. While Fred breaks a toilet pot over his head Faith dusts him. Meanwhile at the school a shy girl, Mary, is being harassed by three vixens, a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette, but they sure are not Charley's Angels. After consulting with Brandt we find Faith and Fred at the school, under cover, Faith as gym teacher and Fred as cook / cleaning lady. They land right into it, when after her first lesson Faith discovers another student murdered, with Mary sobbing by her side. On top of that Angel skypes from San Francisco telling that they have just knocked out Archaeus's boots on the ground, and that he may be heading their way. Mary returns to school to accuse the vixens of having killed Meredith, but they laugh at her and instead invite her to their "little club". She refuses and runs off. Fred, as the cleaning lady, sees that the vixens are invisible in her mirror and reports that to Faith. So when the three ladies accost Mary again, to invite her more forcibly, Faith shows up and dust two of them; the third escapes as a bat. Now the enemy tries a different path to get at Mary: a good-looking young man drops a note in Mary's path, saying that knows everything about Meredith's death, and they meet behind the lockers. Of course the nice guy turns vampire, and behind him stands Drusilla with her gang. Drusilla makes it clear that Mary is going to be the last and most important addition to her gang, but Faith barges in and attacks D. and the gang, while Fred tries to get Mary to safety. Both endeavors don't go well, the vamps from the gang are very strong, and one of them comes after Mary and Fred. Much fighting ensues, but in the end Fred and Mary stake the lone vamp with a flag pole, and Koh arrives to rescue Faith and help slay all the ubervamps. Except that in the fray Drusilla escapes. Mary returns home where her father, retired curator of a museum is studying a remarkable artifact, the huge and fiercely looking statue of a warrior. A Little More Than Kin: Fred sees a couple of ruffians in the street molest an elderly lady, challenges them, but of course they turn vampire and corner her. She turns into Illyria, who kills the vamps with raw energy. Angel has returned from San Francisco and reports about Archaeus and his supposed servant Drusilla. They decide they need information and two groups depart to reconnoiter. Koh and Fred go to talk to Rory, but find his bar smashed up. Angel and Faith go to find Nadira, but she is kidnapped right from under their noses by Drusilla's more brute minions. Angel and Faith succeed in doing serious damage to the minions but the biggest brute is off with Nadira, who seems to be quite OK with being abducted. Angel and Faith + Koh and Fred converge on Drusilla, but while our troops are decimating her troops Drusilla absconds as usual, with Nadira. Our troops enlist Brandt's help in locating Drusilla and her prisoner by finding and interviewing sellers of pigs' blood. But Drusilla and Nadira are at that very moment outside Magic Town and in the august company of ... Archaeus, who offers Nadira the job of ambassador of him to the Magic of Magic Town. She answers, however, that she has come, not to be his ambassador, but to save him..., because if he comes barging in into Magic Town the Magic will lash out and destroy not only him but many innocents. When Archaeus ridicules her, she turns into a slayer and attacks him, but after dusting some minions she is knocked down. Victor Gischler, Will Conrad, "Angel & Faith, Vol. 10.5: A Tale of Two Families", Comic, Dark Horse, Aug. 2016, pp. 134. Part 1: Incredibly, Drusilla tries to wangle her way into Prof. Weatherford (Mary's father)'s house using the old my-car-broke-down-and-could-I-use-your-phone trick, but the "ol' codger" does not fall for it and slams the door in her face. Angel and Faith give Tricia and Parker a street lesson in vamp dusting, with the secondary purpose of showing the spies of Archaeus that Angel is going to stay in Magic Town. Archaeus scolds Drusilla for failing to bring the statue to him, and impresses on her the need to bring her "brothers" Angel and Spike back into the fold, for one happy family. To do better, Drusilla raids the museum and forces the curator to phone the professor that Lloyd's insist the statue be returned to the museum and that she will send a van to pick it up. Meanwhile Angel gets a phone call from inspector Brandt that he has a lead on Nadira, but his face is all knobby... and so Angel walks into the trap, where Archaeus and Drusilla are waiting for him. They try to invite him in, they try to force him in, but in the end Archaeus imposes his will on him with a spell from which Angel emerges as Angelus, all vampire-face. Part 2: Executing part two of the plan, Faith, Fred, Koh, Lavinia and Sophronia walk into Archaeus' and Drusilla's lair, to be welcomed by a group of uglies. Faith decapitates the head ugly, greatly annoying Drusilla, who calls in all her minions to fight the intruders. In the meantime Angel/Angelus learns that Archaeus wants Nadira not for herself but for her bond with the magic of Magic Town, which he wants as an ally. "Angelus" approaches Nadira in her cage to convince her to join the Archaeus "family" but surreptitiously frees her, wings Archaeus, and sends Faith a text message "I got her". Angel and Nadira flee one way, and Faith and her crew flee the other way; Faith calls it 'ring and run with vampires' but Koh does not get it... And in the middle of Magic Town the statue is delivered, as a gift from Archaeus. Part 3: Nadira reports that the magic of Magic Town is getting more and more independent and distant from her, and Angel roots out Inspector Brandy gone-vampire and dust him, including his minions, with Faith's help. In Magic Town the statue comes to life and begins to investigate its surroundings, starting with an old lady's pet dog. The old lady kicks the statue but is rudely swept away. More and more civilians, both of the human and non-human variety, flock together to help the old lady and retrieve the poor doggie, until Nadira arrives and explains to the Magic which that has come to inhabit the statue, that this is a mockery of what it want, and that it is a trap. The statue picks up Nadira, which angers Fred; she attacks the statue and, as is to be expected, turns into Illyria. Part 4: Illyria and the statue have a bit of a tiff, with Illyria throwing loose objects like trucks, vans, and so at the statue and the statue blasting Illyria with magic, but Koh manages to calm her down by explaining that things have changed and even his lust for vengeance is gone. Archaeus asks