In A Hell Dimension Far Far Away…
Disclaimer: Star Wars is property of George Lucas. Buffy is property of Joss Whedon.
A/N: Quick thanks to those who reviewed; it really keeps me going on this…that and the surprising lack of good, long Star Wars/Buffy crossovers. If anyone knows of a good Buffy/Obi-Wan story (besides P&S, b/c I've already read and adored that one) please let me know. As is often the case, let me again state with mind-numbing Zombie-like refrain, some of the dialogue from the movie may and will be used in this chapter and others. Now sit back, relax and enjoy.
Sleep is for the Weak
The ship was asleep. The lights were dimmed and the eerie silence pervaded the hallways as Buffy quietly padded down to the main room just off from the galley.
"What are you doing up?" A feminine voice asked from somewhere behind Buffy.
If Buffy had been anything other than the Slayer, she probably would have jumped in surprise. As it were, she merely turned around and said, "I could ask you the same, Padme."
Padme gingerly stepped up beside Buffy and whispered, "I couldn't sleep…I was too worried." Buffy nodded, feeling the same and noticed that the girl was still dressed in a fine silken robe with the dress she had been wearing earlier just viewable through the opening. Strange that she hadn't changed…
Together, they stepped through the whooshing automatic doorway into the main room. Before them, spread out on a makeshift bed in the center of the cold steel walls of the ship laid Qui-Gon Jinn. His breathing was steady and his face pale. He looked like sleeping beauty, Buffy thought. If sleeping beauty had a beard, and you know…happened to be a guy.
"Is there anyone who sleeps anymore?" Obi-Wan asked, not even glancing up from the monitor he appeared to be engrossed in. Like Padme, he was still dressed in his standard issue Jedi garb. Buffy was beginning to wonder if he was trying to hide something.
Anakin, who definitely should have been in bed by now, was sitting in a corner, shivering and looking decidedly dejected; Benjy should have stopped hogging the monitor and shared some computer time with the poor kid.
Artoo was stationed on Ben's right side, cooing as it rested. The little bucket head was sort of cute when it wasn't beeping its bolts off.
Jar Jar was also in the room, stretched languidly out on the floor, which looked rather cold and hard. But he didn't seem to care if his snoring was any indication. Occasionally, he would mumble something exceedingly unintelligible, but otherwise remained blissfully asleep.
Buffy stepped up to Obi-Wan while Padme went over to comfort Anakin who wasn't any more accustomed to space travel than Buffy.
"Judging by the circus you got going down in here, I'd say not." Buffy told Obi-Wan as she looked over his shoulder, trying to decipher the symbols on the monitor. They looked sort of oriental but that was as far as she got before giving it up. She couldn't read Chinese any better than alienese.
When Ben continued to work away on his keypad, doing a very good impression of ignoring her, Buffy continued, "So…how's Jerry doing? His breathing is again with the land of normalness, right?"
Obi-Wan finally looked up and Buffy was able to see how truly tired he was. He had panda eyes and his cheeks were a little sunken. Oddly enough however, he still smelled of cinnamon- maybe that was Ben's way of stinking. He sighed, "He's finally stabilized, but without a bacta-tank to treat him in, I fear infection might set in."
"But I thought you were able to treat him with that powder stuff in the med kit?"
"It certainly helped, but the quicker we get to Coruscant, the better."
Buffy stepped over to Qui-Gon's side and looked down at the Jedi Master, wondering how someone so in-control and seemingly powerful could be reduced to this. Before the tumor started to corrode her mind, Buffy's mom had been in-control too…they looked so similar. Pale and lifeless…hospitals better not be involved in Jerry's future. No good ever came of a hospital.
Ben leaned forward in his little chair and rubbed his tired eyes with the palm of his hands. "No one's invincible," he said at last, reading her thoughts like an open book. He sat up and joined Qui-Gon's bedside, standing across from Buffy and looking at her instead of his unconscious master. "Not even the Jedi…"
Buffy met his eyes. "Or Slayers. You wouldn't know it to look at me, because I'm so pretty and spunky and everything, but I've died at least once." Ben arched an eyebrow. "Well, I'm not sure about the second time because I still don't know if this is supposed to be my afterlife or not…"
His lips quirked upward. "Afterlife?"
