"Holy hell! What the shit was that?"

"Dawn!"

The slayer glared at the younger girl with obvious annoyance.

"Less of the potty mouth and more of the quiet would be of the good right about now." With a final dark look at her sister, Buffy turned to Willow and Tara.

"So splainy? What's with the presto scitzo? Cos I gotta say, that just totally wigged me out."

Watching Illyria out of the corner of her eye, she waited for one of the two witches to explain (to steal Dawn's inappropriate phrase) what the shit she'd just seen.

Tara's troubled gaze met Buffy's before she too turned to look at the red headed Wicca, signifying that she too was clueless.

Willow sighed deeply and then shrugged. "Got absolutely nooo idea. Near as I can tell, which you probably figured out already, something went a little wacky with the whole possession thing and somehow or other Fred and Illyria sorta got a timeshare deal going. The changy thing? Well Illyria did that earlier, but I get the feeling that this time it wasn't her doing the driving... apart from that... I got nothing" she offered shrugging again.

"Anyway guys not to be all repeato girl but can we worry about the whole Fred slash Illyria thing later? Cos again... running out of time here..."

Buffy contemplated Willow's words while she studied the strangely still form of the blue god. Weighing up the facts, she came to the conclusion that Willow was right. It didn't matter what was going on with her, all that mattered was finding a way to help Spike.

Pushing her inner slayer down she let the woman step forward... the woman who was extremely worried for her ex-lover.

"K, right, let's have a look at the spell then... we got the blood so what else do we need?"

Tara and Willow shared a look before Tara handed Buffy the small book the two witches had been studying when Buffy first arrived.

"Elixir of rebirth..." muttered Buffy "Ok, got that... Angel's blood. Wine of the god... Illyria's obviously. Essence of battle.... mine of course. Ok so this bit, the bit about the heart of the source? What the frick's that mean? Any ideas?" she asked, shooting a look at the witches.

Her eyes widened at the next line.

"Shit guys..." her tone suddenly worried. "If I'm reading this right... the whole ‘Combine before the moon sets on the third day' thing... then that means Spike has three days to live from the time of the battle. So how much time do we have left?"

She turned her panicked gaze on Willow praying that the young witch would tell her not to worry, that they had plenty of time, even as her heart sank at the miserable look on her best friend's face.

Willow opened her mouth, intending to somehow reassure Buffy, but before she could speak, Illyria once again interrupted.

"Today is the third day.... moonrise tonight shall bring an end to the vampire if you do not find the cure. You will cease this useless prattle and restore him... or I swear by the powers of the old ones you will share his fate." With that, she turned sharply, averting her face and lapsing into a threatening silence.

Buffy bristled at the God kings words and tone, but the knowledge that Spike had only hours to live overwhelmed any real anger she might have felt at the others threat.

"Um guys, can I have another look at the book?" asked Tara tentatively.

Passing the book to her, Buffy tried to read the expression on the others face.

Was that a glimmer of excitement she could see in her friends' eyes or just wishful thinking on her part?

"What is it baby? Did you think of something?" asked Willow, her own worried gaze resting heavily on the book in Tara's hands.

"I-I'm not sure Will... there's something...Goddess I know this... I just can't seem to remember. Heart of the source? Heart of the source... let me think... ok the blood has to come from sources close to Spike? But the whole cryptic thing is actually really literal when you come down to it... so that probably means that the heart is also literal? But the source?"

Tara's brow furrowed in concentration as she stared at the words on the page as if looking at them long enough would make them give up their secrets.

Buffy could feel her heart beating heavily in her chest. Fear and hope waring with each other as she clenched her fists impotently. Praying that Tara would find the answer to the riddle before time ran out. Her mind refused to even consider what she would do if she lost Spike again so soon after finding out he was still alive.

When the silence was finally broken, it was by the last person they expected.

"Could it be the dragon?" Dawn ventured timidly. "Cos the vision showed a dragon and the wounds are from the dragon so shouldn't that mean..."

"Oh my God Dawnie, you're brilliant," shrieked Willow, throwing her arms around the younger girl.

"Ye-Yes of course... The heart of the source" gasped Tara. "How could I have been so stupid? The source of his injuries and the heart. The answer was staring us all in the face. We need the dragon's heart to complete the spell."

"Um, guys?" interrupted Dawn "Not to be a killjoy or anything but um aren't dragons like pretty impossible to kill? You know with the whole flying and fire breathing thing."

Willow's face fell and even Tara looked worried at her words, but when Dawn looked at her sister, her expression was one Dawn knew well.

