Mable: Hey! This is a request fic for Kiraakashi18; I hope that you enjoy it and that everything is to your liking! ^-^ I don't own 9, Enjoy!

Escorted by Eight

Three and Four didn't get to leave the Library very frequently. Most of the time they were content in their Library, sifting through a sea of knowledge and fishing out what they wanted. It wasn't like they were like Nine or Two, who wanted to search the Emptiness for more to find, or like Seven who frequently scouted. The twins were comfortable in their home and seldom looked forwards to more. That was, until Nine and Five had returned one day from the Emptiness and managed to tempt them.

The two had gone to a further part of the Emptiness and were scouting out a few buildings. One of which had just happened to be a book store. The twins naturally focused in on the prospect of the many books that they hadn't read. It was clear that they wanted to go find this bookstore, but there was a problem. Nine and Five were tired from their scouting and clearly weren't going to be leaving again for a while, if not until the next day. Seven was recovering from a period of overheating after being caught in the rain a few days before.

Two wasn't planning on going out alone, Six wasn't going out at all, One was completely dismissive of two scouting missions in one day, and Eight didn't seem like the type willing to escort them. As such, the twins knew they would have to wait. However, the twins weren't exactly the most patient of the Stitchpunks. They could be patient when it involved reading, working on their book, and cataloguing, but waiting in general when they were inspired was almost impossible. The two simply couldn't control themselves.

Once they were too wound up to work, the brothers decided to go on their own using one of Five's maps. It seemed simple enough; they would be quiet, quick, and could stealthily hide from any attacking beasts. Though the two were rather meek when it came to Beasts, they knew that they would be able to avoid them well enough. Three snuck and grabbed a map while Four found a pouch; just in case they found anything small enough to carry back. They waited until the others were in the Sanctuary portion of the Library before attempting to sneak out of the front.

They thought they were in the clear when they hopped down the steps and started across the courtyard. They thought they were safe and gave eager smiles to each other, closing in on the gate. "Where are you two going?" The sudden suspicion of the voice caused the twins to immediate stop in their tracks. They were frozen for a few moments as they heard the heavy footsteps on the cobblestone behind them. Peeking back, the brothers could see that they had been followed by none other than the guard, Eight.

In hindsight, it made sense. Eight was probably guarding the entranceway and watched them pass by. They both scrambled to hide the map and bag behind themselves at the same time. Eight crossed his arms and raised a stitched brow. The twins buckled immediately, meekly lowering their hooded heads in shame. To their surprise, and maybe to his own, the corner of Eight's mouth piqued just a little. He was more amused than angry. This gave the two a little hope. "I didn't expect you two to go sneaking off," Eight remarked.

Three rushed forward with the map, Four following in his footsteps, and presented it to the Guard. Eight glanced over the map quickly. "Hmm… Where Nine and Five were running around? Didn't they say something about a book store?" Three and Four nodded eagerly. "And let me guess; you two are trying to go there?" Both nodded once more. "And who exactly is supposed to go with you two? You're not big enough to be out into the warzone on your own," Eight pointed out, matter-of-factly, as his tone turned from playful to a light scolding.

In a rare moment where Three and Four were not synced, Four suddenly pointed to Eight. Three looked over in confusion and Four returned it when he noticed his brother hadn't followed his pattern. They briefly conversed through flickers and hand gestures before Eight interrupted them both. "You want me to take you out there?" he asked, somewhat surprised. Four became sheepish and meekly clutched the pouch, giving a tiny nod. Three looked to his twin with slight sympathy in his embarrassment. The Guard stared at them both.

Then, in a shock that neither of them expected, Eight gave them an answer to a question they weren't asked. "…Okay. I'll take you over there." Both smaller Stitchpunks jumped in alarm, their mouths dropping open, and they looked over towards Eight in surprise. The larger male got a slight smile of amusement. This did shock them though. Eight was a good guard, but he wasn't necessarily driven to work in excess. He would defend anyone, protect the Library, but never willingly offered to escort anyone other than One.

The offer was uncanny to the twins, yet a part of them knew Eight had changed since the war. He had become more patient, less aggressive, more helpful, and less of One's muscle. They perked at the offer and eagerly smiled at him, rushing forwards and eagerly grabbing his hands. He watched them bounce around a bit before interrupting their celebration. "But you're both going to have to listen to me and stay close, okay? I don't want you two running ahead where I can't watch you. Where a Beast can get you."

The twin Librarians agreed and they headed out of the courtyard, Eight following with them and keeping a careful watch over the smaller Stitchpunks. It didn't take too long for them to get through the city. After only an hour walk, they were almost at the bookstore in question. All that stood between the three and the store was a relatively empty expanse of thin grass. The moment they could see it the twins eagerly started to quicken their pace, Eight attempting to jog behind them. This changed the moment he noticed something in the dirt.

