Jayce and Zapal were fitted with shock collars and dumped in adjoining cells in a dungeon more full of beasts than sapient beings. The smell was overwhelming. A massiff snarled and slammed the bars centimeters from Jayce. He pulled back into the center of his cage, as far from all his neighbors as he could.

Around them was quite the menagerie of vicious beasts, and a few miserable looking sapients. An emaciated weequay huddled in a far cell. A wookiee sat calmly in another, watching them. The adjoining creatures were keeping well away from the wookiee.

Zapal stepped close to the bars that separated him from Jayce. "It looks like we'll be able to finish our fight from before after all."

Jayce kept his eyes fixed on the floor strewn with straw and animal dung. "I thought we already finished that. Or don't you remember?"

"I remember you pulling a blaster on me."

"And I remember you calling in a bodyguard. I still won."

The organic half of Zapal's mouth snarled. "Fine, then. We'll get to see who is actually the better fighter, with no interruptions."

Jayce closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the odor. He sought a meditative state while trying not to look like that's what he was doing. Hopefully all he needed to do was stay alive for a little while, and Ogutta would decide to ransom him back to the temple. He had no illusions about his chances in a straight brawl against Zapal. And if it were a fight to the death...

The hutt's guards hadn't done a very thorough job of searching him, and his crystal remained concealed. He pulled it out and fingered it like a prayer beed. It was a small comfort. The crystal had called to him, surely a sign he was meant to be a jedi once more.

"Did your jedi puppetmasters give you that crystal?" Zapal said.

Jayce opened his eyes and looked over at him. Zapal leaned on the bars, horns resting against them. His fake horn was in place, the guards hadn't found that either. As he looked at the crystal, the disgust was evident in his eyes.

"Why do you hate them so much?" Jayce asked. "The jedi are peacekeepers, working to protect everyone they can."

Zapal spat on the ground. "The jedi are a cult. They take what they want, and no one is powerful enough to refuse them. The only people they protect are the rich and powerful."

"That just..."

The door to the dungeon slid open, and Jayce quickly hid the crystal beneath his shirt. The devaronian Krella entered with a gamorrean guard and strode over to the cage holding the weequay. The gamorrean forcibly pulled out the stammering and protesting captive, and the trio disappeared down a hallway. When Krella and his guard passed through again, the weequay was not with them.

Cheers of a distant crowd filtered down into the dungeon, along with the indistinct words of an announcer.

"What you said," Jayce continued after Krella was gone again. "It sounds like Separatist propaganda. Why do YOU hate them?"

Zapal tilted his head, watching Jayce and considering. A horn sounded above, and the crowd cheered. Zapal ran two fingers along the side of his deformed face. "Who do you think did this to me?"

Jayce swallowed hard. He looked at the wound with new eyes. He could imagine the tip of a lightsaber cutting downwards, not quite deep enough to kill.

"They must have had a reason."

Zapal slammed a palm against the cage hard enough to make it rattle and set the massiffs snarling. "What reason could justify this?!" he shouted. "To an unarmed boy younger than you are now!" He was breathing heavily. It was clearly a struggle for him to calm his voice. "I've carried it for ten years, and every day it's a reminder of what they do to people who are inconvenient for them."

Zapal fell silent and turned his back. Jayce wanted to inquire further and get more details. But he let the silence linger and thought on what the man had said. There were many reasons why a jedi might be forced to resort to such an action. And while the wound on Zapal's face was likely made by a lightsaber, that didn't mean it was a jedi. Dooku wielded a saber, after all, and there were rumors he had agents who did as well. There were just too many unknowns to form an opinion.

More shouts of approval from the crowd. An announcer said something indistinct. It sounded like the weequay's fight was over. It hadn't lasted very long. The main door to the dungeon opened once more and Krella the devaronian was proceeded by two gamorreans this time. The trio stopped in front of their cages.

"Time for your bout," he said and signaled to the gamorreans, who opened the cages and pulled Zapal and Jayce out. Krella looked them over, then grinned. "Chain them together."

At his direction, the gamorreans fitted each of them with heavy belts that locked in place. And between them ran a thick chain roughly five meters long, attaching them back to back.

"Come on. And at least try to make it entertaining."

The gamorreans pushed them through a door and into the bright lights of the arena. The ground was loose sand, in some places still wet with blood. Several meters above their heads, an excited crowd ringed the pit beneath displays of odds and bets and a large, holographic timer currently set to zero. At one side of the arena, Ogutta's repulsor platform hovered slowly to the edge. The armored mercenary stood at her side.

"Here she is!" the disembodied voice of the announcer boomed through the arena. "The magnificent Ogutta the Hutt herself graces us with her presence! Come to watch as these two zabraks fight!" His words were repeated in another language Jayce didn't know. "Look at that big one. With a scar like that, you can tell at least one of them has seen a fight or two!"

"I still have no wish to kill you," Zapal growled over the noise of the crowd. "I hope I don't have to."

