She stood on the cold, dark cement of the Tesraki homeworld. Light glittered off growing puddles of water caused by an ongoing torrential downpour. The sky overhead was black with night, and the rain itself was visible as a curtain of visual noise refracting light from the many neon lights that scattered about the city. Buildings towered hundreds of feet into the air crisscrossed with a latticework of metal, wire, and scaffolding.

Before her, the street was still crowded with alien life, humans, Tesraki, and others packed together in a slow moving current through the streets, stopping by streetside vendors selling food, clothing and electronics from under leaky tarps pulled taught against the rain.

The cloak she wore was tight around her body, almost to small for her, though that in itself was a rarity. Still, her snout poked out from under the hood, rain water dripping down the bridge of her carapace and down onto the ground in shimmering diamond strings.

She pressed forward through the mass of bodies, limping on her bad leg as the rain overhead only grew heavier.

She knew This place, knew these streets and these people. She hadn't lived here long, but it was the sort of place one could easily find themselves lost in obscurity, and that was the way she liked it. Even back then, however, she had never been alone, surrounded b long time companions that understood her struggle.

Now she was alone.

She had never been alone before, not really.

Ever since she was young she had been raised in the loving arms of the Forsaken, until she was old enough to take their place as it's leader, and as its leader she had led them to her sister who had in turn led them to the Omen.

And that had in turn led them to salvation.

A salvation she just couldn't bring herself to accept. All around her she had watched as the other Drev of her kind had shed the identity that was their imperfect bodies in acceptance of augmentations and surgeries that would finally cure or mitigate their ailments, and while she had least come to accept their decision, she could not come to accept that reality for herself.

Her entire life had been built around what she was.

And she worried, that there would be nothing left of her original self when it was all over, when the limp was gone and her arm was straightened out, when she looked normal.

Would she feel normal?

She hated that word.

It implied there was something inherently wrong with her.

She looked down at herself, though her body was mostly obscured by the folds of the cloak. Why did any of that have to be normal, why did it need to be fixed?

Dzara warred with herself on the inside, and that war had brought her here.

She understood that the others were moving on without her, accepting the augmentations that would make their lives easier, bring them up to level with others of their kind, and she couldn't blame them. Living the way they had was hard, not being accepted was hard, and now they had a chance to change all of that.

But she just couldn't.

And it was hard to watch from the outside.

Better for everyone that she leave and start over.

Alone.

Overhead she could hear the distant rumble of maglevs rolling through the city, the screech and roar of the magnets engaging rumbling through the concrete and up into her feet. She slipped into the darkness of a side alley and vanished into a world of darkness.

No one would ever be able to find her here.

She could start over.

No one would even notice she was missing.

Kanan was.... Too busy these days with his writing, and Sunny had her battle partner to think about. Dzara would never admit it, but it made her chest ache with jealousy when she watched the two of them together, touching, smiling, laughing.

Soemthing that Dzara knew she would never have.

Not like this.

"Hey, you with the hood."

She turned sharply where she stood eyes darting around the small alley in which she stood.

She didn't see anything at first.

"Up here, Ace."

Dzara craned her head back, surprised to find a figure standing on one of the scaffolds overhead. Despite being covered from the rain, she could tell immediately that he was human. He was tall for his species, feet planted at shoulder width, one hand resting on a metal bar off to his side. His face was covered in deep hood that cast his face into shadow, though the very bottom of his face was still visible, covered by a sharp metal mask which emulated the shape of a skull. When he tilted his head she could see that his entire face was covered.

One of the eye sockets glowed green.

"What do you want?" She demanded, nervously stepping back.

As she watched, he took a nonchalant step forward, dropping the twenty feet from the air and onto the ground with a cement cracking thud. Dzara winced, but he stood without seeming perturbed and stepped forward walking around her with the look of someone examining livestock.

She reached inside her cloak, hand clutched around the metal shaft of the retractable spear Sunny had made for her as a gift. Dzara wasn't so good with it, but she might be able to get the drop on this one.

Probably a slave trader.

The man held up a hand and stepped back, "Woah there, no need to get defensive."

She frowned.

She thought she had been more subtle than that.

"Not a slaver, though it is good to be cautious." His voice was warped by the metal of his mask. She might not have been entirely sure weather he was a man or a woman, but she was 95% sure based on his build, and what little she could hear of his original voice.

"You look like someone who needs a little fun."

She shook her head, "not interested." She turned, but the stranger scampered in front of her.

"Woah, Whoah, you haven't even heard what I'm talking about yet, just give me a chance."

