"Are you sure it is wise to go alone?" Giles asked just a few minutes later, as Buffy was checking the dagger she had brought, running her thumb over the blade to make sure it was sharp, "shouldn't at least one of us come with you?"
"No", Buffy declined at once, putting the dagger back into the sheathe hidden beneath her jacket, "I don't think I'll run into the nightmare demon, you yourself said it's scared of us, so it'll stay away and try to find food somewhere else. I just want to find Pat, scold her, and get her back here so we can come up with a proper plan."
"Fine", Giles sighed out after a moment, knowing that look on the Slayer's face well and knowing that there was no use in trying to change her mind when she looked like that, "but promise to call the moment anything unexpected happens, be it nightmares coming true or encountering the demon itself."
"Sure", Buffy gave back, then smiled calmingly at him, "I'll be careful, I promise. This is a 'Let's find Willow's girlfriend before she gets herself killed' mission, not a 'Let's go kill the nasty demon' one."
"Take care, anyway", Giles told her in reply, making her nod; she asked the rest to meet her at her home, figuring that they could as well go there since at the moment, no one else would be allowed to visit Willow anyway, then hurried off, only realizing that she had no idea where to find the black haired woman when she stepped out of the hospital. For a moment, she considered getting out her cell phone and try calling her, then realized that this wouldn't do any good – if Pat was out on some sort of assassin mission to find and kill the nightmare demon, she surely would have switched her phone off to avoid discovery, should it start ringing in her pocket.
"Damn you and your hot-headed-ness", she muttered at no one in particular; she looked around once more, as if the answer would present itself on a silver plate, then just set off, figuring that sooner or later, she'd encounter another person's nightmare coming true and that the demon she was looking for surely would be around then.
"This better work out quickly, or I'll use her as a punching bag for the next fifteen training sessions", she mumbled to herself, keeping her eyes open for signs of nightmares coming true; to her endless dismay, she had to walk the streets of Sunnydale for almost an hour though until she finally encountered what she had been looking for, in the form of a teenaged boy with his back up against the wall, looking as if he wanted to melt into the stone while a group of spiders roughly the size of German shepherds were advancing slowly, as if they had all the time in the world.
"Someone help me!" the boy cried, his eyes darting left and right until his gaze landed on Buffy and turned pleading, "you, please! Over there! Help me or they'll eat me!"
"That's what I'm here for", the Slayer gave back, and then her kick already landed, sending one of the spiders flying and hitting the wall, the blonde grimacing when it splattered there.
"Damn you!" she heard a slightly familiar voice call out, so full of irritation and annoyance that she just had to turn and look, finding herself looking at a surprisingly small and frail-looking demon with green, scaly skin and brightly red eyes, the colour matching the small pair of horns which was growing out of the demon's forehead.
"I told you to stay away!" it now whined, clenching small fists in frustration, "you've ruined most of my meals since I woke up again! Why? Why do you keep doing that?"
"It's my job", Buffy gave back, kicking yet another spider and sending it off to meet the same fate as the first one she'd done this to while the boy took the chance given and ran away as fast as his legs would carry him, "and once I got rid of those spiders, I'll finish it by finishing you."
"Not afraid of spiders, are you", the nightmare demon grumbled in reply, its eyes narrowing, "let's see then…" The red glow in its eyes intensified, and all at once, strong arms wrapped around Buffy from behind, and an all too familiar voice whispered into her ear, making her eyes go wide. "Why, hello there, Slayer. Missed me?"
"You're not real", Buffy made herself say in reply, even though the grip around her felt quite real, tightening and pinning her arms to her side, "you're just an illusion, made by that small demon over there…"
"Are you sure?" Angelus wanted to know, and she could hear the cold smile on his face, the nightmare demon watching with interest, rubbing its small hands together in glee, even letting out a squealing noise when the vampire raised one hand and moved the blonde's hair aside, exposing her neck – and the scar there where he had bitten her years ago, when he had been Angel and it had been the only way to save him from the poison which had slowly been killing him.
"I remember sinking my teeth into your throat there", he muttered, "why don't we repeat that? It will show you how real I am…"
"Stop talking and do it!" the nightmare demon shrieked, "drain her, whatever, just get rid of her so I can finish feeding!"
It rubbed its hands together once more, now smiling gleefully – when it had found that nightmare of getting eaten by random vampires in the Slayer's mind a few nights ago, that already had been great, but discovering this gem in her mind now… The fear that came from her at being held by this certain vampire tasted as good as nothing else had on this spree, and the nightmare demon could barely believe how lucky it had been after all that the blonde had shown up once more.
"Drain her!" it shouted again, by now nearly bouncing on the spot, "drain her now and make her even more del—"
"Surprise", a low voice growled right next to its ear, and before it could even think of a way to react, something thin, but tough was slung around its throat and tightened, cutting off the flow of air. Helplessly, the demon started clawing at the thin, wire-like rope, to no avail though; as its concentration failed, Angelus puffed away into nothingness, and Buffy let out the breath she had been holding as she had waited for the fangs to sink into her neck, taking a moment to recover before she focused on what was going on in front of her.
Even though she had been pissed off at Pat when she had set out to find her, she had to admit that was more than glad to see the demon now; and since Willow once had told her about what method she had favoured for assassination when she still had been working, the Slayer also realized at once what the taller woman was doing, a slight smile curling her lips as she watched how the nightmare demon was slowly, but steadily choked to death by the length of piano wire Pat kept in a tight sling around its throat.
