Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Chapter 10: Serum

Hamsterviel's Ship

Hamsterviel sat in his room, working with several small vials. Two of them were filled with blood: one from a Leroy clone, the other from Reuben. The third vial held perfectly clear liquid. Hamsterviel looked at his computer, and started reading aloud.

"Mix together and inject into blood system. The serum will immediately begin to take effect immediately." Hamsterviel poured the three liquids together, and it turned pitch black in color. He took out a syringe, and the liquid was sucked up inside it. "Bottoms up." Hamsterviel said. He stuck the needle into his arm, and injected the liquid.

Off in another part of the ship, Kairi was desperately trying to stop the blood coming from Reuben's chest. She had managed to find several pieces of cloth in the room, and had torn them up to make some makeshift bandages.

"You are such an idiot, you know that?" Kairi said.

Reuben chuckled weakly. "Yeah, I am. I still saved your life though."

"And I saved yours." She replied, applying another bandage to him. "I think I got most of this bleeding to stop, but you really need a doctor."

"We need to get off this ship." Reuben whispered. "I don't think there's a doctor on here."

"You're probably right, but how do we get off? We'll be lucky to walk out the door without a Leroy seeing us."

"Hello pesky experiments." Hamsterviel said, walking in the door. "I figured that you'd like to see what I used his blood for." Kairi turned around, and gasped. Before her stood a perfectly black Stitch-like creature. It was as tall as the average experiment, was covered in midnight black fur, blood red eyes, four arms, and long claws. "Now I have the ultimate power, and I can destroy those pesky Earthlings once and for all!"

"So what happens to me?" Kairi asked. "You kill me?"

"Oh no, I need a Queen to rule by my side, and I have decided it will be you."

"I'd rather chew off my legs and beat myself to death with them."

Hamsterviel shook his head. "Don't worry, you will change your tune soon enough. But until you do, I'm sure you are tired. One of the clones will escort you to your room."

Stitch's Head

Reuben closed his eyes, and nodded. "It's time cuz."

Stitch looked at him, confused. "Time for what?"

"Why you're here. Let me show you." In front of him, a ghostly image of the new Hamsterviel.

"What did he do to himself?" Stitch asked, afraid.

"He used an ancient, mythical, and dangerous toxin that changed him into this. To you, he is now invincible."

"How?"

"He used the blood of two people he killed along with the formula. What it does is it splits him: only half of him is in your world. The other half is in this one, my world."

"So, part of him is… dead?"

"In a way. This isn't exactly a world of death, as much as another level of reality. Theoretically, it is possible for you to come here, but the sheer amount of force needed to make a hole connecting our reality levels… it would take several Klimnar missiles, with the blast directed in at one point."

"So, how do we beat him?"

"Well, I can hit him from this side, but I need a weapon of some sort. But again, we need a hole."

"We have one." Stitch said. "Back on Klimno. I'll go there, give you a weapon, and then I'll go back to the real world."

"You need to send Leroy."

"Leroy? Why?"

Reuben winced. "Let's just say… there's someone here who wants to see him. It's time for you to go back."

"Hang on, if our reality levels connect… could you, come back?"

Reuben shrugged. "Who knows? Does it really matter?"

"It matters to me." Stitch said. "And it matters to a lot of other people."

"Look, Hamsterviel needed to blood of two people. He had to kill them."

"So?"

Reuben sighed. "Well, one of them was a Leroy clone. The other one… well, it was Reuben, Skipper's kid." Stitch's jaw dropped open. "Don't worry! Your daughter managed to bring him back before it was too late. Hamsterviel knows, he just doesn't care now that he has the power."

"But Reuben's alive?" A nod. "Whew, if he had died…"

"Look, we'll see what unfolds." Reuben interrupted. "Right now, the real world needs you right now." The scene before Stitch grew hazy. "Oh, and tell Skipper… thanks, for naming his kid after me. I'm honored." The scene shimmered, and then disappeared.

Earth

Stitch groaned as he came to. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around him.

