Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Again, sorry I screwed up the seventh chapter. I know it gave a few things away, and I am really sorry. I will make sure to double-check everything from now on. Also, I can't post as often anymore with all the swamps of homework I am getting. But enough of my whining: on with the chapter!

Chapter 9: Phone Call

Stitch woke up to the sun shining on his face. He felt Lilo's arms around him, and smiled. His head was killing him, but otherwise he was fine. He turned around, facing Lilo, and gave her a gentle shake. She opened her eyes, and smiled when she saw him.

"Hey good looking." She said.

Stitch looked over his shoulder. "Who?"

Lilo smiled, and then all the memories and feelings of the past days caught up with her. She pulled Stitch close to her and started crying on his shoulder.

Stitch patted her head. "It's ok Lilo."

Lilo shook her head. "No it's not. Reuben's dead, Leroy's horribly injured, and you and Angel were tortured. It's not ok."

Stitch stroked her head fur. "Lilo, it wasn't your fault. None of it was your fault."

"But Reuben was one of my best friends." Lilo sobbed.

"I know." Stitch said. "But nothing we can do will change that."

"I know." Lilo whispered. "But it's just not fair."

"Let's go have breakfast. I'm sure Jumba and Victoria will need some cheering up. Pleakly will probably piss one of them off and they'll try and kill them."

Lilo sniffed and nodded. "You're probably right. Let's go down." They got out of bed and took the lift downstairs. Victoria was already down there, sitting on the couch.

"Hey Victoria. Something wrong?" Lilo asked.

Victoria shrugged. "Jumba's in a bad mood, so I decided to leave him alone."

Stitch nodded. "I bet Reuben's death is tearing him up inside." He said, a tear coming to his eyes. "He looked at all of us as his children. It's going to be really hard for him the next few days." Angel walked out of the kitchen and joined them.

"Yeah, he was yelling at me about taking care of myself when I woke up, so I decided to cook you guys something to eat. Personally, I would stay away from him for an hour or so and let him cool down a little. Come on, the waffles are ready. Besides, let talk about something happy." They four of them walked into the kitchen, and sat down around the table.

"I can't think of anything happy that's happened in the past few days." Lilo said glumly.

Stitch nodded. "Me either."

Victoria sighed. "There just isn't anything happy to talk about these days. I mean, unless Skipper comes back, Hamsterviel gets caught, or Leroy wakes up, I don't see how anything could really be nice." They ate in silence, no one speaking another word. When they finished, Victoria stood up. "I think I'll go check on Leroy." She said. She walked out to the ship, where she saw Jumba inside by the computer, muttering to himself. She didn't even try to look at the screen; it probably only would have confused her. She walked quickly and silently over to the med bay, and made sure the door hissed shut behind her. She walked over to Leroy's bed and sat down next to it. She picked up his paw, and held it in her own.

"Come on Leroy. I bet you love lying there, making us do all the work while you get to be lazy." Victoria said, smiling.

"I actually kind of do." He whispered.

Victoria jumped. "Leroy?"

Leroy's eyes fluttered open. "Ow." He said. "Everything hurts."
"Leroy!" Victoria squealed, pulling him into a hug.

"Ow!" He yelled. Victoria let go of him. "Careful, it really hurts!" He said. The door opened to reveal Jumba.

"629, you is awake!" He said, only slightly cheerful. "Is very good. I will go tell little girl and 626." He left the room, and Leroy looked up at Victoria.

"What's his problem?" He asked.

Victoria sighed. "Well, you missed this because you were out but… Reuben… Reuben died while we were escaping."

Leroy was devastated. He had never really known him, but this wasn't supposed to happen. Weren't the good guys always supposed to win? "Is everyone else ok?" He asked.

Victoria shrugged. "More or less. You, Lilo, and I got out with Reuben's bo… body." She stuttered. "Angel and Stitch… they weren't so lucky." She saw the horrified look on his face. "They're back now! They just got a little…" She trailed off.

"Tortured?" Leroy asked. Victoria nodded. Leroy whistled. "Wow, a guy can miss a lot in a few days of unconsciousness."

"You took quite a blow." Victoria said. "And lost quite a bit of blood. We barely managed to save you." The door behind them opened, and Lilo and Stitch ran in.

"Leroy!" Lilo said happily, giving him a big hug.

"Ow!" He yelled, causing Lilo to let go. "Does everyone have to hurt me?"

Lilo shook her head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. We're just so happy that you're ok."

Leroy looked around at them. "I'm ok? Wow, that's kind of hard to believe."

Stitch nodded. "All you need is a few days rest, then you'll be up and kicking again.

"And while you recover, we're going to look for Hamsterviel using the scanners." Lilo said. "Cobra and Gantu are coming over later, and when they do, we're going to try and figure out a way to get Skipper to remember everything."

