Author Notes: I apologize for not updating in so long, but two very distinct things happened to prevent me. First off I'm currently studying for my Driver's Permit test, which takes quite a long time as the booklet is 118 pages long. Seccond, a week long heat wave hit the west coast smashing all previous reccords. I was just too miserable then to be motivated to do much of anything. Fortunately, once it ended, the temperature dropped so far that it now feels like spring.

Story Notes: This is the chapter where I finally tell you all what most of you have figured out already. For those few who haven't, I'm not saying right here and now.
Also, I told a couple of you that this fic would eventually become M-Rated. Well, I now deciced against that. It'll stay the rating it is throughout.

Things were oddly quiet aboard the crashed and crippled ship stranded in the middle of the Alakai Swamp. Things were even more oddly still there as well. The lights were dimmed down and all of the sensor systems were shut off. It was that way because he demanded it, and whatever he demanded, they had to obey.

625 was getting a slight cramp from standing up so straight and stiff. He'd never remembered being asked to do anything like this before, and on the landing level no less. All previous communications had taken place on the bridge. 625 slumped forward a bit to comfort his aching side. He'd been standing like this motionless for the past twenty minutes, and keeping proper posture wasn't something he was used to. 625 winced as he pressed a hand into his side and started to tap his foot in boredom. A nudge from another foot twice the size of his entire body brought him back to attention. The way that report looked, even he was scared to be seen acting casual.

The giant next to him seemed no better. Though he certainly found it easier to physically, as he was trained to keep both proper posture and fitness, he was no less nervous. They both read that same document.

"Why all the cloak and dagger stuff?" 625 whispered from the side of his mouth.

"With threats like those I make it a point not to ask." Gantu whispered right back. "But I can only assume he doesn't want us tracing his movements."

"That's the thing, we already know where he is. And we don't even know if he's able to deliver on what spews out of his mouth."

"Have you been reading the news lately?"

"I don't read news." 625 said back, digging into an ear with his nail. He immediately realized what he did and stood back at attention.

Gantu grumbled, not realizing 625's sudden ere in stance, and quickly retorted. "I'm talking about blankets of fog suddenly enveloping whole sections of the island, along with electrical activity that's just as crazy. The computer's been calling out experiments that have already been activated. There's no explanation for any of it, yet in the report he seems to know all about it."

"So what's that supposed to mean for us?" 625 asked.

"I don't know, but I've learned that in situations like this the best thing for you to do is to shut up and do what your told, and you should learn that too."

625 grumbled something unintelligible under his breath. Gantu glanced at him momentarily and decided it would be best to stay silent. They both stood there a few minutes more before static buzzed over the comm. system. On the landing deck they couldn't get a visual communication, which was how he wanted it, at least as far as they guessed.

The static died down into the sounds of a tuning radio, and then to nothing at all. The voice came over the comm. system. It was just like the last time, the voice that is. There was no boasting or frenzied speech. There were no mindless threats or meaningless insults. This was calm, collected, and straight to the point. It was rather frightening to both of them.

"Your respectful pose is noted." The voice of Dr. Hamsterveil echoed into the deck.

Gantu and 625 glanced at each other. How he knew how they were standing when they only had audio communication was beyond either of them.

"I have been doing some thinking, and there is a slight change in my plans for the three new experiments currently accompanying the little girl. They are unlike normal experiments in many ways."

"In what ways sir." Gantu asked.

"That is not for you to know." Hamsterveil answered.

The calmness and briefness of Hamsterveil's answer made a trickle of cold flow up Gantu's spine.

"These three experiments are not to be be destracted, they are to be destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Gantu suddenly asked. "Why would you not want me to capture them?"

"I do not appreciate being interrupted." Hamsterveil whispered.

Gantu took a step back and tightened his body a bit more. 625 became undone at the new orders, suddenly throwing himself into a gasp and an almost action ready stance.

