She says the designing of 3 and 4 is done but I feel like something is missing. "You cannot change it," she tells me every day as I design the others. 3 and 4 were never meant to be twins and they shouldn't look so much alike and their numbers should be on the back like her number is. However, each time I change it or even bring a pen near the paper she stabs me with the needle!
I guess there's nothing to do now. I guess it does look better than my original idea. When I asked her yesterday why they should be twins she said, "According to you I was alone until you found me. I must have been very lonely and I never want the others to be lonely either. If they're twins the two will never be lonely."
The Scientist put his notebook in the drawer and turned to his small companion who looked over the work of 8. They were almost done. Every night he did everything not to cry and it took up so much energy to get out of bed. Each day he became increasingly aware that their time together was ending.
"What is your mission, 0?" He asked for the thousandth time.
Usually she would either ignore the question or she would get defensive. Today, however, she did none of that. "To protect the humans left so that when all is safe they can repopulate."
"Do you truly believe that is your mission?"
0 hesitated. "You need to make 8 bigger." She did it again.
He sighed softly. "Why do you think that?"
"You haven't made someone to protect us yet." She answered and looked up at him. "He can guard us if you just make him a bit bigger."
"I can make the next one bigger."
She wouldn't hear it. 0 grabbed a pen and handed it to him. "So, who will protect you when you are on your mission, Cero?"
0 stared at him for several minutes. Finally she said, "I am a protector and a protector doesn't have a protector. If that were the case a lot of people and things would die more naturally than the way they're dying now."
Slowly the Scientist began correcting 8, making him bigger and stronger. He knew 0 was hardly a protector. She could hardly defend herself as a human but as a stitchpunk he was sure she would be a lot worse. He needed a backup plan for her so that she would be a lot harder to kill.
0 started her nightly ritual of touching the now finished doll of 1 and started to touch the half completed body of 2, whispering the same thing she whispered every night to them. When she was done whispering she stayed near their bodies, trying to feel every texture, looking at each individual wiring, memorizing their anatomy.
"Will you at least stay to meet 1?" He asked her.
"I cannot." She said simply.