She was growing frustrated with him, and continued walking, but he took her silence as encouragement to speak.

"how do you feel about no holds barred combat."

Dzara's back straightened. Inside The Drev in her lifted its head in interest, though she tried to shove that part of her down.

"Do I look like someone who would be interested." She said, pointing out her limp.

"You can never know by looking at someone, but I know a Drev when I see one."

"Not much of a drev now am I."

The stranger snorted rubbing his hands over the eyes of his mask, "Boo hoo let me cry for you. Poor little Drev has a limp." She growled as he hopped up before her, "You know instead of holding a pity party, why don't you come with me and get out some of that aggression."

"I can't." She pushed past him, anger rising in her body.

The Drev in her was still interested.

You could not live with the Drev on Anin without feeling it. The pull to battle, the need for honor, the desire to fight and be fought in return.

Dzara was so hungry for it she was almost salivating.

She had never been in a real fight, was afraid of what her legs might do to her.

The stranger skipped in front of her, "Come on you're a Drev, I know what you want, and what you want is to cause a little mayhem. Promise you it won't be a big deal, a lot of people coming for a good brawl, and the more people there are the more money I make." She continued walking, squeezing through another small alleyway hoping to lose him behind her, but with a rattle, she looked up to find him running along another catwalk, only to jump down in front of her and trap her inside the confines.

"I'll make a deal with you, come with me, I give you one night of fighting. Let you try out my equipment, fix up your legs for a little, and if you hate it you can quit and never see me again."

She frowned at him, "Fix up my legs."

"Braces."

"How do you know that would even work."

"I don't, but its worth a try."

"How do I know you aren't on the black market for carapace. Going to grind me up and sell me to high paying customers."

Inside the masks she heard the human hiss. She watched his hands curl into fists at his sides, "Don't talk to me about those people."

His voice was filled with such venom that it made her leap back in surprise. He held up a hand and took a deep breath, "I am sorry, I do not agree with slavers. He stepped forward, about as tall as she was up close. What do you say, I make a little money and you get to try out some new legs, the only catch is that you might get beaten up a little."

She frowned, "This seems very convenient, and its making it very hard for me to trust you. Why not pick, someone, anyone else."

"You're the first Drev I ran into. I know Drev like to fight."

"You seem to know a whole lot about Drev."

"A lot of personal experience." He said, grabbing her by the arm, "promise it is legitimate. I will take you there and you will see." She didn't want to go with him, but grabbing the shaft of her spear she allowed him to lead her along through the dark alleys and back byways.

His footsteps were sure over the ground, and he moved with power that she didn't associate with many humans. Watching him, she became sure that he was not entirely without augmentation. She knew it was common for humans to have mechanical limbs, or even exoskeletons that allowed them to move stronger and faster, there were even rumors that some humans were removing their own limbs in order to replace them with something better, though those sorts of procedures were banned within the GA and were only done under the table, which made them both dangerous and insane to consider.

Up ahead she watched as the sky brightened with hundreds of beams of light, and the street opened onto a wide thoroughfare with thousands upon thousands of people heading towards a large building. She could hear the roaring of crowds from the inside, and looked up in awe at the glowing neon billboards advertising.

Knockout Night.

"What is this?"

"Oh, just a little competition the Tesraki put on on GA government holidays. Its mostly very illegal, buts it's a no holds barred, except for death, fighting ring that is open to competitors across the galaxy. Anyone can join, and anyone can bet. The more people join, the more spectators come, the more the Tesraki make, and the more of a cut I get.

You are my last pull in of the night.

"So what do you say?"

"How many people would I be fighting?"

"All of them."

"What?"

He shrugged, "Imagine a big sort of gladiatorial ring, where everyone fights each other at once, and the last man standing wins." He grabbed Dzara by the arm and hauled her through the crowd and into one of the entrances

"Fighters register here" She heard a voice call, and they stepped into line behind a massive human covered in large tattoos and piercings. He turned to look at her giving her the meanest expression she had ever seen on a human, and she shrunk back nervously.

They made it up to the desk, and the human stepped forward, "This is my last entry of the night, make sure they get my percentage."

"yeah yeah." The man pushed a paper forward, "Please sign this liability agreement."

Dzara, not sure what to do, did as told and was then passed a number which was stamped onto the back of her hand. "Welcome to the ring number 83."

The human pulled her past the open counter and into another waiting area where she could see fighters of all shapes and sizes gearing up for battle.

Next to her, she was stunned to be seated next to a three armed Drev with a wicked looking scar cracking the chest plate of his carapace, which glowed a pleasant seawater blue green. Nervously she removed her hood and the Drev turned to look at her, his eyes scanning over her body. She looked away.

