Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Star Wars. Buffy belongs to Whedon, and Star Wars belongs to Lucas. No money made.

A/N: This is the fifth—and final, yay!—in my Buffy/Star Wars series that began last August Fic-a-Day. Please enjoy!

Why We Fight (Again)

Once Buffy and Leia had made the switch through the portal, which returned each to their respective homes, a long period of silence fell. Luke had returned to the bedroom that Buffy and her group had set him up with inside their Scotland castle—which doubled as Slayer Headquarters as well. And Buffy had turned to her training, focusing all she had on the girls she had just received from all around the world—newly found slayers. It was days before the two of them spoke once more, and that was fine by them. Luke had just lost his sister, forever, and Buffy had just learned that it was all her fault—in more ways than one.

Luke should have never been put into the Deeper Well, but now, after several hours of thinking about it, Buffy was sure that The Powers That Be had done just that, knowing this future would come. In fact, she was pretty sure that that was exactly what backwards-talking, Powers That Be-manifestation Yoda had meant. They had seen that Buffy was going to create many slayers, and that someone would have to be there to clean up her mess. She was the reason Luke had been torn from the world he had known, put into a hibernation chamber, and sent to a planet he had never even heard of in a time when it was ruled by those referred to as Old Ones.

So days passed, and neither the Chosen One nor the Jedi spoke with one another. If one was in a room, the other left. Buffy had informed Willow what had transpired on Coruscant—in the past, as was the nature of the spell—and she was pretty sure her witchy friend had passed the word along to Luke. There was some definite tenseness in the air.

But then, one night, Buffy found herself in the castle's kitchen—located on the bottommost floor, underground—scrounging the cabinets for anything that even remotely resembled chocolate when the Jedi entered the room. Buffy pretended not to notice Luke pause in the doorway, leaning against the frame. She continued to pull items out of the cabinets, more than happy when she realized that they had a can of whipped marshmallow, mini bars of Hersey's chocolate bars, and honey graham crackers. It was s'mores time in Castle Slayer.

"You've been avoiding me," Luke said finally as Buffy was midway through assembling her fifth s'more.

"Actually, I think we've been avoiding each other. S'more?" she asked, using the mallow covered butter knife to indicate that she had plenty more where the six she had assembled came from.

Luke's brow furrowed. "I don't know what that is."

Buffy grinned, pulling out more chocolate and graham crackers. "OMG, then you have to have one. This isn't the traditional way we usually make 'em here on Earth, but it's still damn good."

She threw together another two and lined the whole lot onto a baking sheet, popping them into the oven. She turned back to Luke as she causally chucked the dirty knife into the nearby sink basin.

"Doesn't take but a few minutes, just enough to melt the chocolate," she said.

"You're still avoiding me, even as we're standing here, Buffy," Luke said. He came fully into the kitchen, taking a seat at the polished, long wooden dining set. "Willow told me what Yoda said to you."

Well, that confirmed her suspicion. She would have to re-educate her BFF on what the exact meaning of the word "secret" meant. The slayer sighed, moving to sit across from the Jedi.

"It's my fault. What I did is the reason why they took you from your life and plopped you in mine. I'm no better than the Shadow Men were."

Luke smiled, shaking his head. "I've taken the past couple of days to study the origin of the slayers. Giles was very helpful on the matter. He also told me what transpired the first time you used the spell to learn what you could about the trouble you were facing then. These Shadow Men… you're nothing like them. From my understanding, they took an innocent girl from her home and turned her into a weapon of their choosing."

Buffy turned, pulling down the door of the oven to check on her midnight snack. The oven was barely even warm, so the s'mores were far from done. She shut the door with a sigh.

"Tell me how I'm different again?"

"You didn't bring me here. You didn't know that your actions were going to land me in a hibernation chamber. You don't want me to be here."

"Harsh," Buffy said, biting at her bottom lip.

Luke waved a hand dismissively. "What I meant was, given the choice to return me to my family or having me here just to serve you… you would choose the former. I know that's true."

"But how?" she asked, slipping back into her chair. "How could you possibly know that's true?"

