The crackling energy of the Sith Temple swept over Vader like the first gust of wind before a sandstorm. It was painful, but nowhere near as painful as losing his remaining three limbs and then literally burning alive had been.

However, the energy appeared to have a much more negative effect on Ahsoka. She had collapsed, and there was something definitely wrong with her. She was smaller. Much smaller. Strange that he hadn't been affected. Maybe it only shrunk those who used the Light Side?

The tiny Togruta clumsily pushed herself to her feet and stared around in confusion. She couldn't have been more than three years old.

Finally, she saw him. Little Ahsoka looked up and up and up and her eyes met his one exposed eye.

"Anakin?" the tiny toddler chirped. "Wha' happened t' you?"

Vader silently stared at Ahsoka, drowning in her shirt that had become a dress on her much shortened frame. He didn't want to admit it, not even to himself, but Skywalker's former Padawan was adorable as a toddler.

The three-year old waddled over to him, latched onto his leg, and peered up at him with her big, blue eyes. Vader ignited his lightsaber, considering, for a moment, killing her and ridding himself of one of Skywalker's last failures.

Ahsoka meeped and ducked around him, curling up in his cloak, as if being out of sight will protect her. Her nebulous Force presence reached out towards him, clinging to his as she sought safety and comfort.

Vader decided that it would be an even bigger insult to Skywalker's legacy if he raised Ahsoka as a Sith, make her into his own apprentice. He extinguished his lightsaber and gently untangled her from his cloak.

"Why you evil?" Ahsoka asked, hugging his leg again.

"Don't touch me," he growled as he used the Force to detach her and stalked off towards the exit. Well, it was more of a limp, but the only one who was there to see was a three-year old.

Vader could hear the patter of Ahsoka's bare feet as she tried to keep up with him. He looked back once he reached the exit, tracking her progress. If his respirator had allowed him to sigh, he would have; she was a lot slower as a toddler.

He wasn't surprised when Ahsoka tripped over the hem of her shirt and fell forward, the breastplate the only thing keeping her from smashing her face against the ground. She lay there for a few seconds, and Vader began to fear she would start crying.

"Anakin, c' you help me?" she asked, flailing her arms and legs.

He used the Force to lift her off the ground and carry her the rest of the way. It was faster than waiting for the toddler to make her way over. She shrieked and then began to giggle helplessly as she floated.

"Again, again," she demanded as soon as he set her down on the ground.

"We do not have time for this foolishness," he said rather than explain that he had been worn out from fighting her. Skywalker's Padawan had only grown more skilled since she had left the treacherous Jedi Order, and he had not expected that.

He began to walk back towards his ship again, but he went slower this time so that Ahsoka would not fall behind. She appeared to be of the same mind because she grabbed the end of his cape and held onto it as they walked to their ship.

It didn't take him long to repair the Inquisitors' ship; it had only been a droid that had disabled it, and an obsolete one at that. Ahsoka was more of a hinderance than a help in the repairs; she clearly remembered how to repair ships, but would easily get distracted by bits and pieces and play with them using the Force. It was quite annoying. Vader would have yelled at her for it, but he was too busy. His life support wouldn't hold up forever, not after the damage that the adult version of Ahsoka had done to it, and it was imperative he returned to his ship as soon as possible.

Ahsoka did not have much assistance to offer in flying the Inquisitors' ship either, being too small to reach any of the controls.

They reached his Star Destroyer in good time, meaning that his suit was still holding together. The depressurization caused by the hole Ahsoka had cut into his mask and helmet had not been good for his lungs. He needed to spend at least twelve hours in the hyperbaric chamber before he would be in any shape to report to his Master.

That left only the problem of what to do with Ahsoka. From what he understood of children, she was too young to be left on her own for long periods of time. Maybe ordering her to go to sleep would work? No, better to get a trooper to watch over her, preferably one of the ones who were unswervingly loyal to him.

Moments after he thought of summoning a trooper, though, Ahsoka was asleep, curled up in a chair in his quarters and dead to the world. Vader used what the tattered remains of the training bond from fifteen years ago to brush over her mind with the Force, checking to see if she was actually asleep. Tomorrow, after he reported to his Master, he decided that he would work on rebuilding their bond. Then, satisfied with the current state of affairs, if not happy with them, Vader shut himself up in his hyperbaric chamber and sent himself into a healing trance.