To My Readers and Reviewers: I must admit I was expecting all of you to instantly figure out what was going on. Some of you did! Though I was surprised when many of you were at the opposite end of the spectrum as far as accuracy is concerned. For the sake of surprise I won't say who among you were right on and who among you don't have a clue. You're just going to have to discover that in the following chapters.
There was actually supposed to be more in the last chapter but I was kind of rushed. This chapter is really the second half of my original idea of the last chapter.
Also, this is the most reviews I've ever received on a single chapter, yet I just posted chapter three of Gems of Tomorrow as well and that hasn't gotten a single review so far! That one's good too! Please don't ignore it!

Lilo lowered her arms and looked forward at nothing in particular. Stitch still looked over her shoulder and down at the letter. Lilo began shaking her head, slowly at fist, but got faster until she dropped the note onto the pavement, dropped to her knees, and covered her ears with her hands.

"No!" Lilo shouted to herself. "Hawaii doesn't have an emperor! This is not supposed to happen! This shouldn't be happening!"

Stitch pried Lilo's hands off her ears, though as gently as he could, and whispered into her ear. "Not just Hawaii."

Lilo looked up at Stitch on the verge of crying. Stitch walked around Lilo and picked up the letter. He handed it to Lilo and then pointed to part of the text.

the constitution of the pacific islands it read.

"The constitution of the pacific islands." Lilo whispered to herself. She then looked up at Stitch. "Does that mean all the pacific islands?"

"Naga nota." Stitch shook his head as he answered.

The two stood there staring into each other's eyes of a little while longer. Stitch swallowed and looked back at the letter in Lilo's hand again.

"Gotta' find time board." Stitch said, shaking his head at Lilo.

"Then we have to find my parents." Lilo said back.

"Ih!"

Lilo dropped the letter to the ground, grabbed Stitch's hand, and they both began to walk down the street together toward downtown Kokaua.

From the outskirts of town, one could scarcely tell anything was wrong, but once Lilo and Stitch reached downtown Kokaua, it was clearer than anything they've ever seen before that the world they knew no longer existed.

The streets, once a bustle with tourists and street vendors looking for the one hidden sucker among them, were now empty. Everything was quiet. The only sound was of leaves rustling in the wind. It was like a ghost town. The only indication of human population was the occasional vehicle parked on the side of the road. There were only two types though, the dull gray sedan, identical to the one beneath Lilo and Stitch's former residence, and a dull gray minivan. All of which had the same Imperial brand name with the sword in anvil logo.

More striking than the absence of people was the presence of the buildings. Nothing remained of the small, quaint looking old stores and offices that once randomly dotted the side of the road. What was there now were plain, white square buildings, all exactly ten stories high, all featureless, all sorted in a perfect grid like pattern. Only the large black signs above the doors gave away what they were meant for.

Kauai-18-225-Produce Outlet, Kauai-18-226-Offices, Kauai-18-227-Public Services, Kauai-18-228-Storage, Kauai-18-229-Residential Housing, Kauai-18-230-Hardware Outlet. The names went on.

Lilo and Stitch continued walking down the center of the road, staring in disbelief at their surroundings, Lilo, shaking her head slowly, and Stitch wide eyed and wide jawed.

At last, they came upon a gray plastic bench in front of a building labeled Kauai-18-134-Loyalty Enforcement. On the bench was a sticker that read #-40 To Kauai-19. Obviously it was some sort of bus stop. Lilo walked up to the bench and sat down, resting her chin in her hands, her elbows on her legs. Stitch soon followed, looking down at his legs now dangling just above the sidewalk.

"This shouldn't have happened." Lilo whispered to herself. "How could this have happened?"

Stitch turned his head to look at Lilo and opened his mouth about to say something, but stopped and turned back.

"We were supposed to have a family." Lilo continued. "But they're missing. And now we have an emperor. And he's turned Hawaii into… into this." Lilo looked up and pointed at downtown Kokaa, now seemingly a monument to sameness. Stitch looked up, not quite following the direction of Lilo's finger.

