The pizza was still warm. A great Gotcha Day meal, honestly. If her dad had been here, everything would've been perfect. Sharing Earth cuisine confused and excited Jumba Jookiba. She spent weeks introducing him to new foods, and months cleaning up the messes made after Lilo & Stitch tried cooking them.
The alien dishes made by Nani were a highlight. And the best case scenario. Now, all Mahina got was normal Earth pizza. They even got the cheese how she liked it. Maybe the pizza guys knew about that, and helped her get exactly that.
Her stomach stayed hollow.
Nani dialed up the FBI offices. Even for all their times with the agent, protocol was still in place. For everyday activities or holidays, Nani called his personal number. For emergencies, she must always call the main office.
The time difference didn't help. Though it was a little after 10 o'clock, that's in Honolulu time. In DC, it's 3 AM.
"I know it's late, but I need to talk to Cobra Bubbles. It's an emergency." Nani explained to their DC connect.
Mahina bit into the pizza again. Sure, her dad was missing, but Mahina knew exactly where he was. She wouldn't be seeing him for two whole days. And he'd be fine.
He needed to be fine.
Her persona as an innocent child couldn't last otherwise.
"So wake him up!" Nani insisted.
She took another bite. No taste hit her tongue, and her insides stayed hollow.
"I'm going to make a few calls myself...using my trusty Intergalactic Periwinkle Pages." Pleakley walked into the kitchen. They dropped a heavy purple book on the 's only so many phones in the galaxy." They picked up another phone, dialing the first number in the book. It rang, slowly.
Very slowly.
So slowly, she threw out her plate and stormed off to Jumba's room before Pleakley gave a greeting.
==M!TF==
Mahina knelt in front of the box. The chains around it were heavy, but they were locks that Pleakley used often. Mahina constantly picked the locks. No shame on Pleakley, but Mahina never used makeup or fake wigs or dresses. The challenge kept her going. The locks weren't traditional Earth locks either. That made it even more of a challenge- a fun test of new skills Mahina got about Galactic tech.
She brought out pieces of tape. These locks looked big and scary, but at the end of the day they were still touch screens. Galactic Federation operatives got used to them in training, by what Mahina gathered from talks with Pleakley. The lack of touch screens around here made some things harder, but were also incredibly quaint to the two aliens. Research like that mattered when you were trying to figure out where a person would hide things.
Pleakley liked hiding things where they thought humans would ignore. Behind touchscreens, for the big stuff, and in a footlocker for others behind a single touchscreen. Jumba hid things on the spaceship in his lab, inside locked drawers and under the floor.
It's where he hid her Christmas presents. And her birthday presents. Mahina already guessed what they were, so she let them stay there.
Yep, prints are still good.
She got to picking the first lock.
The door opened. Mahina heard the steps, disregarded it and stayed focused on the pieces of tape.
"Hi Mahina."
"Hi Lilo. Hi Stitch." Mahina pushed on the touchpad.
Stitch greeted her in the alien language.
"What are you doing?" Lilo asked.
I should've opened this thing earlier.
Yeah, they'd be a chaotic mess, but they would've said Jumba. Any of them.
The lock popped. Mahina moved to the next one.
"One of these experiments can save Pops." Mahina said.
"But Pleakley said not to open it." Lilo reminded her.
Mahina paused. She turned, giving Lilo a deadpan stare. The second lock opened.
Lilo grinned. She exchanged a grin with Stitch.
Mahina grabbed the third lock.
"You know how to open those?" Lilo asked.
"Pops said it's good practice for evil genius stuff." Mahina tossed the lock back to Stitch. "Pleakley's never noticed."
The chains fell in noisy clatters to the ground. Mahina pushed the box lid, grabbing the container. She held it up for Lilo.
"Pleakley also said not to get them wet."
"Eh!" Stitch dashed off towards the bathroom.
Mahina hoisted the container again in her arms. She squeezed it tight. She and Lilo snuck down the hallway, being careful not to hit a creaking floorboard.
Pleakley couldn't hear it. Instead, they spoke to Planet Aaaaaa-ba.
They reached the bathroom. Stitch gestured his four arms to the already full bath.
"Wait! We don't need all of them. Just look for one that can recharge the ship." Lilo cautioned them.
Mahina lowered the container to the floor. She pressed the touchpad.
