Nani paced back and fourth barefoot on the shag carpet of David's apartment. It was one in the morning and no one had time to dress in anything but pajamas. She walked around looking down with her hand on her forehead. On the couch Lilo and Stitch's eyes followed her movements while David's eyes followed her from the hallway. Jumba was the only one in the room who didn't seem unsure of himself.Pleakly on the other hand simply looked confused. Cobra stood arms folded in front of the door while Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire nervously awaited Nani's response to their highly improbably story.

Nani stopped in the middle of pacing and glanced over toward the three would be experiments staring at her with a combination of affection and fear, which they were probably doing on purpose. Sapphire's twiddling of his fingers was especially noticeable.

"It's not going to work so you might as well stop." Nani whispered aloud, shaking her head slightly."

The siblings lowered their head and scowled to themselves. Sapphire stopped twiddling his fingers. Nani paced back and forth again. It was impossible to tell how long this went on for. The silence made the Emerald grit her teeth and the back of her neck feel wet.

Nani stopped again and huffed to herself. Her hand slid down her face until it reached her lip, where she bit it softly. What the hell they told her couldn't possibly be true. At least that's what common sense said. But common sense often had to take the back seat what with everything she went through since that one day three years ago when she took Lilo to the pound to get a new dog. Aliens? Genetic experiments? Mad scientists? Some of the things those experiments were capable of doing defied all logic and rationality. Given everything she'd seen up until this point, was their story really so farfetched. Half of her believed it was. The other half didn't.

What was it Nani was going to say? All three of the would be experiments wondered. Everything rested on her. Their future in hinged on whether or not someone known for being suspicious would trust total strangers with an outlandish tale. The affection on their faces previously may have just been a lure, but the fear was genuine. Nani had warmed up to them somewhat from their first meeting. At the very least she wasn't actively hostile toward them any more. That alone meant there was a chance that she would agree to let them do what had to be done. The fear persisted though. Only one knew just how slim a chance it was, but all three knew it was a slim chance.

What id what they said was true. It certainly caused mixed feelings from the one who'd been there since the beginning. He ended up here on this backwater section of this backwater planet on accident three years ago. He was taken in by people ho had compassion, a feeling alien to him at the time. This was his family, not theirs. This was his home and his love, not theirs. But compassion was a lesson, not a gift. It wasn't something that could simply be received without being returned. This alone caused him many mixed feelings. He wanted them out of his way, out of his life. But if what they said was true, they would eventually be part of his family, part of his love. He was unsure of what to think or feel about them. All he could do at the moment was stare blankly into space.

It was a rare thing that someone would become intimately familiar with the inner workings of the mind of a psychopath. Rarer still was that this person would be a child. This little girl was one of the few examples. Not many others like her could handle such a thing, but she understood allot more than most children her age. That much was proven every time she went to school. She never imagined that this psychopath could gain the upper hand against her and her most bizarre family. But these beings said otherwise. He gained such an upper hand that it seemed time travel was the only way to beat him. But all that effort could be squashed with just a word from Nani. She exchanged a fearful glance with the three sibling experiments from across the room.

Nani dropped her hand down to her waist and stared them as hard as she could, trying to find some sign of dishonesty in their gazes. There was none.

"So let me repeat all that back just to make sure I got it all." Nani said. "You three are from the future, where you're all just another part of our family. That is until Dr. Hamsterveil stole Jumba's math whatevers to make his own time machine and change the past allowing him to rule. So future Jumba sent you three back to stop that from happening."

"That's right." Sapphire nodded, whispering.

Nani shook her head and waved her hand in front of her face. She brought it close and bit on her fingers again.

"Is this even possible Jumba?"

"Is being very possible." Jumba answered. "Referred to theorems have already been completed and tested successfully."

"So it is possible." Lilo exclaimed. "They really can be from the future."

"But is it true?" Cobra added.

"Well how do we know you aren't the ones Hamsterveil used to take over the future in the first place?" Pleakly interrupted, waving his finger at them from across the room. "Huh? How do we know!"

"Ih!" Stitch shouted in agreement, folding his arms and nodding his head. "How do we know?"

"Well…" David Spoke up. "Why don't you tell each of us something Hamsterveil couldn't know."

"We could tell you allot of things like that." Emerald answered.

"We're all listening." Nani said softly.

Ruby stepped up first. She cleared her throat and spun around on one foot.

