Love and Burden
by The Great Red Dragon
***
Chapter 5
***
Peka scooped up Garon in her arms and hugged him tightly.
"Oh God!", she said, oblivious to anything but her child.
"Garon, I'm so glad you're alright! Aron told us-"
She noticed that he was had his hand pressed firmly over a spot on his right thigh, which was circled in dark blood.
"What happened to you?!"
She tried to lift his hand to inspect the wound, but he refused to move it.
"Mo-om!", he said loudly, once he could get the words out.
"I have to keep my hand over it! Auron said so!"
Peka looked at him.
"Auron?", she asked.
"Who's Aur-"
Then, she too caught sight of who everybody else [Stitch, Owen, and Twyla] was looking at.
It was undeniably another Experiment, and of the same branch as themselves. He was roughly their standard size, and had an aqua-marine color of fur, comparable to Stitch's and Owen's. His ears were somewhat shorter than Stitch's, and had no slits in them. Large, dark eyes stood out from his face, with a light touch of green to them.
Most noticeably, there were several scars visible on his anatomy. The most audible was a large slit vertically across his right shoulder. All in all, he showed signs of wear and tear everywhere.
***
Auron considered turning and running. All these new sets of eyes staring at him, with an expression that he couldn't read. Was it fear, awe, or disgust?
But his feet didn't want to move. He felt a fascination for the new faces, even though it was slightly jaded by both anxiety and fear.
The female crouched by Garon was of a beautiful emerald color with stripes down her back; she was the one he had seen in the yard the day before.
Garon wriggled out of his mother's grasp and pointed.
"That's Auron, Mom!", he informed her.
"He saved me from the dog!"
He looked over to Auron.
"Right?"
Auron did nothing...but finally nodded, and forced a small smile.
"Yeah...", he said shortly, and very quietly.
Garon indicated at Peka.
"This is my mom", he informed Auron, then motioning towards the others.
"And that's my dad, and that's Twyla, and that's Stitch!"
There came an awkward silence that Garon didn't understand. While the two stranger parties stared at each other, he looked from one to the other, while trying to figure out what was going on.
Finally, Peka stood up. She did so cautiously, as if not yet sure about the unknown Experiment.
He looked back at her, in wonder and anticipation for what was going to happen.
"..."
Peka attempted to say something but the words wouldn't come at first. She closed her mouth again, swallowed determinedly, and managed.
"...Did you really save my son?", she asked the Experiment.
Auron looked back at her, and nodded slowly.
"Yes...I did", he answered.
Peka nodded as well...and smiled slightly.
"Thank you", she said to him.
"Thank you for saving my baby."
"...You're welcome", Auron answered with a small returning-smile.
Peka reached behind herself, and pulled out the cracked, damaged CD-player.
"Is this yours?"
Auron nodded.
"Yes...I'm sorry I left it."
Peka nodded...and proceeded with the question that everybody wanted to know the answer to.
"Are you...Experiment 541?"
Auron looked back at her and nodded.
*********
Inside the shackhouse, Jumba had stashed the silver-colored weapons out of sight. On an ancient hot-plate, he prepared a mug of hot chocolate for Aron, who had been left behind. He [Aron] sat on a high-stool, and watched as Jumba prepared his drink, anxiety and fear still in his mind.
"Don't worry", Jumba said to him.
"They'll be back any second."
Aron wrung his hands nervously.
"What if something happened?", he asked worriedly.
"What if the dog..."
Jumba wrapped a cooling cloth around the base of the mug and lifted it from the hot-plate.
"I'm sure zat everything will be alright", he said in assurance, carrying the finished sweet over to the youngling.
"Your brother will be alright, I'm sure."
Aron accepted the steamy beverage and blew on it, sending the slivers of steam into the direction he had blown.
"I wish I hadn't asked him to go down there", he said remorsefully.
"Mom and Dad said never to go there..."
"Come now", Jumba said and leaned against the table.
"It iz not your fault...vell, you shouldn't have disobeyed your parents, but..."
He sighed once, and tried to find the correct words.
"Just don't worry", he said simply.
"Your brother will be fine."
Aron nodded weakly and sipped at the hot drink. It tasted a bit sweeter than he would've preferred...but then again, it had been prepared by Jumba, who was a bit of a sugar-addict.
Just then, the door of the shackhouse opened and Owen appeared.
"Dad!"
Aron jumped down from the stool, and almost spilt his drink in the process. He ran over to his father and grabbed his hand.
"Is he alright? Is he okay?", he asked Owen, tugging at his limb.
"Aron!", Owen said loudly, and withdrew his arm with some difficulty.
Then, he realized how his son must've been feeling about the situation, and gently rested a hand on his shoulder.
"He's okay", he said calmly.
"We brought him back to the house...I think you'd better come with."
Aron nodded and allowed his father to prod him out the door.
Jumba stepped towards them uneasily.
"Is zhere something I can do?", he asked tentatively.
Owen turned to face him.
"I...I think you'd better wait here a while", he said to him.
"We'll, uh...just wait a minute, okay?"
Owen stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him.
"What happened?", Aron asked again, as he and Owen began to walk up the road towards the house.
"D-did anything...what happened?"
Owen sighed heavily.
"I don't really know either, kiddo", he answered honestly.
"All I know is...well, let's just say that your brother brought home a new friend."
***
In the bathroom, sitting on the closed lid of the toilet, Garon cringed as his mother sprayed his wound with a sanitizing solution. He looked away as she applied a butterfly band aid and bound it with a roll of medical bandage.
"Come on", she said with a smile.
"It isn't that bad."
She washed her hands at the sink while Garon inspected the dressings gingerly. Then, she leaned towards him and hugged him lovingly.
"You're very brave", she told him, and kissed the top of his furry head.
"Mom...", he moaned in slight embarrassment, but didn't object to the affection.
Just then, the closed bathroom door was opened, and Aron and Owen walked in.
"Garon!", Aron cried as he caught sight of brother, and ran up and threw his arms around him.
"Aron-!", Garon exclaimed as he was almost knocked off the toilet seat, with his brother nearly throttling in his hug.
