"Tara." Willow breathed.

"Willow." The vision spoke, and Willow thought her heart would break in two, hearing her name spoken by her love once again. But she kept talking.

"What happened? I woke up and all these girls were talking about a battle, and Buffy, and it looks like a nuclear bomb in there…and I had the strangest dream…and what's wrong sweetie?" she stepped forward and brushed tears gently off of Willow's face. To her surprise, this caused Willow to collapse into her arms and cry even harder.

Buffy and Xander watched in shock as Willow hugged the apparently solid form of their friend who had died a year before.

Meanwhile, Anya was banging on the door of the bus, which Faith had pulled shut after Willow ran out.

"Let me in, you crazy girl! What's wrong with you?" she screamed at the worried slayer.

"B, what the hell is going on?"

"Giles they're not the First." Buffy turned to her Watcher.

"It appears not." He agreed.

"Well what are they? Giles we saw them die! Today, and, and TARA!" she gestured wildly at the blond witch, who was still holding the sobbing Willow in confusion.

"That's Tara?" Kennedy joined in. Giles and Buffy ignored her.

"Is there anything else that can take forms of dead people like that?" Buffy asked.

Giles shook his head. "Not to my knowledge." He pondered the question. "But there are the prophesies…no, it can't be." He mused.

"It can't be what? What prophesies!"

Giles swallowed. "There are many prophesies about the battle of Armageddon, and the fates of those who die fighting for the side of good. But I assumed they were all metaphorical…"

"WHAT PROPHESIES!" Buffy yelled.

"That those killed on the battleground would be resurrected, essentially." He put it for his impatient slayer.

"Are you telling me that all those girls who died today, have been resurrected because we won?" Buffy asked in amazement.

"Damn, how do we make this happen every time?" Xander quipped.

"But it's not just today." Dawn pointed out. "Tara. And isn't that Annabeth? She died a long time ago."

"I admit, it seems a little farfetched. Especially Tara's presence. And since the world didn't actually end, it doesn't really apply." Giles admitted. "But they don't appear to be evil, and we know they are not the First. Besides, the First's power here should have been eradicated with the closing of the Hellmouth and the destruction of his army."

That was enough for Xander, who followed Willow's lead and went to the front of the bus to see Anya.

Faith wasn't sure what to do, but she took one look at Xander's face and opened the door for him.

Xander flung himself into Anya's arms, muttering almost incoherent "I love you"s and "I'm sorry"s.

Buffy rubbed her eyes. "I so do not need to deal with walking dead people today."

"Are…are they dead though? They look pretty alive to me." Dawn pointed out.

"Only one way to find out I guess." Buffy hauled herself out of the uncomfortable bus seat and went outside to check out the 'walking dead people' herself. First stop, Willow and…Tara.

"Will?" she asked softly. Her friend had mostly stopped crying, but was holding onto Tara for dear life.

"She…Buffy she's real. Tell me she's real. Tell me." Willow whimpered.

Tara looked up at Buffy with wide blue eyes.

Buffy put her hand shakily on her old friend's shoulder, feeling warmth and sensing nothing evil about her.

"I don't understand it Willow…Giles said something about prophesies and resurrections…but she seems real."

"Of course I'm real, wh-why do you keep asking that?" Tara said in confusion. "Honey I'm right here, I'm real. It's you that looks weird, how did your hair grow so fast?" she looked at Buffy. "Y-yours too. What's going on?" she got suddenly nervous.

Buffy looked around at the crowd of slayers all staring at them.

"What happened Buffy? I thought I…well one minute I was fighting and the next minute I was waking up in rubble back there." Amanda gestured behind us.

A few other girls around her, who Buffy remembered being in the final battle as well, nodded.

"You know what, I'm too tired right now to deal with this. Giles, they seem real. Should we just load up and find somewhere to go?" She called back at the bus.

She saw Giles nod at her. "I need to do research on this occurrence. We'll just keep an eye on them. Besides, I think we all need some medical attention." He agreed, calling out the window.

Most of the slayers started boarding the bus. The slayers already on the bus gave them plenty of room. They were more suspicious of resurrection than the Scoobies with their long knowledge of weird things happening on the Hellmouth.

"Will? Come on, let's get on the bus, okay? Tara's coming with." She said, helping the redhead to her feet, but allowing her to keep her hold on Tara.

Tara still looked freaked out.

