Friendship

C/By: Kenjaje

Edited/Revised by: raVen

(Phase also created by raVen)

Chapter 8: Answers

Lilo sighed with boredom, lying on her bed—her old bed. She looked around the bare room; not much was left down there since all her stuff was up on the third floor. Her bed lacked a cover, and pillow, so there was no way she could get to sleep, unless she was extremely tired.

With one leg over the other she laid, staring out the window and watching the small flicker of light recede over the minutes. There was probably something in the room that would entertain her more than that, but she was too occupied by her thoughts to find one.

She was asking the same questions as Angel—where had Phase gone, who fired the blaster at Cobra, what Nani would do when she got home—but slowly they drifted away from what was to come and wandered to what had happened, specifically that morning.

"I hope Stitch is ok…" She looked at the wall that separated her room from Nani's, where Stitch was. "He's been acting a lot different lately, now that Angel's staying here." She noted. "Not in a bad way though; he's a lot happier, and more obedient…a lot more obedient…but he's also a lot quieter. Maybe it's just those 'shocks'." She turned over, laying her head down across her folded arms, staring blankly at the door. "He seemed really sad this morning…I wonder what it feels like." She frowned, trying to empathize, but it was beyond her imagination.

"Maybe I should do something to cheer him up. That's it! But what can I do? I already gave him time with Angel this morning…that did something, but I don't think it was enough. I'll ask him…I'll stop trying left and right and just ask him what he'd want me to do…that's it…"

Lilo jumped at the sound of someone turning her doorknob. She sat up on the bed, quick and eager to see who was at the door. Was it Nani? Was it Cobra? Was it Phase? The door slowly slid open, and Lilo leaned forward on the bed, and immediately knew whom it was when she saw the left side of a little blue friend's face peeking in.

"Stitch!" She whispered, with both glee and alarm. "What are you doing? If Cobra catches you, you're done for!" Stitch smiled, winked, stepped to the side, and opened the door wider, standing beside it and stretching out his hand as if to present something to Lilo.

From her angle, she could clearly see the man in the black suit, fast asleep while sitting upright on the couch; his head was bent back in an awkward and uncomfortable looking position, and his arm hung over the remote control which was weighted down by his numb hand. A string of drool fell from the corner of his mouth as he opened it, letting out a snore.

"Is asleep." Stitch whispered, though a little loudly.

"Stitch…what did you do?" Lilo asked immediately, a tone of maternal scolding in her voice. She crawled off the bed and walked out into the hallway, continuing her observation on the sleeping Cobra.

"Naga miga." He protested, putting his hands up. "Stitch found asleep."

"Well…maybe he just got tired then." She said.

"Uh-uh." Stitch denied, shaking his head. He pointed to a can that was on the table in front of the sleeping body. Lilo walked slowly down the stairs and picked it up, examining it.

"'Jumba's Sleep Spray; WARNING: Experimental!'" She whispered aloud, walking up the stairs.

"Lilo believe Stitch…eh?" He asked, almost pleadingly. She looked at him and smiled, petting him on the head.

"Of course I do. You're much more behaved than that. But if you didn't do it…who did?"

"Venaba, ask Angel." He beckoned, heading toward the elevator. Instead of climbing up ahead, he waited for her to follow. She tiptoed with silence and haste to the elevator, to make sure she didn't wake Cobra—they may not have put him to sleep, but that didn't mean they had to wake him up.

"…Where is she?" Lilo asked with a normal voice upon reaching the third floor. "Where did she go? Was she in the bathroom?"

"Naga." Stitch said, as they walked away from the pad, meandering in their own directions, searching for Angel, although they knew she wasn't there. Stitch proceeded to the closet, where he noticed the checkers game spewed across the floor. There were claw marks near the top shelf of the closet—someone had been surprised. Was there a struggle?

"I'm going to go check Jumba's room, since someone had to have gotten that bottle from there, you stay here in case she returns, alright?" Lilo asked rhetorically as she fell through the floor.

"Oketaka." Stitch said, saluting. He dropped his arm as soon as her smiling face disappeared, and sighed. He turned and went to her bed, and sat down on its comfortable mattress, waiting. In the silence of the room, after a moment or two, his ears picked up a very feint noise. It sounded like three high-pitched beeps in rapid succession. He looked around, waiting until he heard them again.

They were muffled; blocked. His ears barely picked them up, but they were somewhere in the room. He dropped to the floor and listened for them again. They came ten seconds later, from either in front of him or to his left.

