When Buffy came around again, she had no idea how long she had been knocked out; her head was hammering and her mouth was dry, her tongue feeling like a dried up sponge as she sat up with a low groan, only to slump back down as the world started spinning around her once more.
"That bastard", she mumbled to herself, closing her eyes and fighting down the urge to clutch the carpet; to her relief, the spinning sensation ceased after a few more moments, and she tried sitting up once more, glad when it worked out this time.
Dully, she asked herself what exactly had been in the stuff Piretti had blown into her face to knock her out so thoroughly; when she glanced at the clock hanging on the kitchen wall, she saw to her shock that she had been unconscious for almost an hour, her blood running even colder when she realized that she couldn't spot Pat or Piretti anywhere.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" she cursed as she realized what exactly had happened, her dizziness forgotten as she hurriedly came to her feet; she still took the time to collect all the books Pat had pulled out of the shelves, then rushed outside, telling herself that she had to get back to Willow as fast as possible so they could figure out a solution – before their opponent might do God knew what to the demon.
Holding the books beneath her arm and hoping she wouldn't drop any of them, not wanting to lose precious time by having to pick them up, Buffy hurried out of the apartment and down the stairs, not bothering to wait for the elevator; to her dismay, there was no cab in sight this time, and for a moment, she considered phoning for one, then dismissed the idea and started to run inside, figuring that she could get to the hospital quite fast thanks to her Slayer strength and speed.
Several of the people on the street gave her weird looks as she ran by, but she ignored them, only focused on getting to Willow as fast as possible; she didn't want to imagine the reaction the redhead might have to hearing that her partner had been taken, and hoped with all her heart that she'd keep enough of her calm to figure out what to do, the blonde well aware of the fact that she couldn't just go up against Piretti without having any idea where his strength and supposed invincibility came from.
Giving her best to control her breathing to make running easier, she kept rushing down the sidewalk, skilfully avoiding the other people there; once, she nearly ran one of them down despite her tries, calling an apology out to him over her shoulder before she focused on her breathing and on running again, relieved when the hospital appeared in the distance a few minutes later.
"Must be a new record", she muttered to herself as she kept running, approaching the building's entrance; only when she had reached the doors, she slowed down, not wanting to barge into the lobby with a bunch of magic books in her arms and gain the attention of every single patient, visitor, nurse and doctor around.
Even though she still wanted to run, she made herself walk at a normal pace, making her way to Willow's room; and the moment she entered, all the redhead had to do was to take one look at her face and she sat up straight in her bed, looking alarmed, her voice carrying the same emotion when she asked her what had happened and where Pat was.
"He got her", Buffy gave back at once, figuring that it wouldn't do any good to lie to her, "he was at your place, and blew some powder into our faces that knocked us both out, and when I woke up, they were both gone…"
"Oh God", Willow breathed in reply, feeling as if she was close to fainting now, "who knows what he's doing to her right now…"
"I brought the books you wanted", Buffy gave back, fighting hard to keep her voice steady and calm since various unpleasant images were entering her mind as well now, "so once you figured out how to stop him from being like made of iron, you can do the locator spell for her and I'll go there and kick his ass, okay?"
"I'll come with you", Willow replied at once, ignoring the way the Slayer's eyes went wide, and only shrugging when Buffy pointed out that she was still hurt and shouldn't get out of bed, not with internal injuries which were still healing up.
"You know, I don't need to borrow Pat's power to heal", she then explained, "healing without the help of that will be hard, but it can be done."
"But doesn't it take a lot of strength?" Buffy wanted to know, looking concerned, "what if you overdo it? Or what if…"
"What if the dark magic takes over again?" Willow finished the sentence for her, then, to the Slayer's shock, shrugged, sounding cold and uncaring when she went on. "Well, in this case, I say, let it. A man who clearly is not on the sane side of the spectrum has kidnapped my girlfriend, taken her God knows where, and is doing God knows what to her there. If I need to use dark magic to find her and get her out of there, fine, then I will."
"No, you won't", Buffy told her in the strictest voice she could muster, "do you think she'd want you to do that? You know her better than that."
"…you're right", the witch had to agree after a moment, letting out a sigh, "but, Buffy, he took her and who knows what he's doing to her…"
"I have a lot of strength", the Slayer pointed out after thinking about it for a moment, "do you think you could… I don't know, tap into that to heal?"
"I could try", the witch nodded, "if you really want to do that. It won't work otherwise, you know."