"Because it's been shown to me. In the loyalty and love of your friends. In the loyalty and love of these new and frightened girls that are brought to you almost daily for guidance. And in your own, self-applied guilt. You're a good person, Buffy Summers. I've seen it time and again, even in the short time I've been awake."

Buffy checked on her s'mores again, finding them ready. She removed them from the oven and slid two onto a plate for Luke, and the rest onto a plate for herself.

"Careful," she warned quietly. "They're hot."

The Jedi eyed the summertime treat the same way Buffy had eyed some of the aliens on Coruscant. But, after watching the slayer take a big bite out of one of her own, he gingerly lifted his and mimicked the action. Instantly, his eyes lit up.

"These are delicious. What are they called again?"

"S'mores. Because you always want some more."

"Clever."

"Give it another twenty years."

The two munched on their snacks in relative silence, only occasionally laughing at one another for their struggles against the stickiness of the marshmallow. Finally, once Luke had completed his two—and turned down Buffy's offer to share her remaining four—he sighed.

"I've also been thinking about what it meant. What Yoda told you."

"He wasn't really Yoda, you know," Buffy said.

She didn't mean the words cruelly. In fact, she meant quite the opposite. She had already dangled quite a list of people Luke had known in his face that he would never see again… she really didn't want to add anyone that she didn't need to it.

"I know. But I think what he—They—meant is the Force."

Buffy arched a brow. "That's the powers you have? The mystical stuff?"

"It's similar, but not quite. I've noticed that some of those you call Wiccans here have the talents for the Force. And I do feel something similar when I'm around slayers, but it feels only… related. Like distant family. What I've sensed in the Wiccans, however, seems exact."

Buffy sucked some marshmallow off of her middle finger. "So, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that what They meant by making more to restore balance is making more Jedi. Our powers spring from the some fount, although they admittedly have their differences. Perhaps having a group of both Jedi and slayer will begin to tip the scale back into place. One force to keep an eye on another."

"You mean like checks and balances?"

Luke nodded. "Exactly like that."

Buffy grinned. "And my civics teacher said I wasn't applying myself."

She didn't elaborate on that, instead continuing to eat away on her sweet snack. Finally, when devouring the last crumb of the last s'more on her plate, she sighed.

"You don't have to do this. You have a choice. You don't owe The Powers anything, Luke."

He nodded. "No. But I owe it to you."

"Oh, you definitely do not owe it to me."

"I was awakened before you arrived. Had it not been for you and Illyria finding me, I would have died."

"That was my prophetic dreams."

"And you didn't have to listen to them. And then, to go a step further, you've taken me in, unquestioningly. And you've done more than I could have ever asked for in helping me figure out what happened to bring me here."

"We still don't have a direct answer."

Luke groaned. "I want to do this, Buffy. This is what I'm supposed to do. The Jedi fulfilled their part in my time, in my galaxy. Now it's time they do their part here."

He stood. Pausing for just a moment, He waited for her reply. When none came, he sighed and moved to leave the kitchen. Just before reaching the door, Buffy stopped him.

"We can start tomorrow. And Willow can help you find more of the type of person you need to train Jedi."

Luke grinned. Glancing over his shoulder, he nodded.

"I think it'll be an honor to work alongside you."

Buffy smiled. "Ditto."

End Part V

End Notes: Okay, so I feel the need to add this note. As you've noticed from the A/N, this is the last in this series of one-shots. That being said, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you—very, very basically—what I think would happen in the future of this series. I think Buffy and Luke would become a couple. Not just because that's what I'd like to see, but because of the similarity in their situations. They were both fairly ordinary when they were told about their talents and trained to go save the world (or galaxy in Luke's case). They're both self-sacrificing heroes that, when the day ends and there's more people to help carry the burden, they are still the single, solitary person that everyone turns to for help. I think they'd see themselves and more in each other and end up, very happily, together. As for whatever else that may bring, well… you guys can just imagine. This is the end of this series, and I couldn't be happier with how I ended it. Also, s'mores… I think all the world's troubles could be solved a little easier if all meetings included a plate of s'mores. Also, I don't, physically in my real life right now, have the stuff to make them, and I think I'm kind of craving them.