A/N: Okee dokee...I just want to warn whomever is going to read this that, for some reason or another, I feel like regressing back, at least a little bit, to my original writing style. It isn't too much...I hope...I'll try to take out all the hard words...Oh, whatever. Just read and review.

Chapter Seven

The staircase that Lilo had discovered corkscrewed downward, dim; the only light came from a flickering torch in the wall. Where it led remained unascertained; it was impossible to know where she stood now, the end hidden by the pillar that supported the flight. Nevertheless, with all curiosity, Lilo plunged into the gray shadows that crept across the stone walls. It was not dark, for light filtered in from somewhere below, but it was not light; little could come to a traveler's comfort, for light's inability to fly across the twists of the spiral that the steps created.
Lilo, who felt little fear despite the gloom, continued onward nonchalantly, maybe even wishing she could whistle, for hopes of making a more carefree, and somewhat stereotypical, impression. Her hands were linked by the fingers behind her back, her head thrown upward toward the ceiling, an expectant smile forming upon her face. Lilo's attention was upon her earlier experience of the majestic, mysterious bells that had rung out; she was admiring them even after their many echoes had died away. Only things of great beauty could have such an effect on a person. Or something vastly horrible. But, let us stay with the former.
Finally, a wooden door came into view gradually from behind the support, a shimmer of somber, blue light barely visible from a crack beneath it. Lilo stopped for several seconds, listening to the monotone of clerical chants from behind the closed entryway. After a while of this, she opened the door, and the once dim atmosphere was transfigured into a much brighter one. There was another short flight of stairs, which Lilo quickly descended, and finally, she figured that she had reached the main hall of the cathedral.
Yellow morning light, dimmed by the stained glass windows, lit the sober room, the air full of chants and censer smoke. The place seemed to take on the shape of a cross, the tall walls and ceiling supported by a system of pillars, arches, and buttresses, patterns and designs hewn into the stone. Unlit candles and their iron holders were set at intervals along the church walls and against the granite columns. Pews and kneelers were set along about one-fourth of the vast hall, upon where several groups of people (who in appearance were human to her) distributed themselves. A few statues could be seen against the walls of the edifice, staring down at the people who rested on their knees praying. A man stood at the front in stark white dress; he was a priest who waited to begin his sermon.
Lilo stared at the scene that was displayed around her for a while, unsure of whether or not she should continue on into the hall. But, after several moments of silent deliberation, she pushed onward until she was no longer hidden in the shadows and instead standing upon the pattern of black and white tile. There could be no harm in it. After all, she had gone down by the request of Quasimodo. They'd have to respect that. It was the only right thing to do, no matter how much they hated it. Unfortunately for Lilo, the parishioners did not seem to possess her type of logic, and did not perceive the situation the same way she did.
It was not until several moments later, that Lilo realized that everyone was staring at her, the buzzing murmurs of their whispered prayers replaced by seemingly insulting exchanges. She couldn't exactly hear just what they were saying, but she was sure that it was about her. They seemed rather annoyed at her presence in the church, if not angered, and she felt rather irked herself. Lilo turned round, her arms crossed, her expression angered. She did not even think of ignoring them for the better good. Thus is the logic of children.
"What are you looking at?" She asked rather rudely, staring at them as offensively as they did her, if not worse. The expressions of the crowd instantly changed at her impolite inquiry. Everyone now looked a lot angrier. The whispers had turned into angry mutters, the conversations becoming more and more vehement. Even the cleric standing at the front looked irritated; he had thus far been neutral and patient.
Lilo stood there for several seconds, doing her best to maintain the threatening expression upon her face. It was a difficult thing, her spite having been extinguished upon the arousal of their anger. She was audacious, but not to the point of risking her neck for something so unimportant. So, after a moment of angry mumbling that she had learned from Stitch, she descended into the shadows with more grace than she wanted to dignify those mumbling blockheads with. But, not without a final angry raspberry. Stupid people.
"Why does everybody stare at me like I'm some sort of walking germ?" she asked indignantly to no one in particular, running her fingers against the stone bricks of the wall. It was a total unfairness for her to be treated that way. Why didn't they just stare at each other's ugly mugs and leave her alone? Life would be so much better that way. The people who wanted attention would get it. Those who didn't...well, there would be no difference in their lives. Just stay away from everyone else.
The remainder of the mass continued with little incident, Lilo staying close to the walls as she explored, the parishioners remaining at the lined kneelers, listening to the priest's sermon, which had finally gotten underway. Lilo paid little attention to what the clergyman had to say, finding very little interest in such a thing, and continued to examine every bit of the cathedral she could without gaining an angry word or look. It happened upon occasion that she received one of these, but not often enough for her to care too much about it.
She wished that Stitch were there with her. Had he been, she would have had someone to talk to about how stupid these people were. No doubt he would be treated the exact same way she was, had he been there. And, even if they accepted him more, she was sure he would still stay around. That was how she dealt with her life as an outcast when she was in Hawaii...but, here, she was unsure if there was anyone she that could connect to in such a way... During one of Nani's little talks with her, she had been taught that there was always someone that would help you in the world. Someone that you could connect with, in other words. Lilo had, then, readily accepted such fluff as reality. But, now that she was experiencing such a thing, she found that little phrase to be much harder to believe.
