Author's Note: A large portion of this story was inspired by the DVD Director's Commentary track. With all those little clues and pieces of information about the characters and their pasts, I just couldn't resist trying to fit it all together. I had a blast writing it, and hope you enjoy reading. :D

Rating: There's a little violence later on, but what with the characters being dolls, it's not exactly bloody. There are also some mature themes in the later chapters, but, again... dolls. Nothing too explicit in either case.


Vox Humana - Part 1

·

·

It seemed quieter here, somehow, than it did anywhere else.

And that was saying something.

Five points, like spokes on a wheel. Now, alone this time, she walked a circle around them, and though the markers were burned and gone, she knew each place as well as she had when the ink had still been wet. Knew his place better than any of them. She stopped in front of it, just for a moment.

It had all happened so fast.

Not until she had been up in the room, not until she had looked down on the spokes from the safety of the window, had it occurred to her that, when they had come out, she had never heard their voices.

Surprising that she would think along those lines. After all, she was used to the quiet.

Overhead, the sky rumbled. Best to move on. She didn't want to get caught in it here; there was only one place nearby with anything resembling a roof – and one day in that room had been more than enough.

Besides, they were gone from this place. And walking circles wouldn't bring them back.

·

·

"Seven!"

She heard him a second before she saw him, emerging from the shadows behind the enormous book, into the candlelight. He ran to her, his smile so warm and full of relief that it took a moment for her to find her own voice. "Where are the twins?" she asked him, when she did.

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she realized her question was already being answered; over Nine's shoulder, she saw the lift descending, its passengers waving enthusiastically. It had barely come to a stop before Three and Four leaped from the platform and nearly bowled her over in greeting.

"We were worried about you," Nine said through his laughter, "out there in all of that. We were about to go out and start looking."

"Be glad you didn't." The twins circled her, excitedly plucking at the strap across her shoulder and the parcel it held in place on her back. She batted them playfully with her free hand. "Later," she told them.

Nine, whose gaze had never left her, now looked pointedly at the weapon she carried and the helmet once again in place on her head. "You found your things, at least. So, how was it? Other than the rain?"

"Quiet."

They looked at each other a moment.

"So, there's nothing – "

"Nothing." She managed a small smile. "So it looks like you've had your hands full around here."

The twins knew a cue when they heard one. Swooping in, they took Seven by the arm and half pulled her, half guided her, in a walking tour around their little world. Much like the larger one, it had seen better days. They showed her the dark places where water had seeped into the floor. Sodden treasures. Rusty shelves. "It's getting worse every day," said Nine. "We covered the top, but it just comes in from everywhere else."

"Yes, I saw that," she said, looking up to the top of the globe. "I would have come back sooner if I'd thought of it."

"There's not much you could have done. But now that you're back, we do have something we want to talk to you about."

She raised her eyebrows.

"Maybe you want to rest a while first? You must be – "

"I'm rested. What is it?"

Nine and the twins exchanged glances. "Come with us."

Back in the deep shadows behind the book, Four projected a sprawling image onto its cover. Seven recognized it as a map from before the war, of the city and its surrounding areas. Here was the library. The Sanctuary. The southern walls, and beyond them, the place where the towers would be if they had existed then. Or now. Emptiness between.

"How far from here have you traveled?" he asked.

"What?" To the twins: "You want to leave here?"

"We're thinking about it," said Nine. "You don't want to go?"

"Well – so, what? Find another library? I'm not sure there's another –"

The projected image changed. It looked oddly familiar. Abstractly shaped. Surrounded by blue.

Wait. What?

Sudden darkness as Four's projection switched off. Seven could just make out the twins' faces, which were as resolute as she had ever seen them.

"I know how it sounds," said Nine. "But it's a big world. There might be something else out there, something we never even thought of." He smiled a little uncertainly. "What do you think?"

There it was. Absolutely no concept of what he was saying. No idea of the enormity of what he was suggesting. Ready to go strolling off to parts unknown like it was nothing. Having no idea he couldn't do something – and then doing it.

What did she think?

"I think I'm ready when you are," she said.'

·

·

"I brought you something," Seven said a short time later, when they were alone. She removed her helmet so that she could slip the parcel off over her head, and as an afterthought removed her shield as well, setting them down on a book next to her. Nine's eyes followed her motions.

She held the bundle out to him by its strap; eventually he took his eyes off her long enough to examine it. Roundish, cloth-wrapped, bigger than his head. He frowned a little as he turned it in his hands, until suddenly he gave a comical little gasp of recognition and crouched down to work the knot loose.

He had it open in seconds. Folds of cloth fell away to reveal a bulb of gleaming glass, very much like the one he had carried not too long ago. "You found one," he laughed, holding it up to the light, his bright, eager expression almost unbearably familiar. "I've been wanting to go out looking, but – does it work?"

