Chapter 4:

Sora walked through town with Lilo and Nani, all of them eating ice cream. They had decided to go get some after lunch, and though Nani made them detour to a doctor's office all of a sudden at noon, Sora got a new bandage wrapped around his arm and was allowed to go on his way with the girls. He had been enjoying the day so far, so when the man in the white scrubs had started asking him questions to try and fix his memory loss, Sora had replied that he was actually starting to remember stuff the more he walked around with Lilo and Nani.

Lilo had laughed about it with him afterwards saying she saw what he was doing, though Sora said he was feeling like he recognized some things the longer they hung out. Nani had been pretty quiet since the doctor's office though, and she blamed it aloud on the ice cream being really good when the others looked back at her and asked if anything was up. She stared at Sora's right arm again though when the other two turned back forward. It was so much worse last night. Does he heal faster? I've never seen anything like that.

"Let's go to the beach next! We haven't looked there, and we could stop at David's place afterwards and see if he's done with work soon. Then we could all go surfing, and if we find Stitch I'm sure he'll want to…" Lilo rambled on and Sora nodded in agreement with all she was saying. He had not been lying to the doctor solely to get out of there faster, he really did want to stay with the two of them longer as he was having a lot of fun.

I don't recognize the town, but I don't want to tell the two of them that. They think I'm probably from around here. Even Lilo's theories that I'm an alien, I think she's only half-sold on that. Even though I kind of am. Probably. Unless this really is my world… Sora slowed down, then he sped up after staring down the street with wide eyes at the beach up ahead.

"H-Hey!" Nani called after him, remembering that she was supposed to be watching after this teenage amnesiac.

"Wait," Lilo pulled on the back of Nani's shirt when her sister tried running past. Nani frowned down at her sister, but Lilo shook her head and said, "He remembers something." Her voice was quiet as she did not want to interrupt what her friend was thinking about, and Nani turned back hearing that in her voice and just watched as Sora slowed down on the edge of the beach and started walking forward slower.

Sora stopped on the sand and he breathed heavy but fast breaths as he looked around. He stared to his right down the shore that was mostly empty. There were some people gathered at the lifeguard station, there was an empty restaurant down the beach, but then Sora looked the other way. He looked down the beach to his left in the direction more of the forest wrapping around the edge of the island. There were some wooden steps leading up into the forest and houses close to the shore, there was a dock that stretched out and had some boats on the end of it, and Sora's head pounded while his heart ached at the sight.

In his vision, the beach he was looking at overlapped with another. The sand changed color a bit just as the trees did. The dock turned shorter and only had wooden dinghies at the end. The stairs leading up into the forest were replaced by ladders and treehouses at the top that wrapped around. Sora's head turned back from those treehouses and he looked at the shore, out into the distance on the shoreline where he saw three people running with their backs to him. They were heading away, a boy with spiky brown hair in the middle, chasing after a taller boy with longer silver hair. And in the back of the three was a girl with short red hair in a white tank top that made Sora take a step in that direction. "Is that," he started whispering, and then the image he was staring towards was shattered as a group of six busted through it.

"Keep running!" Jumba shouted back at the thin green alien with one eye who let out a yelp of fear. Pleakley just looked back and he screamed in panic, throwing his arms up in the air and running faster as the dark forms behind them continued chasing them over the sand.

"Well those, are new," Nani said in a hesitant voice, and Sora noticed just then how close Lilo and her sister were to his back. They stared towards Jumba and Pleakley, and behind them at three black forms that were also sand-colored and had bodies tinted in dark red and blue. They had many arms sticking out of either side and were each around five feet tall, swinging their many arms ahead while racing over the sand on lower bodies that looked like miniature sand tornadoes.

Then there was the third figure running away with Jumba and Pleakley, a much larger figure than the others with the head of a gray shark or a whale who stopped running and turned to point his blaster at the monsters again. "I will not be driven from my own ship by, by sand!" Captain Gantu fired over and over back at the monsters, but unlike the weak Shadows these ones were not taking much damage from his blaster shots.

"Yes! Ah, you hold them off," Jumba called out over his shoulder, and the fat alien with four eyes started laughing while the monsters swarmed Gantu's legs. The end of their sand arms had dark claws on them, and the creatures with black hearts on the front of their bodies outlined in a red highlight with dark blue around them actually took the giant alien off his feet which made Jumba's sadistic smile drop. "Oi, oi! You pesky little… haah?"

"Lilo!" Pleakley shouted after spinning to the boy running past, seeing the girl behind him running to try and keep up.

"Wait! You don't know if-" Lilo started shouting, but she slowed and got quiet as the boy pulled out his weapon from thin air again.

