Freefall, Part Two

Freefall, Part Two
Publication	October 12, 2011
Length	32 pages
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #2
← Previous	Freefall, Part One
Next →	Freefall, Part Three
Publisher	Dark Horse Comics
Writer(s)	Andrew Chambliss
Penciller(s)	Georges Jeanty
Editor(s)	Scott Allie
Cover artist(s)	Phil Noto Georges Jeanty
Inker(s)	Dexter Vines
Colorist(s)	Michelle Madsen
Letterer(s)	Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt

"Freefall, Part Two" was the second issue of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine comic book series.

Synopsis

As Detectives Dowling and Cheung were discussing the latest in a string of mysterious deaths: not all the mysterious victims are women and this latest one's a young guy in a tie. He was just one in a room full of bodies like him.

Back to Buffy, Willow, Spike, and the debt collecting demon. He threatened Buffy with bad credit, and she retaliated by choking him, but Willow and Spike pulled her off, reminding her of the futility of killing him. The demon got all sad-faced and talked about being trapped in this realm and needing a job. Buffy found an ATM and gave him all her money, which he said wasn't nearly enough.

Spike asked Buffy what happened to all her jewel thief money, it seemed she gave it back when Riley negotiated an amnesty between Slayers and Interpol. The demon departed with a final warning, and Willow picked up her argument about how Buffy wasn't seeing how her actions affected everyone. Willow left and Spike picked up his warnings about "rumblings".

Eldre Koh broke into Buffy's apartment and began searching it. Tumble heard him and thought it was Buffy, but Eldre Koh escaped out the window before Tumble could see him.

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

A man (Severin) was running from a vampire. Buffy hopped down from a rooftop to save the day, thinking all the while about her money and magic-less issues. The stranger said he could help, but Buffy ordered him to leave. She staked the vamp and was immediately caught in a spotlight and at a cop's gunpoint.

Next page, we saw her in cuffs and in an interrogation room. Our detectives were back, asking her if any of the photographs they had of their "victims" look familiar. They knew she was a Slayer, though apparently there was some info on her that the feds wouldn't give them. Buffy educated them on how a vampire turned to dust when it was slain, which was immediately turned on her as she was reminded of the vampire she just "killed".

The detectives argued privately about the case and concluded that they would not let her go until they learned more. They returned to the interrogation room and Buffy was gone. We saw 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 came in through the window to find them watching her face on TV. Xander congratulated her for being a fugitive. Dawn asked who was really responsible for the bodies, and Buffy said she would have to find out or never show her face in public again. She then asked for a place to crash and was denied - Xander and Dawn had apparently been fighting, and Xander was occupying the couch. Buffy didn't press the issue, but she was not too happy about it.

Spike found her at the top of a skyscraper. He asked how she got arrested; she explained and lamented being the Chosen One. He said he would be dead if she wasn't, and that he was investigating her pursuer(s). She seemed cheered as she left, but still worried about evading the law while she was trying to solve the case, especially since she almost instantly spotted another vampire.

This one was fighting the same guy as before. He again explained that he could help, and told Buffy that he's a Slayer, like her. Buffy forwent the obvious gender jokes to point out his lack of a wooden stake, and ran off after the vamp, chasing him into an alley. As she was about to finish him, she saw that at least a dozen more had cornered her there, and the original one leapt at her.

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

The stranger explained that "he's not a vampire anymore," and the view panned out to a lot of markless bodies once more. "None of them are."

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

Continuity

The story was set after "Last Gleaming", but before "Slayer, Interrupted".

• Spike and Buffy made allusions to when Buffy had robbed banks to pay for the Slayer Organization, shown through flashbacks in "Anywhere But Here".
• While trying to make the loan demon go away, Spike mentioned that Buffy had to drop out of college and he should cut her some slack. This was due to her mother's death in Buffy Season 5.

Appearances

Individuals

• Robert Dowling
• Miranda Cheung
• Buffy Summers
• Spike
• Willow Rosenberg
• Eldre Koh
• Tumble
• Severin
• Dawn Summers
• Xander Harris
• Riley Finn (only mentioned)

Organizations and Titles

• Slayer
• U.C Sunnydale (only mentioned)
• Interpol (Only mentioned)
• FBI (Only mentioned)

Species

• Slayer
• Vampire
• Human
• Unidentified debt collector demon
• Nitobe

Locations

• San Francisco
• Balboa Theatre (seen near Buffy's apartment)

Weapons and Objects

• The Siphon
• Stake

Body Count

• John Doe, killed by Severin.
• seventeen vampires, siphoned by Severin.
• two zompires, dusted by Buffy

Behind the Scenes

Collections

• Freefall

Pop Culture References

• Xander's t-shirt with a chimp wearing a helmet saying "Human see human do" may be a reference to the movie "Planet of the Apes"

Quotes

Buffy: And if I don't pay up?

Demon: You will learn the horrors of ... bad credit. [Buffy jumps and strangles him] GGCKGCK!!!

Willow: [trying to pull Buffy off him] Killing him won't make the loan go away.

Buffy: It'll make him go away!

Spike: [also trying to pull her off] And bigger, badder, drippier, nasties will show up.

Willow: This is what I'm talking about, Buffy. You don't realize how the destruction of the seed affected everyone. You only think about how it affected you. All the Slayers, the vampires, even the demons wih the magic mojo. You all got to keep your power because it was inside of you. But everyone else got cut off from what made them tick. For me, it's magic. For that demon, his home.

Buffy: We've been through this. I had no choice.

Willow: Maybe ... but that doesn't mean you can sit back like everything's over. You're going to have to deal with the fallout eventually.

Buffy: Uh-Oh. Dawnie, is everything okay with you guys?

Xander: Nothing a few nights of little to no sleep on a very uncomfortable couch can't fix.

Buffy: Why couldn't destroying the seed take that away? Along with whatever makes vampires tick. Then I could be Buffy, minus the words 'Slayer' and 'Chosen One'.

Spike: For starters, I'd be dead. And you wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

Buffy: Fun is overrated. But I'd probably miss you.

Spike: Bloody hell you would. 'Specially since I'm gonna figure out what's coming for you.

Buffy: Thanks, Spike.

Buffy: How, what, why please.

Severin: He's not a vampire anymore. None of them are.

Buffy: Are you trying to put me out of a job? 'Cause I might be okay with that.

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