Without fail, the day reset and Tara awoke to the jangling of the Hello Kitty alarm clock. She got up and immediately went to Dawn's room. She told Dawn to get dressed and ready to go to the Magic Box. Then she did the same with Buffy. All she told them was that it was a Scooby emergency. They were confused, but they did as she asked. Then she called Xander. She knew by the time they all got to the Magic Box, Anya would already be there.

"The day's repeating?" Buffy asked once they were all at the shop and Tara had explained the situation. Tara nodded her head and Buffy sighed. "I'm glad I can't remember it. I had to clean the grease vats today at Doublemeat. Really not something I want to live on a consecutive daily basis."

"Any idea what's causing the repeat-o day?" Dawn asked.

"All I know is that you've died every time and that demon has come every time. Last time it killed you too, Buffy."

"So you think the demon has something to do with the day repeating," Xander said.

"I'm hoping that maybe if the demon doesn't kill anybody that will break the loop," Tara said. "I really don't know yet."

"So we should all leave the shop then," Xander said. "If nobody's here, there's no chance of the demon killing anybody."

"The demon can leave the shop. There's nothing stopping it from doing that," Anya said. "Then it can kill people outside the shop instead of just the people inside the shop."

"Oh right," Xander said. "Okay, so new plan."

"I was planning on killing it," Buffy said.

"You tried that before," Tara said. "It killed you and then it killed Dawn."

"But you said I didn't know it was coming that time," Buffy said. "This time I can be prepared. We find everything on this thing and I kill it."

"I like that plan," Xander said enthusiastically. He stood. "It's proactive. It's inspired. Who wants doughnuts?"

Everyone smiled and raised their hands. While Xander went on a doughnut run, the others hit the books to find their demon or the cause of their time loop.

That afternoon the group was still at work. Buffy stretched and stood, gathering the empty pizza boxes from lunch.

"Okay, I think I've gained three pounds from the doughnuts and pizza, but we still don't have this demon," she said.

"This is all the same stuff I looked at yesterday…or, I mean, the last time this day happened," Tara said. "There's nothing new here."

"We're just not looking in the right books," Xander said. "These are the same books you used before. We need different books."

"Giles took the different books with him back to England," Anya said. "These are all the books we've got."

"Giles! We should call Giles," Dawn said. "I bet he'd know what's going on."

Tara looked at her watch and shook her head. "There's no time. The demon will be here soon."

Buffy stood and went to grab a sword. When she returned she looked to Tara.

"Okay, where does he appear?" she asked.

"Right here," Tara said, pointing to a spot on the floor. "He was facing the front of the shop."

The others moved off to the side and Buffy stood in position, ready to take out the demon before it had a chance to do anything. It arrived just as Tara said it would. It started to speak, but Buffy thrust the sword forward. The demon screamed in pain and shock before disappearing in a blue flash.

"Well, that was easy," Dawn said. "Did it work?"

"I guess we'll find out," Tara said, hoping that when she woke up in the morning it would be Tuesday.

Buffy and Dawn rushed into Tara's room in the morning when they heard a loud crash. When they arrived they found Tara sitting in bed, glaring across the room at the shattered remains of Dawn's Hello Kitty alarm clock.

"It's Monday," she said in a frustrated tone.

"Yeah," Dawn said, confused.

"Either you really don't like Hello Kitty or you're taking hating Mondays to an all new level," Buffy said. Dawn picked up the pieces of her clock.

"I don't hate all Mondays," Tara said as she threw back the covers. "Just this one."

After she explained to the group what was going on, Tara paced in the Magic Box, not sure what to do. They had begun researching time loops again, but as she expected, they were getting nowhere. She called Giles, but he didn't answer.

"There's something I'm missing. There's gotta be something about this demon…" She stopped when she saw the book Dawn was looking in. She waved at her to stop looking. "I already looked in that one yesterday…before, I mean."

"So you've looked up time loops and you've tried looking for this demon," Xander said. "Have we tried looking up stuff about the Key? You know, stuff about Dawn. Maybe we were wrong in thinking she could only be used once. Maybe she's like a skeleton key and she opens more than one lock."

"I think we read everything we had about the Key before," Buffy said. "And that really wasn't much. I think the only options are Giles and the Council. Giles is Mr. Unreachable right now and the only reason I wanna reach out and touch the Council isn't something I can do over the phone."

"Anya, there's gotta be something you know that could help," Tara said. "You've, you know, been around for 1100 years. Haven't you ever run into a time loopy situation?"

"Nope. Never," she said simply.

"Could somebody wish for the day to repeat?" Dawn asked, remembering the incident from Buffy's birthday the previous year. Anya was their resident authority on wishes. She knew what could happen if someone made a wish. There was always a catch. "I mean, they could, right? I wished for people not to leave and we all got trapped in the house. Maybe somebody wished for something that made the day repeat and they don't know they did it."

"I suppose they could," Anya muttered. She moved away from the table and started absently straightening some books. Xander was the first to notice her discomfort.

