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Chapter Six: Confrontation

Strangely enough, life just about returned to what was passing for normal. Stitch continued to live as usual, accompanying Lilo most of the time, and thankfully no more experiments had been activated for them to retrieve, but he was constantly distracted and lost in his thoughts. Angel was not seen or spoken of, and everyone knew it would be useless to go and look, because she'd be impossible to find, and no problems were ready to be resolved.

Demon's condition had gone from bad to worse. Ever since Angel's appearance she had been very unstable, but now she, like Stitch, was always distracted. Apart from all of the confusion in her mind, the reason for this was Angel's singing.

Ever since that day, everything had changed. Because of the effect Stitch had on her, and her antennae proved, there was no way to convert her back to evil. It was Stitch who kept her sane. Having fallen in love with Stitch, and having him love her back, had produced feelings of such magnitude that as long as he was still there, she could never return to evil, and the same for him. But should he ever snap out of his confused and contemplative state, and choose anyone else over her, the feeling would be crushed and she would again be open to temptation.

At present nothing so drastic had happened. When Angel sang her song it had been unable to affect her and turn her evil, but it was affecting her in other ways. The poor experiment was being plagued, night and day, by the presence of the song in her mind. She couldn't get it out of her head – it just seemed to go round and round inside her, on a never-ending loop. Every so often Lilo would hear her humming the tune absent-mindedly, or murmuring a few words in her sleep, and she became all the more worried.

Stitch walked into the living room, where Demon was stretched out on a cushion on the floor. She sat up as he entered, but said nothing, There was silence.

'Have you… thought of anything yet?'

Stitch shook his head. He was still undecided.

'So?' she continued. 'You'll probably never pick just one of us,' she sighed, 'and you'll end up with us both.'

'Naga,' Stitch replied hastily. He put a paw on his chest. 'Not enough… room.'

'Come on, guys!' said Lilo, entering the room. 'We're all gonna go up to the beach to see David. You should come.'

The two experiments exchanged a glance before following Lilo out of the door.

All four aliens in the family were in their Earth disguises once they were out on the street: 'Uncle' Jumba and 'Aunt' Pleakley, who had typical clothes and wigs, and Stitch and Demon, who were attempting to hide their telltale appendages and masquerade as dogs. On the way, Demon walked up on all fours to talk to Lilo.

'Explain again – why does Pleakley dress like Earth female?'

Lilo half-laughed, half-sighed. 'You don't want to go into that.'

'Where is David's one true place?' the experiment questioned.

'His… place?' Lilo wondered. 'Well, he works at the Luau. Nani used to work there too, but she quit because the manager was a vampire, and… y'know, that's a pretty long story…'

When they got to the beach, David was there waiting for them.

'Aloha, Nani!' he smiled. 'And Lilo, of course. And…the rest. Who's up for surfing?'

'Ooh, me!' said Nani. 'I want to make the most of my time off. What about you, Lilo? …Lilo?'

The girl looked around for a few seconds, but couldn't see her sister anywhere. 'David, where'd Lilo go?'

'I don't know,' he replied, 'but the dogs aren't here either.'

'Nani! David!' Lilo cried, coming into view. She was running back from another part of the beach. 'You've got to come quickly!'

Nani, David, Pleakley and Jumba followed the girl as she ran back.

'Uh-oh,' Jumba warned. 'This is not looking good.'

Down on the beach Stitch was standing struck with surprise, while Demon and Angel were squaring off on the sand.

The rest of the Ohana raced over to see what was happening. Angel was standing with an annoyed look on her face, while Demon crouched in a pouncing position, snarling fiercely. All her fur was bristling up and flushing with crimson.

'What is going on here?' Nani demanded. She pointed to Angel, 'Didn't that one live in our house a while back?'

'That's also a long story…' Lilo replied.

Angel, looking Demon up and down, grinned slightly. She knew how to get this one to back off.

'Acuta… chimeto…'

After a few moments everyone realised what she was doing. Pleakley reacted quickly and stuffed his fingers into Jumba's ears so he wouldn't hear.

'Eegata nomuta…'

Stitch looked from one girl to the other with anxiety. Despite her hindered thinking power, Demon's face was determinedly set. Those beautiful words were filling her ears… reminding every cell in her body of the pure joy which comes from doing what you're set out to do. Tempting her with promises of destruction and glory like nothing else. Pleading and pulling and twisting her to be what she was always meant to be. "Listen, and come back… be what you are told to be…" But she looked at Stitch, and the cries of the song fell on deaf ears. She knew what she had to do.