"There your real name." she said, pointing to Cobra. "It's Sa-"

"I'd prefer you'd not say it out loud." Cobra interrupted.

Cobra kneeled over and motioned to his ear. Ruby blinked and turned her head before waddling up to him and whispering into it. Cobra stood up again with a rather discontented look on his face.

"She is correct." Cobra whispered.

"So what's next?" Lilo asked.

The siblings stood in place for a few seconds, looking at each other, looking at the others in the room, rubbing their chins all at different ties. It was Sapphire who finally raised his head and snapped his fingers.

"I know what really happened to your ex-wife Jumba." He said.

"Really?" Jumba asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"Really." Sapphire answered, putting his hands on his own. "Do you remember that de-evolution experiment you were always so fond of?"

"That is being enough!" Jumba shouted all at once.

He rocketed over to sapphire, almost slipping over the floor before putting one hand over Sapphire's mouth and the other on his head.

"I am reminded and convince-ed. You are speaking truth. Now let us be moving on."

Lilo and Stitch turned to look at each other with curious eyes. Nani and David in turn looked at each other just as curiously.

"Tell me something about me and then I'll convinced." Nani spoke up.

Sapphire pushed Jumba's hands off of him and went and clasped his own hands together under his chin, tapping his finger on his knuckles. Nani was the most important one of all in this. If they couldn't think of something than this would all be over then and there. Sapphire shook his head with his eyes closed searching for something he knew about Nani that no one else could. It was no use, everything he knew about her he could've gotten from somewhere else. At least everything that came to mind right now.

Sapphire's mind wandered into the probabilities of their success in this mission and the statistics of what kind of opposition they might be facing in the near future. He couldn't think about Nani's secrets anymore, it was just something he wasn't good at. It was up to Emerald then, Ruby was too naïve to come with something that good all on her own.

But the last thing he expected happened. Ruby stepped up and cleared her throat in front of the group. Everyone stared at her. It made her spine itch. She never liked being stared at, and stage fright had always been one of her weaknesses. But even she knew how important this was. Even she could comprehend what it must be like to never see her family again.

"Nani?" Ruby Whispered. "Do you remember, when Lilo was only five years old and you were arguing with your parents about how they should give her a little more discipline?"

Lilo looked over at Nani a bit confused. Nani's arms relaxed and dropped while her face took on one of disbelief.

"It got so bad that they said they wouldn't be there at your big tryout as a hula girl at Niko's Weekend Luau?"

Nani shook her head slowly. This was something no one was supposed to know about. She took a step backward and her eyes just barely started to water. Lilo climbed up on the arm of the couch with a look of wonder pressed right at Nani.

"That job would've paid me three times as much as I was getting as a waitress." Nani whispered.

"That's right." Ruby shook her head. "And your parents weren't there, just like they said, or at least you couldn't see them. More than that, you didn't get the job. But that night your dad called you and told you they were there, just hiding. They said you did better than any of the others. They said you should've gotten it. That was just a week before the accident."

Nani turned and leaned her head, almost hitting it, on the post of the doorway she stood in. How could she know that? Nobody knew that, nobody except herself. A strange feeling washed over Nani as she heard that, not quite sadness, not quite shock. It was something too strong for her to keep a straight face but not strong enough to make her cry. Nani let her head drop from the post. She slowly turned it back around and up to ruby.

The little red ball of fluff stared at her with a genuinely worried and caring eyes. Just from the past few days, Nani knew Ruby was too expressive to be able to fake that look. It wasn't something you ever gave a stranger. If it was genuine, it could only come from knowing someone for years and years.

Stitch saw it as well. That was the instant he realized beyond a reasonable doubt that everything they said was true. In the distant future all three of them would be part of his family. The freeloaders, the thieves of his best friend and of his privacy, they would be part of his life eventually. Anger came but couldn't get a firm hold over him. Instead Stitch was filled with fear. What they said was true. After so long, he would have to live the rest of his life with them. That wasn't something he thought he would be able to handle.

"It turned out," Nani finished. "the one who got the job was sleeping with the owner. All right you can stay."

That was it. That was too much for Stitch to take. They would be staying. The freeloaders, the thieves of his family and privacy were now welcomed guests. Stitch had amazed even himself by keeping cool for this long, but now was too much for him.

"Ahhhggg!" Stitch screamed, pressing his hand to his ears and shaking his head. "Naga! Naga! Naga!"

