"Nothing More Than Feelings"

Author's Note: I normally write about the Care Bears, and I have an entire series planned out. The trouble is, I seem to be suffering from Care Bear Burnout! Just for a change of pace, I've decided to write a Lilo & Stitch fanfic. My other series will continue soon, I just need a short break from it. Now for the disclaimer; I don't own Lilo & Stitch, or any of the original characters. Emma is mine.

"Give me the remote, trog!" bellowed Gantu, making a grab for 625. "I'm sick of watching the sandwich channel!"

"No way, barracuda butt!" 625 danced tauntingly out of reach, and hid the remote behind his back. "You had it all day yesterday, and if I have to watch just one more soap opera I'm gonna toss my cookies!" The pudgy yellow experiment batted his eyelashes and pleaded in a falsetto, "Oh Derrek, don't leave me, I looooove you! What'll I do? How will I raise the baby on my own?"

"Why you!" Gantu got up and began to chase him. "For your information, 'As the Teardrops Fall' is a very informative show about human courtship rituals!"

"Oh, yeah, and I'm sure killing off a character only to bring them back as a plot twist is something that happens every day, right?" 625 was cornered, but he wasn't worried. This sort of interaction was hardly something new, and the only thing he was in danger of was missing out on a new way to serve bologna.

"Warning; Experiment 432 activated. Primary function; emotional exploitation"

Gantu forgot about the remote, and read over the information that was provided. "Hmm...According to this, it was a complete failure. It was such an embarrassment to that idiot scientist that he immediately dehydrated it. Peh...If I bring something like that to Hamsterviel, he'll fire me..."

"Oh, again?" smirked 625, folding his arms and tapping his little bicep with the remote. Gantu promptly snatched it from him, and settled his twenty-foot-tall self down in front of their large television. "Hey!"

"You snooze, you lose." chuckled Gantu, changing the channel. A half hour later, he gaped in disbelief. "What? They killed off Sophie? Noooooooooo!"

625 came in with a stack of sandwiches, and smirked as he patted Gantu's arm. "What're you bellyaching about? She'll be back."

"Blitznak..."


At first, she didn't know where she was. All she knew was that it was cold, and the last thing she remembered was being yelled at. And then...oblivion. She slowly uncurled, and she instinctively kept her mouth shut and refused to draw the breath she so desperately needed. There was a sensation of being pulled backwards, then gently pushed forwards, then being pulled backwards again.

Experiment 432 opened her eyes, keeping her third eyelid, her nictating membrane, in place. Her body had already figured out what her mind had not. She was beneath the surface of an ocean, and she had to get out. She could see very well; the water was shallow, and looking through her third eyelid made it easy to focus, as if she was wearing a pair of goggles. Her belly scraped the sandy bottom of the ocean floor, and the burning in her chest reminded her that she needed to breathe. She could hold her breath for a long time, but only if there was air in her lungs to begin with. Undulating her body like a crocodile's, she swam smoothly to the surface and drew in a great, whooping breath.

"It's a sea monster!" yelled a little boy, and 432 felt a surge of fear and aggression coming from the child. "Kill it!"

"Get the monster!" cried another child, a girl.

432 registered their hostility in a millisecond, then did the most sensible thing she could think of. She raised the sail-like crest on her head and hissed warningly to stall them, then swam for all she was worth towards the sandy beach. As soon as her paws touched the scorching-hot sand, she skittered, lizard-like, into the bushes. She peeked out, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the children explaining their encounter to their parents. They weren't chasing her, and they had made it out of the water all right. She could have easily fought them off, but it was their fear that had prompted them to want to attack her in the first place. She couldn't blame them for that. But now, where was she to go?

