Built from the shell of an ancient foundation, the Arx Colosseum has undergone renovations to allow multiple new configurations for battle. Its spectator setup remains largely the same, with high walls, tall enough for even the most savvy Jedi to find unscalable that lead up to spectator chairs which are divided into nearly organized sections to accommodate several thousand people. At the center, an elongated platform “box” contains a central throne of stone with various seats of smaller scale lined beside it in both directions. Two large holo-projection screens are set up on each side of the Colosseum, offering different angles of the match bia holocam drones.

Today’s setup is known as The Bridges.

High-suspended walkways cross and weave through multiple levels of platforms. Some are solid, metal and duracrete crafting an unmoving foundation. Others are mere rope and wood, swaying with even the most gentle of breezes.

Below the walkways is a void filled with mist, the ground unseen for combatants and spectators alike. Periodic ripples of electrical energy can be seen through the mist, hinting to the deadly nature of the arena floor below.

Sage Enzo Dek entered the gargantuan steel doors of the arena, chomping on the last bits of an apple core (ew, right?) that they had just gotten from the supermarket. Expecting a fiery inferno, they cautioned themselves from the heat that would appear in front of them, arm lifted to shield themselves from the wall cold/hot wall that is so easily felt between spaces with immense air conditioning and the natural heat of the environment. But something had changed, and Dek was only just beginning to realize that they may have truly fwecked up.

Now where is that dark sider, Lucine, they thought to themself, I sure hope she understands my deep seated desire to go to the store in the middle of our match.

The bridges they were confused by last match in the fiery inferno were gone, replaced by…actual bridges. They looked up to the holoprojector of the current match.

“Supreme Chancellor Cassandra Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the…the…” their voice went from intense fear to a stammering bliss. The name wouldn’t even fit on the page. So Dek had to improvise. “First Great Jedi War it is!”

I guess we’ll never know the true outcome of that match, they utterly and fully lied to themself, knowing that even in self-deception they were a disparate failure.

The tree squinted across the divides of the walkways, some seemingly cantankerous to humanoid physiology, while others candidly normal. The Sage felt differently about this match; a high strung political leader and seemingly an intense fighter compared to a dull, anarchist tree with a sneaking sense of apathy in their old age? Only another pointless rhetorical question could make it so confusing. Just as another non-answer to said pointless rhetorical question would do the same. Keeping a straight mind was the least of the Equite’s worry. No…the real question still remains: why does the holoprojector call this Oriana an “elder”? At 30 years old? Is the benchmark for old age so low nowadays?

The tree walked the metal floors, feeling their bare soft footed roots against the cold surface, Dek’s simple strategy came into view: a three meter wide bridge with affixed back and front. No wobblies. No electric mist (the element, not the Huttese jizz band). No signs of wear and tear seen on bridges of this design. Yet an unease hung in the air.

SLOOSH! SLASH! CROOSH!

A distant gnawing of lightsabers could be heard against steel. It was then Dek looked around at the other walkways: most had some light scarring on or in their tresses. Some of the ropes had been cut, while some of the rails were malformed through an after-construction process. A small platform lay below the current bridge, near the precipice of the thick walkway itself. Nearing the edge, Dek was met with a wave that knocked him off their usual balance. They stumbled back, falling with a dull thud.

Dek rolled over, seemingly preparing for an attack. “You’re destroying my perfect bridge, Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the First Great Jedi War!”

Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War had not followed up her attack. Dek squirmed back to an upward stance, much like any true, tall, truly anti-tempestuous, timber tree should be. Dek scanned the arena, sensing a dark presence attempting to put some distance between them. Vast rubble lay ahead, no doubt from some of the destroyed catwalks from above.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

The pace of Enzo’s feet could be heard throughout the arena, like a thundering heartbeat of a Krayt Dragon. A pitter-patter unlike any other, Dek did not await to confirm their suspicions. They stormed the gates, feeling the dark presence move further among the debris. The Neti ignored the rubble, as if it were dust to be swept away.

THROOM

Each obstacle was a fly to be swatted away.

CRASH

Each piece of metal or wood would work as a protective barrier as Dek washed it away.

BLOOM

There was no place to hide.

Lightsabers ignited, one the color of piss the morning after a night of too much drinking, and the other the color of the inside of a Chandrilan junior mint, and hailed down towards the Equite.

Dek responded with a saber of their own, the color of what urine should probably look like to a healthy individual. The swipes were fast and repetitious. Dek leaned into the basic blocks of their training, but some of them were intricately close to their vitalities.

It was only now that Dek truly saw this individual. A short armor clad Mandalorian with a golden sash, and a mixture of red, orange, and green into the armor itself. Dek preferred the green.

Dek was able to get a few strokes at the Mandalorian themself, but every attack was seamlessly blocked through a superior lightsaber form. Dek was able to press forward ever so slightly, as if being toyed with. They neared a shadow from another catwalk high above them. The bridge itself shook slightly, allowing the Equite to steel himself.

“It’s not the First Great Jedi War, foolish bark-skin,” let out the Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War.

