Buffy stumbled through her morning university classes the next day. During her years as a Slayer she had adjusted to the semi-nocturnal life her duty demanded of her, but last night had been much more draining than usual, with the meeting at Giles' in addition to the usual patrol. But despite her fatigue, Buffy was managing to have a fairly normal day marked only by a great deal of napping in class.

All that changed during lunch.

"It was horrible! There was blood everywhere, and on his..." Jonathan Levinson was talking to a group of people, the short, timid student in a state of great agitation. More surprising then whatever he was talking about was the fact that he was being taken seriously by the other students, who usually ignored Jonathan. As Buffy got closer, she could see that some other, more popular students were backing Jonathan up. They'd all seen the same thing, and it hadn't been good.

Jonathan spotted Buffy and slipped away from the conversation. As usual, no one noticed him leaving. They've probably already forgotten I was there, he thought, a little sadly. But that would change soon enough, once he was ready to change it all... Right now he had bigger problems.

He knew that Buffy was involved, in a good way, in the strange events that plagued Sunnydale. She'd saved his life once or twice, and had saved him from his own despair last year. He knew that if anyone could help make sense of what he'd seen, it was her. "Buffy," he said, "you wouldn't believe what happened this morning! You know Christian Joe?"

Buffy nodded. Christian Joe was one of Sunnydale's few surviving homeless. A former cleric, he'd lived close to the church after his career met a sordid end, and his attachment to the church had saved him from becoming an easy vampire snack.

"I've been going to church every morning, as part of my therapy after… you know," Jonathan said. "Today, when I got there, Joe was dead. He was sitting on his usual bench, where he sleeps, you know, but there was a- a big hole in his chest… so much blood. Jonathan stopped for a moment to regain his composure. The sight had left him greatly disturbed. "And his face had these weird red scars on it. From the look of him, I think… he died in pain. A lot of pain." Jonathan looked at Buffy for advice. "Do you know anything? I mean, is there anything I should do..."

"First I've heard of it," Buffy said. "This was at the church?"

Jonathan nodded. "The police already took the body away and they asked me a lot of questions, but I don't think they'll find anything… there's not going to be another snake, is there?"

"No. Well, probably not." Buffy thanked Jonathan for the information, then walked away, deep in thought. What the hell was going on?

There was more than enough time left in lunch for a bit of amateur Slayer sleuthing. When Buffy arrived at the church, most of the area around the church was cordoned off with police tape, and a chalk outline had been drawn in a sitting position on the bench. Buffy paid the tape her usual lack of heed and started examining the area. There were still traces of blood on the bench and on the ground around it, despite the best efforts of the police and paramedics. Buffy crouched. Something about the blood seemed strange… the pattern of it felt off somehow. She stood up and looked around for some sign, anything.

That's when she saw it, something clinging to the wall of the church. It was grey and shriveled, and most definitely dead. But that didn't stop her from shivering as its clouded eye seemed to stare at her.

It was the thing that had attacked Giles.

"Ah, Buffy. I've been looking for you." Professor Walsh approached Buffy as she was heading for the university's science lab. "Willow hinted that you wanted to talk to me about something interesting."

"Yeah, I did." Actually, Buffy had been hoping to tell Riley about last night's attack and so spare Giles' pride, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen now. Slowly, she began filling the Professor in. As she did, she thought that she didn't like the look in the Professor's eyes one bit.

In the science lab, Willow was in science overdrive. She liked computers more than biology, but she knew enough to tell that the egg was definitely unique. If only she could concentrate on the microscope instead of having these weird urges to play with Tara's hair…

"This thing is incredible, isn't it Tara?" she babbled, trying to get her mind back on the work. "I mean, sure the egg couldn't survive re-entry- the heat can melt almost anything- but it looks like could keep the creature alive for a really long time almost anywhere!"

"Huh?" Tara looked away from the computer. She'd been staring fixedly at it for several minutes, trying not to stare at Willow instead. Willow was spared having to repeat herself when her cell phone rang.

"Hello? Oh, hey Buffy!"

"Hey Willow." Buffy's voice was tinny on the other end. "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that the thing that went after Giles is dead. But I found it near where another guy got killed last night- he had a hole punched or stabbed in his chest or something."

"Huh," said Willow. "Was the crawly thing tough to kill, or did you just step on it?"

"No, that's just it!" Buffy exclaimed. "I didn't kill it. It looked like it just shriveled up and died on its own. Weird. Anyway, I was bringing it to the lab for you to do science stuff to, but I ran into Walsh first."

"Oh, okay. Does the Initiative know anything?"

"No, but they want to pretty badly," Buffy said. "Walsh says I'm getting an A on my next test for bringing this to her attention. She 'would neither confirm nor deny any knowledge of extraterrestrials', but she told me this might become the Initiative's top priority. She took the dead thing with her too, said that the Initiative would be able to study it best."

"They probably could," Willow admitted. "I'm having enough trouble just making anything out of this egg. All I can tell is that it's plenty tough, as far as eggs go. I'm not sure about anything, but I right now, I wouldn't be surprised if it came from outer space."

"Great. Now I'll have to tell Xander all his worst ray gun fears are coming true. Anything else?" Willow said no. "Good. I'm going to patrol where the egg landed tonight and see if I can find you anything else, bye." Buffy abruptly hung up.

Tara looked at Willow. "Is she in a hurry?."

"It's a Slayer thing. Giles thinks whatever's going on is pretty dangerous, and he's usually right, so..."

"But i-it's dead now," Tara said. "Isn't it?"

"Don't worry. This is just a loose end. We'll finish up, then we'll have all the time to ourselves for spells and stuff." They smiled at each other.