At first, Willow had been slightly worried about the odds; after all, there were seven of the men against her partner all alone, without Buffy to back her up, and her body surely still aching from the injuries which had been inflicted on her; she soon realized though that there hadn't been the slightest reason for her to worry, unable to hold back a sympathetic wince when the taller woman took the first man through the door down within seconds, simply by ducking his rather clumsy punch and then hammering her fist into his crotch.
While he still was slumping down, she already was moving on to the next guy, making him yelp in surprise by grabbing his hood and jerking it down over his head, blinding him; she gave him a second to struggle, to try to disentangle himself from the fabric, then she had punched him in the stomach twice, knocking the air out of him, before she grabbed him and tossed him backwards, against his comrades, all of them going down in a flurry of arms and legs and flapping robes.
"Should have known better than to mess with us", the demon growled as she advanced again, grabbing the one closest to her and pulling him up, only to headbutt him with enough force to send him back down, knocked out; the remaining five men tried to scramble away from her, but she'd have none of that, taking two of them out at once by slamming their heads together, having to take a punch from another one for her troubles, but retaliating with one of her own immediately and making him cry out in pain as his nose broke beneath her fist.
"Yes", Willow now agreed, watching the fighting from a safe distance and keeping a firm hold on Deira, "you guys really should have known what you are getting into. She doesn't like it if anyone tries to harm me."
"Indeed, I don't", the demon growled her agreement, then punched the one who had landed a hit once more, taking him out as well; the two remaining men exchanged one look, then tackled her in perfect unison and actually managed to throw her over, their triumph not lasting long though as almost immediately, one of them was grabbed and sent flying, a yell coming from him as he sailed through the air, only to be cut off when he hit the wall head first and slumped down to the floor unconscious.
With only one of them left now, the fight was over rather quickly and efficiently; he still was trying to pull back his fist to land a punch when Pat hammered hers into his solar plexus, throwing him off easily as his eyes widened and he gasped for breath, sending him into the land of dreams as well by grabbing his hair and jerking him up, then down, her knee meeting his face halfway.
"Well", she then stated, letting his unconscious form slump down to the ground, not even out of breath, "that was quite the nice exercise. You okay over there, Love?"
"Just peachy keen", Willow reassured her at once, almost giddy about the pet name her partner had used, as it was just another sign that she really had been forgiven all the awful things she'd done under the influence of the torc and the dark magic, "and you?"
"Fine and dandy", Pat let her know, smirking; the witch took a moment to smile back at her, then turned and made her way to the back of the room, where the Staff had been leaned against the chair she had been using not all too long ago, the redhead still making sure to keep a firm hold of Deira as she picked the Staff up.
"You can't do this", the mantis protested, once more making both Willow and Pat wonder how he could be so loud in his tiny state, "put me down at once and let me go! Who do you think you are?"
"Shut up, I said", Willow coldly told him in reply, making the demon smirk at how much contempt and disdain she managed to put into just four words, "I'm still willing to step on you, for everything you did."
"Or we could crush him", Pat suggested, holding back an evil smirk when the mantis let out a high squeak in reply, "you know, for trying to eat me alive. I'm really not all too fond of creatures doing that."
"For now, we'll take him along", the witch gave back, not sure if her partner had been serious about crushing the mantis or not, "there are still quite a few things he should tell us. I just wish we had something we can put him in, I don't wanna carry him all the way home like that."
"Maybe a glass or something", the demon pondered out loud, "we should go look for something. I'd do it on my own, but I don't want to leave you alone here, one or more of those guys might wake up again and get the idea to attack you."
"Good point", Willow had to admit, "let's go and find something then, and then leave… I still need to apologize to Buffy for what I did to her, too…"
"I'm sure she'll forgive you", Pat told her at once, already moving for the door and carelessly shoving one of the unconscious men who had dropped on the threshold aside, keeping Willow from having to step over him as they left the room together.
"Is there a kitchen or something somewhere?" the taller woman wanted to know, glancing left and right as if a signpost might appear any moment, should she just look hard enough, "or at least a fridge? We might get lucky there."
"There's some sort of break room", Willow remembered in response, briefly dismayed about the fact that she knew so much about this place, thanks to the time she had spent there under the influence of her darkness, "maybe they have a fridge in there, I've never been there. Let's go and look?"
"Sure", the demon shrugged, prompting the witch to start moving; together, they made their way down the hallway, to the room the redhead had been talking about, a slight smile curling her lips when she entered said room and spotted a fridge standing at the wall.
"Success", she told her partner, moving to the fridge, "let's see if they have something suitable in there."
