"Wrong", Pat let out in a strained, breathless voice as Willow broke the connection, not even noticing that she had started to cry at some moment during looking into the memory, fresh tears still rolling down her cheeks, "this is wrong… he didn't… he wouldn't…"

"I'm so sorry", Willow brought out in reply, the urge to hug and hold her suddenly so strong that she couldn't resist it, the fact that her wife was crying too only increasing the need, "if I had known… I would have jumped in there myself to get you out of this, I swear…"

Without thinking twice about how this might be dangerous, she wrapped her arms around the taller woman and held her, rubbing her back soothingly as she felt her tremble in the embrace; it was an awkward hug, with the black haired woman still having her hands bound behind her back, but this wasn't what made the redhead stop caressing her, her eyes briefly widening as a thought hit her.

Not caring if Pat noticed what she was doing and thought that it was strange or perhaps even something she was doing to hurt her, she took careful hold of the shirt the demon was wearing, then peeled it away from her upper body; a quick peek down showed her what she had been dreading to see, a thick lump in her throat all of a sudden, making it hard for her to speak up.

"I can prove it to you", she forced herself to speak anyway, momentarily hating herself for what she was doing to her lover – after enduring the horrible torture for who knew how long, Willow knew that Pat's only chance had been to give in to it, to let them break and remake her into the Burning Heart, a person with no recollection of who she had been and of what had been done to her, and here she was now, bringing all those terrible things back to the surface, but knowing that she didn't have a choice if she wanted to bring her wife back.

"I'll show you", she added, pulling back from the hug; to her relief, Pat didn't try to resist her when she carefully unbuttoned her shirt, then made it slide down her arms far enough to expose her back, gently pulling her to her feet afterwards and leading her over to the mirror.

"Look", she unnecessarily said as she made her turn so that her back was facing the mirror, keeping her gaze fixed on her face, ready to jump back or use magic the moment she'd do anything which could be interpreted as hostile, "I know this hurts, and I know you don't want to see this, but he did this to you…"

Slowly, the demon turned her head as far as she could, swallowing heavily when she finally could look into the mirror; dimly, she felt the witch place both hands on her shoulders, but didn't react at all, just staring at the part of her back which wasn't covered by the shirt anymore – and at the scars which were marring the skin there, lines of white, at parts slightly knotty tissue, an incoherent noise coming from her as she took in the sight – before her good eye rolled back into her head and her legs gave in beneath her, Willow's shocked outcry being the last thing she heard before the world went dark around her.


Alarmed by the cry she had heard from the bedroom, Buffy came bursting into the room, fists up and ready to fight; to both her surprise and relief though, she found the two women not engaged in combat, but Pat on the floor, Willow kneeling next to her, the blonde briefly raising an eyebrow at the fact that the demon's shirt was unbuttoned and hanging halfway down her upper body.

"What happened", she demanded to know, lowering her fists as she fully realized that no fighting would be necessary, "did she attack you…?"

"No", Willow replied at once, glancing at her for a second before her gaze focused on the unconscious demon again, "I did the spell again, to look into her mind, and… showed her that what we saw there was the truth, that they tortured her, she wouldn't believe it otherwise… it must have been too much for her…"

"No surprise", Buffy mumbled, "if they brainwashed her into thinking she's one of them, has been one of them for God knows how long, learning that this isn't the truth and what they really did to her…"

"She might shut down", the redhead told her, swallowing heavily at the thought of this unpleasant possibility, "go catatonic or… I don't know…"

A low groan came from the taller woman, making the witch fall silent as she focused on her again, her heart speeding up as she asked herself what the demon's reaction would be now, if she would simply shut down or if perhaps, she'd be back, if the memory had been enough to undo the brainwashing and bring her back as the person she had been.

Then, Pat opened her good eye, and one glance was enough to tell Willow that neither had happened; she had a second to take in the cold, uncaring look, to realize that it was the Burning Heart looking at her – and then the demon's hand shot up and closed around her throat, yet again, cutting off her gasp.

She had a second to regret that she had undone the magical bonds when the black haired woman had gone down, then Buffy's Slayer instincts kicked in next to her and her fist shot out, with the intention to nail Pat in the head and knock her out yet again; a second later, her eyes went wide as the demon's free hand moved up with shocking speed, catching her fist in a steel-like grip, not even letting go of her again when she gave a powerful yank, reminding her of the fact that she was almost as physically strong as she was.

Without taking her gaze off the Slayer, Pat flung Willow aside, a startled yelp coming from the redhead as she ended up on the ground, shocked by how callously the demon was tossing her around; before she could do anything else than stare though, the black haired woman let out a snarl, then her free hand shot up and punched Buffy straight in the face, a pained noise coming from the Slayer as the punch connected.

"Willow", she then snapped, after a quick look to make sure her friend was neither injured, nor unconscious, "bind her, quickly!"

"No", Pat snarled, still keeping the grip on her fist while her other hand moved to grab her shirt; Buffy had a moment to realize what she intended to do, but before she could do anything about it, the demon's muscles bulged visibly – and then she threw her, much harder than she had thrown Willow, sending her flying until she hit the wall head-first, a low gurgle coming from her as she slumped down to the carpet.

"Buffy!" Willow cried out, but not getting the chance to check on her – moving with shocking speed again, Pat crossed the distance between them with one big step, grabbing her and pinning her arms to her sides, one hand clamping down over her mouth to keep her from screaming or casting a spell, muffling her outcry.

"Quiet", she hissed into the redhead's ear, her grip only tightening when she started to struggle, a helpless cry coming from the witch as her index finger and thumb moved up to pinch her nose shut tightly, her palm still keeping her from breathing through her mouth; her struggles increased as her face reddened, panic setting in at the lack of air, but still the demon wouldn't loosen her grip on her, just holding on tighter to keep her movements down to a minimum.

She's killing you, do something! The small part of her brain which still worked rationally screamed at her, urging her to do something, anything; magic sparked from her fingers, falling to the floor uselessly, a low growl coming from the demon in response to her helpless tries.

"Stop it", she then grumbled at her, not all too impressed by the bit of magic the witch had unleashed; and just when she thought that she would pass out any moment, Willow realized what she had to do, fighting to hold on longer as she channelled her power again, directing it downwards this time, collecting as much of it as she dared – before she stomped her foot, hard, and the magic burst free, shooting out in a widening circle and making the ground beneath them tremble hard enough so Pat lost her footing and fell, involuntarily letting go of her as she went down.

Snarling, she turned to come to her feet again while Willow fought to stay on hers, sucking in a few deep breaths; she still felt dizzy from how long she had been unable to breathe, finding it hard to focus on anything, even though she knew that she had to, that her lover was fully gone again and capable of doing the Goddess knew what to her.

Gulping in another deep breath, she turned to face the demon, only to nearly stagger back as Pat had recovered much faster than expected and was closing the distance between them yet again, growling under her breath; Willow just had time to see her move her arm back, then the punch hit her, hard enough to make her teeth snap together with an audible clicking sound, stars exploding in front of her eyes as she ended up flat on her back. Without stopping the continuous growl, Pat moved up to her, stopping right next to her and glaring down on her for a moment; then, she bent down, taking firm hold of a fistful of her hair, giving her just another second to realize what was happening before she slammed her head down against the floor, the carpet just taking enough of the force away to prevent her from cracking her skull, but not enough to keep her from getting knocked out, a final, low groan coming from her as her eyes rolled back into her head and she fell unconscious.