Edited: 5/3/19

Buffy's gravesite, twenty minutes earlier.

The ground beneath them had been quaking as Anya, Dawn, and Xander stood next to Willow who had her arms hanging by her side, her hands rolled into fists. She was whispering a spell under her breath, her heart racing at the thought of her best friend suffocating to death only minutes after she was hopefully resurrected.

"Will," Xander whispered as he looked at the ground in front of the headstone, "it's now or never."

Willow took in a deep breath before pulling her arms forward as her voice decreased in tone and pitch. Her was deep now as the ground above the coffin began to crack, sail and grass being kicked u into the air from even more cracks forming in the soil.

"Thumm Thumm," more cracks formed, soil and dirt being kicked out from between the cracks before Willow ordered everyone to take several steps back. As they were rushing back, the ground was instead pushed back by a violent explosion that ejected dirt and soil out of the grave and into the air. Xander rushed towards the girls after he fell to the ground, and quickly rolled over the stunned Dawn while grabbing the confused Anya and Willow. His back to the dirt debris as they fell to the ground – specifically onto his back and parts of Willow and Anya.. the both of whom were huddled together with their arms around Xander.

The young man was grumbling out "ouch" and "damn" and "that's going to hurt" as the majority of the debris fell on him. Once the falling debris was finished, everyone rolled off, with sitting up panting while saying she couldn't breathe.

"You'll get over it," chuckled Xander as the four of them got up to their feet and inched their way towards the hole in the ground. Xander frowned when there was another layer of soil on the bottom before he looked over at Willow, "Will?"

"Forget what the spell was," she anxiously yelled out, her arms motioning into the hole where the grave used to be, "there should only be a few inches of soil left. We need to dig…"

"Thud."

Everyone stopped talking.

"Thud!"

Everyone turned to stare into the hole.

"Thud!"

Everyone looked at each other. They knew what was happening before even saying it out loud. The sound was coming from the grave, from the coffin that contained the now, possibly, living body of their friend. The sound meant that Buffy was alive.

"Is it just me, or is anyone feeling a zombie vibe?" Xander joked before chuckling o himself as the girls looked at him. Sensing he was being watched, Xander turned to each of the girls on either side before saying, "it was a joke. Kinda. Sorta."

"Thud!"

She was alive. Dawn, gleefully screamed and then got into the hole. Once she did, she went on her knees to use her hands to scoop the soil to one side.

"Buffy!" she yelled out loud as Xander leapt into the hole while Anya placed her hands over her mouth in disbelief. Willow too was standing next to Anya, her hands clasped together as the first sight of the brown oak coffin could be seen covered in a thin layer of dirt.

"Thud!"

The wood vibrated, the dirt falling off the surface and onto the rest of the dirt that made up the ground around the coffin.

"Thud!"

"Buffy!" Xander yelled out as he continued to scoop out the dirt by hand, "hold on, hold…"

"Thud… Scrash!"

Dawn and Xander fell back, as did Willow and Anya jump back, both of whom were standing on the surface as a bloodied hand punched through the coffin where Dawn had been scooping away dirt. The younger Summers sister then rushed forward, "Buffy!" and grabbed the arm, and then she wrapped her fingers around the hand which was trembling, "Buffy!" Dawn then looked over her shoulder at Xander scrambling up to her while yelling out, "help me!"

Dawn held her hand while Xander frantically starting digging the soil with his hands. It was a second later that Anya leapt into the hole and began digging, he former Vengeance Demon and Xander glancing at each other before the latter yelled out.

"Buffy! Hold on! Hold on!"

Buffy's Gravesite, forty minutes later.

Tara, Giles, and Spike rushed past the bushes and trees to end up at a sight that could feature in any horror movie. The three of them stared in stunned silence at upturned dirt and grass spread all around an empty rectangular shaped hole in the ground. The three of them edged closer and looked down into the hole to find the upper part of the coffin, which had a hole through the cover, open and the coffin itself was empty.

"Oh dear Lord," Giles whispered as he took a step back while Spike shook his head and turned around. He then strode off while bellowing over his shoulder, "those idiots probably took her home!" The Vampire was already through the line of trees just as Tara and Giles glanced at each other before turning around and running as far as they could to Giles' BMW.

