Although this fic is best classified as Tragedy/Horror/Romance/Action/Crime/Sci-Fi, I can only pick two genres. How sad.

I do not own Lilo and Stitch, Chris Sanders does. And he did a fine job. Enjoy this disturbing tale.

His Greatest Battle

"Argh!" Stitch clutched his bleeding shoulder with one arm while the other three fended off Leroy's blows. Leroy jumped back and grinned, spinning the small plasma dagger in his hand and grabbing it point-down. He jumped forward again, mixing in the occasional stab or slash with his punches and clawing attacks, and managed to force Stitch back toward the edge of the bucking fighter ship.

This wasn't looking good for Stitch. They were flying over the open ocean in the dead of night; if either Experiment fell off, they would sink to the bottom of the ocean, and nobody would know where to look for them. To make matters worse, 627 was the pilot of the ship, and he would perform a corkscrew, loop or barrel roll whenever Stitch gained the upper hand in the battle, forcing both Experiments to hang on for dear life. Stitch and Leroy were both armed with plasma daggers, but Stitch's was low on battery life, causing it to flicker. Stitch would apparently rather fight unarmed rather than use an unreliable weapon, but it wasn't going well.

Stitch's foot swung in mid-air for a split-second. He was trapped on the wingtip of the fighter, Leroy laughing like a fool as he swung the dagger and forced Stitch to lean back. Stitch finally drew his dagger and surprised Leroy, almost gutting him, but Leroy countered viciously, stabbing Stitch's wrist and causing him to drop the dagger. Leroy followed up with a knee to Stitch's stomach, and the blue Experiment fell from the ship. He managed to hang on by his two left arms; his right ones had been rendered useless by the shoulder and wrist wounds. Stitch looked up at his clone as he raised the dagger. Leroy gazed down remorselessly into his own face, reflected in the glossy black paint of the jet and the glossy black pleading eyes of the one Experiment who could truly understand him. Leroy shook his head and silently brought the dagger down.

"Of course, you all know how that battle, ended," Stitch concluded. He would normally add a chuckle along with that comment, but today was hardly the day for arrogant chuckles. He sighed, clenched the varnished wood podium in his paws, and continued. "You may be wondering why I'm telling my favorite story today, of all days. Today, when I'm honoring my creator, the creator of almost all of us here, and the closest thing we ever had to a father. Well, I have a good reason for telling this story on the day of Jumba Jookiba's funeral, and this is it: I won that battle, sending first Leroy and then 627 to a watery grave, so that Jumba Jookiba could die here." There were murmurs throughout the gathered crowd. "To be precise, so that all of us could have the luxury of dying a natural death, instead of being hunted down by those we would have preferred to call our ohana. I'm not saying Jumba won't be missed, or that I wouldn't have preferred for him to live longer. I'm saying that I am truly glad to feel that I have contributed in allowing Jumba to be with us for this long."

He raised his wine glass, and looked at the room. Of the seven hundred and fifty people gathered in the room, the majority were Jumba's Experiments. Those who were not were the children of said Experiments, a few colleagues from across the GF, a few colleagues he had gained on Earth since the public discovery of alien life, and one very special woman named Lilo Pelekai. Jumba had no living blood relatives, and his ex-wife had cordially declined to attend the funeral. "A toast, ladies, gentlemen, and Experiments," Stitch concluded sadly, "to Jumba Jookiba, the man who won when he played God."

Lilo sat in the empty house with Stitch. She sat, consumed in thought, while he poured them both another glass of wine. Pleakley, Nani, now Jumba… she didn't think she'd lose all three before she reached thirty-five. Of course, she didn't think about death at all when she could avoid it. Lilo had usually been as happy a child as you could expect an orphan to be, throughout her childhood, teenage years, and young adulthood, when Galactic Federation Ambassador to Earth had gone from her title to her actual job. Of course, with all the friendly aliens extending her ohana, she had had some family advantages over most orphans. But now, she had lost them all, and was feeling downright depressed… but at least she had Stitch left to comfort her.

They had remained good friends through the years, and recently, after many years of unsuccessful side romances, had finally taken their relationship to the next level. Stitch hadn't proposed yet, but Lilo had the feeling he would soon. Probably during the long vacation Stitch had promised her after Jumba's death.

Lilo's thoughts drifted back toward the past, after that fateful climactic clash Stitch had fought with Leroy and 627 (she'd been 12 at the time). After the fight (which Stitch did enjoy retelling, and referred to as 'his greatest battle'), Stitch had changed somehow. He had become quieter and more reserved, and something else had changed, but Lilo never put her finger on it. He had gotten his voice alteration surgery and height extensions about ten years later (they were said to be painful, so most Experiments hadn't opted for them). Just a few days afterward, Pleakley had died in an unfortunate lab accident. Supposedly he had accidentally set off an explosive chemical Jumba was working on. Jumba locked himself in his lab, grief-stricken, for days afterward.