"These experiments are a threat to my future," Hamsterveil continued. "and they are a threat to me. I am charging you with the task of destroying them, and to make sure you do, I am sending you reinforcements. They should be arriving shortly. And remember, they are programmed to kill you both should you fail in destroying all three of these experiments."

A click, then the sound of a tuning radio, and finally static was heard, before it shut off leaving the landing deck once again silent. Gantu slumped forward and dropped his forehead into his hands. He signed heavily before turning his attention toward a nagging yellow puff down by his feet.

"I'm not gonna have any part of this man!" 625 protested. "I can do allot of horrible and crazy stuff to the other experiments, but there's no way in hell I'm going to kill one, or three for that matter, or even help out there! I'm having no part of it man.
"That, and what I said before, well I know its true now! That was not Hammy we were talking to!"

"How do you figure?" Gantu asked.

"Well besides the obvious one eighty in personality, do you really think Hammy would want any of the experiments dead? Do you really think that?"

The conversation ended then and there. 625 and Gantu both jumped and jerked around toward the exit hatch. Some kind of clanging rattled through the hatch and into the landing level. Three times and then the clanging was gone. Silence returned.

"Knocking?" Gantu whispered to himself.

"Who'd knock that loud?" 625 asked.

Gantu and 625 looked at each other again. Gantu cleared his throat and walked over to the exit hatch. He placed his palm against a glowing green panel. No sooner did the hatch begin to lower than a wave of the thickest pure white fog pour into the landing deck, blinding both inhabitants. Gantu stumbled back growling, covering his face with one hand and waving in front of him with the other. It was done more out of shock than anything, as the fog was nothing more than its name suggested.

Gantu fell back onto his butt onto the floor. The shock forced his eyes open and he stared out into the fog. He couldn't see anything, not even his hand in front of his face the fog was so thick. The soft pattering of small footsteps slowly came about, and came closer. They stopped just in front of Gantu. Gantu flipped around and crawled about, feeling his way around, trying to find some kind of control panel.

It was found, but not by him. Mechanical wheezing hummed and the vent fans turned on, and the exit hatch began to close. The fans slowly sucked the fog out of the room. Gantu turned around to find hazy silhouettes becoming clearer. They were the silhouettes of experiments, all ones that he had seen before. The fog cleared completely now. The experiments there Gantu had indeed seen before.

"221? 601? 619?" Gantu. "No… you're not them."

Gantu referred to the experiments known as Sparky, Kixx, and Splodyhead. They were all there, in fact there were three of each of them. But none of them were the colorful beings Gantu had remembered. They were all dull grays and tans. Their eyes were all pure white. Their face seemed content, but otherwise totally devoid of expression.

"624?" Gantu continued.

A tent figure stood behind the rest, the figure of Angel, but again, the pink and white that was expected was replaced with gray and tan. She had her antennae resting on the control panel next to the exit hatch. She walked toward Gantu with her arms folded. The others moved aside to let her pass.

"You're not 624. What are you?" Gantu demanded.

The creature in front of him spoke in the voice he remembered belonging to the Experiment known as Angel, but in perfect English.

"That is not for you to know." The facsimile said to Gantu. "All you need know is that I am here to make sure you lead us to the experiments in question, so that we may do away with them."

"Maybe you're right 625, but I don't think we have a choice now." Gantu sighed out, but heard no response. "625?"

"625 took the opportunity to escape." The gray Angel explained. "but no matter. He is of no use."

Gantu sighed again. "Well, whatever these new experiments are, we shouldn't go after them all at once. We should wait until they separate and take them on one at a time."

The gray Angel nodded.

The night dragged on and everyone hiding out in David's apartment slept no wiser to what was happening. David slept on the living room couch covered in only a sheet snoring slightly. Ruby was curled up around his feet snoring a bit more loudly. Nani and Lilo shared David's bed while Stitch slept on an office chair in the same room that had been draped over with sheets and pillows. The newly captured Kelvin, apparently able to control fire and ice with his heterochromatic eyes slept rather uncomfortably inside his capture container, his blindfold still covering his eyes. Jumba shored quite loudly propped back in the recliner next to the couch while Pleakly was absolutely silent on the loveseat opposite the couch. The TV was tuned to the weather channel, whose meteorologist spouted off some report of the third unexplained fogging incident this week, not rousing the concern or even consciousness of anyone in the room.

