Chapter Introduction: Here you have it--a very, very, very eventful chapter, that I think is like this...let's say there are ten stars between each rating...this chapter's like PG-13*** and 1/2*. I won't tell you why, but you probably already know. It isn't so bad that the rating has to change, but it's pretty...unpleasant. Well...I think you can handle it, reader!

Let's begin!!

Rock entered the Duke's office, suprised to find him clean-cut and working on a laptop computer, obviously looking for something. What's more, he was smiling.
"Hello, Rock!" The Duke chirped. "You lost."
"What do you mean?" the boy said.
"She's coming home, where she belongs, and there's nothing you can do about it."
"She's dead."
"She's alive."
"Whatever. Luana's coming to visit you again today, she says she has a present for you."
"Is this correct? Well, that's nice, as long as she doesn't--oh! Here we are...Lilo Pelekai, staying at the Hilton. I'll go visit her later, she's down for two weeks. Rock, you are dismissed."
Rock left the room, grunting. He was getting more and more fed up with this. Tima, once again, was taking all of his attention.

************

Lilo sighed as she relaxed in the jaccuzzi, thinking about how she would break it to Tima that she was actually dead. It would be hard, of course, to go up to someone and tell them that they had been dead and gone for five years. And did the Duke know about Tima? Lilo wasn't sure. She had lots of questions that needed answering, and none of them would be answered during her little whirlpool bath. Unexpectedly, Stitch and Tima came walking up to the jaccuzzi. Tima was somewhat pale, and was blinking excessively.
"Tima had a bad dream..." Stitch said, winking. "Tima, why don't you tell Lilo what you dreamed about?"
Tima fiddled with her dress.
"Well...I had a dream that there was a fire...and I was trapped...and nobody was there to save me..." her eyes got larged. "And I died!"
A somewhat stunned silence overtook the group.
"Lilo, did I...really die? Is that why all of this is so strange? And if I did die...why am I here?"

***********

Luana was getting ready to go up to the Duke's office in the women's restroom. In her hands was a tiny vile holding a clear liquid. She laughed, smiling at her creation. One way or another, she would not be defeated. Putting the vial into her bag, she made her way to the elevator and the Duke's office. Another woman was in the elevator.
"Are you going to see the Duke?" she asked, smiling. Luana nodded.
"I have a gift for him, actually. I think he'll like it."
"Really? Oh, it is hard to please the Duke."
"You're telling me..." Luana mumbled, leaving the elevator and walking down the hall to the Duke's office.

**********

Tima was confused again, because Lilo would not answer her. It wasn't that farfetched...was it?
"Tima, I really don't know what's going on...you'll just have to wait for an answer to that question because I did think you were dead."
Tima gave this some thought, but only confused herself more.
"Lilo, can we get off the subject? It's confusing me too much. Can I have a smoothie?"
"I guess so. The waitress will be around again soon."
Stitch sratched his head and looked Tima over.
"Tima." the alien said. "Do you remember what Duke Red was working on?"
Tima pointed at the huge building just in view even that far away.
"The Ziggurat. I'm actually suprised he completed it! There was that little thing with that genius girl Luana designing some sort of top secret thing to go on top of it that not even daddy could know about...I heard her talking about it. She said that it reacts on a computer trigger."
"What does it do?" asked Stitch.
"How should I know? I just told you, it was top secret. That's all I heard about it."

**********

Duke Red was resting somewhat peacefully at his desk, looking at some nice artwork on internet, when there was a knock on the office door.
"Come in." he said, somewhat preoccupied. Miss Luana came through the door, smiling.
"It's me." she said. "I got you a little present."
"Oh?"
She turned away from the Duke, preparing a syringe quite quickly with genuine military percision. She truned around and went next to him, again, putting her arms around him.
"Miss, Luana, I recall--"
The Duke winced, feeling a prick in his arm. Luana held him tighter as he began to go limp.
"Luana...y...ou...what..." he said, his eyes going glassy as he went completely out of it.
"I call it Liquibond...do you like it, Dukie? You can hear everything I say, see and feel everything around you by ten fold...but you can't move. Isn't it amazing?"
The Duke remained limp in Luana's arms, staring into nothing. But you could tell that he was processing the whole ordeal in his mind and was not happy.
Luana kissed him softly.
"The revolution will begin."

*********

Tima sipped dantily on her smoothie, looking around the pool with interest. Stitch was munching on some pepperoni pizza from Round Table Pizza, and Lilo was thinking.
"Stitch." she said, "I have the most awful feeling that really bad things are going to happen today."
"Really?"
Yup."
There was a bored air around the trio as Tima sipped on her smoothie again.

