"Alright", Iris stated an hour later, after several ingredients had been readied on the table – and after a short discussion with Anya about if they should be paid or not, until Giles had stepped in and had pointed out that, in such emergencies, financial matters should be the last thing on the ex-demon's mind, "the spell itself is fairly easy, just the energy needed to make the portal open is the tricky part."
"No worries about that", Willow gave back, managing to sound more confident than she actually was feeling, "there should be more than enough between the two of us. So shall we get started?"
"Sure", Iris shrugged, then took in a deep breath, all cheerful behaviour falling off of her as she concentrated; she reached over the table and grasped Willow's hands, the redhead taking in a deep breath as well, briefly closing her eyes to make focusing easier – before her gaze met the brown eyes of the woman sitting across of her and they started the spell in perfect unison, not even noticing how the rest of the group, all of them watching from a safe distance, held their breaths as they waited to see what would happen.
Just as simultaneously as they had started speaking, both Willow and Iris each grabbed half of the pile of herbs they had readied, crushing them into crumbs, then blowing on them – and the moment they connected in the air, a shockingly loud bang, the portal opened, purple and blue hues swirling in the circular opening as it hung over the table.
"Quickly", Iris pressed out while Willow grit her teeth, fighting hard to keep the dark magic within her from taking over as she had used quite a bit of it to make the spell work, "get through it, I don't know how long we can keep this open…"
"Take care!" Buffy called out, dismayed that she had to let her best friend go alone; she had offered her help, but Iris had pointed out that, even with all her Slayer bonuses and abilities, she wouldn't be of much use over there, not in a dimension made up of pure magic and inhibited by a powerful demon with the knowledge and magical abilities centuries of practice had gained her.
Nodding, Willow briefly glanced at her, then let go if Iris' hands; for a moment, she feared that the portal might close once the contact ended, but to her relief, it remained open, and she hurriedly got up on the table, taking in a deep breath before she squeezed her eyes shut and stepped through.
Since she never had used such a portal before, only had opened one once to get rid of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Willow wasn't sure what to expect as she moved into the swirling vortex; moments later, it felt as if her stomach was swirling even more than the colours of the portal, nausea filling her as she got through, slumping down to her knees the moment she felt firm ground beneath her feet again, heaving as she fought hard to keep the contents of her stomach inside.
"Jeez", she brought out as soon as she could be sure she wouldn't puke, "she could have warned me…"
Now that her stomach was slowly calming down, the redhead dared to come to her feet again, looking around; since Iris had described the dimension as quite small, she was surprised to find herself standing in a vast plain, withering trees here and there, the rough ground crunching beneath her feet as she took a few hesitating steps and looked around, wondering where her partner had been taken.
Not sure where to go, she turned left and right; and that was when the tower caught her eye, in the far distance, the bulky and massive structure reaching up into the sky, the mere sight of it almost causing her to expect lightning and thunder on the horizon.
"Guess I might as well start there", she muttered to herself, since there were no other buildings inside; steeling herself against any dangers which might be lurking in the area around her, she started walking, grimacing when after a few steps, the ground stopped crunching and started feeling strangely squishy beneath her feet.
For a moment, she wondered if she should just ignore the odd feeling, then looked down after all; and the blink of an eye later, she almost screamed, managing to hold the noise back in the last second, a high, breathless whistle escaping her instead as she saw that the ground she now was standing on seemed to made of body parts, some of them human, some obviously not.
"Jesus Christ", she pressed out, then took in another deep breath, telling herself that she could handle this, that she had to handle this if she wanted to save her loved one; and as she took another step, she could feel one of the arms move beneath her feet, strangely turning before the hand shot up and grasped her around the ankle, a hoarse cry escaping her as the hand gave a strong yank, trying to make her stumble and fall.
"Let go!" she snapped, stepping down hard with her free foot and on the arm the hand which was holding her was attached to; for a moment, the grip on her ankle tightened, then she put even more weight on her leg and the hand let go of her, prompting her to take a few quick steps before it had a chance to recover and grab her again.
