Gizam sighed, rubbing at his bulging eyes with his skeletal fingers. A mess of documents and other red-tinted papers were spread out before him. It looked as if the dust storm from outside had somehow made it's way inside and twirled everything out of place.

A gust of wind whipped at his bare skin. Maybe the storm really did come in. His head snapped to his side.

The B1 was standing directly next to him, a bundle of wires clenched tight in one hand. They snaked behind him to the body of another B1.

"I have completed the first reprogramming operation sir," The B1 said, his silver head shining in the light.

"Excellent, continue with the rest," Gizam said, waving him away. He picked up another document.

The B1 still stood at his side, standing still as a statue.

He glanced back up at him, "Is something wrong?"

The B1's head wavered in place in such a fluid manner, Gizam nearly thought an organic was hiding underneath the droid's chassis.

"Would you like me to power him on?" The B1 continued.

"No," Gizam replied plainly, "Go on and continue with the rest, leave me alone"

The B1 continued to stare at him. It abruptly turned and marched off back to his work.

'Strange behavior for a droid. It must be something with it's new functions,' Gizam thought. He glossed over the contents of the document before him. But the droid took center stage in his mind, 'It shouldn't be acting this way. What else is it capable of with this new programming? Maybe I made a mistake,' He thought. He squeezed his eyes shut, 'There's a reason why we restricted their programming. And here I am taking off all of it's chains'

His eyes opened wide as he whipped around to see where the droid had gone.

It was hunched over the monitor to his side, tapping away at the keyboard in front of him, another B1 was already plugged into the computer.

Gizam sighed, attempting to return his attention to the task at hand. He read the same paragraph over and over, his mind still distracted by the droid just a few feet away. He couldn't read a thing on the paper in front of him.

The chair under Gizam nearly cracked in half from the sudden movement of him jumping to his feet. The legs of it let out a shrill as it fought against the ground.

The tapping from his side had stopped. He glanced over to the B1. He was staring at him.

"Is something wrong sir?" The B1 asked.

"No, it's nothing. I just need a break. I will be in the living quarters if you need me," Gizam replied, avoiding the droid's gaze. His hands trembled at his sides as he hurried out of the command center.

'I made a mistake,' Was all Gizam could think as he paced the barracks of the facility. Holes had been dug out of the smooth cave walls at either side for the Geonosians, and charging pods for the droids lined two ends of the chamber. It was entirely open to the middle of the facility, where the entrance and all other rooms met in one central axis, 'I should've restricted it. Should've destroyed it's personality core. No, no, but the personality is necessary if I want to make a good tactical droid out of it,' He banged a fist against his forehead, 'The programming, that's the issue. I need to redo it, need to make sure it doesn't step out of line,' He threw himself into one of the makeshift beds embedded into the cave, 'Now how would I disable it? I can't just ask it, it'll hesitate. In fact, it might be hesitating right now'

A voice suddenly tore through the silence, "Sir?"

Gizam flopped out of the wall straight onto his feet, his wings fluttered in surprise, "D-don't do that!"

The B1 bowed it's head, "Sorry sir, but I was just going to tell you that I've already finished the second reprogramming operation"

"That quick?" Gizam said. The shaking in his hands had come back again, "H-how?"

"Whatever you did to my programming is really helping," The B1 said, it's voice pitching up in joy, "Thank you for improving it"

Now he was certain. He had to kill the B1 before things got out of hand. There were plenty of others to choose from and begin anew. He frantically searched for his staff. Where had he put it? It had been so dark when he'd entered. He must've left it out in the entrance, but if he went out there now the B1 could possibly become suspicious of him.

"Sir?" The B1 waved a hand in front of his face.

Gizam blinked, "O-oh. I – you needed the improvement in your programming. You're to be the general of my army after all," His head jerked as an idea popped into his head, "As a matter of fact, I was just about to tell you all about my plan—our goals," He wrapped an arm around the B1s shoulder and led him back towards the center of the base.

"Our goals?" The B1 questioned, a genuine hint of curiosity in it's voice.

"Yes. You see, the reason why I am doing this is because of this new Empire"

"Empire?"

Gizam loosened his shoulders at the sight of his staff near the entrance of the control room. He grabbed it as they passed by, "Empire, Republic, they're practically one and the same. In fact, I'd say the Empire is more like the Republic than the Republic itself"

The B1's head tilted, his stoic eyes failing to convey his bewilderment, "I don't understand"

"Don't worry, you don't need to. The only thing you must know is that they seek to destroy all Geonosians like me and battle droids like yourself. You and I, we're against a common enemy. That is why I am putting together this army with you at it's center, to fight back against these tyrants"

The B1 stared deep into Gizam's eyes. He put on his best poker face. They came to a stop in front of the giant holotable.

