A/N: This is the part where I apologize for being a week late for the final chapter, I'm sorry. I had an accident with the computer and -long story short- I lost it all. So I'm currently stuck redoing all the ideas and plans I had, since I had no back up storage. Unexpected things happen all the time in my house, so I'm used to the change. Even when I don't like it. But it's not so bad, this chapter is proof that a bad situation can have a better outcome. So let's end this thing!

Chapter 20: Just Getting Started -or- Gaba Ika Tasoopa, Lani?!

Earth's Atmosphere

"Lilo!" Lani shouted. "Lilo, you have to pull the ship up now!"

"I can't!" Lilo's face warped into a fluttering pancake with the force against her. "I can't reach to controls! I'm not strong enough!"

"You're wrong," Lani told her adamantly. "You can do this. You're more than what others think of you, what you think of yourself. You see the good in things, and you have a unique view of the world. You're strong, own up to it. Do it for Nani and Stitch. And make your parents even more proud of the daughter they wanted to raise."

Lani's words hit close to home for Lilo, more than she initially expected them to. They raised questions for the small girl, adding to the already cluttered mind the situation gave her. With a final thought of her parents, Lilo closed her eyes.

"Lilo!" Lani called to her friend. "Lilo! Please, just try! Try! Please…"

"Lani!" Lilo yelled back. "I can do this!"

Lilo's eyes snapped open, filled with fiery determination to pilot the faulty ship. It was as if the weight was lifted off of her, though not only with how much she willed it. Lilo managed to narrow her eyes to see a green net pulling her toward the wheel of the ship. Another good thing she had done, this time with zero hesitation. Lilo grabbed the wheel just in time to raise the ship, which was heart pounding since the other outcome was to crash into the ocean. Looking to her side, she saw 628 releasing the net from her hands -making it evaporate into nothingness.

"Gravity net," Lilo whispered to herself.

From the top of the other ship, Lilo could see Captain Gantu slowly rising with a plasma blaster in hand. Her eyes went wide, she thought he would be swimming back to shore by now. He smiled to her before aiming at 628, letting her know she was going to get blasted next.

"Behind you!" Lilo called to the experiment.

With advanced hearing aiding her, 628 turned just in time to jump out of the captain's way. He shot at her rapidly, not giving her any chance to activate her power. Without that chance, 628 was as good as useless. Captain Gantu managed to catch her off guard enough to fling her towards the ocean with two hits. She would have hit if something hadn't caught her, the mystery force carrying her back to Kauai. With her gone, now Lilo was all Captain Gantu was challenged with.

Lilo gulped in fear, sinking slightly in the window as Captain Gantu sneered. The wind had persisted since decent, though it never felt as warm as it did now. It was like a sign of reassurance for her, giving her just the confidence she needed. Lilo still had now idea how to pilot the ship, she just followed the direction of the heated breeze. This did her just well, Captain Gantu's shots missed the ship completely –making Lilo look like a pro and making Nani, Jumba and Pleakley's jaws drop.

626 and Ramthar had to stop fighting because of all the maneuvering Lilo was doing. Only Ramthar looked like he'd taken damage from the fight, even thought 626 had been blasted and thrown around just as much. With Lilo stopping her turns, Ramthar was pulled out of the ship by an open hatch. Surprisingly, 626 saved him from meeting the water. Though this was only for 626 to throw him back to Kauai personally. The experiment crawled back to Lilo, cheering with her as they made it through.

Or, almost made it through. Captain Gantu fired at just the right spot to send the ship into an inferno and smoke immediately after. 626 grabbed Lilo and leaped to Jumba's ship for safety. He kicked Captain Gantu, grabbing him by the back of his shirt before he fell into the sea.

"Good dog," Lilo smiled to him.

Jumba's ship lost fuel from the climactic even, so he had to land it in the water -coincidentally where David was surfing before the new waves flipped him over. He was beyond surprised to see a spaceship with Lilo, Nani and aliens occupying it. Lilo saw this as an opportunity, now they would have a way to get back home. When she was sure his shock had worn off, she flagged his attention to her.

"David!" Lilo called him. "Can you give us a ride to shore?"

"Sure!" David took a look at Captain Gantu. "But I'll have to make two trips."

The day had gone very adventurous, as Lilo explained to David vaguely as her and 626's turn had arrived. David now understood why 626 had caused a portion of his trouble, which surprised the blue experiment that he wasn't mad about it. He actually had a few questions for him. None of them could be answered though, as something grabbed 626 and cuffed him up. He assumed it was Jumba and Pleakley or even 628, he didn't expect it to be a guard from the UGF.

"626 is now in custody," the officer held him up to the Grand Councilwoman.

"Take him to my ship," the Councilwoman ordered.

"Leave him alone," Lilo walked to her before being held back by Mr. Bubbles.

