Thanks For The Memories

Reuben didn't care what the time was any more. It had seemed to stop the second he had looked into the control room, and things had been such a blur since then that time had lost all meaning, all significance. All he knew was that Gantu had been lying, out cold, on the floor in a puddle of blood and with his stomach ripped open. A1 had been sitting next to him, crying silently. When he had walked in, he had pressed the off-button on his communicator in shock, and A1 had looked up.

"I just want it to end," she had said softly, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for her. But then he had caught sight of what she had done to Gantu and had nearly had a heart-attack. He was going to kill her. The evil little… there were no words nasty enough to describe her. Now she was running and he was following. The fact that Jumba was tending to Gantu gave him no comfort. He wanted to rip her limb from limb.

There was no air in his lungs, no blood in his veins, no thoughts in his head. All he was aware of was the incredible pain that she had put him through, and that he was gaining on her. She had run into a church. God would do nothing to save her now, nothing would. It took him a while to get to the doors, and when he opened them, he wished he hadn't. It was totally silent. He looked around, and saw water dripping from the font, footsteps dragged across the cold stone floor. Crouching behind a pew, he looked around. Then a funeral march struck up on the battered old organ at the other side of the church, making him jump. He heard disturbing laughter. He heard the scratch of her long claws on the stone. He grabbed his blaster, pumped it's handle twice for extra power and rolled out, army-style from his hiding place, shooting into the air.

A1 had run to the church and leapt into the font, scrubbing angrily at her face, at her body as if the holy water would cleanse her of her terrible sins. She had heard Reuben approaching and dragged herself away to the organ, playing the funeral march and laughing. This had become a kind of warped game to her, to see how long she could last without going insane. Maybe she already had. Then Reuben had leapt out and shot at her. As a few of the blasts grazed her, bouncing off her toughened hide she retreated to the far side of the church.

Reuben called snidely after her.

"What's wrong, A1? Number Girl? Too scared to disembowel me like you did Gantu? Or can't you see me? Is your eye still sore, baby?"

"Oh, I can see you, you little squirt. I can see you," she hissed, scurrying up the wall to the ceiling above him, "And you know what I see? I just see another number, 625." She dropped straight onto him and scratched and slashed, opening his skin like a paper envelope. She forced him onto his back and sat on his chest, slowly crushing the breath out of his lungs. But there was only sadness in her large red eyes, a film of tears covering them.

"This is all your fault, Reuben," she explained sadly, "It's your fault I keep thinking like this." And then she was shouting, screaming angrily, "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

She punched him straight on the nose, but he said nothing as blood started to ooze from in. She sunk a punch between his eyes, and then started slashing swiftly.

She paused; sweat trickling into her eyes and mingling with tears. Despite the blood flowing into his own eyes, Reuben could see that under her wiry black fur, her face was tinged with a sickly pallor.

"Well? WELL?" she demanded, "Aren't you going to fight back?"

Reuben glared up angrily at the one that had almost killed his best friend, threatened Jeeba and hurt all of his cousins, and spat in her face.

As she rubbed the saliva furiously from her face, Reuben had already slipped out of her grip and behind the organ. He needed to get away. He needed a plan of attack, not just running in blindly. He heard a roar of pure rage, and sprinted out. She immediately shot at him with the blaster, but missed. Being the best shot there was, however, it was probably on purpose. She chased him from the church, shooting blasts all around him. Reuben ran, his arms flailing wildly, looking like a lizard sprinting across a lake's surface. People on the street turned around in alarm, and dived out of the way, but A1 only chased him half way down before stopping dead in her tracks. Reuben slipped away, but she didn't care. She was entranced by some music blasting out of a nearby car stereo.

"I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that phase.
Even your emotions had an echo
In so much space

And when you're out there
Without care,
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much.

Does that make me crazy...?"

She sank a plasma blast into the stereo and walked slowly back into the church. Having heard her thoughts played back to her through song, she didn't feel like running. She could only pray for forgiveness now. She sank down by the altar, her eyes squeezed shut, listening to her own heartbeat throbbing around her head. She shuddered as pain shot through her body yet again. More hormones, according to Jumba. More of those damned hormones. She blinked away the pain, and started mumbling.

"I'm sorry. Sorry for everything, master. I didn't mean to ruin the mission. There's a… a programme flaw. I'd be better off… shut…shutting down."

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she waited for a reply from above, as if she would hear her master, her beloved creator's voice sound in her head. Then her communicator buzzed, and she remembered that the line had been open since she had arrived on Earth.

"What kind of flaw?"

Reuben burst into the control room, making Jeeba scream and everyone else jump into the air. Jumba was typing furiously at a laptop computer, and Jeeba was tending to Gantu. Lilo and Stitch seemed to be looking after the twins, and Pleakley's main function appeared to be infuriating Jumba. Jumba swivelled round in his chair and examined the deep scratches on Reuben's face.

