Author's Note: And yet another story comes to an end :) I hope you enjoyed it – the next one will be posted here on Monday, and might be a bit special, compared to the ones I posted before. Until then, have fun and thank you for reading :)
Even though the spell clearly had done its job and the demon wasn't as fast as he had been during the first two fights, he still was much quicker than Pat would have liked; at least, she this time managed to duck his first few blows until she had to take one, holding back a groan when his fist hit one of the re-opened cuts with painful aim, fresh droplets of blood falling to the ground a few seconds later.
Just like he had during the first two battles, he tried to follow the punch with a kick; this time though, Pat had seen it coming and easily cross-blocked his leg, then surprised him by grabbing it and jerking it upwards, smirking when he ended up falling to the ground, landing on his butt with a painful crash.
"I'm impressed", he snarled while he came to his feet again, "clearly, you're capable of learning."
"I didn't get to be two hundred and forty one because I'm dumb, you know", Pat gave back, ducking another blow and returning one, a satisfied smirk on her face when her fist connected with his tummy and the punch sent him a few steps back; he growled even louder in reply, clearly not liking the way this fight was going.
"I see what is going on", he then brought out between grit teeth, barely managing to avoid the next blow, the black haired woman's fist smashing into the wall instead and taking out a big chunk of plaster, Willow wincing behind her at the sight even though she knew it didn't really hurt her partner, "your little witch here put some sort of spell on me, is that it? That's some dirty fighting, you know!"
"Says the one who hits people over the head from behind with empty bottles", Pat shot back, taking a step back just in time to avoid the fist he had swung at her face, a low grunt escaping her when another one immediately followed and this time connected.
Then, she seemingly remembered that she had brought an axe along and changed her tactic to using that; the sharp blade flashed as she swung the weapon at the demon, growling lowly when he ducked with annoying speed and the axe hit the wall instead of him, the blade getting buried deep in the concrete. Before she could pull it out again, her opponent had taken the chance she foolishly had given him and tackled her, her grip on the axe slipping as she fell; the back of her head connected hard with the ground, and she couldn't hold back a low groan, hearing Willow cry out behind her when the man grabbed a fistful of her hair and used that grip to slam her head against the ground once more with all the strength he could bring up.
With stars dancing in front of her eyes, Pat just had a second to wonder what he was going to do now when his weight suddenly vanished from her; then, she heard him speak, her heartbeat speeding up at his words, clearly directed at her girlfriend. "I wonder if that spell will still work when I kill you. What do you think?"
Giving her best to fight down the darkness that wanted to engulf her, the demon rolled over, then came to her feet after a few moments of struggling, just in time to see how her opponent tackled Willow, the spell she threw at him clearly not enough to stop him; they both stumbled a few steps back, then the redhead lost her balance and fell, landing on one of the less stable areas, the ground breaking away beneath her, a curse escaping Pat when her girlfriend and the man vanished through the hole and fell into the cellar beneath.
The fall had nearly knocked her out, but somehow, Willow had managed to stay conscious; shaking off the feeling of dizziness, she came to her feet, looking around as she tried to figure out where the man who had attacked her had gone. It dismayed her that he had been able to get away and go into hiding so quickly after he had made her fall down to that dark and dirty cellar; turning this way and that, she tried to spot him, straining her ears to figure out if he was going to attack her from behind.
"Willow!" she heard Pat call out to her from the ground floor, her head appearing over the hole she had created when she had fallen down here, "are you alright?"
"I'm fine", the witch gave back, still looking left and right as she tried to spot the other demon, "but he's gone, can you come down here? I don't like this."
"I'll be right there", Pat reassured her, making her nod; before the black haired woman could join her in the cellar though, the fist suddenly came flying at her, hitting her straight in the jaw and sending her to the ground.
Groaning, she rolled over, trying to come to her feet; before she could do so though, he kicked her low in the back and sent her flat on her stomach again, chuckling to himself when she couldn't help herself, but just had to cry out in pain. Another startled cry escaped her when he grabbed her and flipped her around, then took a firm hold of her collar and jerked her upwards, pulling back his free hand and clenching it into a tight fist, his eyes glowing brightly as he spoke up, his voice dripping with scorn. "Now, let's see about how well that spell will work once I bashed your face in…"
His smirk widened slightly, then he brought his fist down, the redhead squeezing her eyes shut as she waited for the pain; instead, a muted fleshy sound came, and when she slowly opened her eyes again, a gasp escaped her when she saw that Pat had caught the man's fist right in front of her nose, his fingers caught in the strong grip, his face now contorted with anger.
"I thought I knocked you out", he snarled, jerking his fist out of her grip – before his body started to change, his hair growing and spreading, making both Willow and Pat simultaneously realize that he was demoning out, prompting the taller woman to tell Willow to hide somewhere before she did the same, growling lowly as her body started to change, as well.
Since she still found herself unable to get up thanks to the pain in her back, Willow crawled backwards on hands and feet, glad that neither her girlfriend, nor her opponent were paying much attention on her, knowing how stupid she had to look; she moved away from the two demons and close to one of the few remaining supporting beams, hiding behind it as much as she could, but not able to keep herself from peeking to see how the fight was going. Thanks to the darkness and the fact that now, both her girlfriend and her opponent were burning from head to toe, thus creating flickering, unstable light with their flames, she couldn't see much; she could make out which of the two demons was her girlfriend, thanks to the different fur colour, but it was hard to tell who was landing more hits and who was having the upper hand.