"Ooooh?" Jumba leaned forward and his eyes locked on the key-shaped weapon that the boy pulled out while running at Gantu and the monsters around him.

Sora aimed forward and he fired off a volley of white lights at a creature climbing up on Gantu's chest over his black uniform and lifting its claws up while the alien covered up his face with his hands for protection. Gantu lowered his hands and looked up, watching as the teenager leapt over his head and slammed his Keyblade into another of the monsters.

Another creature attacked Sora and he stumbled forward on the sand, gasping out in pain at a hit that hurt more than he thought it would. Well, I'm not as strong as I thought, Sora spun and he blocked the claws from a sandy creature trying to get the drop on him. "But I can still deal with the three of you-" In Sora's peripheral vision, two more of the sand-monsters popped up with spinning tornadoes below them out from right below the sand. Then a half dozen of the small black dog-like monsters emerged too and he lowered his bottom lip as this was starting to seem harder than he thought.

"Nani! The ray gun!" Lilo yelled at her sister while they were all just staring over at their friend who did not wait a second to go run and help Gantu. Nani looked at her sister who was reaching up for it, but Nani pulled it out herself and shook her head in disbelief as to what she was about to do.

"Hey! This is not-" Jumba started, only for Nani to reach out and grab him by a sleeve of his stretched Hawaiian shirt to tug him along with her.

"We're helping him!"

"Pleakley, where's Stitch?" Lilo asked while she and the green alien were staying farther behind. Jumba and Nani ran closer to the monsters and started shooting at them, while Gantu stood up and kicked around at the creatures. Gantu fired his blasters at them too while Sora fought from up close, and Lilo watched them all nervously but had something else foremost in her mind. "You guys were together! Where did he go?"

"We got separated by these things! They're all over the place you know? Like everywhere! And every time Jumba catches one, or we think he does- poof! They just disappear out of thin air! We're going around in circles but there's no end to them!" Pleakley waved his skinny arms up in the air in exasperation and panic, and Lilo turned back with a nervous look towards her sister and the others. Her nervous look started to fade though as she looked past her sister and Jumba who stopped firing, and even Gantu stopped stomping around to just stare as the boy slashed back and forth across the monsters.

Sora dove to his right into a roll and came out to slash back and forth on another creature that he had been farther away from before. He slashed so hard that his slash hit the two Shadows on either side of the Sandnado Heartless he was targeting, and he broke apart the smaller ones that had already been damaged from blaster shots before finishing his combo with a big powerful uppercut that broke the sandy one apart.

As Sora was finishing his combo, the others were feeling like he had it under control. So none of them stepped in soon enough when the last remaining Sandnado swung its claws down at Sora's back as he was landing from his combo. They tried to get ready to attack again, but Sora had his head half-turned and his eyes growing wide in fear, only for the monster to explode first into darkness with a flash of green light blowing apart from his back. A blue blur fell through the smoke and ash of the destroyed creature, and the fuzzball pointed his blasters each and every way with his lower two arms.

Stitch saw that there were really no more Heartless around, then he turned back forward and lifted his head and his big black eyes to look into Sora's. Sora stared down at the blue creature with a cute face despite looking pretty intimidating with its sharp claws and four arms and the bared teeth it had when landing in combat mode. Stitch's mouth curved up into a big smile though that put Sora at ease, and then Sora fell backwards while lifting up his arms. Sora rolled over his head and flipped back onto his back as Stitch tackled him to the sand.

"Stitch!" Nani shouted, and she started running forward only for Jumba to grab her arm this time.

"Wait! There is something…" Jumba walked forward slower and he stared closely at the two just as the others started to. Stitch rolled around with the boy he had tackled, and they all caught a glimpse of the boy's face for a moment to see him smiling and laughing at what was happening to him. "How strange," Jumba said, examining the boy's reaction and then Stitch's face again.

"They do know each other," Lilo said while jogging forward, looking at Jumba like it was obvious already.

"But how?!" Jumba exclaimed, and Lilo shrugged as it did not really matter to her.

Captain Gantu frowned down at the boy who had been tackled by Stitch, then he grunted and turned his head to the side. "I could have handled them all on my own." Sora and Stitch turned and lifted their heads up to the giant alien, and Gantu saw their skeptical looks out the corners of his eyes that made him grind his teeth in frustration and start storming back down the beach the direction they came from. "I'm getting my ship!"

"Be careful Big Dummy!" Lilo called after the big guy she saw getting beat up not too long ago. It was teasing but she still got a frown on her face when he just ignored her and continued off. Her somewhat nervous look was quickly replaced though as she ran up to Stitch and her mystery friend. "Stitch! I was worried, are you okay?"

