Author's Note: Yup, as promised, here we go with the new one. This time, I chose a song title quite intentionally ;) I hope you'll enjoy. Feedback is highly appreciated.
Disclaimer: None of the characters used from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer are mine, just borrowing them. Any original ones are from my crazy mind only, so don't blame Joss and please don't sue me ;)
Another Stranger Me
I didn't know, I couldn't hear the answer
My mind was blank
I should've known
I hold it back but somehow
There is someone else
Another stranger me
- Blind Guardian, Another Stranger Me
"Tell me again why I agreed to come along here?" Willow demanded to know as she carefully stepped around a puddle of quite bad-smelling, brightly green goo on the ground, an expression of disgust on her face; next to her, Buffy shrugged, avoiding the puddle as well, keeping her eyes on the ground so she wouldn't miss any others.
"Because I might need some magic to defeat that thing", she then answered, an agreeing grunt coming from Pat, who was walking along behind them since the tunnel of the cave they currently were in was too narrow to allow all three of them to walk side by side, "and also, you wanted to, you said it's been too long since you've been on patrol with Pat and me."
"Yeah, but if I'd known that the demon in question is bleeding green goo all over the place whenever he gets cut, I wouldn't have come", Willow grumbled, looking at the brightly green, slimy stain on her pants with distaste, "not to mention that it doesn't just bleed, but splatters. Did you know it would do that?"
"No", Buffy replied, a bit too quick and too innocently; when Willow just raised an eyebrow at her, she coughed, then shrugged again, giving her best friend an innocent smile.
"Well, maybe Giles mentioned that the demon might do that", she then admitted, ignoring the dirty look the redhead gave her, "but he wasn't sure. Now we know!"
"Yes, now we know", Willow sighed, shaking her head to herself while behind Buffy and her, Pat smirked to herself, clearly amused by her partner's dismay about the whole situation – after all, she had faced much grosser things since she'd befriended Buffy, so it was quite funny that a little bit of goo would disgust her like that.
"I should have stayed at home", the witch now muttered, to her girlfriend's luck not seeing how those words made her smirk widen, since it surely would have annoyed her, "need of magic or not. Actually I'm wondering why I wanted to come on patrol, it's only been a few days since I defeated that annoying nightmare demon."
"That's not the same as going on a regular patrol", Buffy shrugged, "and there wasn't much physical fighting. Maybe you miss that. Watching us do that, I mean."
"It'd be more fun if there wasn't any goo involved", the redhead grumbled, only to let out a small cry of disgust a second later, caused by the fact that all the talking had distracted her from paying attention where she had going – and thus, she had stepped right into another puddle of the goo she had been complaining about seconds ago, a puddle deep enough that now, there was yet another stain on her pants, along with the stuff covering all of her right shoe.
"Goddammit!" she cried out after the intial shock, shaking her foot and making a few globs of slime fall off and back to the ground, most of it sticking to her shoe though, "that's just gross! Ew!"
"I'll buy you a new pair", Pat threw in from behind, shrugging when Willow looked at her in disbelief.
"What?" she then wanted to know, stepping over the puddle her partner had missed, "it's just goo. Why are you so freaked by that?"
"I don't know", Willow sighed, now keeping her eyes on the ground again so she at least would have one clean shoe left, "it's just awful, so slimy and gross. How far did that demon run anyway? With all that blood on the floor, you must have really gotten it good, Buffy."
"It would seem so", Buffy agreed, looking up ahead into the dark tunnel the demon had vanished into, glad that they had a fire demon along who could provide light by setting her hands on fire, "but who knows how strong that thing is. Maybe—"
Before she had a chance to finish, a loud growl suddenly came from right above them – and moments later, she realized why Willow had stepped into such a deep puddle as the demon dropped down on her from the ceiling, his weight and the impact making her fall down to the ground with a low grunt.
Thanks to her training and her quick reflexes, the demon didn't have a chance to land another hit though; while he still brought back his fist, she already was flipping him, and he briefly sailed through the air, hitting the ground right next to Willow, the witch automatically moving back a step.
Despite that reaction though, she couldn't avoid it when the demon came to his feet again with shocking speed, letting out an angered shriek when he realized that Buffy had moved out of the danger zone easily while he had been down; and then, the blink of an eye later, he was moving again, standing behind the redhead seconds after he had gotten up and grabbing her, wrapping one arm around her throat and pulling her close to himself, her eyes widening when she realized what he was having in mind.
