Chapter 1 – Children
Plot: Sith holocrons can cause chaos. And they're dangerous. Everything spirals into mayhem when the fight over the holocron on Malachor has unexpected consequences, leaving Darth Vader, Ahsoka Tano, Ezra Bridger, and Kanan Jarrus de-aged to five-year-olds. Hopefully, it'll be temporary, but the four are stuck dealing with old traumas and secrets that have come to light.
Author's Note: First off, I don't think there's a genre called 'depressing humor', but that's what this applies to. Lol. It was supposed to be crack and verge humor, but this is what it turned into. Anyway. I have no idea where this came from. And yes, yes, I know their clothes shouldn't have been affected, but Ahsoka's would fall right off, and I don't have the heart to mentally scar her so. :v And this story ran away with itself. I have no idea how it turned out the way it did. T_T xD
This will be updated every other week, and there's seven chapters. Enjoy! :D
~ Rivana Rita
Ezra Bridger had had a... not so good feeling about this from the start. It had just been getting worse, especially since the holocron he's holding came into the picture. After Vader showed up, he wasn't sure things could possibly get any worse, but now he's rethinking that. Ahsoka fell off the ledge, and he has no idea where she is.
Ezra tightens his grip on the holocron, holding Kanan – still with that mask, and he can only guess why – as they struggle to rip the object away from Vader's literally iron grip.
The Force is rippling strangely out of the holocron, and that's when it happens. Ezra isn't quite sure if he actually saw a flash of light from it or not, but everything suddenly feels... different.
Kanan's hand feels weird, is the first thing he notices. The holocron suddenly feels huge, too, as if it's too big for him to hold. Vader's grip on it suddenly gives out and he crashes face-first to the floor, twitching strangely. And why does he suddenly look so... big?
Kanan tips over backwards, dragging Ezra with him. Ezra lands on his back, still holding onto his master, feeling unbearably disoriented. The holocron clanks to the ground between them. Something's wrong, and he doesn't know what. Wait. He looks up, throwing his hair out of his face. Kanan is – no. Just, no. His master did not just turn into a little child. But it's him, all the way down to the pieces of armor he always wears. Ezra isn't quite sure if he should scream or laugh or cry.
The mask Kanan had been wearing falls to the floor, and he stares up at the ceiling looking about as disoriented as Ezra's feeling. Everything is dead silent for a moment, until Kanan reaches up to touch his face. "I... can see again?" he mutters, sounding slightly confused.
A sudden, high-pitched shriek draws Ezra's attention across the room. He sits up, eyes immediately falling on a tiny little Togruta, who is probably the most adorable creature he's ever see. She's holding two lightsabers, the blades of which are probably longer than she is tall. They slide out of her hands and skitter across the floor. She scrambles to pick them up, looking decidedly unhappy.
No. This is insane. It's impossible. Ezra looks between her and Kanan, then down at himself. But it's true. Somehow, everyone got turned into five-year-olds.
"Get me out!" Vader's voice practically wails, but Ezra's fairly certain it isn't him.
The tiny Ahsoka scrambles to pick up her lightsabers with both hands – the hilts are practically the size of her lower arms – and replaces them on her belt, stumbling forwards and nearly falling very unceremoniously with their added weight.
"What happened?" Kanan exclaims finally, scrambling to his feet.
"I think the holocron happened," Ahsoka offers, glancing between them and Vader who's still sprawled on the floor.
"Ahsoka?" Vader twitches weirdly again. "Ahsoka! Get me out of here!" He sounds half panicked.
Ezra can only stare. What. Just. Happened?!
"Get to the ship. I'll take care of him," Ahsoka orders, striding towards the Sith.
Ezra doesn't move, still in too much shock. "Come on!" Kanan advises, casting another wary glance back at the Sith and Ahsoka. Ezra hesitates, but the Force hums in warning. The Temple is collapsing, and they need to go. He scrambles up, and the boys run back to the ship, stopping at the doorway. Chopper beeps at them, waving one of his arms.
"Yes, I am Ezra!" he exclaims.
The droid rolls closer, beeping and practically glowering.
"Yes, we are a... previous model," Kanan interjects, stepping forwards.
"What do you mean I'm grouchy?!" Ezra demands, glaring at the droid in offense. "No, I'm not!" Ugh, he sounds like a whiney little child. He's back to the size he was then, which is irritatingly small.
"Let us on the ship, Chopper," Kanan orders, looking at the end of his patience. He crosses his arms, glaring at the droid in a way that looks almost adorable.
The droid beeps hesitantly, but reluctantly disappears into the Phantom. The warning in the Force is growing stronger, and Ezra glances back again. What happened to Ahsoka? Where is she? They need to get out of here first, then figure out what's happening.
"Can the Dark Side de-age people?" Ezra asks suddenly.
"No," his master replies forcefully.
"But something did, right?" he objects. Why does he have to sound like he's whining? He's just asking! "Am I literally stuck in my five-year-old body here, or am I just dreaming?"
"I'd like to say we're dreaming!"
