Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 4: Back Through the Rabbit Hole

The tunnel seemed endless, there was a constant flare at the end, but it never seemed to get closer or to grow smaller. Behind him, where he had left, the tunnel stayed, but it seemed close in upon itself. It was hard for Stitch to believe that he was actually traveling through raw time itself. The experiment ran ahead of Stitch, but an aura around him allowed Stitch to somehow float and keep behind him.

All around Stitch moments could be seen; many glimpses of what happened during his ten years absence sprayed about outside of the aquatic like walls of the tunnel. Every now and then something would become clear and catch his eye, and seemingly catch up to the speed at which he and Chroney were traveling.

Stitch didn't speak as he saw everyone quickly revert from old, to young. The fire that occurred in Jumba's room was in reverse; Jumba looked as though he were going back to sleep instead of waking up, and the embers seemed to curl up and disappear instead of shooting out and consuming the room.

"Chroney, what is happening?" Stitch asked over the roar that seemed to come all around Stitch.

"I am taking you back through the tunnel of time." He responded charismatically, "Are you uncomfortable?"

"Naga, is just weird. But, one thing bothers Stitch. Stitch and Lilo traveled time before, and changing past effects future...this feels risky to Stitch."

"Do not worry, Jumba has told me about your familiarity with time travel. However what you've probably experienced is different then what I'm doing. There are two ways to travel through time; going out of the tunnel and back in, or traveling back through the tunnel all together. The machine that you and your friend Lilo used to travel time used the first method, while I use the latter."

"Is difference in methods?" He asked, not quite sure what Chroney was trying to explain.

"Precisely. Using the first method cuts the time stream, and unless everything is done the second time exactly as it was done the first time, that causes a reaction with the stream causing it to split. However going back straight through the tunnel is much safer, and less damaging, because it doesn't involve cutting through the shell of the tunnel."

"So Stitch can change future still?"

"Yes, but be careful not to be too different then before, it's still possible to split the time stream even with this method."

"Stitch understands." He told Chroney with a nod.

"Good. Now, I must concentrate, please be patient."

"Eh." Stitch replied, and returned to observing the scenes that took place outside the tunnel. "So we're traveling through the tunnel directly...that means that the aquatic looking wall must be the shell of the tunnel..." As Stitch continued to try and apply what Chroney told him about time and traveling, the images around him were becoming more and more recent to the lyses period. He also observed that the aura around him and Chroney was beginning to grow thicker and brighter.

Moments later, Stitch caught out of the corner of his eye, the image of his red Galactic Empire shuttle hurling through space, backwards of course. Almost as soon as he had spotted it, the image dissolved and came back to a different setting. The young Lilo and Kioni that he recognized were together, standing inside an ice cream shop. Stitch wondered if Slushy was there, but did not see him. For a second the image ran backward, but then paused. Stitch looked at Chroney, whom was glancing ahead. He had stopped moving them for some reason, but Stitch didn't question, he took the chance to look at more frozen images; some of his ship, some of Jumba, some of Pleakley, many of Lilo and Kioni, all of them stretching far down the tunnel.

Without a word Chroney closed his eyes and began to move them through the tunnel again. Except now all the images were no longer in reverse. Glancing, Stitch found the image he had spotted earlier, of Lilo and Kioni. Kioni proceeded on to the table while the clerk handed her two ice cream cones. Lilo skipped toward the table Kioni was heading to, and conveniently tripped in mid skip, causing her to dive at Kioni. Stitch chuckled and closed his eyes with a mocking 'ouch' gesture.

Suddenly Stitch's ears began to ring as the howling of the tunnel stopped. He peered at Chroney who now had his eyes open and was looking ahead, but he continued to take them through the tunnel. As the chime in Stitch's ear died down, he could hear voices all around him outside of the tunnel. An image to his left showed him and Lilo running through some sort of brush, and arriving onto a spire.