the statue to join his family of his own free will, but as it remains impassive, Angel and crew attack Archaeus, saying that they will take him down no matter what because they are family and he has only minions, but Archaeus mocks them saying that he has many more of them. Part 5: It turns out Archaeus is wrong; the crowd that assembled to defend the lady with the dog is still there and joins Angel's side. Pages of street fighting ensue, the minions flee, Archaeus orders Drusilla to order the minions to come back, but finds that Drusilla has fled too. Alone he faces Angel and crew and claims he is a demon and will turn the world to pain, starting with Nadira, but she, seeing the statue behind Archaeus, says: "Trust me, Archaeus, you're making a mistake". A magical storm rises to a tornado on the plaza, and when it dies down ... Archaeus is encased in the statue. To celebrate the crew have a night-time barbecue party on the roof of Giles's house, with Koh in charge of the barbecue. Joss Whedon, "Fray", Dark Horse, 2003, pp. ~120. ZZ Christos Gage, Rebekah Isaacs, "Buffy: Season Ten Volume 1: New Rules", Dark Horse, Nov. 2014, pp. 136. Part 1: Buffy is happy to be back in Santa Rosita, fighting the local zompires, when she gets help from another breed of vampires, who turn out to be more resistant than usual. Buffy talks to their leader, Vicky the Vampire, only to be told that slayers are history and that they are a new breed of vampires, able to fly, turn into smoke, and move about in daylight. In the meantime Willow, Dawn, Spike, and Andrew are moving civilians to a safe part of town, in a van, hotly pursued by more zompires. As they arrive at the operations' headquarter, a liquor store, Xander switches on an array of 2 x 2 sun tan beds, which fry the zompires. When daylight comes the new vampires attack, but they get help from a Harry Potter like teenager, whom, after some quips from his side, they recognize as Giles. Part 2: Giles brought Faith and a squadron of Kennedy's heavily armed slayers and soon the new vamps beat it. When Giles meets Billy, the male vampire slayer, he asks to consult the Vampyr book, but Buffy explains to him that after the collapse of magic it was completely empty. But it's no longer so, and when they read it, they find some of the events that had just happened. They decide to consult Dracula on vampires that can walk in daylight and send Xander and Dawn by plane to Transylvania, where Xander immediately loses a battle of will with Dracula. Part 3: The fact that the new vampires can shift shape in broad daylight piques Dracula's interest, and he flies back to America, where he reveals his secret to Buffy and company: he can do the things he can do because he just wills them. No magic involved. Then Dracula points out that when new rules are established they turn up written in the Vampyr book, might not words written in the book turn out to be the new rules? Then Dracula grabs the book and escapes with it with help from a mesmerized Xander. Part 4: The first thing that Dracula, showing himself as the decrepit old man he is, has Xander write in the book is that his body is restored to the full bloom of youth, which instantly happens. Buffy, Spike, and Dawn hit the streets to find out where Dracula went, hitting demons left and right, and finding no vampires, nor Dracula. The reason is simple, all vampires have flocked to their master, Dracula, as Xander has written in the book. But soon the vamps get pushy and Dracula has to dust them. Then Xander writes into the book: "Dracula became the most powerful vampire of all", and Dracula begins to change into a kind of vampire Hulk. Buffy and company find him by his roaring, and figure out the cause of his transformation: Dracula is literally becoming the most powerful vampire of all -- Maloker. Part 5: As Dracula changes into Maloker, his grip on Xander begins to weaken, and his guardian ghost Anya manages to get through to him, and point out to him that if he does nothing not only will his master die, but with him most of the West Coast. In the mean time Dracula/Maloker has grown to skyscraper size, which gives Buffy an idea: to stake him with the Redwood Investment Group Building, which looks like a stake. Then many things happen: Willow has a priest bless the building to make it a sacred object; Giles makes Dawn a giant again; Dawn lures Maloker over to the Redwood building; Buffy and Spike climb up Maloker's neck and put swords in his eyes; and then giant Dawn throws him down on the pointed building, destroying Maloker and restoring a naked Dracula. But then, to everybody's horror the cycle starts again -- the text is still in the book, and attempts to delete it have failed. Xander grabs the book and writes in it: "Through his awesome will-power Dracula gave up the powers he had acquired", and peace returns. After some deliberation Buffy decides that she trusts only one entity to write in the book to create new rules: the Scoobies. Christos Gage, Nicholas Brendon, Rebekah Isaacs, "Buffy: Season Ten Volume 2: I Wish", Dark Horse, April 2015, pp. 136. The book plays "I Wish" with the team members, tempting each with their secret wishes. Part 1: Buffy returns to her apartment in search of peace and quiet, only to find that Tumble has introduced new roommates to help pay for the rent, since the landlord has raised the rent upon Anaheed moving out. Buffy feels too old for this crap, gives notice, and contacts Xander and Dawn, only to find that they have given notice too, since they are splitting up. With Andrew offering futons, the housing problem gets dire, but officer Dowling knows a haunted building that might be theirs for the ghost busting. The building was thought to be haunted because 25 children disappeared in it over the last 30 years and Giles considers it a simple job, having done dozens of such simple exorcisms, so he takes Buffy, Dawn and Spike, allowing Willow and Xander to go job hunting. The moment Giles starts his incantation, a tentacled monster appears, which embraced them all, and ... Buffy finds herself in front of her parental house in Sunnydale, being called in for dinner by her father and mother. Her parents are surprised that Buffy is surprised, because they always have been a very happy family, haven't they. And Buffy is ecstatic, although she feels that there is hsomething she should be doing. Giles finds himself playing with a model Spitfire, and Spike is reading poems to his old mother. Outside Willow and Xander notice that they cannot get phone contact with the rest of the team, and investigate ... Xander finds himself invited to dinner by his parents (though there is no place set for him at the table). He looks twice, does not buy it, and storms out of the house, right into the street in front of Buffy's house. Buffy's parents are annoyed by the disturbance, offer Buffy her scythe, and tell her to end it. Willow is confused; her computer is ancient, Xander is missing his eye patch, they are back in the ideal years of their youth, in short they are being had by a Hamelin demon. Spike bites his mother again but she crumbles into goo, and Buffy hacks at her parents with the scythe. With them refusing his reality the Hamelin demon disappears, but then the 25 children resurface + Giles, shouting the Scoobies are ruining everything and that they want their demon back. Buffy gives a pep talk encouraging each to take a chance on life, and all do, except the young Giles. The illusion shatters, leaving Giles embarrassed and the children free. Part 2: As the group settles into their newly acquired home, the Vampyr book of magic rules makes itself felt, as each has his or her own wishes: Xander wants Dawn back, Giles wants to be grown-up again, Spike wants Buffy to love him, and Willow and Andrew have their own desires. And the book could fulfil them all. After fighting over where to put things in their common room, Xander and Spike go out to have beer, where they meet two perfect girls, a literature major for Spike and a female construction worker for Xander. As the four head to the ladies' abode for promised steamy sex, ghost Anya follows them, warning that these girls are sirens, but their song is more convincing than Anya's warning. Once in their abode the girls change into their normal mermaid form and introduce the boys to their sex partner, a slumped-down old mermaid, the Mistress. The Mistress makes Xander and Spike have a cushion fight in the buff, but ghost Anya manages to overshout the sirens and catch Xander's attention. He is not strong enough to fight Spike, but grabs two skewers from the banquet and pierces Spike's ear drums, temporarily freeing Spike from siren influence. Spike turns vampire, bites the Mistress and all mermaids flee. Spike and Xander agree never to tell anybody. Coming home, Xander sees Dawn having fun with a colleague student, and ponders with the Book in his hands. And in a nearby cafe a lady asks after Spike, saying that Dylan is looking for him. Part 3, Return to Sunnydale 1: On Halloween the Vampyr book is gone, which is impossible given the precautions and wards. By elimination the team concludes that Andrew (part of the team, so not subject to the wards) has taken the book and that he is going to resurrect someone. Magical GPS on the book places him at Sunnydale (which seems to be at the location of Fort Hunter Liggett according to the map on page 57; excellent cover!), and Buffy, Spike, and Willow set course that way. On this Halloween, the Sunnydale crater rim is crowded with hundreds of dressed-up party goers, among whom somebody looking like a goo puppet, introducing himself as the Soul Glutton and telling a sob story about how eons ago his family was murdered by a slayer. His story is judged for its originality and literary merit by a party goer, but he kills the critic with his trident and starts feasting on the other party goers. Meanwhile Andrew has found their secret hide-out, with the resurrection kits of Jonathan Levinson and Warren Mears still intact. Andrew tests Jonathan's kit and it works enough to get a hologram of J., but he breaks Warren's samples. The team finds the debris and fears the worst but is attacked by the Soul Glutton. It likes Willow's white magic, but Willow turns black temporarily and chases the Soul Glutton away. And Andrew finds the grave he is looking for: Tara's. But Willow is on his heels. Part 4, Return to Sunnydale 2: The Soul Glutton returns, better fed now, and attacks, but Buffy lures him onto a weak floor. The floor collapses, taking the Soul Glutton out of the game for the moment. Andrew starts his resurrection procedure of Tara, but Willow beseeches him to stop and leave Tara in peace. After deep and emotional discussion Andrew sees the light and stops the procedure, just in time to free Willow and himself to rescue Buffy and Spike from the Soul Glutton, who has predictably returned. Having learned a lot, Andrew in his house in Oakland begins his discussion with Jonathan about J.'s resurrection. Day Off (or Harmony in my Head): Being in the possession of the Vampyr book, Buffy and Willow are besieged by supplicants of representatives of all kinds of magical creatures, as there are a leprechaun, a Chinese lucky cat, and a slime man. Having dealt with these, Buffy and Willow find themselves face to face with Vicky the Vampire, who wants her influence on the Book. A quarrel might have broken out, but Harmony and Clem appear and Harmony turns out to be an excellent mediator: they all agree that the new vampires retain their special powers (fly, turn into mist, walk by daylight, etc.) since that had already happened and thus had been recorded in the Book, but that a note would be added saying that when walking in daylight they lose their other special powers. Exhausted from these efforts Buffy, Willow, and Dawn treat themselves to a day off in the Pamper U Day Spa, paid for by Theo Daniels. With the three ladies gone, Harmony returns to their house and talks Spike into letting her and Clem into it. She charms him and then hits him over the head, grabs the Book and orders Clem to write her wishes into it: everybody always loves her, everybody does exactly as she says, unicorns are totally real, and for good measure Buffy, Spike, and Angel live happily as a polyamorous family. When Harmony asks Clem to read back what she has dictated he hesitates, Spike comes to, grabs the book and shows that Clem has not written anything. Although Clem explains that he did so to out of love and to protect her, she slaps him and leaves, only to find a unicorn outside: the only thing Clem did write. The last page sees the Mistress, the Soul Glutton and the Sculptor making evil plans... Christos Gage, Nicholas Brendon, Rebekah Isaacs, Megan Levens, "Buffy: Season Ten Volume 3: Love Dares You", Dark Horse, Sept. 2015, pp. 136. Love makes fools of us all. Part One: Buffy tries speed-dating, Xander and Dawn try to have a cozy dinner, Willow tries to entertain Aluwyn at a wiccan party, and Giles tries to have a night of sex with Olivia, all in vain. Andrew is not looking for a partner but rather for the Asclepian vial, which purportedly can make new bodies. He finds it at a coven party led by a bald man called Clive. He takes a swig but nothing happens, until ... the Sculptor and his minions crash the party, promising he will only kill half the party-goers if they give him the Asclepian vial. Suddenly Andrew grows a few inches in all directions, bursts out of his clothes Hulk-like, and beats the Sculptor into retreat. Meanwhile Spike helps officer Dowling investigate the theft of large chunks of meat from slaughterhouses, and in the process saves a couple of kittens from being consumed by vampires (by buying them...). But his kittens are not appreciated by Xander (although they can see the ghost of Anya) and Buffy is looking for a distraction, so together they find the minions of the Sculptor and start beating them up, quarrelling about the quality of each other's puns, when suddenly... Part Two: ... they kiss. Love seems in the air but soon the conversation derails and they part company. Subsequent conversation with Xander does not improve Spike's mood, when Andrew comes long-distance-jumping in, one of his super-hero abilities. Bringing Clive and Julie, he reports on the Sculptor's attack. Together with the Buffy team they attack the Sculptor, who brings an 8 meter tall golem to fight for him. Andrew shreds it and the others burn or otherwise destroy the remains. To celebrate their victory Andrew kisses Clive: he has discovered he is gay! Disillusioned by all their amorous experiences Buffy explains to Spike how good and mature it is that they are respecting friends, to which Spike answers: "There's only one problem with that, I'm in love with you", and they end up in bed. But at night he has a dream in which he kills a couple in the street. Part Three: The next morning Spike is still "a bit out of sorts" from the dream, especially when Buffy inquires to find out if he has gotten evil from the sex. But the real shock comes when officer Dowling shows Spike a couple found bitten and dead in the street and Spike recognizes them as his dream victims. Spike confesses his doubts about himself to Xander who convinces Spike to have himself checked for demon possession by Willow and Giles. The pair put Spike through one gruelling test after another, and all come up negative, until they hit upon a dream of his which shows a vampire nest. They send Buffy and Xander to investigate and they find vampires all right, but as soon as Buffy stakes one of them the place goes up in flames: it's a trap. Although Buffy is happy that Spike is not the murderer, she is angry that she has been lured into a trap. Willow and Aluwyn meet, Aluwyn blames Willow for changing, Willow blames Aluwyn for not changing and they break up. Buffy and Willow end up sharing a carton of ice cream while contemplating the complications of relationships. Relationship Status: Complicated: The team is worried about the murders that happen in Spike's dream and in the actual world, and decide to send one of them in astral form into Spike's dreams to better observe. Buffy is the best qualified. Spike has qualms to let her into his mind, for fear she may find many awkward things, but in the end he relents. She discovers that he loves kittens, that he slept with Harmony, and that he really loves her. She witnesses the murder and from there a grey path leads into Spike's past, right to the point where Spike, Angel, Drusilla and Darla were sired, ultimately through Archaeus. Willow and Giles pull Buffy and Spike out of it, Buffy with the knowledge of Archaeus whereabouts, right there in San Francisco, at the waterfront. The place is easily found, identified by the absence of birds and sea lions, and Archaeus attacks immediately. He finds himself losing the battle until he commands Spike to kill Buffy, using his authority as Spike's ultimate sire. Spike fights the command, but Archaeus manages to wound Buffy with one of his pinchers, and offers Spike her blood, making Spike go vampire and attack Buffy. Relationship Status: Complicated, Conclusion: While the rest of the team is busy fighting Archaeus' minions, Buffy has to fight Spike, goaded on by Archaeus, alone. She does not know how to subdue him without killing him, and the rest of the team urge her to do so. Having seen his love for her in his mind, she takes a big gamble: she drops the scythe and appeals to his love. Archaeus is ecstatic, Spike goes for Buffy's throat, but then picks up the scythe and starts hacking at Archaeus, shouting: "I'm no one's puppet!". With everybody wounded or exhausted and Archaeus furious they are in a bad situation, but Xander has spotted a line of load-bearing columns, and asks Willow and Giles to take these out. As the team runs for the exit, Archaeus comes after them but is buried under the collapsing storm drain. Knowing that this will only hold him back temporarily, the team regroup and, after much deliberation about the awkwardness, phone Angel for help. Christos Gage, Nicholas Brendon, Rebekah Isaacs, Megan Levens, "Buffy: Season Ten Volume 4: Old Demons", Dark Horse, Feb. 2016, pp. 136. Chapter 1: Spike is seriously miffed because Buffy called Angel for help, but their bickering is interrupted by a morituri demon crashing up through the floor. It fires spikes at everybody and wounds and poisons Willow. Giles takes Willow into Xander's room which is demon-protected, to heal her. The rest of the crew lure the demon to crash into the protection barrier of the room, which fries %it. Willow, recovered, finds out that it came through a portal. They conclude %that Archaeus controls a portal, and set out to confront him. Chapter 2: The scents of Archaeus and the portal lead into two different directions in the tunnels under Sunnydale, and in an atmosphere of animosity between Angel and Spike, Buffy decides to split up into two parties. Team One is Angel, Xander, Willow, and Giles, following the portal trail; and Team Two is Buffy, Spike, Dawn, and Andrew, hunting for Archaeus; Andrew's banana-phones will allow them to keep in contact. En route Angel discusses his inner life with Willow and decides to walk away to guard the rear; Spike tries to discuss his inner life with Buffy but is sent away to guard the rear. To their surprise they the two parties meet at an old shipyard, where they find Archaeus and the portal generator, the Restless Door. While Willow and %them that their separate trip here has let their animosity grow, and right on %cue Angel stabs Spike with his sword. Chapter 3: With Buffy and Willow fighting Archaeus, Spike fighting Angel, Giles and Andrew trying to destroy the Restless Door, and Xander and Dawn warding off incoming vampires, the chaos is complete. But when Spike makes it clear to Angel that he is just still obeying his father, who hated him, he snaps out