Mable: Chapter Nine is here!... And I am speechless… Sometimes this is the hardest part of the chapter, writing the Author Note, I'm drawing a blank… Anyway, I guess we'll just go on with the chapter then. I don't own 9, Enjoy!

Forgotten

Chapter Nine: Clawing in the Night

Nine's optics opened and immediately he heard some strange noise coming from an unknown location. It was late at night now and he could tell that he had slept for quite some time. He looked around and only then saw the very odd position he was in. It was as though the Stitchpunks had fallen asleep on top of each other with each one somehow touching another. None was cuddled to his side tightly, one of Nine's arms was stretched over Five, and his foot was propped up on one of the twins who lay beneath the three. He sat up slowly to make sure not to wake the others and was now able to see both Seven, Six, and Eight. Seven was again sleeping 'on guard' with her spear tight against her as to fight anything. Then Eight was against a tower of books, asleep, with Six's head resting on his leg.

Only then did Nine decided that it had to be coming from One and Two who were still gone and hadn't been seen since earlier. He slowly stood to his feet the rest of the way, only to awaken None who looked up tiredly, "Nine?" Nine quieted him down with a frantic hand gesture before whispering, "I'm going to go see what that sound is." None was quizzical, but soon heard that thumping and scratching noise that awoke his twin. "Can I come to?" None asked helpfully, and Nine nodded, helping his twin to his feet. He made sure to grab his letter opener and started to pass Eight only to also awaken him, "What're you doing?" Eight asked, a bit groggy and in an obviously poor mood, until he heard the loud scratching, "What's that?" Nine crouched down to whisper, "I don't know, but One and Two are still gone so we're going to go check."

Immediately Eight became concerned as he didn't like not knowing where his Leader was. He gave a quick nod, almost gently moved Six to the floor, and stood as well. Nine understood that he was coming too and they started to head across the Library. The noise was loud enough, but they couldn't tell where it was coming from because it echoed, so they headed towards the entrance instead. None, unarmed, wanted to be helpful in some way and looked for something to do. It was only then that None climbed a stack of books to look around and promptly learned how unwise it was as the books weren't stacked properly. They immediately fell over, taking None with them, and he soon met the floor. Being at the edge of the library, he hit the wall and found himself partly going into a hole in the wall.

None pulled back out of the hole only to glance back to study it and notice something in the shadows at the back of the small crevice. None couldn't see too well and couldn't really make out any of it. He began to reach in when Nine appeared and approached him, "None, are you okay?" The male decided to ignore the object for now and Nine immediately tried to move him away. It wasn't normal guiding though, None noticed that his twin was trying to purposely get him away from that area. Nine looked back at the hole like he knew what was in there; None decided to look later when he had time and Nine wasn't there. With the incident over, the twins decided to continue on their search from the noise that was now sounding much closer, almost above ground as well.

Eight had merely shrugged off the fall of the other Stitchpunk and shook his head before heading to search for One and Two on his own. "What is that?" He muttered out, hearing the grinding and scratching noise yet again. It was changing and sounded absolutely bizarre and he circling around the books to search it out. Then he looked over at the wall and stopped, unmoving, because he finally sound the source of the noise. It was climbing down the wall with its body above it, rows of little claws along its sides of its metal body to keep it attached to the wall. Then its actual arms reached before it, metal claws scraping as they felt around, as though it couldn't see anything. Its head was mostly metal with some sort of white bits that appeared to be bones, and its eyes were like a Cat beast's.

However, this wasn't a normal beast, because unlike the Cat Beast that was made out of some sort of beast called a 'Cat', this one was obviously made of the arms and head of a human. Something was just to unnerving about seeing something like a human, which Eight had seen before, turned into something so disturbing. Eight slowly unsheathed his knife, preparing to strike, but then had a flash of the earlier promise to Six. It sent a cold feeling through his metal as he realized that the nightmares were again accurate. Six's visions were seldom wrong and this thing looked as though it could easily take out a single Stitchpunk in mere seconds, so he made his choice then and started to back away. It was simple enough to find the others and then jump on it together, which would be safer.

Unfortunately, though, whatever he kicked as he walked backwards alerted the Beast and it looked towards him, making a mix between a groan and a growl. Eight resisted the urge to fight yet again and now turned to run from the Beast. It was very quick, too quick, and those arms kept coming down in an attempt to crush him or catch him, perhaps both. He was sure that the others had awoken by now. True to this thought, Two suddenly ran around a large pile of rubble to see what was occurring and let out a soft gasp. The Clawing Beast was able to hear him from only that small gasp and one of its arms flung back, hitting Two and knocking him away, then looked back in Eight's direction. Eight wasn't incredibly knowledgeable about certain subjects, but he knew immediately, by the way it looked around, that it actually was blind.