"I thought the dog was going to get you!", Aron said, and there was a trace of tears in his voice.
"I'm sorry I called a chicken, and I'm sorry I made you come with me! You could've been eaten-!"
With a slight assistance from his parents, Garon managed to regain his balance, and gave his brother a friendly squeeze before prying himself loose.
"I'm okay", he assured Aron.
"It's not your fault."
He looked around at his parents.
"Can we go downstairs?",, he asked.
Peka looked at Owen [and vice-versa], and they both nodded.
"Can you walk?", Owen asked Garon, extending a helping hand.
"No, I'm fine", Garon said confidently.
He jumped off of the toilet...and found his stance to be a bit shaky. He looked up and grinned sheepishly.
"...Maybe I'll use some help when I go down the stairs."
The four of them made their way out into the hall and towards the stairs. In support, Aron gripped his brother's hand safely while he himself [Garon] took hold of the banister-railing. As they neared the bottom, Aron remembered a question that had been in his mind.
"...Who did you bring home?", he asked Garon.
Garon smiled.
"He saved me from the dog", he stated proudly.
"His name's Auron, and he's sitting in the living room."
Aron looked at his brother quizzically.
"He's here?", he repeated.
"Yeah", Garon said.
He led Aron into the bedroom, and pointed out his new friend.
***
Stitch was feeling a bit doubtful as he prepared a cold, fruity refreshment for their new guest. He wasn't sure if he doubted the Experiment's integrity, or doubting if he actually was 541, but whatever it was, it was disconcerting.
Still, he was also a bit wary about if this was the Experiment 541. From the stories he had heard, 541 sounded like a rough fellow, and demanded caution.
He added the crushed ice, various pieces of fruit, and light sugar to a tall glass, which equated into an exotic fruit-slushy. To top it off, he added a straw and a twirly-umbrella.
Lilo was already off to school, and Nani had gone out somewhere, and they did not yet know about the new Experiment. Stitch prophesized their reactions [at least Nani's] when they came home later that day and discovered the new Experiment.
He picked up the completed delicacy and made out of the kitchen and into the living room.
***
541 had been offered to sit on the couch. He was trying to seem as pleasant and polite as possible, but was sure that his uncertainty and embarrassment was evident.
He looked over, and saw Garon come towards him, accompanied by his brother, who had fled the scene back with the dog. He looked very surprised and unsure about the new visitor, and Auron couldn't blame him. He didn't feel too comfortable himself in his position, but he felt a bit better when Garon climbed onto the sofa next to him.
"Comfy?", he asked him friendlily.
Auron nodded with a smile.
"You've got a very nice house", he commented.
He sat back, and tried not to stare at the Experiment sitting across from him in an armchair. It was a female, the one with the swelling stomach. Auron imagined that she was pregnant. Then he began to wonder if that was even possible...well, there were two mature males running around the place, and he doubted that anything besides them...well, you get the picture.
He snapped back to reality when one of the guy-Experiments approached him, carrying an icy glass in one hand.
"Here", he said, and handed it to Auron.
"Thank you", Auron said, taking the glass from him.
While the male Experiment sat down, Auron politely took a sip from his beverage, and noted that it was remarkably good.
Before long, what seemed to be all of the Experiments had gathered in the living room. The four adults all sat across from Auron, the other child included. In fact, it seemed that only Garon himself wasn't wary about his presence. For this, Auron felt a feeling of gratitude towards the little guy.
***
Peka wasn't sure what to say. She could see that Garon was completely content with the presence of the newest Experiment, and tried to serene herself with that very thought. But even with that in mind, she was still somewhat uneasy.
Peka glanced a look at the others sitting close to her, and it seemed as if they were thinking the same thing.
But she was determined to be polite, and shifted her gaze back to the Experiment ["Auron", she reminded herself, as Garon had said].
"...I'd like to thank you for saving my son", she said to him.
"You...you saved his life."
The Experiment ["Auron", she reminded herself] smile casually.
"Hey", he said good-naturedly.
"He was in trouble...that's what you do when somebody's in trouble."
Peka nodded with a smile of her own.
"I don't think we've introduced ourselves properly", she said.
"My name is Peka."
She motioned down the line of her comrades sitting next to her.
"And this is Owen, Twyla, and Stitch."
The three of them made some motion as their name was announced. Owen raised his hand weakly, Twyla smiled shortly, and Stitch nodded.
Peka motioned to Garon, who had squeezed in next to her in the armchair.
"And this is Aron", she said.
Aron was still to unsure about it all to make any type of gesture. Instead, he looked away.
Auron smiled at all of them.
"My name's Auron", he said, refreshing their memories.
"It's awfully nice of you to let me into your house."
Peka nodded.
"You're welcome...well, it's not our house. It's in Nani's name, but we all live here."
Auron's ears perked.
"You live with humans?", he asked, with surprise evident in his voice.
Peka nodded.
"Yeah", she said.
"...It's kind of a long story, though."
"I live with humans too!", Auron said, with the air of this being the latest trend or fashion.
"It's a long story, too", he added.
There followed a very brief silence, which was broken by Owen;
"Okay, so who goes first?"
Everybody sitting laughed.
*********
Jumba paced hastily back and forth around the main room of the shackhouse. He had accidentally knocked over the table with one of his huge, worried strides, but hadn't yet bothered to pick anything up.
He was still concerned about Garon, but he had been somewhat alarmed about the way Owen had acted at the door.
Had it something to do with Experiment 541?
Jumba thought to himself that he was just being paranoid, but the lingering worry would not leave him.
Behind him, the door opened, and the doctor jumped higher than his physical stature should've allowed.
But it turned out to be only Pleakley, who screamed at the sudden motion and fell over as the floor jarred violently below him.
"Oh!", Jumba said in embarrassment.
"What did you do that for?!", Pleakley exclaimed in his high-pitched voice.
"Wherever I go, there's somebody out to kill me! First it's a café', then the ocean, then in my own house! I'm going to move away!"
He picked himself up friskily and scuttled angrily passed Jumba.
"Sorry...", the large alien mumbled.
"Oh yeah! Everybody's sorry!", Pleakley said loudly.
