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The Wish

Prologue

Buffy, Xander and Willow enjoy a picnic in the park one sunny Sunday afternoon, complete with demon. The demon has both its hands around Buffy’s neck, with her back pressed up against a tree and her feet dangling a foot off the ground.

Buffy tries to pull the demon’s hands away from her throat. “Nerf! Nerf!”

Willow digs through Buffy’s bag of weapons, looking for a “nerf” while Xander slowly picks himself up off the ground where the demon had left him. She finds a knife, and realizes that’s what Buffy has been asking for. Willow tosses the knife to Buffy, who deftly catches it with one hand, and stabs the demon with it. The demon collapses dead to the ground, and Buffy falls with it.

Xander and Willow help Buffy get back to her feet, and the three of them stand around looking at the demon’s body lying on the ground before them. This variety of demon doesn’t go “poof” when it dies. They decide that burial detail can wait until after they finish their picnic.

“Makes you appreciate vamps though,” says Buffy, “No fuss, no muss.”

Xander wonders why Faith was a no-show, as they go back to the picnic table. “I thought mucusy demons were her favourites.”

Buffy says she couldn’t reach Faith, again. Faith hasn’t been hanging out much with them lately. She’s getting worried. “Slaying’s a rough gig. Too much alone time isn’t healthy. Stuff gets pent up.”

“We should try to do more socializing with her,” says Willow.

Buffy asks if they have any other plans for the day.

Xander doesn’t. Cordelia is not returning his calls. He has left sixty or seventy messages on her machine. “But you know what really bugs me? Okay, we kissed. It was a mistake. But I know that was positively the last time we were ever going to kiss.”

“Darn tootin’!” says Willow.

“And they burst in, rescuing us,” says Xander, “without even knocking? I mean, this is really all their fault.”

“Your logic does not resemble our Earth logic,” says Buffy.

“Mine is much more advanced,” says Xander.

“At least tomorrow’s Monday, another school day,” says Willow.

“Well, that’s good,” says Buffy. “You know, focus on school. That’s the strong Willow way to heal.”

“Actually, I was more thinking Oz will be there, and I can beg for forgiveness,” says Willow.

“That works, too,” says Buffy.

Willow wants to be strong, but when she thinks that she may never make up with Oz it feels like all the air just goes out of the room. That is a feeling that Buffy is familiar with.

“Right,” says Xander. “I mean, you went through it with Angel, and you’re still standing. So tell us, Wise One, how do you deal?”

“I have you guys,” says Buffy.

Cordelia sits on her bed in her room, cutting up her pictures of Xander while listening to all the messages he has left on her answering machine. The pieces of the pictures are all going into an ashtray, and she sets them on fire.

Act I

Buffy finds Willow staking out Oz’s locker. He still hasn’t shown. Buffy asks if there is any word on whether or not Cordelia will be back in school this week, and Willow tells her that Amy saw her in the mall on the weekend. Amy reported that Cordy was looking pretty “scary.”

Cordelia pulls her convertible into the Sunnydale High student parking lot, and gets out. She’s wearing spike heeled shoes, and a brown leather jacket and a skirt slit most of the way up her thigh. She meets up with Harmony and a group of her former friends. Harmony introduces her to Anya. A new girl in school who has just moved to Sunnydale.

Harmony tells Cordy that she can’t really believe what happened. She figures that Cordy did the smart thing by ”pretending” to be injured and taking a week off. It gave everyone a chance to forget the insanity that was Xander Harris.

“You know what you have to do,” says one of Harmony’s friends. “Start dating. Get back on the horse.”

“Oh, absolutely!” says Cordelia. “I am ready to ride!”

“Then I have just the stallion,” says Harmony. “He’s so you.”

Harmony leads Cordelia to the base of the stairs leading up to the balcony overlooking the courtyard, where Jonathan is sitting finishing off the last of his “huge glug” softdrink. He’s rather surprised to discover himself at the center of attention from all these girls. He looks around to see if maybe they are looking at someone else.

“I’m pretty sure he won’t cheat on you,” says Harmony. “At least not for a while. Plus, he’s got a kill moped.”

The girls all laugh, and walk away.

Oz finally shows up at his locker, and Willow goes to talk with him. Oz doesn’t really want to talk. Willow tells him again how sorry she is for what happened, and how she wants to make it up to him. She wants to know what she can do.