Using his ears as radars, he began to search the room, hearing the beeps every fifteen seconds. The location seemed to dart from here to there, as though the object of desire were on the move, yet it sounded the same each time. Something was blocking it—a solid object was in the way of the beeping and his ears. He went back to Lilo's bed, and immediately noticed that the beeps increased a slight half-decibel. It was right where he started all along.

He searched the covers first; there wasn't anything there, but he expected that. He moved onto the pillows; he hoped that it was there, but he found no such relief. The noise now was becoming more of an annoyance than a curiosity—if anything he wanted to find it just so he could shut it up! He smacked the bedside table with frustration, searching under the bed: nothing.

"Ow!" He yelled sharply, hitting his head on the drawer that had slid open from him hitting the table. He rubbed his scalp, trying to numb the bruise, and heard the sound again. There was nothing blocking it this time—he heard it loud and clear: three beeps, high-pitched, and in rapid succession. He noticed something else too, something in the drawer: a red light flickered as the beeps went off.

He reached into the shaded drawer, seizing the object that made him want to smash the room to bits to shut it up. It was the small, palm-sized, oyster-shaped communicator, used mainly for contacting the Council. However, this morning they had used it in their game of Capture The Flag. What was it doing here? He opened it…

Lilo crept quietly down the hall; every squeak and creek in the old wooden floor sounded like a thousand shattering dishes to her. She was incredibly afraid that Cobra would somehow wake up, sneak up behind her, and scare her by simply watching her for a few minutes, without telling her he was there, only to let her find out sometime later, when she arbitrarily glanced in his direction.

She looked back, half expecting to see him there. If she did, she would at least feel smart knowing she was expecting it. But she didn't, and for that she let out her breath, continuing the rest of the way to Jumba's room. It was closed, but not locked; she turned the doorknob slowly; the click seemed to echo across the world. She looked back again, let out her breath again, and continued on, shutting the door behind her.

"Hello?" She called out at a comfortable tone. "Hello?" She called again, a little louder. No one responded, and she felt no one would. She started to look around, though she didn't know what she would find. "Something's fishy around here…and usually when that happens I'm supposed to look around, and without knowing it, find something that leads me to wherever I'm supposed to go or whatever I'm supposed to do. Now if I were a clue…where would I be?"

She first looked around and tried to find anything out-of-place. Though Jumba had been searching for his invention all day—which he still has yet to find—and so that was pointless, as everything was shifted and moved around since she had been there that afternoon.

"I think I'm in the wrong place…" She realized, leaning against the door and scratching her chin. Almost immediately, the doorknob turned with a jerk, and the door itself flew from her back, making her bend to the will of gravity. She screamed.

"Shush!" Stitch warned, quickly wrapping a hand around her mouth. He felt her breath on his hand as she started to laugh at what just happened.

"Well I wasn't expecting you to open the door while I was against it." She reasoned after he let go of the closed doorknob.

"Soka, did not mean to." He said. Lilo noticed the object in his hands.

"What's that?" She asked rhetorically.

"Answers." He said, handing it to her. Lilo realized what it was, and opened it curiously.

"REPLAY CONVERSATION? YES/NO," flickered across the screen. Lilo immediately punched the key, and nearly dropped it when she saw Hamsterveil's face appear.

"Where are you now?" Came Hamsterveil, curtly.

"In the house." Lilo's mouth opened wide; Phase's voice.

"Good. 624 is there too?"

"Yes."

"Then you are to retrieve her tonight." He commanded.

"No problem. There's someone else here who doesn't know me, the other's are all out. I'll distract him and find a way to get Angel alone."

"Proceed." He told her with a grin.

"You do have that amplifier ready, don't you?" She asked, her tone lacking trust.

"Yes, you shall receive it upon your arrival."

"Good. Be ready to give it to me."

"I'm counting on you, 600." He warned. "You know what will happen if you double-cross me?"

" I know you've…got eyes on me…I won't fail." She replied, a little nervously. The screen went dead. Lilo shut it, anger showing on her cheeks.

"That's not cool!" She yelled, but Stitch had disappeared from where he was standing. Lilo's attitude turned to normal. "Stitch?"

"Makka." He told her, and she turned around. He was looking into the screen of Jumba's computer, expertly ticking away at the keys.

"What are you doing?" She asked curiously, walking up to see the monitor. He looked at her sternly.

"Finding Angel." He replied, and hit the key to start the universal scan.