of the spell, and jumps in to help Buffy. With Buffy, Spike, and Angel now fighting Archaeus and Willow helping to ward off vampires, the odds are a lot better, and when Giles and Andrew have removed almost all protection from the artifact, Angel and Spike pick up Buffy and launch her headlong at the artifact, scythe at the ready. The point of the scythe cracks the Restless Door, which explodes, Archaeus leaves for parts unknown, and peace is restored. However, back at the apartment d'Hoffryn informs them that the fragments of the device were stolen by walking hands by the unholy alliance of the Mistress, the Soul Glutton, and the Sculptor, and that these three are trying to reassemble it. Freaky Giles Day: Willow has found a spell to make Giles of age for one 24 hours, and he immediately visits Olivia for a night "in which there is no such thing as being too eager". The next morning Olivia has to go to work, and Giles, back at the Scooby apartment hears that Hank, Buffy's father has turned up and wants to talk with his daughter. He starts giving fatherly advice, but is rebuffed by Buffy. Giles decides to hit the town with Xander, but when they leave a pub they are attacked by a flaming monster from another dimension. They manage to kill the beast using a spade and a guitar, but the whole affair proves that the Restless Door is operative again. Xander and Willow go to their jobs, leaving Giles alone. Hank tells his daughters that he is going to remarry, and that his fiancee does not want Buffy at the wedding for security reasons. Dawn is livid, but Buffy says: "She's not wrong." After the conversation Dawn runs off with her friends, leaving Buffy alone. Buffy returns to the apartment where she finds Giles having a beer, and they spend the evening talking and watching the sunset. Triggers: Women's counselor Jean Anthony calls upon Buffy and Spike to help with a "person" who abuses women but is irresistible; she herself has been a victim. Also, there exists a 40-years old photo of him in which he looks just as today. "Incubus" Buffy and Spike exclaim simultaneously. In the meantime officer Dowling needs help with a supernatural phenomenon, and Buffy thinks this is a good job for Giles and Xander. Together, followed by the ghost of Anya, they check on the psychic Ms. Lana Pasternak, only to find he possessed by a spirit who announces "Lana isn't here right now." The spirit tries to grab Anya, but Xander vanquishes it with a bottle of holy water, but not before the spirit has revealed that the ghost of Anya is not the ghost of Anya. Buffy sets herself up as bait for the incubus, the incubus falls for it, and while Spike distracts it, Buffy decapitates it. Anya reports back to d'Hoffryn, miserable that she isn't Anya, but he promises her that at the end of the day she will really be Anya. Christos Gage, Rebekah Isaacs, Megan Levens, "Buffy: Season Ten Volume 5: In Pieces on the Ground", Dark Horse, July 2016, pp. 136. In spite of the title this is not a gloomy volume; it is about how people can stay friends when they change. Part 1: The Restless Door has been reassembled by the Evil Triad, they sell its services to any bunch of demons, who then open portals to Earth to party there at the expense of mankind, and Buffy feels guilty about it. The US Army is fighting the incoming demons, and Satsu turns to Buffy to ask her to get vampires of both kinds to fight on the side of Earth. Although Buffy has a lot of bones to pick with the Army, she agrees at least to meet with them, at the VampCon organized by Harmony at the Bacchanal Resort, the safest place for vampires and humans. And Harmony and Vicky have already decided how to solve the issue: trial by combat. The old-style and the modern vampires each chose a champion, and it Buffy and Spike can vanquish them, the vampires are in. With Clem as Master of Ceremony and under much taunting by Vicky, Buffy fight Golgotha, a new-style vampire, and dusts him after sticking the point of the scythe in his eyes, and Spike, hopping mad from Vicky's comments, vanquishes his old-style vamp by breaking all the bones in his body: the vampires are on board. The next night Spike meets the Dylan who was looking for him at the end of Season Ten Volume 2, Part 2. Part 2: A week earlier Willow was approached by Theo Daniels to come and work as a magic-and-code wizard for his army-affiliated company, and is has been doing life-saving work there. When Buffy hears about this she is aggrieved for Willow going behind her back. Meanwhile Spike has agreed to come an see Dylan's paintings show, and when Buffy hears about this she is pissed off for him going behind her back. But just before the explode they apologize and hug. As something begins to develop between Willow and Ms. Lake Stevens, military attache to Mr. Daniels Technologies, Lake takes Willow out for dinner and they discuss the the problems of changing and staying friends. Buffy and Spike visit Dylan's exposition at the Gallery Verde, and Dylan thanks Spike for getting her out of a rut, and gives them one of her paintings. On the way home Buffy expresses her worries about her relationship with Willow, and sets out to talk with her, only to find Willow waiting for her in her apartment. They hug and decide that adulthood is not going to separate them; then they bond over ice cream. Part 3: Andrew is visited first by the hologram of Jonathan, who demands a body, and then by the Sculptor, who offers to make just such a body in exchange for Andrew swapping Buffy's scythe for a fake. Buffy's nerves are frayed further when she is almost pulled into the Kraken dimension because d'Hoffryn has his priorities skewed. There is far too much work, and the only option seems to be to give the Council more power, but Buffy won't be that stupid, she says. In the end it is agreed that each of the members of the Council should get very specific powers and only when in function: d'Hoffryn gets the power to detect incursions of magic; Monarch gets the power to drain enemy magic; Keiko gets the power to absorb any physical attack; the Quiet Man gets the power to return any being to its own dimension; the Brahma gets the ability to sense the enemy's greatest weakness; and Matango, the Mushroom, will be invulnerable to magic attacks. With this out of the way everybody hopes to be able to continue with their lives, and as a parting gift, Monarch introduces Giles to the Fae dimension, where his appearance means nothing and he will be judged for his character only. The next morning Buffy goes out for a run, trying to get back to normal, and she meets normal people like two men with a baby in a stroller, and