Chapter 9

Ten a.m. – Next morning

Buffy snuggled into Spike not wanting to believe it was morning yet. How did the sunrise always manage to happen just when she was drifting off to sleep? You would think if the Powers were the ones who brought her back they would have at least given her more time before she had to wake up and figure things out.

Sighing she ran through the list of things she needed to get done. After their conversation with Giles, she had a long discussion with Spike. Her first instinct was to charge ahead and start fixing everything that had went wrong in the past, but Spike had pointed out that if she went around changing everything before it happened then the results would be unpredictable.

She had argued, pleaded and flat out begged but he had stopped her flat with one sentence, “Pet, as much as I would love to fix everything that went wrong for you – what happens if we accidentally get rid of Tara or the Bit?”

Damn, she hated when he was the logical one! It was so unfair!

The First would need to be dealt with. He would have to be the primary target. Giles would need to start researching the First and the Scythe. A prophecy tingled at the back of her memory, but it was elusive.

Spike had to concentrate on finding the Gem of Amara and getting the trinket back on his hand. They needed all the weapons and ammunition possible to deal with the upcoming battle. Plus, all the shiny things could be sold! No more money problems or Doublemeat Palace for this girl!

There were some things she would have to change, heck there were things she had already changed just by showing up. Things would be different, the only question was how different.

She would have to decide what to do with Faith. She couldn’t let her sister slayer kill innocent people or go bad. Faith pulled through in the end, yet the end would no longer be the same. She couldn’t take the chance that her coming back would ruin Faith’s chance at redemption.

Then there were other factors… what she should do about Andrew and Jonathan? How could she save Tara? Could she save her mom? There were so many variations. So many things that had to happen in order for other events to occur…. Ugghhhh – whoever thought time travel would make things easier for someone had never really thought it through.

The only thing that was easy was what to do about Anya. How funny was it that when the Powers decided to reward their champions they decided to include Anya in the package.

Along with all of the Buffy and Spike memories and the nifty upgrades, there was one more memory running around in her head. The key to Anya’s reward was simple. Buffy had been given two rituals.

One ritual permitted a person to be returned to an alternate dimension. She instinctively knew that she was only allowed to return Anya because she had died saving the world. Anya’s reward for giving up her humanity would not be death but a choice.

The second ritual would allow Buffy to summon the demon Anyanka and restore her memories to her. Anya would be given a choice; she could retain her memories and her humanity or she could remain a demon, forgetting the life that had been hers and remembering only that she should avoid the Hellmouth.

Buffy wondered what her choice would be.

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Spike watched as Buffy finished putting the final touches on the protection barrier and began to start chanting. “Anyanka, patron of women scorned… I call upon thee. Come before me.”

With a flash Anyanka appeared in the circle. Her eyes flashed with annoyance and she began to advance upon the duo.

Spike watched in amusement as Anyanka hit the magical barrier. Before she could say or do anything, Buffy was already finishing the next ritual. When the final word “remember” left Buffy’s lips a white light surrounded Anya.

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Anya sank to her knees and began to sob. Crossing the barrier, Buffy was at her friend’s side and hugging her. Both girls started to cry…each feeling their loss keenly.

“I’m dead Buffy! Dead! No more orgasms or money. And the scenery sucks! Do you know what happens to someone who spent 1000 years bringing vengeance and then helps avert an apocalypse or two? Not much let me tell you. You just sit around purgatory processing paperwork. Paperwork! Its worse then high school and I don’t earn anything!”

Buffy laughed, “I really missed you Anya. Okay time constraint here so I better be all explainy girl. Your choice – well actually you and Anyanka’s choice, not sure how that works… but anyway your reward for the whole saving the world bit is that you and your demony self get to decide if you want to be human Anya who gets to live and remember everything that happened up til your death, or of you want to be avoidy Anya and never become human or be allowed back into Sunnyhell.”

Anya looked stunned at the choice before her. She seemed to be listening to an internal argument. Suddenly her faced shifted into that of the vengeance demon and then back again. In a deep guttural voice she spoke; “Done.”

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Noon

Buffy finished taping up the windows of the basement, turned, and laughed at the sight of Spike trying to carry her bed down the stairs.

“What are you doing running around the house during the day?”

“Your mum closed up the windows before she took demon-girl shopping. Are you sure you want to move down into the basement?”

“Yep, but did you see mom’s face when I told her that both Anya and Faith needed places to say. I thought she was going to faint! Then she did that whole ‘I feel guilty because I just found out Buffy died again routine and presto new housemates! Besides mom will be good for both of them, and this place will be homey for us.”

“You mean furthest away from everyone pet?

Buffy grinned at him wickedly, “So Big Bad, we got about three hours to kill until we meet everyone at school. Any ideas on what to do until then?”

Buffy smirked as Spike put down the bed and started to stalk towards her. She could get use to this new timeline!