To Ri2: You're ideas certainly did help. Although some of them I can't use, and I think you slightly misunderstood what I said about Emerald, allot of them were still of great help, and I've managed to combine two of them to fill in the gap of next chapter, though there are still gaps to go.
To Mimic12355: I've read both your and Torcher's stuff. It's very well worded, but the creativity isn't quite on par with what I'm looking for. I really do appreciate the offer though.
To Spirit's Shadow: One of the points I'm trying to get at in this story is to put a child through the kind of trauma most adults can't handle. Stitch's support would be the only reason she wouldn't loose it completely. I'm still trying to find someone good at child psychology to help me out in how she would react to this.
To A. Nonymous: You just, don't get it… do you? The review button is for reviewing and critiquing, not for wishing people happy holidays. I deleted your last review. (I was going to say nice things about you too!)
To Ted: You know, I
tried to involve Lilo and Stitch more in the battle scene, but I just
couldn't figure out how.
The 'middle aged man'
was not named because he only appears in those two chapters.
Presumably, he was killed in the firefight.
To Baal 626: Have you yet read 'The Only Thing Worse Than Dying'? 'Cause you haven't reviewed it.
It had been a week since the emperor's troops had attempted their siege on the once abandoned warehouse that now housed an underground resistance movement against the emperor. The few who survived had somewhat gotten on with their lives. The day after the attack everyone had abandoned the warehouse to find anew HQ. They found it in a shut down and run down lava observatory some distance from Kalapana on the Big Island. Although now Kalapana was just called Hawaii-11
The place was perfect. Since the tourist industry was now nonexistent in any of the pacific islands, there was no more use for a lava observatory, so no one had ever stepped foot inside for the last two years. It also had its own diesel generator, although it was in some need of repairs.
Each individual survivor took a separate route to reach Hawaii-11, and eventually the run down lava observatory, so as not to attract attention to them as a group. Even after the week was over, not everyone had arrived yet. There was still no sign of the group Nani had led out during the attack itself.
What of Lilo and Stitch?
Sam had stowed away aboard a liner shipping sheet metal from Kauai to the Big Island, and took Lilo and Stitch with him. There were quite a few times during the trip when they were almost spotted. Somehow, they managed to make it out without drawing attention to themselves. Though Stitch had to take the entire trip shoved inside a backpack.
After she had witnessed that fight, Lilo was never quite the same. Even now at the observatory, with relative peace, her own bed, clean clothes and regular food, that battle was too ingrained in her head, and she could never bring herself all the way out of it.
She could only sleep at night if she was being held by Stitch. Even then, she would cry and mumble, and shudder. This would keep Stitch up all night, and so he would sleep most of the day. It took Stitch three days of trying just to get Lilo to eat. She still wouldn't walk or talk. She would only stare into space utterly devoid of expression. Stitch had to carry her everywhere.
Lilo sat on the narrow concrete steps that, in two more steps, led to swinging glass door entrance to the observatory. There was no longer any glass on the door, but many layers of black plastic sheeting had been duct taped all around the sides. The entire building looked like four concrete cubes of different sizes stuck together atop a small hill.
Lilo sat beneath the tarp set up just above the door, since the original cloth porch roof had been torn off long ago. She looked down at the concrete stairway leading down some distance, turning occasionally to avoid a sharp jutting rock.
She was now dressed in plain gray slacks and a green long sleeve shirt with the familiar sword-in-anvil logo across the chest. She rested her chin in her hands and looked out.
It was raining fairly hard. You could here the occasional distant sound of thunder, but it was all too far away to see.
Lilo didn't flinch as she heard the slight creaking of the front door opening. Stitch sat beside her on the concrete step with a small paper bag in his hands, which he set down between Lilo and himself.
Stitch reached inside and pulled out the large, dense MRE cracker with a thin coating of a greenish jelly ontop.
"Stitch bring food." He said softly. "It is not very good, but filling."
Stitch had to pry Lilo's hand open and force the cracker inside for her to pay any attention to it.
Lilo held the cracker up to her face and stared at it for a few minutes before taking the slightest nibble. It may have been slow, but she was eating, and or a time, they couldn't even get her to do that much.
Stitch turned back toward the rain.
"It is nice," Stitch continued. "listening to rain. It is… relaxing."
Stitch glanced over at Lilo still barely nibbling on her cracker.
