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 best lessons were never taught.

A part of Tali hated the very word. Hard, harsh, unyielding, all sharp consonants, pushing at her teeth. When someone taught someone else, they were really forcing them to learn, pushing them. You were taught to behave, taught to look a certain way, taught to accept orders from your betters, to put the shackles around your own wrists and thank your masters for the privilege.

No. The best lessons were accepted. They were demonstrated through example, explained through simile, understanding encouraged through actual, critical thought. The best way to teach another was not to shove wisdom down their throat and expect them to swallow without protest. The apprentice, the learner, should come to accept it on their own, without pressure...and if they refused to affirm it, perhaps it would be better for the master to re-examine what they were trying to teach.

Or, that was the philosophy that she tried to stick to, rather doggedly. But, Sera had a knack for pushing that patience to the brink. For all that she had accomplished, her former apprentice’s skull could be remarkably thick.

“Vhat do you mean? You didn’t even ask them vhat ve are fighting?” the amethyst skinned Twi’lek groaned, running a gauntleted hand down her face. Tali’s segmented armor didn’t make so much as a clink as they stepped into the arena, golden eyes glowing under Arx Primus’ beaming light.

“C’mooooon Tali. The surprise is part of the fun, right?” Sera stated, grinning. Her two daggers were already in hand. “Don't know if the Head-Lady would have told us anything, even if we asked. She was really leaning hard into that ‘mysterious research’ thing. I think she wants us in the dark. Mostly, at least.”

“...do you remember any of your lessons?” Tali questioned, one armor-stiffened lekku flicking slightly.

“All of them! The Force is all around us, we should defend those who can’t defend themselves, always wear protection-”

“You remember about vearing protection but not about knowing your enemy?”

“I use one a lot more often than the other,” Sera retorted with a mischievous grin, tapping the tip of her Zabraki dagger against her thin breastplate. She turned about as they made it to the arena’s center, her bright blue eyes intent.

Tali sighed, shifting her glaive from hand to hand as she followed the Zabrak’s gaze. Sera could project a convincingly vapid appearance, she had often been impressed by the younger woman’s insight. Aside from the research staff scattered across the tiered stands above them, the colosseum appeared to be empty. But, the sand told a different story. Dropping to one knee near the center of the fighting pit’s floor, Tali drew her hand through the hard packed soil...and found a crack. Or, more accurately, a seam, running deep into the ground. Looking more closely, she could see dozens more, dark lines in the sand, joining into complex, varied geometric patterns, originating from a perfect circle set at the very center. Right beneath where they were standing.

“I think you were right about the headmistress,” she muttered, grip closing tightly on her saber. “I’ve got a badt feeling about-”

“Shshshshsh,” Sera cut in, raising one finger to her lips. Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment, and Tali felt a tell-tale touch at the back of her mind as the younger woman probed at the Force. The Zabrak’s eyes snapped open with a gasp, her brow suddenly furrowing. “I can feel it. Her. Close...closer than I thought she would be. And angry.”

They didn’t get the chance to think about things any further. With the rough shriek of rock grinding on rock, an enormous plume of sand and gritty soil jetted from the arena floor, some thirty meters to their left. Tali thought it was an explosion of some sort, before she saw the shape protruding into the air. A large, circular projection had lifted out from the arena, as if pressed from underneath. A sandstone pillar, five meters tall, seemingly hollow. The seams in the floor suddenly made a great deal of sense.

There was silence, for just a moment, as the plume of dust began to settle. Then, a dark, writhing mass shot out from the cloud, a horrific screech ripping through the air. Strangely enough, Tali recognized the nightmarish form that emerged from the sand. Though she herself hadn’t been born on Ryloth, and had barely any memories of her family life before she’d been sold, the lylek’s reputation was legendary.