"Lilo?" He whispered.

"Resting in your house." Leroy said. "I'm surprised you came out of your coma."

"I've been in a coma? How long?"

Leroy shrugged. "Only a couple hours. Jumba had to induce it to stop the swelling in your head; he figured you'd be out for a couple days."

"Angel?"

Leroy sighed. "She was in critical condition, but she's only serious right now. Jumba said that, even things are looking better, she still might not make it."

Stitch looked over at Angel sadly. "And let me guess… Skipper is freaking out."

Leroy nodded. "He rescued you guys from the fire and then fainted. When he came to and heard about Angel… well, we had to sedate him and tie him down."

"What can we do for Angel?"

"As far as I know, we can't do anything. It's all up to her now."

"Hey Leroy, could I get you to run a little… errand?"

Leroy nodded. "Sure. What do you need?"

Stitch sat up a bit, grunting as pain raced through him. "Well, back on Klimno, those missiles that Hamsterviel used made a hole between two dimensions."

"Huh?"

"The sheer amount of force from those missiles caused a hole to open up between our dimension, and a different one. What I need you to do is take a few plasma cannons, go through that hole, and give them to 625."

"You mean the original Reuben? But he died!"

Stitch sighed. "Look, it's really complicated, but it's highly necessary. While you're there, a little birdy told me that someone you knew was in there, and that you should pay them a little visit."

"Ok, I guess I can do that. It shouldn't take me too long to make it to Klimno. Then again, I kind of need a ship."

"How badly is this one damaged?

"The entire cockpit was destroyed, along with most of the power conduits: this ship isn't going anywhere ever again."

Stitch sighed. "Well, how can we get you there then?"

"We could always call the Council Woman for a ship. Just don't mention my name in it."

"Go get Lilo on that right away. The sooner we get that ship, the better."

Hamsterviel's Ship

"The nerve of that guy! Be his Queen… huh! As if!" Kairi said. She had carried Reuben to her new quarters, where he was lying and trying to recover.

"At least knows a beautiful girl when he sees one." Reuben said.

Kairi sat on the bed by his feet. "That is a good point. At least for now, he'll leave us alone. Although, I'm not exactly sure if he realizes that you're still alive."

Reuben shrugged. "I doubt it. From what I've heard, he isn't the brightest of the bunch. But we still need to get out of here."

Kairi pulled the computer off of the table next to her. "I pulled up the ship's schematics, and the escape pods are directly below us. Unfortunately, they'd kind of notice if we launched one. There's an automated alarm that sounds when one is launched."

Reuben held out his hands. "Pass me the computer." Kairi did, and he started typing rapidly. "The good part about having Uncle Leroy as a tutor is that I think I can get us out of this."

"And having Sparky for a tutor helped me save your life." Kairi said.

Reuben nodded. "So we made some good choices in our teachers."

"How long will this take?" She asked.

Reuben shrugged. "Probably an hour or two. It all depends on what kind of security Hamsterjerk has on his ship's systems. Don't worry: I'll get us out of this."

Earth

Lilo hung up the videophone and turned to Leroy. "She says that we'll have a ship in a hour. Let's go back and see how Stitch is doing." Leroy nodded, and they took off towards the ship. The kids stayed behind, not wanting to know how bad things were.

"Hey Lilo." Stitch said as they walked in the room.

"Hey boogee boo." Lilo said, standing next to him. "If you wanted to be lazy, you could have just said something instead of trying to blow yourself up."

"I wanted to be a little more dramatic." He replied.

"Hey guys." Leroy said. "Skipper's coming around." Lilo and Stitch looked over, and sure enough, Skipper was starting to stir.

"This could get really bad, really fast." Lilo said.

Stitch nodded and sat up, despite the pain. "Help me get over by his bed. Maybe I can calm him down a bit." Lilo and Leroy helped him up, and they all went over by Skipper's bed.

Skipper looked up at them, and then down at the restraints. "I hate déjà vu." He said.

"Well, we can't have you hurting yourself." Lilo said.

