AN: Thank you for reading and any reviews I have gotten. BTVS doesn't belong to me.
Willow and Tara gazed at the night sky laying on a blanket watching the night sky. Tara was pointing at the ones she made up when she turned to Willow and asked her to try. That's when they saw the flaming meteor fly across the sky. It lite up the sky with a red hue as it crashed into the ground. Willow ran inside to call Giles about what they saw. While the Scoobies gathered, a man roamed through the forest muttering to himself as he looked up a tree a shadowy figured jumped down and landed on top of him.
The group walked through the wood checking for the meteor. Far in the woods, they finally found it and Riley jumped down to check it out. They saw that the rock was hollow and cracked as if something broke out of it. As the soldier reached to open it, Anya decided to speak up.
"Is it hot? 'Cause if it is, it could mean radiation and you all could go sterile." The blonde ex-demon said bluntly causing Xander to jump back in fear.
"It's warm but I don't think it's radioactive." Riley informed.
"So some evil thing slithered out of there." Willow guessed.
"We don't necessarily know it slithered." Giles replied cautiously.
"Um, guys, you might want to look at this." Lilith called from further into the woods.
Everyone ran over there and saw her standing over the body of a man. She had her hand down to his neck to check for a pulse but looked up and shook her head, gesturing that he was dead. Buffy paled when he saw the man as she recognized the man as the guard of the factory building she fought Glory for the first time.
"B, what's wrong?" Faith asked putting her hand on the blonde slayer's shoulders in comfort.
"I met him. He was the guard of the buildings where I first fought Glory." Buffy explained remorsefully.
"We'll get it, B." The brunette assured her counterpart.
"Uh, can I get a pen or something?" The clone questioned still examining the body.
Riley crouched down next to the brunette teen and handed her a pen. She stuck one end into the mouth and swirled it around before bringing it up for them to see it covered in a sticky substance. The smell of the substance was so bad the group heaved like they were going to hurl.
"Ugh, I think that is what killed him." Riley pointed out.
"Let's not touch it. It could be toxic." The former Watcher says earning an incredulous look from the two closest to the body.
"Okay, so research?" Willow wondered and everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
"Why don't you go do that and I'll examine the body some more?" The former Initiative agent suggests. "I'm not good at research. I like me a good old fashion crime scene."
"Do you want company?" Everyone turned a surprised look to the kneeling clone, who rolled her eyes at the looks. "What? I just wanted out of looking in books all night."
"Thanks for the offer, I think, but no I got it." Riley declined.
"Are you sure?" The blonde slayer asked apprehensively.
"I'll be fine, Buffy. I'll call if I need anything." The soldier assured his worried girlfriend.
Once the group had left the area, Riley pulled a phone from his pocket and spoke on an emergency line with Graham. A couple minutes after the call ended the forest was lite up with light from a helicopter. Soldiers dressed in full tactical gear jumped out and started examining the area. Graham stepped out followed by the leader of the group.
"You Finn?" He asked as he stepped in front of Riley, who nodded in response. "I'm Major Ellis and I'm in charge of this op. What's the situation?"
"As far as I know, one dead civilian and what might be an extraterrestrial on the loose." The former agent pointed to the hollowed rock before tossing the Major a vial of the stuff down the victim's throat. "It killed the man with this type of protein alkaloid but it's breaking down to fast to track it."
"How do you suggest we track it then?" Ellis questioned.
"I think it's giving off some sort of radiation." Riley suggested.
"Alright, we'll break out the Geiger counters. Now, I don't need civilians on my op." The Major turned his back to the angered soldier.
"Sir, Finn could be of use. He's not just another civie." Graham said trying to convince his senior officer.
"Look, Miller, he may have been one of us once but I don't want an agent in this just for one op 'cause it's in his town. We have orders and procedures we need to follow so, Finn, if you want in it has to be all the way." Ellis informed.
The Scoobies had gathered in the UC Sunnydale library to find more information on the creature. Lilith had suggested that she go watch Dawn if this was going to take all night and Buffy agreed with her.
"I don't get why we had to come here to get information about a killer snot monster." Xander said looking around the astronomy section.
"Because it is a killer snot monster from outer space." Giles paused then hung his head. "I did not just say that."
The group finally sat and started looking up any strange meteor crashes. After a while, most of the group had found nothing similar to what they had found that night. Willow interrupted them.
"I've found something. There are occurrences that go back as far as the Queller impact in the twelfth century." Willow said.
"Queller, I know I've read something here, ah, Queller." Xander hands the book off to Giles.
"It seems that primitive people believed insanity was caused by the moon and the people would pray to the moon to get rid of the insane. The moon would send something down to quell the madmen." Giles summarized.
"Um, so, was the guy in the forest crazy?" Faith turned Buffy.
"Didn't seem like it when I met him but you never know." The blonde shrugged.
"If this has to be summoned, who summoned it?" Tara asked the group wearily.
"Who else? Glory our resident beastie summoner." Xander stated.
"I think right now we should focus on finding the Queller first. Let's call Riley on what we found and get him out of the woods." Buffy suggested heading for a phone in the library.
"Buffy, hey, what's going on?" Riley answered when he picked up his phone.
"We found the demon. It's called a Queller and it attacks crazy people. So, you can meet us at the house as we figure out where to find it." The blonde informed him.
"Uh, We, I found it at the hospital, Buffy, and cornered it." He turned when he felt a hand on his shoulder Graham nodded at his questioning look. "It's dead, Buffy. All taken care of."
"What do you mean 'we', Riley? Don't think I missed that part." Buffy yelled into the phone.
"Uh, can we meet up somewhere private?" Riley asked nervously.
"Fine, the park." The blonde sighed her replied not feeling good about what was going on.
"What's going on, B?" Faith asked at Buffy's dejected face.
"Riley got the Queller. He wants to talk to me privately. I don't feel good about this." The blonde slayer answered sadly.
"Hey, I'm sure it will be okay, B." The brunette tried to reassure her but it didn't work to well.
Buffy left after giving Faith a slight smile at the attempted comfort. She saw Riley pacing in front of a bench nervously and looking at his watch every couple of seconds. She gave a deep sigh and approached him.
"I'm here, Riley. What did you want to talk about?" Buffy asked not looking at the pacing soldier.
"After you guys left, I called Graham about what happened. He brought some special ops guys with him that's how we got the demon." Riley paused giving the slayer enough time to absorb the information.
"So, is that it? You could have told the rest of the group this." Buffy looked skeptical.
"They offered me a position with them and I said yes. I leave tonight." He answered looking away from the shocked look on the slayer's face.
"What? Why did you just decide to go back?" The blonde asked freaking out.
"I miss it, Buffy, and it was the only way I could help get this demon." Riley tried to explain.
"Then, go, just go! You miss it so much just get out of here!" Buffy yelled before she took off with tears in her eyes.
AN: Thank you for reading and please review. There are a few things I had to change since Joyce wasn't in the hospital for the Queller to attack her and to keep Buffy from investigating with the gang. I decided with these changes to go ahead and have Riley leave. Again thank you for reading and please review for me. I get nervous when people don't tell me anything whether good or bad.