Jet sat on the cold floor of his cell, head in hands. Tears were forming in his eyes, but he fought them
back as best he could.

I don't care what happens to me, he thought. If I must die, then I'll die with dignity. It's just Lilo and Maya
I'm worried about...

He glanced over at Lilo, who was sitting on a shabby bed on the other side of the cell. The girl was
looking at a photograph she was holding in one hand while wiping her tears away with her other
hand.

Stitch, no longer under the effects of the sedative, was clawing at the walls of the cell, trying desperately
to find a way out. He scratched and clawed and banged with all his might, but the walls stood firm. Discouraged,
the poor alien rolled himself up into a ball and began rolling in a circle around the cell, emitting muffled screams.

Sighing, Jet got up and walked over to the bed where Lilo was sitting.

"Hi," Lilo said softly when she noticed him.

"What's that you got?" asked Jet as he sat down next to her.

Lilo handed him the photograph. It showed her, Stitch, Nani, David, Jumba, Pleakley, Maya, and all the experiments
sitting on the front porch of her house.

"This is my ohana," she explained. "Where I come from, that means family."

"You all look like a nice family," said Jet. "I, uh...never had one. You see, most Irkens, myself included, were cloned
and grown in test tubes, and raised by computers. We were taught from an early age to be cruel and merciless, to
not have feelings."

"That's awful," whispered Lilo.

"I know," Jet agreed. "It's like we're robots or something, manufactured on an assembly line like cars." He stood up,
eyes burning with anger. "For crying out loud, do I look like a robot to you?" he shouted, shaking his fist at the ceiling.
He then let out an exasperated moan and sunk to the floor on his knees.

Stitch, surprised by Jet's outburst, stopped his rolling and collapsed flat on his back. After shaking the dizziness out of
his head, he got up and walked over to Jet.

"Jet not robot," he said, taking the Irken's hand in his own.

Jet looked at Stitch. "What's that?"

"Stitch is right, Jet," said Lilo as she climbed off the bed. "You're not a robot. You are a living, breathing person who
deserves more out of life than just cruelty and destruction. In fact, you're not all that different from Stitch."

Jet gave her a confused look.

"Stitch was originally created by Jumba to be a weapon of mass destruction," Lilo explained. "The Galactic Council
banished him to a desert asteroid, but he escaped and landed on Earth. Nani and I found him at the animal shelter
and adopted him. We taught him about what it meant to belong, to be part of a ohana, a family who loves you."

Jet closed his eyes and allowed his entire life to flash before him.

He saw himself as a newborn smeet, standing in a cold, dark room, listening as an equally cold, unfeeling voice told him
 to report for duty.

He saw himself as a soldier in training, being taught to destroy everything his species considered inferior to themselves,
to obey any given order without question.

He saw himself as an Invader, on his first day on Thraxx, hiding behind a huge boulder, preparing to shoot an
unsuspecting Thraxxian.

He loaded his gun and aimed it at his victim. But just as he was about to fire, something made him stop.

The Thraxxian opened a pouch on her stomach and peeked into it. A baby stuck his head out of the pouch and looked
up at his mother, waving his arms and cooing. The mother lifted her child out of her pouch and held him against her
chest, smiling at him all the while.

Jet watched this scene with a misty look in his eyes. For as long as he could remember, he had known something
was missing from his life, but he wasn't sure what it was. Now, as he saw the tender moment between a mother
and her child, he realized what that missing piece was. It was a need to be part of something, to be wanted, to belong...

"Jet, are you alright?" Lilo asked, interrupting the Irken's thoughts.

Jet opened his eyes. "I'm fine, Lilo," he said. "It's just...well...
never mind."

A few minutes later, two guards entered the cell block and stopped in front of Jet's cell.

"Come with us, ex-Invader Jet," one of the guards said as he opened the door to the cell. "Your ride to
Judgementia is waiting."

While the guards were preparing to escort Jet out of the jail cell, Stitch quietly slipped past them, unnoticed,
and tiptoed over to the cell that housed the four Thraxxians. He climbed up the wall next to the cell door and
began picking the lock with one of his claws.