Protruding from a spot without grass was a strange, metal object that almost looked like a land mine. At first Eight was willing to shrug it off, but this was halted the second that he remembered he had seen a mine like that before. Eight wasted no more time and reached out, grabbing the twins by their hoods to stop them. "Don't move," he commanded, staring over at the mine. He expected for it to move, for it to react somehow, but it didn't. Three and Four looked attentive, but confused at the motion. Once he was more confident, he inched them around the spot.

"…Head directly into the bookstore. We'll be safer in there," Eight finally finished and nudged the two younger Stitchpunks forwards. They didn't need to be told twice and rushed inside. Eight followed, but moved slower as he was watching the landmine. The twins were curious and wondered if he was genuinely afraid they would set off the mine. Three suggested this and Four shrugged in partially agreement. They held back on exploring the book store until Eight got inside and into the safety that the shop provided.

He seemed still paranoid, but didn't protest as the twins scurried around the room. In fact, in an odd change he found himself joining them. He wandered behind them and watched as they searched for books. It wasn't until they had trouble getting to the next shelf up, wanting one book in particular, that Eight stepped in. With their light weight and his strength, he was easily able to lift both twins at once. The boost got them close enough to grab onto the shelf and climb on. They then worked together to get the book off the shelf and dropped it to the floor.

The book was 'The Time Machine'. Eight only recognized the title because Two had mentioned it once before. This was probably why Three and Four had been so interested in getting the book off the shelf. They opened it together, knelt before the first page, and stared at the table of contents. Eight wouldn't be surprised if they tried to finish a book in one sitting; he wouldn't be shocked if they already had done so. The only thing that almost shocked him was when they turned their attention on him.

It was incredibly hard to get the little librarians away from books. Yet here they had a perfectly good book before them and still looked to Eight for something more. He stood from his seat on the edge of the bottom shelf and walked over to them. Once he sat down with them, they began to read, as though they simply wanted Eight to be with them or to read with them. Which Eight did since he didn't have anything better to do. For a while this was simply what they did. The twins read, the guard read, and he also kept an eye on them.

At one point Four flickered to Three how safe he felt and Three agreed. Eight hadn't been able to understand their flickering, naturally, but noticed that it seemed to be something positive. For a while they just did this, reading together, and eventually it changed to something else. Out of nowhere the twins had gotten up to catalogue, but questioning pointed to Eight and the book. "What?" Eight asked in confusion. They insistently tried to explain through pointing, pleading smiles, and flickers in their optics.

"…You want me to read to you?" Eight guessed. To this they both eagerly nodded and looked to him pleadingly. They knew they didn't have much time to be here, so they needed to work while reading the book. The only way that they could do that was through someone else reading it to them. The Guard slowly exhaled and considered it; it wasn't like he had anything better to do. "Alright, fine… but listen close, because I'm not going to keep repeating myself if you two get distracted." And then he began to read to them.

The twins stayed close by as they catalogued. It was clear that they were listening though. Eight, meanwhile, started off just doing it to appease them but actually became interested in the story the further he got into it. For a while he even let his guard down, not paying attention to how much time they were staying in the book store. It wasn't until an hour or so passed by that Eight stopped the reading. "Alright, you two. Let's get going," Eight announced as he stood. Three and Four peeked out of the shelves in surprise at the abrupt stopping.

"Now come on, you knew we weren't staying here all night. We'll just come back tomorrow," Eight encouraged them then beckoned them. The sulked over to him and approached the door. He, in response, laid his hands on their backs and guided them in a more affectionate way. He didn't like seeing the twins upset, but he knew it was getting too late for them to stay out. He also had suddenly remembered that he didn't tell anyone they were going; One and Seven were likely waiting to kill him once he got home.

It was only when they stepped outside into the Emptiness that Eight noticed that something had changed. It only took him a second to notice that the single landmine, located in the center of the plaza, had multiplied itself. Now multiple mines were scattered around the area. Eight audibly gasped as he recognized what was going on. "We've got a Betty out here…" The twins looked upwards to him in confusion as he tugged them back inside. He knew they needed something to protect themselves. "Wait here and don't move."

Three and Four obediently did as Eight asked and watched as he circled the room, briefly headed outside the door, and eventually gathered enough supplies for whatever he needed. He returned to them with a large, though thin plate of metal and some wire, like what he used on his weapons. He then sat down on a book and began to work. The twins sat cross legged on the floor and attentively watched him. Once he noticed that they were, he decided to explain the situation a little further to them.

"What we're dealing with is a Beetle Betty, maybe even two of them. They dig underground, they can drop mines, they can sit there and be the mine, and they're a pain in the-… Neck." He watched as they tilted their heads, their hoods lightly ruffling as they did. "The problem with the Bettys is that we're not going to know which out there is a mine and which is a Betty. We can walk around the mines; a beast ain't going to just let us walk by… The mines are dangerous too. That's what we're going to use this for." He revealed his nearly finished work, showing that it was a shield.

