Buffy jumps up, ready to attack D'Hoffryn, but he reminds her that he could teleport out of the room before she'd have a chance to take a swing. He goes to help Anya up, bitching mildly about the Slayer's propensity to solve "all her problems by sticking things with sharp objects." Anya stares at D'Hoffryn, looking utterly destroyed and apprehensive while he natters on about his conversation with Willow, whom he deems a "firebrand." Poor Xander's immediate reaction is, "Stay away from Willow!" D'Hoffryn deems Xander "gallant" and says he can understand what Anya saw in him. He then continues to explain that Willow suggested Anya should no longer be a vengeance demon. He looks at Buffy and, using air-quotes, says, "I think we already know what 'Lady Hacks-away' wants." Hee! I do like the complicated way that D'Hoffryn's mocking of the Slayer punctures all of Buffy's earlier breast-beating. I don't think it negates what she was trying to say, but it does present another viewpoint. D'Hoffryn muses that no one has asked Anyanka what she really wants and Anya, in a tiny voice, says, "I want to take it back." Sniffle. She approaches D'Hoffryn, repeating that she wants to "undo" the killings. Thinking it over, D'Hoffryn says that it won't be easy, but it can be done, although something must sacrificed to balance the scales. Anya sets her jaw and swallows as D'Hoffryn continues that the sacrifice must be "the life and soul of a vengeance demon." Anya simply says, "Do it," ready to die to correct her (most recent) wrongs. "Wait!" shouts Xander, and once again is told by Anya to stay out of it. Xander suggests that there must be an alternate price, but Anya tells him he can't help her. "I'm not even sure there's a me to help," she explains, then adds, on the verge of crying, "This is my wish. Undo what I did."

D'Hoffryn claps his hands, and as Xander reaches towards Anya and yells, a bright yellow light fills the room. Everyone turns towards it to see a smiling Halfrek materialize. A pause, then horror on Anya's face as Hallie is consumed by a pillar of fire that shoots out of her screaming mouth. Stunned, Buffy and Xander turn back towards D'Hoffryn and Anya gasps in pain, as if she's been stabbed in the chest again. All pretense of affability swept aside, the true D'Hoffryn shines through as he snarls, "Who did you think you were dealing with? Did you think it would be that easy to get away?" Oof. He says he did it because Anya wished it, which I suppose profoundly brings home to her the sense of how all the women she "helped" felt when their idle, angry wishes actually came true, with horrific results. Nasty D'Hoffryn continues, "Haven't I taught you anything, Anya? Never go for the kill when you can go for the pain." Xander, all heart, makes an impulsive move towards D'Hoffryn, but Buffy stops him. Pimpin' ain't easy for D'Hoffryn, but he tells them, "I've got plenty of girls. There will always be vengeance demons. But now you, Anya, you're out." Weeping, Anya whispers that D'Hoffryn should have killed her, but he assures her that she might still have a chance to die. "From beneath you it devours," he shares. "Be patient. All good things in time." He teleports out. Anya stares at Buffy and Xander, then plods out the door. Buffy tells Xander to follow Anya, and we hear the sound of the college boys stirring from the other room.