Chapter 10

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Exar, Aang, and Jo were all asleep on the stone floor of a deep dungeon. It was approximately twenty feet in diameter, and forty feet in height. The walls were made of gray bricks, which were slowly molding over. No beds were provided. Galek came in and shook them awake. "It's time for you to prepare for your last battle." He said with a monotone.

Exar and Aang stood up and stretched, then noticed Jo wasn't up. Aang and Exar looked at each other.

"You wanna do it?" Exar asked.

"Um... ok." Aang replied quietly. He then leaned down and pressed an 'emergency wake' button which shocked Jo awake, making him stand immediately.

"I told you guys that you weren't allowed to-"

*Ahem* Coughed Galek. Jo let out a little laugh, then muttered, "Oh."

"Let's go." Galek said, motioning for them to follow him.

Galek led them down different hallways, eventually leading them to an armory storage.

"We like our gladiator fights to be a little more interesting. Choose your weapons wisely." Galek said.

The room had several selections of swords, armor, and certain shields of a familiar design.

"Republic Mini-Nordoxicon-38 anti-cuncussion shields?" Aang picked one up and observed.

"Who's used those?" Exar asked.

"Elite Galaxy-Protection forces... people like us." Aang said, turning to Exar with a hopeless expression. Then he and Exar started scrounging around for some certain evidence. And they did. They found two lightsabers. None of which were familiar to them. They tried turning them on, but no blade emitted.

"We'd be stupid if we left the Kyber crystals in the lightsabers." Galek said.

"We'll use these." Aang said.

"I suspected as much. And just so you know, your masters will be coming. Just hope they'll make it in time." Galek muttered, turning around and signalling for them to follow him. Outside, they were met with the glare of Jiro. He looked over them and saw the lightsabers in Exar and Aang's hands.

"That's it? Dont say that I'll be impressed with just that, I've heard it already." Jiro said. He and Galek led the trio to a tall and not-too-wide tunnel with a big door.

"Wait here for the doors to open." Jiro said, handing over two kyber crystals -one blue and the other green- and walking away with Galek. Aang and Exar used the force to deconstruct the lightsabers and place their crystals on the crystal mount, and pulled the lightsabers together again.

"This place really looked smaller from outside the camp." Jo said.

Then they heard a loud croud yell, which -of course- were all Tusken Raider yells, which made the team cringe.

"Wait a second, did Galek say 'gladiator' " Jo suddenly asked, getting concerned.

Then the doors started opening, and the team simultaneously traipsed outside upon the sand-covered grounds of the huge, circe-shaped arena.

"Are you kidding me?" Jo exclaimed.

They were a few yards away from the door and into the field when they heard Jiro's voice coming from a kiosk, where he and Galek were sat down and guarded by four Tuskens.

"Our battle will commense. And fighting these Jedi, are our best ten champions." Jiro said.

"This is a gladiator." Jo said, starting to panic.

The door on the other side of the arena opened, and from there came ten tall, burly, mummy-like Tuskens.

From the booth, Jiro leaned and asked Galek, "You told them this was a gladiator didn't you?"

"Yep."

Then Jiro let out a laugh.

Down at the arena, Aang leaned to Exar and asked, "You have a plan right?"

"Yep. Drop your weapons." He replied, and they complied. Exar turned to Jiro, "WE'RE NOT INTERESTED IN FIGHTING! WE'RE NOT THOSE KIND OF JEDI!" He said.

"Are you three trying to forfeit?" Jiro asked with clear amusement.

"What? No, I was talking about us," Exar motioned to himself and Aang, "Our friend, Jo, on the other hand..." Exar and Aang stepped back, letting Jo step forward.

The ten champions started charging forward at the trio. Jo just grinned and reached behind his cloak where he pressed a button. Then all six sections of each of Jo's arms disconnected from his body and floated in the air, revealing themselves to be fast, deadly drones. Eight of the Tuskens ended up being occupied with Jo's biceps and forearms, while two advanced forward. Jo charged back, performing a barrel roll in the air and kicking one in the face, making him recoil backwards. The other stepped back and waited to see what happened. The punched one got up and threw several punches and kicks at him, but Jo ducked and tripped him with his feet, but before the Tusken hit the ground, Jo spun around -keeping momentum- and thrusted his knee up and snapped the champion's back. Jo ran up to the second one, jumped and delivered a hard double kick to his face, knocking him to the ground. Jo charged at the remaining group with pure determination. The twelve drones returned to Jo and he got his arms back, right as a Tusken shot at Jo. As soon as Jo got his arms, he used the force to hold the blast between his hands. Keeping focus, he spun around and used the momentum to throw the blast at the Tusken who shot the blast at him. Just then, Jiro stood and shouted, "STOP!" Exar and Aang looked at Jiro with smug looks on their face.

"You will all fight!" Jiro stated, sharply.

"As you wish." Exar replied, mocking a bow and picking up his chosen lightsaber, and thrusting his arm forward, emerging his lightsaber from his sleeve. That nearly set Jiro off.

"Why does he already have a lightsaber?" He asked, turning to his guards, who all shrugged. Jiro turned back and stared on.

Aang pulled up his double-sided blue lightsaber and activated the green one he received recently, then Exar emitted his two blue blades, one of which was another lightsaber given to the team.

"It's clear this isn't a fair fight. Let's 'up' the game shall we?" Jiro announced. Just then, the audience started clearing out and Tusken Raiders started running through the doors and charging at the trio. Jo activated his lightwhips and said, "Finally." and charged, his team following behind.

The groups massed together, and the attack started, but ended when the Jedi simply repulsed every soldier backwards and used the force to keep the door closed. But then they were held still, and couldn't move. The doors opened and only a few Tuskens came out, and they held the Jedi down. Then they saw Jiro and Galek approaching with their four guards. And Jiro had his hand outstretched.

"I should've known. Of course you can use the force, being the son of a force-user." Jo said, mumbling the last part.

"Guards, end this. End them." Jiro said as they stopped in front of the Jedi.

A guard stepped up and pulled up his club. He swung upwards, then downwards. Then he turned and knocked Jiro in the face. Galek was about to attack, but another guard knocked him out. Jiro stood and was about to say something, but the guard that attacked him put his hand up, silencing him. Then he removed his mask, revealing the face of Rye. The other guard did the same and revealed Erickson's face.

"How did you infiltrate us?" Jiro asked, ticked off.

"We did it overnight. It was simple, really. You changed things up a bit with sand-people, but should've trained them a bit more." Rye replied. "Now, what was it I said? I would end this? Well let's go."

Just then, Republic ships appeared overhead and blasted the ground around the Jedi, giving them room to escape. The ships swiftly lowered and scooped the Jedi up while shooting at anyone else who attempted to get on. They quickly lifted off and sped away, leaving a malicious look on Jiro's face.

"That was a close call. Thanks for the last-second save." Jo said to Rye and Erickson.

"It's what we masters do." Erickson replied.

"Where's Ephraim?" Exar asked.

"He's helping Calista with her case on the stormtrooper case. We were going to, then we remembered that we had to come here to get you." Rye said.

Then Rye's holoprojector beeped off, and he answered it, and Ephraim appeared there.

"How'd it go Ephraim?" Rye asked with a smile.

"It went well. The Senate is actually considering helping us." Ephraim said.

"Well of course, the Lieutenant-Governor backed you up." Rye replied.

"But she isn't the Chancellor. Anyway, you and Erickson are needed back here for a report on what you've discovered." Ephraim said.

"We'll be there. We've got a heck of a story to tell." Rye said.