The Gift

A/N – Wow, another long break, but I found this chapter difficult to write. Even more so than the last one! I hope you enjoy it and can forgive the delays in getting it out.

Disclaimer – I don't own Buffy or Star Wars.

Chapter Seventeen – The Battle

Dawn watched the Gungan Grand Army slowly departing the Sacred Place. The gungans, all from different clans denoted by the colour of their clothing, were stretching as far as she could see. It was an incredible sight, thousands of gungans streaming into the trees. Some were on kaadu, their two legged mounts decorated with ornate feathers that denoted their rank. Others led the huge creatures, famdaa, that carried huge pieces of military equipment. Dawn had no idea what it was all used for, though it looked very impressive.

But despite the size of the army, despite the equipment they carried, Dawn couldn't help herself worrying. They weren't enough.

A kaadu stopped in front of her and she looked up at the gentle face of Captain Tarpals. "Yousa staying with da healers?" He asked her. Dawn nodded in reply.

"Buffy arranged with Healer Burban that I could stay and help as long as I stayed out of the way."

"Isa good, mesa think dat wesa need da healers today." The Captain looked out at the massing army, a solemn expression on his face.

"Come back." Dawn blurted out. When the gungan turned to her, she cleared her throat. "I mean… come back, please. With Buffy gone, well… You were my first friend here."

The dour gungan's face softened, as it seemed to do only for the two human girls that had found their way under his care. "Mesa do mesa best." He frowned for a second, then reached under his tunic and pulled out a pendant on a leather string. "Here." He held it out towards Dawn, who tentatively took it off him. She looked at the pendant curiously, it was a disc that looked as though it was carved from bone. There were crude engravings on it, but it was so worn that she couldn't see what it was.

"Isa made from da bones of da first food mesa hunt." Captain Tarpals told her. "Isa made by mesa self, as tradition in mesa family. Mesa leave it with yousa, den yousa know mesa come back for it."

Dawn's fingers clenched tightly around the disc. "I'll look after it." She promised.

Captain Tarpals smiled at her. "Mesa know." He looked at the gungan standing next to Dawn, who was trying to look as though she wasn't listening to their exchange. "Tabbem, yousa staying wid Dawnee?"

"Yiss," Tabbem nodded, her ears flapping. "Mesa nota fighter. But mesa can carry for da healers. Mesa stay wid Dawnee."

The Captain nodded. "Look after usen, be careful." He turned his kaadu back towards the marching army and rode off.

"You too," Dawn whispered as he went. She felt her free hand get squeezed and looked up gratefully at her gungan friend.

"Wesa stick together." Tabbem told her firmly, before turning back to watch the procession below. Dawn gripped her hand tightly, relieved that she had at least one friend who would be staying behind with her. The gungans continued to stream below, a seemingly never-ending sea. Dawn wondered how many would come home.

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

Healer Burban was in her element, directing gungans and humans alike with gusto. Dawn was surprised to see so many of the refugee Naboo in the area set aside for the healers, but in hindsight she probably shouldn't be. It was set in the most defensible part of the Gungan Sacred Place, with guards surrounding them as a precaution. A row of young and nervous looking gungans were waiting, mounted on restless kaadu. These were the ones who had been tasked with bringing some of the less injured gungans back to the healing area. There were a couple of speeders manned by some of the resistance Naboo fighters that were tasked with bringing the more seriously wounded back for treatment.

The air was thick with tension, people hurrying to and fro with the same urgency regardless of their race. Dawn and Tabbem loitered as unobtrusively as possible, keeping out of the way as the healing area was set up to handle far more patients than before. Eventually Healer Burban spotted them standing by an old pillar.

"Dawnee, Tabbem, yousa wid mesa." She beckoned them before turning and striding away from the main healing area. Dawn hurried after her, weaving around make-shift beds and piles of supplies after the surprisingly fast moving healer. Healer Burban led them out of the main healing area and down a passageway between the shrubs into a small cave. The inside was illuminated by a couple of small lamps, it was dimly lit but good enough to Dawn to see that the cave was full of boxes of ingredients. Some were stacked neatly but others were strewn around as though thrown in in a hurry.

