Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 7: Losing Hope

Stitch woke abruptly, shooting up with a scream. Sweat matted his fur; his pulse was haywire; his breathing was rasp; his eyes burned from the salted tears. A while into his fearful state, he realized that he didn't know exactly why he was like this; he didn't know if he had a nightmare, much less-if he did-he couldn't remember what it was about.

A strong smell gagged his throat; his breathing picked it up quickly. He sniffed the air again, realizing what the smell was, and made great haste for the door, something was burning very strongly downstairs. In a blur he arrived to the kitchen, sliding on the slick floor and falling onto his back as he skidded to a stop but tripped. Almost instantly and reflexively he lifted himself up with a lunge, and strode over to the cause of the smell. Pleakley was found asleep by the stoves, the pot on the burner smoking with a metal spoon still in it. Stitch turned the burner off and grasped the pot. He recoiled at the heat with a grunt, blowing onto his hands.

He smacked his face in stupidity after he saw the handle. Deftly taking the pot he dumped out the eggs into the sink and turned the water on full blast and ice cold. The smell still lingered in the kitchen, even after the pot was now temperate. Stitch shuffled over to Pleakley and shook him awake.

"Five more minu..." He trailed, not finishing his sentence. Stitch immediately threw his arms up in impatience and left Pleakley to sleep. He walked out of the kitchen and glanced over into the living room in hopes of finding Lilo; she wasn't there. He twitched his ears and scratched his head for a second, then proceeded slowly upstairs to the bedroom. Quietly the door opened as he made his way inside, thinking Lilo had gone back to sleep. But she wasn't in her bed.

Stitch raised his eyebrow and folded his arms in wonder. Not bothering to really think about it, he shuffled to his mattress on the floor and laid back down in it. He reached up past his head to open the dresser drawer, where his pendant was kept overnight. He gazed at Lilo's gift to him with pride, on the back of it he had carved "Promise" for the meaning of the color, as he had carved "Determination" on Lilo's. Carefully he strung through the chain, and looped the pendant around his neck, making sure it fell onto his chest exactly the right way. He laid his head back onto the now damp and cool pillow; a draft came into the room from the window, which he didn't mind.

"Tomorrow...we fight 625 tomorrow and I haven't yet figured out what to change..." He thought. Footsteps, loud and distant, but getting closer, reached his ears. "That's Lilo, coming to take me to the tree. All that's there is a fake note, just like before. ...I don't think I can do this again, I don't want to break Lilo's heart, and shatter her hopes...again..." Just then the door to Lilo's room burst open, nearly shooting of its hinges, as Lilo came sliding into the room, landing on Stitch's mattress. Stitch kept his eyes closed, anticipating Lilo's excitement in disdain, her hopes were vain, and her excitement just made it all the more depressing to Stitch.

"Stitch! Stitch! I found something, out back, deep in the woods, there's a meadow, full of leaves, and-"

"Miga nota." He said pessimistically. "Stitch met Angel there, before Achie-baba Kino." He continued openly, knowing she wouldn't mind being reminded of the incident.

"But, you don't understand," She panted, "There was this dark figure that I chased all the way to that meadow, and then it disappeared, and then I saw it up on the hill, it was messing with a tree, and then it spotted me and fled. I think it was an experiment, and I think it was actually Angel!" She said very quickly, almost spitting and slurring her words. Though Stitch loathed what was going to happen, and hated himself for going along with the course, he pretended to bring his hopes up. "But that's not all, I have to show you something." Lilo began again, shaking Stitch. Much against his wishes, Stitch convinced himself to go along with Lilo out to the meadow.

"Ok, ok, show Stitch." He said, sighing heavily. Lilo jumped off of him and ran toward the window, opening it up wide and jumping through. Stitch lazily trudged to the window, and let out a grunt as Lilo yanked him through the passage, and shut it behind him.

She ran toward the woods, grabbing his hand tightly as she passed him, forcing him to follow her. Though he gave some resistance-mainly because she was running too fast and too near him for him to keep his balance without tripping them-he was at the moment no match for Lilo's excitement and force pulling his shoulder joint to the point of ripping his whole arm off.

While she dodged left and right the oncoming branches, bush, bramble, and obstacles, Stitch was left to sometimes hit most, if not all, of everything they had passed. At one particular time Stitch was caught wedged between two rocks, Lilo had to stop tugging him, go behind him, and shove him past to get him unstuck. By the time they reached the meadow Stitch was doubling over with pain.