When he stood there unmoving it seemed to not notice him the slightest. Instead it turned back in Two's direction where the Inventor was trying to move away. That hit made him realize that he wasn't recovered yet as he suddenly realized his legs weren't just aching, they weren't nearly as strong as before, and weren't yet able to handle this stress. Before it could get him though, One dashed up, and helped him attempt to flee from the Beast. This, paired with Nine and None suddenly running up asking what was occurring, distracted the Clawing Beast and Two was moved to safety. The Beast started in the twins' direction before charging forward. They quickly rushed in different directions to avoid it. Eight now followed after it too, since the others were making a decent distraction.

Eight leapt for the beast and attempted to bring his knife down on it only for it to scale the wall before it and escape him. It was too high for him to reach and he backed again as he saw its head tilting to catch the smallest sounds. The others now dashed into the area where the battle was occurring. Seven saw the scene and immediately shoved the twins back to flee the scene, which they did. She them pulled her bird helmet down to cover her face and leapt towards the beast that was jumping back down from the wall towards a retreating Eight. Six stood there, almost traumatized, because even though Eight was escaping it still wasn't working. He was still getting attacked even though Six had tried to warn him. Once again the Artist stopped nothing.

Eight watched as Seven leapt on the Beast and was quickly stabbed at by the claws from its side, which she barely dodged, and then spoke up, giving himself completely away, "It can't see! It can only hear and feel!" The words were heard by the Warrior but as soon as the spear was ripped from her hands and tossed to the side, she was defenseless, and had to leap back off of the beast while Eight tried to go after one of its hands. A needle then flew by having been shot by Five and hit the Beast. The Beast was enraged and immediately went for the closest Stitchpunk it could head, being Eight. It swiped its claw forward and sent his knife out of his hands and skidding across the floor while slicing his arm open. It wasn't the first time that he had been injured, but he knew it would slow him down, especially with the Beast gaining.

Then it managed to knock him down to the ground, quickly coming over and rose above him, and began to bring its claw down. Eight anticipated the sudden blow that would tear his fabric apart. Instead, the Beast shrieked, and Eight watched as its hand came down on Seven's spear that was jutted upwards before him. It wasn't the Warrior holding the spear though, it was Six. The Clawing Beast ripped its hand away and the spear went with it. Eight watched Six in shock as the spear was ripped out of his hands. Then he stood and grabbed up Six before dashing away from the furious Beast for protection. It ripped the spear from its claw and tossed it to the side only to have a needle dive into its face. Five's aim was perfect and the desired affect was somehow achieved.

Suddenly it had trouble moving its head and Seven grabbed her fallen spear while Nine ran forward with his letter opener. He went under the beast and started to attempt to stab its underside. The Clawing Beast was trying to grab Nine while it attempted to also grab Seven who was clinging to its back. While it seemed distracted, suddenly all of the others seemed to swarm in. Eight was able to wield his knife with an injured arm and began to stab at the beast, Five continued to shoot the Beast in any spot that looked weak, and even Six came back and was trying to fight with a needle he grabbed off of the ground. Nine was shoved out of the way, only to be helped by None who took his place and was able to stab the Crawling Beast deep.

It was becoming overwhelmed, its claws on its side stopped working, and it was finished when Eight stabbed his knife into its neck. It stumbled a bit before collapsing, deceased, and no longer a threat. Now it took a few seconds to come down from the high of the fight. At this time One, Two, and the twins appeared from wherever they had been hiding during this battle. Three and Four circled to check everyone and were pleased to see that most were in good condition. Five checked Eight's arm, "I'll have to sew that." Two stepped in, limping a bit, "No, no, Five. You have done enough already." He retrieved the medical equipment from Five's bag and led Eight away from the beast to work on him. One followed them, watching Two carefully, and Five approached Nine who was nearby with None, "Are you two okay?"

Nine nodded, "Yeah." He could tell that None was okay and when Seven wandered over they saw she was fine as well. Six could be seen, looking quite forlorn, pattering off behind Eight and None spoke, "Six?" The Artist looked back, slowly looked at the floor, and then continued onwards. It immediately caught the others' attention and Seven followed, "I'm going to go check on him." Meanwhile, Five slowly started to follow them all to actually follow Two and was soon trailed by Nine and None who were tiredly leaning on each other.

