Cincinnati Apocalypse Part 2

This time, however, his fight against the Cincinnati Hellmouth was more personal. This time, it wasn't about loyalty; it wasn't about saving the world. It was about vengeance. It was about Anya.

Although Xander hadn't seen Anya's death himself, Andrew Wells, who'd been with her at the time she'd died (when Xander should have been the one who was there), had told him how she'd met her fate. She'd died protecting Andrew's sorry ass during the fight at the Hellmouth. Attacked from behind, she'd been cut in half by a Harbinger's sword. Her companions had abandoned her body in the high school, which was-or had been-situated over the Hellmouth, to fall into the crater that resulted from the annihilation of the town. With the loss of even her corpse, all Xander had were his memories of her, which were many and mostly pleasant-but, alas, they were only memories.

Anya arrived in Sunnydale during Xander's junior year, lured by Cordelia Chase's ire toward him for having cheated on her with Willow. Although he and Willow had exchanged only kisses (and a few gropes), Cordie, hurt and disgusted upon discovering Xander's infidelity, spun on her stiletto heel (no easy feat, that, Xander mused) and stalked from the room, only to fall through the floor of the dilapidated house in which Spike had been holding Xander and Willow prisoners and had impaled herself upon an upward-pointing steel rod. Her impalement had put a damper on her relationship with Xander, causing Cordie to exhibit such rage that Anya, then known as Anyanka, visited Sunnydale and, using an enchanted amulet, granted Cordie's wish that Buffy Summers had never come to town. The result was chaos, as the community's vampires, having no one to resist them, took control of the town, making it their feeding ground. Fortunately, Giles had found a way to reverse Anya's spell.

For some reason, rather than dismember, behead, castrate, or kill him, Anya had taken a liking for Xander. Although she'd fled Sunnydale when its mayor, Richard Wilkins sought to ascend to pure demon form, she'd returned after Buffy and her friends, the Scoobies, Xander included, had thwarted that particular would-be apocalypse. After Anya let him sample her charms, which, true enough, despite her demonic nature, were charming, indeed, they'd began to date, Anya continuing to pose as a high school student.