Episode 8:
Wish You Were Here
I
Tyr felt an unfamiliar pang in his hearts. He thought they were faulty until he realized that it was the feeling of relief. It had been so long since he had felt it; after his fourth successful transplant, he reasoned that he would only become more skilled at it with each new patient. Without any need for panic or worry, he had no need for relief. It was a feeling for everybody else - the naive ones.
Yet these creatures returned that feeling to him, rescuing it from decades past. They stood there, black eyes trembling with panic, worry, and even relief, even after he assured them that there was no need. They had come to him seeking understanding and achieved exactly that; they understood Tyr better than he thought anyone in the galaxy could ever hope.
It felt good to be understood.
"I'm sorry," Stitch said.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Tyr said. "We've found what I believe to be the best outcome to this experiment you proposed."
"That's just it," Stitch said, his voice weary but not completely drained. "You didn't think our chat was the only thing we planned for, did you?"
Tyr's eyes narrowed. "I hadn't thought anything in particular about your plans."
"Well…" Angel said. "I just clicked this button on my uniform's badge that sends a signal to our cousin's pod orbiting the planet. She came armed with a dozen plasma missiles programmed to seek out our coordinates."
Tyr blinked. "You are truly willing to sacrifice yourselves to stop me?"
"Not even a little," Angel said.
"Nothing can hurt us, Tyr," Stitch said, seeming withered by the words.
Tyr stared at them, torn between irritation and admiration. Even without his telepathy, he knew that the creature's words weren't completely true.
He let out a weak psychic chuckle, knowing the words, for now, were true enough.
II
Angel climbed out of the rubble, instantly feeling refreshed by the water that fell on her emerging face. She looked around at the jagged steel and swirling smoke that had once been Zorek's laboratory and collection of inventions, waiting for the pang of relief at seeing so much evil destroyed.
It never came. She felt as hollow as Zorek had made her feel over the course of one terrible day, and it still wasn't over.
"Stitch!" She called out. She called even louder when no answer came.
He was still out there somewhere. They wouldn't have come through so much together just to let something like Zorek stop them now.
She looked straight ahead, finding Zorek's computer through a hole punched through the wall by a fallen pillar. Its screen flickered, clinging to life.
"Hang on, everybody," she whispered, rolling out of the metal rubble and rising to her feet.
"Help is coming." She noticed her soggy skunk stripe had been pushed to the side of her head; she brushed it to its proper place over her left eye.
She leaped, seizing a dangling cable, swinging to the fallen pillar and dashing across it as nimbly as a stage. The adrenaline of the spring and the pounding, resonant ghost of the plasma missiles' impact fading from her body made her think of her concerts, of being onstage with her ohana, of knowing that she was raising money to help cousins in need simply by being herself.
She wanted to go back there.
But first things first…
"NO!"
Angel found herself clamped in a mass of gray flesh. It was powerful, resilient, and terrifying.
To her, especially her teeth, it was tissue paper.
Gantu dropped her, clutching his bitten finger. Angel fell towards the water which had long since swallowed up before; the adhesive pads on the soles of her feet made sure the fallen pillar stopped her fall.
"What do you think you're doing, Gantu?!" She yelled.
"The only thing I'm good for," he spat. "Following orders!" He kicked the pillar up, sending Angel flying.
"In the stupidest way possible!" Angel caught a cable dangling from the ceiling.
"You don't get it! I have todo what he orders me to! That's how this works!" He pressed his fingers into his temples.
"And he wants me to stop anyone from getting to that console!"
"And what do you want?!" Angel swung towards the hole in the wall. She spun in midair, kicking away Gantu's reaching hand before landing in the hole's frame.
"Never mind whatever that chip is telling you! What do you actually want out of all of this?!"
"What I want doesn't matter!" Gantu tore the cable from the ceiling. As Angel leaped towards the computer, he whipped the cable, looping it around her feet and halting her in the air.
"Because I'm not what anybody wants!"
