Lullaby

C/By: Kenjaje

Edited/Revised by: raVen

Chapter 5: Fever and Rage

"A few weeks ago, Lilo said something about Gantu's ship landing on a mountain that was farther up north, I can't remember its name, though." Nani shivered, she was always afraid when her little sister ran off out into the world, capturing another experiment or going to retrieve one.

"It doesn't matter, I've heard a report about it, and I think I might be able to find it." Bubbles replied in the usual factualist tone that he carried with him. This bothered Nani a little, she knew he trying to keep calm, but doing that in a situation like this-to her-was impossible.

"How long do you think it will take, to get there?" She asked, looking ahead in the road. It lead up and around a large lake, taking them into a brush covered territory. She was in an oblivious state, not knowing what Bubbles had in mind, not knowing where Lilo was, not knowing of anything.

"To be honest I'm not sure, just sit back and enjoy the ride; Lilo is fine you don't have to worry, she has Stitch with her." Nani was brought up by this point, though she was never around to see it, Stitch apparently had always managed to save everyone in the end. Still, however, she doubted him all the time; a sharp feeling entered her, she could feel Lilo suffering.

"Jumba?" the small bundle in Jumba's arms weakly called out to him, he had been blocking the vicious scene from Lilo since he managed to catch her. "Jumba?" it asked again.

"Yes, Lilo?" He asked back, his voice trying not to reveal the amount of worriment he felt over the situation, Lilo was sick and stressed, he did not want to add to her pain. "What is it?" He looked down, at Lilo, allowing his face to lie to her, to say that everything was fine, hoping she would not see right through the expression.

"What's going on?" She asked in a way, that made Jumba not want to tell the truth; she asked so innocently, so pure, that he couldn't taint her with worry and grief over the fact that Stitch was faced against a wall that he could not break down. "Is Stitch ok?" His mouth was now ajar, she was ill, and feverous, and she wanted to know how Stitch was fairing, but still he could not tell her, not until Stitch was winning.

"Don't be worrying little girl, Stitch is…doing fine, he can handle himself. Pretty soon, we'll take care of you, just as soon as we can leave." After his words, Lilo shifted her head, and stared directly into Jumba's eyes. Known to Jumba, Lilo was a master at telling the truth from the lies, merely by looking into your eyes. He tried to look away, to stare at something other then Lilo, hoping that she could not read the truth.

"He's losing…isn't he?" Jumba looked down at her, in shame; he knew she didn't like it when people tried to lie, and hide sadness from her. In a way, when she said those words, he felt her scowling at him, even though she would never scowl at anyone, unless she truly hated them.

"At the moment, yes." He replied, realizing that he had lost from the battle. "And I am not sure what to do, I have never seen anything like this before." Jumba breathed in heavily, thinking hard for a plan.

"Isn't there anything you can do, Jumba?" She asked him, hoping that he had thought of something by now. His fore-eyes looked down at her, while the other two looked up at Akibaba Kino. The dragon, was now taunting Stitch, making him angry, making him lose his focus. "Think, Jumba, please." He heard her beg again. To her plea, inspiration came, and an idea hit, one that may help.

"Tell me Doctor Hamsterveil," Jumba shouted deeply, in a serious tone, turning to his villainous partner, "what exactly is this ingenious creation?" Hamsterviel, in his little pod, floated over to Jumba, knocking pleakley--who was not very conscious to begin with--out of the way.

"What are you, blind?" he sneered at Jumba, he knew Jumba was merely trying to find a flaw in his creation, but the fact was, this creation was flawless; Akibaba Kino could not be defeated. "Do you not see the truest and ultimate form, of your own 626?"

"What are you talking about?" Snared Jumba, Hamsterveil was speaking in riddles.

"I have done what you have failed at." He smiled boastingly at Jumba.

"And just what would that be?" Jumba asked, trying to uncover the secrets.