"You two are going to stand behind me and we're going to try and walk around the mines. If it was one Betty I'd go out there and knock it around, but they don't travel alone. All of those could be attached to Beasts." Fear filled the twins' optics. Four flinched back a little, pulling into himself, and Three threw an arm around him and held him close. "Don't worry. They're not going to get you," Eight insisted as he brought out his knife as well. "Not as long as I'm here." They looked to him with clear hopefulness in their optics. They trusted his words.

They approached the front door once again. This time they had the new shield and had Eight leading the twins, who were clinging to his back meekly, peeking around him. "Alright… We could go out by that wall… But it looks like there's a bigger gap over that way." He gestured further in the opposite direction. The twins could also see two far spaced mines that he was gesturing to and nodded in agreement. He started to shuffle them over towards the opening, wandering through them and continuing through the land mines.

Some of them were obviously not be Beasts, and these were able to be ventured closer to. However, there were many that Eight simply couldn't tell the difference on. It was only halfway through the minefield when a dull rumbling stopped the three. Eight stopped the twins and looked around frantically, trying to see where it could be. He knew it was under the ground somewhere but couldn't tell how close or how far away it was. He couldn't even feel much of a direction until it got too close to escape from them.

Eight's optics widened and he yanked the twins out of the way in the nick of time. He then turned to face behind him, directly staring at the ground as something suddenly burst through the ground. A sharp drill threw dirt out of its way as it slipped through the ground. Two metal legs followed and out lifted a rounded body behind it. Along with two back legs, the twins could now see that the beast also carried an explosive on its back end. They both knew it was a Beetle Betty even before Eight confirmed it.

"Stay behind me!" Eight commanded as he pointed his knife forwards in a threatening manner. The beast aggressively raised its front legs before slamming them back onto the ground. As though it was mocking Eight's own attempt to intimidate. The twins may have flinched, but the guard did no such thing, even when it started to turn itself around. "Get back!" Eight suddenly yelled at the twins who tried to scurry back as the guard also put some distance between him and the beast. Once it was fully turned around, Eight dropped to a knee and blocked them with the shield.

The mine was detonated immediately. Fragments of metal could be heard striking the shield as the force of the blow shoved Eight back a small bit. He grunt, dug his feet in, and held through it. It seemed as though instantly the Beetle Betty advanced on them; completely unaffected by the explosion on its own back. It again reared up, this time over the shield, and Eight left it stuck in the ground and stood with the knife. He swiped forwards with his blade and knocked into the drill, shoving it out of the way.

The Betty was briefly knocked back, but quickly recovered to shove back. Eight took another swing to ward the beast off. As he did so, he took a few steps back, not paying attention as he and the beast continued fighting. Three and Four stayed behind Eight for a short while, but soon looked back to notice something that the Guard hadn't. They were quickly stepping backwards towards a mine planted in the ground. In a frenzy, they suddenly reached forward to press on Eight's back, before he could get any closer.

The Guard looked back in confusion, saw the scene, and his optics lit up. A smirk stretched along his face at the sight of the mine. Suddenly he tossed the knife and shield to the side and grabbed the twins in his arms. He backed a little closer to the mine, watching the approaching Betty with the same smirk. When it reared upwards to attack, he leapt out of the way with the two, younger Stitchpunks in tow. It was only a second before the Betty came down on the mine. It exploded in a bright burst followed by splattering out white globs of magma-like phosphorous.

Eight had only barely managed to tug the shield in front of them. While some of the fluid slightly burned his fingers, he protected them from most of the fluid, and lowered the shield to see that the Betty was now just a singed pile of metal. The twins' optics flickered in delight as Eight's face turned to relief. It only stayed like this for a moment before the sound of drilling echoed again. A second Beetle Betty appeared a few feet away; roused by the explosion. All three climbed to their feet and Eight took the shield in hand again.

This time the Betty was much more aggressive. Probably this was from seeing the other one fall. It rushed in quickly with its drill poised to attack. Eight couldn't even knock it away; he was forced to drop the knife and hold all his strength on the shield. For a few seconds Eight held it there, all sound deafened by the noise of the drill on the metal plate, but soon it started to falter. The pressure was too much and the shield started to bend. Eight had no choice but to abandon it and throw himself back out of the way of the drill.

With the shield down, the Betty started to turn itself around. Eight gasped and grabbed his knife, looking to the twins. "Run!" This mine was different and covered with barb-like arrows on the outside. They had to get as far away as possible. The twins didn't need to be told twice, but grabbed onto his arms and tried to quicken him with them. They only got a little way away before Eight looked back, knew he only had seconds, and suddenly grabbed the twins in front of him again. This time he shielded them with his body.

