"Okay", Buffy panted out fifteen minutes of sometimes successful and sometimes not so successful dodging later, blood streaming down her face and darkening her clothes in various spots while bruises were forming here and there, as well, "we really have to figure something out, not even with all my Slayer strength, I can keep this up for much longer."
"Preaching to the choir", the demon growled in reply, looking just as worse for wear as the blonde, sweat glistening on her brow and mixing with the blood dripping from a cut through her left eyebrow, "but what? We can't even get close enough to knock her out."
"No, you can't", Willow mocked, not even out of breath despite the vicious attacks she had launched against her best friend and her lover again and again, attacks both physical and magical, aided by the Staff, "so you might as well hold still while I split your stubborn skulls open with my neat little weapon here."
"Stop it", Buffy tried to reason once more, even though by now, both Pat and she knew that this wouldn't lead anywhere, "Willow, this isn't you…!"
"Oh, shut up", Willow gave back, unimpressed – before she shot forward with stunning speed and the Staff came down, the Slayer managing to throw herself aside at the last minute, thus taking a glancing blow to the head instead of the bone-shattering hit which had been intended, the impact still being enough to knock her out though.
"At least she's quiet now", one of the watching men commented, making the witch giggle, an unpleasant sound which sent shivers up and down the demon's spine; swallowing heavily, the taller woman gave her best to remain on her feet, to ignore the ache all over her body and the fear about what all of this mess might be doing to her partner.
"One down", the redhead now stated, smirking cruelly, "one to go. How's it, lover, still not willing to fight me?"
"No", Pat replied at once, ignoring the laughter of the watching men, all of them clearly amused by her reply, never taking her gaze off the witch; with her smile widening, Willow slowly moved closer to her, as if she had all the time in the world – and then the Staff snapped up and she fired a bright bolt of energy at her partner, a low grunt coming from the demon when it hit her in the stomach and sent her flying a few feet before she landed on the cold ground, skittering a bit further until coming to a halt.
"I think I'll kill you first", Willow told her, walking over to where she laid, struggling to get to her feet, and keeping her from doing just that by straddling her, "and take care of the Slayer once she came back around. I want to see the look in her eyes when her best friend kills her."
Still smiling, she gripped the Staff at the ends with both hands, then brought it down, across the taller woman's throat, and pressed downwards with shocking strength; and almost immediately, Pat's flow of air was cut off, choking noises coming from her as her face reddened, the sounds she was making as she struggled for breath again causing the watching men to start laughing and cheering once again.
"Finish her!" one of them yelled while the demon kept struggling for breath; clearly though, Willow wasn't willing to do just that all too quickly, releasing her pressure on the Staff just enough so the taller woman could suck in a lungful of air every now and then, a malicious glint in her eyes as she watched the struggle of her partner.
Unable to believe that this really was happening, that the woman she loved was strangling her slowly, all Pat could do was stare up at her, darkness already starting to bloom at the edges of her vision; smiling down on her, Willow leaned forward slightly to put even more pressure on the Staff, the movement exposing the torc around her throat, the demon's mind starting to race as she tried to remember if she ever had seen her partner wear this strange thing before and if, perhaps, it could be responsible for what was happening to her.
As if to confirm the suspicion, far-fetched as it might seem to her in her predicament, she realized that the torc was pulsing faintly, darkening and then lightening up again, making it obvious that, even if it wasn't evil and responsible for Willow was doing, it at least was fuelled by magic, prompting the demon to take the chance in a last desperate attempt to save herself and her partner from the darkness which had taken hold of her yet again.
Reaching up with both hands, she grit her teeth as she grasped the torc, and tried to get her fingers beneath it; and almost immediately, Willow reacted, her eyes narrowing before she let go of the Staff with one hand and easily grabbed both of the taller woman's wrists, forcing her arms above her head and glaring down on her.