“You can leave me alone,” says Oz. “I need to figure things out.”

“But maybe if we talk about it,” says Willow, “we could—”

“Look,” interrupts Oz, “I’m sorry this is hard for you. But I told you what I need. So I can’t help feeling like the reason you want to talk is so you can feel better about yourself. That’s not my problem.” He leaves Willow standing alone in the hallway.

Cordelia walks through the school corridors, feeling despondent. She spots Xander at about the same time he spots her. Xander starts toward her, but he is the last person she wants to talk to right now. She snags the first guy passing by, John Lee, and asks him to check if she has something caught in her teeth. She sets it up so that from Xander’s angle it looks like she and John Lee are kissing. Xander turns and walks away.

Cordy tries to interest John Lee in a date, but he has some serious setbacks lately. The coach has cut him back to second string, and his reputation couldn’t handle dating one of Xander’s cast offs. He is willing to go make out with her in a closet sometime though. He leaves her standing in the corridor.

Cordy turns and runs into Anya. She is expecting more insults, and tells Anya to go ahead.

“Hardly,” says Anya. “Actually, I’ve been looking for you. Ever since we met this morning, I was, like: ‘Thank god there’s one other person in this town who actually reads W.’”

“But Harmony…”

“Oh, she follows me around,” says Anya, “If that girl had an original thought, her head would explode.”

Cordelia notices Anya’s necklace, and asks if it’s Gucci. Anya tells her it isn’t. It’s an actual “old thing” that was given to her by her father. She wears it as a good luck charm. Cordy wishes she had one of those, pre-Xander.

“Can I just say: men!” says Anya.

“Seconded,” says Cordy.

“Apart from being without class, the guy’s obviously blind,” says Anya. “Deserves whatever he gets.”

“I’m not even thinking about him,” says Cordy. “I am past it. I am living my life.”

“Still,” says Anya, “I mean…don’t you kind of wish—”

“I don’t wish,” says Cordelia, “I act. Starting now, Xander Harris is going to get a bellyful of just how over him I am.”

Cordelia sits at a table in the Bronze with Anya and a couple of guys. They’re all laughing and having fun.

Xander is sitting on a sofa, with Buffy in between him and Willow. He’s watching Cordelia. He forces himself to laugh. Buffy and Willow just look at him.

“Excuse me. I need to be both giving and receiving of mirth,” says Xander. “Is it too much to ask for a little backup?”

Buffy wants to support Xander, but she doesn’t really feel right about this whole us-against-Cordelia thing.

“It’s true,” says Willow. “Cordelia belongs to the justified camp. She should make us pay. And pay and pay and pay… In fact, there’s just not enough pay for what we…”

Xander interrupts her. Willow can do guilt-a-palooza if she wants, but he’s done with it. “Starting this minute, I’m going to grab ahold of that crazy little thing called life and let it do its magical little heal-y thing. What’s done is done. Let’s be in the moment. Behold the beauty that is now. Who’s with me?”

Buffy and Willow agree that Xander’s making sense. They are being self indulgent with the pit of misery that they have dug for themselves. It’s time to get on the joy train. They all put on bright smiles, and look around.

Their smiles all fade. “That didn’t work,” says Buffy. “Who wants chocolate?”

Xander and Willow both raise their hands. It’s Buffy’s turn, so she gets up from her place between them and heads over to the bar.

Xander moves a little closer to Willow on the sofa. “Look at her.” He nods toward where Cordy is sitting laughing with Anya and the guys. “Tears of a clown, baby. Or is it grins of a sad person?” He reaches across, and puts his hand on Willow’s “Or maybe it’s—”

“Xander, your hand,” says Willow.

Xander jerks his hand away. “Oops! Sorry.” He thinks about it a bit. “But why ‘Oops?’ I mean, we always touch digits. It’s a friend thing. Comfort. Like chocolate.”

“Maybe it used to be,” says Willow, “but since we— It’s different. I’m sorry. But if I want to make things right with Oz, my hands, my—all my stuff—has to be for him only.”

Buffy spots Cordelia leaving early—her wound still seems to be hurting her—and decides to go talk with her. She catches up with Cordelia just outside the Bronze. “Hey, Cordelia, wait a second!”

Cordelia stops and turns around. “Did Xander send you to beg for him? Because if he did—”

“No,” says Buffy, “I’m a free agent, I promise. I just wanted to see how you are.”