Stitch reached into the paper bag and pulled out another cracker covered with the same green jelly. He tossed it into his mouth and swallowed without chewing. He turned back toward Lilo. She was still barely nibbling on hers.
"I like listening to rain." Stitch still spoke to Lilo. "It helps me go to sleep."
After a few more minutes, Lilo was finally finished with her cracker, and she rested her chin in her hands once again.
Stitch pushed the paper back away and scooted closer to Lilo. He reached his arm around her shoulder hoping that she would give some kind of reaction. She didn't.
Stitch sighed, but his ears flicked into attention when he saw someone climbing the steps to the observatory entrance.
She climbed slowly, wearing a black, hooded trench coat, again with the sword-in-anvil logo in white on the back. Stitch held Lilo just a bit tighter as the woman approached, until she was standing right in front of the two of them beneath the tarp.
Lilo still held her head down.
The woman pulled off her hood and Stitch relaxed his grip on Lilo as he saw who it was.
"Nani." Stitch said, being as monotonous as possible.
"I heard what you did." Nani responded. "Politely asked the troops to just go away and leave us alone did you?"
There was an awkward silence for some time. Stitch didn't like how Nani was looking at him. He held Lilo a little tighter.
"Next time they find us, that trick won't work." Nani said. "Not now that they know we have a double of the emperor here with us. And now they're gonna' double their search force just to find you."
There was a while more of awkward silence. Nani at last continued.
"I also heard you held a ball of plasma right in your hands. That doesn't impress me much. Well… it does, but it's nothing compared to the things the emperor can do."
"Anything emperor can do, Stitch can do!" Stitch quickly snorted back.
There was just a bit more awkward silence.
Nani looked down at Lilo, and was clearly angered by Lilo's state. Nani huffed.
"I still think you two are spies." She said, just before opening the door and walking inside.
Stitch let out a deep breath as Nani disappeared behind the door. He pulled his arm off of Lilo's shoulder and replaced it with his leaning head.
"Ssssaaaa…"
Stitch's ears perked up at the whisper. He lifted his head up and looked at Lilo, never more hopeful in his life than in this moment.
"Stitch."
Lilo's whisper was barely audible, but it was enough to bring tears down Stitch's face.
Stitch had an overwhelming urge to jump ontop of Lilo at that very moment and smother her with affection. But more than that, he wanted to hear her say something more, and he knew doing anything so sudden might shock her back into her previous state. So, with hands shaking from repressing his urges, he slowly wrapped one arm around Lilo's shoulder, and held her head against his chest with the other.
"Lilo say something to Stitch?" Stitch whispered. "What is it?"
It took some time for Lilo to speak.
"It's my fault."
"Gaba?"
Stitch released his grip on Lilo, and turned toward Stitch with tears pouring down her cheeks. Lilo shook her head.
"This is all my fault." She whispered again. "Everyone. This world. Chase is dead because of me."
Stitch cocked his head to the side in confusion.
"I should've listened to him." Lilo continued. "I should've listened to Jumba. But I had to go back and save mom and dad. I'm an idiot Stitch. I should be locked up. This whole world is my fault."
"Naga!" Stitch cried out at Lilo, but after a few seconds, he lowered his head.
"Well, yes." Stitch whispered. "It is your fault. But, is also my fault."
"What?" Lilo asked.
"You went back, but I saved parents. I knew I shouldn't have, but I did anyway."
"Why did you do it?"
Stitch hesitated before answering. "I did not want to see you sad."
Lilo sighed.
Not another word was said for quite some time. Lilo and Stitch just sat on the top steps to the observatory for another hour or so until the rain began to clear up. When at last there was nothing left but a light sprinkle, and Stitch's paper bag was now empty, Stitch turned back toward Lilo.
"Let's go inside." Stitch said.
Lilo nodded her head.
Stitch got up and wrapped his arms around Lilo. He picked Lilo up in his arms but she pushed away and he set her back down.
"I can walk." Lilo whispered.
Stitch nodded his head. They both walked inside.
It was dark, moist, and smelled of mildew. After the week the survivors of the raid hadn't even enough time to unpack. Much less clean. The place was littered with boxes, blankets and cobwebs. It was dark. The electricity was conserved as much as possible, only the few radios and computers would run at all times.
