Things Change
Chapter Fifteen

"Anya," Giles cried, grabbing hold of her as she appeared in a flash of green light in the middle of the kitchen. "My God, woman! Where have you been? We've been worried sick! And we've got enough to worry about without - Anya? Anya, what's wrong?"

"D'Hoffryn," she sobbed. "He changed me back because I told Josh about the Jackal. I had to choose."

"And you chose to be human?" he asked, his voice soft. He'd always had a soft spot for Anya; she was really quite endearing.

"No," she sniffed. "I chose you. I chose my friends. I wanted to stay, I wanted to be a Scooby."

"Oh, Anya," he sighed and hugged her.

"Worry about?" she said suddenly and pulled away from him. "You said you had enough to worry about. What's there to worry about? Spike's back and Willow killed Glory and Ed-" she stopped and stared at Giles. "She didn't, did she? They're not dead, are they?"

"No. No, I'm afraid they're not."

"Oh, God," she whispered and he grabbed her as her knees buckled and carefully helped her onto a chair. "I should have known."

"You've heard of the Jackal, haven't you, Anya? What can you tell me? I've heard the stories, but I -"

"I know him."

"Pardon?"

"I know him. I met him in France when I was cursing someone, he said he might call on me if he needed any creative torture. I didn't like him. He did call me though. I was in Russia at the time, about ten years before I came here. There were some people he wanted some info out of and he wanted my help."

"Did you help him?"

"What do you take me for? Of course I didn't. If I helped him then, I would have had to help him again and again. And the closer you are to him, the more danger you're in."

"I see," Giles nodded. "Don't worry, Anya. We'll stop him. I've called Wesley and he said he'll research the Jackal and get Angel to see what they're sources say."

"You'll have to do more than that."

"I don't doubt it. Now, come on, I think we should tell everyone you're home."

"And I'm human?"

"Do you want to tell them?"

"Yes."

"But what I don't get is how Ed could - Anya!" Xander leapt up from his seat and grabbed her away from Giles. She froze as his lips descended on her and kissed her fiercely.

"What the hell was that, Xander Harris?" she demanded, pulling away.

"I…" his voice tailed off and he blushed. "Sorry."

"I know you can kiss better than that," she answered and pulled him in for another kiss.

"Anya's back then," Dawn commented. "At least we don't have to worry about her anymore. Did she tell you where she was, Giles?"

Giles ignored the entwined couple before him - well, he always knew they'd get back together someday, he didn't expect it to take sixteen years, but they had all known they would. He looked down at Dawn, sitting beside Josh and Willow. Buffy and Spike were upstairs changing his bandages, leaving the others to speculate.

"D'Hoffryn took her down to his level."

"But there were no sulphur marks on the carpet."

Giles turned and smiled at Buffy who had numbly noted Anya's presence and the fact she was still locking lips with Xander while she and Spike descended the stairs.

"No, there weren't, Buffy. But he did, nonetheless. Once there he offered her a choice, to remain a Vengeance demon or become human."

"She chose human, didn't she?" Spike rasped.

"Yes, she did. D'Hoffryn stripped her of her Vengeance demon status because she told Josh about the Jackal. Now, I'm afraid, she won't be able to get any knowledge from the demon underworld and we'll have to wait for Wesley to get back to me before we have the information we need."

"Why?" Anya gasped and pulled away from Xander, pushing him into a chair to remove temptation. "Why do you need info?"

"The twins are gone, Anya," Willow said, "Ed's taken them."

She opened her mouth to reply when there was a knock at the door. Willow stood slowly to open it and for some reason avoided Spike and Buffy's eyes as she passed them. When Buffy had told Spike of the twins' disappearance a few hours ago, it had taken all Buffy's energy to stop him running off to rescue them. In broad sunshine. Now they both stood in stony silence, accepting - but not liking - the fact that to save their children, they had to wait.

They both hated waiting.

"Hello, Willow. I've found the information Giles wanted and Cordy had a vision. Neither contain good news."

Wesley stepped into the house and smiled politely at Buffy, his eyes resting briefly on Spike but he didn't say a word.

"Oh, right -" Willow started.

"Could I come in? It's sorta sunny out here."

Angel pushed inside and tossed a blanket off him, closely followed by Cordy who smoothed his smoking hair and Connor who rolled his eyes.

"Well, Buffy, I guess the cavalry's here," Willow said weakly.