“Never been better.” Cordelia turns away from Buffy.

Buffy follows her. “Cordelia, I know what it’s like to be hurt by someone. Hurt so much that you don’t think you’re going to make it. But I told my friends how I felt, and you know what? It got a little better.”

Before Cordelia can make any kind of response a vampire jumps out of the shadows and attacks Buffy. Buffy kicks the vampire, and knocks it into Cordelia. Cordy goes flying into a pile of garbage. Buffy quickly finishes off the vampire, and turns back to Cordy, as she lifts herself out of the trash. Harmony and her friends pick this moment to walk by, and use it as another opportunity to laugh at Cordy’s expense.

“You know what I’ve been asking myself a lot this last week?” Cordelia asks Buffy. “Why me? Why do I get impaled? Why do I get bitten by snakes? Why do I fall for incredible losers? And you know, I think I’ve finally figured it out, what my problem is? It’s…”

“…Buffy Summers! That’s when all my troubles started. When she moved here.” Cordy holds her side and winces.

“Are you okay?” asks Anya.

“Oh, I just pulled some stitches last night. Know why?” Cordy looks over at where Buffy is sitting on a bench in the school quad with Willow and Xander. “Surprise. It was Buffy’s fault.”

Harmony and her friends walk by. “Oh, hey, it’s Garbage Girl,” says Harmony. “Loved the look last night, Cor. Dumpster chic for the dumped.” They laugh and continue on their way.

“Here.” Anya takes off her necklace. “I think you need this more than I do right now.” She puts it on Cordelia.

“Yeah, I can use some luck,” says Cordy. “And a stick with pointy, sharp bits. If that Buffy wasn’t— I swear. She’s a pain.”

“But Xander,” says Anya. “he’s an utter loser. Don’t you wish…”

“I never would’ve looked twice at Xander if Buffy hadn’t made him marginally cooler by hanging with him,” says Cordy.

“Really?” Anya turns to take a good look at Buffy for the first time.

“Yeah!” says Cordy. “I swear! I wish Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale.”

Anya turns back to Cordelia, but she doesn’t look like a high school girl any more. She has transformed into a demon, her face covered in veins. “Done!”

Act II

Cordelia finds herself standing in a much emptier campus. There is no sign of Anya, and the formerly tidy grounds are strewn with bits of trash. She feels her side, her injury has gone. “‘I wish Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale.’” Cordy smiles. “She was, like…a good fairy. A scary, veiny good fairy.” Her smile broadens, and she laughs. She heads into the school.

There’s more evidence of the change inside. Everyone is dressed in really drab colours, and there is garlic and crosses hanging from several lockers. Harmony spots Cordy as she walks down the hallway, and can’t wait to fill her in on the latest gossip about one of the other girls in school. She is really impressed by Cordelia’s bright blue dress.

John Lee comes up and asks Cordy if she’ll be his date to the upcoming Winter Brunch. He figures all the other guys have probably asked her already, but he’s hoping she hasn’t accepted any of their invitations yet. Cordy tells him she will think about it and John Lee leaves happy.

Cordelia meets up with her friends in the final class of the day. The class room is half empty. The final bell sounds and the teacher rushes out, after first reminding the students that there will be no class tomorrow because of the monthly memorial service. All the other students pack up their things and hurry out after him. Cordy wonders what the rush is. She suggests that they should go out to the Bronze. Everyone looks at her like she has lost her mind.

“Cordy, what’s with you?” asks Harmony. “I mean, you wear this come-bite-me outfit, you make jokes about the Bronze, and you’re acting a little schizo.”

“You’re right,” says Cordy. “I just… Well, I bumped my head yesterday, and I keep forgetting stuff. Not that I care, but Xander Harris, he’s miserable, right? And that Willow freak he hangs with, not even a blip on the radar screen, right?”

“Well, yeah,” says Harmony. “They’re dead.”

Cordelia is beginning to suspect that this new world isn’t going to be as much fun as she thought it would be at first.

Cordelia goes to the school parking lot, and finds that her car isn’t there. She asks a janitor who’s sweeping away dead leaves what happened to it. He thinks she is a little crazy too. Students aren’t allowed to have cars. He warns her to get inside before sunset. Cordelia starts to walk home.

