Chapter 1: Taris Part 1

Dawn tossed and turned as she dreamed of a man and a woman fighting with lightsabers. She was sure that the woman was a Jedi but unsure about the man. She woke with a start and looked to find herself in an unfamiliar room.

"Good to see you up, instead of thrashing around in your sleep," Carth said. "You must have been having one hell of a nightmare. I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up." Dawn noticed that Carth was talking to Sarryn and hadn't noticed she was awake. "I'm Carth, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire. I was with you and her on the escape pod, do you remember?"

Sarryn looked over at Dawn noticing she was awake and smiled. "Right, I'm Sarryn Baill and this young lady is Dawn Summers," Sarryn said as Carth looked over at Dawn and finally noticed she was awake. "How did we get here?"

Dawn slowly got off the bed and moved over to Sarryn to stand beside him.

"Both of you have been slipping in and out of consciousness for a couple days now, so I imagine you both are pretty confused about things," stated Carth. "Try not to worry. We're safe … for the moment anyways."

Sarryn nodded and looked towards Dawn as he gave her a quick once over to make suer she was alright, "You're alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine," Dawn replied.

"Anyways we're in an abandoned apartment on the planet of Taris," said Carth. "You both we're banged up pretty bad when our escape pod crashed, luckily I wasn't seriously hurt."

Dawn smiled, "Yes, thank you."

Carth smiled at Dawn. "I was able to drag both of you away from the crash site in the confusion, and I stumbled onto this abandoned apartment," he said. "By the time the Sith arrived on the scene we were long gone."

Dawn didn't like the mention of the Sith. She had enough of them on board the Endar Spire, "The Sith?"

"Taris is under Sith control. Their fleet is orbiting the planet, they've declared martial law and they've imposed a planet-wide quarantine," said Carth. "But I've been in worse spots."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I bet you have," she said sarcastically.

"I saw on your service record you understand a remarkable number of alien languages," Carth stated. "That's pretty rare in a raw recruit, but it should come in handy while were stranded on a foreign world."

Dawn smiled. "Yeah quite handy. I myself know a few languages …" she said. 'Most of which would not be useful here,' she thought. "…and can pick up new ones pretty quick as long as I have a basis for the syntax."

Sarryn smiled at Dawn. "I would be willing to teach you some of the ones you don't know at some point," he said.

"That would be great," Dawn replied.

"Anyways there is no way the Republic will be able to get anyone through the Sith blockade to help us. If we're going to find Bastilla and get off this planet, we can't rely on anybody but ourselves." Carth said.

"Bastilla?" Sarryn said. "She's the one from the Endar Spire, right?"

Carth sighs, "That smack to the head did more damage than I thought. Bastila's a Jedi. She was with the strike team that killed Darth Revan, Malak's Sith Master. Bastila is the key to the whole Republic war effort. The Sith must have found out she was on the Endar Spire and set an ambush for us in this system. I believe Bastila was on one of the escape pods that crashed down here on Taris. For the sake of the Republic, we have to find her."

"Why is this Bastila so important?" Dawn asked.

"She has a rare gift the Jedi called Battle Meditation. Bastila's power can influence entire armies. Through the Force Bastila can inspire her allies with confidence and make their enemies lose the will to fight," Carth said as he took a breath before continuing. "Often, that's all it takes to tip the balance in a battle. Of course there are limits to what she can do. But from what I understand of her ability, it requires great concentration and focus to maintain her Battle Meditation."

Dawn frowned. "The same would be true if she helped the Sith, right?"

Carth thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes, I guess so."

"Then the Sith might be wanting to capture her to use her ability for their side. It's probably why they quarantined the planet," said Dawn. "So she couldn't escape before she was captured."

"Dang your right. Which means we need to find her and fast," Carth said.

Sarryn nodded. "Any idea where we should start looking for Bastila?" he asked.

"While you both were out I did some scouting around. There are a couple reports of escape pods crashing down in the Undercity. That's probably a good place to start," Carth said. "But the Undercity is a dangerous place. We don't want to go down there unprepared. It won't do any good if we go and get ourselves killed."

"The sooner we start looking for Bastilla the sooner we find her. Let's go." Sarryn said.

"Good idea," said Carth. "We can use this abandoned apartment as a base, and we can probably get some equipment and supplies here in the Upper City. Just remember to keep a low profile. I've heard some grim stories about Dark Jedi interrogation techniques. They say the Force can do terrible things to a mind. It can wipe your memories and destroy your very identity. But I figure if we don't do anything stupid we should be okay. I mean after all they're … they're looking for Bastila. Not some grunts like us with a teenage girl, no offense sweetie."

Dawn smiled. "No offense taken," she said as she leaned over to whisper in Sarryn's ear. "We should talk when we have a chance to not be overheard."

Sarryn looked at Dawn and nodded. He remembered the dream he had and somehow felt her presence there watching what he had been seeing. He watched as Dawn walked over to the locker and removed her gear strapping the blaster back to her hips and slinging the sword and scabbard across her back.

Just as they were about to head out Dawn heard a voice call out: Dawn. She turned to face Sarryn and Carth. "Did either of you say something?" Dawn asked as Carth shook his head indicating he had said nothing.

"No I didn't say anything. Why?" Sarryn said.

"Dawn." The voice said again. This time Dawn could swear it was Buffy.

"Buffy?" Dawn said looking around as a portal suddenly snapped into existence in front of her.

Sarryn and Carth took a step back away from it as Dawn watched and smiled when Willow stepped out of the portal before it vanished from existence.

Willow looked around before spotting Dawn. She quickly grasped the teenager and hugged her tightly. "Hey Dawnie."

Dawn returned the hug and smiled. "Hey Willow. Was that Buffy I just heard?"