*********

Rock laughed as Luana spun on the Duke's chair, right in his lap.
"The computer says that they are in the Hilton Kapa tower, thirty third floor." the young secretary of defence said. "They should be easy to find. Why don't you go look for them while I spend some quality time with mister Red here?"
Rock smiled.
"Why, of course, Luana."
Luana looked at the Duke, giving an evil smirk.
"We're going to have so much fun, Dukie!"

*********

The trio made their way to the hotel room, still somewhat calm and confused. When they entered the room, they were shocked to find Rock sitting on the bed, smiling.
"Hello...Lilo."
"Rock! Since when...weren't you adopted by the Duke after the fire?"
"Yes, I was taken away from my parents after the fire because they thought that they had set the fire...but I did. I killed Tima."
There was silence.
"But...why?" Lilo said, looking somewhat shocked. She turned to Tima, who just looked crushed.
"I wanted the Duke all to myself. After that one day he took me with him to see his office, I wanted him to be my father--mine and nobody else's. I wanted to be in a family with him--you know, just a mom, a dad, and their beloved son. But nooo...he paid almost no attention to me, setting his daughter first. As you can tell, this drove me to the breaking point." Rock smiled even wider. "That's when I met Luana. One day when I came to the Duke's house, and she was there taking the Ziggurat plans away...I was kind of shocked, she looked as if she was only twelve. I could tell that she was crazy about the Duke, how she smiled and blushed in his wake...we spent some time together and hatched out our master plan. But that's not for you to know. I'm just here for Tima 2.0, after all."
Tima stepped foward, confused.
"2.0? Killed? What do you mean?"
"You're not really Tima, you know. I don't even know why father thought that you would come even close to the original brat..."
"But I am Tima! I've always been Tima, since I was born! I remember everything--"
"Nothing but a bunch of programs!"
"No, I'm sure I'm really Tima! I remember everything!"
"You know what? Maybe you are Tima, because nobody wants you and nobody cares about you!"
"I--Lilo--"
"Shut up. You know what? I'm leaving, because I don't want to deal with you. I thought that I got rid of you, but no such thing seems possible."
Rock stomped out of the room, his mission unaccomplished.

But he did make a family cry.

***********

Duke Red was distraught, cowering in a corner. His eyes were red and he was half-dressed and sweating, looking as if he had just run some sort of awful desert marathon. He was running his hands through his now very messy hair, mumbling softly as Luana sat at his seat and laughed.
"Hey, Dukie, tell me again...who are you taking to the final celebration ball tommorrow?"
"Y..youu." the Duke said, slurring. His head fell foward and he began screaming and sobbing, hitting at the floor. He looked up somewhat triumphant and confused, obviously trying to find Luana, who took another vial out of her bag and nodded gladly at it, the cloudy looking substance almost greeting her with some sort of spunk.
"Ketamine Hydrochloride...it never lets me down. Wasn't it a good after-liquibond snack? And I'll tell you again, mister Red...if you tell anyone...absolutely anyone about this little affair...I'll see to it that you are taken care of. And you know that it would be such a shame to do something like that to a man as promising as yourself...and plus, nobody would believe you. And if you're wondering how I would know that you've told, I'll tell you one thing--bugged."
Rock entered the room.
"Luana? Luana, you didn't do anything too bad to him, did you?"
"No...he's fine. Why don't you have the trigger?"
"Trigger?"
"Tima, you idiot. Where is it?"
"Oh...that. Well, I kind of left before--"
"Never send a boy to do a woman's job! Rock, do you know the gravity of the situation we are now in?! They'll probably switch hotels, or even flee! That cannot happen at any cost!"
Rock gave a look of understanding.
"Yes, mother."
"That's my boy...now...why don't we hatch another plan? One to get my trigger back?"
"That would be great."
The two left down the elevator, destined for the parking lot where an Aston Martin was waiting to transport them.


***********



Lilo and Stitch kept Tima close as they started up the entrance steps to the Ziggurat. They now knew for sure that they had to see the Duke, and they had to do it right away. Just as they entered the gigantic glass doors at the front, a blue Aston Martin passed by on the front road, undetected.
"Wow..." Lilo exclaimed. The Ziggurat entrance hall was just as she dreamed it--beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Semiprecious stones of every color glistened on the walls and floors, intricate bronze inlay designs littlering them with humble beauty. Lilo even noticed a beautiful painting on the ceiling dome--obviously done by the Duke in his signature weathered style--of Tima, Lilo, and Stitch as ultra- realistic angels. The only differences were that the hair on the girls was much longer and they were women, and Stitch was white and gold...it was an interesting picture to look at, since the Duke never liked doing realistic paintings of people he knew.
"Lilo." Stitch said, pulling on Lilo's pants. "The receptionist wants to know who you want to see."
"You spoke to her already? How quick...you know who we want to see."
"I'll tell her."
This time, Lilo and Tima followed. Stitch hopped up onto the desk (A very large and fancy one at that) and pointed to the two girls. The receptionist nodded, and picked up her phone.
"Who?"
"Duke Red, please." Stitch said, smiling. The receptionist nodded and dialed the Duke's office, convinently located on his own floor.

