Thaumogenesis

XANDER: (nervous) 

Hey, Tara, this is probably crazy ... but Spike got me to thinking. 

This spell we did ... it's having consequences, isn't it? 

I mean ... it sure seems like it. 

And I was just wondering ... did you know that this might happen?

TARA: 

No!

XANDER: 

Do you think ... could someone have known?

TARA: 

Willow is a talented witch, and she would never do anything to hurt anyone.

XANDER: 

I know, I know, huh? 

(raises his hands) 

Backing off quickly, hands in the air. (sighs) 

I just meant-

WILLOW: 

Thaumogenesis!

Xander and Tara look over at Willow, who is at the counter, still looking through the books. We see Anya and Dawn with their heads on the table, jerking awake at Willow's shout.

ANYA: 

She's possessed!

WILLOW: 

Thaumogenesis.

DAWN: (to Anya) 

You're right.

Xander and Tara go over to Willow.

WILLOW: 

I'm not possessed. 

I-I think I figured it out. This demon, i-it's not a demon we let out.

It's a demon that we made.

XANDER: 

We made a demon? Bad us.

WILLOW: 

Thaumogenesis is when doing a spell actually creates a being. 

In this case it was like, a, a side-effect, I guess. 

Like a price.

DAWN: What?

WILLOW: 

Think of it like, The World doesn't like you getting something for free, and we asked for this huge gift. 

Buffy. 

A-and so The World said, 

'Fine, but if you have that, you have to take this too.' 

And it made the demon.

ANYA: 

Well, technically, that's not a price. 

That's a gift with purchase.

DAWN: 

Um, but, if we made the demon, how come we can't see it?

 I mean, all we see is us. 

Doing stuff.

WILLOW: 

Well, I, I think it's out of phase with this dimension. 

Like, its Consciousness is here, but, but its body is caught in the ether between Existing and Not Existing.

TARA: 

It doesn't have a body, so it's borrowing ours. 

I-it borrowed Dawn and Anya...

WILLOW: 

Or, or it's manifesting copies of them, like, like it did when Buffy came at us...

TARA: 

It's using them to do stuff. To scare us, attack us.

XANDER: 

So we need to uncreate it, right? We need to send it the rest of the way out of our world.

WILLOW: 

Uh-huh. 

Except that ... 

it's linked to the spell.

 So, if we sent it away ... it would be like the spell doesn't exist. Like it never happened.

DAWN: 

Like it never brought Buffy back.

WILLOW: (softly) 

Yes.