Chapter 12: Stitch Vs. Jumba -or- Home Invasion

KAUAI, HAWAII

The morning light seep in through the trees 626 laid under. He was too depressed to build any form of shelter, so he settled on falling asleep in the clearing. The book laid on the floor, beckoning 626 to give it another look. He sat down and stared, hearing Lilo's voice in his mind.

"That's the Ugly Duckling," 626 remembered what Lilo told him about the page. "See? He's sad because he's all alone and nobody wants him."

The page was about 626, even going as far as to take the form of the experiment in his clearing. 626 rubbed his eyes, only the image never changed. He was sure it was his mind playing tricks on him, so he flipped to the next page in hopes he was right.

"But on this page, his family hears him crying and they find him," 626 saw this page remained as it was drawn. "Then the Ugly Duckling is happy because he knows where he belongs."

Even if he was right about the previous image being an illusion, it was clear that the concept of "O'hana" still escaped 626. He what it was and what it entailed, he didn't have any of it though. Not Lani and 624, as he watched them get captured. His crew, hopefully still coming to his rescue but he was beginning to doubt it. No longer Lilo, as he'd walked out of her life. O'hana means family, family means no one gets left behind or forgotten. 626 left Lilo behind. Where he knew he wasn't going to, he was certain that she'd forget him soon enough.

626 couldn't take the feeling of abandonment anymore, it hurt too much to even think about what was going to come next for him. He wouldn't have to wait too much longer, Jumba caught up with him and set his plasma cannon.

"Don't run," Jumba warned him. "Don't make me shoot you. You were expensive. Come to me quietly 626."

"Waiting," 626 shook his head.

"For what?" Jumba knew he had nothing left to wait for.

"Family," 626 responded seriously.

"Oh," Jumba could see the influence Lilo had on him. "You don't have one. I made you."

"Maybe..." 626 fought the truth. "I could..."

"You were built to destroy," Jumba revealed his original intention. "You can never belong. Now come quietly and I will take you apart."

626 was sick of running, Lilo had changed him too much to make him want to continue without knowing that she did. He was going to give up, for once he was going to do something right. His friends wouldn't allow it though, not after coming this far. 626 was almost surprised to see Lani and Angel well, he'd suspected Jumba would just keep them tied up and away from interfering. Lani shook her head at 626, Angel gesturing for him to run. 626 hesitated, until Angel and Lani showed him that they didn't have cuffs on anymore. They were free, 626 was going to be too.

"No," Jumba screamed. "Don't run!"

"Your luck just ran out Jookiba!" Lani called from behind him.

"Ih!" Angel added on to his taunting. "Yuuga toobaga!"

"Ugh," Jumba waved them off as nothing but a distraction. "I'll deal with you after the capturing of 626."

"We'll see about that," Lani smirked as the evil scientist ran off. "Angel, you ready to..."

"Aha!" Pleakley called out of nowhere.

Once again, the walking noodle managed to catch them -which seemed like an impossible thought to Lani. The only reason Pleakley managed to get the drop on her was because her thoughts were always preoccupied, always on making sure everyone came out of the situations fine. Although she and her company managed to still get in some kind of trouble, Lani still got them out with some help. Pleakley cuffing them to a tree again was her breaking point, there was little time as it is.

"Listen you, we don't have time for this," Lani glared at him. "Something really bad is going to happen if you don't let us go."

"Oh really?" Pleakley crossed his arms. "Where were you this morning when we were fired?"

"Pleakley..." Lani stopped herself when she saw no way of reaching him through fear. "Fine. Let Lilo get hurt."

"What are you talking about?" Pleakley was starting to come around.

"Lani say trang nang go tsi'cong," Angel explained. "Khalifaud and Jumba's fault."

"And if we don't get Lilo out of there..." Lani let him put the rest together himself.