"Dawnee, yousa and Tabbem make da salve here." Burban instructed. Dawn immediately turned to argue, not wanting to stay in a tiny cave when she could be helping on the front line. Burban held up a hand to try to forestall an argument. "Dawnee, mesa knows dat yousa wants to help, Tabbem too." The gungan nodded, her ears flapping in agreement. "But dis not be a silly gungan boy whosa taken on too big a fish. Dere be injured gungans, dying gungans. Yousa is young, yousa no needs to see dat. Yousa stay here and make da salve wid Tabbem, yousa teach Tabbem how to make it. Wesa going to need lots before dis day is through."

Dawn still wore a mulish expression but Burban gazed back steadily. Eventually, the girl conceded defeat and nodded as she dropped her gaze to the floor.

"Thankee, Dawnee." Burban murmured softly, putting her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Mesa know isa hard, yousa being brave to do dis."

"It's not very brave to stay back here while everyone else is fighting." Dawn retorted.

"Isa brave to know dat yousa won't be able to see what is going on but to do it anyway because it needs doings." The healer insisted. "Mesa going back now, mesa send da runners for da salves when wesa needs it. Dey may bring youse news if dey has it."

With that, the healer left. Tabbem approached Dawn cautiously. "What's a wesa do den?"

Dawn sighed and looked around at the stack of ingredients. Unfortunately, it looked as though everything had just been dumped into this cave when the gungans had evacuated to the Sacred Place. There was no order to it at all. "We need to find the big mixing bowls and the mortars… this is going to be a nightmare."

Tabbem rolled her shoulders to remove kinks.

"Well, let's get to it."

Despite her earlier reluctance, Dawn appreciated having a job to do to keep her mind off the imminent battle and the mission her sister had disappeared on. It also helped that it soon became obvious they hadn't just been given a pointless task, they really were low on supplies of the salve that the gungans used on almost all wounds for its antibacterial properties.

Showing Tabbem how to make the salve didn't take long. Arranging the supplies in a semblance of order took much longer, but it was something that Tabbem insisted on before they started making the salve itself. Both of them stopped in their tracks when a long, low noise sounded, so loud they could feel the cave rumbling under their feet.

"What was that?" Dawn asked nervously.

Tabbem looked worried. "Isa da horns of da Grand Army. Da battle is beginning."

Dawn nodded and took a deep breath to steady herself. "Well, we still need to sort the rest of these boxes before we can start making supplies." She even managed to keep her voice from shaking too much. Tabbem nodded gravely and picked up yet another dislodged box, its contents spilling out onto the cave floor.

It felt like hours before they had any news. Dawn tried very hard not to listen to the distant sounds of the battle raging on, grinding and cutting ingredients while Tabbem diligently combined them.

When they did get news, it was a young gungun running into the cave. "Wesa need more salve! Da robots break through da shields!"

Tabbem drew in a sharp breath while Dawn paused in her cutting of a piece of willow bark. "Is Captain Tarpals ok?" She asked, desperate to hear news of him.

The gungan looked at her, ears drooping. "Mesa thinks hesa was surrounded by da robots. Mesa no see him returning to da camp. Hesa probably captured or dead by now."

Dawn flinched involuntarily, the sharp knife she was wielding catching the edge of her opposite hand. The gungan ran off, a large pot of the salve in his hands. Tabbem looked to her human friend, exclaiming when she saw Dawn's cut.

"Dawnee! Yousa hand!"

Dawn looked blankly up at Tabbem. "The Captain… we have to do something!"

Tabbem looked bemused. "No Dawnee, wesa stay here. Wesa cannot help da Captain! What wesa do?"

Neither of them noticed that a drop of blood was welling up on Dawn's hand, slowly rolling off the edge and dripping towards the floor. But it didn't reach the floor, it hovered in the air.

Dawn was focussed on the Captain. Every thought was consumed with worry for him, the dour gungan who had almost become a surrogate father in the time she had been on Naboo. It felt as though something inside of her was ripping apart, breaking as she realised how helpless she was to go to her friend's aid.

But then… it didn't stop. The tearing feeling continued, it grew and it hurt…and the drop of blood suspended in the air in front of her flashed green and started to get bigger.