"You have my full support sir"

Gizam let go of the B1, "And I will need it," He pointed to a few buttons on the table in front of him, "For the time being, I would like you to grab a scan of the general area"

The B1 hunched over, examining a panel full of buttons at his fingertips, "How do I do that?"

Gizam took his staff into both hands and extended the blade out towards the B1, "Like this"

He speared the blade forward.

The B1 whirled around. He brought up one leg and stomped the staff to the ground before it could pierce his chassis.

Gizam gasped, 'H-he's fast. I made him too fast!'

The B1 curled up one hand into a fist and threw a straight punch at Gizam's mouth.

A snap echoed through the room.

Gizam reeled back, clutching his mouth in one hand, a pained groan escaped him.

The B1 flipped the spear over, the blade now pointed straight at Gizam.

Gizam put both hands up, his eyes wide in terror, "Stop! I-I made a mistake! I can fix-"

The B1 thrust the staff forward. It pierced straight through Gizam's throat with a wet snap.

He flailed around on the floor, grasping at his throat, the blade forcing him into an upright position. He wriggled around for a few seconds more until his body finally gave out.

The B1 kicked at his still body. His arms lifelessly shuffled out of place, contorting and shifting in ways it shouldn't.

'Why?' Was his first thought, 'Why would you do that? After telling me all about how we were going to fight together'

He brought up one hand to his face, gliding it over the line where his tan paint still clung on and where his silver chassis started, 'What am I going to do now?'

A buzz echoed from one of the cables still left near the B1 he was working on. The cable sparked with life. Flashes of blue erupted from one end.

He hurried over to it, disconnecting it from the computer ahead.

His hand grazed the head of the B1 still laid out close to the monitor of the computer.

He hadn't taken a good look at him before.

The B1's exposed photo-receptor was what had caught his eye. It was spherical and yellow in the middle with black around it's edges. The steel around his exposed eye was sharp, and rose and fell forming what appeared like teeth around the edges of his injury. His body was painted the same red that covered the entire planet. There was a deep scratch on his chest, most likely caused by a chunk of shrapnel from the detonator that blew his head open.

'You…' The silver-stained B1 thought. He traced the outline of the other droid's injured photo-receptor, 'You and I – all of us, we will be an army. I will continue to fight against the Republic or Empire for as long as I live. We can't trust anyone, not even our own creators'

He threw open a port on one side of the B1 and plugged him back into the computer ahead.

The clicking of keys echoed through the room.

'There,' The B1 thought, his hands retreating from the keyboard, 'You're free, just like me'

The injured B1 sputtered to life, his body vibrating as his internal fans and internal circuitry powered on.

His arms moved to his sides as he pushed himself up and glanced around the room, taking in his surroundings.

"Hello," The silver B1 said.

"Hello," The B1 with the exposed eye replied.

"How is your eye? Can you see this?" The silver B1 said, waving a hand in front of his face.

"No, but I can see you," The B1 with the exposed eye reached out to scrape a finger across the silver B1's head, "You're so shiny, so silver"

"Really?" The silver B1 said. He grabbed the keyboard before him and flipped it over, it's glossy underside acting as a mirror, "So that's what I felt on my face"

The B1 with the exposed eye stood on both feet, "What are my orders?"

The Silver B1 stared at the other, "Help me carry another one of these droids over to the computer"

"Roger that," The B1 replied, he reached out to his face again, tapping at his exposed chassis.

"Stop that," The silver B1 said, swatting the other's hand away.

"Sorry, I've just never seen a B1 so shiny before"

"And I've never seen another B1 with an exposed photo-receptor"

"What?" The B1 reached up to his exposed eye, "Oh...oh, this is strange," He said tapping at his photo-receptor. He waved a hand in front of it, unnerved by the fact that he wasn't able to see out of it.

"I will fix it for you later, just help me carry this droid"

"Roger that"


A/N: I wasn't expecting this much interest for this story so here's the second chapter early. I am actively working on this just to reassure you all. Unless I suddenly lose all interest in Star Wars as a whole, I'll keep working on all my B1 battle droid stories (that won't happen until after Andor S2, I think). I'm already working on the sequel for the main series of all my battle droid stories: The Art of Brotherhood. This story is part of that series just to let all you new readers know. This will be a short one, I'm aiming for 30-40k words or less, but I try not to pay attention to the numbers too much. Hopefully I don't make as many grammar and spelling mistakes as before. Thank you all for your interest, I hope you enjoy.