Captain Gantu tried to make his plead with the Grand Councilwoman, only managing to infuriate her even more with him. She "retired" him of his status, which in normal standards is the equivalent of saying "You're fired". Ex-Captain Gantu was not pleased in the slightest, ready to beg for another chance when 628 interrupted him. In her green net held Ramthar, squirming as electricity from the net shocked him. 628 gave Gantu a glare, before looking to the Grand Councilwoman.

"Your honor," 628 dipped her head in respect. "I have obtained Captain Gantu's brother, Ramthar. The two -along with experiment 621- were about to kidnap that child." She pointed to Lilo. "As much as it pains me to say this, they almost got away with a lot of misdeeds if it hadn't been for 626."

"Stitch," 626 said surely.

"What?" 628 and the Grand Councilwoman spoke confused.

"My name Stitch," 626 told them again.

The Grand Councilwoman was curious, why would he call himself that? She looked around to see Lilo looking at him happily, sad still from him about to leave but a little happy at how he presented himself. She hugged him before he had to go, the experiment even shedding a tear at the thought of having to leave the first person he called a friend -Angel and Lani being a tie for second. The Grand Councilwoman thought 626 was incapable of crying, yet Stitch did before the UGF guards hustled him away.

"Wait," the Grand Councilwoman ordered the guards before looking at Stitch's partner in this. "Who are you?"

"This is my family," Stitch explained Lilo and Nani. "I found them all on my own. It's little and broken, but still good." He earned a rub on the head from Nani. "Yeah, still good. Nani, Stitch sorry Lilo got taken."

"It's okay, Stitch," Nani wiped a forming tear away and pat him on the head.

"Lilo…" Stitch fought for words -choosing instead to hug her. "O'hana…"

"Means family…" Lilo hugged him back.

"And family means…" Nani joined them after Stitch pulled her in.

"Nobody gets left behind…" the three of them said together.

"Or forgotten!" the voice of Lani met the ending.

"Evil!" 627 nodded running up to them.

Both Lani and Angel in black suits stepped out of the SBS in suits, flashing the Galactic Conduct Manual. Stitch wasn't going anywhere as far as they were concerned, 627 joining behind them to make sure of that.

"I presume you two are with 626?" the Grand Councilwoman was becoming overwhelmed.

"Ih," Angel nodded. "Khalifaud Huzziuh Khalifaud is naga nala."

"How would you know?" Gantu went to challenge her.

"We shiralli, we robaapaskit," Angel stood her ground.

"Whether your being truthful or not Agents...3107 and 624, he's still broken hundreds of laws," the Grand Councilwoman read their badges. "I'm sorry, but our laws are absolute. As much as I regret this, I cannot change what the Council has decided. I'm sorry."

The Grand Councilwoman looked mostly at Lilo when she said that, the smallest girl feeling an actual sincerity in her apology. The UGF officers were under order to capture 626 though, nothing could change that. The Grand Councilwoman made it perfectly clear where the UGF stood, her opinion even showing the lack of hope for Stitch's release. There had to be just one more miracle left for them, one that would let Stitch go free. Someone had to have an idea, anything would do right about now.

"Lilo," Mr. Bubbles brought her attention to him. "Didn't you buy 626 at the shelter?"

Lilo's eyes went wide, she had forgotten about that. There was a way to keep Stitch, sitting inside her pocket was the key to his freedom. She pulled out the pink slip that Lani remembered well, Lilo also held it high for all of them to see.

"Wait!" Lilo stopped the officers and Councilwoman from leaving. "Three days ago, I adopted Stitch from the shelter. I payed two dollars for him. If you take him, you'd be kidnapping."

"Which is a law on Earth," Lani caught on. "And according to the Galactic Conduct Manual, you can't break a rule on any planet."

"Aliens are all about rules," Mr. Bubbles spoke up.

"Do I know you?" the Councilwoman recognized the agent.

"C.I.A.," Mr. Bubbles informed her. "Roswell, 1973."

"That's right," the Grand Councilwoman remembered. "You had hair then."

Lani had to see that, so she held her hand out as a glowing blue orb floated above it -powered by the suit she fought in. She moved parts of it to find the image, laughing when she got to it. Mr. Bubble's did have hair, wild and messy like the rest of his outfit. He looked overall happy, which was confusing since he seemed to only smile when it was necessary. She wondered what must have happened to change that, a story for another time maybe. For now, he was mad at Gantu when he crumpled up the paper Lilo held.

"Grand Councilwoman, surely you don't believe them," Gantu tried persuading her a different way. "The forms are clearly forged. Let me..."

"I believe I retired your services, ex-captain Gantu," the Grand Councilwoman waved him off. "Take note, that Dr. Jumba Jookiba has broken his word before us."

