[Disclaimer: the lyrics from the song 'The Different' belong to Melissa Etheridge, and not to me]

Love and Burden
by The Great Red Dragon

Chapter 4
Auron awoke the next morning with a strange melody in mind. Not wanting to forget it, he pulled out Riley's miniaturized guitar from a sachet on his backpack and stringed the notes together.
It sounded very good...good enough to throw in a few words.

Auron ad-libbed for a few minutes before he finally managed a few acceptable lines.
You've never been to the moon, but don't you wanna know?
Under the sea, in the volcano
You've never looked into my eyes, but don't you wanna know?
Is it what the dark and the wild and the different know?
Auron smiled at himself, satisfied.
He continued to fill in the lyrics as he went along. It was strange, because it wasn't the 80s-rock that he was so attached to...this was softer, but sounded just as good.
He continued to play to himself, feeling better as he progressed. It was a nice feeling, to be coming up with a good song. It gave him a feeling of accomplishment.

Just then, he remembered where he was...

Auron stopped playing so sharply that he nearly severed a string of the guitar. He clutched the instrument tightly to his chest and hit the ground.
Eyes alert and wide, he stared down at the house. He wondered if somebody had heard him. He had been so foolish to play so carelessly in full view of anybody who would've taken the time to look out of the window.
His eyes scanned the side of the house, searching hard for anybody who might've seen him...there was an even greater chance that somebody had heard him.
Auron grabbed his guitar in one hand, and his backpack in the other, and military-crawled deeper into the jungle.
Peka awoke on her mattress feeling not very rested. In the previous night, she had waited and waited for Owen to join her in bed, but she had fallen asleep in the process. Even now, Owen still wasn't there.
She got to her feet dozily and wandered out of the bedroom into the hallway. The entire house was completely quiet, which was strange; Aron and Garon liked to get up and watch cartoons in the morning.
Peka wandered over to their bedroom and quietly opened the door. The twins were not in their bed, and not in their room at all.

Peka wondered about this and headed down the stairs. She didn't know where her kids could be...until she found them in the living room, where she also found Owen snoozing in the recliner.
Aron and Garon were sitting cross-legged in the living room, next to Owen in the armchair [who was still asleep], listening intently for something.
They looked up as they heard their mother approached, and raised a finger to their lips, simultaneously sounding;

"Shhh!"

Playing along, Peka came over to them on tip-toes and sat down.

"What's going on?", she whispered quietly.

Garon glanced expectantly at the glass patio door before answering his mom.

"We're listening to the music", he answered in a hushed tone.

His brother nodded in support.
Peka nodded as well, not sure if this was a game of some sort.

"What kind of music is it?", she asked them.

Aron and Garon shrugged their shoulders.

"We heard it on TV", they remembered.
"Like that man who was being elec-tric-cuted."

Peka smiled. They were referring to a live rock-concert they had seen on the television, where the lead guitarist did indeed look like he was being shocked by his own guitar [punk rock].
Then, Peka remembered who might be lurking out there, and she stood up quickly, waking up Owen as she did.

"Hu-huh? What now?", he said in a slurred tone, weary with morning drowsiness.
"Who-? What? Where-hey, who turned off the TV?"

Peka took the twins by hand.

"C'mon, you two", she said to them.
"Time to brush your teeth."

"Aw, Mom!", they whined.

Peka nodded in reinforcement and led the kids towards the bathroom. As she left, she gave Owen a glance that he didn't return. It hurt her a lot that he would rather spend the night in front of the television than with her.

She played supervisor as the twins brushed their teeth and washed their faces. She accompanied them downstairs where they ate their breakfast [while Owen occupied the bathroom], and left them in their room to play with their toys.
The whole time, Peka had held watch out from all available windows. She had believed Aron and Garon about the 'music', and she didn't doubt where it was coming from...although she hadn't guessed that Experiment 541 would be capable of music.
After she saw that Aron and Garon were busily distracted with their toy dinosaurs, she went to awake Stitch and Twyla, who were asleep on a large mattress.

After all the Experiments had moved into the Pelekai house, three new bedrooms had been conveniently added to the building. Aron and Garon had their own bedroom [which also served as a playroom], and Owen and Peka would share the room next to them. Stitch and Twyla slept in the third. Lilo and Nani were able to keep their bedrooms, and Jumba and Pleakely slept in the shack-house outside [it was a heated apartment, with running water and two separate rooms].

In the morning, everybody would usually enter kitchen for breakfast just once before beginning with their day. That was the time to see anybody if you wanted to speak to them, or you might not catch them at all. Sometimes, Pleakely wouldn't show his face for days [he wasn't really the social- type], but Jumba would be always be present.

