"Do you have a safe?" Elder Xander asked Giles.
"Yes, in my office. What did you just do?" He led the way to his office where Elder Xander orbed the knife into the safe.
"I stripped her of what power she has left. The pool cleaned out all the black, nasty Magic she had but some of the sources she's drawn from have been light based, so she still had some. I'd hoped without the influence of the black Magic that she'd be able to actually learn Magic, now I understand it's her mind set, her way of thinking that's the problem and that doesn't seem to have changed, even after being shown her bad choices and the consequences of those choices. Willow still sees Magic the way she sees computers or math and Magic is something entirely different. And Willow's mind set means it's not safe for either her or anyone else if she learns Magic. You'll just end up right back where you started from, a Willow filled with black, nasty Magic who misuses Magic because she never bothered to learn the rules and thinks they wouldn't apply to her anyway because she's a genius and that somehow exempts her from life or society's rules. And all the time that black nastiness will be eating away at her brain and her morality."
A stunned Willow sat crying while Tara held her as the two returned to the main room of the Magic Box. "No one touch the athame for a few hours." Elder Xander advised. "Or you'll absorb the power I just sucked outta Willow. Giles, I'll leave the athame in your possession, you never know if you might run into a dark witch again. Just make sure to keep it secure and don't let anyone touch it for a few hours after you've used it, so you don't absorb the powers yourself. They'll disapate on their own."
"Speaking of witches," local Xander eyed the crying Willow and tried not give into the urge to yell at her, she'd caused a lot of pain and never noticed. "or Magic users, which ever term you want to use, we've got a problem with Amy Madison, did you know her in your own reality?"
"Daughter of a dark witch that dreamed of her glory days as a cheerleader, yes I knew her." Elder Xander admitted. "Please tell me she's not a dark witch like her mother."
"No, she's a rat." Local Xander answered. "Accidentally turned herself into one to escape a mob fueled by a fear demon. Willow hasn't been able to turn her back. She's kept in a cage in Willow's dorm room, any chance you could turn her back?"
"I can try, the Magic probably twisted out of fear or something, if I figure it out, I might be able to reverse it. I'm not a witch though, I'm a whitelighter. Elder, crap I only hope I don't stay this way."
"Why?" Faith asked. "Is there something wrong with being an Elder?" She was thinking about something Queenie had said, about not wanting to force Xander to choose and Willow would too.
"Elders don't live on Earth, they live in the Upper Realm. An Elders job is primarily to monitor the Earth for potential danger. Someone who wants to pry open the Hellmouth, for instance. Witches, Slayers, demon hunters, they deal with the monsters, whitelighters heal them of physical wounds and help them deal with emotional ones. If I stay an Elder, I have to live in the Upper Realm and help monitor the Earth. My Faith and I would almost certainly never see each other again. It's only come up once before and the Elders made him choose between duty and love and at first he chose duty. But both he and his love were miserable apart and eventually he renounced his power and position and returned to her. But he also wasn't a whitelighter anymore. I love being a whitelighter and I love my Faith. I do not want to be an Elder, but if I have to, I will chose my Faith."
"And she'll have a problem with that because she'll feel like you're both being selfish." Faith decided. "It'll cause problems either way, the Powers may have managed to screw you and her too by attacking our Xander. You got dragged into a fight that wasn't yours."
"The dragged part I agree with, I refute the charge that it's not my fight. Doesn't matter when or where, all that matters is standing against evil. Meeting Buffy gave me a purpose and I'll always be grateful to her for that. Now, this conversation started with Willow saying she'd tracked down Faith's new father and tried hacking her way into his work's computer system. I wonder if she's gonna get to find out rules about hacking apply to her too? On the other hand, we let her go looking for information on him and didn't specify that she should color within the lines, so it's on us too. But her studying Magic without oversight that's on you, Giles."
"I'm aware." The older man sighed. "One more failure to lay at my feet, a lesson I hope I've finally managed to learn."
"Okay, Giles has been spanked, Willow knows she's a moron." Cordelia said impatiently. "Can we get to researching how and why I magically tied our Xander to me? And what it might have to do with why I've somehow become magically pregnant?"
Yeah, Major Carter and General Hammond aren't the only ones who can launch metaphorical bombs, Cordelia had always had an innate knack for it too.