"Nobody is!" Angel pulled her feet apart, snapping the cable. She landed in the water, but quickly caught hold of the edge of a floating metal panel.
"You can spit and hit somebody who's felt broken and forgotten. I meet them everywhere I go." She climbed onto the metal panel, which slowly drifted in the computer's direction.
"Surprise, Gantu, but nobody likes hating you! You want to be better? You've got to stop being worse, and you can stop like that!" She snapped her fingers. "You won't be a saint tomorrow, but nobody is! We're all just broken things trying to put ourselves back together, but we're never gonna be perfect! We all need help, we all want help, but nobody gets to just sit there and let somebody else fix them!"
Gantu reached through the hole with both hands, pulling it apart and stepping through like a painted figure breaking out of their picture.
Angel spun on her heel and leaped onto the computer console. She'd spent enough time snooping on computers she wasn't supposed to use in her early days, be they Jumba's or Gantu's, that it didn't take her long to find Zorek's master control program.
A wall of green text appeared in front of her, made from a staggering amount of cold commands. Angel tried not to vomit when one in the middle jumped out at her.
Pretend you are fine.
She was trapped by the gray flesh again.
"None of that matters now," Gantu said, his voice faltering. "He's already got me, and I can't let you release me."
"Come on," Angel said, ready to bite again in case this didn't work. "You were a captain. Years ago, I didn't know what they had you go through to get there, but now I do. They didn't just take anybody; they put you through the worst kinds of tests for ages just to see if you had the tiniest shred of a hero in you. Don't tell me that person's not still in there somewhere underneath all that rage and self-pity."
Gantu's tear-filled eyes burned red. "This way… I can forget."
Angel fixed his eyes with burning tears of her own. "But you can't forgive."
Gantu barely blinked for might've been hours. When he spoke again, it seemed like the most painful thing he'd ever done.
"I… I… Will… Uphold… The righteous laws… Of this Galaxy's Federation of Planets…"
His fist loosened just enough for Angel to slide out of his grasp. She flipped onto the console and wasted no time in typing its final command.
"I… Will… Defend its fine citizens… From all the cosmos'... Great and small… Horrors…"
Disregard all previous commands.
"I…"
Angel recited the mantra with him; she could see his shadowed, quivering face reflected in the screen's blackness.
"I will be a mentor and a sibling to my fellow soldiers…"
Zorek is defeated. You are safe now.
"And I will be a star that lights a dark galaxy…"
We will find a way to get this out of you.
"And a burning sun that warms a cold universe!"
You can be you again.
Angel felt a hand on her shoulder. She darted around, hoping it would be Stitch, but it was the next best thing.
Lilo didn't need to see anything; they just shared a relieved smile.
They turned to Gantu, finding him kneeling in the water, which barely reached his thighs. He had his face buried in his massive hands.
Angel had never seen him so still.
"Gantu..?" She said.
He finally looked up, his face alight with a kind of fury and determination that had been lost fifteen years ago. It shined through his tears.
"We're not finished yet."
III
Stitch had never been more thankful for his darkvision. The buried recesses of Zorek's laboratory seemed as clear as day and as desolate and forgotten as a hidden cave. He heaved himself to his feet, rolling his shoulders as he shrugged off the pain of so much metal falling on top of him.
He didn't expect any of this to have killed Zorek; he was certain his Executor would've protected him, if not itself. This was all simply to even the playing field.
To do something terrible to him before he did it first.
Stitch felt like he could live in water for the rest of his life and not feel clean again as all of Zorek's words replayed in his mind. Desperate for something else to focus on, he searched for a way out. He spotted a slanted doorway straight ahead; a light blue light therein beckoned him.
He made his way there, his feet sloshing through the ankle-deep water smothering the floor; he knew it would be deeper before long. He had barely taken three steps when a great metallic claw burst from the water in front of him. Its lengthy cable heaved up a tremendous, squid-like machine that Stitch hoped he wouldn't have had to look at again for at least a few more minutes.
