The dinner was a cheerful affair and Lilo loved every moment of it. Despite Pleakley's panicked fears for the worst the roast was pretty good. Not that Lilo cared about the food, she was too busy staring at the way laughter erased all those stress lines from Nani's forehead.

"And you squirt? How is your job doing?" Nani teased.

"Well. Some mining dispute I got notice of from my broker also popped up in the Council agenda and I don't get what the big deal is. Hey Juumba what does Cilanium do anyways? I couldn't get on the GalNet again but I think you mentioned extracting it from your ship engines once?"

"Cilanium? The miners on Palik seven pushing for a price increase again?" Jumba asked taking a large bite out of his roast. Plakley tutted at the uncouth display and sipped his tea daintily.

"No apparently there were large deposits of it discovered deep in the planetary mantle on Maloosa and now everyone is in an uproar." Lilo shrugged.

Pleakley sprayed his tea all over Juumba and his roast and then started choking. Juumba blinked at Lilo for a moment and swallowed his bite.

"How big a deposit are we talking about." He inquired carefully putting away his roast even as Pleakley stopped coughing.

"At least as big as Palik Seven." Lilo replied and Juumba's eyes widened while Pleakley hyperventilated and fumbled with his inhaler.

"Little girl answer carefully. Why broker notify Little Girl?" Jumba asks quietly a glimpse of suspicion in his eye.

"Well apparently I own zero point zero zero six percent in all Maloosan mining and half of any related shipping. Of course the shipping company consists of a single ancient relic of a freighter but it gets me a huge tax break."

"And Council?" Juumba asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Some sort of dispute about Malakai ancestors colonizing Maloosa half a million years ago before they blew themselves up the first time."

"Oi..." Jumba sighed and dragged a palm across his face while Pleakley finally managed to get his inhaler.

"What's the big deal?" Nani asked, a puzzled frown on her face.

"Ah... how to explain this. Cilanium is to galaxy like oil to earth. Hyper-drive must have Cilanium to enter Seven Dimensional Ocean of Space-Time." He paused at the analogy and waved his hand vaguely. "If, you know, earth had only six oil wells and oil can blow up suns when refined."

"And Malakai?" Asked Lilo while Nani listened enraptured. "I don't remember them from the list of Federation species."

"Malakai Republic not member of Federation. They is having empire in upper half of second spiral arm clockwise. Got beat in war against Federation a few hundred years ago. Biiig Fight. They say changed to Republic but all seats belong to ruling clan. Still empire just beeing making more polite face."

"And Evil! Malakai own slaves! And make everyone dress in uniform according to caste! No fashion industry at all! EVIL!" Pleakly exclaimed, one hand still clutching his Calm(TM) brand zeta-blocker inhaler.

"So what does that mean for Lilo?" Nani asked finally.

"If all goes well Lilo never have to worry about school, buying a home, food or travel expenses once mining starts in six or seven years." Juumba explained.

"Ha!" Plakely laughed. "Even with such small amounts she'd still easily be making two times her current income while doing nothing."

"Wait. Hold on. Stock broker? Lilo? You said you get three hundred credits in ambassadorial allowance?" Nani asked threateningly.

Juumba laughed. "Yes but when you go grocery shopping you pay in DeciCredits."

"Lilo? How much is that in earth money?" Nani asked wavering between puzzlement, pride and anger.

Juumba beamed proudly while Pleakley chuckled. Lilo stared at the floor and fidgeted.

"Liilooo? How much is a galactic credit worth?" Nani asked politely in a sweet, non-threatening tone of voice. It was the dreaded answer or else voice.

"About sixty bucks." Lilo mumbled. "The exchange rate is kinda finicky."

Nani stared at her cute little sister for a long moment doing some quick math in her head. 'Lets seeSixty bucks time hundred, times three, Eighteen thousand dollars a month?!' She coughed and then looked at her little sister.

"Why would you hide a six figure salary from me?" Nani finally asked choking a little on the words.

"Well. I didn't. Not really. I mean I've been paying for stuff that gets broken. And the new roof. And toys for Stitch and stuff."

"Well yes, but how did I miss this?" Nani asked herself. "It's... I mean. How? You. I mean I knew that you... I mean." Nani finally chuckled and ruffled Lilo's hair. "I've been steadily climbing the executive branch for three years and you earn more money than I do. At ten? How'd that happen? What else did I miss?"

"You aren't mad?" Lilo asked peeking under her hair.

