Arx’s Colosseum is a monument to the original Petranaki arena on Geonosis, the site where the Clone Wars began with an epic clash between Jedi and Sith. However, instead of confining itself to a decrepit ruin, the Colosseum stands as an example of what the Geonosian arena once was.

Walls tall enough to be unscalable for even the most practiced Force-user surround a theatre the size of a holoball field, floored with sandy soil. Above, rows of seats are packed together into sections for spectators to observe the carnage. The dignitaries who preside over the gladiator matches instead find themselves in an elongated platform “box”, with the large stone throne reserved for the most prestigious among them, flanked by smaller seats for their companions. Large holo-projection screens occupy each of the Colosseum’s walls, displaying images of the combat below streamed by the cam droids that circle the arena.

The arena floor itself is, naturally, more dangerous than it appears. A wide assortment of traps are concealed beneath the dirt and sand, including but not limited to: retractable fire-spewing nozzles, power coils firing bolts of lightning, electrified floor panels, deadfalls lined with spikes, and even obelisks that simply erupt from the ground. These traps are operated by sentient technicians in the Colosseum’s control room, well away from the fighting.

You and another member of the Brotherhood have been tasked by the Headmistress of the Shadow Academy with gathering research data on a wide variety of dangerous creatures. In addition to the normal raucous crowds, sophisticated scanning equipment has been set up around the Colosseum floor to monitor the creatures’ behavior and vital signs under a variety of circumstances—including combat and injury.

Your goal in this scenario is twofold: provoke the creatures and hold their attention for long enough that the Shadow Academy scanners can collect a wide variety of physiological data, and prevent the creatures from destroying the scanning equipment placed in the Colosseum by the Academy researchers. Once those tasks are complete, you will be free to leave the arena (if you can) and claim your reward.

The Headmistress would strongly prefer the creature be left alive and useful after the experiment is finished. She would also "prefer" that you not interfere with the research by attempting to rescue the creature, but you may do so at your own peril.

The unlikely brothers of Taldrya had gathered once again. Xolarin and Appius did not necessarily care to be around one another - in fact a high degree of hate was palpable in the younger Sorcerer. The older Xolarin didn't completely understand, and tried to smooth things over when he could. After all, they served the same Consul on the same summit.

The crowds were unusually loud for this match, cheers and clanging coming from all directions. Many of the beasts in the Headmistress's cabal would have been distracted or irritated into a heightened state of fury. But what was calmly walking out of one of the cages inset into walls of the Colosseum seemed to pay no attention to the noises around them.

Them. Yes, there were multiple. A small pack of sand-panthers strode a few meters out from their release and stood mostly still. They snarled, drooling a bit, each of them. There was no beastmaster with them and presumably they were chipped to be controlled as well as they were now. But that was a worry for another time, as the cage gates all closed and the combatants were locked in.

"Ready?" Xolarin looked over at Appius, who was flexing his hands in the gloves of his armor with a leathery, squeaky sound.

"Pfft," he scoffed back at Xolarin. "I'm always ready." It was a silly, arrogant response, but it was how he felt. And from what Xolarin had seen, it was not really a lie. The Quaestor was an energy-packed individual, especially in combat.

"Are you?" Appius asked back, with a noted chortle in the question.

Xolarin was looking back at the sand-panthers and merely nodded, not really caring if Appius saw the motion.

Soon enough a buzzer gave way to alert everyone in the Colosseum that the fun was beginning. The panthers immediately leapt into a fast run, the slobber and snarling still snapping from their snouts. They crawled across the floor of the arena in seconds and gave the two Dark Jedi no time to prepare any longer.

Appius jumped up as flames burst from his jetpack's boosters, keeping him aloft for a bit. It was almost a cheat, but it was an advantage they had agreed upon in the few words they exchanged to plan for the event. He had no blaster, but did have his lightsaber hilt in hand.

Xolarin began a slight jog to the side of the panthers, not drawing a weapon yet, with a few of them changing their angle of approach slightly. And within seconds, they were on the spot the two Taldryanites had begun. Xolarin leaped up and back, leaving a space between them, thrusting his hands out towards the three sand-panthers that were gaining on him. The Force flowed out fast and hard and slammed into the beasts. They smashed into the invisible onslaught and fell down on the ground.

Xolarin landed and grinned at his initial attack, only to see one of the panthers shrug it off and run at him again. And in that same glance, he marveled at two panthers launching into the air and snapping their toothed jaws at Appius's levitated feet.

This is all Xolarin's fault!

Erinyes either had some vendetta against Appius, or she thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the Quaestor didn't want to be in the same space as Xolarin for any amount of time. The Arcanist just had to kill the jotaz in the Corrino Lab, didn't he? The Headmistress was far from pleased with their efforts. Incompetent, she'd called the Quaestor, questioning if hiring Appius on Erinyes' recommendation was a good idea. So, to make up for their mistake, the Taldryan Consul offered their services again with a bit of an added warning behind closed doors.