When she looked back he inclined his head to her and raised a fist in salute. She nervously did the same.

After a moment the human returned.

His jacket was gone, but he still wore the dark black cowl and skull mask. His arms were bare past the shoulders and down to his forearms which were wrapped tightly in grey and green athletic wrap. Both his shirt and his pants were made from a lightweight black material lined in red.

"Are you fighting?" She wondered.

"Of course I am, like I said the more people I sign up the higher a commission I get from the ticket sales, sighing up myself is one more person I get commission from. Anyway, are you ready?"

She nodded nervously as he produced two long black contraptions from behind his back, "These are going to adjust your joints into the correct direction, and then support them once they are there. The rest of the body is going to take the strain off of any tight tendons or muscles, so it will only hurt for a second."

"Wait it will hur-" he didn't wait for her to finish her sentence, forcing the cap of the brace over her knee, and locking it into place around her leg. With a sharp whir, the contraption tightened, socketing itself into place over her leg and the heel of her foot. There was a sharp crunching noise and Dzara screamed as her knee was forced sideways into place. She tried to scramble away, but he grabbed her other leg and did the same.

She fell to the floor squirming in pain, but after a moment it was all over, and she lay on her back staring up at the ceiling.

"Sorry about that, but you wouldn't have let me keep going if I had given you warning. Try standing up."

Dzara certainly did not want to try standing up. She was sure that her joints had been snapped and her tendons popped out of place, but he insisted, and she gingerly took to her feet.

Immediately something was off. The parts of her feet that took her weight were not the usual parts she was used to. When she walked, her muscle memory tried to limp, but.... But there was something of. She stretched out her legs and the brace whirred. She watched as her knee glided forward and backward into the position that it should be in.

She took a step, and then another, forcing herself to walk like she should.

And felt nothing.

She hopped up and down.

No pain.

She jogged in a circle.

Dzara ran forward, and then backward feet skidding over the ground in ways that they had never moved before.

She rolled her toes.

"Now there it is, haven't seen you show a bit of happiness since I met you, now look, hopping around like a kit."

She paused and frowned, looking up at the skull-faced human, "This is amazing."

"It is isn't it." He rested a hand on her shoulder, "Technology eh? Does a lot of good for us, but if you decide to keep those, I do warn you that you have to keep up maintenance on them. Just because you have augmentations doesn't make you perfect." He poked her in the chest, "you're still you, just with upgrades. Now come on things are about to start."

Dzara followed the strange human out onto the field, her head buzzing a little. Most of the arena was open to the sky, so rain pelted down onto the floor caking the ground with mud. She could feel it squishing up between her toes as she walked, and she relished the feeling. Her body still tried to limp out of habit, but she did her best not to.

Hundreds of aliens clustered inside the ring, and her heart pounded nervously in her chest. Beside her the skull faced human withdrew something from behind his back and snapped it open. Dzara looked at it and frowned.

It seemed to be a spear, though the ends glowed with green electricity just like the one socket of his skull mask.

She pulled out her own weapon.

"Ladies gentleman! And assorted others! Welcome to the 101 monthly Knockout night. Today we have 146 challengers vying for the position of greatest warrior. The rules are as follows, everything goes accept for death and maiming, otherwise you are open to do whatever you wish. You must stay inside the silver barrier."

Dzara tilted her head back, watching as the silver barrier erupted from the sides of the arena and turned into a dome overhead.

"In the event of a knockout blow, your body will be retrieved, or if you break the rules or attempt to break the rules you will be retrieved." The number on her hand flashed silver and then grew dull again.

"May the best champion win!"
Below her the field glowed bright blue, even the mud taking on the Neon color as massive numbers began to count down from ten.

"Stick by me and we might be able to make it through this."

He spun his spear sharply in one hand in a way that was almost familiar to her as he dropped into a low ready.

Dzara did the same, back to him, her heart hammering.

And then the blast went off.

Almost immediately she was charged by two attackers.

With a yelp she was able to dodge one lashing out at the other with the dull end of her spear. She was surprised to find she hit them, and they went flying back to the ground where someone else came in to finish them off. Before the blow came, the floor opened up and the body disappeared. Dzara turned just in time to see the skull faced human block an attack from behind with almost laughable ease. Flipping his spear around and clobbering his attacker in the head.

The body fell and vanished as the floor opened.

Almost half of the combatants had already been pulled from the field in the first few seconds.

