The Dance

Chapter 7: Tragedy and Sorrow

Note: Anything in bold is any experiment's (other than Stitch or Angel) words translated to English.

This is indeed the final chapter in this story. It is likely the longest one, and definitely makes this story PG-13 for swearing and violence… This chapter will probably cause many a fan to flame me. If you wish to do so, go right ahead. But I'm telling you now, if you don't already know, that there is a sequel to this story. I will work on it soon after I finish this one…

At last, I found a suitably weakened area, and knocked it out. I poked my head out, and looked around, making sure that everything was okay.

"Laka-tookie!" I cried out, letting everyone know that it was safe to come out.

Everyone except Angel, who was still trying to get her balance, came out, cheering, celebrating, and holding me up.

'I might have stopped the flight, but if not for Angel, none of us would have gotten off the way we are now…' I thought, after getting down, running over to Lilo, and giving her a hug.

"Stitch!" she cried, happily hugging me. "What happened to Angel?"

'She'll be out in about a minute,' I thought.

"Bet you had to use your super strength to do her in!" she guessed.

'You would have liked that, but…'

"Naga. Angel save Stitch!" I gleefully told her.

Speaking of, my cousins cleared a path for my beloved Angel, as she walked out. Lilo appeared to be a little shaken by this, but played it cool.

"No fooling?" she asked, a small smile on her face.

As my booji bu stood next to me, and I took her hand in mine, and told Lilo, "Gotta believe in love!"

I turned to Angel, hand-in-hand, and I felt truly happy for once. There were no longer any obstacles to our love, and we both knew it.

"And… cut!" Pleakley cried. "That's a wrap everyone! The perfect happy ending… Love triumphs over evil! Hey!" he yelled in surprise, as he was hit from behind, and his camera crushed.

Because, unfortunately for all of us, trouble had to rear its big, fat, stinky, and ugly head in, as Gantu came stomping in. After crushing the camera, he pointed a blaster right at Angel.

"Not today it doesn't," he growled, readying the blaster.

'Yes it does!' I thought angrily.

I moved Angel out of the blaster's way, and I stepped in front of it, ready to tear it apart, as I growled at the big dummy.

But before I could do what I had planned, he fired it. It turned out to be a net gun, as I was instantly wrapped up, and couldn't see.

Before I could find a point to catch a claw in to rip it up, I heard Lilo cry out, "No!"

Then I knew it was bad. I got my head out enough to see Gantu running off with my beloved Angel! As I continued to search for that elusive weak point in the netting, I saw 625, actually running for once…

"Ha ha, losers! Little Angel's coming to live with us! Bad guys win this round… oof!" he cried out, right as he tripped over a rock and fell down. Getting back up, he called, "Hey, wait for me gorgeous!" as he chased after Angel and Gantu.

I finally managed to rip the net apart… but by now it was too late. With Gantu in a very bad mood, any attempts to try and get Angel back before he reached the ship could be disastrous.

"Angel!" I cried. "Angel… da booji bu…"

Pleakley was complaining about his ruined movie, which I could care less about now. I was more worried about trying to put together a plan to get Angel back.

'Since I don't dare risk her life on getting to her before Gantu arrives at the ship, it'll be best if I try to time it and arrive when he arrives at the ship, before he can transport Angel… But if I wait too long, then it will be likely that I never see her alive again, since Hämsterviel will whip her for betraying him…'

I sighed again, but Lilo came up to me, in an attempt to cheer me up.

"Don't worry Stitch. We'll get her back, because you were right. You gotta believe in love!"

I smiled to make her happy, but I was still planning quickly, so as to get there before my small window of time closed. If that happened, Angel would most likely die…

I tried to get in the back of the group when we all (Lilo, Jumba, Pleakley, my cousins, and myself) made our way home. But Jumba had been expecting this, and forced me to lead the way.

'Poor deluded Jumba…' I told myself. 'It'll take more than that to keep me from getting away. Even if I have to get past everyone, I'll get to Angel…'

I had finally found someone similar to me who loved me, and I loved her back. I was not going to let a few friends and enemies get in my way of being reunited with my love. But I needed some sort of distraction so that I could get out of here.

I glanced around, and my eyes fell on Kixx. Suddenly, I had an idea, and I moved close enough to him to tell him my plan. I whispered my plan to him, seeing if he agreed to it, and he nodded he would.

"Thanks. I really appreciate this," I told him.

"She may have caused trouble, but that does not mean she deserves to die…" he replied.

He hopped right in front of me, and then paid me back for my earlier attack against him, by sending me flying. Even though he was created before me, he still had plenty of power.