They had all crowded into the living room. Spike and Buffy on the couch, holding hands. Anya and Xander sat next to them doing the same. Josh sat on the floor and leaned against the couch, Dawn curled against him. Connor was sprawled in a chair; Angel on another chair brought in from the kitchen with Cordy perched in his lap. Giles leaned against the wall with his eyes downcast as he listened to Wesley - and occasionally Anya, when she had something about the Jackal to share - impart their information.

"…1873 was the year Edward Lucas found the prophecy about Glory. He was," Wesley checked his notes quickly. "Nineteen at the time and over the course of five years, he fell into the black arts until, at the age of twenty-four, he performed a dark ritual that made him immortal.

"In the course of the ritual, he lost most of his soul and the rest was polluted by pure evil. He then went on to murder his family in a sacrifice to Glory," Wesley sighed, "you must remember that at this time, Glory was still in her own dimension. The prophecy stated that she would be banished to this dimension and imprisoned in a male boy. The prophecy also stated that no man would be able to save her from her fate, from her death.

"Over the years, he performed many sacrifices to her and even tamed a flesh eating Morborick demon, which I suppose was to dispose of the insane people left by Glory's brain-sucking tendencies. I think that the Jackal changed his name to Thorpe and did indeed infiltrate the Council. There were accounts after that about numerous demon gangs being murdered, one being blown up. All these gangs had links to Glory, they all worshipped her and hoped for status in the Hell it was hoped she would create. I'll try to find out what I can, try to find out what information he may have gotton out of the Council."

"Well, I can help you with that," Willow offered.

"Thank you, Willow," Giles said softly. "And thank you too, Wesley. And you too, Angel, Cordelia."

"Right, " Buffy said. "Now all we gotta do is go get my children back and kill Ed and Glory."

"I'll be right there with you on that score, pet," Spike growled.

"I'm afraid that Chrissy and Todd might be needed by Edward to bring Glory back to her full strength," Wesley said quietly. "Tonight -"

"The planets align," Cordy said, getting up from Angel's lap and standing next to Wesley. "I saw it in my vision. Tonight the planets align, Ed casts some wicked mojo and uses the twins to bring Glory back to her full God-ness."

"He won't get the bloody chance!" Spike yelled. "I'll kill him before he touches a hair on their heads!"

"They're protected, you goon," Cordy snapped. "You can't get at them until the ritual. Then you have small opening. And trust me, if we can't stop him doing the ritual, Glory comes back. My vision showed me how she was before, Buffy, but then I saw how she will be. She will be stronger and faster than ever before and she doesn't want to go back to her dimension any more. She wants to turn this dimension into Hell. You wants all of you to pay."

"Aside from that, the news isn't all bad," Wesley said with a brave attempt at a smile. "At least we have an army," he gestured around at them all and they glowered back.

Xander poured the juice into glasses, grateful for the quiet sanctuary of the kitchen.

Since Angel and the gang had descended on the Summers' residence, Buffy and Spike had come back to life, listening intently as Wesley imparted all the information he had on the Jackal and then Cordy's vision. He and Anya had decided to get the drinks and snacks because, as much as they had both grown to quite like and respect Wesley over the years, the information wasn't the most thrilling. And when it was, it was too horrendous to listen to.

"Anya?"

"Mmmm?" she answered, arranging cookies on a plate to calm her fluttering nerves.

"You're human."

"Brilliant observation," she commented dryly.

"Yeah. But, I'm trying to be serious here! That… kiss, when I saw you were back. What was that?"

"A kiss?" she answered, not looking up. Perhaps a flower shape would be a nice way to arrange the cookies. Or maybe a spiral, or maybe -

"I meant, what does it mean?"

"That you haven't lost your touch," she answered with a shy smile.

"What does it mean for us?" he put the bottle of juice down and stared at her.

"We're an 'us' again?" she asked looking up from her cookie arranging and nibbling her lip.

Don't say it, Xander, she hissed at him mentally. You can tease me, compliment me, but you don't get to kiss me and tell me it meant nothing.

"Did we ever stop being?" her heart leapt at his question.

"I don't know," she hedged. She remembered all too well how rejection felt and was going to play it safe this time before throwing her heart into the ring again. "Did we?"

"I always thought of us as us," he admitted, dropping his gaze then lifting it up to meet her eyes again.

"Me too."

"So… are you my girlfriend again?" he asked hesitantly, feeling like he was back in High School again.

"If you're offering," she shrugged nonchalently.

"I guess I am."

"Good," she smiled and kissed him quickly. "Now, we have twins to save. And then we can… y'know."

Xander smiled, it was good to be part of an "us" again. But she was right - as always - they did have twins to save.