Her stomach growled, and she decided to try to find something to eat. She didn't smell anything that appealed to her, so she set out to hunt something up. She kept to the bushes, lying silently when she heard footsteps or voices, then continuing on when the coast was clear. She finally came upon a round green thing, lying beneath a tree. She sniffed it, and her senses told her that the seed inside was edible, but she would have to break through the husk. She scratched at it with her claws, she tried chewing on it, she even tried smashing it against a rock. It took her a good fifteen minutes to get to the seed, but it didn't look very appetizing to her. Still, she was desperately hungry now, and she didn't see how she had any choice. She raised the thing above her head, but before she could bring it down on her 'cutting rock', something pounced on her from behind.

"Cousin!"

432 dropped the coconut she had been trying to open, and rolled over and over with her attacker. All she could feel were her own emotions right then; fear for her life, and anger for the loss of her meal. She gave a low, pulsing growl, and twisted free. "I don't really want to fight, if you force me..." she trailed off.

"Stitch? What is it?"

432 crouched low, extending her thoughts outward to gauge the intentions of these two. One was an experiment; this she knew. The other was a child, though she wasn't sure what species. She certainly wasn't a resident of the planet Quelta Quan, like 432's creator!

She sensed nothing but curiosity and caution from these two, and she relaxed somewhat. "Why did you attack me?"

The blue, dog-like experiment shook his head. "Stitch naga attack. Stitch capture!"

432's crest raised, and she narrowed her eyes. "Capture for what purpose?"

The little girl put a hand on Stitch's shoulder and said, "I'm Lilo, and this is Stitch. We change experiments from bad to good, so that they can find their one true place."

432 was beginning to understand. "Ahh...So, you wish to 'capture' me because you're afraid I'll run off and cause some sort of trouble, right?"

"Yup." grinned Lilo.

"Ih!" Stitch spread his arms and began to advance towards the new experiment once more.

"Well, you needn't bother. I'll go with you, if that's what you want. But I'm not exactly evil..." she looked down sadly, as if she saw this as a bad thing.

"You will?" Lilo looked surprised.

432 nodded. "I might as well. You mean me no harm, and I have nowhere to go..."

Lilo and Stitch looked at each other in amazement, and Lilo said, "Well, that was easy...So, what can you do?"

The experiment sighed; she didn't want to talk about it, but she saw no way around it. "I am Experiment 432. I was created to sense and exploit the emotions of others, and to dig deeper to find the cause, making that exploitation possible. But because I feel these emotions as my own, I couldn't bring myself to exploit anyone. So...I'm a failure..." she looked down, and her crest and back fin flattened.

"Ohh..." Stitch patted her arm, looking sympathetic, and she smiled a little. She wasn't used to kindness, and she hadn't realized just how badly she needed it.

"Well, come home with us." Lilo suggested. "I'll talk Nani into letting you stay with us until we can find your one true place. Everybody has one, you just have to find it."

"Who's Nani?" asked 432.

"She's my sister. But first, we have to think of a name for you." replied Lilo, looking the experiment up and down.

432 was actually a rather pretty experiment. When she walked upright, she walked on the balls of her feet, rather than walking heel-toe like a human. Her main body color was a medium-light aqua. Her belly, as well as the coloring around her eyes, was a lighter aqua. She had a long, lizard-like tail that ended in a spade-shaped, light aqua fin. She also had a fin-like crest on her head, a fin on her back, and fins on her forearms. She had ears that looked a lot like Stitch's ears, except the right one appeared to have sustained some sort of damage. On the other hand, she could have just been formed that way. Her nose was light blue. She squirmed under Lilo's scrutiny, wishing she was someplace else.

Lilo wanted to find a name that had to do with her power, but what kind of name could come from the word 'emotion'? It had to be a girl's name, and it couldn't be too silly. "I know! We'll call you 'Emma'!"

432 cocked her head, and smiled. "Emma...I like the sound of that."

"Come on, we'll take you to meet our O'hana!" Lilo grabbed her paw, and Emma let herself be dragged along like a ragdoll. Stitch frowned a little, but seemed mollified when Emma gave him an apologetic look. She understood his jealousy, and her eyes made it clear that she had no intention of taking his place. Lilo yammered on, "It's nearly lunchtime anyway. Don't let Nani scare you. She has a temper, and she doesn't really like experiments in the house...except for Stitch...but she'll like you, I just know it."

