AUTHOR NOTE – This is a continuation of my "Xander Harris and the Trip Through Hell" story. The previous story was meant as a plotted story, while this story is meant to act as an exploration of Xander's attempts to find home after he reached Glory's dimension, the impacts of his trip, and any other things that come to mind. Some of these will be multi-chapter sub-stories, and some will just be one-shots.
Anyanka smirked in satisfaction as she listened to the woman screaming in terror, matched in volume by the cries of pain from her cheating husband. She was sure the wronged woman would eventually come to appreciate the beauty of her husband's punishment… given enough time. Or maybe not, humans were weird that way. Thank goodness she hadn't had to deal with being one of those retched mortal beings in nearly a thousand years.
"You certainly have a flair for the dramatic, Anyanka" spoke a woman who appeared next to Anyanka, as if from nowhere.
Anyanka looked to the left to see a pretty woman with wavy brown hair, who was smiling widely and ignoring the screams on the other side of the door that Anyanka was leaning against. She smiled in return, happy to see her best friend.
"What can I say, Halfrek, I am a Vengeance Demon who loves her job."
Halfrek chuckled as she responded. "Yes, though I suspect the scorned woman who you have… helped, was not nearly as happy with the results of her wish."
"If she didn't want to have her cheating husband's eyes torn from their sockets and deposited in her hands, then she shouldn't have wished that his wandering eyes would stay on her. It's hardly my fault that she's not careful with how she words her wishes."
Halfrek shook her head in amusement. "Of course, she should have known better. Shall we go for a bite somewhere?"
Anyanka put up a finger. "One moment, she is about to try to throw his eyes out of her hands and discover that they are always going to be stuck somewhere on her body."
Both women listened as the feminine scream stopped, then doubled in volume, until it quieted with the thump of a fainting body. The man's screams were nothing but quiet whimpers at this point. Anya grinned as she stopped leaning against the door. The blonde Vengeance Demon gestured toward the street, and the two began to walk across the well-kept lawn of the mansion. As they reached the gate, they walked through it as if it were made of smoke. They shimmered away from the upscale neighborhood and reappeared in the downtown area, their sudden appearance going unnoticed.
As they walked along, Halfrek spoke up. "How long did it take for you to get a wish out of this one?"
"I met her at a bar this evening. I got her complaining about her bastard of a husband and making her wish within ten minutes of starting the conversation."
"You have a gift, Anyanka. It no wonder you are one of D'Hoffryn's favorites."
Anyanka smirked. "Yes, well, it would be nice to have a challenge. But humans are simply too easy to manipulate."
Halfrek looked over to her friend with a raised eyebrow. "Well, I'm sure that there are some humans who you could not get a wish out of."
"If it's a woman, then I can get them to make a wish."
"Oh really? Even a Slayer?"
Anyanka's smirk slipped slightly as she paused before responding. "Well… Slayers hardly live long enough to become scorned."
Halfrek smiled brightly. "How long would you need them to survive after being Called?"
Anyanka stopped walking and faced her friend, her eyes narrowing. "Are you proposing a wager?"
Halfrek's eyes gleamed mischievously. "I believe I am."
"In that case ", the two continued walking amicably down the sidewalk, as Anyanka pondered the issue. " …the Slayer would need to live for a minimum of… six months."
"Six months!? You are so greedy… I love it! But, to avoid the appearance of cheating, we're not starting with whoever the current Slayer is. The bet starts when the next one is Called."
"That's reasonable."
"AND… you have to get the wish by her eighteenth birthday. I'm not going to risk you getting one of the rare long-lived Slayers and having a decade to get the wish."
Anyanka huffed in annoyance. "Fine! What do I get if I win?"
"What do you want?"
Anyanka thought for a moment before smiling maliciously. "Well, getting a wish out of a Slayer is a tall order. So, if I win, you give me one consequence free wish that I can use at my leisure."
Halfrek's eyes widened in shock. "That's… that's a big prize… D'Hoffryn will have to approve that. But, if he does, then I agree. If not, then we will figure out something of comparable value."
