Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 Volumes 4 & 5; Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 Volume 1; Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 Volumes 3 & 4

 

Okay, I skipped ahead. I'm still waiting on Volume 3 to come (should be here this week), but in the meantime I was able to get most of Season 10 through Interlibrary Loan and was eager to get them read and back to their lending libraries, so I went ahead with what I had. I suspect I'll be able to keep up with the complicated plot :)

Volume 4 "Welcome to the Team": Severin, working with rogue slayer Simone, is siphoning any little bit of magic he can get his hands on, and there's not a whole lot of magic in the world. Vengeance demon D'Hoffryn and the rest of the magical council ask Buffy's help in fighting Severin before he drains everything left. 

The artwork on these is still a little hit or miss, but all in all it was pretty good. 

Volume 5 "The Core": Dawn is ill and the doctors can't figure out what's wrong with her. Turns out since the magic was drained out of the world when Buffy smashed the seed, since Dawn was made of magic she's disappearing. Xander, Buffy, and Willow must travel to the Deeper Well in England so Willow can get enough magic to restore Dawn. Spike (yay!!!!) comes back to stay with Dawn so she won't be frightened and alone. She doesn't remember him, but she appreciates that he knows her and cares enough about her to stay with her. Then Spike's memories of her start to fade, too, as do everyone else's.

In the Deeper Well, Buffy discovers Xander betrayed them: he told Simone and Severin how to get into the well from the other entrance in New Zealand because they promised to save Dawn. Oh Xander. You twit. How can you doubt Buffy? Buffy manages to defeat them, Willow gives birth to a new seed, a new source of magic for Earth, and the friends manage to escape and go home to a restored Dawn (and Spike). Buffy of course forgives Xander because she's too damn nice (I still haven't fully forgiven him for being Team Riley). 

Volume 1 "New Rules": New source of magic means new rules. The Vampyr book Giles left Buffy is blank and being rewritten with new rules as they go along. Which means a new breed of vampire that can go out in the sunlight (Spike is super pissed this doesn't apply to him, and I am too). Buffy and Spike are working on how to be friends (a wise man once said: "You'll never be friends. You'll be in love until it kills you both"). Xander and Dawn's relationship is on the rocks: Dawn admits that when she was restored her emotions basically rebooted to when she was 14 again, meaning while she likes Xander, she thinks of him as her old sister's friend, not her boyfriend. She hasn't fallen in love with him yet. Xander is pretty devastated but determined to make Dawn fall in love with him all over again. 

Dracula comes back and takes advantage of the new rules to steal the Vampyr book and write himself as the biggest, baddest vampire ever, which backfires spectacularly and shows everyone how dangerous it is to not have rules set down.  

The absolute best news is that Giles is back! Angel somehow found a way to restore him, and even though he's trapped in a teenager's body, he still has all of adult Giles' memories and knowledge, which is definitely going to come in handy as they figure out how to write the new rules of magic. 

And yes, I haven't gotten volume 2 yet, but seriously, did you think I was going to wait to read about Spike and Buffy getting back together? The answer, dear Reader, is Hell no. Times 10. 

Volume 3 "Love Dares You": Buffy realizes she never gave her relationship with Spike a fair shot and while she doesn't want to ruin the lovely friendship they have, she also finds she really wants to explore a more romantic relationship. She tells him that and he pulls away. After all, she's hurt him (a lot) and he's not sure he can go through it again. Buffy is disappointed but says she understands (I didn't. I was ready to smack him). After some soul searching and talking to Xander (really, Spike?) he realizes he's still in love with her and wants to pursue it, too. So they do. Vehemently. Physically. Awwww. All is right in the world again :)

For a little bit, anyway. Spike has a vivid dream of murdering a couple, and when he wakes up he discovers they really are dead. Did he kill them, or did he just see it happen in his dream? He asks Willow and Giles to help find out if something is controlling him, like the First did in season 7 of the show. He doesn't want Buffy to know, but of course she finds out and scolds him for trying to keep things from her. Willow uses Buffy to travel through Spike's memories to see if she can figure out what's causing his dreams. There were some really sweet scenes, like when she sees herself though his eyes and realizes how much he really does love her, and feels the pain he went through to get his soul back for her. She's able to find the source of the dreams: Archaeus, a demon that sired the Master and is therefore Spike's ancestor. Archaeus is using his descendants to do his dirty work, but he can't control Spike because Spike has a soul. The gang realizes they're going to need big time help to defeat Archaeus, and Spike reluctantly calls Angel. Way to be the bigger man, Spike. I'm proud of you. 

Volume 4 "Old Demons": Angel comes back (ugh) and is immediately rude to Spike because he didn't know he and Buffy were together (Spike wanted to tell him over the phone but Buffy wanted to wait and tell him in person). Buffy soon gets fed up with their jealous posturing but puts aside her irritation to get to Archaeus. He tries to control Spike and Spike is able to resist. He gets to Angel, though, and Spike has to snap him out of it (picture me sticking out my tongue and going "nah nah nah nah" at Angel). They're able to defeat him, but things are getting sticky with the new magic rules. 

Angel and Spike reach an uneasy truce and Angel leaves but not before telling Willow it won't last because Spike will screw it all up sooner rather than later. 

Fuck you, Angel. Go away. 

There were two other non-related side stories in this one: Willow is able to turn Giles into an adult for 24 hours, and then a really sad one where Buffy is trying to help women who are being taken advantage of sexually. It causes her to realize that she'll always have to live with the trauma of Spike trying to rape her in season 6 of the show, and while most of the time she's okay and realizes that the Spike who attacked her isn't the real Spike, the Spike with a soul, sometimes she's not okay and he's going to have to realize there's nothing he can do but give her time and space.