Cordelia doesn’t get home before sunset. She walks down Sunnydale’s main street after dark. No one else is around, the street is empty. The Sun Cinema is closed and boarded up. She’s surprised to run into Xander. He’s dressed in leather.

“Well, what do you know?” says Xander. “Cordelia Chase.”

“What is this?” asks Cordelia, “Some kind of sick joke? Harmony told me you were dead.”

“Now, why would she say something like that?” asks Xander. “Let’s think.”

“Listen to me,” says Cordelia. “We have to find Buffy. She’ll figure out a way to save us. She was supposed to be here, and as much as it kills me to admit it…things were better when she was around.”

“Buffy?” asks Xander. “The Slayer?”

“No!” says Cordelia, “Buffy the dog-faced girl! Duh! Who do you think I’m talking about?”

Willow appears behind Xander. “Bored now.” She’s wearing a tight leather outfit with red lace trim. “This is the part that’s less fun. When there isn’t any screaming.”

Cordy looks back and forth between Willow and Xander. “What’s up with you two and the leather?”

Willow comes up to Xander and puts one arm around him. She strokes his chest with the other. “Play now?”

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate your appetite, Will,” says Xander. “But I thought we agreed it was my turn.”

“No. No! No way!” says Cordelia. “I wish us into Bizarro Land, and you guys are still together? I cannot win!”

“Probably not.” Xander vamps out. “But I’ll give you a head start.”

Cordelia drops her bag and starts to run.

“I love this part,” says Willow.

Xander gives Willow a kiss. “You love all the parts.” He starts to chase Cordelia. He catches up with her quickly, grabs her by the neck and throws her to the ground.

Willow has followed Xander. “No fun. She didn’t even hardly fight.” She looks at Cordelia lying unconscious in the street.

Oz’s van comes screeching around the corner. Xander is not pleased to see it. “Aw, swell. It’s the White Hats.”

The van stops and Giles jumps out of the passenger seat, carrying a cross. He’s covered by Oz with a small crossbow from the driver’s seat. Larry and a girl hop out of the back of the van. They pick up Cordelia while Giles holds off Willow and Xander with his cross. They all get back in the van and drive off.

They take Cordelia to the library. She’s still unconscious. Giles checks her pulse. She’s alive. The girl—Nancy—thinks it is strange that Cordy is dressed the way she is. Everyone knows that vampires are attracted to bright colours, but Larry recognises Cordelia. “Better to look good than to feel alive.”

Giles sends Nancy, Oz and Larry off to guard the perimeter, while he stays in the library with Cordelia.

Xander and Willow arrive at the Bronze. It is just as busy as it has always been, except now most of the clientele are vampires. There are a few people scattered around, in cages or strapped down to pool tables where the vampires can feed off them.

Xander and Willow proceed through the main section of the Bronze into one of the back rooms. The Master is waiting for them. He has a girl that he has lost his appetite for. She keeps looking at him. He gives her to Willow, who hungrily feeds off her while Xander reports on the night’s activities. He tells the Master about his encounter with Cordelia, and how she talked about getting Buffy. “Isn’t that what they called the Slayer?”

Willow comes back to Xander’s side. “Buffy. Ooo. Scary.”

“Someone has to talk to her people,” says Xander. “That name is striking fear in nobody’s hearts.”

The Master is not pleased to hear that they let Cordelia get away. His plans are too close to fruition for them to be spoiled by the Slayer coming to town. “The plant begins operation in less than twenty-four hours. You will find this girl. You will kill her before she contacts the Slayer. Or I’ll see you two kissing daylight.”

Cordelia wakes up in the library. She’s surprised to see Giles there. She starts to tell him about her wish. Giles tries to get Cordy to lie back down but she won’t. “No! 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.”

Giles is surprised that Cordy knows that he was a Watcher. He hasn’t told anyone about that. Before he can question her further he hears a noise. It worries him. He goes into the book cage to arm himself.

Willow slams the cage door shut behind Giles, locking him in. “You’re in a big cage.” Willow waves the key at him.

Xander is holding onto Cordelia, with his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. “Not too bright, Book Guy. So you’re a Watcher, huh? Watch this.” He bites into Cordelia’s neck.

Willow joins Xander, sinking her teeth into the other side of Cordy’s neck. The three stand locked in an embrace. Xander and Willow feed off Cordelia while she screams, and Giles looks on, helpless from the cage.