This time, it was the other way around, and Pleakely entered the kitchen, wearing another one of his horrible Hawaiian flower-shirts.
Peka and the other Experiments had already gathered in the kitchen [they were waiting for Jumba] when Pleakely walked in.

"Morning, all", he said lazily and opened the fridge.

"...Uh, Pleakely?", Twyla asked him.
"Where's Jumba?"

"Not him again", Pleakely thought to himself and turned around, a can of iced coffee in his hand.

"He said he wasn't hungry", he told them as he turned around.
"He said he was busy working on something important...again."

He sipped from his beverage and turned away towards the door.

"If that's all you want from me, I'll go now."

And he walked out of the kitchen.
Everybody at the table looked at each other.

"Let's go", Stitch said, and they all nodded unanimously.

They all got up from their seats and headed out after Pleakely. They saw him climbing the stairs to the observatory, and made to follow him.

"He's not up there", Pleakely said without turning around.

The party stopped.

"He's still back at the shack", he informed them and disappeared from sight.

Wordlessly [and feeling kinda stupid], everybody made a turn towards the front door.

"Is it just me", Owen asked.
"Or do we look like a mob here?"

Before any reply could be made, Aron and Garon sprinted towards them from the opposite direction, obviously tired of playing with their toys.

"Good morning!", they said cheerfully to those who they hadn't seen yet.

"Mom, can we play outside?", they continued, without waiting for a return greeting.

Under ordinary circumstances, Peka would've insisted that somebody monitor them, but at the moment, there were other things on her mind.

"Okay, fine", she told them.
"Just be careful."

"We will!", the twins answered, and bolted towards the living room, where they would leave through the patio door.
There wasn't much talk as they crossed over to Jumba and Pleakely's night- house. Everybody in the group thought the silence was a bit strange, but none of them were sure what was to be discussed in this situation [the walk over to Jumba]. Once there, they would all demand the doctor tell them what they wanted to know...again, this plan sounded a bit silly, but strength in numbers was the formula.
The sun was starting to reach it's midpoint in the sky and the grass was still mildly wet with the morning dew. Stitch, Peka, Twyla, and Owen made an attempt to avoid the nasty-feeling wetness, but had to endure the slick, slimy sensation in the end. You could see the shack house from the front door, so the walk over took only about a minute.

It was a one-story house, and held a mere three rooms: two mid-sized bedrooms and a kitchen. It was completely built from wood, but the walls inside had been lined with a cheap cloth-covering. Pleakely would often complain about how it looked, but Jumba [who was less of a metrosexual] seemed quite content about his sleeping place. He spent most of his working in the observatory, anyway.
From outside, the Experiments could hear some tinkering going on inside of the house. The windows were shut and covered, which led to many suspicious thoughts about what was going on inside.
Once the four had reached their destination, Stitch [who had been leading them] knocked audibly on the door.

Inside, the sound of manual construction continued.
Stitch knocked again, this time louder than before.

The sounds inside stopped, and the door opened seconds later, revealing Jumba's face. He looked down at his visitors, and directed obvious suspicion upon himself by saying;

"I'm not telling you anything!"

He shut the door quickly.

"Jumba!", Peka called.
"We need to talk to you!"

"I have nothing to say!", Jumba called back.
"Leave me be!"

Without hesitation, Stitch threw his weight against the locked door and it cracked open, wooden splinters flying.
Stitch's action diverted everybody's attention onto himself for a second. Owen was about to ask if something as drastic as that was necessary...but then he [and the others] saw into the room, and saw what Jumba had been working on.
On a table, amidst a jungle of silver-colored screws and gizmos, lay several revolver-sized pistols, some of which were still being constructed.

All eyes turned to Jumba. His face was frozen in horror, something not seen very often. His mind crossed over all possible reactions, everything from denying the weapons were his to jumping out the window.
After a moment of stammered silence, Jumba sighed and appealed to his crowd. He looked at Stitch, Owen, Twyla, and Peka, with the air of a POW ready to confess to his captor.

"I believe I have zome explaining to do", he said, in a tone so quiet that it defied his large vocal cords.
Garon shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

"I don't want to", he said to his brother.
"Mom and Dad said we're not allowed to go there."

"Come on!", Aron urged eagerly.
"They won't ever know about it!"

Garon moaned with discomfort and looked at the ground. He knew that they shouldn't go down the hill that led away from the house. He remembered his mother and father telling him that he [and his brother] should never go there alone, and they should not be seen by anybody but their family.

