9 watched from the slab of concrete he rested on as two of his friends, the scholarly twins 3 and 4, ran around the wastelands known as the Emptiness, cataloguing anything that wasn't damaged in the War of the Machines from the past. He saw his beloved, the brave and beautiful warrior 7, hide behind a pile of rubble with a sneaky grin on her face as she brought her bird skullmet over her face, preparing to prank her little friends. When the mute twins came over to the rubble to see what was behind it, 7 popped up and let out a fake growl and the twins jumped up in surprise and landed on their backs. 7 came out of her hiding spot giggling, and she came over to the twins and helped them up.
He enjoyed watching his three best friends play together, and laughed when 7 playfully tackled 3 and started tickling him, making the mute Stitchpunk laugh. But a pang of sadness hit him, almost as if it was weighing him down from inside. It had been over a few weeks since the Fabrication Machine's defeat, but he was still regretting the loss of his fallen friends; 2, the kind-hearted old man who became his first friend when he first awakened and sacrificed his life to protect him twice, first from the Cat Beast, and the second time from getting his soul stolen by the Fabrication Machine; 8, the gruff bodyguard who constantly picked on the weakest of the group but protected them out of loyalty, which was in his nature; 5, the one-eyed engineer who was his best friend that had always been like a brother to him and was always there for him; 6, the unstable artist he understood when no one else could; and 1, the old leader who once thought of him as the enemy but warmed up to him after sacrificing himself to the Fabrication Machine for 9 to retrieve the Talisman that it used to kill everyone by taking their souls.
And it all began with 9 making the big mistake of inserting the Talisman into the Machine out of curiosity.
He missed his friends so much, but most of all, he missed his beloved best friend and brother figure 5. He never forgot that gentle, one-eyed smile and that soft gentle voice that made him feel calm and safe. The day he lost his friends to the Fabrication Machine haunted him ever since, and he still blamed himself for their deaths all because of that one big mistake. From that day on, he kept the Talisman close to him at all times and vowed to never make the same mistake again. Sometimes he would take it out to remind him of his past mistakes and why he stayed close to 7 and the twins.
And almost every night, he still had the same dream that he was alone in the Emptiness and he would be surrounded by the Machines he faced; the Fabrication Machine, the Cat Beast, the Winged Beast, and the Seamstress, and they would take turns trying to attack him and he would try and run off. As he ran through the Emptiness, he heard the screams of his fallen friends and how they try to tell him 'You did this to us!', 'You murderer!', and 'You're a curse!'. He would also see 7 in the distance calling for him, but when he tried catching up to her, she was further away from him and he couldn't catch up to her.
He snapped out of his thoughts when 7 called for him, "9!"
9 put the Talisman back in his zipper and got up from his spot. He grabbed his light staff, which looked the exact same one he once had before it was destroyed when he saved 7 from one the of the most terrifying Machines he and his friends faced, the Seamstress, and proceeded to make his way to his three friends. He looked over at the remains of a destroyed Walker, and a small grey moth laid on top of it. It was also the same moth he saw in his dreams every time he got to where he was trying to chase after 7 to catch up to her. 9 didn't know how one small moth managed to survive the bloodbath and destruction of humanity, but what he did know was that ever since he had freed the souls of his friends from the Talisman, the moth had been around them from every place they've been to in search of a new home. He began to believe that the moth was only trying to scare them and bring more fear to them.
9 came over to 7 and the twins, and 7 saw the upset look on 9's face. She asked him with worry, "9, you look so upset. What's wrong?" 9 looked at her and said, "Oh, nothing." 9 didn't want to tell her about the same dream he had. 7 knew he was lying, and she knew what he was feeling. She saw the same face everyday since their friends were freed and went into the Heavens. She missed them as much as he did, but she learned to move on without them.
She looked at 9 and sighed, "9, I know what's troubling you. But we have to move on. You still have me and the twins." 9 nodded with a sad smile and the twins came over to him and hugged him. 9 chuckled and rubbed 3's hooded head, then he did the same to his sister 4.
9 smiled, "I guess you're right." He looked up at the sky and said, "It's getting late. We should be heading home now." 7 and the twins nodded in agreement and the Stitchpunks held each other's hands as they all started making their way back to the Library together. As they were walking, 9 noticed the moth fluttering over towards the rubble nearby as if it was following them.
9 looked at 7 and asked her, "7?"
"Yes, 9?"
"Have you ever noticed that a moth had been following us and watching our every move for the last few weeks?" 9 asked her. "I'm starting to think that it either wants to scare us, or is watching over us to make sure we do our job for humanity." 7 nodded in agreement, "You know, I was thinking the same thing. But I don't know how that moth could survive all that destruction from the war long ago." They stayed quiet for the rest of their walk home until they reached the Library. Although it was the closest thing the group could live in, they thought of it as their temporary home until they could find a new place to live.
After passing the piles of books, some that got damaged in the war and most of them that survived, 9 looked at the portrait of how beautiful the world looked before him, his friends, and the war. He sighed and thought to himself, If only this is what the world looked like now.
Finally, the four Stitchpunks reached the giant globe that the twins kept many human items including notebooks, newspaper clippings, medals, and jars of preserved animal parts. They went over to the platform at the corner of the globe and 3 activated it to make it move to where their quarters were. The twins went over to a pair of socks and some pieces of rags that acted as a bed and blanket for each of them, and 7 and 9 kissed the twins on their foreheads and said good night to both of them, then they went over to the makeshift bed that they shared made from an old empty matchbox, some cushions, and a large rag for a blanket. 7 took off her skullmet and put down her clock hand spear, then she and 9 got in their bed while the twins fell fast asleep in their socks.
