It had been a fairly uneventful summer. Xander and Willow had patrolled but found no vampires, until the night Buffy came back, that is. One attacked them as they were walking, Buffy came out of nowhere, dusted it and insulted them. Yeah, maybe she had a bad day.

Then she copped an attitude, a bitchy and mean one with everyone. Yeah, maybe she had a bad summer and visit with her father.

While they were at the Bronze that evening, trying to ignore Buffy's attitude, Buffy and Angel seemed to have a fight and she asked Xander to dance with her. Once, that would have excited him and made him wonder if she was interested in him, but his interest had shifted since then. But that didn't mean he couldn't dance with her.

Yeah, this wasn't a dance. This was torture. She was trying to kill him. He was a sixteen years old hormone bomb for the love of all gods! If a cute girl bumps and grinds all over him, he's going to react, he can't help it. Then he noticed she wasn't paying attention to him, she was eyeing Angel while she danced with him. She was torturing them both, on purpose.

Xander abruptly stopped dancing. He did not deserve this. He hadn't done anything wrong. Buffy stumbled and nearly fell against him.

"What the Hell, Xander?!"

"I should be asking you that. So who are you trying to punish Buffy? Me for reviving you or Angel for standing there while I did? I know you know you died, wouldn't be hard to work out who revived you. I don't deserve what you're doing right now, on purpose, to me. If you've decided you don't want to be my friend, then tell me that, don't treat me like I'm a blow up doll just to make yourself feel better."

"What's the matter, Xander? I know you like it. I can tell. You've made it real clear, you want me."

"An automatic reaction that has nothing to do with my feelings, which by the way, stopped being focused on you when you started lusting after a walking corpse. You just haven't noticed."

"Please, you're so jealous of Angel you're making up reasons to break us up."

"There's never been a single reason to be jealous of him. Did I want your attention? Once, yes. But the fact that you chose a vampire instead of a human is disgusting. Angel, himself, has nothing worth being jealous of. I didn't make anything up, every objection I have is a valid one, you just want to ignore the demon, corpse and curse parts because they get in the way of what you want." He turned and walked away with as much dignity as he could, out the front door. He needed air, she'd really worked him up. He didn't see her push her way out the back of the club or Cordelia follow her and read her the riot act, herself. Nor did he see Buffy leave a human being in a dark alley she knew vampires frequented. Which means, he didn't see those same vampires grab Cordelia. He was in the front of the building, trying to calm his body down.

Later, he went to the library to talk to Giles. As her Watcher, he was the one who was supposed to be helping her.

"She's obviously struggling, Giles. She's taking it out on everyone, because she doesn't know how to deal with it. Do you have any ideas how to help her?"

"I've been rather busy, Xander. After we buried the Master's remains on consecrated ground, I was researching ways to ensure they stayed undisturbed. I've found a ritual that could actually be used to revive him, instead. It calls for those closest to him when he died to be sacrificed. The Master's followers were fanatical, they may very well be willing to sacrifice themselves to revive him. We must warn Buffy."

So they called Buffy and she and Willow returned to the library. After tearing Giles a new one for not knowing this sooner, she left to check the Master's remains. Then Giles realized he'd mistranslated a word. The ritual didn't call for those closest emotionally to the Master when he died, it called for those physically closest. Which was Willow, Cordelia, Ms. Calender and Giles. Pretty obvious the vampires knew that, when the three of them were attacked.

When Xander came too, it was find Buffy anxiously hovering over him.

"The Master's remains are gone. What happened here?"

"We were attacked. Turns out, the people needed for the sacrifice are those that were physically closest to the Master when he died. Willow, Cordelia, Ms. Calendar and Giles. If Willow or Cordelia die because of your attitude, I'll kill you myself, just so you know. Where would the vampires take them?"

"I don't know. We can ask Angel."

"Fine, the sooner we do it, the sooner we find them." They gathered weapons and departed for Angel's apartment. He was of the opinion that the Anointed One had them and told them he was using an old factory as his base.

They arrived in time, thank god. Willow, Cordelia, Ms. Calendar and Giles were all unconscious and hanging upside down over the Master's remains. Buffy and Angel attacked the vampires, while Xander got their friends out of harm's way and woke them up.

Afterward, he saw Buffy staring at the Master's skeleton. Giles started to say something and Xander stopped him. "She needs to work this out, Giles. Let her." As Buffy took a sledgehammer and reduced the Master's remains to dust, Xander was sure it helped. He was equally sure, she still wasn't alright. You don't bounce back from dying, however briefly, quickly. It would take time. He'd just have to remind Giles to actually think about her mental state. Maybe he should suggest Giles take some classes. Gods know, they all had trauma that needed to be dealt with.