Gantu stood almost motionless, staring down at Stitch and Lilo hiding behind him. From the way he gripped the handle you could tell he was ready to use that cannon held over his shoulder at a moments notice. The same was true for that minigun in his holster, as his fingers twitched nervously just inches away from the grip of the gun. But his general attitude betrayed his hands. You could tell also that he was sad. From his limpness and from his slumped forward body, he had a certain air of regret about him. It seemed he was a great actor though, as he had never let this show before now.

Gantu took just a few more steps forward, slowly and methodically. Stepping out of the last bit of shadow, Gantu finally revealed his face to Lilo and Stitch, and what they saw was perhaps most shocking thing to happen that day. Gantu was crying silently, but at the same time he was smiling. One of those things you do when you're both happy and sad at the same time.

Shocking, yes it was, but moreover it was confusing. Gantu was itching to pull the triggers on his guns and blast both of them into nothing, but at the same time, he looked as if he cared about them, or if not, at least he looked as if he didn't want to do what he was about to do.

Any adult could understand what Gantu looked as if he was feeling at that moment, Stitch certainly understood it. But Lilo, she couldn't yet grasp such feelings, it merely confused and frightened her, and she hid further behind Stitch.

"You are here." Stitch spoke out loud. "That means emperor is also."

"That's correct." Gantu answered with a nod. His voice was soft and incredibly smooth, much unlike what he usually sounded like in either his anger or his jubilance. His whole aura seemed to betray what Lilo and Stitch both knew to be his demeanor. Gantu was absolutely calm, and collected. "Emperor 626 is waiting for you just beyond this hall. But if you want to see him, you'll first have to get through me."

After finishing his statement, Gantu quickly flashed Stitch a weak smile, which turned into a painful grimace soon afterward. Stitch stared at Gantu with narrowed eyes and lips slightly parted, the kind of face you get when you're trying to understand something that just barely frightens you.

Two small hands grasped tightly at Stitch's shoulders. Stitch briefly turned his head to see Lilo still hovering behind him. It would be safer now for Lilo to leave his side than to stick by. Stitch knew, somehow, that Gantu would not go after her. It was something about his expression that just spoke to Stitch, telling him that she was not a target. Stitch jerked his head over toward one of the columns toward the entrance to this hall. Lilo nodded and took off running toward the column.

Gantu followed Lilo with his eyes. He watched her run almost fifty feet completely exposed before hiding behind one of those columns, and then barely peeking her head out to see what was happening. Gantu quickly turned his head back to Stitch.

What was at the root of Gantu's behavior? Stitch couldn't just knock him out of the way before knowing, or else that curiosity would be gnawing at him forever.

"Do you fear me?" Stitch asked softly.

Gantu's face quickly returned to something Stitch was quite used to. It was that same narcissistic smile he would always put on whenever he had Stitch trapped in a polymer tube.

"Fear you?" Gantu answered. "You're nothing Stitch, why should I be afraid of you?"

"Do you fear emperor then?"

Gantu's smile turned into a frown, and then a quite growl before he responded. "Anyone with any sense in their brain is afraid of Emperor 626."

"Than you should fear me." Stitch retorted. "Anything emperor can do, Stitch can do."

"On the contrary!" Gantu spoke up, loudly this time, and slowly walking forward. "You can do nothing the emperor can do."

Gantu was now walking around Stitch in circles, as if a pathetic attempt at taunting him. For a moment, Stitch wondered if Gantu was really trying to taunt him, or just putting on a show.

"Emperor 626 is a battle hardened militarist with a will and a heart of iron." Gantu continued. "What are you though Stitch? You are a runaway space puppy longing for love in the arms of a little girl."

What did Gantu just say? A runaway space puppy longing for love in the arms of a little girl? It could've been nothing, but it could also have been that Gantu knew all about Stitch, where he came from and how his life unfolded. If that was so, how could this world's Gantu have possibly known these things?

There would be no time for answers. Gantu walked right up to Stitch and knelt down in front of him. Gantu brought his head so close to Stitch's body that his breath blew his fur back like a fan. Stitch never backed up or even flinched at this display.

"Do you want to know the real reason I'm not afraid of you?" Gantu whispered at Stitch.

Stitch nodded his head.

"I don't fear you because I no longer fear death. I no longer fear anything anymore, except for the emperor."

Stitch had that look on his face again. Narrowed eyes and slightly parted lips as if trying to understand what was barely frightening him. Gantu smiled malevolently at Stitch, understanding that look perfectly.

