To Stitchfan 82: A) I thought I already made it clear that Nani was driven totally over the edge and at this point was beyond reasoning with. I must not have made that clear enough. B) I'll correct that mistake when I go through and search for typos. C) I already have everything planned to a T here, so sorry.
To MariahoftheWind: I've read some of your stuff and I like it, so go ahead! Just put in your story what exactly it is, give my name credit, and be sure to say it's not cannot with the story itself. After reading it I'll decide whether or not to let you remove the "non-canon" statement.
Notes
I've been looking forward to writing this chapter for a long time. This is the chapter you're all going to be talking about, I guarantee you. And this is the chapter where I can finally let shine all the lessons I've ever learned from his greatness, Quentin Tarantino.
Note, that In-Story, a song plays at one point. It was not the original song I was planning on. The original song I had in mind for this scene was a work by Queen titled 'Seaside Rendezvous'. But having that song play requires my posting the lyrics and that's not allowed here.
There's also another scene in a previous chapter that was supposed to have song lyrics, but those were omitted as well for the same reason. I will be submitting 'Empire of the Pacific' along with all my other works as well to another fanfiction archive named 'Freedom of Speech Fanfiction' as soon as they get the Lilo and Stitch section up. I suggest you check them out as per the email I sent most of you. Find it on your favorite search engine because I can't post URLs here.
Anywho, if you have an MP3 of Queen's 'Seaside Rendezsvous', play it when it says that the music has begun. Believe me, it adds so much to the scene. If not, just play the song it mentions. If you have neither of those songs, well, it's pretty damn good anyway.
BTW, the 'Freedom of Speech Fanfiction' version of 'Gems of Tomorrow' will also have lyrics posted at some point. Watch out for the Beatles' 'Happiness is a Warm Gun'.
Stitch looked up from the smoking skeletal remains that were once Gantu. There was nothing. He looked behind his shoulder and there was Lilo. She stared down at that blackened skeleton with a kind of morbid curiosity that betrayed everything one would imagine a child's reaction to such a sight would be. To Stitch though, this wasn't at all surprising. Lilo was no longer shocked or even surprised by this sort of thing. She just looked down and accepted it for what it was.
She accepted that, and she seemed to accept now what the two of them were going to have to do. It seemed so because she gave no word of how she felt or what she thought of the situation. There was no need for such things right now. She looked right into Stitch's eyes, and her expression already said everything that needed to be said.
Both Lilo and Stitch looked up at the staircase at the far end of the room. They trailed each step with their eyes, or at least what was left of them. The entire right side of the staircase was a huge gaping hole. Only the top two steps of the right side of the staircase were left from when Gantu had blasted it with his cannon.
Lilo and Stitch turned back toward each other. All it took was a nod from Lilo and they were both on their feet walking side by side toward that staircase, toward the massive black doors on top, and toward Emperor 626 waiting patiently for them behind it.
It was quite. It was so incredibly quiet that the crushing of pebbles beneath their footsteps seemed to echo throughout the hall. Their breathing sounded like a distant wind. It was so quiet. It made both of them nervous as they at last began to walk up those stairs. It wasn't supposed to be this quiet, not at a moment like this. The calm before the storm was always more nerve wracking than the storm itself. Surrounded by gales and thunder you acted on instinct alone, you didn't have time for anxiety. But in the dark, in the quiet, when you know what's coming up, anxiety has a way of overtaking you before you even know it.
It was certainly the case for Lilo now as she now stood inches away from those giant black doors. She stared off into nothing and wondered what might happen if they were to fail. She wondered, though she knew she didn't have to. She knew exactly what was going to happen. The Pacific Islands' little rebellion had already been smashed. Though she didn't see it herself, she knew it was true. They had gathered all their best fighters and most expensive equipment right here today to execute an attack that had no possible hope of success. The men who did this were walking right into a massacre and they knew it. The true purpose of the attack was nothing more than to serve as a diversion for her and Lilo to bust into the palace, which they did, and get back Jumba's time board, which they have yet to do. And if they should fail now, there will be no more rebellion after this day. It wouldn't take the Emperor a month to recover from his losses. A month after that the Philippines would fall. Six months later, Taiwan. About a year after that, Japan. At that point, with the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan all under the control of the Pacific Empire, the Emperor would control the centers of the world's industrial and electronic manufacturing. His rate of expansion would then increase ten fold, and not long after that, the Empire of the Pacific would become the Empire of the World.