"Dawnee…" Tabbem started, backing away from the glowing green orb. It was soon fist sized, soon head sized, and continuing to expand. Tabbem looked up at Dawn who hadn't moved away to see her staring into the centre of it, her eyes glowing the exact same shade of green. Soon it was so big it obscured Dawn, but Tabbem could now see that inside the outer green edge there were shapes moving. Shapes that looked like…

"Captain Tarpals!" Tabbem gasped, and the gungan looked up. Even inside the bubble, Tabbem could see his eyes grow comically big as he looked through at Dawn.

"Dawnee!" His voice carried an echoing quality as he stretched out his fingers towards them. Next to him, a gungan looking remarkably like Jar Jar Binks watched on in awe. They were surrounded by droids, but the droids appeared to be powered down and motionless. Many were in pieces. Gungans in the distance were cheering wildly, though Tarpals focussed only on Dawn.

"Dawnee, yousa have to stop dis!" He ordered, fear in his eyes. Looking over at Dawn, Tabbem gasped as she realised her friend was swaying. Sweat was beading on her forehead and her face was deathly white. Not knowing what else to do, Tabbem wrenched her away from the portal. It almost instantaneously shrank, before imploding in a mild gust that sent dust skittering across the floor of the cave. Dawn blinked at Tabbem, her eyes back to their usual shade of blue.

"What…?" She started to ask, before slumping forwards in a dead faint.

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

Dawn wasn't unconscious for long, but it was long enough for Burban to arrive and direct Tabbem to help carry Dawn into a bed. She was segregated from the rest of the gungans injured in the battle by a cloth screen, carefully pinned in place using nearby trees as anchors.

Dawn blinked her eyes open, trying to make sense of the bright light. The worried faces of Tabbem and Burban were hovering in front of her. "Why am I lying down?" Dawn tried to ask, but she couldn't seem to say words properly and what actually came out of her mouth was "W'am ly dow?"

"Yousa collapsed!" Tabbem said, as close to hysterical as Dawn thought the normally calm gungan had ever been. "Yousa did something with yousa hands and den yousa collapsed!"

Dawn frowned. What had she done? Everything felt foggy... but there was something about Captain Tarpals and a green glow.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the gungan himself flung aside the sheets to get to Dawn. "Dawnee! What yousa doing?"

Dawn tried to pull herself into more of a sitting position but struggled to find the strength to do it. Gentle hands lifted her up and she smiled her thanks at Healer Burban. "I don't know..." Her gaze sharpened and landed on Captain Tarpals. "You're ok! The runner said that you'd been captured by droids."

"Hesa said dat yousa were surrounded and likely dead." Tabbem supplied, finally lifting her gaze from her human friend to look at the Captain. Tarpals frowned in thought.

"Mesa was, for a bit. But den da droids stopped. Wesa lucky." He looked at Dawn. "What happened den?"

"After the runner told us?" Tarpals nodded at her so she continued. "I was so worried for you, I felt so helpless. It was like a physical pain but then there was real pain, I felt like I was being torn apart." She paused as she remembered the events. "And then... I saw you," Dawn's voice took on an awed tone. "You were in front of me and so was the battle field... I could see it all. You were ok. But then something happened and it all went dark."

"Mesa pulled you away." Tabbem told her. "Dawnee, mesa so scared. Yousa gone white and shaking, yousa eyes were green."

Dawn blinked. "My eyes?"

Captain Tarpals looked at Healer Burban. "What is dis? How could dis be?"

The Healer shook her head slowly. "Mesa think dat da Gungan have never seen anything like dis. Is like da Force but not. Is dere anything else? Something that happen before or after?"

Dawn shook her head while Tabbem thought hard. "Dere was da runner," the gungan recalled. "Wesa shocked by da news, Dawnee cut herself on da knife."

"I did?" Dawn asked, looking at her hand and surprised to see a cut on it. It didn't look fresh, more like a one that had several days to start healing. She assumed it was the effect of the amazing gungan salve until Healer Burban peered closely at it."

"Mesa not think dat was today... is healed!"

Tabbem wore a confused expression. "But mesa see it. Shesa bleeding."

Dawn went pale. "I bled?" At Tabbem's nod, the young girl hugged her arms tight around her waist. "Glory... she wanted my blood to open a portal to her own world. She said I was her key. I thought when she failed that it would be the end, that my keyness would be gone. If I am they keyt to her world then how can I still be a key? Even here?"

