Love and Burden
by The Great Red Dragon

Chapter 10

Auron wasn't sure what was happening. He had never been kneed in between the legs before. Nobody had ever tried to knee him between the legs before, so he didn't expect to be kneed between the legs.
But when 471 rammed her knee as hard as she could in his crotch, the pain was tremendous. He had never experienced this type of pain, and he wasn't sure what to do. All he knew was that the situation was bad bad bad, and it wasn't going to get better soon.

But before he could fall backwards like a paralyzed crab, 471 jumped up from the couch and knocked him down, her long tail guiding her swift movements.

Her eyes traced around the room furiously.

"Where am I?", her mind screamed.
"What happened?"

Her brain surged with the newly acquired consciousness, and she didn't thrown her victim on the floor a second look. Her instincts took over, and she bolted towards the only obvious exit [through the doorway that led out of the living room], and ran smack into somebody else.

"Umph!", the creature grunted as it was knocked down, with 471 on top.

471 didn't care who this was either. As far as she was concerned, it was a friend of the one she had knocked down seconds ago, and she wasn't about to stick around.
She pushed off the creature's stomach [elicting another cry of pain], and soared towards another doorway...

But this time, she was the one being tackled.

Somebody hit her in midair and slammed her right to the ground. Before she could jump away, she felt her body being restrained by more than one set of arms.
Out of instinct, she struggled viciously against who was holding her. She could hear commotional-talking going on around her, but her instinctive ferocity blocked it all out. She didn't even know if it was a language she understood. She just knew that she had to get free. Viciously, she bit into the creature's arm.

Stitch was more than surprised at the sheer, panicked power that 471 was unleashing. He was on his back, with her on top of him, and even though he was maintaining a hold on her, he was trying hard to hold in the pain she was causing with her continuous kicking and biting.
Peka had been literally run over by 471, but Stitch didn't know how she was doing. He didn't have time to spare to hope that she was alright.

"471!", he said through clenched teeth.
"It's me! 626!"

But 471 was oblivious to his voice. Not only that, but the searing pain in his forearm told him that she had broken his skin.

"DAMMIT!", he shouted as the tension finally became too much, and let go of 471.

She sprang up with awesome stamina, ready to run again-
POW!!!

471 promptly fell back down, right on her behind.
Her nose was bleeding.
Peka was standing above her, biting her tongue to keep in the pain in her knuckles.
She had punched 471 as hard as she could in the face.

There was silence. The only sound was the combination of their breathing. 471 was looking audibly blank and bemused, as if her mind had turned itself off. She put her clawed hand to her nose, and touched the blood. She looked at her crimson-marked finger and blinked several times.
She looked up slowly at Peka, and blinked again.

Peka [who had lowered her fist] looked down at her, suddenly worried that she had hurt her.

"...471?", she said quietly.

471 blinked once more...before answering [in Turian];

"...314?"

Peka breathed a sigh of relief.
She looked into 471's confused eyes, and once again found a soul she remembered; who also remembered her.
But there wasn't much time for reflection now; 471 was looking around the place nervously and insecurely.

"W-Where are we?", she stammered anxiously.

"It's okay", Peka said as reassuringly as she could.
"You're safe."

471's eyes traced around the house skittishly.

"Jumba", she said in a tone of the semi-scared.
"Jumba's supposed to be here. Where is he?"

"Slow down", Peka said as she stepped towards the confused Experiment.
"You're okay - oh no..."

She had just caught sight of Stitch, who had sat up and was nursing the hideous bite-mark on his forearm. His purple blood was flowing from the gashed wound, possibly making it look worse than it was.

"Stitch!", Peka exclaimed, hurrying towards him, past 471.

"Stitch?", 471 repeated, turning around.
"Who's Stitch?"

Experiment 626 groaned in answer.
Peka kneeled down next to him, and made to inspect his arm. He held it out of reach, and muttered very lowly;

"Don't touch it..."

"Oh!", 471 exclaimed as she recognized the familiar face.
"626!...what happened to your arm?"

Stitch threw her a look that suggested she had made a bad joke [even though she honestly did not remember her acts of rage], but Peka perked up.

"What happened to Auron?", she asked.

"Who?", 471 responded.

Peka's face lit up in fear, and got up and raced to the living room.

"Oh no...", Stitch moaned as he foresaw the worst.

He turned towards 471 and said;

"What did you DO to him?"

Auron noticed that his left arm didn't seem to be working correctly. He would've used his right arm, but the hand on the end of it was held at the place where throbbing waves of pain were emitting from. His dysfunctioning left hand was trying to pull his body up onto the sofa.
The situation got worse once he realized that Peka had entered the room. Even though the pain was still excruciating and tremendous, he didn't want her to see him with his hand in his private area.

So he grabbed his head with both hands instead.

Peka stopped in her tracks. She had to stare; the situation was so strange:
Auron was sitting in front of the sofa, his legs spread apart, both hands grasping the sides of his head, and an ever-shifting expression of contorted agony on his face.