"Achie-baba Kino is your 626 without the flaw of destruction; this version craves to torture." Jumba understood what he meant; he thought he had created a perfect 626, a copy that lacked the desire for destruction, and gained the desire to torture. That is why he was taunting Stitch with Angel's pain.

"Tell me, why do you say he is 626, when he is obviously bigger, and completely the opposite looking?" Jumba hoped his thoughts were correct, and if they were all he'd have to do was think of Stitch's other flaws.

"Take the deoxyribonucleic acid of 626, and modify the support of size and shape, allowing him to be stronger and better then the previously built." Akibaba Kino, was the essence of Stitch, he was Stitch, except more massive, stronger and better then Stitch himself.

Stitch cried in pain, as he was flung across the room, right past Hamsterveil's pod, which he receded from the action over to the safe side of the room, near Gantu and 625. Stitch grunted on the floor, his fur rustled everywhere.

"626, are you alright?" Jumba hurried over the Stitch, as Stitch regained his surroundings. He looked at Jumba, and nodded, as his head slumped back to relax for a second; out of his right eye, Stitch could see Lilo, staring at him; out of worry and out of tiredness. Stitch squinted his eyes, and got to his feet. He knew he had to end the fight quickly, Lilo was sick, deathly sick, and all this excitement was making it worse.

He stood in front of the dragon, as it held Angel in its hands still. All this time, Stitch had attempted and failed again and again to get up to its arms and pry Angel from its grasp. He was now getting tired, pushing past his limits. The back of his neck was stiff and throbbing, his knuckles were scraped and scabbed all over. His fatigue took its toll on him, and caused him to droop.

Slushy, was as badly hurt or worse, as Stitch. He was more of a pile of broken ice cubes, shattered in bits and peaces across the floor, then he was a whole experiment; Stitch silently thanked him for his help anyway. Stitch now feared that he might not be able to get out of this one, that he couldn't stop Akibaba Kino.

Slushy dashed quickly and silently up toward Akibaba Kino, breaking Stitch's tension and daze. This time, with a new approach, Slushy formed the large hammer he used to fight against 'Splody-head when they first met him; this one being ten times larger, it crashed down just too slow and to the left to hit the target.

Achie-baba Kino took his tail and smashed it down with the force of Richter once again, and sent Slushy flying through the air. Stitch ran out and up the wall, barely getting traction on the smooth surface, jumped off and almost missed catching his friend. Slushy was getting angry now, Stitch could tell.

"Watagoval, miga akatta jaga." Slushy said, as he pushed Stitch to the wall, imploring him to back down and save his energy. Slushy planned to make a diversion for as long as he could, until Stitch or Jumba came up with a plan to stop Akibaba Kino. He ran around catching the dragon's eyes, and threw two icicle knives toward its head.

Achie-baba Kino lifted his hands, and stopped the bullets from hitting his face, while Slushy ran behind to its tail, and latched himself onto the talons at the tail's tip. The dragon smashed down on the ground, causing Jumba to fall over, but Slushy didn't let go; he stayed biting to Achie-baba Kino's tail, trying his best not to let go.

Hollering in frustration, Akibaba Kino swiped at Slushy, shattering him once again into tiny pieces of ice, but his head was left latched onto the tail. Slushy reformed once again, knowing that he was annoying the dragon and was satisfied where he was, even if Achie-baba Kino shattered him three or four more times. It was only when his head was pried by the dragon's claws did he let go.

He was tossed onto the wall, but predicted the action and rebounded off of it on a glacial trail in mid air. He jumped up, far above the dragon's head, and stopped. On his tiny slide of ice, he stood on one foot, and spun around, spewing his breath everywhere, creating a mist of sleet and glaze.

Lilo shivered in Jumba's arms at the sudden coldness, and moaned with discomfort, which moved into small, low grunts of pain. He closed his arms tighter to keep her warmer, feeling like a mother, and grabbed pleakly to wake him up as well. Pleakly ran behind Jumba, behind the capture pods, and hid himself behind a shield of cold glass.

