“Who is next?” Jackter sighed, wishing desperately that his night were over. He wanted to search for Harry, not grant wishes for a group of humans…or a group mostly of humans.
“Me!” Anya cried, springing to her feet before anyone else could. “I want to go.”
“Very well,” Jackter said wearily, and sat on the tree stump serving as his chair.
“I want to know what would have happened if the location spell had worked and I’d gotten back my amulet,” Anya told him.
“There’s a surprise,” Spike muttered.
Anya turned to glare at him. “Being a demon is all I remember. I don’t think it’s strange that that’s what I want to see. You asked what would have happened if you hadn’t gotten a chip.”
“And we all saw how well that turned out,” Spike said pointedly.
“Ahn, are you sure?” Xander asked, moving to her side. “That way lies badness. You came to Sunnydale because of me and Cordelia. I’m sure your personal glimpse into the firey crystal ball won’t be all that fun. For any of us.”
Anya gave him a simple smile. “We all know what that was like. I told you…Cordelia’s wish was for a Sunnydale with no Slayer, and…voila!”
Cordy rounded on her. “What?”
Anya sighed testily. “Remember? Standing outside in the courtyard at the high school? I gave you my amulet for good luck and then you made some wishes. One involved Willow and some monkey-hair, if I remember.”
“Hey!” Willow cried softly.
Cordy thought back. “Well…I sort of remember that. But I did a lot of wishing back then. He cheated on me,” she said simply, as if that explained it all.
“Exactly. I heard you, I came here, took on the guise of a high school Senior, blah blah blah...you wished for a Sunnydale without Buffy Summers,” Anya told her, bored.
“Why me?” Buffy cried. “They were the two who smooched.”
“Hey!” now Xander cried.
Cordelia rolled her eyes. “I don’t blame you now…but back then I’d have blamed anything on you, you know that,” she told the Slayer and shrugged. “I figured if you hadn’t come to Sunnydale then I never would have looked twice at Xander, I wouldn’t have almost gotten killed every single night of the week, and the last three years of high school wouldn’t have been so horrible.”
Anya rolled her eyes. “Whatever. The thing is, I granted your wish and *poof!* Buffy never came to Sunnydale. But then I lost my amulet, the wish was reversed…and I tried to get it back using a locator spell.” She put her hands on her hips and glanced around irritably. “We went over some of this when Willow’s evil twin showed up later that year,” Anya said tempestuously. “I swear, mortal brains are useless. Remember? I tried to summon my amulet and ended up bringing forth the Willow from that time. Xander, you were all excited because you were a bad-ass vamp in the other world.”
“I think you left a few things out, Ahn. Like, oh, the why’s and how’s of it. I don’t remember you mentioning anything about Cordy wishing Buffy’d never come here,” Xander told her.
Anya shifted uncomfortably. “Well…like I was going to tell you that I granted a wish that got all of you killed.”
“What!?” he cried. “Killed? Who? How? Why?”
“So…so what happened then?” Tara interrupted.
“Well, that’s what I want to know,” Anya said pointedly and turned back to Jackter. “You may now grant my wish!”
Jackter nodded and turned to the fire.
Cinder and ash, flame and fire,
‘Tis the other’s life to see we desire
Two roads before us, but one to take
Show the other, the choice not made.
*FLASH!*
Sunnydale High School, December, 1998
“I wish Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale!” Cordelia Chase cried.
Before her, Anya spun around, but this wasn’t the face of the pretty girl she’d just been ranting to. This face was wrinkled beyond recognition, grotesque. Cordelia gasped.
“Done!” the thing rasped.
And the world changed. Things were bland and scary. While as popular as ever, Cordelia soon came to realize that without a Slayer on a Hellmouth, things were downright…well, hellish.
*~*~*
Staring into the fire the Scoobies watched as Xander and Willow, decked out in full leathers, approached Cordelia.
“Oh no,” Willow whispered. “It’s me! It’s her! It’s the other me!” She turned to Xander. “Hey, I was right! She was a little bit gay,” she said, giving him a lopsided smile.