"Container ready. Select experiment."
"221." Mahina informed them. "He's an electric experiment. He could do it."
"Ah. Jinjibah." Stitch cheered.
Mahina hit enter. An image of Sparky appeared.
"Experiment 221. Primary function: electrical power surge."
Mahina grabbed the pod. 'I know you can do it.' She tossed it into the tub.
The bathtub instantly began to glow. Glow, and expand. It stretched out in a glowing display of bright yellow and green. Mahina winced away from the bright light. She looked back to see Experiment 221. A bright yellow experiment that stood taller and thinner than Stitch. Long antennae stretched out like jumper cables from the top of his wide head, and he only had two arms instead of Stitch's four.
"Experiment activated." The container helpfully informed them.
"Wow!" Lilo cheered.
Mahina waved at him. "Hello! We need help-"
The Experiment laughed. Cackled, actually, like Jumba did. Not like Stitch, no. 221 had a higher pitch in his voice. Though it's cliche and too on the nose, his voice came out like it's done through static.
He dashed up into the bathroom light bulbs. His 'flight' came with flashes of electricity, darting all around his body.
Mahina winced as the lights flared and flickered. Just once, can't an experiment be helpful from the get go?
"Oh. Come on." Lilo grumbled.
"We forgot that Jumba made them all evil." Mahina reminded Lilo. "Like Stitch was."
Stitch complained.
"I said 'was'!" Mahina reminded him.
221 left the lightbulbs. As he left, the power in the house cut off.
"Hey. What's going on?" Nani shouted.
"Dark! Very dark!" Pleakley cried out.
221 cackled again. He flew out the window, laughing into the night.
The three kids ran to the window. They watched as 221 became distant flickers of sparks.
"Cousin lost." Stitch mumbled. He frowned. "Jumba... lost."
Mahina thumped her head on the window frame. "We lost." She didn't believe it. It's just a minor setback. To lose an experiment meant very little to her right now. Jumba being lost meant more. She'd get over it, someday, maybe, because there were other fathers out there for her.
But this one felt different. This one felt right. He made Mahina feel right. No matter how weird Mahina acted, or how inhuman, Jumba kept her around. Even after talks with her therapist, Jumba respected and made Mahina feel loved. Feeling that from any parental figure was irregular.
Mahina was letting him down.
She'd do better, she was sure.
"You have a lot of lost issues." Lilo remarked.
"Nope!" Mahina sat up. She raised her fist to the sky. "No giving up tonight! We're gonna find 221, and get Pops back!" She walked out of the bathroom. "I'm getting flashlights!"
"Oooh good idea!" Lilo followed her.
"Ohh el kayo tay." Stitch cheered. "Haha."
She'd have her Pops back. If she needed to drag an experiment kicking and screaming into goodness, she'd do it.
==M!TF==
The world stayed dark even with the flashlights. Mahina led Lilo & Stitch in the direction of 221's escape.
"He couldn't have gotten too far." Lilo pointed out.
"He had twenty minutes on us." Mahina countered. She squinted ahead into the terrain. "And he can fly, or float long distances. It's unclear."
"How do you know all of it?" Lilo asked. She walked up to Mahina.
Stitch lifted up a nearby boulder. He searched under it. When he found nothing, it fell with a loud thump.
"Quiet!" Mahina snapped, furious.
Stitch winced. He did lower the boulder. "Sorry."
Mahina sighed. "No, no it's- it's fine. I'm sorry."
"You don't sound fine. Do we have to call Doctor Trevor again?" Lilo asked.
Mahina clenched her teeth. Then, she realized what she did, forcing her jaw to relax. "No, we don't." Most kids Lilo's age weren't aware about psychiatrists or the emotional needs of other people. Once again, Lilo proved herself to be singular. "We don't need to if we're getting Pops back."
"Okay!" Lilo cheered. It's better to just go along with what Mahina wanted. Today is her day, after all.
As Mahina spent a year getting used to Lilo's tics, Lilo spent the same time learning Mahina's. The young Hawaiian girl knew that Mahina was weird, her whole Ohana was weird. Mahina was weird like Lilo though. Mahina did weird things with her feelings. A lot of the time, Mahina was quiet and almost normal, but then she'd talk about what was in her head and everybody called it weird. And it was weird, but Lilo liked it.