Lilo put her hands back down to hold up her chin once again. Stitch looked at her.

"Maybe." Stitch said.

Lilo looked at Stitch.

"Maybe, parents know what happened."

Lilo face once again lit up at hearing Stitch's those words. She grabbed Stitch around the waste and squeezed him tightly, bringing out a startled face from her blue friend.

"Mom and Dad! Of course!" Lilo said. "If we can find them, they can tell us what went wrong, and then we can go back in time and fix it!"

Stitch pried Lilo's arms off of himself and looked at her in the eyes.

"Naga time board." Stitch told Lilo. "Is gone. Remember?"

"Oh… right." Lilo whispered. "But still! Mom and Dad can tell us what went wrong. And after we find them, we'll go find this so called emperor of the pacific islands, and get our time board back!"

"Ih!"

"Didn't one of the buildings say public services on it? Maybe we can go there and ask about the Pelekais. It's worth a shot."

"Okey-Taka."

Lilo hopped off the bench and started down the sidewalk with Stitch close behind.

The two stopped in front of one of the plain white buildings they had passed earlier, stood in front of the doorway, and looked up. Kauai-18-227-Public Services.

Lilo and Stitch looked at each other for only a second and then turned back toward the door of the public services building. Lilo lifted her arm to turn the handle to the door.

Just as she was about to open the door, the ground shook and Lilo was deafened by the sound of a great explosion to her right. The shock caused Lilo to fall down on her butt. Stitch, ignoring the sudden crash, grabbed her protectively.

Lilo turned her to the right. The adjacent building, offices, now had part of the front side missing. Smoke billowed from the giant hole where the entrance used to be and debris such as composite beams and sheetrock was flying outward from the damage.

An extremely loud sound like wood cracking rang out and the offices building began to lean toward the road. As it leaned a bit too far, it gave way and the bottom of the front of the building collapsed in on itself.

The building began to fall toward the road. Lilo stared at it in a blank stupor for only a second before curling up and covering her head with her hands. Stitch instantly jumped on top of Lilo, covering her body with his own.

With an incredible crash, the building fell onto the road as a pile of rubble. Nails, sheetrock, pipes and composite beams flew about the place, many of them striking Stich, hard, but the pain was only a slight irritation for a creature like him.

After the debris settled, Stitch helped Lilo to her feet, and she began coughing uncontrollably from the blinding dust.

Stitch blinked his eyes and they opened a bright glowing red.

In infrared Stitch could see the bright orange and yellow silhouettes of five people holding carrying the dark blue images of assault rifles running from the debris and down the road.

Stich lifted up Lilo and place her on his back.

"Hold on tight." He said. Lilo obeyed without hesitation.

Stitch took off down the road on all fours toward the five people who had just destroyed the offices building. Lilo tried desperately to cling to Stitch's back as he dashed so fast.

As they cleared the dust, Stitch blinked his eyes again and they were once again black as he opened them. Seeing in color now, the figures were all dressed in camo cargo pants and army boots, various colored t-shirts. Some of them wore jean jackets. All of them wore ski masks with sunglasses or ski goggles. They all carried m-16s, or at least what looked like them, and had walkie-talkies strapped to their belts.

The five people took a left at the edge of downtown, where the grid of plain white buildings stopped, still not noticing Stitch hot on their tails.

Stitch ran left after them, and seeing them all trying to pile into another of the dull gray minivans in a panicked hurry, stopped suddenly and yelled out at them.

"Poju Kata! Naga!" Stitch screamed at them.

All five people immediately turned around and pointed their guns at Stitch. They looked at Stitch without moving for some time. Stitch looked back at them.

One of the people dropped his gun to the ground and raised his hands. The rest soon followed.

"What's going on back there?" a woman's voice called out from the cab of the van.

The door to the cab opened up and out jumped a woman in the same outfit as the others with her m-16 and jean jacket. The woman ran to the back of the van and raised her gun slightly, about to start yelling at them when she turned her head to see Stitch.

The woman lowered her gun and began to shaker her head.

"626." She whispered to herself. "It's impossible."

