Passion

C/By: Kenjaje

Edited/Revised by: raVen

Chapter 6: A Work In Progress

"All right, now these run on two (whatever that earth-letter is) cylindrical electrical storage containers and generators. They hold a sufficient supply of power and are small and compact so if the power is drained you can simply switch them out." Pleakley explained to Stitch and Angel, whom were listening with curious faces.

"They're called 'batteries'." Jumba chimed in, as he passed them on the way out of his room. "When you're through here be meeting me outside, Pleakley. Am needing your assistance."

"With what?"

"You'll be finding out." He replied with a chuckle as he left the room. Stitch took the hair dryer in Pleakley's hands and examined it from all angles. Noting the switch on the interior of the handle, he flipped it, and was rewarded with a blast of hot air straight at his eyes.

"Be careful!" Pleakley shouted, turning it off and snatching it away. "Only use these when you need to." Calmly Pleakley unfolded his fingers from the dryer to allow Stitch to take it gently, which he did. He then had a quick grin on his face as Pleakley turned around to dig out some more. The next thing Pleakley knew, the dryer that Stitch had turned on, and flew a fraction of an inch past his cheek, Stitch was laughing, and Angel was a poof-ball of a mess.

"That was completely unnecessary!" Angel barked; her shoulders rose and her fists clenched as Stitch clasped his sides and fell onto his back, rocking to and fro with laughter. Angel let out a frustrated growl, but soon found she was giggling along with him as well.

"Here," Pleakley said, ignoring the close call of the dryer, "they're all fully charged and ready to go. Good luck." He bid them, as he left the room before some other chaos would erupt in another close call to his head. The sound of a car starting in the front lawn let everyone in the house know that Lilo and Nani were leaving to the store; Stitch composed himself and began to turn serious upon hearing the engine rev.

"Oketaka." Stitch said grabbing a hairdryer and giving to Angel. "Agato."

"Dalagu." She thanked, as he turned and picked up four for himself.

"Ready?" He asked, turning around. His gaze was met with the barrel of the dryer in Angel's hands, and a wave of heat brushed over his body as she gave him the same treatment he gave her.

"Ready." She said with a satisfied grin, as Stitch looked back at her, his fur now a massive ball of fluff like hers. He shook his head to get it out of his eyes, and sucked in his lower arms—dryers and all—and held onto the other two with one hand.

"Let's go." He said miserably, trying to shrug off the humiliation at being countered with his own prank.

Scruff the doll shifted with a rustle, as Lilo set her aside. Lilo sat with her elbow on the rest next to the door in the car, her chin sitting on the palm of her other hand, her fingers drumming at her lower lip. She stared out into the day—or at least what day there was in all the gloom that hovered in an omnipresent mass.

"Why such a long face, Lilo?" Nani asked, as she turned the wheel in her hands.

"I wanted to help Stitch and Angel." She replied casually. "But…seeing as how I have an annoying sister…"

"Hey, come on now." Nani snapped with a soft voice. "After what danger you could have gotten yourself into last night; I'm just worried you'll get hurt. That's why I made you come with me, because now I can make sure you're safe." She reached over and pet Lilo on the head, hoping to get a response out of the melancholy girl.

"I suppose that's a good enough reason." Lilo sighed. "But Stitch could've protected me."

"This experiment causes floods, and Stitch won't be able to help you if you two get caught in one, because if you do, Stitch might drown." Nani explained. "But," she continued again, after a moment's pause, "I suppose I am kind of ruining your fun. I mean, its not like you two had to escape out of some kind of danger like a fire or something while you were body-switched, right?" She said hypothetically. Lilo's eyes widened.

"Does she know we got trapped in a fire? No, how could she, we left that part out! …I hate big sisters…" She thought with a sigh.

"You're awfully quiet."

"Hm? Oh, I'm just still tired; I didn't get much sleep. I kept waking up over and over again." Lilo replied. A drop of rain hit the window next to her, right where her eyes were looking, and almost immediately a downpour followed.

"Oh great…he's back in action. Just what we need." Nani commented with an aggravated tone.

