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

CHAPTER THIRTY:
ABSOLUTE ZERO

Inside of Pleakley's bedroom, it was dark, only a single lamp turned down low was glowing in a corner. Two CIA agents sat outside his door, playing cards at a small, folding table that had been set up directly in front of the door to prevent Pleakley's escape. The door itself was slightly ajar, and every now and then one of the agents would peer in to make sure he was okay. After having searched the room thoroughly for anything which might aid in a second suicide attempt, they had left him to rest and recover from his first attempt. Having been told that his ohana were on their way to California to see him, Pleakley had seemed a bit happier, and promised Cobra that he would not kill himself before he got to see them one last time. At any rate, he was too weak now from blood loss to even try. The CIA still resolved to keep a close eye on him, even though he was not technically under the same jurisdiction as humans were when it came to self-harm. Cobra led Lilo to his bedroom, then told his colleagues that they could take a break from guarding the door. When they were gone, Lilo pulled the door closed behind her and locked it, even though she knew that Cobra had a key to it (which was how he had come upon Pleakley's unconscious form after hearing of the suicide note). Cautiously, Lilo stepped over to the bed, where Pleakley lay sleeping. A thin, cotton blanket was pulled up to his chest, and his arms lay straight at his sides on top of it. There were thick bandages on his wrists, and a faint tinge of red bled through them in places. Even in the dim light, his face looked ghastly pale. Very carefully, the little girl sat down on his bed, surveying the wounds he had inflicted on himself and wondering why he had done them; wondering why he wouldn't rather go out and punish Le'Kruune for all he had done. Your life must have been pretty bad if you wanted to end it, Lilo thought silently. But all the bad stuff was in the past, so why die now without trying out the future first?

"Pleakley? Are you awake?"

Very slowly, the alien turned his head toward her voice, opened his eye. "Lilo?" He struggled to sit up, though with his combined weakness and sore wrists, it was very difficult. He managed to prop himself up on his pillows.

"When did you get in?"

"'Bout an hour ago. We took the first flight we could catch. We couldn't let you face the Kaizaxx all by yourself."

At the mentioning of the infamous militia, he shuddered. "Well, thanks, kid. It was really nice of you to come see me, though if I'd known you were gonna be here so soon, I would have tidied myself up a little. You know, comb my wig and put on a clean girdle. Oh, and find something to flatter my wrists better than these old things!" He lifted his arms up for her to see them better. When she didn't inquire about them, he sighed and laid them at his sides again. "So I guess they told you, huh?"

Lilo nodded solemnly.

"Well, what can I say, Lilo? You read my diary. I'm bad luck to everyone I get close to. Mother, Uncle Gidgel, Leera… it's pretty pointless to keep on living when all I ever seem to do is cause all my loved ones a load of pain and suffering!" he shouted melodramatically, throwing his head back and draping a bandaged wrist across his forehead for effect. Lilo did not inquire about the latter two people he had mentioned. She had already heard about 'Uncle Gidgel,' Vay's only sibling, who had been crippled in two of his legs in a freak accident that Pleakley had been involved in, and therefore had blamed himself for it. Though he could still walk, it was rather difficult to get around dragging two dead weights behind him. As for Leera… she hadn't even heard of her before, since Jumba had deemed all passages in the diary referring to her as 'inappropriate,' even though there were many which were not.

"You know what I think?" Lilo asked, leaning in closer to him. "I think you'd only make them hurt more by dying. If someone loves you, then they want you around. Maybe not twenty-four/seven, because you can get on their nerves if you are, but most of the time, they want you around. I know I do. We all missed you a lot, Pleakley, and we want you to come back."

"You missed me? Already? But it's only been about - what? - two weeks?"

"Two weeks is a long time, especially when you're my age. But I missed you the very first day you were gone!"