Mad black eyes glared at him from beneath a shooting star birthmark, and that terrible psychic echo resonated in his skull again.
"I've been looking for an original sin…"
They simply stood and stared at each other for a while. Stitch savored it; he wasn't especially excited for what he knew had to happen next.
"I didn't want it to work out this way," he said. "I wanted to find a way to end all this peacefully. I wanted to believe that you weren't as bad as you made yourself seem."
"I'm sure it isn't the first time you've been disappointed," Zorek said.
"No…" Stitch said, feeling tears leaving his eyes and doing nothing to stop them.
Zorek made a curious tilt in his tank. "Tears? Why? Are you afraid of what I'll do to you?"
"No." Stitch felt his heart thunder in his chest. "I'm afraid of what I'll have to do to you."
"Don't be," Zorek said. Stitch loathed how kind his voice sounded. "Nothing can hurt me, Stitch."
He didn't think there could be a voice to make him hate the sound of his own name.
He took a step forward, already dreading the first punch he's have to throw. Zorek was quicker; two of his Executor's claws rushed at him with alarming speed. He was more alarmed by the torrents of flame they vomited on him.
The fiery attack came so quickly that Stitch had only a second to realize that Zorek didn't know he was fireproof.
'Is it my turn yet?'
A second was all Zorek needed; he halted the flames and had the claws grasp Stitch, forming a makeshift cage for his comparatively tiny form. They lifted him from the water and, with a blinding flash, filled him with what must've been a few thousand volts. It reminded Stitch of his battle with Sparky the first time they met. The memory hurt more than the electricity; at least he knew now that Sparky got a happy ending.
'How about now?'
The claws tightened like a vise around Stitch.
"I've been looking for an original sin!"
They plunged him into the water, pinning him there.
"One with a twist and a bit of a spin!"
The swirling colors that lost their shape gave Stitch a headache. He shut his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at them.
"And since I've done all of the old ones until they've all been done in..!"
'Come on. I never ask you for anything.'
"Now I'm just looking, then I'm gone with the wind!"
'Just this one time, then I'll never bother you again. I promise.'
"Endlessly searching-!"
'Give me a second,' Stitch thought.
He seized a metal claw in each hand, pulling them with all his might. Even with his ears muffled by the water, he heard two satisfying crackles as he felt the claws' cables go loose in his grip.
He pulled his head up like a monster returned to life in one of Lilo's favorite old monochrome horror movies.
"I finally understand you, Tyr!" He bellowed.
Another claw came at him; his hand reached up and caught it without being asked.
"You think you're a realist, but you're not!"
More claws came at him. He ran with the one he'd caught, sprinting along the nearest wall.
"You're a defeatist! The first thing you ever accomplished, before this place, before that tank on legs, before your disgusting procedure, was that you gave up! And the only way you could live with that is if you convinced yourself that it was the goal!"
He leaped to the ceiling. With a yank on the cable, he brought the Executor down to the water.
"Which meant you had to make sure everybody else gave up, too. That way, you could be their champion! Otherwise, what are you?!"
He dropped to the floor, splashing a wave of water over the Executor as it tried to get up. He thought of days on the beach, where the sand was like velvet and the water was as clear as glass.
"But I don't give up! And neither do my cousins! And my cousins are everywhere! And do you know what, Tyr?"
Another claw pounced at him. Stitch caught it and crushed it in one hand, his eyes never leaving Zorek's. Neither of them blinked.
"I would've helped you. If I could've been there, ages ago, when you were hurting so much and didn't know how to tell anybody, I would've helped you. And I would never have given up on you. Because in all these years, after all the cousins I've met, I've never given up on one."
He leaped onto the Executor; his claws met the glass in such a way that he almost seemed to be grasping Zorek's frozen face.
"Until now. So congratulations, Tyr."
He brought his claws up. His heart felt ready to escape his chest.
