A/N: I got this one finished really quickly, so I'm posting it. This chapter will clear up some things surrounding a couple of the less understood characters. And something else will happen in this chapter, something horrible.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 11

Unforgotten Memories

Mike's Hobbies was in a state of chaos. First Victoria reaches over and kisses Richie right out of the blue, causing the room to break out in whistles and cheers from Owen and several others, followed by Victoria taunting Richie's twin sister Myrtle about who was in control, to Myrtle screaming curses at the top of her lungs. And now this: their father had shown up, and he didn't look too happy. He walked right up to Myrtle and grabbed her by the arm. "I didn't believe your mother when she called about your behavior, but now I see I was mistaken."

"But Daddy she…"

"No buts. You are in big trouble young lady. You have no right to treat you brother that way."

"But you just saw what she did! And I was just trying to keep him safe." Myrtle replied.

"That's my concern, not yours Myrtle. I'll worry about what Richie and his girlfriend do in public places." Her father replied.

Richie gulped. He knew his father was strict and had expressedly stated that he wasn't allowed to start dating until he turned sixteen. As soon as Dad was finished with Myrtle, he was next.

Meanwhile Myrtle had continued to argue her case, saying that Richie had been hanging around someone she knew to be dangerous. He just ignored her; saying that she was only digging herself a deeper hole and that he wouldn't hear anymore of her lies.

At being called a liar, Myrtle jerked her hand free of her father's grasp. "Nobody believes me! My friends, my family, nobody!" She ran away from her father and out the door.

"Myrtle Evans! You come back here this instant! Don't you walk away from me young lady!" her dad called out. But she had already run off. He sighed heavily. "Why is it I can command an entire division of troops, but I can't even control my own preteen daughter? She's her mother made over, I swear."

He turned around to see that his son had packed up his things and had gotten up. He then looked over at Victoria. "I know you were just trying to put my daughter in her place, but I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't do that again in public."

Victoria just sat in silence, staring at him. Along with the rest of the room. Meanwhile, Richie looked up at his father. "Am I in trouble?"

"Sigh, no Richie, you're not in trouble, but we need to talk anyway. Let's get going and see if we can find where your sister ran off to."

"Ok Dad." Richie replied as he slung his bag on his shoulder.

As the two walked out of the store, Richie's father, Don, was scanning the horizon for any sign of his daughter. Not seeing any sign of her, he turned to look at his son. "Well Richie, do you have any idea of where you sister might have run off to?"

"No sir, I don't." Richie replied.

Don put his hand on his son's shoulder. "I guess she'll come home when she's ready. Her mother was like that when she was her age. Always excitable."

"Was Mom bossy too?" Richie asked.

"No." He then scowled his face a little. "Your aunt was."

Richie couldn't help but laugh a little. He knew that his dad didn't like his sister-in-law, never had.

Don looked down and smiled. "It looks like someone's social life took off when they moved here. I hear you've made three friends already, and it looks like you might have found a girlfriend too. You really have grown on me."

"But I thought I wasn't supposed to start dating until I was sixteen. I thought you would be mad."

His father just laughed. "That's just an old man who isn't ready to see his boy grow up. I remember when you and your sister weren't knee high, and you used to run around in the back yard all day."

"Yeah, me and Myrtle used to get along a lot better. I keep trying to figure out what happened to her, and why she's so mean. And most of it is directed at this one girl in particular."

"Lilo Peliaki. Your mother told me about it. I remember the Peliakis from when I served over here 15 years ago, and I think I might have an answer for you. Quite frankly, if the girl looks anything like her mother, then Myrtle probably considers her a threat."

"You mean Myrtle's jealous? But then why does she want to hurt her?"

"That your mother and I don't know. Up until recently, Myrtle had no more than a rivalry with the girl, but lately your mother says it's gotten worse and worse. Your mother has her own theories, but I for one want Myrtle taken to a psychiatrist. There's something else wrong and we need a professional's help to get to the bottom of it."

"Myrtle blames Lilo for her breakup with Jason Walbridge." Richie stated, hoping to give his father an answer.

"We know. You're not the only one who went thru your sister's diary for answers. But even thought that explains why Myrtle started going out of her way to insult Lilo, it doesn't explain her now obsession with her. That started awhile after that, a few weeks after the beginning of school."

"You mean after Myrtle was in that accident?"

"Exactly. But what I can't figure is why, and your sister even keeps her reasons out of her diary. And now your mother can't even find where she keeps it."

Richie felt concern. Could something really be wrong with his sister? Richie knew what Myrtle wanted reveal about Lilo, but why had she been searching for it for so long? What caused her to want Lilo hurt, or worse?