Achie-baba Kino stared at the cascading sleet around him, and up at the spinning ice machine that was causing this abrupt hypothermic atmosphere. His nostrils flared, violent steam erupting from them; he was getting annoyed at this little man making the room so chilly.

Slushy was getting exhausted at the amount of energy it took to make such permafrost, and it was nowhere near done, he didn't think he had it in him to freeze this gigantic creature. But still, his determination outweighed his reason, and he continued to spin like a delicate ballerina on top of his glacial perch.

The mist around Akibaba Kino started hardening, he could feel his lungs lacking air, he breathed in harder and found it difficult to even draw in a full breath of air. The back of his nasal passages stung as the cold sharp air entered his nose. He was angered and this has been going on for far too long.

Slushy lost his balance, as Akibaba Kino sent a horde of decibels straight up in his direction; the roar threw him off into an uncoordinated spiral to the ground. The glaze that floated in the air shattered, the frozen mist fell to the ground in as many ice chunks as Slushy himself was broken in to.

The panicked gasping that came from Slushy as he reformed was all Stitch needed to be fueled to fight again; he was now despising himself for allowing Slushy to do what he wanted. The dragon proceeded to smash Slushy under his foot once again, as Stitch made his way over to the fray. Reforming in tears of pain, Slushy was relieved to see the blurry figure of Stitch looming over his frigid body. Stitch held out his hand and helped Slushy to his feet.

"Chadaba miga solistice, then go to Jumaba." He told Slushy, in the sternest tone Slushy had ever heard, he obeyed and formed three icicles from his breath, and gave them to Stitch, and then proceeded over to Jumba.

Stitch took the three new weapons in his hands, and bolted toward Akibaba Kino with speeds never matched before; stabbing two of them, both in each knee of the dragon, in one bound and landing just under the monsters tail, which he took the third icicle and attempted to scratch the tender underbelly.

Before he could, Akibaba Kino jumped into the air-the icicles in his knees merely fell out with no trouble at all-and landed. Stitch had already moved out of the way, and was leaning into a dash as the dragon saw him. Stitch threw the last icicle he had at the dragon's left eye.

Achie-baba Kino dodged his head to the left, and lifted the unconscious Angel to the dagger, and allowed the icicle to cut right across her shoulder. Angel screamed in terror at the pain, as the icicle fell to the ground, with the tip covered in blood.

Stitch froze in shock at the life-ending scream, fearing the worst of what he had done to Angel, she stared back at him, deeply, sadly, and forgivingly. A small rage sparked in Stitch's heart, which Akibaba Kino growled in delight as he recognized it.

The dragon gave a satanic grin, as he delicately moved Angel into the palm of his hand. Stitch was convulsing too horribly to move, as he saw Akibaba Kino's mad torture to Angel. In his claws, he held her, slowly letting her pain secede. Then, evilly delicate, he clenched his palm together, Angel gasped at the tension, until he nearly crushed her in his palm, making her give off another life-ending shriek of fear.

Stitch's heart felt like it had just stopped as the dragon tossed the pink and red mass to the other wall, with sonic speed he ran toward her, and missed the catch because of his blurred vision. She hit the wall, just short of his reach, and landed onto the ground.

"Jumba!" cried Lilo, in a scared trembling voice, "Jumba, I think I'm going to hurl!" Snapped from the attention of Angel's beating, he looked at Lilo. A thought crossed his mind, Lilo was sick, sick with something that could kill Stitch, she was about to eject some of those bacteria; he saw a plan with which a chance he could not miss.

"Be holding your bodily projectiles for a few more moments please little girl." Jumba told her in a droned tone as he walked to Stitch stepping over the sharp ice. "626-" Stitch growled low, and looked at Jumba. "Stitch," Jumba said sternly, "do not look at me like that, if anything I know how to stop that creature." Stitch's eyes widened, he had just seen his love tortured and beaten, and Jumba has found a way to stop Akibaba Kino now?