Tara hopped in to the rear seat while Spike slammed the door to the passenger side. Tara released the breath she had been holding as she leaned back again the rear seat. She couldn't get the image of the empty grave out of her mind and wondered if Buffy was alright. She was looking out the window as Giles closed the door to the driver side before starting the engine.

Taking a deep breath as the car reversed and then accelerated forward, Tara turned her head towards the rear-view mirror where her eyes locked with those of Giles.

"I have no doubt that they succeeded," Giles whispered as his eyes went back to looking out the windscreen, "if Buffy wasn't… well… Buffy, then we would have an entire different situation on our hands."

"She could still have come out wrong," Spike said as Tara turned her head towards him, as did Giles before looking out the windscreen again. Spike, sensing the quizzical looks he received, went on to explain, "rising from the dead isn't exactly a real 'oh I'm see everything so clearly moment'" Tara chuckled at Spike exaggeration of his own accent as she shimmied up to the middle of the rear seat and leaned forward between the two front seats, "she may not show any changes now, it may come later… as in days later, or weeks, or even months. Fact is, we don't know."

Giles then sighed before nodding his head, "I was thinking along he same lines as well. I'm afraid that something else may have come back with her. And if she was in hell then…"

"A powerful demon coming through with her, that's what we could be looking at," Spike whispered before looking over his left shoulder at Tara. He remembered how he acted back at the Magic Box, and how scared the girl had been when he pushed her into the shelves in anger. Spike turned his head back to looked at the road lit by the headlights of the car and the street lights before looking back over his shoulder.

He saw Tara glanced at him for a second before looking away with regret etched on her faces.

"I don't like things hidden from me, pet," Spike calmly said to Tara before the latter turned her head towards him, "I think I've done enough for you lot for there to be some trust."

Tara nodded her head before whispering, "sorry."

"And I'm sorry too about scaring you back there," Spike looked back to the front, "yeah… that's it."

Tara chuckled before she turned towards Giles, "Mr. Giles, do you think we'll ever know where Buffy was pulled from?"

"Unless we ask her?" Giles said, "we won't know. And if this is the Buffy that we know… the one who cares about her friends and would not want to hurt them, then she would say she was pulled away from hell." Giles glanced at the rear-view mirror to look at Tara while Spike turned his head towards Giles, "she'll never tell us if she was pulled out of heaven. She'll know it would hurt Willow too much."

"Basically we won't get the truth then," Spike said as Tara looked down and leaned back on her the seat.

"I warned her," Tara whispered shaking her head before looking out the window before clarifying that she warned Willow, and then Tara continued, "I should have done more… I.. I made a mistake in not coming to either of you and…" Tara looked back down at her feet, "Buffy…"

"We'll have to make do," Giles said shaking his head, "as much as I am glad that Buffy is alive, we need to watch her closely. We need to ensure that the Buffy who returned is the Buffy we know…"

"And if she isn't," Spike asked looking at Giles.

"I honestly have no answer for that." The three of them drove on in silence as various thoughts went through their mind. Giles hoped that Buffy was the one he and the other Scoobies knew, but he also knew that he needed to have a talk to Willow about what she did was irresponsible and playing with forces that could have very well gone out of control. He knew he would later have to stress the need to use magic responsibly. He glanced at the rear-view mirror again and saw Tara looking out the window before he turned his eye back towards the front.

While Giles drove, Spike was staring out the windscreen at the thought that the girl he had, rather still has, a crush on was alive. But he also knew that people coming from the dead may not be the person they once were in life.

'Look at me,' Spike thought with his lips pressed together.

As for Tara, she really didn't know what to think. Seeing the empty grave was enough to make her wonder how different the Willow she now knew was, when compared to the Willow she had first met years ago.

'the old Willow would have listened,' Tara thought to herself, 'she would have least considered my opinion but… but the empty grave. Seeing that grave… she brought her back to life. And… and we don't know if it was the right thing. Oh goddess, what if… what if…' A thought entered Tara's mind, a thought that she needed to put to words.

"Will Buffy coming back to life do anything to the magic that gives a Slayer her powers?"