Everyone's attention was now on Stitch. Everything he never wanted now came true. Those creatures who only look like experiments were going to be a designated part of his life from now on. He could only imagine it. When he wanted to be with Lilo, she would follow them everywhere. When he wanted to be alone, they would insist on harassing him. When he wanted to sulk in isolation over a relationship that ended before it could begin, they would be there constantly badgering him over every minute detail, trying to console him during the one time he didn't want to be.

Maybe they would be part of his life in the distant future, and maybe then he would accept them as such. But this was his time. This was Stitch's time! It wasn't there time.

Stitch pressed his eyelids together so hard they teared on reflex.

"What's wrong?" Ruby asked, waddling up to Stitch with her hands clasped against her chest in concern. What was obvious to everyone else had escaped her. That made it even worse for Stitch.

"Meega-O-Itume!" Stitch screamed out at Ruby, just before jumping off the couch and shoving her to the ground.

Stitch ran for the front door, not caring to look where he was going. His head crashed straight through the plywood and his body flew through the air landing somewhere on the parking lot below.

Everyone in the room could only look in shock at the hole in the front door. Emerald put one paw to her bottom lip. She knew Stitch didn't like them, but she had no idea he would react that strongly. Everyone else was stunned in their positions, their minds still in the process of sorting out just what happened. Everyone except Ruby, began to cry on the spot.

The starry night sky with its magnified half moon was the only thing peaceful now. Stitch's life was going to be thrown into chaos by what just happened. It was only made worse by the fact that he had no idea how long they would have to be here before they had to go back to wherever and whenever they came from. Stitch sniffled from the wind, but teared from his own frustration. The thought that they might be there for years was the most frightening of all. They were clearly not only more well behaved than him, but more affectionate and more useful. They were met with hostility at first, but it would only be a matter of time before their appeal among everyone in the household would outgrow his own. After all, they could cook, speak fluent English, do household repairs, and tolerate even the most obscene slatherings of attention. He couldn't compete with someone like that, let alone three someones. It would only be a matter of time before they replaced him.

But even that was of little consequence compared to other things. He could learn to be as well behaved and useful as them. He could eventually win back his place within his Ohana. But nothing could ever change his memories of one experiment 624. They would always be there with their pestering and nagging over how they could help, how they could make him feel better. The thought was too much for Stitch to bare.

Stitch looked over and found a still green coconut firmly attached to the top of the tree he sat on. The last one still there, and only because it was still unripe. In a flash Stitch grabbed the adolescent coconut and snapped it from its stem on the top of the tree. He held it in one hand in front of his face. Stitch gnarred and grit his teeth before crushing the coconut to small pieces in his one hand.

"Stitch?"

That was Lilo's voice.

Stitch looked over the side at Lilo in the parking lot. She looked right up at him. It was too late now. She'd seen the glint of his eyes. She would park herself beneath that tree all night to get him to talk if that's what it would take. Better to get this over and done with right now so he can get back to wallowing.

Stitch steeped off the edge of the tree and fell straight down, landing on his feet on the pavement right behind a bit of a surprised Lilo. It wasn't the most comfortable of ways to exit a palm tree, but it was the fastest, and that's what he wanted now more than anything.

"You know they're never going to replace you." Lilo whispered, putting her hand on Stitch's shoulder.

"Ih." Stitch answered.

"Whatever they can do, you know you and I share something they and I never could."

"Ih." Stitch said again.

"I'm sorry I was ignoring you Stitch. It's just the novelty of it all."

Novelty. It was both of their weaknesses. Lilo could never help herself but to embrace it, and Stitch never much cared for it. It was the one thing that separated them more times than anything else. The novelty would ware off though and Lilo would come back to him. But that didn't make him feel any better. That's not really what made him feel bad to begin with.

"So if that's not the problem. Will you at least tell me what is?"

Stitch sighed. He looked up to the sky and pointed toward one particular star. Lilo knew immediately what he was referring to. Humans called the star Epsilon Cygnus. Lilo only knew it by it's Tantalog name though, Tuton Bel. It was the star where the asteroid prison holding Dr. Hamsterveil was built. It was also where all the experiments they had lost were being held.

"Angel?" Lilo asked. "How does this have to do with her?"

"No privacy."