"...Auron?", she finally asked after a while.
"Are you alright?"

Auron responded without ever parting his teeth;

"Ofcothumokay."

"What happened?", Peka asked, realizing that he must be hurt.
"What did...what did she do to you?"

"Uhhhhhhhhh...", he moaned in response.

Peka wasn't sure what to do as she stood in front of him. He was doing strange things: his legs moved uneasily, and his hands kept sliding slightly down his face [before he pulled them back].

...Suddenly, it dawned on her.

"...Auron?", she said quietly.
"Did she...uh...did 471...I...did she-"

Auron cut her off;

"SHE KNEED ME IN THE CROTCH, ALRIGHT?!"

This sudden outburst drained all his strength of resistance, and his hands flew to his pelvic region.
At this, 471 and Stitch [still holding his arm] came into the living-room. When Auron saw 471, he scooted away as far as he could, as if afraid that she would do it again.

471's eyes widened in surprise as she saw him...and it wasn't because of where his hands were.
"What's he doing here?", she thought to herself.

There came another thunder of footsteps down the stairs. A second later, Nani and Lilo, followed by Owen [who was assisting Twyla in Stitch's absence].

"Who're they?", 471 asked cautiously as she caught sight of the species that were unfamiliar to her, and stepped behind Peka.

"Don't worry; they're family", Peka replied reassuringly, over Lilo's happy cry of;

"She's awake! She's awake!"

471 said nothing to this...but she looked even more surprised when she caught view of Owen and Twyla.

"YOU'RE here too?!", she said in disbelief.

"Better believe it", Owen replied with a grin.

"Nice to see you again, as well", Twyla irked, the stress weighing down on her pregnancy.

471 looked around herself, and saw so many faces, both new and old. She felt confused and harassed; everything was happening all at once, so fast. It was too much for her.
Then, she heard Owen [still 625 to her] call out;

"I'll go get Jumba!"

She looked up, and saw Owen, obviously trying to be helpful, heading towards the door.

"Jumba?", she asked.
"You're getting Jumba?"

"Yeah", Owen said, stopping in mid-step.
"I'll just go get him from-"

"No need. I'm already here."

Everybody was caught by surprise. They all turned, and found the Evil Genius emerging into the room.

"I heard you scream", he informed Peka abd the others everybody, and answering the obvious question.

471's face lit up with a kind of longful joy and as she saw the face of her long-lost creator/father.

"Jumba!", she cried exuberantly, and, in a move that amazed everybody, sprang forth on her tail, right into the arms of the large alien.

Jumba caught her, and wrapped his trunk-like arms around her body tightly.
Everybody watching was touched by their reunion.

471 shed a tear as she buried her face into Jumba's shoulder:
Her creator was there. Everything was going to be alright.

"Jumba...Jumba...", she continuously whispered, barely loud enough for her creator to hear.

She felt Jumba stroke her back soothingly.

"It's alright", Jumba cooed quietly, for only her ears to hear.
"You're safe now."

471 nodded into Jumba's shoulder, and tiny smile spread across her lips.
She raised her head slightly, and whispered into his ear;

"I need to talk with you."

"Alone", she added as Jumba looked at her, a bit confused.

"Now?", he asked.

471 nodded.

"Yes; alone."

Jumba nodded back, and turned towards the kitchen, the Experiment still in his arms.

"Hey, where're you going?", Owen asked, asking everyone's question.

"Private", Jumba answered quickly and curtly.

The others tried to follow, but there was just no arguing as Jumba closed the door behind him, followed by the click of the lock.

"Well, that's just wonderful", Nani commented sarcastically.

Back by the couch, on the floor, Auron was very glad that attention had been diverted away from him.

Handling her as carefully as if she were a young child, Jumba sat 471 onto the edge of the table.
She smiled at him as he did.

"Thank you", she said quietly.

Jumba grabbed a tissue box and set it down next to her.

"Clean your face, alright?", he asked her kindly.

She nodded again as he turned to get a cup from the cupboard. 471 wiped the tears from her eyes as Jumba filled the cup with cold tap-water. He beckoned for her to take it, and she did.
She gulped most of it down in one swallow. Jumba made to get more, but she motioned that it had been enough.

"Alright", he said with a smile.

The alien pulled up a chair and sat down in front of her. 471 noticed how much taller he still was, even though she sat on a higher perch.
She looked into Jumba's eyes, and felt to remember everything from her life. Until late, her life had been different than that in the lab...it all came back to her so fast, with an onslaught of emotion.
The tears began to build in her eyes again, and Jumba's eyes widened in concern.

"It's alright", he assured her, wiping the tears away.
"But are you?"

She nodded silently, once again showing her smile.

"I'm just so glad to see you again."

Jumba smiled back at her as she said this.

"I am happy to be seeing you, too", he told her.

He reached out his right hand and rested his palm on the side of her face. She closed her eyes blissfully and nuzzled it, as though it were a large stuffed animal.
Jumba was touched by the display of love somebody had for him.
But she had wanted to talk as well.

