Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch. If you haven't figured that out by now you're stupid and I hate you.
How can I just let you walk
away, just let you leave without a trace
When I stand here taking every breath with you, ooh
You're the only one who really knew me at all
How can you just walk away from me,
When all I can do is watch you leave
Cos we've shared the laughter and the pain and even shared the tears
You're the only one who really knew me at all
So take a look at me now, oh there's just an empty space
And there's nothing left here to remind me,
Just the memory of your face
Ooh take a look at me now, well there's just an empty space
And you coming back to me is against all odds and that's what I've got to face (Phil Collins, Against All Odds. What can I say?
Half of his songs fit 188 so perfectly.)
When the cruiser first started flying, 188 had started intently out the window for any sign of a blue planet. But as the hours racked up, so did his boredom. He'd found a rubix cube* underneath the seat, but after three minutes he'd realized why it was there in the first place and thrown it out the airlock.
What a mistake that was. Now there was nothing to take his mind off things. It was strange that in the lab he could wait alone in the dark for days and never feel this restless. But finally, he heard the computer say the words he'd been waiting for.
"Planet Keehar ahead."
As 188 stared out the window, his anticipation turned to dread. Something was wrong. 189 had said that Keehar was 90% water. But this planet had huge patches of land, entire continents. Granted, it had a lot of ocean, but there was no way it was Keehar.
Apparently his ship didn't know it, and turned toward the planet.
188 frantically turned the steering wheel, trying to divert or at least slow the cruiser's decent. It had no effect. He realized with horror that the alien he'd killed had been repairing this ship for a reason--it was obviously old, judging from the peeling paint, and must have had numerous broken parts. Desperately, 188 slammed the brakes again and again.
"Turn damn you! Turn!"
He was within the strange planet's atmosphere now. A blanket of green was rushing up to collide with the cruiser. Before it hit, 188 felt no fear. He knew he was going to die, but at least he'd died free and trying to get back to his family.
Next came the scream of metal being torn, a grinding, then blackness.
*************************
Wake up...
A throb of pain in his head. The feeling of something soft beneath him. And the voice of instinct hissing in his ear.
Wake up...
188 groaned. Where was he? This wasn't the lab; then he remembered the crash.
He wrenched his eyes open and was met with complete darkness. In a second, his powerful vision kicked in and the mists of night rolled away. The trees he'd last seen from the air were all around him, as were shards of thick glass. The cold wind ruffled his fur, and he heard his own heart beating.
He was alive, but he sure as hell didn't feel like it. From nose to tail tip, everything hurt.
Rustle, rustle.
As if things couldn't get worse, something moved in the bushes. 188 was in no condition to fight. He simply lay still and waited for his attacker. Which, in a few seconds, revealed itself to be...
A fluffy little creature with brown fur, big hind feet, a twitchy nose, and long ears. 188 felt annoyed with it. It looked too much like him. But as it came closer, instinct kicked in. 188 closed his eyes, not even breathing.
The rabbit hopped over to his head without any apparent fear. After all, it had never seen any animal like this before. Maybe it was a fox, or some strange new-
The thought was never completed. In the blink of an eye, 188's jaws had closed over the little rabbit's head, killing it instantly. Then he forced himself to eat the raw meat, practically gagging with the first bite.
'At least the meat from the lab was cooked, even if it tasted rancid,' he thought. But he could feel his strength slowly coming back.
Gnawing the rabbit's leg bone, he turned his thoughts to the ship. The sooner he found it, the sooner he could get off this...
His thought was interrupted by something splashing down on his head. He tentatively laid a paw to it and looked. It was black, just barely showing up against his fur, and greasy.
Fuel.
Slowly, dreading what lie above, 188 raised his head.
Caught in the branches of some gnarled old oaks was a mass of twisted metal. Entry into this planet's atmosphere had strained the cruiser too far. The branches had become its tomb. It was horribly mangled beyond repair and with it, 188's last ounce of hope
************************
For a week he stayed in the forest, trying in vain to fix the cruiser with anything he could find. But as the leaves turned brown and gold, both his supply of prey animals and patience ran out.
If he listened closely, he could hear the sounds of a city not too far away. The possibility of another ship there was almost more then he could take. He wanted to run right in and steal the first one he saw. But he remembered his training. There were procedures for this.
188 hovered around the outskirts, spying on the creatures. He expected to find it bustling with various species of aliens and space cruisers, like any normal city.
What he found was so disappointing it sickened him.
It was a city, all right. But it was unbelievably primitive. It was as if they'd been living under a rock while the galaxy grew around them. They didn't have real medicines, lighting, plasma guns, anything!
'I've lived in a dark cage my whole life and I know more then they ever will,' 188 thought to himself.
The creatures living there--called "humans"--had no means to defend themselves, hairless and weak. They had no claws or fangs. In some ways they looked like Jumba, but much smaller and with only two eyes. They were hideous, disgusting creatures who lived in filth. Their civilization smelled like a foot.
188 hated them from the beginning.
