Mable: Onto chapter ten! It feels good to say. Anyway, I don't own 9, I hope everyone enjoys!

Souls Run Deep

Chapter Ten: The Runaway's Trail

Both Nine and Five awoke when someone dashed into the room. Five jumped up the second that the small Stitchpunk hit his chest. He thought it was Three, sitting up groggily, but soon realized it was Four, and she looked distressed. Her optics flashed desperately and Five began to awaken quicker, "Four? What's wrong?" That's when another voice came from the door, "Three's gone." It was Seven who entered the room promptly after.

Immediately Five started to climb out of bed, "Three's… Three's gone?!" Nine began to clear his mind and was equally as shocked. Both males were soon both to their feet and Seven nodded. "Four woke me up a few minutes ago. I checked on Three and her bed is still warm, but she's gone." She then looked to Five for answers, "You were spending some time with her; was she acting like something was wrong before she went to sleep?"

Five knew immediately what was wrong. Guilt swelled inside until it felt like it was to burst and spread like water through his body. He grabbed his things, "She couldn't have gone far. Maybe if I run, I can catch up to her, and convince her to come back." Nine and Seven both looked to each other; it was obvious something had happened and yet neither decided to protest. "We're coming too." Nine spoke up as he headed to the door and drew open the curtain, "We all care about Three and we need to help-Ah!"

The sudden shriek caused the other three to look over, seeing Child in the door. "Stop doing that!" Nine scolded in embarrassment only to see Child remain unfazed. In fact, he was incredibly quiet as well, refusing to speak. "What's wrong?" Nine asked, calmed down, only to fall into Child and nearly knock them both into the wall when Four rushed by him. Now Child suddenly became vocal with a quick, "Get off of me!" And shoving Nine back like his touch had burned.

After the zippered male could a good glare in, Five and Seven passed and he went to follow. They were ambushed by One bursting out of his room, "Who is gone?" Five managed to weave around One, but Seven accepted the challenge, "One, I know you were awake. I just saw Two leave the room." One suddenly looked shocked and immediately spoke up, "He certainly was not! How dare you-… Spout such confusing lies!"

Seven rolled her optics and One turned to the two lagging in the back. "Nine, you have returned." Nine nodded, "I got back last night. Everyone was already asleep." Of course the leader went straight to the point. "And your evidence?" Seven huffed, "Really, this isn't the time, both of you. Three's gone missing and all you can talk about is evidence of whether or not Two was right." That was mostly the case, but neither of the two was willing to back down until the point was made.

As such, Nine entered the workbench, saying a brief greeting to Two who was in the workshop, and returned with the paper. "It's all here." He explained, beginning to unfold. "It's what the Scientist made when Child- When he was born." One unfolded it until it was nearly all the way open and scanned over the work. He read on the bottom, "My Child…" Nine nodded, "It's his name." At that second Child pointedly passed, glaring at Nine, and the zippered one pointedly ignored him.

"Very well. You have proven your point. He may stay with us." Two appeared by Nine, giving him a pat on his back of congratulations as he took the paper from One, who continued, "If he begins to act like one of those things, I will not hesitate to retract my word." He soon left to bray on Eight's doorframe. Two looked over the paper and seemed more than pleased, though a bit confused, "He never said… Just as well, he is one of us. Have you been able to get our friend to communicate?"

"Last night," Nine explained as they began to head to the lift, "But he's being quiet today. The only thing he's done so far is act like he hates me." The Inventor chuckled, "Perhaps he takes after One." Five was already at the crank staring at it, looking disturbed and torn. Two approached Five and tried to comfort him, "We will find her, Five. She most likely just went downstairs to look through the library." The apprentice shook his head, "Not after what happened." He then, quietly, began to explain.