"You can say a lot, but you can't appreciate me!"
Jumba allowed Pleakley to talk [shout] himself out for several minutes, until he silenced himself with a kind of miffed irritation. Everything was alright again.
Jumba felt safe enough now to question the situation.
"How iz the little one?", he asked.
"You mean Garon?", Pleakley asked.
"Oh, he's fine. Just a scratch. What's more is our visitor."
Jumba's eyes lifted.
"Vizitor?"
"Yep", Pleakley said.
"Believe it, it's another one of your little Experiments. They turn up a lot, huh?"
He turned around and began moving about the cabin, straightening up the knocked-over table by obligation. He was unaware that Jumba had gone as pale as a grave.
"Yeah, he's sitting in the living room now", Pleakley went on.
"As usual, nobody told me, so I was just coming down the stairs and saw them all on the seats and sofa. Well, they were pretty wrapped up in their conversation, so I just-"
He kept on talking, unaware that Jumba had left the shackhouse.
*********
"Well, their story must be pretty boring", thought Auron, as looks of awe and bewilderment came his way upon the completion of his life's story.
Even Aron had squeezed himself into view from beside his mother to get a better look at the tale-teller. Peka, Stitch, Twyla, and Owen all looked in on fascination to Auron's narration of his existence from lab to Hawaii.
Garon was the first to speak.
"Wow!", he said in great advisement.
"You did all that?"
Auron smiled at him and nodded.
"Yeah...I did."
While he said this, the others sitting in the chairs [except Aron] were experiencing a rage of thoughts.
Auron had told them a magnificent story, and though they all felt that they should be enthralled about every part, their minds were painfully focused on one crucial collection of facts.
Auron had accurately described the birth process that all live Experiments went through...but there was something different about Auron's account.
Although Stitch didn't remember much about his birth, the others did [their ways of creation]. Peka had been set under a comfortable blue-light until her body began to function properly. Twyla had been set inside a chemical bath that plenished body to a healthy state. Owen had woken up, seen Jumba bending over him, and had immediately tried to eat the collar of his lab coat.
From then on, their lives in the lab had been pretty good.
But Auron...
From the moment he could walk, Jumba had toiled, punished, and tortured him. His life in the lab was more like life in a dungeon...and when it seemed that his life hadn't been worth enough, he was to be killed.
Murdered.
Peka blinked. This wasn't the Jumba she knew.
She looked at both of hr children, and saw that they had been too enthralled in the adventurous parts of the tale to be worried about Jumba.
"Auron?", she said quietly.
"Yes?", Auron asked.
Peka swallowed.
"...Are you sure you're talking about Jumba?", she asked him.
"Is it possible that it was somebody else?"
Auron looked confused for a moment...then shook his head.
"Nope", he said.
"That was Jumba alright."
"Are you sure?", Peka asked again.
"Maybe it was just another one of his species, with the same first name."
"His full name was Jumba Ulam Jookiba", Auron stated.
"It said so on his lab coat."
He looked at the other Experiments.
"Why do you ask?", he wanted to know.
"How did you escape?"
There was silence. It's uncertain what kind of silence it was, but it was silence nonetheless.
This silence was broken by a sound at the window. Everybody's eyes had been diverted to the source...but there was nothing there. Only the remaining feeling that whatever had caused the noise had fled.
"What was that?", Auron asked, craning his neck.
"...Probably just a cat", Peka said.
Auron seemed content with the answer, but a feeling of dread was welling up in Peka's, Stitch's, Twyla's, and Owen's bellies.
*********
As swiftly as his large body would allow, Jumba raced back to the shackhouse.
"541!", somebody screamed over and over in his mind.
"541! 541! 541!"
*********
Later that night, Auron arose from the couch and entered the hallways. The night cast deep-blue shadows upon the wall that identified a house he wasn't familiar with.
In short, everything had been cleared. Nani and Lilo were now content with his presence to a point that was almost strange. It seemed as if they were expecting a new Experiment to drop in at any time, but they were courteous nonetheless.
Lilo reminded Auron a lot about Rebecca. They almost looked the same, although it seemed as if Lilo had a more sophisticated mind that Rebecca.
"Maybe that comes from living with so many Experiments", Auron thought to himself.
She had actually made him laugh when she had presented him with an outlined sketch of himself, and an almost non-existent 'color-in' inside that indicated his 'badness-level': extremely low.
He laughed in his mind as he thought of this, but not on his face. He still felt very unsure about his hosts...almost as if they were hiding something from him.
Then again, he had just found out that he was not the only Experiment alive in existence, so perhaps that was the case.
Whatever it was, Auron felt the need to talk...and he headed towards the phone.
***
He was a bit anxious as he pressed in the numbered buttons of Riley's home phone-number. He looked over his shoulder once to see if anybody was watching, found nobody, and turned back to the phone, the dead of night falling in upon him.
The phone rang twice...surprisingly less than the usual, but it was indeed Riley who answered.
"Hello?", he said in a very sleepy voice, as if he had just gotten up from bed to answer the phone.
"Riley?", Auron said.
Immediately, Riley's voice perked enthusiastically.
"Auron!", he exclaimed over the slight static of the phone.
"My God, how are you?"
"I dunno...", Auron answered dully.
"I got your message", Riley continued.
"I'm really sorry I wasn't there that night; there was a fest going on by the beach and I took Lara and Rebecca."
"Don't worry", Auron said.
"Just as long as you had fun."
"I wish you could've been there", Riley said, with a trace of sadness in his voice.
"You would've really liked it...especially when one of the flare-dancers set the stage on fire."
"Yeah", Auron replied with a slight smile.
"Sounds like my kind of thing."
"I got to help put out the fire", Riley added.
"It ended up getting real crazy, so we left pretty quickly."
Then, as if realizing he had done something wrong, he quickly said;
"But enough of what I did; how're you doing?"
Auron was about to say something like "Sucks like Hell" [it would've been out of reflex], but stopped himself as he remembered the current events.
"...I've been going through an unusual time", he said at a failure of words.
A short silence followed at Riley's end...before he finally answered.
