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Author's Chapter Notes:
We decided to have Anya remember the past and who she really was. Hope you like this verison better.
Chapter 8-

Weenan, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa:

It was the hottest day on record in the small farming community. Those who had air conditioners ran them nonstop, though it did little to cool the hot air. The ones who didn’t have air conditioners suffered through the scorching temperatures. The air hung thick with humidity, raising the temperature to over 100 degrees in the shade.

With so many SITs added to the small household, Anya was surprised her dryer had held out as long as it had..and with a heavy sigh, Anya grabbed the baskets and headed out into the muggy afternoon. She had only just began to place the clothes on the line before the rain came.

“Shoot!”

Anya pulled Xander’s shirt and boxers off the line, but soon abandoned her taks in the face of a quickly dawning monsoon. There wasn’t much time to mess around in a storm like this.

“Screw it!” she mumbled, grabbing the basket and as many of the clothes on the line she could manage. Anya made her way back to the house, but her sense of direction was off and she couldn’t see through the sheet of rain. She knew that she wouldn’t make it on unless she had some help.

Soaked and freezing, Anya yelled out to her husband, hoping that he’d hear her cries.

****
Xander smiled to himself as he pondered the young blond hitting the punching bag he was holding. He was once again struck by the uncanny resemblance in style and personality that Cassandra had to a certain blond slayer they all knew. She was gifted and sure to be sent to Giles, but he wanted Buffy to see first hand, how good this girl really was.

They’d just gotten a new batch of girls in that week and he had to rush to get the more experienced girls out to Willow or Giles by the end of the week. Today was Wednesday.

“Ok now let’s try something different.” Xander said as he grabbed a sword from the wall, but he quickly landed on his back with an ‘oomph’. “I wasn’t ready!”

Hearing his wife’s cries for help, he stood. “Take a break for a moment.” He said before he went rushing out into the storm. His heart skipped a beat, believing that the worst was about to happen again. He couldn’t lose Anya again. No! He squinted with his one good eye through the heavy rain, searching for her.

Xander heaved a sigh of relief when he spotted a thin outline of Anya. She hadn’t even realized just how close to the barn, she really was. He crossed the few feet that separated them and reached out to her, grabbing a hold of her arm and pulling her close to him. “Anya, are you ok?”

“Yes!” she shouted through the rain.

“Good!” He pulled her into the barn and out of the rain.
The rain was coming down harder and faster, the wind so bad that the tree branches scrapped up against the barn, making terrible noises. One of the branches broke through the window upstairs, scaring everyone. Cassandra raced upstairs to cover the window with a blanket.

When Xander and Anya bought the piece of land a few years ago, the house and barn had been in such bad shape, that it had taken him months to get them in order.

After he had finished, the house had a second story with three bedroom and 2 ½ baths, a large living room, gourmet eat-in kitchen and an office for him. The barn was transformed into a gym and all the tools that the girls would need to fight in battles. On the second floor, Xander transformed it into sleeping quarters and recreational area for the SITs, where they had every accommodation the council could afford them.

Suddenly the wind blew harder, shaking the barn and causing the door to slam shut, startling everyone. Fear snaked through Anya and she dropped the clothes basket to the ground. She’d seen something out in the night sky that frightened her.

“It’s ok Anya. It was just the wind.” Xander said in an attempt to calm her fears.

“Xander, I know I saw something out there,” Anya replied, defensively.

“There’s nothing out there,” reassured Xander. “Go conference room until the rain goes away.”

Anya didn’t believe Xander, but didn’t want to argue, so she did as he asked and went into conference room. Anya turned to watch Xander with Cassandra before shutting the door behind her. Anya knew why Xander worked with Cassandra; she reminded him of Buffy and he still had a crush on her. Anya didn’t mind so much anymore, she had Xander and that was all that mattered.

“Ok,” Xander took a deep breath and let it out in a huff, “Cassandra, let’s try a little hand-to-hand combat.”

