The school year ended not long after they stopped the Master from unleashing Hell on Earth and Buffy then spent the summer with her father. She'd come back mean.
'That's the only word I can think to describe her right now.' Xander thought to himself. 'Cordelia can gets bitchy and snarky, but despite what Willow thinks, she's not really mean. Buffy's being mean and on purpose. Calling us losers and other things, for instance. The tone of her voice is just as mean as what she's saying. She wants to cause pain. Cordelia's just oblivious to whether she causes pain or not. So why is Buffy trying to hurt us? If I figure it out, maybe I can help her. If not me, then maybe Giles or Willow can.'
The next day Buffy was still being mean so Xander had a suggestion. "Hey, guys. Why don't we spend some time at the Bronze? A little relaxing could help ease us back into school and everything."
"Sure, sounds like fun." Willow agreed enthusiastically 'Maybe Xander will ask me to dance.' She thought. 'I'm almost sure he was going to kiss me before that vampire and Buffy showed up. Maybe he's finally noticing me as a girl and not just a friend.'
Buffy spotted Angel when the three of them reached the Bronze and went to talk to him. She came back to the table with a weird expression on her face. 'Wonder what's up with her and Angel?' Xander thought. 'Angel so owes me for not telling Buffy he had no plans to even try to help her with the Master. Unless he decided to tell her himself? Naw, he's too much of a coward to do that. Maybe she figured it out herself? Probably not, after all I don't think she even registered the fact that I was there.' He decided. 'Unless she realized she drowned and wondered how Angel could have revived her.' His speculating was interrupted by Buffy asking him to dance. 'Wait, what? Why is she asking me? She said she doesn't think of me that way and has never asked me before and always turned me down when I asked her before. Did she figure it out? Is she giving me a dance to thank me? Nice thought, but unnecessary. She saved the world by stopping the Master, that's thanks enough.'
Five torturous minutes later, Buffy abruptly stopped rubbing all over him while staring at Angel and stalked off. 'Okay, that wasn't a thank you.' Xander thought, his not yet seventeen year old body almost painfully aroused. 'That was more mean. All of it was mean. She wanted to hurt all three of us. Willow looks like she's going to cry, probably because of her crush on me and Angel looks just as miserable. Why is she acting like this? It's like she's blaming us for something, but what?' He went home without figuring it out.
An embarrassed Jean Grey was now sure she was connected to a young, male mutant.
After school the next day, the three teenagers gathered in the library with Giles, who it turned out had been researching something all summer, a mystical way of securing the Master's remains.
'He does like to make things way harder then they have to be, doesn't he?' Xander thought. 'After all, we live near the ocean, we could have just dumped them in the ocean. Problem solved.' Then Giles informed them he'd actually discovered that there was a way the Master could be resurrected and given that his followers were fanatical, they might even try. Buffy started yelling at Giles.
"Hey, Buffy hold on." Xander said. "Giles didn't know, who would? It's not like any sane person goes around thinking how can I resurrect a vampire?"
"Xander, can you just stay out of my business for once? This is a Slayer problem and I'm the Slayer, not you." And she turned back to Giles and continued to berate him before leaving to check the place they'd buried the Master.
'The last time I got involved in Slayer business was when I got Angel to help me help Buffy and I revived her with CPR.' Xander thought. 'Is she objecting to me helping at all, if she figured out I was there? Or to me actually reviving her? A near death experience. Now that could be messing with her mind. She doesn't know what to think or feel about it. Mad that the constant life and death battle was over and then she was pulled back into it, by me. Happy to be alive. Feeling scared. Any or all? If she doesn't know what to think about it and isn't sure what she's feeling, then that could explain why she's upset. But it doesn't explain why she's taking it out on us? Or at least all of us. I'm the one who revived her, if she's going to be mad at anyone for being dragged back to life, it should be me. Giles for handling the prophecy badly, but Willow is innocent in all of it, so why is she being mean to Willow?'
Then Giles swore. "I just realized." He said. "I missed translated a word. It doesn't mean those emotionally close to the Master at the time of his death, it means those physically close." And then something hit Xander and everything went dark. He came too when Buffy shook him awake.
"The Master's remain are gone." She said. "What happened?"
Xander told her then said. "If Willow dies because of you, I'll kill you.' Willow was all he had left. He couldn't loose her too, especially not to vampires. They got Angel to help and found their missing people hung upside down over the Master's skeleton, including Cordelia.
After Buffy dusted the vampires, she was staring at the Master's remains and he realized, she needed to focus what she was feeling and vent it. Giles started to say something to her and Xander stopped him.
"She needs to do this, let her." And Buffy grabbed a sledgehammer and beat the bones into dust. Tears ran down her face the entire time. 'Let it out, Buffy.' Xander thought, not even realizing the irony of that thought as he pushed his own feelings back down.