Stitch was faring no better than Lilo. He too stared off into space. His eyes were squinted into slivers despite the darkness, and his ears were pressed flat against his sides. Stitch twiddled his thumbs without realizing he was doing it. What would it be like? What would it be like to face what was essentially his former self. Stitch looked back on what he was before he met Lilo. He was like a vicious animal thing. He remembered when he was inside his first polymer tube. That was when he was before the Grand Council of the Federation. The Grand CouncilWoman had tried to reason with him. She tried to be his friend. All the while the only thing he thought was how fun it would be to slash open her arteries and have her blood spray all over his face. But inside that tube he was unable to do that, so the next best thing would be some horrific insult having to do with her mother and necrophilia. On earth, he encountered a six year old girl. At the first sign of trouble, he used her as a shield to taunt his would be captor. The Emperor was that creature, unchanged by the love of that six year old girl. Though power had changed him somewhat, he now indulged himself in the likes of high society manners and luxuries, he was no less savage, or sadistic. Irony would be too feeble a word to describe it. Waging a life or death struggle to destroy the very thing you once were.
No amount of philosophical bullshit was going to change things now though. Both Lilo and Stitch knew this. Both of them slowly came back to reality. Where were they again? Those massive black doors! Emperor 626 was waiting for them just behind it. Surely now he was getting impatient. There was no sense in making him wait even longer. Stitch pushed the doors open and walked inside.
As they walked inside, Stitch let go of the doors and they closed shut behind them with a quiet boom, that is if you could imagine what a quiet boom would sound like. This was not at all what they were expecting. It was just as quiet here as it was out there, and it was just as dark as well. It was certainly warmer here than outside. A comfortable seventy two degrees, and a nice circulation in the room, though what made it was not known. It was dark yes, but not dark enough to warrant night vision, for even Lilo could see with relative ease in this place.
Lilo and Stitch walked forward a bit. The place looked like a damn church! They were at the top of a massive rectangular room where in the center was a ramp leading downward toward the stage, and what something there that couldn't quite be identified, and a grand pipe organ behind it. It was one of the biggest Lilo had ever seen, though admittedly except once she'd only seen them in pictures. It was all polished brass and silver and cherry. It was probably never even played, placed there just for vanity, as would be indicated by the fact that there were large speakers placed strategically around the organ. But that was not what was the oddest about this room. Though it looked like a grand chapel, there were no benches, no seats. To the sides of the ramp were… things. Each one was different from the others, so the place looked more like a very neatly placed storage unit than something an audience would come to.
As they walked down the ramp toward the stage, both Lilo and Stitch looked off to the sides to see just what all these things were. It soon became clear that this wasn't storage, but a display. The isles aside the ramp were walkways, with areas roped off. It was in these areas that these things were being displayed. They were art pieces! They were paintings, very old ones by the look of it. There were statues of old people doing whatever, a unique activity to each statue, and again, they were all very old. There were There were unwound antique grandfather clocks. Countless tapestries depicting everything from Old Testament stories, to great oriental battle scenes, to what could only be described as ancient Greek porn. There were ancient rusting swords and suits of armor. There were scrolls and books. There was pottery of every culture and time period. This place wasn't a chapel at all, but a museum! It was a museum filled with one of a kind antiquities from all over the world, and it was all solely for the private enjoyment of the emperor. Strangely, there was not a single Polynesian artifact to be seen. It was a message to all saw it that the only culture the emperor truly despised was the very one he ruled over.
At last, Lilo and Stitch reached the stage, and climbed the few steps to get up on top. Now they could see what that thing was in the center of the stage. It was a chair. It was a giant chair. It was a red and gold velvet chair with a cherry frame, and it's back was turned toward them. The lights in room brightened, not by much, but enough to make both Stitch and Lilo look up in curiosity.
The chair turned around smoothly. It turned until it was facing Lilo and Stitch. Sitting in that chair, in a red silk robe and a superfluous number of gold and jewel encrusted rings, with a stemless wine glass in one hand bigger than his head, and an open bottle in the other, was Emperor 626.
"Emperor." Stitch muttered just loud enough to be heard.
"Stitch!" Emperor 626 shouted jovially. "My defective double! How are ya' buddy! How's little Lilo doing? Full blown PTSD yet or are we still working on that one? It never ceases to amaze me just how fragile human psyches are, especially those of children."
"Don't play with us 626." Lilo grumbled.