Willow and Xander drop Cordy’s lifeless body on the library floor, and leave. Willow casually tosses the key to the cage back over her shoulder as she goes.

Act III

Giles uses an axe to break out of the cage, and goes to check on Cordelia. It is no good, she’s dead. Oz and Larry come rushing into the library and report that Willow and Xander had hit them right outside. They killed Nancy too.

Giles instructs them to take the bodies to the incinerator. Oz and Larry pick up Cordy’s body. Giles notices the necklace she’s wearing. Something about it bothers him, so he takes it before Oz and Larry carry the body away.

Xander and Willow report back to the Master. He sips on a glass of blood. “Excellent. The opening will commence as scheduled.”

“So, you’re pleased?” asks Willow.

“Ecstatic,” says the Master.

“Then…can I play with the puppy?”

The Master smiles, and holds out some keys to her. “Be my guest.”

Giles phones Buffy’s Watcher to request that she come to Sunnydale. Her Watcher doesn’t seem to be able to make any sort of commitments for Buffy’s travels. He hasn’t seen her for a while, and there is a lot of demonic activity in Cleveland that she has to do something about.

“Just give her the message, if you ever see her again.” Giles hangs up.

“Bored now.” Willow picks up a pair of metal shears from a rack of instruments of torture on the wall. “Daytime’s the worst. Cooped up for hours. Can’t hunt…” She runs the shears along the bars of a cell. “…but the Master said I could play.”

The man lying on the cage floor stirs, and Willow opens the cell. “Aw, Puppy’s being all quiet. Come on. Don’t be a spoilsport.” She straddles him, grabs him by the hair and pulls his head up. It’s Angel.

Willow runs the shears along the side of Angel’s neck and face. “Guess what today is? Today the plant opens. It’s a big party.” She licks her tongue along the same track the shears had followed. “You remember, I told you about the plant? All those people you tried to save? It’s going to be quick for them. Not for you, though. It’s going to be slow for you.”

Willow roles Angel over onto his back and sits astride him. Angel moans in pain. “That’s right, Puppy, Willow’s going to make you bark.” She rips open his shirt. His chest is covered with partially healed wounds. “Oh, maybe I went too hard on you last time.”

Xander lights a match and tosses it by Willow’s head onto Angel’s chest. Angel cries out in pain. “Too hard?” asks Xander. “No such thing.”

Willow turns to Xander. “Watch it with those things. You almost got my hair.”

“Sorry. Got carried away.” Xander tosses the box of matches to Willow.

“Don’t you want to?”

“No thanks, baby,” says Xander. “I just want to watch you go.”

Willow smiles and turns her attention back to Angel. She lights another match.

Giles finds a picture of Cordelia’s necklace in one of his books and goes to tell Oz and Larry about it. They are working on some weapons maintenance. It is the symbol of Anyanka, a demon who grants wishes for scorned women.

“So Cordelia wished for something?” asks Oz. “Well, if it was a long, healthy life, she should get her money back.”

“She said something about everything being different, that the world wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was, um, better. Before,” says Giles.

“Okay. The entire world sucks because some dead ditz made a wish?” asks Larry. Giles and Oz give him a look. “I just want it clear.”

“She said the Slayer was supposed to be here, was meant to have been here already,” says Giles.

“Certainly would’ve helped,” says Oz.

Giles tells them that he has tried calling her. He still has more research to do, but the books he needs are at home. He tells them to get some sleep, and goes.

Giles drives toward his home in his Citroen. He comes across some vampires herding a bunch of people into a van in the park. He arms himself with a stake and a cross, and gets out of his car to help the people. He holds the two vampires who were forcing the people into the van at bay with his cross, and tells the people to run. They do. A third vampire appears and attacks Giles from behind. It knocks him to the ground.

The vampires pick up Giles and start to carry him away, when they’re attacked by someone else. They drop Giles and turn to face their new attacker. The new person quickly dusts two of them, and the surviving vampire runs away.

Giles looks up a the girl who has rescued him. “Buffy Summers?”

“That’s right,” says Buffy. “Want to tell me what I’m doing here?”

Act IV

This is a leaner, meaner Buffy. She seems to have totally lost her sense of humour. She has also picked up some physical scars, including a gash across her lips.

Giles and Buffy have gone to Giles’ home, where he has filled her in on what he knows about Cordelia, Anyanka, and the wish.