9 looked up and saw the pure white moon shine brightly in the clear night sky. He kept thinking about his friends and wondering if they were watching him from the stars. He noticed five stars shining brightly as they formed around the moon. He smiled sadly, believing them to be his five fallen friends looking down on him and his beloved 7 and son and daughter figures 3 and 4.
7 looked at 9 and noticed the sad smile on him. She said to him as she put her hand on his shoulder, "I bet they know you miss them too, 9. But they moved on like we should." She sighed, "I miss 2 and 5 so much. If only I could see 2's face again and tell him how sorry I was for leaving him and everyone else behind."
9 looked at 7 and said to her, "I know why you did. You wanted to fight the Beast, but 1 wouldn't let you and he was being too stubborn to let you." 7 nodded, "Not only that, but he threatened to have the twins punished by letting 8 hurt them and have them locked up for a long time. When he ordered 8 to beat them both after they looked at 6's drawings of the Talisman and started studying them, I gave that big lug a well-deserved punch in the face and took the twins with me out of Sanctuary. But I never got a chance to say good-bye to the others, and I kept regretting that ever since the twins and I left and found this place." She remembered the day she and the twins ran away from home and found a new sanctuary in the Library and had a sad look of regret on her face.
She continued, "While we were collecting some supplies and the twins found a bunch of useful information about our world's past, the Beast came out of nowhere and attacked us. I managed to get the twins to safety, but the Beast took me down easy and knocked me out cold by throwing me towards the wall. I couldn't remember what else happened after that, but I woke up to see myself in a birdcage that the Beast found in one of the buildings and my back was slightly torn, and the Beast was taking me to the factory." 9 remembered when he first awoke and first met 2, but they were attacked by the Beast the same day and 9 watched the Beast bring 2 to the factory where the Fabrication Machine once was.
7 continued, "I managed to escape the cage by opening the hatch without the Beast catching me, and I took that bird skull and some of those feathers that were in the cage with me to use as my helmet. I found the twins at the place where I hid them, and we went back to the Library where they helped me recover from the attack."
She showed him the large brown patch on her back that covered up her number, with only the edges of her number still visible. She added, "After my recovery, I vowed to fight the Beast and kill it to prevent it from trying to kill the others one day. I thought that after I slayed the Beast, I could go home and be happy that we were free from fear of the Beast. But thanks to your stupid idea to put the Talisman in the Machine, everyone I cared about except 3 and 4 was killed off one by one, and I didn't even get a chance to apologize to everyone for leaving them, even to 2."
She said sadly, "I always saw him as the father I never had, and I loved everyone else as a brother, except for 8 even though we were sort of friends in the past, and 1 wasn't much of a friend to me either and we hated each other too much."
9 chuckled, "That's something we have in common." They chuckled together at what he said. She continued when her smile turned into a sad look, "When I lost all of my friends, I thought I could never forgive myself for leaving them, but when you freed them from the Talisman, I knew what I could feel from them all; forgiveness. They all forgave me for leaving them, and I forgave 1 for all we've been through." She looked at 9, who had a small worried look on his face that she brought up the painful memory of the past.
"I even forgave you for what you've done to start it all but finished it in the end. Without you, we'd be all dead, and I would've lived with nothing but regret for the rest of my life." 7 said to him. 9 smiled a bit, knowing that she wasn't too mad about his big mistake. What she didn't know was that he was hiding his shame behind that smile.
7 smiled at him, "The twins and I are so lucky to have you here. The twins love you like you're their father just like they love me like I'm their mother. Without you, you'd have no idea what it would be like if it were still just the three of us. Don't ever forget that you'll never be lonely with us around." She crawled over to him and kissed him on the lips. She sighed, "We should get some shut-eye."
9 nodded, "You're right. It's getting late." He kissed her on the forehead and said to her, "Goodnight, 7."
"Good night, 9." 7 said, crawling under the blanket. Seconds later, she fell fast asleep, but 9 stayed awake for a little bit. He looked up at the moon one last time and saw the moth resting on a broken beam on the roof as if trying to sleep. 9 turned away from the moth and closed his eyes slowly before falling fast asleep.
Somewhere in the Emptiness, a creature was wandering around the ruins of an old factory. The creature had a mechanical body and a cat skull with a red light glowing from one of it's eye sockets and a light bulb that acted as a flashlight in the other. The Cat Beast had been wandering around this new factory for days since its release back into the world. The last thing it remembered was when the pure white Stitchpunk sliced its head off when it tried to awaken its master, the Fabrication Machine, with the artifact it was looking for; the Talisman.
After the Machine created the Winged Beast to hunt down the other Stitchpunks after waking up from the soul of one of them thanks to that one Stitchpunk that inserted the Talisman into its socket for it, the Machine rebuilt the Cat Beast and made sure it was indestructible to prevent it from being slain once again by putting a strong metal covering around its neck to protect its wiring from being sliced through. Since the destruction of its master by the same Stitchpunk who activated it, the Beast decided to avenge it by lying in wait to destroy the last Stitchpunks on Earth.
For now, it had been over a few weeks since its revival, but it still needed more time to strike its enemy once again. It went over to the small den it made for itself in a large hole in the walls and rested for the night, planning it's next move to find the Stitchpunks and have all life on Earth wiped out like its master ordered it to.