Author Notes: Hi, peoples! :D *waves excitedly* Wow, haven't uploaded anything in quite some time, huh? Sure has been a while. Been busy with a whole bunch of other cool stuff. I can't wait 'till next year! My library's going to have an anime mini-con and then I might go to my very first real anime convention! Woohoo! :D :D Happy happy!

But that's totally beside the point. What I have here is a (in my mind) really, really cool story! :D And it's actually based off of Tora Marikama's idea of taking all the characters from 9, turning them into humans, and sticking them in a mental institution (or something along those lines). THANK YOU, TORA! FREE COOKIES FOR YOU! :P However, while I am using the same, basic idea for my story, it is NOT the same! The plot's are (I believe) completely different. (If they somehow ended up the same, it's a complete accident and I will probably work on changing that very quickly.)

So, basically, my story takes the characters from 9 and tosses them into an alternate world where they are very human (and no, the world has not been wiped out by crazy machines trying to take over the earth or what-not). I have thrown in an OC simply because he's very important to the plot and such. Some of the characters may be a bit out of character, but I'm doing my best to keep them in character as much as possible. Except Nine. He's going to have to wait a few chapters before he gets his old personality back.

Also, just a note for everyone reading this, you may notice that I tend to focus on one or two characters at a time. This is because I have trouble keeping track of more than two or three characters all at once. I'm doing my best but I really don't write nearly as well as when I only have to keep an eye on up to three characters. This means that most of the story will probably be focused on Nine, Ten, and Five (since those are my favorites! XD). I refuse to accept flames on this subject (or any flames at all, for that fact) and (maybe) a bit of constructive criticism would be welcomed. However, that won't change the fact that I'm much better off with focusing on only a few characters at a time.

Okay, have fun!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from the movie 9! NOT MINE! D: Wish I could even come close to doing something that cool, but I can't. I do, however, own Ten. IS MINE! :D

Paint by Number

Chapter 1

And So It Begins...

Five grinned to himself as he squirmed excitedly in his chair. Well, his name wasn't really 'Five', but that was what he was called. He, along with the others in his group, insisted on calling each other by their numbers. None of them wanted anyone to know their names for various reasons. None of them ever questioned anyone's reasons for wanting to keep their identity a secret. None of the doctors seemed to mind, either, thinking that it was just some kind of game that they played. Either way, everyone in his group referred to each other by their number.

Five glanced around, wondering where their 'carer' was at the moment. Probably off getting the new guy. Apparently there was supposed to be someone new joining the group that day. Or was it two new patients? He couldn't remember, not that it really mattered. They would find out soon enough. Leaning back in his chair, he looked up at the ceiling of the room and let out a sigh. Why was it taking so long? He wanted to get the therapy session over with so that he could get on with his day.

It wasn't long before two young men entered the room, followed by their doctor. "Alright, everyone," the doctor said, taking a seat in the small circle, "we have two new patients with us. Their names are-"

"NINEANDTEN!" a voice screamed, interrupting the doctor. There was a pause and then the man shrank back slightly, fiddling with his fingers and he mumbled to himself, "Nineandten. Justusnineandten. Can'tgetoutofthenightmarecastle... Nineandtenforeverandever..."

The doctor waited until he was sure that he wouldn't be interrupted again and continued, "As I was saying these are- oh right. Well, they don't really have names. At least, they can't concentrate long enough to tell anyone. I do believe that he," the doctor motioned toward the apparently younger man with the green number ten on his chest, "truly doesn't remember his name. The hospital has apparently been calling them John Doe," the apparently slightly older man looked up and then went back to staring at his feet, "and Richard Roe."

There was a pause as the doctor took in a deep breath. He motioned towards the chairs, indicating that the two newest members should have a seat. 'John Doe' apparently got the idea and quickly seated himself. He glanced around the circle, still not saying anything, and his eyes settled on Five. The two patients watched each other for a moment before John quickly looked away and turned his attention to 'Richard'.

The silence was short lived as Richard jumped forward suddenly and screamed, "STOP, DROP, 'N ROLL! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD! Thesquirrelrevolutionhasbegun! Runforyourlives!" before he dropped to the floor, hitting his face against the ground with a sharp crack, and wrapped his hands over his head as though he were preparing himself for a bomb that was about to drop onto him.

At Richard's sudden outburst, everyone in the room except John had jumped and began looking around for the source of the outburst. Upon finding the younger man cowering on the floor, everyone confirmed their suspicions that their wonderful schedule was about to be completely interrupted and that the day was going to be long. Very long.