Much later, just a couple of years ago, Nani had passed away. Lilo had been tremendously saddened by this, as Nani still hadn't been too far into what one would call middle-aged. However, the stress she always took onto her shoulders had gotten the best of her, causing a nasty hernia. Nani had stubbornly insisted on driving herself to the hospital despite the pain, and one head-on collision with a semi truck later, they were tearfully laying her to rest.

Now Jumba would join them. Jumba's death had been caused by simple heart disease, that slayer of giants which could ironically never claim his disease-proof, effectively immortal creations. Stitch's speech at the funeral, while comforting, was an undeniably strange way to lay him to rest. She finished the glass, which Stitch had handed her moments ago, and finally built up the courage to ask him about it. Maybe it was the alcohol. "Stitch," she asked softly, "why did you make that speech at Jumba's funeral?"

Stitch had had his back to her, and she saw his shoulders slump. "Lilo," he whispered hoarsely. "Lilo, I'm so sorry. Of the good old ohana, you, Nani, Jumba, Pleakley, and Stitch, you're the only one left."

Lilo stood up, and began to walk over to Stitch, to put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "What are you talking about, Stitch?" Why was he referring to himself in the third person again, Lilo asked herself. He hasn't done that for years. More importantly, why did he refer to himself as dead? Suddenly, without warning, Lilo's legs gave out, and she silently dropped to the floor. She lay sprawled on the carpet, unable to move or speak, staring in shock up at Stitch as he turned around.

Tears formed in her lover's eyes as he spoke. "The neurotoxin in the wine works fast," he said sadly. "It's colorless, odorless and flavorless. With the amount you took compared to your body weight, I had expected paralysis of the limbs and voice box about now. You'll be unconscious in ten minutes, dead in twenty tops."

Stitch, Lilo managed to mouth, why?

"You still don't get it, do you?" he said, tears running down his face now. As he spoke, his fur changed from ocean blue to a crimson shade Lilo never thought she'd see again. "All these years with me, and you didn't figure it out. Stitch is dead, Lilo." Leroy paused for a moment, taking a deep, stuttering breath before continuing. "He's been dead for decades, and I'm finally sad about it."

With strength he didn't know he had, Stitch forced himself up with his functioning arms and drove his fist hard into Leroy's jaw. The cloned Experiment staggered back, and the dagger flew into the air. Stitch delivered a vicious punch to Leroy's face, added another punch to the gut, and finished with a headbutt that sent Leroy sliding across the ship's deck. Stitch ran up to Leroy, and caught the knife as it fell, pointing it at Leroy's throat. Leroy summoned up the saddest, most heartbreaking face, he could, and Stitch's hard face softened. He dropped the dagger, and offered Leroy an arm to help him up.

Leroy gladly took the hand… and used it to easily toss Stitch back over his head like a pen that had run dry. Stitch's scream as he fell into the ocean was one that he would remember forever, with a bit more pain every time he recalled it. A circular hatch opened in the hull, and Leroy climbed in, grabbing the dagger before it could roll off the ship.

"You finally finished him off, eh?" 627 asked with a grin. Leroy nodded silently, and 627 was engulfed in a bout of cruel laughter for nearly a moment. "Now it's just a matter of hunting down the other Experiments, one by one. We'll, of course, need to deal with Jumba and Lilo first, because Lilo has authority with them like nobody else, and Jumba can create more Experiments specifically to stop us. I'd hate to deal with-" 627's words were put to a stop permanently as Leroy slammed the beam of the plasma dagger through the headrest and into the evil creature's brain stem. Leroy dragged the beam downward, being sure to hit several vitals, and quickly put the spaceship on autopilot as 627 slumped out of the ruined seat. Leroy climbed back up to the ship's hull and threw 627 into the sea after his cousin. For the first time, Leroy felt guilty, if just a little. 627 and Stitch had both trusted him, and he'd killed both as soon as their guard was down. Although he was able to dismiss it by rationalizing that he and Stitch would always fight to the death, and 627 was too dangerous to dispose of any other way, it would come back to haunt him forever.

"And that's what really happened that night," Leroy concluded. "I had to kill 627. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life hunting and being hunted. I wanted to take Stitch's place in your ohana, kick back and relax, with nobody the wiser. Of course, I was completely wrong. Spending your life hunting and being hunted can't be anywhere near as difficult as wearing a mask your whole life. Pretending to be somebody you aren't, pretending to love what you hate and like whom you dislike… at this point, I'd rather take on the entire Galactic Federation, one soldier at a time."