Giles reads from one of his books. “‘In order to defeat Anyanka, one must destroy her power center. This should reverse all the wishes she’s granted, rendering her mortal and powerless again.’ You see? Without her power center, she’d just be an ordinary woman again, and all this would be, um…well, different.” He is quite pleased with himself. “Well, I’d say that my, my Watcher muscles haven’t completely atrophied after all.”

Buffy is not impressed. “Great. What’s her power center?”

Giles looks back at his book. “Um, well, um… It doesn’t say.”

Buffy suggests that maybe she should just stake this demon. Giles points out that it isn’t a vampire.

“Well, you’d be surprised how many things that’ll kill,” says Buffy.

Giles isn’t interested in killing Anyanka. He wants to reverse whatever it was that Cordy wished for.

“You’re taking an awful lot on faith here, Jeeves,” says Buffy.

“Giles.”

Buffy shrugs. “Kill the bad fairy. Destroy the bad fairy’s power center, whatever, and all the troubles go away?”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure it’s not that simple,” says Giles, “but—”

“World is what it is,” says Buffy. “We fight. We die. Wishing doesn’t change that.”

“I have to believe in a better world,” says Giles.

“Go ahead. I have to live in this one.”

Giles is convinced that this is important. Why else would the Master have sent his two most vicious disciples to kill Cordelia? At last Buffy has heard something that interests her. She wants to know more about this Master guy. Maybe her trip to Sunnydale won’t be a total waste of time if she can kill him. Giles tells her that she can find the Master in a former club, on the outskirts of town.

“You know where he lives, and no one’s ever tried to take him out?” asks Buffy.

“People have tried.” says Giles. He doesn’t think it will be a good idea for Buffy to go after the Master alone. She should at least take some backup with her.

Buffy glares at Giles. “I don’t play well with others. Now, I’m going to ask you this once, and then I’m going to get testy: where’s this club?”

Buffy goes to the Bronze. She finds it empty. She looks around, and finds the cages in the basement. She sees Angel, but she ignores him and turns to go.

Angel sees her leaving. “Buffy! Buffy Summers.” She stops and turns around. “It’s you. I mean…you don’t remember. How could you?”

“How did you know my name?” asks Buffy.

“I waited. I waited here for you. But you never…I was supposed to help you.”

Buffy doesn’t really believe what she is hearing. “You were going to help me?”

Angel starts to tell her how he was sent to Sunnydale, but Buffy isn’t interested. “Is this a get-in-my-pants thing?” she asks. “You guys in Sunnydale talk like I’m the Second Coming. I don’t have time for stories. Where’s the Master?” Angel tells her that he can lead her to him.

Buffy eyes Angel suspiciously for a moment, before she kicks open the door to his cell. She goes in to release him from his chains. As she bends over her cross necklace swings out and dangles in front of Angel’s face. He recoils from it. “Oh, you got to be kidding me!” Buffy starts to go.

“Wait! I won’t hurt you,” says Angel

“No. You’ll leave that to your Master,” says Buffy.

“You don’t believe I want to help you.” Angel opens his shirt to show her his wounds. “Believe I want him dead.”

The Master stands on a podium before a group of assembled vampires in his new factory. In the middle of the factory floor is a machine with a conveyor belt leading into it. Off to the side is a wooden cage full of people, including Oz and Larry. Willow, Xander and several other vampires are with the Master on the podium. The Master is making a speech:

“Vampires, come! Behold the technical wonder, which is about to alter the very fabric of our society. Some have argued that such an advancement goes against our nature. They claim that death is our art. I say to them—Well, I don’t say anything to them because I kill them.

“Undeniably we are the world’s superior race. Yet we have always been too parochial, too bound by the mindless routine of the predator. Hunt and kill, hunt and kill. Titillating? Yes. Practical? Hardly. Meanwhile the humans, with their plebeian minds, have brought us a truly demonic concept: mass production!”

The assembled vampires start to cheer. Xander is moved by the occasion. “We really are living in a golden age,” he tells Willow.

Giles performs a spell to summon Anyanka. It works, and she appears before him. “Do you have any idea what I do to a man who uses that spell to summon me?”

The vampires open the cage and pull out the first of their victims. A young girl. They drag her from the cage, stun her with cattle prods and load her onto the conveyor belt which carries her into the machine.

“She’s still alive, you see,” the Master explains to the other vampires with him. “For the freshness.”