Nani warned Lilo a lot to be sensitive around Mahina, cause she wasn't used to being in an ohana. Mahina's parents left her when she was really small. Her being adopted by an alien made a lot of things difficult for her. Because of that, Bubbles and Nani signed Mahina up to meet Doctor Trevor.
Whenever Mahina got super stressed, she got another appointment with Doctor Trevor. Like Lilo did, sometimes, because of social services. It's different for Mahina, because feelings and Mahina were always different.
Mahina's been better since she started seeing. Not that she was ever bad! But looking back, Lilo could definitely say it's better.
Jumba was happy too. Lilo missed having a dad- the few, fond memories she kept close to her heart. Talking about Ohana made it feel like LILO's dad was still around. He wasn't anymore.
Lilo had a chance tonight to keep Mahina from the same fate. And fortunately, it wouldn't involve giving Pudge a sandwich.
Stitch gave Mahina a thumb's up. Mahina sent one back. Stitch sniffed the air, climbing a tree.
Did he always make it out so easy? This was his creator, more his father than Mahina's. Mahina knew he liked having the cousins, but she had no idea how he felt about Jumba being taken. Then again, it may just be that he's a little boy. Boys were always different about those sorts of emotions and things. Maybe that's for the best.
Yeah, she would have cousins too. A lot of them. By next week, there'd be over 600 to search for and find new homes. Like being social services but with aliens. Mahina missed that part the most about being an adult- helping kids to their best homes.
But they'd be family. In that way, Stitch and Mahina were their home too.
Having cousins is definitely weird.
"Maka maka!" Stitch exclaimed, from high up in the tree. "Sasa!"
Mahina turned to him.
Stitch climbed down the tree. He scurried off in a new direction.
"Maybe he went this way." Lilo walked away.
Mahina grabbed her arm, dragging the other girl away.
"Hey!" Lilo complained.
"Stitch said he saw sparks that way."
"Oh. Okay." Lilo started walking on her own. Mahina and her chased after Stitch.
==M!TF==
Stitch saw the sparks on a far off hill. Mahina recognized it- even in the dark- as Myrtle's neighborhood.
Myrtle invited them to her birthday, because the rule in their class was to invite everybody. She hated having the school freaks plus their dog come by. Until Myrtle found out she could brag about herself even louder and longer, showing off all her cooler stuff.
It made Mahina feel bad for the young girl. Also, annoyed as all hell. She didn't care about the many toys or pieces of fake jewelry. Hovercrafts were way cooler. They were classified too, so only the Pelekai household could know about them.
Mahina Jookiba got to know about the upgrades. She shared them as she pleased, and with nobody else.
Electricity crackled. Mahina needed a hand held detector for experiments. She's certain it's possible. It'll take help from Jumba, but she could do it.
Stitch pointed at a fence.
"It's on the other side of the fence." Lilo reasoned, proud that they found 221.
Stitch climbed first, helping the little girls over. Lilo tumbled first. Mahina perched herself, only to be pushed down accidentally by Stitch.
The trio landed on the ground. Or, they should have. Instead their path got blocked by a tent full of their classmates.
Call her petty, if you want. Mahina just saw it as making her father proud. It's really what he would have wanted.
The other girls screamed. They rushed out of their tent, gawking at Lilo and Mahina. In the light of the porch, everybody saw everybody.
"Lilo? Mahina?" Myrtle gasped. She sneered at them. "What are you doing here?"
Mahina stood. She brushed dirt and grass off her arms, staring at the others. Her supposed school mates. Ignoring their existence made life a lot easier.
"You're having a camp out?" Lilo asked in a soft voice. "But you told us everyone was sick."
"We are sick. Sick of you two!" Myrtle snapped back.
"Yeah!" The other girls copied.
"Good. I'm happy you missed my party!" Mahina shrugged, faking apathy at them. It always annoyed Myrtle the most. "Your fake-out is dumb."
Stitch copied Mahina's movements. When Mahina stopped, he copied Lilo. It's cuter when he does it. The human girls just made Mahina sad.
"Yeah! We're looking for a genetic experiment from another galaxy so we can recharge a spaceship and rescue Mahina's dad from aliens!" Lilo cheered.
Myrtle scoffed. "You're liars."
"No we're not." Lilo pointed up. "It's in your yard- right over there."