This one appeared far more dangerous than most. She was enormous, at least four meters tall, two muscular tendrils lashing through the sand before her. Her carapace was a pure, glossy black; irregular, from what Tali knew of them. And that scream…

Sera cast a glance towards her former master. All they needed was a nod, before immediately moving in unison, the Zabrak cutting left while the Twi’lek sprinted to the right. This was far from the first fight that they had seen together, and it certainly wouldn’t be their last. All they needed to do was flank wide around it…

Pillars of stone sprang out of the arena’s sand only a few feet before her, blasting Tali with a wave of pressurized grit. She pivoted on a dime, groaning under her breath. If the grinding of stone to her left was any indication—especially when punctuated with colorful Zabraki curses—it would seem that Sera was facing a similar blocker. Whatever sadist was running the arena’s controls had just penned them in with the beast, locking them into a narrow little lane, with no room to maneuver. Or, at least there might have been. Grimacing as she backed down, back towards the center of the arena, Tali glanced at the walls that were locking them in, a strategy rapidly forming in her mind.

“Sera!” she shouted, saber-glaive igniting in her hand. “I’ll keep our friend distractedt! You take the high ground and strike down when you see your opening!”

“Sounds fun!” the Zabrak replied. Tali watched her crouch low in the corner of her eye, before taking the amplified, five meter leap up to the top of one of the narrow walls. Then, she shifted her golden-eyed gaze back onto the beast charging directly towards her, reaching out with one hand.

It was never wise to fight alone. A pack hunter, the lylek knew that better than most. Therefore, when a score of violet Twi’lek manifested from thin air just before her original quarry, she paused in her tracks, momentum pulling her to a grinding halt. Tali’s jaw tensed as she held the vivid illusion, charging alongside her illusory twins, their golden-bladed saber glaives whirling through the air. The beast didn’t know which angle to defend, which foe to target. Spear-like forelegs pierced through insubstantial enemies, tendrils whipping through empty air, giving Tali all the opening she needed to press through, driving the long blade of her glaive up at the creature’s torso. It had nowhere near the impact that she had hoped. The thick, glossy carapace parted before the blade, an inches-deep gouge burned into the hide, but something about the material resisted the worst of the lightsaber’s energy.

It should have been a killing blow. Instead, she remained very much alive...and very, very angry. Rearing back, the lylek’s jaws opened wide, unhinging before it released an indescribable sound. It was so loud, so piercing that it hardly seemed to be a noise at all; just an agonizing buildup of pressure in Tali’s ear-cones, sending her stumbling back in a nauseous daze. The illusion fell, and the lylek’s beady, compound eyes settled on her, enormous mandibles grinding. One long, venom tipped tendril lashed out, coiling towards her…

And Sera was there in an instant, her dun cloak flying out behind her as she brought both daggers down onto the tendril, skewering it into the sand from above. Unprotected by a carapace, the fleshy tentacles gave way easily before the blade. But, there was more than one tendril. As Sera danced backwards, the other changed course and shot directly towards her, a venomous sting pointed towards her hearts. She gave a gasp, pivoting onto her back foot and barely avoiding the sting, but there wasn’t much that she could do to prevent the tendril from coiling around her ankles, hoisting her into the air as she fought to keep her balance.

Thankfully, she hadn’t come alone. Shaking off her confusion, Tali levelled her glaive at the creature once more, her jaw clenched tight. It was time to teach this thing a lesson. For all that her former-apprentice was thick-skulled, stubborn, impossible to teach…nothing was going to touch her. Not without finding itself in a galaxy of hurt.

”Let go of her this instant!” Tali yelled sharply, her saber-glaive humming through the air as she swerved it around to a more advantageous angle, its golden blade seeking a kink in the lylek’s chitinous hide.

”Any moment now would be appreciated!” Sera yelped, the mildest of concern growing in her hearts as the beast raised her above its gnashing jaws like a tantalizing cluster of grapes. Kithani swiped a sharp response to the lylek’s inquisitive bite, but the seasoned Zabraki huntress recognized a bad situation when she was in one. After all, this was far from her first.

The lylek's attention was torn between trying to devour the tanned morsel in its tentacles and keeping the vengeful Twi’lek at pincer’s length, and it was managing neither. A few near misses of its snapping mandibles snatched scraps of Sera’s wrappings, but for her efforts she left herself open for a stinging riposte. With a sharp yawp, Tali ducked past a defensive pincer swipe and jabbed up at the limb joint. The fury of a caged sun was unleashed against chitinous flesh and despite the alchemical treatments applied to it by the Shadow Academy’s overzealous researchers there could only be one outcome.