"I see." Lilo nodded her head and sat down next to Stitch, who sat down just afterward. Lilo leaned her head against Stitch's shoulder. "You really do want to be left alone when she sends you those deliveries."

"Ih."

"Well, if what they say is true, than if they can't stop the Hamsterveil in the future, then we'll all be dead, including Angel."

Stitch sighed. He knew it was true. Still, that didn't make him feel better.

"How 'bout if I make sure they don't bother you during those special times of yours?"

As much as they all seemed to love Lilo, maybe she really could get them to leave him alone. It was worth a shot at least. Stitch nodded and yawned, not physically, but emotionally tired.

"Why don't you come back inside?" Lilo asked. "Nani and David promised they wouldn't get mad at you, and the others are already in bed."

Lilo and Stitch stood up and slowly walked back toward the staircase to David's second floor apartment.

Dawn broke hours earlier. Steam poured from the door to the bathroom of the living deck so thick that it was difficult to see only a few feet into it. A very low rumbling came from the entrance of the door. The rumble carried through the metal walls and to the kitchen on the same deck, as did the steam.

A small blob of lard and yellow fuzz tried in vain to apply the last drop of his specially ordered stone ground mustard placed perfectly on the tip of a scalpel to the last empty spot on his freshly toasted black rye. The tiniest and most precise of movements were required to get this just right. 625 stared intently at that last tiny empty spot through a monocular squeezed between his eye muscles. The slightest dapping on the bread with the scalpel and the mustard covered the empty spot with perfect thickness, stopping just short of the crust line.

625 smirked as a job well done and stabbed that scalpel into the polymer countertop before lifting the rye slice between his fingers. But it was not meant to be. The rye was soggy from the steam. It squished like a sponge and broke in half. The second half fell helplessly down onto the countertop, landing mustard side down, splattering the condiment across the counter with is unmistakable spoo-uck sound.

The thing of beauty, the thing of genius, the priceless work of art, it was ruined! The presentation slice had just been reduced to muck! 625 could tolerate many things, but this was going overboard.

"Noooo!"625 screamed, dropping to his knees and pulling on his ears before hitting his head against the countertop. "My masterpiece! What have you done to it?"

The "you" 625 referred to was of course his fifteen and a half foot tall, semi-aquatic roommate. Everything was perfect. The roast beef was perfect, the bacon was perfect, the tomato and butter lettuce was fresh picked and sliced, and mustard was stone ground in Barcelona, wherever the hell that was, and it was all destroyed by the damn steam billowing into the kitchen, the fault of the aforementioned roommate.

"Gantuuuuu!" 625 screamed again before dropping off the side of the counter and stomping as loud as he could toward the entrance to the bathroom, which wasn't all that impressive to say the least.

625 put on his best irate face and stared down the behemoth with his lip quivering and his fists clenched almost painfully tight. The behemoth didn't respond, nor could he since his eyes were closed and unable to see 625's expression. The hot steam from the opened heating duct blew in 625's face condensing in drops on the tips of his ears, dripping onto his shoulders. 625 didn't even care about the dampness his rage was so great.

The great fishlike being in front of him stood almost motionless on one led bend as far as it could while the other crossed itself around the knee. His arms thrust straight forward and he breathed as deeply as he could.

"Gantu!" 625 screamed again.

"Wha? Ahhh!"

Gantu lost his balance and fell over onto his side. He figured the lazy bastard would come charging in with some ridiculous demand sometime, but didn't think it would've been this soon.

"How dare you interrupt me during my meditation'." Gantu shouted as soon as he was able to sit back up.

"How dare your mediwhatever turn my masterpiece of a toasted BLT into mush." 625 shouted right back.

"Mediwhatever? I'll have you know that was a highly respected and renowned form of physical exercise and mental relaxation, and the only way I'm ever going to be able to stand living with you!"

"Exercise and relaxation? Looks more to me like you're trying to either give yourself heatstroke or break your own back, neither of which I particularly mind."

"It's called Bikram Yoga, and the heat and steam are necessary to get the most out of it." Gantu grumbled, trying to get back into his previous position. "And you're stupid sandwich is of little importance compared to my physical and psychological well being."

"Stupid? Little importance?" that got 625's blood boiling. "How could you possibly say that about roast beef? If you don't take that back right now I'm gonna' make sure those contortions of yours are permanent!"

"I would like to see you try."

"I'd sure as hell like to show ya."

"Gantu!"

