"I don't believe you, Xander is not dead!" Willow insisted. "We were trying to keep him safe -."

"You need to see it for yourself." Xander said gently, taking Willow's arm, he led her toward the door

"No," She protested, jerking her arm away from him. "there's nothing to see, because he's not dead!"

Buffy steeled herself and cautiously approached the door and pushed it open. "Oh, my gods!" She bolted towards Giles and let him hold her. "It's really him!" She buried her face in Giles' chest, like a small child needing her father to chase the monsters away.

"No." Willow whimpered. "It can't be, it just can't be." Faith squared her shoulders and moved past Cordelia and pushed the doors open herself. She stared down at the boy she'd used for stress relief sex earlier that day after he'd saved her life before tossing him out of her crap hole room. "It's him, Red." She told the girl, recognizing the fact that he was still wearing the clothes he'd had on this afternoon. "He saved my life this afternoon. I wasn't very nice to him after I thanked him." Yeah, regrets, she had plenty herself.

"How, how -." She didn't even know what she wanted to ask as she numbly walked toward the door and looked passed Faith at -. "Oh, gods no!" Between one breath and the next, her eyes went black and so did her hair as she shoved Faith aside. "That son of a bitch is going to die!" She growled, heading for the boiler room and the imprisoned Jack O'Toole. She jerked back as red energy bands slipped around her body and she was hauled back into the Library. "What the Hell - let me go!" She demanded.

"Not until you calm down, Willow." Xander answered as he held her with the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak. "And can someone explain to me why Willow has black Magic in her?! Who the Hell is she borrowing power from?"

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked, raising her head. "What do you mean borrow power? Willow just does Magic."

"Unless she was born with power, she'd have to borrow from another source to begin growing her own power." Xander told her. "Power is either drawn from other dimensions or from other beings with power, like Amy channeling Hecate. Hecate is technically a celestial goddess of witchcraft and the moon, among other things, but she's also associated with night and the underworld, so the power she lends is a mixed bag of light and dark, it's why Amy's eyes go black when she's channeling. But Willow's power is all dark, her starting well of power didn't come from anything celestial. Right now she's fueled by rage and pain and it's feeding her power."

"Wait, didn't Willow do the soul restoration spell on Fang?" Faith asked.

"You mean the curse broke?!" Xander's demanded. "And you actually let her do that damn curse?! Are you people insane?!"

"Xander, Willow saved Angel -." Buffy tried to explain. "Angelus was about to end the world, it was the only way to save Angel. Unfortunately, she triggered it too late and I had to send Angel to Hell to save the world, but he came back to me."

"Buffy, listen to me very carefully." Xander said sternly. "The curse breaking was the best thing for Angel, the soul is being tortured, forced to pay for the crimes the demon committed. A soul does not belong in a dead body and no soul can be untroubled when a demon is tied to it. No celestial god would lend anyone the power to do that curse. But a demonic one would."

"You mean the guilt and pain I feel remembering everything Angelus did, that suffering?" Angel asked, it was still fresh, the First had tortured him with both waking and sleeping nightmares about Angelus' victims just a couple weeks ago.

"Yes, a demon can't feel those things, but a soul can." Xander nodded at him. "Which means the soul is suffering for crimes it didn't commit. And the curse can break again, not to mention there's black Magic spells that could tear the soul out and you'd be faced with Angelus again. You don't deserve to suffer for crimes you didn't commit, Angel. As for any crimes you've committed, that's a different story. But I can make you human and then you don't have to worry about the curse breaking or you could make yourself human, just find a Mohra demon, a few drops of its blood is all it'll take. Willow, have you calmed down?" the black was seeping out of her hair and she started crying. Buffy moved to hold her as Xander cautiously retracted the bands.

"He's really gone." Willow sobbed. "He's been my best friend my whole life and now he's gone. What am I going to do?"

No one really had an answer for her.

"We'd better deal with Mr. O'Toole." Giles decided. "And move Oz back into the book cage." He moved around the checkout desk and grabbed the tranq gun, it gave him a chance to hide his face as he struggled to get his 'stiff upper lip' under control. He took several deep breaths before straightening up. He felt the need to beat on the young man who'd killed Xander himself. But he was an adult and he had to set a better example than that.

Bugger it, being an adult sucked sometimes, as the teenagers would say.