One inhabitant was not asleep. Emerald sat upright on the floor gazing unnerved at the TV. Her lips pressed tight as she stared wide eyed, fists clenched, in dismay at was happening. The new fogging took place in Alakai swamp, which if she remembered correctly, was where Gantu's ship was supposed to have been stranded during the original Hamsterveil fiasco since years before she was born.

"Once gain." Emerald whispered. "And this time they won't be scouts."

A green tendril extended toward the TV and pushed inward long plastic rod, turning it off, before retracting back toward emerald's forehead.

Emerald turned her head toward the coffee table between the two couches. The capture tube held Kelvin in place. He wouldn't be able to escape without making enough noise to stir the entire apartment. Something welled up inside Emerald staring at Kelvin asleep with bandages wrapped around his eyes. In her own present, Kelvin was dead. It was possible she would never see the Kelvin who found her so familiar. Her heart sped up and her breath became shallow. The more she stared at Kelvin, the more she shivered uncontrollably, until a single tear relieved her stress.

Her normal control and diligence was lost on her now. The thought of staring at Kelvin alive now when he may very well be dead in her own world was too much for her. Emerald stood up and walked over to the table. Her tendrils reached out and wrapped around the tube. She lifted it up silently waking only Kelvin inside, who still dared not open his blindfolds.

Emerald made her way into the kitchen and set the tube down on the floor. The tendrils gripped the tube and opened it, the locking mechanism not responding to force from within, easily gave way to leverage from outside.

Kelvin crawled out of the tube and stood up to feel six soft, gummy-like fingers wrap themselves around his blindfold and pull it of. He stared at Emerald for a second before backing up against the far wall in fear. Emerald followed with a somewhat curious and confused expression. Emerald's hands lifted up and rested on Kelvin's shoulders. Kelvin slid down the wall into a sitting posture in fear. Emerald leaned her head forward and touched her nose to his own, and immediately pulled it back.

"No! Stay in control." Emerald whispered to herself.

"Don't forget Kelvin," Emerald spoke with authority. "I can defeat you any time I want. But if you promise to behave, I can let you sleep on something more comfortable, and without the blindfold."

Kelvin nodded, still slightly fearful. Emerald gave a weak smile and put her hand on Kelvin's head. She then turned around and walked back out of the kitchen. Kelvin stood up and looked out at Emerald walking away slightly confused.

Stitch sat on the far left side of the couch. He held his chin up with his left arm propped against the cushion while he tapped his right fingers against his hip. First the interlopers show up, then he was forced to move into David's apartment, and now they have a new experiment living with them. Space was running out fast. Stitch glanced over at Lilo on the recliner, sitting in David's lap and wondered momentarily how she was able to take it all n so easily. His own life had been turned upside down at the recent events, no doubt so did hers. Now everyone one crammed into this apartment was going to argue about things trivial compared to what was going on.

Emerald and Ruby sat on the right side of the couch, both looking at Stitch. Stitch glanced at them momentarily and whined under his breath. Why did they always insist on being near him? It was irritating to no end. At least they were one short of a trio. Where the blue one was, well Stitch didn't really care about that.

Everyone stared at the new experiment Kelvin sitting on the coffee table. He was definitely far more humble than he was yesterday.

"So what are we to do with this experiment?" Jumba spoke out suddenly.

Lilo looked toward the kitchen where Jumba leaned against a counter. "Well which one is it?"

Jumba opened his mouth to answer, but paused before doing so. "Is… errr… is being 595, design-ed to control both heat and cold by channeling each ability through the eye of corresponding color."

"Wait a second!" Pleakly shouted out, charging in from the hall. "That can't be right. We already have 595's pod remember? And I thought he was designed to smash glaciers and raise sea levels!"