The guards, unaware that Stitch had escaped, lead Jet out of the cell and down the hallway leading to the exit.
Suddenly, one of the guards felt something wet hit the back of his head.

"What the-" The guard reached back to touch the mysterious substance when the skin on his neck and upper
back started to itch and burn quite painfully.

"Aaaaaaiiiieee! It burns!" he screamed, dashing out of the cell block toward the elevator that would take him
to the Massive's infirmary.

"What's going on?" demanded the other guard as he turned around, looking for the source of his partner's pain.
There, in the middle of the hallway, was Stitch, sitting on the floor and innocently wagging his tail.

"Why, you little abomination!" growled the guard as he marched toward Stitch, ready to tear him apart. Suddenly,
he felt something hard and heavy hit the back of his head, and he fell to the floor, unconscious.

Jet turned around to find one of the Thraxxians, a small yellow-eyed female, standing over the unconscious Irken
guard with a mallet in her hand.

"Come on," he said to her. "Let's get Lilo out and go."

Jet snatched the prison keys from the belt around the guard's waist and hurried back to his and Lilo's cell. As soon
as he had unlocked the door, Lilo dashed out of the cell and threw her arms around him, fighting back the urge to
cry.

"It's going to be okay," Jet told her soothingly. "Now let's go rescue Maya."

Maya sat at one of the fancy little tables in the Massive's snack bar, poking moodily at the slice of chocolate cake
that an Irken service drone had so thoughtfully brought her. Two guards stood at attention behind her, making
sure she did not try to escape.

I am such an idiot! she thought. If only I had listened to Dad when he told me to stay on Earth...Now Lilo, Stitch, and Jet
will have to suffer the consequences of my disobedience as well as me. Because of my foolishness, I've endangered them
all...and maybe the rest of the family, too!

She sniffled loudly to clear her nose, which was stuffed up from her crying. One of her guards turned around and
glared at her.

"Be quiet!" he growled.

Maya rolled her eyes and pretended to ignore him. As she glanced cautiously around the room, she caught sight of
the Tallests, who were sitting at a table with three other Irkens. Her eyes narrowed in disgust at the sight of the
horrible Irken leaders.

Those pea-brained jerks! They deserve nothing more than to...

"Care for some company?" asked a soft, yet somewhat husky, voice.

Maya looked up to find Tak and Alambil standing in front of her.

"Not from her," Maya growled, pointing at Tak.

"Chill out, Princess," said Tak. "There's something I want to tell you."

"Go away!" Maya snapped, turning her back on her visitors. "You've caused enough trouble already."

Alambil grabbed Maya and pulled her roughly out of her chair. "Now listen here, missy," she growled, "my friend has
something to say to you, and you will listen to what she has to say. Got it?"

Maya rolled her eyes. "Fine," she replied. "I'll listen."

As soon as the guards gave their permission, Tak took a seat at Maya's table.

"I suppose you're wondering why I want to talk to you," she said, "after what Zim and I just put you and your friends
through."

"That's right," Maya replied coldly.

Tak took a deep breath and continued. "This may be hard for you to believe, but...I didn't really want to take you or
Jet prisoner. However, I had no choice."

Maya stared at Tak in disbelief. "Then why did you do it?" she demanded.

"Because..." Tak hesitated for a bit, looking around the room to make sure no one else was listening. Then she leaned
forward and whispered into Maya's ear:

"I have a Centauri friend who needs my help."

Maya quietly sucked in her breath, trying not to draw attention from the other Irkens in the snack bar. "You what?"
she whispered back.

"My friend, Patch, who is a Centauri, is being held in a maximum security prison on planet Meekrob," Tak continued
to whisper. "I'm planning to break her out, but I needed supplies that only the Tallests could give me. So I thought
that if I handed in either you or an Irken rebel, the Tallests would be willing to give me what I needed."

Maya glanced over at the Tallests, who were blissfully ignoring everything in the room except the snacks they were
eating. "Do they know about Patch?" she asked Tak.

Tak shook her head. "All I told them was that I needed extra equipment for another attempt at taking over Earth."

Before Maya could say anything else, an alarm went off.

"My Tallests!" cried a prison guard as he burst into the room. "The prisoners have escaped!"