When the next line of the song started, there wasn't just one voice. There were two. Angel began singing again, and Demon joined in…

'Naga tonala…' "There's no other way"

Angel's tune was now laced with Demon's beautiful harmony, their voices dancing and intertwining, the song itself becoming a thing of awe.

'Itume… tiduka…'

As it ended Demon put a twist on the melody, cutting it off with a flourish. Angel stared at her menacingly. Demon just sighed, although inside she was filled with excitement and adrenaline, but then she appeared to light up and glow.

'I'm back!' she snarled.

'That is absolutely amazing!' exclaimed Jumba.

'Why? What happened?' asked Pleakley, confused.

'623 has discovered a way to stop 624's powers from working! What she did negates the effect of the neuro-linguistic behavioural modification, and reverses it! It is the perfect counter-action. 623 is now free from the sireny song effects. I am… so proud.'

There wasn't much time to be proud of Demon, though. Without the song inhibiting her thoughts she was truly herself again. Wasting no time, she brewed flames in her mouth and spat the fire at her nemesis. Angel had to get over her sheer surprise and attempted to dodge them. The audience was now very concerned – a real fight was breaking out.

Demon was lunging and pouncing at the other experiment, and she wasn't afraid to use her claws. Angel wasn't at all designed to handle violence, and had to put all her effort into blocking and escaping.

Demon started to relax a bit and let herself settle into the rhythm of the fight. In a straight battle it was obvious she would win – Angel had no powers of her own to use, so she attempted to taunt her just as Angel had done.

Angel ducked a blow and tried to run, but Demon blew a ball of fire into her paw and hurled it at her. The fireball hit close to Angel's feet and knocked her off balance with fear and surprise. Once she was down, Demon dived over and tried to grab onto her. Angel tried to get up, but Demon managed to hold onto one of her long antennae and jerked it backward to stop her from getting to her feet.

'Not very practical, are they?' Demon hissed into her ear.

A sharp pain in her head made Demon howl and let go. When she looked up, Angel was standing a short way away, holding a rock which she had found on the sand and used to slam Demon on the head.

Demon stood up but didn't move any further.

'That's it. We're ending this now.'

The air about her turned to haze, making her flicker and sway. Demon was heating up way more than she ever had done before. A terrible flame seemed to be consuming her; she was red-hot with hateful fire. Her eyes held flaming red inside their dark blackness, as if the power held in her core was so strong it could be seen through them. Inside, she was remembering everything Angel had done to her. Everything she'd done with Stitch that made her insanely jealous. Everything that had been taken away because of her. All that anger boiled up inside until she felt like she was about to burst.

'Oh no!' said Jumba.

'What is it!' squealed Pleakley. 'What's happening? What's going on!'

'Is what I always feared…' Jumba explained, 'I never limited the amount of firepower generated by 623. If she could ever care about something so much that it produced the highest level of anger, the power her body makes from it might be too much for her to take. It could destroy her!'

'Naga!' Stitch cried in an effort to make her stop, but she paid him no heed. Everything around her looked like it was melting with the incredible heat.

'Then, that's…' Lilo wondered, 'that's how much she cares for Stitch?'

'Apparently,' Jumba replied.

'Well,' Pleakley added, being strangely accurate, 'they say "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned".'

While Demon had been frozen still, Angel had stolen a child's floating ring from somewhere and had constructed something with it and 2 sticks. With strong sticks planted in the ground, she had stretched the rubber ring over them to create a catapult. Just about everyone there could tell what she was going to do with it.

'Demon! Don't do it!' yelled Lilo, but it was too late. Carrying with her the enormous amount of energy, and moving like a living fireball, she ran headlong in Angel's direction. All of her aggression and hate towards her had been channelled into pure power, coursing through her veins. To her, it was as if the only things in existence were the three experiments on the beach. Angel just stood smugly, mocking her with a smirk. This only fuelled her more, and Demon ran even faster.

Stitch helplessly reached out his hand to her.

Blinded by her rage, Demon ran straight into the makeshift catapult. She stretched out the rubber and carried on regardless, her hands outstretched. Her fingertips stopped just centimetres from Angel, who gave her a look of fake pity before the laws of physics took their course. The rubber suddenly pinged back, pulling Demon with it. She was thrown away with the same huge force she had applied to the float, just as she had reversed the effect of Angel's power. The tremendous force which she had carried now threw her up, into the sky, then down, and she crashed into the waves of the sea.

There was a stunned silence from those watching on the beach.

'No!' cried Lilo. 'She'll drown!'

Stitch turned to find Angel standing near him, looking very proud. She was clearly waiting for him to do something. He turned back and looked at the water, and realised. This was it.

This was his decision.