Unfortunately, Lilo was wrong. The electric sparks came from a bug zapper. Mahina noticed the bits and pieces of 221's electricity. If he was inside the zapper, he stayed quiet.
"That's a bug electrocutor, not an alien." Myrtle corrected, smug. "You two and your disconfigured dog are total freaks!"
"Yeah!" The other girls copied again. They turned their noses up at Lilo & Mahina.
"You can spit acid on them if you want to." Lilo deadpanned.
"Make it the one that melts their hair first." Mahina added, just to be spiteful.
Stitch nodded. He tilted his head back, hacking and gargling his own spit.
The girls shrieked. They ran off to Myrtle's house.
Mahina fist pumped. She held up her hand. Stitch slapped it. Screw blood relatives, this was having a brother. Somebody willing to scare someone with you- that's real support.
"Come on, Stitch." Lilo slumped, walking towards the street.
Stitch slumped again, following her.
Mahina eyed the bug zapper. She stared, and stared. Patiently. She squinted at it.
Zap! Another fly collided.
221 dashed at it.
Mahina grinned. She ran at the light. "Got you!"
221 paused. He narrowed his eyes, sinking into the zapper.
Mahina jumped up for it. She missed.
Stitch leapt at it. That's when 221 flew off again into the night.
"That way!" Mahina pointed up the street.
"Let's get him!" Lilo announced.
The trio gave chase after their cousin.
==M!TF==
They did not succeed. Any time they got close, 221 flew off. Each time with more and more power.
Eventually, it got late. Late enough that Mahina realized if she waited any longer, she'd miss it. She insisted the three of them go home.
Lilo gently pushed the door open. All the lights were out. Mahina made sure the door closed silently.
"Don't let Nani hear us. It's so past my bedtime." Lilo whispered.
The lights turned on. Nani stood by the lights switch, glaring at the trio.
"Lilo! It is so past your bedtime!" Nani snapped.
Lilo and Stitch screamed. They ran off towards their room.
Mahina stood at the door. She'd caught herself staring at Pleakley. The alien walked in from the kitchen, settling themselves and the heavy book down on a window seat.
"And don't forget to brush your teeth!" Nani yelled at the retreating children. She turned her rage on Mahina. "Now you-"
"My dad got abducted by aliens. I can do what I want." Mahina countered.
Nani's eyes widened. Her pointed finger drooped. "Uhh-"
"Night." Mahina walked away. Nani watched her go with an exhausted sigh.
Mahina tapped an exhausted Pleakley's arm. They fumbled with the phone. "Oh, hello Mahina."
"Have you heard about Jumba yet?"
"No. One more call before bed." Pleakley said.
Mahina sat beside them. She took the phone. Pleakley slumped beside her, their head thumping on hers. She looked at the phone book, typing the number out on the phone.
Pleakley snored along with the ringing.
The phone clicked. Mahina held her breath.
"Hello?"
"Pops!" Mahina yelled. Pleakley screamed, shooting up off her. She quickly hushed herself, holding tight to the phone. "You're okay!"
She knew he would be. She was right. She knew she would be right.
But hearing his voice was such a relief...
"Jumba!" Pleakley yelped, realizing what Mahina screamed.
Nani poked her head back in. The two kids came in behind her. "Jumba!" They all gasped.
"Future evil genius! How did you get this number for Gantu's detention cell?" Jumba asked.
"The Pleakley's Periwinkle Pages." Mahina said. Pleakley pointed at the number. "For the detention center cell. They called all the other numbers and Nani already called Bubbles and it's three am so he won't get here for a long time-"
Nani sat beside Mahina. She spoke up, so Jumba could hear her voice. "It's past our bedtimes, here."
"I'm in charge of my own bedtime!" Mahina argued.
"Maybe, Jumba, you could help calm us all down?" Nani suggested.
"I'm not freaking out. I'm fine! He's fine!" Mahina snapped. "Everything is fine!"
"No, no. Funny joke incoming!" Jumba promised. "It- it starts out with a monkey and a rabbit."
Mahina shifted on the window seat. She soaked in his voice, taking steady breaths with each word. Jumba's jokes were never that great. Maybe a translation issue, or a cultural one. Still, he's talking. He's alive.
"And so the monkey says to the rabbit-" The words suddenly got distant, and quiet. "Excuse me, interrupting punchline!"
