The Gift

AN – Thanks again for the support, I've been really enjoying writing this so I'm pleased that you are enjoying reading it so much. Another chapter on a Saturday – I definitely don't promise to keep updating weekly but at the moment the words flow freely so you get regular updates!

Disclaimer – I don't own Buffy or Star Wars

Chapter Eight – The Breakout

Buffy and Captain Tarpals froze for a split second before Buffy turned and ran back down the tunnel with the captain following suit. There was no space in the constricted tunnel to do anything else, when the man was armed with a long range gun. Guns and Buffy did not mix. But their pursuer obviously didn't expect them to run as it took a further second or two before shots were fired after them, allowing them to get far enough away that in the confines of the twisting tunnel they weren't in range. The shots sounded odd, not like gun shots at all.

"What is that?" She shouted to Captain Tarpals as they continued to run at full speed. Luckily he seemed to understand the question.

"Blaster," he grunted in reply, his words short and sharp as he gasped for breath. The end of the tunnel was drawing near. Buffy could only hope that there was a way out of the cavern that they hadn't noticed when she'd been distracted by the weapon she was now clutching in her hands.

They emerged from the end of the tunnel into the small cavern. Buffy ran her hands along the wall she had pulled the axe thing from, desperately looking for anything that might be a way out but there was nothing. The crunch of footsteps had her spinning around, hiding the weapon behind her back as best as she could.

The man grinned as he cornered them, pointing his gun thing – blaster – in their direction.

"I have to wonder what a gungan and a pretty lady like yourself are doing in this place."

"Oh we were just… lost." Buffy said innocently. "It's very dark down here. Um, if you could just point us in the right direction, we could be going?"

The man chuckled darkly. "Now why would I do that? We've got a good little setup here and I don't need word of it to spread."

"Oh, we wouldn't say anything." Buffy reassured him. "I'm all silence girl."

He chuckled again. "I like you. I might keep you around for a bit. Your friend though." He looked at Captain Tarpals in a calculating way. "We don't need any more overgrown lizards at the moment."

The man brought his blaster up and fired a shot directly at Captain Tarpals. There was nowhere for him to go and no cover he could use. On instinct, Buffy whirled the weapon she had collected around in an arc, batting at the streak of light that the gun thing fired. She could only watch, stunned, as the shot seemed to ricochet off her weapon and back at the man. The expression of shock on her face was mirrored on his before he crumpled to the floor.

For a moment no one moved. The echo of the sound of the blaster died away and Buffy couldn't hear anything above the sound of her own breathing. Then Captain Tarpals walked forwards, crouching beside the man and checking for a pulse. He straightened after a moment with a shake of his head and moved towards the exit tunnel. Once he reached the entrance he turned to Buffy, a puzzled look on his face.

"Yousa coming?"

Buffy tore her eyes away from the body in front of her to look down at the weapon. Suddenly the blood red colour took on a different meaning. Her hands felt numb and her fingers lost traction, the weapon slid to the floor with a crash.

"Buffee?"

She raised her eyes up to Captain Tarpals from where she had been staring at her shaking hands.

"Is he…dead?"

The gungan frowned. "Yes. Is ok now."

Buffy staggered backwards. "I… I killed him?" Her legs suddenly couldn't hold her weight and she crashed down onto the ground, staring at the body.

Captain Tarpals was beginning to get worried. "Yes. Though really yousa just defended mesa, he fired da shot."

"You don't understand." Buffy shook her head, tears in her eyes. "I killed him. I killed a human." She looked up at Tarpals, a lost expression on her face. "I'm the Slayer. I don't kill humans, I protect them. Against evil demons. Now I've become the thing that I slay."

Finally beginning to understand the problem, Captain Tarpals knelt in front of Buffy and took hold of her shaking hands. "Here, der is no demons." He told her gently, stilling her hands. "But der is evil. Human, gungan, it no matter. Did yousa want to kill him?"

"No." Buffy sobbed.

"Den you would have let him kill mesa?"