Only Myrtle knew that answer, and no one would believe her. Her friends didn't remember what she did, and she was only now beginning to piece the puzzle of her memory back together. It had started as dreams: Lilo would torture them with shock collars, and then she turned into a monster. It was so frightening that she couldn't even bring herself to write about it in her diary.

These dreams would haunt her night after night, and it was driving her insane. She started to blame Lilo for her troubles, after all the dreams were about her. She intensified her search for blackmail material. When she discovered the truth about Lilo, she first thought nothing of its possible connection, but that night the dreams came back, more vivid than ever. This time the monster Lilo became was clearer. She tired to dismiss it and fight it off, so much so she forgot all about Richie and Victoria's budding romance, as well as everything else. But she couldn't.

And last night it came to her when she looked at one of the scars she had from her supposed fall: it was a claw mark! The dreams weren't dreams, they were memories! Memories someone had tried to make her forget. The other girls couldn't remember, and now they were avoiding her, thinking she was crazy. Certainly her brother didn't know the truth, heck even Victoria probably didn't know!

She had gone to the card shop to make up with her brother, after all, to protect him he needed to trust her again, like he had used to, before what happened with Lilo made her into a total jerk. Something had to be done, someone had to be told. But who would believe her? Lilo never seemed evil, even in her memory; she had said that Lilo didn't have it in her. But she did, and she was still roaming free.

As Myrtle walked along the beach with tears in her eyes, a voice broke her thoughts. "What happened to you?"

Myrtle turned immediately to see Jason Walbridge leaning on a post. "What, no name calling? No harpy, or witch, or devil? I don't have time for you to sit and insult me."

This knocked Jason off his guard. Myrtle was extremely upset. "Whoa, no name calling, I was just asking what was wrong."

"Why do you care? You hate me. Everyone hates me." Myrtle had finally given in to depression. A monster was on the loose, and if her own family wouldn't believe her, who would?

"I care because my mom always said you need to. Unchecked depression leads to bad things." Jason replied as he straightened up.

"Fine, you want to know what happened: Richie let Victoria win at the tournament today. Then, when I got on to him about it, you know what she did?"

Jason was tempted to say that Victoria stuck up for Richie, but he didn't want to make the situation worse. And Myrtle looking like this, it made his heart hurt. Even though he was trying to force it not to.

"She pulled him across the table and didn't just kiss him; it looked like she was trying to make out with him!"

Jason couldn't believe it, but he looked at Myrtle's facial expression, and if she was lying, she'd gotten a lot better overnight. "You're kidding? And that's what caused this?"

"No. When she finally let go of Richie, she taunted me. Said that 'girlfriends outrank bossy sisters'. I exploded at her. I guess I had no right to, since I tried to control Richie too, but something inside me just went off. I called her something I shouldn't have, and…"

"And what?" Jason asked. This was getting interesting, and if he'd been there, he'd probably gone off as well. That was a direct attempt to control Richie, at least how Myrtle had described it.

"And my father was right behind me."

Jason winced. "Well that couldn't have gone off any worse. But why are you here now? I heard your dad was pretty strict."

"I tried to explain everything to him, but he just yelled at me. I even tried to tell him why I wanted him away from Victoria in the first place, but he just called me a liar. And then I ran away."

Myrtle tried to fight back tears, she didn't want to look weak in front of Jason, didn't want to give him the pleasure of watching her suffer. She tried to walk away when she felt Jason's hand on her shoulder.

"What did you try to tell him?"

Myrtle jerked his hand off her. "Why do you care? You'll just think I'm crazy too!"

Jason backed off. Myrtle wasn't playing; she wasn't trying to lead him on. She was hurt, and there was more to it than she was in trouble with her parents.

She looked up at him. "How much do you know about Lilo? Because no matter how much you know, you don't know anything. And until a little while ago, I didn't remember."

Jason looked at her wide-eyed. This has to do with Lilo? What does she mean, 'until a little while ago, I didn't remember?' Then he remembered the discussions he'd been having with Knuckles, and how he'd just lip up. Whatever Lilo's secret was, if it had ex-CIA that deeply involved, something was wrong beyond a simple mistake or flaw. And Myrtle might have his answer. But after all the lies, could he trust her now?

"What is Lilo's secret? It seems everyone knows something about it except me, and Alex is bent on keeping me in the dark. What needs to stay a secret so bad that his CIA uncle is involved?"

This surprised Myrtle, that Jason was that suspicious of it all. That explains why that vice-principal had a three hour talk with Mom. It was damage control, I know too much. He wanted to make sure nobody ever believes me. But if he was with the government, why hasn't he locked Lilo up? She's dangerous! Isn't she?