"Oh fine. Be that way!" The emperor said with an angry smirk. He took a sip of his wine and made playful kissy noises at Lilo.
Stitch growled out loud at this display.
"I told you-"
"Don't be such a damn spoilsport." The emperor interrupted Lilo before she could finish.
Emperor 626 hopped lightly out of his chair, careful not to spill his glass. Lilo immediately reacted by backing up, almost falling off the edge of the stage. Stitch made a quick concerned glance toward Lilo. NO! He couldn't take his eyes off of the emperor for a moment. Stitch instantly corrected himself.
"This is the end isn't it?" The emperor squeeled out. "I mean, the end for one of us anyhow. We should spend these moments feeling good you know what I mean? Breaking out the good stuff, sniffing some lace, top of the world, but nooooo! You anal retentive truth and justice mongrels have to make everything as morbid as you possibly can don't you!"
Emperor 626 sighed out loud and took another sip of his wine before setting his glass the bottle on the ground next to him.
"Where is time board!" Stitch barked out angrily.
"And there's another thing with you people." The emperor responded. "You always have to get right to the point you never have any time for idle chat."
"Where is it!" Stitch yelled out.
Emperor 626 was struck silent for just a moment by Stitch's demonstration of anger. "Snappy, snappy! Why don't you go take a Valium like a normal person?"
The emperor at once turned his attention toward Lilo and flashed her a smile that didn't at all make her comfortable. Lilo backed away as Emperor 626 started to walk toward her so casually. Stitch matched the Emperor's every move, ready to pounce him at a moment's notice. Emperor 626 saw this, but made like he wasn't paying attention. His eyes and ears turned instead toward Lilo, who was now breathing quite fast.
"But as for you," The emperor said in a sly whisper. "I know a few tricks that'd fix you up so much better than any pill."
Lilo fell down from panic and started crawl backwards. "Get away from me." She just managed to grumble.
"Naga ever touch Lilo!" was a scream heard from right behind the Emperor.
He turned around to face Stitch with that same sly smile. "Oh, you people don't know the meaning of a good time. It was just for kicks and giggles that's all. I swear I would never do anything to damage the little girl."
Stitch growled and bared his teeth at Emperor 626.
The emperor's face became quite stern than, and he spoke with a dire intensity for only one sentence. "I was being serious when I said I wouldn't hurt her."
"Huh?" Was all Stitch could manage to say in return. Indeed the emperor's statement had confused him because he seemed genuine when he said it, and furthermore Stitch had a strange feeling he was being genuine, in his own twisted way.
Stitch refocused as fast as he could. "Where is time board!"
"It's on my bed." The emperor said as casually as he could. "In my room. The door's right beneath the organ over there."
A split second's glance behind the chair from both Lilo and Stitch showed that to be true. The seat to the organ was eight feet in the air, and just below it was a rather plain looking white door.
"So." Stitch said. "We fight?"
"Actually," Emperor 626 responded. "I have a better idea."
Emperor 626 snapped his fingers and some kind of rumbling was heard from all over. The floor seemed to vibrate with it. It started to get louder, and then…
It was only then that Lilo and Stitch realized the red fabric walls of the room were in fact curtain. From behind the curtains, soldiers poured out, hundreds of them. The black armors clanked against the ground, so many of them that the sound was diluted into something that sounded like applause. The black armored soldiers surrounded the room and barricaded Lilo and Stitch inside. Soon, not one bit of the wall was not covered by them. They all gripped their carbines ready to fire at a moment's notice.
Stitch was stunned by the behavior. He was thinking rationally yes, but now there was nothing that could be done. Lilo was right there beside him, he had no weapons, the emperor was staring him down, there was nothing he could do now. Emperor 626 was in total control.
"Now, now, now Stitchy witchy, you don't wan't you're precious widdle human to end up extra crispy from the crossfire now do you?"
Stitch and Emperor 626 turned toward Lilo, who was now pressing her back against the side of the emperor's chair as hard as she could while hyperventilating.
Stitch grit his teeth. He should've seen this coming. There was no possible way the emperor would give up his time machine so easily as to only guard it himself. Stitch took a few steps back, and took the few steps down the stairs from the stage back onto the ramp.
"That's right." The emperor said.
In a flash, the Emperor 626 spun around an grabbed something from off of his chair. It was a hand blaster! He shot at Stitch before he had a time to react. It was a net. Stitch was enveloped.
"Ah! Ha! Ha!" Emperor 626 laughed out loud. "I can't believe you fell for that so easily!"
