"Yeah, I punched him and it was as if I hit solid steel", Pat recapped her rather disastrous meeting with Piretti a short time later, back in the hospital, grimacing and briefly rubbing her knuckles as she thought of how bad exactly that had hurt; she had demoned out in a quiet side alley to heal, but still felt the pain of the injuries she had taken, as she always did for a while even after the healing had been completed.
"And when he hit me", she went on, both Buffy and Willow listening in curious silence, "it was like being hit with a steel beam or something, he was really freakishly strong."
"That's odd", Willow gave back after thinking about this for a moment, "he must have juiced up with magic or something to face you then, because when he attacked me, he was strong, but human-strong, not freaky-demon-strong."
"Is there a spell that lets you juice up?" Buffy wanted to know, worried, not wanting to imagine if the everyday vampires and demons of Sunnydale got their hands on such a spell, her face falling when the redhead nodded immediately, Pat next to her not looking all too happy either.
"Yes, there is", the witch now confirmed verbally as well, "or maybe he just stole that strength, like that guy did one time with the help of his girlfriend and her magical amulet, remember?"
"Well, he did mention that he knows what I am", the demon thought out loud on reply after nodding to answer her partner's question, "so it would make sense for him to get some extra strength. Maybe we'll be lucky for once and that spell won't last forever."
"But then he can just recast it", Buffy pointed out in reply, unable to hold back a smile when Pat reacted by slapping one hand against her forehead, then gave her a sour look, her response causing the blonde's smile to widen slightly. "I totally didn't think of that. I must have hit my head harder than I thought."
"Poor you", Willow showed some sympathy, "but I guess we can be glad he didn't just shoot you the moment he saw you."
"Because he doesn't want me to die quickly", Pat sighed in reply after a moment, during which she had wondered if she should tell her partner this or keep it from her, then had decided that honesty was the way to go, "he actually said he likes the sound I make when he hurts me, and that we'll have a lot of fun together."
"So he wants to torture you?" the witch demanded to know in reply, paling visibly, "jeez… what did you do to this guy?"
"I have no idea", Pat mumbled, looking slightly ashamed, "but I suppose I must have killed someone close to him, that's the only reason I can come up with for such a need for revenge."
"Maybe Giles can find out", Buffy threw in, "I gave him the guy's name and asked him to go into research mode, maybe we'll at least be lucky about that."
"To be honest, I'm not even sure I want him to be", the demon sighed, then shrugged when both Buffy and Willow gave her a confused look, clarifying what she was talking about moments later, before any of the two could ask. "Well, I know we never really talk about that, or even acknowledge it, but I killed people. A lot of people. Technically, I should be number one on your to do list, Buffy."
"No, not really", the Slayer shrugged, "there are baddies out there who killed many more than you did. And anyway, you changed, you're helping the good side now, there's this little thing called redemption, you know?"
"Good point", the demon had to admit after a while, "but still can't blame that guy for trying, if I really did finish someone off close to him."
"Not for going after you", Buffy agreed after a moment, making Willow gasp, "but he also went after us, and that's not excused by whatever you might have done to him, none of us had anything to do with that."
"Another good point", Pat agreed at once, "and that's why I'm gonna take him down. As soon as we figured out how he got so strong."
"If you can get me some of my books from home, I can check for the spells he might have used", Willow offered in reply, still a bit shocked about Buffy's casual reaction to this man going after her partner, "then I can work up a counter spell."
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" the demon immediately wanted to know, not really surprising her partner, "I mean, you're still… quite hurt."
"Yes, but you might end up hurt even worse if we don't figure out which spell he used", the redhead shrugged in reply, "and I promise I'll look for one which isn't too exhausting."
"Fine", the taller woman sighed her agreement after a moment, knowing that Willow was right and that it'd be senseless to go up this guy again as long as they didn't know how he had gotten so strong and difficult to harm, "I'll go and get your books then… I'll hurry."