She rolled back, as an array of blaster fire came from behind Dek. A pure black HK droid ran from behind, laying down some cover fire. Dek deflected a few of the bolts, and kicked one of the pieces of the broken debris towards the droid. It leapt into the air, and rolled on the ground, while Dek chucked a piece of metal from the surroundings at the assassin. The droid skid below the attack, preparing to fire a volley at Dek, but the droid was met with a clobbering fist of a trunk. Dek picked up the droid, spun, and threw it towards an escaping Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War. The droid flew through the air, but was able to catch itself on an edge of a stairwell, near to where Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War had been.

They both moved quickly, but Dek followed soon behind. "I will get you, Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the..Thirty-Third...Great Jedi War! You've committed war crimes against architecture today!"

Cassandra wasn't able to believe this. Every other opponent had order to themselves, finesse, and structure. But Dek? Dek was an anomaly, an inconsistency. Every time she thought she could easily end this match, something tugged at her and warned her to back off. But why? As she did so once more, Dek cried out.

"Do you hear me, Supreme Chancellor Cassandra Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the...Fiftieth Great Jedi War! War crimes against ARCHITECTURE!"

The last word was even louder than the rest, with a heavy emphasis placed upon it. She made her way around and lept down to the bridge floor where Dek stood. She had started to correct the Neti before being interrupted halfway through "It's Sixteenth Great Jedi War, not fift-"

Dek raised a hand to their face with a bewildered look and just randomly spoke. "I wonder if Wookies ever thought of careers in hairdressing."

"Wait, what?" she asked herself as she lowered her lightsaber, completely confused by what is going on. This...was supposed to be a duel, right? Dek then looked at her with an expression of euphoric surprise, as if thinking of the greatest thing ever.

"Oh! I have a question for you specifically since you're a Jedi. You can sense disturbances in the force, right?" Dek asked, to which Cassandra simply nodded in confirmation. "So, can you sense when someone eats the last slice of pizza? Or is that just me?"

She raised an eyebrow at this point, powering her lightsaber down, just completely lost in her own thoughts as she tried to process that statement. "No, why would I...? No, just - no. That doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe I could use a mind trick to get free pizza delivery..." Dek said yet again, completely enthralled by the randomness before looking at her with a serious expression. "Or, since you're an Elder, could I use your senior discount on said pizza?"

At this point, Cassandra was completely beside herself and lost mentally. Unfortunately, it was to her detriment. Dek knew the best way to win a fight like this was mental warfare. Out-politician the politician, if it were. Suddenly the trap was sprung as vines and branches wrapped around her ankles and pulled her to the ground. She had been unable to sense it coming, with her thoughts on processing if she'd be able to sense someone if they truly did swipe the last piece of pizza. Upon hitting the deck of the bridge, several more wrapped around her arms and her waist as it pulled her upright suddenly and Dek was upon her with reinforced strike upon strike upon strike between the plates of her armor, striking her weakest points.

"Commit war crimes against architecture, will you? So naive!" Dek yelled as the strikes continued. Cassandra regained her composure and with a twitch of her finger started to send Dek flying, but Dek had already anticipated this and entwined their feet with the vines that were on the bridge. They moved backward ever slightly, but their positioning was spot-on and remained firm as the strikes continued. In a last-ditch effort, she mentally ignited her saber and sent it spiraling around her. It cut the branches and vines that held her, Dek managing to move backward away from it as she landed on the bridge deck coughing. "Should we go to the supermarket? Sounds like you need some cough medicine."

Slowly she stood on her feet and raised her right gloved fist into the air. With a thunderous strike, she sent it straight down into the bridge with a targeted telekinetic strike which shattered the bridge around Dek. The vines were unable to hold onto anything, the fragments falling from between them as the bridge segment began to collapse into the pit below. "Oh dear. This is what I get for 'branching out'..." they said as it fell, themselves along with it.

Cassandra began to make her way to the edge, expecting to see a fallen tree down below. But among the fragments of the bridge, she saw nothing. With a raised eyebrow she wondered where they were...

"My credits!" Dek moaned, grasping for pieces of tree stomach as their slightly shattered bark lay waste to the ground below. The tree person wrapped their fingers around the bottom tresses of the bridge as they formed a small cup of their hand to hold the loose change that had fallen through. Throwing the chits back into their gullet and taking a large, waterless, medicinal swallow, the credits went back to another chamber of which they could never return (yet).

They crawled with each had, using multiple grasped roots to clamber on the bottom of the bridge where the fighting just occurred. It was then Dek saw their mark.

As Supreme Chancellor Cassandra Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War peered around, she reached out with her superior senses to seek surreptitiously the tall, true tree. Through the thick, vicious veil of the Force, seeing so many, mighty midichlorians, Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War saw a strange mixture of space and time move away from her under the bridge.