an elderly couple, but with Buffy gone Andrew sneaks in and swaps the scythe. That night he presents it shyly to the Sculptor, who gleefully accepts it and turns Jonathan's hologram into a body of flesh and blood, only to find that Andrew has double-crossed him and he has been given the fake copy... The whole Scooby gang shows up from behind the gravestones, Willow sets fire to the Sculptor and when he is done, Buffy cleaves him in two, using the real scythe. One down. Jonathan is livid, because without the continuing support of the Sculptor he will soon die, will not listen to new promises, and runs off angrily. Part 4: Buffy and Giles have a falling out over her refusal to allow Sundrop, Giles's friend in the Fae dimension, to create a portal in his study. Xander realizes that the ghost of Anya is not the ghost of Anya and breaks up their relationship, telling her to go and find out who or what she really is. Anya objects vehemently, but Xander, in tears, turns to his game console. In spite of all this misery, all sever heroes jump to the rescue when d'Hoffryn announces that he has located the Soul Glutton and the Mistress. As a diversion the enemy has created a portal to the Hell of Screams, which the Council is now fighting to close, so Buffy and friends are on their own against the two big bads. Unfortunately they find the Soul Glutton well-fed and huge. On top of that the enemy have opened a portal to Anharra. Giles provides Xander and Spike with ear mufflers, and together they cut off some tentacles off the Mistress. The Soul Glutton gets hold of Dawn and starts devouring her soul, only to choke on it, realizing that she is an artifact and her soul is poison to him. The Soul Glutton, severely ill, and the Mistress, badly wounded, decide to call it a day, destroy the Restless Door and disappear. With the Restless Door gone no more portals can appear, but this one continues to grow, and all Willow can do is trying to keep the nasty Anharrans out, but she is tiring fast. Since the portal originated from the Anharra dimension it can only be closed from there, but obviously whoever did the closing would be trapped there. Giles suggests it would even then take a key to close the portal, and suddenly everybody looks at Dawn... Conclusion: Everybody objects and declares everybody crazy to just think the thought, but Dawn declares it's her decision and she will do it. Because Willow can no longer hold the masses of Anharra back, the Seven jump through the portal to fight the enemy on their own ground, only to be welcomed by masses of uglies and a 7 meter tall giant by the name of Kerberon, using belligerent language. They cower and both Buffy and Giles blow the retreat, but Dawn pushes them aside and with two lightning bolts reduces the giant first to a skeleton and then to ashes. The uglies slink away, leaving the Seven to discuss what to do now. It is clear that Dawn has to stay behind to close the portal, and everybody wants to stay with her, but somebody(s) have to go back to Earth, to root out the Soul Glutton, the Mistress, and the demons they have imported. In the end Xander convinces Dawn to accept his staying with her. As the now Five pass through the portal back to Earth they find there the ghost of Anya screaming that she cannot follow Xander this way, and threatening to turn back into a vengeance demon. Buffy sighs that she wishes that for once things would be easy and that the Council would wipe out the Soul Glutton and the Mistress without their help. Upon hearing so Anya turns into vengeance demon and says "Wish granted"... In the meantime the Soul Glutton has eaten the souls of a whole office building in Silicon Valley and is huge, but when d'Hoffryn descends on him and his companion, the Soul Glutton cannot kill him, which is physically impossible, since he should now be strong enough to kill the entire Council. D'Hoffryn explains to him that because he, d'Hoffryn, is now on official vengeance mission, he is allowed to bend the laws of physics, and he easily kills the Soul Glutton. The Mistress applauds him and tries to make a deal, but he kills her too, telling her he no longer needs her. Anya and d'Hoffryn are proud of a job well done, but d'Hoffryn is deeply frustrated that he has this enormous power only when he is on official vengeance duty. Christos Gage, Rebekah Isaacs, Juanan Ramirez, "Buffy: Season Ten Volume 6: Own It", Dark Horse, Dec. 2016, pp. 144. Part 1, Home Sweet Hell: Thanks to Dawn's key powers Xander and she settle well in their dimension Anharra, teaching the local how to build acid-rain-resistant houses, dispensing counselling and even performing marriage ceremonies. But then they see on a rock wall the images of a wolf, a ram, and a hart... Meanwhile back on Earth, the Four are searching for information on Anharra. D'Hoffryn will consult the Council, which he does in his own way, killing them one by one usurping the powers of each member to kill the next. A now invulnerable d'Hoffryn breaks into Buffy's apartment and makes off with the Vampyr book, leaving the Four in shock. Part 2, The Centre Cannot Hold: Dawn and Xander are approached by Lilah Morgan, temporarily at the local office of Wolfram & Hart, who offers to take them home in exchange of an "arrangement". D&X flatly refuse and decide to risk finding a way home by themselves, accompanied by the local Rancidus, who gives Lilah a solid talking-off. But Lilah phones the home office telling them that she has put a tracer in Dawn's quiver, and that W&H will benefit from all information D&X will gather on their trek. Meanwhile the Four start bickering and blaming each other in circles for the present disaster. The army launches a missile attack on d'Hoffryn's newly created base, but he detonates the missiles at launch. Willow wonders how he could do that since that was not one o the powers he usurped, but comes to the conclusion that someone has asked for vengeance, and then a vengeance demon can do anything. A very healthy Jonathan shows Andrew selected excerpts of what his friends have been saying about him, to undermine his self-image, and he is succeeding. Buffy and Spike squeeze everybody for information on how to hurt or defeat d'Hoffryn, and as they get more frustrated they quarrel more, until Spike says: "Maybe it's time we took a break.". Part 3, Taking Ownership: Buffy declares that she has no bandwidth for that, and says that she has an idea. Willow is fired from the military who have just discovered that it is the Scoobies that gave (indirectly) all this power to d'Hoffryn. Dawn and Xander are having lots of adventures, meeting giant shrimp, the White