Maldecka felt each breath like needles in her lungs. She had lost her gas mask somewhere in the tunnels behind her. But it didn't matter.
Because the Sith were running right in front of her.
Maldecka wasn't sure where exactly Master Zarro was and vaguely felt she should be contacting someone. But she couldn't bring herself to do it.
All she could think about was the Sith in front of her. They were murderers, poisoning bacta and causing troops to die under the hands of the people trying to help them. And then the refugees were hit.
And these Sith had laughed, the Force coiling like oil and tar around them with each chuckle. It made Maldecka burn.
It wasn't fear or even the spikes of anger Maldecka sometimes felt when fighting on other missions. It was something else.
It was the absolute need to destroy them raised to an intensive drumbeat Maldecka had never felt before. And she liked it.
Because it let her put aside her aching lungs, her injured arm and her sore feet. It let her see the movements of the Sith, to predict them, to wield the force to keep them from separating, to put obstacles in their path.
Maldecka was gaining. And she burned.
With a twitch of her hand the tunnel ahead of the Sith collapsed. They stumbled to a stop and spun around, lightsabers extended.
Maldecka slowed and stood at the edge of their reach, burning with the desire to move forward. The hand holding her lightsaber twitched.
Maldecka could hear footsteps in the tunnel behind her. It didn't matter. It was time for the Sith to face justice.
Maldecka gritted her teeth trough the burn, through her own desires, to ask, "Do you surrender peacefully?"
The left most Sith shot lightning at her. Maldecka cut him down before she realized she was moving.
As the last Sith fell, Maldecka finally felt the burn ebbing away, leaving satisfaction and exhaustion in its wake.
She was barely aware as Zarro slipped her gas mask back on.
Zarro had finally caught up. He wished with everything he had that he hadn't.
Fifteen missions and this was the first on where Sith were involved. It was the same as any other mission until they actually caught sight of the Sith.
It was like a switch flipped in Maldecka's head.
And there was nothing Zarro could do about it. She wouldn't stop chasing. Even when the Sith were able to knock her gas mask off, Maldecka just kept after them.
Zarro had tracked the bond, and tracked the fight. But he could not figure out what had happened. So Zarro followed, trying to bring his Sunbeam back alive.
As she struck the Sith down Zarro saw. Maldecka had killed before. She was very level headed about it, probably due to being a Zabrak.
This was different. Her eyes had glowed blue and white and the force was singing within her. It was driving her forward to act. It was declaring to everyone around that this was Maldecka's purpose. Even the Sith could feel it, cowering before a twelve-year-old.
Zarro can't fight that.
He can't deny Maldecka that.
But by the Force, Zarro didn't want to know this.
This blood and dust and grime and chase and pain and justice and death.
This would be Maldecka's destiny.