Stitch growled and snarled furiously as he tried to break this net, shred it with his claws, and with his teeth. But the net, with it's mirror like surface, wouldn't rend.
"Give it up will you?" Emperor 626 shouted with annoyance. "That's pure carbon nanotube, not even you can break it. Hell, not even I can break it!"
Reluctantly, Stitch stopped struggling. Lilo stared at Stitch helpless in that bag. She stared at him with longing and helplessness. Stitch could only cry.
"Now to make you just a bit less mobile." The emperor muttered to himself.
He set his glass on the arm of his char and then unlatched the ammo tank from his blaster. He reached back into the chair and grabbed another tank, replacing it in the blaster. Emperor 626 turned around and shot at Stitch again. It was another net. This one had stakes on the corners. It hit Stitch square in the chest, and the stakes drove themselves into the floor, pinning Stitch in place.
"Now that that's over with, time for me to have a bit of fun." The emperor whispered to himself.
Lilo tried to keep herself from loosing it. Her eyes were closed and she was sitting down against the emperor's chair hugging her knees. She felt a familiar hand on her chin and willingly lifted her head up at its suggestion.
Lilo opened her eyes. Emperor 626 was standing right above her. Again, at the suggestion of the hand on her chin, Lilo stood up.
"Such a prime grade cut of human being, I can see how Stitch became so fond of you."
The emperor's words sent a piercing chill down Lilo's spine and made her hair stand on end. Her hands started shivering. She couldn't speak, or scream, or even struggle. Not like doing any of those things would be of any use to her now. She was paralyzed and absolutely helpless but to stand and take whatever Emperor 626 wanted to dish out.
"You know, you've had pretty crappy life. You're parents dying in a car crash, being taken away by social services, not to mention living with that total bitch of an older sister who works at a dead end job as a salse clerk. I'm amazed you haven't become a street thug!"
What the hell did he just say? Emperor 626 was just talking about her life in the old world. That world didn't exist anymore. How could the emperor know anything about that. Her dismayed curiosity got the best of her fright, and she now found herself able to whisper.
"How do you know that?"
"I've had an inside perspective." The emperor whispered back.
Emperor 626 turned toward one soldier in particular, one soldier next to the door to his room. Lilo turned to look. Something was different about that one. It was shorter than the rest, a full eight inches shorter at the very least.
Emperor 626 nodded his head toward that short soldier, and he reach behind his head and pulled off his helmet, his gas mask falling to the floor once its support was gone. Lilo saw, in shock, anger, confusion, and so many other mixed emotions. That he wasn't a he at all, but a she.
"Nani?" Lilo whispered with tears in her eyes.
Nani scowled at Lilo, and remained silent.
"Nani?" Lilo whispered again. Her tears had broken through and were now trailing down the sides of her nose. "Nani? You're the traitor?"
Nani just scowled harder.
"Why?"
"I already told you why." Nani at last answered, though quite angrily. "It's impossible to beat the emperor. It can't be done. I dunno know about you kiddo, but I like to be on the side of surviving."
"That's right!" The emperor yelled out gleefully. "I'm the best! Nobody tops the emperor… Oh, by the way Nani, you mind if I?" And he motioned his head toward Lilo.
"I don't care." Nani answered. "I dunno who she is."
"Yes you do!" Lilo screamed back. "I'm your sister!"
"No you're not!" Nani shrieked out, grinding her teeth. "My sister is dead you hear me? She's dead!"
"Temper, temper little lady." Emperor 626 said with a smirk.
Nani just huffed to herself and sat down on the edge of the Emperor's chair, staring down at the plasma carbine in her hands.
Emperor 626 giggled to himself briefly and then turned his attention back to Lilo. One quick step forward and Lilo was given such a fright that she tripped over her own feet and fell backwards. Emperor 626 caught her in his arms, leaning over her and smiling. Lilo was shivering and unable to move. Emperor 626 stuck his face right up to hers and inhaled slowly.
"You smell delicious." Emperor 626 whispered in ecstasy. "I know! How would you like to become a member of the league of the emperor's chosen children?"
Emperor 626 reached behind and grabbed Lilo's hair, pulling her head back. He licked his lips tenaciously. Lilo suddenly felt the most horrid thing. Emperor 626 had his tongue on the nape of her neck, and was slowly dragging it upward. His saliva was trailing down into her shirt and onto her chest. Less the feeling, but the knowledge of what was happening turned Lilo's gut into lead and nauseated her.
