Half an hour later, the bird had been chained and tied up so securely that she barely could lift a finger, and had been locked up in Derek's cellar, in one of the sturdy cages there the Pack normally used for troublesome shapeshifters; after he had made sure that the Donnervogel couldn't escape, the Alpha had shooed almost all of them out, only permitting Pat, Willow and Alexia to stay.

Again, Gregor had grumbled about this, but had given in surprisingly quickly, after Derek had glared at him once and had let out a low growl; clearly, the giant man hadn't been in the mood to challenge the Alpha, despite how unhappy he might be with the decisions he had been made, glaring at the Pack's captive with malice in his eyes before he left the cellar with the rest of the Pack members who had gone down there to make sure the bird wouldn't try anything.

"So", Derek spoke up once the door had fallen close behind the leaving shapeshifters, "there we are. Never would have thought one of you would end up as our prisoner."

"I won't be here for long", the bird snarled in reply, in a voice which was quite unpleasing, scratchy and sounding like a mix of human speech and a bird's cry, "my Flock will free me, and will make you pay!"

"They can try", the Alpha gave back, his voice now cold as he stepped closer to the cage, still making sure though that the bird couldn't try to reach through the bars and grab him, "but for now, you are here, and you'll answer our questions."

"There aren't many", Willow threw in before the Donnervogel had a chance to say anything, moving closer as well while behind her, Pat leaned against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest, her gaze never leaving the bird, "and we don't mean you any harm. We just want some answers."

"You", the female bird snarled in reply, glaring at the witch, feathers rippling as they burst from her skin, making them all wonder if this was a sign for her anger, "you're the one who bound me!"

"Yes", Willow agreed, and a second later, the bird had thrown herself forward and against the bars of the cage, hard enough to cause an audible metallic clang; from the corner of her eye, the witch saw how her partner tensed up, then relaxed again as obviously, the cage was withstanding the attack of the Donnervogel.

"Magic", the bird hissed, glaring at the redhead as if she could make her drop dead by just looking at her angry enough, "that won't help you once my Flock comes to free me…"

"We had no choice", Derek now spoke up again, the bird's gaze immediately moving to him, with the same intense hatred, "you've been attacking us for no reason, injuring and killing members of our Pack, it is our right to know why you are doing this!"

"Don't try to act all innocent with me now", the bird snapped in reply, crossing her arms over her broad chest, "you know perfectly well what you did and why we are retaliating."

"No, we don't", Derek protested, both Willow and Pat glancing at him curiously, "we have no idea!"

"Lies", the bird snarled, and afterwards, silence filled the room for a few moments – until Willow cleared her throat and took another step closer to the cage, deciding to ignore the warning look Pat was giving her.

"Maybe we got off on the wrong foot", she decided to try being reasonable, "how about we introduce each other to get started?"

This time, the bird didn't even bother to reply, but just kept looking balefully at her; a few more seconds ticked by, then the witch spoke up again, giving her best to sound kind as she did so.

"I'm Dr Willow Rosenberg", she told the captive, remembering Derek's little lie in the last second and figuring that she might as well stick to it while talking to the Donnervogel, "this is my partner, Pat, and this nice young man here is the Alpha of the Pack, Derek."

"You won't find out anything from me", the bird gave back, glaring balefully at her again, "not even my name. It won't matter to you anymore anyway once my Flock rescues me."

"There will be no need for a rescue if you just answer our questions", Willow gave back, smiling what she hoped was a calming and honest smile at her, "the Pack has no interest in fighting with you. They just want an end to the violence, so if you tell us why you attack them, we can find a solution and all of this can end."

"Why do you even care?" the Donnervogel wanted to know, now, for the first time since she had been locked up in the cage, not sounding hostile, but honestly interested, "you're not part of the Pack, are you? You're not like them. A human and… I'm not sure what the one-eyed one is."

For a moment, Willow asked herself how she had figured out that Pat wasn't human, if she had seen something during the short fight which had tipped her off, then shrugged it off, telling herself that it didn't really matter as she gave the woman another smile.

"Pat's a demon", she then told the captive, figuring that it would be best to be honest, "but have no fear, she's one of the good guys."

"Sure", the bird snorted in reply, her voice now full of contempt, prompting the demon to raise an eyebrow, "that's why the two of you are hanging with that murderous Pack. Because you are the good guys. And don't tell me to have no fear, she bleeds like the rest of you, and if we drop her like we did to some of you, she'll end the same way."

"Murderous?" Willow immediately latched onto that one small, but important word, deciding to ignore the bit about dropping Pat for now, not wanting to dwell on the dreadful images this had put into her mind, "did one of the Pack kill one of your… Flock?"

"We did no such thing!" Derek snapped before the bird had a chance to reply, some of his anger vanishing again though when the witch shot him a warning look, a silent signal to keep his mouth shut if he wanted her to get any answers from their captive.

"You haven't answered my question", the bird now pointed out, making them all look at her again, "why do you care? You're not of the Pack."

"We're Friends of the Pack", Pat spoke up for the first time since the interrogation had started, "and when they asked for our help, explaining that they were attacked by you guys for no reason, of course we agreed to help them."

"For no reason", the Donnervogel echoed, glaring at the demon, "if you knew why we are attacking them, you surely wouldn't have agreed to help!"

"So tell us", Willow jumped at the chance, "maybe we really will reconsider then, and leave them to handle this on their own."

For a moment, the woman looked annoyed, realizing that she had allowed them to talk her right into a corner; then, she snorted, crossing her arms over her chest again as she glared at the redhead once more, her voice so cold that they all almost expected icicles to form on the cage bars as she replied.

"They killed one of us", she spat, and if looks could kill, Willow would have dropped dead, "murdered him in cold blood, one of our young males! They must be punished!"

"We did no such thing", Derek repeated, glaring back at the woman, his fists clenched, "as Alpha of the Pack, I would know about this, and we didn't even know your kind still existed until you started attacking us!"

"Lies!" the woman snarled, looking as if she wanted to throw herself against the bars of her cage again, "at first you murder one of us, and now you deny it!"

"How do you know one of this Pack murdered this young man?" Willow demanded to know before the situation could turn into a full-blown screaming match, "did you see them? Can you identify them?"

"It was one of yours", the woman gave back, looking at her coldly, her gaze moving on to Derek moments later, "we saw him leave our boy's body behind, but we were too late to save him, and the moment your Pack member spotted us, he dashed off into the woods."

"Was he in human form?" Pat wanted to know, frowning as she glanced at Derek, the young man still looking outraged, "or animal?"

"Animal, of course", the bird snarled, her hateful look focusing on her now, "and his size was more than enough to tell us he has to be one of yours."

"A wolf?" Derek asked, still sounding as if he didn't believe a word of this, only to pale drastically when the Donnervogel shook her head and replied. "Not a wolf. A bear."

"Derek?" Willow tried to gain his attention, having noticed his rather drastic reaction, "what is it? Do you know anything about this?"

"There's just one bear around here", Derek gave back, looking at her, the expression on his face that of a man who just had had all the air knocked out of him, "Gregor…"