Just a fun little thought I had one day while watching Buffy reruns (well, the thought was the bit about Angel, but that then spiraled into this whole thing) and I wondered what if Anya remembers what went on in that wishverse (after all, she created it) and sometimes amuses herself (while plotting how to get her necklace back) with cataloging the differences between the real world and the alternate she created. And so this was born.
Anya often contemplates (now that she realizes she won't be getting her necklace back anytime soon) on the differences between this world and the one she created out of a single wish from a woman scorned. She notes buildings that had been renovated or converted by vampires into dens of horror, she notices human touches around the world that hadn't had a chance to be made in the alternate. The people, though- they are the most interesting to examine.
Anya looks at each person, as they are in this reality. While the alternate world she was able to create with Cordelia's wish was vastly different (and much more pleasant to a demon), Anya was sometimes amused by the things that were the same.
No- amused wasn't the right word.
Intrigued?
Maybe. But, either way some things, it would seem, would always be true.
Giles would always be a bookish, stuffily British Watcher with a touch of greatness in him, but also a touch of darkness.
Willow would always be with Xander. While it might not be consistently romantic or platonic across alternates, a friendship like theirs- one so long lasting, so far-reaching, survived even past death. Or, rather, undeath.
Xander (she just happened to notice this, not that it meant anything) had the same sort of smirk in both realities and, underneath all his nerves, a certain kind of bravery (or, one could say fool-hardiness, but Anya thought bravery) that his vampire version was more willing to capitalize on.
Oz perhaps was the one who stayed the most similar between realities. With Harmony coming in a close second for sameness.
And then there was Buffy and Angel: the two of them had changed quite a bit in that alternate world. They had been through so much more- more pain, more hardship, more suffering. And yet- they were still very much the same.
Buffy was still protector of the innocent (god, wasn't that nauseating sometimes) and clearly one of the best slayers in centuries (and, at Anya's age, she would be one to know), but she also still seemed to have that same struggle of just who she was now. She wasn't the same person she was before she was called, that was obvious in how she spoke of her life before becoming the Vampire Slayer, but Buffy wasn't quite sure who she would be without that curse. Or calling. Whatever. Yes, Buffy was largely the same. She was just better at hiding it in the other reality. But- Anya supposed- without friends or a fatherly watcher or a boyfriend to tie her to emotions and feelings, Buffy very easily could've been just the same way even if she was in Sunnydale rather than Cleveland.
She also was still willing to take a chance on Angel.
Angel- though Anya didn't know him, and rarely saw him (and usually went the other way if she did- soul or not)- even had made enough of an impression for Anya to notice one big thing that had stayed the same. It was easiest out of them all to see how he was the same: even when she didn't trust him, even when he hadn't had a chance to be with her for more than a few moments, he was still willing to fight- and die- for Buffy Summers.
Anya wasn't sure if their love was the greatest or the cruelest thing the Powers that Be had ever done.
Perhaps it was both.