"Apart (of Me), Part Two" was the nineth issue of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine comic book series.
Synopsis
Buffy, Spike, Andrew and the bugs have arrived in the safe house. Buffy is very impressed with the house and the furniture, and as Andrew explains, it has 2 bedrooms, all the furniture were carefully chosen from IKEA, because he wanted to add personality to the illusion. Andrew then finds a broken glass and red liquid on the floor, thinking that it may be blood, but it's not as Spike informs him and Buffy understands that her body fought back. But as Andrew says probably her body didn't fight back well, since she was programmed not to find out that she was the slayer. Spike gets angry and attacks Andrew again, but Buffy's voice stops him. Only because she has gone to the next room and she's taking a visit in the house.
"How the hell could Andrew do this?" she wonders and Spike is ready to snap his neck, all he needs is her word, but that's not what Buffy means. Andrew was able to give her the life that she couldn't give herself. Her body has a bedroom, an office in the second room, and probably she plans to make it a nursery someday. Spike tries to remind her that it's not the life of a real person, but Buffy says that it has to be real for her to create it. Their conversation gets interfered by Andrew, he has found Buffy's body using a tracking device placed in her jewelry.
We go to Simone and Buffy's body. Simone has no idea that Buffy is not Buffy, she thinks that she didn't fight back because of Severin. And she actually thinks that the robotic Buffy is the fake one, and that Buffy is living the suburban life. Simone is very angry at her, Buffy used to lead an army only to watch her slayers die, and now to live a life in the suburbs. Buffy is so scared, that she begs Simone to set her free, also telling her that she sucks in slaying which is what makes Simone suspicious that there is something going on.
We go to Xander, Dawn and Dowling. They are outside. The place is full of dead police officers. Dowiling suspects that zompires are after the cops, it would be the most logically thing to do, but Xander disagrees because zompires aren't clever. The place is full of dead police officers, Xander and Dowling decide to go inside the building, Dawn wants to go as well, but Xander furious tells her not to and to stay outside. They find an injured police woman, who informs them about what happened, so Xander goes to his car to grab some weapons and asks Dawn to keep an eye at the injured woman. While they do that, Dawn's phone falls off her pocket and then Xander apologizes for yelling at her. He says that he knows Dawn can do a better job than the detective, but Dowling won't agree to stay outside waiting and somebody has to stay there to take care of the police woman. Dowling looks scared, watching Spike doing it seemed so easily, he himself killed one the previous night, but now they are after his ex-partner. Xander tries to put him back to earth, telling him that his first time was when he was 16 years old and he had to kill his friend. Everytime he remembers it he can't see a vampire but the face of his friends, he understands how it feels like, but Dowling's ex-partner has to be killed or else she'll hurt more people. So they go inside the police station.
In the meantime, Buffy is calling Dawn, but Dawn can't hear the phone ringing. They are all back on Spike's spaceship. Buffy leaves a voicemail, and she goes to Spike. He wonders if she has informed Dawn that she's not going to be an aunt yet, but Buffy says that she just can't leave a voicemail informing her sister about it like that. A bug comes saying that Master Andrew wants something, but before it finishes the sentence Spike gets angry. How dare Andrew give orders to his bugs! Buffy tries to calm him down reminding him that she'll probably need Andrew's help. They go to Andrew and he informs them that Buffy is on an island near San Fransisco called Angel, something he jokes about as reference to the vampire Angel. Spike glowers at the implied mention of him, wondering out loud if this meant he had kidnapped her. Buffy, however, smiles nervously and awkwardly, making no attempt to agree. Frustrated, Spike leaves the room.
Next we see Andrew performing surgery on Robot Buffy with the help of a bug. He apologizes about his plan, he understands now that it was a bad plan and that he should have told her but if he had told her, she wouldn't have agreed. Buffy gets mad, telling him that of course she wouldn't, not because she lost an arm, but because of what she's been through, thinking that she's pregnant. Even now, he still tries to impress Warren, although he's dead. But she can't understand why he put all that effort to create such a nice house for her body. Andrew just wanted to give her the life that she would have had, if she hadn't spent all those years slaying. Which kind of softens Buffy on him, and then they hear: "Approaching Angel island, humans and androids please report to the airlock!".
