Chapter 5

.

Kim Chul Eun was an operative for North Korea. Getting into America was not easy, but the risk was necessary. His old associate, Mr Trick, was selling this weapon to the highest bidder, and North Korea wanted this. These two had a contentious relationship, but Trick wanted money and Kim wanted the honor and praise that would come if he could deliver this weapon to his people, so they were willing to work together, for the time being. Of course Kim's government wanted proof that this weapon could be effective, and Trick had some good targets in mind. Buffy Summers wasn't even a full slayer, but she, and her two vampire boyfriends, had caused problems for Trick and more than a few of his associates. If this could kill them, he might be able to retroactively charge these associates.

.

Buffy, Angel, and Spike were in Buffy's old home in Sunnydale. Evidently the destruction of Sunnydale and the Hellmouth never happened in this new world. It made sense, if Buffy was never activated, she never died at the hands of the Master, and was never resurrected by Willow. As far as they could tell, the Master never awakened, but whether he was still around remained to be seen. Adam had apparently never been built, at least not yet, and no trace of Glory or the problems she had created. So clearly there had been some good to come out of Buffy's wish. But Cordelia was dead, and Wilkins might soon be elected president of the United States. At the moment Buffy was talking about a weird dream she had recently had.

.

Buffy: It was Halloween, I was with Xander and Willow, and our van broke down in front of a haunted house. Inside were the old Univeral horror monsters. It was Bela Lugosi/Dracula, Boris Karloff/Frankenstein, and Lon Chaney Jr/Wolfman. I think the Wolfman was like Dracula's servant.

Angel: A lot of the old monster movies had werewolves as servants of the vampire. I think before my time vampires tried that, which is one reason we never had good relations.

Buffy: Yeah, anyway I dusted Dracula pretty easy, his only real power was hypnotism. Plus if he had to sleep in his special coffin, pretty big vulnerability. After I dusted him we tried to help the wolf man and the Frankenstein monster, felt sorry for them.

Spike: Makes sense. By the way I met the real Dracula, still owed me eleven pounds.

Buffy: Yeah, I fought him in the old world, he tried to seduce me, I still staked him.

Angel: Did he resurrect?

Buffy: Yeah, and he's probably still out there somewhere.

.

As the three of them spoke they were attacked, by skeletons. The skeletons all had swords, and their only goal seemed to be to kill Buffy and her friends. One of the skeletons seemed to be holding a crystal. Buffy's group were able to steal some of the swords and fight back, but they didn't know how to destroy the battling skeletons. Then Spike realized, the skeletons seemed to be protecting the crystal. He alerted Buffy who got close enough to destroy this crystal. Sure enough the skeletons all turned to dust. Who exactly had just tried to destroy them, and that was not a short list, had failed.

.

Kim Chul Eun had watched this battle from a distance along with Mr Trick. Neither man was happy about the outcome.

.

Kim: This is all your fault.

Trick: This is a setback, no question about that.

Kim: A setback? My government does not often forgive failure. I could very well be executed for this. They might even track you down and kill you, you n...

Trick: So we could both die because of this setback?

Kim: Yes.

Trick: Than, I have nothing to lose by eating you.

.

At first Kim resisted, but then he realized he was a dead man anyway, at least this way he wouldn't have to return home and face the disgrace of failure. When Trick finished his meal, he decided to call Wilkins. He might need some protection soon, and he had proven himself to Wilkins in the past, no reason they couldn't work together again.