Friendship

C/By: Kenjaje

Edited/Revised by: raVen

(Phase also created by raVen)

Chapter 14: Resurrection of Trust

"Where the heck am I going?" Lilo spun around in an intersection, lost in the labyrinth. She was trying to follow her scent back to where she started but somehow she lost track of where she was going and wound up walking in zigzags, circles and passing places she knew all too well and yet didn't know. "I think my nose is broken…" She moaned to herself, pushing a finger against a nostril, causing her voice to alter.

"Ok Lilo, think. Remember the blue-prints." She glanced around. "…I'm lost." Taking a deep breath she walked to the wall, and with her finger, she carved a small triangle, which pointed down one of the halls. She pulled her finger out of the beveled metal and blew the specs off. "There." She said with satisfaction. "Now if I pass this arrow again, I'll know I went in a circle. Or…wait a minute…wasn't it in a maze…" She snapped her fingers. "That's it! Now I remember—always follow the right wall and you'll end up where you want to be…eventually." She slammed her right hand against the respective wall, causing more damage to the metal, and began walking.

"Well Stitch, this'll take forever…but I'll get to you, don't worry." She sighed again as she continued walking; briskly, quickly, gradually speeding up. A few minutes passed, and it seemed like she wasn't going fast enough. "Maybe if I ran like Stitch I'd be faster…but then I won't be able to keep track of the wall I'm on. Unless…" Experimentally, she put her palms against the wall, and then, kicking off her sandals, she proceeded to put her feet against it as well. She took a few steps up the wall until she was halfway between the ceiling and floor, and with a slight vertigo from disorientation, she braved to a run.

"Hey…this is kind of cool." She said, as she almost magnetically clung to the wall. When she came to her first corner, she rounded it as though it were a flat piece of road, and continued, meandering left and right—or down and up—as she sprinted on hands and feet, which felt uncomfortable. Eventually, she changed to running on two feet, which she quickly realized was much faster still.

Her hair flowed between the forces of gravity and the forces of wind speed; swishing up and down—or right and left—but mostly staying to her left—or down—as she ran with full confidence in her ability to adhere to the surface of the slick, metal wall.

"I could get used to this." She commented, rounding corner after corner, step after step. Eventually, she passed the wall she had engraved with an arrow and her palm print, but she had no time to stop and admire—Stitch was waiting! And, unexpectedly, she found that she, too, was being waited upon. When she rounded the next corner, running at such great speed, she didn't see the dark, bulky object in time for her to duck, dodge, or by any other means avoid. She fell to the floor after smacking into it, and proceeded to apologize, until she stared up into its deep, glazed, emerald-green eyes.

Phase's heart skipped a beat, and her throat locked up for a moment; the fear of the noise sent her into a panic, and she braced for the impact of the bullet. She felt the smoldering plasma approach her head, but she didn't move. Its heat grazed across her face, just behind her eye, and finally she felt the charge pass below her ear, and heard it collide with the ground a small distance behind her.

She didn't move, her breath locked in her legs and body shifted slightly with the beating of her heart. The blindfold softly fell onto the ground to reveal her glossed eyes staring wide with a mix of disbelief, panic, and fear. There was a pause of silence, the wind blowing softly. She gazed at Angel blankly; the dark eyes behind the barrel of the blaster glared darkly, and then softened. The blaster trembled as she lowered it, her eyes beginning to water.

"I don't ever want to have to do that again!" Angel shouted, her breath quivering. She threw the blaster behind her, turning on the ball of her foot, and watched as it sailed across the overcastted backdrop until it fell behind the lip of the flooring. She turned back to Phase, the expression of bewilderment still lingered on her face.

"You…you missed…" Phase mumbled. "No…you didn't miss." She corrected herself, realizing Angel wasn't intending to shoot her."Why didn't you miss? …You are a really good shot…"

"I've hardly held a blaster in my life." Phase's expression slowly went from fearful to relaxed, and she let out a small laugh, realizing what Angel's true intent was. The captor was a rescuer in desguise.

"You picked a good time to…that really worked. Probably better than you think." She fumbled with the brace around her hands as she spoke, her words barely over the wind.

"Here, let me get that." Angel stepped behind her, and extended a claw, but she found that all of them had been worn down too much from sliding down the pole. "I guess I need more milk. Ok, hold still, this might sting a bit."

"It's better than-" She let out a painful gasp as the brace was ripped away from her wrists. She stood fully, massaging the slightly bleeding cuts. "Thanks."

"…I had practice." She replied. Phase's lips curved with guilt.