Nine approached Seven who was comforting the fearful Four and speaking to Six. He caught only the end of the conversation. "You should stay and rest. I know the past few days have been hard on you." Six shook his head tiredly, "I'm okay." The zippered one was met with a glance from both of them and a weak smile from Seven. "Good morning, Six." Nine greeted cautiously and the Artist smiled a little. Of course, his optics soon trailed off, and Nine turned to Seven.

"Is she alright?" He clearly meant Four and Seven nodded, "Yes, she's just worried for her sister. I don't remember them being apart for this long before." Nine was sympathetic and reached forward to pat Four's head before turning to enter the lift. Immediately he saw Child eyeing him down. Before he could ask, they were relatively crushed into the bucket lift.

One and Eight decided to wait until the lift lowered to board and the lift began to lower. Once all Stitchpunks were down in the library, they began to scour for the missing twin, and soon it was obvious that she wasn't present. Five was the first to point out that they needed to go into the Emptiness and find her. After contemplating it for a few seconds they came to a conclusion. "It seems only natural that the Machine would have brought memories up. The best chance we have is of her being at the Phonograph."

The rest of them seemed to agree, even the usually argumentative One. The wandered out front, "I'm sure the closest way is if we go straight to the trench and walk along to the alternate crossing point." Five suggested, getting his map out and scanning for the quickest way, "That should lead us right to her, and that's probably the way she would've gone." Seven seemed a little hesitant, "Wouldn't the direct route be faster?" Five toyed with the idea, battling with his thoughts, and Eight spoke. "Does it matter? Pick one and we'll go."

"Or perhaps," Nine knew by One's tone that he was going to start something, "We should ask out 'new friend' what his opinions are." A blunt attempt to try and test Child made Nine feel a little protective and he prepared to go to the Stitchpunk's defense. Instead, however, he noticed that Child was staring at something nearby, and then the male responded with a single question, "Wasn't there a Cathedral there?"

Three stared at the grass blades nearby that blew gently in the steady wind. The scene would've been something she would've wanted to copy and put into a special book if she was feeling better. Instead she could just think of how solemn the scene was. She had wanted desperately to get away, even if only for a few minutes, but couldn't get Five's rejection out of her mind. It hurt so badly. Once again one of the others was treating her like a child.

She certainly was smaller than the others, but not younger by much. Three was a young female who was ready to seek out a mate and be treated like a normal Stitchpunk. Five was the perfect male figure that she could see. Sweet and careful, constantly working with his hands in ways that Three loved to watch, and yet even he still thought of her as a young child.

She was alerted by the sound of something nearby. It sounded like a metallic noise and she immediately knew that it was a Beast. Out of reflex, she immediately stood to her feet and sought out somewhere to hide.

"How was I supposed to know he would act that way?" Child asked with a tone of frustration and Nine didn't respond. The mentioning of the Cathedral sent One at least three feet in front of everyone, leading them without saying a thing. Everyone else felt too awkward to speak up. Finally Nine looked over to Child, "You had to bring it up." The male's optics flickered with static, "I mention a single building, the first words I spoke to that man; this was not my fault."

"I know." Nine answered, "I know, it wasn't." He looked at the nearby trench as they continued to walk. Eventually, Child spoke again, "Your friend is watching me again." Nine raised a stitched eyebrow. "Raggedy Andy back there. The yarn topped one." A soft smile formed as Nine looked back, beckoning Six to come forward. The Artist seemed hesitant, secretly thinking of what Eight would do, but eventually gave in and rushed up. Nine didn't expect the Artist to embrace Child from behind, muttering out how happy he was that he was alright.

Child clenched like he was in pain, but didn't shove the other off as he did to Nine earlier. Six soon pulled back and began to speak to the other. "I'm glad to see you… Was afraid you wouldn't be okay." The other didn't want to answer, but did, "I… Thank you, for your concern." The Artist smiled, "It sounded like you were in pain when you were in there. Especially when you said it burned." Child now pulled back, answering quickly, "I am sorry, but we have not spoken before."

