The familiar roar of the crowd, the sand beneath his feet, a weapon in his hand, and a fight he didn't want. This time, Jayce and Zapal were in the ring staring down none other than the wookiee Charruua herself. The two of them had electrostaffs and electrogloves, while the wookiee had only her fists. It seemed like it should have made a fairly one-sided fight.

Ogutta the Hutt, watching from her throne at the rim of the pit, waved a tubby hand for them to begin. The horn sounded, and Zapal and Jayce edged closer to the terrifyingly large wookiee. Charruua roared and lashed out. Jayce blocked the swing, and his staff nearly ripped free of his grip. He stumbled back. Zapal moved in for a strike, and the wookiee caught him with a kick that knocked him off his feet. The crowd roared its approval.

Before Charruua could advance on the downed zabrak, Jayce charged back in. He swung the staff, and Charruua knocked it aside. Jayce countered with a blow from the other end. He connected. The staff sparked. And Charruua seemed unaffected.

The wookiee grabbed the haft of the staff in one hand, and Jayce with the other, and easily lifted him into the air and tossed him aside. Jayce hit the sand and rolled. The staff remained with Charruua.

Jayce realized this was a lopsided fight. But not in their favor. The wookiee towered over him with the staff and bellowed triumphantly. The crowd cheered.

Then Charruua spun around, her back to Jayce, to face Ogutta the Hutt. She pulled back her furry arm and threw the electrostaff like a javelin. It sailed straight and true, and its sparking end smacked right into the torso of the bodyguard standing next to the Hutt. The armored figure was knocked back, and didn't get up.

Someone screamed, Ogutta bellowed angry Huttese, and the crowd erupted in chaos. Charruua charged towards the edge of the arena, then stumbled and roared in pain as the shock collar activated. But Jayce was right behind. He grabbed the collar and, with the aid of the Force, pulled it off the wookiee's neck. At the same time, he unlatched his own.

The wookiee stood and gave a nod to Jayce. The plan was going well so far. They ran to the side of the arena, Jayce's feet pounding the sand alongside to the wookiee's long, powerful strides. At the wall, Charruua cupped her hands and Jayce stuck in a foot. Charruua heaved upwards, and Jayce realized the wookiee hadn't been using even close to her full strength before.

Jayce landed on the top of the arena right next to the downed mercenary. He grabbed the electrostaff just in time to defend against a gamorrean's brutal swing of an axe. The crowd nearby pressed away, many already running from the fight that had suddenly spilled out from the arena.

A moment later Zapal landed next to Jayce, and swung his own staff hard into the face of the gamorrean. Jayce turned on the mercenary, who was struggling to get to his feet, and slammed the electrostaff down on him with all his strength. The mercenary stayed down. Near them, Ogutta the Hutt roared in impotent indignation.

Together, Zapal and Jayce overpowered another pair of gamorreans, then turned and lowered their staffs down to help Charruua out of the pit. It took every ounce of strength both of them could muster to heave the big wookiee up and out. Charruua rolled over the edge, then grabbed the nearest gamorrean and hurled it over the side. It squealed and thudded into the sand.

They were out of the pit, they were free of their collars, and the casino was thrown into chaos. It would have been the perfect time to escape, if they weren't staring at more guards with heavy blasters. The big trandoshan, the thin human, the twi'lek, and even the diminutive chadra-fan of Takka's crew held them at blaster point. They froze.

"Crispo hoohah!" Ogutta shouted, and blasters lifted towards them.

"Hold on!" Captain Takka interjected as he stepped between the blasters and the prisoners. "This is a pretty public spectacle already." He leaned close to the Hutt, and whispered something to her.

Ogutta let out a rumbled laugh, and her repulsor platform turned and glided back through the large doors to her private chambers, flanked by two still-conscious gamorrean guards. Takka's crew took the staves from the prisoners and cuffed their hands behind their backs.

Captain Takka gave them a wink. "Wonderful execution," he whispered, and pushed them after the hutt.

"So this is where we just have to trust that slimy rodian?" Zapal growled quietly to Jayce.

"It'll be fine," Jayce insisted, though he didn't feel all that confident himself.

Once in the privacy of Ogutta's chambers, Zapal, Jayce, and Charruua were forced to their knees in front of her throne. She rumbled angrily, and a bronze protocol droid stepped forward to translate.