"Myrtle, are you okay?" Jason said as he tried to figure out what was going on in her mind. She looked deeply disturbed by what he had said. But he had only asked a question, what had caused her to freak out further? I told her about Knuckles uncle. Man, he's going to kill me if he finds out, but I think I might have just added something to Myrtle's understanding this, whatever this is. What is going on?

"Then why hasn't he locked her away? Are the other girls right, am I really imagining things?"

Jason tried to put his hand on her shoulder to clam her down, but she stiffed up before he even got there.

"NO! I know what I saw, and she looked just like she in my dream, no my memory! Sure her fur was darker, but someone tried to make me forget, and I will not rest until I find out why!"

Jason started to back away. Okay, maybe she is crazy. Fur? Dreams? Memory erasure? What the…

A loud boom brought both of them out of their thoughts. Both immediately looked over head to see something land in the jungle beyond. "What was that?" Jason said astonished. "Please tell me you saw that."

"Yea, what the heck was it?" Myrtle replied, just as shocked.

"I don't know, but I say we find out." Jason said as he started making his way towards the jungle.

"Are you crazy? You have no idea what that could be!" Myrtle replied.

"It's probably a meteorite or something. Come on, if we're the one's to find it, maybe we'll get our names in the paper or something." Jason said as he started to part the underbrush.

Myrtle just stood there for a minute. Just before Jason was out of sight, she called out to him. "Wait for me! I must be out of my mind, but I can't just you get yourself hurt." Not when you're the only person who will still listen to me.

The pair didn't have to go far in the jungle to find what had landed. The large object could be mistaken for nothing other than a spacecraft. It was just slightly larger than Gantu's spaceship, and was painted a dull brown. It had what looked to be a mechanism for holding and positioning something that was possibly larger than it was, but there was nothing connected to it at the moment.

"Whoa, a spaceship!" Jason exclaimed.

Myrtle backed away in fear. "Jason, this isn't a meteorite, this is dangerous."

"Since when has Myrtle Evans been afraid of anything?" Jason replied.

Myrtle furrowed her brow. "How do you know that whatever's on that ship isn't dangerous?"

"I didn't say I was going to go anywhere near the thing. I'm not stupid. But let's wait to see if anything comes out."

"I'm outta here, Jason, and if you have any sense, you'd make tracks too." Myrtle replied.

"Just five minutes ok? If nothing comes out, we'll go alert the authorities."

"Fine, but why do you want me to stay?"

"Well, no one's going to believe me if it's just me saying that aliens landed. We used to laugh at Lilo when she'd go screaming about it, remember?"

"Are you saying that she was right?" Myrtle asked. If he said yes, then he might actually believe her.

"Well, I know that's not her aunt. That's a guy. A guy what, I have no idea. And I don't think I wanna know." Jason replied.

Myrtle couldn't help but giggle a little. "What about her uncle?"

"You mean Chris's guardian? Nope, he's a guy too. And again, I'm not sure on the species."

"You aren't an idiot either. How come no one else sees what we do?" Myrtle asked.

"My guess is either they're idiots, or they just don't want too. I mean, most people deny the existence of anything they aren't forced to believe. Not to mention that there are a lot of ugly people, so I guess that's what everyone thinks those two are." He then turned to look at Myrtle. "Was that the secret you had over Lilo?"

"It used to be, but then I found out something else. Something else I'm not so sure about anymore." Myrtle replied as their eyes met unthreateningly for the first time in almost a year.

"Something else? Well, I guess it's probably something more believable. Stuff like that makes horrible blackmail, cause nobody believes you."

Whither or not either knew it, they were starting to win each other all over again. Neither was calling the other names, Jason was acting like his old sharp-witted self, and Myrtle was able to relax for the first time in a long while. She didn't feel angry or confrontational; she felt a calm happiness, just like when they'd first met.

Too bad the moment wouldn't last. The ship's computer had detected them, and a certain someone was watching both with malicious interest.

"That's funny; I thought those two had broken up. One of the few pleasurable memories my lesser ever provided me with." The onlooker stood there for a moment in silence, before a devious smirk appeared on her face. "Yes, I think this will make it all the more fun. I won't just kill Myrtle; I'll kill her boyfriend too. Right in front of her. Then I'll deal with my lesser and her boyfriend, as well as the rest of this planet."

Meanwhile Myrtle and Jason had realized that five minutes had long since gone by. "Wow, I guess we must have lost track of time. Did you hear anything coming from the ship?" Jason asked.