Lost in her thoughts, Lilo did not realize how much time she had spent venturing the huge hall of the cathedral. She was standing before the statue of Maria and the Babe when those majestic bells rang out again throughout the cathedral. It signified the ending of the mass, and soon enough, the leering parishioners passed her toward the large wooden doors, now opened, glancing at Lilo as they made their way to the outside world. She watched as they left, ignoring the glances as much as possible, paying much more attention to the setting without the church. The sun was now much brighter than it had been earlier, evident by the golden rays that fell through the doorway, and the sounds of a busy city entered the once tranquil building.
"I wonder how it looks like from down here," she said to herself, leaning back in an attempt to see more of the outside. A great curiosity took hold of her, and she was even considering taking a step or two outside to see if it was Earth, a thing that had been nagging at her mind for quite a while already. But, despite all curiosity she felt, she remained uncertain if she should do such a thing. The last of the parishioners walked through the large doorways, and the wooden doors slowly began to replace themselves, creaking on their hinges. Several hooded clerics pushed the half-arch timbers back into a closed position, the heaviness making the progress slow. Lilo could go outside now, without drawing the attention she did not want...Moment of on...
"Hello, Lilo."
She exclaimed, startled, at the unexpected salutation, her yelp simultaneous with the bang of the closing doors. Lilo glared somewhat spitefully at the closed doorway, then, regaining her composure, she turned to see who had spoken. Her face was, at first, very angry, but it softened greatly at the sight of her addresser.
"Oh, hello, Quasimodo," she said, coughing embarrassingly into her hand. "Are you done with the thing that you had to do?"
"Yes," he replied. Lilo looked up at him, playing coyly with the hem of her dress, something that she had never seen or expected to see herself doing in her life.
"I thought it was really pretty," she said, grinning. "That was you, ringing the bells, right?"
Quasimodo nodded, a crimson blush creeping suddenly across his pallid cheeks. Lilo's smile widened at the sight of his modesty, and she suppressed a little giggle. As odd as he was, both in body and personality, there was something adorable about him that his face radiated during these several odd moments. It was strange, but nevertheless enjoyable. Very much like several of the experiments that she dealt with in Hawaii. Actually, she looked forward to finding those types of experiments. But, lately, none had been activated, and she and Stitch had been on some sort of a hiatus that lasted for several weeks already. Quasimodo reminded her of them almost uncannily several times during the few hours that she had actually known him. She loved it.
"Oh yeah," Lilo said suddenly, realizing something. "I just remembered. Why didn't you come down when you were done?"
Quasimodo just remained in his usual silence, staring quietly down at her, as if unsure of what to say. But, after several moments, his reason came out in that tone of sadness that she now attached him with.
"Because I'm...ugly," he said. He sounded a bit hesitant to say the word that he had heard so many times before, his shoulders slumping depressingly.
"Oh..." Lilo said quietly. That. She had almost forgotten. She shook her head, sighing quietly to herself. Here was someone with a self-esteem that would probably burrow down lower into the ground than Lilo had ever ventured. And she had gone pretty darn low.
As was expected after such a statement, no one was able to find his or her voice until several moments later, when Lilo cleared her throat and, once again, picked up the conversation.
"Is everybody in this place so rude?" She asked, eyeing the great wooden entryway that those horrid people had exited just moments earlier. Quasimodo's eyes widened in surprise.
"Did I do anything wrong?" he asked meekly, an apologetic expression clear upon his face. Lilo stared at him for several moments, confused by what he meant by such an inquiry, but then, realizing how it must have sounded when she asked her question, she shook her head vehemently, waving her hands before her.
"No! No!" she exclaimed. "That's not what I meant!"
Quasimodo watched her with guilty eyes as she explained herself, and, once she was finished, he had once again regressed back into his initial comfort.
"Oh," he said, his tone obviously relieved. "I understand now."
Lilo smiled to herself. Was it her, or did Quasimodo not want her to go away? Well, it was nice to know that she was wanted somewhere. There was another thing for her to like about him.
"Well," she said, "do you know why they stare at me like that?"
Quasimodo stared at her; eyes squinted as if in great concentration. Lilo watched him as he circled her slowly, examining her. Lilo lifted an eyebrow. This was a bit...weird.
"I don't know," Quasimodo replied finally, shrugging his shoulders.
"Is everyone here so weird?" she asked, now completely confused. Quasimodo's first response was a somewhat odd little sigh, and a plaintive glance toward the great wood and iron doors.
"I wouldn't know."
Lilo followed his glance, wondering just why he was staring at the door at such a way. But, before she had the chance to ask, Quasimodo shook his head, smiling in spite of himself.
"Never mind," he muttered. He made his way across the hall toward the flight that made its way up to his tower home, gesturing for Lilo to follow. Lilo complied, though her pace was slow; she took several moments to continue staring at the door, trying her best to understand. Did those people treat him the same way they did her? She shook her head, nearly laughing out loud. Of course, hadn't she verified that already? His 'monster' nickname, his surprisingly low self-esteem...It all pointed toward a similarity the both of them shared. She already knew that she could trust him...Maybe he was her connection in this world.