"What? No! Of course not!" Buffy looked horrified at the thought, but then started to turn pensive.

"Der was no time to do anything else." Roos told her. "Here, dese humans would kill you or me. If yousa kills in defence, it not make yousa evil."

Buffy's green eyes bored into his hooded amber ones as she digested what he was saying. Eventually she nodded and, whilst still pale, allowed Captain Tarpals to help her to her feet. He then picked up her weapon, turning it over in his hands. "Dis looks like a cross between da axe and da scythe." He commented. "Da Gungan use a similar scythe for harvesting da seaweed. Is a nice weapon. But shouldn't be able to deflect blaster bolts. Mesa glad it did, though."

Buffy took it off him tentatively. "It must have some form of Slayer mojo." She said. Roos was pleased to hear that her voice was becoming steadier. "I'm not sure quite what it is. But it… it was made for me." She gripped it tighter, holding it to her chest. Buffy then took a deep breath, carefully keeping her eyes away from the body on the floor. "Ok, let's go."

Captain Tarpals smiled at her and led the way back up the tunnel. There was now a tension in the air which hadn't been there on their first trip. Buffy thrummed with it. Roos was aware that she hadn't really dealt with any of the recent events yet, but she was at least functional right now and they needed her to be.

They didn't meet anyone climbing the tunnel this time. When they finally reached the intersection and the orange lights that somehow felt less ominous than before, Tarpals took a deep breath.

"Where now?"

Buffy tilted her head as she considered. Straight ahead was the way back to the wooden walkway, the crevice that would take them out of here. It was tempting, and yet…

"We should finish what we came down here to do." She muttered, looking to the right. The tunnel continued for about fifty yards, a metal gate preventing further access. A metal gate that was in no way a match for a distressed slayer, as one kick sent it flying open and hitting the side of the tunnel with a loud crash.

"Wesa not going for da stealth, den?"

Buffy looked at him with determined eyes. On her march back up the passageway she must have been processing, she now looked nothing like the scared girl he'd seen in the other chamber.

"They are probably killing and torturing gungans. They definitely tried to kill you. No one kills my friends." She turned and started down the corridor, not going far before a door in the side caused her to pause.

"Oh, god."

Captain Tarpals looked through the small grate in the door to see the body of a gungan, still tied in shackles. He looked down the corridor and saw many such doors leading off from either side. With a frown, he blew a distinctive whistle. After a moment the same tune floated back, from further down the corridor. He nodded in the direction and Buffy took off. Just to make sure, Tarpals checked all the closed doors he passed but only saw the same as the first door offered.

Buffy had stopped at about the sixth door along. She peered through the grate and then pulled her foot back to let fly. The door was poorly fitted in the first place and the force of her kick took it clean out of the wall, hitting the floor just in front of a surprised gungan. The gungan in the cell recoiled as Buffy approached, trembling.

"It's ok," she said reassuringly as she tested the manacles. Not finding an easy way to break them without hurting the gungan she opted for the next best thing, pulling them straight out of the wall.

The gungan drew further away once it was free, staring at her. The fear in its eyes was now laced with curiosity as it regarded the small human girl who was dressed in gungan clothes, wielding an electropole, carrying some form of axe in her free hand and who had easily ripped chains from the wall that the gungan had been unable to move.

Captain Tarpals appeared in the doorway. "Jesh Kee?" He asked in horror as he recognised the gungan as one that served in the army alongside him. "Isa dat yousa?"

"Roos Tarpals," the gungan croaked. "What's yousa doing here? With da human?"

"We're breaking you out," Buffy told him as she left the cell. Roos helped his former colleague to his feet.

"Yousa can walk?"

Lieutenant Jesh Kee nodded. "Mesa thinks so." He stumbled as he tried while his muscles still adjusted to being loose.

"What happened?"

"Wesa in da mountains to find why da gungans go missing." He croaked a sardonic laugh. "Wesa found it."

"Wesa?"

"Mesa and Corporal Kaujils." A loud crash indicated that Buffy had opened another cell.