Lilo and Stitch walked side by side into the lobby to a sight of people trying to set up work areas, unpack boxes, and make half-assed attempts at repairing various electronics.
Everything stopped once Lilo and Stitch entered the room. Everyone looked at them. By now they had all heard the story. Stitch was at first evil, But the little girl Lilo found him, and taught him how to love. They went back in time to save Lilo's parents from a fatal car accident, and upon returning, found that Stitch had never met Lilo, and was still evil. They all heard that story many times. None of them knew whether or not to believe it. But it hardly mattered to them, as they all now looked upon Stitch almost as a messiah.
As Stitch continued to walk through the observatory, he looked into the faces of all the rebels and saw that they placed all their hopes and cares on his shoulders. But right now he wasn't looking for their praise. Right now he was looking for something much more specific.
In a room toward the back, he found it. Stitch peered inside the small office area with a sliding glass door leading out to a deck in the back, and at a very familiar looking cheap buffet table with folding metal chairs, Sam and Nani talked.
"Where is the rest of your group?" Sam asked.
"We all split up after evacuating." Nani answered. Her voice was slurred, and she let her head and shoulders droop forward. She seemed very fatigued for some reason. "They all told me they'd catch up with me after a few days, but they never did. They should be here now! I don't know if any of 'em made it."
Stitch's leaning had caused the door to the office room to creak. Nani and Sam's attention was turned toward him.
Nani's turning body finally revealed perfectly square, black bottle of Imperial brand Gin in one of her hands, and a black shotglass in the other.
"What the hell do you want?" Nani just managed to mutter out at Stitch.
Stitch walked slowly into the room, his ears hung down. Lilo followed him.
"Hi sam." Lilo barely made out in a whisper. "Nani."
Nani shook her head and flailed her arm carrying her bottle of Gin into the air, splashing some onto the table and floor. "And here they were telling me you were all catatonic and stuff."
"I wasn't catatonic." Lilo whispered up again. "I was just… thinking."
"Thinking about what?" Sam spoke up.
"I'm gettin' outa here before the cheese reaches critical mass." Nani mumbled out angrily. She sat up, and then held her head as if dizzy or in pain. Nani finally proceeded to walk to the back of the room, yank the sliding glass door open, and slam in shut on her way out.
Lilo walked over to Sam, who gave the slightest of smiles, and then picked her up into his lap. Stitch sat down in a chair next to them.
"So little girl." Sam said. "What have you been thinking of."
Lilo's face turned. She looked up at Sam, and what he saw chilled him to the bone. However such a description seems contradictory, her face was one of both pure anger, and absolute calm. Her eyes always seemed on the brink of tearing, but would never cross the line, as if all their tears had already been used up. But behind all of this, was someone who didn't know whether to collapse from exhaustion, or go out and wreak havoc in a blaze of fire. This was a face Sam Winnfield was all too familiar with, as he often saw it in his own.
"I want to fight the emperor." Lilo whispered.
"No!" Sam said, and a raw emotion, sadness, anger, confusion, righteousness, permeated his voice. Emotion was never present in anything he said before seeing the look in Lilo's eyes. "No!" He continued. "War is not something a little girl should involve herself with. You should be staying here and resting your little mind."
"I can't." Lilo said a bit louder. "This is all my fault."
Hmmmnn? Stitch sounded as he cocked his head to the side at Lilo's comment.
"The Empire of the Pacific Islands is all my fault." Lilo said a bit louder. "I made this mess. I need to fix it."
"Naga!" Stitch shouted as he jumped up on the table and grabbed Lilo's hands. "Our fault! Not yours! We fix mess together! Not you alone!"
Lilo turned back to Sam once Stitch let go of her hands. "Still… … … Still."
Lilo turned toward Stitch, and then back toward Sam. Lilo reached over and pulled Sam's pistol out of its holster and aimed it at his chest while still sitting in his lap.
"It's my job." Lilo said.
Sam looked into her eyes for a time longer. The look was unmistakable. It was genuine.
"Very well." Sam said, and gently took the gun from Lilo's hands and placed it back inside his holster.
"Can I talk to Nani?" Lilo asked.
"You can." Sam answered. "But she won't be very receptive."
Lilo hopped off Sam's lap an walked over to the sliding glass door. She slid it open with both hands. Stitch quickly hoped off the table and followed her, stopping just at the door and watching her as she talked with Nani.