The flickering flames and the bit of light they provided also made it impossible for her to help with some spells, much to her dismay; before she could come up with a solution for this problem though, the taller male demon got a good grip on her girlfriend and used that to fling her away from himself, a cloud of dust rising from the ground when she landed not far from the witch's hiding place.
"Get out of here", she took the time to tell the redhead, the low, growling sound of her voice sending a shiver up and down Willow's spine, despite the fact that this wasn't the best time for such thoughts and feelings; forcing herself to shrug them off, she nodded and came to her feet while Pat tackled the other demon again, the sound of their fighting and their growls filling the cellar once more moments later.
To Willow's relief, the fight kept the male demon distracted from trying to harm her again, making it easy for her to hurry towards the next stairwell, knowing that she'd never be able to climb up to the ground floor through the hole during which she had fallen down here in the first place; the stairs were quite damaged and looked as if they'd fall down any moment, but since this was the only way she could use to get out of the cellar, she had to take the risk. Holding her breath, she made her way up the stairs as fast as she dared, flinching each time she could feel them tremble beneath her feet; somehow, she made it back to the ground floor though, looking a bit lost for a moment once she had arrived there – before she spotted the hole in the floor not far from where she had emerged, quickly making her way to it and peering down, dismay filling her again when she couldn't really see anything, but only heard the sounds of fighting.
Nervously, she shifted on the ground, squinting slightly as she tried to spot anything; the only thing she could see though were the dancing flames which were burning all over the bodies of both demons, accompanied by growls and sounds of fists and feet meeting flesh, along with some rather unpleasant chomping and tearing noises, making her wonder – with a slight queasy feeling – if they were not just hitting each other, but also biting.
That thought briefly made her flash back to the dreadful moment when Oz and Veruca had been at each other's throat, both of them in their werewolf form; at least this time though, if her partner would be the one to survive again, she was in no danger of being eaten, she thought to herself as she kept looking down, even though she still couldn't see much.
After several more minutes, the growling of one of the demons changed to a high-pitched whimpering, again reminding her of the fight between Oz and Veruca; her heart jumped in her chest as she tried to remember if she ever had heard Pat make such a sound and what it could mean, then the cellar beneath her fell silent, the flickering of the flames down there decreasing, then vanishing, prompting her heartbeat to speed up even further as she realized that the battle was over.
Holding her breath, she stared down into the hole, hoping and praying that it had been her girlfriend who'd won the fight; moments later, a sigh of relief escaped her as she spotted the taller woman through the hole, her excitement and relief clearly showing through her voice when she called out to her. "Pat! Are you okay?"
"Just a bit banged up", the demon called back, looking up at her with a little smirk, "can't say that about him."
"Good riddance", Willow smiled, then moved back a bit from the hole when she saw her girlfriend take a few steps back and figured out what she wanted to do; moments later, the demon ran up to the hole, then jumped, managing to grip the edge, her muscles bulging when she pulled herself up and joined her partner on the ground floor.
"Indeed", she then agreed, finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up while Willow looked at her critically, trying to figure out what she had meant with "a bit banged up"; it seemed that she hadn't downplayed it though, since the few cuts and bruises she could see looked mostly harmless, figuring that her healing abilities hadn't stopped working too early this time.
"Are you okay?" the demon now asked her, looking at her just as critically, "that hit you took looked quite painful."
"Oh it was", Willow grimaced, something she instantly regretting as it sent waves of pain from her jaw through her face, "but it'll just end up in a bruise, he didn't break anything or something…"
"Good for him, or I'd have him revived just so I can kill him again", Pat muttered, making the witch giggle; after a moment, the black haired woman smirked as well, reaching out with her free hand to grasp her girlfriend's, the two just sitting there for a while and looking at each other afterwards, glad that once more, yet another danger for the inhabitants of Sunnydale had been taken care of.
"…and then he actually started biting, like some kind of rabid dog", Pat told Buffy and Dawn an hour later, between two huge bites of pizza – as always after demoning out, she'd been awfully hungry by the time they had came back to the Summers house, and the Slayer had hurried to change that by ordering an extra-large pizza for all of them. "That was so lame, and gross, I mean, talk about a mouthful of hair."
"Ew", Dawn agreed, not letting the grossness of the thought stop her from munching down her share of the pizza; next to her, Buffy nodded silent agreement as well, then asked if the fight had been hard, making the demon shrug and take another bite of her food before she replied. "Not anymore after Willow put that slowing-down-spell on him, that was really useful. Thanks, Sweetie."
"You're welcome", the redhead beamed, the taller woman smiling back at her just as widely, prompting Buffy to roll her eyes, a hint of mischief in her voice when she spoke up. "And back you two go to the unbelievable constant sweetness. Tell me, didn't that one real, nasty fight spice things up a bit?"
"No", Willow and Pat answered in perfect unison, prompting the blonde to roll her eyes before she giggled; after a moment, the others joined in, then went back to eating and listening to the colourful rendition Pat gave them of the fight, enjoying the relaxed, peaceful atmosphere, all of them determined to do so as long as it was possible, knowing that in a town like Sunnydale, it surely wouldn't last for long – but also knowing that, no matter what would be thrown at them next, they'd be able to handle it as long as they all stuck together and could rely on each other.
End.