"What?" he said, in a ravish tone.

"Agda buchames Lilo tagramei maritametaga, shadimo agrucaba."

"…Eh." Stitch confirmed after a second's thought; Jumba's plan was slightly vague and sounded more like a theory, but at this point Stitch would do anything to avenge Angel's death.

As ordered by Jumba, he took Lilo into his arms. She looked at him, and smiled. In Stitch's heart, the place that was destroyed by Angel was now replaced by Lilo; Stitch felt rejuvenated, as he carried Lilo up to the dragon. Despite Lilo being so large in his arms, he managed to kick the monster in the toe.

Lazily, Achie-baba Kino grabbed them both in his talons, and lifted them up to his face. Lilo suddenly felt her spine tremble, as the monster opened its mouth and roared. She felt her stomach heave forward, her jaw quivered densely as she hurled straight into the dragon's gaping mouth.

Achie-baba Kino choked on the vomit, as it forcibly went down to his stomach. The taste was eye watering to him, and for that he would make the girl suffer. Prying Stitch off of Lilo, he threw the little blue monster over near Pleakly, breaking one of the cells.

He woke to Lilo's screams, as she was vigorously being shaken and slightly cut by Achie-baba Kino. The liquid pain in her head now surged, as she saw the blurry images and felt the sharp pain; she could feel what was going on around her, but couldn't react to it as well as she wanted to.

She saw Stitch running toward the beast that held her and lost track of him as he went under her peripheral vision, some seconds later, her head felt a lurch of pain as she was dropped to hit the ground. Her head lurched again, as Stitch caught her, and ran off with her toward Jumba.

"Stitch…" she said low, and groggily into his ear. He slowed his pace a small bit. "I-" she began to say something, as the ground underneath them split with the force of Akibaba Kino's tail, tripping Stitch and tossing Lilo forward.

"Lilo! Lilo!" Jumba shouted, as he ran to the limp girl, her arms draped over her body, and her top leg bent a little so her foot touched the wall. Jumba felt her neck slowly; Stitch looked up, and was launched into sudden fear, fear of losing two people that were close to him. "She has a pulse," Jumba said to Stitch, "its low, I don't know her condition…" Jumba gathered Lilo in his arms, and bolted for the hole in the door, before he could reach it, Akibaba Kino stepped into the way; the dragon would not let him pass.

Jumba backed away to save himself and Lilo, as Stitch ran forward toward Achie-baba Kino, the dragon kicked Stitch back, making him roll a distance, as Jumba ran to the back of the room, over to where Slushy was.

Lilo woke to Slushy hugging her, keeping her body cool, her neck felt heavy as did her head, but Slushy's cold body was soothing the pain. She woke just after Jumba had given her to Slushy, and they hid behind a glass cell.

She stared in dull vision, at the surrounding scenery; they were at a side view of Stitch and Akibaba Kino. She opened her eyes wider, to catch more light, to see Stitch rising in a tense manner. After he got to his feet, Stitch was the clearest thing she could see, he did not swerve, he did not shake, he did not appear to be two in her vision; she could see him as clearly as normally. She could also feel what he felt, she shared his thoughts and emotions.

She felt the anger in Stitch, as to how Akibaba Kino was treating him, the pain that he felt merely by seeing Angel and her being tortured mercilessly by the dragon. She could feel the loath that enveloped him, as he quavered in its presence. She could tell, that he was using his sadness, his grief, his fear, and his sorrow over Angel and her, to fuel his despise and rage.

She was terrified at him, even though she knew she didn't have to be. She knew, that he was justified, she knew that he despised Akibaba Kino for her; she knew that he despised the dragon for Angel, she knew that he was directing the edifice of rage inside of him toward Akibaba Kino for their cause; still she was horrified. Not at this new Stitch, not at the hatred and rage the emanated around him, enveloping him, but terrified at the fact that she could lose the Stitch that she knew, and loved.

