Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. It belongs to Joss Whedon

Author's Note: This did not turn out as good as I wanted, but I'm posting it in the hopes that you guys will want the sequal I planned that takes place after the last episode "Chosen" based off of what is put in this one shot.

Full Summary: Instead of being in heaven when she dies, what if Buffy had been in some untold hell dimension? But it felt like she had only been in there for seconds instead of the full length of her death. How would it affect Buffy when she rises, Dawn's shop lifting and rebellion behavior, and Willow with magic?

Buffy gasped as her body took a breath again for the first time in weeks. Where she was exactly, she didn't know, but it wasn't much different from where she left. It was dark and cramped... but she couldn't get a decent breath. She punched up hoping to create some kind of air flow and just got dirt. Not one to give up, Buffy kept hitting and – as there was no other word to describe it- digging until she got air.

She climbed out of the earth breathing heavily and looked around. "You'd think that the powers that be would be nice enough, after the hell dimension I was sent to when I died, to let me rise anywhere other than the place I've grown to despise. But of course, all the great hang outs in Sunnydale consist of a cemetery." she said to herself while brushing off the dirt.

She started walking towards the main road to go home and noticed the fires all over the place. Then came the roaring of the motorcycles. Ugly wrinkled, and of course, horned demons were driving in a circle around her.

"Hey, Slayer! Or is it Slayer-bot? Let's see how well your friends will be when we take you to the demon realms and prove that the real Slayer is dead?" What Buffy supposed the leader was, said.

"You think I'm a robot? Really? Are you that dumb?" She asked. She took a piece of metal off the ground and cut into her hand. She held it up. "Blood. Something robots don't have. Now are we done with small talk? 'Cause I really would like for my home to be demon chaos free for the rest of the night."

The demons charged and Buffy was ready. She ducked, kicked, punched, and fought until the leader was dead and the rest fled. She didn't notice that while she was fighting four people joined the group and stared.

Willow, Xander, Anya, and Tara were shocked. Buffy was back. Buffy was back. Buffy was back! Once the demons rode off, Buffy looked over at them. "Hey, what's going on guys? What's happened since I hit the bed? Of death that is." she asked, smiling.

Dawn was sitting and writing in the diary she started the day Buffy died.

"-I know they loved her as much as much as me but she was my sister. I'm glad I have them here for me but with Giles gone Willow still in pain and Tara always afraid to say the wrong thing, it seems wrong. I really think I was the one meant to die. Because as soon as Buffy jumped I felt like the world titled off it's correct direction. And not in the the-world-has-no-meaning-and-it's-stopped way but more of the the-world-is-not-on-fate's-path way. You know what I mean?"

"Dawn?" she heard. Spike.

"In here, Spike!" she yelled. The blonde vampire walked into the den just as Dawn pulled out her math book.

"Homework?" he asked sitting across from her.

"Yeah..." she said, looking at the finished work she had done earlier that day.

"Um... Dawn?" he asked.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Can I use the empty -"

"Dawnie! Spike! Come here!" they heard Willow call.

They looked over at each other confused. They walked into the entrance hall. Willow, Xander, Anya, and Tara were each holding a limb of the Buffy-bot.

"Oh, no! How are we going to keep the world from knowing Buffy is dead?" Dawn asked.

"Well, Red here got the head back on, I'm pretty sure she could put it back together again." Spike said.

"Or, I could actually play myself. You know, it might work." Buffy said stepping from behind the other four.

"Buffy!" Dawn said, running to hug her sister.

"Hey, Dawnie." the blonde said holding her younger sister.

Five minutes later they were sitting in the living room waiting for Buffy to get a hold of Giles.

She held the phone up to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hi, Giles." Buffy said softly.

"Buffy?" his voice came out cracking, she could tell he was in tears.

"Yeah it's me. Can you stay on the phone a little bit? I wanted you to hear what happened as well. I'm gonna put you on speaker."

"Um yeah- yeah that's fine." he said. Buffy could just see him rubbing his hand on his face, as if he was confused.

Willow took her cue as Buffy put the phone on speaker. She told those who didn't know about the spell and what she did. Giles, of course, was not happy with her using that much magic at once but with held his anger for the moment. Then Buffy took over.

She told them about crawling out of the coffin and fighting the demons, but then she paused. "I know you all think I was sent into some untold hell dimension, and I was. But when I woke up in that coffin, I thought I was sent back into my body by some hell-god who was pissed at me for Glorificus and had stuck me into some resemblance of her old dimension... only where I was alive. And I was freaked, I admit. But to be honest, from when I died to when I was alive again, it only felt like seconds. Very painful seconds, but seconds nonetheless."

"It's been a few weeks Buffy." Dawn told her gently.

"Oh, I know that now. But I felt I had to say that because you'd think after being a hell dimension I would be more, oh I don't know, shaky? But I feel a little like I did after the Master. Only, not as bitch-of-the-year-candidate-like."

There were laughs at that. "Um, Buffy, I'll try and get a flight out as soon as I can, but I rather think it will be a few days." Giles said.

"That's fine Giles, Just... will you please be careful?"

"Of course." he replied softly, just before hanging up.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but coming back alive took a lot out of me, so I'm going to bed." She turned to go up the stairs. "Oh and Willow, Tara? Thanks for taking care of Dawnie for me."

The two lovers nodded and Buffy went to bed, ready to be the slayer, again.

Two days later, Buffy opened to door to the man she had depended on since she was 15. "Giles!" The Englishman smiled and dropped his suitcase, grabbing her in a tight hug.