"Uh huh," Stitch replied, nodding back at Lilo and then turning to Sora who was sitting cross-legged in front of the small blue alien now. "Are you, okay?" Stitch asked, his voice slow and sounding odd to Sora like speaking was not simple for him. His voice was a little nasally and high-pitched, but Sora smiled wide at the question the alien asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sora said. He reached up and rubbed his upper right arm that ached a bit after all that slashing, though it hurt a lot less than it did that morning when he woke up. "But you, you know me?" Sora asked, and he smiled hopefully at the creature that had a look of recognition on its face when it tackled him.

Stitch started to lose his smile at the question though. "You, forget-"

"Stitch it's not his fault!" Lilo called out as she saw both of them starting to get really sad there all of a sudden. Sora turned to Lilo in surprise at her sudden shout, and the girl leaned in more towards Stitch as she continued, "He bumped his head when he fell, or something. Now we're trying to get his memory back!"

If only that was it, Sora thought. Just the fall. That would make it, easier. This world doesn't really… It doesn't look the same as those islands. Or maybe, everything's just different. How long has it been since I last saw that place? How long was I… dead? Did I die?

"Stitch," Stitch began, and the teen focused his vision as he had dazed himself there for a moment. Then his eyes opened huge and his breath hitched as Stitch took the claw he had pointed at himself, and pointed it towards him next, "Sora."

"Sora?" Lilo asked, turning to the spiky haired boy herself.

"Sora," he whispered, and then he heard a voice that he recognized shouting that name. He heard the voice that he heard calling out to him back when there was nothing, shouting that name in his direction. "That's my name," he whispered, and he rose his head back up with a huge smile at the blue creature that smiled big at that grateful and happy look. "I'm Sora. And you're Stitch!"

"You remember him?" Lilo asked with a big smile.

"Nope," Sora shook his head while responding with a laugh. "But, but I'm glad. I know my name now." He turned to Lilo with an excited smile that the girl who had started to frown for a second could not help but start smiling again at the sight of.

Behind the three of them, Nani stood in between two aliens and faced Jumba with a hesitant frown on her face. "You're their creator, aren't you? How do you not know where Stitch met him?"

"All I am saying, is that I have never…" Jumba slowed down and he scratched his chin while looking closely at the boy. "Actually, I do recognize that weapon he was using. I once saw some people who could use one just like it. Terra, Aqua," Jumba quieted down and scratched his chin harder while looking closely at Stitch again. "That was a long time ago however. As to how he knows this, Sora, I do not know." I will get a look at that Keyblade though! Run experiments and create one of my own!

"Were those other two you met, good people?" Nani asked, her voice quieter this time so the three ahead of them in the sand definitely wouldn't hear her.

"Why do you ask?" Pleakley asked with a hand cupped to his mouth in a soft whisper. "Do you think something's wrong with our mystery human-"

"I'm not so sure he's…" Nani started but stopped herself when the other two looked at her with their eyes (or eye) widened huge. "It's nothing," Nani whispered.

"So Stitch," Sora started, looking at his new/old blue friend and smiling as he felt he was finally about to get some answers. "How do we know each other? We're friends, right?"

"Stitch and Sora," Stitch started, pointing at himself and then Sora again. "Fight-" he pointed his arms out and made blaster sounds like the ones Lilo had made back at the house before that Sora smiled at the sound of. He started listening closer though as did Lilo and the others behind Sora who walked forward to listen in. "Everywhere. We fight, Heartless!"

"Heartless?" Sora asked. "Is that what those creatures were that just attacked?"

Stitch nodded his head fast at the question. "Wait, you know?!" Jumba shouted, running forward and yelling at the blue creation who just admitted that despite having only said that they needed to fight them before. "All this time!"

"Secret," Stitch said, looking to its creator and then back at Sora who stared him deep in his black eyes. "Donald, Goofy, Sora. Say Heartless, are secret?" Stitch turned his head to the side, wondering if that was not true anymore.

Sora shrugged his shoulders back at Stitch though. "I don't know," Sora responded. "Donald and Goofy though, are they my friends too?"

Stitch nodded again, slower this time though and with a sadder look that Sora could not remember them. "Hey Stitch," Sora started when Stitch nodded at him like that. "This, isn't my world, is it?" Sora questioned. He had felt it for a while now, and he tried to ignore it while he was enjoying the morning with the girls, but the look at the beach told him how much different this world was from the one he thought he was trying to get back to. Stitch shook his head back at Sora who sighed at the response and bowed his head to stare at the ground. "I didn't think so."