"What do you mean?", he asked curiously.
"Where are you?"
"I'm on Kauai", Auron answered; identifying the island he was on.
"By the ocean...but I think that's the least of my worries."
"C'mon, Auron!", Riley urged.
"Tell me what's happening!"
Auron looked around himself, noticing how paranoid he was becoming as they delved deeper into the conversation.
"You remember all that I told you about Jumba, and he stuff that happened back on Turo?", he asked, placing the receiver back to his mouth.
"Yeah...", Riley said slowly at the other end.
"Well", Auron continued.
"I always thought I was the only one...but I was wrong."
He was ready to launch into all that he knew and all that he had found out...but then, he picked up the sound of approaching footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Damn!", he hissed under his breath.
"Riley!", he said quickly and urgently.
"I'll have to call you back!"
"What?!", Riley said from the other end as Auron lowered the receiver upon the phone.
"Auron, what-"
*click*
Auron stepped away from the telephone, just soon enough to see Peka come into view.
***
She caught sight of him as well, and reacted with a bit of surprise.
"Oh!", she said.
"Auron-!.........I didn't know you were up!"
"Neither did I!", he Auron said, almost sounding overly suspicious.
An awkward silence was experienced, in which neither Experiment looked at the other. Then, Peka noticed that he was standing close to the phone.
"Did you want to call someone?", she asked him.
"Me?", Auron said innocently.
"No, I was just...going to the bathroom."
"The bathroom's in the other direction", Peka told him.
"I just finished", Auron replied.
Peka furrowed her brow unnoticeably [to Auron]. She didn't buy this story, but wasn't too concerned about the whole thing. She understood how Auron must've been feeling, and realized that he was still very jumpy around his new comrades.
"Well", she said.
"I was going to get something to eat...you want something too?"
Auron was about to lie in courtesy, but his sudden rumbling of the stomach gave him away.
"Maybe just a bit", he said with a smile.
Peka smiled back at him.
"Sure", she said, leading him towards the kitchen.
"Let's go."
*********
Under the nightly bulb of the lamp, Peka pulled two Tupperware-sealed sandwiches out of the freezer while Auron took a seat at the table.
"Not all of Owen's sandwiches are bad", she told him as she closed the fridge behind her, and climbed onto a chair across from him.
She opened the box with a popping noise and handed a sandwich to Auron.
"Don't eat it if you don't like it", she said to him.
"I just happen to think that chow mein and egg-salad taste good together...as crazy as it sounds."
"It's pretty good", Auron commented honestly after he had taken a bite out of his cold sandwich.
Peka nodded in relief and pulled out another sandwich [chicken and soy mustard]. She took a tiny bite out of a corner and chewed quietly along with Auron.
For a few minutes, the two of them sat silently, munching away at their midnight snacks, while serious thoughts pressed through their minds.
Peka noted a strange feeling that she felt around Auron...a feeling that she had known him before that day, a long time ago.
Somehow, she found it easy to be in his presence. She felt that she remembered him from somewhere.
Peka wasn't sure that Auron felt the same way, so she kept her mouth shut about it. Instead, she inquired other questions.
"How's the sandwich?", she asked, dumbly noticing that she had asked the question before.
"Very good", Auron commented politely.
In her mind, Peka's conscious jumped to another perspective.
In all her life, ever since she had been created, Jumba had been almost a father-figure to her, as well as all the other Experiments that had allowed him. She knew he was a little pompous and irritable, but always thought of him as a great person, and her great creator.
But now, here sat a creature who had told a story of cruel hardship and attempted murder involving the same person she loved so much. From what Auron said, Jumba Jookiba was nothing more than a profit-hungry demon with a life-deaf for others.
She had wanted to believe that he had been lying, but something in her mind assured her naggingly that he was telling the truth.
But, in a sense, it also made sense logically. Peka had never wondered why Jumba had gone to the trouble to create a full 626 Experiments...but it seemed so indefinitely clear that he had something in mind for their use.
Auron had been an achievement, and he was put through Hell for it.
Now, she wondered, what if she too had been considered an achievement?
***
The stress bubbled in her mind so harshly that she clutched her forehead roughly.
"Are you alright?", Auron asked with concern and sat up.
Peka opened her eyes. She saw Auron, and felt a strange, dark feeling towards him. It wasn't hate, and neither was it non-hate. It was a feeling that she couldn't see him anymore or else she'd go crazy.
"I've got to go", she said quickly, jumping off of her chair.
"Back to bed..."
"You sure you're alright?", Auron asked again.
"Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine", Peka insisted.
"I'm going back to bed...good night."
And she scrambled out of the kitchen, feeling Auron's green-tinged eyes watching her. She felt a relief as she rounded the corner out of the kitchen, but felt the tension in her head increase as she ran up the stairs and back into the darkened bedroom, where Owen was sleeping softly.
*********
Auron stood where he was for a minute, listening to Peka retreat hastily as if he was carrying a deadly disease. He wondered if he had done or said something wrong. Then again, he hadn't said or done anything besides eat the sandwich, but he still felt very confused.
Carefully, with the air of a person who felt lost and confused, he put the two remaining sandwiches back into the Tupperware box and set it back to it's previous spot in the refrigerator.
While turning all the lights back off, he returned to the couch and laid back down. He didn't know what was going on, but he felt more suspicious than ever. He didn't want to be in anymore trouble, but it seemed that he was heading in that direction.
It took him a long time to fall asleep, but even when he did, he was not about to receive rest.
*********
[A/N: FINALLY!!!
I can't tell y'all how sorry I am about me taking this long to type up this chapter. I believe I caught a case of Writer's Block for a while, but I hope that's passed by now.
Forgive me if this chapter seems too widely-spaced and uneven, as well as unclear in some of the scenes; I wanted to finish this tonight, or else I'd be spending another month on this.
As a minor note, I mentioned in a previous a comment about Pleakley being a metrosexual. To clear up anything, metrosexuality is different from homosexuality. Metrosexuality refers to an orientation in which the male will be more concerned about clothes and cosmetics than some think he should be.
I'm sure I'll get the next chapter done much quicker. I hope so...
