The next day, a hula girl was preparing her act to go solo. She was looking longfully out into the distance. She wondered if it was fruitless to hope Stitch would come back. Even for all the damage he had done, the hula girl still wanted her friend back.

==MHAG==

Mahina dropped her wrench. It made a loud echoing clang. She didn't even mind. She stood up, her head peeking over the chamber. "Did we do it?"

Jumba lowered his own wrench. "I...I think we did."

Mahina smiled brightly. She walked around, reaching up for the bicycle handlebar. She had her hand on it when Jumba touched her wrist to pause her.

"What if it doesn't work?" Jumba asked.

"It will." She promised.

"She's right, Jumba." Pleakley came up, putting a hand on Jumba's shoulder.

The gestures of comfort seemed to work. He took a step back.

Mahina gleefully grabbed the handlebar.

==MHAG==

The hula girl was still looking out towards the woods. It was almost her turn. There was no sign of her dance partner. She let herself feel a moment's disappointment.

"This is it." The hula girl told herself.

Just when she was about to give up completely, there was a rustling in the bushes.

"You'll do great."

"Stitch?" She asked.

A tiny blue alien was coming out. He was curled in on himself, hiding himself in shame.

==MHAG==

Mahina was about to pull down the switch- to prove to Jumba that they weren't failures in inventing- when alarms went off.

Turning to the computer screen, both scientists watched in dismay as Stitch's numbers dropped to lethal.

They were almost out of time.

"No!" Jumba yelled.

"What's happening?" Pleakley asked.

Mahina went to flip a switch on the chamber. They would need to make it mobile. There wasn't time to grab something to carry it.

"His circuits are about to blow." Jumba answered Pleakley. "We have to get him in the fusion chamber now!"

"Shouldn't we test it?" Pleakley asked.

"There isn't time." Jumba shouted.

Mahina grabbed a second handle, dragging the now floating chamber like it was a red wagon.

Jumba noticed this, staring at Mahina and the chamber in confused delight. "What did you do?"

"Added hoverboard tech to the bottom." Mahina answered. "For transport."

"You are genius!" Jumba patted the girl on her back. Mahina soaked in the praise like a dying flower taking in water.

She would really appreciate it later. You know, when her friend wasn't about to die.

==MHAG==

It was just three little scratches. Three tiny things on her cheek, not even noticeable. They would be gone before long.

But it was enough for Stitch.

He was convinced now. He was all bad. No more goodness.

He'd hurt Lilo. How could he fall so far?

He ran from her, muttering apologies while his eyes flashed a dangerous green. He ignored Lilo's pleas for him to come back.

==MHAG==

Lilo abandoned her hula championship. She couldn't perform a hula about the power of friendship while she was leaving her best friend behind. Stitch needed her. Lilo would be there for him.

She ran into the woods behind the hula tournament. "Stitch! Come back!" Lilo couldn't see any sign of the tiny blue experiment. All that was there was Jumba and Pleakley. "Have you seen Stitch?"

"We thought he was with you." Jumba admitted, panicking now.

Nani and David raced over. They had watched Lilo leave the stage, with no explanation. "Lilo, baby, what happened?" Nani asked.

"I'm fine! Something's wrong with Stitch." Lilo explained. Nani and David's eyes widened in concern.

"It's not his fault. He's malfunctioning." Jumba explained. "And if we don't find him soon..." Jumba glanced over his shoulder, trying to spot Mahina. Only the little girl was gone with the fusion chamber. "Where did Mahina go?" He asked Pleakley.

Pleakley looked back. "She was just there a second ago!"

==MHAG==

There are some advantages to knowing the future. Mahina had a year to prepare for Stitch's breakdown. She had been working tirelessly for a week on the life saving project. Though she could understand the need for dramatics, this was her ohana. Mahina wasn't going to risk his life over the drama of waiting until the last minute to save him.

That wasn't fair. It wasn't nice. Being among her ohana for a year had done wonders on reminding her of the wonders of kindness.

So no, she didn't tell Jumba and Pleakley that she was breaking from the pack to go chasing after Stitch. That she knew where he was going to be in his retreat, so she could cut him off on his path. She would make sure they could find her. Stitch was the priority, and she doubted they would be mad for long.