Grim determination shone in the eyes of the slayer, the very same look Dawn had seen last as they entered the Hellmouth to do battle with the first. Dawn felt something inside herself shift and let go at the expression on her sister's face. And with it, the fear and worry she had felt clutching at her heart disappeared.

The slayer was here, and the slayer would not lose... the dragon was going down.

Buffy turned in one fluid movement and faced the impassive figure of Illyria. Her voice when she spoke was one of power and command, the tone of a battle-hardened warrior that had never known the possibility of defeat.

"Where was it last seen? Take me there, now."



It had been less than a minute since Buffy and the blue God king had left to return to the scene of the A I crew's last battle.

Dawn suddenly realized that nobody had bothered to explain just how she happened to be standing in the room with a person she had last seen lying dead on the floor of her mother's bedroom.

Willow had moved across the room to check on the still unconscious vampire, leaving a strangely shy and timid Dawn to stare at the smiling young woman that now stood less than a foot away from her.

"Hey Dawnie... you ok?" asked Tara, her expression concerned as she took in the look on the ex-key's face. "I know this has gotta be sorta a shock to you... me being alive and all, but I promise you sweetie it's really me" said Tara, correctly interpreting Dawn's hesitant expression.

"But you died... I saw... I mean I-I was the one that... that found you... and you... you. Warren... Warren shot you... and there... was... was blood and... Oh my God Tara... How... how is this possible?"

Dawn crumpled at the look on the blonde's face, but Tara was there to catch her. Dawn's legs gave out under the rush of disbelieving joy, making her head suddenly light with relief.

"Oh God, Tara, I missed you so much" she sobbed, breaking down. "And... and Willow... God, Willow went all dark side of the force on us and Spike left, and... and, oh God, you're here and I missed you so so much" gasped out Dawn, as the familiar touch of the blonde witch released the last of her doubts.

"Shh Dawnie, its all gonna be ok" Tara soothed, rocking the younger girl in her arms.

"None of that matters now... and we will have plenty of time to talk about all that happened... there's lots of stuff I need to tell you guys. Willow knows most of it, but it can wait, at the moment I think that we need to focus on Spike and the healing spell."

As she knew it would, the mention of Spike's name had the desired effect and Dawn visibly shook off the emotion and shock of seeing yet another resurrected friend, to focus on the original reason for her being there in the first place.


"Oh my God Spike" she gasped" I forgot to even ask... is he ok... I mean obviously he's not ok but..." Her voice trailed off as her eyes that had been franticly searching the room for the vampire's presence suddenly found the object of her concern.

"S-Spike" she whimpered as she took in the sight of the man she had mourned for since his death in the Hellmouth.

Tara, taking in the devastated look on the young girl's face, flinched inwardly as she too examined the damage to the vampire that up till now she had been far too distracted by her own resurrection and the arrival of Buffy to properly study.

Dawn was sobbing silently as the two friends moved closer to the vampire that they had both considered a friend, when the other Scoobies had still seen him as, at best, an annoyance.

"Oh sweet Goddess" breathed out Tara.

Unlike Willow she managed to control the urge to vomit at the sight of his wounds.

Dawn wasn't so lucky... she gagged twice and bolted from the room, leaving a shocked Tara to stare at the nearly destroyed vampire with horror. Unable to fathom how anyone, supernatural or not, could possibly still be alive with the amount of damage he had suffered.

Ok, so technically he wasn't alive... but still, how the hell he had held on for nearly three days was both a horror and a miracle, one that Tara found herself hoping would continue long enough for Willow to do the spell.

"Yeah it's pretty bad" came Willow's quiet murmur taking in the tear-filled look on her lover's face. "But Spike... he's strong... well stubborn really, if anyone can make it, it'll be him."

Tara sighed heavily as she felt Willow take her hand and give it a gentle squeeze before turning back to once again check Spike's many injuries.

"Goddess Will, he must be in so much pain... is there anything I can do?" she asked the red head.

Willow smiled softly, thinking to herself that it was just like Tara to be more focused on someone else's pain than worrying about the fact that she'd been dead less than and hour before.

"I dunno sweetie... I've done everything I can think of to ease his pain...maybe if you just sit with him and hold his hand... maybe knowing someone is here for him if he wakes up... well it couldn't hurt" replied Willow, her worried gaze swinging back to the vampire on the bed.

And that's where Tara was when 20 minutes later a tired looking Giles and rumpled Xander burst into the room.