The smile faded as they watched their other selves chase down Cordy, only to be stopped by a van of white hats.
“It’s Giles! And Oz! And…Larry?” Xander exclaimed.
“Why would Giles be here if I wasn’t called to the Hellmouth?” Buffy wondered out loud.
*~*~*
*FLASH!*
“Giles. It's my fault. I wasn't- I made this stupid wish--” Cordelia wailed.
Giles attempted to get her lie back. “Please. You must be still--”
“No!” she cried, determined, pushing him off her. “You have to get Buffy. Buffy changes it. It wasn't like this. It was better. I mean, the clothes alone... But people were happy - mostly - and…Wait. Why are you here? And she's not...I mean, you were her Watcher.”
*FLASH!*
Cordelia’s dead body slumped to the ground, drained by VampXander and VampWillow.
*FLASH!*
The scene changed to reveal the Master, Willow and Xander at the Factory.
*FLASH!*
Angel, beaten, weak, chained in a cell. Willow and Xander “playing” with him.
*FLASH!*
Buffy arriving from Cleveland, meeting with Giles, then taking off for the Factory.
*FLASH!*
Battle. Death. First Angel, then Xander, then Willow…finally, Buffy.
*FLASH!*
Giles, breaking the amulet of Anyanka.
*~*~*
“Oh my God,” Cordy whispered, horrified.
Buffy gasped. “He rose. Without me there, the Master rose. He’s free.”
“We moved to Cleveland?” Dawn asked.
“And check out Buffy,” Xander said. “You look sorta like Fai--”
“Don’t say it.” Buffy warned.
“Get on with it already, I know this stuff,” Anya grumbled, unaffected.
*~*~*
*FLASH!*
Sunnydale, Spring, 1998
Anya stood in front of the demon D’Hoffryn. “For a thousand years I wielded the power of the wish,” she began, her voice low and full of contempt. “I brought ruin upon the heads of unfaithful men, I offered destruction and chaos for the pleasure of the lowers beings. I was feared and worshipped across the mortal globe and now I'm stuck at Sunnydale High! A mortal! A child! And I'm flunking math…” she muttered. “…give me another chance. You can fold the fabric of time. Send me back to that moment and I'll change it. I won't fail again.”
D’Hoffryn waved his hand, uncaring. “Your time is passed.”
“Do you have any idea how boring twelfth graders are?” she shouted. Snapping to her feet she swore, “I'm getting my power-center back. And if you won't help me then by the pestilent gods I'll find someone who will.”
*FLASH!*
“What do you need?” Willow asked as she stood on a staircase in the high school.
“It's nothing big. Just a little spell I'm working on… I need a secondary to create a temporal fold,” Anya was telling her.
*FLASH!*
“Eyrishon. K'shala. Meh-uhn,” Anya chanted, eyes closed, as she sat across from Willow in an empty classroom.
“Diprecht. Doh-tehenlo Nu-Eyrishon,” Willow followed.
“The child to the mother.”
“The river to the sea.”
Anya held out vial of powder. Willow wrapped her hand around Anya’s, and they grasped the vial together.
“Eyrishon. Hear my prayer,” Anya called.
Suddenly there was a flash of light and scenes began to whip past their eyes…Sunnydale, but not Sunnydale…vampires and a battle…Willow’s friends, fighting…and dying. Willow gasped, her hand beginning to shake.
Trying not to break her concentration, but sensing a weakening of power on the witches’ side, Anya tightened her grip on the vial and quickly turned it upside down, spilling the powder onto the plate beneath their outstretched arms…the plate that contained a depiction of Anyanka’s amulet.
Willow was shaking badly now, as was Anya, but the ex-demon fought for control and won.
In a moment it was over. With a whoosh! the spell was lifted and the two girls opened their eyes, gasping for breath.
“What was that? That was - what was that?” Willow demanded shakily.
Anya glanced down and smiled wickedly. “It worked.”