Anyanka knew that was the best she could hope for. She just hoped that her boss would be in a good enough mood after tonight's carnage to accept the terms.
"And, in the impossible case of me not winning our wager. Do you want a wish from me?"
Halfrek opened her mouth, and then paused before answering. A grin then formed on her face, as her evil intent grew enough to cause her glamour to drop. Her face changed from that of a beautiful young woman to a woman who seemed to have been burned badly in a fire. A would-be mugger who had been approaching the two turned and ran into a dark alley in fright. Sadly, the alley was occupied by a pair of hungry vampires. Halfrek paid no mind to the mugger, nor his sudden scream. "No, I have a better idea."
Halfrek leaned in and whispered her terms in Anyanka's ear. Anyanka gasped as Halfrek pulled away and returned the glamour to regain her unblemished face.
"Oh, that is pure evil! You are so wicked! Never change! You have a deal."
The two began to walk down the sidewalk again before disappearing and suddenly finding themselves standing in a throne room filled with paintings of human beings experiencing moments of excruciating agony. Each painting had a plaque attached to the frame, naming the Vengeance Demon who granted the wish and the wording of the wish that caused the scene to occur. Sitting at one end of the room was a high-backed stone throne, with a demon sitting upon it.
Anyanka and Halfrek looked at the pale demon, with four small sharp horns and pointed ears. He was the feared leader of the dimension of Arashmaharr.
"D'Hoffryn!" the women (having reverted to their natural demonic visages) shouted in joy.
"My girls" spoke the pleased Demon Lord, smiling proudly. "I couldn't help but overhear your wager, considering I intentionally started to listen in as soon you mentioned a bet. And I fully approve of the terms."
"Really!?" spoke a shocked Halfrek.
"Of course. Who am I to deny two of my best girls? Although, now that the wager is fully binding, I should mention a minor wrinkle. Anyanka, my dear, you do remember that the Slayer is an agent of The Powers, correct?"
Anyanka frowned. "Don't tell me that Slayers are off limits."
D'Hoffryn remained silent.
"Oh… oh no! I can't believe it!" she looked over at her friend. "Did you know?"
Before Halfrek could respond, D'Hoffryn began to chuckle. "I'm sorry Anyanka, I couldn't help myself. You are permitted to go after the Slayer, but my agreements with The Powers require my girls to be open with the direct agents of The Powers. So, a Slayer must know you are a Vengeance Demon and that she is being offered a wish. She doesn't have to know the consequences, but it can't come as a surprise that you are wish granting demon."
Halfrek looked at her crestfallen friend and spoke up. "D'Hoffryn, I know you made the bet binding, but is it too late to add a slight modification?"
D'Hoffryn's response was a tilt of his head, awaiting the extra terms.
"I don't want to win the bet by default, so what about the allies of the Slayer? Not those who are simply her family or friends, but those who directly fight beside her. If Anyanka gets a wish from the Slayer, then she wins the full bet. If she gets a wish from the allies, then she wins a minor favor from me. If she doesn't get any wish, then I win."
D'Hoffryn shrugged. "Whatever. Anyanka?"
Anyanka stared at her friend with confusion. "Why are you doing this?"
Halfrek smiled. "It's not like you're a human, Anyanka. There is no need to screw you over too badly."
Anyanka felt a strange warmth enter her heart.
"Plus, the Slayer's Watcher is most likely going to be male and not a valid target for you anyway, so it lets me beat you twice with one bet."
And with that, the strange warmth disappeared, and all was right again.
Anyanka was giddy. The current Slayer had just died, and a new Slayer had been Called. A stereotypical ditzy blonde cheerleader who was the leader of her own clique at her high school. All she had to do was wait for some bastard male to break up with the Slayer, and the stupid girl would probably ignore the whole "demon" part of "vengeance demon". This was perfect!