When I landed, I was only a short distance from where the ship had crashed. I also saw Sparky flying towards me.

"Go, go!" he urged me, as he came flying towards me. "I'll cover you, while you go get Angel!"

I nodded, realizing that Kixx had told him about what was going on. I ran down the same path that Gantu and 625 had used just a little while ago. But as I ran, I got scared.

Not for myself, because at that time, I could really care less about what might happen to me. I was so fearful for Angel. She didn't appear to be physically strong, as far as I could tell. If her song was her only power, then there was little she could do…

I arrived at Gantu's ship. As I had expected, it was locked up. But this wouldn't deter me, as I knocked open a weakened hatch, and crawled into it. Once I was far enough in, I punched a hole, and hopped out, looking around.

My eyes fell on 625, who was, unsurprisingly, holding a sandwich in his hand. But something was wrong. He seemed to be in shock, because his eyes seemed to be glued to the monitor. He was ignoring everyone and everything else, including his sandwich, most of which had fallen to the floor.

I cracked my knuckles, and walked over to him, ready to get some answers out of him. But I heard some sounds from the monitor. Hämsterviel was ranting about something, which was pretty much normal. Then I heard a sound, like a whip cracking…

'No… he had better not be…' I thought fearfully, as I turned to the monitor, and actually listened.

The gerbil was standing in front of Angel, and she was sporting some bruises, which had undoubtedly come from the whip he was holding in his hand.

"You little pink traitor!" he screeched. "You think that you can work for me, Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel, and then decide to double cross me!" He lashed the whip out again, and it struck her body. "Maybe a few more minutes of this will teach you to learn where your loyalties lie!"

As he whipped her again, I noticed light reflecting off of a few spots. He had something sharp imbedded in that whip, and it showed, as the whip opened up some gashes on her body. This increased my rage and sorrow, but the look on Angel's face kept me from crying.

She wore a look of determination and defiance on her face, and she had not winced nor cried out in pain. I had seen enough. I was ready to go kill Hämsterviel, no matter what may happen to me, and rescue her, and the rest of my cousins, and bring them all home. Before I moved though, I noticed one more thing… the one thing I had not wanted to see.

She had not taken one breath since I had started watching… She was already dead! Now, I broke down and cried. She had loved me, and held out hope for me, and I had failed her… What good had her faith in me been, if it ended up costing Angel her life? It wasn't fair!

I slammed my fist on the ground, but it turned out that I actually slammed it on the bottom of one of the experiment containers!

"Well well…" Gantu muttered darkly, picking up the container and closing it, "it seems I now have both you rebellious trogs… Hämsterviel may not be able to hurt you with a whip, but the torment you will be caused by seeing the same whip used on 624, as she suffers pain for her deception, will slowly eat at you…" he finished, as he held me in front of the monitor I just looked at.

Were they all blind? Could none of them see that they were whipping a dead experiment? I could see it, and I had a feeling 625 could as well.

I pulled out my extra arms, spikes, and antenna; and climbed into the middle of the container, supporting myself with my legs.

"You!" I yelled, slamming all four of my hands against the sides of the container, causing it to instantly shatter.

"Aaagh!" he cried in surprise, quickly bringing an arm up to protect himself from the flying glass.

Both of us suffered several cuts from the glass. He was mostly damaged on the arm, and a bit on the face. I had plenty of cuts across my body, but only a couple of them were barely bleeding. Luckily, none of the glass managed to get imbedded in me. But right now, in an overflow of sorrow, anger, and hatred, I felt no pain at all.

"You god-damned bastard!" I roared at him, adrenaline and hatred coursing through my veins. "You helped kill Angel! How do you feel now!"

He didn't answer me, even though I waited about a minute for an answer.

I screamed at him, "Open your eyes, fish-face! She isn't breathing, and she hasn't cried out or flinched even once since I started watching! She's not as physically strong as me! Hämsterviel killed her by whipping her too hard for too long!"

He finally answered, but what he said was the biggest mistake yet.

"Let me tell you something, 626. If there is one less annoying or double-crossing trog in this world, then I am happy!"

No surprise, coming from him. But he shouldn't have said that, not when my temper was already flaring up.

In a dark voice, I finished, "I am the judge, jury, and executioner. You are guilty of murder, and your punishment is a one-way ticket to hell!"

I leaped onto a wall, and pushed off of it, my fists aimed directly at his face. He was too slow to block the blow, and was sent flying towards another wall. One of his arms was behind his back, probably in an attempt to get a blaster out, but this was another mistake. The arm ended up between the wall and his body with a sickening crunch, and it was most likely broken. This knocked him out.