Pleakley gasped, finally realizing that he was doing something wrong -as far as holding them back goes. Regardless of how much he didn't want to, he knew he had to release them. Out of her cuffs, Lani ran in Jumba's direction. Angel and Pleakley followed, after the initial shock of her take off wore down. The experiment and the bounty hunter's assistant were lead blindly by Lani, who knew the forest like the back of her hand to their amazement. They knew what was going to happen, all they needed was to know how to stop it.

"Gaba do we do?" Angel ran with them.

"We keep Lilo out of harms way," Lani told them both. "If it looks like you can't hold on to her, pass her off to each other or me. Just make sure she gets out of there by the time the house goes boom."

While they were rushing to stop the chaos, things weren't looking so good for 626. He ran to Lilo's house to get away from Jumba, who knocked over a tree as he left the bushes. Jumba was at his wit's end, only now he was able to do something about it.

"Come back here you little-" Jumba mumbled angrily.

626 ran in the house, out of breath and desperate to stay away from his creator. He only half counted on Lilo being there, the good of it being she wouldn't accidentally walk in on a sure fight. The bad of course was her getting in the middle of it unintentionally, the latter being she turned around to see him. Nani wasn't in the house, due to her going to get a job David told her about. That had been the only good news that day. 626 coming back would have been too, had he not looked in distress.

"Stitch?" Lilo asked him -making sure it was really him. "What is it?"

626 shushed her and tried to lead her out of the house. Unfortunately, Jumba busted in through the back door. A large smile stuck on his face, nothing on the planet could stop him from taking back his property.

"Hiding behind your little friend won't help," Jumba laughed as he entered the hallway. "Didn't you hear? We got fired this morning! New rules, there are no rules."

626 pushed Lilo into the laundry room so he could handle this himself, he lead him here so it was up to him to stop a disaster. With Lilo out of harms way, Jumba was able to go for him directly. Jumba shot a plasma blast at 626, who threw it back at Jumba after playing with it. The blast hit Jumba causing him to loose balance, shooting random fire around. Lilo screamed when a blast hit too close to her. One of the blasts hit the record player in the living room, turning it on to have the song Hound Dog.

"Ooh, I love this song," Jumba got up. "But no time to be listening now. Where are you my little creation?"

Jumba searched for 626, not knowing he and Lilo were in the laundry room preparing a little "surprise" for him. Lilo handed the tools the experiment needed for what he was working on, though she didn't understand until 626 got ready at Jumba's voice.

"No matter where you run, I'll find you," Jumba searched. "You're just making this worse."

626 rolled Scrump into the room and Jumba got blasted away by the makeshift bomb. 626 scaled the ceiling, so Jumba shot at him with both dishes and more plasma blasts. The way he threw them at 626's movements, it caught the attention of the ones who were just arriving to stop this. Lilo stayed in the laundry room, watching 626 evade Jumba's attacks. She wanted to help, in any small way she wanted to get 626 and herself out of there. Lilo grabbed a broom, at the same time 626 let out another few words for Jumba.

"Yu porma dissy," 626 crossed his arms from the ceiling.

"Leave my mother out of this," Jumba glared at the experiment.

From outside, Lani, Angel and Pleakley gasped when the ceiling fell down. Their fight was getting way to out of hand, so they needed to step in to save the girl from harm's way. Lani lead them to the back door, the front was out of the question because of all the rubble. Pleakley wanted to be the first to enter, only to have Lilo slam the door shut on his face. Lani gestured for him to try again, knowing he inadvertently move Lilo and 626 out of the way of what Jumba was going to throw.

Pleakley shut the door before the tool could get him, only to find out that it could do little to no harm at all. It was only a hair comb and tube of toothpaste that stood out anyway. He glared at Lani, thinking she'd most likely know that was going to happen. She did of course, though she shrugged it off as one of those times she didn't. Pleakley didn't argue, he knew it was only going to waste time anyway. So he ran into the house and bombarded Jumba with his question.

"Where's the girl?" Pleakley climbed onto his collar. "What have you done with the girl?"