Stitch saw this, and struggled again. His strength served no use against the carbon nanotube net. His screams were muffled by the mirror like fabric trailing across his face.
Still, this was enough to get the attention of Emperor 626, who eyed at Stitch, and then dropped Lilo, who fell to the ground and began choking on something that wasn't even there.
"Oh don't be so pissable Stitch!" Emperor 626 yelled out at him with a voice filled with sarcastic playfulness. "I wasn't to hurt poor little Lilo, I was just going to molest her that's all!"
Stitch looked up at Nani. She still sat there on the arm of that chair, lost in her own little world. Nothing the emperor had said had even gotten her to flinch. Even if she was convinced Lilo was not her sister, she should still show some sign of concern even for a strange child. But nothing, not an especially deep breath, not even a moment's sour grin. It was as if Nani was no longer human.
Emperor 626 scratched his head and looked up for a few seconds. He snapped his fingers and looked back down.
"I know what's wrong with the two of you." He said, and hopped back up into his chair, grabbing his glass and bottle while he was at it. "You people don't know how to enjoy the finger things in life."
The emperor's gaze turned to the right, to Lilo, who was now on her butt and trying to slide away from him as slowly as possible, but his sudden look froze her in her tracks.
"Take this for instance." He said, holding up his bottle. "1811 Chateau d'Yquem. That was the year of the comet. It shown so brightly that it looked like daytime at three AM. The wines produced that year were described as being brewed in heaven itself. This one bottle here cost me forty thousand dollars."
The emperor poured a little more into his glass and downed the whole thing in one gulp. He came too shivering slightly with his fur sticking up on end.
"It's good." The emperor said quietly. "But what's even better, is the feeling you get from destroying something priceless."
Emperor 626 tossed his glass aside. It shattered on impact with the floor. He stood up on his chair, took a look at his bottle, still half full, and then threw it right at Lilo. Lilo saw it, a huge twirling bottle flying right at her. It was going to smash right into her. But it was too fast. Everything happened too fast for Lilo to even register, there's a bottle flying at me and I need to duck before it hits me. But it didn't hit her. Less than a foot from her face, the bottle exploded into a thousand tiny fragments. Wine was thrown into the air in a fine mist. Lilo was covered, covered with wine and with tiny bits of glass. She screamed.
The instant she came to, Lilo found the emperor doubled over in his chair laughing hysterically, with a blaster in one hand. Stitch was screaming and clawing at the insides of his net, even though he knew it would do no good. Lilo was shaking, scarcely able to breath. Nani was now back away from the scene toward the door. She was staring right at what was happening, giving not one damn for it. And the rest of the soldiers in the room, they just stood their ground, looking like statues.
The emperor finally got over his laughing fit and got back up in his seat. He stared at Lilo dreamily, holding his chin up with one arm propped on the arm of his chair.
"If we're going to have any fun here we've gotta have some tunes to go along with it." He spoke out loud.
Emperor 626 looked forward toward the end of his chair's arm. There were buttons in a polished chrome panel, a tiny keyboard. He pushed a few and paused, and then pushed about twenty more.
"How 'bout some classic swing for the occasion?" He yelled out.
With that, Emperor 626 pulled out his blaster once again and fired it, not quite at Lilo. The green globule hit the floor just next to her, but the small shockwave threw her over a few feet, and she rolled off the stage.
As she hit the floor below, she hadn't the luxury to react to the pain, she got p and ran forward, into the sidelines of the room, into the displays of antiquities.
At that moment, what should come blaring out of the speakers placed around the organ but the only swing tune that could be described as musical wanking, Tequila, by Herd Albert and the Tijuana Brass.
Hiding behind a small plastic pillar topped with an ornate orange vase, Lilo screamed in fright and ran after another blast went off right above her, shattering the vase and throwing the small plastic pillar across the room. Lilo neared an old painting and another shot of plasma ate right through the center and split the painting in half, sending both burning halved plummeting down ontop of Lilo. Lilo threw the pieces off of herself and ran again, the tears literally flying off her face into the air as she moved so fast, but it was no use. She neared a marble bust of some nameless Greek good, and another streaking glob of plasma hit it dead center and sent chunks of blackened marble flying through the air. She ran again.
Emperor 626 was beside himself, laughing so hard tears were pouring from his eyes. Anything Lilo got close to, he would destroy, sending her off in the other direction. She zigzagged to and fro like a fleeing rabbit. A human being reduced to a rabbit. It was hilarious beyond words, and the emperor, not even trying to contain his side splitting laughter, could hardly even aim properly with his hands shaking.
