'Selfless' Story Code '7ABB05' by David Solomon

Willow has decided to re-enrol at Sunnydale University. Xander admits to Buffy that he still has feelings for Anya, but knows their relationship is over; meanwhile, a blood-splattered Anya sits in a dark room surrounded by the massacred bodies of several young men.

Flashback: Sjornjost, Sweden, in the year 880; Aud, later to be known as Anya, waits for her partner, Olaf, to arrive home. When he finally appears she berates him for spending too much time in the tavern with Rannevig, another woman; however, Olaf is soon able to talk his way back into Aud’s good books.

Back in the present, in the High School basement, Spike talks to Buffy about being mad, noting that he is now able to understand Drusilla more. But when the real Buffy appears, she tells Spike that the basement is killing him; Spike replies that he has nowhere else to go. Willow is on campus when she sees Anya leaving a frat house, and is disturbed when, during their conversation, she notices the blood on Anya’s hand. Once Anya leaves Willow enters the house to investigate and immediately sees the bodies lying inside; she discovers a traumatised young woman hiding in a closet, who tells her that she wished for the boys to feel what it is like to have their hearts ripped out, and that a spider did it. They are attacked by a giant spider, but Willow manages to protect them from the creature’s assault by using her magik to throw it out of the window.

Flashback: Sjornjost, 800. Aud casts a spell on Olaf and turns him into a troll; the demon D’Hoffryn then appears before her and tells her that she is now Anyanka, a vengeance demon.

The present: after Willow calls Buffy and tells her about the demon spider, Buffy and Xander are able to track the creature to the woods and kill it. Halfrek visits Anya and congratulates her on her work, but Anya confesses she is upset; Willow arrives and rebukes Anya for her actions, but Anya feels that the boys deserved it. Later, Buffy and Xander find Willow waiting for them at the Summers house; she fills them in about Anya and the spiders: there are actually about ten or twelve of them. Buffy tells Xander that she has to kill Anya.

Flashback: St. Petersburg, Russia, 1905; after Halfrek and Anyanka become partly responsible for the Communist Revolution, Anya declares that all she needs is vengeance.

In the present, Buffy heads off to kill Anya, but Xander finds her first at the frat house. Willow summons D’Hoffryn and tells him that they need to talk about Anya. Buffy arrives at the frat house, and she and Anya begin a brutal fight, ending in Buffy impaling Anya to the wall with her sword.

Flashback: Sunnydale, 2001. While Xander sleeps, Anya sings about happy she is about becoming his wife.

The present: Anya regains consciousness and continues her fight with Buffy. Xander pushes Buffy out of the way and D’Hoffryn materialises in the middle of the room. The demon informs them that he has come to intervene after Willow came to him. Anya wants what she did to be undone, but D’Hoffryn tells her that the price for this will be the life of a vengeance demon. Anya is prepared to die, but as punishment D’Hoffryn kills Halfrek instead, knowing that Anya’s pain will be better than her death. After cryptically warning Anya, “‘From beneath you, it devours”, he disappears once more. Despite the fact that the boys all begin to recover, Anya is devastated; Xander tries to offer her comfort, but the former demon replies that she needs to find out who she really is on her own. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she walks off alone into the night…

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), James Marsters (Spike), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn), Abraham Benrubi (Olaf), Andy Umberger (D'Hoffryn), Kali Rocha (Halfrek), Joyce Guy (Professor), Jennifer Show (Vengeance-seeking Girl), Taylor Sutherland (Villager #1), Marybeth Scherr (Villager #2), Alessandro Mastrobuono (Villager #3), Daniel Spanton (Viking #1), John Timmons (Viking #2)
Directed by Drew Goddard

TX (US): 22nd October 2002

Notes:
*Featuring Buffy, Xander, Willow, Anya and Dawn