Buffy looked around the encampment of the human resistance fighters that she and Fred had finally located after hours of searching in blank astonishment.
"When you said they lived in the forest I assumed you meant in houses?!"
"Why would you think that?" One of the men, who'd identified himself simply as Lon, asked. "We're on the run from the slavers, we manage hit and run attacks that are mostly raids and we're trying to survive. Houses are a luxury we can't afford."
"You sleep on the ground?"
"Fires keep the animals away at night and we take turns keeping watch so the slavers don't catch us. The only alternatives are slavery or death. This is our preferred choice, what's yours?"
"To go home, but I have no idea how and I'm here because I pissed off the wrong person." Buffy half collapsed onto a rock just big enough to use as a seat.
"What did you do to piss this person off?" Fred asked, helping gather twigs for a fire.
"I fell in love with this guy who it turned out, was cursed. I broke the curse accidentally and he killed people and hurt a girl who was my friend and like a sister to this guy named Xander. Xander wanted revenge and I stopped him. I couldn't let him - I love Angel and Angel was gone and all there was left was a monster and I kept praying it was just a nightmare and I'd wake up and everything would be fine. I don't know if it'll ever be fine again."
"And Xander sent you here because you stopped him?" Fred asked as she arranged the twigs around some logs.
"Not on purpose. He wished I could see the truth about Angel and I guess accept that Angel was a monster and never was the man I thought I'd loved. Something granted the wish and we were here, in Pylea. And I saw what Angel really was, I guess."
"What was he?" Lon asked as he lighted the fire.
"Something called a van tal or a vampire and it was terrifying and again I just wanted to think it was a nightmare and I'd wake up. But it's a nightmare I can't wake up from. Angel, Angelus, whatever his name really was, he was a monster whether I liked it or not and now he's gone. The hunters killed him and I'm stuck here and I've never slept on the ground and I really need to go to the bathroom and I'm afraid to ask where it is." Buffy was nearly sobbing as she sucked in a breath after her Willow level babblefest, a thought that brought pain as she remembered, Willow was in the hospital, because Angelus had hurt her. Because she'd let him go and he'd wanted to hurt her by hurting those that mattered to her.
"What's a bathroom?" Lon asked.
"Buffy," Fred said kindly. "I'm afraid indoor plumbing is several centuries away. Pylea's level of development is very medieval. I'll show you how to deal with it."
Unfortunately, Buffy's nightmare wasn't ending any time soon.
"I miss my Mom." Buffy said later as she sat by the fire next to Fred and ate a piece of roast... something, she'd opted not to ask.
"I miss my parents too." Fred answered, quietly eating. "I got here through a portal, I found a book in the Library I was working at with a very strange language in it and tried reading some of it out loud, trying to figure it out and the next thing I knew I was being pulled through this swirling vortex of light and sound and I was here. Slavers caught me almost immediately and collared and sold me. I have no idea when humans first arrived in Pylea but I have found out they've been enslaved for centuries."
"And this resistance is how they've managed to fight back?"
"They don't have much in the way of weapons. If I could find the ingredients to make black powder and teach them how to make bullets and guns we'd have a big advantage." Fred told her. "At the very least black powder could make explosives and that would be an advantage, but for now, this is all we've got."
"Rallying the slaves might do it, help us win our freedom." Lon told them. "But the slave collars are very much a deterant."
"They're a technology these people shouldn't have." Fred answered. "This collar," She held up the one Buffy had broken off of Fred's neck. "this is refined wires and superconductors and a manufactured housing. And they're remote activated, which means wireless technology. I have no idea how they managed to develop it."
"Rumor has it they're controlled from the castle by the Covenant of Trombali." Lon told the girls. "They control the Imperial Guard too."
"Than the ultimate goal should be to get into the castle and find the control room and destroy their ability to control the collars." Buffy suggested. "Without them the slaves would turn on the demons and maybe overwhelm them."
"Lofty goal." Lon muttered. "Only it's an extremely well fortified castle and the Imperial Guard are very well trained and hugely strong demons. If we could make the explosives Fred was talking about we might have a chance. As it is, this resistance remains just the best option of the really limited options human have in Pyiea."