The ditz killed Lothos!? How in the name of D'Hoffryn did a barely trained Slayer manage to take down a centuries-old vampire who had killed at least a dozen Slayers? Slayers who had spent their childhoods training in case they were Called! Maybe it would be smart to hold off before approaching the girl. Besides, the odds were that she wouldn't make it to six months anyway.
Not only did she make it to six months, but she is now living on the Hellmouth! Damn!
Why did that Pike boy have to be so supportive when the girl had been placed in a mental institute? That would have been perfect timing! A scorned Slayer questioning her own sanity while unarmed… It would have been a risk-free sure thing! But, no! The selfish boy had to give the Slayer his full support, even while her parents abandoned her. Men were the worst!
Even worse, Halfrek had been insufferable saying that the Slayer was a perfect candidate for a neglected child and easily fell in Halfrek's domain of wish giving. What a magnificently evil demon!
At least that Willow girl's crush on the Harris boy held promise…
So, the Slayer was almost certainly out as an option. The girl may be a bit laxer than most, what with keeping the ensouled vampire around, but she had an unpleasant knack for killing powerful demons.
Willow was probably out, as she couldn't seem to hold enough anger for Harris and had just started dating the werewolf. Though the werewolf was in a band, so Anyanka could hope for groupies to do their work.
The gypsy had been off the table even before being killed by Angelus. Her clan would know a Vengeance Demon on sight and turn it away immediately. They do their own vengeance.
But that Cordelia… ah, there was a golden opportunity. Beyond all reason, she had gained interest in the idiot Harris. Oh, she had broken up with the boy once, but she had decided to get back with him after he cast the love spell on the women of the Hellmouth. Thank all that was unholy for the stupidity of teenagers. To someone with as much experience in unfaithful men as Anyanka had, she could see the seeds had been planted for a budding infatuation between Harris and Willow. So, it was only a matter of time before Xander Harris did something stupid enough to make Cordelia a candidate for a wish. It wouldn't be a total victory, but it wouldn't be a total loss either.
She would have gone to the Hellmouth personally, to get things moving, but there was something… off about the place. It felt like there was some sort of spell around the town that prevented her from entering. Well, she could bypass the spell if her target met the threshold for being considered scorned, otherwise she was bounced off to the city limits. D'Hoffryn probably knew what was happening, but he just told her that some dick was to blame. She already knew that whoever was to blame was a dick, so that was of no help.
For now, she just had to wait, and hope the Slayer stayed alive long enough for Xander Harris to show his true colors.
HE JUMPED!?
WHAT!?
I mean… WHAT!?
How hard is it to stab a damn vampire and shove it into a hell dimension to be tortured for eternity? Instead, Xander Harris, THE BASTARD, jumped into the portal to Acathla's dimension in the place of the stupid vampire.
Now how was she going to get a wish out of Cordelia?
She hoped the selfish bastard was suffering for what he did to her. He probably didn't even worry about how she was ruining Anyanka's plans!
MEN!
Anyanka watched the events of Sunnydale with pure anger.
Today was the Slayer's eighteenth birthday. And she had nothing to show for it! NOTHING!
The Slayer, even without being too dangerous to approach, simply didn't feel remotely close to scorned. If she could grant wishes to men, then she may have had luck with Angel, as the vampire knew he was competing against the memory of the Xander Harris moron.
The other Slayer, Faith, had an attitude towards men of use them and lose them. It was the sort of behavior that Anyanka normally admired in a woman but made the second Slayer completely devoid of scorned feelings. If anything, the girl was the happiest she had ever been in her life, having been fully accepted into the Summers family.
Willow was happily ensconced in a relationship with what was probably the only faithful high school rock band player in the world. Without the thoughtless Xander Harris there to trigger confusing emotions, the girl had fully committed to her relationship. Not only that, the selfish ass's jump into the portal had given the werewolf the chance to be a "rock of stability" for the Wiccan girl. Once again, ruining Anyanka's life.
Then there was Cordelia. The girl had the barest hint of anger towards the despicable boy's sacrifice, that was overshadowed by a desire to live up to his example and finding the other men around her to be lacking when compared to the pre-unfaithful idiot. But it was nowhere close enough to enough anger to call to Anyanka and allow her to bypass the spell that kept her out of the town.