Sizzling fat erupted past cracking carapace, the scent of cooked seafood burst forth for the faintest of moments before the acrid aroma of burned flesh overpowered it. The lylek thrashed wildly, whipping Sera around like a meaty sack before losing its grip on her as the pain became too much. The Zabrak let out a parting yelp as she went careening across the arena and tumbled upon the sand, but nobody could break a hard landing like her. The inelegant tumble tucked into a controlled roll from which she emerged upon her, admittedly unsteady, feet. The lylek, however, had lost one of hers.

Wrenching her weapon free, Tali made an effort to spin around and retreat to a safer distance with a flourish, but the beast would have none of it. Lurching forward as the disabled leg gave out under its weight, the lylek’s wild stab reached further than the Twi’lek had anticipated. A shrill warning ran down her spine like droplets of freezing water, but there was nothing she could do. Her hasty attempt at a barrier came a heartbeat too late, failing to fully solidify before shattering under the impact of the lylek’s pincer. The dark appendage stabbed forth and punctured plastoid, Tali’s face wrenching in sharp agony as the pincer sank into her shoulder.

“Tali!” Sera cried. Seeing her former master skewered by a chitinous spear, she levelled her vambrace at its polished abdomen and fired away. The shrill report of blaster fire had as much an impact on the lylek as the few bolts that actually struck it, managing to distract it long enough for Tali to wrench herself free and break the engagement. Dark crimson welled from the wound. Her right arm hung limp and unresponsive by her side as she struggled through the pain to contract the blood vessels and stem the bleeding.

Her distraction a success, Sera turned to lure the creature further away from her injured friend when the lylek suddenly emerged in front of her, blocking her path. “What the?” the Zabraki huntress blurted, swerving around with twin blades reversed in her hands as more and more lyleks manifested around her. This hardly seemed sporting anymore.

Groaning with pain and fatigue, droplets of sweat running down her lekku, Tali steadied her breath and took a moment to take measure of the situation. Her shoulder was killing her, but it wasn’t fatal. At least not immediately so, and what little Force assisted first aid she’d been able to apply to it would have to suffice. She’d managed to take a limb off the lylek for her efforts, but it was hardly an even exchange. For one, the beast had far more limbs to lose.

Her eyes darted over to her companion, brow furrowing. Sera seemed to be facing the wrong way, blades raised to defend against nothing, with the lylek creeping up on her from behind.

“Sera, behindt you!”

Tali’s shout of warning merged seamlessly with that of an inner voice, alerting the Zabrak to the lethal ruse. She dropped and rolled on pure instinct, twisting right and then immediately reversing left as the voices pitched to an unbearable crescendo. The lylek’s pincers stabbed the sand mere heartbeats in her wake, its screeches bearing the frustrations of a huntress denied. Yet it continued to press its advantage, a staccato of near misses following the wildly retreating Zabrak.

Tali witnessed the predicament she was in, knowing full well her former apprentice was surely about to do something exceedingly reckless if she did not intervene to buy her some time. But her options were limited. Left-handed, she did not trust her aim with a blaster, but perhaps her glaive could serve one more useful purpose. Hefting it like a javelin, she took half a heartbeat to steady herself before tossing it upon the currents of the living Force. Right lek twitching in minute course corrections, the weapon arced across the arena before striking the lylek’s armored carapace, just above its venomous tail.

The saber did not stick, but even the glancing hit was enough to alert the creature to a potentially lethal threat. It abandoned its attack to swerve around and defend itself. Sera finally managed to cease her by-the-skin-of-her-teeth dodging and, in typical fashion the Twi’lek had come to expect, went back on the offensive. Seeing the lylek’s attention elsewhere, she raised her vambrace and jabbed a fiery rune with Kithani's less-pointy end.

The emerging gout of flame lapped at its segmented underbelly, bathing it in scorching heat, and the beast let out an ear-piercing shriek. Yet, the moment its insectoid eyes returned to Sera, the Zabrak’s went wide in disbelief as the flames were pushed back by an invisible umbrella.

”That’s impossible!” Sera thought in utter shock. Lyleks weren’t Force Sensitive, surely?

“Tali, I think we have a problem,” the Zabrak’s voice sounded wordlessly in Tali’s mind. She took a longer moment to form her reply, but it was affirmative.