Back to Xander and Dowling. Xander tries to teach him some lessons on how to hold the axe. Dowling apologizes for showing up at his place in a drunken state. Xander keeps on with the lessons, while Dowling seems annoyed about it. They go inside a bar, and they see everyone dead there and the zompire feeding on someone. However, instead of keeping quiet so they can kill it, Dowling informs the police about the multiple murders, but that makes zompire Cheung notice them. She attacks Xander; he tries to fight back, but Cheung easily throws his axe the other side of the room. She then attacks Dowling, Xander grabs the axe, but Cheung easily again takes it away from him and tries to bite Xander. Downling shoots her, she grabs him and throws him on Xander. Again Cheung attacks Xander. Dowling grabs a stake and finally dusts the threat, thus saving Xander's life.
Back to Buffy, Spike and Andrew. They are on the island. And as they don't know what they are dealing with, Spike suggests that Buffy should hang back. But as Robot Buffy says, she's not pregnant anymore, she's not even human. Robot Buffy wants to know more about her body, what's she like. Andrew says how he programmed her, but he also adds that she started developing a personality, making friends, inviting people. Spike interrupts, and Buffy suggests that they should separate in order to search the island and get over with that before the night is over. So, Spike finds the van, Andrew is terrified alone in the forest mumbling nonsense, and Buffy finds some wooden houses, warehouses and corn bins. She goes inside and she finds the necklace with the tracking device. Buffy wonders what happened to her body, but suddenly something hits her on her head. It was Buffy, and she did it because she has been liberated, with some purple extensions in her hair.
Continuity
The story was set after "On Your Own", but before "Guarded" and "A Dark Place".
- Xander referenced the first vampire he killed and what created his black-and-white "all vampires are bad" belief to Dowling after so many years: Jesse, his friend that he was forced to stake in "The Harvest".
- Simone's rant to Buffy about thinking she was better than everyone else and that she was so willing to give that up for a normal life is strikingly similiar to the original opinion Faith Lehane had when she first met her, criticizing her for whining and moping over responsibility and wanting a normal life when she could be anyone she wanted to be.[1][2]
- Buffy referenced how she was not pregnant and that Spike did not have to try to protect her so much, a reference to "On Your Own, Part Two".
Appearances
Individuals
- Buffy Summers
- Spike
- Andrew Wells
- Simone Doffler
- Detective Dowling
- Xander Harris
- Dawn Summers
- Buffybot
- Detective Cheung
- Severin (only mentioned)
- Jesse McNally (Only mentioned)
- Angel (only mentioned)
- Warren Mears (only mentioned)
Organizations and Titles
Species
Events
Locations
Weapons and Objects
Body Count
- Sixteen humans, drained by Miranda Cheung
- Miranda Cheung, dusted by Robert Dowling
Behind the Scenes
Trivia
- Jesse McNally is mentioned for the first time since his death in "The Harvest".
Collections
- On Your Own
- Buffy Season 9 Library Edition, Volume 1
Pop Culture References
- Andrew stated he was looking for a Prius to keep the false illusion of real Buffy having a new life.
- Simone compared Buffy's normal life instead of a slayer to House.
- Xander stated "Elvis left the building" to Detective Dowling when telling him what happened to Cheung.
- Buffy likened Spike's bug ship to the Hindenburg.
Quotes
| Spike: "It's not blood. California merlot. How cliche." |
| Andrew: "Sort of the point." |
| Simone: "I thought you were gutless before. Before I figured you out. Before I saw this. What kind of woman leads an army to battle just so she can see 'em die? You were the Chosen One. You thought that you were better than all of us ... the greatest slayer of all time. Then you gave it all up to be a Yuppie Hausfrau? Disgusting." |
| Xander: "Yeah, it sucks. First time I had to kill one of my friends I was sixteen years old. And when I think about that night, I don't see the face of a vampire. I just see Jesse's face. But believe me, you don't want her hurting anymore people." |
| Buffy: "Yeah, Andrew. I would rather have not gone through any of this. And you know I'm not just talking about the arm. You have no idea. You can't have any idea how ... how ... the world just fell out from under me when I saw that test. Then having to come to such crystal-clear certainty ... You know I understand you. Your "mastermind" thing? You're still trying to impress Warren, even now. You know how lame that is? But that house, what kind of game was that? Why put so much work into it, so much detail--" |
| Andrew: "I thought I could give you the life you wanted if you hadn't spent the last however many years saving the world."
(a silence settles between them, Buffy smiling at him, touched) |
| Andrew: "That was kind of a moment between us, right? So we're good?" |
| Buffy: "Fat chance." |
| Spike: "We don't know what we're dealing with.'Till we do, maybe you should hang back, Slayer." |
| Buffy: "We're not playing that game anymore, Spike. I'm not pregnant, remember? I'm not human. " |
Gallery
Previews
References
Template:Reflist
- ↑ 'Consequences'
- ↑ 'Who Are You?'