Willow looked down, noted the amulet. “Well…great…but…that’s a little blacker than I like my arts, Anya. You should have told me.”
“I figured an experienced Wicca like yourself could handle this,” Anya said snidely, not taking her eyes off the amulet now in her hands.
Willow rose to her feet unsteadily, snatching up her things. “I’m outta here. Great doing magic with you,” she bit out, and turned on her heel, storming out of the room.
Anya smiled to herself as she clasped the necklace around her neck. A flash of green lit the stone centered in the amulet. The green filled her eyes for a moment and she took in a sharp breath as the power flooded her body.
When it was over, Anya rose to her feet, feeling strong once again. “It’s good to be back,” she croaked.
*~*~*
“So if the powder hadn’t touched me, the other Willow…leather-Willow…wouldn’t have been brought here,” Willow said wondrously.
“Shh!” Anya shushed.
*~*~*
Mount Vestos, Greece, 2000
“No, please!” Frederick Papras cried, falling to his knees, trembling at the sight of the demon stalking towards him.
“Sorry,” Anyanka hissed. “You should have thought of that before spending the afternoon with Karla the café waitress when your wife was at home tending to your children.” With a flick of her hand, the man disappeared. He’d be spending the rest of his days in a dimension not unlike this one…but one in which his career was to clean toilets with his tongue.
Smiling with satisfaction Anya looked down at herself. The smile faded. “Jeez,” she muttered, fingering the rags she wore. Taking on the appearance of a professional housekeeper in the small town of Mount Vestos had meant ragged clothing. Things were unpretentious here. There were no signs of big city life, and this was reflected in the simplicity of the people…in their cottages, their jobs, and their garb.
She had befriended Melinda Papras this way…they were both housekeepers, poor, but for the most part happy, until Melinda confided in her new friend that Freddy had had an affair, and their marriage was in shambles. Anyanka already knew this, of course. It was Melinda’s broken heart that had called out to her across the dimensions and led the vengeance demon to her doorstep. And it was Melinda’s delicious little wish that had sent Freddy far, far away.
Now Anyanka’s wrist twitched and the rags were replaced with a splendid robe of sapphire blue, flecked with bits of silver. “Much better,” she exclaimed, pleased.
“That’s the last time I’m doing any of these lower demons a favor,” she groused after teleporting herself back to her chamber. D’Hoffryn, the Sovereign of Vengeance Demons, and her boss, was seated on his massive throne, dispatching demons to exact “justice,” as the biz was now called, on mortals and demons deemed in need.
His eyes ticked to hers as she flounced onto her own throne to his right. “Problems, Anyanka?”
Anyanka rolled her eyes. “These fledglings! They mess up their curses and then we have to come in and bail them out. That new girl, Welinda…she was sent to do this job. It should have been easy. The scorned woman was already wishing his death, chattering in Greek to anyone who would listen. It should have been easy. But what happens? Welinda mixes up her curses and ends up making the Papras house turn into oatmeal.”
D’Hoffryn tried, unsuccessfully, to conceal a snort of laughter.
Anyanka cocked an eyebrow at him. “The oatmeal had weevils, so at least that was something.
“It’s the price we pay when we’re the leaders, Anyanka,” D’Hoffryn reminded her. “When I made you my M’Hashnimar you knew that teaching and guiding the newly recruited demons would be a part of your requirements. You were the same when you started, albeit that was over a thousand years ago.”
Anyanka flipped her hair. “I know,” she mumbled. “But honestly, Hoffy, sometimes I think we’re doling out talismans to anybody with a grudge. Being a vengeance demon used to mean something. Last week?” she said suddenly, sitting up. “I cursed a man because his dog felt unappreciated.”
“A dog?”
“Yes! I curse people, I’m partial to men who are unfaithful to women. Mortal women! Not dogs who think it’s unfair that their master brought home a new puppy!” Anyanka shouted, jumping up and beginning to pace. “I’m the M’Hashnimar! The right hand to the Sovereign of Vengeance! And I’m tired of having to teach first year demons who couldn’t find their way out of a Fistial Dimension!” she wailed.