Nani looked down at Lilo, and shoved her bottle of Imperial brand Gin in her face.
"Try some." Nani said.
Lilo took the bottle in her hands and looked at it. "What is it?"
"Emotional novocaine."
Without hesitating, Lilo took one quick chug from the bottle. It tasted the same way lighter fluid smelled. She spit it out and winced her face in disgust. Nani burst out laughing at the display, and quickly snatched the bottle back up, taking a quick chug of her own.
"How can you stand that stuff!" Lilo shouted out.
"It get's my mind of just how useless this all is." Nani answered.
"What do you mean useless?"
"Exactly what I said. Useless! Everything! Our weapons, our efforts, this whole damn resistance is useless! We just lost Alice MacAbbey yesterday. Do you know who she is?"
Lilo shook her head.
"Alice MacAbbey was
our contact with Micronesia. First Marshall Islands, then Micronesia.
Our HQ in New Guinea has also just been sacked thanks to Keno
Hirasawa. What an upstanding citizen he is!
"The
only places left with anything worthwhile for this little rebellion
here are Fiji, Samoa, and right here in Hawaii. Pretty soon we'll
all be cut of from each other.
"It's impossible
kid. It's impossible to beat the emperor. It just can't be done."
Lilo lowered her head for a minute. She looked back up partially to look over the balcony at a tumbling flow of Ah-Ah glowing rocks. It was a flowing river of Pahoihoi lava earlier in the day, but the rain tended to be just a bit disagreeable to it.
Lilo looked back up at Nani. "Than why do you keep fighting?"
"I dunno'." Nani responded. "Force a habbit I guess."
Lilo nodded her head, and turned around to go back inside. Stitch shifted out of her way as she walked by. He watched her walk away until she turned the corner out of the room, and then he turned back toward Nani.
Stitch was next in line to walk outside and talk to Nani.
"Is not all useless."
Stitch's words made Nani jump and turn around to face Stitch.
"It is possible to fight emperor. I can fight emperor."
Nani sneered at Stitch's comment. "I trust you to beat him even less than myself. You wanna' know something?"
Stitch stared blankly at Nani's question. She just took it as a yes.
"Lilo died in my arms." Nani said. "The troops came to my house shooting. They shot Lilo with one of their… ray guns, whatever the hell you call 'em. I barely manage to get out with my own life, carrying her over my shoulder. But not without this to show for it."
Nani ran her finger down her cheek, parallel to the scar down her face.
"When I finally lost 'em." Nani continued. "I looked down at Lilo, and her whole body was one huge, ugly burn. And you wanna' know what she told me?"
Nani let out a brief pause, once again interpreting Stitch's silence as a 'yes'.
"She told me she felt sorry for the emperor, because he felt so bad. She told me she wanted to give him a hug so he'd fell better. And then she keeled over. She felt sorry, for you! Well… the other you anyway."
Another slight pause preceded a heavy sigh from Nani. And then the words, "Get away from me 626. I don't wanna' have to see your face. It reminds me too much of hers."
Stitch lowered his head and drooped his ears. Slowly and hesitantly, he walked away, and back into the office.
Nani rested her elbow on the railing of the balcony, and her face in its hand. She looked out onto her bottle of Imperial brand Gin, with the whit silhouette sword-in-anvil on the front. It was only a third full. Now even her anguish and her prayers had to be sanctioned by the empire.
"Please help us." Nani whispered, shaking her head.
As hard as she could, she threw the bottle over the railing and into the crumbling Ah-Ah. The bottle broke and the alcohol burst into flames on touching the glowing rocks. She watched for a few more minutes as the remaining bits of black glass would slowly melt away, and then she drank the last bit that was in her shotglass.
"As if that'll work."
Nani began to turn around only to see another bottle of Imperial brand Gin flying by her face. She turned around and trailed it to the Ah-Ah below, where it shattered and exploded into flame.
"It never hurts to have hope."
Nani turned around and saw that those words had come from Sam standing right behind her. His arms were now in his pockets.
"What'a'you know about hope?" Nani said, and began to walk away, downing her last bit of Gin.
But It soon came to Nani's attention that her shotglass was already empty, so she turned around and threw it too into the Ah-Ah, before turning back and storming away.
Note: Any Hawaiian will immediately recognize the significance of Nani throwing the Gin into the Lava. Do you?