"Mesa hopes we find Corporal Kaujils den," Tarpals stated, his expression grim. As he helped his friend from the cell he could see Buffy carrying another gungan out. She'd wedged the scythe onto her back somehow alongside the electropole and was nearly dragging the gungan, who would have towered over her if she wasn't unconscious.

"Shul!" Lieutenant Kee cried, hobbling over to his subordinate. "Shesa alive?"

"Yep, but not in a good way." Buffy replied, dropping her gently into the corridor. At Tarpals's nod, Buffy left the care of the gungans to him while she opened the next cell door. By now, the more lucid gungan prisoners had realised what was going on and, whilst still very wary of the human, weren't actively trying to hide away from her.

In all, five live gungans were being held in the cells. The lieutenant and his corporal were in by far the worst state, the others could all walk easily. Roos carried Shul Kaujils whilst Lieutenant Kee hobbled alongside. Buffy, noting the unease of the gungans, led their way back up the tunnels but kept some distance from the group.

They were lucky, even with all the noise they had made they didn't encounter anyone else on the long route back to the wooden walkway. When they reached the large cavern, it was clear to see why as the machine was making even more noise now than when they had passed by before.

"I thought you said they were trying to stay quiet to stay hidden?" Buffy hissed to Tarpals. One of the other gungans looked at her nervously but answered.

"Dey time it, dey know when dey can do it undetected." The gungan sounded young, big wide eyes blinking at Buffy. Buffy smiled reassuringly in her direction.

"Thank you…er…"

"Tabbem." The gungan supplied, nervously looking at her hands.

"Thank you Tabbem." Buffy looked along the walkway to where she knew there was an opening in the rock above. "It's very exposed out there. We're not all going to be able to go through without being detected."

"What yousa thinking?" Captain Tarpals asked her, grunting slightly as he shifted the weight of the gungan he was carrying.

"Diversion." Buffy replied, looking down at the big machine still whirring away. "I can go and make a mess of that thing, you take the others back to Dawn. I'll join you when I can."

"Yousa can't go alone!" Roos protested. "Yousa not know how to make boom, hm? Is dangerous."

"You can't come with me and carry the Corporal." Buffy replied reasonably. "You need to make sure the others are safe."

"Mesa come wid you." The quiet voice surprised them both. Tabbem was looking at them resolutely. "Mesa work in da gasser, mesa can help make da machine go boom."

Buffy looked at her doubtfully. "Are you sure? I mean, not that you can make it explode, but it's going to be dangerous." She'd learnt during her stay in Otoh Gunga that a gasser was some form of forge, she trusted the gungan to know machinery if she worked in one.

"Yes. Mesa sure." The young gungan stood taller. "Yousa not even gungan yet yousa risking life for us. Mesa come with you."

"She not gungan but she is da Slayer," Captain Tarpals said proudly, looking at the girl who had become his charge. "Yousa is brave, Tabbem."

Buffy nodded her agreement. "OK, but you take this." She pulled the electropole from her back and handed it over before adjusting the position of the scythe so that it rested comfortably on the harness and left her hands free. She then looked at the remaining gungans. "Stay here and stay hidden, when you see the diversion start moving. You have a communicator for Dawn?" Tarpals nodded the affirmative. "OK, call her and tell her to meet you. Then get back underwater until I contact you, ok?"

"Yes, Slayer."

"Right then." Buffy took a deep breath. "Good luck." She nodded to Tarpals before making her way along the walkway, Tabbem following her closely. The edge of the cavern was to their left as they kept to the shadows and tried to stay out of sight. As they were about a third of the way back to the opening that would be their exit Buffy saw a steep set of stairs she hadn't noticed on her way into the cavern with Tarpals. The steps led down, winding through the struts of the walkway itself which would provide them with cover as they approached the machine.