Jumba looked down at the floor and twiddled his fingers. Those looking at him could almost think he was blushing. "595 was one of many victims of Jumba's ineptitude of cleanliness of file keeping."

"Meaning?" Nani asked from her perch on a kitchen countertop.

"Meaning sometimes Jumba's paperwork is getting so lost and scrambled that he is accidentally giving two experiments same number!"

Everyone stopped and stared at Jumba for a moment.

"Well!" Pleakly huffed. "The way you've mislabeled so many experiments this should hardly come as a surprise. You know what they say Jumba-"

"Not this again." Jumba whispered wiping a hand down his face.

"they say that a clean filing cabinet, is a happy, healthy, and more productive filing cabinet."

"Enough of your anthorpomorphizationings of inanimate objects!" Jumba yelled the instant he could get a word in.

Lilo and David both giggled, drawing a wide eyed stare from Pleakly.

"What's so funny!" Pleakly demanded. "Clean things make everything in life easier."

"Please people." Emerald interrupted, standing up. "Let's try to focus on the task at hand. We should be discussing what should be done with Kelvin."

"I think he'd be great at the aluminum recycling plant with Melty!" Lilo shouted out.

"But that's not where he works." Ruby interrupted.

About to say more, three green tendrils pushed against ruby's mouth hushing her. "what my sister means to say is, we should consider Kelvin's wishes before simply assigning him a place in society."

Everyone looked at each other, and then at Kelvin.

"Well," David Asked. "What would you like."

Kelvin looked at each of the faces in the room. Landing in the end on Emerald's. Emerald nodded her head at him.

"Mmmmhhh…" Kelvin was unsure of what to say, and a bit confused. Just yesterday this group of humans an experiments had taken him down as if it were nothing, and now they were asking him what he wanted to do "Miga kallaba haju makka gamba nota."

"595 says he wishes to know what is going on." Jumba translated.

Emerald made a single silent laugh and shook her head just a bit before looking back up and speaking. "It's a long story Kelvin and we don't have time to get into it now, but if you'll agree to stay with us in the meantime I'll fill you in later."

A quick "Ih." Was the only thing that came out of Kelvin's mouth in response.

"Now that that's settled." David spoke up, turning his head in many directions. "Where's this Sapphire fellow gone off to."

"Yeah," Lilo added. "I was going to ask the same question."

"He does this sometimes when he's upset about something." Emerald answers. "He's really a bit solitary anyway."

"Well what happened to make him upset?" David asked suddenly.

"Well…" Lilo began to answer. She licked her finger and glanced up at the ceiling. "We were fighting Kelvin yesterday. He froze Stitch into an ice cube, and he was about to burn both me and Victoria and Snooty, when suddenly emerald came and rescued us. You should've seen it, she spat lemon juice in Kelvin's eyes to take his powers away. But after that Sapphire just wandered off somewhere."

Emerald pushed herself just a little further back onto the couch and clasped her hands together. She knew why Sapphire had done that. She'd lost control, that's why he did it. No doubt he would spew it all out to the rest of them what she did wrong once he got back, which turned out to be far sooner than any of them had anticipated.

Everyone jumped in shock when the front door burst open without warning. Sapphire tottered into the living room almost stumbling over his own feet as he walked. Sapphire made a fist and hit himself in the chest to clear a belch building up in his stomach. He wore a weak, half-assed smile as a pitiful attempt to hide a grimace. Stopping for a moment to bend over and breath heavily, he straightened back up with his paw to his temple, wincing slightly at the light.

Stitch growled lightly at Sapphire's sudden appeareance, but no one seemed to notice.

"How could they get away with using such cheap crap." Sapphire mumbled to himself.

"Sapphire!" Emerald and Ruby both stood up and yelled at once.

"Where were you?" Ruby, yelled, followed up by Emerald with, "What have you bee doing all night?"

Sapphire plopped down in front of the love seat and shook his head violently, holding it in pain once he was done.