Leroy sighed. "Are you sure you want him to?"

Lilo's mouth dropped open. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well, the thing is, is that I was looking up his history on the rides, and he has some… emotional and mental issues, as far as stability goes. Unfortunately, I believe that getting him to remember will be bad. Once he realized who he really is, and also remembers all the stuff he has done to us, I don't think he'll be able to live with himself." There was an uncomfortable silence that lasted for several moments, before the door opened again and Angel came in.

"Hey Leroy!" She said, sitting on the other bed.

"So, what now?" Leroy asked. "We have the framework of a plan, all we need is to fill in the details."

"I think you wanted me for the details." Cobra said, coming in the door with Jumba and Pleakly.

Lilo nodded. "Yeah, we could sure use your knowledge, and Jumba's intelligence." Everyone sat in a semi-circle around Leroy.

"So, what can we do to get Skip to remember?" Leroy asked.

"Well, what we need is another strong reminder." Stitch said. "Angel started it off, we need to find something to finish it."

"We need another strong emotion." Lilo said.

"Yeah. What else besides love is strong?" Victoria asked.

"Well, there's quite a bit." Cobra said. "Anger, hate, fear, surprise…"

Angel cut him off. "Fear?"

Cobra nodded. "Yes, fear would be the best choice after trying hate. They are both very good at getting inside the head or heart. Why?"

"Well, we could find someone he was afraid of." Angel said.

Stitch knew where Angel was going. "Someone that nearly killed him when he was younger."

Lilo sighed. "But Kristy is dead." Everyone gave her an odd look.

"What do you mean?" Stitch asked. Lilo sighed, and retold what she had heard a long time ago, when she had stood outside of the meeting place between Cobra and Kristy. "So, she's dead?" Stitch asked.

Cobra shook his head. "No, she's alive. The shots you heard were fired by her at Skipper, which of course didn't work."

"So, if the bullets didn't hurt him, why did the bomb?" Lilo asked.

Jumba spoke up. "The reason would be in the DNA. The way he was changed caused several abnormalities. It is continuously in flux, causing body to behave differently at certain times."

"And in English that means…" Lilo's voice trailed off.

"Means that at certain points he is indestructible like 626, and at other times vulnerable like 624. It will be continuously changing until I stabilize it, or it stabilizes itself."

"So, back to Kristy." Leroy said. "We get her and Skipper together and… what happens?"

Jumba shrugged. "Depends. Once woman and little boy gets together, several things could happen."

"What's most likely to happen?" Lilo asked.

"Depends on current state of mind, as far as emotions go." Jumba said.

"Well, I have a little insight from when I was his prisoner." Stitch said. "He has a lot of anger and hatred. However, he has stated several times that there is nothing he is afraid of."
"Ah, that is weakness." Jumba explained. "What will happen is overload and shut down of brain. Basically, when he sees woman, his subconscious will respond with fear. This will cause confusion: he will be afraid, and yet brain will tell him he isn't being scared of everything. Logic part of brain will battle back and forth for several moments before it comes to realization that it doesn't make sense, and will shut off until it does."

"But it won't be able to." Angel said.

"Yes, not until I give him his memory back when we get to lab." Jumba said. The room fell silent for a minute.

"So, we have a plan of subduing him. Now we need a plan to find him and attack him." Lilo said.

"Oh, that's just great!" Pleakly said. "Let's go attack him! Two of us have been tortured, and then Reuben got his heart clawed! Let's go run over to him and…" His voice was cut off by Jumba punching him in the face, knocking him to the floor. Everyone stared at Jumba, jaws dropped, and they saw tears flowing down his face. Jumba opened his mouth, obviously wanting to say something, but he didn't, and instead stomped out the door. Cobra sighed, and followed him out. Pleakly got up, and looked around the room: all present were giving him looks that would kill. He gulped, and ran out the door. Stitch sighed, and turned back to the others.

"Jumba shouldn't have hit him, but Pleakly has a bad habit of saying the dumbest things at the wrong time."

Lilo nodded. "He does." Everyone sat quietly for a moment, before Lilo stood up. "Well, I'm going to go and relax on the beach. Who else wants to come?"

Stitch stood up. "I could use a break. Are you two going to come?" He asked Angel and Victoria.

Angel nodded. "Sure."

Victoria shrugged. "Maybe I'll join you guys later. You go and have some fun." The trio walked out of the room, leaving Leroy and Victoria alone.

"So, how long have I really been out?" Leroy asked.

"Only a day or two. It was a really bad injury." She looked down at him. "Why did you do that, anyway?" She asked.

"Do what?"
"Take the hit for me. From what I've heard, you aren't the one to do stuff like that."

"I don't really know. I saw you about to get hit, and I just moved."