"Want me to make this quick?" she wanted to know, her hand already resting on the handle of her dagger; before she could pull it out though, the demon shook her head, tightening the sling of piano wire even further, a malicious smirk on her face when she replied. "No, I'm fine with seeing this bastard die slowly, after what happened to Willow."
"Okay", the Slayer shrugged, folding her arms across her chest and just watching; under ordinary circumstances, she wouldn't have liked it to let any creature be tortured like this, but in this case, she couldn't really say that she minded or didn't understand. Gritting her teeth, Pat kept her grip on the piano wire, even when the nightmare demon finally gave up on clawing at the wire and just started thrashing and flailing; it let out helpless choking noises, then suddenly held completely still, somehow managing to talk despite the fact that by now, it couldn't breathe anymore at all.
"I can heal your girl", it pressed out, "let me go… and I'll… heal her! I promise!"
"I can do that myself", Pat gave back, unimpressed; the sling of piano wire tightened even further, and two minutes later, the nightmare demon slumped forward as far as the sling allowed, the red glow in its eyes dulling, then vanishing fully as it finally lost the fight and died.
"There", Pat stated, letting go of the piano wire and watching with a small, but satisfied smile how the nightmare demon fell down and just laid there, the wire embedded deep in its throat, "so much about—" Buffy's hand met her cheek with a shockingly loud slapping noise, the slap hard – and unexpected – enough to throw her head aside, her good eye nearly doubling in size as she stared at the Slayer, sounding so incredulous that it was almost funny when she spoke up again after a moment of silence. "What the fuck did you do that for?!"
"That was for sneaking off after you said you wouldn't!" Buffy informed her, crossing her arms over her chest again and giving her a glare, "what if you'd gotten really hurt? You should be ashamed! And, since Willow isn't here to say it – language."
"Well, I didn't get hurt, and I killed that demon", Pat shrugged, glaring at the blonde since her cheek still stung where she had been slapped, "so all is fine, isn't it?"
"Yeah", Buffy grudgingly agreed, "but you could have gotten hurt. What if that demon hadn't been distracted by Angelus and me?"
"Then I would have killed it differently", the demon replied at once, "but I have to say, it was fun to do it that way, been a while since I've done that."
"I surely hope so", the Slayer smirked, raising an eyebrow, "and now that our nightmarish friend here is dead, so at least some good came of your little brainless moment."
"It was not brainless", Pat protested, "I knew perfectly well what I was doing!"
"If you say so", Buffy teased, smirking at the snort the taller woman let out, "but now, let's go home, the others are waiting there, I told them I'd meet them there after finding you."
"Alright", the demon agreed at once, giving the dead demon on the ground another nasty look before she focused on the Slayer again, sounding a bit regretful when she went on. "I'd prefer to go to the hospital, but it wouldn't be of any use, the doctor told me I should only come back tomorrow. Of course I could sneak in, but…"
"…but if they catch you, they might ban you, and that'd be much worse than just waiting until tomorrow", Buffy finished for her, making her nod with a dismayed look on her face; now that the nightmare demon had been killed, it clearly gave Pat time again to think of Willow and of what had happened to her, as the glum expression that slowly took over again showed the blonde.
"I know this is much easier said than done", she softly stated, moving closer to the taller woman and placing a comforting hand on her arm, "but you need to stop blaming yourself for what happened. It wasn't your fault, there was nothing you could have done…"
"That is easier said than done", Pat agreed at once, taking the time to find her cigarettes and to light one of them up before she continued, Buffy giving her a sympathetic look in reply, knowing perfectly well how she was feeling, about the guilt that was eating her up now that the task at hand had been finished and there was nothing left to distract her from it. "And I keep telling myself that there should have been something I could have done… Reacted faster, or thought of taking the ingredients for the healing spell along… Just… something, you know?"
"I know the feeling", Buffy let her know immediately, "been there myself a few times. But you know that Willow wouldn't want you to blame yourself… She'll want you at her bedside tomorrow morning, to cheer her up and to make her feel better, and not so you can be all gloom and doom the whole time."
"I'll give my best", Pat gave back after a moment of thinking about this, now smiling weakly, her smile fading though at what she said next, sounding oddly shy all of a sudden, an emotion the Slayer hardly ever had heard in her voice before. "Um… Well… I know this will sound weird, but would you mind if I slept at your place tonight? I kinda... don't want to be alone tonight."
"Of course you can", Buffy reassured her at once, "you know you're always welcome in our home… Dawn will be thrilled, she'll see it as the big slumber party after defeating yet another nasty demon."
"Well, it won't be really big, with just her, you and me", the demon smiled, a much more honest smile than the ones she had shown before, "but yeah, she'll probably like that… Thanks."
"There's nothing to thank me for", the blonde gave back, returning the smile, "and let's get going then, after that little scare with fake Angelus, I just wanna go home and rest."
"Sounds like a plan", the taller woman agreed, making the Slayer's smile widen; they both looked at the dead nightmare demon once more, then set off towards the Summers house without another word, both of them looking forward to getting the rest they deserved after dealing with yet another one of the nasties Sunnydale seemed to have in such abundance.