"No you lolo? Why would I be mad?" Nani chuckled and hugged her little sister. "I am just wondering what else I missed getting caught up in my work." She wonders.

"Well you always used to get mad about money. Especially when how you yelled when I tried to give back the allowance you gave me." Lilo sniffled.

"Oh I'm sorry Lilo. It wasn't about you. I felt like a failure when my sister thought she had to give up her allowance because I wasn't doing well enough and I got angry. We talked about this. I apologized. We had pizza and everything." Nani denied looking sheepish.

"I know... But I still didn't want you to feel bad about money like that time so I didn't say anything." The little sister shrugged.

"Lilo you lolo." Nani Laughed, leaned over and blew a raspberry on Lilo's shoulder.

"Eeek Quit it." Lilo protested.

"Oh no you don't I am a big bad raspberry-tickle monster and I am kidnapping you for ransom." A sinister expression appears on Nani's face as she grabs her little sister half halfheartedly.

"Aaaah Nani! Noooo!" Lilo squirmed out of Nani's reach and dashed for the living room Nani in hot pursuit.

"You can afford ransom now! Revenge for all those broken windows is at hand!" His maniackal laughter echoed around the house as the sisters played.

Juumba Stitch and Pleakley exchanged looks and went back to dinner.

So.. You've been quiet six two six." Juumba asked as he continued demolishing his roast. His favorite experiment was politely eating and staring through the window where Nani and Lilo were indulging in horseplay.

"Lilo is... changing." He finally said. "Doesn't need silly Stich as much. Needs smart stitch more."

"So your manipulative adaptation instinct needs fine tuning?" Juumba teased.

"Manipulative adaptation?" Plakley wondered.

"Yes, Stitch is programed to be able to appear harmless to inhabitants of objective until they were off guard so he could destroy them." Juumba elaborated. "So he has been using that knowledge to achieve to his primary objective."

Pleakley gasped. "And I started to like the little monster!"

"Juumba make it sound bad." Stitch complained.

"How can... You just admitted he's..." The excitable alien spluttered.

"Oh will you relax Pleakley. Stitch List your tactical side's current objectives, if you would." Juumba asked politely. Stitch looked at his maker for a long moment and then sighed his eyes getting a slightly glassy look.

"Primary objective: Make Lilo happy. Secondary objective: Protect Ohana. Tertiary objective: Classified under Lilo Purple Pirate Pancreas Promise of Doom" He recited absently.

"Is one eyed silly seeing? Stitch is good monster now." Juumba chuckled.

"I don't know, what about his destructive tendencies?" Pleakley asked teasingly. "He still does more damage to my laundry than a swarm of moths."

"Combat Protocols locked, restriction Lilo Green is in effe..." Stitch continued and then coughed looking embarrassed.

"Six Two Six?" Inquired Juumba puzzled.

"Stich have brain like supercomputer but supercomputer not Stitch." The fluffy doomsday construct explains looking slightly embarrassed to admit it.

"What did you do?" Juumba asked in awe.

"All computers can be hacked." Stitch stated.

"But how?!" An astounded Jummba wonders knowing he never programed this.

"Stitch was dying because bad programing. Lilo cried. Bad programing had to go so Lilo could be happy." He stated looking lost, missing Pleakley's startled look at the kitchen door.

"Six Two six... You virtual hacked the combat protocols inside brain? And slaved them to Lilo? But brilliant monster's brain organic, not binary?!" The mad scientist boggled. "I knew six two six can be doing anything but..."

"Lilo Love Stitch. Said so. Nothing will harm Lilo. Not even Stitch. Never again." He stated emphatically and suddenly a pair of arms engulfed him.

"Silly. I know that." Lilo whispered squeezing him tightly. "But... Don't sound so grim Stitch. Set a failsafe objective? Protect Stitch. I would rather be hurt than loose you."

"Objective set." He whispered and he felt Lilo smile and hug him tighter.

Primary objective, Achieved.

Tertiary objective, in progress.

Protectorate Lilo status: Green. No threats detected.

Extrapolating Tactical Data.

'Silly tactical brain go back to sleep now Stitch busy being hugged.'

Energy conservation mode 'shaka', engaged.

"Anything for you Lilo." He chuckled with a big grin on his face.

Having just tucked her sister in, Nani sat on the edge of Lilo's bed and sighed, content. It was a peaceful image. The two girls looking so much alike, almost like a mother and daughter. Stitch pretended he didn't see or even care about such mush.