It was just then that Lilo, still hiding behind Stitch, poked her head out from behind him to look at what was going on.

The masked woman looked behind Stitch to see Lilo. She then froze, and tensed up.

"Lilo?" She whispered even more quietly before. The others turned their heads to look at her.

Lilo walked out from behind Stitch and did her best to hug him from he side while still looking at the masked woman who was obviously in disbelief.

"This is Stitch." Lilo said. "He's not going to hurt you."

"It's a trick." The masked woman responded. "You're not Lilo."

"Yes I am." Lilo answered back. "And how do you know who I am?"

The woman paused for a minute, and then reachd back behind her head, and pulled off her ski mask, her sunglasses falling to the ground from being pushed by the mask.

Her face was one Lilo recognized instantly, although she now had short hair, and a scar running down her right cheek, Lilo still knew it was her.

"Nani?" Lilo whispered.

Nani pointed her gun to Lilo. Lilo hid a bit further behind Stitch, who growled and extended his hidden arms in reaction. The other five people backed away and all gasped in unison as they saw that. But Nani just stood there with her gun pointed at Lilo.

"Don't you ever call me that!" Nani said.

"Why not?" Lilo asked.

"Because you're not my sister."

Nani looked off into the horizon. Lilo and Stitch turned their heads to look as well. Two large stealth jet black, what looked to be flying boats with flat bottoms flew toward them, but before reaching them, the flying boats stopped in mid air and spun around as they slowly descended into a landing just to the side of the collapsed offices building.

Once the boats landed, doors in their hulls you couldn't previously see slid open to the side allowing six people from each boat to exit and look around the scene of the collapsed building.

The people who exited the building all wore identical suits. They looked like thick, segmented wetsuits with rigid armor plates fused into them at such angles to fit with the muscles of the body, and allow maximum agility for rigid armors. They all wore identical fully enclosed helmets with menacing gas masks. They carried jet black versions of the plasma pistols owned by Jumba and Gantu, but elongated, making them seem more like carbines. These people, surveying the wreckage of the former offices building,

all-in-all looked almost like Star Wars stormtroopers, only everything they wore was jet black.

"The emperor's troops." Nani whispered to herself. "It'll take them less than five minutes to find us."

She turned back toward her squad, still with their hands in the air, some of them on their knees, and barked out like a drill sergeant. "Grab your guns and get moving! And take the girl and the thing with us."

"Have you gone Lolo?" One of them retorted.

Nani pointed her gun at the man. "DO IT!"

The man stood motionless for a few more seconds. Nani clicked off the safety to her rifle. Slowly, the five men lowered their arms, knelt down and picked up their guns. Even more slowly, they walked toward, and surrounded Stich and Lilo, all with their sights on the center of Stitch's head.

"You two are coming with us." One of the men said.

Stitch extended his claws and began to growl. The five men backed away slightly at this gesture, until Lilo pulled on Stitch's arm.

"No Stitch." Lilo said. "Go with them, it'll be alright."

Stitch nodded his head at Lilo, and retracted his extra limbs. The men inched their way toward Stitch and Lilo, who compliantly walked to the back of the van, and sat down inside. The men all got in after them, still with their gun sights on Stitch. One of the men reached out and slammed the back door shut. The van turned on, and then took off down the street, off the road and through the underbrush as fast as its wheels could take it.

Inside the van, Lilo and Stitch were shook about on the bare metal floor as the van sped across dirt trails and over grasses and shrubs. When the van finally stopped, Lilo found herself wrapped in Stitch's arms as he tried to keep her from shaking around too much. After her dizziness passed, Lilo stood up and looked around.

The insides of the van had been completely torn out. Only the bare metal remained of what was once there. Crude seats made from crates and dirty pillows were roped and duct taped to the walls of the van. Near the cab were a few overly used carboard boxes each labeled only with a number. All the boxes were duct taped shut except one. Lilo slowly walked toward the box and lifted up one of the flaps. She gasps and fell backwards onto her butt at what she saw. Rifle clips, pistol clips, and hand grenades were all messily piled inside.