"What do you mean?" Giles asked, however, he didn't want to mention that he had been having thoughts about how Buffy's return could affect the Slayer line. But until now, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind; seeing Buffy again and his thoughts on what he should tell Willow occupied his mind.

Spike too looked over his shoulder at Tara with a look on his face that silently said, "out with it."

"Buffy died a mystical death," Tara said, and the two men nodded their heads, "I mean her death may not have affected the magic surrounding the Slayer so much because.. well.."

"She died," Giles finished Tara's sentence before noting the latter nodded her head.

"Since she was mystically brought back, that would mean that the magic that gave her powers has also come back, right?"

"Uh huh," Spike said nodding his head.

Giles nodded as well while saying, "theoretically, yes. However, there's never been a situation like this, Tara, so I cannot say one way or the other what may happen."

"Let's say that the magic making her a Slayer also came back," Spike jumped in, "that's good."

"What if the Slayer line is like a still pond?" Tara said as she leaned back, "I've been thinking about this for a while now, but I never thought Willow would succeed so…" Tara shook her head, "what if the Slayer line is like a still pond."

"You said that already."

Giles glare at Spike before gently telling Tara to continue.

"When a Slayer dies, there is a ripple in the pond… a very small ripple… which represents the transfer of power from one Slayer to another," Tara said as Giles nodded his head and Spike simply looked over his shoulder at her, "and she already died once. She was brought back to life and… and maybe that caused a larger ripple because she was brought back with the magic that gives her those powers."

"Okay."

"But there wasn't anything unusual after Buffy was brought back to life the first time," Giles said, "yes, she did die. But that was for a few minutes before she was given CPR."

"I wouldn't say there was anything unusual," Spike added, "there were two Slayers."

"Was there anything unusual that happened?" Tara asked. She wasn't in Sunnydale when the Master was temporarily resurrected before Buffy killed him. She thought that Buffy's soul and the magic returning to her body may have caused a huge ripple in the Salyer line; enough for there to have been a sign that something was wrong. Something that could prepare them for any problems that come their way through this new resurrection of the Blonde Slayer.

Spike shrugged before saying that he wasn't in Sunnydale when that happened, "I was on the way there though."

However, Giles clearly remembered the aftermath of Buffy's battle against the Master. He told Tara of how traumatised Buffy was when she returned from her Sumer break, how she was taking too many risks without thought of the consequences, how she regained her sense of self after she saved the lives of himself and the Scoobies before pounding the skeleton of the Master into dust. He said that with the destruction of the skeleton, Buffy had come to accept that she had died, and now had a new life ahead of her after being resurrected.

"There wasn't anything else unusual," Giles shook his head. He wondered how Buffy would be feeling now since she had been dead for months, her body probably stated to decay before her soul and the Slayer magic was pushed back into her body, 'but if I follow Tara's pond analogy, what kind of a ripple would that have on the Slayer line. What would be the consequences?'

"Are you sure there was nothing unusual?" Tara asked again as the neared Buffy's neighbourhood.

Giles shook his head unable to think of anything unusual, "not that I can remember. But then again, I'm thinking about Buffy being alive, so I may not be thinking clearly on anything else. And…" Giles tried to think of anything unusual that happened, "well, there was that thing with Angel, Jenny's death, and then Angel's re-ensoulment and being sent to Acathla's hell. That's about all the unusual things that happened that year."

"And I made my grand entrance then," Spike said as they neared the Summers home.

"So nothing that unusual happened other than… well… the regular type of unusual," Tara whispered as Giles drove the car up the driveway behind Xander's car and stopped. The three of the stared at the house for a few seconds before Giles and Tara released the breath they were holding. There would be time to discuss what could happen as a result of Buffy's resurrection, for now though, they opened the doors to get out of the car. Once they were out, the three walked in silence towards the front door.

As they walked up to the front porch, no one noticed the blonde in blue jeans and a cream blouse standing on the other side of the road staring at the three with a smirk. The blonde, who if anyone could see her, looked just like Buffy as she crossed her arms over her chest while the three knocked on the front door of the Summers door.

"Well then," the Buffy-look alike said, "let the games begin."

TBC.