Freefall

"Freefall" is the first story arc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine issues #1 - # 4, the comic book series which coincides with Angel and Faith. The first issue was released on September 14, 2011.

Characters

 * Buffy (3/4)
 * Xander (3/4)
 * Willow (3/4)
 * Dawn (3/4
 * Spike (3/4)
 * Eldre Koh (3/4)
 * Detective Dowling (3/4)
 * Detective Cheung (3/4)
 * Anaheed (2/4)
 * Andrew Wells (2/4)
 * Severin (2/4)
 * Tumble (2/4)
 * Aura (1/4)
 * Officer Farrell (1/4)
 * Officer Greggs (1/4)
 * Riley Finn (1/4)

Part One (Issue #1)


Buffy wakes up the morning after a party in bed naked and can't remember why.

Flashback to the party the night before: Buffy greets Xander and Dawn as they arrive. Buffy is happy that she has her own place. She shares the apartment with a woman named Anaheed and a guy named Tumble. Next, Willow arrives with Aura.

In the present, Buffy sees Willow come out of the shower and is worried that they slept together, but Willow says they didn't. Willow says Buffy '"brought the house down." Elsewhere, Detectives Dowling and Cheung find a dead girl in an alley but she has no wounds. It's the third girl they've found this month.

Flashback to the party the night before: Buffy greets Riley, Spike, and Andrew when they arrive.

While at the party, Buffy attempts to connect with Andrew about how it feels to no be in charge of the Slayers anymore, but when Andrew says that he took several of his former Slayer squads and started a disaster-relief organization, this makes Buffy feel small. Shortly after this, Spike tries to tell Buffy that something is coming after her.

The present: In an office, a man and woman hand a picture of Buffy to a demon. The man says "it has to be dealt with."

Buffy reports to work at the coffee shop the next morning but her boss has her shift covered because he didn't think she would be in shape to work after what happened at the party the previous night.

Elsewhere, a group of demons (which appear to be an army) holding energy spears stand in front of a giant green ball of energy. One demon says "the spells that bind it have weakened." The monster inside breaks out and kills all of them. It has trouble with words, even in thought.

After leaving he coffee shop, Buffy tries to remember what happened the previous night, and we get a flashback of her and Andrew playing in the pool.

Flashback to the previous night: Buffy and Riley walk down the street to his surveillance van (which he has only been using for human terrorists). While Buffy checks out the inside of the van, Riley tells her she did the right thing by shattering the seed because it was the only way to stop what was happening. Buffy then tells him that his van "needs a woman's touch."

The present: Buffy lowers her head in shame, realizing she made a pass at a married man. Later, her roommates tell her how much they liked her friends, and warn her that they can't have any more wild parties like that or they'll get in trouble with the neighbors.

Elsewhere, the renegade slayer Simone Doffler drives a van toward San Francisco with machine guns and grenades in the back of it. She is planning "something big... That changes things... That shows them we're still here."

Flashback to the previous night at the party: Buffy shows Xander her bedroom. Something is bothering Xander. Buffy asks if he wants to talk about it. He says he doesn't. She places her hand on his arm. Xander says that Dawn "never has to know" and the scene abruptly ends.

Later, the police show up at the front door, but they join the party and dance with everyone else.

The present: It is the following evening. Buffy patrols with Willow and they are joined by Spike. Willow says she wanted to talk to Buffy alone but Spike insists that he stays. Willow tries to warn Buffy of the consequences of ending magic and tells her that by destroying the seed, Buffy "took the spark of creation out of the world." She says that Buffy can't see it the way she does and hopes it won't be too late when she (Buffy) finally does.

The demon given Buffy's picture earlier then emerges from the shadows and says "It is too late. Buffy Summers, it is time for you to pay... Your student loan!" Willow and Spike laugh at the absurdity of the situation while Buffy is annoyed.

Part Two (Issue #2)
Issue 2 opens with one resolved question: not all the mysterious victims are women and this latest one's a young guy in a tie. As Detectives Dowling and Cheung discuss him, the view pans out to show that he's just one in a room full of bodies like him.

Back to Buffy, Willow, Spike, and the debt collecting demon. He threatens Buffy with bad credit, and she retaliates by choking him, but Willow and Spike pull her off, reminding her of the futility of killing him. The demon gets all sad-faced and talks about being trapped in this realm and needing a job. Buffy finds an ATM and gives him all her money, which he says isn't nearly enough.

Spike asks Buffy what happened to all her jewel thief money, it seems she gave it back when Riley negotiated an amnesty between Slayers and Interpol. The demon departs with a final warning, and Willow picks up her argument about how Buffy isn't seeing how her actions affected everyone. Willow leaves and Spike picks up his warnings about "rumblings".

El Draco breaks into Buffy's apartment and begins searching it. Tumble hears him and thinks it's Buffy, but Draco escapes out the window before Tumble can see him.

Dowling and Cheung are in the morgue looking at the unmarked bodies with files and pictures on them. Dowling has found missing persons files for several of the bodies, but all are from the '60s or earlier, and there's no sign of aging. He comes up with a theory they are, or were, vampires.