"And I'll come with you", Buffy immediately added, giving the black haired woman a strict look before she could protest, adding an explanation to make sure that no argument would unfold about her coming along. "Just in case he's hanging around there, we don't want him to kidnap you, do we?"
"No, we don't", Willow threw in before Pat could reply anything, "so the two of you, go and get my books and hurry back here."
"Yes Ma'am", Pat replied in a slightly mocking tone, making the redhead smile; the couple shared a short, but tender kiss, then the demon and the Slayer left the room together and headed for the exit, hailing a cab once more as they stepped outside on the sidewalk.
"One of us should really get a car", Buffy thought out loud while they got into the cab and told the driver where to take them, "having just two in the whole group clearly isn't enough."
"Yup", Pat agreed, only to raise an eyebrow when the blonde suggested that it should be her who'd get a vehicle, shrugging at the look she received for that.
"What?" she then wanted to know, "I'm not exactly a good driver. In fact, Willow says I drive like crazy, ask her."
"But I have just one eye", the taller woman pointed out in reply, "I'm not sure it'd be a good idea to drive without proper depth perception."
"Psh, you drove all the way to Maine", Buffy reminded her of the quite long drive she had taken a while ago, "and you did fine then, didn't you?"
"Well, yeah", Pat had to agree, "but that was mostly open road, without much other traffic."
Before this argument could go any further, the cab stopped in front of the apartment building and the driver let them know that they were there and how much they had to pay; pulling out her wallet, Pat did just that, adding a nice tip again before Buffy and she got out of the car and made their way into the building, both of them listening closely for any suspicious noise as they took the stairs up to the second floor.
"I wonder if he's still hiding out down there", Buffy mumbled to the taller woman as they stopped in front of the apartment door and Pat got out her keys to unlock it, "or if he relocated somewhere else, now that we know he's there and his last attempt to capture you there didn't work out."
"Yeah, good question", Pat agreed, unlocking the door and pushing it open, "I'd say we should go downstairs and check after we got the books, but as long as he's still so strong…"
"It wouldn't make much sense", Buffy finished for her, "we'd only get our asses kicked again."
"Yup", the demon agreed once more, making her way into the living room with the Slayer; there, she stopped at the bookshelf and started pulling out the volumes Willow would need, glad that the witch didn't have a ton of magic books at their home, but also worried if the limited selection might mean that she wouldn't find the information she'd need to take Piretti's strength away.
"Let's hope the spell Willow needs is in there", she voiced those concerns, making Buffy nod, "or we'll have to raid the Magic Box and Anya will surely complain if we take all those…" She trailed off as she heard a strange bumping noise from the kitchen; the way Buffy tensed up next to her made it obvious that she had heard it as well, the two exchanging a worried glance – before they clenched their fists in perfect unison and started sneaking towards the doorway leading to the kitchen, suddenly sure they'd find their opponent there.
Without even noticing that she was doing it, Pat hold her breath as she stepped into the kitchen at last, already prepared for getting punched again any moment; to her relief and slight surprise, the room was empty though, looking just like it had when she had left the last time.
"False alarm", she told Buffy, turning around to look at her, "he's not…"
"Surprise", Piretti snarled as he stepped up behind the Slayer, prompting her to gasp and to twirl around; and the moment she was facing him, he blew a large amount of powder he had been carrying on the flat of his hand at both the demon and the blonde, making them cough as they stepped back from him, trying to figure out what that had been done for.
Snarling, Pat brought her fists up, ready to fight; before she could do more than that though, the world started spinning around her, and suddenly, she found it difficult to stay on her feet, the way Buffy was swaying next to her showing her that she wasn't the only one with this problem.
Smiling, Piretti took a step back, watching how they both slumped to their knees as they fought to stay conscious; then, the powder he had used against them finished its job and they both went down, the last thing they saw before the world went dark around them being the nasty smirk on their assailant's face.