Mess this up, and no amount of beskar is going to save you from what I will do.

So here the Mandalorian was, floating in mid-air within the Arx Colosseum with a pair of sand panthers literally nipping at his heels. He clenched his fists out of frustration and levitated just out of their reach. At least Xolarin was busy with his own set of problems. Considered to be amongst the quietest species in the galaxy, sand panthers were relentless hunters and highly dangerous. Their beige coats of fur almost blended in with the sand that covered the Colosseum floor and their claws held a paralyzing venom, of which could prove fatal if either of them got scratched.

The Sorcerer was highly tempted to just let the older man get eaten. It would certainly solve a lot of his problems. Alas, their Zeltron Consul would likely be displeased with having to search for another Proconsul so soon and could take it out on someone he cared for, like Dasha. So, once again, he was stuck helping Xolarin whether he liked it or not.

Luckily, both men were heavily armoured, so at least there was that. But there was only so long that their equipment would protect them until the beasts found their opening. Xolarin wasn't much when it came to athletic ability. His armor, whilst protective, heavily weighed him down, and it showed against the three panthers as they circled the Proconsul. With nowhere to go, all the Arcanist could do was await the inevitable attack from the snarling creatures.

Suddenly, the Force went off like a klaxon in the back of Xolarin's mind. All three tensed and lowered their heads before they pounced all at once. Thanks to the ample warning, Xolarin was able to concentrate a small bubble of energy into the palm of his right hand and slam into the ground. A pulse of energy detonated from the epicentre and knocked the three panthers back and staggered them. Seeing his opportunity, the Arcanist raised a hand and shut his eyes as blinding flash of light hit the retinas of all three sand panthers. With their pupils shrunk, they roared at the pain, but it gave the Taldryan Proconsul the means to make a quick getaway.

Meanwhile, Appius was sick of acting like a ball of yarn dangling just out of reach of some desperate cats. The plan was to divide and conquer, and there was definitely dividing, but not much conquering involved. The Ektrosis Quaestor saw an opening away from the sand panthers clawing at him from beneath. He landed and spun to face the prowling felines that approached with drool dripping from their jaws.

Snap-hiss!

Twin emerald blades shot out of the hilt of his right hand, and he spun the blades in front of him to attempt to intimidate the big cats and force them to back away.

It didn't work. They were feral, with crisp, red eyes that made them look possessed. Instead, Appius summoned the power of the Dark Side through his body, bending that power to his will and driving it to the tips of his fingers. Sparks jittered from one finger to the other as the Sorcerer let loose a torrent of lightning like a violent storm from his left hand. It crashed into the first panther and caused it to shriek and howl in pain before dispersing to the second.

The crowd went wild at the sudden bright display of the lightning. It was exactly what they paid to see, a pair of Force wielders doing exactly what they could do. The remaining panthers, however, were unperturbed by the roaring of the crowd around them. Xolarin was pressed on the back foot as he grabbed his lightsaber hilt and pressed the ignition switch.

Snap-hiss!

A green blade ruptured out of the hilt. The Arcanist carefully spun the weapon in his hand until he held it in a basic, low guard stance, ready to get the jump on them before the panthers could to him. However, the sand panthers that stalked him instantly snapped their heads around to where Appius was and their zapped companions. They snarled and roared before sprinting off in the direction of the Mandalorian.

"What?" Xolarin mused. Sand panthers were normally solitary animals and prioritized self-survival over anything else. They might have been a family unit, but each panther had a distinct feature that made them stand out from the other. Darker skin here, scars over there, some taller, and some with more defined facial features and body structures. The Taldryan Proconsul deduced they were not from the same unit, but that was when the realisation hit him. The Grand Master's ritual must have affected these beasts too, just like it did with the jotaz! The Dark Side connected the beasts like a pack and made them dependant on each other. They were about to assault the Ektrosis Quaestor like a gang of thugs for causing pain to their kind.

"Appius! Behind you!" Xolarin called out above the cheering of the crowd, hoping to warn the Sorcerer before it was too late.

The pack immediately went after Appius, cautiously yet ferociously snapping and snarling at him, avoiding the warning swipes and jabs from his twin blades. With as many as there were, they would get to him eventually. Or he would be forced to kill them, which would be most displeasing to the Headmistress. That displeasure might result in pain worse than being eaten alive by these things.

Thankfully, Xolarin's shout gave his companion enough warning to get himself in a better position. Appius' athletic prowess allowed him to stay in a position that had the cats mostly in front of him and not encircling him.