"As I said before, I am nothing more than the emperor's property. Property does not feel or think. Property is not alive it is an inanimate thing. And inanimate things do not have wills of their own, they simply do what they're told without question, resistance, or hesitation.
"I am not afraid of you Stitch, because anything you can do to me is nothing compared to what will happen to me if I ever showed the emperor that I was something more than an inanimate thing.
If you were to liberate me Stitch, I would be much obliged."

That's what was with his bizarre behavior. Gantu was going to die. He knew he was going to die, and he seemed bizarrely relieved about this, as if certainty of coming death was lifting a great weight from his shoulders.

Stitch tried thinking more about what Gantu had said, but there was nothing more to think about. It almost made Stitch feel guilty that he had reached his conclusion so quickly. He would liberate Gantu, as had been requested of him, and then he would move on. There would be nothing more to it than that. There could be nothing more to it than that, as much as conscience would demand otherwise, and it did, that answer was as quick to come as two plus two equals four.

"Ih." Stitch said with a nod.

Gantu smiled briefly at Stitch, and nodded back. Gantu stood back up and took three huge steps backwards. He took a deep breath with his eyes closed. He opened them again with resolve, and took the minigun out of its holster. He pointed it directly at Stitch. A small red dot appeared on Stitch's chest, darting a few inches back and fourth at Gantu's involuntary hand twitches. Gantu at last pulled the trigger and fired.

Plasma screamed out of the barrels of the minigun, almost thirty shots per second, and ripped through the ceramic tile floor as if it were made of tissue paper. As soon as he had released the trigger he had found that Stitch had done a bounding backflip and was almost twenty feet in the air. Gantu fired his minigun at Stitch flying through the air. The shots, hundreds of them, whizzed passed Stitch sometimes missing by as little as an inch, but at the height of his leap, one of the shots had hit him square in the right shoulder. It did little more than single his fur, but it knocked him back so he no longer had control over his jump.

Stitch landed on the floor in an akward belly flop. He heard something charging up as if a pwer cell were being quickly drained. Stitch raised his head to see a bright white light forming on Gantu's shoulder mounted cannon, and another red dot right between his eyes. That minigun might do nothing but knock Stitch off balance, but that canon might actually be able to do some damage.

Gantu fired, and his shoulder swung back from the force. Stitch rolled to the side as fast as possible. The beach ball sized blob of bright blue plasma just missed him, crashing into the ground only a few feet away. The impact sounded more like a sonic boom than an actual explosion. Stitch was thrown by the wake into the air, with more pellets of plasma careening after him from Gantu's minigun.

Stitch quickly righted himself and landed on a column feet first. The fire from that minigun was quickly heading his way, it Gantu could knock him on the ground, he could shoot him with that shoulder mounted cannon, and that would hurt quite a bit. Stitch ran as fast as he could on all fours. He ran to the edge of the column and then jumped toward the next one. Gantu was spinning on one foot turning his cannon after Stitch, sometimes coming within inches of hitting him. The columns were being blasted to shreds.

Gantu was going to hit Stitch if he kept up like this. A quick decision and Stitch turned ninety degreed and was now running straight up. The fire from the Gantu's minigun followed him the whole way, ripping into the ceramic of the walls and the ceiling and sending dust and pieces flying outward.

Stitch ran across the ceiling right above Gantu. Gantu followed him with his fire and dust from the ceiling fell down right into Gantu's eyes.

Gantu screamed and looked down, shutting his eyes tight, he kept firing up though, firing into the ceiling, and now whole pieces were starting to fall off, revealing the night sky beyond.

Now was Stitch's chance. At once he dropped from the ceiling. Righting himself he landed feet first on a section of the roof that had fallen off. Gantu still fired blindly into the roof every which way, unaware that Stitch was now on the floor, until the minigun stopped suddenly and began pouring our a choking black smoke. Gantu dropped the gun, realizing he had just overheated it and it was now useless. Gantu was wiping his eyes furiously now with his free hand, and when he finally opened them he saw Stitch standing in front of him pointing his carbines straight for his chest.

But Stitch hesitated and looked up, as did Gantu, when both heard what seemed the sound of wood beginning to crack under pressure from above. The roof, now riddles with holes and missing pieces, suddenly began to fall. The entire middle section of the roof had collapsed and was now falling down on top of Gantu and Stitch.

Stitch curled up into a ball and Gantu got on his knees and buried his head under his arms. The roof hitting the floor sounded like the crashing of two semis in slow motion. But slowly, both Gantu and Stitch dug their way out from the rubble, but both missing their weapons.

Gantu frantically dug around in the pieces of the collapsed roof looking for his cannon, his only weapon that still worked. Stitch dg around for his carbines. Gantu only had his sight to go by though, and the room was too filled with smoke and dust to see. Stitch's nose led him right to his guns. Stitch thrust his hands through a section of roof, and pulled his carbines through the resulting pile.