"No. If there's anyone in there, they aren't going to come out for a while." Myrtle replied.

"Guess we'd better get the cops. This thing better not take off before we get back." Jason said as he started to turn around.

"I don't think it's going anywhere." A voice said from behind them.

Both quickly shot around to see someone standing there. "Lilo? What are you doing here?" Jason asked. "And what's with all the black stripes? Halloween was three months ago."

Meanwhile Myrtle immediately starting taking steps back. Fear had begun to set in. An irrational, deep rooted fear. Then, all her memories came flooding back. The savage beating she and her friends received as they begged for their lives. She screamed, causing Jason to turn around.

"Myrtle what the heck are you screaming about, you wanna draw the aliens' attention?"

"I think it's too late for that."

Jason spun around again as Myrtle's screaming got even louder. "What are you talking…" It was then Jason's eyes fell on the wings on 'Lilo's' back. "Oh my..."

A small spark of energy flew from Lilith's hand and hit Jason square on, knocking him to the ground and unconscious.

"JASON!" Myrtle cried as she watched him hit the ground.

"I'd worry about yourself. You and I have unfinished business." Lilith said as she approached Myrtle.

"Lilo you monster! What did he do to you?" Myrtle cried out. For all anyone knew, Jason was dead. "He actually stuck up for you!"

Lilith lunged forward and grabbed Myrtle by her neck. "Don't…ever…call me by that weakling's name."

"You're…not…her?" Myrtle managed to sputter out as Lilith choked her. As she began to lose consciousness, she heard:

"I am her better."

Lilith looked down at her victims. "Now to stash these two while I go look for what I need for the first part of my plan." She grabbed the unconscious Jason and Myrtle and drug both of them back to her ship. She had converted the largest room in the ship into a large open-area prison, complete with several sets of restraints. She shackled both Jason and Myrtle to the wall on opposite sides of the room and stepped back to admire her handy work. "It's a good thing I put in extras, cause I have a feeling a lot more people are going to be joining us." She then let out a laugh as she stepped outside the door. "Have a good rest, lovebirds. Tonight is your joint execution."

Victoria had decided after the game that she would try and find Lilo, but she wasn't home. She then decided that she'd rather head to her favorite spot on the beach than head home, so she could figure out what to do next with Richie. She had just kissed him out of the blue, with no explanation or forewarning. To tell the truth, she didn't even know why she did it. She liked Richie, that was for sure, but did she kiss him just to spite Myrtle? And now his dad probably didn't like her. He probably wanted to talk to Richie to tell him to stay away from her. God, I wish Lilo were here, she'd know what to do.

"Hey Victoria, what are you thinking about?"

Victoria turned around to see who had just addressed her. "Lilo! I was wondering where you were. What's with the stripes, did you lose a bet or something?"

"I asked you what you were thinking about." Lilo replied.

Victoria looked down and sighed. "Richie. I really screwed things up today."

"Oh, how so?" she asked, never taking her eyes off Victoria.

"I kissed him to piss off Myrtle, and their dad saw me do it. Now I think he's going to try and keep him away from me."

"Oh, that's too bad. But cheer up, I'm sure your day could have been worse."

Victoria looked up to face her friend. "Thanks Lilo, but I don't know how."

There eyes met, and suddenly Victoria's face went blank.

"Simple." Lilith said with a smirk. "It just did."

Mike closed the register as he held his head. Today had been one headache after another. First there was the commotion at the tournament, and then the clean up after Nathan and Greg got in a fight when Chance pointed out that Nathan had marked his cards. Then the fight to kick them both out of the store so they wouldn't do any more damage.

"Chance, every time that boy spends anytime here, the shop turns into a scene from a soap opera. I really wish I knew what was with that kid." Mike then proceeded to lock the display cases. "Heck, maybe the kid is psychic. Where is he anyway?" Mike started to look to see where Chance had gotten too, when he heard Owen call out for Mike.

"Mike! Find Jon, something's wrong with Chance!"

"What? What's wrong with him?" Mike said as he quickly ran back to see what was wrong. He came in to find Chance curled up, shaking like he was freezing to death. "Oh my God, what's going on?"

"I don't know, find Jon. Maybe he knows what is happening!" Owen yelled back as he tried everything to calm the child down.

"What the hell are you talking about, I'm calling 911. The kid's having a seizure!" Mike replied.

"No he's not, he's not jerking around and stuff. It's like something's scaring him to death." Owen shot back.

"What is all the racket back here for?" Jon said as he walked into the back room. His eyes then fell on Chance's shivering form. "Mike, call his parents!"

End Chapter 11

Next Chapter

The Nightmare Begins Anew