Now this would have been a perfect season six.
I always wondered why the heck Buffy came back numb most of the time, not angry. And then when she finally let out the anger, it was on one of the two people who didn't pull her out of heaven.
You also kept the whole Buffy using Spike to feel thing, but did it in a less nasty way. She was still using him, but not being nasty about it. It still hurt him emotionally, but she didn't beat on him and wasn't overtly cruel. Then there was a happy ending that made everything great. lol
And go Anya! She got her stones back, for lack of a better term. It's kind of funny that she had to lose her all important soul to become a stronger, more self assured person. It just shows that their fixation about souls is completely off base. It seems to me that a soul controls remorse and concience, not feelings. You can be a perfectly good 'person' without a soul, which gets proven over and over and over. Not only with Spike, but with the other good demons in the show (Clem, Lorne, etc).
I like what you brought up with Willow; I never really saw magic as her addiction, but power. Magic gave her that power, but it was her desire to control everything that really sent her over the edge. You expressed that well here, along with the caring, kind characteristics of Tara that were sometimes glossed over in the show (a lot of the time they only used her in regards to Willow, not her own character.
And the idea you had with the consequences makes a lot of sense. One of the whole ideas of Wicca and white magic is that everything you do comes back on you threefolds (karma). The spell needed to take a life for it to work, which means a life should have been owed. Since it was Willow who took the life, it stood to reason that she should have to pay the price...and usually that price isn't their own death, but something that they love the most.
And Spikelus- Epic Win
Wow, that was one long review. To sum it all up...awesome story!

That was sooo good, love your stories. Btw, as the dork i am i laughed for 4 minutes because of the "Spikelus" line someone made...

Awww. That was so bloody cute! I loved it. Your a really talented writer... especially in the smutty scenes!! :P

that story was FANTASTIC!!  I absolutely LOVED it!!

 Loved it .. made me cry..

Just read this i one go - and it was absolutely stunningly amazing! Every word, every chapter was perfect. Everyone got their just desserts. Look forward to whatever you bring next.

loved the end of of this fun tale. thank you.

I loved it!  Especially the way Buffy finally got mad at the others' constant interference in her life and told them off.  Well done!  (Too ba they did not do that in the show.)

Excellent chapter absolutely loved it. Gonna miss this fic.

I love this tory, The end was so good and spike and buffy are so cute together!

Great story!! Thank you for all your hard work.

i love this story. i got some pretty bad news when i was like halfway through reading it but it just made me wanna read it more an forget an it helped me do that, so thanks. awsome job =D
xoxo

Star turn by Anya, her comment about Xander having it easy was so true!  I'd never thought of that before.  The git got off lightly.  And Willow needs to stay gone a very long time.   It was all very delicious.  True love for Spike and Buffy  - her realisation was perfect.  You've excelled yourself with this one.

Fantastic ending.

I wanted to applaud Anya's speech because she made so much sense. Willow and Xander really needed to be smacked down.

A great conclusion as usual, but I'd have loved you to go on .  I was so glad that Buffy realised that Spike was the better man and claimed him, though; thank goodness for that!

Roll on the next story...

Fabulous!!  I loved everything thing in this conclusion, especially Buffy's revelations about her feelings for Angel and Spike.  Thanks for this great story!!

“He’s got something that takes the place of one. The ability to love, maybe. Profoundly, unselfishly, unconditionally.”  Oh well said!  Yes, I understand the help a soul can give in realizing right from wrong and potential consequences but as has been pointed out many times quite well fully souled humans prove that means NOTHING.  The CHARACTER of the being has to WISH to choose wisely, want to make right choices.  You can have multiple souls but without that desire you have evil (insert regular examples such as Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, etc).  You can have a being such as soulless Spike who can always TRY to make right choices and frequently get it abit wrong without the soul but could be helped in those choices since he desired to be a "better man" for Buffy.  The CHARACTER is what truly matters.

Lovely story.  Love how the mention of bringing Angel back in the picture made her reexamine her feelings for Angel and finally admit her love for Spike.  Nicely done!

Another treasure from you.  Hope your bunny hutch is full of stories!

Kathleen

*applauds madly*  Just love your fics; so angsty, so schmoopy, so PERFECT!  *flails*  Can't wait to see your next one; love that Willow realized that Tara was the price to pay; wish you'd allowed Anya to curse Xander tho; that would have been the icing on the cake!  Bravo!!!