"So...", he began slowly as he withdrew his arm.
"Vhat happened?"

471 blinked in slight misunderstanding.

"Huh?"

"Vell...", Jumba continued, still smiling.
"I vhas alvays trying to get in contact vith you after...vell, you know vhat."

"Oh", said 471 in realization.

"Tell me vhat happened to you after ve were uncovered...tell me everything."

471 looked down in remembrance, her eyes half-closed...and then nodded.
She swallowed heavily, and looked up at Jumba.

"Two days after you disappeared, the alarm went off...somebody had broken into the lab. We all knew that the Council must've caught you.
The guys that you selected did what you instructed them and erased all traces of your experimentation."

Jumba smiled slightly.

"Zhey did, they zhey?", he asked amusedly, in good nature.

471 nodded.

"Yeah", she said.
"While they did that, the rest of us all got into our groups and through the maze and into the hangar...and into the ships."

471 stopped to take a quick breath.

"I was paired with 501 and 366...in capsule 12", she continued.

"We had a perfect departure...it took us less than two hours to reach Kenor Loch, that space-station. We met up with a hundred more Experiments, the rest of them later, and we waited for days to hear from you...but we never did."

"They locked me up", Jumba explained, almost apologizing.
"626 escaped, and zhey be sending me after him; to this planet. Zhey did not allow me to come back, and I could never be getting in contact vith you..."

"Yeah, we realized that after the first month", 471 said, with the slightest trace of sarcasm.

"Vhat happened zhen?", Jumba questioned.

471 sighed.

"Well, you know how some of the guys are...", she said, somewhat offhandedly.
"Everybody wanted to be the leader, one thing led to another, and we eventually split up."

She shook her head lowly.

"Some of them thought that we would never see you again", she said.
"They said we were out on our own now, and some of them made out on their own."

Jumba rubbed his forehead with a heaving sigh.

"Oh, no..."

"But most of us stuck together!", 471 pointed out, as if wanting to cheer him up.
"We knew that so many of us couldn't stay on Kenor Loch, so we split up into groups and pretty much just spreadout."

"I wasn't part of a big group", she continued.
"Just me and one other Experiment teamed up."

"Oh", Jumba said, perking up.
"Tell me, who vhas zhis lucky Experiment?"

Knowing her nature, Jumba expected her to roll her eyes and tell him to cut it out...but instead, her face fell. She looked at the ground, with an expression of sorrow.

"I-I'm sorry", Jumba said quickly.
"I shouldn't have-"

"No", 471 interrupted him.
"It's not your fault...it's mine..."

The tears were coming back to her face. She sobbed quietly.

"No, no!", Jumba said, taking her hand in his.
"I- vell - vhat-..."

471 looked up at him. As she did, a tear fell from her eye.

"It's what I wanted to talk to you about...what happened."

Jumba leaned forward and squeezed her hand.

"Tell me", he said to her.

471 sniffed quietly and looked away.

"366 was in my capsule", she said.
"But...but we were together since before that."

"366?", Jumba repeated.
"Him...and you?"

471 nodded.

"I should never have gotten close to him...I should never have gotten close to anybody...", she said mournfully.
"But I did...and then...he was gone."

Her head turned slowly, and she looked Jumba in the eyes.

"We were hunted, Jumba", she told him, her voice lower.
"All of us were...all of the Experiments.
366 and me kept in contact with everybody we could...we should've known something was wrong when they didn't reply...first them, and then 366-..."

She trailed off, her voice becoming tear-choked again.
Jumba pulled her against his body and held her.

"Shhh...", he cooed quietly.
"It's alright...it's alright..."

471 gasped a choking sob and looked up at Jumba's face with tear-shined eyes.

"They killed him, Jumba", she said so quietly that it was difficult to hear.

"They killed the others, and then him..."

"Who did?", Jumba asked.
"Who did Zhis?"

4711 opened her mouth to reply, but only her sad, depraved sadness gagged out. She thrust her head against Jumba's chest and sobbed into his overcoat.
The Evil Genius held his offspring close, wanting so much to comfort her. Everything that she had said came as a complete surprise to him. He wanted to know more...but he wasn't about to force it out of her.
But 471 looked back up at him, her face as wet as rag.

"I'm - I'm sorry", she cried quietly.
"It's just that...I loved 366."

"It's okay...", Jumba continued to coo.
"You don't have to tell me..."

"I loved him", 471 said, shaking her head slowly.
"And he loved me...he cared for me...protected me...I even had a name when I was with him."

Jumba blinked at this.

"A name?", he repeated.

471 nodded.

"Yes", she said.
"He called me...he called me...Reihana."

"When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle
Oh it was beautiful, magical

And all the birds in the trees, they'd be singing so happily
Joyfully
Oh, playfully, watching me

But then they sent me away
Taught me how to be sensible
Logical
Oh, responsible, practical"

The Logic Song,
Supertramp