"The great and esteemed Ogutta the Hutt is outraged by your behavior," the droid said. "She shows you kindness and hospitality, and in return you attack her bodyguards and threaten her life. Her Excellency will see you suffer for this outrage. You will live, but only to regret what you have done. You shall..."

"Bla bla bla!" Captain Takka interrupted. "We get it, a thousand years of suffering, a whole new world of pain, yadda yadda, the speech is over." Takka raised a blaster, Jayce's blaster, and shot the Hutt between the eyes.

The gamorreans squealed, and charged, and the rest of his crew gunned them down. Captain Takka blew the droid's head off its body, then confidently strode over and sat on the edge of the repulsor platform beside the body of the Hutt.

"Well, that went about as well as I could have asked," he said. "But you don't look happy about it."

Jayce was staring at the body of the gamorrean in front of him. It had a chipped left horn, a scar across its left shoulder, and three blaster holes seared in its chest.

"You didn't have to kill them."

"'Course I did. Gamorreans are loyal to a fault."

"So it's over," Zapal said. "Now about getting these cuffs off and we'll be on our way."

"Yeah, there's a problem," Takka said. "I don't keep this place unless the other Hutts let me. And they won't let me unless I give them Ogutta's killers. In other words, you."

Zapal glared at Jayce in a silent "I told you so." No one was exactly surprised by the betrayal, Jayce was just wearried by it.

"So," Captain Takka stood and stepped close to Jayce. "I give them you, they let me run the Final Round, and you get tortured, a thousand years of suffering, yadda ya, it's a whole thing with Hutts."

"Not if we tell them the truth," Jayce said.

Takka laughed. "Like they'd believe you! It's your gun that killed Ogutta, after all. An R-66 packs quite the punch. But it's not a very common blaster, and leaves a distinctive wound. You're obviously to blame for all of this. But before you go," he leaned in and hooked the barrel of the R-66 on the leather cord of Jayce's necklace. "That's quite a crystal. I think I'll have it off you."

"Now that's just low," Jayce growled.

"Yeah, well, what can you do?"

Jayce slipped the stolen comm unit out from its hiding place on his waste. "This." He pressed the button.

A ways away, in the power station in the bowels of the casino building, several main conduits were suddenly short circuited. Sparks flew, followed by a small explosion. And all over the casino, the lights went out.

It only took a few moments for the emergency lights to turn on, but in those moments a lot happened. The cuffs fell from Jayce's wrists and he grabbed for the blaster. It went off, and a bolt grazed his left shoulder. He headbutted Captain Takka, a move that worked a lot better against a rodian than another zabrak, and the rodian let go of the blaster.

Jayce turned to Zapal, grabbed his cuffs, and shot out the link between them. In the flash of light he saw that Charruua had already ripped free of her bonds and she and the trandoshan were at each other's throats.

The emergency lights bathed the room in red. The trandoshan went flying and collided with the twi'lek first mate. Jayce shot the human crewmember in the leg and he went down. The chadra-fan dove for cover behind Ogutta's mound of a corpse.

The three of them turned and ran before their enemies could recover. Jayce led the way out of Ogutta's chambers along a side hall, then down a flight of stairs.

"Hey," Zapal shouted. "The nearest exit is this way!"

"I'm going to free the slaves." Jayce replied. "You can go if you want. But how long will you last without a blaster?"

Zapal looked down the hallway leading to the exit. There was likely no more than a single guard, and he still had his electrogloves. That would make for a fair fight. Then again, there could be a lot more. He followed after Jayce.

"Seriously? You're risking your life for... slaves?"

"Yup!" Jayce reached the bottom of the stairs and crashed violently into the slave quarters. The power was still out, meaning the doors were unlocked. He opened the first door to find the togruta woman huddled in the corner. He rushed over to her. She pulled away.

"It's okay, I'm here to help," Jayce said. She was obviously frightened, but let him pull her collar off.

"Thank you," she shakily murmured.

"Get out of here," he shouted before moving on to the next room, then the next, and on down the line. By the end of it there were two tagruta, four humans, and nearly a dozen twi'leks in a frightened group following after them.

Zapal squeezed past them all and leaned in close to Jayce. "Even if you do get all these people out of here, by tomorrow most will have gone right back to the Hutts."