Spazztasitc Time/Scene Change!

It was about five the next morning when Nine, as dubbed by the rest of the group, found himself staring at his reflection in a mirror. He had shaggy, dark brown hair that had obviously not been cut or brushed in a very long time, giving him a bit of a wild appearance. His light brown eyes were glazed and he had dark bags under his eyes, giving him a perpetually exhausted appearance. His clothes consisted of a baggy, white shirt tucked into equally baggy, off-white pants. Sewn onto his shirt, across the right half of his chest, was a gray patch with the number 9 painted on it. He knew that an even larger 9 had been painted onto his back so that he could be easily identified, a fact that only frightened him more.

Nine sighed and turned the faucet on, running the water as cold as possible. Once satisfied with the temperature, he filled his cupped hands with water and splashed it onto his face. He really needed to consider sleeping. If he wasn't careful, he'd pass out again and this time he might not be so lucky as to simply get away with a few bruises. But the shadows... He jumped and twisted himself around suddenly, his eyes darting around the room as though looking for something. 'The shadows hold secrets. Secrets and monsters. Only he believes me. He's seen them, too.'

Seeing nothing, Nine shuddered and edge out of the bathroom. Still glancing nervously around the empty hallway, he slowly made his way to his room. He knew that his room wasn't safe, but it was certainly safer than being out in the open where they could get him. There was a small click as he shut his door behind him and then wandered over to his bed. Crawling onto the mattress, he edged over to the corner and drew his knees up to his chest while wrapping his arms around his legs. Now nothing could get him.

Nine wasn't how much time had gone by, he didn't have a clock or anything with with to tell time, when a knock on his door startled him out of his thoughts. He had a guess at who it was, but, just to make sure, he unwrapped himself, approached the door, and knocked several times on his side of the door.

There were three short knocks, followed by one long knock and then two more short ones. Nine was positive that he knew exactly who was standing on the other side of the door. He gave two short knocks and stepped back as the door opened slowly, just wide enough for his friend, Ten, to slip into the room. For a moment, neither said anything, instead glancing warily around the room as though expecting someone to jump out of the shadows.

As soon as he was positive that they were alone, Ten grabbed Nine and dragged the man to the bed. "See nothing, here nothing, say nothing," Ten whispered, placing his hands over his eyes, ears, and mouth in that order. Nine gave a quick nod. He already followed the rule diligently, both of them did in their own ways. However, they followed the final rule far more strictly than any other. Nine chose silence as his way of following the rule. Ten simply babbled without actually saying anything worthwhile.

"Thesquirrelsareevil," Ten whispered suddenly, rubbing his hands together and casting another wary glance around the room. Nine curled into the tight ball once more and gave a quick shrug. The squirrels could revolt all they wanted, they were no threat to him. He sighed softly and looked Ten over carefully. In the dark, his friend seemed so... different.

Ten was very tall, standing slightly taller than Nine, and unhealthily skinny, making him look like he hadn't eaten in days. He, too, had shaggy hair that looked as though it hadn't been brushed in forever. Unlike Nine, however, his hair was a pale blond that looked as though it had been bleached repeatedly. His shaggy hair also gave him a very wild, rather dangerous, appearance. Light blue eyes constantly darted around the room, taking in every detail, and were quite bright. He was twitchy like a squirrel and had a slightly exhausted look, though he didn't look nearly as tired as Nine. His outfit was the same as Nine's, only the number painted on his back was 10 and the small patch was over the left half of his chest.

"They're coming," Ten whispered. Nine nodded absentmindedly until Ten began shaking him violently. "They are coming! Here! Notsafeanymore!" Ten released Nine and turned around on the bed. He twitched slightly and then scampered over to the door and back again. "Comingcomingcoming. Gottagetoutbeforetheygethereisnotsafeanymore."

Nine shook his head and snapped, "Go back to bed." Ten froze, staring at him incredulously. "Go back to bed. It's just nighttime jitters. They can't get us here. Not yet, anyways."

"Always when you least expect it. Usually at night. Mostly at night. You know, they got Sarah last month," Ten mumbled under his breath. One final glanced was cast around the room before he slipped out of the room.

Nine listened carefully and then settled back against the wall. Before, he had been slightly relaxed. Now, however, he was stiff and prepared to run away at any moment. It scared him, Ten's uncanny ability to tell when someone was about to have an attack or 'episode' as the doctors liked to call it. But, they didn't know anyone here. Usually, it was only other people that they knew, people that understood what they meant when they spoke of them. But no, they didn't know any others like them. So why was Ten so nervous?