"Yea, the whole heaven and hell thing… which you obviously have no idea what I'm talking about. It's just the term people from my planet have for where you go after you die. Like, after-you've-lived."
"Oh." He looked down at his master and sighed once again, his face once more marred with a frown. "We say you become one with the force upon death, but perhaps it's really all the same."
"Perhaps."
"How did you die? The err…first time, I mean."
"I drowned."
"Any particular reason? Or are you really just that bad a swimmer?"
She glared at him. "No. Act-ually, I was partially drained by a master vamp before he dumped my unconscious body into a pool of water in an underground church and proceeded to try to recapture the world- Or something like that. Bad guys always seem to be very ambitious, like little Harvard hopefuls with fangs."
"How did you survive?"
"One of my friend's brought me back…" Buffy said, remembering Xander and his crush on her back then. The next time she had seen him after that night was the time she had used him to make Angel jealous. That had been during her whole, 'push everyone away' phase. What the heck had all that been about?
"Can you…" Buffy began, almost shyly- but then again, Buffy never really did anything shyly- "You can read my thoughts," she stated at last.
Ben gave a nod. "You want to know if I can see them too?"
"Yea…Xander's a lot cooler in my head than my thoughts would lead you to believe."
"With some beings I can," Ben said as he rounded the makeshift table to stand directly in front of her. "It normally depends on the connection. I haven't attempted it with you yet…"
"No one's stopping you…" Buffy said, a challenge in her eyes as she gave him permission.
Ben looked away from her for a moment, staring at Padme and Anakin as they were quietly chatting with each other. "It's a bit intrusive."
Buffy, cursing her impulsiveness even as she did it, reached out with her hand and cupped his cleft chin, firmly pulling his face back toward hers. The skin on skin jolted the both of them and she quickly dropped her hand back to her side. "But you're not." Trying to lighten the mood, she added, "Plus, I've always been more of the visual sort of girl. You're never gonna understand anything I'm talking about unless you see it- my wordsy thoughts aren't as detailed."
With his expression unreadable, Obi-Wan put a hand on either side of her face at her temples. "Try to relax and think about what you want me to see, it'll make it easier," he said as he closed his eyes and concentrated.
Buffy followed his lead, shutting her eyelids. She started to think of Xander and saw him as clear as day the first time they had ever met. He'd been attempting to roller-skate and had run into the railing of the stairway in front of the old High School. He'd been so cute back then… too bad she'd only had eyes for Angel.
She pictured the mysterious Angel she'd first met, giving her the silver cross necklace, warning her constantly of danger, and oh yea- kissing her and revealing his wrinkly foreheaded side. How he had changed, how Willow had to magically lock him out of her house…Willow, her best friend. She envisioned the growing Wicca in her mind's eye. She saw a shy red head becoming a confident and powerful magic wielder, capable of defying a Hell God. She remembered the old times they had spent together in each other's rooms, talking about Angel and Xander and Willow bugging her to do her French homework. She saw Willow in the Library, engrossed in a thick, ancient book, Giles bouncing ideas about their latest demon off of her brilliant mind. Giles polishing his glasses, Giles training her in the back room of his Magic Box, Giles looking at her like a father would his precious baby girl…almost like Spike had that last moment they'd spent alone together.
Images of Spike then assailed her mind and Buffy witnessed as Spike came clapping out of the shadows, impaled with an organ, entreating her to a parley, her magically-induced fiancée, giving her a lesson on death, and finally, his willing sacrifice for Dawn as Glory tortured him, and then his last heroic journey up the steps of the tower to save her little sister. For a soulless monster, he sure was a softy. She'd have to remember to really thank him one day. And why hadn't she been a little nicer to him? Her mother had…
Her mother had… her mom had given Buffy the dress she had died in that night with the master. Her mother had done the wicked with Giles thanks to a little band candy prompting. In a way, it was exceedingly gross to recall that incident, but in another way, it was almost right. Giles was the dad she should have had- of course her mother should have ended up with him… like her mother had wanted to end up with Bryan, right before she'd died…
Buffy's eyes flew open and she was surprised to feel water on her cheeks. She reached up to her face, winding her hand over Ben's and wiped the tear away, trying to do so quickly before he came back to reality.
His hands were still at her temples and his eyes were still shut; it was as if he hadn't moved at all- which come to think of it, Buffy thought as she stared at his handsome face, he probably hadn't.