"At least they'll have a choice," Jayce said. He turned the corner to the exit, then flung himself back as blaster bolts zipped past. "Damn, Takka and his crew are back!"

"You know, you really should start believing me," Zapal shouted in between baster fire. "I told you Takka was going to betray us."

Jayce reached around the corner and returned fire. "I never said I didn't believe you, just that I didn't trust you!"

"Well I'm glad..." a blaster bolt hit a wall panel, showering them with sparks, "...I'm glad we've made that distinction."

Charruua let out a ululating roar, then took off the other way down the hall.

"I couldn't agree more," Jayce said and hurried after, corralling the ex-slaves as he went.

"I thought you didn't understand Shyriiwook."

"From the context, she obviously said 'shut up and run!'"

The whole lot of them, wookiee, zabraks, tagruta, humans, and twi'leks, hurried through the corridors. Charruua charged through a pair of gamorreans as if they were children as they made their way back onto the main casino floor.

A line of guards, gamorreans, the trandoshan, various mercenaries, blocked the door. They crouched behind a row of video pazaak machines as blaster bolts whizzed over their heads, unable to move forward, with the rest of Captain Takka's crew coming up behind.

"This way!"

Dr. Do'lona stood at a small door off the side of the casino and waved them over.

Zapal wasted no time springing across the room towards her.

"Oh, so her you trust?" Jayce shouted after him as he did his best to provide covering fire. The rest of the group hurried after, and Jayce brought up the rear.

Do'lona led them through a few more corridors to another side door that led outside. It was day. It was also overcast and raining. Jayce still hadn't seen a sunrise on Nar Shaddaa. The holo adverts were gone. The entire plaza that crisscrossed the gaps between skyscrapers was without power. Jayce's sabotage had done a lot more than he'd intended.

Zapal hung back at the door for a moment as they ran outside. "Will you be okay?" he asked Dr. Do'lona.

"Don't worry about me," she said, "I'll be fine. Now get out of here. But feel free to come back any time to visit!"

They kissed. Jayce rolled his eyes.

The freed slaves scattered left and right, in groups and by themselves down alleys and over bridges, until only Zapal, Jayce, and Charruua were left together. They stopped in a rooftop alley between two larger skyscrapers to catch their breath.

"Anyone following?" Zapal asked.

Jayce's hearts were pounding. He looked behind them. The rain fell on an empty street.

"No."

"Good."

A fist connected with Jayce's jaw hard enough to make him see stars. The jolt from the electroglove knocked him to his knees, and the blaster fell from his hand. Zapal stood over him in his well-honed fighting stance.

"Now we're getting off this rock, and you're coming with me."

Jayce spat blood. It disappeared in the rain pounding the rooftop. "Like hell I am."

Charruua roared in confusion.

"Don't test me," Zapal said. "And don't think for a second the little training I gave you would let you beat me."

"Why?" Jayce got to his feet and squared up against the other zabrak. "Why do you care so much?"

"Because I..." Zapal snarled. "Because you still have to answer for what you did on Dantooine!"

"Oh, go eat bantha poodoo!"

Zapal swung. Jayce was ready for it this time. He blocked, blocked again, and went for the kick. Zapal grabbed his leg and yanked him off balance. Jayce hit the rooftop. They struggled, Zapal clearly had the upper hand, striking Jayce freely while Jayce could only deliver a few weak blows in return.

Then Zapal was off him, and he was free. Charruua lifted Zapal in the air and tossed him a meter down the alley, then stood between the two of them and bellowed furiously. Zapal got up and slowly backed away.

"You don't get it!" he shouted. "The jedi ruin everything they touch."

Jayce found his blaster and stood. He didn't raise it, but kept it very much at the ready. "Get out of here," he shouted. "And if I see you again, I will shoot you."

Zapal shook his head. Water streamed in rivulets around his horns and down his patterned face. "You're just going to go back to them like a dog on a leash. You want to free slaves, but you are the jedi's slave! The whole stinking galaxy is captive to them!"

"Go!"

Zapal stepped back into the darkness of the alley, turned a corner, and was gone. Charruua gave a questioning growl.

Jayce shrugged. "I don't know." It was true no matter what the wookiee had asked. "I really was starting to think we might be able to trust each other." He sighed. "Anyway, how do we get off this festering rock?"

Charruua motioned for Jayce to follow, and they walked together across the rooftop through the rain.