Jayce ignored him. His attention was fixed on the other doors that ringed the fighting pit, and the portcullis barriers behind which feral creatures snarled and salivated.

"I don't think we're fighting each other," he said.

"The next round begins..." the announcer said, "now!" A horn sounded, the timer started, and gates on either side of the arena flew open to release two snarling beasts onto the sand.

The hungry massiffs wasted no time in charging towards the chained pair of zabraks, accompanied by the cheers of the crowd. The nearest one lunged at Jayce. The force of it knocked him onto his back, and it was all he could do to hold on to the creature's head and keep its teeth from his throat.

He got his feet under the beast and kicked it off him, then rolled to his feet. Zapal already had the other caught with his arms around its neck. Its limbs scrabbled uselessly as Zapal squeezed the breath out of it. It fell limp.

Jayce's massiff was up and coming for him again, but this time Jayce was ready. He timed the kick perfectly and connected with its head just behind its massive snout. The beast fell, then struggled back to its feet, whimpered, and limped away.

"That was fast! Clearly these two are more competent than our last contestant. We'll have to give them more of a challenge!"

Another horn sounded, more gates opened, and the crowd grew even louder. A pack of six anoobas came at them from all directions. There were too many to fend off easily. Jayce kicked and punched. He caught one on the side of the head just like the massiff, and knocked it aside.

Jayce went for another before the pack could regroup, but he was suddenly pulled up short and fell backwards. The chain tying him to Zapal had wrapped around him. In his moment of weakness, the anoobas were on him. They scratched and bit, trying to get at his throat. His arms burned and bled. The onlookers applauded.

There was a howl, and one of the creatures was flung to the side. The other backed away, and Zapal pulled him to his feet.

"Come on, I can't do this alone," he growled. Four beasts still circled them. One was down and unmoving. The last lamely clawed away.

The two zabrak faced the remaining beasts back to back. In the pause in the fight, Jayce took a bit of the chain and wrapped it around his hand. When the first anooba came at him, he punched. Bones cracked in the anooba's skull, and Jayce let out a cry of pain as two of his fingers dislocated from their sockets. The anooba dropped, but Jayce couldn't do that again without breaking his hand. He couldn't do that again.

As the next charged, Jayce lowered his head at the last second to duck beneath its snapping jaws. The impact jarred his whole body and sank his horns into the creature's chest. It yelped and struggled to pull itself free. Blood sprayed the sand. Jayce pushed the anooba off him and stood, the creature's crimson blood drenched his hair and ran down his face. The crowd roared in appreciation.

Zapal knocked the third on its side and slammed his foot into its neck. They turned to face the last together. But it decided it didn't want to face two zabraks by itself and fled back the direction it had come and scratched furiously at the closed gate.

"Another round goes to the zabraks! But they took a beating. Do they have it in them to meet our third and final challenge? Here we goooooooo!"

The smaller gates opened, and the anoobas that were able to scurried and limped back into the tunnels. Then the larger gate at the edge of the arena below Ogutta the Hutt's repulsor platform slowly slid open. A growling, wailing gurgle emanate from the tunnel beyond.

"Oh, shavit!" Zapal swore.

The thing that came through was all teeth and claws and eyes. It pounced on the wounded massiff, the smaller creature's cry cut off abruptly as teeth sank into its throat. Then the savage beast opened its wide mouth and roared, much to the delight of the crowd.

Jayce had never seen one in person before, but he knew enough to recognize the nexu. And he knew enough to echo Zapal's expletive.

When the nexu was done with the appetizer, it came for the main course, straight at Jayce. He ducked and rolled beneath the pounce. Its claws scratched the air a hair's breadth from his face. As it turned to try again, Zapal gave it a hard kick to the side that seemed not to hurt it at all. The nexu rounded on Zapal with a savage swipe that sprayed blood over the sand and sent Zapal tumbling. The chain pulled taught.

With intelligent eyes the nexu looked from Jayce to the chain at its feet. Then it grabbed the chain in its mouth and pulled. Jayce was yanked off his feet towards the razor teeth. Jayce turned over and dug his heels into the sand. There was no winning the tug-of-war with the mass of furry muscle. The claws were almost within striking distance.

"Hey!" Zapal shouted. He was back on his feet, dripping blood from his back. The nexu turned. Zapal flicked his half of the chain around the creature's neck and pulled.

The nexu let go of the chain and went for Zapal. Jayce grabbed his end and pulled it tight with everything he had left. The nexu was trapped in a stranglehold halfway between them.

"Pull!" Zapal shouted.

"I am pulling!" Jayce shouted back.

The nexu futilely clawed the ground.

The crowd went wild.

It seemed to take forever. But eventually the cat-beast weakened, its scrabbling became a jerking, and then it went limp. Jayce let the chain go loose.

"Wow! What a finish! There you have it, tonight's first champions! But stick around, folks, because we've got a lot more coming your way, right here at the Final Round!

"Presented by Ogutta the Hutt."