Chapter 9: Lilo Means "Lost" Too -or- Meega Naga O'hana
Through the day, Lilo managed to get 626 into trouble –against his will at that. 626 knew that anything he did would end up bad, Lilo managed to trick him into doing the acts however. After being kicked out of a hotel, 626 though Lilo would stop. His assumption was wrong as she dressed him to look like Elvis and took him to the beach, to bring everything she taught together. What really made this day horrible for knowing Jumba had Lani and 624 captive, seen obviously by no one cleaning the messes he inadvertently made along the day's span.
Lani and Angel were still in the handcuffs, only Lani seemed not to mind the slightest bit about it. She even hummed Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride to the annoyance of Pleakley and Jumba, Angel followed her lead once she got the tune. This lasted all day as they watched 626 and the Pelekai sisters out in the water with David. It gave them the chance to taunt the bounty hunters, 626 was in the water so there wasn't much they could do. Jumba resorted to climbing a tree to get a better look, Pleakley decided to make a call after he tied Lani and Angel's cuffs to the tree.
"Can't complain, Mom," he spoke into his video communicator. "I'm camping out with a convicted criminal, and I had my head chewed on by a monster!"
"Shoulda let him keep biting," Lani joked to herself.
"Gaba?" Angel asked her friend.
"It happened the night I met you," Lani begun. "You see..."
"Wait!" Jumba shouted -interrupting Lani. "Something is not right."
"Other than you tying us to a tree and forcing us into helping you capture our friend?" Lani rolled her eyes.
"626 is returning willingly to water," Jumba ignored her.
"Naga-takabah," Angel's eyes widened. "Khalifaud naga swim."
"Don't worry," Lani whispered to her. "He'll be safe. Just so long as we get him out of there as quickly as possible."
Pleakley's phone got another call, Lani warned him not to answer it. He did under the thought that she was tricking him, surprised how quickly he regret the choice after the Grand Councilwomen was on the other line.
"Mr. Pleakley, you are overdue," the Grand Councilwomen told him. "I want a status report."
"Uh, things are going well," Pleakley panicked.
"He's lying!" Lani shouted. "Things are the opposite of well!"
"Things are going well," Pleakley repeated under the odd gaze the Councilwomen sent him. "Jumba, aren't they going well?"
Jumba wasn't paying attention to him, instead focusing on 626 just like Angel was. Both of them couldn't figure out why he was going back to the water, since he'd avoided it the entire time they were on Earth.
"I would have expected you back by now, with 626 in hand," the Councilwomen continued.
"Just a few things left to pack and, uh, we'll be..."
"Hang up," Jumba shut off Pleakley's communicator. "We are going swimming."
Jumba climbed down too fast, causing Pleakley to be shot into the sand near some surfboards. Lani and Angel saw humor in it, laughing until Jumba stood them up to push them over to him. The bonds were strong, though they wouldn't hold them for long.
"Start to be helping us with 626, Sneaky Earth Girl," Jumba said.
"Well, since you asked nicely," Lani helped Angel with the cuffs in secret. "There's a few diver suits in that shack. They should help you reach 626 faster."
Angel and Lani managed to get the cuffs loose just enough for one of Angel's antennas to escape. When Jumba and Pleakley turned to walk away, Angel silently took the keys from the larger alien. The antenna dropped the key into Lani's hand and she unlocked both of their cuffs. Lani and Angel sneaked their way to Angel's battle cruiser, Lani sure of what needed to be done. Angel kept a look out for the bounty hunters while they ran, hearing Jumba yell about them escaping brought a smile to her face.
"Nice work with the keys, 62...Angel," Lani said while working on the communication system.
"Takka," Angel closed the cloaked ship's hatch. "Gaba yuuga doing?"
"I'm calling Bubbles," Lani didn't take her eyes off the control panel. "Remember how I said most of these problems I'm not going to be sure of?"
"Ih," Angel recalled that conversation.
"The robots and our kidnapping are a couple of those problems," Lani admitted. "And we're wasting time with the robots."
"Hello?" Mr. Bubbles said from the other end of the radio.
"Mr. Bubbles, we need you to get Lilo," Lani earned a confused look from Angel. "It looks like we're gonna have an invasion on our hands. The robots are almost ready and the bounty hunters mean business."
"What is a six year old going to do Ms. Alaula?" Mr. Bubbles questioned her judgment.
"Never underestimate the power of light," Lani shut off the transmission.