"I promise, we'll explain everything to you soon, okay? Just…let's get to a hospital and get some rest first." Buffy said to her.

Tara nodded. There were definitely some things that needed explaining. But she could tell there had been one crazy battle and getting to a hospital seemed like a good idea. She wondered if maybe she'd somehow gone to a strange alternate dimension. But wherever she was, she was with Willow, and her girlfriend clearly needed her.

-

The bus ride to the nearest town was mostly silent. The girls at the front of the bus were still confused about what had happened, and those in the back were worried their friends were about to kill them. Willow and Tara sat on a seat near the front, right in front of Anya and Xander. Kennedy was the only slayer not silent. She was fuming.

"I cannot believe she's up there with that….thing."

Buffy finally had enough. "You know what Kennedy? I'm pretty sure that's Tara, and if it is, let me be the first to tell you that you are single again."

Kennedy glared at the oldest slayer but kept her mouth shut.

"Oh and one more thing. Tara doesn't know anything yet. If I were you I'd stay away from them. I don't want her first knowledge of being dead to come from her girlfriend's new girlfriend, got it?"

Dawn was staring at Tara.

"Buffy, look what she's wearing." She said quietly.

"Who?"

"Tara."

Buffy looked, but couldn't figure out why Dawn cared. "What about it?"

"It's what she was wearing..that day."

Buffy's eyes widened. "The day she died? You remember what she was wearing?"

"I sat there for hours, just staring at her. I'll never forget anything about that room."

They arrived at a small hospital a few minutes later. The clerk was shocked to see nearly fifty people, mostly teenage girls, walk in bloody and bruised. A few were being held up by their companions.

Giles was in charge. "Earthquake, we think. In Sunnydale. We barely escaped."

The clerk's eyes widened.

-

It took six hours, but most of the combatants were released. Only four, including Robin, were checked into the hospital. In the interim, Giles and Tara, after being cleared by the medical staff with only minor cuts and bruises, had gone to a nearby thrift store the clerk had directed them to and bought all of the comfortable looking, clean clothing they could find, which they hoped would fit everyone until they had a chance to go shopping. Giles was trying to keep Tara away from the others until Willow had a chance to explain things to her. Dawn was just about as happy as Willow that she was alive, and she had a hard time not breaking down whenever she was around the blond witch. And Anya was never safe with a secret. They'd also made sure that everyone got some food. The hospital insisted that everyone be checked out, even if they didn't appear seriously injured, which had the added benefit of checking out all of the resurrected girls. Nothing out of the ordinary came back – they all seemed to be normal, fairly healthy humans. The strange part was that most of them had injuries, just not mortal ones. Most of the girls had bruises and cuts and a few new broken bones clearly from the last fight. As far as Giles could tell, they were as they'd been just before they had died.

The group, now forty-one strong, piled back on the bus to head to a motel.

"What the…"

"It's a long story. How many rooms do you have?" Giles cut off the questioning.

"Uh…let me check…" the clerk said, trying his best to look at his computer and the crowd in front of him.

"Thirteen." He pronounced a few moments later.

"We'll take them all." Giles said, slapping a credit card down on the counter.

"You brought your wallet with you?" Buffy asked him in amazement.

"Quite on accident, I assure you. But bloody good luck." He responded as the clerk ran his card and gave him a load of keys.

Buffy looked around at the group. "Okay…let's see. Giles, Andrew…" she looked at Xander, thinking about putting him with the guys but decided he should stay with Anya. She handed Robin the first key. "Xander, Anya, Willow, Tara." She handed Xander the next. "Um…me, Dawn, Faith…and here, you can figure it out from there. Ten rooms, get into groups of three or four and come grab a key. Get clean, get some rest. We'll talk in the morning. Giles, you have a list of the rooms we've got?"

The watcher nodded.

"Okay, go for it."

In less than ten minutes the new slayers had all disappeared off to their rooms, with only minor hassles over who went where.

-

The next morning, Buffy awoke and looked at the clock. She felt like she could sleep forever…but her stomach was less happy about that thought. It was almost 10 am, so she turned over to wake Dawn up, but she was already awake, staring at the ceiling.

"Hey." She grinned at her big sister.

Buffy smiled back. "Hey. Hungry?"

"God, I'm starved, but I didn't want to wake you guys." She said, sitting up. Buffy looked over at Faith and started laughing. The other slayer was sprawled across the bed with the sheets tangled up around her in an almost impossible knot, and she was snoring loudly. The laughing woke her up though.