Lilo tried hiding behind and old suit of Japanese armor, but it was no use, it got her there to. The armor exploded sending dense hemp rope, bamboo and steel scales fluttering through the air looking like the result of a feather pillow fight. The scales and bamboo scratched against Lilo, cutting her just barely enough to draw blood. She shrieked and tried running straight up. She climbed up the stairs but another blast hit a large tapestry right above her, and she was covered with the burning rug before she could do anything. Lilo scrambled to get out from under the burning rug before she would catch fire herself. She barely managed to do it.
Not even looking where she was going, Lilo ran across the sidelines, everything she passed shattered, burned, crushed, or other wised destroyed by green orbs of plasma. She wanted to run further, but another Statue was hit, right at the base, and it fell down right in front of her. She took off in the opposite direction, everything she passed once again destroyed by plasma fire, until finally she was on the ramp in the center of the room. A final blast landing right behind Lilo knocked her off balance and she rolled down the ramp, over Stitch, hitting painfully the side of the stairs to the stage.
As soon as she was sitting up, a blue furry hand grabbed hers and dragged her on stage. Emperor 626 wrapped his hands around Lilo and began a cruel mockery of a ballroom dance. She was too tired now and too disoriented to even try to resist. Her body went limp involuntarily, all the better for the emperor. Emperor 626 bounced around the stage with Lilo held tight in his grasp. He threw her out, and then pulled her right back, almost dislocating her arm. Then he threw her out the other direction, and yanked her back, nearly dislocating her other arm. The emperor threw Lilo down toward the floor, causing her nearly to vomit, and then flung her back up to his face. At last, he threw her out one more time, this time letting go. Lilo spun around almost five times before falling to the floor and pressing her hands against her twisting stomach.
Emperor 626 dropped his blaster and fell down as well. He fell onto his back laughing until it hurt, and he turned over gasping for air, still laughing when he had enough to breath.
The song began to subside, as did the emperor's laughing. Eventually, Emperor 626 was on his hands and knees heaving for breath, and with only the occasional chuckle to get in the way, he was quickly recovering.
Stitch was still stuck to the floor. Struggling was no use, and even in a completely irrational state one had to learn that sometime. Stitch was now only weeping to himself silently as he watched what would unfold unfold.
Nani stood by the emperor's door. Her body was as relaxed as if she were laying at a beach. Her face was devoid of any form of compassion or concern. If anything, it would seem the only emotional distress she was going through at the moment was boredom. Nani turned her head to the side and sneezed.
The rest of the soldiers in the room still stood their ground like statues.
Emperor 626 finally stood up on two feet and took one huge, long breath before strolling along to Lilo still laying on the ground. She stared up at him on her back. Her vision was blurry, her extremities were numb, and her mouth was dry. If she still had the strength of will to fight back, her muscles had still given out on her, and she hadn't the strength of body.
The emperor laid down on his next to Lilo, staring deep into her eyes while tracing circles with his claw into her stomach.
"I told you something, but I can't seem to…" Emperor 626 paused and looked up for a few seconds, and then looked back down with a smug grin covering his face. "That's it! I was going to make you a member of the emperor's chosen children. Would you like that Lilo?"
Lilo remembered what he did last time he said that, and she could imagine what he would do this time. She could no longer fight back, she could no longer protest, she could no longer even cry. All she could do now was close her eyes and hope that it would be over with as soon as possible.
"I know the others liked it." Emperor 626 whispered into Lilo's ear. "Yes, they were quite eager to prove their loyalty. Now it's time for you to prove yours."
Emperor 626 extended his claw and trailed it gently up Lilo's stomach, up her chest, at last reaching the opening in her sweater for her head. He slid his claw slowly inside the opening, and then flicked it back out, tearing the fabric. A small one inch tare just at the base of the neck, but it was enough of a start. The emperor reached out another hand and grabbed one side of the sweater, and grabbed the other with his other hand. He started to pull.
Stitch only wept harder. However much he wished it, he couldn't stop himself from looking. Lilo did only what she could do, she closed her eyes even tighter and tried to swallow spit that wasn't there. Nani was busy picking her nose. The fabric of Lilo's sweater began to tare, one inch, two inches, three inches, and then.