"Yes, we have." Six insisted as he toyed with his key, "Just… I don't think you remember it… It was before you came out. You kept saying you were hurting…" Child insisted this wasn't the case, "Six, is it? I am sure we haven't spoken. I was unconscious, I couldn't feel anything, and I doubt I could have communicated." It was almost as though he was defending himself and Six had a small, sad smile, "I knew you wouldn't remember… But that's okay. You wouldn't have wanted to."

Nine used this time to cross to where Five was walking ahead. His best friend looked alert and determined, though equally concerned. Soon Nine felt the unwavering need to speak, "We're almost there." The healer nodded, but still looked a bit disturbed.

Before anything could continue, One stopped in his tracks, "Good Lord…" He hissed and the others looked forward to see something horrifying. Six immediately spoke up, "Nine, it's that Beast with all the eyes!" The Tentacle Beast was nearby at the Phonograph, circling the area and digging through anything nearby. It was obviously looking for something and suddenly Five gasped in alarm, "It's trying to get Three!"

He pulled out his needle harpoon, aimed, and One stopped him. "We cannot rush into this Five! We must think of a plan!" However, Five seemed past reason, "We can't let it get her!" He desperately argued back until Two came between them, "Alright, here we are, here's the plan. We'll spread out and come in on the Beast slowly. Ambushing it." At that second, the Tentacle Beast suddenly reached into the cone of the Phonograph, and drug out a terrified Four. Immediately, she was enwrapped and slowly getting squeezed.

Before this could happen, Five flipped into his fighting stance again and sent a harpoon into one of its eyes. It let out a shrill noise, but didn't release Three, and all of the Stitchpunks attempted to move in. Seven got the closest first and went for the tentacle that held Three, only to find that it couldn't be cut and was much too thick. As such, the Machine shoved her back onto the ground, and brought the same tentacle holding Three down to crush her. It must have stuck her head, as she fainted.

Eight wasn't willing to go that easy and was glad to see that his knife was big enough to still slice through the tentacles. It soon came apparent that when one was clipped, it would just begin to slide out of the Beast farther until it regained its length. To this, Eight went straight to Three and sliced through the tentacle before beginning to circle it in an attempt to find a weakness. Five managed to take out another of the large red eyes before he got to where Three was. He pulled the sliced off limb off of her and pulled her into his arms.

For a second he just held her and only then came back to his senses to try and get back away from the Beast. Nine did the same, helping to get Seven off of the ground as she seemed still waking from the head injury, and tried to coax her forward. Naturally, he expected the Tentacle Beast to come after him next, and it would have if not for the black blur that appeared from behind Nine and leapt upon the Beast. Child was furious and completely uncaring as the fact of his appearance compared to its, and his extra claws and limbs began to break through any eye in sight.

The Beast itself did seem a bit confused and merely ripped Child off before tossing him somewhere behind the phonograph. It reared its head again to find a suitable target, but none of the Stitchpunks were still in the vicinity. One and Two had managed to move Four, Five, and the injured Seven back out of its reach far enough that it would have to come after them.

This seemed like the best time for Six to attempt something. None of the others could get hurt and he was confident he could do some damage. As for if the others would see, he doubted that they would notice with the Beast taking their attention. He looked for a good sized rock and began to focus once again, lifting it and beginning to move it slowly. Then he managed to throw it and suffer through the headache after it. The rock clipped the Beast's top, but did manage to break a few more eyes. The few that remained all refocused themselves on the new threat, Six.

He could only watch through a haze as the Beast slowly began to pull one tentacle out, it somewhat rolling into itself, all the way until it suddenly began to loosen itself. At that second it suddenly was thrown forward, the small claw at the end ready to strike and latching onto Six's key. It began to pull him in faster than before and as he was drug along the ground he was somewhat feeling like he was suffocating, even though it was virtually impossible to tighten anything around their necks enough to cause that.