There was another explosion and what followed was the barrage of arrows. The searing pain of torn fabric pulsed through his back as three separate arrows entered him. He grunted in pain, but recovered enough to instruct the twins, shoving them forwards. "Get back! Get out of the way!" Three and Four seemed reluctant to leave him, but soon looked upwards to something approaching behind. The Betty was moving in and preparing to strike while the injured Eight stayed in his kneel, now holding his knife.

It raised upwards, aiming its drill to give a direct blow. Eight slightly turned his head to look back at it. The twins were helpless; Three covered his eyes while Four covered his mouth. They could do nothing as the Beast brought down its drill…

And immediately had a knife skewered through it. In a remarkable move, Eight turned while in his crouch, swinging his knife around and thrusting it upwards through the Betty before it could attack. There was a moment of silence where he stayed in this position, holding the Betty with his knife, while the twins stared in awe. The Beast's red optics grew dim and it fell onto its side. Once down, Eight yanked his knife free, and then turned to look towards the twins. "Are you two okay?"

They reacted immediately. Both ran forwards and hugged onto Eight, pressing their faces into his fabric in a desperate means of self-comfort. The Guard reached down and briefly pulled them both into an embrace, but then looked over the minefield around them. "There could be more nearby… We need to get home," he instructed. Neither twin argued. Instead, each took a hand and guided him all the way back to the Library where the others were waiting. Any questions were soon silenced once they saw Eight's limp and knew he was injured.

Less than an hour after that, Eight found himself on a medical cot in the Library's workshop. His back was stitched closed but the pain still lingered more than he liked. Two and One had both insisted that he rested, so here he was trying to fall asleep. It wasn't exactly working out after everything that happened that day. He was instead left to just lay there, trying to keep his optics closed. It was around this time when he heard footsteps and slowly turned to look towards the curtain. Suddenly a twin backed through the curtain, carrying a heavy book.

Eight couldn't recognize it as Three until he got closer to the cot. He was struggling to carry a small, but relatively thick book into the workshop. Four was soon revealed to be carrying the other side. They shot Eight eager smiles as they dragged the book over and dropped it on the floor. He quipped a brow, looking at the book laying there. "What's that supposed to be?" Four giggled, his optics flickering, and Three pointed to the book with a smile. He then opened it to the front page, revealing the title of the book as 'The Time Machine'.

"You found the book…" Eight was surprised, but his tone quickly shifted to amusement. "Guess we didn't need to go out there after all, huh?" He knew there were other things at play, but it was mostly just a joke that being serious. He was tired and he needed the humor to help him ease up after the day. He noticed how expectantly the two were looking at him. It took him a moment to realize what they wanted. With a groan, he moved off of the medical cot, "Don't tell anyone I got up or One'll be on me."

The brothers smiled eagerly and helped him to the floor as he sat before the book. "I can't move much, so you two are going to have to handle the pages, okay?" Three nodded eagerly as he flipped the pages to the proper place. Meanwhile, Four grabbed a pillow off the cot and returned to tuck it behind Eight's back. They were both so attentive, so thankful to Eight, and sat down on either side of him. Both eagerly sat forwards to look at the book; clearly able to read on their own but wanting the Guard to still read to them. Something about it made Eight feel better.

He couldn't help but smile a little and casually put his arms around their backs. They were worth putting up with the pain of battle to protect. They were worth reading to just to make them happy. "So just to recap, in case you kids forgot, the guy's stuck in the future with a bunch of short people and apes. Let's see where this goes." They both flickered their optics in delight for a moment. However, right afterwards, they sent each other an odd look. "…What? What's wrong?" Three looked to Four once more before smiling and leaning in, hugging Eight around the neck.

"I get it. You're welcome," Eight chuckled lightly and ruffled his hood. Promptly afterwards, Four clamped his arms around Eight's much bigger arm, nuzzling affectionately. "You too? Come on, I can't read with you guys climbing on me," he playfully added in. The twins only now moved back, sheepishly smiling at him, and looked to the book eagerly. They could only hope that this, Eight reading to them, would become a common occurrence while him getting injured protecting them wouldn't be.

In that way, the trip was worth the effort and the strain. They had brought something back from the bookstore, but it was something better than any book; a closer relationship with Eight.

...And of course, information about a new Beast to catalogue in their book, but that could wait until later.

FIN

Mable: If you didn't know, Beetle Betty Beasts were made for the 9 video game, but were scrapped when the game never came to pass. A friend of mine has some concept art posted on Deviant Art if you'd like to see it; I'm sure it would've been quite the amazing beast! Anyway, I have quite a few more requests to work on. ^-^ I hope everyone enjoyed!