After four movies (Lilo & Stitch, Stitch! The Movie, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch and Leroy & Stitch) and a television show (Lilo & Stitch: The Series), Aloha (Fanfiction.net
or Archive Of Our Own links) by Bookworm Gal is set when things are actually starting to calm down a little. All the cousins have homes, Hamsterviel is in prison, and things are going well for the genetic experiment and the little girl who considers him ʻohana.
But things rarely stay simple for long. Hämsterviel tried to contact someone, anyone, who might try to break him out and ends up telling the leader of a very dangerous alien race about a human child who commands the loyalty of the deadly experiments and broke through their programming. And they want to make use of Lilo's gifts, whether she wants to help them or not.
Kidnapping Lilo, however, is not the best idea. Her ʻohana does not react well to it and immediately starts planning a rescue (preferably before Stitch's destructive programming and worry causes serious issues). Meanwhile, Lilo's interactions with the Swarm begins to spark new ideas and doubts that could undermine their entire society.
Aloha provides examples of:
- Alien Abduction: Technically what happens to Lilo, though considering that aliens aren't that unusual for her to deal with, it plays out more like just a traditional kidnapping.
- Are We There Yet?: One of the Entolyterians ends up saying this when Lilo starts annoying them with Elvis songs.
- Badass Family: The entire Pelekai ʻohana. This family includes Stitch, Jumba, Pleakley, over six hundred twenty other experiments, the (reinstated) Captain Gantu of the Galactic Armada and Galley Officer Reuben, and Lilo. Nani is about the most normal member and even she's got Big Sister Instinct on her side.
- Berserk Button: Kidnapping/harming Lilo is a major and dangerous one for Stitch, Jumba, and pretty much the entire ʻohana.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Yes, Jumba has more-or-less retired from the "evil" part of being an Evil Genius, perfectly happy to live of Earth as Lilo's quirky "uncle" with hundreds of his reformed experiments being appreciated. But as violent and dangerous as the various experiments were before they were turned from bad to good, which the Grand Councilwoman realized after Lilo was kidnapped, Jumba is the one that purposefully made them in the first place. And when a member of his ʻohana goes missing, he's perfectly able to go back to being a dangerous Evil Genius if it means helping save Lilo.
- Big Sister Instinct: Nani demonstrates this pretty strongly towards Lilo. She insists on going into space to help rescue her.
- Bilingual Bonus: Stitch sometimes speaks in untranslated Tantalog.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The first chapter includes a rather detailed description of the biology of Experiment 626 and how it results in his Nigh-Invulnerability, Retractable Appendages, and other features. Other aliens have been similarly described, such as the Entolyterians.
- The Caligula: Queen Soltus is looking more and more like one. Besides pushing the Swarm on a path of conquest impossible to sustain, especially given their disdain for actual agriculture, it is heavily implied that she has been assassinating the young female Red Princesses so that they can't succeed her and she gets to remain queen, even if that means that the Swarm is left leaderless when she dies.
- Call-Back: The "stuff you in a blender and press puree" threat returns.
- Could Say It, But...: The Grand Councilwoman says there is a limit to what they can "officially" do about the Swarm kidnapping Lilo, but gives some pretty clear suggestions of what the others could do that is "less official."Grand Councilwoman: As for everyone else, I'll leave it up to you what actions you decide to take. I can't tell you that a single ship might be able to avoid detection if it was no larger than Captain Gantu's personal vessel and equipped with something to scramble their scanning equipment.
- Damsel out of Distress: Lilo might be the captive of the Swarm, but she starts undermining the loyalty of the various members to their queen not long after arriving.
- Death Glare: Hämsterviel ends up on the receiving end of one from Jumba.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Both Hämsterviel and Queen Solus are convinced that what Lilo did to the experiments involved some sort of superpower or special ability. Lampshaded by Reuben.
- Evil Genius: Jumba. He might not do much "evil" anymore, but don't ever forget it.
- Exact Words: Lilo promises to stop talking... so she starts singing Elvis songs at the top of her lungs.
- Family of Choice: The entire ʻohana. Only Lilo and Nani are technically related (unless you count Stitch and his fellow experiment "cousins"), but they are family. And they will do anything for each other.
- Fantastic Caste System: The entire Swarm society is built upon the idea that the color of their exoskeletons determines their role and rank.