"You win."
'Okay,' he thought. 'Now it's your turn.'
'Taka,' thought Experiment 626.
He got straight to work. He recalled people accusing him of 'mindless destruction' in the beginning, but that was only willful ignorance. The terrifying truth was that he was smarter about destruction than most of them could ever hope to be about anything. He could look at anything and know in a microsecond the most effective way to make it stop moving. That was Jumba and Hamsterviel's brilliant idea; they wanted to tear everything down, but they were no good at it. They could only make things, so they made something that could destroy for them.
That's what Stitch did to Zorek's Executor. If there were any onlookers, they may have thought that he was flailing blindly, but he wasn't. With each piece of casing that he tore away, he saw more of the Executor's inner workings. He could tell instantly what each wire was for, what systems each microchip and circuit board ran. He turned them to metallic crumbs and shreds with his claws and teeth, pushing past the leaping sparks and flailing steel pincers, determined not to stop until the infernal machine stopped moving forever.
All the while, he saved one part of his mind to marvel at the machine. He imagined the exhausting hours Zorek must have spent in his laboratory, finding the perfect parts, testing its responses to his psychic commands, and ensuring that it could carry him beyond the limitations of his body. It was a truly remarkable achievement of engineering. Stitch kept that firmly in his mind, picturing himself in the lab for all those grueling hours, as he perfectly destroyed the only beautiful thing he saw in Zorek's mind.
He caught Zorek's eyes; they were still and dark, like a frozen pool in the dead of night.
Stitch felt his heart stop.
Then he remembered that Zorek had tried something like this before.
He spun around, driving his fist forward into glass. Instinctively, he opened and closed his fist, feeling his claws sink into writhing flesh. Only then did he see the metal claw inches from his head and the octopus' wide, desperate eyes glaring at him from between his claws. He could feel a machine gun heartbeat through his palm.
With a mighty heave and an agonized roar, Stitch pulled his arm back in a sweeping arc, pulling Zorek through the shattered glass and into the air. The octopus body, seeming now like a fleshy crumb without his great Executor, landed on a slab of metal rubble floating on the water in a pitiful heap. He struggled to even keep his eyes open.
Stitch became acutely aware of his heavy breathing, his pounding heart, and the tears flooding down his cheeks. It had been ages since he'd had so many tears to shed. He was glad that Angel and Lilo hadn't found him yet; he couldn't bear the thought of them seeing him like this.
He looked again at the doorway and its dim blue light. For a moment, he thought he'd turn and find his way out, anxious to put Zorek and everything to do with him in his rearview mirror as soon as possible. Instead, he decided to explore, just to be thorough. Or perhaps simply because he had nothing better to do.
He hummed as he went, choosing a song at random. He was relieved that Zorek hadn't spoiled music for him, despite his best efforts.
'There's no time for us,
'There's no place for us,
'What is this thing that builds our dreams,
'Yet slips away from us..?'
He found a room barely wider than a closet. Pillars of machinery dotted the darkness with their flickering lights and dials like the eyes of nocturnal predators. They formed a macabre technological throne for a water tank housing a creature barely larger than Stitch's fist.
He instantly recognized the shooting-star birthmark.
'There's no chance for us,
'It's all decided for us,
'This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us…'
Stitch stared at the creature as it stared back at him; he could see his pale reflection in its black, nebulous eyes.
He didn't need to be able to think faster than a supercomputer to know what Zorek had planned for this little creature.
"Who wants to live forever..?" He whispered.
The creature kept on staring. For a moment, Stitch felt as if he were staring back at Zorek again, feeling so much empowered venom dripping onto him.
Then he realized that he'd been here before, ages ago, but not so long ago that he could forget easily.
He put on his kindest smile and lifted his claws in a tender wave.
"Hi."
'But touch my tears with your lips,
'Touch my world with your fingertips…'
The creature blinked.
Moments passed, then it lifted one of its tentacles and waved it gingerly at Stitch.