Mr. Bubbles arrived at the beach just in time to see Lilo almost drown and both Jumba and Pleakley flop away on the water. David went back to go save 626 from drowning, noticing Nani checking to make sure her little sister was fine. Mr. Bubbles regretted what he was going to have to do, knowing that it might be seen as Lilo being taken away. He made his presence known when the experiment breathed, hostilely trying to keep himself protected. Nani walked over to the agent to state her case, though there wasn't much.
"I know you're trying, Nani," Mr. Bubbles said sincerely. "But you need to think about what's best for Lilo. Even if it removes you from the picture. I'll be back tomorrow morning for Lilo. I'm sorry."
Telling her that her little sister was inadvertently part of an invasion plan -consisting of aliens and robots-, let's just say it wasn't a professional statement. Mr. Bubbles didn't feel any better about having to take Lilo away for the greater good, only guilt that it had to be done. After his final call on their inspection, the happy mood they felt when they were spending the day at the beach left. Nani took Lilo home to tell her what was going to happen, leaving 626 with David.
"You know, I really believed they had a chance. Then you came along."
David's words followed 626 through the day, hanging over him like the word "O'hana". Everything he saw on the island had some sort of family, even the pair of ducks that walked in front of him. He didn't care much for any of it, except for Lilo's small family. Nani was really all the little girl had, only now did he start thinking that it wasn't such a bad thing. Sure they fought, yelled and drove each other up the wall every chance they got. They still stood by each other, even through the chaos 626 caused.
626 caused way more damage that day than he intended to, though this time it wasn't entirely his fault. For the first time in his life, 626 didn't know what to do. Not that there was much he could, what was done was all set in stone. All he could do now was look at the sisters sitting in their hammock, thinking that he could have changed things if he wasn't the way he was. That maybe -without him, like David had said- they could have stood a chance. Nani singing interrupted his thoughts, adding to his guilt as a bonus.
Aloha Oe, Aloha Oe
E ke onaona noho i ka lipo
One fond embrace, a ho'i a'e au
Until we meet again.
The wind swept away the sisters' flowers right in front of 626, egging him into following after them. 626 climbed into Lilo's room, the flowers laying on top of her pillow. 626 was hesitant in reaching for them, he remembered the last time he did and didn't want Lilo to be anymore upset for the day. Through his train of thought, he didn't notice Lilo walk into the room. She brushed away the flowers and let 626 see the picture of her parents, this time she was okay with him holding it.
"That's us before," Lilo told him. "It was rainy, and they went for a drive. What happened to yours?"
626 didn't know what she meant, he didn't have parents of any kind. He was a creation, a weapon...A monstrosity. He was made to destroy everything, this -to him- was the biggest wreck of his life.
"I hear you cry at night," Lilo continued. "Do you dream about them?"
626 didn't want to destroy this family, her broken O'hana. He thought that they may stand a tiny chance, Earth suddenly seemed like a place to avoid because of this. When his crew arrived, he'd leave and take over another planet far away. As long as he left immediately.
"I know that's why you wreck things and push me. Our family's little now and we don't have many toys but if you want, you could be part of it. You could be our baby and we'd raise you to be good."
626 shook his head and picked up The Ugly Duckling book, it was the only thing he thought would help him understand family. It would also remind him of Earth no matter how far away in the galaxy he was. Lilo would be better off without, he thought.
"O'hana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind but if you want to leave, you can. I'll remember you, though. I remember everyone that leaves."
"Meega soka," 626 whispered to himself.
626 left through the window, he could bare to look back at the house. Of all the naughtiness he's ever done, he wanted to forget this one. He blamed himself entirely, so he ran away into the forest to meet up with his crew. The SBS crew weren't going to be there for a while, so 626 looked through the wordless pages of the book. He found the picture of the Ugly Duckling alone, which is what 626 was. Alone, with nothing around him, truly...
"L...Lost," 626 remembered the word Lilo used. "I'm lost!"
A/N: This was by far the saddest chapter I had to write, and this is the chapter that stops the movie -only for a chapter though. The next chapter is the break chapter before I start the chain of climaxes this story takes. Sorry for the late update, we lost power and all I had time to do was write out the chapter. But I assure you all that next weeks update will go on as scheduled, unless there's another storm that ruins my plans.
Disclaimer: Lilo and Stitch's world is a Disney world. Lani, Nicholas and my 628 are my mind's world's characters brought into that.
Next Time: The movie stops for a break, so now it's time to see how everyone reacts to the movie's changes.