“Agreedt,” she said within Sera’s mind. “Andt I think it’s learning...”

Before a further thought could be exchanged, both Arconans felt an oppressive, insectoid presence claw upon their minds like a swarm of cloying spiders. Its instincts were base and violent, utterly inhuman, but still it managed to convey a singular, bestial thought to them both.

“Lear-ning.”

Sera hissed under her breath, falling back a step as the voice echoed within her mind. The alien, insectoid touch upon them both built from a skitter to a horrible, overwhelming buzz of anger, of fear, of animal savagery and unnatural intelligence. They were fluttering wings and unblinking eyes and quivering stingers dripping with blood, forming words that grated in the vaults of their consciousnesses, as if each syllable was accomplished only through terrible strain.

”...Pr-oo-b-lem…”

That was an understatement, to say the least. The creature was already a handful as it was. An unknown degree of Force sensitivity was enough to throw everything completely off kilter if they let it. Inwardly, the Zabrak groaned. As karked as the situation was, it still played directly into one of Tali’s favorite lessons. The Force was everywhere. Even in a butt-ugly bug with grasping tentacles to boot.

Sera cut the ineffectual stream off from her vambrace’s flamethrower, glancing towards her master on the creature’s opposite flank. The lylek’s focus wavered between the two of them, compound eyes twitching rapidly.

Their eyes met, blue and gold connecting for just a moment. Sera nodded her chin towards the creature, gaze on Tali’s wound...and after a moment, the Twi’lek nodded back. When they moved, they moved as one. The Zabrak bolted forward first, the Force flowing through her musculature, filling her with an unnatural agility. The Lylek’s gaze instantly snapped towards her, front pincers spearing towards the young woman’s lithe frame. The first punched into the sand as Sera rolled underneath it, fluidly following through with her offensive. The second cut a thin slice across her thigh as she just barely pivoted and dodged it, nearly dropping Kithani as she stumbled.

The third and fourth pincers would have slaughtered her. But, Sera wasn’t worried. Not even for a second. She trusted in the Force, in the Ancestors that guided her...but above all that, she trusted in her master, in her friend, and the bond that had been forged between them. More than any armor, any weapons at their side, they were what kept each other safe. When they were matching each other’s backs, they needed no other protection...no matter what Tali’s lessons said.

In that very same instant, Tali’s fair features contorted in a grimace of effort. Sweat poured from her brow, pooling beneath her plate and mixing with the dark blood that oozed slowly from her open wound. She was exhausted, drained from the heavy use of her powers, the frantic fight for her life, and the agonizing injury that it had left her. But, she wasn’t quite out of options. How could she be? With the Force as her ally, there was very little that couldn’t be done.

The Living Force was everywhere, in everything. In her, in Sera, in the beast that they fought, an invisible network of energy that flowed through all. While Sera charged, Tali had seized upon a handful of those lines, taking a moment as new power suffused her. Her musculature tightened, lekku stiffened, every fibre of her being pulled taught as a vast current of energy connected to her. Then, just as soon as the moment was right, she released it, golden eyes flashing.

It made for one hell of a haymaker.

Just as the lylek was about to pin Sera to the sand, an invisible fist rammed into the left side of its head, splintering the massive mandible at the joint. Stunned, the creature stumbled to the side, ichor dripping from beneath crushed chitin, pattering against the arena’s sand. By that point, Sera was already moving. Sprinting up to the massive insect’s flank, she drove Kithani between a joint in the creature’s chitin, the long, heavy blade piercing deep. Then, she turned and extended her right hand, tapping a command on her vambrace. A golden, glowing cord shot forth, tangling in the lylek’s scrabbling legs, the grapple line causing it to stumble even farther. Using the protruding handle of her dagger as a step, Sera stepped up and leaped onto the creature’s back, looping the cord around it as she went.

“Now, if there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s how to tie up a bad girl like-”

She didn’t get to finish the thought before a horrid shriek ripped free from the lylek’s mouth, the same awful noise that it had utilized against Tali moments before. As the scream reached its crescendo, the overpowering force of the creature’s mind penetrated their thoughts once again.