"I want to do that", Buffy reassured her at once, moving a bit closer to her, "I'll let you suck me dry if that means that the dark magic will stay where it belongs, namely in the far back of your mind, where it can't take over."
"I won't suck you dry", Willow protested at once, "I'd never do that. But if you really want to let me tap into your strength… well, come closer and take my hands."
Nodding, Buffy pushed the chair closer to the bed, taking in a deep breath before she took careful hold of her best friend's hands; she just wanted to ask if she had to do anything when all at once, it felt as if something was tugging at the very core of her soul, a feeling she never had experienced before and until now even wouldn't have been able to put into words, should someone have asked her.
"Oh God", she brought out, her eyes going wide; and then, the feeling intensified and it felt as if someone had hit her between the eyes with a sledgehammer, a low groan escaping her as her head got thrown back into her neck and the world went dark around her once more, the last thing she registered being the shock in Willow's voice as the witch cried out her name.
"Let's talk", Piretti said with a small smile as he walked up and down in front of his captive, looking at her with a glint in his eyes that once more pointed out his alarming lack of sanity; to her dismay, all Pat could do for the moment was remain on the chair she had woken up on, having to give him credit for still being sane enough to think of using handcuffs and chains to keep her on it instead of something she could have burned.
"You still have no idea why I'm after you, do you", he went on, stopping in front of her; all she could do in reply was let out a low grunt, since he had tied a thickly rolled up cloth between her teeth; she knew that she could burn that, but didn't see why, since he probably only would gag her again.
"I'll take that as a no", Piretti continued, unimpressed by the angry glare she gave him, "but, since we finally have time to talk, I'm gonna explain. You wanna hear my story, don't you?"
He waited for her to grunt again, his smile widening slightly when she did so – before he suddenly stepped closer to her, pulled out the gun he had tugged into the back of his pants and hit her in the face hard with the barrel, grinning even wider when she let out a grunt of pain in reply, blood trickling down her cheek from where the blow had landed.
"You know", he went on after a moment, as if nothing had happened, "I've been after you for the last ten years or so. Took me a while to find you, you're really good with that whole 'on the run' thing. Guess it was lucky for me that you decided to settle down here, huh?"
She wanted to tell him that she'd never been on the run, but just had kept moving from town to town due to her line of work back then; the gag prevented her from doing so though, and all she could do was grunt again while he lowered himself into a crouch in front of her, idly playing with the gun as he spoke on.
"And lucky for me that you hooked up with that hot redhead. I knew that you'd go berserk if I'd do anything to her and forget all caution, I read up about your kind before I went after her and your other friends, you know", he let her know, smiling as he came to his feet and started pacing again, "as I told you, when I found you, I was quite surprised you didn't age, but then that demon thing… Quite interesting. You know, I never really believed in all that stuff, but being in this lovely town for a while taught me different."
He fell silent, studying her for a few moments – before he hit her with the barrel of the gun once more, smiling when she involuntarily let out another pained groan in response.
"You gave me so much pain", he let her know, "I'm glad I can finally give some back. But I bet you don't even remember what you did to me, huh?"
Not willing to play along with whatever strange game he had in mind, Pat just glared at him again; he held her gaze for a few seconds, clearly waiting for an answer – before he brought up the gun again in an almost casual motion and shot her in the leg, smiling again when she let out a muffled yell in response.
"It's polite to answer when someone asks you a question", he let her know, lowering the gun again, "so, do you remember what you did to me?"
Not wanting to get shot again, she quickly shook her head; he let out a sigh in reply, sounding disappointed – before his free hand clenched into a fist and shot forward, punching her right in the nose, making her feel as if she had been hit with a piece of steel again while she let out a low grunt, blood practically gushing from both nostrils and soaking the gag in her mouth.
"Should have known", he spat, "but it's still a disappointment. Didn't you even bother to go through the people you killed after you found out my name?"
Again, she shook her head, making him snarl; at least he didn't her again this time though, but merely moved closer to her, grabbing the front of her shirt and jerking her upwards as far as the handcuffs and chains allowed it, his breath hot on her face when he finally answered his own question.
"You killed my mother, bitch!" he yelled at her, spittle flying from his mouth and landing on her face, "you killed her and you took her away from me and now I'll make you pay!"
And with those words, he let go of her again, causing her to slump back onto the seat as he brought the gun up and hit her, again and again, not caring where his blows landed; after a while, he dropped the weapon and switched to using his feet and fists instead, until her world was dominated by the pain so completely that it blocked everything else out, nearly making her feel grateful when it finally got too much and she passed out.