Nine's eyes darted around the room and he hugged his legs tighter. Nervous tension caused his heart to beat faster and he felt like running. He couldn't stay still anymore. He had to move, had to escape. He had to get out. 'Maybe they really are coming,' he mused. 'It's possible. They're hunting you. You and- What was that?' The sound of voices filtered through his door and he lifted his head slightly. He could hear the voices of a small group of people.

Standing up, Nine crossed over to the door of his room and yanked it open. The door slammed against his wall, catching the attention of everyone in the hall and silencing the voices, but he didn't care. He took one step out into the hallway before the door across from him opened and an off-white blur slammed into him, knocking him back into his room.

"Theycametheycametheycame! I told you! ItoldyouItouldyouItoldyou!" Ten babbled from on top of Nine. "I said, I said, I said! , theywillalwaysfindyou."

Nine growled something under his breath and tried to sit up, but was violently pushed back onto the floor by Ten. "Ten, you have three seconds to get off me," Nine snapped, shoving Ten roughly. Ten almost fell off, but he quickly regained his balance and resumed straddling Nine's stomach.

"But, they came. I heard them, in the shadows..." Ten stopped talking and looked up at the other members of his group. There was a moment of silence before he screamed, "See nothing, hear nothing, say nothing!" and scampered down the hall, disappearing when he pushed open the door leading to the stairs.

Five approached Nine and helped the man off the floor. "Hey, uh, you okay?" he asked worriedly. "You look terrible."

Nine shook himself quickly as though trying to shake off water or something and began earnestly brushing himself off. Five watched him curiously and opened his mouth to say something when Nine grabbed his hand and placed it against the far right side of his chest. "Is it still there?!" he hissed, worried eyes focused intently on Five.

Five jumped when his hand had been grabbed and tried to pull away. "Is what there?" he asked.

"Beat, thud, inner drum, I don't know!" Nine cried, releasing Five's hand. He grabbed at his hair and shook his head violently as he continued to wail, "I don't know, I just don't know! It's important and always makes a noise, but it's really, really, really bad if it goes silent." He grabbed Five's shoulders suddenly and slammed the other man against the wall. "They came. Last night. Someone went cold. Coldcoldcold... You can wake up and you're silent, but you still move. Dead but alive. I don't know." He let go of Five and stumbled back several steps. "Gotta find Ed.." he mumbled so that only Five could hear before he started to wander off, almost as though in a daze.

Nine didn't get far, however, when everyone else apparently got past the reboot stage with their brains and started moving again. Seven ran past everyone and grabbed Nine, intending to pull him back before anything happened. Her plan backfired, though, because the sudden contact between her and Nine triggered something in his mind.

As soon as Seven touched him, Nine dropped to a crouch and swung a leg around, knocking Seven to the ground. He didn't wait to see who had touched him or who he had knocked down. Instead, he jumped up and began running at full speed, screaming at the top of his lungs. "TEEEEEENNNN!" he screamed, pushing the door to the stairs open and almost falling over the railing. He did knock the wind out of his lungs when he rain into the railing and he stumbled a few steps away from the edge. "They're here," he gasped. He knew that all too familiar feeling. The feeling that your heart had stopped and the temperature around you had dropped. The doctors told him that it was fear, but he knew the truth. He and Ten both knew the truth.

Nine's thoughts were cut short when the door to the stairs swung open and the doctor that had introduced him to the rest of the group, followed closely by Seven and Five, burst through. They were saying something, but their voices merged together so that he couldn't understand them. He glanced around nervously before fixing his frightened gaze on them. Stepping back, he found himself falling backwards with nothing under his feet. The next thing the trio said, he understood perfectly, just before there was a sharp crack and everything went dark.

"NINE!"

***

Everything was dark. So dark. Or course it was dark, he still had his eyes closed. With a soft groan, he opened his eyes slightly and cast a wary glance at the scenery. Yes, he was back here. The Nightmare Castle as Ed called it. Which reminded him, where was the little bugger? He twisted himself over so that, from the waist up, he was laying on his stomach while the rest was as if he were laying on his back. Propping himself up on his elbows, he looked around at everything more carefully then before.