Images. Lines of soldiers, shining proudly in their chitin, protecting a horde of workers and children, a beautiful hive. Generations upon generations of hunters and warriors and princesses and queens. Clashing mandibles. Grinding teeth. Wings, wet with the dew of birth, pulling free from the shell as a new queen was born.

”...Pr-o-bl-eeem…”

Blasters. Horrible heat and blinding sunlight. The pride of eons ruined, tarnished. The pain of experimentation. The fear of the unknown. The torture as her wings were pulled from her body...along with something else.

”...weeee... I am...a pr-oo-bl-eem.”

Sera shook the images from her mind...and looked down, beneath her feet, at the ragged gouges from which wings had once sprouted.

At that moment, she hesitated. It would have been so easy to draw her saber, and drive it into the back of the kidnapped brood queen’s head. Finish her, end her pain, soothe her suffering. The simple solution, so often the best one. But...but…

Defend those who cannot defend themselves. By your honor.

Sera blinked. Then, the Force screamed a warning in her mind as the lylek’s remaining tentacle lashed out. The Zabrak jumped, instinctually, but she lost her balance on the creature’s back as she did, tumbling face first into the sand. As she tried to scramble backward, reaching for her saber, the brood queen turned and screamed directly into her face. Agony exploded in Sera’s skull, twin trickles of blood immediately pouring from her ears as she turned all the concentration she could muster towards blocking the piercing shriek.

It was a sound of fury. A sound of grief. A sound of determination. Tali recognized it. Really, she knew it all too well. Touching upon the living Force, sensing the lylek’s mind, she could feel it.

It was the sound of a mother that had lost her children. Almost all of them, at least. For, Tali could feel something else. The faintest pulse of life, directly behind her, quiet and dim. The last egg...buried in the column that had erupted from the center of the arena.

She knew all too well that the Queen would kill them both to get to it, without thinking or reasoning. Afterall...she might have done the same.

The world around her was deathly silent and for a moment, Sera thought she was about to die. She’d heard stories around the tribal campfires about how a warrior’s life would flash before their eyes at the moment of their demise, the world suddenly serene and calm as they enjoyed their greatest triumphs before the end. She’d not planned on going so soon, but welcomed the chance to relive her finest moments.

She saw a vengeful Twi’lek charging past her, yellow saberblade slashing in complete silence.

Sera furrowed her brow. That wasn’t right. She was positive that this was not one of her memories. The next moment, she became aware of the faint pain in her ears and an annoying, piercing humming that grated her nerves. She clutched a hand to her ear to silence it, only to withdraw with bloodied digits.

She spat out a curse, but heard nothing. Of course.

Things had started so delightfully straightforward, but alas they had a tendency to rarely stay that way when master and student adventured together. Today was seemingly no different. Once again aware of her own continued mortality, Sera recovered from her stupor, recognizing the opening that Tali had bought her and backpedalled away from the lylek’s slashing pincers. For her part, the Twi’lek had managed little more than to drive the monster back, but that was enough for now. Backflipping away from a scything talon, she landed beside Sera and panted hard. The lylek did not press its attack, bleeding ichor and hissing at them both.

There was a moment’s lull in the fighting, a pregnant pause as the telepathic link between them slowly faded, lingering like a forlorn scent upon the wind. Would they fight the lylek to its death? Or would they risk it for a larvae? Tali hated the fact she already knew what the blue-eyed Zabrak had decided. She just couldn’t let anyone die.

With all too familiar trepidation of doing something she knew was foolhardy and reckless, Tali whispered one final thought across the dispersing web of telepathy.

”Bleeding Bothan.”

Sera’s eyes met hers, questioning, then melting to understanding and agreement. It was the best course of action.

The pair burst into action once more, Sera breaking left while Tali veered right to keep the foe at her armed side. The sensation of fighting in almost complete silence was unnerving, but thankfully not the only sensory distraction Sera had had to deal with before. Deft digits plucked a trio of throwing knives from her belt and fanned them across the lylek’s flank. The blades dinged off the darkened carapace, unable to pierce its hide to deliver the sting of their venom, and she hissed a sharp curse audible to everyone but herself.