A crash amidst the sounds of falling objects and surprised exclamations forced Stitch abruptly out of his short nap. Wiping an ample amount of slobber from the side of his mouth, his eyes opened slowly, and he moaned from an understandable grogginess. What idiot woke him up from his much- needed little doze?
"Damn it!" someone exclaimed, not taking the liberty to censor his language. "I'm not cleaning up this mess. Little pack rats...Why, you could lose a damn elephant in this cluttered sty!"
Stitch suddenly sat upright, his large ears pricked suspiciously. The voice was unfamiliar to him...No one in his Ohana sounded like that...

"Don't talk like that, John," another voice said sternly. A strong Hawaiian accent was apparent in his tone. "I know this family. They aren't that bad."

His vision regaining its sharpness, Stitch realized quickly that he was enclosed in a much smaller room than he had fallen asleep in. What had happened? He quickly turned round. The control panel with its abysmally slow progress bar was still there with him, along with the cubicle and other tools of Jumba's trade. It was not until several moments later that the experiment realized that the holo-wall was up. Stitch sighed to himself in relief.

"What was that?" John said suddenly.

Stitch quickly clamped his mouth shut. It wouldn't be a very good thing if these strangers were to discover him and the dimension hopper.

Several seconds elapsed in absolute silence, the people on the other side waiting for another noise to verify their suspicion. But, Stitch wouldn't allow them such a thing. Finally, the strangers shook it off as nothing and the sound of rummaging could be heard through the hologram that separated them from the little blue experiment.

Stitch thought quietly to himself, wondering if there was anyway that he could find out just whom it was intruding upon the progress of the wave finder. It wouldn't be very wise to jump out through the wall to see. He wasn't even sure if it was possible to do such a thing.

Stitch shuffled noiselessly to a corner of the holo-wall, and, as discreetly as he possibly could, he stuck a long nail through the fake image. It passed through the pink effortlessly. Stitch kept all triumphant exclamations inside of himself. Now that was something useful!

