Disclaimer: I don't own BtVS. And the idea I borrowed from M. Scott Eiland. Thankies. And I promise not to be too mean.

Spike ran into the Magic Box. "Buffy? Watcher? Red?" He yelled out, in a happy voice that was never used. Not after that night.

Dawn poked her head out. "Spike, what's wrong? Buffy, Willow, and Tara are out patrolling. Which is what I excepted you to be doing. And Giles is in the other room, reading some old textbook." Dawn walked fully out, into the doorway. With the back lighting, the worn look of her body was more obvious.

"Xander...Xander is alive!" Spike spit out, with a prize-winning grin.

"Spike, it's not nice to say stuff like that. Because either Buffy will start thinking you are trying to hurt us, or have gone around the bend like Drusilla. Whoever Drusilla is..." Dawn turned and walked back into the room.

Spike followed. "Damn, I saw it. Some bint in a kimono sung a weird Chinese song, and then cut herself. And after they opened up his grave, he woke up." Spike growled angrily. He excepted Buffy, Giles, and even Willow to be skeptical. But not his little bit, not Dawn.

Giles looked up from his book. "Who awoke?" Then started to get more books together.

"Xander, Alexander L. Harris. He woke up, he's alive." Spike spoke excitedly.

"Very funny Spike. Now tell us the real reason you are here. Do you need money? Do you need blood?" Giles took off his glasses and started to clean them.

"Watcher...Giles, he's alive. I'd bet my unlife on it. I swear to you, on everything I hold dear, including Dawn's life." Spike pleaded with Giles.

"Ok, then why a kimono? That's a Japanese ceremonial dress. Not Chinese." Giles finally figured just to humor the chipped vampire.

"I don't know. I couldn't ready the bloody bint's mind." Spike rolled his eyes at the duo.

Still at the gravesite

Xander stood up with the help of Rune, and Tairra. "Dessie, where am I?" Xander's eyes still glazed with death. "I can't make out much. You are the only thing really clear."

"That's because I did the ceremony." Tairra explained, smiling at him. Rune walked to a maroon convertible, and pulled out some rags and a mixture. Then walked back to hand it to Tairra.

"What's going on?" Xander voice sounded curious, but there was no hint of fear in it.

"I'm wiping the death out of your eyes." Tairra dipped the rags in the mixture and slowly wiped Xander's eyes clean.

Xander slowly reopened his newly cleaned eye with wonder. "I'm truly alive."

"Yep, dear brother. And now your true power is unleashed upon the world. Ridding it of the wicked." Tairra strokes his cheek with an almost motherly act.

"Huh?" Xander looked at her like she was nuts.

"Ok, not all the wicked. Because some wickedness is fun, like eating the whip cream right out of the can." Tairra smiled a goofy grin.

"You are still weird, Dessie. So who is this?" Xander motioned to Rune with his head.

"This is Rune. He's a souled non-evil non-cursed vampire." Tairra explained as Rune helped Xander out of the grave.

"So you don't go grr on good guys?" Xander looked warily at Rune.

"Nope. I'm not really good at being a vampire. I kinda helped stake my sire. And then got myself a soul. Things we do when we are bored in Oklahoma." Rune smiled down at Xander.

Xander smiled back, with actual warmth. He knew that Rune had been the one who had protected Tairra while he could not. "So you all live in Oklahoma? Why? What's there?" Xander asked eager to find out where Tairra had ended up.

"There is a demon school. They teach all forms of demons how to be a productive member of society. And how to stay off the Slayer's hit list." Rune explained while Tairra walked behind the car to change. "That's also how I got my soul. There's an arch there. It lets you regain your soul. There is a blessing upon it by the Powers That Be."

Tairra walked out from behind the car. "Yep, the two guys that helped was Locke and Gen. Locke is a Klepto demon. And Gen is a Drac demon. They are native to Siberia. But somehow he got stuck in America. Locke, on the other hand, grew up in Oklahoma."

"So where are they now?" Xander looked around.

"They had plane tickets back to Oklahoma. They don't want to stay. Locke misses Oklahoma, and Gen is kind of an agoraphobic. He has a fear of towns with too many people. Planes are ok. But he also misses the school." Tairra said putting her long hair into a bun.

Rune helped Xander into the car. "Where to Tairra?" Rune said as soon as Tairra climbed in.

"To the apartment, since Xander left it to me." Tairra snuggled close to Xander who snuggled back.

The drove off, more questions unanswered. But neither Tairra nor Xander seemed to care. And Rune was too busy driving to the apartment.