"Ohh… man…" Sapphire wheezed. "I just got done packing down seven mandarin Mai Tais at the hotel. I can't believe how tiny the place is, or how cheap the liquor they use. I'm telling you Lilo you'd never let the management get away with all the cutbacks their making, no ma'am you would not stand for it."

"Me?" Lilo asked too quietly, not expecting an explanation.

"Sapphire you're plastered!" Emerald yelled.

"Dang skippy, an I intend to stay that way."

"But why?" Ruby asked.

"'Cause we're all damned that's why!" Sapphire screamed at the top of his lungs. "There's no future left for us now! It's all gone! It's all gone… It's all gone."

The last reiteration brought Sapphire from giddiness to sobbing.

"Doomed?" Pleakly yelled back. "We're all doomed? There's no future left for us now? It's all gone? Waaaaa!"

At that moment Pleakly as well burst into a sobbing fit and fell over almost on top of Sapphire. Two two of them leaned against each other their fits, only one of them actually fully comprehending what he's doing.

"Pleakly!" Nani snapped.

Pleakly instantly quit sobbing and stood back up looking at Nani rather on fused, and certainly unapparent that he had just tantrummed.

"Sapphire, what are you talking about?" Nani demanded.

"It's all about non-interference." Sapphire sighed. "Our future depends on this present staying the course it originally did, without us involved. We had to stay out of events as much as possible. But now it's too late. We've interfered one too many times. Our future is gone.

"That's it! That's the end, Hamsterveil's won. In a few days, he'll get here in that giant cruiser of his and boil away all the planet's oceans. Every living thing on Earth will die, even you Stitch."

A silence went through the group, than a mutual murmur of all members. Only Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire had known exactly what failure in their task meant, up until now. Few of them at the moment had truly comprehended what had just been said. Of those who did, none of them believed it.

Lilo pushed herself off of David's lap and landed on the floor. She ran over to Sapphire and dropped to her knees, shaking him with her hands over his shoulders.

"What do you mean boil the oceans?" Lilo asked panic stricken.

"Exactly what I said."

"Be telling whole story! Leaving nothing out this time!" Jumba ordered, waving his hand through the air as an assertion of authority.

Sapphire took a deep breath. "The whole story… OK. It was fifteen years from now, Hamsterveil escaped from his prison. He tried to take over the Federation yet again, this time using clones of a bunch of different experiments from cell samples he gathered at his asteroid prison. He almost did it to. But we stopped him, Ruby, Emerald, and myself. After we beat him we sent Hamsterveil in a shuttle on a crash course to an abandoned desert asteroid. We thought he'd never escape, but somehow he did… four years later.
"Hamsterveil stole one of Jumba's old theorems and used it to build a time machine. He went back and changed history so that we'd never be born. When he went back to the present, he found himself ruler of the Federation, so he took one last trip back to the past to destroy Earth, just to get rid of the place that caused him so much trouble before. The only way we weren't erased from history was by standing behind some kind of force field that Jumba and I built. So we went back to stop all that from happening… but now we can't. What happened yesterday… that just pushed history over the edge."

Sapphire pushed Lilo away and flopped down onto his side. He wept almost silently.

"Only one thing left to do now." Sapphire barely squeaked. "And that's have a good time… party until the end comes for us."

The silence came back. They were all less inclined to believe what sapphire said now than when he first spoke. Even so, a wave of morbidity swept through the room making the spines of each of its inhabitants tingle. The silence lasted longer than most that came between them.

What was just said put everyone into a shock, everyone except Stitch. He knew what they were saying was possible. After all, similar things have happened to him in the past. Now it seemed, at least according to what they said, that there was only a few days left for all of them to live. There was only a few days left to share his time with Lilo, there was only a few days left to lament over his lost Angel. There was only a few days left… and he would have to share all of them with the interlopers. The damn things from the future who looked like him, and even smelled bizarrely familiar would be right alongside him every moment of his last few days. All that time would be spent with them taking up what would otherwise be his time with Lilo, and his time to mourn in private. Stitch began to shake his head. He put his paws up to his ears. He didn't even notice the continuing conversation.