No, this wasn't the Nightmare Castle. It couldn't be. The building in the distance was different. Without looking closely, it did look like a castle. But no, the three tall cylinders were set up wrong and were the wrong heights and the building in the distance was most definitely not a castle. But he had definitely seen it before. But where?

He squinted, concentrating on the building in the distance. He knew that he had seen it somewhere and it irritated him that he couldn't remember. Suddenly, it occurred to him. 'Those pictures that Ed's always drawing! Those must be that. He's always talking about this place. Says he finds himself here whenever he sleeps or whenever they come.'

He rolled over so that he was completely on his stomach and took a closer look at his surroundings. It looked as though all life had vanished. He could imagine that everything had once been pretty and full of flowers. But now... Now it was just a vast wasteland of trash and debris. It was so strange. He had heard Ed tell him stories of this place. The earliest stories had been wonderful; so full of life and happiness, overflowing joy, and the constant development of technology. It was like the real world except without the horrible terrors. It was Ed's 'safe place', the reason he was called a schizophrenic in the first place. He thought that the idea of a 'safe place' had been wonderful, at first. The ability to lose one's self inside a fantasy world where one couldn't get hurt, it was fabulous! He remembered when he used to envy Ed for the ability to not be able to tell the real world from the fantasy world.

That was then, this was now. He remembered all those stories that Ed told him, how they started out peaceful but then started growing darker. Suddenly, everything had gone wrong. Ed already completely lived in the fantasy world, spending hardly any time in the real world anymore. So what was one supposed to do when they could no longer escape from their fantasy and their fantasy turned into a living nightmare? Suddenly, he felt really bad for Ed. How could someone stand to live in such a place.

He rolled onto his back and sat up sharply, twisting his head in all direction. 'Something is watching me.' He couldn't tell why he knew it, he just knew that someone was watching him. He continued to look around for a few minutes and then shrugged. Perhaps it was the strange feeling that this place was almost familiar that was making him so much more jumpy than normal. He felt as though he had been here before, or at least had seen something from this... place. A sudden thought occurred to him. 'What if the shadow monsters came from here? The monsters in the shadows... It makes so much sense. The monsters came fro-'

Clank!

'What was that?' He scrambled to his feet and looked around, his awe and curiosity was quickly replaced by fear and paranoia. Clank! He twisted around in a tight circle several times but still couldn't locate the source of the noise. The noise was loud so whatever was causing it had to be nearby. Clank! With a frightened hiss, he lowered himself and bent his knees, ready to take off in an instant. His heart was beating rapidly, thudding loudly against his chest as though trying to escape through his ribcage. Clank! It was behind him. Twisting himself around, he found himself looking up at a huge robot. Actually, 'huge' didn't even begin to describe the size of the thing.

The robot made him easily look like a mouse or a cockroach. The thing was massive and round with a large, glowing red eye. Coming out from all over the ball were many arms, all of which were pointed directly at him. Their claw-like fingers opened and closed several times before they all opened completely and pulled back slightly.

Staring up at the robot, he felt almost all the muscles in his body stiffen. His bladder and facial muscles, however, went slack and his mouth dropped open. For at least one full second, he knew that his heart had stopped completely. His brain jammed, his muscles tightened to the point where he couldn't move, and all he could do was stare up at the thing and whimper. From before him, there came another loud Clank! and he finally knew what was creating the strange noise. It wasn't the gigantic robot since it was connected to the ceiling. For some unknown reason, he had somehow found himself (he assumed) inside the building. The source of the clanking was a dog-like robot made from the skeleton of some unidentifiable creature. The dog-thing growled at him and his brain finally started working again.

He turned around and ran.

"I'm gonna die!" he screamed, not to anyone in particular but almost as though reassuring himself that he wasn't dead... yet. "I'm gonna die! I'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadie!" After that, he simply screamed at the top of his lungs. 'I don't want to die! What would Ed do? He's been here before, he should know how to deal with these... things. He's always talking about this place. WhatdoIdo? I'm going to die!'

He could hear the creature running after him. Actually, by the sounds he heard, it appeared to be leaping towards him. He didn't take his eyes off of the area before him, however, too afraid of tripping over something. As long as he kept running, there was a chance that he would survive. He could and he would-

The light, dull as it was, caught him by surprise. He hesitated for a second and then took off running once more when he heard the mechanical beast land directly behind him. 'Have to get out of here!' He didn't know where he was running. 'Have to get away!' He didn't have any idea where he was. Nor did he really care, actually. He just wanted to get away. Very, very far away. Anywhere was better than where he was just then.