A whistle led Gantu to stand up and look forward. Stitch once again had him in his sights, with his carbines locked on, and opened fire. Stitch shot at Gantu straight in the chest, over and over again. Slowly walking forward as he did, as Gantu was being pushed back by the blasts.

For over a minute Stitch shot at Gantu with his carbines, pinning him against one of the few remaining columns, until both of Stitch's guns finally ran out of ammunition. Slapping the carbines against his hips, Stitch released the lever and the ammo tanks fell out of the back of his carbines. With his lower hands, he reached down to his bandoleers only to find that he had no more ammo. He had wasted all of those tanks on the bombs he made just getting to this place.

Stitch dropped his carbines, as there was no more use for them. But at least Gantu had been done away with.

But as the smoke cleared, he looked up to see Gantu's charred remains leaning against that pillar, but instead he saw Gantu strangely unharmed. His armor was totally blackened, smoking and warped though. It was his armor! It hadn't occurred to Stitch that Gantu's armored suit, being so much larger than that of an imperial soldier's, would also be much heavier and able to take so much more punishment. If only Stitch had taken the head shot! And he had no more weapons.

Gantu, heaving and snarling, looked over his shoulder do find his cannon, covered in dust. He grabbed it and began charging another shot. In a second it was done, and he fired right at Stitch. Stitch ran straight forward, hoping not to get a direct impact. He was still caught in the wake of the blast, and was thrown clear across the room.

Stitch landed on the ground in front of the staircase at the end of the room. As soon as he opened his eyes he saw Gantu readying another shot from that cannon, and that huge blue ball heading right toward him. Stitch jumped forward and narrowly missed being hit directly, but he was again thrown clear across the room, and straight into the massive double doors that made the entrance to this hall.

Stitch landed on the floor on his head. He looked at Gantu and suddenly got an idea. Stitch stood in place staring Gantu down, so as he would try to lead fire. Gantu charged another blast and fired right at Stitch, who took off running as soon as the shot was out of the barrel. He ran fast enough this time. He was able to leap and then surf the wake of the explosion, ramming Gantu straight in the chest and knocking him over.

Stitch landed on the ground disoriented but otherwise okay. He got up and shook his head. When everything was clear, Stitch saw Gantu sitting upright aiming that shoulder cannon at him point blank. Gantu had held tightly to the thing even upon being knocked over.

Stitch was stunned. He could only watch as Gantu charged up that thing, and then the sound died down. The cannon had run out of ammo. Gantu grumbled and unzipped the bottom section of the holster that once held his minigun. He took out an ammo tank, far larger than the ones that powered Stitch's carbines.

Stitch saw the nozzle end of the tank. Something flashed in his mind. Bomb! In a flash, Stitch reached into his leather side pack and pulled out a CO2 cartridge, and threw it at the ammo tank. It was a perfect shot, the cartridge plugged the tank and was now emptying its ice cold gas straight into the plasma chamber.

Just as Gantu was about to release his spent ammo tank from his cannon, he felt the one in his hand growing hot. He paused and looked at it. It was starting to glow, brighter and brighter.

Stitch took off running. He ran to the corner of the room where Lilo was hiding. She was now curled up in the fetal position in the corner of the room, amazingly one of the few places undamaged. Stitch threw himself on top of Lilo to shield her from the explosion.

Gantu looked in awe as the ammo tank became hotter, and glowed brighter. It was now burning his hand, but held it tight anyway. It glowed so bright that Gantu now found the light blinding. He released a single tear and a smile, and then.

The room was engulfed in a blast that deafened the ears of both Lilo and Stitch. Hot wind blew against Stitch's back, singing his hair. Debree flew at him, and hit him with the force of bullets, some hard enough to actually leave a mark later on. And then everything was sucked backwards. The air was sucked right out of Lilo's lungs, though Stitch's were strong enough to hold it in.

At last the blast cleared up. Lilo sprawled herself out in Stitch's arms gasping for air but unable to fit any into her collapsed lungs. Stitch couldn't do anything more than hold her close, and he didn't need to. A quick feel and smell showed Stitch that Lilo had no broken bones or torn ligaments, only a few scrapes and bruises from the blast to add to the ones she already had. In two or three minutes, her lungs would puff up and she would be able to breath again.

Stitch sat on the ground then and just let Lilo lean against him. She was amazingly calm at this time though. Far more than Stitch had expected. Stitch let his mind wander with Lilo laying against him. Soldiers stuck in war for so long will actually get used to being surrounded by death and destruction. Though it will always bother them, after some time it will no longer scare them. The same thing might have been happening to Lilo. That would certainly explain why she was being so calm right now. Hell of a thing to happen to a nine year old girl though. Seeing people shot dead and blown up and not being scared by it. Though certainly it was still disturbing to her, and that was a good thing. If it ever stopped being disturbing than that would mean Lilo was no longer human. Certainly that had happened to some soldiers. They had gotten so used to war that not only did it no longer scare them, but it didn't even bother them, and they could walk straight through a battlefield whistling to themselves as happy as a clam.