"Hello, Cobra Bubbles?" Lilo was seen making a call from the kitchen. "Aliens are attacking my house."

In a brief moment, Lani thought about how continent it was that Mr. Bubbles gave Lilo his card. Lilo was left alone, this time it was more than a problem that she was. Shaking her head of the random thought, Lani saw Angel jump in front of Jumba so 626 could run.

"You always get in way," Jumba grumbled.

"Soka," Angel took out her Ziz-ziz Wisps.

"What?!" Jumba jumped out of the way of Angel's strike. "624, where are those coming from?"

"Her suit," Lani joined her friend's side. "Like the upgrade?"

"Clever Earth Girl," Jumba stood ready to take them on.

"Evil Genius," Lani saw 626 coming from behind him.

626's laughter was enough for Jumba to get a hint that they were just stalling him. While Jumba was busy with them, 626 had some time to get a few things that may help end their fight. The first of which being a chainsaw, revved and ready to cut up Jumba's plasma blaster. Jumba shot the chainsaw out of 626's hands, causing the blue experiment to roll away. 626's weapon dropped and chased Lilo into the kitchen. She wouldn't stop screaming, not even when Lani saved her. She passed Lilo off to Angel, Pleakley running from the device now.

"You're insane!" Pleakley jumped to safety while yelling at Jumba. "Completely insane!"

"What do you know?" Jumba rolled his four eyes.

626 was ready for his next attack, a second punch buggy. The first was now in Nani's room, this was one he found close to the house Looking closer, Angel and Lani knew that it wasn't a real buggy. It was Angel's ship, 626 didn't realize it until he ripped it in half and used the pieces as boxing gloves. Jumba blasted one of them out of 626's hands, causing everyone else in the room to duck out of it's way. Angel gestured for 626 to throw it in the air, which he caught on to the idea she had.

Passing of Lilo to Pleakley, Angel literally kicked them and Lani out of the room. With her Ziz-ziz Wisps set, 626 threw the last half of her battle cruiser at Jumba. Angel wrapped her electric whip around the piece, causing it to explode. 626 was sent through the wall that lead to the hallway, Jumba was propelled into the fridge, Angel skid on the floor to land in front of Lilo. Lani helped Angel up, and the four watch 626 get back up for more action.

626 lifted and threw the oven at Jumba, only the evil scientist ducked out of the way to let it crash through a window. 626 held up the gas pipe and taunted Jumba to shoot. Jumba was about to pull the trigger but put the gun down, giving 626 a chance to grab it. 626 wasn't going to shoot, he just wanted to scare Jumba enough to get him to leave. Jumba -not knowing the intentions his creation had- put a carrot inside the plasma blaster, as a way to block any shots 626 might have fired.

"You shouldn't play with guns," Jumba warned him.

"Oh, okay," 626 passed it off to Jumba.

"Thank you," Jumba suddenly realized what he'd done. "I just remembered, it's your birthday. Happy birthday!"

"Merry Christmas!" 626 saw what he was trying to do.

Lani knew where this pass back game was going to end, so she lead the ones who couldn't handle an explosion out of the house. Pleakley was carrying Lilo, with Angel behind him to cover should the blast get too out of control.

"We're leaving Stitch?" Lilo looked back to the house.

"Trust me, this is not going to end well," Lani explained.

"I was just thinking that," Pleakley told Lani.

"The house should explode in about fifteen seconds," Lani told them.

"How would you know that?" Lilo caught her off guard with that question.

"Um..." Lani thought for any excuse that made sense. "The the plasma blaster was blinking. It looked like it couldn't take much more. Faster! The house is gonna blow in five...four..."

"You..." 626 closed his eyes when he passed the blaster back to Jumba.

"Are..." Jumba lost track of what the danger was because of the game.

"It," 626 sighed -flinching at the soon to be explosion.

"Ha, I win!" Jumba smiled before it blew up.