"Uh-huh..." Emma nodded distractedly as they neared what had to be Lilo's house. "Lilo, can I have my hand back now? I can't feel my fingers."

The little girl obligingly let go, and jogged up the front steps.


It was Nani's day off, but that hardly meant she got to relax. With so many people living under one roof, she practically had to bend over backwards to keep the house clean, the mouths fed, the fighting to a minimum, and the fridge well stocked. Pleakley was the cleanest one, but even he sometimes left his things lying around. Jumba, in particular, was almost as messy as Lilo. He might be a genius, but in many ways he reminded her of a little kid. He never cleared his place at the table unless someone reminded him, he rarely did his own laundry, and he had a habit of stuffing inedible things into his mouth when he was angry. Nani wasn't sure if this was normal behavior for a man of his species, or if he was just possibly the slightest bit insane.

Jumba worried her sometimes. She doubted he was ever actually evil, but she sometimes wondered what made him want to be. Aside from Lilo, he seemed to be keeping everyone at arm's length on purpose, and Nani didn't know why. And most of the time, she didn't care why. She had a job, a house to run, and a little sister to raise. In short, her plate was full. But that didn't mean she didn't care about him. He had saved Lilo more than once, and Nani trusted him to watch her while she was at work. He seemed to genuinely care about the little girl. But he remained a mystery. Nani had learned long ago to simply let him be.

Right now, Jumba was stretched out on the couch, tinkering with something Nani couldn't put a name to. The young woman lugged the vacuum cleaner over, and sighed. "Jumba, I need you to get up for a minute."

"Why?" he asked, not looking up from his work. He pronounced the 'w' like a 'v', like he did most of the time.

"I need to vacuum the couch cushions." she said.

"Am busy right now," he groused, "Please to be waiting for a few hours."

"A few hours? Uh-uh, I'm busy too, you know! As hard as you guys make it, I have to keep this place clean, and I'm not exactly happy about having to spend my day off making sure it stays that way. Now, get your 'patookie' off my couch and park it somewhere else!" she waved the hose attachment in his face, and he batted it away and sat up.

"Fine! But larger girl should be thinking twice before interrupting evil genius while he's at work."

"It's not like you can't do that in your room, or on your ship, Jumba." she said cooly as she lifted up the cushions to look for any loose change before she began.

"Is looking like I'll have to, now..." he grumbled as Lilo threw the door open.

"Jumba, we caught another one!" she yelled over the drone of the vacuum.

Emma blanched. 'Jumba? Oh, terrific...'

"Well, actually, we didn't catch her, she came on her own. Jumba, this is Emma!" she stood aside, and Emma hesitantly came in.

"Hello...Jumba." she raised a paw in a weak wave, feeling the rage begin to build in her creator as she stood before him. Someone else came into the room, someone who had three legs and a noodle-like body, but Emma ignored him.

"This one is not welcome, little girl. Send her away." he pointed to the door, and Emma looked down.

"But Jumba, she's O'hana." Lilo protested, "O'hana means - "

"Are you being deaf? I said she goes, therefore she goes!" he roared, and the room grew silent. Nani switched off the vacuum cleaner, and was staring at Jumba in disbelief as he went on, "She is not being O'hana, and that is final word! I am putting foot down! The answer is no!"

Lilo's lower lip trembled for a split second; he had never yelled at her before. Then she put on an expression that rivaled Jumba's. "You're not the boss of me, you...you big dummy!"

"Lilo..." Nani said warningly, not because she thought she should reprimand her, but because she was afraid of what Jumba might do. It was rare that any of them saw him in such a rage, and it had never been directed at Lilo before.