"I thought I'd leave that up to you."

"It looks like it will. I'll need one of those – things – and some wire, and – " his face clouded a bit. For a while he stared into the glass; what he saw there, she could only guess, though she imagined it would be much the same thing she had. When he looked at her again, his eyes were solemn. "Thank you," he said.

"It'll be helpful out there, especially when there's no moon."

"I'll get started – " He stopped, frowning at her. "What did you say?"

"What?"

"No moon?"

It was like he was from another world, sometimes. "Haven't you noticed how dark it's been at night?"

"Of course, but – I guess I never thought of it like that. I mean, we have candles in here. What do you do out there?"

"It depends." When he did not reply, but stood looking at her expectantly, she went on: "It's not always completely dark, even without a moon. If it's just going to be a short while, I can usually see enough to get me through. Sometimes I can't, and I have to stop for a while. But the dark moons, I'll usually spend indoors."

"Where? Here?"

"Sometimes." She watched as he placed the bulb gently down next to her armor pieces and sat beside them on the book. After a moment, she joined him. "So what is this thing the twins are doing?"

"They won't say. Ever since we got the idea to travel, they've been holed up there. I've barely seen them for the last few days."

"They do that."

"Actually, it was mostly their idea."

"What, traveling?"

He nodded. "I'd been thinking about leaving too, but I never told them. They came to me with it."

The place really was in bad shape. She looked up at the enormous book in the center of the room. The catalog, their pride and joy. Ropes attached to its pages led from it to the sections all around, tagged and categorized, where they housed their stores of knowledge. It was crinkled and stained now, where drops had landed on it from above. "It must be hard for them to see it like this."

"Maybe." He looked thoughtful.

"Thank you, by the way. For staying."

"It's fine. I've been doing a lot of..." his voice trailed off as she took his hand.

"What?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You've been doing a lot of..."

"Oh... Reading. Looking at maps. There's so much to know."

"If you say so." She smiled and pointed upwards. "You're in good company, at least."

·

·

"Are you all right?"

Nine's voice. A hand on her arm. How long had he been standing there? She shook herself and blinked. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I said, this is perfect." He nodded at the cart she stood beside. A wooden one with metal wheels, nearly as tall as she was, of the kind she noticed among the wreckage every now and then. They were usually in worse shape than this. It was a good find.

Together, they trundled it by its long wooden handle over to the place where he had piled some things to take back. Lots of metal pieces of various shapes and sizes. Rods. Fasteners. Wires. And –

"What's that?" She indicated the small metal disk he cradled in his hands. He was looking at it fondly.

"This is the important piece," he said. "It's what's going to make it light."

Oh! "A battery," she said without thinking.

A look of recognition came over his face. "That's it." Now he was looking at her in much the same way he had been looking at the battery a moment ago. "What do you know about these?"

"Not much. I've never even seen one like that."

"But you knew what it was called."

"Only because you said it makes things light."

"So you've done this before? Made lights?"

"No. I just watched," she said. This was what she got for opening her mouth.

"Who? Five?"

"He was there."

"Two, then."

She nodded.

"So what did they do? What kind of lights did they make?"

"I don't really remember," she said. "We should start heading back. It'll be dark soon, and there won't be a moon for most of the night."

He opened his mouth as if about to say something, but then seemed to change his mind. In the end, he simply turned the small disk in his hands again and then placed it gently in the cart.

Later, in the candlelit globe, she came to sit across from him as he sorted through some of the pieces he had collected. "What are you going to make?" she asked. "Something like you had before?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "I might come up with something better. What did you think of the maps?"

She shrugged. "They're maps."

"I couldn't tell much from them, either."

"I don't think there's any way to really know until we're out there. But are you sure you want to go south? There's more land to the east. Assuming we'll ever get that far." Crossing oceans probably wouldn't be a good idea.

"The twins, again. They think that's the first place we'll see plants, if they start coming back."

"Plants?"

He set aside the wire he had been holding and shifted closer to her, leaning forward excitedly. "They're these things that grow up out of the ground. They're alive, but they don't move or speak. They showed me drawings..." he trailed off. "What?"

"Nothing."

"They can explain it better than I can."

"I've seen them."

"The drawings?"

"No. Well, those, too."

He gasped. "You've seen plants? Live ones, from before? What were they like?"

"It's hard to say. A lot was going on at the time."

His face fell.

Oh, all right. "They were all different. Some were big and some were small... there were different colors, but most of them were green." Her hand went to the toggle on her front.

"What kind of colors?"

"White. Yellow." A lot of yellow. "And there were brown ones, with green tops. Those were the big ones." She thought a moment. "Trees."