D’Hoffryn clucked his tongue, used to such outbursts. “I may have something for you, then,” he said softly, walking away.
Anyanka perked up. “What?” she asked, rising to her feet and following D’Hoffryn out of the chamber. They entered another room, dark, lit only by a few candles. At the far end was a crystal sphere.
“See for yourself,” was all he said.
Anyanka stared into the crystal eagerly as a picture began to form. It cleared to reveal a red headed girl casting a spell on the floor of a bathroom.
“She’s having her will done,” Anyanka murmured. D’Hoffryn was silent.
The scene changed at that instant to show the same girl, now arguing with an older man wearing glasses. “You don’t see anything!” she shouted at him.
Again the scene changed. The same girl…oddly familiar now that she thought about it…talking with a guy who was just as famil-- “I know them!” Anyanka cried. “They live in that cursed town where I lost my amulet in the first place! That’s…that’s…arrgh…” she scrunched her eyes in concentration. “Xander! And Willow!” she cried triumphantly.
Back to the crystal. “Spike's more important than Willow. I get it,” Willow was pouting. “Well fine! Why doesn't Buffy just go marry him?”
And then, “Oh yeah, let's look at your bio: Mummy girl. Insect lady. Cordelia. You're a ..... demon magnet. And don’t tell me Cordelia wasn’t a demon. I knew her, remember?”
Anyanka turned to D’Hoffryn, excitement in her eyes. “She…she’s magnificent…for a mortal. So powerful! Look!” she cried as the effects of Willow’s rage unfolded. Demons attacked Xander, the librarian, Giles, went blind. And the Slayer…engaged to a vampire. It was the greatest source of glee Anyanka’d felt it a long time.
“What happened to cause her such anguish?” she asked, her eyes shining. Willow’s heart was crying out to her, the loveliest of melodies.
“Her boyfriend of several years, a werewolf, mated with another of his kind,” D’Hoffryn said offhandedly. “And then left town, with no explanation.”
“Please let me have her,” she pleaded. “As my protégé. Imagine…just imagine what she could do. If she can handle a willful spell at such a young age…she might just one day out power me!”
D’Hoffryn smiled benignly. “Go to her,” he instructed. Anyanka clapped her hands joyfully and whisked herself down the hallway.
*~*~*
“You were engaged to Spike?” Angel growled at Buffy, shooting a heated glare at his GrandSire who grinned like an idiot.
Buffy shrugged sheepishly, not wanting to relive the moment. “It wasn’t my fault!”
“You…you’re coming to ask me to be a demon. D’Hoffryn did that…remember? I turned him down,” Willow stammered to Anya.
They turned back to the fire.
*~*~*
The scene moved to UC Sunnydale. It was a bright, cheery afternoon to all but Willow as she sulked her way across the campus on her way back to the dorm. Entering her room she dropped her bag to the floor when there was a bright light accompanied by heavy wind. The next thing she knew she was in a dark chamber, surrounded by robed…beings. A wrinkled demon stood in front of her.
“Welcome,” the demon said, with what Willow supposed was a smile.
“H-hi?”
“You don’t remember me, do you?”
“Uh, nope. Sorry. Gotta be going now.” She tried to turn but was blocked.
“How’s this? Better?” came the voice from behind her.
Willow turned to see a now human face. “Anya?”
“Yes! I hoped you’d remember. Sorry about that…wasn’t thinking. Should have slipped back to my “human” face,” she joked.
“What are you doing here? What am I doing here?”
“I heard you. Your pain, your anguish. I can make it stop,” Anya told her, taking a step forward as Willow took a step back.
“Wh-what pain?”
“You were betrayed, by the man you gave your heart to. And now you feel that no one understands, that nothing will ever ease it. And…a part of you is very angry with him, isn’t it?” Anya prodded.
“You mean with Oz,” Willow said. Speaking his name aloud sliced pain through her.