Eight swore and went forward to try to get the cord, but the Beast was stubbornly making it suddenly jut out of the way to make it so his knife continued to miss. Then, once Six got close enough, its bottom side began to lift up off of the ground to reveal a base between the tentacles beneath. It opened like an optic and revealed a mess of razor sharp blades, like teeth, and darkness past that. By now Six was desperately trying to escape and the others began to come in, even Seven who was still stumbling.

"Eight!" Six called desperately to the Guard who was still trying to get the chord. "Eight, please, help!" The begging managed to do something as Eight suddenly got angry enough that he decided to no longer go after the tentacle. Instead, he circled the Beast to deal with the now tilted downward dome of eyes, and let out a war cry before he put his knife straight through it. The Beast made a bizarre sound and Eight did it again, and again, and continued to stab until it finally let out a groan and nearly collapsed upon him. The eyes going dim.

Going back around, he could see that Two had jogged up and was assisting Six in getting the tentacle off of him. He had been so close to the blades that were not unresponsive that it was a wonder it hadn't clipped his yarn. Eight wasn't pleased though, definitely not, and gave Six a strict look of frustration before turning to walk away, stopping beside One who was now surprisingly addressing Seven.

"It is defeated, now sit down. You will injure yourself more if you do not give yourself a second to recover." She huffed, "One, I'm fine." The leader wasn't convinced, "You are certainly not. I saw you stumbling about. Four, come take- I'll just do it myself. Come along." He began to, relatively forcible; lead Seven around the Beast's corpse, not getting too close, and approached the phonograph in an attempt to find somewhere to have Seven rest.

Four was embracing her sister who was still in Five's grasp and Three responded with her own grasping. The two twins were obviously glad to see each other. Soon Five set Three down once again and only at this second did Four suddenly decide to leave, as though she wanted to leave the two alone. That moment felt more awkward to Five than ever, but he felt that he needed to speak, "I'm sorry." He apologized, "I shouldn't… I shouldn't have run away from you like that. I wasn't thinking."

In fact, bringing it back up now caused him to feel uncomfortably warm, especially in his face. However, there was something he had decided to approach her with last night, but never had the chance before she left. Cautiously, ready to jump away if rejected, Five reached up and pulled her hood back to fall on her shoulders, then leaned in to press his lips against hers chastely. Since he pulled away almost immediately it could very well barely be counted as a kiss.

It did what it was supposed to, though, and Three nearly swooned at the feeling. Soon, both were smiling, though Five looked a little guilty. Three leaned forward and embraced him, resting her head against his buttons and enjoying the feeling of his strong arms wrapping around her waist. Nothing could ruin the moment, not the Beast's corpse, not One glaring from the Phonograph, it was just the healer and his little librarian.

Two had clearly seen what Six did and, to Six's relief, was being very supportive; though the Artist had expected this from the Inventor. The others must have still not noticed. "I have never seen such a thing, but I have heard of it." He explained, "I think it might mean you are Psychokinetic, or Telekinetic." Six didn't seem to react well with 'Psycho', so the other word went along better. Six smiled at the thought that maybe someone else could've done what he was, he wasn't simply a freak, until he noticed Eight glaring from some ways away.

He didn't know why Eight was so angry, but had the nagging urge to go ask. Since he was still somewhat in debt to the Guard it would have been a smart move. As Two continued to go on, Six spoke up, "Two… I think you should check on Seven. She hurt her head." He really was concerned, so it got two birds with one stone. Two perked, "Oh yes, I should check on her. I will tell you more in a bit; I'm positive I still have that book somewhere in the library…" He stood and began to seek out Seven who was now sitting near the Phonograph with One.

Six approached Eight who seemed to automatically turn away and tried to speak. "Eight… Thank you." That wasn't what bothered Eight, obviously, and Six tried to circle him. "I could've died… You saved me. I don't…" Then, after a moment of silence, Eight spoke, "Yeah. You could've died." There was that furious tone and the Artist reluctantly pressed further, "Are you mad at me?" The Guard abruptly turned on him so fast that Six stumbled back, "What were you thinking trying to go against that thing?! You almost died!"