She found Stitch, glitching out in the woods.

"Stitch?" Mahina prompted.

Stitch flinched away from her. He held up three arms, the fourth stuck trying to sink back into his body. "No! Stay back! Stitch...Stitch bad!"

Mahina crouched down, holding up her palm towards Stitch. "Okay, okay. I'll stay back."

Stitch seemed to relax slightly at that. He was still curling on himself, trying to get his third arm back to sink back into himself. It wasn't going well. His antennae kept poking up from his head. In some tilts of his head, Mahina could see flashes of green. The same was true for his patches of light blue fur- the bright green beneath his skin shined brighter from them.

He needed help soon.

Mahina wasn't going to let him get hurt. Not anymore. She just...she had to be smart about this. "Your...badness...is getting worse, isn't it?"

Pitifully, Stitch nodded. He ran his claws over his head, trying to shake the 'badness' out. "Stitch wants to be good. Stitch...Stitch hurt Lilo."

"Oh." Mahina replied. "I'm so sorry, Stitch."

"Stitch might hurt ohana next. Stitch can't control it!" Stitch looked at his traitorous claws, the ones that had already hurt his best friend. "Stitch doesn't want to be bad."

Mahina nodded, understanding him. "Jumba can fix the badness." She explained.

Stitch shook his head.

"Jumba made you, Stitch. He knows how to fix you. He's been working on it since Family Fun Night." Mahina explained. She patted her hand on the fusion chamber. "You need to get inside this. It's the only thing that can make the 'badness' go away."

"No. No, Stitch too bad! Lilo said!" Stitch explained. "Stitch has to go away!"

"Go where?"

"Go in Jumba's ships! Get...get far away! Then Stitch cannot hurt ohana again."

"And what if your 'badness' happens again when you're flying?" Mahina asked. Stitch went quiet, fretting. "What if the ship crashes?"

"No-"

"And it crashes onto our ohana?"

"NO!" Stitch's eyes flared green.

Mahina held up her palms again. "Okay, okay! We don't want that. That's bad, right?" Stitch fell to his knees, holding his head in his hands. "So we have to fix it. So you don't crash the ship. Is that alright? Then you can go far away, keep your badness from hurting anyone. Okay?"

Stitch whined.

"Come on, Stitch, this will keep you from ever hurting anyone again." Mahina promised. She pressed a small button on the chamber, connecting it to Pleakley's communicator. If Pleakley hadn't wanted her to do that, then the communicator shouldn't have been left unattended while Pleakley hung out with David. It wouldn't connect like a proper call, it would just guide the group to Mahina like a compass. "Okay?"

Stitch whined again. His body glowing a faint green. It made Mahina's heart race, her flight-or-fight instincts pleading with her to choose 'flight'. She wouldn't. Mahina couldn't leave him, not like this. She had to help save him. She needed to make him well again. For Lilo, and Jumba, and everybody.

"Okay." Stitch accepted.

==MHAG==

Lilo followed the pointed arrow on Pleakley's communicator. When it had started beeping, Jumba was the first to note it pointing in a specific direction. Lilo had grabbed it, immediately knowing it must have been Mahina leading them to Stitch. Mahina was always doing stuff like that to help Lilo find her hoverboard.

She wasn't even checking to see if anyone was following her. She needed to get to Stitch. Lilo had to say she was sorry. Stitch wasn't bad, he was just sick. Jumba had said Stitch needed help. Lilo was so focused on herself, she never noticed how bad Stitch really was.

They could fix him. They could fix her friend.

Lilo could see something glowing green in the distance. She ran faster. She had to get to Stitch and Mahina.

What she found made Lilo want to cry.

Mahina was closing a glass lid over Stitch. Lilo could finally see how tired and small he looked, curled up in a ball in the chamber. The glass lid closed with a pop. The fusion chamber seemed so out of place in this forest, full of bright colorful flowers and healthy green trees. Stitch himself looked more out of place than ever.

"Stitch!" Lilo cried out.

Mahina turned to her. "Lilo!"

Stitch tiredly lifted an eye open. "L-Lilo?"