"Huh?" Jumba gasped. "What word is this being? I said I would not be making more experiments. These ones were already made."

"And as punishment for not enlightening us of this, you and agent Pleakley are sentenced to act as the experiments' warden," the Councilwoman bent the rules.

"Warden?" Pleakley's eye went wide. "What do you mean by that?"

"Experiment 626 will continue his sentence of exile," the Grand Councilwoman explained. "Henceforth, it will be served on Earth. And as caretakers of Stitch, this family is under the protection of the UGF. Agents 3107 and 624 will make sure of that, won't you?"

"You can count on us, ma'am," Lani saluted.

"Ih," Angel followed suit. "We help. And Kavi."

"Evil," 627 slobbered as Angel pat his head.

So that was that, the Grand Councilwoman's choice was finalized. She'd check in now and again, though the rest was up to them to figure out. Mr. Bubbles lead the Pelekai's and their extended family to the house to go start the repairs, while 628 offered to take Jumba's ship out of the water with Lani's aid. Just as she was about to follow behind the experiment, the wind wrapped itself around her. This forced out a smile and a small laugh out of her, which lead to her looking around before speaking.

"Thanks for catching G-Net for me," Lani said to the spirits in the wind. "I can't thank you both enough for your help. Lilo did pretty well today, and Nani too. They all did good, to me they did even better than before."

"Hey!" 628 called from the SBS door. "Are you coming to help me, or am I going to have to lift my creator's ship by myself?!"

"I'll be right there!" Lani told her before smiling in the breeze. "Don't worry, I'll look after them for you. How hard can it be? I'm gonna regret saying that, aren't I?"

Lani took a deep breath, readying herself for the newest challenge that awaited her. The screen slowly faded to black, allowing Lani enough time to get out of the movie. With that, the movie came to an end. As the lights slowly came on, everyone in the theater clapped. Even the villains, though that was mostly on account of Spike's powers. Lani stepped onto the stage to silence the cheers, though they didn't stop for her. They stopped when a woman wearing a similar suit as Lani stepped behind her.

The women looked more like Lani, only with blue eyes and black hair that differed from Lani's hazel eyes and brunette hair. All were waiting to see how this would play out, what the woman's goal here was. Lani caught their glances and turned to see her, happily surprised.

"Mom!" Lani threw her arms around the woman in a hug.

"Hi sweetie," the lady hugged her confirmed daughter back. "Oh, you have guests. I hope my daughter hasn't caused you too much trouble."

"Oh no," Hamsterveil dizzily clambered onto the stage, still feeling Spike's effects. "This was great. The best time of my…"

Hamsterveil would have finished, had he not passed out. The woman sent Lani a parental I-Know-You-Did-This look, where Lani replied with a nervous chuckle as she put him back in his seat with the invisible force.

"I think its time you brought them home, dear," the woman told Lani.

"Already?" Lani faked disappointment. "Fine. I'll see you all very soon. J.A.V.A, open up the exit please."

"YES MADAME," J.A.V.A. surprised them as she spoke.

The double doors on the side opened, lighting their escape in a blinding flash. Many would have questioned so much about this whole screening, though a blissful few wouldn't mark it as anything more than another day. Everyone left orderly, helping out the villains who stumbled along the way. All except for 628, who was stopped by an invisible wall. She turned around to see that it wasn't Lani controlling it, it was her mother with glowing white hands.

628 knew enough to walk over to them, waiting for when the door closed that she would get the explanation she deserved. So as everyone left the theater, the two humans smiled at her. For once, she didn't feel uncomfortable by that action of friendliness.

"How are you feeling, G-Net?" the woman asked.

"That name," 628 crossed her arms. "Lani said it when she was taking to the wind. Is that what you called me?"

"Yep," Lani smiled. "Mom named you that. It's a good story, I'll have to tell you it sometime."

"I think it's time we introduced ourselves," the woman spoke up. "I'm Strange."

"You don't say," 628 gave a tiny smirk.

"No, my name is 'Strange'." the woman -Strange- explained.

"Hmm," 628 turned to Lani next. "I suppose your name isn't really 'Lani', now is it?"

"Nope," 'Lani' smiled as she shook her head. "Alex is the name. Alexandra Isabelle Stark. Which my initials -oddly enough- are an acronym for Automatic Identification System."

"Okay," 628 shook off the random fact as nothing useful. "Why did you request I stay?"

"We need your help," Lani said. "We come from the future, the year 2099 to be exact."

"Isn't the future supposed to be a nice place?" 628 asked the three time travelers. "Flying cars, moving sidewalks, chrome lining everything?"