Rabbit, carnivorous otters, body swaps, phantoms of childhood, etc. Buffy and Spike approach everybody of magical importance with her idea: Denial of Magic to d'Hoffryn. Clive sets Andrew right by showing him the context of the remarks by his friends, and he returns to the Scoobies, carrying conventional an magical weapons. Then Dawn and Xander drop in through a portal in Buffy's apartment, and there is a lot of news to catch up with. Part 4, Vengeance: On Anharra, in his headquarters, d'Hoffryn is celebrating the fact that he has removed all protective spells from the Vampyr book with his crew of Jonathan, pseudo-Anya, and four other minions, and his first order of business is to remove the clause that limits his powers to what somebody else asks for vengeance. But the moment he tries to scratch out the words, the ink spats back into his eyes. He consults his magic TV and sees Buffy spreading her Denial of Magic idea. He admires he cunning but vows to destroy her utterly. But he finds her home well protected with spells and reflecting weapons. After a fight d'Hoffryn breaks through, but just before the kill pseudo-Anya requests permission to have her revenge on Xander for leaving her at the altar and disavowing her when she was a ghost, and makes him a ghost. Part 5, It's on You: D'Hoffryn and Anya enjoy the suffering of the remaining six, rubbing salt in their wounds, but then Buffy calls for vengeance, wishing she had never given d'Hoffryn those powers. "Wish granted", Anya says, pointing out to him that she has reason for revenge too, since he had made her into a puppet on a string. She decides ghost-Xander has suffered enough and makes him human again. But d'Hoffryn still has his innate powers and using these he mortally wounds Anya. Seeing this his minions quit, and when Buffy cuts off his right hand with her scythe he beats a hasty retreat. In a hospital on Anharra d'Hoffryn is getting his wrist bandaged when a portal opens and the Scoobies appear: they have used the book to give Dawn portal-opening powers everywhere. D'Hoffryn congratulates them on growing up and proposes an agreement: he stays Lord of the Vengeance and he will grant each of them a wish. Buffy says: "We've been down that road before", and decapitates him. With all of the Magic Council killed the Scoobies fear weirdos may try to fill it and decide to fill it themselves. Their first convention is held in the Plaza Inn, and the lobby is filled with, yes, lobbyists, with Lilah Morgan offering lobbying services. The council consists of Buffy as president, Giles as chairman, and Count Dracula, Archduchess Venobia, the Mud Man, the Lucky Cat, the Skeleton Man, Willow, and Riley Finn as members. Buffy has to drive the scythe into the table before the meeting will come to order... Part 5, Where Are They Now?: Harmony Kendall has a TV program visiting past celebrities, and this week it's Buffy. Monday: Buffy is filling laundry machines when Harmony, Clem, and a camera crew enter. Harmony asks Buffy indiscrete questions and reveals that someone is out to kill her, to which Buffy reacts with "Welcome to my life". Then Buffy steps on an unisolated camera cable and gets zapped. Furiously she stuffs everybody except Clem into dryers. Tuesday: Buffy and Spike walk the streets of San Francisco, when Harmony tries again, only to be interrupted by a run-away streetcar. Buffy, Spike and Harmony stop the car, preventing worse. Harmony continues to irritate the hell out of Buffy and she ends up wrapping the remains of the streetcar around the crew. Wednesday: Buffy is in the library helping Giles get books from the upper shelves. Harmony barges in and accuses her of narcissism, when Giles recognizes the sound man from a watcher training program. At being found out, the camera man turns into a panther vampire and the disgruntled sound man threatens Buffy with a magic gem. Buffy rolls up a book and uses it as a stake to dust the panther vampire, and Giles stuns the sound man and hands him over to the police. Harmony, who was unaware of the conspiracy, ends her documentary with "Is she the best slayer ever, .. or the worst?", leaving Buffy speechless. Bechko, Corinna, "Angel: Season Eleven Volume 1: Out of the Past", Dark Horse, Aug. 2017, pp. 112. Whether slapstick or deep philosophy, this issue gets very bad reviews on the internet. Part 1: Angel and Fred (not Faith) are in Dublin to exorcise a poltergeist from the hotel of a friend of theirs, when Angel gets a vision of bugs and flesh-eating plants. The poltergeists show up but Angel fails to catch them because Fred turns Illyria. Angel is angry but Illyria tells hem the poltergeists are themselves fleeing, from something in Angel's past. On their way out, A&F find the same flesh-eating flower growing in the street. Wanting to know more about the past, Angel recalls that there would be a scrying glass under a church nearby. They find the scrying glass guarded by bugs, but Fred retrieves it. They skype Lavinia and Sophronia, and find Lavinia sad because her demon friend has stood her up. The poltergeists attack again and Illyria takes Angel to his past where he should right wrongs. Part 2: They arrive in the past all right, but not Angel's: it's Illyria's past in an %other dimension. Oops, rounding error, Illyria explains rather lamely, but it %seems Higher Powers are to blame. Soon they see the past Illyria in her true goddess form. Illyria-Fred explains that they have arrived pre-apocalypse. A Very Ugly Monster (VUM) had arrived, and had begun eating past-Illyria's subjects. Much fighting had ensued but neither could kill each other and in a fit of rage past-Illyria had blown up all the lands, killing all her subjects and so causing the BUM to leave for lack of food. This seems to be the wrong that should be righted. Goat-like locals are fleeing but again Angel misreads the cause: they are not fleeing from Illyria but running towards her to help fight the VUM. But the VUM devours them all and Angel realizes that the VUM gets stronger with each victim consumed. He tries to convince a local, Sval, to stop fighting and let Illyria do her job. Part 3: But when Illyria-goddess shows up, Sval immediately follows her. Angels meets a group of three-eyed locals, who profess to be pacifists, and are opposed to violence, but they confess that in their attempt to end Illyria's violent reign they have conjured up a VUM of equal strength thinking that the two would kill each other. And now the VUM is gaining strength! "Turns out wasn't the best plan", the chief admits. Using the scrying glass to magically skype L&S, they see Lavinia happily kissing with her (three-eyed) demon boy friend, showing that they have already changed the present. The boy friend tells Angel where the army for the final attack on the VUM gathered in their legends. And indeed they find the gathering there. Part 4: While Illyria-goddess sets the doomsday machine (an erupting volcano) into action Illyria-Fred tries to reason with the chief of the goat herd, but he considers her a cheat, until Sval turns up and declares that this Illyria can perform miracles. Th goat people slowly come over, and the three-eyers are even more easy to convince. Then the VUM attacks and goddess-Illyria, Illyria-Fred and Angel simultaneously attack it, while the army disappears. With the prospect of its food gone the VUM retreats. Now they have to convince Illyria-goddess to stop the volcano (stupidity reigns), but they succeed, leaving Fred exhausted. Illyria-goddess sets them on a path back to the present "with Angel to illuminate the path". They wonder what that means. Bechko, Corinna, "Angel and Faith: Season Eleven Volume 3 (should be 2?)", , , pp. . Christos Gage, Rebekah Isaacs, Georges Jeanty, "Buffy: Season Eleven Volume 1: The Spread of Their Evil", Dark Horse, Aug. 2017, pp. 144. And the evil spreads badly indeed. Part One, The Spread of Their Evil Slaying is as usual, Willow is teaching magic to wiccans, Dawn comes home with excellent grades, Buffy is running the Magic Council, and Xander is running the barbecue, when a gale of epic proportions arises and whips up a tsunami that ruins large parts of S.F., including the Scoobie apartment. It turns out that the storm is caused by a Shenlong, a Chinese storm dragon. The Scoobies kill the Shenlong, but it falls into the streets of S.F., causing still more damage. The Shenlong should be extinct, but the Scoobies in the trailer camp come to the conclusion that it has been brought back and sent to S.F. by an evil one. Question is "Who?". Part Two, In Time of Crisis It turns out that the government has reached the same conclusion, and has determined its own answer: "Magic". Measures are announce to "normalize" magical beings. When Buffy and Spike rescue a magical being from an angry crowd, they get unexpected help from another slayer, Jordan, who introduces herself as "Licensed Military Contractor" and tries to recruit Buffy, explaining that the government is hiring slayers "to keep the peace", now that Magic has been identified as the source of the tsunami. Buffy refuses in no uncertain terms, but Jordan points out that she is not the Chosen One any more. Andrew sees the storm building and heads for the Continent, to friends in Italy. The house of a wiccan friend of Willow is fire-bombed, Willow puts out the fire and chases the evil-doers away. A video of that appears, stirring more hatred towards Magic. Lane offers Willow a job to "change things at the highest level". Willow refuses and is warned "to abide by the law". Soon the law becomes clear: all magic beings will be relocated to a "Safe Zone", read "internment camp". Part Three, A House Divided The situation deteriorates rapidly. People with even the slightest amount of magic are rounded up, and Buffy procures forged papers for Giles on the black market. But Spike is too well known and has to report for transport to the Safe Zone, although Buffy tells him not to. Buffy gets a final offer from Jordan, which she rejects, very violently, and to prevent slayer killing slayer Spike agrees to go. Buffy joins him, as does Willow, who has many wiccans inside. The slayer guarding the bus tells Spike to sit in the back, and when he goes up the wall, she explains that there's where the darkened windows are. For they are going into the desert. Part Four, Desperate Times Inside the camp conditions are dire; food is rationed, an ogre is top dog, and protection consists only of government slayers on the other side of the fence. Spike is starving and Buffy, in a very sexy outfit, tries to seduce him into drinking at least a small sip of her blood, which would keep him going. When the ogre's crew start to extort food from inmates Buffy decides to show them who is king of the yard, and beats up several hoodlums, which only makes them more angry. Buffy's weekly telephone call to Dawn gets interrupted by a bird man who claims revolution is brewing. When Buffy investigates she has again to fight the ogre and his crew, and she gets help from Spike, who fills up with ogre's blood. As step one in a plan, Buffy agrees to the position of trustee in exchange for extra blood rations for Spike. After all, her aptitude test said she should be in law enforcement... Part Five, Desperate Measures And the law is enforced, especially making the ogre furious. Willow gets two magic-less wiccans released, and leads Buffy to he friend wiccan Calliope, who knows about a break-out planned by the ogre. Buffy goes out to talk to him about his crazy plan, but he grabs her by the throat and lifts her up. She kicks him in the groin, and then beats his minions into a pulp. Jordan judges that it is now too dangerous for Buffy inside and assigns her the job of guarding the inmates working at a nearby factory, which gives Buffy her much-desired freedom to roam. Inside the factory Buffy sees the workers produce weird metal signs, and in the mess she hears on TV that the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on whether magic beings have human rights, and that it can take a while. Willow recognizes the metal signs as runes, magic runes, so a government which is suppressing magic, produces magic runes?? Meanwhile the ogre plans to kill the slayer. Part Six, Back to the Wall The ogre ambushes Buffy between two barracks and has her poisoned by his minion Karriok. Buffy says: "Poison and ambush, eighteenth birthday", and cleaves Karriok and another minion in two. Again the ogre tries to strangle her, but she breaks both his wrists. Under duress the ogre confesses that he works for "them" and that in the factory they are working on combining science and magic. Buffy smuggles Willow into the factory under an invisibility spell, where Willow discovers that the government is working on a machine that will extract all magic from the world. And that would maim half-magic creatures and kill beings fully dependent on magic, as for example Spike. Buffy decides to break out, because however bad that may be, what the government is going to do with all that magic will be worse. Deleted Scenes The issue ends with six very comical "covers" for the six parts in this issue. Christos Gage, Rebekah Isaacs, Georges Jeanty, "Buffy: Season Eleven Volume 2: One Girl in All the World", Dark Horse, Aug. 2017, pp. 144. ZZ