Jumba stared at Lilo for a long moment, breathing hard through his nostrils, then pushed her out of the way and headed for his ship. The push was surprisingly gentle, more like a nudge than anything else, and Nani sighed in relief.

Emma sat down where she was and hugged her knees to her chest, and Pleakley finally spoke.

"Lilo, are you - " he was cut off as Lilo ran for her rooftop dome, Stitch at her heels. "Oh dear...I'll go tell Jumba off for you, Nani, so you can get back to work."

"I have a better idea." Nani put down the vacuum hose, "You and...Emma...go see if Lilo's okay. I'll go talk to Jumba."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Pleakley.

Nani's voice took on a hard edge. "He has to learn that I won't have him talking to my sister like that. The way I'm feeling right now, he wouldn't dare lay a finger on me!" And with that, she swept out of the house, leaving Pleakley and the crestfallen experiment behind.

"Come on..." sighed Pleakley, "We better do as she says."

Emma nodded enthusiastically; this Nani was one formidable woman!


Nani pounded on the door to Jumba's spaceship before letting herself in, not waiting for him to tell her to leave. She found him ripping up a sheaf of blueprints and stuffing them into his mouth, a garbled roar coming from his throat.

Placing her fists on her hips, Nani raised her voice to be heard over all the noise he was making. "You owe Lilo an apology!"

Jumba froze, then spat out a mouthful of paper pulp. "Leave me alone!"

"No, I won't leave you alone! I mean, how dare you talk to my sister like that! You're living in my house, for free!" she yelled, and he jumped quickly to his feet.

"For free? I built that house, and was not getting a dime!" he shot back.

"Sure, after you blew up the first one!" she strode up to him, and stuck her finger in his face. "You don't do any of the work around here! Who cleans up after you? Me! Do you think I'm your maid, or something, you can just leave your dirty dishes anywhere you see fit? I do practically everything around here, therefore I'm in charge of what goes on in my house! And I'm telling you to apologize for what you said to Lilo!"

Jumba threw a screwdriver across the room, and began to pace like a caged lion. "So I lost temper, everyone does that!"

"You lost your temper with the wrong person, buddy!" snarled Nani, getting in front of him. "She's only a little girl! Is that how you would talk to children on your home planet?"

Jumba suddenly snapped. "No it's not, because I will never be getting the opportunity! And the failure experiment goes, or is to be deactivated!"

Nani was still angry, but something was clearly bothering him, something that had to do with that new experiment. Forcing her voice to be level and calm, she asked, "Why did you react that way when she brought that new experiment into the house?"

Jumba turned to face her again. "Tell me..." he began quietly enough, but as he went on his voice gradually became louder and louder, "If someone could look into your head, and see most embarrassing moments, most dismal failures, would you be liking it? And suppose you created experiment for to be exploiter of emotions, and experiment exploited yours, but refused to be exploiting other peoples'? Would you like it?"

Nani was beginning to understand why Jumba wasn't happy to see this experiment, and she felt her anger beginning to diminish. She asked, "Is that what she did? Did she do that to you?"

"I design-ed 432 for to be blackmailing experiment, like Nosey, only she was very dismal failure..." he told her, memories swimming to the surface, no matter how hard he willed them away. The time he wet his pants in school as a very small child, and how his father smacked him hard across the face when he heard about it; his wife telling him she hated him and wanted a divorce (not that he didn't want one as well); many, many memories he would rather forget. "She is just example of Jumba's many failures. But she is also reminder! You are thinking I want little girl to know how evil genius fails at everything he attempts?"

Nani stared at him in disbelief. "Jumba, you don't fail at everything..."

"Peh...what do you know? My experiments are either working too well and are beyond my control, or they are working not well enough. Always, they turn out differently from original plan. On planet Quelta Quan, Jumba was, how you say, miserable bum! Was doctor, scientist, yes...but was looked down upon like lowest life form all his life. I was being too different!" he rapped his chest with his palm, and the look he gave her was one of desperation and sorrow. "I don't want that thing in my head for to play head-shrinker! I just want to be forgetting how people laughed, called me 'idiot scientist'! I became evil genius to make them pay!"