The mind numbing absurdity of aliens and experiments and Lilo's off the wall comments had become easy to ignore as exaggerated. She had missed so much and wondered, was it all worth it? She missed being home before Lilo's bedtime. She missed Stitch badly pretending to be asleep so she could have a moment with her sister. She missed so many things.

She had been away too much in her pursuit of a career and money. Did she really neglect her Ohana for... Money? Influence? No she did it because she wanted Lilo to have a good future. But perhaps, when she wasn't looking, Lilo had carved her own.

"I've been a bit of a doo doo head haven't I?" She asked Lilo who considered this for a moment and answered seriously.

"Well.. First of all remove doo doo head from your vocabulary I'm not six any more. And second? No. Not really. You were acting like a grown up, providing for your family. Last year was kind of a slow burn for me and just a bit crazy for you. It happens."

"But I missed things. I... I want to know what my little sister does. I mean. What else have I missed?"

"Myrtle invited me to her birthday party." Lilo offered with a wry smile. "Stitch can come too."

The 'sleeping' alien twitched his ears up, listening in more attentively.

"So you guys are finally friends?" Nani asked gently.

"Well... We've known each other for to long. I still like arguing with her but... It's a bit more civil these days. And I think she likes me cause I don't take crud from her like everyone else does." Lilo laughs. "It's ironic, that's why she disliked me since kindergarten."

"And your ambassador thing? I thought it was purely ceremonial. An excuse to, and I still don't believe I'm saying this, see the galaxy a bit." Nani wondered.

"Well I kept telling you it's a real job. I mean it's not like its hard! Three or four times a month I have to attend some of the council sessions and I spend a couple of hours a week acting as a correspondent liaison between the Galactic Federation and The Agency. Of course Me and Stitch spend the afternoons after the council sessions acting like silly tourists." Lilo said neglecting to mention how hard it was, even with the Grand Councilwoman's help to learn how to navigate the treacherous halls of Diplomacy.

"Agency?" Nani asked.

"Well it's mostly classified but... Well. Let me put it this way. Cobra Bubbles shows up, sees Stitch and tells me to teach him how to be a model citizen? Not a well behaved dog. Citizen."

"You mean they knew?" Nani frowned.

"Well, sort of. Cobra really did retire way back when but then he did a few people some favors and, well. Remember the asteroid incident? It took them a year but they finally made some semblance of a unified alien affairs office. UN basically funds a six person operation that is supposed to keep track of alien activity on a shoestring budget." Lilo laughs, tugging a piece of string from her favorite blanket and waving it around before continuing.

"I've come to understand how Bureaucrats are silly. Anyway last year the Agency finally officially listed me as an External Consultant. They sometimes ask me to liaison with actual aliens and help smooth over any, difficulties. Which is why my honorary ambassador status is a bit more active than most. You didn't think my little chat with the governor and the occasional trip abroad were really school trips did you?"

"I... I tried to pretend you made up or exaggerated things. Even when you got your diplomatic passport. I pretended that it was just silly games like experiment catching." She put up a palm to stop Lilo from complaining. "I know I know, experiment hunting wasn't a game either. I was deluding myself a lot. But Lilo, you have to know how crazy it would have driven me if I thought you were in constant danger of getting squished like a bug. Or getting shot while talking to an illegal alien."

"Like Stitch would let that happen." Lilo denied quietly.

"And when he wasn't there?" Nani interjected. "I have no idea what I was thinking letting you hunt those things."

"You wanna know a secret?" The younger sister asked, slightly shifting the subject.

"Like what?"

"Juumba didn't tell me until I had to change my wardrobe the last time but remember when I first outgrew those twelve identical dresses I had?" Lilo asked.

"You mean those dresses that are identical to the red dresses with the flower print you had Pleakly sew for you when you outgrew the original ones?" Nani tweaked her sister's nose making Lilo squeak in indignation.

"Yeah those. Have you ever wondered how they lasted through almost three years of intense wear and tear?" Lilo questioned.

The elder sister paused to think a frown forming on her face.

"Now that I think about it you destroyed two in the week just before the whole thing started."

"Jumba and Pleakley have been augmenting my clothes." Lilo confessed.

"Augmenting them?" Nani puzzled.

"Stab proof, plasma resistant coating on the fibers. Military grade inertial compensator nano clouds, Inertial dampers in my flip flops." Lilo counted off on her fingers. "It still hurt to fall badly but I haven't had a single broken bone in all that time. Scrapes, bruises, minor burns? Sure, but I fell from some pretty bad heights in my time and walked, or sometimes ran away."