He was running across several wooden planks when the wood beneath him gave out suddenly. With a sharp scream of surprise followed by a pained yelp, he soon found himself stuck in a hole in the wooden planks. He tried to wriggle out but couldn't. He managed to twist the upper half of his body just enough to see the mechanical beast standing above him.

Someone was screaming. He couldn't tell who and, at the moment, he didn't care. All he knew was that he was going to die. Right there. He was completely alone, no one to help him, and a huge, mechanical monster was out to kill him. He had the vague feeling that someone was screaming, almost like background noise. Too faint to properly hear and yet he somehow knew, someone was screaming. The only thing he understood, however, was the fact that the beast was lunging at him. Powerful jaws closed around him and-

"NOOOO!" Nine tried to throw himself forward but found himself restrained by many hands and bodies. There also appeared to be some kind of binding or straps that were helping to keep him restrained, but the group of people were still there, trying to hold him down.

"Let me go!" Nine screamed, struggling to break free. "I have to find... have to find... Where's Ed?! He was... he was... Get off me! No!" His words died away to panicked screaming. None of the doctors or nurses could calm him down so a nurse was sent away to get a sedative.

She came back holding a needle filled with said sedative when a figure burst into the room and screamed, "DONT DO IT! Eventhoughheinvadedmy'safeplace'hedoesn'tdeservetodie!" The doctors weren't given a chance to recover from Ten's sudden intrusion when he ran over to the bed which held the still screaming Nine, and threw off several of the doctors. Climbing onto the bed, he once again straddled Nine's stomach while pulling a stuffed toy out of the collar of his shirt. "JOKER!" he screamed, stuffing the toy into Nine's face.

Nine stopped screaming and crossed his eyes in an effort to look at the toy. Apparently it had some meaning to Ten, but he wasn't exactly sure what. Ten tilted his head slightly at the sudden silence and then pretended to make the toy dance across Nine's chest, murmuring in an almost soothing tone, "This is Joker, see? They can't hurt Joker. Can't even get near Joker. Joker is a 'safe thing'. He is my 'safe place'. They can't get you as long as you have a 'safe thing'." He paused and then clutched the toy to his chest and pulled his knees up to his chin. "You can't have him!" he hissed, glaring sharply at Nine.

Nine... Nine wasn't exactly sure how to react. He was still frightened from the nightmare, if he could even call it that, but he was confused by Ten's action's. Part of him wanted to continue screaming at the top of his lungs. He wasn't sure why but doing so made him feel safer, like the noise would chase away whatever was hunting him. The other half of him wanted to hold onto Ten. Again, he didn't completely understand why, but he couldn't see Ten as anything other than a rather helpless, quite lost child. But he certainly felt much better now that Ten was with him.

"See nothing, hear nothing, say nothing," Ten whispered, still sitting on top of Nine's stomach, his knees drawn up to his chin, his arms behind his legs while clutching the toy to his chest, and his feet resting gently against Nine's now rapidly rising and falling chest.

Nine inhaled quickly and gasped, "Ge- get off me... I can't... breath..."

End Notes: Yeah, some of you are probably wondering what the heck Ten is saying most of the time. He tends to babble randomly about stuff and most of what he says doesn't make any sense. Not to mention, he speaks so fast that he tends to slur all his words together. Anywho, here's what he's saying, along with a translation, in the order of when they appeared in the story (in case you want to go back and see how they were used).

"NINEANDTEN!" : (Well, that's a little obvious, now isn't it?) Nine and Ten!

"Nineandten. Justusnineandten. Can'tgetoutofthenightmarecastle... Nineandtenforeverandever..." : Nine and Ten. Just us Nine and Ten. Can't get out of the Nightmare Castle... Nine and Ten forever and ever...

"Thesquirrelrevolutionhasbegun! Runforyourlives!" : The squirrel revolution has begun! Run for your lives!

"Thesquirrelsareevil" : The squirrels are evil

"Notsafeanymore!" : Not safe anymore!

"Theycametheycametheycame! I told you! ItoldyouItouldyouItoldyou!" : They came, they came, they came! I told you! I told you, I told you, I told you!

"Eventhougheinvadedmy'safeplace'hedoesn'tdeservetodie!" : Even though he invaded my 'safe place', he doesn't deserve to die!

Yeah... Sometimes, even I have to wonder exactly what goes on inside Ten's head. I'm a bit scared to find out, though... And yes, he really does believe that the squirrels are evil. So, Review, please?