Opposite, Tali tried to confound the lylek with a staccato of swerving blows, swinging her lightsaber around in wide arcs that slashed at the sand between them and kicked up pearls of molten glass that glittered in the sunlight. The lylek, roaring with maternal rage, stabbed wildly at the infuriatingly elusive target, kicking up even more plumes of sand that obscured most of the Twi’lek’s deft footwork from view.

A particularly large plume of sand erupted as the lylek lashed out with its tentacles, Tali flying clear of the impact and rolling hard over her injured shoulder, crying in pain. Sera looked on in shock and fear, pulling out her saber and holding it two-handed for dear life. The desperation was palpable.

“It’s learning too quickly!” Tali shouted, ostensibly at her deafened companion. “Ve cannot beat it!” The sense of genuine panic was hard to miss. “It’s going to be unstoppable!” she turned her attention from Sera to the few staff watching from the stands. “Get out! Get out vhile you still can!” she emphasized the order with a wide sweeping motion as her eyes locked with one of the closest attendees.

A ripple of silence swept over the spectators, breaking like shattering glass as the man rose from his seat and fled in blind panic. The dam burst as others followed. Soon, the exits were choking with a press of bodies as the attending academics sought to save themselves from one of their own creations.

Though it had taken much out of her, Tali could sense the panic in the mirrored control room observing the fight from above. Her mind’s eye hinted at profusely sweating adepts rushing to check on containment protocols while feverishly going through the dwindling number of options left for them. Their immediate response was almost too predictable.

Sera charged in just in the nick of time, practically throwing herself—against all instinct—into the path of danger as shock probes began emerging from beneath the sand, crackling with electricity. Before they could discharge, she’d already cleaved through five of them, ostensibly in self-defence, while trying to engage the bewildered lylek.

A few blue-forked zaps stung its toughened hide, but to little effect, and by the time the flame spewing nozzles were deployed, it too had grown wise to these tricks. As the technicians' response grew increasingly desperate in an effort to contain the self-teaching monstrosity, Sera continued fanning the flames of panic. Despite her best efforts to send a torrent of strikes at the lylek, her blade flashing with such speed it was almost impossible to notice most strikes weren’t even close to hitting home, the beast appeared impervious and roared once more with enough vigor to drive the Zabrak back.

Turning her pleading eyes at the mirrored observatory—that by now reeked of desperation— Tali clutched her bleeding arm for effect and cried out.

“Give it to us! Give us the egg! That’s the only vay ve can calm it down!”

There was hesitation. Hesitation that dragged on for long, agonizing seconds. Sera screamed, the lylek screamed. Tali could feel the adepts screaming inside that distant podium. Then the pillar opened, a seamless stone slab departing to unveil a pristine ovum.

Tali raised her comlink to her lips and panted a hasty command to René. They’d be needing an exit very soon. She did not wait for a reply, instead drawing upon the last vestiges of her strength to curl gentle wisps of force around the singular egg and lift it into the light.

“I have it!” she called out, eyes squeezed shut in concentration even as her saber hilt slipped her numbing fingers.

The lylek’s attention snapped away from the Zabrak and towards the central column. She immediately recognized the floating egg as her own, as unmistakable as a mammal’s babe. It thrashed towards it in an inelegant gallop, stumbling over its injuries in blind desperation. Tali felt the beads of sweat running down her brow as she held the egg in place just long enough for the lylek to wrap its tender tentacles around it. A mother cradling their child.

Tali collapsed onto her knees in the sand, drawing ragged breath. She was spent, utterly, and yet when she laid eyes upon her student, she could feel a familiar comfort that steeled her spirit and rejuvenated her body, giving her just enough strength to limp towards the gates.

“R3,” she huffed into her comlink. “Open the gates.”

There was a squeal and warble in response.

“Yes, all of them.”

As Sera wrapped her arm around her former master’s shoulder, helping her along towards the yawning portal, the other main gates around the arena began to shudder open as well. The lylek, finally snapped out of the joyous reunification, skittered around in confusion.

Sera reached out to it with a single thought.

”Go. Be a mother.”

There was no response, not in words, but she could feel the raw gratitude as she watched the lylek flit away, egg safely clutched in its tentacles. As former master and student limped into the darkened corridor soon awash with warnings of a test-piece gone rogue, Tali reflected upon her prior wisdom.

The best lessons were indeed not taught. They were hard fought.