"Look…Angel…I don't expect you to understand, but I'm not really evil. It's just, Hamsterveil offered to make me an amplifier…"

"No excuses." Angel said, though her tone was light instead of sincere. "I understand completely. That's why I didn't miss…I knew you were probably doing it for some kind of benefit. I figured that when I saw you being held prisoner. Kind of makes you rethink things when you're the one being betrayed doesn't it?"

"Yeah…it does. I'm…I'm sorry."

"I know. You made a mistake…it's all right. …I'm guessing those are some kind of disrupters?" Angel asked, changing the subject and pointing at the wafers.

"Yeah. For some reason I can't teleport with them on."

"Need me to take them off?"

"…I could teleport away again as soon as you do. Or, I could be lying—I betrayed you once, who says I won't do it again?" Angel grasped the wafers and gently freed her antennae.

"Because I didn't do it again." She said softly.

"What?"

"Nothing. I just trust you, that's all. Besides, it's your choice if you want to leave, I wouldn't mind. Because if you did, and we met again, you know exactly what I'm capable of."

"Maybe a little bit; besides, I can't seem to teleport anyway. There's still some static in the way." Phase looked at Angel with a curiosity."But…don't you have some kind of incredible power? Every one of us has a power, and Hamsterveil seemed to really want yours…what can you do?" Angel turned, hiding her face, and walked toward the door that led inside. Phase followed closely, yet comfortably, behind.

"That's because I can make someone good or evil. He needed me to make his Kino's stronger—robots aren't made to be evil so he needed a way to make them evil." Phase's eyebrows squinted in the middle; Angel's emotion had completely changed. Not a minute ago she was in the hands of a cold, threatening captor; now she was following a friend who was preparing for something, judging by the tone in her voice.

"…Maybe I can help. You know, I got to know this place a little bit while I was here—I know where the main computers are. I always saw Hamsterveil entering data and information, if you'd like I can try to get that information to you, and maybe it'll help stop him from making Kino's." Angel paused, and turned back to face Phase.

"Are you sure…you want to help? You don't have to Phase; you don't need to pay me back for betraying me, if that's what you're thinking about doing. It's not necessary, and I honestly don't like carrying someone's debt." Phase held up a hand.

"No…not anything like that. Just call it…a favor. Yeah. It's a favor, for getting me out of it all. Who knows, I might even find some blueprints for that amplifier Hamsterveil promised. Maybe I can get Jumba to make it for me…if Lilo and Stitch will let me go back to the house…that is." Angel smiled.

"Lilo's the other half of the reason why I didn't miss. If it wasn't for her…" Angel's words drifted. "Don't worry; I'm sure they'll let you. All we want now…is just to go home…it doesn't matter with who, I think we just want to get there in one piece."

"All right, then. I'll try to find that data, and if it's anything relevant I'll save it to a disk and give it to you. Hopefully it'll solve this whole problem…from the way you sound, this has been going on for quite a while, I'd guess."

"Far too long." Angel corrected harshly. Phase smiled; the bitterness wasn't directed toward her, she presumed, and so she felt relaxed. "I have to go help Lilo and Stitch; we'll try to wait as long as we can, but getting away from here is critical. You haven't met Nani yet, and if Lilo is harmed in any way…well, it won't be worth it getting back home at all, really." Phase heard a small laugh come from Angel; she was joking to calm her nerves. Phase nodded, and passed Angel as she ran down the hall and turned left.

Angel sighed, relieved, and began her walk through the halls as well. She wanted to run but couldn't really find any energy to. Besides, it would be better to relax herself as much as possible—Stitch would need her as strong as she could possibly be when she arrived to help them.

She listened to her own footsteps as she made her way, walking quickly but not running; a small ache just outside of her stomach was beginning to form. She breathed deeply as she walked, trying to calm the ache down. While she progressed, she noticed a small carving on the metal wall, followed by someone's handprint. It was Lilo's, from what she could tell. The only thing she couldn't understand was what it was for.

"Help!" Angel's ears bolted open, and her eyes shot to the direction of the intersection. Lilo's voice, but she couldn't tell from where. There was a crash, a small tremor. Angel began to run, but was hesitant, and unsure of which hallway to use. She had to make the right choice; otherwise she would never find Lilo. Angel closed her eyes, hoping for another noise. It came, and it was the most helpful noise possible: a stentorian scream of either surprise or fear, Lilo's of course.

"Hold on!" Angel's eyes squinted as the scream ran in her ears. Her mind began to think, working her element. The sound came from a distance, timely wise, but it was not at all very far away. Angel looked to her left, and darted down the hall—she knew it was the right direction.