"How are you being so sure?" Jumba asked.

"'Cause I did the calculations!" Sapphire shouted back. "I factored in every variable and did the calculations! With as much as we've tampered with the present, the possibility of our future still being there is less than a thousandth of a percent! That's not even conceivable odds."

"His calculations are always right." Emerald added in.

"Naga!" Stitch jumped up and screamed. "Miga naga wanna spend last days with them!"

"But Stitch…" Ruby whimpered, and the turned toward Sapphire. "Can I tell Stitch about us and him?"

"It won't make a difference." Sapphire sniveled.

Ruby crawled over where Emerald sat and over to Stitch. Stitch made his usual scornful face at her. Ruby cleared her throat and paused. She turned her head and then turned back to Stitch. Even with her such simple way of looking at the world, she was unsure of how to say what she was going to.

"When we were little… you used to call us hibujikan."

"Gaba!"

Stitch was startled to no end by that revelation. Startled, at first, but then angered. With all those three have done to him over the past week, there's no way in hell he would ever call them anything that flattering.

"Naga!" Stitch pushed Ruby back. "Stitch Naga call You hibujikan!"

"But you did."

"What's hibujikan." Lilo suddenly asked.

"Is being plural," Jumba answered. "For bujikan, meaning precious polished stone."

"Like a gemstone?" Lilo whispered.

"You called us that the first time you held us in your arms." Ruby continued. "That's why you named us what you did."

"Naga!" Stitch screamed again. "Gabaga Stitch name you?"

Ruby huffed and walked a little but toward Stitch. She received a growl for he efforts but wasn't taken aback by it.

"You were right Jumba," Emerald added in. "When you said we weren't really experiments. We're not."

"You named us," Ruby finished. "because you're our father."

Everyone in the room gasped just a little at this news. Stitch gasped the hardest.

"Talk about your reverse Darth Vader syndrome." Lilo muttered under her breath.

Stitch took a step back and then fell down onto the couch cushion. This was very last thing he expected to hear, or wanted to for that matter. He shook his head a bit harder. All this time, these things that had invaded his life and his peace of mind were his own? It explained so many things. But at the same time it was something he couldn't take. He despised these creatures from the moment he first laid eyes upon them. Since they first came here, with their mild tempers and their fun-loving attitudes and their catering expertise had charmed his Lilo right away from him. With their constant nosing and search for attention they had pulled him away from his one truly deep time. More than anything though, they just shattered his family with their presence, turned it from something comfortable and predictable into chaos. Then they had the audacity to claim that they were family. But now that audacity was deserved, because they were. In fact they were Stitch's closest family, in some unknown future. Stitch clenched his fists and shut his eyes tight. He shook his head harder.

"NAGAA!" he cried as loud as possible. "Naga! Naga! Naga! Naga! Naga!"

Stitch shook his head even harder and then lashed out at ruby. He extended his hidden appendages, his arms, antennae and quills. He swiped ruby across the face and then hit her with all four arms. Ruby flew off the couch onto the kitchen floor. Stitch turned his rage toward emerald next. She didn't have the gut to fight back, at least not against a rage so unexpected. Stitch hit emerald across the side with both arms. She flew off the couch onto the floor.

"Stitch no!" Lilo screamed. She tried to race toward Stitch to stop him, but was restrained by David's two large hands.

Stitch leapt of the couch and bounded for the door. Sapphie tried to stand up and reach an arm toward him as he ran, only to be knocked down again by the jab of a shoulder.

Stitch hit the door with his head, breaking the knob and flinging it open.

With tears streaming down his face, Stitch climbed up the side of the apartment complex until he reached the roof. He climbed further until he stood on the tip of the roof and screamed into the sun.

"NAGAA!"

Stitch threw his body down and mashed his head into the roof, splitting the asphalt, the particle board beneath, and the support beam spanning the top.