"So you're really an alien?" Lilo asked, looking at Sora again in awe as he still looked very human to her.

"I, guess so," Sora replied softly.

"And you don't know where you're from?" Pleakley asked, stepping forward and leaning down a bit to ask the boy. "I know most species in the known universe, and I'm a specialist in Earth's animals and I would definitely say that you're a human."

"Maybe he is from somewhere, outside the 'known universe,'" Jumba suggested, to which Pleakley replied as if it were preposterous.

Do I have to leave here now? Sora wondered while looking down at the sand under his legs. These monsters are here, but there are people to fight them here as well. They don't need me. Maybe, she doesn't either. I told her I'd come back, promised her, but if that's all that's keeping me here and she isn't… I'm sure she's looking for me though. My other friends too. I'm sure… But, right now I'm all alone.

"Sora and Stitch, not friends," Stitch said. Sora rose his head up at the blue creature who spoke up again after he and Lilo were watching Sora stare at the floor sadly like that for too long. Stitch stared at the boy with darker brown hair right in his yellow eyes that were strange but did not affect how Stitch felt. "Ohana," Stitch said, reaching out and putting a hand on Sora's shoulder.

Sora looked at Stitch with a confused look, and he rose up his right hand and rubbed his eyes while the three behind him stared at Stitch in surprise or even shock. Lilo turned to Stitch in a moment of surprise too before smiling at his look and turning back to Sora with the same one. "What does, that mean?" Sora asked slowly, in a voice showing the older people behind him that he was not feeling alright.

Stitch squeezed his hand on Sora's shoulder and continued, "Ohana, means family."

"And family means," Lilo started too, while holding out a hand and putting it on Sora's other shoulder. "Nobody gets left behind, or forgotten." Sora looked at the small girl in front of him on his left and then back at Stitch's face, and he lifted the corners of his lips into a smile and started laughing. He had to rub his eyes again, and Lilo continued while leaning forward, "I mean it! Even if you can't remember, I'm sure your family still remembers you too. And we won't-"

"I get it," Sora said, lowering his arm and smiling genuinely at Lilo. He pushed his hands down on the floor and started standing up. He looked down at Stitch's face and repeated, "Ohana." Stitch nodded at him, and Sora took in a deep breath while feeling a warmth in his heart that was nice and relaxed him. Yet he also felt strangely, as if he were losing power too. That's weird. Is it because, I was sad? I used the power of darkness and now, dark feelings make me stronger? But, I don't need it. Sora kept smiling and he pushed those dark feelings down while looking around at the others with him. My friends are-

"My friends are my power!" Sora stumbled backwards and he rose a hand up to his head as he heard himself shouting that at someone. He clenched his eyes shut and saw a dark castle, himself but younger holding up a Keyblade and fighting someone with silver hair which made his eyes snap open wide again. "I, remember-"

"You remember?!" Lilo exclaimed in surprise. She was smiling but also feeling a bit nervous like that would mean he would leave, but Sora looked down at her and then shook his head at her look.

"Not everything, just… something. I think it's because, of you." He said it and looked at the two in front of him, then he turned and looked at Nani too. "Do you mind, if we kept-"

"Let's keep the day rolling," Nani suggested, smiling at the boy who she had just watched get so uplifted from what her sister and Stitch told him. "If it's jogging your memories, then that was the whole point of coming out here in the first place, right?"

"I'm confused," Pleakley started while raising a hand. "What are we doing?"

"Who's up for some surfing?" Lilo suggested excitedly, glad that instead of saying he was leaving, Sora asked to spend more time just hanging out with them.

"Surfing!" Stitch exclaimed in agreement.

"I don't know… well, I don't think I've ever surfed before," Sora started hesitantly. He laughed and did not stay too reluctant for long as the others said they would teach him, and Nani left to go get her boyfriend David while leaving Jumba and Pleakley to watch them.

Sora headed for the water down in only his bathing suit with Lilo and Stitch and three surfboards between them. He lagged a little behind the other two for a second right as they were getting in the water. I should probably be looking for something, someone… I can wait though. I'm enjoying this, and- and I'll probably have to use the darkness again, if I'm going to leave this world and check another one for her. I can only assume, that if this was the right world the darkness would have sent me right to her. I can't search everywhere here, but I'm probably right where I need to be. Stitch was here after all! Someone I knew, was the person I fell right in front of. It can't be coincidence.

So maybe it was just because I knew Stitch, or maybe it's because there's something I need to do here. Either way, it can't hurt staying here with them for a little while longer.

