It was five minutes to midnight when the car pulled into the rest stop, and as the man had predicted, they were already waiting, two men in black, one of them still in the car, the other standing next to it, his arms crossed over his chest, indifference in his gaze as he watched the car of the man they had hired pull up and stop close to theirs.
"You are on time", he said as a greeting when the hired man got out of the car, "punctuality is a virtue. Did you accomplish your task?"
"Yes", he replied, keeping his gaze focused on the ground, "just as you wanted, in the backseat."
"Get her out", the other man replied, making the hired hand nod in response; he moved to the back door of the car and opened it, then reached in and, with some grunting, pulled Pat out, the demon hanging limply in his grip, her wrists cuffed behind her, both the gag and the blindfold firmly in place.
"You were right", he mumbled while the man in black took her from him, bending down slightly so he could throw her over his shoulder, "the tranquilizer kept her knocked out the whole time, and she went down really fast after it hit her."
"Good", the man replied, "just let me put her in the car and then you'll receive your payment."
"What are you gonna do with her?" he dared to ask in response, the man in black merely raising an eyebrow at him though; without bothering to answer any other way, he turned away from him and moved back to his car, dumping the black haired woman on the backseat rather unceremoniously before he got out the briefcase and held it out to the hired kidnapper.
"What we plan with her is none of your business", he told him while he took the briefcase and opened it, glancing at the bills stacked inside, "rest assured though that what we do, we do for the Lord and the good of mankind."
"Um, okay", the man gave back, snapping the briefcase shut again and putting it on the passenger seat of his car, "good luck with that, then. And if anything goes wrong, you know we've never met before."
"Of course", the man in black reassured him, "but nothing will go wrong. The Lord guides our steps in this difficult task."
"Good for you", he replied, not sounding all too impressed; to his surprise, the man in black gave him a slight smile, then turned and walked back to the car, entering the passenger seat, his companion starting the engine the second the door slammed shut, the hired man letting out a heavy breath as they drove off.
"Good job", Buffy commented as she threw off the blanket beneath which she had hidden behind the driver's seat, Alexia behind the passenger seat doing the same, "and now follow them. And make sure they don't notice we're there."
"Yes", he mumbled, getting into the driver's seat while Buffy climbed in the passenger one and Alexia sat in the back, "our agreement still stands, right? After I took you wherever they are taking her, you'll just let me go and I can keep the money?"
"Yes", the Slayer replied, rolling her eyes, "just drive now, before we lose them. Or the other part of our agreement, the one about us doing awful things to you, will be the one we'll hold up."
"Yes, yes", the kidnapper gave back, his hand trembling slightly when he started the engine; keeping the lights out so the car would be harder to notice, he followed the vehicle of the two men, keeping a safe distance, the ride happening in complete silence as he was focused on not losing the object of their pursue and the Slayer and the shapeshifter were deep in thought, wondering where they would end up and if they would find Willow there.
When the guy had pulled her out of the car and whoever was there to pick her up had thrown her over his shoulder like a sack of flour, it had taken almost all of Pat's willpower to not kick him in the nuts then and there; to her relief though, she'd been put in the car fairly quickly, and playing the unconscious kidnapping victim was definitely easier now that she was in the backseat, giving her best to keep her breathing slow and calm and to keep up the act of being unconscious.
To her dismay, the men didn't speak to each other during the drive, thus not giving away any of their plans or their motivation for having her kidnapped, as well, now; instead, they were completely silent the whole drive, not even the radio playing, something which forced the demon to focus on her breathing even more since it was all too audible in the quiet car, even over the hum of the engine.
Finally, after what seemed like quite the long drive, the car came to a stop and the engine was killed; she momentarily tensed up when she heard the men get out of the vehicle, then forced herself to relax again as the back door opened and she was pulled out of the car, giving her best to hang limply in the grip both men now had on her, her feet dragging over the ground as they started moving away from the car.
"Wait", one of them said just as she heard a door open, her heart skipping a beat at his next words and causing her to wonder if they had realized that they had been followed, "something's wrong. What's that smell?"