"You did?" Pleakley asked, looking at her in disbelief. She responded by throwing her arms around him and giving him a huge kiss on the cheek. It was a little too wet for his liking, but he resisted the urge to wipe it off, and hugged her back, draping his sore arms carefully around her shoulders. He closed his eye tight, squeezing out a large tear. It splashed onto Lilo's shoulder, and she looked up suddenly.

"Is there a leak in your roof?" she asked, gazing up at all the cracked plaster above their heads.

* * * *

"So that's your plan, is it?"

"Yep!"

"Geez, and they thought I was suicidal!"

"So whaddaya think?!!"

"I think it's crazy, extremely dangerous, and it will never work… Let's do it!!!"

Lilo and Pleakley shook hands on their agreement.

"There's just one teeny-tiny little problem… how am I gonna get past all those CIA agents out there? I can't even go to the bathroom without being watched! They'll never let me outta their sight, especially after what I did to my wrists!"

At this, Lilo frowned, apparently deep I thought. After a minute, she snapped her fingers and said, "I've got it!"

* * * *

Ten minutes later, Lilo emerged from Pleakley's room, her shoulders hunched and her face toward the floor. She wore a loud purple and orange muumuu and a navy blue jacket that didn't seem to fit properly. She shuffled into the living room, past Nani, Jumba, Stitch, Cobra, and three or four other CIA agents who sat around talking. She tried to be inconspicuous, but halfway to the front door, she stopped, as Nani asked her, "So, did you have a nice talk with Pleakley?"

Glancing at her from the corner of her eye, Lilo nodded, then cleared her throat. "That's good," Nani said. She stood up. "Well, I guess it's my turn now to go in and yell at him."

"NO!" Lilo cried, waving a hand out frantically.

"I was only kidding, Lilo. I'm not gonna yell at him. I just wanna say hi, and see how he's doing. I missed him, too, you know."

"Pleakley's -um - Pleakley's not feeling well right now. He just fell asleep a minute ago. So don't go waking him up now! You know how he likes his beauty sleep!"

"Beauty sleep, hah!" bellowed Jumba. "He vould have to sleep like Rip Van Winkle to be vorth looking at! And this Winkle fellow is no Miss Universe contestant."

At this, Lilo growled, clenching her fists to her sides. "Just leave him alone, okay?!! The poor guy's been through enough without your insults!"

"Hey, Lilo, what's wrong with your voice?" Nani asked. "You're not catching a cold, are you?"

Here Lilo appeared anxious. "N- maybe," she admitted, clearing her throat again.

Cobra eyed the young girl suspiciously from behind his shades, but said nothing.

"And - did your jacket shrink? Or did you outgrow it already?" she inquired, noticing how short the sleeves were, but thankfully not noticing the bandages that were protruding out from under them. Again, Lilo shrugged.

"Well, you better not go outside then, if you're coming down with a cold. It's pretty chilly out there."

"But - I'll only be outside for a minute! I'll come right back in, I promise!"

"Alright, fine. You have one minute. And don't think I won't come out looking for you when that time is up! Got it?"

Lilo nodded nervously, and continued on her way. Stitch started to follow her, but she muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like 'meega na la queeshta,' and he stopped in his tracks, looking positively appalled.

A couple of minutes later, Lilo passed by them all again, this time wearing the red and white muumuu she had arrived in, and minus her jacket. She hummed happily as she skipped through the living room. "Later!" she called, waving back at the others, who were all deeply immersed in conversation. A moment or two later, Nani looked up toward the front door, through which her sister had just gone a second time. Funny, I didn't even see her come back in, she thought vaguely before returning to the discussion.

* * * *

Once outside the house, the real Lilo glanced about cautiously, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the surrounding woods. The chill air caused her to shiver, and she hugged herself tightly as she called out in a loud whisper, "Pleakley! Where are you? The coast is clear! You can come out now!"

A sudden rustling far to her right startled her. Pleakley stepped out from behind a nearby bush, still dressed in his muumuu and black wig.

