"You're my sister?" An astonished Buffy asked.
"Her scent is similar to yours, Buffy." Angel offered. "And I can detect your scent and your mother's on her."
"That is gross." Dawn grimaced. "It's bad enough half the Buffy's I've met date dead people, you had to get grosser by telling me you can smell me. Ewww! Anyway, our Xander and Cordelia will be here to get me soon, they're probably already here, in this reality, tracking me. Xander and Ms. Calendar rigged up an alarm to notify everyone whenever I portal in my sleep and Xander can track me down with Magic, so they'll find me soon."
"Xander can't do Magic." Willow protested and Buffy nodded. "I do Magic."
"Xander can too do Magic, I've met more then one Xander who can do Magic." Dawn looked mulish. "And if your Xander wanted to learn, he could. He understands it better than you do."
"Willow," Giles spoke up before the gaping Willow could. "if Dawn is correct about something she mentioned earlier regarding how you view Magic, than she is correct, you don't understand Magic."
"I know a lot of spells, Giles and I'm learning more everyday, more than Xander ever could!"
"Spells aren't Magic." Dawn and Giles chorused. "I thought you understood that Willow, I did give you a number of references to study, they state that point quiet clearly." Giles reminded her.
"I - I," Willow floundered and Xander frowned. "All the Magic books we've seen you read and you missed that point?" He asked suspiciously.
"Xander and Cordelia met a Willow who they thought accidentally used her power to break the Xander and Cordelia in that reality up." Dawn told them. "She told them Magic was a math problem, words + spell components equals outcome and Xander told her it's words + power or energy equals outcomes, influenced by thoughts, will, imagination, emotions, intent and answers to the spoken and the unspoken, even the subconscious. The current theory about why my power is activating while I'm asleep is because something in my dreams is driving me to portal and Dr. Spellman, she's a witch with a whole bunch of PHDs, she thinks that subconsciously I might be able to see into other realities, because my power lets me make portals to other realities and maybe I'm responding to what I see in those realities and that's why I'm portaling in my sleep."
"There may be something to that theory." Giles said thoughtfully. "When I first tried to wake you, you were talking in your sleep. You said 'he's in pain, can't you see it?' You may have responded to that pain."
"Mine?" Xander asked. "Because pain is part of why the Spirit of Vengeance empowered me?"
"Possibly." Giles agreed.
"If power or energy is what is needed to make a spell work," Xander's head tilted strangely. "how did Willow do the curse on Angel? She'd never even floated a pencil before doing that curse and logically it would take a whole lot more power than floating a pencil would."
"She opened herself up and requested power " Dawn answered. "And no celestial god would give her the power to do it, but a demonic one would."
"Wait a minute," Buffy said angrily. "why wouldn't a celestial god give her the power to save Angel?"
"Because breaking the curse did save Angel." Dawn responded. "He was free and no longer being tortured for crimes he didn't commit. Cursing him like that will ultimately destroy the soul. One of the realities I've ended up in, that Xander died too, but he got handed a destiny as a Grim Reaper, a job that falls under the jurisdiction of ancient gods. He said because of the curse Reapers couldn't free the soul from its suffering. When we got back to our reality Giles did some investigating, he found out that souls that aren't reaped in time begin to wither and corrupt and become what's called a graveling, a warped, destructive incorporeal creature that causes mischief and even death. He even found a theory that people chosen to become Reapers can see gravelings while they're alive, even if they don't realize they can see them. The curse is destroying Angel's soul, corrupting it and no celestial god would help that happen, but a demonic one would."
"I was sure Willow didn't have the power to do the curse." Xander said softly. "She failed already at doing it, but wanted to try again, after coming out of a coma. And Buffy was finally willing to do something about Angelus after all the people he'd killed and she still left Giles to be tortured overnight and risked Angelus figuring out how to activate Acathla. I knew if I told her Willow was going to try yet again to do something she'd already failed to do because she didn't have the power, Buffy would try to buy her time. She'd risk her life and the entire world to get Angel back, consequences be damned. But Willow managed to do the curse and both Cordelia and Oz said she looked possessed when she did. She was possessed, weren't you, Willow? All those Magic books you read, you did understand what you were doing, didn't you? Did you understand what you were doing to the soul too? To your own by accepting power from a demon?"
"I wanted to help Buffy!" Willow protested.
"But your own research should have led you to conclude it wasn't remotely helpful for Angel and instead of explaining that to Buffy, you went ahead anyway." Xander stared at her. "What was the price, Willow? What did you have to pay in exchange for power?"