"Besides, Angel's getting better… a bit. She's in serious condition now." Stitch said.

Skipper sighed. "You'll understand if I don't jump for joy until she wakes up."

Leroy nodded. "Perfectly."

Stitch sat at the foot of the bed. "Hey guys, Leroy is going on a little trip, and I'm not going to send him unless he knows why." With that, Stitch retold his coma dream to them in great detail, especially the part about the new Hamsterviel. The others listened intently, paying attention to everything he said. When he finished, Leroy looked around.

"But he didn't say who the person was?" Stitch shook his head. "Too bad. It'd be nice to know if it was someone I seriously pissed off or not."

"So, what are we going to do?" Skipper asked.

"Leroy is going to go into that dimension and give him a few plasma cannons, meet somebody, and then get out. Apparently, the place doesn't like people who aren't supposed to be there."

Skipper nodded. "Sounds fine to me. Meanwhile, I'll just stay tied up here until Angel gets better."

Lilo undid the straps holding him down. "I trust you enough not to do anything stupid, so I'm taking these things off."

Skipper sat up. "Thanks Lilo. Now, what are we going to do about finding Hamsterviel?"

"Well, with Reuben's help, I think I can track him down." Stitch said. "I still have a slight connection with him, so we can hunt him down. We need to start hitting Hamsterviel at the same time Reuben does, or he's going to have some serious issues. I just wish we had more data on this."

"Can't we look it up?" Skipper asked.

"I'm sure I could try, but I bet that if the information is out there, it's classified." Leroy said. He walked over to the computer, and started looking. "What exactly am I searching for? Keywords would work wonders here."

Stitch thought for a moment. "Well, go with the general gist of the serum; how it changes them. Make sure to include something about the blood of two dead beings, mixed with a third liquid." Leroy typed some stuff in, and several results popped up.

"Well, if the first site is government, I think we got it." He opened the link, only to be asked for a security pass. "At least Aros gave me that stuff." He typed the username and password in, and was allowed access to the site. "What am I looking for?"

"Something that will tell us how to counter it, weaknesses, anything that might help." Skipper said, walking over by him. Leroy sped read most of it, and then sighed.

"Well, it's all kind of confusing. Apparently, when the blood of the two victims is mixed with the… re… reani… reanimation liquid, and then giving to someone who is alive, the change effects them here, and also gives them a… carbon copy of themselves in another dimension. The only way to injure or defeat such a creature is to first defeat their ani… animated being in the other dimension, and then the real one here. It says that when the one is defeated, the real one will become even stronger. When the being is finally destroyed, an energy discharge in both dimensions will result, causing an implosion of immense proportions, possible of destroying a planet in this dimension, and causing the natural laws in the other dimension to break apart." He sat there silently for a moment. "Gaba?"

Skipper smiled. "Ok, here's the simplified version. Basically, the blood of the two people are mixed with the third liquid, which changes it, as if it were still in a living being. Then, someone who is still alive injects it into him or herself, they change them into a mix of the bloods. Since Hamsterviel used a clone and… who else did he use?"
Stitch looked up. "He did say. Now don't freak out or anything, but he used… your son, Reuben." Before Skipper could say or do anything, Stitch hurried on. "But Kairi managed to bring him back somehow before it was too late. She and Reuben are hiding out on Hamsterviel's ship at the moment."

Skipper sighed. "At least they're ok. But that means we need to get a move on: no doubt my son needs help."

"First we need to actually understand this." Lilo said.

"Ok, I left off with… oh, the change. Anyway, since he used those, he turned into a mix between them, him, and some ancient being. When he used it, it gave him an exact duplicate of himself in the other dimension that acts as he does; he can probably see both sides. The only way to beat him is to defeat the copy of him in the other dimension, which is why we need Reuben."

"Why can't one of us do it?"