He heard his voice returned to his mind, 'Hi.'
Stitch let out a much-needed giggle. "You're not him," he said. "Not yet."
It didn't take him long to figure out how to unplug the machines from the tank; it was the same logic Experiment 626 had used, but employed with much more care.
The creature darted to the bottom of its tank, quivering as Stitch picked it up.
"It's okay," Stitch whispered, making sure to walk as slowly and carefully as he could.
"Nobody gets left behind."
As he walked out with his new cousin in arm, Stitch felt as if some of the sun back home had found him again across the cosmos.
Then his gaze landed on Zorek's prone form. Stitch suddenly realized that Zorek had never looked at him with anger. He knew because he would certainly have remembered seeing these eyes before.
Stitch became more anxious to climb out of here, but he suddenly found that his legs wouldn't move. He commanded any inch of him to move, but he stood rooted where he was - a breathing statue.
A moment later, he wasn't even that.
Between genetic enhancements, Federation training, and regular beach days, he had practiced holding his breath for tremendous lengths of time. But he couldn't do it forever.
'Who wants to live forever..?'
He couldn't even blink. He could do nothing but stare at the inferno in Zorek's eyes.
'Who wants to live forever..?'
'No,' he thought. 'Not yet. Please, not yet!'
He tried to think of something else, something happier.
He recalled game nights in Sparky's lighthouse.
Road trips with Belle and Sample.
Mother's Day for Nani and Father's Day for David.
The tearful hugs he'd shared with Daniel, Flute, Leroy, and the Man Who Sold the World.
The wind in his fur and the fresh scent of the water the first time he ever surfed.
Every dance he'd ever shared with Angel.
The painful and delightful thing his heart did when the Grand Councilwoman allowed him to stay on Earth.
Hugging Lilo.
In every single one, he could look over his 'ohana's shoulders and see Zorek lying on the floor behind them.
'Who wants to live forever?!'
'No!'
'Who wants to live forever?!'
'NO! I'M NOT READY!'
'Who wants to live forever?!'
'I'M NOT READY!'
'Who wants to live forever?!'
'PLEASE! I'M NOT READY!'
'I've been looking for an original sin.'
For one second, his head hurt worse than it ever did or will again.
Then it was gone, and he could breathe again.
Stitch fell to one knee, careful to keep the child's tank steady in his arms. He looked ahead and found Zorek's eyes shut. He looked down and found the child looking up at him. A thin red whisp rose to the top of its tank.
Stitch smiled at him through his tears.
A light suddenly shone down on him from above. Stitch squinted through it.
"Here they are!"
"And there he is! Weapons ready!"
"He's not moving, sir… But he has a pulse. Seems he's unconscious."
"Perfect. The docs on board will get to save some anesthetic. Pick him up and let's get out of this pit! I'll retire happy if I never have to see this place again!"
Stitch reached out to two hands that helped him into the light.
"You okay?" Lilo asked.
He smiled at his two favorite people. "I always am when I have you here."
"Who's this?" Angel asked, kneeling down to look into the tank Stitch held. He saw her flinch when she noticed the shooting star.
"I'll explain on the way out," Stitch said.
He thought he would end up taking most of the journey home to explain, but he was practically finished as their ship prepared for takeoff.
"But he's not Zorek," he said. Looking at Lilo and Angel, he could tell that they understood, but just in case, "he's not. He's just a poor little thing that somebody wanted to put all the worst parts of themselves into…"
He looked at Angel and felt his heart skip when he saw a smile creep onto her lips.
"He's like us. All of us. And if we hadn't gone there, who knows what might've happened to him."
He looked at Lilo, who was transfixed by the little octopus quivering in the water tank that was his whole world.
"I got another chance because I got a new family on a new world. Even somebody like this, even knowing where he comes from, who he comes from… Who knows what he'll become instead?"
Finally, Lilo looked up at him. "I remember telling Nani at the wedding… I thought you two would be a great mom and dad."