"C'mon, not much farther." Lilo urged, still tugging on Stitch. He tried to tell her that he would rather walk on his own-it would be easier for her and less painful for him-but she paid no heed to his pleas and yanked him-at one point by the head-up the largely sloped hill to the tree. "Are you ok?" She finally asked, as if oblivious to what she had just put him through. Stitch groaned and rolled his eyes, falling with exhaustion against the tree.

"I'm ok...I'm fluf..." he trailed, gripping his sides and groaning.

"You really should watch where you step you know." Lilo advised, smiling. Stitch coughed melodramatically, trying to interrupt Lilo's sentence. Inside he laughed a little bit; this was actually just what he needed to lighten his mood. He did revert back to his serious reflective attitude, knowing he was just waiting for a train wreck that was bound to happen--that had already happened. "Well," she began, "you picked a good spot to collapse in pain at. The place I wanted to show you is right above your head." Stitch looked up, cocking his head back all the way, stretching his throat comfortably. Above him was the knot in the tree, the cache that contained the letter.

Stitch lifted himself off of his knees, and stared deeply toward the cache in the tree. He savored this moment, however it was different from before. Before, he savored the moment with hope that he would find a clue to Angel's condition. He was happy when he read the letter, and really thought it was Angel. But now his savoring was not for that reason. He savored the fact that this was the last moment he would have, where Lilo would be happy, where he wouldn't have a care about anything, and where the sky was clear blue, and peaceful. He stalled for as long as possible, knowing that the moment he pulled out that letter, the calm before the storm would be over, and his mission would truly begin.

"What are you waiting for?" Lilo pushed, hinting to reach inside the tree. Stitch closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Slowly, still trying to stretch the calm out for a little bit longer, he reached his hand toward the knot of the tree. Guiding his fingers into the hole, slipping his wrist in as slowly as possible, and pretending to fumble the letter as if he couldn't quite grip his fingers around it and pull it out. Finally, he could stall no longer; he pulled the letter out at a normal speed and opened its half-fold to the words that were written in his familiar tongue. "I looked at it before, it's Angel's handwriting, but I don't know what it says...can you read it to me?" She asked, "That is, unless you don't want to, if so then I understand."

"Naga," Stitch said, as cheerfully as possible, but it still came out low. "Stitch translate." He said reading the letter. In his mind he spoke the deceiving words. "Stitch, eba boochiboo. Miga loochiba! Miga meura ju aga-mootcha, atupa sobate spiraga domuto...madriba? Kabudga, miga soo-cha ju. Angel." He paraphrased to Lilo what the letter said. "Angel is alive, she wants to meet us tomorrow at Katapo Spire..." He trailed, Lilo looked at him oddly.

"Boy, for some reason you sure don't sound happy that Angel is alive!" She exclaimed.

"Lilo..." he breathed in, mustering courage, "this letter...Angel did not write."

"...What do you mean?" She asked, suddenly acquiring a worried tone. "Of course Angel wrote that, it's her handwriting."

"Naga...doesn't have Angel's scent." Stitch told her. It was true, to a certain extent. Stitch already knew Angel didn't write the note, but he also knew that the scent coming from the letter was not Angel's, but an imitation that 625 had somehow manifested.

"I don't believe it..." She said to the ground. "But, if Angel didn't write the letter who did?" She asked Stitch.

"Uh..." Stitch thought nervously. "Should I tell her?" He thought. "It might be better if I did. But then that would most likely change history worse. Jumba said to change only the battle..." He decided not to tell her. "Naga nota." He said shrugging his shoulders.

"What do you mean you don't know? If you don't smell Angel's scent, there has to be another scent. I saw an experiment put that into the three, there has to be a recognizable scent." Lilo began to eye Stitch, suspecting that he was hiding something.

"Stitch doesn't recognize it." He lied. Lilo walked over to the tree, and hit it strongly with the padded side of her fist.

"This is stupid." She said. "What's going on?" She hit the tree again. Something came out of the cache that caught Lilo's eye; it fell lightly onto the grass at the roots of the tree. With a rhetorical "huh?" She bent down to find what it was that fell out of the tree. "Hey, Stitch." She said, with renewed happiness, "Look what I found, it was in the tree also." Stitch looked into outstretched hand, and saw two or three strands of magenta fur. "See?" She said, holding the proof in her hand, "It was Angel, this is her fur."

Stitch nodded in agreement. He recalled rushing through the time stream and seeing this very scene on one of the images shown; however he didn't know what it meant. Once again, something was changed, something was different; something wasn't like what had happened before. A shiver ran down Stitch's spine.