Anya nodded.
“Well…yeah…I’ve been happier with him…but…what do you mean you heard me, that you can make it all go away?”
Anya smiled, a much nicer sight without the demony wrinkles. “I’m here to offer you a highly coveted position. You can join us, join me. You’ll never die, you’ll be powerful, and the pain will end.”
Willow stared at her incomprehensibly. “I still don’t understand.”
The demon held up her hand, revealed a gold chain with a charm looped through it. The purple center gleamed off the lights of the candles that surrounded them. “I’m a vengeance demon, Willow. I came to Sunnydale last year and granted a wish for Cordelia Chase. I’m the Patron Saint of Scorned Women.”
“Cordelia?” Willow asked, her face scrunching as she tried to work it out. “Oh. Scorned…last year…”
“Yes…you remember. And now you are feeling the pain she did, only ten times as great. I can make it stop. I can make the whole world stop for you. You want power, I can give it. You want control, it’s yours. Come, join me. Together, we’ll travel the dimensions, mending the hearts of broken women, exacting revenge on the men that shattered them.”
“I—I don’t know, Anya…that’s a nice offer, but…”
“So you want to continue to feel like this?” Anya asked impatiently. “You want to hurt? To mourn? To know that he did you wrong and do nothing about it to show that you’re won’t stand to being treated that way?”
“It’s not like--”
“And your friends certainly don’t seem to be there for you, do they?” Anya smirked. “Busy little bees, buzzing around the hive, but no room for Willow…”
Willow said nothing. Her misery was obvious.
Anya began to circle Willow. “I’ve seen your power. I’ve lived a long time. Been a demon for over a thousand years. Eleven hundred and twenty-one, actually. And your power is the greatest I’ve seen in a lower being in quite some time. Imagine…imagine what you could learn, what you could accomplish in eleven-hundred years.”
Indecisiveness crept into the witches’ eyes.
“Join me,” Anya whispered in her ear. “I get nothing from this, I promise. But I’ll teach you. You could be very, very strong. And…your heart will be healed.”
Willow’s eyes met Anya’s. Slowly, she nodded.
Anya smiled. “Excellent.”
*~*~*
“Holy crap,” Xander muttered. “You turned her into a demon!”
Anya looked disgruntled. “Not one of my best speeches,” was all she said.
“I really have that much power in me?” Willow asked excitedly, completely glossing over the rest of the fact that she’d just been turned into a demon.
*~*~*
For the next twelve hundred years Anya and Willow, now known as Kaelin, (“Willow’s just not a demon name!”) desecrated the lives of unfaithful men. Kaelin’s first order of business had been to find Oz. And to liquefy his entrails.
Happily they worked together until Kaelin reached and surpassed Anyanka’s magical level. It was then she decided to branch out. Anyanka continued to exact revenge on mortal males. Kaelin sought retribution for the demonic side of life.
Soon Kaelin joined Anyanka and D’Hoffryn, sitting on the Sovereign’s left side, as his Ta’char; The Patron Saint of Scorned Demons.
*~*~*
“That’s enough,” Anya said finally. “I can’t believe I made M’Hashnimar! That’s such an honor!” She turned proudly to Willow. “And you! Ta’char! Bully for you!” she cried, patting the witch on her shoulder.
“Yay me?” Willow asked.
“Which do you choose?” Jackter asked.
“Oh, I’m staying here,” Anya said, as if that should be obvious.
Xander looked a bit surprised. “You are?”
“Well…yeah. I mean, being M’Hashmnimar would be amazing, and living forever, and having a powerful sidekick might even not be so bad…but, let’s face it. Then I couldn’t have you.”
“Awww…” Dawn teased.
Xander grinned stupidly. “Really? You’d give up all that for me?”
“For us,” she corrected. “And…I’m getting used to this mortal thing. There’s ice cream. And Ferris Wheel’s. Russell Crowe movies. And my shop…my money…” she sighed dreamily.
The group around the fire smiled.
“Who is next?” Jackter asked.