"They're gonna get mad at us", he said.

"Not if they don't find out!", Aron continued to exuberantly.
"We'll just go down for a while, and come right back up!"

Garon shook his head.
Aron screwed up his face in frustration He wouldn't admit it to his brother, but he was afraid to venture out by himself.
Usually, Garon and him were neck-to-neck on all episodes, but if conditions changed, Garon was a bit more cowardly and rule-abiding than himself.

Suddenly, an idea struck him.

"Okay, fine", he said.
"I wouldn't want to go with a chicken anyway."

That was the action he needed, and it got the reaction he wanted.

"I'm not a chicken!", Garon said audibly.
"I'm not a chicken!"

"Then prove it!", Aron urged.
"Come down there with me!"

Even though the thought of disappointing his parents still nagged at his mind, Garon put his pride ahead.

"Fine!", he said.
"But...but we're coming right back, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, we'll do that!", Aron agreed impatiently.
"Now let's go!"
Jumba pulled up a chair for himself and sat down.

"You might vant to take a seat", he said to his crowd.
"I believe this may take a while."

"Feel free to start with the heavy artillery", Stitch said, and gave the firearms on the table another glance.

Peka, Twyla, and Owen all stared at Jumba in a steadied disbelief, as if they wanted to all say something. The questions of why and how came to mind, and Jumba saw it in their eyes. He sighed to himself and shut his eyes. It didn't bother him too much to know that they had discovered what they had...it was what they would discover that pained him, and what they might think of him. For all of them, he knew that he had been a kind figure. He had been a bit old- fashioned and not all that tolerant, but he had held a special place inside of them. Jumba now wondered how his position could be tarnished.

"Jumba..."

The doctor opened his eyes and looked up. The Experiment who he had always been closest to, Peka, number 327, was looking at him with an expression of prophetic realization, as if his guilty eyes had confessed something secretly.
She looked at the weapons, and then back at him.

"Is this what I think it is?"

Jumba held his breath, and for a brief second wondered if he could do so until he passed out...but he breathed out heavily and nodded.

"I think we mean ze same thing", he said to her.
"Experiment 541."

Another barrage of confused expressions hit him, wanting to ask for an explanation but unsure how to.
Jumba realized how obvious he was being. He knew that he probably could've lied his way out of the situation in the beginning, by making up some excuse about the guns...but, then again, there was a part of him that wished to speak out.
Jumba sighed again, ready for a confession.

"Vhat do you know?", he asked the Experiments.

"...We know about Experiment 541", Peka said.
"We now know that he's out there...because that's the only reason for you to have those weapons."

The large alien nodded.

"I take it, you vould like some answers?"

Everybody nodded.
Jumba leaned forward, his large elbows on his knees.

"Experiment 541 vas my first Experiment that excelled only in fighting", he began.
"I created him using a newly-developed method...the same I would use to create you two."

He motioned at Stitch and Twyla. Then, he squeezed his eyes shut again, as if he were in pain.

"Oh...", he said in a low moan.
"If I had known then...what value life could give..."

Twyla leaned forward [everybody had found a seat by now].

"What do you mean, Jumba?", he asked.

"I vas...I didn't know", Jumba stammered.
"I don't know vhat I vas thinking..."

"What?", the whole room asked him again.

Jumba rested his arms limply in front of him, as if in defeat of a great battle.

"I'm not sure if I should say", he said.
"I vouldn't vant you too know..."

However, the eyes staring into him spoke differently, and he spoke.

"When I created 541", he began.
"I knew that I had done something. Experiment 541 was what I had strived for in the beginning."

"What do you mean?", Owen asked, but Jumba went on as if he hadn't heard him.

"541 vas created with a physical well-being that I had never imagined before", he continued.
"I felt as if I had created my first true success...but I should've known better."

He stopped for a moment, and then went on.

"I vas evil...Experiment 541 vas to be fighting-machine...and that's vhat he was. And vhen I first laid eyes on his completed form...I felt as I vas bringing forth another side of me."

He looked up, at his other creations, who had become as close as family, and there was fear and desperation in his eyes.

"Please-!", he said.
"Do not think me a monster...vhat I did vas wrong, I know now! It is...unacceptable, yes...but don't....just don't..."

Jumba's eyes caught hold of Stitch's, and he saw a stern expression...that of a parent, who urges his child to confess a theft from the candy store.

"Tell us, Jumba", he said.
"Please let us know."

Jumba sat quietly for a second...and the continued.

"In all my creations", he said softly.
"I would never have dreamed of hurting one of you...I thought differently with Experiment 541."