"I resent that", Deira found it necessary to comment, twitching in the witch's grip, "put me down this instant! Insolence! You can't put me in a glass!"
"Watch me", Willow replied, unimpressed by his anger, since it was quite impotent in his current size; behind her, Pat smirked, then moved to open the fridge and peered inside, finding a glass of pickles moments later and figuring that this might do.
Unceremoniously, she dumped the contents into the trashcan next to the fridge, then held the glass out for Willow to drop the mantis into it; they both ignored his complains about the smell as she did just that, the demon screwing the lid back on moments later, giving the glass a sceptical look afterwards.
"We should make some holes into the lid", she then suggested, "we don't want him to suffocate in there, if there are questions we still need to ask him."
"Good point", Willow agreed, looking around for a minute until she spotted a kitchen knife on the rather messy counter; quickly, she used the sharp tip to poke some holes into the lid, then nodded when her partner asked her if she was ready to go now.
"Can you carry the glass?" she then asked, "I still got the Staff, and I want to have one hand free."
"Sure", the taller woman shrugged in reply, "no problem. Let's get moving now though before…" She trailed off as her good eye narrowed in concentration, then surprised the redhead by putting the glass on the counter without another word, gesturing at the Staff moments later, speaking on before Willow had to ask what was going on.
"You better make that thing grow", she suggested, prompting the witch to frown slightly in concern, "cause I think we're about to have company."
"Dang it", Willow muttered in reply, already unwrapping the Staff, "and here I was thinking you took them all out."
"Apparently not", her partner shrugged, clearly not minding the idea of yet another fight, watching how the redhead clutched the Staff and it immediately reacted to her the way it had before, lengthening until it almost was as reaching her height, "ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be", the witch sighed, and then the first men already appeared in the doorway, glaring at them; for once, they weren't wearing their hoods, showing their faces to the pair, looking angry and defiant as they all tried to get into the room at once, scowling and snarling at the two women.
"Let our leader go at once!" the one at the front demanded, only to be met with an eyeroll from Pat and a firm headshake from Willow; this was enough to set them off, since they let out a battle cry in quite surprising unison, then stormed into the small room, all of them eager to get their hands on the witch and the demon.
Without missing a beat, the taller woman stepped forward to meet them, greeting the one who reached her first with a hard right hook to the jaw; he stumbled back, yelping in pain and surprise, two of comrades catching him while the remaining three tried to push past them, cursing at the others to get out of the way.
"They never learn, do they", Pat commented, shaking her head; next to her, Willow let out a vaguely agreeing noise, then the Staff seemed to decide that it wanted in on the action too, briefly twitching in her hands – before it moved up and came down again in a sharp arc, hitting the one closest to the redhead right on the head and prompting him to slump down on his knees and to let go of the man Pat had punched seconds earlier, his eyes rolling back into his head as he passed out.
"Good one", the demon complimented her, then made sure that the guy she had punched first went down fully as well by grabbing the second man, jerking him towards and her, using the momentum of her own attack, turned away from the door and tossed him at the opposite wall, a grunt coming from him as his back connected harshly with the stone.
"She's using the Staff!" one of them finally caught on, "we don't stand a chance! Let's get out of here!"
"Don't you dare!" Deira shrieked from his glass prison, bouncing up and down in impotent rage, "come over here and get me out of here!"
"You're welcome to try", Pat added, smiling maliciously, her good eye flaring up brightly red and making the men step back, obvious fear in their eyes now; next to her, Willow nodded, unable to hold back a slight smirk of her own as the Staff decided to use this moment to show off, prompting her to twirl it around one wrist in a rather skilled-looking move.
"Sorry, boss", the one who had pointed out Willow's use of the Staff mumbled, having the decency to look a bit ashamed, "but we can't even get past them!"
"Get weapons!" Deira screeched in reply, prompting his followers to exchange sheepish looks before one of them pointed out that all they had were crossbows, since he had forbidden them use of guns and knives, and that, while some of them would go to get said crossbows, the couple could easily knock out the rest; in response, the mantis looked as if he wanted to explode, but before he could try to give another order, the men had retreated, hurrying down the hallway so fast that they nearly tripped over each other.
"…okay", Pat was the first one to comment this new, unexpected turn of events, "that makes things easier. Let's get outta here before they really do come back with crossbows."
Nodding, Willow waited until her partner had snatched the glass with the mantis, then hurried outside, the demon right behind her; without looking back, they made their way to the exit, leaving the abandoned building minutes later and making their way to the cover of the trees surrounding it without anyone trying to stop them, the men clearly having given up on the chase, allowing the pair to make it to safety without any more fighting, with both the Staff and the locked up Deira safely in their hands.