"Pops?" Mahina asked. She hated the way her voice sounded so small.
"Get me that!" A small, squeaky accented voice snapped and shouted.
Instantly, a switch flipped. She sat up straighter, shoulders squared back. Her expression shifted from fretful to completely blank. Mahina Jookiba vanished. Special agent Megan Quinn came back.
It's not the same feeling as putting on a coat. Coats were just that- a coating. A top layer. A thing to be swapped out on whims or growths or weather. She put on a new skin. Becoming Megan Quinn again after two years came with this wrongness.
She left that life behind for a reason. It's too soon to be her again.
She wanted to be Mahina.
Pops needed Agent Quinn.
"Now listen to me, you caller of Jumba you-"
"Hello Dr Hämsterviel. Gantu mentioned that name." She made a point to emphasize his name. His complex about it made it easy to manipulate him. "I am speaking with Dr Hämsterviel, yes?"
"I- yes! Now listen!" The hamster hissed. She kept herself quiet. It's important for hostage negotiation to know what the other person wants. Not to give it to them, but to know it. That way, you can work on de-escalation or getting the unsub his needs. "I want the other 624 experiments or you will never be seeing Jumba alive again!"
Her right hand twitched. Her pointer finger curled and uncurled, like a reflex.
"What's he saying?" Pleakley asked, fretting. "Is it-"
She held up a finger. Pleakley shut up, slapping their hands over their mouth. "The cousins for Pops."
"Wait for my call." Dr Hämsterviel ordered. "I will tell you the ransom exchange location and call you many nasty names! Haha! Hang that up!"
"Dr-" The line cut off.
She hummed. Well. That's not a success.
In frustration, she wanted to swear. She turned, expecting to see Hotch or Derek over her shoulder. Instead, she saw Pleakley.
Pleakey, her sort-of parent. Maybe like a weird aunt- it's the name they liked most, after all.
Mahina looked down at the phone. Yes, Mahina again. That change was natural. An exhale of bad air, letting out everything wrong. She's a kid again. Just like she wanted. She missed just being a kid.
With a kidnapped dad.
Okay it's not perfect. It's better than before. Now, she had a way to save him. A time and a place, and a definite chance of getting her father back.
She's worked with less.
"What are we gonna do!?" Pleakley panicked. They leapt off the window seat, pacing in circles. "What are we gonna do?!"
Well, for starters, Mahina should sleep. Sleep sounded good. Sleep would give her a clear head for tomorrow.
==M!TF==
Mahina stared up at her ceiling, rocking gently in her hammock.
She wouldn't be sleeping tonight. It'd been a while since her insomnia acted up this way. Maybe it's the stress, maybe the excitement of tomorrow, maybe ideas of how Hämsterviel was torturing Jumba at this very moment just because.
There's a long list of suspects.
Mahina climbed out of the hammock. She stumbled onto the ground, hobbling until she balanced. She walked to the window. As the warm night breeze brushed her curtains, she leaned on the frame. Stars twinkled in the sky like they always did.
Her dad was up there. Hung upside down in a torture chamber, his only possible ally their making sandwiches.
She looked over her shoulder. On her desk, the 623 experiments sat in wait. Waiting for Mahina to save them, and Jumba. They needed her to save their Ohana. If she failed, it'd be her family that got hurt. The universe too, but hurting her family hurt worse than anything.
Back to the stars, Mahina searched for the familiar constellations. She needed guidance. Somebody to tell her who to be. Being Mahina made her happy. It brought her peace- something she thought she lost years ago. Being Megan hurt. The wounds hadn't healed from that time. She needed a lot longer away from that mindset.
It could be the only way to save Pops, and make Stitch happy, and bring happiness to 625 experiments. Happiness to this whole island.
That's okay, right? Giving up her happiness for everyone else? Isn't that what she's supposed to do? Mahina always thought that. Her emotions were more volatile than others. Keeping a lid on them was for the best. Her good and bad emotions needed to go, or else how would she save everyone? The last time she got what she wanted, her dad got taken away by an evil scientist. She shouldn't be selfish this time.
She'd wanted a night with her dad, and he got abducted. Clearly, her wants and needs didn't matter.
Mahina stared at the stars, hoping she stared at the prison ship.
For him, she'd do it.
==M!TF==
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