Buffy gestured to Tabbem, who took the change of direction in her stride as they made towards the steps. Winding their way down the steps, Buffy could see the staircase finished on the edge of the underground lake that made up the middle of the cavern. Now that they were closer to the ground she could see a dark path around the water's edge that hadn't been apparent from higher up, which led almost all the way to the machinery. She also thought it unlikely that they would be detected, even though she could clearly see some people talking in the brighter lights on the far side of the cavern.

Just as they were approaching the bottom she saw a pair of humans, one male and one female, approaching along the lake path. She signalled to Tabbem who froze. Buffy leant closer to catch their conversation.

"What's taking Shab so long? Wasn't he just going to check on the houseguests?"

"Ah, you know him. He's probably amusing himself while he's down there. He'll be back soon enough to make our lives difficult."

The man grunted in reply. "Let's just finish this check. I don't know what they're expecting anyway, who is gonna be coming this far in? If you want action you need to be by the main entrance."

As they walked away Buffy missed his companion's reply, drowned out by the sounds in the cavern. She rose a little bit straighter, every word eroding a little of the guilt she was still feeling and replacing it with anger. As soon as she judged that they wouldn't be seen, Buffy crept down the last few stairs and made her way around the lake. Tabbem still followed, not as quietly as Captain Tarpals would have done but not loud enough to be heard over all the ambient noise.

It was further than Buffy first thought to reach the machinery. Dirty orange pipes plunged into the water, steam hissing from between badly connected joins. Large pistons pumped loudly, gleaming silver in the dim light.

Tabbem took one look at it and started to mutter about plasma mining. Buffy didn't really know or care what it did, she was more interested in how to make it break.

"Wesa needs to block da water inlet, den it overheat and go boom. Is a bad design. Mesa no think da Naboo use dis, is like dey brought a different machine to force to work."

Judging from what Buffy had heard earlier, she wasn't sure the Naboo people were particularly aware of this whole operation. It seemed more likely to her that someone had bodged this machine to do this job but she kept quiet as Tabbem was thinking.

"Right, mesa going into da water. Mesa need to see da inlets." Buffy passed her the torch thing that Tarpals had been carrying, Tabbem taking it gratefully. The gungan slipped off the outer layer of her clothes and then, wearing just her tunic and trousers and carrying the electropole, she slipped quietly into the water.

To Buffy it felt like an age before Tabbem surfaced again, sliding out of the water as easily as she had gone in. "Mesa done it." She said with grim satisfaction as she pulled her outer layers back on and handed Buffy back the torch. "It won't be long now."

"Good work," Buffy whispered, helping her adjust the electropole. "Let's get out of here."

She turned around to head back the way they came – coming face to face with a tall man. "Hey! You!" He shouted, confused. "What you doing 'ere?"

"Oh!" Buffy immediately twirled some hair around her finger, looking vacantly up at him. "I must have taken a wrong turn. Can you show me how to get out?" She fluttered her lashes at him. The man looked pole-axed and it might have worked if he hadn't caught sight of Tabbem trying to hide behind her.

"Wait, you're with one of them gungan things!"

"Run!" Buffy shouted, turning quickly and giving Tabbem a quick push in the right direction. The young gungan didn't need to be told twice, taking off in a flat out sprint away from the man. Unfortunately, the shouting had drawn the attention of the other illegal miners and as they ran they saw a group ahead of them scramble to their feet and draw out blasters.

"To your right!" Buffy shouted, spying a tunnel with stairs that led up and away from the main cavern.

"Don't let them get away!" Someone shouted behind them, before blaster shots began taking chunks out of the tunnel around them. Buffy ducked instinctively as rocks started flying around, one glancing off her arm painfully. She cried out involuntarily, but even as Tabbem slowed to see what the matter was she was waving to keep going.

They burst out of the tunnel onto a bridge that crossed the open cavern. Buffy could see that they were nearly as high as the original walkway. Unfortunately she could see that because at the end closest to her, near some stairs that led back down, a woman was standing with a blaster. As the woman aimed, Buffy grabbed the scythe from her back and swatted at the blaster shots flying towards herself and Tabbem. This time it didn't fire straight back at the woman, but instead hit one of the struts next to her. The woman flinched away, overbalanced and fell with a cry into the cavern below. Some shots still rang out from down below, one catching Tabbem in her side. With a cry the gungan slowed, but then Buffy was there pulling her along.