"Yes," said Willow happily. "She sends her love. And when you're done here I will be returning us home."

Sarryn coughed, "Dawn who is this? And where did she come from?"

Dawn smiled. "This is Willow, Willow Rosenberg. She's my big sister's best friend. I guess she would be mine too."

"I am, Dawnie," said Willow who smiled.

"And where she came from that's a long complicated discussion. Maybe we should all sit down," said Dawn as they sat down in the available chairs. Dawn then let out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding. "On the Endar Spire I lied about the amnesia. I didn't know any of you and I wasn't sure how you would react to my story. I wasn't born in this galaxy, in this dimension. Well technically I wasn't even born, I was created using magic."

Carth frowned. "Magic?"

"Magic is hard to describe. I guess it would be similar to what you consider the Force. Willow here is a witch." Dawn said. "You see I was created to hide this Key that would open the doorway between dimensions. This hell god, Glory found out I was the Key and used my blood to access the Key. See Glory's sole goal was to return home. So she used my blood and opened the portal. Now there was only a couple ways really to close the portal and that was either my being dead. Or my no longer being there to keep it open."

"Buffy, that's my sister, was going to sacrifice herself for me to close the portal. See I was made to be Buffy's sister but I'm kinda her daughter cause I was made using her blood. Anyways I stopped Buffy from jumping because I knew there was something I had to do. I knew I had to jump in the portal and come here and so I did. And the rest you all know," Dawn finally concluded.

Sarryn looks to Willow, "And how did you get here?"

"I knew that Buffy and Dawn were the same since Dawn had been created using Buffy's blood, her DNA. So I opened the portal here using Buffy's blood. And then I came through," Willow explained. "Once Dawn is done here with what she has to do, we will go back the same way. Only this time I will use Dawn's blood to open the portal. So why don't you all tell me what is going on here."

Dawn nodded. "After I jumped in the portal I woke up on a space ship called the Endar Spire. How long I had been there or how I got there is a mystery. I assume that's where the portal dumped me. I woke to find the ship under attack. Sarryn, Trask and I made our way to the escape pods."

"Trask?" Willow asked.

"Ulgo Trask was a soldier assigned the Endar Spire along with myself and Sarryn Baill." Carth said. "He was killed helping us to escape."

Dawn sighed. "He was killed by a Dark Jedi. From what I get the Jedi are like Buffy back home. Defenders of the peace, protector of the innocents."

Willow smiled. "Yeah that does kind of sound like Buffy."

"Dark Jedi are just the opposite they are Jedi that have gone bad. They and the Sith are bad guys around here. Anyways we escaped the ship in an escape pod and crashed on this planet. Carth got us to this apartment where we have been hidden for a few days while Sarryn and I rested up from our injuries in the crash," said Dawn as she paused.

"We were just going to look for Bastila, who's a Jedi, when you arrived. She escaped the ship before we did. She's supposed to be very important," Dawn said as she looked at Carth. "She has this ability called Battle Meditation where she is able to inspire the allied troops and take away the will to fight in their enemies. From what I gather the Sith is at war with the Republic. If the Sith got ahold of Bastila they could force her to use her abilities to help them instead."

Willow nodded. "What time is it right now?" She could have checked her watch but wasn't sure if it would be accurate in this dimension.

Sarryn looked at Willow and for the first time since the red-head had arrived he noticed the time. "Later than we expected it to be. I suggest we rest up and tomorrow morning we start our search for Bastila."

The next morning they exited the apartment to start their search. They had barely taken three steps out of the apartment when they saw an altercation taking place. On one side were a pair of Duros and on the other side were a trio of Sith, one officer and two soldiers.

"There was a patrol here just yesterday, and they found nothing!" said the Duros on the left. "Why do you Sith keep bothering us?"

Dawn leaned over to Sarryn. "What are they?" she whispered.

Sarryn looked back at Dawn and smiled as he whispered back. "Duros."

Without a word, the officer fired point-blank into the alien's chest, sending him down to the ground, dead. "That's how we Sith deal with smart-mouth aliens!" he stated with a sneer. "Now you get up against the wall before I lose my temper again!"

Dawn unholstered her blaster as Carth did the same. Willow telekinetically lifted the sword out of its scabbard on Dawn's back as Sarryn unsheathed his own swords.

Dawn coughed letting the Sith Officer know they were there. "I would leave them alone if I were you."

"Hey what's this! Humans hiding out with aliens?" the officer asked as his eyes raked over them, taking in the professional appearance of Carth and he leaped to the only conclusion he could that they were Republic fugitives. "They're Republic fugitives! Quickly, get—"

Before the words were out of his mouth, Carth had quick-drawn and fired his blasters, cutting him down.

Willow held the sword in front of her as Dawn fired her blaster at one of the armored soldiers. Sarryn moved in and slammed his sword into the throat of the other armored soldiers, right at the vulnerable point.

Willow handed Dawn the sword before turning to face the Duros. "Are you alright?"

The alien nodded as he looked down at his companion's body. "Poor Ixgil. He should never have talked back to that Sith. Thankfully you were here to step in, and help us human."

"It's no problem," said Dawn as she smiled.

"Why do you let them treat you like that?" asked Willow.

The Duros sighed. "As you saw going up against a Sith can be bad for our health," he said. "This isn't the first time the Sith have come in here to cause trouble for us, but hopefully it will be the last."

"Won't someone come searching for this patrol?" Carth asked as Sarryn knelt down to search the officer's body.

"Don't worry about the bodies." The Duros said with a shake of his head. "I will move them so it looks like they were killed elsewhere. That should throw the Sith off the track. With any luck, they won't be bothering us again for a while."

"Then we will leave you to it," Sarryn said. "Good day."

The Duros nodded. "Good day."