"Ok, ok, you're right," Stitch gave in falsely. "Stitch supposes Angel is still alive." He continued. "But I'm still not convinced, she never appeared the first time, it was 625. He could have placed her fur in there, in fact, he probably did..." Stitch looked up and smiled emptily at Lilo, and walked down the hill, taking her hand behind him.

"Are we going to the spire tomorrow?" She asked to remind him about the message.

"Eh." He confirmed, "Tomorrow, 7, morning." He told her. They walked back to the house, Lilo's hand in Stitch's. Stitch made absolutely sure he went slow and carefully; Lilo brought this up and apologized for putting him through so much getting to the meadow. He said it was ok, let go of her hand, and let her lead the way back to the house. They arrived at half past 3; Nani and Jumba were practically surprised when they didn't come back with an experiment after they had been gone for such a long time. They spent the rest of the day looking for the spire where they were to meet Angel, except they didn't tell anyone about it, Stitch had asked Lilo not to unveil anything to the others.

Lilo walked into the living room from downstairs after coming down from the tower, which they had fixed completely a few hours after looking up the location of the spire. She glanced around, Stitch wasn't anywhere, he had finished moving his stuff upstairs long before she was, and now she couldn't find him.

Stitch sat outside on the hammock, watching the sun set behind the hills. He thought about tomorrow, and about all the things that had changed. "The fur was never there before. This morning happened completely different, and Jumba was supposed to warn us that his computer detected a lyses in the time flux continuum the evening after Lilo and I talked out here." His mind tossed and turned between all his thoughts, he was so into his mental contemplation that he lost his breath when Lilo called his name behind him.

"Can I sit down too?" She asked, after his breathing returned to normal.

"Eh, Lilo can sit." He said cheerfully, scooting aside to give Lilo the dip of the hammock. She sat gently on the hammock and stared out into the sunset along with Stitch for a long time. Stitch returned to his pondering as though Lilo had not even arrived, and Lilo saw right through him.

"Stitch, out with it, what's wrong?" She asked, worriedly.

"Stitch staring at sunset; nothing wrong." He said, trying to direct attention away from his awkward silence treatment.

"Oh come on, Stitch, I know you better then that. You've been acting really strange lately, and I know exactly why." Stitch gulped, for a second he thought she was going to start telling him she knew all about his time travel journey, but was relieved when she continued speaking. "I understand why you're so depressed, but I know she's alive. She escaped before the explosion, that's why she wasn't in the hanger when you saved me, she got out and stayed away from us for a while, just in case if Gantu came after us or something, and now I bet she wants to contact you again." Lilo breathed in, she had said all of this on one long breath and was now losing the saturation in her eyes.

"Stitch wishes it were true...but Angel is..."

"Don't say it." She put her index finger over his mouth to shut him up. "I will stay here and convince you that Angel is alive, even if it takes all night. I don't see how you can still think she's...not here...when all of the evidence is right in front of your eyes."

"Because..." Stitch began, trying to think of something to say other then 'I've done this before, she never showed up, it's going to happen again, we're going to meet 625 from the future instead of Angel, he's going to try and send me into space to kill me'. "Gut feeling." He said, "Stitch's heart believes Angel is alive, but Stitch's gut..."

"Listen to your heart, Stitch, Angel is alive, that's all the proof you need." Stitch smiled, he was wrong again, the past had changed. Lilo wasn't agreeing with him that Angel was dead; she was trying to convince him, no, demanding that he accept Angel was alive. "There now." She said, smiling back at him.

"Stitch love Lilo." He said, giving her a hug, the sun now set behind the trees.

"I love you too Stitch." She said, returning the gesture. "Tomorrow we meet Angel at the spire." She said.

"Eh!" He replied enthusiastically. "Actually..." He trailed in his thoughts, "Maybe this is the change that I should make..." Silently he made a decision, and looked back at Lilo with a yawn. "Stitch going to bed, Lilo coming?"

"I'll be there later, goodnight." She said.

"Goodnight." He replied, walking inside. Lilo heard the door shut, his footprints, and the elevator of the tower riding up to the top. She looked outward to the velvet sky for a long time, without thinking, without moving, just breathing. For a while she sat in this state, before she finally spoke aloud.