"So Sora," David started slowly, sitting across the table from the teenager who was chowing down with the rest of them at dinner. "Nani tells me, your arm is feeling better?"

Nani shot David a look showing she did not want him talking about the stuff they had talked about out loud with the others. He shrugged though only half-apologetically at her while looking back at Sora who glanced at his right bicep and kept chewing with a semi-thoughtful look on his own face. "I guess," Sora replied after gulping down another large mouthful. "I think it's almost healed up," he added.

"Really?" David pulled back and asked. Sora looked at him in confusion, and David leaned back forward and said, "I wrapped that myself. It was really deep man! And you looked like you lost a lot of blood, but you're not pale or anything. I heard you've been running around all day actually."

"Yeah," Sora said slowly. "I guess. It's just, I don't know… how long it should take, to get better from something like that," he said it in an apologetic tone like he had done something wrong by getting better faster than what was considered normal.

David lowered his bottom lip at that response, then he started laughing after a second. "Well that's weird," he said, and Sora laughed too as apparently the guy was not judging him for it. "So you still haven't gotten any memories back, huh? What are you going to do now then?"

"Hey!" Lilo shouted down the table at David.

Sora turned right and looked past Stitch who also bared his teeth at David in a way that made the man pull back and throw his arms up defensively. "Not that, you have to leave or anything," David countered himself while looking back at Sora.

"I think it's fine if, he spends another night at our place," Nani said, giving up on it reluctantly even though no one had even asked her yet. Stitch and Lilo both looked really happy about it though, and Jumba rubbed his hands together below the table while no one was watching.

"Thanks Nani," Sora said, though he looked away from the table at the restaurant David worked at after he said it. There were not too many people there which was how David could get on a break and come sit with them, but Sora was not looking at the other people there at the outdoors restaurant. He just looked away and his eyes lowered down a bit, I should really be getting going though. Those monsters keep popping up, and the others say it's been happening more frequently today than before. The only difference between today and other days though, is that I'm here. So what if it's me? Am I drawing those monsters here? The, Heartless?

"You can stay in Lilo's room tonight," Nani started, and Sora turned back to the woman who had been looking at him sadly there for a moment before deciding to shift his mind off whatever he was thinking of. "She's fine on the couch-"

"Hey!"

The table got louder and Sora got back into the conversation with the others. He pushed thoughts of the Heartless back in his mind since he had not seen them for a little while now, so he was hoping maybe they would be gone for the night. As they were nearing the end of dinner, Sora glanced towards the direction of the water and the beach. He thought about the big guy he had seen earlier who had run off for his "ship" which had Sora thinking about certain possibilities. "That guy I helped out before. He was an alien too, right?" Sora looked down the table to his right past Lilo and Stitch.

"That was Captain Gantu!" Pleakley called back to the spiky-haired boy. "He's really mean-"

"And ugly!" Jumba added which got a laugh out of David.

"But, wasn't he fighting the Heartless with you?" Sora asked the other aliens in some confusion.

Jumba and Pleakley looked at each other, then Jumba turned away with a humph while the skinnier alien faced back Sora's way. "Yeah, he was! We ran into him while looking for more of those creatures, though we didn't know how many different types there were!"

"Are there more than just those two?" Lilo wondered, as they had still only seen more of the Shadows and Sandnadoes through the rest of the day since the beach.

"Well, we did run into one other kind," Jumba started. "Back around Gantu's ship. They were much bigger!" He pulled his big hands apart over the table to show off the size, and he added, "And stronger. We all had to run but they did not follow us far."

"Wonder why," David said, mainly to himself though Sora did look across the table at him and then hum to himself afterwards.

"Well I hope he's alright," Sora said after thinking about it for a minute and not coming up with anything. "If they were too strong for all of you, I hope he didn't get into something he couldn't handle all on his own."

"I'm sure he's fine," Pleakley said, waving a green hand Sora's way and saying it in such a carefree tone that Sora did feel reassured by it. "He was a captain of the Galactic Armada!"

"The Big Dummy's always fine," Lilo grumbled. "And he's always stomping around and making a mess…"

Across the island, hidden in some trees not far from the shoreline was Captain Gantu's ship. "Hey hey, Gantu!" Reuben stumbled away farther from the ship as the giant came flying out down the ramp and skidding across the floor. "I thought you said you had this!" The small yellow experiment stepped backwards and leaned against a tree, and he lifted up his sandwich and took another bite while watching his boss push his huge muscular arms down on the floor below him to struggle to get up.