- Red: leaders
- Orange: warriors, guardians, soldiers
- Yellow: scientists, strategists, weapon designers
- Green: weapon builders, factory workers
- Brown: overseers of foreign slave army, caretakers of young
- Blue: maintenance, menial worker
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Queen Soltus, leader of the Swarm.
- The Heart: Lilo. This is one of her greatest strengths, and this is recognized In-Universe.
- Heroic BSoD: Stitch goes into this for after he fails to prevent Lilo from being kidnapped.
- Honorary Uncle: Jumba and Pleakley pretty much have this role, especially in regards to Lilo.
- Humans Through Alien Eyes: Occasionally dips into this, depending on who the viewpoint character is during a particular section.
- Insectoid Aliens: The Entolyterians (also known as the Swarm) are essentially large praying mantises.
- Living Weapon: Stitch and the other experiments. Turns out that Queen Soltus of the Swarm funded their creation to use in conquering other worlds, but Hamsterviel tried to double-cross her and Jumba both so he could keep them for his own purposes.
- Loophole Abuse:
- Used by both the heroes and villains: on the one hand, since Earth isn't an official signatory of the Galactic Federation, Lilo's kidnapping by the Swarm wouldn't constitute as an act of war. On the other hand, since Jumba, Pleakley, and the experiments are considered citizens of Earth (Jumba mentions getting dual citizenship when it became obvious that he was gonna stay there for a while), any actions they take against the Swarm would be fair game.
- Played for Laughs when Lilo is kidnapped by the swarm. After making a deal that she would get to name them in exchange for not speaking for the rest of the trip, Lilo then begins singing instead.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Queen Soltus has apparently been doing this to the Reds that would succeed her.
- Morality Pet: Lilo serves as this to Stitch. One of the big concerns that the remaining ʻohana have is that her being kidnapped combined with his destructive programming might provoke Stitch towards some unfortunate actions that he would regret later.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Members of the Swarm have four arms: the upper set that are larger and shaped like the pinchers of a praying mantis and the lower set that are smaller and end in three-fingered hands.
- Named by the Adaptation: The Grand Councilwoman was given an actual name and species (Ororalin Lyora from Tweslyrode) and Hämsterviel was given a species name (Gerbillinites).
- No Need for Names: The entire Swarm believes this. Lilo disagrees and instantly starts naming them.
- Papa Wolf: Jumba may be a (mostly) formerly Evil Genius, but he does seem to take his role as Lilo's "uncle" quite seriously. Not to mention he's pretty protective of his experiments such as Stitch.
- Parental Substitute: While Nani is already serving as this to her younger sister, Lilo, she also demonstrates moments of this towards Stitch.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Lilo and Stitch.
- Precursors: Tantalog was the native tongue of some now extinct advanced civilization, as the first chapter says.
- Proud Warrior Race: Every aspect of the Swarm society is focused on conquering other planets and taking their resources. Lilo deconstructs this when she hears about it, pointing out that since the Swarm is so focused on conquering worlds rather than actually using them for agriculture and the like, they'll need to conquer more and more worlds as they expand further and they need more resources, and they'll eventually reach a point where they can't conquer new worlds fast enough.
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: It's noted that despite still being on the side of good, Stitch's destructive programming is still present within him, as he briefly has an Imagine Spot about throwing a car into a building to cause destruction. The main reason he doesn't do anything violent is because Lilo would disapprove, which presents a problem when she is taken by the Swarm.
- Retractable Appendages: Stitch, and several of the cousins, possess retractable arms, antennas, and spikes. The exact method that the arms are retractable is described in the first chapter.
- Slaying Mantis: Entolyterians look like giant praying mantises.
- The Talk: Due to Stitch's Super-Senses, Nani was forced to give him a very abbreviated version to explain why female adult humans might smell different at a certain time of the month.
- To the Pain: When he visits his traitorous former colleague after Lilo is kidnapped, Jumba reminds Hämsterviel that he learned about the biology of many different sentient races, including Gerbillinites like Hämsterviel, and if he doesn't talk, he'll break him out, take him to his lab, and see how far he can twist his biology and DNA before Hämsterviel is destroyed, and he'll be sure to make it last as long as he can. Hämsterviel, knowing that if Jumba's mad enough to threaten to directly hurt him, he's not bluffing, caves.
- Worldbuilding: Lots.
- Younger Than They Look: It is hard to remember even for the other characters sometimes, but Stitch is technically only a few years old during the time of this story.
