By the time Anya arrived at her place, she was extremely excited. She'd never tried anything like this before, and it would definitely make a drastic change in her life if it did work.

She had gathered the herbs along the way, finding most of them right along the path in the woods, just growing like ordinary plants. She found the spell in one of the books she collected from the Magic Box, and the last thing, well, that was a little more difficult.

The last thing Anya needed was blood- Xander's blood. Since she had no idea who his doctor was, or if he even went to one, she thought she was screwed. But then, she remembered.

A while ago, Willow was doing an experiment for her Biology class or something in college. She wanted to compare a female's blood to a male's. Xander was very unwilling, but he finally gave in and they both went to the doctor's to get their blood drawn. After her presentation, Willow had given Xander his blood back in a little bottle (For a souvenir, she said).

All Anya had to do was go back to Xander's apartment and get it from his second desk drawer.

That's all she had to do- and even though she hated admitting it- it had stung when she had entered his place. It smelled like him, there was his stuff, but- she had other things to do. She didn't think about it.

By then, she had set the herbs down on the floor, carefully. The chant also needed a pentagon drawn on the location of the spell, with the blood. This had caused Anya a delay, considering no hardware stores were open at two in the morning. She just needed a sponge, or a paintbrush or something.

So back she went to Xander's. It didn't feel right, entering his home and taking his things. He was dead. She wasn't. That wasn't right. It was stupid. So she broke the first paintbrush she found, and was stuck to using a moldy sponge she discovered under the sink.

She tried to leave, but closing the door, paused. And for some unknown reason, Anya went back inside, to his bedroom, and fell asleep right there on his bed, under the covers. When she woke, it was nine in the morning, and not wanting to remember this, teleported back to her place in hopes of forgetting the whole ordeal.

Luckily, Anya remembered the sponge. She grabbed the small bottle of blood and poured it into a cereal bowl, dipping the sponge ever so carefully into it.

Once she had the pentagon drawn, she placed one herb on each of the corners of the pentagon.

It had to be dark, and thankfully, her new home had no windows except for the third floor, which cast only a small panel of light across the room.

Anya completed the design with lighting a black candle and placing it in the center of the pentagon. It was now time to start her chant.

She knew most spells to be in Latin, some in English, but this one, oddly was in German. She hoped it would work despite her ignorance of the German language. Anya took a deep breath and began the chant.

"Für gutes oder für übel

Für besseres oder schlechteres

Dieses Nehmeneffekt zu denen singen lassen,

Die ihn wünschen,

Um zu sein lassen

Diese Banngeburt eine neue

Seele von der Dämmerung der Toten und geben ihm das Recht,

Zu leben ein volles Leben."

Anya repeated it once more, then again. On the third time around, she dipped her fingers into the bowl of blood and sprinkled it across the pentagon.

A deep, low whirring sound started, and eventually grew louder and louder. It was like the sound a cat would make when threatened, almost like a warning growl.

A gentle breeze wrapped itself slowly around the room, causing the candle to flicker.

A bitter taste consumed the air, causing her to cough.

That was also when the smell came, a smell that was both like cinnamon, but at the same time, rotten eggs.

And then there was the cloud of sea-green mist that flowed around the room, twisting to every corner, and finally, settling over the pentagon like a low cloud.

And suddenly, the sound, breeze, taste, and smell went away. But the mist grew thicker, until it was a dense fog that Anya could barely see through.

It took about ten minutes to clear, but when Anya could see at least two feet in front of her, she realized something.

She was staring directly at the pentagon, where, on the floor, was her creation.