Title: Wish Upon a Droid

Author: Smenzer

Email: None

Rating: PG

Archive: Yes, please. If you want to put this on a web page please let me know.

Teaser: A young Luke talks to a new droid about his father, a mysterious droid named W1SH

Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. They belong to George Lucas and Fox. This is just for fun.

AN: This is a tad different than my other Luke/Vader stories. For one, it stars a YOUNG Luke Skywalker (something I never done before). Second, it is a tad strange and a bit unrealistic I suppose. But then I've watched a few episodes of "Twilight Zone" recently on DVD so I decided to try and write a TZ Star Wars story! This is the crazy result…Oh, I love those weird stories with twist endings. Don't you? This won't be all that twisted though… Be warned: this may contain some fantasy elements. Luke is about 8 years old in this story…

Eight-year-old Luke Skywalker hung his shaggy head as he slowly walked towards the dark opening of the Lars' garage. He idly kicked at a small rock partly embedded in the deep sand. His scuffed boot raised a small cloud of dust and he grimaced, the sand flying onto his light-colored leggings. How he hated the endless sand that surrounded his home on the farm! His blue eyes watched the tiny rock as it noisily bounced over the hot sand until it finally came to a stop a short distance away. His uncle had just recently bought a new droid from the Jawas and he was supposed to go clean it. The trouble was he didn't want to go clean it. "I don't even want to be here…"

"Luke!"

The young boy instantly turned at the angry voice of his uncle. The big man stood a short distance away with hands on hips glaring at him like he always did.

"Luke, how many times do I have to tell you not to dawdle? There's work to do and it won't get done by itself! No go clean that new astromech droid! You're old enough to do that and a lot more!"

"Yes, Uncle Owen." Luke said quickly and turned to go into the darkness of the garage. "I'll go do it right away."

"You better!" Owen huffed as he quickly strode to a speederbike and got onto it. "When I get back from checking the vaporators you'd better be done!"

Sighing again, Luke disappeared into the garage. His eyes soon adjusted to the relative darkness. Nothing was as bright as Tatooine with both suns in the sky; even modern lighting seemed dim in comparison. Out of all the worlds in the galaxy why did he have to be born here? It just didn't seem right…

The new droid his uncle had bought last evening was resting in the corner and young Luke hurried over to it. Like most astromech droids he had seen in his mere eight years of life, it was short and stubby with a round dome. But there the similarities ended. For one thing, it was pink. Luke unconsciously bit his bottom lip as he stared at the odd droid. Who in their right mind would build a pink droid? It was so girlish! In fact, it was just darn right stupid! But the odd little droid had been cheep so his Uncle had snatched it up right away saying something about color not being important. Besides, droids were sexless. They were not girls or boys, just droids. Still, Luke narrowed his eyes as he continued to stare at the pink droid. "You'll be bantha poodoo in no time…"

"Why do you say that?" the droid asked in a definite female voice.

Luke's blue eyes widened in utter shock and he leaped nearly a foot off the floor. Frightened, he raced behind the solid body of his uncle's airspeeder. Astromech droids were not supposed to talk! They couldn't! They were just supposed to make beeping sounds! With his heart thudding loudly in his ears, Luke peered out from behind the vehicle's fender. The pink droid still sat in the corner but its central red eye seemed to be watching him… "You … you can talk?"

The droid laughed. "Of course I can! You can't speak binary so I was programmed to speak basic. What's so shocking about that?"

"But astromech droids can't speak! They just beep…" Luke stepped cautiously out from behind the airspeeder, one hand on the vehicle's smooth hood. An odd feeling that something wasn't right had settled into the pit of his stomach and he thought of running to Aunt Beru. But what could he actually say, that the droid had scared him? Although she was far kinder than his uncle, Luke doubted if she'd believe him. She'd just shake her head and tell him to go clean it or an angry Uncle Owen would whip him. Still, it was freaky…

"Well, I can speak. Other droids can, can't they?"

Luke nodded. He knew some could although they didn't own any of those. "Why are you pink? I always thought droids were blue or red or gold…"

"Pink is my favorite color. It's totally awesome, don't you think?" The little droid moved forward out of its corner and closer to the skittish boy.

"Totally awesome?" Luke repeated, the little hairs on the back of his neck standing up on end. Droids didn't talk like that, did they? He scrunched his face in confusion as he tried to figure out the mystery. If only he'd have met a talking droid before! But he hadn't. Then an idea surfaced and he relaxed somewhat. It was so obvious! "You're not from this planet, are you?"

"Nope!" The pink droid stopped a few feet away. "I'm W1SH and you're Luke, right?"

Luke's heart skipped a beat. "How … how did you know I'm Luke?"

"You're Uncle told me." W1SH replied.

"Oh." Luke sighed with relief and walked up to the pink droid. "For a while there I thought you could read my mind or something…"

The young boy paused as he continued to gaze at the unusual droid. "I wish I could get out of here. I hate all this endless sand and heat, the scary things that lurk out there in the darkness once the suns go down. My uncle told me they eat little boys…"

"Where would you go?" the droid asked.