There was the faintest trace of a sob in his voice. He cried of regret, and of things he cursed himself over.

"I thought...I thought that if I made him into vhat vas in my mind...I thought that if I made him into something different from what he was, it vould mean something...so I was vithout mercy on my own child.
"I vas as cruel to him as a slaver. From the moment he could walk, I submitted him to a torturous training...under my own hand."

Jumba had kept his head down when he said these phrases. He had spoken them as quickly as he could, but now that he had, emotion began to pile up in his chest again.
He didn't wish to look up and see the faces of the others. He kept his head lowered, ready to continue...

Immediately, as if everybody in the room had just noticed it, there was a loud rapping on the door of the shack house, accompanied by an alarming shouting/crying-noise, fueled by Aron's voice.
Dropping all matters [like any parents would], Peka and Owen sprang up from the chairs they were in and made for the door in record-speed.
Flinging it open, they found Aron, clearly in hysterics. He was crying tears and snot, and sobbing words that were barely understandable.

Peka grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him forcefully.

"Aron!", she managed to shout over his frantic crying.
"What happened? Where's Garon?"

"G-G-G-Garon!...", Aron sobbed, trying to [but failing] regain control of himself.
"D-D-D-Down th-there...dog! B-big dog!"

"Where?!", Peka and Owen asked together, urgently.
"Where is he?!"
Garon couldn't see clearly; his eyes were clouded with a non-stop flow of tears. He couldn't catch his breath; his sobs were coming too quickly. He was backed against a chipped wooden fence, too high for him to climb. And cornering him, staring at his scared, shaking body, with eyes as evil as the devil's, was a gigantic dog.
The dog had to have been a vicious crossbreed of some kind; it hinted something between a rotweiler and a saint bernard. He stood about four feet, five inches tall from his paws to his sharp ears, and weighed over one-hundred and eighty pounds. He was a dog bred for ruthless fighting, and he cared nothing for what or who he hurt...and his crosshairs were fixed on the small, terrified figure in front of him.
Garon felt his legs lose their function in the midst of his fear, and he sank quickly to the ground.
For a second, he reflected on how quickly it had all happened. He and Aron had decided that it was time for them to head back after their three-minute escape, when the dog had literally leapt out of the jungle. He had bounded straight at Aron, jaws wide, and only missed him barely. Aron had then been able to make a getaway, when the dog had turned his sights on Garon.

Garon looked up at the fence, the sun reflecting in his tears and making him blink. He knew that he could climb walls a bit, but not very well [he wasn't strong enough]. He thought about climbing to the top of the fence, and raised his arm.
A sharp, threatening growl from the monstrous dog made him curl into a quivering ball. He opened one eye, saw the beast, and shut it again.

"Mommy...", he sobbed quietly, his tears of fear still coming down his face.

The dog took a step closer, and Garon wished he had never listened to his brother when he had suggested to venture out of the Pelekai sanctuary. He wished he had stayed at home and played with his toys, and not gone down the dirt path.
The dog growled again, and Garon thought about death. He had heard about dying, but had no concept of it coming his way...at least not this early in his life.
His parents had told him that there were no such things as monsters...but the creature that had haunted the various places of the house was standing right in front of him.

"Daddy...help me, please..."
The dog was enjoying the situation. He could feel the intimidation he was creating, and the fear he was inflicting. The sole purpose of this was to prove once again that he alone was the biggest and the best. The dog didn't have rabies, he just enjoyed hurting...and killing.
He had torn up countless chickens, and attacked many cats...he wondered how this different creature would taste.
He heard the pathetic whimpering, and smiled to himself. His face still showed the never-faltering evil, but his feeling of fun was still there.

He readied himself to run at the creature and bite it sideways...he felt his first several steps complete their path, bring him close to his prey...!

BWACK!

Before the dog knew what hit him, he was thrown sideways, off-balance and nearly to the ground. He felt dizzy, and shook his head vigorously as his canine mind adjusted to what had just happened. He looked towards his attacker, with his yellow-teeth bared...
Auron cracked his knuckles sharply and rolled his fist. Had he hit the dog full-force, he might've killed it. He hoped that the animal would be scared off, but that was not to be.
Before looking into the hate-fueled eyes of his adversary, Auron glanced a look at the little guy. He was still curled up by the fence, moving less than any stone statue. His terror was evident to anybody. Auron remembered him as one of the small "Experiments" he had seen while hiding in the bushes. He had followed him and the other small one down the hill, curious about where they were going, with a hunch that it was without permission. He had seen the dog attack, and hoped that the smaller one would run like the other. Instead, he had frozen in fear.

