Two months passed waaay too slowly, but we're finally back with Mel and Icarus and the inevitable badness of their touching reunion. It's the first time Mel's seen him since the incident in her flashbacks, and she's paralyzed with shock and fear. She's spent years dreaming of what she'd to to him if she ever saw him again, but things aren't going as she'd planned...
"I've met you ten thousand times. I've killed you a hundred ways -- in a rage, cool as ice, giggling like a schoolgirl... never like this. Like I'm frozen, cold frozen and trying not to pee myself. Jesu, Melaka, get up get up get up..."
Mel can't even collect herself enough to fend off his blows. As she fades back and forth from her memories to the predator in front of her, the difference in Melaka's courage is startling. Where she was brave before, Melaka is now crippled by her fear. Of course, facing the monster that killed your brother will do that to you. She had fought valiantly to protect Harth. She even hurt Icarus, which surprised him. But it wasn't enough to save her brother, as Icarus coolly dropped her over the side of the building before sinking his teeth into Harth's throat.
Back in the present, Mel's getting pummeled. Icarus tosses her like a rag doll, telling her he's disappointed she's not putting up more of a fight. He taunts her inability to defend herself and splits her lip for good measure, just as he did the last time they met.
Meanwhile at the tavern, last issue's brawl has continued without Mel, and Loo's parents aren't happy about it. Loo, on the other hand, is looking for her hero. Unable to find Mel in the fracas, she wanders outside where she sees Mel in a struggle for her life. Loo runs back into the tav, hollering frantically for "Monster Man", aka Urkonn. Mel's just getting thrashed. She's bloodied and beaten, and Icarus is closing in for the kill when the welcome sight of Urkonn's hulking mass comes hurtling between them.
Urkonn pounds the lurk's head into the cement, and Icarus wisely retreats. Through her seething hatred and rage, Mel cries out for Urkonn not to let him get away - they need to follow Icarus - hunt him down and kill him! But the beating she took catches up with her, and she collapses into Urkonn's arms. Then, for a moment, she wavers in and out of consciousness, visiting more of her painful memories.
This time, she's in a hospital after Icarus' first attack, when Erin comes to see her. A doctor comments on Melaka's incredible healing rate - he could have sworn she'd had spinal damange when she came in. Mel tells Erin that they were attacked by a lurk, but Erin puts the blame squarely on her younger sister. "You were grabbing. You took him on a grab and you got our brother killed." Damn, my heart just breaks for all three of them.
Across town, in front of the necklace and the sculpture that Icarus got from Gunther, he tells his boss about the confrontation...
Icarus: Could barely face me. If it hadn't been for her bodyguard...
Boss: He's more than that. And she's more than you realize. We need her. Without her, none of this means anything.
The hell? These guys just get creepier and creepier. And the creepy keeps on coming as we shift to Urkonn conversing with a boss of his own. Two of them, actually - Boluz and Vrill - who appear to be huge demon-god types, all floating heads and booming voices. Urkonn tells them he's doing his best to follow their commands, but that there may be problems with Melaka - she lacks the instincts of the Slayer. She has no dreams or knowledge of her heritage, and she's afraid of the lurks. But FloatyGodHeads are insistent that the Slayer is crucial in stopping "The One Who Will Lead". And if Mel isn't up to being the Slayer, then they'll just have to kill her and find the next girl to be called. Urkonn was right - the backup plan is not a winner. But Urkonn doesn't like Plan B any more than I do, and he promises to make her ready.
Mel, meanwhile, is considering getting the hell out of Dodge. Generous as Gunther's been lately, she has enough money stashed to be out of the country in an hour if she wants - and into a decent place with a working shower. As it is, she's perched between two buildings, showering underneath a broken water pipe.
When Urkonn returns to Mel's place, he's surprised to see her practically healed from her earlier beating and ready to hunt down Icarus. If it's her job to fight vampires, she says, then she wants to get this lurk who hurt her and killed her brother.
Urkonn kindly asks about Harth, if he was younger than Mel. She stuns him by saying that he was older but only by a few minutes - they were twins. Urkonn, pretty thrown by the idea of a Slayer having a twin, wonders if he was strong like Mel, but he was a weak and frightened kid, too scared to run when Icarus attacked. And speaking of Icarus, Mel wonders, how is it that after all this time, and what must have been countless kills since, Icarus would remember her and know her name? Urkonn suggests the word's out that she's the Slayer, which means she needs to train, but Mel wants to go after Icarus. And she thinks that if anybody would know where to find him, it might be Gunther.
She heads to Gunther's place and asks him, but he's evasive. Melaka insists that after everything she does for him, he should be a little more helpful here, but he wants to know just what she does that's so valuable. After she mentions stealing the statue for him, he says he's really sorry. Because it's a setup - Erin and the cops are there to arrest Mel, and they take her down hard.
Even though Mel's seriously dazed by the charge the cops put into her, Erin warns her fellow officers to make sure she's secured. They can't imagine such a tiny girl is going to give them much trouble, but before Erin can set them straight, the entire group is ambushed by a gang of lurks. It's absolute mayhem - cops getting bit, lurks getting shot - and one particularly nasty looking vamp has Erin by the throat. Mel's hazy and frightened, but one look at the scene unfolding, and damned if she's gonna let her sister get hurt like this. She launches herself at Erin's attacker, slamming him to the ground. She screams for Erin to get out of there, but then everything goes black.
As the blackness begins to clear, Icarus is once again standing over her. He tells his master he's brought her, just as he promised. The master greets Mel and asks if she's missed him. And once again, Melaka finds herself looking up into a face from her past...
It's Harth.
Thoughts:
Harth is the badass master that's got Icarus under this thumb?! What the?! Whatever's going on here, it spells bad news. Gee, um, guess we know how Icarus remembered her name, huh? And behind Harth are the items Mel's been stealing for Gunther. Again with the bad! There are plots upon twists upon schemes unfolding here, and every time I think we've uncovered all the bad, there's a whole new layer of bad waiting underneath. And I love it.
Okay, to recap: the Watchers have gone crazy, Mel has none of the instincts or memories the Slayer's supposed to be born with, the Floaty Demon God guys have Urkonn guiding Melaka for their own purposes, Mel's sister wants to throw her butt in jail, and her dead brother, who is apparently now the master vampire in town, has big plans of his own. So much bad to choose from. And every time we get an answer to a question, it leads to an even bigger question.
Next issue: "Fray's spirits are dashed as things get worse."
Oh, dear.