9 trudged back towards his friends after going back to the scientist's room. He sighed and looked back. He knew what he had to do, but . . . He stiffened his shoulders at the thought.
7 rushed up to him. "What did he say?" she implored him. "The dial can be used against it." 9 replied tersely. "We can save everyone." 7 smiled, not picking up on his distress.
The great mechanical beast was advancing, dragging its many limbs and spewing smoke. "Where are the others?" he asked. "They're hiding." She replied. Just then, they heard shouts. They looked at each other and ran towards the source of the noise. 3, 4, and 1 were running from the beast, dodging around debris. 1 caught sight of 7 and 9 and motioned for them to run away. "Oh, no, we're not leaving you." 7 said aloud, although she knew he couldn't hear her.
The pair saw a pile of tires and exchanged another glance. Without a word, they climbed up to the top and began rolling them down at the limping mechanical jumble. One tire caught it square on the "head" and its single red eye swiveled towards them. It whipped out one of its long arms and tires went flying as they scrambled back down. One shifted under 9's foot and he tumbled, landing in front of the eye. As it began to glow 1 muttered to himself and jumped in between it and 9.
9, shaking himself, sprinted away to see 3 and 4 escaping. 7 caught up with them. "Why didn't you do it??" 7 demanded, panting as she ran. 'I'm sorry." He didn't meet her eyes. "I was- too scared." She glared at him. "Now is not the time to lose your courage. You've got to finish what you started." She said sternly. "I know." He said, more to himself than to her. Suddenly another arm smashed through a cement arch above them and seized one of the twins. The other turned around and ran towards his counterpart. "No!" 7 shouted. She turned and caught the one still on the ground- it was 3- and held him back. He gazed at her and shook his head sadly. As the monster absorbed 4, 3 glowed as well. 7 released him in surprise as his eyes flickered green. She rounded on 9. "See what you've done! 1 was right, you're causing nothing but trouble!"
A high-pitched whistling noise filled the air. Her eyes widened. The projectile hit behind her and threw her forward. 9 rushed towards her. She was still alive, but her left leg was in tatters. She pushed herself up with her arms and tried to stand, but to no avail. 9 watched this with a tortured expression.
"Well, help me!" she demanded. He took a step back. "What are you doing?" she asked, with a little less confidence.
"I-It has to be this way." He responded.
"What?" she asked, bewildered. She looked up at him, and understanding slowly dawned on her face. "Oh, I get it." There was venom in her voice. "You were the final creation. The best."
"No." He whispered, shaking his head.
" We are inferior. Why would you need any of us?"
"You and the others will be fine. You have to trust me."
"Stop lying!" she screamed. "Stop lying to yourself! At least admit it!" 9 saw the great red eye hover. 7's gaze burned even more. As she began to glow, he darted forward and removed the dial from the beast. It screeched in protest. He pushed the combination that the scientist had showed him, and the beast's eye widened, and its horrible screeching stopped. All at once, he could see all of his friends' neon essences, and then, he could feel them. One by one they were absorbed into his being.
They were, of course, and had always been, the same soul. After eight green lights had entered him, a ninth hovered. It was huge, and red. He fought it at first, the other eight parts rebelling at admitting it. But what the scientist had said came back to him. "The intellect alone is easily corrupted. But tempered with the soul, it is a powerful tool, one you will need to survive. As heinous as it may seem, you must, too, absorb my first creation. You can do it, 9. The others will not understand, and fight it. But it must be so."
The red light drifted slowly towards his body, and he flinched as it made contact. He collapsed as his internal struggle drew all of his mental resources. "What happened? 5 asked, bewildered. "Why did you let that thing in?" 1 demanded. "Why did you betray us?" 7 chimed in, furious.
The scientist had said it would take some time before they were all integrated into one consciousness.
"You are all safe!" 9 said, straining to keep control. He reviewed the scientist's message telepathically. "The scientist could not isolate his soul in its entirety. He had to break it into parts. Because we were separated, we each polarized. That's why there was so much conflict, because we didn't mediate each other, we struggled to work as a whole. We had to be combined."
"Why didn't you tell us that?" 7 asked, still seething.
"You wouldn't have believed me if I had told you. You would've come to the same conclusion- that I was betraying you."
She was silent. Then all eight of them recoiled at the new presence. It did not communicate in words, at least not yet. "Why is it here? Why didn't you let it die?" They all pressed in on 9. "It was born of the scientist too. We need it."
"Show us what happened." He addressed the machine, but 3 and 4 cut in with their own memories, projector like, of the machine the professor invented, and the terror it caused. "No, let it speak for itself." 9 commanded. A humming sound filled all their thoughts, and suddenly they were the machine. It took on the programming the professor had given it, and booted up. Its subroutines were working well, and its optics checked out. But two men burst into the doors and took it away from its creator. It did not feel sadness, per se, like the others did. But it did have a sense of being out of place, and an approximation of fear as it was forced into tasks it was not designed for, straining memory and artificial intelligence. And later, as it had adapted, it had internal command drives to make new creations, but it was forced to produce the same machines over and over until it couldn't take it any more. It began to program its machines to disobey orders and find the scientist. The people thought the machines were rebelling and quickly asked that it be taken offline. The military did not concede at first. Finally, the Machine, fed up with its work and the termination of its "scouters," began destroying its factory in an attempt to escape and find its creator. Only after this happened did the military label it dysfunctional and shut it down. They continued to use the machines it had already produced and the war between men raged on.
Then it was rebooted by 9, and new programming kicked in. Its command was that it use its inventiveness to gather all the scientist's creations together- for what purpose it did not know.
The others were surprised at its creative drive. Even though it had been used against them.
"Now," 9 said, "3 and 4, show him your memories."
In flickering images and thoughts, the twins showed them all the details of the scientist's life and the onslaught of the war. The machine hummed some more as it integrated what it knew of the war- reported by wireless communication with its scouters- with the data that the twins had gathered. 9 was aware of it first, then 2, and them 5, of what a vast Intellect the machine was. They had tinkered with inventions, yes, but It had the power to understand mechanisms of much greater complexity. And now it was a part of them, and they were a part of it. They watched in fascination as it absorbed what the twins gave it and built a picture for them of what the world was like before it had become deserted. All in the tiny persons' world and experience had been chaos and danger, but it gave them a bigger view, a greater understanding of the war.
The Intellect, too, was finally able to get to know the person who had created it. It touched 9, 2, and 5 to come in contact with his spirit. (It had already surmised that the others would not allow it to mine their thoughts yet.) They helped it create pathways to understanding their and the scientist's emotions, how they interacted and how he blamed himself for the war.
A feeling, if not of contentment, then one of order, came over the machine. Lastly, It processed their means of expression. "Conclusion." It had said its first word, empowered by their language. "The scientist was overwrought with despair. The war encompassed his everyday world. But in all likelihood, in some remote corner of the world"-It briefly gave them a glimpse of just how big the world was-" there are still humans alive."
They all gasped. 9's body, their body, twitched to life.