Ganazu

C/By: Kenjaje

Edited/Revised by: raVen

Chapter 2: The Walk Home

Angel only made it down the street; she couldn't take the weight and size of the rock, which now reached that of a boulder. But she didn't know what would happen if she apologized—would Lilo understand or would she get angry? She decided to take the gamble, and rather have Lilo be mad at her than feel the boulder get any heavier in her stomach.

"I'm sorry." She said finally, almost growling at herself.

"Sorry?" Lilo asked, her voice sounded surprised to Angel, "About what?"

"Don't brush it off. I messed up and got you kicked out. I blew it."

"It's not that big a deal." She said, shrugging. "Stitch and I always get sent home early." Despite her reasoning, Angel still seemed to feel guilty. "Besides…" Lilo began again, "I don't think you really need to apologize. Not after what Myrtle did." She said with empathy.

"I'm tired of making up excuses for mistakes." Angel thought bitterly. "I still messed up. If I hadn't attacked Myrtle we'd still be-"

"I guess you lied huh?" Lilo asked rhetorically, bringing Angel out of her thoughts.

"Lied…about what? I'd never lie." Angel said defensively, shaking her head as Lilo unzipped her duffel bag.

"The letter; you kept it. You said you lost it, but you kept it." Lilo smiled as Angel looked up at her, then continued her task of putting the papers Moses gave her into the bag.

"That wasn't…" Angel started to retort, but she realized Lilo wasn't really accusing her of lying, and so trailed her words. For a moment they walked silently; Angel looked at the ground ahead of her, a bit relieved that the stone was gone, while Lilo looked at the sky.

"I don't think I'm ever going to be able to look at a cloud again without being reminded of Zeus." Lilo thought aloud. Angel looked at her, then with her, toward the sky. Long clouds hung like banners at a luau over their heads, turning the heavens from its usual, deep azure to a soft, cotton yellow. "Hard to believe yesterday really happened." She paused in her speech, and looked down at Angel. "Didn't it happen?" She asked.

"I don't see why not." Angel said, not understanding why Lilo was questioning the events."Yeah, it did." She responded, looking down at her pendant as it gave her proof. "But you're right," she said with realization, "it does seem like some kind of dream we all had…or something." She thought about it for a second, silently, and then said what she pictured aloud. "It went from scrambled eggs to scrambled feelings."

"I'm glad it ended ok." Lilo commented with a chuckle.

"I'm glad it did too…very glad." Angel remarked, panting a little bit as she slowed her stride. "I didn't know I could almost lose everything I had in one day."

"You never lost Stitch," Lilo said with reassurance, "ever since he came home he'd been thinking of how to tell you he still loved you." Angel shook her head.

"I'm not just talking about him." She said. Lilo gave her a look of confusion, and she smiled back, quietly continuing. "I was referring to losing you too."

"Me?" Lilo lifted her eyebrow and looked down awkwardly at Angel. "What do you mean by that?"

"Zeus was about to send all that electricity at us, remember? I started to brace for it, but then I heard your voice, and saw her turn and direct it toward you." Angel looked away, a bubble started to form in her throat. "I couldn't do anything…neither could Stitch. We both thought…" She trailed, swallowing her words. "Scared the heck out of us."

"I'm fine." Lilo said comfortingly, realizing what she was getting at.

"And that's the part I don't understand." Angel pointed out, covering up her quavering voice. "That bolt of lightning was precise, but it looked like you weren't hit at all."

"I wasn't," she chuckled, "I was perfectly fine."

"How?" Angel asked with disbelief. "Not even Stitch can take too much lightning, what made you so invulnerable?"

"Jumba." Lilo replied. "He gave me something that looked kind of like a watch. He told me it would protect me from the electricity as long as it didn't over-load." She explained. "I don't know how it worked though, you'd have to ask the big guy himself for that answer."

"So you decided to take a chance and used it when you did. Were you even sure it would work?"

"Nope." She responded with an innocent grin.

"Weren't…you scared though? What if it overloaded before Zeus ran out of energy?" Lilo casually shifted the leash's strap on her wrist to tighten the slack.

"I was only scared at the end, because that's when it did over-load." Angel tightened her lips. "Just before the big flash happened, it overloaded, and then the next thing I remember is waking up because Stitch wouldn't stop nudging me." She finished with a giggle.

