"It all came about because of Cordelia's wish," Anya said.

"I didn't make any wish!"

"Yes, you did," Anya insisted.

"Cordelia wished me to be a vampire?" Willow yelped.

"Not exactly," Anya explained. "Cordelia wished that Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale."

"Oh," Cordelia said softly.

"What? What did my coming to Sunnydale have to do with anything?"

"She thought that hanging out with you made Xander looked cooler than he really was."

"Hey!" Xander protested.

Ignoring Xander's interruption, Anya continued. "She then wished that you had never come to Sunnydale."

"So?" Buffy asked. "I wish things all the time. Doesn't make any difference."

"Makes a difference when you wish to a Vengeance Demon, doesn't it, Anya," Angel, who'd been silent until now, said coolly.

Anya nodded her head. "I made it so."

"Huh?"

"I created a reality where you never came to Sunnydale."

Everyone except Spike and Angel gasped in surprise.

"Good lord, are you telling us that you have that much power that you can completely change the reality of the world?"

"Had," Anya asserted. "I had that much power."

"So Vampire Willow is actually me?" Willow asked tremulously glancing over to a very amused double.
The vampire made a kissy face at her, and Willow looked away in discomfort.

Anya nodded. "When I made it so that Buffy never came to Sunnydale, The Master's servant completed the Harvest. The Master and his minions were able to take over Sunnydale. There were very few humans left. Mr. Giles was one of them."

"So I somehow figured out that the new reality was false?"

"Cordelia still had memories of the old reality. She found you and told you to call Buffy to Sunnydale, that the Sunnydale you knew was different from the one she knew. Somehow you figured out what had happened. You summoned me which, by the way, really angered me," Anya emphasized with a glare at Giles. "You weren't a scorned woman. It was totally against the rules."

Giles merely gave her a steady look and she nervously returned to her story. "Anyway you broke my pendent making me human again and reverting the new reality back to what had been at the exact moment the wish was made. I was stuck in the persona I had created to get close to Cordelia."

"But if our reality was returned, why does Vampire Willow still exist?" Buffy asked.

"Because once something is created it cannot be destroyed, only changed. That reality exists from the time I made it until my pendent was broken. Vampire Willow exists in that reality in that time. As does my pendent."

Buffy frowned and asked, "But if we really lived it, why wouldn't we remember that alternate reality? I don't remember anything about it."

"No you wouldn't remember it because to you, it never really happened. It's really hard to explain, but the other you wasn't really the you you are. Understand?"

"Uh, no."

"So you were trying to reclaim your power source so that you could become a Vengeance Demon again, is this correct?" Wesley inserted himself into the conversation for the first time.

"Yes, that was my intention." Looking around at all the shocked, disapproving faces, she exclaimed. "You don't understand! I hate being human. I hate being weak and powerless and friendless and dependent on a stupid job in a stupid magic shop for my livelihood. I just want to be what I was." Putting her head in her hands, she began sobbing once again.

Sighing, Xander knelt down beside the weeping girl and patting her back gently he said, "You aren't friendless, Anya. We're your friends."

Looking up with tear-filled eyes, Anya said, "Are you really?"

"Of course we are. Aren't we, guys?" he said forcefully. Everyone obediently if not enthusiastically nodded assent.

"See," Xander smiled at her. "You're not alone. You have lots of friends."

Anya smiled a watery smile at Xander. "So does this mean that Buffy's not going to kill me?"

Buffy looked shocked at the question. "Hey, I don't kill humans," she insisted.

"Oh. Good then. I was afraid that since I had been a Vengeance Demon for over a thousand years..."

"I knew it," Tara exclaimed.

Everyone's attention turned to Tara who blushed and said, "Sorry. Nothing. Sorry."

Turning back to Anya Buffy asked, "So how does this work? When she returns to her reality, will she remember us?

Anya nodded agreement. "Probably. We're not changing anything about the realities this time, just returning her to where she belongs. It should even be to the exact second from which she was taken."

"She won't be able to come back, will she?" Xander asked nervously.

Anya shook her head. "No, I don't think so."

"You don't think so? Look, Anya, if there's a chance that The Master from that reality can come into ours..." Giving the vampire a cold stare, Buffy added, "Maybe it's best if I just dust her. Remove any possibility of that happening."

"Hey!" the vampire shouted. Buffy glared at her.

"Oh."

"Willow? Something wrong?"

"Uh, no. It-it's just that, knowing she really is me, or rather another me, it just seems, you know, kinda ooky to just dust her. I mean, I understand why you're worried. The Master, bad." Turning to Anya she asked, "Do I understand correctly? That reality doesn't exist past the time the spell was broken?"

"It shouldn't," Anya answered.

"So how much time will, uh, Vampire Willow have once she's returned to her own reality?"

"I'm not sure, but not too long I don't think. I was trying to retrieve my pendent from the time right before Mr. Giles smashed it."

"See," Willow said with nervous enthusiasm, "she probably won't have time to even tell The Master about us."

The vampire started pulling at her chains when she heard this. Buffy walked over to her and pulled out a stake.

"Buffy, please!"

Buffy looked at Willow and sighed in surrender. "Fine, but can we just get on with it? I'm really tired of all of this and I'd like to take a shower and go to bed sometime this week."

"Yes," Anya said. "We can do it right now." Looking at Willow, she said, "I really do need you to help me, okay?"

Reluctantly, Willow left Tara's side and went to join Anya in the spellcasting.

Buffy moved away from the vampire. Lowering her head she began massaging her temples with her fingertips. Strong, cool hands began rubbing at the tight cords at her shoulders and neck. "You okay, love?"

"Yeah," Buffy smiled at her lover enjoying the feel of his strong hands on her tense muscles. "It's just trying to understand Anya's explanation gave me a headache. It doesn't make any sense. That reality existed for a period of time but then the spell was broken and we went back to where we were before it was cast but that other reality still exists for that same period of time. Oh, my poor brain."

Spike chuckled and turning her around pulled his Slayer into his arms. "You should know by now that things in Sunnydale don't always make sense, sweetheart. Look at us."

Buffy had laid her head on his chest when he had pulled her to him. Now she raised her head and said softly, "Out of everything in my life, Spike, you're the one thing that makes the most sense."

Spike swallowed hard fighting to contain the emotions that flooded him upon hearing her words. Pulling her tight against him he lowered his head to rest on the top of hers. Wrapped in each other's arms, they clung together in a cocoon of comfort.