"I can't believe we pulled it off! Thanks, Lilo. That was a great idea." Then, seeing how cold she was, he took off the jacket and handed it to her.

"Here. It doesn't fit me, anyway. Not really my color, either."

"What about you?" she asked him, putting it on. "Aren't you cold?"

"A little," he confessed, taking her by the hand and leading her out into the woods. "But believe me, I've been a lot colder. Like up there." He gestured toward the sky with his other hand. " It's very cold up in space."

"But I've been to space, and it wasn't that cold," she told him, jogging fast now to match his stride.

"Yes, but you've never been in deep space before. Like outside of your galaxy, where there's no nearby stars to warm things up. If you go far enough out, it gets so cold that you would die in an instant from it. Absolute zero is also absolute death."

"What's absolute zero?" Lilo shouted, panting to keep up with him.

"It's a temperature," Pleakley yelled back, leading her further and further into the woods.

"But it gets to be zero some places on Earth… like the Artic, and people don't die right away out there!"

"Absolute zero is completely different from zero degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, it goes way-way below that," Pleakley explained without looking back.

"How far?"

"About negative four-hundred and sixty degrees. It's the coldest known temperature in the universe."

"Wowwwwww.." Lilo mouthed breathlessly, gazing up at the sky. Through pitch black branches of cypress and pine, the heavens glowed a deep neon blue, and the stars twinkled bright with a crystalline quality that seemed to further emphasize the coldness. Orion peeked out from behind the thick foliage of an out-of-place oak, then quickly ducked out of sight as Pleakley changed course and started pulling Lilo down a little slope toward the left.

"Where are we going exactly?" she demanded, beginning to grow tired of being tugged along like a dog on a leash. Suddenly she understood how Stitch felt, and resolved to be a lot more tactful about it in the future.

"Into the town, remember?" Pleakley called back, huffing. "The plan is to alert the townspeople that there is an alien invasion imminent. You run around, screaming hysterically, while I take off my human disguise and show everyone my true form. Then, they'll have to believe us! Once they get a glimpse of me, they'll begin panicking and utter chaos will ensue! Then when the Kaizaxx come to Earth, they'll think everyone's been expecting them, and they're sure to back off! For such ruthless barbarians, they like to handle these things as quietly as possible!"

"But what if they come back later, when everyone calms down?" Lilo asked.

For a split second, Pleakley jarred in his tracks. "I hadn't given that much thought," he conceded, "but maybe our initial plan will stall them long enough until…" he trailed off, breathing hard and slowing his step.

"Until what?" Lilo caught up to him as he slowed even further. Pretty soon, he had stopped completely, and was now leaning against the trunk of a redwood, panting and trembling.

"Until what?" Lilo demanded again, not realizing what was wrong with him. When he still didn't answer, she felt a twinge of fear. Putting a hand on his arm, she asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

Pleakley moved his head in response, but whether he was nodding or shaking it, she could not tell. He sank to his knees, hyperventilating. The little energy he had had been spent, and the recent loss of blood was now taking its toll on him. Lilo began to grow scared. There they were, in the middle of the woods, on top of a small mountain, in the darkness, in a land where both were complete strangers, with no idea where they were going nor from which direction they had come, without a sign of life for miles, and now Pleakley was ill. What was a child to do? Without any other options at hand, Lilo began to cry. Loudly and hysterically. The silence of the night was shattered by her sharp voice, and it carried down the mountain and bounced back up to her, intensifying her fear. After what had seemed like an eternity to the terrified girl, there came an answer to her cries. But it did not come in the form of Nani, Jumba or Cobra, or anything else she might have wished for just then. Instead, the pitch blackness of the woods became pierced with a blinding white light that enveloped her and Pleakley. Everywhere she looked, it was white. Then the wind picked up, swirling around them both, roaring as it did so. Suddenly she felt weightless, and grabbed hold of Pleakley, shrieking as she felt herself being lifted up into the air, higher and higher up, until they were both swallowed up completely by the light.