Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo & Stitch or any of the characters therein.

CHAPTER TEN:
REVELATIONS

At the end of the first entry, Jumba sighed heavily. He looked around the room at the others; at Nani, who sat in the adjacent armchair, at Stitch, who sat on the rug before him with his ears perked curiously for more, and at Lilo, who sat on his lap holding Scrump. After a short silence Nani spoke up.

"So, this is why the Kaizaxx are after Pleakley? To get hold of some mass weapon information that he stole from them?"

"It would appear so," Jumba grunted, turning back to the previous page and scanning it again. "But why he didn't just hand it over to the Federation Council is beyond my comprehending."

"But he already tried that and they didn't believe him," Lilo reminded him.

"Yes, but vhat he did not try was to feed it into the Federation's main system port and then trace it back to its original source."

"Meaning…?"

"Is simple tracking method. The main system port has a very powerful database for information retrieval. Vith the input he stole, system could have traced it back to its source, as vell as to all other related systems sharing it. This vould also show every single little modification of the input along the way. If he had just convinced them to trace it… it vould surely have identified the modifications made by the Kaizaxx."

A second silence settled over the room. Stitch began to grow restless. He curled up into a ball and began rolling around the living room until Nani told him to sit down on the couch.

"Here, Stitch," Lilo called, "you can sit up here with me." She patted Jumba's knee invitingly. Stitch scampered up onto Jumba's other knee, sitting opposite from Lilo and staring raptly at the book, trying to make out the words from his angle.

"Abaa synh'eck chibuu gumly rii -"

"Hey! I'm reading it to you, not other vay around," Jumba scolded.

Stitch dropped his ears in shame. "Sawwy," he said, with a great show of teeth.

"Alright, then," Jumba continued, "now, vhere were we? Ah, yes!" He flipped through the pages to the second entry. "Sunday, F141, Nembroe'uuh calendar 669.9... is fancy talk for mid-afternoon on eighth day of March," he explained. "Anyway…

…Once I had told the Kaizaxx leaders what I had done with their input, or what I had claimed to have done, they were furious with me, to say the least. One of them wanted to blast my head off with a plasma cannon, but was prevented from doing so by his commanding officer, who told him there was a better way of handling the situation. I knew then that he knew I was lying, but I had absolutely no idea what he would do to get the truth out of me…

* * * * *Flashback* * * * *

I was escorted to a small detainment cell, and was left there for several hours before two of the guards came back for me. They brought me before their foremost leader, Le'Kruune, a tall, slender creature with a rusty complexion, no nose and two large, slitted black eyes. Two sets of long, forked horns grew from his bald head and his teeth looked razor sharp. Most of the Kaizaxx looked that way, though there were several others of various races in their group. Le'Kruune, as he was called, questioned me calmly about the stolen input.

"My second in command here has informed me that you have destroyed the ZY containing the missing information. Is that correct?"

"Yes, it is," I told him, with no hesitation. Le'Kruune smiled and nodded.

"If this is true, as you say it is, then why do you fear me?"

"Excuse me?"

"If said input no longer exists, why tremble so visibly before me? The galaxy is saved… we cannot possibly carry through with our plans to finish the matter collapser…" he began to pace back in forth in front of me. My guards stood firmly behind me, cannons raised, as if awaiting a signal from Le'Kruune before blasting me to oblivion like they so desperately wanted to. He stopped pacing then and looked down at me, grinning.

"Perhaps my reputation precedes me…I've been known to tear out a few jugulars in battle with my bare hands." He flexed his long, taloned fingers for effect. "Or perhaps… you do have something to hide after all. Yeeessssss. That's it. You tell me that you destroyed the ZY, just as you told the others. At least you are sticking to your story. That's a fine way to get someone to believe you, whether or not your story reeks with the stench of deception. Unfortunately," he leaned closer, bending over until we were face to face, "I don't believe a word of it. Never before have I smelled such a load of trog dung coming from one person. You lie, and your words gag me with their pungency." He stood up straight then and motioned to the guards. "Strap him to the table."

Before I could register what was happening, the two creatures standing behind me seized me by the arms and dragged me across the room to where a stainless steel rectangular block was rising up out of the floor. There were metal restraints arranged in various places on top of the 'table,' obviously to accommodate various alien anatomies. My heart began to race when I realized what they were going to do to me. The guards stripped my clothes off before hoisting me up onto the table and strapping me down.