"I told you…"

Tht last scream didn't come from 625. The voice was even more irritating than that, like a rake dragged across a chalkboard. There was only one place that could've come from, and that was the comm. screen.

"Oh no, not now." Gantu groaned.

Gantu let himself fall back and caught himself with his hands behind him. After standing up he was met with a screen only inches from his face showing live feed of very disgruntled looking vermin.

"What is this with the precipitation clouding my vision and you not outside looking for experiments?" Dr. Hamsterveil shrieked.

"I was just exercising Dr. honest." Gantu tried to respond in as humble a voice as possible. "It clears my mind and makes me more ready for hunting."

"First thing first Gantu. Turn off the fogging fogginess!"

"Of course sir."

Gantu rushed into the bathroom the turn the off the valve letting out the steam and punch open the window to let the positive pressure suck it out. He took a deep breath and turned back around to find the comm. screen had followed him inside and was again only inches from his face. Gantu yelped and fell backward onto the toilet.

"You can obtain plenty of exercise during your experiment hunting. DURING! NOT BEFORE!"

"Actually I think he was trying to give himself heatstroke." 625 butted in.

"You can give yourself heatstroke AFTER I have all my experiments!" Hamsterveil immediately shouted at Gantu, pressing the screen against his face. "I need you alive until then. Or else I will kill you!"

625 dropped his head into his paw and shook it at the ridiculous remark.

"Warning, experiment 595 activated." Suddenly sounded the experiment container. "Primary function, controls heat and cold."

"So what are you waiting for Gantu?" Hamsterveil picked up right where the computer left off. "Go g..t me ..y ex..er….men.."

The screen of the comm. went static and the swingard dropped the panel to the floor where it hit with a thud. Gantu and 625 looked at each other a bit confused. 625 leaned over to look at the screen. The static still crackled.

"What just happened?" 625 asked.

"One of the couplings must've blew." Gantu answered. "But we can worry about that later, right now we need to go catch 595."

"Actually I don't think it was a coupling."

"And why not?"

"Because the screen is turning back on."

Gantu looked down to see the static fading away into darkness. A face slowly emerged onscreen. It was Dr. Hamsterveil again, but something was different about him. Or maybe it wasn't him but the fact that there was no view of his cell. The background was almost totally black. Hamsterveil himself had a certain look to him. It was angry and direly serious, and in that sense it was no different from the way he looked any other time. But this look lacked the kind of laughable childishness normally present. It was something that genuinely almost scared Gantu to look at.

The swingarm lifted the comm. screen back up, resting it several feet away from Gantu. This was something else different, and rather worrying.

"Dr. Hamsterveil, I'm going after 595 right now just as you told me to."

"What are you talking about?" Hamsterveil snapped back quickly.

"I uhh… experiment 595 was just activated. You were telling me to go get it."

"Right, right, right." Hamsterveil shook his head while answering. "Forget about 595 for now, I have a new assignment for you."

"A new assignment?"

"Hey what's with the pitch black?" 625 butted in.

"Not now-"

"It must be a malfunction in signal decompression." Hamsterveil interrupted Gantu. "You may repair it at your leisure."

Gantu and 625 looked at each other again. This was not how Dr. Hamsterveil behaved, at least not normally.

"The little earth girl and 626 have acquired three new experiments." Hamsterveil continued. "It is of utmost importance that these experiments are kept busy and out of the way of things for the next three days."

"You're not going to have me capture them?" Gantu asked.

"No. You need only make sure they are kept continuously distracted by you, for three days."

"Very god Dr. I'll make sure I do that."

"I will be sending reinforcements of my own to assist you in any way you deem necessary. You had better succeed."

With that, the screen cut out.Gantu pushed the terminal out of the way and walked toward the elevator.

"What's with that?" 625 asked. "What are you doing?"

"You heard the doctor, there's been a change in plans, and there's nothing for me to do until these reinforcements arrive."

"And you're just going along with all of this like nothing's wrong?"

"Is there?"

625 ran toward the elevator following Gantu, and hopped on just as it was beginning to ascend.

"Do you know just how weird he was acting?" 625 asked, sounding just a bit desperate.

"Why would that concern me?"

"Well because maybe that wasn't ol' Hammy we were talkin' to."

"You're delusional 625."

"We'll see about that."

The conversation stopped right as the elevator reached the bridge deck of the ship.