Xolarin took a few "jogged" steps towards the cluster and reached out immediately with his off-hand, focusing the Force into an almost physical hammer of a weapon. He slammed it into one of the sand-panthers and then did it again into another. It winded him a tad, to do it back to back, but the effort accomplished what he was after. The two hit panthers and one other separated from Appius and slowly came over to Xolarin. Now there were two groups of beasts, one on each of the Taldryanites.

The older man looked over to his Quaestor friend, both of them slashing and taunting to try to keep the beasts at bay. The effort bought them a moment, which is all they were after - time. Well, that and not-death.

"How often can you spark out at them like you did?" The crowd was not shouting hysterically at this point, allowing them to communicate a bit easier.

Appius slashed down at one of the cats' paws as it swiped at his legs. He made slight contact and the panther growled and slinked away for a few seconds. It did not persuade them at all.

"I can't do it forever, but what'd you have in mind?"

Xolarin started to make his way over to Appius. "Can we keep this defensive stance up for a bit, with you zapping them as needed?"

The voices in the crowd started to change to shouts of "Come on" and "Kill them", likely cheering on both the Dark Jedi and the sand-panthers from all corners. It was not the most exciting part of the day, but the two were still alive. And so were the cats.

Before Appius could reply, one of the cats on Xolarin went for his legs while another swiped a claw up top. The Sorcerer saw the double-move, almost a planned attack, in his mind but was not quite fast enough. He blocked the attack at his face, slicing and burning into the paw of one of the animals, but the other connected with his knee and cut right through the gap in armor and his bodysuit. Xolarin cringed at the injury, and instantly worried about the poison that would likely follow.

Xolarin moved quickly, in the chaos, pain searing as he did, and got to Appius' back. As the two faced the beasts away from each other, the crowd cheered and hollered at the sudden action. Perhaps they couldn't hold them as long as Xolarin had thought.

At first, there was next to nothing. The injury burned like a hot knife that sliced through his skin. It was far from the deepest cut the Arcanist had ever received. The Sorcerer at his back had done far worse to him in their battle on board the Godless Matron. Despite this, the pain persisted and Xolarin could feel his heart pound like a hammer against his ribcage. Adrenaline flowed through the Proconsul's bloodstream, but he felt his body begin to weaken just as one of the panthers took the opportunity to lunge at him. Given his injury, he was not able to restrain himself as much as he usually could. His lightsaber haphazardly cut through the beast through its midsection, and the panther's body dropped to the ground beside him.

Xolarin didn't have a chance to process what he had just done. The Headmistress would not be happy, but that was a consequence he could deal with later. Suddenly, his arms relaxed against his will and his legs buckled under his own weight. The older Human couldn't maintain his grip on his weapon as it slipped through his fingers and onto the sand below.

"Appius, zap…"

Xolarin never finished his sentence before he dropped onto his knees and hands, barely keeping himself up on all fours. The Arcanist lightly twitched upon the surface as Appius' head snapped to fellow Taldryanite behind him. Xolarin weakly raised one hand to slowly remove his helmet. Sweat poured down his face, his eyes were bloodshot, his heart felt like it was running a thousand miles an hour, and his head pounded behind his eyes just as fast.

"Xolarin!?" Appius exclaimed. They gravely underestimated the poison the sand panthers carried within their claws. Under normal circumstances, the toxins were paralytic. They slowed down bodily functions, making everything numb and delaying reactions. It was normally not that potent until a few repeated scratches made contact with bare skin, yet the Taldryan Proconsul went down just after one, and with barely any exposure!

Appius wanted nothing more than to think that his fellow Taldryanite was weak, pathetic, and simply couldn't hold his own in a fight. However, deep down he knew that wasn't true. Despite their differences, Xolarin proved to be more than capable in a fight. From fighting against Appius on the Godless Matron, to fighting with him against a dark side corrupted jotaz, to fighting here and now with the Quaestor against a pack of ravenous sand panthers. As much as the younger man hated to admit it, Xolarin was a capable warrior, and Appius' Mandalorian side respected that. This was more likely the work of the Grand Master's ritual. The dark side was present in each of the sand panthers and mutated the poison within their claws, and the consequences of getting cut were severe.

"Kriffing haar'chak, Xolarin!" Appius cried out. His saberstaff twirled in his hands as the panthers surrounded them and acted as a threatening display to hold them at bay. It did nothing to intimidate them. The felines smelt blood in the air and their hunger drove the one closest to the Proconsul to lash out at the man's throat. Luckily for him, Appius sensed it coming and quickly severed the big cat's head before it had a chance to inflict any further damage. Its body dropped to a clump in two pieces upon the sand.

The crowd elicited roars of approval at the display of violence. They were finally getting to see the violence they so desperately craved.

The sound was deafening, even over the snarls and growls of the panthers. Appius grimaced as he began to heavily pant for breath. Ciara and Erinyes were not going to be pleased with the loss of two of their 'pets', but the Quaestor knew that their Zeltron Consul would be more disappointed if he let Xolarin die. So in the Sorcerer's mind, he picked the lesser of two evils.