"Not sure, but if the laws of nature are vastly different there, we might not last long there. So, after that one is defeated, the one in this dimension is vulnerable, but becomes stronger. When we finally kill him, his death will release a massive implosion of energy, capable of destroying a planet, and causing some serious damage in the other dimension. Nothing else really, but I can tell you that it won't be easy to beat him." They heard engines outside, and Leroy smiled.

"That's the ship." He said. It landed, and someone walked onto the ship. When the door opened, Lilo ran and hugged the person.

"Gantu!" She said.

"Good to see you all again." Gantu said. "I'm about to head up and start patrolling around Earth, but I decided to drop the ships off and see how you were all doing." He looked around at the various scars, burns, and at Angel. "Bad time?"

"It was worse." Stitch said. "But it's getting better."

"Ships? As in more then one?" Lilo asked.

Gantu nodded. "The Council Woman decided that you needed one here just in case. Well, wish I could stay, but I have a patrol to start."

"Thanks for the ship!" Lilo called as Gantu left. They heard another ship, this one smaller, take off. She turned to around to Leroy. "I think it's time for you to take a trip.

Leroy nodded. "Not sure how long I'll be gone, but I'll contact you when I'm on my way back." He picked up four plasma cannons, and made sure they were armed.

"By the time you start coming back, we should be at least near Hamsterviel." Stitch said. They all shook hands, Leroy and Victoria kissed, and he waved.

"Good luck guys!"

Hamsterviel's Ship

"Ok." Reuben said. "I think I got the security off line. All we have to do is break through the floor, get in an escape pod, eject, and head for the nearest safe place." He coughed, some blood coming out of his mouth. Kairi wiped it away with her paw, and stroked his head fur.

"We need to get you some medical help Reuben. If this keeps up, you might actually… actually… die." She said.

Reuben leaned his head against her. "Don't worry. Once you're ready, we can get going."

Kairi nodded. "I can't do very much when you're leaning on me."

"Maybe you shouldn't be so fluffy then." Reuben said. But he sat up anyway, giving Kairi room to slip out. She started sniffing around the floor, trying to find the perfect place to cut through to the floor below.

"I think this will do." She said.

"Let's poke a small hole through first, so we can see if there are any clones around." Kairi used her nails to poke several small holes throughout the room, and took a peek through all of them.

"It looks clear. I can see the pods right below us. But what about when they start following us?"

"I can knock the weapons and engines offline temporarily with a virus." Reuben said, coughing up a bit more blood.

"Ok, let's get going." Kairi said. She ripped a large hole in the floor, and helped carry Reuben down. They slipped in a pod, and Reuben smiled.

"This is too easy." He said. He started the virus, and the pod ejected. As they left, they heard a loud laugh.

"Something's wrong." Kairi said. Suddenly, everything disappeared, and they were sitting in the middle of a gray room. Reuben groaned.

"Hologram." He said.

"Exactly." Hamsterviel said, walking into the room. "I figured that you would try and escape, so I had the clones deliver you here instead of a real room. Now, I am still willing to treat you as a guest, but you will now be placed in a less… decorated room. It will be your private quarters, but no computer, only a simple med kit, the door locked from the outside, and much stronger walls."

"I need more then a simple med kit to help him!" Kairi said, supporting Reuben.

"If you need more, ask, and I might be willing to give it to you. Take them to the room!" Several Leroy clones, all armed with plasma pistols, escorted them to their new room. They went inside, and the door closed behind them.

"Well, that could have gone better." Kairi said, setting Reuben down on the bed.

"Yeah, it could have." Reuben said. "Now, what do you have in mind for this?" He pointed to the blood again coming from his mouth.

"Don't worry: I paid attention when Jumba gave his talks about first aid. I even hung around afterwards a lot and talked to Jumba about it, and we were actually getting into surgery. I think I can do it."

"You think?" Reuben said.

Kairi sighed. "I can get the stuff from Hamsterviel, but I can only do it with one thing: do you trust me?"

"What?" Reuben asked.

"Do you trust me?"

Reuben looked into her eyes, and nodded. "I trust you."

She nodded. "Doctor Hamsterviel, I need to request some medical supplies."