The Gift

AN – Thank you to everyone who has read, followed, favourited and reviewed this! I'm hoping to roughly stick to an update schedule of every couple of weeks, but this is now my main project so it may start being a bit more frequent. I hope you enjoy this!

Disclaimer – I don't own Buffy or Star Wars

Chapter Five – The Lesson

Buffy put aside the drink she was holding and turned to her sister. "You're getting on well here? You like it?"

"Yes!" Was Dawn's enthusiastic reply. "The stuff the healers are teaching me is so interesting and everyone has been really friendly."

Buffy nodded, thinking carefully about how to phrase the next question. "Have you thought about getting home?"

Dawn's face fell. "I knew you were gonna ask about that. But… do we have to? At home it was stressful and there was that Glory woman and everything."

"But we don't belong here, Dawn." Buffy said gently. "I know everyone is really friendly but we're humans from Earth, not gungans from Naboo."

Dawn sighed deeply. "I was worried you'd say something like that."

"The Big Boss didn't say anything, so I assume the gungans don't know how to help us. We're going to have to ask the Naboo, so learning to read whatever language they use has to be the first priority."

"Captain Tarpals said we might need to ask them," Dawn remembered, thinking back on their conversations. "And Basic isn't that hard really, it just uses a different alphabet so it looks complicated. It's fairly similar to ancient Sumerian though."

Buffy gaped at her. "How do you know what ancient Sumerian looks like?"

Dawn wouldn't meet Buffy's eyes. "Well, when I was helping Giles organise the Magic Shop I noticed he had some interesting looking texts in ancient Sumerian, so…"

"So you decided to what? Learn the language so you could read it?"

"Giles always said it was something he wasn't able to read very well." Dawn said defensively. "I just wanted to be useful. You get to go out all the time and save the day while I get left with Giles doing homework."

"Well that's… ok, I guess can see how that must feel. But Dawn, you're too young! Plus it isn't your job."

"I know that!" Dawn huffed. "I was just saying." She rolled her eyes and stood up. "I'm going to head back and see if Healer Burban needs anything. At least she appreciates my help."

"Dawn!" Buffy called after her sister, but Dawn was already striding away. Buffy thought about letting her work off her strop but realised that without Captain Tarpals she didn't know how to get back. "Dawn, wait!"

Buffy ran after her sister, catching her easily despite Dawn's long strides.

"Can't you just give me a few minutes?" Dawn snarked, not looking at Buffy.

"I gave you five days, wasn't that enough?" Buffy asked innocently, earning herself another eye roll. They walked in silence for a few moments before Buffy tentatively tried talking again. "Look, I didn't mean for you to get left out, Dawnie. I just wanted to keep you safe."

"Yeah, well look how that turned out." Dawn shot back. Buffy stopped mid stride, the weight of her failure hitting hard. Dawn realised immediately that she had gone too far and turned back to her sister apologetically.

"I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"No, it's ok Dawn. You're right, I didn't keep you safe. I failed. And it's because of that failure that we're here."

"No, Buffy!" Dawn shook her head emphatically. "It's not your fault. It's no one's fault. Well," she amended. "It's Glory's fault. But not yours!"

Buffy smiled weakly. It would take a lot more than Dawn telling her she hadn't failed her little sister for her to believe it.

"Come on," Dawn said, linking her arm with Buffy's. "Healer Burban always knows where to find good food. Let's go and see what she's up to."

Buffy allowed herself to be towed along with Dawn, wondering at what point her baby sister got quite so wise.

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

"This is hopeless!"

Buffy threw the book she was trying to read across the bubble in a fit of pique. She'd woken up this morning determined to understand enough to at least be able to get around in the Naboo world so that she could find some answers, but reading Basic was a lot harder than she had thought it would be. The characters made absolutely no sense and there were so many of them! Plus, she felt pent up. She hadn't sat around so much since before she'd been called as a slayer.

Dawn raised her eyebrows and smugly turned the chapter in her own book, one that Buffy could see was a couple of books ahead of the one she was reading. Buffy resisted sticking her tongue out, determined to take the high ground.