"Let go of her!" she heard Pat snap, the taller woman moving forward, only to stop dead in her tracks when the demon's grip on Willow tightened, his words barely intelligible when he replied, showing that he wasn't used to human speech.
"I will after I got away", he snarled, hot saliva dripping from his lips and landing on the redhead's shoulder, making her grimace in disgust, "I will not let Slayer kill me!"
Before anyone had the chance to reply anything to that, Willow grit her teeth and clenched her fists, her hair all at once moving slightly in the light breeze which was coming up; Buffy and Pat just had a moment to exchange a surprised look, then the demon was screaming in pain, more of his green and gooey blood splattering the floor as the skin that was in contact with the redhead started to melt and tear.
"Stop!" he howled, clearly in pain, letting go of her and stepping back; ignoring his cries for mercy, Willow turned to look at him, and a few seconds later, he practically exploded, green smile and bits and pieces of his body splattering the wall and the ceiling, none of them coming even close to touching the witch or her friends though.
"Jeez", Buffy finally broke the stunned silence which had filled the cave after the demon's unexpected and messy demise, "Will, I never knew…" She trailed off when Willow turned to look at her again, her eyes widening while she moved back a bit without even fully noticing, ending up slightly behind Pat, the black haired woman just staring as well, clearly as unsettled as the Slayer.
"You never knew what?" Willow wanted to know, with that tone in her voice Buffy had heard years ago, the darkness in her eyes seeming to flicker and twist and turn as she looked at her best friend, "that I can…" All at once, the darkness faded from her eyes, and she staggered; within moments, Pat had rushed past Buffy and to her girlfriend's side, grabbing and steadying her just in time to keep her from falling.
"Okay", she mumbled once she had made sure the witch would stay on her feet, looking at Buffy with concern clearly showing through her gaze, "that's enough action for tonight. We better get you home."
"What happened?" Willow wanted to know in reply, frowning when the demon and the Slayer exchanged worried looks in reply, Buffy sounding as concerned as her partner was looking when she answered her question with one of her own. "You mean you don't remember?"
"No", the witch mumbled, moving one hand up to rub at her forehead, asking herself where that headache was coming from now, "what happened? Why are you both looking at me like that?"
"What do you remember?" Pat wanted to know in reply, unnerving her partner slightly, since she couldn't stand it to be asked more questions instead of given answers whenever she wanted to know something, some of that showing through her voice when she replied. "I remember that demon grabbing me, and then the next thing I know is that you're running at me to catch me because, for some reason you won't tell me, but keep asking me stuff instead, I was about to fall down. Thanks for that, but what happened?"
"Well", Buffy finally started giving her the answer she had been waiting for, after exchanging another worried look with Pat, "you kinda… blew that demon up. And you had that black eyes thing going on again…"
"What?" Willow nearly squeaked, her eyes going wide as she stared at the blonde, not even noticing how Pat tightened her grip on her slightly in an effort to give her some reassurance, "but… I didn't… I mean, I didn't want to…"
"We know", the demon was the one to answer that, "and if you can't even remember it… That's bad news."
"That's an understatement", Willow mumbled, looking at her in dismay, "now I go evil without noticing?"
"You didn't exactly go evil", Buffy corrected her, her concern only growing at the freaked out state of her best friend, "you just blew up that demon, that was gross, but efficient and I would have killed it anyway. But maybe we should talk to Giles tomorrow…"
"Definitely", Pat agreed at once, "and now, we better get you home, as I said, after that little… episode, you should get some rest."
"Yes", Willow nodded immediately, to the relief of her partner, "and tomorrow, first thing in the morning, I'll call Giles, maybe he'll know what to do…"
"He'll figure something out", Buffy reassured her, placing a comforting hand on her arm, "don't worry. And, hey, maybe it was just a one time thing, caused by the stress that demon was causing you."
"I hope so, but I doubt it", Willow muttered, her gaze darkening slightly, "we hardly ever get off that easy…"
"We'll see", Pat gave back, pulling her a bit closer for another moment and making her smile slightly again, then, after another look at the splattered remains of the demon, the group started walking back to the cave's entrance, their thoughts circling around what had happened and what it might mean for their immediate future.