Speeding up her steps, not wanting to get caught in another grip, Willow flinched as she felt fingers brush her pants once more, not managing to get a hold though; and to her relief, the ground soon became firm again, crunching beneath her heels once more, prompting her to let out a small, but relieved sigh – before she glanced up ahead and saw several more pit-like spots in her path to the tower, all of them filled with body parts, some of them already reaching up and groping around in the empty air, absurdly looking as if they were waving at her.
"That explains why no one ever made it back to tell", she mumbled as she kept walking, avoiding the pits now that she knew to look out for them, "if she kills them here and just drops them there, no one ever even found a body…"
She shivered at the thought of her partner ending up in one of those pits, cut up into several pieces as all the other victims had; then, she pushed those thoughts aside and told herself that she wouldn't let this happen, determination hardening her face as she sped up her steps, a slightly malicious smile curling her lips when each step took her closer and closer to the tower, without any further interruptions.
Finally, she stood at the base of the massive structure, looking up at it with a slight frown; up close it was even uglier than it had been from afar, with stone gargoyles placed on turrets here and there, all of them looking as if they had been built quite randomly, without any sense for symmetry or order, making her wonder if the strange witch just had added them whenever and wherever she had felt like it.
"Taking captives to a huge ugly stone tower", she then mumbled to herself, shaking her head as she kept glancing up at the building, noting that there were no windows, "cliché, much?" Shaking her head, she started to look for a door, slowly walking along the tower's base; and just as she spotted a doorway up ahead, fine stone dust trickled down on her from above, along with ominous cracking and breaking noises, prompting her to look up in surprise, her eyes going wide when she saw that one of the gargoyles was starting to move.
Quickly, she took a few steps back as the statue stretched, then straightened, opening brightly white glowing eyes; and seconds later, the gaze locked on her, the gargoyle baring stony, but sharp looking teeth at her before it leapt from the turret, wings spreading from its back and keeping it from crashing to death, somehow keeping it airborne even though the wings were, like the rest of its body, made of stone.
"How does that even work?" Willow asked no one in particular while her mind raced, trying to figure out how to defeat this thing and keep it from tearing her apart with those unsettlingly big talons it had on hands and feet; it let out a strangely high-pitched shriek, arms outstretched as it swooped down towards her, her instincts taking over moments later as she brought up her hands and formed a shield, the gargoyle crashing against it seconds later, hard enough to cause her to stumble a few steps back, the shield vanishing into nothingness as the gargoyle tumbled to the ground.
Growling, the thing jumped back on its hind legs, baring its teeth at her again; for a moment, Willow felt like snarling back, pretty much like Pat would have, had she been by her side, then she told herself to focus on the battle and flung her hands at the statue, its eyes widening almost comically in surprise when it found itself unable to move.
"Your mistress is not the only powerful witch, you know", Willow now did snarl, the dark magic within her rearing its ugly head; and this time, she let it, her eyes darkening as she was using the power to lift the gargoyle up into the air – and then fling it into the closest pit full of body parts, the numerous hands quickly grabbing it and beginning to tear at it, bits and pieces of the stone soon crumbling and breaking beneath the onslaught.
"There", the redhead mumbled, momentarily relishing in how easily she had defeated this thing; then, she pushed the dark magic back where it belonged, something which took considerably more strength than defeating the gargoyle had, the mental struggle lasting longer than she would have liked before she finally had regained full control, almost able to feel how her eyes returned to their normal green colour.
Looking up at the tower, the witch tried to figure out if any more gargoyles would come to life and attack her; apparently though, they either weren't meant to do so or had decided against it after how quickly she had dispatched with the first one, since they all stayed where they were, as still as stone statues were supposed to.
Satisfied, Willow looked at the door again, noting the heavy wood it had been made of and the large lock; she had a second to wonder if it'd be locked and how hard it would be to open it, and then the scream erupted from the top of the tower and shattered the silence, the redhead's blood freezing as she immediately recognized the voice as Pat's, the agony and pain in the scream causing her heart to start hammering in her chest so hard it almost hurt.
And then, the scream ended abruptly as it had begun, cut off so suddenly that it nearly made Willow's heart stop along with it; she stood frozen on the spot a few more seconds, then got moving again, telling herself that no matter how thick and sturdy this door would turn out to be, nothing would stop her from entering this tower and getting her partner out, not after hearing this dreadful sound of pain and suffering.