"Granted any wishes lately?" he asked her. She didn't respond and she didn't face any of them.

"You were gone this morning for like an hour," Tara said. "Were you doing vengeance? Why didn't you tell me? This solves everything."

"You told me not to tell you when I was going to go do vengeance," Anya said, turning finally. "I was just following your request."

"Well, next time the day starts repeating, you can stop doing what I ask you to do," Tara said. "If anything it would break up the monotony."

"It's not like I wanted to live this day over and over again," she said. "It was the only way I could work it to make the guy get hit by the car repeatedly."

"What guy?" Buffy asked.

"Derek. He broke up with his girlfriend because he had commitment issues. Obviously, I sympathized with her," Anya said, glaring at Xander, who looked down uncomfortably. "She wished that he get hit by the car over and over."

"So you went all Groundhog Day on us," Xander commented. "Not the most vicious vengeance you've ever done."

"You can undo it, though," Tara said. "You told us that only a vengeance demon can undo a wish."

"I can't undo it. If I undo it, D'Hoffryn will take away my powers," she said.

"Can't you quit being a vengeance demon?" Dawn asked. "It doesn't seem like you really like it so much anymore."

"It's not that simple," Anya said agitatedly as she paced by the register. "I'm Anyanka. I've reaped vengeance on thousands of men on behalf of thousands of women for over a thousand years. If I'm not a vengeance demon, then who am I?"

"You're Anya," Tara said. "You shouldn't let being a vengeance demon define who you are. Your job isn't who you are. I don't go around saying I'm a sales clerk."

"But you say you're a lesbian," Anya said.

"That's different," Tara shot back. She looked slightly embarrassed. "And I don't really just say , you know, I'm a lesbian. Subtle hints."

"When I was human, I had Xander," Anya said. She glared over at him. "Now I don't have him. If I quit vengeance, then what's left?"

"You have the Magic Box," Dawn said. "And you have friends."

"And you had those things when you were human, too. You didn't just have Xander. He didn't define who you were either," Tara said. "He's just a lousy guy."

"Hey! The lousy guy is sitting right here," he said defensively, shooting a glare at Tara. "I thought you weren't one of those 'I hate men' kind of lesbians."

"Sorry," she apologized. "Helping Anya here."

"But I was still unhappy without Xander," Anya said. "Tara, you know what I'm talking about. You were all kinds of unhappy without Willow when you left her. Both of you were miserable."

"Yeah, but we're not anymore."

"Because you got back together and had tons of wild sex," Anya commented.

"W-well, uh…" Tara stammered.

"You can take back the wish, Anya," Buffy said, saving Tara from the embarrassment. "Then you can stop being a vengeance demon. If you're not happy, you shouldn't keep doing it."

"You're not happy at your job," Anya said. "You work at that degrading fast food restaurant wearing a ridiculous uniform and peddling disgusting processed hamburgers."

"Yes, but the money it gives me that I require for living makes me happy, so the ends justify the means," Buffy explained.

"An, what are you afraid of?" Xander asked, for once being the most serious one in the conversation. "What harm is there in taking back the wish?"

"D'Hoffryn won't let me undo my own vengeance. I can't take back the wish," she explained finally. "And he said if I tried, he would punish me severely. If he knew I had told any of you about the wish, he would already be here. He's very fond of evisceration. So sorry. I'd love to take the wish back, but survival instinct is a strong motivator."

The others paused, thinking about that information. Then Dawn spoke up.

"Isn't there some way that we can break the wish?" she asked. "There's gotta be a way."

"Only a vengeance demon can undo a vengeance wish," Anya repeated.

"Yeah, yeah," Dawn responded.

"There's gotta be a way we can break it," Buffy said, jumping on Dawn's hope train. "The girl's wish was that her ex be hit by a car over and over again, right?"

Anya nodded her head. "Yes, so the wish creates the time loop that causes him to relive the accident where he's hit by a car. When he dies in the hospital, the day resets."

"So, if we break the cycle of the wish, we should be able to break the time loop," Tara said. The others waited for her to elaborate. "If we save the guy's life, then time won't loop."

"We have to keep him from dying? We're not doctors," Dawn said.

"No," Xander said, realizing what Tara was saying. "We have to keep him from breaking up with his girlfriend. Every time the day repeats, Anya has to re-grant the wish, right?" Anya nodded her head.

"So if the guy and girl don't break up, the girl never wants vengeance and Anya never meets her," Buffy finished the thought.

"Plus, he won't be storming out after breaking up with her so he won't get hit by the car either," Tara added.

Xander smiled proudly. "I knew there was a reason to watch Star Trek."

"You'll have to wait for the day to reset," Anya said. "I've already granted the wish today. He's already been hit by the car. When he dies in the hospital, the day will reset."

"Okay, Anya, tell me everything about this guy and where I'll be able to find him," Tara said. Anya sighed and relayed every bit of information she had about Kari's boyfriend, Derek.