See ya!]
by The Great Red Dragon
***
Chapter 5
***
Peka scooped up Garon in her arms and hugged him tightly.
"Oh God!", she said, oblivious to anything but her child.
"Garon, I'm so glad you're alright! Aron told us-"
She noticed that he was had his hand pressed firmly over a spot on his right thigh, which was circled in dark blood.
"What happened to you?!"
She tried to lift his hand to inspect the wound, but he refused to move it.
"Mo-om!", he said loudly, once he could get the words out.
"I have to keep my hand over it! Auron said so!"
Peka looked at him.
"Auron?", she asked.
"Who's Aur-"
Then, she too caught sight of who everybody else [Stitch, Owen, and Twyla] was looking at.
It was undeniably another Experiment, and of the same branch as themselves. He was roughly their standard size, and had an aqua-marine color of fur, comparable to Stitch's and Owen's. His ears were somewhat shorter than Stitch's, and had no slits in them. Large, dark eyes stood out from his face, with a light touch of green to them.
Most noticeably, there were several scars visible on his anatomy. The most audible was a large slit vertically across his right shoulder. All in all, he showed signs of wear and tear everywhere.
***
Auron considered turning and running. All these new sets of eyes staring at him, with an expression that he couldn't read. Was it fear, awe, or disgust?
But his feet didn't want to move. He felt a fascination for the new faces, even though it was slightly jaded by both anxiety and fear.
The female crouched by Garon was of a beautiful emerald color with stripes down her back; she was the one he had seen in the yard the day before.
Garon wriggled out of his mother's grasp and pointed.
"That's Auron, Mom!", he informed her.
"He saved me from the dog!"
He looked over to Auron.
"Right?"
Auron did nothing...but finally nodded, and forced a small smile.
"Yeah...", he said shortly, and very quietly.
Garon indicated at Peka.
"This is my mom", he informed Auron, then motioning towards the others.
"And that's my dad, and that's Twyla, and that's Stitch!"
There came an awkward silence that Garon didn't understand. While the two stranger parties stared at each other, he looked from one to the other, while trying to figure out what was going on.
Finally, Peka stood up. She did so cautiously, as if not yet sure about the unknown Experiment.
He looked back at her, in wonder and anticipation for what was going to happen.
"..."
Peka attempted to say something but the words wouldn't come at first. She closed her mouth again, swallowed determinedly, and managed.
"...Did you really save my son?", she asked the Experiment.
Auron looked back at her, and nodded slowly.
"Yes...I did", he answered.
Peka nodded as well...and smiled slightly.
"Thank you", she said to him.
"Thank you for saving my baby."
"...You're welcome", Auron answered with a small returning-smile.
Peka reached behind herself, and pulled out the cracked, damaged CD-player.
"Is this yours?"
Auron nodded.
"Yes...I'm sorry I left it."
Peka nodded...and proceeded with the question that everybody wanted to know the answer to.
"Are you...Experiment 541?"
Auron looked back at her and nodded.
*********
Inside the shackhouse, Jumba had stashed the silver-colored weapons out of sight. On an ancient hot-plate, he prepared a mug of hot chocolate for Aron, who had been left behind. He [Aron] sat on a high-stool, and watched as Jumba prepared his drink, anxiety and fear still in his mind.
"Don't worry", Jumba said to him.
"They'll be back any second."
Aron wrung his hands nervously.
"What if something happened?", he asked worriedly.
"What if the dog..."
Jumba wrapped a cooling cloth around the base of the mug and lifted it from the hot-plate.
"I'm sure zat everything will be alright", he said in assurance, carrying the finished sweet over to the youngling.
"Your brother will be alright, I'm sure."
Aron accepted the steamy beverage and blew on it, sending the slivers of steam into the direction he had blown.
"I wish I hadn't asked him to go down there", he said remorsefully.
"Mom and Dad said never to go there..."
"Come now", Jumba said and leaned against the table.
"It iz not your fault...vell, you shouldn't have disobeyed your parents, but..."
He sighed once, and tried to find the correct words.
"Just don't worry", he said simply.
"Your brother will be fine."
Aron nodded weakly and sipped at the hot drink. It tasted a bit sweeter than he would've preferred...but then again, it had been prepared by Jumba, who was a bit of a sugar-addict.
Just then, the door of the shackhouse opened and Owen appeared.
"Dad!"
Aron jumped down from the stool, and almost spilt his drink in the process. He ran over to his father and grabbed his hand.
"Is he alright? Is he okay?", he asked Owen, tugging at his limb.
"Aron!", Owen said loudly, and withdrew his arm with some difficulty.
Then, he realized how his son must've been feeling about the situation, and gently rested a hand on his shoulder.
"He's okay", he said calmly.
"We brought him back to the house...I think you'd better come with."
Aron nodded and allowed his father to prod him out the door.
Jumba stepped towards them uneasily.
"Is zhere something I can do?", he asked tentatively.
Owen turned to face him.
"I...I think you'd better wait here a while", he said to him.
"We'll, uh...just wait a minute, okay?"
Owen stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him.
"What happened?", Aron asked again, as he and Owen began to walk up the road towards the house.
"D-did anything...what happened?"
Owen sighed heavily.
"I don't really know either, kiddo", he answered honestly.
"All I know is...well, let's just say that your brother brought home a new friend."
***
In the bathroom, sitting on the closed lid of the toilet, Garon cringed as his mother sprayed his wound with a sanitizing solution. He looked away as she applied a butterfly band aid and bound it with a roll of medical bandage.
"Come on", she said with a smile.
"It isn't that bad."
She washed her hands at the sink while Garon inspected the dressings gingerly. Then, she leaned towards him and hugged him lovingly.
"You're very brave", she told him, and kissed the top of his furry head.
"Mom...", he moaned in slight embarrassment, but didn't object to the affection.
Just then, the closed bathroom door was opened, and Aron and Owen walked in.
"Garon!", Aron cried as he caught sight of brother, and ran up and threw his arms around him.
"Aron-!", Garon exclaimed as he was almost knocked off the toilet seat, with his brother nearly throttling in his hug.