The skull man grabbed her by the arm and spun her in a tight circle, whipping around to catch an attack from their other side. Dzara was faced off against a smaller human, and with only an insane amount of luck and her own adrenaline did she manage to fend them off.

She was spun around again, and the skull faced human stepped in front of her, dropping into a series of forms that she found she recognized.

The human was fighting like a Drev.

She followed his lead through the battle, as he raced forward, scooping up a circular shield and effortlessly adding it to his fighting style. Whoever had trained him, it had been a Drev versed in the new fighting styles.

And recently.

Dzara ducked another attack, and felt to the mud, rolling to the side as a hand dropped down from above to hit her.

With speed unparalleled to what she had been before, she leaped to her feet, and lashed out with her foot like she had seen the human do, kicking her opponent in the chest, and backwards into a swipe from another opponent.

His body vanished.

Unfortunately for her the new figure came at her again, she was battered in quick succession around the shoulders and head and then into the ground where pain burst through her body. She gasped for air as she tried to throw her attacker off.

The Drev leapt over her attempting to push her into the ground with the flat of his spear. He was stronger than her and using all four arms when she could only use three.

She screamed, and the Drev was clobbered in the head, body vanishing through the floor as he fell.

The human leaped over her landing in her defense.

He pressed soemthing on the handle of his spear as two attackers came at him at once, and his weapon elongated slightly. He held the weapon in the middle spinning and maneuvering the weapon against two opponents, leaping over their heads when he could. He took out both opponents quickly, spinning the spear around his body and leaping to help her.

"Darth maul would be so proud." He said

And in that moment

Dzara had the sudden suspicion that she knew this human.

That suspicion didn't last long as she they were surrounded by at least five other attackers. Dzara ducked and lunged catching one of her opponents only to be struck to the ground by another. She lay there in the dirt and watched in shock as a metal bar bore down towards her face, then the human was there again, tackling the attacker out of the way, taking the hti hard.

His mask burst and was thrown off as he was sent rolling across the ground.

Dzara rolled to the side, making it to her feet just as the human lifted his head.

She should have known.

Adam Vir wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and retrieved his spear a wicked grin on his face as she charged back into the Frey.

Dzara did not last much longer. Dropping through the floor only to find herself sitting in a massive infirmary below the stadium itself. Heaving and panting with exertion she was given some water, and sat listening to the roar of the crowd. She waited for a good few minute watching as others dropped through the ceiling.

The flash of green from a distance brought her to her feet, and she marched through the ranks of bes, finally coming upon the figure who was rubbing his head with a hand, "Ouch, I feel like that was completely uncalled for."

"You know what else is uncalled for, LYING to me."

Adam Vir lifted his head meeting Dzara's expression.

"how dare you." She began, "How dark you manipulate me like that." And al for what, "She stomped her feet, "To get me to try these?"

Adam didn't look apologetic, "I never lied to you Dzara, I AM getting commission from this fight, and I DID need more people."

She huffed, "Can't you just leave me alone and accept the fact that I am fine with the way things are."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "No, no I cant."

She was taken aback.

"Sunny and Kanan care about you, so no I am not going to let you run away and mope off onto the Tesraki home planet because you feel like you don't fit in. You DO fit in Dzara, if you would only see that, if you would only take time to meet people and talk to them and have some fun for once in your life. People WANT to interact with you and want to be your friend. I do.... But you won't let anyone in past all that." He waved a hand at her, "Look, what I said remains true, you can throw the braces away if you don't want them but.... I wanted you to at least experience what life could be like if you were just willing to try new things."

The frown on his face lightened somewhat, "Besides, we had fun didn't we."

She did not acknowledge him, "Did Sunny send you."

He sighed and shook his head, "no Dzara, no one knows I'm here. I came because I DO care about you. You're part of my crew."

"I haven't been on your crew that long."

"So?"
She paused stared at the human with his tentative smile and wide eyes, "You really came here just for me."

"Yeah, I came to stop you from making a stupid decision because that's what friends do."

"We're friends."

He smiled, "Congratulations an Extrovert has now adopted you as a friend. Here is no getting away from me."

She tried to fight away the smile, "I should have known it was you, as soon as you said all that stuff about still being me."

He shrugged, "Yeah maybe, but no one ever said you were smart."

She huffed, but couldn't find the energy to be mad at him. She didn't want to admit it but on the inside she was still a small bit giddy at being called a friend for one of the first times in living memory. She had been a lot of things, a sister, a leader, but she had never really been a friend .

"Come on, lets get you back to the ship before someone recognizes me and alerts the GA that I have been participating in illegal fighting rings and gambling."