A few hours later, all of them had decided that it would be better to get some rest; since now, both Buffy and Iris would be staying over, they had to share the couch, but neither of the two women minded, both of them more focused on protecting Willow and Pat than on comfortable sleeping arrangements.
In the bedroom, the witch and the demon had gone to bed as well, even though so far, none of them had fallen asleep; yet again, Willow was holding her loved one close, caressing her hair and back reassuringly as the taller woman stared off into nothingness, caught in the memories of what had been done to her.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Willow finally broke the silence, not really surprised when at once, she felt the black haired woman stiffen in her embrace; she had visited enough psychology classes at campus to know that, whatever had happened to Pat had been deeply traumatizing for her, and it was quite rare that victims of such events would willingly speak about them, especially so shortly after it had happened.
"…sorry, but no", the demon finally mumbled, "not… not yet."
"Don't be sorry", Willow mumbled to her, beginning to play with a strand of her hair, with a pang in her chest remembering that most of said hair had gone grey and probably would be for a while, the witch still remembering how long it had taken for the lesser number of grey strands the dark magic within her had caused to turn back to black.
"I understand", she went on, tightening her embrace around the demon when she felt her shiver slightly, "I can't even imagine how bad it must have been for you, if it frightened you so much…"
"I hate this", the taller woman brought in reply, in a slightly trembling voice, even though all at once, Willow wasn't sure if the tremble was caused by fear or anger, "I'm a demon, for fuck's sake, I'm supposed to deal with such things, not end up a quivering mess! Fuck!"
"Shhh", the redhead finally managed to get over her surprise about this unexpected outburst, "it's okay, Sweetie, it really is, what she did to you must have been awful, it's alright to feel this way…"
"But what if she attacks again?" the demon demanded to know in reply, with so much self-loathing in her voice that it nearly made the witch cry, "what if she comes here and all I can do is huddle in a corner and cry? I could never forgive myself if I… if I'd fail you and you'd get hurt…"
"Stop this", Willow almost pleaded in reply, tightening her embrace around the taller woman yet again, "with Buffy and Iris here, she won't get near enough to hurt me. And after all the times you protected me, I'll return the favour now and protect you for once. It'll be okay."
To her relief, her words had the desired effect, namely calming Pat down; after a few moments of silence, the black haired woman nodded against her shoulder, then let out a small sigh, the noise prompting Willow to lean down slightly so she could kiss the top of her head, her voice down to a low murmur when she spoke on.
"I love you", she let the demon know, "and we'll get through this, together. We'll defeat her, together, you'll regain your strength and everything will be fine."
"I hope so", Pat mumbled, shifting on the bed slightly; and that was when the window shattered as the bright ball of fire hit it, scorching through the room and hitting the wall, luckily fading away there without setting the whole place on fire, causing the witch to let out a small, shocked shriek while the taller woman nearly fell out of bed at her attempt to sit up so fast it made her head spin.
"It's her", she brought out, her good eye widening in fear and distress, "it's her, I can feel it…"
"Buffy!" Willow yelled in reply, relieved that by now, Pat had gotten out of bed on her own, and thus gave her the chance to stand up as well, "Iris! She's here!"
"Indeed, I am", an unexpectedly young voice commented, and from the sharp breath Willow could hear Pat suck in, she knew that, even though she looked so different, this was the woman who had done such great harm to her; momentarily, she was shocked by how youthful and healthy she looked now, compared to how she had appeared at the café – before she remembered how exactly she had gained those looks and her gaze darkened, anger filling her as her hands clenched into fists without her even fully noticing.
"Forgive me for intruding like this", the woman went on, smiling as she easily floated in through the ruined window and landed on the soft carpet, "but I won't be here for long."
"Stay away from her", Willow pressed out between grit teeth, feeling the dark magic roaring up in the back of her mind, begging to be used, to be unleashed against this creature so she'd be finished quickly and effortlessly – and feeling herself dangerously willing to do just that, to let the magic take over and let it do whatever it wanted to the now blonde witch.
