After The End Of The End

"F-Fine, what do y-you want?!" Tara stared at the man a little longer to let his fear fester more before releasing him and backing up. 

"Someone sent you here - Someone other than the council, correct?" The man nodded shakily, smoothing his tweed suit. "Who?" 

"Ace.. Names Ace. He's real powerful, threatened to.." Tara raised an eyebrow, 

"Threatened to what?" The man cleared his throat, shifting, 

"Well, actually, he never said exactly what.. But I'm sure it would be nasty." Tara rolled her eyes, 

"What did he send you here to do? Distract us?" 

"Yup. Said to get y'alls attention like that and then keep you all in sight so he could snag the redhead." Tara bit her lip, trying not to lash out again. She didn't like acting like that, but just as she said - she wasn't going to let anything else happen to Willow. 

"Why did he take her? Just because she beat him in a fight?" The man shrugged, 

"Didn't say. Got me to do the dirty work of getting that old mans diaries and some documents, but thats all." Tara frowned, shifting anxiously. They weren't getting anywhere. 

"Do you have any idea where he would hide - or any idea who would?" 

"There's.. Uh.. Oh yeah! There's this warehouse at the edge of town on this real spooky looking hill - its where hes been meeting me. Has all this creepy equipment to-" The man stopped abruptly and stared at Tara fearfully. Tara clenched her fists, 

"To /what/?" The man stayed quiet, lowering his eyes. 

***

Willow sat tied to a rusty chair, her breathing almost normal except for a bit of panting. Ace had already tried different forms of torture on her, and was getting agitated that none of them seemed to really phase her. He paced the room, fists and teeth clenched in anger, 

"I've already tried beating you - in different ways - tried cutting, forcing boiling water down your throat, breaking bones-" He gestured to her broken knee and wrist, making a weird growling noise. Willow watched him with a level stare, rolling her eyes, her voice mangled from the water,

"And anything else you do wont help either. Just give up with whatever you're trying." He growled again, kicking the chair to make it fall, a thud sounding as it hit the ground. Willow grimaced as pain shot through her abused body, but didn't react further. 

"We'll see about that." He snapped, yanking the chair back up. As he went to a car battery angrily, Willow watched him with a glare. 

"Kind of a coward if you ask me." He looked back at her, face twisted in anger as he hooked a cable to the battery, grabbing the other end and a bucket with a sponge in it. "Gotta keep this bracelet on me so I cant use magic, cause you know i'd defeat you in a heartbeat. No burning building to save you here." He stayed quiet and harshly untied her from the chair, kicking her broken knee before yanking her out of the chair before tossing her to the ground. Still, a grimace was all he got from her. 

"I just don't have time to deal with any tricks." Willow rolled her eyes again, pushing herself up with her uninjured arm. 

"You say you don't have time, but so far, you haven't even told me why the hell you're using all this rusty equipment. Sorry to disappoint, but I've already gotten my tetanus shot." He yanked her up by the back of her neck, cuffing her arms above her so only her toes touched the ground. The position caused pain to continuously shoot through her body, especially her knee, but she was no stranger to pain. 

"You know who i'm looking for. Its quite obvious, even to an idiot like you." Willow suddenly started laughing, not caring about the pain the movement caused. 

"Her? You're really doing all of this for her?" He made another growling noise, dipping the sponge in the water and attaching the cable clasp to it. 

"Where is she, you worthless bitch?" Willow smiled through bloody teeth, staring him right in the eye, 

"I killed her."