Sunnydale rooftop, summer of 1999
That evening, Kendra the Vampire Slayer knew she was in trouble, but she had no idea just how much *worse* the trouble could have been – had the Wish world Anyanka had created not been undone, roughly 18 months ago.
Had Jareth not done what he did, Spike would have been ruling over Sunnydale right now, and Buffy would have become a vampire – turning on her Council backup, and eventually killing them all.
Luke, *vastly* unhappy that the Master was killed by Spike, would have tried to personally slay William the Bloody – but instead, he would have been taken down by Vamp Xander and Vamp Buffy, and Spike would have finished Luke off with a quick stake to the heart.
Oz would have eventually been killed by Spike's minions while Giles, Cordelia and a pitiful few vampire hunters would have (just barely) escaped the attack on Rupert's apartment, led by Vamp Buffy and Vamp Xander.
The humans that would have rebelled against Spike's rule would have been hunted down and slain, without mercy.
Both Giles and Cordelia would have eventually been found by Vamp Xander and Vamp Buffy, as well. The female vampire would have simply snapped Giles' neck, while the male one would have drained Cordelia – and *finally* created an acceptable substitute for Vamp Willow…
But, again, thanks to Jareth - none of that had ever happened. A Wish world that had once briefly been real, now existed only as a might-have-been. And Kendra was in no position right now to be concerned about might-have-been's.
The Caribbean Slayer had recently returned to Sunnydale, the same Hellmouth she'd visited back in late 1997. She had beaten the former Billy Fordham; also known as Count Orlok, who had planned to open the Hellmouth. But as a consequence, right now, she was no match for Spike; as Count Orlok had wounded her rather badly, during their recent death match.
Still, Kendra gave it her all as they went at it in the pouring rain, on a rooftop. But she was too slow, and Spike cut off the Slayer's hand - the one wielding the stake - with a wicked grin on his face.
"This is the end o' the road for you, luv! Too bad the Summers bint isn't 'ere to join you..." Spike mocked her. "Must hurt always being considered number two where she's concerned, eh?"
Kendra tried to rush him in a blind rage, but Spike roundhouse kicked her easily. The junior Chosen One went flying into a brick wall from the superhuman strength of the kick, as Drusilla appeared on the rooftop. One look, and Dru could tell Kendra wasn't getting up again. She was dead.
Somewhere in Boston a Potential Slayer gasped, feeling her new power – and knowing that her life would never be the same again...
"Ohhh... you overdid it, my precious 'eart." She smiled, looking at the dead Slayer laying there before returning her gaze to Spike. "Who's a good boy, then?"
"Thanks, Dru. And yer right - it *was* a bit overkill, I hafta admit. But what the hell! She's still mostly warm - let's bleed the Slayer dry!"
They both vamped out, and proceeded to desecrate Kendra's corpse, the way soulless vampires did...
Giles residence, November 23rd 1997
Kendra was in the guest bedroom, sound asleep, but then she started having a Slayer dream featuring a strange-looking vampire. In her dream, the vampire opened a book – and then, the Hellmouth opened up within the school library!
She also saw how, deep within the Hellmouth, there was a very dark and powerful monster with glowing eyes. Clawing its way up to the now-open Hell's Maw. The monster looked like some kind of dinosaur, with large claws and teeth. Nasty, and clearly evil!
The next moment, Kendra woke up, visibly sweating. { That must be the demon I have to slay for my mission here in Sunnydale. I have to stop this strange vampire from opening the Hellmouth. I must warn Mr. Giles and the others! }
Elsewhere, Count Orlok had found the magic store named "Magicks Through the Ages" in neon bluish-red. He looked around to see if Buffy or the vampire named Angel, whom Spike had recently told him about, were nearby. Seeing that the coast was clear, he went inside the magic store.
The bell jingled when the shop door opened. Ignoring that, the former Billy Fordham looked around, seeing all kinds of magic items – orbs, weapons with magical spells built in, magic armor and cursed masks. There were other things as well, all dealing with magic. There were some humans browsing around, but also vampire and demon patrons present within the store.
