The revelation was so unexpected and so big that Willow sank back down on her chair without even noticing, hearing Buffy gasp behind her while Giles removed his glasses and started cleaning them, never taking his gaze off the woman; still smiling, she moved closer to the table, then grabbed the only free chair and sat down, still mostly focused on the witch as she went on.
"It's been a long time ago, so I doubt she would have recognized me anyway", she let the group know, "but seeing that she's not here, and in eyebrow-deep shit instead, I suppose you'll just have to believe me."
"You're the one who made her into a demon?" Xander finally managed to break the stunned silence which had settled over the gang, "but… no offense, but you look so young."
"So does she, doesn't she?" the woman shot back – before her eyes widened and she shook her head, sounding honestly dismayed when she went on. "But, where are my manners?! I didn't even introduce myself yet. I'm Iris."
"Nice to meet you", Buffy told her, obviously deciding to be direct a moment later, "but what exactly are you doing here? It seems a bit too coincidental that you show up hours after Pat has been kidnapped."
"That's because it's not a coincidence", Iris replied airily, making herself comfortable and earning a dirty look from Giles by putting her feet up on the table, skilfully ignoring him though, "in fact, I'm here to help you, because you'll never find her otherwise. I did try to warn her, but sadly, it didn't quite work out."
"The headaches", Willow realized all at once, looking at the other woman in disbelief, "and the shadowy shape she kept seeing before they started? That was you?"
"It wasn't my intention to give her a migraine", Iris defended herself at once, "in fact, I'm not even really sure why this happened. I tried to communicate with her when I learned that this bitch is after her now, but I just couldn't get through. Perhaps your magic was blocking me off or something."
"So you know who this woman was?" Buffy wanted to know, frowning, "why didn't you just come here earlier if you know that and also knew that she's after Pat?"
"Unfortunately, I'm not much good with teleportation spells", Iris sighed in reply, looking slightly dismayed, "so I had to travel here the old-fashioned way. I was hoping that perhaps, I would still make it in time, but unfortunately…"
"So who is she?" Willow asked what they all were thinking, "and what does she want?"
"She's another one I cursed", Iris sighed, having the grace to look a bit sheepish when they all looked at her in disbelief.
"I got a bit out of hand with the cursing for a while", she admitted, shifting on the chair, now looking slightly uncomfortable, "but I'm not doing that so often anymore, I swear. Anyway, to survive, she needs to feed from others, and—"
"Wait", Giles interrupted her, startled, "which kind of feeding are we talking about?"
"Not their flesh", Iris hurriedly reassured them, noticing how pale Willow had gone, "their… well, I suppose you could call it their magical essence. And since she's a demon, and a quite powerful one at that…"
"Why is there no information about this woman in any of our books?" Giles wanted to know, frowning, "I spent the time since she's taken our friend looking for information on her, and there was nothing. Not even the coven in England we are working with had any information about such a creature."
"Because no one ever got away from her alive before to tell about her", Iris rather bluntly replied, causing Willow to gasp while the eyes of the rest of the group widened, "and, frankly said, if I hadn't known that Pat has changed, I wouldn't have bothered to come here and help you guys, but, well, since she helped with stopping a number of apocalypses and all those nasty demons and what not…"
"So she kills their victims after she fed enough?" Buffy asked, exchanging a worried look with Willow, "because, well, Will tried to locate Pat with a locator spell and it didn't work… This either means that this woman is shielding her hideout or that Pat's dead…"
"I can guarantee that she's not dead yet", Iris gave back, helping to calm Willow down at least a bit, "the feeding takes quite some time. She can't take too much at once or it will end up harming her, so we still have more than enough time."
"So how can we find her, if the spell doesn't work?" the redhead demanded to know, frowning, "you don't happen to know where she took Pat, right?"
"Actually, I kind of do", Iris replied, sounding slightly proud, "even though getting there might not be easy. Since she's always on the move, looking for demons and witches suitable for her needs, having a regular hideout isn't practical for her, so one of the uses she makes of the magic she steals is to drag her victims off into… well, I suppose you could call it another dimension, or another plane of existence. A really tiny one, I've been there once and all it contains is her home."
"Great, just great", Xander commented, shaking his head, "she couldn't just, I don't know, choose some cave or something? Like our baddies usually do?"
"How can we get there?" Buffy threw in before Iris could answer the young man, "and now don't tell us you don't know."
"I do", Iris reassured her, smiling slightly again, "but it needs a lot of magical power, the only time I was there, I only managed to get there because she invited me there. But once we got that power, we can send someone there to get her out."
"I think I'll have the power we need", Willow calmly replied, shaking her head when Buffy looked as if she wanted to protest, and quickly speaking on before the Slayer could try to do so.
"You know we have no other choice", she reasoned, prompting Giles to let out a small sigh as he knew deep inside that she was right, "there are no other witches powerful enough to help here in Sunnydale, and getting some from the coven to help would take too long. I am not going to risk her life by sitting around and waiting for them to come from England if we have all this power right here."
"But what if you can't handle it?" Anya wanted to know, looking worried, "the last thing we need now is that you want to end the world again, you know?"
"That's not gonna happen", Willow let her know, raising an eyebrow at her rather blunt choice of words, "I'm sure Iris will be willing to help, so I won't need to tap into all that dark power. Right, Iris?"
"I suppose so", the other witch shrugged, "but if it'll be just the two of us doing the magic, one of us will have to go there. And, to be honest, I'm not really the best choice, she has a bit of a grudge against me."
"No surprise there", Willow mumbled, then shrugged, smiling slightly as she went on. "I'll be fine with going there. I'll just need to know as much as possible about this woman so I'll know what to be careful about."
"That I can do", Iris smiled, making the redhead return the smile after a moment; and then, she started explaining, the witch listening intently, eager to get into this other dimension as fast as possible and get her partner out of there.