"I thought the dog was going to get you!", Aron said, and there was a trace of tears in his voice.
"I'm sorry I called a chicken, and I'm sorry I made you come with me! You could've been eaten-!"
With a slight assistance from his parents, Garon managed to regain his balance, and gave his brother a friendly squeeze before prying himself loose.
"I'm okay", he assured Aron.
"It's not your fault."
He looked around at his parents.
"Can we go downstairs?",, he asked.
Peka looked at Owen [and vice-versa], and they both nodded.
"Can you walk?", Owen asked Garon, extending a helping hand.
"No, I'm fine", Garon said confidently.
He jumped off of the toilet...and found his stance to be a bit shaky. He looked up and grinned sheepishly.
"...Maybe I'll use some help when I go down the stairs."
The four of them made their way out into the hall and towards the stairs. In support, Aron gripped his brother's hand safely while he himself [Garon] took hold of the banister-railing. As they neared the bottom, Aron remembered a question that had been in his mind.
"...Who did you bring home?", he asked Garon.
Garon smiled.
"He saved me from the dog", he stated proudly.
"His name's Auron, and he's sitting in the living room."
Aron looked at his brother quizzically.
"He's here?", he repeated.
"Yeah", Garon said.
He led Aron into the bedroom, and pointed out his new friend.
***
Stitch was feeling a bit doubtful as he prepared a cold, fruity refreshment for their new guest. He wasn't sure if he doubted the Experiment's integrity, or doubting if he actually was 541, but whatever it was, it was disconcerting.
Still, he was also a bit wary about if this was the Experiment 541. From the stories he had heard, 541 sounded like a rough fellow, and demanded caution.
He added the crushed ice, various pieces of fruit, and light sugar to a tall glass, which equated into an exotic fruit-slushy. To top it off, he added a straw and a twirly-umbrella.
Lilo was already off to school, and Nani had gone out somewhere, and they did not yet know about the new Experiment. Stitch prophesized their reactions [at least Nani's] when they came home later that day and discovered the new Experiment.
He picked up the completed delicacy and made out of the kitchen and into the living room.
***
541 had been offered to sit on the couch. He was trying to seem as pleasant and polite as possible, but was sure that his uncertainty and embarrassment was evident.
He looked over, and saw Garon come towards him, accompanied by his brother, who had fled the scene back with the dog. He looked very surprised and unsure about the new visitor, and Auron couldn't blame him. He didn't feel too comfortable himself in his position, but he felt a bit better when Garon climbed onto the sofa next to him.
"Comfy?", he asked him friendlily.
Auron nodded with a smile.
"You've got a very nice house", he commented.
He sat back, and tried not to stare at the Experiment sitting across from him in an armchair. It was a female, the one with the swelling stomach. Auron imagined that she was pregnant. Then he began to wonder if that was even possible...well, there were two mature males running around the place, and he doubted that anything besides them...well, you get the picture.
He snapped back to reality when one of the guy-Experiments approached him, carrying an icy glass in one hand.
"Here", he said, and handed it to Auron.
"Thank you", Auron said, taking the glass from him.
While the male Experiment sat down, Auron politely took a sip from his beverage, and noted that it was remarkably good.
Before long, what seemed to be all of the Experiments had gathered in the living room. The four adults all sat across from Auron, the other child included. In fact, it seemed that only Garon himself wasn't wary about his presence. For this, Auron felt a feeling of gratitude towards the little guy.
***
Peka wasn't sure what to say. She could see that Garon was completely content with the presence of the newest Experiment, and tried to serene herself with that very thought. But even with that in mind, she was still somewhat uneasy.
Peka glanced a look at the others sitting close to her, and it seemed as if they were thinking the same thing.
But she was determined to be polite, and shifted her gaze back to the Experiment ["Auron", she reminded herself, as Garon had said].
"...I'd like to thank you for saving my son", she said to him.
"You...you saved his life."
The Experiment ["Auron", she reminded herself] smile casually.
"Hey", he said good-naturedly.
"He was in trouble...that's what you do when somebody's in trouble."
Peka nodded with a smile of her own.
"I don't think we've introduced ourselves properly", she said.
"My name is Peka."
She motioned down the line of her comrades sitting next to her.
"And this is Owen, Twyla, and Stitch."
The three of them made some motion as their name was announced. Owen raised his hand weakly, Twyla smiled shortly, and Stitch nodded.
Peka motioned to Garon, who had squeezed in next to her in the armchair.
"And this is Aron", she said.
Aron was still to unsure about it all to make any type of gesture. Instead, he looked away.
Auron smiled at all of them.
"My name's Auron", he said, refreshing their memories.
"It's awfully nice of you to let me into your house."
Peka nodded.
"You're welcome...well, it's not our house. It's in Nani's name, but we all live here."
Auron's ears perked.
"You live with humans?", he asked, with surprise evident in his voice.
Peka nodded.
"Yeah", she said.
"...It's kind of a long story, though."
"I live with humans too!", Auron said, with the air of this being the latest trend or fashion.
"It's a long story, too", he added.
There followed a very brief silence, which was broken by Owen;
"Okay, so who goes first?"
Everybody sitting laughed.
*********
Jumba paced hastily back and forth around the main room of the shackhouse. He had accidentally knocked over the table with one of his huge, worried strides, but hadn't yet bothered to pick anything up.
He was still concerned about Garon, but he had been somewhat alarmed about the way Owen had acted at the door.
Had it something to do with Experiment 541?
Jumba thought to himself that he was just being paranoid, but the lingering worry would not leave him.
Behind him, the door opened, and the doctor jumped higher than his physical stature should've allowed.
But it turned out to be only Pleakley, who screamed at the sudden motion and fell over as the floor jarred violently below him.
"Oh!", Jumba said in embarrassment.
"What did you do that for?!", Pleakley exclaimed in his high-pitched voice.
"Wherever I go, there's somebody out to kill me! First it's a café', then the ocean, then in my own house! I'm going to move away!"
He picked himself up friskily and scuttled angrily passed Jumba.
"Sorry...", the large alien mumbled.
"Oh yeah! Everybody's sorry!", Pleakley said loudly.