{ No matter. } Count Orlok walked towards the counter where the shopkeeper – a warlock of some sort, he could tell by the shopowner's clothing – was going over orders with a witch.
The warlock finally noticed him, so he thanked the witch and she left to help out another customer. "How may I help you, sir?" asked the shop owner.
"Can you fix this?" Count Orlok took out the lock box with the pieces of the Gem of Amara still inside. "As you can see, the gem has been pretty much smashed..."
The warlock looked inside the lock box. "Hmmm, yes, and into quite a few pieces as well." He grinned at Count Orlok. "Luckily for you, you've come to the right guy for help to fix it. But it will cost you."
"Really, how much?" Count Orlok pseudo-sighed after hearing this.
"A very high price," the warlock replied, still smiling politely.
"I only have twenty bucks," Count Orlok admitted, as he pulled out the banknote from his pocket.
The shopkeeper's smile instantly vanished. "That won't get you much here, I'm afraid. Unless you're interested in a cursed mask?"
"Really? A lame mask of some sort?" Count Orlok rolled his eyes.
"Don't laugh, you'd be surprised just how popular they are with some of my customers! Give a cursed mask to your enemy, and they'll soon wish that they had never messed with you in the first place!" The warlock laughed, briefly. "Okay, let's be clear on this. If you want me to fix your gem, I'll need a down payment of more than just twenty dollars." He grinned charmingly at the vampire.
"Like I said. I have nothing else to offer right now," the former Billy Fordham made his position clear.
The warlock sighed, the salesman's grin vanishing again. "Look, pal, I like you – so let's not haggle, okay? I'll take a human soul as payment for services rendered. Or even a chaos-spelled Halloween costume, from last All Hallow's Eve. I bet there's some still decent magic left on some of the costumes." The warlock smiled evilly.
Again, Count Orlok pseudo-sighed heavily. "I guess I could go looking in Ethan Rayne's store…."
Later that night Spike and Drusilla made plans for leaving the Hellmouth, to start making arrangements for bringing all of the Judge's parts here to Sunnydale. That was bad news in one sense, of course, but also good news as well for the Scooby gang – since they didn't have worry about Spike and Drusilla killing people, at least not for now.
"We'll have to leave Sunnyhell to get most of the Judge's parts, Dru," Spike admitted with an annoyed frown. Sure, he got really bored around here on occasion – so did Drusilla and the minions – but it wasn't smart abandoning your power base, so soon after creating it. Oh well, never mind, they'd be back soon –
Dru grinned, with an insane look on her face. "Let's leave tonight, Spoike!" She then smiled childishly at him.
"Should we tell Count Orlok about the plan, sir?" one of the minions asked.
No, don't tell that bloody wanker anything. I don't trust him!" Spike snarled in annoyance. "You lot just get them bits o' the Judge that're here in Sunnydale. Got it?"
"Yessir!" the minions all nodded dutifully, before the group split up.
Angel had been watching the mansion whenever he could, and thus he took note of the undead leaving their lair. He wondered where they were going, naturally enough. Unfortunately, without a car, Angel could only watch as Spike and Drusilla drove away from Sunnydale, to make the arrangements with their connections in Los Angeles…
For his part, Count Orlok reached the safety of the mansion just in time; sunrise had already arrived, by the time he slipped in through the front door. He quickly learned that both Spike and Drusilla had left, thanks to one of the minions. Even though said minion kept quiet about *why* they'd left.
{ Bah. Who cares? } Indeed, right now Count Orlok could care less about what Spike and Drusilla were up to. He simply went upstairs to bed, and the minions went back to playing cards and sleeping themselves.
All seemed well...but then, around here, appearances could be and often were deceiving.
Sunnydale High School Library, November 24th 1997
Not long after sunset, Angel told the gathered Scooby gang that Drusilla and Spike had left town.