'Okay Stitch… that's enough for him,' I told myself, trying not to go too far out of control. 'The only one who receives death is Hämsterviel himself…'

I retracted my extra arms, antenna, and spikes, and was about to leave when I saw 625 still at the monitor. I remembered what Gantu said about being happy when annoying and double-crossing experiments were killed…

One of my cousins was dead because I wasn't able to save her. I would never feel right if I left him with Gantu now…

I walked up to the monitor, and shut it off. He finally snapped out of it.

"Huh? Ahhh! Gantu, trog in the house!" he cried, as he saw me.

"625… calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. Plus, Gantu's taking a little nap right now…" I assured him, pointing to the unconscious Gantu.

"Whew… that's a relief… after that weird dream where the Doc killed Angel cakes… I needed a bit of good news and reality."

I looked down, and sighed, "That wasn't a dream… not by a long shot."

"No…" he gasped.

This shook him badly. Even though Angel hadn't really paid attention to him, he still had loved her.

"And there's more bad news on top of that. Gantu said that having fewer double-crossing or annoying experiments made him happy… and I've seen how you've annoyed him. I know it's been pretty good for you here, but I don't think it would be safe for you anymore. Why don't you come with me?"

"Well… what good would I be?" he gloomily asked.

"You may not put your physical talents to good use, but your sandwich making skills are beyond comparison! I'm sure you can find a way to put them to good use. Unless you'd rather stay here, and take the chance of Gantu deciding to snap on you and kill you…"

"Okay… Thanks for not abandoning me…"

"I never abandoned you, I was just hoping that you would decide to come on your own."

But even as we kept a lively chatter going on the way back home, I knew that there would be plenty of fuss when we finally did get there. And I was right.

"Stitch! What happened to you!" she asked, seeing my bloodied condition. Turning to 625, she asked, "And what's sandwich boy doing here?"

"625 good, we help him find one true place…" I sighed. "Meega fought Gantu, but he's worse than meega."

"I see… but where's Angel?"

I pretended not to hear her, not at first. But I remembered all the jealousy that she had shown when Angel was around, and what Lilo had said…

"I can spend as much time with you as you want now, since I don't have to try to get to know Angel anymore! Since we'll never see her again, you've gotten your wish of her staying as far from you as possible! And you want to know why! Because she was done in! Angel's gone, dead!" I snapped, pouring my rage out on her.

"Dead? B, but…"

"But what? You should be happy! Without her in the way, I can spend all the time in the world with you now! Oh wait, I forgot!" I continued, now throwing in a tone of sarcasm, "You're not always here, since you go out, crushing on Keoni, making me stay here by myself, and, in general, being a hypocrite! Tell me, how do you feel now that you helped give Dr. Hämsterviel yet another experiment? I bet you're happy that another 'evil' experiment is gone…"

She feebly tried to defend herself, replying, "But where could she have gone with a power like that?"

"Hmm, let me think…" I replied sarcastically. "Wait, I know now… Maybe with ME! She and I got along just fine. On the ship right before it crashed, she admitted that she had acted part of the time, but her love for me was true. And the last time I checked, not all experiments have to help a lot of people out. Like me for example, until my cousins showed up, I only really helped you out, by being a friend. Angel could have been a great friend, and more… she could have been to me, what I am to you. But we'll never know now that she's gone. I hope you're pleased…" I spat, going out back behind the house, and hopping on the hammock, still fuming.

After I had cooled down a little bit, I thought, 'Maybe I shouldn't have been so rough on Lilo… But she was quite rough on Angel for distracting me, even though I hadn't been rough on Keoni for distracting her from me…'

A few minutes later, I saw her coming out to try and talk to me again…

"C'mon Stitch… Let's get some sleep."

"Get away!" I growled at her. "I'm sleeping out here tonight."

"But… Stitch, it won't help if you stay like this… Do you think Angel would have wanted you to act like this?" she asked, trying to console me.

In reality, she hit on a nerve. How dare she try to assume what Angel would have wanted!

I simply glared at Lilo, and answered, "Since she's dead, we'll never know!"

She sighed, and gave up, going inside. Jumba came out a few minutes later.

"Little girl is saying that you are not being very nice to her… Just because you are having soft heart for 624 is not meaning that you can treat Earth family that way," he told me.

"I know, Jumba… but it's not fair… She was never completely evil…"

"All I can be telling you 626, is to remember her, but also to be moving on. Unless some miracle is to be happening, 624 will not be coming back."

He left me, and I curled up, ready to make an attempt at sleeping for the night. A warm breeze blew past me, and I sighed, letting my eyes close and my mind wander as I fell asleep once again. All I could really do was to hope for that miracle…