Strange sighed, turning on the screen behind them so 628 could see the truth. The planet looked on the verge of exploding; one of the worst conditions 628 had seen anything in. They zoomed in to see the one behind it, Stitch. Only, this one was different from the one who was just in the room. The most notable thing was the color of his eyes, a sickening acidic green. 628 wasn't sure why, since she was working on the projector before when she could have seen her cousin in the same condition. All she knew was that the eyes read something to her, evil.

More experiments joined 626, each owning their own sets of the evil eyes. Together with 626 in lead, they laid waist to everything around them. All but one experiment, one 628 instantly recognized as herself. It seemed like her to the very point, excluding the bumps and bruises. This 628 had half of the one ear torn in an experiment bite-like pattern, the antenna was cut even shorter, not to mention she had scratch marks all over the place. What surprised 628 the most was that her left eye was covered by an eye patch.

"Something is wrong with them all," 628 looked past herself. "Those eyes..."

"It was Hamsterveil," Strange explained. "He wanted to turn the experiments against Jumba, so he used unknown methods to inject the experiments with a virus."

"I've been studying the glitch," Lani gave her info. "And I was able to make a serum to repel the effect. It worked on Snooty, you know him as 277."

"But?" 628 knew there was something.

"I don't have much of it," Lani admitted. "I came here to make more, it's safer here than at home."

"So you came to me?" 628 shook her head in disbelief. "I recall watching you and 624 doing just fine."

"But she didn't teach her all she knows," Strange smiled. "I can't take Alex home, not yet. The future is too dangerous right now."

"So I thought I could stay," Lani told 628. "You could always teach me a few new tricks."

628 was sure of what she had to do, whereas before it would have been a bit of a struggle to choose. The future was at stake here, so she knew she'd have to deal with it at some point. Might as well get it out of the way. With her mind made up, Strange left her daughter in the hands of the only other person she trusted. Lani was going to set things right, she had to for multiple reasons. Being there would cause problems, unforeseen consequences and adventurous danger around the bend. So leave it to the girl's new mentor to ask the first of many questions.

"What happened to my eye?" 628 asked the girl.

"Hmm, accident," Lani replied.

"You don't sound too sure, Lani," 628

"That's because it hasn't happened yet, 628," Lani stuck her tongue at the experiment. "But I'm gonna change that. And a few other things, I'm sure. Now the portal looked like it erased their memories, so this'll be fun."

"Erased memories?" 628's eyes widened.

"Just the things I don't want them to know yet," Lani shrugged. "It'll be fine. I think."

Leaving 628 in the dark about the changes, they both walked through the exit that lead to the beginning of their journey. Though seemingly everyone had left, the screen showed an after clip of Scran Town, Kansas. A moving green ball fell out of the sky, landing in front of the lone house that pointed towards the city. The ball unfurled to reveal the dazed creature inside, 621. He had been returned to normal, most likely because his boost wore off. Just as he shook off the incredible fall, a new headache came about.

Nicholas screamed in joy and hugged 621 to the point of the experiment becoming blue. 621 tried to shake the boy loose, only to have him cling to his fur even more. He missed his strength, who knows when that'll come back again.

"Now can you stay forever?" Nicholas looked at 621 with giant eyes.

"Oh, alright," 621 sighed. "I got nothing else to do."

"Yay!" Nicholas gabbed 621's hand and lead him back to his house.

"Do you have any chopsuey?" 621 had to ask.

The screen finally shut off, the door to the exit creaked open to let out the final visitor. The room was finally left alone, with no one else around to use it for now. For now was the time for new challenges for all who entered, so the mysterious room the girl from the future brought them to would go unused but not unchecked. The room held mysteries that not even the owners dared to uncover for the sake of sanity. The exit door was left only a crack now, leaving another question for the room.

Who was it that was in the theater last?

A/N: I bet none of you saw that coming as Lani's -I mean- Alex's reason. A future that's a complete nightmare, a home sweet home that needs some fixing. Now we get to the good stuff. And sorry again for my second lateness, I'm trying to make up for it for my Stitch! the Movie morph. I'm gonna enjoy writing this, especially because of the new character I have coming. But they have nothing to do with the ending of this, that won't come up again for a while. I'll be back next week with the next story. So until then, aloha readers!

Important: Do any of you know the language from the movie Avatar -the one with the blue people not the element benders? You might wanna learn it, I have a plan for it in the long run. Why I chose it is for two reasons. The first is two words, glowing plants. It caught my attention enough for an interest. Reason two, looking it up I saw a more developed language than Tantalog -which gave me some ideas for future characters Lani will have something to do with.

Up Next: A New O'hana-Just as quick as things were becoming some sort of normal for the Pelekai's, they're thrown into another adventure after Jumba's kidnapping. Now without Lani's help, they must rely on two new experiments to get the geniuses back safely.

Highlights Include: Experiment 221/Sparky, ex-captain Gantu's return and Lani's knowledge gets experimental.