"You can say a lot, but you can't appreciate me!"
Jumba allowed Pleakley to talk [shout] himself out for several minutes, until he silenced himself with a kind of miffed irritation. Everything was alright again.
Jumba felt safe enough now to question the situation.
"How iz the little one?", he asked.
"You mean Garon?", Pleakley asked.
"Oh, he's fine. Just a scratch. What's more is our visitor."
Jumba's eyes lifted.
"Vizitor?"
"Yep", Pleakley said.
"Believe it, it's another one of your little Experiments. They turn up a lot, huh?"
He turned around and began moving about the cabin, straightening up the knocked-over table by obligation. He was unaware that Jumba had gone as pale as a grave.
"Yeah, he's sitting in the living room now", Pleakley went on.
"As usual, nobody told me, so I was just coming down the stairs and saw them all on the seats and sofa. Well, they were pretty wrapped up in their conversation, so I just-"
He kept on talking, unaware that Jumba had left the shackhouse.
*********
"Well, their story must be pretty boring", thought Auron, as looks of awe and bewilderment came his way upon the completion of his life's story.
Even Aron had squeezed himself into view from beside his mother to get a better look at the tale-teller. Peka, Stitch, Twyla, and Owen all looked in on fascination to Auron's narration of his existence from lab to Hawaii.
Garon was the first to speak.
"Wow!", he said in great advisement.
"You did all that?"
Auron smiled at him and nodded.
"Yeah...I did."
While he said this, the others sitting in the chairs [except Aron] were experiencing a rage of thoughts.
Auron had told them a magnificent story, and though they all felt that they should be enthralled about every part, their minds were painfully focused on one crucial collection of facts.
Auron had accurately described the birth process that all live Experiments went through...but there was something different about Auron's account.
Although Stitch didn't remember much about his birth, the others did [their ways of creation]. Peka had been set under a comfortable blue-light until her body began to function properly. Twyla had been set inside a chemical bath that plenished body to a healthy state. Owen had woken up, seen Jumba bending over him, and had immediately tried to eat the collar of his lab coat.
From then on, their lives in the lab had been pretty good.
But Auron...
From the moment he could walk, Jumba had toiled, punished, and tortured him. His life in the lab was more like life in a dungeon...and when it seemed that his life hadn't been worth enough, he was to be killed.
Murdered.
Peka blinked. This wasn't the Jumba she knew.
She looked at both of hr children, and saw that they had been too enthralled in the adventurous parts of the tale to be worried about Jumba.
"Auron?", she said quietly.
"Yes?", Auron asked.
Peka swallowed.
"...Are you sure you're talking about Jumba?", she asked him.
"Is it possible that it was somebody else?"
Auron looked confused for a moment...then shook his head.
"Nope", he said.
"That was Jumba alright."
"Are you sure?", Peka asked again.
"Maybe it was just another one of his species, with the same first name."
"His full name was Jumba Ulam Jookiba", Auron stated.
"It said so on his lab coat."
He looked at the other Experiments.
"Why do you ask?", he wanted to know.
"How did you escape?"
There was silence. It's uncertain what kind of silence it was, but it was silence nonetheless.
This silence was broken by a sound at the window. Everybody's eyes had been diverted to the source...but there was nothing there. Only the remaining feeling that whatever had caused the noise had fled.
"What was that?", Auron asked, craning his neck.
"...Probably just a cat", Peka said.
Auron seemed content with the answer, but a feeling of dread was welling up in Peka's, Stitch's, Twyla's, and Owen's bellies.
*********
As swiftly as his large body would allow, Jumba raced back to the shackhouse.
"541!", somebody screamed over and over in his mind.
"541! 541! 541!"
*********
Later that night, Auron arose from the couch and entered the hallways. The night cast deep-blue shadows upon the wall that identified a house he wasn't familiar with.
In short, everything had been cleared. Nani and Lilo were now content with his presence to a point that was almost strange. It seemed as if they were expecting a new Experiment to drop in at any time, but they were courteous nonetheless.
Lilo reminded Auron a lot about Rebecca. They almost looked the same, although it seemed as if Lilo had a more sophisticated mind that Rebecca.
"Maybe that comes from living with so many Experiments", Auron thought to himself.
She had actually made him laugh when she had presented him with an outlined sketch of himself, and an almost non-existent 'color-in' inside that indicated his 'badness-level': extremely low.
He laughed in his mind as he thought of this, but not on his face. He still felt very unsure about his hosts...almost as if they were hiding something from him.
Then again, he had just found out that he was not the only Experiment alive in existence, so perhaps that was the case.
Whatever it was, Auron felt the need to talk...and he headed towards the phone.
***
He was a bit anxious as he pressed in the numbered buttons of Riley's home phone-number. He looked over his shoulder once to see if anybody was watching, found nobody, and turned back to the phone, the dead of night falling in upon him.
The phone rang twice...surprisingly less than the usual, but it was indeed Riley who answered.
"Hello?", he said in a very sleepy voice, as if he had just gotten up from bed to answer the phone.
"Riley?", Auron said.
Immediately, Riley's voice perked enthusiastically.
"Auron!", he exclaimed over the slight static of the phone.
"My God, how are you?"
"I dunno...", Auron answered dully.
"I got your message", Riley continued.
"I'm really sorry I wasn't there that night; there was a fest going on by the beach and I took Lara and Rebecca."
"Don't worry", Auron said.
"Just as long as you had fun."
"I wish you could've been there", Riley said, with a trace of sadness in his voice.
"You would've really liked it...especially when one of the flare-dancers set the stage on fire."
"Yeah", Auron replied with a slight smile.
"Sounds like my kind of thing."
"I got to help put out the fire", Riley added.
"It ended up getting real crazy, so we left pretty quickly."
Then, as if realizing he had done something wrong, he quickly said;
"But enough of what I did; how're you doing?"
Auron was about to say something like "Sucks like Hell" [it would've been out of reflex], but stopped himself as he remembered the current events.
"...I've been going through an unusual time", he said at a failure of words.
A short silence followed at Riley's end...before he finally answered.
"What do you mean?", he asked curiously.