That image left, and was replaced by another image of him and Lilo. This time standing in the meadow of leaves out in their backyard, where Stitch had met Angel before fighting Achie-baba Kino, and where Stitch had landed his ship ten years in the future. Lilo dragged Stitch by his hand, pushing through the leaves and coming up to a small hill with a strong, thick tree close to the top.

"It's over here!" She told him in the image, her voice echoed throughout the tunnel. "C'mon, in the tree, hurry!" Stitch growled and tried to tug away, but ended up being picked up and carried by Lilo the rest of the way up the hill. She dropped him at the top and pointed at the tree.

'This is where I followed it, and I found this right here." She pointed inside a carved section of the tree. It looked to be much like a cache for some hidden treasure, or a hole to put things in. Stitch climbed up on his feet, and peered inside the tree. In the image Stitch saw only a piece of paper inside the pith of the tree, but before he could view it any further the image dissipated.

He searched the shell for another image, and caught one of him receiving his pendant from Lilo, but had to resort to finding another as that one vanished a moment after. Stitch felt a jerk all around him, as Chroney abruptly stopped. There were only a few frozen images around them; one of Pleakley baking in the kitchen, another of Lilo and Nani talking to each other in the living room, and the third showed the dimly lit room of the hospital, and Stitch pulling himself up on the bars of the hospital's bed.

"Hm..." Chroney mumbled to himself. "I missed it somehow. Stitch, I'm going to take us slowly forward through the tunnel, let me know if you find a good place to leave the tunnel."

"Ok." Stitch said droningly. He stared at the image showing the hospital room, watching and listening the moment over again. He felt his body become slightly lighter as Chroney started once again forward through the time stream, slowly this time. The images were showing themselves at normal speeds, and were not disappearing as quickly as before. The voices of the conversations did not echo anymore as well, it was as if he was reliving the moment all over again.

"Did you see if Angel made it out ok?" He heard Lilo ask through the image. Stitch stared at himself as a third party, listening to the image as if he had no idea what was going to happen. He tried to block the emotions that came back to him while watching himself purse his lips and shake his head slightly.

"I don't care..." He heard himself speak, "I-"The door to the room opened and he heard the nurses' voice telling him it was time to leave. There was a moment of silence as Stitch stared off in the distance in the image. "I'm sorry." He finally spoke. Stitch had to rethink about what took place in the conversation that he had missed, but his thought's were interrupted by Lilo speaking.

"Just promise me one thing..." She said looking deeply at the Stitch in the image. He leaned inward toward Lilo a bit, and closed his eyes looking downward. Stitch felt his body beginning to grow heavy; the pull of the time stream was lessening on him.

"Anything." He said to Lilo, both in the image and in the time stream. He had been so concentrative about the recent events that he could not recall exactly what she had asked him during this conversation. He listened sharply, his heart pumping as it did when he was actually physically there, instead of just watching from the sidelines. He waited with renewed anticipation as Lilo shifted herself in the bed to touch his image's cheek gently.

"Never scare me like that again." Stitch slightly gaped in wonder and empathy as he saw the saddened expression on Lilo's face; he never knew how seriously she had meant it.

"Lilo." He said loudly, reaching his hand toward the image. Something sparked inside of him, making him want to erase the expression off of her face and replace it with the cheerful smile she always wore.

"Stitch, now!" Chroney cried, utterly scaring Stitch with surprise. Stitch didn't react quickly enough, and reflexively Chroney shot toward Stitch, gripped him in both hands, and with surprising and accurate force, hurled him toward another image; one of him sleeping under the hammock in the night sky, just after his touching conversation with Lilo.

Chroney watched as his companion flew into the shell of the time stream, and fuse with his self in the image. Chroney let out a sigh of relief as he witnessed the ghostly Stitch that he traveled with possess it's own self. For a moment he paused in the time stream, waiting.