"It's not her I'm here for this time", the other woman replied, and that was when all happened at once – the door to the bedroom flew open as Buffy and Iris came storming in, the blonde moved to stand in front of Willow with shocking speed, so fast that it was almost a teleport, and behind the redhead, her lover let out a sharp "No!", the sound of her voice so much back to how it had been before all of this had happened that it almost made Willow turn her head.
Before she could do so though, despite the fact that it would have been a rather unwise thing to do with the evil witch right in front of her, a malicious grin on her face, the redhead felt herself being grabbed from behind and pushed aside quite harshly, hard enough so that she ended up stumbling against Iris, who managed to catch her and keep her from falling in the last moment; and while she still was turning to look at what was happening, she heard the blonde witch say "I knew this would work", fear gripping Willow's heart as she managed to finally turn around just in time to see the dreadful events which unfolded next.
"Give me what I need", the blonde woman was breathing as her hands shot forward, grasping the collar of the pyjama Pat had put on before going to bed; the taller woman's good eye widened and she had a moment to try and break free – before the other witch jerked her closer, pressed her lips to the black haired woman's and, with a bright red glow starting to form between them, began feeding, ignoring the cries Willow was letting out and the horrid chocking noises coming from her victim.
"No!" Willow cried out as she had to watch in helpless horror how slowly, but steadily, the last few strands of her partner's hair greyed as well, then all of it started to turn white; her mind raced as she tried to figure out what to do, only too well aware of the fact that the two women were too close to each other to allow her to attack the blonde with a spell.
"She said to stay away from her", Buffy snarled next to her right in this second, already moving past her, swinging the heavy glass ashtray from the living room table, apparently the first thing closest to her weapon she had gotten her hands on; with the muscles in her arm flexing visibly, she brought it around in a hard, powerful arch, hitting the blonde on the back of the head with painful aim, hard enough to make her yelp as she let go of Pat, the demon's good eye rolling back into her head while she slumped down to the ground, ending up in a lifeless heap on the carpet.
"You shouldn't have come here", the Slayer added, bringing the ashtray around once more and whacking the woman again before she even had a chance to turn around, "and you shouldn't have gone after her in the first place. She's got friends willing to fight for her, you know."
"You talk too much", the evil witch snarled as an answer, finally having managed to turn around and thus not even noticing how Willow rushed from Iris' side and to her partner, pulling the knocked out woman into a tender embrace and holding her close, "and you won't be around to protect her forever. She's mine, whether you like it or not."
She smiled pleasantly, causing Buffy to grit her teeth in annoyance – before she moved with the same stunning speed she had displayed before, circling the Slayer and kicking her in the back with shocking strength, causing her to let out a yelp as she stumbled forward.
"Such good stuff", the blonde sighed out, sounding almost aroused and causing Willow to glare at her, "if I had known she's so tasty, I would have gone after her decades ago."
"Lana!" Iris snapped before anyone else could say something, prompting the blonde to look at her with a raised eyebrow, as if she only was noticing her now for the first time, "enough of this! Get out and leave them alone!"
"Who do you think you are, to tell me what to do", Lana snarled as an answer, her eyes briefly flashing up red, just another indicator of the magic she had taken from Pat; and as if that wasn't enough, fire burst from her fists moments later, a wicked smile forming on her face as she raised them slightly.
"Feels good", she then stated, flexing her fingers and looking at them admiringly, "now let me just find out how to—"
The spell hit her out of nowhere, hard enough to send her flying; her surprised shriek was cut short as she sailed out the already ruined window and hit the pavement two stories below, with a sickening thud which could be heard all the way up in the couple's bedroom.
"There", Iris pressed out between grit teeth, "that should teach her. Bitch."
"Nice spell", Buffy complimented, already moving over to the window and peering outside, her slight smile gone when she turned to face her friends once more.
"But not powerful enough", she added, swallowing heavily as her gaze met Willow's, the redhead still holding Pat close to herself, the taller woman lying limply in her arms, "because she's gone."