"Hmmm… well, nothing is broken… but is very close. What happened?"

But rather than explain everything to them, Reuben simply asked one question in return.

"How do I beat her?"

"What?"

"I need to know what her weak spot is. What is the one thing that will reduce her to nothing?"

Jumba looked at him almost scornfully.

"Is it not obvious? It is hormones, 625, hormones. If you can induce a release of hormones in her head that is strong enough, she will be powerless. Is painful to her, and too much will send her into an overload."

Reuben screwed up his face impatiently.

"What can force a release of hormones that strong? What is the most powerful hormone?"

Jumba looked thoughtful for a moment, but Jeeba cut in before he could answer.

"Endorphins."

Everyone looked around, and Jumba beamed at his wife for saying the very answer he had been about to supply. She continued with a small smile.

"We Cupidians know a lot about endorphins. After the accident with the poisons in the Earth/Cupidian battle, we researched endorphins and what causes them in detail, so as not to make the same mistake again. We have discovered that female Cupidians have glands behind their ears that secrete almost pure endorphins, which attract any males in the vicinity. We have discovered that endorphins are the most powerful hormones in any species- they make you act irrationally, want to hurt people, and want to do things that you can't explain. They can wreck people from inside out, and can be triggered by many things. Music, chocolate, some flowers… If you want to defeat A1, Reuben, you're going to have to make her fall in love."

This was a long speech from Jeeba, and the last sentence echoed around the control room. Gantu groaned, and Reuben sighed, exasperated.

"Jeeba, this is A1. She can't feel love."

"She couldn't feel a lot of things before she talked to you, Reuben," piped up Lilo, and Stitch nodded in agreement.

"But love can't be rushed! I can't just snap my fingers and make her fall in love!"

"Oh, can't you?" Jeeba murmured softly, looking into Reuben's eyes meaningfully. A look of dawning realisation spread across his face, and he turned to leave. Jumba called him back.

"625! Where are you going? What are you going to do?"

"Jeeba once said that it only took one kiss to make her fall in love with me," he said grimly. Jumba bristled angrily, and he gave him a small, apologetic smile before slipping out of the door. Jumba rounded on his wife, looking into her flushed face to see if it was true. Then he stopped in his tracks.

"Wait a minute… Is he going to try to…?"

They all leapt up as one and sprinted towards the door, including Gantu. Only Jeeba lingered behind for a moment, wondering if she had done the right thing. 'It's a bit late for this,' she told herself, setting off as well into the black air of the night.

A1 stood on the altar, looking into the eyes of a dying, crucified Christ. Soon, she too would meet her maker. Because her master was coming for her, to shut her down for good. Of course, he could simply shut her down from the lab, but he wanted to do it personally. She turned her head slightly at the sound of the door opening behind her. It wouldn't be her master, not yet; he had only just set off. Seeing Reuben standing there brought the bitter taste of hatred into her throat.

"I'm dying, 625," she shouted, a thousand voices echoing furiously around the empty church, "I'm being shut down. My master is coming for me. And it's your fault. Why did you have to do this to me? I was only trying to do what I… STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

Reuben stopped in his tracks. He had been walking up to her, scared of what would come. But now he realised something. A1 was actually terrified of him. Her voice quavered, her eyes flashed with fear, and she was edging across the altar to get away from him. And there was pain in her eyes, from the hormones that fear brought. He was half-way there into his hormone-overload plan.

"I only want to help you, A…"

"NO-ONE CAN HELP ME," she shrieked hysterically, "ONLY MY MASTER CAN HELP ME! HE'S SHUTTING ME DOWN AND IT'S YOUR…"

"My fault. I know. Look, I can help you, if you just stop edging away."

He had come to her side on the altar, standing in front of her, eye to eye. Her blind eye was healing up slowly, but the tears that flowed from it were bloody and acidic. He held out his hand, and she took it with a shaking paw. Reuben took a couple of steps in, and she blinked her sad eyes at him. He watched another tear roll from the corner of her eye. Their noses were brushing...

Jumba smashed open the church door, and the breathless group burst in, falling silent immediately at the scene before them. Reuben and A1 stood on the altar, locked at the mouth in a passionate kiss. A1's eyes widened. Her whole body was shaking violently, somehow simultaneously in intense pain and incredible pleasure. But pain took over, and as she reached for the gun at her belt, time slowed down. Lilo, Jeeba and Pleakley all screamed at the same time as the plasma blast shot out, and Reuben lay, spread-eagled on the cold stone slabs. As A1 ran from the back door of the church, her strangled sobs echoed across the room, each one chilling everyone to the core.

The suspense is killing me too! If you want to see what happens, you're going to have to review. That means everyone, please! Thanks for sticking with it so far!