"Finally, some good news!" Xander joked feebly.
Buffy just sighed and rolled her eyes and, not far away, Kendra didn't seem to think this was good news either. "Dey must be up ta somet'ing," Kendra said in her Jamaican accent.
"Yes, um, Kendra has a point," Giles nodded with a sigh. "Those two wouldn't have left the Hellmouth for no reason, after all."
"And we have no idea what they're up to, do we?" the Willow-bot said, with a worried look on its face.
"No. Neider do we know how dis relates to me Slayer dream, de one I had last night," Kendra said thoughtfully, before looking at Giles.
"All we can do is, is try to research it. Figure things out," the Watcher explained to the gathered teenagers. "All of you, grab a book and start looking..."
Abandoned mansion on Crawford Street, January 16th 1998
It had been busy here on the Hellmouth the last couple of months or so, there was no denying that.
Spike and Drusilla had come back from Los Angeles, and engaged in all sorts of mayhem and terror as they waited for the Judge's parts to come in from all over the world. Count Orlok had tried to come up with some form of payment to get the Gem of Amara repaired, but that warlock shopkeeper had stubbornly refused anything he'd offered, refusing to haggle at all! It was either a soul or a Halloween costume, or nothing!
Kendra had suffered from bad dreams for weeks, and so had Buffy, once her own nightmares about the monster ascending from within the Hellmouth had started. Jareth's two robot spies had reported to their master what was going on, but there was nothing that demon could do, even if he'd wanted to – which he didn't.
Jareth was too busy experimenting with Ted Buchanan's parts, after all.
Xander had kept himself busy as well, experimenting with his own powers, courtesy of the Orbs of Nezzla'khan (not that he knew that part of it). And as for Cordelia? Apart from deliberately not thinking about Xander Harris, she'd been busy cementing her rule over Sunnydale High's elite, cutting down her time with the Slayage crowd to the barest minimum – to prevent unwelcome rumors and plots of rebellion from occurring.
Even though Queen C couldn't help scowling, whenever she saw Xander and Kendra together...
But despite all that, following a premonition of danger, Angel had snuck through the rooftop of Spike and Dru's lair earlier tonight. He hid in the darkness of the mansion's rafters, and waited. And waited. And waited – until the sounds of undead conversation finally reached his ears.
That was when Angel overheard that Spike and Dru were planning on reassembling The Judge. So later that night, after he'd stopped freaking out and left the mansion, Angel told the Scooby gang what he'd learned those two were up to, once they all assembled at the Watcher's apartment.
"So, Spike and Drusilla are going to rebuild this Judge guy?" Cordelia demanded, thinking that this couldn't possibly be a good thing.
"And, and bring forth Armageddon. Once the Judge is, is active, almost nothing can stop him..." Giles looked shocked. "It took an army the last time – nearly all of them died, and even then, a-all they could accomplish was to dismember him, not kill him!"
"But he's not complete – the rest of the body parts are still on their way here, right?" Buffy demanded, looking around at her friends.
"Far as we know." The Oz-bot hadn't said anything at during the meeting so far, but it decided to speak up now.
"Den we should take dese parts away from Spike and his henchmen, before it's too late," Kendra proclaimed, wanting to slay some vamps. Almost itching to do so, as a matter of fact.
"I'll search on the Internet," the Willow-bot offered with a nervous grin. "Maybe I'll find something on that 'Demons, Demons, Demons' website?"
"Sounds like a plan. But what do we do once we find 'em, Giles?" Xander asked, looking concerned.
"Destroy them, somehow," Giles said, as he let out a yawn. Well, it was starting to get pretty late, after all.
"I'll go see Willie, learn if he knows anything about this," Angel offered, before vanishing out of the condo.
"Great, good luck with that!" Xander rolled his eyes at Angel's signature move.
After Angel left, the others eventually left as well, heading off home. Tomorrow promised to be a very busy day, after all.
A potential apocalypse was at hand...