"I need to do something." She muttered, jiggling her leg agitatedly.

"I thought learning Basic was doing something," Dawn commented as she turned the page in her book.

"No!" Buffy leapt up. "Not that…something – gah! I need to slay something! What can I slay?"

Dawn put down her book after noting her place. "Why can't you ever just be normal?" She pouted rhetorically. "You're so weird."

Now Buffy did stick her tongue out, which Dawn quickly reciprocated. Before sororal relations could deteriorate any further, Healer Burban entered their bubble.

"Dawnee, yousa come help in sick bay today? Will show yousa how to make da bruise paste."

"Sure," Dawn leapt off of the bed she was sitting on, grabbing her book as she did so. "Maybe I can see if I can read the ingredients? My Basic is getting better."

Healer Burban nodded sagely. "Isa good, needs ingredients from Naboo so useful. Yousa," Burban fixed Buffy with a stern glare. "Captain Tarpals be waiting outside."

"Finally!" Buffy nearly leapt out of the door. "I'll see you tonight, Dawn!"

Dawn rolled her eyes at her sister as she packed up her books to follow Healer Burban. Meanwhile, Buffy had nearly collided with Captain Tarpals outside the bubble.

"Hey, the healer lady said you were here!"

"Isa time to see you 'slay'." The captain confirmed. "Wesa go to da training space, der be some younglings dere dat need some work."

"Ok, great!" Buffy enthused, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Lead the way!"

Buffy practically skipped alongside the tall gungan as they walked through the city, something he regarded with amusement. "Yousa feeling better den."

"Oh, yeah." Buffy slowed her bouncing a bit. "Sorry, I just get a bit… stir crazy, you know?"

The captain shook his head fondly. "Yousa might needs your energy for the younglings! Dey very tiring."

Buffy suddenly looked wary. "I thought you were going to see what I could do today? You know, like a spar?"

"Yes," Tarpals confirmed. "But if yousa do ok, yousa can start to teach the younglings too."

Buffy looked at him sceptically but by this point they had reached a large open space, lined with padded cushions. It looked like a training room, although there were no punching bags or weights in sight. Thankfully, there also weren't any other gungans present.

"Dis is where we start da training." The captain explained. "Once dey have basics, we go to surface where dere is more space."

"OK," Buffy said, looking around. "I guess I can work with this. What do you want to do?"

Captain Tarpals shrugged off the outer layer of his attire, leaving himself standing in a simple tunic. "You know what dis is?" He asked, picking up a long metal rod with a pointed end. It would have looked like some kind of lance, if it wasn't for the electricity that cracked around its end.

Buffy looked at it blankly. "No, I've never seen anything like it."

"Hmm." The captain seemed to think for a moment. "Den we not use. Isa pole, we use for da fighting."

"Like a tazer?" Tarpals's face remained blank, Buffy sighed. "Never mind. But I don't want to see a tazer again." She shuddered at the memory of the Initiative, a secretive arm of the United States Army that captured and experimented on demons. Buffy had been forced to infiltrate and destroy their covert base in Sunnydale when their leader had created a robot-demon hybrid that took over and started to make its own hybrid army.

"Now, to see how good yousa is, yousa must try to knock mesa down." The captain instructed, taking up a defensive stance. Buffy eyed him warily, with the amount of muscle and sinew he was made of she didn't think he'd be a pushover. Well, not if she was a human anyway. Luckily for her, she'd taken on many demons bigger and stronger than he likely was.

Roos Tarpals, for his part, waited while the girl sized him up. He expected her to make a pretty good attempt if she was a warrior amongst her people, but he didn't really expect any human to be able to take down a Gungan single handed. Particularly if both were unarmed. Still, if she showed promising techniques she would do ok with the younglings, who really were uncoordinated and needed all the help they could get.

Buffy waited for so long before moving that the captain began to think that she wouldn't. He shifted weight slightly and that was all it took to prompt her into action. Within a split second he was wheezing on his back, while Buffy was back where she started.