Stitch was there with his hands on Lilo's shoulders as soon as she hit the floor. She leaned back against his chest, and then looked toward the cab.

Out of the drivers side window Lilo could see Nani and a small patch of grassy ground. Nani was looking across the distance with a pair of binoculars to her eyes in one hand, and her assault rifle hanging at her side in the other. Lilo turned toward the other men in the van, and Stitch turned his head with her.

The men were all pressed against the back of the van with their guns set on Stitch. Their hands were shaking, rattling the guns as they tried to keep their aim steady.

"It's okay." Lilo whispered to them. "Stitch isn't going to hurt you."

"Naga hurt." Stitch added, shaking his head.

"Ahhhh!" one of them men screamed out like a little girl, dropped his rifle to the floor and put his hands in the air in reaction to Stitch's comment. The other four turned their heads to look at him. After looking back at them, he picked his rifle back up and again pointed at Stitch.

Stitch lowered his head and drooped his ears.

Lilo and Stitch turned around at the sound of the driver's door opening up. Nani sat down at the drivers seat and sighed heavily.

"They're not following us." Nani said without moving.

Nani turned back to look at her new captives. Lilo sat on the floor staring at her, slowly shaking her head and on the edge of crying. Stitch stood above her with his arms wrapped around her neck and repeatedly making 'Shh' sounds into her ear.

Seeing Stitch's protective affection for Lilo, Nani sneered and clenched her fists so hard one would think they'd start bleeding at any moment in a desperate attempt to control a building wave of rage.

Stitched looked up at Nani. His ears drooped down and his face saddened by the way she glared at him.

Nani finally calmed down, and turned forward in her seat again. After messing with a few, what must've been knobs just out of the sight of Lilo, she picked up the phone to a radio, pressed the side button, and spoke into it.

"Nani to Sam, mission successful. Do you copy?" Nani spoke into the radio phone.

A voice answered back. A very deep and imposing voice. Lilo and Stitch both found that voice familiar, but with the poor quality of the radio, couldn't make out who it was exactly.

"I copy. Good work Nani." The voice said. "Anything else to report."

"Yes sir." Nani answered. "626 is playing head games with us."

"What kind of head games?"

"After completing the mission, we ran into this thing that looks just like him."

Nani turned around to look at Lilo for just a second before turning back.

"And another thing that looks like my sister."

"But I am your sister!" Lilo shouted out.

Reacting almost on reflex, Nani pulled out a pistol from her belt and whipped her body around to point it right between Lilo's eyes.

"Don't you ever say that again!" Nani screamed at Lilo.

Stitch, also reacting almost on reflex, flipped over Lilo, landing on his feet in front of her, baring his teeth and claws at Nani.

"Naga hurt Lilo!" Stitch shouted out.

"Ahhh!" Nani screamed once again as she dropped her pistol, and just as quickly reached down to grab it again.

"Ahhh!" The same man as before once again screamed, and once again dropped his rifle and stuck his hands in the air.

All was motionless and silent, except for the deep voice on the radio.

"Could you repeat that? I thought you just said you found something that looks like 62-"

The radio clicked off as Nani reached over and flicked, something.

"I want that thing bound and gagged." Nani whispered, her breath stuttered and voice filled with what had to either be fear, or anger, if not both.

"That's not gonna hold him!" One of the other men retorted.

"Did you hear me!" Nani yelled out, pointing her pistol at the head of the man who had the audacity to question her.

"Yes m'am." He whispered, and pulled a dingy, white twine rope from the back seat.

About to wrap his rope around Stitch, Stitch inched back. The man inched back in reaction.

"Umm. If you would please let me…" He asked Stitch.

Nani dropped her head into her hand at hearing this.

"Naga!" Stitch shouted back, but Lilo put her hand on his head and whispered into his ear.

"Do what they say Stitch."

Stitch lowered his head and drooped his ears. "Okey-Taka. Tie Stitch up."

The man, hesitating many times, began to wrap his rope around Stitch, who no longer struggled at that point.

The van turned back on and began to drive away.