There was one type of creature he didn't mind so much. These were called "dogs," as he later found out. They reminded him of Turo, of Jumba's lab, and of the experiments. And to 188, they seemed the most logical creature to disguise himself as. It wasn't hard. He simply withdrew his antennae, tail spike, foot spurs, back spines, and lower set of arms into his body. Naturally, the stupid things fell for it. As long as he stayed on all fours, he could walk the streets with ease.
The citizens of the city had more important things to do then notice him. Nobody suspected how he'd change their lives.
*****************************
It was an early autumn night. The glare of the moon helped light the dark, foggy streets. It was business as usual. And on these streets, that "business" was usually prostitution.
One such woman was walking briskly through the streets, cautiously looking around each corner. Her name was Elizabeth and she would have rather been safe indoors, fully aware that something had taken the lives of two other prostitutes. But it was either look for a client or go hungry, and Elizabeth did what she must. Usually on a nice night like this, there would have been at least one. But no such luck.
Heading down one road, something caught her eye. It was a little black dog, just staring off into the shadows. Right away, the woman noticed that it was unusual. Its ears were long and hung down over the back like those of a rabbit. The dog's four paws were equipped with razor sharp claws. Its tail was long and thin. But most unsettling were those eyes; dark violet eyes that pierced her own. If she didn't know any better, she would have said it looked sad and down on its luck, just like her. But then she remembered that it was just a stray dog, nothing more.
And she didn't like the way it was looking at her. Annoyed, she pulled back a foot and kicked it hard in the side. The dog yelped in pain.
"Shoo! Go 'way!"
Satisfied, Elizabeth continued on her way. She didn't notice the dog rising up on his hind legs behind her, his teeth bared. Moving like lightning and with amazing strength, he had her down on the cobblestones. Before a scream could emerge from the Elizabeth's throat, it had been slashed open by the creature's claws. Blood gushed forth in heaving floods, forever staining the stones red.
*******************************
188 had watched at the crime scene while the body was taken away. The humans didn't give him a second glance. From what he'd seen in their newspapers, they'd personified the killer as a man in a black top hat and cape, brandishing a knife. And if 188 had learned one thing about humans, it was that they believed what they wanted to.
Now he sat on the street, watching people go by. They were clearly scared, even during the day, and that made 188 slightly more cheerful. After all, he hunted them so they'd feel pain instead of him. It took his mind off being trapped on this planet. Besides, humans were just mindless creatures incapable of the simplest task--not really lives.
'Yes, little humans. You're right to be scared of me. I could kill anyone of you at any time,' he taunted them in his mind.
But tormenting them only numbed the pain. The knowledge of his predicament always came screaming back. This time, it was in the form of two humans trying to go on with their lives in a city ruled by a murder. One was a young woman; the other was her four year old child.
The mother stopped to discuss something with a street vendor. She didn't notice her daughter wandering off.
The little girl caught sight of 188 and headed towards him, unaware that he was dangerous. Her young eyes only saw a cute animal she wanted to touch.
"Goggie," she babbled.
188 stared at her. Even he had limits to his bloodlust. This human was just a pup and he had no desire to hurt her.
"Goggie!" she said again, and ran her little hand over 188's
face, scratching behind his ear. Against his wishes, he found his muscles
untensing and tail slowly wagging. The little girl giggled, pleased by his reaction.
"Good doggie!"
Suddenly, her mother was back and had snatched her away, scolding her.
188 sighed, watching the mother and daughter disappear into the crowds. If he was counting right, 189 had either given birth or was about to by now. And unless the humans suddenly learned a million years worth of knowledge regarding space travel in a day, he wasn't going to be there. Over and over he replayed the "whys" in his mind.
Why wasn't I patient enough to find a cruiser that worked?
Why wasn't I more careful with the navigation system?
Why can't I fix that cruiser? Why didn't I ever try and learn how?
Why didn't I tell her I loved her more often?
Feeling alone even with dozens of humans around him, 188 slowly ambled along, nose to the ground. He should have been happy on this planet, indulging the bloodlust to his heart's content. Just having the freedom to go wherever he chose should have been fine. It was ironic that all he wanted now was to leave and never return.
Experiment 188 had accomplished his dream of seeing Turo's sun rise.
But though he'd walk the earth for decades, he'd never see his own.
THE END
To make a very long story short, 188 spends the rest of his life (that's between now and Survive the Night) trapped on Earth. And yes, that's over a hundred years. I imagine experiments are like turtles--they won't die of old age.
In case you haven't figured it out, 188 is Jack the Ripper. I got the idea from an article in Weekly World News (hey, some of it's pretty funny!) It was about a lot of our unsolved murders being committed by bloodthirsty aliens. The article said that in August of 1888, a month before the Ripper killings, there were lights seen in the sky over England. I know the idea is bull**** like everything else WWN publishes, but it's still kind of cool.
Finally! It's done! Now I can start working on other stories. One will explain what happened to 189 and the pup. And I'm probably going to do a Jumba/Pleakley one. L&S fics are like pygmy goats. One leads to two and two leads to four and four leads to six…
Anyway, I've learned a valuable lesson about not posting stories until I'm finished with them. God, I sound like an after school special.
I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it. Aloha!
*Don't ask me why there's one of these in a spaceship. They're universal.
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