Buffy smirked as the Gungan stared up at her with wide eyes. "How yousa do dat?!"

"I told you, I'm the Slayer." She tossed her blond hair back haughtily. "Come on, that was a good warm up but we've barely started. What else have you got?"

The captain climbed to his feet and took up the defensive stance again. This time, Buffy moved more slowly – she didn't think she had a point to prove anymore and valued the training opportunity. And it was an opportunity, once he realised she was treating it like a training session Captain Tarpals responded in type, correcting stances and footwork and suggesting alternatives when he thought it might help. The two circled together, dancing an elaborate dance that drew a crowd of onlookers as the younglings arrived for their training sessions.

Both fighters were aware of it, but Buffy was having too much fun to care and Tarpals thought it was a good training opportunity for them. He could tell that Buffy was pulling her punches and not going at top speed – for which he was thankful – but it was still a different level of sparring from anything the youngsters had yet achieved.

Eventually Captain Tarpals called a halt, raising one hand wearily. "Mesa say yousa definitely a warrior." His eyes shone with a new respect for the girl who had barely broken a sweat while he was now exhausted. He looked around at the younglings gathered, plus several other gungans who had been passing and wanted to see what the fuss was about.

"Dis is Buffee," he introduced. "Shesa human but not Naboo. Shesa goings to help train yousa all." More than one youngling swallowed nervously at this announcement, shifting weight from foot to foot as they looked at the small woman who had just gone toe to toe with their captain and didn't even look out of breath. "Shesa great warrior called da Slayer. Yousa will show her respects!" This was a command; all the younglings and several of the other onlookers nodded vigorously, large ears flapping in agreement after what they had just witnessed.

Captain Tarpals scanned the room with a critical eye. "Younglings who are meant to be here, get into positions. If yousa not meant to be here, please make space for da younglings."

Buffy stepped backwards against the wall of the training room as a group of about twenty or so youngsters filed in and stood in a regimental arrangement. She swallowed nervously, she hadn't spared much time thinking about the youngsters while sparring but now she felt the weight of all the eyes on her.

"Now," Captain Tarpals started from the front. "Wesa work on form today. Take da defensive pose." As one the younglings moved into the same defensive pose that Tarpals had taken when facing Buffy. Tarpals walked up to one and slightly corrected the pose, widening the stance and helping to build up the core. Taking his cue, Buffy started the same process with the nearest younglings to her, trying to ignore the mixture of fear and awe that the young gungans were staring at her with.

Once they'd covered all the students, Captain Tarpals gestured for Buffy to rejoin him at the front. "Now wesa talks about why dis stance not always da best if against warrior – or slayer." He shot a sly look at Buffy and she beamed when she realised that the dour captain was actually joking with her in front of the students, who all looked a bit bemused.

Captain Tarpals took up the same defensive stance he had at the beginning. "Isa not often dat da gungans are without dere poles, but sometimes wesa might get caught unawares. What is da weakness of dis?"

There was silence from the young gungans, all shuffling and looking at the ground to avoid being called on.

"Slayer, does yousa know?" It was strange hearing Captain Tarpals calling her 'Slayer' as a title. She'd heard it a lot before, often snarled from the mouth of the slayee as they tried to out-quip her or tell her about how she'd never beat them yada yada. But to hear it spoken so respectfully brought a whole new meaning to the word. For one of the first times in her life, Buffy felt that being the slayer was something to be respected. She stood up a fraction taller subconsciously.

"It leaves your left side slightly open," she responded as she gestured to Captain Tarpals's side. "Your weight isn't stable enough, so if I feint to the right…" she pretended to throw a punch and was gratified to see the captain move accordingly. "Then you shift your weight too far forwards and it just takes a step to the left to catch you." Again she demonstrated to the wide eyed gaze of the young gungans as they watched her land a blow, no matter how gently she actually tapped him, on their much vaunted teacher.

"Isa correct!" Captain Tarpals told her with a smile. "Most would not exploit dis weakness, but if you come up against da Slayer, or a Jedi, den you would be in big doodoo."