"Where are you?"
"I'm on Kauai", Auron answered; identifying the island he was on.
"By the ocean...but I think that's the least of my worries."
"C'mon, Auron!", Riley urged.
"Tell me what's happening!"
Auron looked around himself, noticing how paranoid he was becoming as they delved deeper into the conversation.
"You remember all that I told you about Jumba, and he stuff that happened back on Turo?", he asked, placing the receiver back to his mouth.
"Yeah...", Riley said slowly at the other end.
"Well", Auron continued.
"I always thought I was the only one...but I was wrong."
He was ready to launch into all that he knew and all that he had found out...but then, he picked up the sound of approaching footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Damn!", he hissed under his breath.
"Riley!", he said quickly and urgently.
"I'll have to call you back!"
"What?!", Riley said from the other end as Auron lowered the receiver upon the phone.
"Auron, what-"
*click*
Auron stepped away from the telephone, just soon enough to see Peka come into view.
***
She caught sight of him as well, and reacted with a bit of surprise.
"Oh!", she said.
"Auron-!.........I didn't know you were up!"
"Neither did I!", he Auron said, almost sounding overly suspicious.
An awkward silence was experienced, in which neither Experiment looked at the other. Then, Peka noticed that he was standing close to the phone.
"Did you want to call someone?", she asked him.
"Me?", Auron said innocently.
"No, I was just...going to the bathroom."
"The bathroom's in the other direction", Peka told him.
"I just finished", Auron replied.
Peka furrowed her brow unnoticeably [to Auron]. She didn't buy this story, but wasn't too concerned about the whole thing. She understood how Auron must've been feeling, and realized that he was still very jumpy around his new comrades.
"Well", she said.
"I was going to get something to eat...you want something too?"
Auron was about to lie in courtesy, but his sudden rumbling of the stomach gave him away.
"Maybe just a bit", he said with a smile.
Peka smiled back at him.
"Sure", she said, leading him towards the kitchen.
"Let's go."
*********
Under the nightly bulb of the lamp, Peka pulled two Tupperware-sealed sandwiches out of the freezer while Auron took a seat at the table.
"Not all of Owen's sandwiches are bad", she told him as she closed the fridge behind her, and climbed onto a chair across from him.
She opened the box with a popping noise and handed a sandwich to Auron.
"Don't eat it if you don't like it", she said to him.
"I just happen to think that chow mein and egg-salad taste good together...as crazy as it sounds."
"It's pretty good", Auron commented honestly after he had taken a bite out of his cold sandwich.
Peka nodded in relief and pulled out another sandwich [chicken and soy mustard]. She took a tiny bite out of a corner and chewed quietly along with Auron.
For a few minutes, the two of them sat silently, munching away at their midnight snacks, while serious thoughts pressed through their minds.
Peka noted a strange feeling that she felt around Auron...a feeling that she had known him before that day, a long time ago.
Somehow, she found it easy to be in his presence. She felt that she remembered him from somewhere.
Peka wasn't sure that Auron felt the same way, so she kept her mouth shut about it. Instead, she inquired other questions.
"How's the sandwich?", she asked, dumbly noticing that she had asked the question before.
"Very good", Auron commented politely.
In her mind, Peka's conscious jumped to another perspective.
In all her life, ever since she had been created, Jumba had been almost a father-figure to her, as well as all the other Experiments that had allowed him. She knew he was a little pompous and irritable, but always thought of him as a great person, and her great creator.
But now, here sat a creature who had told a story of cruel hardship and attempted murder involving the same person she loved so much. From what Auron said, Jumba Jookiba was nothing more than a profit-hungry demon with a life-deaf for others.
She had wanted to believe that he had been lying, but something in her mind assured her naggingly that he was telling the truth.
But, in a sense, it also made sense logically. Peka had never wondered why Jumba had gone to the trouble to create a full 626 Experiments...but it seemed so indefinitely clear that he had something in mind for their use.
Auron had been an achievement, and he was put through Hell for it.
Now, she wondered, what if she too had been considered an achievement?
***
The stress bubbled in her mind so harshly that she clutched her forehead roughly.
"Are you alright?", Auron asked with concern and sat up.
Peka opened her eyes. She saw Auron, and felt a strange, dark feeling towards him. It wasn't hate, and neither was it non-hate. It was a feeling that she couldn't see him anymore or else she'd go crazy.
"I've got to go", she said quickly, jumping off of her chair.
"Back to bed..."
"You sure you're alright?", Auron asked again.
"Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine", Peka insisted.
"I'm going back to bed...good night."
And she scrambled out of the kitchen, feeling Auron's green-tinged eyes watching her. She felt a relief as she rounded the corner out of the kitchen, but felt the tension in her head increase as she ran up the stairs and back into the darkened bedroom, where Owen was sleeping softly.
*********
Auron stood where he was for a minute, listening to Peka retreat hastily as if he was carrying a deadly disease. He wondered if he had done or said something wrong. Then again, he hadn't said or done anything besides eat the sandwich, but he still felt very confused.
Carefully, with the air of a person who felt lost and confused, he put the two remaining sandwiches back into the Tupperware box and set it back to it's previous spot in the refrigerator.
While turning all the lights back off, he returned to the couch and laid back down. He didn't know what was going on, but he felt more suspicious than ever. He didn't want to be in anymore trouble, but it seemed that he was heading in that direction.
It took him a long time to fall asleep, but even when he did, he was not about to receive rest.
*********
[A/N: FINALLY!!!
I can't tell y'all how sorry I am about me taking this long to type up this chapter. I believe I caught a case of Writer's Block for a while, but I hope that's passed by now.
Forgive me if this chapter seems too widely-spaced and uneven, as well as unclear in some of the scenes; I wanted to finish this tonight, or else I'd be spending another month on this.
As a minor note, I mentioned in a previous a comment about Pleakley being a metrosexual. To clear up anything, metrosexuality is different from homosexuality. Metrosexuality refers to an orientation in which the male will be more concerned about clothes and cosmetics than some think he should be.
I'm sure I'll get the next chapter done much quicker. I hope so...
See ya!]