A/N: This is my very first fanfiction for "9" - honestly, I hadn't expected the movie to affect me as much as it did. I expected a happy, fluffy children's movie, and instead found a new fandom that isn't all sunshine and roses. So I decided to write for it. As I am wont to do.

(So I'm writing for a kid's movie. Don't judge me.)

One Good Turn

It was in this terribly quiet place, so full of a false pretense of hope, that 5 took the moment to reflect.

What were they doing, in the long run? Trying to save the world, like 9 could really lead them to victory… when none of them knew what they were really doing in the first place. Or perhaps it was merely the quest of trying to save themselves; their souls, if they truly possessed such things.

Creatures of cloth and electricity had no business struggling onward like heroes. Maybe 1 was right – maybe it would be easier to be selfish, to hide, to curl up in some dark place and worry merely about themselves.

3 and 4 were playing on the record player now like it was a playground for them. Good; they needed distraction at the moment. 9 looked like he was having fun as well, and 7 was giving her most flirtatious glances to him… well, 5 could just hope that they were happy for the time being, taking a much-needed break in their journey.

5 looked up and out, over the vast nothingness that had come of the War. 2 wouldn't have seen it this way, would he? No, 2 was a lover of science; a man of substance, one would say. Able to see the world for all of its beauty (even when it had none that 5 could see), its wonder and mystery, scouting this barren place for a hint of hope (even when it was only savagely hopeless out there and 5 was fairly certain that 2 knew that, somehow).

He remembered when he and 2 had first laid eyes on one another. 2 had been so wise, so gentle and smiling and… so damn hopeful in this hopeless situation.

"The machines can't overcome heart and soul," 2 had told him, laying his hand flat across 5's chest. If 5 could feel it through all of his fear and nerves, he could've told you that it had felt like comfort. "That's just common sense."

But they had overcome heart and soul. The sheer power of technology – intelligent technology, a mind of its own, no longer under the influence of humans – it had thrown aside the chains of humanity like 2 never could have predicted, and destroyed this precious planet, leaving it just a scorched hull.

5 remembered how 2 had apologized, how he had nearly begun sobbing (would have, if they had possessed tear ducts), clinging to him and holding him and telling him that there had to be a way, had to be. That the Scientist wouldn't possibly leave them so defenseless.

The a ninth would be created, and would lead them into victory.

Ridiculous, but 5 hadn't said so at the time; merely wrapped his arms around 2 and held him there while he shook and shivered, stroked his back, held his face in his hands and wished beyond wishing that their kind could feel the passion of one of those human "kisses."

(If they could, he would have kissed 2's fear away with the force of a Clark Gable romance, and told him everything that his heavy heart wanted to say. Too bad he was such a coward.)

5 had never seen 2 as broken down as he had on that day, and he had never seen such a thing since. Not until years later, scurrying under the flimsy protection of a helmet, when 5 had been thrown back with the force of a machine's blast, and felt the searing pain sting the left side of his face… then 2 had been there, suddenly, running back to rescue him, cupping the damaged cloth around 5's eye and whispering to him.

"One good turn deserves another," he had said, smiling at him. "You'll be alright, 5. I won't lose you today."

5 had reached for him, pulled him close as they hurried him to shelter, clinging like anything to the security and promise that 2 provided. "I love you," he wanted to say, but then, he didn't know the real meaning of the word.

But that was all in the past, wasn't it? 2 was gone now, forever – that was 9's fault, if he were being honest with himself, but he tried not to hold any anger toward him. 9 hadn't known at the time what that key would do. 9 hadn't known that awakening the Machine would… tear away everything that had ever made 5 happy.

That it would leave 5 so alone.

---

Later, looking into the glowing eyes of the Machine, 5 could feel his entire being begin to tremble.

But when it took him, he found he wasn't so much afraid as he was hopeful.

I'm coming back to you.