They discussed the stance for a while longer, Buffy explaining how to strengthen it and Captain Tarpals pointing out factors she hadn't even thought of. At some point Buffy realised she was probably learning as much as the students were, Captain Tarpals had a significant level of experience that he was happy to impart.

Eventually they finished up, after watching the students pair off and begin to trade blows. Buffy felt so much better after working out most of her frustration and by the time they were finished she was pleased to be walking back to the bubble with the Captain.

"Yousa did good," he told her with a smile. "Da younglings, dey respect you. Dey will already be talking of da Slayer."

Buffy brushed a strand of hair back out of her eyes. She'd tied her hair in a messy ponytail earlier but it was beginning to get loose and irritate her after they exertion. "I enjoyed it," she admitted. "Far more than I thought I would. I don't know why I've never thought to teach before, but I had fun."

"Isa good," Captain Tarpals nodded. "Yousa can do a lot for our younglings, prepare dem for da world outside da city."

"Is it bad for them out there?" Buffy asked, feeling a stab of alarm. She was already so used to the relaxed feeling inside the city that she hadn't really thought about whether it was different outside.

Roos took a moment to consider her question before answering. "No, not bad. But different. Dere are threats dey don't see here. Especially in da water." He looked at her shrewdly. "How yousa at da underwater fight?"

"Fighting underwater?" Buffy's eyes shot wide. "I don't… I mean, I've never done it! I do know how to swim a bit, but I haven't for years. I've never really swum underwater or anything."

"Hmmm…" The Captain shook his head. "Never mind den. Da water has big dangers, especially in da core."

"Maybe I could look into it when I can swim better." Buffy mused. Really, she was just hoping for the chance to slay something. The chance to hunt. It was completely the slayer in her talking, but after that afternoon she was beginning to think that maybe being the slayer wasn't so bad.

As they entered the City Big Space, Buffy began to hear the murmuring around her. With a frown she realised that the gungans were talking about her in hushed whispers. Captain Tarpals lifted one of his large ears to try to hear what they were saying, before turning to Buffy with an amused expression.

"Mesa told yousa. Dey talking about da fierce warrior called da Slayer who is here to help da gungans."

"Wow, news travels fast." Buffy commented, feeling slightly uncomfortable form all the curious stares. Still, it was better than gungans hiding away from her.

"Yousa stronger da most humans." Captain Tarpals stated as a fact. "In fact, mesa thinks yousa would even be able to beat a Jedi." He shook his head in near wonder.

It was the second time that Captain Tarpals had used the term Jedi today. "What is a Jedi, exactly?" Buffy asked. "Some form of warrior species?"

Captain Tarpals stopped and stared at her in amazement. "You no knows da Jedi? Yousa really is from another world." He continued walking, frowning to himself. "Da Jedi, dey not a species. Dey many species! Is a lot rumour, maybe not truths." He shrugged at Buffy, who nodded to show she understood. "Da Jedi, dey use something called da Force to help dem. Some say dey got great speed, great fighting, ability to affect minds. Mesa not know for sure. Da gungans, dey not become da Jedi."

"How do you become a Jedi?" Buffy asked curiously. Tarpals thought for a moment.

"Da Jedis, dey know when dere a new Jedi hatched. Dey take the younglings and raise with other Jedi younglings. Mesa not know more. Gungans, we feel da living force but da Cosmic Force da Jedi uses, we nots feel it."

"They take away babies?" Buffy asked, somewhat horrified. Tarpals shrugged.

"Isa what da rumours say."

"How do they get away with that? Doesn't anyone try to stop them?"

The captain looked at her curiously. "Tis an honour, mesa thinks. To be a Jedi... dey learn things dat no one else does. Dey warriors, peace keepers and much more."

"So you're saying that they kidnap babies, yet people look up to them and see them as what – some kind of galactic security protectors? Next you'll be telling me that they act as judge, jury and executioner."

"Well..."

