"Tara...?" Buffy's voice emerged as a choked whisper, laden with emotions dredged up from the depths of memory. The sudden appearance of someone she believed to be resting peacefully in the afterlife struck her like a stake to the heart. She knew all too well the jarring sensation of being yanked from a serene existence into the chaos of the mortal realm, all in the name of battling forces beyond comprehension. Though tears threatened to overflow, none dared to stain her cheeks; Buffy had mastered the art of shedding invisible tears long ago.

"It's... I've missed you," she confessed, her voice trembling with a mix of sorrow and relief. With a determined swallow, she composed herself, unwilling to burden Tara with her own emotional turmoil. "You're in Cleveland, Ohio. It's 2024. We're in the midst of another apocalypse, and that boom you just heard? Yeah, that was my brain imploding," she added, a wry smirk flickering across her lips, a shield against the overwhelming gravity of the situation.

"How are you... Are you okay?" Buffy's concern manifested in the slight furrow of her brow, a silent echo of the anguish she had felt when Tara had been cruelly torn from their lives, leaving behind a void that time could never quite fill. It seemed like only yesterday that they had mourned her untimely departure, and now, here she stood like a spectral visitor from the past, stirring dormant emotions and igniting a flicker of hope in the darkness.