Several probes extend from the machine and plunge into the girl’s body, and quickly drain all the blood from her. One of the vampires goes to a tap on the side of the machine, and fills a wine glass with blood.

Buffy and Angel arrive, and look over the scene.

“What’s the plan?” asks Angel.

Buffy hands him a stake. “Don’t fall on this.”

They slowly thread their way through the assembled vampire onlookers, working their way closer to the Master, as the first glass of blood from the machine is taken to him to sample. The Master receives the glass, and raises it in a toast. “Welcome to the future!”

“To the Future!” echo back the assembled vampires.

Buffy raises her crossbow and fires a shot at the Master.

The bolt doesn’t connect. The Master sees it coming, and he pulls Xander in front of him as a shield. The crossbow bolt hits Xander in the shoulder. Pandemonium breaks out, as half the vampires assembled try to run for cover, while the others attack Buffy. Angel heads for the cage and opens its door, releasing the people held there, creating more chaos as most of them head for the exits.

Willow sees Angel and smiles. “Uh-oh. Puppy got out.”

Some of the people stay behind. Oz and Larry break slats off their former cage to use as makeshift stakes, and start to attack the vampires. Xander and Willow jump off the podium to join in the fight.

Anyanka steps toward Giles. He doesn’t back down. “Cordelia Chase: what did she wish for?”

“I had no idea her wish would be so exciting!” says Anyanka. “Brave New World. I hope she likes it.”

“You’re going to change it back,” says Giles. “I’m not afraid of you. Your only power lies in the wishing.”

Anyanka reaches out and grabs Giles by the throat. “Wrong!” She slams him up against the wall.

Xander pulls the arrow from his shoulder and uses it as a weapon to attack Buffy from behind. Angel sees him coming at her and steps into his path. Xander stakes Angel in the chest, and Angel vanishes into dust.

Anyanka holds Giles against the wall. “This is the real world now! This is the world we made! Isn’t it wonderful?”

Buffy works her way through the crowd of vampires. Xander attacks her again, and she stakes him without giving him a second look. She continues to make her way toward the podium.

Willow sees Buffy advancing toward the Master and moves to stop her. Larry grabs her and holds her back. Oz sees Larry struggling with Willow and goes to help him. He grabs Willow and pushes her back onto a broken slat from the cage. She dusts.

The Master sees Buffy coming toward him, and he goes to meet her. The Slayer and the Master’s attention is focused entirely on each other as they work their way through the mob toward each other, pushing vampires and people out of their way as they advance.

Giles notices that the pendant on Anyanka’s necklace—which is now back around her neck—has started to glow. He reaches out and grabs onto it. He pulls it from around her neck, and breaks free.

Buffy and the Master reach one another. Buffy tries to punch him, but he easily deflects her blows.

Giles places the necklace on his desk and grabs a paper weight to smash it.

“You trusting fool!” says Anyanka. “How do you know the other world is any better than this?”

“Because it has to be,” says Giles.

The Master punches Buffy, stunning her, and grabs her by the head.

Giles raises the paper weight to smash the necklace’s pendant.

“No!” cries Anyanka.

The Master twists Buffy’s head, snapping her neck with a sickening crunch. He releases her, and she drops to the floor.

Giles brings the paperweight down on the pendant, smashing it. There is a brilliant flash of green light.

Epilogue

“I wish Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale!” says Cordelia.

Anya turns to face her. “Done!” Nothing happens. Cordelia isn’t wearing her necklace anymore, and Anya looks entirely human.

“That would be cool!” says Cordelia, as Anya looks surprised. “No wait. I wish Buffy Summers had never been born!”

“Done!” says Anya. She can’t believe that this isn’t working. She looks down at herself in confusion. She notices that her necklace has vanished.

“And I wish that Xander Harris never again knows the touch of a woman.” Cordelia is really starting to get into this now, making wish after wish. “And that Willow wakes up tomorrow covered in monkey hair!”

“Done!” says Anya after every wish, but nothing happens. Cordelia turns and walks away from her making still more wishes. Cordy walks past where Buffy, Willow and Xander are sitting, talking and laughing with one another as Giles comes up to them, rather pointedly indicating the time on his watch. The three ignore him, and keep chatting among themselves.

Characters Introduced

• Anya

Death Toll

* All of these deaths are virtual. They don’t happen in the “real” Buffyverse.