"Right, right," he said, nodding vigorously, "that's where wood comes from. What else do you remember?"

"I don't know. Not much."

"Sorry."

"No, it's all right." She studied him for a moment. "I forget sometimes. How – "

"What?"

Young you are. "How little time you've been awake." Thirteen days, if she had counted correctly.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" she went on. "Just because all the machines are gone doesn't mean it won't be dangerous. Things go flying out there when the winds kick up. Sometimes things just catch fire or explode for no reason. We still don't know what too much water will do to us." All that water. "And we really have no idea what else might be out there."

He didn't answer. A very strange expression was on his face. She went on: "Maybe you should wait. Maybe we can find another place, where the water doesn't come in, like the first room. And I can go on ahead, find a path for us – "

"No. I don't think that's – you don't need to do that. There's nothing out there we can't face."

"I'm not saying you can't face it, I'm just – "

" – trying to protect us. I know."

The metal pieces were suddenly far more interesting than they had been a moment ago. She picked one of them up, an odd one which consisted of two small pieces hinged together in a v-shape. When she squeezed them together, they sprang back open.

"You don't have to do that any more," he went on. "We want to be out there. Isn't that what you wanted?"

She had the words for some of the pieces. Others, she didn't. Like this one. It was sort of funny how that worked.

"There are only a few of us left. We shouldn't separate. We're stronger when we're – "

"All right," she said, a bit louder than she had meant to. She took a deep breath. "All right. I won't go."

Now it was Nine who became interested in the pieces again. He tinkered with them for a while as she watched. Again, she wondered what the twins were doing. Was all this planning really necessary? If they were all so determined to go, why didn't they just go?

"Where did you live?" Nine asked, out of nowhere.

"What?"

"You didn't live here. You didn't live with the others. Where did you live?"

What an odd question. "There were some places I had. They changed a lot."

"And that was – how long was it?"

"I don't know... they were all different. I had to let the beast find them every now and then, to keep throwing it off. The last one was the longest, I think." She had liked it.

"No, I mean, how long were you away? From the others?"

Oh. "I don't know."

"Maybe not exactly, but you must have some idea – "

"I told you. I never kept track." As she made to stand up, he dropped what he was holding and put his hand on her arm.

"Wait," he said. "Please."

She hesitated.

"Never mind. Forget I asked."

Did he think she was stupid? That she didn't know what he was really asking her? He had been dancing around that question ever since the burning – the only one, since she had known him, that he didn't seem to have the nerve to ask directly. She was still trying to work out whether or not that was a good thing. "It's just the way I am, all right?" she finally said. "I was different from them. It wasn't working any more."

He released her arm, at least having the decency to look abashed. "I didn't mean – "

"Of course you did. But I really don't know what you want me to tell you."

"You don't have to tell me anything."

"I know I don't. But at this rate I won't get any peace until I do."

"I didn't – "

"And it's kind of a long story."

He stopped, blinking at her. After a moment, he broke into a smile. "We have time."

Well.

That they did.

·

·

"Is this what you were looking for?" Seven asked. She rolled the large, heavy cylinder into the workshop and over to Two, who was in the process of arranging an assortment of pieces on his workbench. "There are lots of them not far from here."

"Oh my – yes, this is perfect! Wonderful!" Two laughed. He walked a circle around it, beaming, and bent to examine the connectors sticking out from the side.

A few moments later, Five found his way out from behind a large pile of newly-collected artifacts at the back of the shop. "Oh, this is that thing you've been talking about," he said, coming over and nudging it with his foot. "The... uh... "

"Battery," said Two, patting it fondly. "How many did you say there were?"

"I didn't," said Seven, "but about two dozen."

"Wonderful!" Two said again. "Here, help me with this." The three of them, lifting together, could not quite manage to hoist the thing upright. "Well, no matter. We'll have to roll it back out of here, anyway. Did you see anything out there?" he asked her, suddenly intent.

"All clear, for now."

"Good," he said, relaxing. "Now, there might still be some power left... let me see... " He scurried off to the back.

Seven leaned against the bench. "So, have you thought about it?" she asked Five, and was not the least bit surprised when he turned and made a point of busying himself with something.

"Uh... not really."

"You said you would." Whatever it was he was doing was apparently engrossing. When no answer was forthcoming, she went on, "I don't understand you. You'll go out collecting with Two."

"That's different."

"Why?"

"You know why. Besides, One says it's okay."

Of course. "How do you know he won't be okay with this?"

Again, Five suddenly became very absorbed in his work. It involved wires.

"You could handle it. It's not as hard as you'd think."

"Maybe not for you," he said, turning back around to face her. "You're... better at those things than we are."

"So what? You're a better collector than I am."