626 looked around the disorderly lab, searching for any tool that might somehow assist him in his cause. Screwdriver...wrench...thingamajig...nothing, it seemed, of any use to him whatsoever. But, after several more seconds of looking, he discovered a rigid, plastic pipe hidden beneath the long table that had once carried the equipment that he and Lilo were to use in their exploration of the universe.

Holding the pipe as low to the ground as he could without making it impossible for him to look through, Stitch slowly pushed it through the pseudo-barrier, and used it as some sort of spyglass.

Through the thin tubing, he saw, with a mixture of alarm and anger, two policemen searching through the boxes and chests that cluttered the attic. This could only have meant one thing, which Stitch realized rather quickly, and he began to curse Nani internally. By God, she had called the police. Of all the half-brained, dimwitted...!

Stitch ignored completely the fact that the woman had done what any other human mother-figure would have done in the situation, and also that she did not know anything of what had happened, or what was happening in the mini-lab. It was still her fault to him, no matter the reason. Lilo's return depended solely on this situation!

Several moments later, the creak of heavy footsteps sounded, and Stitch saw the round head of his creator appear at the top of the steps. His expression seemed very hostile toward the intruders; he apparently felt the same way as Stitch about the whole thing.

"As you are seeing, there is nothing up here, absolutely nothing!" he said angrily, putting his two purple hands on the men's backs and trying to force them down the steps. "So now, good bye, go home!"

One of the men rebelled, stepping aside.

"Wait a minute, Mister," he said, trying to avoid Jumba's grab for his arm. By his voice, Stitch realized it was John. "You seem awfully anxious to get us out of here."

Jumba narrowed his eyes.

"Is seeming, Flabby human, that you are implying something?"

"So what if I am?" John retorted angrily.

The second officer looked sternly at his comrade, his expression housing obvious animosity.

"John," he said, grabbing his partner's arm, "that isn't the way to deal with these things."

"I'm just saying," John began, but his associate's gaze seemed to interrupt his sentence.

"Come on," the second said, pulling him down the wooden steps. "We've done enough damage here."

The two officers made their way down the steps, though John proceeded rather hesitantly, still mumbling expletives to himself as he did. Jumba glared angrily down at them until they disappeared, signified by the large alien's cursing and spitting. Stitch exclaimed in triumph. Go Jumba!

"626, are you being awake?" the scientist asked, pulling the button out of his pocket and making the holo-wall disappear. Stitch stood up now, walking out of Jumba's workplace into the attic. Jumba replaced the button into his pocket, his face still angry.

"You must understand now what has happened?" Jumba asked, his eyebrows lowered.

Stitch nodded spitefully.

"Nani."

"I swear," Jumba said angrily, walking to the lower level, Stitch at his heels, "tell humans one thing, they do the other. Is very useful aspect when using reverse psychology, but any other time and it becomes difficult!"

Stitch nodded in agreement. These people! As they made their way down the hall, Pleakley appeared at the foot of the stairs, obviously shaken.

"Eh, Pleakley!" Jumba called out. The cyclopean exclaimed in surprise, but seeing who had talked, calmed down a bit.

"Jumba, there you are!" he yelped, rushing up the stairs.

"Yes, yes," Jumba replied, waving off the statement. "Are those men gone?"

"Yes, just now! They left just now!"

"Good," he said. He and Stitch walked down the steps, their facades seemingly angered and much more somber than usual. "Where is Nani?"

Pleakley pointed toward the living room.

"Why?" he asked. "What are you going to do with her?"

"We are just going to give her a little talk," Jumba replied.

Stitch nodded pompously.

"Yes," he said, his eyes narrowing. "A little talk."

A/N: Okay, this piece of crap brought to you by:
MIND-NUMBING INSOMNIA! WE'RE THERE FOR YOU ON THOSE WARM NIGHTS! Okay, I know it wasn't that good, because, I didn't spend as much time on it as I would've liked to, and the words ended up yucky and blah...but anyway...READ AND REVIEW! Thank you Fallen Wraith for your review; it's nice to know that I'm writing the part of Lilo at least close to what she really is. After this chapter, though, I'm not sure. READ AND REVIEW!!!!!