A sharp-dressed man, is running from a vampire. Buffy hops down from a rooftop to save the day, thinking all the while about her money and magic-less issues. The stranger says he can help, but Buffy orders him to leave. She stakes the vamp and is immediately caught in a spotlight and at a cop's gunpoint.

Next page, we see her in cuffs and in an interrogation room. Our detectives are back, asking her if any of the photographs they have of their "victims" look familiar. They know she's a Slayer, though apparently there's some info on her that the feds won't give them. Buffy educates them on how a vampire turns to dust when it's slain, which is immediately turned on her as she's reminded of the vampire she just "killed".

The detectives argue privately about the case and conclude that they're not letting her go until they learn more. They return to the interrogation room and Buffy's gone. We see her on the rooftop outside looking down at some shouting police officers, wondering if she should have waited for a lawyer.

At Xander and Dawn's apartment, Buffy comes in through the window to find them watching her face on TV. Xander congratulates her for being a fugitive. Dawn asks who's really responsible for the bodies, and Buffy says she'll have to find out or never show her face in public again. She then asks for a place to crash and is denied - Xander and Dawn have apparently been fighting, and Xander's occupying the couch. Buffy doesn't press the issue, but she's not too happy about it.

Spike finds her at the top of a skyscraper. He asks how she got arrested, she explains and laments being the Chosen One. He says he'd be dead if she wasn't, and that he's investigating her pursuer(s). She seems cheered as she leaves, but still worried about evading the law while she's trying to solve the case, especially since she almost instantly spots another vampire.

This one's fighting the same guy as before. Again he says he can help, and "I'm a Slayer. Like you." Buffy forgoes the obvious gender jokes to point out his lack of stake, and runs off after the vamp, chasing him into an alley. As she's about to finish him, she sees that at least a dozen more have cornered her there, and the original one leaps at her.

The vampire's face begins steaming and then shifting from vamp to human face. The stranger is revealed behind the body as it falls, his eyes white, saying "I told you I could help." Buffy is fascinated and asks "How what why, please."

The stranger explains "He's not a vampire anymore," and the view pans out to a lot of markless bodies once more. "None of them are."

"You trying to put me out of a job?" asks Buffy. Then she smiles. "'Cause I might be okay with that."

Part Three (Issue #3)
Buffy and Severin are still in the alley after Severin shows her his power. He doesn't know how it works, he wants her to help him figure it out. She whisks him away from the "crime scene" and explains that she's getting the blame for the bodies, and says that if he wants to help, he can give her a place to sleep.

The cops talk to Anaheed; Spike talks to the little realtor gnome, who says he set up the "something nasty" searching for Buffy in "a place where no one will find him". We see Eldre Koh sitting in a cell in Alcatraz, looking at a newspaper article about Buffy.

Buffy wakes up in Severin's plush apartment. He brings her coffee and tells her his story: he's a trust fund kid, and he wanted to be a vampire. His girlfriend Clare had a plan to get herself sired by an old friend-turned-vampire Alessandra, and then sire Severin in turn. Severin describes being horrified by watching Clare drained, and then seeing her turn into a mindless beast when she woke. Clare attacked him and his powers were involuntarily activated, killing her as soon as he touched her.

We return to Buffy and Severin talking in his apartment. Buffy says that Severin wouldn't have been better off as a "normal" vampire, and that she would have killed them both. He says that all vampires are now waking up feral, and that he kills them and any vampire still siring them. Buffy works out the connection to the Seed based on the timing of events.

The cops visit Xander and Dawn, and then Buffy texts them, Willow, Spike, and Andrew, asking them to meet at Severin's place. Willow and Xander come, and Buffy calls Willow again, using Dawn's phone because she thinks Willow will refuse to talk to her. Willow picks up, but isn't receptive until Buffy starts talking about consequences of breaking the Seed, and then she consents to attend the meeting through speakerphone.

Buffy introduces Severin only briefly, putting priority on investigating the change in vampires. Dawn brings up the book that Giles left Buffy - Severin's interested, but Buffy says she can't go back to get it. Willow and Buffy talk about how demons can no longer cross dimensions to inhabit human bodies, meaning the new vampires are without demons to control them. Xander dubs them "zompires".

There's argument about the next step. Xander, Willow, and Dawn don't want to get involved, but they do want Buffy to go to the cops before things get worse. Severin wants Buffy to help him take out a nest, saying she can't trust the police. Xander and Dawn leave, asking Buffy to be careful, however she decides.

Spike finds the demon in Alcatraz; they have it out briefly, and the demon, Eldre Koh, claims that he's only seeking Buffy to thank her. The end of magic released him from the prison where he was held in this realm, and now he swears he's bound to Buffy. Spike doesn't buy it and brings up the rumors he's heard about someone trying to off Buffy. Koh says those aren't about him, but the prophesied "Siphon", who rips mystical energy from all he touches and is supposedly headed straight for Buffy.

Buffy and Severin head for the nest that he told her about. He says not to worry about him; he gets stronger with each vampire he kills. After they take out the nest, he says, he might even be stronger than her.

On the final page we - and Buffy - see that the lair is already full of dead bodies. Severin turns to Buffy with an evil grin and energy crackling all around him. "I know," he says.

Previews
Freefall Pt. 1