Cassandra punched Xander squarely in the face, sending him reeling back against the wall. He held up his hand to fend her off a moment and regain his balance and then they went right back to fighting. It went on a few more minutes until the door swung open with a loud bang. Anya ran out of the conference room just as something appeared before them. Xander pulled Anya behind him protectively.

As the black mist rolled into the building, the SITs rushed down to the first floor sensing some kind of danger. At first it seemed harmless, causing the young SITs to let their guard down. The mist made its move. One by one, the slayer’s dropped to the ground, dead. The couple was helpless without the girls.
The mist invaded their thoughts, their senses-- they couldn’t breathe, they couldn’t move. Then they dropped to the floor, unconscious.

When the storm cleared and the wind died down, the sky lit up and showed a bright sun shiny day. With a light breeze showing, and the sun shining through the windows, the mist took on a human form, scooped up Anya and Xander and disappeared.

*****
Hellmouth, Cleveland, Ohio

A restless Faith couldn’t sleep and decided to begin the new novel she’d purchased the day Buffy left for LA. She leaned over, kissed Robin on the head, slid out of bed, and quietly headed out to the main room.
The slayer switched on the table lamp and made herself comfortable on the sofa. She then settled in and began to read the first chapter.

Chapter 1-

Sunnydale 1997

The slayer! My third slayer! There she was, dancing with her friends her lithe body swaying and undulating to the beat of the music. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Blond tresses, hazel eyes… I could think of nothing else. Not even my beautiful dark princess, my ripe wicked plum. She didn’t matter to me, as I stood and watched the slayer. She invaded my senses and I couldn’t let go. I was drawn to her from that moment on. I had to have her, it didn’t matter how. I was gonna get what I wanted and to hell with what everyone else wanted.

Seems obsessive, but I didn’t care! She was mine.

Faith looked up from her book surprised. “Love at first site!” She whispered. “And he didn’t know it yet!”

As she resumed her reading, she heard load crash coming from the hallway, then her name being called out. It was Robin. He was in trouble.

“Robin!” She threw the book down on the sofa, and sped down the hall into the bedroom. He was out cold on the bed and a dark mist hovered over him. “GET AWAY FROM HIM!” She snapped, and then moved closer to Robin. Grasping him by the hand she pulled him off the bed and into her arms.

The mist began to slowly move towards her. Suddenly she was helpless. She couldn’t move. She was paralyzed. It engulfed her and she fell to the floor, unconscious. The mist formed into a human, scoop her up, then Robin. In a flash, they disappeared.

*****

Slayer Training Academy, Chicago, Illinois

It was after midnight, when Willow pulled into the parking garage of her building. She pulled the car into her parking spot, she switched off the engine, grabbed her briefcase and stepped out of her car, wearily heading towards the elevator.

As she waited for the elevator, Willow had a horrible feeling something was about to happen, but it quickly vanquished when the door opened and she stepped in. It wasn’t until later during a fitful dream, that she foresaw what was about to happen.

“Xander…Anya.” Willow sat up in bed, her long red hair whipping in her face. She blindly searched for the light switch, and successfully turned it on. “Giles…I hope you're home!” She picked up the phone and punched in the number, waiting for it to ring.

“Giles residence,” an English girl answered the phone on the fifth ring. “How man I help you.”

“Is Mr. Giles home?” Willow asked in a hurry. “It’s important that I speak with him.”

“Hold on, please.” The girl set the phone down with a thud and Willow waited impatiently. She looked over at her clock, which read 2 am. She figured that it must have been eight or nine in the morning there.

While waiting, Willow grabbed her dream notebook from the nightstand, quickly jotting down the dream she’d had. The images were fuzzy but she could see Xander and Anya disappearing and the SITs dead. What was going on?

“Giles here,” Finally he came to the phone five minutes later.

“Giles! It’s Willow.”

“Isn’t it a bit early on your end, Willow?” Giles asked confused.