"Welcome home, Buffy." he said kissing her forehead.

She smiled up at him and leaned in just for a little strength. He noticed but didn't say anything. He was just glad that she had the strength to give it up once in a while.

The other six in the house came to greet him as he shut the door. "Hey look, G-man. Your slayer's back, which means you are now back on duty." Xander said, in a babbling repeat of what he said after Buffy's return before her senior year.

"I see, Xander, and please don't call me that." Giles said with a quiet grimace that both Tara and Buffy noticed.

The group gathered in the living room, Buffy, Giles and Dawn all on the couch, holding each other for strength, it seemed, to prove the reality of the situation.

"So, how have you been, Giles?" Buffy asked. "You know, since-"

"Oh! Um, well, not very well. I hated that you weren't here anymore, and as much as I love the rest of the group, it wasn't the same."

"Now, he was the repeat of you after the Master, Buffy." Xander told her.

"Can someone explain to Tara and I what you guys mean?" Anya asked.

"The Master was a vampire leader who wanted to take over the hellmouth at the end of our sophomore year. When I dusted him, I went to LA with my dad for the summer-"

"And when she came back, she was, well to put it bluntly, a bitch." Willow said.

"-Anyway, I was treating everyone around me horribly, which is, apparently what Giles did?" she posed the question to him.

"We-well, not on purpose, mind you. But as I said it was hard." he said sheepishly.

She smiled lightly. "I don't blame you, I would have probably had been a lot worse it had been you."

Dawn watched the watcher and slayer. She saw the connection that was always there, but thought maybe she saw more, but threw it from her head when Tara invited her to help with dinner.

After dinner found Dawn writing again in the diary she started after Buffy's death.

-She seems radiant. I'm happy that she wasn't in heaven because we pulled her out, but I'm not happy she was in a hell dimension because of the pain she went through. She is genuinely getting better though, I can tell. She isn't faking it and she smiles a lot more that she ever did after I came into existence. She loves us and is happy that I'm not the reason that some hell-god is on earth. I think she's happy that we are sisters from now on no matter what. So am I. Buffy, though I may not show it, is the most amazing sister ever. Love, Dawn"

*A Month Later*

"Dawn? Do you have my silver and green hoops?"

"Huh? Oh yeah in the red jewelry box on my dresser." Dawn replied walking into the restroom.

Buffy opened said jewelry box and looked around it. At first she didn't notice the price tags, but when she did she froze.

Buffy walked over the bed and dumped the contents of the box onto it. When Dawn walked back in she saw her sister and the things on her bed.

"Dawn, what is this?" Buffy asked softly.

"It's nothing! I swear." Dawn replied unconvincingly.

Twenty minutes later, Buffy Giles and Dawn were in the dinning room, all the contents of the box on the table. Giles was sitting quietly. Only there for moral support of both girls.

"Dawn, why did you steal them? You know if you asked me and I could afford them I would have gotten them for you. So what's up?"

"Nothing."

"Oh right, and I'm a hell-god. Come on, Dawn! I can't help you if I don't know what's going on!"

"Did you know that ever since you came back that you've been here for dinner a total of 5 times? And three of them were your first three nights back? How is that fair? I know that the hellmouth is a bitch to live on-"

"Watch your mouth!" Buffy interjected.

"-But can't you take some time for me? Your little sister? Please?"

Buffy paused. She never thought of how the work she did around the hellmouth would affect Dawn.

"You only did it for attention?"Buffy asked her sister softly.

"I'm sorry." Dawn said softy. Giles, seeing the need for privacy walked out just as Buffy leaned and hugged Dawn.

"I love you. But please if you need to talk. Talk. Don't inadverty send yourself to jail." Buffy said.

"Deal." Dawn said giggling.

"Giles!" Willow said walking into the Magic Box."Can I take some sweet root? I need it to cast a spell to reset the house protections."

"Oh uh, hi Willow. Before you do that, we need to talk."

"Oh about what?" she asked sitting down at the scooby table.

"You and magic." he told her bluntly. "While I know how powerful you are, what you did with Buffy was horribly dangerous. You were never trained to control the magics. All you know how to do is to bend them to agree to your will. But they could control you at any minute."
"But they haven't and I'm fine." Willow pointed out.

"Yes, but for how long? You need to cut back on the magic, Willow. If protections are needed then Tara and I will do them."

"You want me to quit magic?"

"No, not quit. Just pull back until I can help you control what power you have so you're not controlled by it. I know that you can't quit cold turkey. So once a week you will have lessons with I or, if I deem you responsible enough without me, Tara."

Willow sighed. She knew Giles was right, but she also knew that it would be hard work.

"Ok, Giles. I'll do it."

"-It's been amazing. Willow has learned to control her magic and her and Tara are as strong as ever. Xander and Anya are getting married, Giles and Buffy have been training really hard, and I've even gotten into training as well. Buffy said I should be prepared if I live on a Hellmouth. I can now do flips and aerials and handstands like Buffy! It's pretty exciting. And Buffy makes it a point to keep Wednesday nights free from slaying for a dinner/movie/girl-talk night with Anya, Tara and Willow. Giles and Xander handle the Vamps. I wonder what the next apocalypse will be? Because I think that as long as we scoobies stay together, we'll be just fine. Love, Dawn"

Author's Note 2: Thanks for reading! I read it over agin on 8/12/11 and I gotta say this isn't very good. but I hope you like it anyway.