Looking deeper, she sensed a surface level of utter and complete joy, shrouded by many generations of eldritch sadness. This Neti was surely a lonely being, enjoying old age for a regret of lost youth. Each root was a new life time of memories. One felt darker, as if straying a path not so different from...Cassandra. One felt familial, as if there may have once been great community followed by death and lost memories. One had a gargantuan resolve (almost a +5 by many standards) that had been shorn over time by a new lasersword cut, or a mental backstab. Not something Oriana may be entirely unfamiliar with. Over a thousand years of life and this being is somehow still kept alive by those roots. The Mandalorian Taldryanite had a new sense of fight. Dek sought only one thing...fun. Just having fun. However, while others may have embraced this retort with a fun response of their own, Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War had too much on the line. She wanted to be victorious. This meant casting aside what she saw in Dek, and moving forth with her secret weapon.

Dek started forming their roots into the ropes of the tree, while bringing new steps onto another bridge. They thought that a 3 meter tall Equite would be hard to find, but Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War hadn't followed. They were in bliss.

As they wrapped the last hinge around one of the bridge steps, Dek convulsed on the bridge, rocking the entire thing in place, including themself. Their last sight was looking up at Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War, reaching out her hands with an emanation of dark power.

Dek saw themself surrounded by smoke and red mist, feeling their skin crack and dry. Dek opened their eyes to being back on Nemetha, a moon of the colony their young parents lived on. Suddenly, red lightsabers set ablaze all around him. Bandits with old Sith lightsabers had frequented the outskirts of the colony, but never this much. And never in this great a number. 10? No...15? They cast themselves upon the tree. Slicing up their arms and legs. At the young age of 50, Enzo had no credits to fall out of them. Dek looked behind themself to see the community they held so dear, fearfully retreating from the space. Nemetha was dark, Dek was alone, and the environment was a small open area of dirt surrounded by trees (not the sentient kind).

For a split second, Dek awoke to the bridge and reached out with a hand of his own, letting go of the bridge on one appendage.

Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War felt her connection rustle.

Dek went back into Nemetha. Some of the lightsabers turned off, shedding their facade and heading back into the shadows of the Nemethan dark. Dek was close.

The Sage reached out again towards the bandits, and attempted to quell them into a silent powerlessness. This power emanated from Dek's fingers. The images turned away. Nemeth was left behind, and Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War felt her own power become just as silent as the air in the arena.

SCREEECH!

Sensing the bird at the last second, the Elder ducked only to be shrouded in feathers.

"Coming, Meat-Bag! Hold still," HK spoke to the Elder.

Dek reached up and pulled both of them down hanging in the air. Their one foot held onto the bridge while the other foot and hand held both Supreme Chancellor Cassandria Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War and the HK droid. Dek's last fist came smashing into both of them.

At the last possible second, Cassandra had managed to bolster her resolve and restore her connection to the Force. With that she pushed herself back from Dek and her HK droid with a power upper-level telekinetic strike. That strike sent the three of them in opposite directions, with the HK being speared onto rebar from the bridge. It glanced down and frantically struck at the rebar but was completely stuck.

The bandits began to charge at the tree once more, which had been disoriented from the telekinetic strike. Dek briefly felt a tinge of fear and closed their eyes before hearing the noises of lightsaber strikes one after the other...but there was no pain. Dek opened their eyes to see none other than Cassandra in front of them, effortlessly taking on several bandits. One was telekinetically held in the air by her left arm, grasping at their throat as they were being choked. Her right was weaving her frost blue saber back and forth against two others, one falling as another took its place. With a twist of her wrist, the neck of the one being held was brutally crushed with a loud pop. She swung her hand outward and threw them away as she called her other lightsaber back to her hand to parry another bandit that approached from the left.

"Tell you what, Dek," Cassandra started as she continued to fight and block the bandits from reaching Dek, "Let's finish them off, and go get something tasty from the supermarket or something."

"Wait," Dek responded confused, "Supreme Chancellor Cassandra Oriana Taldrya Second Heroine of the Sixteenth Great Jedi War wants to do something...fun? And is helping her enemy?"

"Just..." she started to reply but paused as she crossed her sabers in front of her diagnally to block a downward strike between them, lifting her right leg and thrusting it into the bandit's stomach. With a spiraling twist of her torso during the recoil, she plunged one of her sabers deep into the bandit's chest. "Call me Cassandra, alright? And we aren't enemies, this is a friendly match. Now, pick up your saber and help me!"

With a firm nod, Dek stood all excitedly and took up their saber once more and took their place next to Cassandra as additional bandits fell one after the other. Working together, it seemed, was indeed quite...fun. Roots captured one bandit, and Dek pulled them apart limb by limb as Cassandra slammed her fist into the ground to trip up the final three of the roughly fifteen that had engaged them. As they fell, she had amplified her athletic ability and within a second was upon the three of them whirling her sabers around as she surgically stuck each of them across the chest with a killing blow.

Once the bandits were dead, she disengaged her sabers and returned them to her sides. She removed her helm and wiped her brow which had covered in sweat. Dek looked at her and deactivated their lightsaber as well.

Cassandra turned, eyes closed with a smile. "Draw?"

"Draw." Dek said happily as their saber returned to its home. "Drinks and food, after some salve for my damaged limbs?"

"Sure. Let's get out of here." she said as Dek extended a branch curled toward her, with Cassandra extending a closed fist. The limb and fist bumped each other as they proceeded to leave the arena.