A)N Vex, until now I hadn't heard of scribblehub, but I'm checking it out now. As for Ao3 or Twisting the Hellmouth sites, I've had trouble trying to understand their system of uploading stories and in the case of A03, the format of my stories gives their system fits. If someone wants to help me figure it out, I wouldn't mind.

I know this story is intense, which is why The Spell and The Book, which I'm working on at the same time, is much more light-hearted, but thanks to all who are reading and following it. I hope you're finding it a good story, however intense it is.

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"What's the word on the slaves?" Buffy asked as soon as she saw Lon.

"The collars have been falling off and both the slaves and the demons are aware of it." He answered. "The slaves mostly have access to farm tools, things they use to do the jobs the demons make them do. They're using them to fight. But word's spreading to the demons that the humans are rebelling."

"Good, on the slaves rebelling, I mean. Bad that the demons may be able to fight back eventually, all out war could break out."

"It's a better option than slavery." Lon responded firmly. "Even if it takes years we will fight back. This is Anson, a newly freed slave." He introduced a small, thin man standing beside him

"People will head to the woods and beyond them to the caves." Anson told them. "Rumor has it those caves go on for miles underground. Hiding in them makes sense, it's shelter and it'll make it harder for the demons to find us."

"What if there's things living in the caves already?" Buffy asked, thinking of the tunnels under Sunnydale where she'd faced the Master...and died. "Animals, some of them could be dangerous.'

"We have weapons and tools, at least that can double as both." Lon reminded her. "Some of those animals could be food for us and others we could share the space with. The caves are our best bet for now, we can plan, strategize and attack, all from a sheltered area. It may very well take years, but we're willing to fight to stay free."

"And they're defensible." Fred added. "We can see the demons coming and our back is covered by stone and we can disguise the openings to the caves, make them harder for the demons to find."

"Sounds good, provided the demons never thought about mapping the caves and know secrets about them that we don't." Buffy pointed out. "But for now, it probably is the best option."

"Than we should get to them," Lon gathered his things. "Be there to greet people and start setting them up as shelters."

"And start exploring them for ourselves, so we have an idea what's in them." Anson nodded at Buffy. "She's right about the possibility of animals and the possibility of the demons knowing more about them then we do. We need to get ahead of them as much as possible, but before we do, I just want to say thank you."

"Huh?" Buffy asked blankly.

"You two," he indicated Fred and Buffy. "for risking yourselves to break the slave collars from our necks. Thank you."

Buffy couldn't think of a single thing to say. No one had ever thanked her for saving their life before. Of course, no one was going to thank her for the lives lost because of her choices either. And she couldn't undo those lost lives. But she could use her strength to help people, to help these people survive as long as she was here. Which might be years, depending on if Fred could figure out how do a portal and get them out of here. Or if anyone back home was willing to come after her.

She wouldn't bet on that, both Giles and Xander had reason to hate her, she remembered, feeling more depressed. "You're, um, welcome." She said awkwardly. "Fred did the real work, destroying the equipment and blowing out the wall of the castle."

"Which is giving me ideas on a way to make explosives." Fred chattered as they headed into the woods and beyond them the caves, picking up runaway, freed slaves along the way. "The oil from those plants and the plants themselves have potential -." Buffy tuned her out. Fred and Willow would have gotten along well. Both scientifically minded and brilliant and chatterboxes, the comparison was twisting the knife edge of pain as Buffy remembered what Angelus had done to Willow. What Buffy had allowed to happen when she let him go at the Mall, unable to face destroying the creature wearing Angel's face. Blaming Ms. Calendar instead of accepting that she, Buffy, had chosen to act on her attraction to Angel. Her belief that she loved him. She was seventeen, barely. Had it really been love?

That was a question that haunted her now, had she loved Angel? They'd had a grand total of how many dates? 8? Maybe. As she walked along she realized, she knew so little about him and had never thought to ask. She'd told him she felt like she was dying when she kissed him, ironic considering he was a vampire. She wanted to believe it was love, Romeo and Juliet, romantic and perfect.

Wait, they died, didn't they? Oh, great, she was modeling her love life on dead teenagers. Not so romantic when you remember that part of the story. Which was also very much resembling her love life, given how much death had come with the love.