Something pierced through the air. It was some kind of loud Static. The emperor's attention was instantly roused and he jumped up to try to better hear what it was. Nani looked up as well. The soldiers barricading the room looked all around and then started looking at each other. The sound started to fade, and soon it wasn't there any more.
Stitch still heard it though. To him it was like a rake dragged across a chalkboard, magnified through a thousand watt speaker, and playing from the inside of his skull rather from the outside. Stitch's world exploded into bright flashing lights. The world started spinning and he felt as if his whole body was vibrating like a jackhammer. This sound had brought out a migraine in Stitch.
But in his horrible pain, Stitch couldn't fathom that emperor 626 experiencing the exact same thing. He clutched his ears and fell over. His whole body tightened up and the sounds coming from his mouth were what you could only imagine as the kind of sound a camel would make when being tortured to death.
For the soldiers in the room, it was even worse. They dropped to their knees, and soon dropped to the ground. Their bodies quickly went into grand mal seizures, and after a few minutes, they were no longer breathing.
Nani freaked. She screamed and jumped out from the crowd pointing her carbine at anything and everything. Not knowing what the hell was going on, she had no better idea of what to do than destroy anything that looked suspicious, but nothing did. She spun around looking for something, anything. BLAM! A bullet hit her carbine, sending it flying across the room. Where the hell did that bullet come from?
Nani turned around at looked toward the entrance of the room. It was Sam. He was carrying some kind of large black box on his left shoulder. That was where that noise was coming from! In his right hand he held a massive silver revolver with a black rubber grip. It was one of the more easily recognized guns on the market, a Colt Anaconda, a forty-five magnum, with a laser sighting. The laser was now pointed right between Nani's eyes.
"Get out of here Nani!" Sam yelled from across the room.
Nani stood and stared blankly.
"Get out of here right now or I will kill you!"
Nani took off running, off the stage, up the ramp, past Sam, and out the door into the ruined hall behind it. Sam followed her movements with the gun until she was out of the room with the door closed, and then he locked it behind her. He clicked the safety of his gun back on and holstered it, slowly walking forward until he reached Stitch. Sam placed the speaker on the ground and pulled out a large crowbar. He forced the stakes out of the floor, and then untied the knot holding stitch inside his net. Stitch was in too much pain though to even register that he was being freed. Sam continued to walk forward, up onto the stage, and knelt down over Lilo.
Lilo could see Sam clearly now. She was still too confused to say anything, but she knew who Sam was, and she knew the emperor would no longer be touching her. Sam pulled out a dripping wet rag and began to wipe off the scrapes all over Lilo's arms and face. The liquid that rag was soaked in smelled like almond extract, and it stung a little, but it was soothing, and the aching of those cuts soon went away. Lilo then felt the opening of a bottle forced into her mouth, and water pouring inside. She swallowed as fast as she could, eventually drinking the entire bottle, and gasping for air when the opening was removed.
Lilo's body was beginning to get back its strength, as was her head. She could sit up now, though she was still terribly dizzy, she could at least make sense of her surroundings.
The soldiers were laying motionless on the floor, Nani was nowhere to be found, there was a large speaker on the floor, both Stitch and the emperor were rolling on the floor in unfathomable pain, and Sam seemed to be the cause of it all.
"What's going on?" Lilo asked.
"That speaker is playing a continuous recording of phone static." Sam answered. "Only with the pitch increased five fold, beyond the range of human hearing, and at almost three hundred decibels. You said loud, pitched noises make Stitch's head hurt didn't you?"
"Wow." Was all Lilo could answer.
"It turns out that the imperial soldiers hear just as well as Stitch." Sam continued. "But without his physical integrity, what's is painful to Stitch and the Emperor, is lethal to them."
"You mean they're all dead?"
"Yes. But that speaker is powered by a car battery, and it's being drained fast. As soon as that speaker runs out of power, Stitch and Emperor will regain their composure, and the emperor will kill me."
"Kill you! But-"
"No buts Lilo." Sam interrupted. "Stitch will still have to fight the emperor, but at least now it will be a fair fight, in the meantime you have to hide."
"But you-"
"Don't worry about me." Sam interrupted once again. "If you get back that time board than it won't matter if I die here and now, because you can unmake the Pacific Empire, and none of this will have ever happened."
"Ok." Lilo whispered. "I'll do it."
Lilo ran off to the side of the room, climbed over one of the dead soldiers, and hid behind one of the curtains, barely peaking out from behind them.
That static sound started to come back. It came back and then disappeared again.