Hairs raising on the back of Nani's head rose. Some of those bruises had been pretty major as she recalled.

"Is my sudden urge to get a time travel machine, go back, wrap you in bubble-wrap and keep you in your room until you are thirty irrational?" the adult wondered jokingly.

"Not really. At some point I plan to actually go back and check on a moment or two when I got really lucky just to make sure it wasn't myself being meddly."

"What?"

"It has to do with rules of time travel theory. If I told you you'd get a head ache. I know I used to get them when trying to wrap my head around it."

"Try me. I'm pretty smart."

"Well I don't know the math involved by heart but I can tell you about hyperspace theory and how it pertains to time travel."

Nani raised an eyebrow and gestured a go ahead even as Lilo recited.

"The reality of matter is like an ocean of higher dimensions and in those higher dimensions space and time only intersect on our plane of existence. Its all in in eight or so dimensions, which kinda means we only use a bit of the whole universe to live in and other parts are for other things. Now our four dimensional space-time can be simplified into a wave on a string using math and really really complicated machinery. It sounds sci fi but some of our scientists already predicted some day beeing able to do this stuff even if they are wrong on the details. They call it Social Singularity or something. Now there are several ways of manipulating time; like temporarily manipulating the flow of time in a certain area to speed it up or slow it down. It's a widely used, if energy intensive process.

Nani nodded as Lilo gestured wildly. It sort of made sense like a bead on a string. 'Um was everything in the universe on the bead or on the string?' In the back of her head something rebelled at the kinda creepy subject but she shushed it. Lilo was looking enthusiastic and Nani just smiled and watched her glance at Stitch, then take a deep breath and continue explaining.

"And then there is actual time travel: once you calculate your universe as a string-wave you can rotate that string-wave, in the oceans of space which changes its frequency but not the angles. You can traverse the wave by swimming, surfing or sailing via hyperspace until you find a place to enter or leave it under a specific angle to get back into the place you want. Perfectly safe if you make sure your string-wave is at same frequency as it was where you started. Where time-travel deviates from regular hyperspace travels is that you 'dive' into the ocean and follow the wave-string backwards, exiting under a different angle. Only the same angles aren't always the same, depending on when they are, gravity and something Juumba calls calinity. Which has to do with quantum foam and having computers carefully not observing where you just left and the pilot looking through the view screen carefully watching where he is going. I have no idea why. That Quantum stuff kinda makes my head hurt. But back to time travel: there is only so much small in the universe before it stops being small and becomes space between space, and on that level the string-wave and wave-string can sort of mush together..."

"Uh." Nani considered this and realized she was completely lost. She yawned. "How about we leave this for another time. It's getting kind of late."

"Ok Nani. Good night." Lilo yawned too and snuggled back down.

"Good night Lilo. Sweet dreams." Nani said giving her a kiss and going off to find some aspirin and talk to Juumba. Lilo had been way ahead of her learning grade for years but what had that crazy walrus been teaching her?!


"Why Lilo lie to Nani?" Stitch whispered from his bed.

"Well it wasn't exactly a lie, Hyperspace theory..." Lilo protested

"Lilo. Time travel not work that way." Stitch looked at her through half lidded eyes.

"Time travel is illegal, crazy dangerous, unpredictable, plain bad and I shouldn't even know the theory. And I'm not putting Nani at risk of even knowing the real deal." Lilo looked back unflinchingly.

"As long as Lilo have good reason." He flops back on his pillow. He could hear her heart beating wildly and he wasn't going to press the issue.

"And I don't want her to know I'm a mass murderer." Lilo whispers and his own heart skips a beat. The blue weapon of mass destruction springs back up and stares shocked at his friend. "Lilo?"

"Erasing a time-line is different than jumping one Stitch. I found the math when we were trying to escape the loop." She says curling up and turning to the wall.

"Energy can't be destroyed." Stitch points out trying to brighten her up.

"And if you turned my body into energy would I exist?" Lilo asks him pointedly.

Silently, Stitch climbs down and settles on Lilo's bed and hugs her shivering form from behind.

"Somewhen." He whispers into her ear knowing it was a cold comfort. Even if a thought matrix was infinite... It wouldn't be them. Not quite. Not really. Dead to the universe.

"Somewhen." Lilo whispers and closes her eyes a single tear leaking through her hard won self control.

AN: Everyone thank 'The Unicorn' and 'Hussell' on spacebattles for making reading this less painful for English professors.