"But if it had overloaded any sooner…" Angel thought, as she recalled the scenario in her mind. This time, however, she had an understanding of what was going on, and she realized that Lilo had made a rather bold and clever move. If she hadn't have distracted Zeus, yesterday would have ended in an entirely different way.

"I didn't doubt it for a second, I knew you had something up your sleeve," Angel commented casually, falling a bit more behind in pace, "otherwise you wouldn't have done such a thing. I know you're too smart to risk yourself like that." Angel let out an airy laugh, and bumped into Lilo's leg. "Soka…" She started to apologize as she backed away, but she paused; she noticed Lilo's posture had changed.

She stopped abruptly, but for what reason Angel didn't know. Was it another experiment? Angel looked to the left, but didn't see anything suspicious. She looked back to Lilo, who hadn't moved. The girl's shoulders were level, her arms were rigid by her sides, and she clutched onto the leash in her hand with a strange grasp. Angel quickly looked around again. Something wasn't right; or was it just her imagination?

"What's wro-" Angel started say, but stopped when she looked back at Lilo. She had turned while Angel was looking around. Now that Angel's eyes laid back on her, Angel saw the most peculiar smile on the little girl's face. Angel blinked with confusion, and as quickly as that, Lilo's head turned back around and she started walking again.

Had the leash not reminded Angel to follow, she probably wouldn't have moved; she would have most likely stayed at the curb—watching Lilo walk away while she remained motionless with a perplexed look across her face. She didn't understand why Lilo smiled at her, especially because she looked so solemn. But, Angel felt that, in some way, Lilo was telling her something—something that couldn't be said with words. She didn't know if that was it exactly, but she felt as though she had just come…a little closer to Lilo.

"Hey, Gantu, fur-breath wants ya!" Yelled 625 as he wandered the ship. "Gantu!"

"What?" He shouted in response, banging his head against the third shelf of the fridge.

"Hamsterveil called. He said he wants to talk to you." 625 stepped into the doorway and looked inside the fridge. "Thank goodness you didn't hit the mayonnaise." He remarked as Gantu receded, rubbing his scalp. Ignoring the yellow annoyance, Gantu made his way to the control room, and gazed up at the monitor, where Hamsterveil glared back at him.

"Uh…no experiments have been have activated yet sir." He said, not understanding why the rodent had called.

"That is not important right now. What is important is what I've discovered about our first failure. I believe I have isolated the variable that caused the first one to stop functioning." Hamsterveil announced.

"And that would be…"

"A virus." Stated the rodent.

"A computer virus?" Gantu asked.

"A biological virus. It seems that our mistake was using 626's DNA in our first creation, as his genetic composition makes him vulnerable to 'influenza'; a virus that is found on earth." Explained Hamsterveil. Gantu silently wondered why the rodent seemed so calm; earlier he was nearly blowing a fuse, but now he seemed almost tired.

"But I don't see why that would have any effect on what happened. At what point did this 'influenza' virus come into contact with it?" As if to answer Gantu's question, a surveillance recording was displayed on the monitor, while Hamsterveil narrated.

"This is after 624 was tossed aside." He began, as the picture cleared. The scene on the monitor showed the hanger, where he, Hamsterveil, and 625 watched as their creation, Achie-baba Kino, fought against 626. "You will notice the little earth-child, in that failure-of-a-scientist, Jumba's arms," Gantu peered on the screen, and spotted Lilo being cradled by Jumba, "appears rather ill. It was infected with influenza. Clearly it was the cause of Achie-baba Kino's shut-down, and not 626's actions, like we had originally thought." He finished, as the surveillance video blipped off.

"Then this means that all our efforts were for nothing? Capturing 626 and trying to isolate that power he showed was a mistake if it wasn't what brought down Achie-baba Kino." Gantu said with disappointment.

"Not entirely." Hamsterveil chimed, smiling toothily. "It just means we don't need to pursue that action again. Now that I know stopped the first Achie-baba Kino, I know what not to do with the ne-"

"Warning," Interrupted the computer, as the spherical portion lit up, showing the three-dimensional picture of a tall, green experiment with purple bands going across its back, "Experiment 6-0-0 activated. Primary function: alteration of special components to result in teleportation." Hamsterveil's eyes lit with excitement.

"That one will be perfect!" He exclaimed. "Get it!" He commanded.

"Aye aye." Gantu saluted as Hamsterveil cut the feed.