Anya was at the magic shop when it happened. She was working the cash register, as usual, knowing that she could always trust money, especially when she had a lot of it. Which she didn't, either, considering the Magic Box wasn't as popular around Sunnydale as it used to be. As she was flipping through the sparse twenty dollar bills, a sudden feeling of dread came over her, it was like evil and rage shooting at her from all corners of the world. It was so powerful, it took her breath away, her throat tightened up and she almost had to gasp for air. Anya looked around defensively, although she knew it had nothing to do with her, because she would already be dead. But somewhere here, in this little town, someone was going to be the target of that anger, and even though Anyanka wouldn't care, Anya did, and even if she hated to admit that, someone was in danger, and she had the queerest feeling that it was someone very close to herself.

Buffy and Xander were talking when it happened. A deep talk, may I add. And when Buffy went to hug her best friend, she got the least expected reaction. He tightened up in her arms and pulled away. She looked at him oddly, and realized he was saying her name and pointing behind her. She turned around and gasped. Warren stood there, gun in hand, black overcoat, all James Bond-y. Buffy stood up quickly and tried to shield Xander, although she knew Warren's sole purpose was to shoot her. But before Buffy could do anything, Warren's arm raised, and the barrel was pointed directly at her heart. This all seemed to be happening in slow motion, his index finger gradually putting more and more pressure on the trigger. Buffy dove forward at the last minute in an attempt to bring Warren and the gun down, but she missed, and the bullets flew through the air despite her effort. The disgusting maggot of a man took off, and Buffy would have gone after him if she hadn't realized that she didn't know where the bullets had gone. She gave herself a quick check over and sighed in relief that she was in fact bullet-free. But the relief didn't last all too long when she turned around. Xander- he was lying flat on his back in the grass. Defensive mode? No. Buffy rushed to his side, gaping wide-eyed at the bullet hole in his chest, bleeding like crazy. She put her hand over the hole, but the only thing that resulted in was getting her hands all bloody.

"Xander! Xander, come on!" Buffy yelled, which resulted in him half-blinking.

"B-b…" But Xander couldn't seem to get the words out of his mouth. And suddenly, the bleeding stopped, and Xander's eyes just stared blankly at the sky, his chest stopped raising with his breathing. And he wasn't. Buffy started crying because there was no use in yelling his name. He was, for sure…

"Buffy! Buffy, what happened?" Suddenly, Tara sank to Buffy side and stared at her, then Xander. "Oh my god." Tara put her hand over her mouth. "Is he-"

"Buffy! I called 911! Are you okay, is everyone okay, what-" But Willow stopped pummeling her with questions when she saw Xander. "No, no. He's not-"

"Dead. He's dead. Warren killed him." Buffy stated, like reporting to Willow that she had had eggs sunny side up that morning for breakfast. It was then Willow started crying and so did Buffy. Tara stepped back in the distance, her eyes stinging. She stared blankly at the sidewalk, then blankly at the person running down the sidewalk. Who would be jogging in their regular clothes, toward the house? And then Tara realized it was Anya. Oh god. She ran towards her, which probably didn't look too normal because her legs felt like rubber.

"Anya, just stay here." Tara grabbed her shoulders and halted her before she could come around the hedge and see the body. "You don't want to see-"

"No! Tara, why should I? I know something bad happened, I just need to help." Anya commanded, shoving past Tara and running around the hedge. She stopped. Willow and Buffy were huddled over something. But what was it? Tara was next to her again, and then she realized that two people were missing.

"Tara- where's Dawn?"

"At her friends, but Anya.."

"Okay, then, where's Xander?" Anya questioned, his name coming out a little choked. Tara looked at her.

"Um, Anya…" But Tara couldn't finish her sentence because she started crying. Anya looked at her, then look at Willow and Buffy and couldn't speak. She rushed over to them, and sank to her knees across from them when she realized they were huddled over Xander.

"What-" But Anya couldn't get the next word out. Xander stared lifelessly at the sky. She grabbed his hand. But it was too cold. Anya shook her head at the body as her eyes started as her vision became blurred. She looked at Buffy and Willow. Buffy looked back at her with hatred.

"Is this what you wanted, Anya? This? Xander, dead? Huh, I know you played a part in this! What- sex with Spike on a table isn't enough? You had to kill him?" Willow shouted.

"No! No, I didn't! I didn't want him dead…I…" Anya just stared at them as Willow shouted at her to go away. She backed away slowly, and, not caring anymore and full of her own rage, ran as fast as she could to the magic shop.