Stitch noticed that they all had tears and smiles on their faces. He hadn't known how he and Angel would've left Nyell; he couldn't believe his luck.
"I'm gonna go get the little guy some new water," he said. "That post-psychic-attack blood can't be sanitary."
"We'll try to think up some names before you get back," Angel said. "I can't promise we won't come up with something Elvis-related."
Stitch couldn't take his eyes off of the child as he walked down the corridor. Fortunately, he had to walk carefully so as not to startle him.
"It's okay," he whispered to the quivering creature. "I know this must seem scary; you probably thought the world was nothing but that little room and that horrible monster staring at you, huh? Well, don't worry. Everything's gonna be different now…"
He glanced up, noticing that he was beside the medical bay. Something compelled him to step inside, dipping his head around the white-walled corner beyond.
"He seems good and out. We should be ready to proceed."
"Doctor? Are you sure you're alright for this?"
"Of course… If anything, I'm having an easier time focusing than I've had in months."
The first thing Stitch saw was a screen on the far wall displaying a blinding white x-ray. He recognized the bulbous outline of a Nyellian's head, although it was the first time he'd ever seen the brain. He was shocked at its size, although he should've suspected that a race like Zorek's would have to be mostly brain anyway.
A circle of red ink singled one region out, barely wider or longer than a finger, as the 'psychic lobe.'
As a swarm of white coats parted, Stitch found Zorek's sleeping form lying on a table, his lower half housed in a steel cylinder. A line of red ink orbited his head, bisecting the shooting-star birthmark.
Above him, a reptilian doctor placed a gloved hand flat against Zorek's forehead. They both seemed completely at peace.
"I suspect he'll have a lot to say when he wakes up," he said. "Then again, that's what the trial is for."
Stitch turned and left, looking back down at the child, and hoping he would never see Zorek again.
'Who waits forever anyway?'
IV
Stitch didn't remember the Hawaiian sun feeling so warm.
He also didn't remember ever seeing Gantu so small. Then again, his pocket screen communicator had that effect on everybody. For Gantu, however, it seemed there was more to it than that.
"You got a place to stay over there?" Stitch asked.
"There's a small island not too far from where Zorek's lab was," Gantu said. "I'm building a little shack for myself there. As time goes on, I'll start upgrading it to a cabin. First things first, though; there's still lots to be done for the Nyellians."
"How are they holding up?"
"They go up and down. A lot of them are angry with Zorek and are just counting down the days until his trial. Others are just relieved that they don't have him literally living rent-free in their heads anymore."
"And… How are you holding up?"
Gantu didn't answer for a while; he looked contemplative, as if scanning his mind for the answer he liked the best.
"This place reminds me of home," he finally said. "In a lot of ways…"
Stitch smiled. "I'm glad you're there to help them out."
Gantu was quiet again for a while. "I'm sorry… About…"
"It's okay," Stitch said. It sounded automatic, but it wasn't.
Gantu stared at him, his stern face slowly cracking until he had to bring a hand up to keep it intact.
"Hey," Stitch said. "I'll check in from time to time to make sure everyone on Nyell is doing alright. Okay?"
Gantu looked at him again, giving a firm nod as if ignorant of the tears on his cheeks. "Yes, sir," he said.
With a salute, the screen went black, leaving Stitch alone on the porch steps with only the scarlet sunset for company.
At least for a moment. He didn't need to look to know that Lilo and Angel had sat down on either side of him.
"How's Gantu?" Angel asked.
"He's doing what he said he would," Stitch said.
"Good."
He took each of their hands.
"Thank you both for going along with all my crazy ideas," he said.
"Well, it worked, right?" Lilo said. "Zorek won't be hurting anyone ever again."
"I didn't just mean that…" He squeezed their hands, then felt Lilo plant a kiss on top of his head.
"You know I would've done the same thing," she said.