When they were finished, all I could move was my head, not that that would do me any good. Trembling more than ever now, I awaited the inevitable. After a short silence, I heard Le'Kruune begin to pace again, just out of my line of vision.

"If only your mother could see you now," he said. "How disappointed she would be. Her own son, a thief and a liar. For shame."

"No more disappointed than your mother should be!" I told him, feeling oddly brave at the sudden mention of mothers. "A murderer and a monster! That's what you are! That's far worse than being a thief or a liar! What I did I did for a very good reason! And my mother was behind me all the way!"

At this, Le'Kruune just laughed. "That contemptuous little bitch? Of course, I should have realized…she would actually be very proud of you right now."

"Don't you EVER speak of my mother that way!" I shouted, fury overriding fear. "She's done great things for the Federation! And besides, you don't even know her!"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," he replied coolly. "Oh, no, I know your mother VERY well. Very well indeed."

"Really? Funny, she's never mentioned you," I said bitterly. I didn't believe him for an instant.

"Well, I'm not surprised," he muttered, stepping up beside me so that I could finally see him. "I suppose if I were her, I wouldn't want my offspring to know the shameful details of my past, either."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded, dreading what I was about to hear.

He leaned over me, grinning. His razor-like teeth glinted like the stainless steel to which I was still strapped. "Your mother is a whore," he said simply, grinning still wider.

"NO! THAT'S NOT TRUE! HOW DARE YOU CALL HER SUCH A TERRIBLE THING! YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!!"

"Alright. I'll take it back," he purred, "but that would just make a liar out of me. But I will take it back for her sake. I have to admit, the lady has charisma, but that doesn't change the fact that she is a cheap, filthy -"

"SHUT UP!!!"

Before I knew what happened, Le'Kruune struck me hard. With the back of his hand. My head was spinning and I tasted blood. I choked, then turned my head sideways to allow the blood to drain out of my mouth. Satisfied, Le'Kruune began to circle the table, smiling pleasantly to himself.

"It was a long time ago, when I met your mother, Vay. Not long after you were born. Yes, I even remember meeting you. I was a Councilman for the Federation at the time, and she was a Civil Agent, 5th class, I believe. Just starting out. As you know, 4th and 5th class Agents don't earn very much money, but a Councilman! Yes, I must admit, my salary was more than favorable. I can recall very clearly the day your mother came to me to apply for a higher-paying rank, dredging out all the tiresome little things she had done to earn it. Unfortunately, her merits fell just short of a promotion, so I was forced to turn her down. I remember her disappointment… fighting back tears as she explained to me why she needed the promotion. She was in debt and on the verge of losing her only home and ship. And she had a baby that needed medical attention…" he stopped and leaned over me once again, grinning that hideous grin.

"An ailing little boy born prematurely and underdeveloped, in need of costly nutrients and hormone treatment, if she wanted him to live." Le'Kruune chuckled, as if my mother's sufferings were no more than a form of amusement to him. He continued. "Well, it may be hard for you to imagine, but I took pity on Vay, and I made her a very generous offer. I told her I would pay her handsomely in exchange for certain… favors, if you get what I mean."

All of a sudden I did, and something deep inside me writhed. I felt nauseated from this terrible revelation, and I didn't want to hear any more of it. But Le'Kruune, it seemed, enjoyed inflicting this kind of torture on me, and so he continued his story, and I, still dizzy and throbbing from his first assault, wasn't about to tell him to shut up again. I should have passed out or vomited from all the disgusting little details he told me… all the horribly graphic images he painted, which would have been taken quite differently if only they hadn't depicted my own mother in them.

"Yes, she was an enticing young woman… even more so now than she was back then…I must have had my way with her about a dozen times before she finally got the guts to quit and start making money again the respectable way."

I was fighting back tears by then, and when Le'Kruune noticed this, he laughed. "So your mother isn't quite the saint you thought she was, is she?" he said nastily. "Poor little Pleakley. The truth hurts, doesn't it? Just another one of life's lessons learned the hard way. Well, that was nothing, because lies hurt even more, and that's the next lesson you're about to learn… the hard way."

* * * *

Wow! Shocking? I have to admit, I shocked myself there, too. Leaves you hungry for more? I hope so. Please be kind in reviews, 'cuz I'm already whipping myself for writing this chapter!