"No touching of my jewellery", she then hissed, the pressure of the Staff vanishing from the taller woman's throat moments later – before it came down, the dull end hitting her hard in the temple, fireworks going off in her brain before her good eye rolled back into her head and darkness took her.
Snarling at her unconscious body, Willow came to her feet, ignoring the calls of the men to kill both the Slayer and the demon; instead, she prodded the unconscious form with the Staff, as if to make sure that she really was out cold, then looked at the watching men, her voice cold and uncaring when she spoke up.
"Take them to downstairs and chain them up. Separate rooms", she ordered, leaning on the Staff rather casually now, "I might still have use for them. Make sure they can't free themselves, keep the demon from standing up or she'll change."
"Yes, my Lady", two of them agreed in perfect unison, then moved forward without missing a beat; each of them picked up one of the knocked out women, carrying them off moments later, the witch watching them go with a small smile on her face.
When Pat woke up again, the first thing she noticed was the throbbing pain all over her body; and the second fact which registered on her still rather slowly working mind were the heavy manacles around her wrists, chaining her to the wall she'd been slumped against, the chain connecting the steel to said wall being so short that it kept her from moving more than a few inches, and made standing up impossible.
"Dammit", she grumbled to herself, shifting slightly on the cold cement floor, a movement she immediately regretted as it made the throbbing pain even worse, the feeling of dried blood on her face not helping with getting more comfortable; telling herself that at least for now, she had to deal with the pain, since she could only demon out while standing up, the demon glanced around, looking for anything she might use to free herself.
To her dismay, they had chained her up in a tiny room, with no furniture or other useful items at all; she suspected that it had been some sort of closet before it had been turned into a cell, her heart skipping a beat when she, quite belatedly, realized that she was alone on the room and that Buffy was nowhere to be seen.
"Buffy?" she called out after a moment, asking herself if the blonde was even still alive and, if she was, if she had been locked up within earshot; when no response came, she swallowed heavily, shifting on the ground yet again as she tried to get a good look at the ring connecting the chains to the wall, trying to figure out if she'd be able to rip it out, like she had done not all too long ago, when Willow and she had been chained up in a similar way, in the secret hideout of a crazed shapeshifter.
Thinking of that situation made her think of her partner again, and of how she had been acting, clearly taken over by the dark magic yet again; this time, it was different to the last time it had happened, with the darkness a part of her, changing her, but not controlling her the way it had done before.
Again, she remembered the strange torc she had seen around her partner's throat, and how she immediately had tried to keep her from removing it; before she could ponder it any further though, footsteps approached the door leading to the small room, and half a minute later, it opened, the demon not surprised to find herself looking at Willow, the darkness still in the redhead's eyes, a smirk curling her lips as she looked down on her captive.
"Well, well, well", she then started, moving closer to her and lowering herself into a crouch, "the demon's the first one to wake up. I'm impressed."
"Where's Buffy?" Pat demanded to know in reply, giving her best to hide how much seeing Willow like this was freaking her out, "what did you do to her?"
"Wouldn't you like to know", the witch gave back, with a hint of teasing in her voice, the demon's heart clenching up at the sound as she remembered how often she had heard her partner use that certain tone, always in a much happier and kinder context and never meant to really hurt her, "but I can calm you down, I didn't kill her. Yet."
"Want to finish me off first?" the demon wanted to know, giving her best to keep the tremble out of her voice; to her surprise, Willow just smiled and shook her head, then reached out with one hand and ran it down the taller woman's cheek, forcing her to bite back a wince as it brought up fresh pain in the cuts and bruises there.
"For now, I'm not finishing off anyone", she told her, her hand coming to a surprisingly tender rest on her cheek, "I'll keep both Buffy and you alive. Because I know how you all work, and so I know that you told Giles where you are going when you came to rescue me. Which means that, if he doesn't hear from you, he'll show up here sooner or later."