"Come on, you can do this. We're nearly there."

The fact that Tabbem could stagger on meant that it must have been a glancing blow. They crossed the bridge and entered a tunnel again, this one wider.

"Light!" Tabbem cried, realising that there was more than orange light surrounding them now.

"Come on," Buffy urged, both women staggering towards the natural light and freedom. From behind them an almighty boom sounded as the mining machine reacted to Tabbem's sabotage.

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

Captain Tarpals staggered into the fresh air. He was strong, even for a gungan, but navigating the narrow and uneven crevice whilst carrying another fully grown gungan had been difficult. He led their motley group back to the pool, only pausing long enough to direct Dawn to surface in the heyblibber. As they approached, he could see the young girl sat in the submarine staring at the group he was bringing back. He entered quickly, laying his burden down gently on the floor. Lieutenant Kee was helped in by one of the others whose name he hadn't yet got. The two uninjured gungan then hovered at the back end of the heyblibber near the supplies, casting worried looks at Dawn.

Captain Tarpals ignored their concerns and dropped next to the Corporal. Dawn immediately joined him, her healing training having paid off as she already had some ointment in her hand.

"We need to get them back to Healer Burban." The girl said, only her unsteady voice betraying her youth. "What happened down there? Where is Buffy?"

"Wesa needs to wait for Buffee," Tarpals told her. "Shesa doing distraction so wesa can escape." He looked up at the surrounding rocks. He was worried, it had taken them a long time to get out of the cavern and he had expected Buffy to be back before him. He had started moving as the first blaster shots rang out but was worried for Buffy and the young gungan that had gone with her.

Then there was a loud explosion sound that caused the water in the pool to move violently, waves breaking against the shore. Rocks tumbled down from the mountain and dust rose from the disturbance.

"What was that?" Dawn asked, sounding afraid.

"Mesa think it was da distraction." Roos said wryly. He continued to scan the area, looking for any sign of the slayer and her companion.

He was beginning to get very worried when a shout had him looking up. At the top of the dried up waterfall, afternoon sun glinting on her blond hair, stood the slayer. Next to her and being supported by her was the gungan. Buffy looked behind her with a concerned expression before she turned back to Tarpals, determination blazing in her face. He knew what she was going to do a split second before she did it, long enough for him to slip into the driver's seat and power the heyblibber forwards to give as much space as possible to the two women who were hurtling through the air down to the pool below.

Buffy surfaced first, still with a hand wrapped around Tabbem's arm. They both climbed aboard the submarine and lay panting on the floor whilst Tarpals engaged the engine and sped down and away from the pool's surface.

"Buffy!" Dawn cried, running to her sister. "Are you ok? Oh my god! What happened?"

"I'm ok," Buffy gasped, although the rock she'd taken to her upper arm was throbbing painfully. It wasn't broken though and there wasn't much Dawn could do for it. "Tabbem was hit by a blaster shot though."

Dawn was at the gungan's side in an instant, lifting her tunic away to see the injury. As Buffy had thought it was a glancing blow, although the charred skin was painful it wasn't deep.

"Here," Dawn smoothed a green paste over it. "This will help it heal and take away the pain."

"Thanken yousa," Tabbem gasped, the soothing paste numbing the area immediately.

Dawn rocked back onto her heels from where she had been kneeling next to the gungan. She followed Buffy's line of sight to Lieutenant Kee and his subordinate, both looking very unwell.

"I don't know what to do for them." Dawn told her sister. "They need to see proper healers, not me."

"We're going back as fast as we can now." Buffy comforted her. "They'll get the attention they need soon."

Dawn looked around at the gungans, the piles of supplies and the bags of clothes and sighed.

"Only your shopping trips end in an explosion and a rescue mission."