"Well, sometimes I have these dreams…" Luke admitted as he nervously peered over his shoulder at the open garage door scared that his uncle would catch him talking nonsense. "My Uncle hates them. He says that I'm just daydreaming and wasting time; that I'd waste my life chasing dreams…"

"But dreams are what makes the world go!" W1SH insisted, her voice oddly full of emotion for a droid.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked, confused.

"Well, everything you see around you started out as someone's dream. Then they turned that dream into reality. Do you understand?"

"No." Luke shook his head, his shaggy blonde hair hanging in his eyes.

"Take that airspeeder for example." W1SH explained as she shifted her red eye to the vehicle. "Once long ago there were no airspeeders and people had to walk everywhere. But someone thought up the idea of how to build one and they did. Over time it became more advanced until it turned into the airspeeder you see before you."

"Oh, you mean inventions and stuff." Luke's face fell and he plopped down onto the slightly cool floor of the garage. "But I meant the kind of dream you see when you're asleep. I see this beautiful place! It's all green grass and fields of flowers and these amazing waterfalls! It just looks so real and when I wake up I feel like crying because I'm still stuck here! Sometimes I feel that I don't even belong here on this miserable hunk of sand. Yet I never saw a place like that and I can't explain why I dream of it; I know I never saw it before. I don't even know if it's real…"

The droid gazed at him silently.

"But what I'd want more than anything is to be with my father. He was this pilot on a freighter but he died…"

"Are you sure?" W1SH asked.

"Well, that's what my Uncle Owen told me. He doesn't like to talk about it at all…" Luke sighed heavily as he stared sadly at the splotched floor of the garage. Slowly his eyes lifted and they focused on the odd pink droid. "You really are the oddest droid I ever met or heard of! Even your name is strange. You can't grant wishes, can you?"

The droid's red eye flickered white for a few seconds and then returned to red. "Why do you say that?"

"Because of your name! W1SH is almost WISH!" Luke exclaimed as he quickly moved onto his knees before the astromech droid. Now that he was really close to the droid he began to notice other odd things he hadn't spotted before. There were strange coils and gizmos on its surface that he'd never seen before. And it didn't even have a restraining bolt! Nor were there any of the usual chips and dents that the scavenged Jawa products sported. "Please tell me you can! I really want to get out of here and be with my father!"

The droid was silent for a long time. "My powers are not what they once were…"

Luke gawked open-mouthed at the droid. "Powers? You mean you really can grant wishes?"

"Well," The droid continued uncertainly. "I did try to get your parents together but others goofed it all up! They insisted on having this dumb war and they didn't care about love at all! Oh, it just makes me so angry! Your parents were just so cute together!"

"You knew my parents?" Luke asked, dumbfounded. A billion questions rolled around in his brain. "Who was my mother? Do you know where they used to live or how they met? Who wanted a war?"

"Whoa!" W1SH cried as several lights on the droid flashed brightly. "I can't really answer all of those questions. I'm not even supposed to be here! And this body … ugh!"

Luke stared at W1SH. "You mean you're not really a droid at all?"

The droid shook its domed head. "Look, Sweetcheeks, I'll use my powers to help you but you have to realize they're not what they used to be, OK? I can transport you off this rock if that's what you really want. But you have to say where you want to go…"

Shocked, Luke fell over backward and landed with a thud on the hard floor. His blue eyes were as wide as the feet on a bantha. "You … you can really do that? How? Do you have a spaceship?"

"I don't need a ship! I just use my powers…" The droid attempted to explain.

"Is … is my father really dead? Do you know?" Luke held his breath as he waited for a reply.

"Oh, he's still alive. He's not what he used to be but he's alive." W1SH informed him. "But are you sure you really want to be with him? I mean you know nothing about him…"

"But he's my father!" Luke insisted as he picked himself up off the floor and crawled to the droid. Reaching out, he gripped its metal body with both hands. "You have to take me to him! We belong together! Besides, anyplace has to be better than here!"

"Things may be far different than what you expect…" The little droid warned. "Oh, I just wish they never started that war!"

"I don't care about a war!" Eight-year-old Luke insisted as he attempted to shake the droid unsuccessfully. "I just want to be with my father!"

"OK, OK!" The droid cried. Then there was a bright flash of bluish-white light and the two vanished with a loud pop.

Moments later Luke fell out of the air and crashed to the floor, a shiny white floor. He shook his head and slowly picked himself up, winching at the sudden pain in his knee. The air smelled funny and he realized he had no idea where he was. And there was a loud scary breathing sound…

Luke lifted his eyes up and up and up…

He leaped backward in fright, a strange sound coming from his throat. Within moments his back was pressed to the nearby wall and he realized he could go no farther. His blue eyes flickered around the almost empty room desperately for the bright pink droid but it was nowhere to be seen. There was just the two of them, him and that man in black…

The man stood there with hands on hips and his face hidden behind a scary-looking mask making those loud breathing sounds. A long cape hung down his back while buttons blinked on his chest. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

"You … you can't be my father! I just wanted my father!" Luke cried in confusion and fear.

To be continued…

AN: I'll finish this story soon. There are just 2 more chapters to go. And a cookie to anyone who can guess correctly who W1SH really is!

Oh and the morale in this chapter is to be careful what you wish for!