"Stitch!" Lilo rushed over to the glass.

"No, too dangerous." Stitch cautioned.

Lilo shook her head, tears in her eyes.

"Lilo, help me get this down." Mahina was trying to pull on a bicycle handlebar.

Lilo didn't hesitate. Together, they pulled the lever down. The chamber glowed as bright green as his glitches.

"Stitch, you're gonna be okay now." Lilo promised Stitch. She knelt by the chamber, pressing her palm to the warmed glass. Stitch blinked slowly at her. "Please be okay."

He lifted his hand to Lilo's. His claw matching with Lilo's. "Stitch sorry." His arm fell, and he stilled..

"Stitch?" Lilo asked, panicking.

Mahina put her hand on Lilo's shoulder. "He's just sleeping. He- it's a lot, and he needs to rest to help it settle. Or else it would hurt. I promise, he's just sleeping."

Lilo wiped her tear covered cheeks. She could barely hear what Mahina was saying. Stitch just wasn't moving. It was hard to believe that he was sleeping when he had been so sick like Jumba was saying.

"Hurry, before... Oh, no!" Jumba ran into the clearing, stumbling at the sight.

Lilo stayed by Stitch's side. Mahina went off behind them to the arriving adults. "He's just...he's almost fully charged but he's...it looks really bad. He's going to get better...he has to."

"Oh, no." Nani gasped.

Mahina brought Jumba to the chamber. Lilo watched as Jumba checked a computer screen on the chamber, trying to read the results.

Jumba's broken hearted expression said it all. "We're too late."

Everyone gasped.

Jumba lifted the lever. The lid lifted up. He took Stitch in his arms, hugging him tight. Mahina hugged his side, trying to give him comfort as best she could.

"No!" Lilo took Stitch from his arms.

"Lilo, wait. There's nothing you can do." Jumba tried to break the news gently to the hula girl. Mahina held his other hand, squeezing tight.

Lilo sat on the ground, Stitch in her lap. She was holding him so tight her fingers were paling.

"He's gone." Jumba spoke, in the disbelieving stage of grief.

Lilo still held onto Stitch.

"Oh, honey, come here." Nani tried to bring comfort.

"No!" Lilo snapped.

Nani stepped back.

"Stitch. I'm so sorry. I kept saying how I needed you. But you needed me more." She pulled the flower from her hair. She thought about their hula, how it seemed so painfully poetic that Stitch was dying just like the man in the story. Only Lilo wasn't a powerful goddess that could bring him back to life. She had already tried. She rested the pink flower on Stitch's chest. "You're my ohana, Stitch." She was starting to lose herself to sobs. "And I'll always love you."

Mahina squeezed tighter to Jumba's hand. She wasn't crying, not like Lilo. Instead she was letting out breaths that sounded painful. Jumba wanted to bring her some kind of comfort in this. He was barely handling the loss himself. How could he help her too?

Slowly, though nobody was watching, the counter on the chamber started to rise.

Just like Stitch's stomach, as he started breathing again.

Just like Stitch's claw, as he rested it onto Lilo's hand.

"Stitch not bad." He spoke softly, getting himself used to the new strength behind his words and body. "Stitch fluffy!"

"Stitch!" Lilo cheered.

Mahina let out a breath of relief. A whole year's worth of stress rushing out of her. It had worked. She had made it work, still. She had managed to get Stitch alive without that painful crashing ship, and falling down a mountain. She had done it!

"But how is it possible?" Pleakley asked, laughing in delight.

"It's not." Jumba

"I'm not questioning it!" Mahina rushed over to Lilo and Stitch, throwing herself into the hug. All three of the little ones laughed.

"Stitch okay now?" Stitch asked.

"No more nightmares." Lilo and Mahina hugged him tighter.

Everyone in the ohana circled them. It was a huge group hug. They laughed and rejoiced that Stitch was alive again. They were happy. There was a happy ending.

==MHAG==

AN: Originally, this was gonna be two chapters. But then I'm like, the movie was traumatizing enough with this death scene. I won't be able to take it in two-parts. So I made it one single chapter, for the sake of everyone.

Oh and the fic is almost over! It's just an epilogue left, then it's done.