"What's going on?" He asked himself aloud, "I should have disappeared by now." He looked himself over, still solid. "Why am I still here? My purpose was to take Stitch through the time stream safely, and after that I was to have ceased to exist. What could have gone wrong? Did I do something inaccurately?" His thought's were interrupted by a loud, deep laugh with a Russian accent.

"No Chroney, you did nothing inaccurately, you did your program precisely." Came his creator's voice.

"Jumba? Jumba! Why haven't I ceased yet?" Chroney shouted.

"Because, you have one more purpose that I did not tell you about." Jumba's voice came slyly.

"What then? What other use could I have? I can only bring one person through the tunnel of time, and that was Stitch. I can't take anyone else besides myself."

"And yourself is all you need, listen carefully Chroney. I need you to retrieve something for me. You should no by now that 626 must change something during his encounter with the future 625, but I cannot tell what change has to take place. I need you to find the lost time strand that shows the battle in which 626 failed, and show it to him as soon as possible. No one but he, and maybe Lilo, are able to discover what must be done differently." Chroney paused for a moment after Jumba's words, closing his eyes.

"I understand, Jumba. I will fulfill my purpose." Chroney opened his eyes, and rushed through the time stream's walls to search the lost strand. "I just hope I can retrieve it in time..."

"Stitch? Stitch. Wake up sleepy." Stitch grunted at the sound of Lilo's voice; he lay on his back in the fresh smelling grass, face up under the hammock. "Are you going to get up or not?" Stitch mumbled to himself as he opened his eyes. During the previous night he had something more like a nightmare then a dream. He dreamt he was not able to get home from the past, and had to live in the future with the older Lilo for the rest of his life.

The reality of the dream still lingered on Stitch's mind, his grogginess kept convincing him that his nightmare was reality, and so he dreaded opening his eyes. Lilo was fed up at his slow pace of waking, and forced his eyes to open faster. The sunlight inundated him, the brightness caused his eyes to blur and water. His hands shot upward toward his face as he scrunched up into a sit, rubbing his eyes frantically to sooth the pain of the sudden bright light. After the pain subsided, he closed his eyes and laid back down on his back.

"Sorry about that Stitch, but you still have to get up..." Stitch growled and opened his eyes. He cocked his head back to see Lilo's head from the shoulders up, leaning over him. "Are you gonna stay awake?"

"Ok ok, Stitch is..." As his vision cleared, he realized that the face towering over him was that of the young Lilo, not the older version. His voice trailed as he tried to figure out why he woke to the Lilo he had missed so much.

"You're...what?" She asked, with a questioning voice.

"...Back..." He whispered with a smile, remembering the day before. His deep sleep had made him forget temporarily.

"Are you feeling ok?" Lilo asked putting the back of her hand near his neck. He grasped her hand with excitement, with a very coordinated whirl he went from laying on his back to sitting on his knees facing Lilo.

"Stitch better then ok, Stitch back home!" He cried with glee and toothy grin. He took Lilo into a tight hug, she hugged back, just out of response. "Stitch missed Lilo." He said lowly.

"What are you talking about? Where did you go? Did you wander off after our talk last night?" Stitch's smile drooped a small bit.

"Ju naga redumba?"

"Remember what?"

"Only you will remember everything that happens after you get back from the future..." Jumba's voice spoke to Stitch in his head. Stitch's smile opened with thought. To him, leaving on earth, fighting 625, and meeting Lilo in the future was in his mind as memories, fresh and clear. But to Lilo, it was just the day after their talk the night before, she had no memories of Stitch's failure at the spire, or any other event that would take place in the days to come. Stitch's depression and panic turned into peace and tranquility, as he thought more about how Lilo didn't remember anything. "That means she never lost me, and never missed me. I'll make sure that she never has to miss me again."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, "and what are you talking about, what am I supposed to remember?" Stitch looked back at her with rejuvenated calmness.

"It does not matter, Stitch tell later." He said, letting go of Lilo. "I know what's going to happen next," He thought, "But...until then I'll pretend like I don't. I'm just happy to be back..."