**********

The Duke had crawled back to his desk and seated himself in his chair, vomiting over the side. After sputtering some, he turned to his phone which was now ringing. He weakly picked it up.
"He...hello?"
"This is Perra, the lobby receptionist. There are some...people here that want to see you. Um...the adult is named Lilo Pelekai...do you know her?"
"S...send her up."
"Is something wrong sir?"
"Nothing...I'm sure..that...just send..her up."
After hanging up, the Duke passed out on his desk.

**********

Lilo, Stitch, and Tima headed up in the elevator, still marveling at the beauty of the Ziggurat. Tima was hypervenitlating, excited about finally seeing her father again. No matter what Rock told her, she believed that she was Tima. And so she was. The elevator door opened, and the trio headed down the hall to the office of the Duke. His doors were huge, but didn't require much moving. They all gasped at what they saw.
"Duke Red!" gasped Lilo, rushing to the side of the unconscious man. After some shaking, he opened his eyes and looked up to Lilo.
"Li...Lilo..." he said. "I'm so glad you're here...my, you've grown..."
"What happened?" Lilo asked, trying to hold the Duke up.
"N...Nothing. It's just a bug, that's all. I'm kind... of sick right now..."
He almost passed out again, when Tima ran up to him, throwing her arms around him and crying.
"Daddy! Daddy, I found you! What happened? Daddy, what happened?"
The Duke weakly put his arms around his daughter, struggling to breath correctly, and struggling not to cry.
"Tima..." he whispered. "You're back...I'm so happy you've come back safely..."
He passed out again in his daughter's arms, and he shaked him back to normality again.
"A favor..." he said. "Open the second drawer in my desk, and you'll find three tickets to the...final celebration ball. Very formal. And until I feel that you should leave, you will stay here in the Ziggurat..."
The Duke vomited over the side of his chair again, and Lilo had to hop backward, noticing that she had already stood in...well, you know.
"You are SO not okay, Duke..."
The Duke looked up at Lilo and blinked.
"Yes...right. I'll just call...I'll just...you know, you...you can all follow me...yhea."
The Duke stood, staggering some. He was somewhat tall, somewhere around six-foot five, yet Lilo caught him and attempted to hold him up. The Duke muttered a quick thank you and led the Trio to a pretty large room.
"Daddy, have you been drinking? You've never drank before...is something wrong?"
"No, Tima...I said...I'll never touch more than one glass...this is...I've got...something..."
The four of them nearly fell into the room, and Lilo let go of the Duke, who staggered over to one of two beds and lay down. Lilo smiled and dragged Stitch over to the couch as Tima followed him.
"Tima." the Duke said, smiling through the clouds that that horrible day had brought him. "I'm so happy you're back."
"I'm happy to, but...was I created? Rock told me..."
"I know what happened. He went after you again, didn't he?"
"Yes...but he said that I died, and I'm not the real Tima. But I feel..like Tima. Because I am Tima, right? It would be impossible for me not to be Tima, becasue I am Tima, and I wasn't created, right?"
"Tima, don't bother me with...with...scientific matters...all that really does matter is the fact that you...you're here with me when I need you the very most. You were the one I dedicated this Ziggurat to...all the progress I have made...is inspired by you. And even if I do get sick....and even if I do leave tempor...temporarily, and you can't find me, I'll always be there. Tima, it is not a question of what is real and created...it is a question of what you feel in your heart. For if you have found your heart, you have found that you are truely real, and in me, you will find your heart, along with the heart of a man who has lost so much...but gained so much more...Tima...you are whatever you say you are, and nobody can tell you different."
At that, the Duke passed out once again, laying next to his daughter, who was deep in thought.

A smile crossed her lips as she came to a conclusion.

So she was real...

***********

AN: Wow...okay, that was a very eventful chapter. But it doesn't stop there! The story is still far from over. Luana keeps getting more out of hand with each step in her plan being completed, and Rock just gets crazier...Tima gets more confused, and out heroes...they get confused along with Tima. And the Duke...well, you try and figure out what he's gonna do, the poor guy...well, that's all for my notes.

Thanks for reading!!