"It's starting to rain." Angel said, as she felt a drop hit her head. "Boy is it starting to rain!" She paused to look up, but only for a split second, and when her head came back down Stitch was already far ahead of her. "Hey wait up!" Clutching the hairdryer under her armpit she strode behind Stitch, following him at only a few steps behind.

"Dotchata." He said quickly and quietly, as though someone were listening to them. She stopped as he commanded, and watched as he peered the sky. Thunder and lightning began to echo across the stretch of land they were on. It was a very open field with trees all around, but they would have to run for about four minutes before they reached the edge of the stretch.

"What are you looking for?" Angel asked, as she noticed Stitch was peering into the sky.

"Eh." He pointed up at an angle in front of him, seemingly arbitrarily. Angel looked in the direction of his finger, but had to search the sky and zoom in with her eyes before she realized what he was pointing at. High above, small, and yet oddly vivid in the sky, were a pair of eyes inside a cloud. "Zeus." He said.

"That's Zeus?"

"Well, sort of…come on." He motioned for her to follow him, and after ten booming thunderclaps, he told her to stop again. "Ju katashka?"

"No, I'm not scared of the storm…not with you around." She replied.

"Good. Zeus might be Angel's worst chooboo-ba." He said.

"Thanks for the warning." She commented, looking up into the sky to find Zeus. As her vision came to the horizon she noticed that they were on a part of the land overlooking the water, a small cape. She turned around to look again, and spotted the floating pair of eyes high above them. "There he his." She pointed, patting Stitch's shoulder. "But…how do we get him down here?"

"Like this," he said, inhaling deeply, "Hasha! Miga no-legweesta!" He shouted, his voice echoing a few times. The pair of eyes immediately looked down upon them, and then disappeared.

"Great, that did it, he's gone." Angel sniffed.

"Naga, macca-macca." Angel did, and saw a tiny black dot in the air. It seemed to be falling toward them very quickly, nearly doubling in size every three seconds. Finally Angel was able to make out what it was: a body, falling from out of nowhere. Though she was surprised beyond belief, Stitch gazed at the falling silhouette as if studying it rather than in awe. "Move!" Stitch shouted, pushing Angel out of the way and backing up himself, with the body of Zeus crashing between them.

Angel gasped as Zeus made contact with the ground, and could only sit stunned as a puff of smoke—or fog rather—mushroomed its way through the air. As the vapor cleared, Angel squinted to see the shadow inside the pillar of the mushroom. Zeus appeared slightly taller than her, and the fog seemed to symbolize an aura of power emanating from him, as he stood relaxed yet confident. Finally, the air cleared around him, and Angel could see what he looked like; fur as gray as the sky itself, and slightly translucent, eyes completely opaque and blank, and a strong build. Angel noticed another thing that was quite the opposite of what she was expecting..

"This is Zeus?" She asked rhetorically to Stitch, her eyes squinting with surprise. "I don't think you should have said Zeus was a he…because he's a she."

"We won't be here for that long, ok? I've just got to pick up a few things, and then we'll go straight back home. Now you can go pick out something you want, but don't leave the store. Understand?"

"Yes Nani." Lilo replied, not looking at her sister for a second. Nani kissed her hair and immediately disappeared into the crowd of shoppers. "I don't understand her." Lilo said aloud, as she turned and walked past the isles, while talking to Scruff. "She tells me she wants me to go to the store so she can keep an eye on me, and then when we get here she just says for me to go off on my own? …Sisters…" She sighed with confusion about the logic. "Well, what do you want to get?"

She held up Scruff to listen for her answer, but nothing came. Again Lilo sighed—this time of boredom—and dropped Scruff back down to her side as she walked past more isles. Tools, supplies, fruits, cereals, snacks, breads, poultry, meat, animal food, nothing seemed interesting; until she came upon a familiar wooden stand at the end of an isle. She gazed up at the display, and suddenly wondered if this was where she was headed for all along.

"Maybe…" She thought aloud, passing over the items hung from the different pegs, trying to spot what she was looking for. "Aha! There it is." She said with glee, pointing at what she'd found. In the very back of one of the hooks, close to the middle of the display box, surrounded by a mass quantity of the same item but with different colors, was the last white-stoned pendant in the display.