"You still don't believe me, do you Stitch?" She asked to the sky. "As much as you can try to show that you really believe me, you still never really do." She looked down at her lap and closed her eyes, and began to cry silently. "I thought...that you had hoped she was alive. At first I had no hope myself so I placed it all on you." Her voice began to quiver as sadness took her over. "But now you given up hope. I still want to believe she's alive, but it seems pointless and hurtful if I keep hoping after you've given up. I don't want to give up hope, but the more I see you hurt, the more I feel hurt because I can't do anything." She stayed quiet for a long time, holding her hands clasped against her chest. "Angel..." She spoke, her tears now ceasing. "I wish you would stop torturing Stitch. Please let you be the one who wrote that letter. I can't take Stitch feeling this way any longer, he's sort of my brother now, and I don't think I can take another day of him acting like this..." She trailed; the velvet sky was now dark and starry. She sniffed her tears a few more times, and picked herself up to go to the tower. She cried herself to sleep that night.

The sun was still just below the horizon, ready to purge the plain and begin shining on the ground. The dimly lit dark blue sky hovered ominous clouds that bore the threat of a thunderstorm. Dense, heavy fog rolled over the island, smelling tropically humid, and distinctly moist as one breathed in.

Stitch breathed out loose and slowly, standing outside the house. He had an hour to get to the spire on foot; he and Lilo planned to leave by the buggy to get there faster, but he now had other plans. His body shivered from the cold morning fog as he gathered his courage to actually pull off leaving Lilo behind.

"Lilo will be furious once she finds out I left without her...but it's for the better. 625 will use her to distract me, I can't fight him if I have to worry about her safety..." He slowly lifted one foot up, and set it down against the wet grass. The sun now peeked over the treetops, it was time for him to leave. The clouds overhead began to drizzle rain.

"Stitch?" Lilo spoke, coming outside.

"Eh?" He replied, not facing her, and stopping in mid step. "This is great, my plan out the window." He spoke in his mind angrily.

"What are you doing?" She asked dumbly. She was not able to see him quite clearly. A crack of thunder came from above them, Stitch turned around, a dark overcast was over Lilo's face as he stared at her.

"Lilo," he breathed in sternly, he had to tell her or else it would just make it worse for him. "Stitch is going to the spire...alone." Thunder cracked again. Lilo instantly felt the rain increase harder on her, a sort of irritation built up inside of her. Yesterday she was so excited, they were going to see Angel again, but now Lilo felt as though Stitch wasn't going to take her along because he wanted to see Angel alone.

"You don't want me to go...because you want to see Angel alone don't you?" She asked with disappointment. Stitch blinked and raised his ears.

"Naga. Is another reason, Lilo must stay." He ordered nicely.

"Stitch," She contrasted, "you and I are a team. I have to go with you, I want to see Angel too."

"Angel will not be there!" He shouted over a thunderclap. Lilo began to get frustrated, Stitch wasn't being straight with her, he was hiding something and she knew it. It wasn't often Stitch had this stern look on his face, and it wasn't often that he would tell her to stay behind. Lilo walked over to him, and grabbed him on the shoulders.

"I don't care if no one is going to be there, I'm still going to go with you, got it?" Stitch growled. He had no time to waste, he had to defeat 625 as quickly as possible, and Lilo being there would only slow him down. If she weren't going to listen to him, he would have to-though he hated himself greatly for it-force her to stay behind. He took her hands on his shoulders and returned them to her side, and gripped her in a hug.

"Stitch knows Lilo wants to go, Stitch understands..." He let go of her, but then grabbed her shirt collar and lifted her up off the ground, she looked at him with complete surprise, not expecting this to happen at all, as his dark black eyes stared into her with utmost sadness, and regret. She knew he was doing this for something other then a selfish reason now. "But Lilo has to stay behind. Trust Stitch, Angel won't be there, so stay behind!" I loud clap of thunder came, as did lightning, when Stitch said these words. He threw Lilo down to the ground and took. His heart scolded him for doing such a thing, and he took the punishment of guilt fully, knowing he deserved it.

Lilo stared blankly as Stitch ran out of sight through the fog. She trembled, and now realized how serious he was. For a second she wondered if he knew something in advance, he had said himself that he knew Angel wouldn't be there. "He's trying to tell me something indirectly. He's done this once before, and..." She stood up looked ahead, her inductive reasoning now led her to a startling conclusion. "He's walking into a trap and knows it somehow, that's why he wants me to stay behind." She recalled Achie-baba Kino; Stitch told her that Angel had met him, and warned him of a trap that Gantu had set for him. But still he went along with it, however she wasn't going to go in at the time, or so he thought. "That's why he was concerned. I stayed in the car, so he didn't have to worry about my safety. Now that he has no excuse to go by..." She narrowed her eyes, her mind was now set, there was nothing that Stitch could do to stop her. She took off in his direction toward the spire. "This has to be something that he knows is stronger then he is, otherwise he wouldn't have made me stay behind..." She said confidently to herself, as she ran through the brush toward the point of destination.