"Wow." Buffy shook her head. "It sounds scarily like the watcher's council." On seeing Captain Tarpals's curious expression, Buffy elaborated. "A group of men who were supposed to look after the slayers and the slayer line. Which actually meant sitting in a stuffy building a long way away from where they were sending young women to their deaths making pompous decisions that only benefitted themselves."

Captain Tarpals couldn't seem to think of an argument to that. "Mesa think yousa probably right." He then stopped and turned towards Buffy, catching her arm to turn her to face him too. "Da Jedi not come here, but mesa no think you want to get caught up in dem. Dere is something about yousa and Dawnee, something dat affects da Living Force. Mesa no know if da Jedi feel da Living Force like they do da Cosmic Force, but if dey find you mesa thinks yousa will find it hard to get away from dere grasp."

"Avoid Jedi, got it." Buffy started walking again, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "But if they never come here, then it sounds as though we don't have to worry about it unless we leave!"

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

Over the next few days, life settled into a routine for Dawn and Buffy. Every morning, Dawn would be whisked away by Healer Burban to learn how to make the various medications that the gungans needed and to help out in the healing rooms. Buffy would meet up with Captain Tarpals and help instruct the younglings, then both sisters would work together on Basic in the evenings before turning in to bed.

The younglings improved quickly under Buffy and Tarpals's combined instruction. The captain also insisted on either starting or finishing each session with a sparring session with Buffy, helping to instruct the younglings on technique but also to hone Buffy's. They started off with hand-to-hand but soon moved onto sparring with the poles that the captain had shown Buffy on the first day. Buffy very soon picked up the hang of it, it reminded her of the staves that Giles had insisted she practice with – that is, if staves were electric and pointy at one end.

It wasn't just the young gungans that were learning under Captain Tarpals's patient tutelage. Despite still being stronger and faster than him, Buffy found that his experience with different fighting styles made him a formidable opponent. He also took time to point out weak points in her technique or decisions she could have made differently, taking time after each bout to analyse it. This was supposedly done for the benefit of the watching younglings, but Buffy was absorbing all the tips she was given and he felt ever more confident in her fighting style. It helped that despite not being able to match Slayer strength Tarpals was far stronger and more agile than a normal human and was a much fairer opposition.

It didn't take long for word of the human warrior called the Slayer to circulate amongst the Gungan, particularly those that frequented the training rooms. Buffy wasn't aware that the audience for her bouts with Tarpals had grown larger and larger, but even she noticed that gungans that previously hid away from her were beginning to watch her with curiosity. The bravest even started to come up to her to ask questions about techniques or to make conversation. As they were met with a smile and friendliness even the more nervous started to be bolder. Unknowingly, Buffy was single-handedly thawing gungan-human relations.

Dawn's work in the Healing Rooms helped as well. The innocent questions the younger girl enthusiastically asked all the patients coming in about their lives and gungan culture softened even the dourest gungan. It helped that she'd also struck up an unlikely friendship with Jar Jar Binks. This meant that he wasn't getting in anyone else's way with his clumsy manner, and won her even more gratitude and good feeling amongst the gungan community.

It was a week or two into their new routine that Healer Burban and Captain Tarpals announced that they didn't need either of the sisters that day. Dawn immediately celebrated, but Buffy caught the glint in the captain's eye that she knew signalled trouble.

"What's the catch?"

"Today, yousa start to learn to swim!" Captain Tarpals informed them triumphantly.

Immediately Dawn blanched. "Oh but I can't..."

"Yes, yousa can." Healer Burban told her firmly. "Come on."

They were led to a specific bubble, where the bottom was open to the water below. The hole was about three metres in diameter, surrounded by a raised platform that had the water lapping at the edge of it. Currents and eddies in the large lake caused ripples across the surface of the water and an occasional fish bobbed to the surface, saw the group clustered around the edge and dove away with a splash.

"What now?" Buffy asked.

Healer Burban looked at her, confused. "Now, yousa swim."

"In this?" Buffy gestured to her outfit. Despite managing to find a pair of loose trousers that she rolled up each time she sparred, she was still wearing the long robes most of the time. She didn't think she could be dressed in anything that looked less appropriate for swimming.