"B, come on, we gotta get up already?" she moaned and put her arm over her eyes.

"Well it is almost 10, and I'm starving." Buffy pointed out. "Plus, I hate to think what those girls might be up to."

Faith considered going back to sleep but had to admit food sounded good.

-

Meanwhile, next door, Xander was lying awake too. Anya was pillowed on his shoulder. She didn't remember dying and he hadn't told her yet. But she had been getting closer to forgiving him before the big battle. He didn't kid himself that their sexual exploits had been much more than a common fear of death. But he did know that when he'd thought she was dead, he knew for certain that he had made a big mistake that rainy day last year. He hoped it wasn't too late to make that right.

Xander looked over at the other bed, where Willow and Tara were curled up so closely that he could barely tell where one ended and the other began. They looked so happy. But he knew that their road was tougher even than his and Anya's. Tara had been dead for more than a year, and she didn't even know it yet. And there was Kennedy…not to mention Willow's little scheme to destroy the world. Somehow he didn't think Tara was going to take too kindly to that.

The women were suddenly jolted awake at the loud knocking on the door.

"Are you guys awake in there?" the younger Summers' voice came through.

Anya groaned. "We are now."

"Well, it is almost ten o'clock." Dawn pointed out. "And we're hungry. And Giles says it's time to talk."

-

There was a Denny's in the motel, so after gathering up the young slayers, all of whom were already up and talking amongst themselves, they headed over. The newly resurrected girls had figured out what had happened, and were understandably freaked out.

Giles held up his hand and attempted to quiet down the crowd.

"Girls. GIRLS!" they turned to look. "I realize you are quite upset. But I don't think this is a safe place to talk. Let's get some food, and then we can go back to a room and talk."

Having slayer metabolisms, they were also quite hungry, so they grudgingly agreed. He put Andrew, Dawn, and Faith in charge of keeping the girls in order before sitting down in a large booth with Buffy, Willow, Xander, Anya, and Tara.

"Okay, so when is someone going to tell me what's going on? Why did you leave me and all those crazy slayer girls behind? And what is she doing here?" Anya pointed at Tara.

"Why does everyone seem so upset that I'm here?" Tara asked, looking down.

Giles looked at Willow and Xander, unsure if they'd want to do the talking. Xander sighed and started. He took Anya's hand in his.

"An, honey, we didn't leave you behind. You…and most of the other girls…you died in the fight."

To his amazement, Anya started laughing. "What are you talking about? I didn't die, look, I'm right here."

Xander's eye misted up. "I know you are. That's why it's so weird. Because we know you were dead, but you aren't anymore."

Tara turned to Willow. "Did..did I die in the fight too? But I don't remember a fight."

Willow shook her head, tears in her eyes too. "No…you, you died over a year ago. That's why…our hair is different, and Giles is here, and Dawn is taller, and Anya is back." All questions Tara had asked recently.

Tara stared at her girlfriend. "I…a year? I died? A year ago?" Willow nodded. "But..I don't remember. Buffy remembered, why don't I remember?" she asked, withdrawing her hand from Willow's and crossing her arms across her chest.

Giles spoke up. "We're still not sure about that. We've been fighting an entity known as the First, and there was a huge battle yesterday."

"Where Anya, and some of those girls, died." Tara filled in shakily.

"Correct. Those girls are potential slayers."

"Slayers now." Willow put in.

Giles shook himself. "I apologize, I'm still not used to it. They are slayers now. They were potential slayers until yesterday, and the First was attacking them to kill the slayer line. We were protecting and training them. Some of them died before the final battle. Those appear to be alive again too."

"But…what does that have to do with me?" Tara asked.

"We don't know yet." Buffy answered. "See, all of Giles' books were blown up so he doesn't have anything to research with."

"He's completely lost." Xander agreed.

Tara smiled despite herself at the thought of Giles without his books. Her smile faded when she saw a pretty, dark-haired woman approaching.

"Kennedy, I warned you." Buffy said.

Willow's eyes widened and Tara felt her stiffen beside her.

"You told me to stay away until she knew. Well it looks like she knows now."

"We just told her. Kenn, please, go back to your table, I can't deal with this right now okay?" Willow pleaded.

"Who are you?" Tara asked in confusion.

Kennedy put her hands on her hips. "Name's Kennedy. I'm Willow's girlfriend."