"And then what?" Pat dared to ask, even though she wasn't sure she'd like the answer, "you'll use us to make sure he won't try to harm you? You could just kill him as well, and you know it."
For a few moments, Willow held her gaze in response, clearly considering her words – before she smiled again, a strange glint in her eyes when she replied, her other hand moving up as well and coming to a rest in the taller woman's neck.
"Perhaps", she then told her, "but I'm sure I'll also find good use for him. I already know your purpose…"
And then, before Pat could reply anything, the redhead had leaned closer and pressed her lips to hers, kissing her; it wasn't a gentle and sensual kiss, like the ones they usually shared, but demanding and hungry and almost brutal, her grip on the black haired woman's neck tightening when she tried to pull away.
"Come on", the redhead mumbled against her lips at her continued strain to break the kiss, "since when don't you like kissing me? I'm your girl, remember?"
"Right now, I doubt that", Pat gave back, fighting down the urge to flinch back when Willow leaned closer to her again, bending down to she could start kissing and sucking her neck, "my girl wouldn't beat her best friend and me up like that."
"Since when don't you like it a bit rough", Willow mumbled in response, her breath hot against her skin – before she bit down on her neck hard enough to make her yelp, her hands at the same time moving to the front of her shirt and ripping it open with unexpected force, exposing her chest and stomach to her greedy, not all too gentle touch.
"Stop", Pat pressed out between grit teeth, wincing when the witch's fingers ran over a rather sore spot at her ribs, pushing down at the noise she made, as if the redhead was keen on hurting her, "take your hands off me, or I'll burn you, I swear."
"Aw, come on", Willow gave back, forcing her hands up above her head when she tried to bring them up so she could push her away, "as if you could ever do that to me. Don't be like that, Honey, just relax and enjoy…"
She smirked at her, then kept her from protesting with yet another harsh kiss, her hands sliding down the taller woman's upper body and to her pants, tugging at her belt; and then, all at once, a low thump came up as something hard connected with the back of her head, her weight vanishing from the demon moments later, the taller woman's good eye widening in surprise when she saw Buffy stand behind her partner, with a two by four she had gotten God knew where clutched firmly in her hands.
"Should have known that chains won't keep the Slayer for long", the blonde commented, said chains still dangling from her wrists, "you okay? Looked like she was getting rather cosy with you."
"For once, I didn't enjoy it", the demon grumbled, glad that the spell Willow had used to keep her immobile had worn off the moment she had been knocked out, "so, thanks. How come you could knock her out so easily?"
"Not sure", Buffy gave back, looking down on the unconscious witch, "it surely wasn't so easy when we fought after she absorbed all that dark magic for the first time. But on the other hand, her hair didn't go black this time, so maybe it's not fully charged."
"Yet", Pat sighed, looking at her knocked out partner in dismay, "who knows how much worse this will get before we figure out how to… bring her back. That reminds me though, after she knocked you out, she tried to strangle me, and I noticed this strange thing around her throat… Look."
With those words, she pulled down the collar of the witch's blouse, exposing the torc; frowning, Buffy bent closer to look at it, then glanced up at the demon again, a mixture of surprise and worry in her voice when she spoke up. "I've never seen her wear this before. And there's some kind of light pulsating inside it."
"Yes", the taller woman nodded, "which is why I'm pretty sure this is responsible for her going more or less dark. I tried to remove it when she tried to strangle me, but she stopped me from doing so, and by now, I'm not sure anymore it's a good idea to just tear it off, who knows what it might do to her."
"We better let Giles decide that", Buffy decided, throwing the makeshift club aside, "so come on, we better get moving." And with those words, she grasped the chains and simply ripped them from the wall, her muscles bulging just enough to show that this took quite a bit of strength from her; smirking, the demon thanked her, then bent down to pick the unconscious Willow up on her arms, following the blonde outside moments later, both of them hoping that they would make it outside unnoticed and without any more fighting, knowing that they were in no shape to battle anyone after the beating they both had taken.