The next few minutes seemed to go by fast for Lani. The explosion, Mr. Bubbles and the fire fighters arriving, Nani trying to keep her sister from being taken away. Lani felt horrible about it all. She knew what was going to happen -to an extent-, she could have stopped it from going that extra mile furthur. Angel did her best to reassure her things would be fine, which worked because Lani was on her way to stop something from happening. This was the first time Lani got the wrong information on future events.

Jumba was even more mad now that he'd almost been blown up. Pleakley ran in to move the girls out of the way -Lilo included-, not that any of them made it easy for him. 626 didn't think he needed help though, Jumba didn't have any more weapons to fire at him with. Or so he thought. As soon as 626 jumped at his creator, Jumba cuffed his arms to an oxygen tank he hid behind him. 626 struggled against the bonds, almost ready to give away his true identity if it gave him a way out of it. He really thought he had Jumba beat, he was wrong.

"My turn this time," Jumba laughed.

The evil genius hit the tank with a gas pipe from the house, sending the tank into the air at a high speed. From the tank, 626 slipped out of one of his cuffs. In doing so, he caused the tank to go out of control. With the way it was spiraling, it was sure to hit Kauai's volcano. Whether 626 would go into it was all up to him, he had to get out of the other cuff at exactly the right time. His supercomputer brain and his incredible strength gave him just what he needed, only there was no way to make a safe landing. Though 626 got out in time, he was still on route for the volcano.

"Stitch!" Lilo escaped Pleakley's hold.

She was still mad at the experiment for causing so much trouble, all of her anger was pushed aside to help her friend. Lani and Angel made sure to hold off the bounty hunters, allowing Lilo enough of a chance to go get 626. She ran through the forest and up the mountain, cutting through streets and passageways to reach him faster. Climbing up the volcano, she found it hard to see past the steam that shot up at her. She wasn't prepared for this terrain, so she was even more careful. After she made one final bound of a crack, she found 626.

The experiment was laying on a rock that was slowly starting to crumble. Lilo gasped, taking it upon herself to save him. She flinched at the burns she got from the heat of the rocks, though none of it was enough to stop her. Lilo pushed on, no amount of pain was going to stop her from reaching 626. She was just fast enough to grab him before he slipped into the skin shredding pool, pulling them both out of it was a challenge. Lilo rose against the problem, earning a few scorch marks on her palm as her "Medal of Honor".

Out of the boiling crater, Lilo had to get out of there before she past out from overheating. A grove with green ferns and colorful orchids lay to her side, all the way at the bottom of the volcano. It was a strenuous task, though it was surprisingly made easy by this little girl. Lilo wasn't going to stop, she wasn't going to give up. Not on 626, who she was glad came back to her. She sat 626 down on the shaded part of the grass. Lilo still wasn't done trying, she had way too much fight in her to quit now.

The grove housed a stream, one where Pudge and a school sat in as Lilo scooped the water. She moved over to 626 to make him drink, the water only runs down the side of his mouth. After all the pain Lilo had been through, this was the moment she finally let all the loss come crashing in. This was the first time Lilo cried. Tears rushed onto 626's fur like the stream to the rocks, what was there to do? Lilo laid with him in her arms, depending on love alone to save him. She wished one more time, she begged for him to be alright.

"Please Madame Pele," Lilo sobbed into 626's fur. "Please don't take Stitch away. I can't lose him too."

A/N: The ending of this turned out way more emotional than I was planning on, but I still like the way it went. Lilo almost got her earlier wish granted, and it turns out she doesn't want the effect that comes with it. Is this the end of 626? Nah! No Disney death is going in my reputation. What would I do if one of my main characters isn't around? I'd be bored, and my ideas are much worse when I'm bored. But you won't have to deal with that because my next climax chapter will be in a week.

Disclaimer: Lani is the only character I own in this chapter. Disney and Chris Sanders have the rest under their belt.

Next Time: When the SBS crew finally arrive in Kauai, Lilo learns some secrets about 626 she never saw coming.