Victoria smiled. "Yeah. You know, I haven't left here for a while; ever since you got hit."

"Why?"

"Well, you did take the blow for me, so I decided it was the least I could do." She said, averting her eyes from his.

Leroy saw the truth though. "You like me, don't you." He said, more of a statement then a question.

Victoria blushed. "No… no I don't." She stammered.

Leroy smiled. "Yeah you do."

"No I don't!" She said. Leroy huffed, wrapped his arms around her, pulled her close, and kissed her on the lips. He held her close for almost a minute, before the parted, Victoria blushing deeper then ever. "Now, look me in the eye, tell me you hated that, and I'll leave you alone."

Victoria, less then three inches from his face, looked into his eyes. She didn't want to admit that she liked him, but the sheer amount of love coming from his eyes told her she couldn't lie. "I… I… I like you a lot." She said. She wrapped her arms around him, and they pulled each other into another long, deep kiss.

Down on the beach, Lilo, Stitch, and Angel had found a nice, wide-open spot to lie down on. When they plopped down, Stitch looked over at Lilo.

"You know, I just thought of something: why did your other friends never ask when you disappeared on them?"

Lilo sighed. "I always knew that they weren't really my friends. I just kept telling myself they were, hoping that it might come true. I'm not even sure they really noticed when I stopped hanging around them. If they did, they never came around and asked."

Stitch nodded. "I never liked them much anyway. All they ever did was insult you and put you down. I always thought about beating up Myrtle for you, but I knew that you wouldn't approve of it."

"Even though I did it on a regular basis." Lilo said, smiling.

Angel looked over at them. "I thought we were here to relax, not talk about fighting."

"She's right." Lilo said. "Let's talk about something else."

"Why talk at all?" Angel asked. "Let's just lie here."

"Sounds fine to me." Stitch said, closing his eyes. An hour passed, in which everyone fell asleep at one point or another. Suddenly, they were all brought into wakefulness by a ringing. They looked around drowsily, and Angel pulled out a cell phone.

"When'd you get one of those?" Lilo asked, rubbing her eyes.

"I've had it for a while, ever since the Leroy war." She flipped it open. "Hello?" Lilo and Stitch paid little attention to her until her face turned to anxiety. Even with their hearing, neither of them could hear what was being said on the other side, though Angel didn't utter a syllable. After a minute, she flipped it shut, and stared out at the horizon.

"Is everything ok?" Lilo asked.

Angel shrugged. "More or less." She stared out for another moment, before turning around. "We need to go back. I have to talk to Jumba now." She set off at a brisk pace, and Lilo and Stitch followed. It didn't take them too long to get back to the house, and they went straight to the space ship. Angel glanced in the med bay first, and ducked out quickly. "Let's leave them alone for now." She said.

"Who's in there?" Lilo asked, going over to the door. Angel stopped her before she could see in.

"Don't worry about it now. Oh, Jumba!" Lilo turned around, to see Jumba walking out of one of the side doors.

"You is needing something 624?" He asked.

Angel nodded. "I just got a call from Skip." Everyone's mouths dropped open, but Angel continued before any of them could utter a word. "He got rid of Tiberius, and says he's trying to find 'his true self'. He wants me to meet up with him, so that he and I can talk. If my talking doesn't work, I think it would be a perfect time to test your fear theory."

"Where does he want to be meeting you?"

Angel shrugged. "He said he'll call me back with the time and location sometime tonight."

Jumba nodded. "This is good. Once we have little boy back, he will be able to tell us where Hamsterviel is. Then we can finish this once and for all before another… another of my… my…" He let out a sob, and ran back into the side room. Angel turned to the others.

"I didn't realize he was taking it so hard. This will hopefully get his mind off of things." The door to the med bay opened, and Victoria walked out.

"I thought we were going to the beach." She said.

"I got a call from Skipper." Angel replied. "He wants to meet me." She looked as the doors closed behind Victoria. "So, how's Leroy?" She asked. Stitch thought he heard a hint of teasing in her voice.

Victoria blushed. "He's fine. He just needs a little rest." Jumba came back out of the room, this time with a handkerchief. Angel smiled, as she thought of a way to get Jumba's mind of Reuben; it might be a little rude, but it would get Jumba's mind away.

"So, how does he kiss?" Angel asked. Victoria turned a very deep shade of magenta, while Jumba's jaw dropped open again, and Lilo and Stitch started laughing.

"You is having feelings for 629?" Jumba asked.

"M…m… maybe." Victoria stammered, causing Lilo and Stitch to laugh harder. However, their merriment was cut short by the door opening, and two figures walking in. The first was Cobra, and he was holding someone by the arm, someone Lilo never wanted to see again.

Kristy.

Please review and tell me what you think.