"This ship is my home!" Gantu yelled, and he curled his right hand into a fist and slammed it down. Reuben lost his small smile and lowered his sandwich too with a surprised look on his face. Experiment 625, Reuben, turned back to the ship and his eyes widened at the sight of the figure walking up to the top of the ramp between two fat Heartless. The Large Bodies stood still at his sides, then they stayed guarding the entrance to the ship as the figure cloaked in black started down the ramp. Gantu glared up at the man and he pushed his fist down harder to get up to one shaky foot while on his other knee. "And I won't let you have it that easily-"

"Your ship has some nice cloaking, and I need a place to lay low for," the guy in the dark cloak lifted his right arm as if looking at a watch even though his long black sleeve covered his whole arm. His face was covered by the shadows of his hood, though he lifted his head after looking down at his watch and the other two could see a smirk on the bottom half that became illuminated by the moonlight for a second. "Another day or so. I'd prefer it if we didn't have to fight… but you know, I'm actually glad you came back."

Reuben's stomach rumbled and he dropped his sandwich. "Hey Gantu," Reuben leaned forward off the tree and started walking towards his boss. "I think we should-"

Five black circles appeared on the ground in front of Reuben and released dark Shadows that glared at him through their yellow beady eyes. Gantu's eyes darted over towards his henchman and then glared harshly back at the man on the ramp walking towards him. He rose his other foot, but as he was standing back to full height, the short man who tossed him from his ship rose his hand from a distance and formed a sphere of black with a dark purple core in the center of it in front of his palm.

Reuben and Gantu both stared at the sphere of darkness with growing eyes. Reuben was fast, and he darted towards Gantu right between two Shadows which had the man in the cloak looking over in surprise at the experiment's speed. It was still not enough though, and the dark sphere slammed into Gantu and threw him backwards where he rolled back out of the trees into the treeline between the forest and the ocean. He stopped rolling on his back, and he gasped while looking up at the clear sky above full of bright stars and a full moon. "What's- this feeling…"

"Gantu. Hey Gantu! Get up, we've got to get out… hey, hey what's wrong with you?"

A low but somewhat high-pitched voice spoke up behind them, "So much darkness. Anger, hate, depression? A feeling of, belittlement." Reuben spun his head and looked towards the five and a half foot tall figure in a black hood who was slowly walking towards him, with all the Heartless moving forward only once he walked past them to keep him in the front. "An inferiority complex, bested by those weaker than you time and time again, you have to wonder if maybe you're just weaker than them. Even with such a large body, big muscles, you're just so weak."

Reuben turned his head back and stepped away from Gantu while the dark lines that were coming out of his body started getting thicker and rising higher. Purple wisps pulled off of his skin and through his black uniform, a black uniform that was spreading out somehow and covering up more of his gray skin and up over his face too to give him a mask. "What are you doing to him?" Reuben spun and called at the dark figure who looked closer at the yellow creature for the first time. The usually lazy experiment lifted up his claws and got an angrier look on his own face, but the cloaked figure looked from him to the bigger alien that the creature was standing in front of, and he shook his head as he had nothing he wanted from it.

"Take care of that thing," the hooded figure said, pointing over at Reuben and making the Heartless behind him run forward.

Reuben got a bit of a nervous look on his face, but he grinned as he felt the big footsteps behind him. "You ready to run back there? I thought you was out for the count or-" Reuben turned his head as he saw the shadow descending, and his eyes opened huge at the glowing white ones coming out of that dark mask. "YO!"

Ohana. "I know you will!" Family. Donald and Goofy. "…I promise!" The Heartless. The guy with one eye- not Pleakley, but… cloak guy. I'll just call him cloak guy. And there's the guy with silver hair, I think he's my friend too. I want to find them. I have to warn them, if they don't know about the World Eater. The- cloak guy said it just woke up, so I might be the only one who's seen it. The world it got last time wasn't important, but if it comes for a world like this. A world with so many people on it…

I won't let that happen.

Sora got up in the Pelekai house and started a day similar to the last one. He had things he wanted to do that day, but he decided early on to just make sure that there was not a different reason that the Heartless were there other than himself. At least, that was what he told himself he was doing when Lilo told him that they were going to go surfing again and this time with David who was much better than the rest of them.

They ate breakfast and gathered up their surfboards and bathing suits to go down to the beach. Jumba asked Sora while the others were getting ready if he could see his Keyblade for a moment, but after Sora gave it to him, the weapon re-materialized in his own hand to both of their surprise. Sora shrugged at the mad scientist before running off when Lilo told him it was time to go, and Jumba sighed in defeat back behind him at the loss of what could have been a great experiment. Jumba came running for the front door the same as everyone else in the house though at the shout that came from the front door when they stepped outside.