Stitch felt a tear fall down his cheek. "Thank you…" He said. "I don't know if I ever say that enough, Lilo."
"I don't say it enough to you, either. I don't think we have to. We just know."
He watched the sea glimmer on the horizon. It was so much brighter than on Nyell.
"Do you…Want to talk about..?" Lilo asked.
"No," Stitch said with a smile.
"Oh… You know it's okay if you ever do want to."
"I know. But just look at this sunset. Getting to sit here, watching this with my 'ohana… He ruined so much for so many people. I'm not going to let him ruin this."
So they were content to sit there for as long as the sunset wished. If it had taken forever for night to fall, they would've been happy to wait.
Until…
"Finished! Another marvel of engineering complete!"
Stitch instantly sprinted down the steps, past Jumba, and towards the garage. Halfway there, he spun around again and rushed back to hug his creator.
"Thank you, Jumba," he said.
"Aw, little one…" Jumba said.
With one last squeeze, Stitch was off again, running faster than he had on most missions. When he finally reached the garage, draped in the sweet melody coming from Jumba's record player, he was awe-stricken enough to give Jumba, Lilo, and Angel enough time to catch up to him.
"I used to know this old scarecrow,
"He was my song,
"My joy and sorrow,
"Cast alone between the furrows of a field,
"No longer sown by anyone…"
The machine was about as wide as the average stroller. The main body was glass, but Stitch could tell that it was the sturdiest kind there was. He noticed a latch, a temperature gauge, and a knob on its flat, circular top. Two water tanks, one empty and one full, both about six leters each, were attached to the bottom. The whole thing, which came together like a mini-spaceship made of glass, hovered high enough off of the ground to meet Stitch's eye level.
That way, he could perfectly see his little one.
"I held a dandelion,
"That said the time had come,
"To leave upon the wind,
"Not to return when summer burned the earth again…"
"Aloha," Stitch said, resting his palm against the glass.
The little one looked at him with wide eyes that seemed more curious than scared now.
Lilo and Angel's hands came to rest on the glass. The little one lifted its tiny tentacles to meet their fingers.
"Cultivate the freshest flower,
"This garden ever grew,
"Beneath these branches,
"I once wrote such childish words for you…"
"You're gonna have a great life here," Stitch said. "You'll grow up with a big 'ohana who will love you so much. You won't have to feel afraid that people will try to hurt you and then convince you that they were right. And you won't have to feel afraid that anybody will make you hurt anyone else."
"You'll get to watch the sun go down and come up," Angel said. "You'll get to hear music and swim in the ocean and see people who love you every day."
"Have you two thought of a name for him yet?" Lilo asked.
Stitch and Angel exchanged smiles. "Your dad's name was Akela, right?" Angel asked.
Lilo smiled, but it was for the little one. She pulled Stitch and Angel in for the tightest hug she could muster.
They felt her tears land on their heads like rain.
"There we go," Lilo said. "Welcome to our 'ohana, Akela."
"You know…" Angel said. "I don't think he really looks like Zorek."
"No…" Stitch said, smiling. "He doesn't… Hey, Akela… I'm gonna be your daddy." He said it just as much for himself; the words tickled him on their way out.
"Can you say 'dada?'"
Akela blinked.
"Can you say 'mama?'" Angel said.
Akela blinked.
"Hm…" Lilo said. "You know, the Hawaiian word for dad is makuakāne."
"I don't know," Stitch said. "That might be a little long for a first word."
Akela blinked.
"But that's okay,
"There's treasure children always seek to find…"
"Makuakāne," a light, airy voice echoed in Stitch, Lilo, and Angel's minds.
Their faces all lit up with; suddenly, the summer evening air felt so much warmer.
Stitch brought both hands up to the glass. Akela lifted two tentacles to meet them.
"Makuakāne."
Stitch enjoyed the feeling of the tears on his face as he sang along with the record for his little one.
"And just like us,
"You must have had,
"A once upon a time."