Emperor 626 collapsed onto the floor from exhaustion. His world was coming too again. The lights began to fade into gray, and then into his actual surroundings. The spinning world started to right itself.
As soon as he was coherent enough to do so, Emperor 626 looked up to see a huge black man with a beard and a fro and a jungle camo suit. The emperor leapt up and tackled Sam to the ground. He drove his hand through Sam's neck and pulled his spine out the front of his throat.
Lilo gasped at this sight.
Emperor 626 stumbled about with blood dripping from his paw, slowly gaining more and more coordination, until he ran into something. It was Stitch.
"Why do you do it Stitch?" Emperor 626 asked.
"Do what?" Stitch asked back.
"Why do you fight me? We're one in the same. You should be ruling along side me! Not this."
"What makes you think I want to do that?"
"Why wouldn't you?"
"Are you happy?"
"What?" Emperor 626 was bewildered by Stitch's question. What the hell did he mean by it? And why ask it now of all times?
"What the do you mean, am I happy?" Emperor 626 yelled at Stitch. "I'm the unquestionable emperor and god of the pacific islands! These people worship me!"
"But… are you happy?" Stitch asked again.
"Are you happy?" Emperor 626 reversed the table on Stitch. "Are you happy living in a pathetic stilted house, being forced to pretend you're a dog, with people who can barely make ends meet, much less provide you with all the luxuries you could ever want?"
"Ih." Was Stitch's quick and instant response.
"Why?"
"Because I have a family. They love me, and I love them. It is good. Yeah, it's good, but it is too late, for you to understand that."
Emperor 626 growled under his breath. "It sickens me to think that if things turned out differently, I might have become you."
"Ditto."
"So let's end this, right here, right now, once and for all."
"Ih."
Without warning, Emperor 626 smashed his forehead into Stitch's muzzle, sending him flying across the room, straight into a large granite Ganesh statue, shattering it. The emperor jumped clear across the room and landed right ontop of Stitch. He grabbed Stitch and threw him straight up into the ceiling, which too shattered on impact.
Stitch was stopped only when he hit a steel beam, making an impression of his body in it. He grabbed ahold of the beam and flipped himself up on top. This whole hall was made of a frame of steel beams. Stitch got an idea. He grabbed on of the main supporting intersections of the roof and tore it right off.
Emperor 626 looked up as the roof began to crack, and then collapsed right ontop of him.
After the dust settled, Stitch and Emperor 626 burst up from the debris, the emperor's robe now in shreds. Emperor 626 charged at Stitch. Stitch lifted up two steel beams, one in each set of hands, and brought them together, clamping them shut on the emperor's head.
Stitch dropped the beams. Emperor 626 looked like he was plastered. His tongue was hanging out the side of his mouth and blood trickled down from one nostril. Emperor 626 collapsed unconscious over a piece of roofing material.
"Stitch!" Lilo immediately called out, and ran out from behind the curtain.
"Lilo!" Stitch cried back.
The two of them ran toward each other, over the wreckage, and Lilo jumped into Stitch's arms. Stitch ran onto the stage with Lilo in his arms, toward the Emperor's room, tearing the door right off its hinge. There was no time for a warm embrace, there was no telling how long it would take for the emperor to regain consciousness. And indeed, he was already starting to stir.
The emperor's room looked startlingly plain compared to the rest of the palace. It was plan fifteen by twenty five feet with a shag carpet, a large desk piled with paper work in one corner, and a full sized bed in the other. Stitch supposed that if no one else were ever to see this room, than there would be no use in making it a shrine to vanity like the rest of the palace.
Just like the emperor said, the time board was right there on the bed, in pristine condition, minus the wires that were torn out in the emperor's personal attempts to reverse engineer the device.
Stitch and Lilo jumped onto the bed and Stitch frantically went about replacing the wires by trial and error until he found sockets that didn't make them spark.
Emperor 626 slowly stood up, rubbing his head in a futile effort to get rid of his ringing headache. He saw what was happening. Stitch was finished replacing the wires on the device, and was no punching in coordinates, something which he himself didn't know how to do.
Emperor 626 panicked and ran. He ran as fast as he could toward his room, toward Stitch and Lilo.
At last Stitch got all the coordinates punched in. He pulled the lever, and he and Lilo jumped on the board. As the board started to hover in mid air, and bright light began to surround Lilo and Stitch, they heard a scream, and turned.
The last thing they saw just before their entire world was enveloped in light was the emperor flying toward them.