"Reuben!" Lilo called out, dropping down and catching the yellow experiment who was wobbly on his feet and looked to just barely make it there.

Stitch and Sora continued to battle the Heartless that had come to the front door with the yellow creature, and Jumba came out before getting enraged at the sight of his experiment's condition and pulling out the "big guns" that he decimated some of the fat Heartless that were there with. He had spent the entire night coming up with the new weapon to fight them, and he humphed in a satisfied way after he destroyed them, even if Nani did yell at him for leaving a crater in her front lawn.

A broken window, craters, these things have to leave us alone already! Nani thought it exasperatedly but she was not too focused on the property damage at the moment. She looked down in a worried way at the experiment that she had just expected was fine because Reuben was supposed to be as strong as Stitch with his only weakness being his laziness. "Is he alright?" Nani asked, turning to the experiment's creator when Reuben finally collapsed unconscious.

"It seems, he has taken very serious damage," Jumba said. He picked Reuben up and headed back inside, "I will fix him up good as new though! It is nothing I cannot handle. Go, I will catch up with you later."

"Doesn't really feel like a beach day anymore," Lilo mumbled to herself sadly while watching Jumba go back inside with Reuben. She turned to Stitch and had a worried look on her face, "I didn't think the Heartless could hurt even you, Stitch."

"Heartless, very strong," Stitch said with a nod, but he smiled and then pointed a hand at Sora. "We are stronger."

Sora smiled too when Lilo looked to him, as he could see she needed it. "That's right. We'll keep kicking their butts as much as we have to."

Lilo nodded and agreed with the other two. They headed down to the beach as a group and told David what they had run into back at the house, but David sounded surprised and told them he had not seen any of those creatures since the afternoon before. He added that most other people he had talked to had seen a lot less of them too, which brought up the mood a lot and let them all enjoy the morning surfing without worrying about much.

When they got out of the water, Sora shook his head around and Lilo pulled back at the dog-like action. "Your hair's a mess!" Lilo called at the boy who had long spikes of hair that splashed water everywhere when he shook it like that. "You know what you need? A haircut!"

"Haircut?" Sora wondered, and he tilted his head to the side again in confusion.

Lilo, Nani, and David all gawked at him. Pleakley was nearby though and the alien with one eye exclaimed in shock, "You've never gotten a haircut?!" The others all looked to him with eyebrows raised. Pleakley had an antennae sticking off the top of his head but no hair to speak of, and he brought his hands up and grabbed his head with an embarrassed look at their staring. "I get them all the time! They almost never realize it's a wig I'm wearing!"

"Sure," Sora finally said after he started laughing with the others. "Why not? I'll, get one." It doesn't even sound familiar. Maybe I'll recognize it once it's happening. Maybe I even usually have short hair and it only got all spiky like this because I haven't cut it- and maybe seeing it short will jog a bunch of memories!

Thirty minutes later, Sora was spun in a barber's chair to face the mirror while Lilo and Stitch stood on his sides. Sora gawked at the hairstyle he was just given after seeing so much hair fall to his sides. And after all of that, Lilo and Stitch shook their heads 'no' at the look which got Sora spun back around for another go. This would go on for three more tries until he got turned around and his expression turned into a more mild and pleased surprise. "This is…" he started.

Lilo looked over at Stitch with a smile on her face, and Stitch gave her a thumbs up back. Sora's hair was still spiky, but it was short now with less spikes in total but still a couple pointing down over his forehead, some taller ones over the top of his head while most of the rest were low and short around it. He had a couple pointing out to the sides, and the hairdresser behind him mentioned how his hair was oddly naturally that spiky which she had never seen before. The other styles she had tried it in were all using gel while this was just a normal look for him with shorter hair though pushed down a bit in certain areas. "It's great," Sora told the woman.

"That's good to hear. Alright, so that will be twenty-"

"I have it," Lilo said quickly.

Sora looked back at the girl, and then to the woman she was paying which had him jumping up fast. "Oh my- money? Payment… I've been- you guys have been giving me food and-"

"You even forgot what money was, huh?" Lilo asked the older boy while the barber just got a baffled expression at their conversation.