"Hey!" Ahsoka yells, running towards them. "Come on, we gotta go!" She's holding the hand of another boy, one clothed in back and with blond hair. Not someone Ezra recognizes, but he's holding the holocron in his other hand. Ezra had almost forgotten about it in their rush to get out.
They scramble into the ship and the door closes behind them. Chopper is the one flying; no one else daring to try taking off. The ship is too big, and no one could even reach the controls. It zips upwards into the atmosphere as a deafening explosion tears across the surface below.
"Now that that's gone and done," Ahsoka announces cheerfully, "I want to introduce you." It seems her mind has mostly reverted too, Ezra realizes worriedly. No, wait. Everyone's has. Oh, great. Now his father is the same age as him. "Kanan and Ezra, this is my master, Anakin Skywalker."
The boy steps forwards very grudgingly, eyes darting between them, but he doesn't speak.
"Hi!" Ezra greets, then freezes. "Wait. You mean, that Anakin Skywalker? The one we've watched the recordings of and everything?"
"Yes, she does," Kanan answers, staring at the other boy in almost awe.
"Where are we heading?" Anakin asks after a long moment of uncomfortable silence.
"Back to the rebels," Kanan replies, walking back towards the seats and stopping. Then he scowls. "These are too big!"
Ezra doesn't even bother trying not to laugh. "You sound like a five-year-old."
"I am a five-year-old!"
"How did this happen?" Anakin asks slowly. He's obviously very confused and uncertain, and on his guard though Ezra can't quite understand why.
"Best guess is the Sith holocron," Ahsoka sings out far, far too cheerfully. She throws an arm around him. "But I'm not complaining." He stares at her with something akin to disbelief that really shouldn't be on a child so young, and she stares back with a far too bright grin.
Chopper beeps.
"Actually, that's a good question," Kanan interjects suddenly. "How are we going to explain this?"
"Uh... I hoped you had something in mind?" Ezra offers sheepishly.
"We can't," Anakin declares. He's breathing weirdly, Ezra realizes suddenly. Why?
"Maybe we should stay here for now until we figure it out?" Ahsoka suggests. "We could all use sleep after that chaos."
"I don't need to sleep," Anakin objects.
"Hush, Master," Ahsoka replies lightly.
"You, hush!" he snaps. She ignores him.
"I mean, I doubt Kanan wants to see his girlfriend again when he's five."
"Ahsoka!"
"She has a point."
"Ezra!"
**w**
A million images dance before his eyes as he turns over again, trying to sleep. He isn't uncomfortable really – he's slept on the floor all the time while running on his own on Lothal – but his body isn't used to it. He remembers losing his parents. Hearing they were dead. Being alone for so long until the Ghost Crew finally found him. He remembers fighting the Grand Inquisitor and being thrown off the walkway. It's when he hits the ground that he wakes up, gasping.
It never did occur to Ezra that all that information shoved in the mind of a young child would be enough overload it. Between that and being on a Dark Side planet, of course all his dark memories are being pulled to the surface.
Across the room, Kanan is sleeping sound. Anakin is nowhere to be seen. Ahsoka, though... she's sitting curled up against one of the walls, crying in almost dead silence. It's strangely wrong, but Ezra scrambles over to her, with every intention of comforting her.
"Ahsoka?" he asks softly, squeezing her shoulder. The contact doesn't feel weird even though they scarcely know each other. The child in him doesn't seem to care.
"They abandoned me," she whispers, voice barely audible.
"What?"
"The Jedi." Her voice hitches. "They abandoned me."
Only now does it hit him, he knows almost nothing about her. He never asked why she left the Order. Maybe he should've. By this point, Kanan has awoken and come to stand beside them. "We all heard about it," he says quietly, an anger in his tone Ezra never remembers having heard before. "She was accused of murder. They just threw her out."
"What?" Ezra breathes. How could they do that? "I thought you said you left!"
"I did!" She asserts adamantly, slamming a small orange fist onto the floor. "I did! I hate them."
"That's the Dark Side talking. Not you," Kanan insists.
"Snips, you need to breathe." Anakin is standing up against the door, leaning against it with his arms crossed, looking strangely alone and withdrawn. No one even noticed him until he spoke.
Ahsoka bursts into sobs again. "I don't deserve your help. Not anymore."
"What are you talking about?" He steps forwards towards her.
"You – you said it yourself. I abandoned you. I – I wasn't there when – I – when you Fell."
A sudden cold silence sweeps through the room. Kanan stumbles back, eyes widening. Ezra inhales sharply. Fell. Anakin Fell. There was only one other person in the temple when everything happened, and –
"How could you?!" Kanan shouts, whirling around to face Anakin with a glare that would have been intimidating if he was an adult. "You betrayed us!"
"How do you think you can judge me?" Anakin shoots back.
But he isn't finished. "Do you know how many people have died because of you? My own master! I lost everything because of you!"
A flicker of hurt flashes across Anakin's face before his expression sets to something murderous. "I lost everything because of the Jedi! Do you think I spent my life chasing after you?"