In his glance, the dog took the chance to jump at him. Auron, snapping back to attention, moved aside swiftly [yet smoothly], and punched the dog in the muzzle before he had even touched the ground.
Again, the dog was thrown off balance. His front legs seemed to fail momentarily, and he stumbled forward clumsily. Once he regained his angry composure, he turned himself back towards the direction of Auron, embarrassed and furious.

"Don't try it again, doggy", Auron warned under his breath.

However, the dog charged forward again, mad with rage. Auron decided to put a quick end to the scuffle, remembering a few maneuvers Riley had taught him. As the dog sprung at him, he dropped low, and the dog flew over him. Aiming precisely, he punched the dog with a fine amount of strength below the twining of the animal's rib cage.
The effect was a high-pitched whine of pain and a ten-second time-out. The dog fell to the ground, his body bringing forth a cloud of brown dirt and dust.

He limped off after that, with his tail between his legs and whining pitifully.
Auron smiled at his work before realizing that he wasn't a violence-freak anymore.

Instead, he turned around...and found two bright, wet eyes looking at him.
The little guy had removed his hands from his eyes, and was staring at his rescuer in a scared type of awe.
Auron looked back at him. He could tell that the kid was still very shaken up about what was going on...then again, who wouldn't be?
Auron took a step closer to him, and he felt him shiver with fear. He crouched down on his feet and showed a friendly smile.

"Hey", he said reassuringly.
"You okay now?"

The child stood silent for a bit, then nodded slowly.
Auron continued to smile.

"That dog's gone", he said.
"I don't think he'll be coming back."

The kid nodded again, and so did Auron.

"What's your name?", he asked.

...There was no answer.

"What's your name?", Auron repeated.

Quietly, in a tiny voice, the kid answered.

"...My parents told me not talk to strangers...", he said.

Auron continued to smile and nodded.

"That's good advice", he commented.
"Your mother's pretty smart, huh?"

...Another nod.

"My name's Auron", he continued.
"If you wanna tell me your name, we won't be strangers anymore."

In his mind, this seemed very logical to Garon. He sensed that there was some flaw, but he didn't know what it was.

"...My...my name's Garon", he said quietly.

"Garon?", Auron repeated.
"That's a cool name."

Garon actually felt a bit better when this was said. He began feeling a bit better about his rescuer.
He meant to get up, but felt a sharp stab of pain in his calf. He looked down, and saw an audible wound in his leg, seeping blood onto his fur.
Garon's breath quickened in panic. He was an individual who couldn't stand seeing blood, and seeing it on himself was overly upsetting.

"Ohhh...", he moaned quietly, tears filling his eyes again.

He wanted to look away, but the open wound held his gaze like a magnet. Lumps of anxiety built up in his chest, and got ready to burst...
Then, Auron's clawed hand covered up the sight.

"You hurt yourself pretty bad", he said, applying pressure to the blood- flow.
"...Look, you sat on this stone."

He held it up. It was particularly jagged, and had a few traces of fresh blood on it.

"Don't look at it", he advised.
"Look up at me if you want to."

Garon did so, and he was very scared.

"Am I going to die now?", he asked, his voice quivering.

Auron chuckled friendily.

"No, you're not gonna die", he assured Garon.
"As soon as you get up to the house, your parents can fix you right up...you do live at the big house up the road, don't you?"

Garon nodded and sniffled.

"Yes, that's where I live...where do you live?"

"I don't really live anywhere", Auron said.
"Well, I do, but I'm just traveling around right now...I live in Mana. That's on another island."

Garon nodded collectively.

"Why're you traveling around?", he asked.

"You're being pretty open", Auron inquired with a smile.
"Are you sure your parents would find it okay if you were discussing things with me?"

Garon sat quietly for a few seconds...before saying;

"They didn't say I couldn't talk to my friends."

He looked into Auron's face.

"...Are you my friend?"

"Do you want me to be your friend?", Auron asked him.

"...Yeah", Garon answered, finally showing a smile.

"Okay!", Auron said happily, feeling better than he had in months.
"You and me, we'll be friends."

Garon smile widened...and then he and Auron looked around, towards the sound of approaching footsteps; running towards them.

(A/N: finally, it's done!...I'll admit that I've been feeling a bit lazy here, but I plan to continue. I apologize if this chapter is so long that it seems awkward...I'm starting school again tomorrow, and I wanted to finish before I went to bed.
By the way, the scenario of Aron and Garon getting attacked by the dog [and Auron rescuing them] was a suggestion by Beboots. Thanks for the idea!)