"Make who pay? For what?" asked Nani. When he didn't answer her, she said, "Everyone who ever hurt you?" He winced, and she nodded. "Yes, I said 'hurt'. I know they hurt you, Jumba, but if you had been successful with your experiments, think about how many innocent lives would have been lost."

Jumba looked her in the eye, his four eyes and her two. "For a time, Jumba had stopped caring who he hurt...Would have hurt anyone, because anyone would have..." he trailed off; he was admitting too much.

"Is that why you keep everyone at arm's length? So we can't get too close and hurt you?" she asked softly.

"No!" he snapped. Then he sighed. "Maybe. And maybe evil genius is frustrated! I am living on planet with very primitive technology, and constantly being reminded of what a failure I am being! Why try? Well, why? You cannot answer..." he shook his head after a moment, "I don't want 432 to be inside my head, not now. Not ever. She will sense, she will know, Jumba can't even go home. Was exiled from home planet for illegal genetic experimentation, and can never be going back. Never! Think of it. To not be around one's own kind. To live on backwater planet with broken family, and to be every bit as broken! Never to be a parent...Even if I wanted to, I am having no choice...And never to be cared about by own species, never again..."

Nani gasped softly as Jumba began to choke up.

"Even evil genius can be getting homesick..." he put a hand to his face and turned away, sniffing sharply. Nani might as well have been glued to the floor as she stood there and stared at his back. Jumba's shoulders slumped, then shook a few times. He reached out with his free hand as if feeling his way to a chair, and finally he found one. He sat down, and another sharp sniff pierced the air.

"Oh...Jumba..." Nani walked over, and began to pat him gently on the back. "I'm sorry. I had no idea..." Her only answer was another sniff, and she put her arm around his shoulders and simply stood with him while he sat and tried to regain control of himself.

"She will know...I can hide nothing...from 432..." he managed to say before he had to close his mouth to keep from breaking down completely.

"It'll be okay. I don't think she'll say anything." Nani said quietly.

Finally he gave a colossal snort to clear his sinuses, keeping his head turned so that she couldn't see his face, and rubbing his four eyes with his fists. Nani didn't have to be Experiment 432 to sense his embarrassment. She gave his shoulder a final, brisk pat, and said, "The others don't have to know about this. I won't tell them anything. But...I still think you should go and talk to Lilo."

Jumba nodded slowly and stood up, then surprised Nani by giving her a hug. Nani hugged back after a moment, and when she stepped back Jumba seemed tired, but calm. "Come. Apology is in order." he said, sounding much better now. Nani led the way, and they headed towards the house in silence.

It was Jumba who broke the silence. "What of 432?" he asked.

"Emma stays." Nani said firmly, "At least, until Lilo finds a place for her."

He sighed. "Thought so."

"I think...maybe...you should talk to Emma in private." she said, sounding hesitant now that they were on friendly terms once more.

"So she can probe Jumba's brain and learn about...what just happened?" he looked down. "She will find out everything, if she hasn't already...She will find that Jumba is outcast..."

"What if she does?" Nani stopped, and gripped his shoulders; she had to stand on tip-toe to do so. "She'll also find out that you have an O'hana now. O'hana means 'family'. Family means nobody gets left behind...or forgotten. Whether he likes it or not." she smirked, and was gratified to hear him laugh.

"Earth niece is making excellent point. Very well, I will apologize to Lilo...And to Emma.

Author's Note: Depending on the type of response this gets (if any, lol), there might be a second, shorter part to this. This is my first Lilo & Stitch fic, so I hope nobody was out of character. I saw Jumba cry a couple times, in a movie and in an episode, so I figured it was possible for that scene to happen. And for those of you with overly active imaginations, this is not a Jumba/Nani romance. Hope you enjoyed it.