"Almost done." Two smiled at Eight pleasantly, "You're doing very good. This is quite a big tear and you're dealing with it very well." Eight gave a nod like it didn't matter when he really was just making sure he didn't start swearing. That needle dipping in and out of his fabric was pure torture. He looked over to see Six approaching, looking upset, and he went to speak. Instead the needle went back in and he let out a low series of curse words that Two could obviously hear and chuckled at. The Artist was instead taken aside by Seven and they spoke. The guard watched as Seven asked something, Six looked upset, and then the female actually hugged the Artist. Eight was feeling mixed; he knew that Seven comforting Six was a normal, good thing, but he somewhat didn't like seeing them hug like that.

Then Seven gestured to Eight and before Six could look over, the male turned away, only to see Two a second from putting that needle back through his fabric. He did and with a few quick more stitches he was done. "There you are." He patted Eight's shoulder before standing wobbly, "Oh Five," He called, "About our project-." Eight looked back to find Six only to see the Artist staring right at him. He looked down for a second before coming closer, "Eight…" He wasn't good with words, at all, and he clutched his key before speaking, "I'm sorry… I didn't help you… I couldn't stop it…." He looked down while Eight was confused, "You stabbed that thing in the hand before it did another one of these," He gestured to his arm, "And you didn't help me?"

"I could've stopped it." The Artist muttered before turning away, "I… Can't do anything." He began leaving the area as quick as possible and Eight stood, "Six!" The other didn't answer and he swore yet again before following his trail. He managed to stop him, "Don't make me defend you." Six looked up sadly, "But I can't. Not worth even trying." The guard sighed, "That's not true. You're just tired." He began trying to move Six to his crevice, but the male seemed still upset, "If you didn't say what you did, I would've died." Then he ran his hand over Six's number, "Come on, I'm tired, and if we don't go Two'll come back with his needle." The Artist nodded and leaned again the guard for a second before they began to head to his crevice room.

This meant passing the others who were too entwined in listening to Five and Two's plans to notice them. However, the leader noticed them leaving, and it inspired One take Two and head back to sleep. "It is still in the middle of the night and that thing tossed you about like a ragdoll. We can discuss this is the morning." Suddenly he was nearly dragging Two away with one hand on his back to lead, the Inventor making sure to get out a few more words, "Yes, we really should. Five, tomorrow we shall begin at morning light, so make sure to get as much rest as possible." The last of that was practically cried out as he was drug out of the vicinity. Then he gave a wave that was returned by a somewhat hesitant None. It then seemed much quieter.

Seven shook her head, Five was somewhat confused, and the twins looked at their respective twin in a way of asking what occurred. "At least he's a little right." The female spoke up, "We need to get some sleep. Eight, tomorrow we have to move the Beast's body…" She fell silent when she saw the guard gone, "Where did hego now?" Three and Four shrugged together and she shook her head, "Never mind, he'll appear." Like One did with Two, Seven led the twins with a hand on each back. The remaining three males started to follow, Nine looking at Five, "Thanks." Five seemed confused, "For what?" Nine smiled, "For being there for us. We wouldn't have been able to stop the beast without you and your aim." The healer looked down shyly, "It was nothing."

He paused briefly, then continued, "If anyone was needed, it was you, you were able to get under it and… Sometimes you worry me." It was an afterthought and he didn't realize he had said it. The Nine looked over in shock, "I worry you?" Five was alarmed, tried to think up words, and then spoke, "Sometimes I worry that you will get hurt. You worry more about the others than yourself." The zippered one responded quietly, "I think you confused you and me." The healer seemed taken aback, "No, I didn't-." Nine insisted, "Five, you can't say it's not true, you care more about everyone else than you do yourself, you risked yourself to save me many times, I just can't seem to return the favor." Five smiled shyly, "I just do what I can. I'm sure you'd do the same."

Five started to continue walking when Nine embraced him out of nowhere. "Nine?" The one eyed male's voice was a bit confused, but his friend didn't answer him, he just held him close. Because only now did he realize how close he was to losing him once again. He only felt anyway better when Five decided to hug back, the two held each other, and then suddenly Nine felt another arm around him. For whatever reason, None decided to intrude on their moment to embrace them as well. Nine moved his hand up to pet his twin's head for a second and at this time Five moved back. None must have alerted him to what he was doing and he looked quite. "I-umm-well-We should- We should go to bed." Nine nodded in agreement and followed the male who was heading back to the area where they had been sleeping.

At this time None remembered that object in the back of the hole and paused to ponder what it was. Finally he decided to look in the morning, he was much too tired to worry about it tonight.

Mable: End of Chapter! I could have some witty little note here that everyone could be impressed at, but my mind is fried and all I can see in letters, even when I look away from the screen. The next chapter shall be up soon! I hope you enjoyed!