"Yes." Captain Tarpals told her. "Isa gungan material, isa good for swimming."

Buffy looked at her outfit and shrugged. "If you say so." In truth, she was quite excited about swimming. It would be a good way to keep fit and she'd felt envious watching the gungans effortlessly gliding around the outside of the city. It was also a way for her to get to the surface – much as she'd loved being in the gungan city so far, she missed the feeling of open space around her. She'd learnt as a child but hadn't swum for many years.

Buffy cast a glance at Dawn, who was trembling next to her. Impulsively she grabbed her little sister's hand and squeezed tight. "You'll be ok." She told her. "Just remember what you learnt when mum sent us for lessons when we were little."

Dawn turned her large eyes towards her sister. "But Buffy, I didn't really do that! That's just stuff the monks made up. I've never actually swum." Her voice tailed off as she gulped loudly, staring at the water.

Healer Burban took pity on the younger girl.

"First, yousa get in da water." She said gently, gesturing at the pool. "Is ok, gungan clothes will keep you warm."

Dawn nodded hesitantly, before sitting down on the edge and dangling her bare feet in. Taking a deep breath she slipped in, her whole body submerging before panicked strokes brought her back to the surface, grasping for anything to keep her up.

A steady presence next to her helped guide her back to the edge of the pool and when Dawn finally opened her eyes she could see Buffy had jumped in after her and was now gently holding her against the edge of the pool.

"That's it, take deep breaths." Buffy was telling her, rubbing her back while Dawn clung to the edge. Healer Burban was crouched next to her, holding something out.

"Here, is a breather." She also offered one to Buffy, who took it curiously.

"One of da gungans who went to da human city brought dem back for you." Captain Tarpals told them. "Is what da human use to swim under da water. You needs, is a long way to da surface. Dese good for a long time under da water."

Healer Burban showed Buffy how to put it in and breathe through it, after which the blond submerged to test it. After a minute she emerged, grinning widely.

"Dawn, you have to try this! It's like a scuba tank but better!"

Dawn hesitantly put it into her mouth and got used to breathing through it, jumping when Captain Tarpals jumped in the pool next to them.

"Long strokes." He told them. "Don't rush it, the smoother you swim the faster you will go." He then ducked under the water, Buffy following. After a reassuring glance at Healer Burban, Dawn followed suit, finding to her relief that except for all the bubbles the breather meant she could breathe easily under the water.

Buffy glided through the water, pleasantly surprised by how easy the gungan robe was to swim in. She had worried that it would catch and drag like normal clothes would, but in fact it seemed to almost help her propel through the water. She glanced behind her to see Captain Tarpals with Dawn, he was sticking close by her and helping her through her fear. Buffy was enjoying herself. They were just swimming around the city, with occasionally shoals of fish floating by and sometimes a waving gungan. She hadn't realised how much she already felt part of this strange, insular but wonderful community until now.

The captain was gesturing for her to swim down towards a ledge that jutted out from the outside of one of the bubbles. Approaching it, Buffy could see that the bubble had an ornate archway on the side of it. Once her feet touched the ledge, Captain Tarpals pushed against the surface of the bubble underneath the arch and pushed through it. Buffy watched in amazement as first the captain and then Dawn, holding tight to the arm of the captain, disappeared into the bubble in front of her.

She reached forwards and touched the shimmering surface, feeling a slight resistance before her hand moved through it and the rest of her could follow. As soon as she passed through, the film formed again behind her.

"Wow," Buffy murmured looking at the entrance, before turning her attention to her companions. "That was great!"

"Of course you thought so." Dawn said huffily, but she was supressing a grin.

"Yousa both did well." Captain Tarpals told them proudly. "Buffee, mesa thinks yousa can swim alone. But don't go far from da city without a gungan, dere are dangers in da waters. Dawnee, mesa thinks yousa should practice more before yousa go alone."

"Fine by me," Dawn replied with a shudder.

Buffy just smiled as she watched a gungan outside the city glide effortlessly through the water. From where she was standing, it looked like they were flying.