The gungans exchanged a confused glance. "A key?" Captain Tarpals asked gently.

"Yes." Dawn looked up at their concerned faces, tears in her eyes. "I was a key, but some monks made me into a girl. They gave me to Buffy to keep safe, made me from her. I'm not really her sister. Well... I am, but not. I'm only about eighteen standard months old. But they gave me memories, made me real. They gave everyone around me memories too."

"Mesa never heard of anything able to do something like dat." Tabbem breathed, shocked to her core. "Even da Force not as powerful as dat."

"Back where I come from, on Earth, there is magic and demons and all other sorts of things. One of Buffy's best friends is a super powerful witch who can do incredible things with magic. But... I wasn't. I was just a normal girl."

"Yousa said dat yousa was a key to a portal?" Captain Tarpals asked. Dawn nodded at him tearily. "Yousa cut yourself and made a portal here."

"A portal?"

Tarpals nodded solemnly. "Wesa a long way apart, but yousa see me and mesa see you. Is a portal. Maybe is not dat yousa a key to da specific place... maybe just dat da person know how to do it."

"You mean, I am still a key?" Dawn felt a stab of fear in her heart. "But that means I'm not safe. I'll never be safe."

"Wesa not know dat for sure," Burban soothed. "Captain Tarpals just says maybe. Yousa need more information."

"Is there anywhere I can look for it? Do the gungans or the Naboo have a library?"

Burban and Tarpals exchanged looks. "Mesa no think dat yousa will find da answers on Naboo." Tarpals said eventually. "If dere are answers for yousa, den dey will be well hidden. Yousa will need to travel the galaxy to find dem."

Dawn looked from one face to another. "But I don't want to leave." She said in a small voice. "This is my home now."

She felt a hand squeeze hers gently. Looking up, she saw Tabbem leaning close to her. "Yousa won't be alone." The young gungan promised. "Yousa mine friend, Dawnee. Mesa come wid yousa wherever yousa need to go."

Dawn felt a swell of affection towards one of her closest gungan friends and she enveloped her in a hug. "Thank you." She said, and would have said much more when a human pulled aside the curtain.

"I've been told to look for Dawn." The human said awkwardly. His clothing suggested he was one of the palace guards that the Queen had brought with her, though Dawn couldn't be sure as Buffy had deliberately kept her a long way away from the Queen's entourage.

"What yousa want wid Dawnee?" Captain Tarpals asked, his tone polite as he didn't want to cause any offense with the Naboo. The guard was obviously uncomfortable, but he too was wary of making a misstep with their new allies.

"I've been asked to bring her to the Palace," the guard informed them. "I've just come from there, the Queen has managed to capture the Viceroy and Theed is free. But the Slayer was injured and is receiving treatment in the hospital. When I informed your, um, Big Boss, he said I needed to take Dawn to her."

"Buffy's hurt?" Dawn sat bolt upright, regretting it when her vision swam.

"Dawnee," Burban cautioned, but Dawn turned pleading eyes on her.

"Please, I can't stay here if Buffy's hurt." Dawn had perfected the art of the pleading eyes over the years, and they were at full force on Burban now.

"Only if Captain Tarpals goes wid yousa." Burban conceded eventually, after a silent conversation with the Captain to make sure that he was able to. Dawn smiled her thanks and staggered to her feet with Tabbem's aid. Dawn looked up at her friend before turning to the guard.

"Can Tabbem come too?" She asked hesitantly, receiving a curt nod in reply. "Thank you!" With Tabbem's help she followed the guard out. Captain Tarpals hesitated for a moment before he followed.

"Mesa think it best if wesa no mention dis to anybody."

Burban flapped a cloth at him. "Mesa not born yesterday! Mesa lips sealed." She looked after the departing girls with concern. "Whats going to happen to Dawnee now?"

Captain Tarpals shook his head. "Mesa not know, but mesa worried. Mesa talk to dem, make sure dey keep secret. But wesa lucky no one was around. Dis time." With that ominous phrase, he stalked after the others, leaving Healer Burban behind chewing her lip with worry.