Lilo & Stitch's Ohana

Episode 10: The Times They Are A-Changin

Episode 10: The Times They Are A-Changin'

I

021 awoke to a universe of color. She didn't absorb where she was straight away; she was just relieved to not see any green.

Her mind and senses rebooted. It took a few minutes, but soon, she recognized the grey metal of the walls and ceiling of Jumba's lab and heard faint music coming from the next room. Memories flooded back to her, dragging her back into the pain of yesterday.

I've spent my whole life on this. This is all I am.

She remembered how close she'd come. Now she'd fallen so far behind that she wasn't even in the race anymore. Yesterday, when she'd only had so much time, the race had meant everything to her. But now that she had years, decades, perhaps even eternity ahead of her, she didn't care for it anymore. She felt crushed between the future she thought she'd never have and the past which didn't deserve it.

She shut her eyes and cried. Her sobs were quiet and weak; she didn't have the energy for anything more. She didn't want to stay where she was but didn't think she deserved to leave.

Finally, she decided to start by sitting up. She opened her eyes and wiped tears from them. She found a small table at the foot of her bed, piled with envelopes and boxes of every color.

"Is wonderful to see you awake."

021 found Jumba approaching her bedside.

"I knew you would wake eventually, but still, I am relieved that you have now."

021 avoided his four eyes. She'd struggled to forgive him for outdating her with so many new super-strong Experiments, but now that he'd helped save her life, it didn't seem right to even look at him.

Jumba tried to sit down beside her, only to find that the bed was too small for him. Instead, he knelt to her level.

"I expect you have much to be thinking about," he said.

021 pulled her knees close to her chest. She did have a lot to think about and a lot to say, but she had no idea how to say it. She breathed, organized her thoughts into the neatest stack she could make, and started with the question on the very top.

"Why...?" She asked, wiping away another tear. "After everything I've done to all of you...Why would you all still help me?"

"There is word they have on Earth," Jumba began. "Ohana, which means family, which means nobody is left behind or forgotten. Sometimes family does things which make us sad or angry, or we do these things to them because we are scared, upset, or confused. But this does not mean we just throw them away, or that they stop being our family. Each of your cousins felt not unlike what you are feeling now, and they always help one another become best version of self."

"Cousins?" 021 asked.

"Ah, yes. Is what they say on Earth. Everyone is connected, everyone is ohana, everyone is cousins."

021 considered this. She'd always thought the worst of people, even if she'd never met them. 621 had been the exception, mostly because he'd agreed to help her after she'd gotten him out of pod form. To do the opposite, to feel connected with everyone, confused and scared 021. But it was that belief which had saved her life. Perhaps, then, it wasn't really so confusing and scary.

"And there's something I wanted to say to you," Jumba added. "I feel this for all my Experiments, but I think you need to hear it most...I am sorry for what I did to you. I am sorry I did not help you make your own design. I am sorry I treated you like Experiment and not like cousin."