He took a long look at Lilo, who was fixing him with a piercing glare. That was all she could do; the rest of her body wasn't responding. "I know what you're thinking. I'm killing you, so I must have killed the rest of the family. That's not true; well, it's partially true. You see, I tried to fill Stitch's role perfectly, to find peace. I really did. And it went swimmingly until I agreed to volunteer as the test dummy for the height extension surgery, because that's what Stitch would've done. But the surgery… it was so painful, I passed out and accidentally reverted to my natural color scheme.

"Jumba found out, that fateful day, and he confronted me. I begged him not to tell, because after ten years, I really had been turned to good by you all. I've been crushed with guilt over murdering Stitch for over fifteen years now. For a decade, I've only continued to live like this for your sake, Lilo. I didn't want to shatter your illusion of reality. I really have fallen in love with you." He bent down, his tears dripping on Lilo's live but motionless body.

"Anyway, I managed to convince Jumba to keep my secret. I think it's because he couldn't bear to harm any of his Experiments, even the evil ones, even if we kill each other. When it came right down to it, he didn't have it him. But then along came Pleakley. Of course, it was only a week or so before Pleakley wormed the secret out of Jumba. Nobody could keep a secret from the little bastard, especially not Jumba. He was going to reveal that I, Stitch, was actually I, Leroy, and I couldn't let that happen. That accident was no accident. In truth, I think I would've eventually killed him anyway. He's just so irritating that I was going to snap! He was the number one threat to my disguise from day one.

"I rigged one of Jumba's inventions to blow, and he was killed in the blast. My supercomputer brain calculated it down to the letter. Jumba suspected my sabotage, but he wasn't sure, and he never brought it up. I'm sorry, Lilo, but to preserve the illusion for you, Pleakley had to be sacrificed.

Then came Nani's death. I had nothing to do with that one, but I saw it coming. I knew the poor woman would work herself to death sooner or later. What I didn't see coming was that, on the springboard of her death, my love for you would become requited romance. These last two years with you have been the closest thing to happiness I've found since adopting my mask, Lilo." Leroy paused to sob.

"But then Jumba's life had to end, and it all fell apart. Jumba's death… I didn't kill him, but I may as well have. It's no question that the discovery of me weakened his heart, and I was the first one to find him after his heart attack. I called 911, and then you know what I told him? I told him not to worry, that Stitch, Pleakley and Nani were waiting for him up there, and that you would soon join them. If I hadn't said that, they probably would've been able to revive him! Why did I say that, Lilo?! Am I crazy?!" Leroy broke down for a few seconds. "What am I saying? Of course I'm crazy. I'm here, explaining myself to you and confessing my love to you as I watch you die by my own hand.

"And I do love you, Lilo, I love you so much!" Leroy was now leaning toward Lilo, crying directly on her face. "But after Jumba died… I know there's no way I could take our relationship to the next level without removing my mask, and I knew I couldn't expect you to love me after I revealed my true identity to you. There was only one course of action… you deserve better. You deserve the face you fell in love with. So go… join him in death, as my apology to both of you for killing you." He leaned down, and kissed her on the lips. "I've said that battle with Stitch was my greatest battle. That was yet another lie, a lie to myself. My greatest battle was wearing the face of my victim, day after day, for twenty-two long years."

He noticed that she was unconscious, probably had been for a few minutes. With one last quiet sob, he closed her eyes and got slowly to his feet, walking to the dresser. Leroy took the spaceship tickets he had shown Lilo earlier (the 'long vacation'), and inspected them. The flight was in two hours. That was probably enough time to get off the planet before Lilo was discovered. And if it wasn't, so be it. Leroy tore up one ticket, and pocketed the other. Then he shuddered as he assumed the color scheme of Experiment 626 for the very last time. Never again, he resolved, would he hide under the identity of another. His greatest battle was an unwinnable war, and he was finally ready to surrender.

End

This is, without a doubt, the grimmest, creepiest, most twisted story I have written to date. It just poured out of me one day. I must be very disturbed. Inspirations I know of would have to be some of Edgar Allan Poe's stuff (Hop-Frog and The Cask of Amontillado spring to mind), the way CSI recently ended their character Sara, and the story of Captain Kuro in One Piece. Special thanks to all of those, as well as Yellowfur, Jimperator, Misgel, Mark Gottlieb, and Sylar. Yellowfur is a quintessential help with fanfiction, Jimperator encouraged me when I was first branching into the Lilo and Stitch fandom, and MisGelRcy, besides being a fantastic romance writer, introduced me to the idea of height extensions for the Experiments (not sure if she created the idea). MG and Sylar are two villains whose diabolic actions and natures provide great examples for things like this twisted tale of stolen identity and murder most foul.

I consider this my best fic to date, so I hope you, uh, enjoyed it. Yeah. By the way, if you look real hard at the first flashback and squint a bit, you'll notice he's saying things from Leroy's point of view.