"I…" Six was taken aback, "I just… I wanted to help…" Eight didn't back down, "You suddenly think because you can move some things that you can take on something than none of us, all combined, could take down?! I can't even think of what was going through your mind right then!" The Artist found the shock of being scolded beginning to turn to sadness. He had been trying to impress Eight, not make him angry. "But… I hit it."

"You could've been killed, end of story." Eight pointed out. "We were only working for one day and you decide to start this! You could barely lift a book and you suddenly think you can take on Beasts!" That's when the sadness suddenly turned into confusion and Six carefully went over the words. "Working?" Eight huffed, not hearing him, "Now what?" Six spoke louder, "You said 'working'. I thought… I thought you said you just wanted me to do things for you, not that we were working."

Eight caught his mistake and was taken aback. "That… That was wrong. I meant working like what we were doing was-." He cut off when he could see that Six wasn't convinced at all. Eventually he knew he had to say the truth and rubbed his head. "Right, you win, here's the real deal." He crossed his arms, "If you think I forgot what happened back at the factory, when I was trapped, you're wrong. It really began to bother me that you did that, driving me insane, so it seemed easy enough to make sure that you could defend yourself if you had to again."

"So you were training me?" Six asked, voice wavering, "Why didn't… You tell me?" Eight didn't answer; maybe he didn't even know himself. Maybe it was pride, maybe the lingering feeling of bullying, but it didn't change Six's reaction. The second the taller turned away he grasped onto his hand, "Wait." He paused, briefly, and Eight looked at him quizzically. Then Six spoke up, "I… I want you to keep doing it."

"What?" Eight asked in confusion and Six continued, "I don't like this, tired of being defenseless. I want to learn more and I want you to teach me." Not that Eight knew much about what this thing Six was doing was. He turned to the Artist, "I'm not going easy on you," He insisted, "and nothing's changed between us, so don't expect anything else than this; A means to an end." With that agreement, Six nodded and allowed a small smile to form.

Nine searched behind the Phonograph until he managed to find Child. The male was coming towards him on all fours, or eights, crawling about on his belly. The zippered male looked confused before he caught on, "You're injured." The other male retorted with annoyance, "No, of course not, that is completely untrue, and I am fine. Absolutely fine. I simply prefer moving this way." Nine cracked a smile that caused Child to have that crackle of electricity again.

"Come on, I'm not that clueless." Nine turned and started towards the edge of the Phonograph, "Two? Child's injured." He of course received backlash, "That is not true. I am completely fine, stop telling them otherwise." Two quickly moved from Seven and headed towards the dark Stitchpunk. Child was looking around hesitantly as a few seemed to be looking over and staring at him, though it was mostly paranoia setting in. Two began to address Child, noticing immediately that the male was staying off his left leg, and somewhat off the right.

"Did you fall on them?" Two asked gently and Child simply nodded before becoming incredibly passive and allowing the male full access. The Inventor scrutinized them a bit before coming to a conclusion. "Don't worry, they're fine. Just a bit sore from the landing. You might want to stay off of them for a bit." With that, he began to mercilessly look over Child's body, interested and relieved that he got in close.

Nine watched as Child suddenly grew even more passive and completely allowed Two to touch anything he wished. It sort of relieved Nine. Everything turned out alright; Three was okay, Five wasn't worried anymore, but for some reason Nine still had a bad feeling. As though something was coming; as though something was bound to go wrong.

Mable: Well, there's chapter ten. It seems like only yesterday that I started writing this…. Looks like Eight did a 180. Personally I think he saw 27's Fury's review and began to fear for his life. ^-^ It certainly did work though. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed and the next chapter will be up tomorrow!