Stitch's body, which was convulsing and shivering out of pure hatred and rage, now snapped; his ears shot straight up with tension, then relaxed; his hidden arms burst out of his body, flexing with strenuous pain, then released and became limp; his breathing which was rasp and hard, for a moment spurred into a fast and heavy heave, now was bright to a calm and deep hold. He was at the apex of his fury, the mysterious climax where one is so angered; one is focused and malignantly aware of one's swift and precise abilities.

Stitch's shoulders slouched, his balled fists now released, and his lips smiled. Lilo, however, saw through the illusion of him appearing completely calm and innocently kind; she stared into his eyes, as he passed her from farther away. A glint of light crossed his lens, and at that split second she could see within him, the pure craze and hatred he felt toward Akibaba Kino; he was in a justified madness.

Stepping forward, slowly, calmly, toward Akibaba Kino, he stopped at the dragon's arm length in front of it. Akibaba Kino growled mockingly, Stitch appeared to be in just an angry state to the dragon; Akibaba Kino had no idea how deadly Stitch was right now.

The dragon extended the talons on his right hand, and swept its claws at Stitch's head. What seemed without motion, Stitch leaned his head back, making the claws just barely nick his nose. Akibaba Kino snorted in disdain, and attempted another sweep with his left talons, this time at Stitch's feet. Stitch jumped up into the air, just high enough for the dragon's claws to go under his feet, and landed.

Achie-baba Kino was now infuriated. He lifted both of his arms, and in a mantis fashion, attempted to clamp his claws around Stitch's neck. Bringing his arms up from his chest, smoothly, Stitch grabbed onto both of the blades with his hands, his elbows at a right angle, stopping the monster's claws from closing in. Stitch's arms did not move; Achie-baba Kino struggled to close his pincers around Stitch. Swiftly, Stitch ducked his head, and moved outside of the talons, and with the greatest dexterity, moved his hands from grabbing the blade of the talons, to gripping the outside.

Instantly, Stitch shifted his weight and leaned in the opposite direction, to throw the dragon against the adjacent wall. He hurled with such great force, that for a moment, they actually appeared to be moving in slow motion; throwing the dragon with such speed and force that he actually slowed down before reaching the climax of the throw, jetting Achie-baba Kino to a ground shattering smash against the far wall.

"No!" Lilo cried to Stitch, breaking free of Slushy's grasp; she ran toward the horrific blue figure that was not the Stitch she knew, and tackled him. "Stop it!" she cried to her friend, attempting to cease his madness.

Achie-baba Kino felt his stomach heave, as the he hurled of Lilo's illness, which was fatal toward him. He glanced over and saw Lilo tackle Stitch, before his vision blackened. Lilo wept over Stitch, as he was finally brought out of his feral rage, he looked over him to see what he had done; seeing the pain and grief he caused Lilo, he reverted from his hatred, and focused on Lilo's saddening pain.

"You abomination!" Hamsterveil cried fiercely, as he pushed a small button on his floating pod. "Come Gantu, to the ship!" He ordered to his officer. They took haste, bolting past Lilo and Stitch, escaping to the ship and taking off.

"Stitch?" she asked, as he cleared her tears gently with his claws.

"Stitch sorry." He apologized, gazing deep into her eyes, for causing her such worry.

"Detonation in 10 seconds." Announced an automated voice, Jumba grabbed Pleakly, and ran out of the hanger, Lilo and Stitch did not hear the voice. They were in a focused stare on each other; Stitch feared himself, and that Lilo was now afraid and hateful toward him for what he'd done; Lilo fearing that she would lose her best, and only, friend. It was not until the computer announced 3 seconds until termination did the sirens and hollers of Jumba come to their attention.

For one second, Stitch stared over at where Angel had landed, and found only minor rivulets and streaks of blood on the cold, gray metal floor. Seeing that Angel was gone, on instinct and in a panic movement to save Lilo, he knocked her to the ground and covered her-shielding her-from the bright, silent flare that erupted the inferno…