Now that he had said this, Pat smelled it too, the metallic smell of blood, along with other, just as unpleasant odours; and a second later, they just let go of her and she fell to the ground, the low grunt which escaped her unnoticed by them, muffled by their footsteps as they hurried away from her.
Hoping that this wasn't some kind of ruse and that they weren't just waiting for her to show that she was awake, she quickly got rid of the handcuffs, an easy task since they hadn't been properly closed around her wrists, then ripped off the gag and the blindfold, fighting down the urge to just rush into the building after the men – after all, she didn't know what might await her in there, and if she'd need Buffy and Alexia as back-up, especially with her current inability to hit any human beings.
To her relief, it took barely a minute for the kidnapper's car to arrive there, Buffy and Alexia jumping out the moment it had come to a halt; they clearly were surprised to see her standing outside, and she hurriedly explained what had happened, the surprise of both women turning into concern at her words.
"Let's hope this is not what I think it is", Buffy was the one to say it out loud, "if they managed to make her go dark…"
"…then they paid", Pat gave back, clearly not all too perturbed by the thought of her lover's kidnappers having been killed by her, "but we better go and find out what this really is about, those two guys sounded really worried."
Nodding, Buffy was the first to get moving, followed by the demon and the shapeshifter; they hurried through the still open door, down a rather long hallway, the smell of blood growing stronger with every step they took, until they found themselves in what apparently had been the room the kidnappers mainly had used for whatever they had been doing there.
Now though, the room had been turned into a slaughterhouse; there were dead bodies everywhere, torn up and broken in horrific ways, bad enough to even make Buffy's stomach turn, despite all the horrible things she had seen ever since she had been called as the Slayer, her breath momentarily getting caught in her throat as she tried to figure out who or what had done this to the men.
In her shock, she almost missed the fact that the two who had taken Pat to the building where standing just a few feet away, staring with wide eyes as well, not having noticed the three women yet; then one of them got moving again, past all the dead people on the ground, and to a heavy steel door at the back of the room, nearly jerking it open, a groan coming from him as he revealed the room behind it – and the empty cage standing there, the gate torn off the hinges and several of the bars badly bent.
"She's gone", he then brought out, turning to look at his companion, "they're all dead and…" He finally noticed the women in the room, and his eyes went wide; before he could yell a warning though, Pat had stepped up to his still shell-shocked partner and, ignoring the chip in her brain, smacked him on the back of the head as hard as she could, knocking him out instantly, a success she didn't notice though as immediately, blinding pain rushed through her head and she screamed, nearly going down to her knees as well.
"How…" the one still standing man started, then fell silent as the man lying closest to him turned out to be not quite as dead as they all had thought, groaning and grabbing for his leg; and moments later, all three women were moving, Buffy effortlessly knocking out the one uninjured guy still left while Pat and Alexia focused on the dreadfully hurt, but still alive man on the ground.
"What happened here", Pat demanded to know, fighting the urge to grab his shirt and shake him, "and where's Willow? Answer me!"
"Attacked", the man panted in response, blood trickling from his mouth and making it obvious that he didn't have much longer, "couldn't… fight back…"
"Is that where you kept her?" the demon snapped at him in response, gesturing at the room with the cage, "who attacked you? And where is she now? Did they take her?"
In response, he only let out another groan, and now, she gave in to the urge and did grab him, unable to keep her voice down as she jerked him up, ignoring it when Alexia grabbed her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.
"Who attacked you, and where is she?!" Pat almost yelled at him, shaking him now after all, "did they take her? Answer me, damn you, or I'll finish you off myself!"
"Demons", the man brought out, his breath coming in fast and hectic gasps now, "demons, and yes… they took her… They took her, we failed… we failed…"
He let out a mixture of groan and cough, his eyes rolling back into his head; his body went limp as he took his last breath, and, as the realization that he had died and couldn't tell them anything else hit home, Pat let go of him, running both hands through her hair as she tried to make sense of all of this, asking herself who these men had been and who had Willow in their grasp now – and how close they actually had been to getting her out, how many minutes too late they had arrived to stop all of this and reunite her with the woman she loved.