"Earth to Benjy…anything still up there?" She asked, giving him a mild nudge in the ribs.
His eyelids flickered open and Buffy was struck by just how blue his eyes were. Not the deep dark blue that the razor-cheeked bleached Vampire had, but an icier, almost crystalline blue… a tranquil blue.
He slowly let his hands fall to his sides before he said, "You've led a very interesting life, if those brief glimpses were any indication." He stepped away from her a little and fixed his gaze intently on his deathly still master. "The last images, they were of your mother, correct?"
"Yea…"
"I don't remember much of my family before I was taken to the Jedi temple on Coruscant. The Jedi became my family and although attachments for us are forbidden, they happen…" He placed a hand on Jerry's arm.
Buffy gave a watery grin and whispered to his back, "I know- he's your Giles…"
"Jedi Obi-Wan?" Padme interrupted, coming up to the pair and leaving Anakin, still shivering, in the chair they had found him in.
"Yes, Milady?" Ben asked, all traces of emotion whitewashed from his voice. All the same, it still bothered Buffy just a little that he referred to the handmaiden as 'Milady' while Buffy was only just…oh wait, she'd asked Ben and Jerry to call her by her name. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Always let hot British-accented guys call you Milady if they so choose. Err…too late now.
"Oh, nothing. I was just going to go fetch a blanket for Annie. I wanted to…" she hesitated, looked down sadly at Qui-Gon as she did so. She continued, her voice stronger, more formal, "I wanted to wish your master a speedy recovery. The Queen does as well. If there's anything we can do…"
"Thank you, but I fear we lack the means to properly assist him here on board. The quicker we can get to Coruscant, the better his chances. But please tell your Queen that I thank her, and remind her that this is our way of life, we know the dangers."
Padme nodded solemnly and quickly vacated.
A soft moan could be heard as the doors swished closed upon Padme's departure. "Ugh…" Qui-Gon groaned. Obi-Wan nearly flew back over to his master's side. Buffy and Anakin quickly joined him from the other side of the bed. The only movement the Jedi appeared to be making however was the tiny squinting he was doing with his face.
Ben leaned down and whispered, "Master?" Qui-Gon returned with a groan, much softer than his previous utterance.
Making Buffy cringe, Anakin loudly said, "Master Qui-Gon, Sir? Are you okay?"
Jar Jar, from the floor, sprang up at the loud noise and ran screaming into the nearest wall, shouting, "WASN'T MESA!!" And promptly passed out again.
But it seemed to do the trick as Jerry's eyes slowly cracked open and he croaked, "Is…every-one all-right?"
Obi-Wan, trying desperately to regain his ice-cream coolness, said, "Yes, master. Everyone but you."
"Yea," Buffy said, smiling down at Jerry, "Weren't you supposed to be the badass of the gang? What's with the five second KO?"
Jerry roughly managed to turn his neck so he was properly looking at Obi-Wan. He shot his padawan a perplexed look.
Ben grinned back. "I have no idea what she's talking about either. But for all of her oddities, she was the one to save us back there with the creature."
"Hey, let's not go around giving all the credit like some jolly credit happy Santa! Ben did just as good a job with holding Tiggy off while I lugged you over to the ship." Buffy smirked at Obi-Wan. "And let's not forget how he 'saved' me as I almost fell off the ship in our perilous flight from the desert planet."
Ben gave her a look just short of a glare before he turned back to Qui-Gon and said, "How do you feel?"
"Very weak…very tired."
"We should be arriving in Coruscant soon, master."
"That creature that attacked…he was well trained in the Jedi arts…"
"What was it?" Anakin asked, peering with large, curious eyes at the older Jedi.
"I'm not sure…" Qui-Gon responded, staring thoughtfully at the youth.
"My guess," said Ben as he carefully helped Qui-Gon to sit up and called out to a goblet of water near the monitor through the force, "is that whatever it was, was after the Queen."
"Do you think he's following us? Right now?" Anakin asked, giving a little shiver again. But it could have just been from the cold- Buffy thought it was pretty frigid in space as well.
"We should be safe enough for now, although I have no doubt that he knows of our destination."
"So tell us, Jeeps," Buffy said, sharing a small grin with Anakin in the process, "What's the game plan?"
"We will be patient."
"I was afraid you'd say something like that."