Suddenly, the ground shook between both Force Disciple's feet.

"Oh, great. What now!?" the Mandalorian exclaimed. His question was answered when a pillar sprung up from the ground lifting both himself and his fellow Taldryanite twenty feet into the air. In his weakened state, Xolarin almost slipped off with the sand and into the fury of the panthers below. Appius managed to grab him before his fatal fall and pulled him to the relative safety on top. The remaining panthers leapt into the air and clawed at the stone that stood between them and their prey. The pillar itself consisted of specialised scanning equipment that beeped and took readings of the panthers as they jumped. No doubt due to the boffins watching the fight from the safety of their control room.

Xolarin began to heave and spew his stomach contents as the effects of the poison got worse and worse. That was when a giant sense of déjà vu hit Appius like a proton torpedo. He'd seen this exact situation before in his meditations. The Force was a fantastic gift for those who could use it for divination, and for the Quaestor, he foresaw a perfect opportunity to end a part of his problems right here and now. Xolarin became Proconsul instead of him. Xolarin was in charge of the Sorcerer's apprentice in Ostara. Xolarin was the one that deemed Appius a threat on the Matron. All the Mandalorian had to do was repeat what he saw in his blurred images. Yes, some of the details were harder to figure out than others, but all he had to do was place a boot against the Arcanist's ribs, and push. The panthers would do the rest.

Appius placed one large boot against Xolarin's armor, and the older Taldryanite slowly turned his head to face him. A mixture of confusion, betrayal and defiance filled the older man's face. The crowd gasped, whilst some encouraged the Mandalorian to go through with what he was about to do.

"Appius, you… sack of Hutt slime!" Xolarin protested. He tried to muster the strength to fight back against the Sorcerer, but the effect of the poison on his body was too intense.

"Do you have any idea how easy this is, Xolarin? All I have to do is push. You'd be dead, and out of my life forever."

"Then why don't you?" the Arcanist challenged, knowing full well the hell that would wait for Appius if he did.

"Because I have a better idea. I want to make you a deal," Appius said. "Currently you lead the SRI with my apprentice under your command. I want you to assure her safety."

"What?" Xolarin asked in disbelief. "I can't… guarantee that."

"Yes, you can! You have too! You're the frakking Proconsul!" Appius retorted. "I still don't like you, but I at least see your value and respect your abilities. So I'm giving you one chance. Give me your word that Dasha will stay safe and unharmed from you, and whatever the hell Nihlus is doing. Because if you don't, I'll have no reason not to turn you into cat food."

Xolarin wanted to be defiant, but he was caught between a rock and a hard place. As such, he had no choice but to be obedient. For now.

"Yes, I… agree," Xolarin confirmed through pained gasps.

"Good, now as for this plan of yours. Zap them, was it? Seems easy enough. When the Headmistress and Erinyes ask why the cats are all dead, I'll just tell them you told me to do it!" the Quaestor stated with a casual thumbs up and a grin behind his helmet, causing some alarm in the older Taldryanite. The Sorcerer's jetpack roared to life and lifted him off the pillar and down to the ground below.

"Wait! Appius…"

The Mandalorian either didn't hear him or simply didn't care. All Xolarin could do was watch as Appius landed on the sand with a hard thud, ensnaring the attention of the remaining three felines. They snarled and hissed as they turned to face the heavily armoured Sorcerer. Appius could hear his heart in his ears, his use of the Force at this point had been more than liberal. He knew he had to end this quickly, otherwise, he might be in the same situation as his Proconsul.

The Quaestor only had a few shots left in him, so he had to make them count! The dark side surrounded him like he was the epicenter of a galaxy. He pulled the sensation of power through his body to the tips of his fingers. Electricity danced between them as the panthers prowled towards the red-clad Mandalorian. Appius launched the tendrils of electricity at the panther in the middle of the group of three. It slammed into it and dispersed into the felines beside them. The big cats roared in agony as their fur coats singed and burned under the power. The stench of their burning flesh filled the air around the Colosseum.

Appius wasn't done there. One last time, and through heavy, gasped breaths, he unleashed a volley of electricity that struck into the closest panther and dispersed again into all three panthers. All three dropped into the sand, singed, burned and no sign of life between them.

The Mandalorian Taldryanite collapsed onto his hands and knees. He gasped for air and sweat beneath his armor. The approval of the crowd thundered across the Colosseum. The pillar Xolarin was still on top of began to lower back into the ground. Medical personnel ran out to tend to the older man's wounds and to tend to the poison that lurked in his bloodstream.

Appius smirked behind his visor as a single, satisfying thought crossed his mind.

This is all Xolarin's fault.