“We got big problems, Giles,” Willow began breathlessly. “I think I had some sort of premonition--” The phone suddenly went dead before she could go on in detail about her dream. The bad feeling from the elevator quickly returned. What the hell was going on?

Giles is in trouble! I’ve got to go to him!

With that thought, a black mist floated in through her open window. It hovered above her momentarily before enveloping her, she went limp. It took the form of a human, scooped her up, turned back into the mist and disappeared.

*****

Elite Slayers Academy, London, England

“Willow! Willow!” Giles screamed into his cordless, but he got no answer. “Bloody hell!” He slammed the phone down on the oak desk in his office. A few moments later, he picked up the phone again, and dialed Willow’s cell. No answer there either. Something must be up!

“Willow,” Giles began his message to Willow’s voice mail, “if you get this, it is imperative that you call me back and tell me what’s going on!” He clicked the phone off as Dawn had entered his office and closed the door behind her.

“Hey Giles!” Dawn greeted brightly, making her way over to him. “What’s wrong?” She asked, noticing the grim look on his face.

Dawn was off on holiday from her school and had decided to visit Giles in England. When he’d first seen her three days before, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

She’d grown into such a lovely young lady. If Giles had been younger, he’d definitely take note of how much she had changed, but as her father figure, that was absolutely out of the question.

“Oh, Dawn,” Giles said, startled. “It’s nothing for you to worry about. Just lost a phone connection is all.”

Though the young girl could see just how agitated Giles really was, when he removed his glasses and a handkerchief and began to polish the lenses.

“Giles…” Dawn made herself comfortable in the chair behind his desk, and leaned forward, propping her head up with her hands. “Whenever you do that,” she said pointing with her pink nail polished finger, “--something is wrong. Now, what the hell is going on?! I’m not a little girl anymore. You can tell me!”

“Very well,” Giles placed his glasses back on his face and stuffed the handkerchief back in his breast pocket. He leaned on the desk close to her as he began to explain. “Honestly, Dawn, I have no idea, but it must be bad. Willow was just about to tell me what that was and the phone just went dead. It was as if someone didn’t want her to tell me what happened.”

“Did you try her cell?” Dawn asked worriedly. She sat back, playing with a thread on her pink silk blouse.
“Of course, there was no anwser.” Giles untied his blue neck tie and sat back in the chair .

“We need to call Buffy, then!” Dawn demanded.
She hadn’t heard from her sister since her holiday from school began a few weeks before, but she knew Buffy’s itinerary: First few weeks with Faith and the SITs and Second, onto Willow’s in Chicago for awhile. But if Willow called Giles and Buffy wasn’t with her, then something definitely must be up. But what could it be?

“I agree!” Giles picked up the phone was about to dial Buffy, but he noticed a black mist drifting in through an open window. He dropped the phone and made his way over towards Dawn, protectively.

“What’s the matter, Giles?” She hadn’t noticed the mist.

Before Giles could answer, the mist invaded their senses, they couldn’t move, they couldn’t speak, they were frozen in place. Helpless!

Then things went black, and Dawn and Giles fell to the floor unconscious. For a moment, the mist hovered in place, as if to watch them, then took shape of a human. It scooped them up in its arms, and disappeared through the air.

*****

Slowly Anya woke up, glancing around the small and barley lit room. From what she could tell, the room was no bigger than a laundry room. There was window on the far end of the wall, but it had been boarded up. There didn’t appear to be a doorway that she could see, though she was mostly thankful everyone was alive, yet still sleeping. A moment later, Xander awoke. He quickly looked around, surprised to see everyone.

“Where are we?” Xander asked groggily.

“I don’t know.” Anya whispered softly, clinging to her husband.

Willow was the next to awaken, then Giles and Dawn, and finally Faith and Robin awoke.

“Wha…” Faith asked, rubbing her head, a sudden headache pounding the side of her head.

“What’re we going to do?” Dawn asked scared tone in her voice.

“I don’t know, Dawn,” replied Giles, wrapping his arms around her and Willow protectively. “I’m just glad that everyone is ok.”

TBC





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