"Not really," Sora started while walking for the door with the other two. "I guess, I just sort of… I don't know. It's like the idea of it had just slipped my mind until now. I think I saw Nani paying for my ice cream and David got dinner last night… I've seen it since, but I just didn't pick up on what it was…" Sora rubbed his forehead and then ran his hand up through his shorter dark brown hair. Are there other small things? I thought it was just who I was, where I came from, names and stuff. The small stuff I thought I remembered, but it's not like I really just "remembered" money either. It's more like, I knew it existed but I didn't, I couldn't piece together that because I was eating with them they were paying for me, but they just paid for me to get my hair cut. They're really, taking care of me. Nani works hard for her money, David too, and no one even mentioned it like it was a problem. I shouldn't be here. I'm… imposing. That's it. I'm being a burden. I should have-

"So what do you guys want to do now?" Lilo asked, stopping on the sidewalk and leaning against a bench. "Oh! Why don't we go check out Gantu's ship?"

"Huh?" Sora wondered. He had thought they told him everything was going to be alright with Gantu, so even though there was something he wanted to check out with the ship he did not know why Lilo would bring it up.

"Reuben stays there with Gantu," Lilo explained. "So if something happened to him, maybe Gantu knows. Or maybe something happened at the ship last night."

"Hmmm," Stitch hummed and started scratching under his furry blue chin.

"I don't know," Sora began in a hesitant tone. "I don't think Nani would like it if we went there, especially if there is something going-"

"Nani's at work and won't see us for hours!" Lilo countered and stretched out 'hours' in a long way. "We can definitely make it back before she even notices we're gone. Plus, don't you want to see? Maybe there're some answers as to what's going on with you, if we can figure out what's going on with the Heartless!" Lilo called it out like it was a great idea, even though she only came up with it at first to convince Sora.

I know what she's doing… but she's right. Stitch says I fight the Heartless, so I should go fight the Heartless. If that's my job? Or just, because they're hurting people like Lilo and her ohana. They've been good to me. I have no idea where I am or who I am, but these people are being good to me. "If that's what you think we should do," Sora started, and he smiled at the girl who looked at him with big eyes at the way he started that. "Then let's do it."

If I do have to leave, I want to make this world safer first.

Back at the Pelekai house, Reuben moaned and opened up his eyes to see Jumba leaning his face down over his. "Whoa, Jumba? Jumba!" Reuben snapped up and he was panting hard as he did.

"Easy there, 625," Jumba began, patting a hand on the back of his small yellow experiment. "You took extensive damage. I do not know how though. Explain to me what could have-"

"Gantu! Gantu man," Reuben started shaking his head while Jumba got a really confused look on his face. "He went completely nuts! That guy in the black cloak did something to him, turned him totally bonkers!"

Jumba stood up and he stared down at his experiment with his breath speeding up and a look of hesitant worry covering over his face. "A black cloak, you say? It wouldn't happen," Jumba turned and walked over to something he had taken off of the drying rack when he was all alone. "To look like-"

"That's the one!" Reuben exclaimed. "The exact thing! What happened? Did you get the guy?"

"No," Jumba began. It has to be someone else. Sora was here all night, unless… no, no he was here! And 626 knows- but there could be others like him. And without his memory, who is to say that those in his group are not actually…

"It was crazy, Jumba. The guy in the cloak took over our ship. He beat up Gantu and was controlling all those, those things! Man, am I tired… but wait," Reuben shook his head as he was lazing back into the bed he was laying on. "Gantu. It's Gantu, he's not right."

"What do you mean?" Jumba asked. I have a bad feeling about this.

"I don't know what that guy did to him, but he doesn't know who he is. He's gone nuts and he's super strong and… and he attacked me," Reuben looked down and Jumba's eyes grew huge at the sad, betrayed look on the small carefree creature's face. Reuben closed his eyes and he said in a softer voice, "It was… so dark…"

A/N Thanks for reading. Sora meets Stitch and learns a bit about himself, namely his name. He gets a haircut and they've decided to go see how Gantu's doing after Reuben gets attacked. Gantu's been corrupted, suspicion of Sora is bouncing around, and he's still trying to remember who he is though he's accepted the world he's on is not his own. Who's the guy in the dark cloak? What awaits Sora, Lilo, and Stitch back at Gantu's ship? Find out next time!

KingJGamer chapter 3 . Feb 17

So wait, does Stitch know who Sora is because of the Kingdom Hearts summons and links?

Yeah, so with this I kind of took some liberty with what Stitch knows and how well he knows Sora. Based on what we saw in KHII with the Lion King world and Mulan's world, Sora, Donald, and Goofy all know the summons' characters pretty well. Mushu and Simba were summons in the first game but in the second one when you go to see them for the first time in their worlds, the two of them treat you like you're already close friends having fought the Heartless together a bunch. So I figured Stitch would be the same, a friend who's had more interaction with Sora and crew than we've seen and is actually friends with him. Anyway thanks for the review! And thanks all you guys for reviewing and reading this story! 'Til next time!