B/SW Cross

AN – One thing I really wasn't planning to do was to start a new, lengthy fanfic. Particularly a cross over, where a lot of people probably won't even see it. But I was reading some wonderful fics (Particularly 'Buffy and Star Wars are Non-Mixy' and 'Phantoms and Slayers') and they inspired me just so much to have a go at my own. Anything Star Wars is based off the movies, I'm not familiar with all the TV shows including The Clone Wars and so there may be some things not strictly lore. But hey, it's a fanfiction!

AN2 – Some of the text and all the dialogue in this first chapter comes directly from Buffy Season 5 The Gift – I will minimise where I use it, but it is needed! Similarly, there will be dialogue lifted from the Star Wars movies in places.

Disclaimer – I don't own Buffy or Star Wars

Chapter One – The Gift

You are full of love. You love with all of your soul. It's brighter than the fire…

Love is pain and the Slayer forges strength from pain. Love, give, forgive. Risk the pain. It is your nature. Love will bring you to your gift.

Death…is your gift.

Buffy Summers swung the troll hammer another time at the hell goddess Glorificus, who was staring back at her in disbelief. Blood streamed from her nose as she screamed at the slayer.

"Stop it!"

"You're a god," Buffy spat back with a nonchalant shrug and a toss of her blond hair. "Make it stop." Another twirl of the troll hammer delivered an uppercut that knocked Glory onto her back. Then Buffy really let loose, raining blow after blow down onto the hell god, pouring out all her pain and anger into her strikes.

Glory shuddered and morphed into a young man, face bloodied and bruised. Buffy held her swing.

"I'm sorry," he gasped out, choking slightly on the blood running down his face. There was a moment of split indecision from the slayer, before she eventually lowered her hammer.

"Tell her it's over, she missed her shot." Buffy looked contemptuously down at the human who had caused her so much pain. If only he had come to her for help she could have helped him, but it was too late now. She felt sorry for him, she really did, but he was complicit in Glory's crimes through his silence and inaction. "She goes. If she ever comes near me and mine again…" she left the threat hanging.

"We won't," he gasped out. "I swear."

Her glance passed over him once more before she dismissed him. She stepped away from him and ran to the tower, dropping the troll hammer as it was only slowing her down. Her gaze was focussed on the small figure tied at the end of the gantry on top of the tower, long hair blowing in the wind. An interdimensional key capable of opening portals between dimension, that Glory was planning to use to return to her home. A key that monks made into life using the essence of the Slayer, and given to Buffy to protect. Buffy's sister.

But Dawn wasn't alone up there.

Buffy tore past her watcher, the father figure standing quietly in the shadows as he watched her spare Ben's life and moved to do what she couldn't. Past the crumpled body of the vampire who professed to love her, the huddled forms of her friends Willow and Tara, the fighting stances of Xander and Anya. All her focus was on the tower and the tower alone.

She leapt up the stairs, using all of her supernatural slayer strength and speed. As she emerged at the top, she could see her sister tied tightly to the end of the tower, one arm pinned to each side of the gantry. Dawn was wearing some elaborate velvet dress and her bare feet clung to the end of the tower as if her life depended on it.

"Dawn!" She called, her sister's gaze connecting with hers.

"Buffy!" Came the return cry, the tremor in Dawn's voice showing just how scared she was. Neither Buffy nor Dawn noticed the small amount of blood beginning to trickle down Dawn's ankles to her feet from where she had been cut on her abdomen – shallow wounds, to bring more blood to the surface.

The white haired man standing in front of Dawn wielding a bloodied knife turned at the sound of Buffy's voice. He grinned maliciously, eyes that were unnaturally black gleaming in anticipation.

"Now this should be interesting…"

Only focussed on Dawn, Buffy shouldered past him and shoved him from the tower.

"Buffy, it hurts," Dawn cried as Buffy reached her, frantically pulling at the bonds that secured her sister to the tower. Slayer strength made short work of them as Buffy murmured platitudes to Dawn.