Instead, Anyanka watched closely from her scrying glass in her room in Arashmaharr. Hoping that somehow someone's mind would change in the last seconds. Failing that, maybe she would have the satisfaction of seeing the Slayer slaughtered during her Cruciamentum test.
Alas, the women remained stubbornly unscorned and the Slayer killed the stupid vampire while in her weakened state.
All because of some unthinking doofus who cared more about "being good" than being a typical male!
Anyanka arrived in a clearing in the countryside of Sweden, where once a village had existed. The birthplace of a young woman named Aud, who would eventually turn her cheating paramour, Olaf, into a troll. Thereby gaining the attention of D'Hoffryn, who would turn Aud into the Vengeance Demon known as Anyanka.
Anyanka rolled her eyes as Halfrek shimmered into existence next to her, holding a crystal in her hand.
"Did we really need to do this here?"
Halfrek smirked. "You are not the only one with a flair for the dramatic, Anyanka."
Anyanka grimaced, made much more pronounced by her demonic visage. "Let's get this over with."
Halfrek tossed the crystal to her friend. Anyanka caught it deftly, waved her hand over the item and tossed it towards the ground. With a flash of lightning, a large troll appeared before the two Vengeance Demons. The troll had two sharp long horns atop his green head, with a long scraggly head of red hair and equally long and dirty beard adding to his filthy appearance. The main thing of note was the hammer he carried, which sang with power to those who could sense such things. The troll sniffed the air before turning towards the two demons and roared at them.
"Oh, cut it out Olaf. You're not scaring anyone, and you haven't brushed your teeth in… well, ever."
The troll, Olaf, paused in confusion at the rebuke from Anyanka.
With a deep and booming voice, he replied slowly. "Aud… is that you?"
"It's Anyanka now."
"You turned me into a troll!"
"And I'm a Vengeance Demon now, people change. Get over it!"
"Anyanka…" spoke Halfrek in a warning tone.
"FINE!" Anyanka spoke slowly, through gritted teeth. "Olaf… I'm… sor… sorr… sorry! That I turned you into a troll."
Olaf stared at Anyanka suspiciously. "You don't sound sorry…"
Anyanka huffed. "Because I am obviously NOT sorry. The bet was that I had say it, not that I had to mean it. And now that I have freed you from the prison those witches rightly put you in and … apologized. I need to finish by sending you off to live a happy life in the Land of Trolls. Unfortunately, you'll like it there. It's full of trolls."
"Wait! WHA…"
Before Olaf could complain further, he shimmered away and was sent to a different dimension. One where he would indeed by happy, much to Anyanka's frustration.
Anyanka looked over at Halfrek with disgust evident in her expression.
"Are you happy now?"
Halfrek smiled unapologetically. "Ecstatic! Hearing you apologize to a man… you made my century."
Anyanka pouted.
"Oh, don't be like that. Come on, let's go for an easy win in Vegas."
Anyanka couldn't help but smile at the thought. As Halfrek shimmered away, Anyanka stared at the spot where Olaf had just been standing.
She wouldn't need to be cheered up with a trip to Las Vegas to find a scorned woman if she hadn't had needed to free her stupid cheating ex-boyfriend.
She wouldn't have had to free stupid Olaf, if she hadn't lost the bet.
AND she wouldn't have lost the bet if Xander Harris hadn't screwed her over by jumping into that damned portal like a self-centered bastard!
It ALL came down to that insect of a man-child intentionally ruining Anyanka's chances at winning her bet! He had to know that he was stopping Anyanka from granting Cordelia's wish to make sure the bastard male would understand true vengeance.
Anyanka, as she prepared to direct all her anger at the next man she punished (who indeed would suffer so much that he would gain an oversized portrait in the throne room of D'Hoffryn), looked into the sky and screamed with a bestial demonic fury.
"I HATE YOU, XANDER HARRIS!"