Stitch was the opposite though. He was born that way, not at all bothered by carnage and desolation, and then he was taught to be disturbed by such things. He was the exact opposite of almost every other sentient being out there. At last Stitch not only understood, but even empathized with the emperor. Stitch knew the emperor was his old self, but that didn't mean he understood him. That was because Stitch had forgotten his old self. But fighting so ruthlessly and mercilessly against Gantu had suddenly made him remember what he used to be, and now he could truly understand how the emperor thought. It was actually quite practical. 626 was driven by one thing, the desire to destroy. Through Gantu's influence, 626 had changed into Emperor 626, driven by only one thing, the desire for power. But that was the only thing he actually did feel. Everything else within the emperor's mind was nothing more than logic and rationality. Twisted logic it may be, but within its own context it made perfect sense, and didn't at all seem evil. It was survival of the fittest, Emperor 626 was superior to all other life forms on Earth, so he would exert his superiority to ensure not only his survival, but his legacy. After all, as a superior being, such things rightfully belonged to him. Even the lives of other people rightfully belonged to him.

Stitch looked down at Lilo, now with her eyes closed and breathing comfortably pressed against Stitch. It seemed silly now that he should love this girl as if she were a mother, a sister, and a daughter all rolled into one, yet he did. She was inferior to him. He should just kill her right then and there and find someone his biological equal to love, as only his biological equal would be deserving of such love. But he didn't. Instead he held her and comforted her. Why? Because he owed her that much. She taught him what it was like to truly live, and love was his way of repaying his debt to her.

For some reason Stitch thought about what Sam had told him some time ago. After she had experienced her first true battle, part of her would be inside that battle forever. But she could still learn to be happy again, if for much different reasons than she once was.

That was it! That was what kept Stitch from becoming Emperor 626! It was being happy. Ever since he had adopted his human family, not once had he completely given himself over to his malicious side. He had accomplished this because he was so content just living with his adopted family that he never really felt the need for anything else, not even destruction or power.

"Stitch?"

Stitch's train of though was suddenly interrupted. He looked up to see that Lilo was now sitting up in front of him.

"Emperor is here." Stitch said to Lilo. "He waits for us."

Lilo looked at Stitch with a kind of face he'd never seen before. A kind of flame burned in her eyes. A resolve he'd never imagined she was capable of. She didn't seem afraid anymore. She didn't like she would be afraid of anything anymore.

"Then we'll take him on." Lilo said. "Let's get this over with."

Stitch nodded his head.

Lilo stood up and pulled Stitch to his feet, which was odd, since it was usually Stitch who did that to her. They walked out into the crumbled mess that was once Gantu's hall, and began walking toward that huge black door side by side.

The gardens of columns in front of the palace had been all but leveled. Smoke poured out from many unrecognizable objects, but very few shots were ever heard. The imperial soldiers, alongside the royal guards of the palace walked about very calmly surveying the scene.

It appeared that the troops had won. Backed up against the blackened walls of one of the palace domes were the remaining survivors of the resistance assault. There were only a dozen or so of them left of what was once over two thousand.

They were all on their knees with their hands behind their heads. Their helmets and masks had been pulled off revealing them all to be human beneath. Over a hundred imperial soldiers surrounded them with plasma carbines poised right at them.

The assault had been defeated, or so it seemed.

Something happened then than no could explain or even comprehend. A loud piercing shot of static was heard through the air. This got the attention of everyone, rebel and troop alike. With that, the sound was gone, at least from the ears of the rebels.

All at once, the imperial soldiers and the royal guards dropped their weapons and fell to their knees. They clutched at their ears and screamed in agony. They writhed and convulsed and foamed at their mouths.

What was happening was anyone's guess, until one saw an imperial guard, his head unobscured by any helmet. Deep pink blood was flowing freely from their ears and they cried out in anguish as they dropped to the ground and began seizing. It time, they stopped moving all together.

Lilo and Stitch walked forward toward the door. But Lilo stopped when she noticed Stitch was no longer beside her.

Lilo turned around and saw Stitch standing in the center of the crater in the floor where that blast had gone off. Directly in the center of that crater was the black, smoldering skeletal remains of a sixteen foot tall humanoid thing.

Lilo walked over to Stitch just in time to hear him mutter something under his breath.

"You have been liberated."