"It's going to be ok, Dawn." She helped Dawn walk back along the tower. They had reached the stairs when Dawn stopped and gazed past Buffy's shoulder, eyes wide and scared. She ignored Buffy's efforts to get her down the stairs as she watched the portal that had formed beneath the end of the gantry growing bigger and bigger.

"Buffy, it's started."

Buffy looked at the portal to hell glowing at the end of the gangway, blue light flashing and hitting out at the town of Sunnydale below. Wherever the light hit, disruption and chaos could be seen. She was aware of Dawn talking, even going as far as to answer her, but her mind was elsewhere.

What was the ritual? The portal will only close when the energy is gone, when the blood stops. But Dawn is alive, her blood wasn't stopping. Now Buffy was here, she couldn't allow Dawn to die. Her little sister, made of herself.

Herself…her blood. Spike said it was all about the blood. Death is your gift. The Slayer looked at the sun, rising in the East above the desert surrounding Sunnydale, heralding a new day, a new beginning, a new dawn. Then she knew what she had to do. She turned to Dawn, eyes filled with purpose. Dawn's expression was mounting horror as she realised what her sister was going to do.

"Buffy, no."

"Dawnie, I have to."

"No!"

Buffy took a deep breath and started talking to Dawn. She told her how much she loved her and gave her messages to pass on to her friends and loved ones. She finished by pressing a kiss to Dawn's cheek.

"Be brave. Live. For me."

Buffy turned and, not giving herself time to really think about what she was doing, ran and dived from the top of the tower into the portal below.

She was falling, falling through the air. Then she hit the portal and it was loud and it surrounded her and it hurt as it drained her of energy, of life.

And then…

Then there was a green flash, and Buffy was gone.

And so was Dawn.

The sun rose, as it had every other day since the world began. The morning was peaceful, serene, belying the scene at the foot of the tower. As her friends staggered closer, supporting each other to find that there was no portal but no slayer. The wail of the best friend, the confusion on the face of the watcher, the despair on the face of the vampire. But there was nothing they could do as the tower creaked and fell, collapsing in on itself. When it had finally fallen, leaving nothing but twisted scraps of metal reaching towards the sky, the onlookers began to move. Pouring over it, diving through it, checking every strut and every beam. But as the cloud of dust finally began to settle, they could not find a single body, dead or alive, around the structure of the tower.

An eerie hush fell over the yard, only broken by keening sobs as they realised that Buffy and Dawn were gone.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

In a galaxy far, far away, a motley collection of people were sitting in custom chairs around the edge of a circular room. They were listening to the report from a Jedi knight, Qui-Gon Jinn, who had been briefing them on a diplomacy mission to an outer planet. Qui-Gon's words suddenly sputtered to a halt mid-sentence, his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi sucking in a sharp breath as they all felt something wash over them. Eyes were wide and ears raised in alarm as the force around them shifted, altered irrevocably.

The oldest and most experiences Jedi master of them all, Grand Master Yoda, closed his eyes and drew in a breath as he felt outwards, trying to sense what had happened. The Force eddied and swirled, bringing only confusion and the hint of something green.

"Great disturbance in the force, there is." He said finally, looking around at his fellow members of the Jedi council. "Concealed, the reason."

"Could it be the enacting of the prophecy of the Chosen One?" Mace Windu speculated, although most of his fellow council members did not bother to hide their scepticism. Master Windu was known for setting a lot of store in the return of the Sith, something not all the council members agreed with. Qui-Gon was watching Master Windu with interest, he too felt that the dawning of the prophecy was drawing nearer.

Yoda frowned, his green brow wrinkling in deep thought. "Chosen One, it may be. Clouded, the future is. On the present, focus must lie." He saw the tiniest twitch from Padawan Kenobi, betraying his master's thoughts. "Discussions on Ha-wal, we must return to. Clarity, we will find in time. Alert we will remain."

"Yes, Master Yoda," Qui-Gon responded with a short bow. "As I was saying, our entreaties to the emissary were initially successful…"

The Jedi council returned to its discussions, the moment passed but not forgotten.

And in the meantime, in a remote forested area of a small and otherwise unremarkable planet called Naboo, a young girl sat up cradling her head before looking around with wide eyes.

"Buffy?"