"You seemed to have been well enough!" Kanan yells back. He stalks across the room, snatching up an object and throwing it at Anakin who ducks.
"Perhaps you should not have destroyed Tarkin's ship!"
"Maybe you shouldn't have sent your Inquisitors after me in the first place! What have you been doing all this for, for fun?"
Anakin goes quiet for a moment, but Ezra can sense his anger growing too dangerous levels. It's hard to take him seriously – he's a little boy and plainly adorable – but in moments like these it's obvious he's a Sith. "Do not presume to understand what I have gone through," he growls, voice low and dangerous.
"Do I look like I care?"
"Shut up!" Ahsoka yells, standing up, her eyes wild and panicked. Ezra retreats farther back towards Chopper who has been watching the proceedings in dead silence. The two look like they're about to tear each other's heads off.
"Stay out of this, Ahsoka!" Anakin snaps, not even bothering to look at her. "You chose to leave me. You have no right to tell me what I can and can't do."
She gasps softly, eyes filling with tears again.
"You almost killed my padawan!"
"If my memory serves me correctly, only because you were foolish enough to stumble right into a planet controlled by the Empire!"
"Only cowards use the Dark Side!" Kanan practically screams, even though his anger is screaming into the Force so loudly it's scary. Imagines flicker through Ezra's mind again, of when he and Maul entered the Temple. Of when they fought the Inquisitors together. The hurt swelling in him is completely senseless, but it's there, nonetheless. He knows Kanan wasn't talking to him, but still.
"And me?" Ezra whispers, voice unusually quiet and shaking. "What does that make me?"
"Oh," Vader smirks, a humorless smile grazing his features. "So, Jedi, you were pathetic enough to train a coward?" He's mocking him now. Kanan's gaze darts to Ezra for a moment, then back at Vader, and his eyes narrow. The two really do look like they're about to tear each other's heads off right now. "I wonder what your grandmaster would have said. How gloriously righteous he was. Supporting the killing of children, throughout the galaxy. Insisting the leading of a war, with child slave soldiers." A momentary pause, in which Ahsoka's eyes widen even farther. He steps closer. "Supporting the execution of a teenage girl. Leaving her completely alone without a guardian, in the underworld, to fend for herself."
They glower at each other, only inches apart, Jedi and Sith. Vader's eyes are completely golden, practically glowing in the darkened room. It looks strange on someone so young.
"That's enough!" Ahsoka yells suddenly, striding forwards. She grabs them both by their necks, slamming their heads together. Chopper cheers and waves his arms in the background. Ezra probably would have joined – the stunned and annoyed expression on Kanan's face was totally worth it – if not for what happened next. Vader jerks, spinning around on instinct and grabbing her arm, twisting it and throwing her to the floor. It was fast enough Ezra almost wonders if he even realizes what he just did. Ahsoka hits the ground with a grunt and moves to get up but isn't fast enough. His hand wraps around her neck, crushing. There's no recognition in his expression, just rage and fear.
Ezra's already covered half the ship, running forwards before he even registers moving. "Stop!" he shouts, panicking. This is a fully trained Sith Lord here, and he's frankly clueless as to what he could even do to stop him.
Kanan yeets the holocron at him at a last-moment effort, but a flick of his free wrist sends it flying straight back at him. Kanan ducks to the ground, barely avoiding getting clocked on the head.
She struggles against him. "Skyguy," she gasps finally.
Vader jerks back, stumbling. He looks around almost disoriented, then stares at his hands like they just betrayed him. His eyes slowly start fading back to blue.
Ahsoka pushes herself up into a sitting position, reaching for him worriedly.
"Don't!" he snaps, flinching and scrambling back. "Don't get close to me." He sounds breathless, and Ezra finds himself being hit by a strange sense of... is that concern? For a Sith? Has he lost his mind? Anakin just stares at her for a long moment, blue eyes wide with horror running too deep for him to understand. Finally, he whirls around. The ramp leading back outside drops, and he sprints out of the ship.
"Are you alright?" Kanan exclaims, hurrying over to Ahsoka, who remains rooted to the spot, watching Anakin as he disappears. He's running, and Ezra has no idea where he thinks he's going. He probably doesn't know himself.
"We have to find him," she whispers.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Kanan replies flatly. "He just tried to kill you!"
"I startled him."
"You startled him? And you think that's a good enough excuse?!"
"We can't just let him run around out there alone," Ezra protests, trying desperately to convince himself that the concern he feels towards Anakin has nothing to do with him and just the chaos he could cause out there, alone.
"Let's send Chopper," Ahsoka offers suddenly. "He's good with droids."
Ezra sends a pointed look at the droid, who beeps a grumpy protest. "No, we're not leaving him out there!" He beeps again. "Yes, he was once a Sith." It sounds so wrong to say that. "And yes, you are going to find him!" The droid rolls out the door with a final series of beeps. "No, I don't think intimidation tactics work on Darth Vader!" Ezra yells after.