Xander and Cordelia had been gone barely 48 hours. It was just long enough for Willow to fuck up with Magic again. She was standing there, looking so proud of herself. So excited. She didn't seem to understand just how badly she'd fucked up. Xander wanted to grab her and shake some sense into her. It was a good thing Kari and Cordelia weren't here right now, Xander could swear all he liked without having to worry about getting doped slapped for swearing in front of Kari. Joyce was the only other person, besides Willow, who looked happy. But then, like Willow, she simply did not understand what was wrong.

"Willow." Xander said. "Let me ask you a question. Did someone recently remove your brain?"

She frowned at him. "Xander, why are you being a poopy head? Aren't you happy Buffy is back? I saved her."

Xander stared at her, trying to understand how Willow could ever think that.

"Giles once said, you were a very stupid girl. He didn't know how right he was. Willow, I'm going to explain this to you and I'm going to use tiny words, so your very tiny brain can understand. You've done the same thing to Buffy that you did to Angel. Don't you understand? One of two things happened after the curse broke on Angel, the same two possibilities that Buffy's soul had. Either the soul had reincarnated or it was in the after life. Which means, in both instances, you either murdered an unborn baby or you yanked a soul out of the after life, pissing off a god in the process. How fucked up is your karma or after life going to be for pulling this shit?!"

"I didn't know that, I was just trying to help!"

"And once again, you failed to understand, help was neither wanted nor needed, you god-damned fucking arrogant bitch! What have you done to Buffy?!"

"Willow." Tara said tentatively. "What ritual did you use to do this?"

"The Ritual of Osiris. I found it in one of Giles' books."

"I've never heard of that one." Tara said.

"I have." Amy said, grimly. "I've seen it in one of my mother's black magic books. It requires the sacrifice of an infant and the infants heart's blood."

"No see, I found a way around that. I sacrificed a fawn and used its blood."

Amy stared at her, incredulous. "Willow, you can't substitute like that in black magic. There are consequences for doing that. Given the amount of Magic needed to make this Ritual work, the consequences could be enormous."

Faith's comment was. "This is some seriously fucked up shit."

Giles had not said anything to this point, now he did. "Willow, when I allowed your powers to be unbound, it was because I thought you finally understood, Magic is not a toy. You can not use it to satisfy your whims. I thought you had learned respect."

Willow looked hurt. "I respect Magic."

"No, you do not. If you had any respect at all, for anything, you would never have considered doing this, let alone actually doing it. You have no respect for the Laws of Magic, of souls, of the gods, of our feelings, for Buffy. You are a two year old throwing a temper tantrum to get what you want. For all you know, the consequences of this act could be the universe demanding the life of someone you love in exchange!"

Willow burst into tears and ran out of the room. Tara ran after her.

"Amy, would you be willing to help me strip her powers?" Giles asked quietly. "It is patently clear, Willow can not be trusted with Magic."

"Yes, I would. This is how my mother started, you know. Using Magic to make herself happy. Then she body jacked me and killed people. Willow nearly killed Xander and now this. I'm happy Buffy is alive. I'm not happy about how she's alive."

"That pretty much sums up what we're all feeling, Ames." Xander said. "Joyce, I'm sorry. You want to celebrate Buffy being alive. We want to celebrate her being alive too. We're just terrified of the consequences of how she's alive."

"I understand, Xander. It's a happy thing that Buffy is alive, it's just not a good thing. Happy and good are two different things."

Amy left to get supplies. When she returned, she and Giles stripped Willow's power. A wail could be heard from upstairs as Willow felt her power leaving her. She would never be able to get it back.

Cordelia was equally as stunned when she found out. Kari was confused, who could blame her? How long would it be before they saw the consequences of Willow's actions? Not long, the first consequence happened the next day, when it was discovered a hitchhiker had followed Buffy back into the world. A ghostly creature that terrorized the Scooby Gang for over a day before Amy and Tara succeeded in making it solid and Buffy and Faith were able to destroy it. It was only the first problem that they'd have to deal with. More would come.

A/N I get that they needed Buffy alive in order to continue the show, but the method that they chose made no sense. Tara would have had far more respect for Magic then we see in that episode. I didn't buy her trying to convince Xander to go along it. It made me wonder if Willow didn't mind rape at least Tara to get her to go along with it. And Anya's explanation of a hitchhiker, made more sense then the one Willow supposedly came up with, the 'gift with purchase.'