"I don't know about that," he said, smiling a little. "You made Two pretty happy just now."

"Exactly. And you see how long it took. Imagine what you could find out there."

His expression immediately turned serious again. "Look... I can't, all right? I'm sorry. I'm... not good with those things. I'll make a noise, or bump into something, or... I don't know. Anyway, believe me, you're the only one he trusts to go out there and not lead it back."

Footsteps were coming down the path outside the workshop. Five hastily made to look busy again. Seven stayed right where she was. A few moments later, the curtains covering the entrance parted and One stepped in. "So," he said to her. "Now you no longer feel it necessary to come and report."

She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Now, now," called Two from the back, "she was just bringing me something she'd found."

"Ah, yes." He gave the cylinder a whack with the butt of his staff. "The... battery, I take it?"

"She says there are lots of them. I think this is going to work out fine."

One harrumphed a bit under his breath, then tapped Five on the shoulder. "Go and relieve the twins," he said. Five hesitated for a moment, but nodded and, with a parting glance at Seven, left the room.

"Well, then," One said, addressing her now. "What have you to report?"

"Some tracks about a half-mile west of here. They were a few days old."

"And this was when?"

"Yesterday."

"Hmm. Anything else?"

"Yes..."

He frowned a little. "Go on."

"I think Five should start coming with me."

"What? Out of the question."

"Why? He's young and able-bodied. He should be out there. And he should be learning to fight."

"I said, out of the question."

"Have you seen the size of that thing? We need to throw everything we have at it if we're going to – "

"Enough!" He held a hand up. "We're not going to. And he's not going to."

"We need to do something," she said quietly.

"We are doing something. We are protecting ourselves. We need to stay together, and we need to survive. These things are paramount. And as for you, you seem to be continually under the impression that all of us have the same abilities that you do."

"I don't think that, I just – "

"We all have talents. We all have something to contribute. Five's contributions lie elsewhere."

"He can learn. We can learn to do other – "

"The answer," One said curtly, striking his staff on the ground, "is no." Without another word, he turned and swept from the room, the little bell on his staff tinkling.

"I really hate that thing," she muttered to herself.

"What's that?" Two, who had just come back out, was dragging a tangled mass of wire with glass bulbs attached.

"Nothing," she said, pushing off from the bench and helping him drag the wires over next to it. She watched him pick through them for a while. Eventually he set them down, leaned heavily on the bench, and said, "What are you doing?"

"What?"

"What are you doing? You asked Five if he wanted to go scouting with you. You've asked him if he wanted to train with you. He's told you no. Now you're getting One involved. What are you trying to accomplish?"

Seven was taken aback for a moment, but recovered quickly. "I'm trying to do what has to be done. This thing is hunting us, and it's getting closer."

"You just said it was a half-mile from here. That's the same distance it was last time."

"Yes..." She frowned at him. Did he really not know this? "But we're at the center of the city. It's circling inward. Slowly, but it's following a pattern. Sooner or later, it'll find us, unless we do something."

He peered closely at her. "Why did you not tell this to One?"

"He knows."

"I see."

"Look," she said, "I have to go back for my weapon. I left it outside with the batteries."

"Do you mind if I come with you? I want to see them."

Though Two was, as always, good company, she did wish he walked a little faster. Her hands felt disturbingly empty. Fortunately, it was not very far, and it wasn't long before she found the bladed staff right where she left it, leaned against one of the broken crates. She took it up by its wooden handle, immensely relieved. "What do you think?"

He studied them for a while. Some had toppled over, having spilled from their container, but upright, they were taller than she was, and nearly as wide as they were tall. "I think we'll have a time moving them," he said, "but they look like they'll do nicely. They're in good condition."

"Well, I'm ready when you are."

"What?" He looked up at the afternoon sky. "No, no. Tomorrow morning. We'll get Five to help us. Maybe Eight as well, if One will spare him."

"Do you think he'll come this far out?"

"Of course, if One tells him to."

She frowned at him a moment, not having expected him to put it quite that way, before she understood. "No, I meant Five."

"Oh! Of – " he broke off, giving her the same look he had given her a short while ago in the shop. "Now, that's enough of that. You need to stop being so hard on him."

"I'm not being hard. I'm just trying to get him to – "

"I know what you're trying to do. And I know your intentions are good. But if he's going to come to that, it needs to be in his own time."

"Well, how much time is that going to be? All I ever hear about is what we can't do. Why are we going to let that thing stop us from living?"

"Because," said Two, "that thing will stop us from living, if given the opportunity." He sighed. "You're young. Things are different for you."

"They don't have to be. And Five is young, too."

"Perhaps," Two sighed again. "Come on," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder, and together, they walked back to the cathedral.