Mable: Here we are, chapter ten! We're nearing the end of the fic, unfortunately for me, I really had fun writing this. I'd say maybe I'd write a sequel, but that's a slim chance, though I plan to certainly write more fics… This isn't the last chapter though! I was just getting sentimental because we're nearing it. I mean… I've only hit a few chapter tens… I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed or simply read and I hope they enjoy this chapter and the next ones. I don't own 9, Enjoy!
Forgotten
Chapter Ten: Haunted by past Mistakes
It had begun like a typical day and Five was pleased to see Two who was ready to work. They began working early and found an area where they were able to climb higher up to begin building the first platform. Everything had been going good until suddenly something changed. Two was using a makeshift hammer, really just a decent sized rock, to nail the platform securely to the wall when he suddenly felt tired. Then it changed as he grasped his middle with his free hand. Something inside was painful and he doubled over with a low groan. Five noticed this and came to his aid, "Two?" The Inventor smiled and forced a chuckle, "I must have strained myself hammering. Perhaps I need to take a short rest." Five nodded and took the hammer before setting it to the side.
Two began to stand only to gasp and fallback over, holding onto the wall desperately and feeling his insides pained. His head began spinning, he felt wrong and the vertigo was sudden, and Five started trying to hold him up. "Two are you-." He gasped as soon as he made contact and reached up to touch Two's head, "You're overheating." Even though somewhat fearful, Two kept calm and straightened himself. "I'm alright. Just… Could you help me get down to the water to cool myself." The healer nodded and helped the male walk. Two suddenly remember the beast hitting him last night and became concerned that it could be causing his pain. It didn't take too long to get back to the water and the Inventor started rubbing his damp hand across his face.
The pain in his middle grew and Five was horrified to hear Two let out what could only been known as a whimper. He began to try and pet his mentor to help him, but finally Two started to gain control, only to feel quite fatigued. "I think I need to rest." Five nodded and went to help him up, the Inventor directed him to the cushion he had slept on the night before and he laid down weakly. The younger was very concerned, "Should I get One?" Immediately Two spoke against it, "No, he'll make us stop working. I'm… I'm fine Five; I just need some rest, could you wake me in a couple of hours?" Five nodded loyally and squeezed his mentor's hand, "I will. You just rest." Then he slowly left, watching the tired optics close and his mentor let out a sigh of contentment. Feeling better since the pain was now gone.
Five was very concerned at how suddenly Two went from feeling fine to being in pain. However, he decided to keep it hidden and not tell anyone. Though Five knew he would have to if this got any worse and decided to only wait with hope that Two just worked too hard. To take his mind off of it and waste some time he went to go find the others. He found them with the Twins who were working to catalogue more old newspaper clippings and objects. One was talking to Seven and Nine about something and None was watching the twins, so Five approached him pleasantly. "Good morning, None." He looked over and smiled, "Hello Five, is something wrong?" A single sentence and he could already tell that something was bothering the male.
"No… Not really… Just taking a break from work." He watched the book's pages being turned by the twins until None spoke up, "What's that?" The twins were hesitant to move to the page, but finally did, and the Stitchpunk was able to see the large beast in the newspaper clipping, "What is that?" He asked again and Five explained, "It was called the Fabrication Machine. It made all of the other beasts, tried to take our souls, but we stopped it." None stared at it, alarmed, and then whispered softly, "From the book…" Five couldn't hear him and looked over, "I'm sorry?" None shook his head, "Nothing. It doesn't matter." He smiled to show he was fine and suddenly One's voice broke out, "At least that vile thing is no more." The leader glared at the book before looking at Five, "Where is Two?"
"Oh… He said he wanted to take a rest…" He expected One to be suspicious, but because One told Two he wanted him to take rests he was not, in fact he was quite pleased. "Very good. If you excuse me." He walked off to possibly find the Inventor. Nine noticed how entrance None was and nervous Five was, "Guys?" Five fixed himself and None pretended to look away, "I… Well… Yes?" Five smiled and Nine looked at him confused, glanced at Seven who had the same look, and they decided to let it drop. The pages were turned again and for now the Beast went forgotten.
Eight heard that scratching noise again and immediately envisioned the Crawling Beast coming back. When he actually awoke he saw that the noise was coming from Six who was now drawing a little ways away instead of sleeping. Those pen tipped hands were scratching violently at the paper, not careful like usual, not even as wild as they went after a nightmare, this just seemed odd. Then he caught a glimpse of Six's face as he looked to his ink well and could clearly see a troubled expression. He forced himself to sit up, stared at Six's back, and then stood, starting over, "Six?" He cast a shadow over the smaller from the angle of the candle and for a second he shivered like he would when he used to be bullied. Eight wasn't sure exactly why, but recently he actually began to loath memories of what he did to the Artist.
"Eight…" Six's voice was soft and carried that heavy emotion with it. The guard was very suspicious, "What are you doing?" Six now stood, clutching his newest drawing, and headed to the wall to put it up, "Drawing." Only now did Eight realize the sudden onslaught of pictures that now were on the walls. Having only been a few the day before he was able to put the pieces of the puzzle together, "Did you sleep last night?" The Artist paused, refusing to look at Eight, and then spoke, "A little bit…" Eight glared, "You mean, you slept until I went to sleep?" He saw the yarn above his head sway a bit as he nodded. "I had to draw." Slowly, Eight was becoming more and more aware of something being wrong, and he wasn't willing to back down from this now.
"This is about that beast again; I told you already it wasn't your fault." Six now looked back at him, looking between sad, ashamed, and mostly determined, "Can't let it happen again. Have to be right, can't fail again, it will happen again, have to… Have to…" He was too delusional and tired to say anything that would make sense, and he knew it. He clutched his head, even more ink staining his head, "Why, why, why?" He began just repeating that word, questioning everything, his nightmares, himself, everything. Eight wanted to stop this because at this second he could hear that noise that previously turned into crying before. He had to stop it, "Six." His voice was on edge and his hands went up in defense. Six shook his head, pen tipped hands still clawing at his own fabric.
Finally Eight had an idea, possibly a bad one, but it seemed enough to at least cause Six to pause for a bit. He reached out and grasped Six's by his shoulders, turning him to face him and attempting to pry his hands away before he accidently hurt himself. "Six, look at me." The Artist slowly slid his optics upwards to meet Eight's; they were unblinking, and looked mostly exhausted. Then Eight decided to go through with it, just like One had done to Too many times, and leaned closer to press his lips to Six's. The Artist's optics changed size dramatically at this surprising action, even though he had no idea what it could possibly mean. It felt good though. It was so warm and tender, softly rubbing against his, and eventually Six found that he wanted to push into it too.
Eight was kind of confused on what to do after pressing their lips together, but somehow felt wonderful when Six was pressing back. Massaging lips, stroking, and it grew more and more pleasing until they found everything else gone. Six felt his back hit the wall, slowly pressing against it as his legs started to wobble. He gripped onto Eight's arms to attempt to keep him up. Eight only half registered Six grasping him, but was too entwined to think of anything except how good this was. Then weird thoughts started going through his head, things he couldn't fathom, and most of them involved whatever kind of relationship they had. He couldn't understand what the bullying turned into, but was quite sure it was something good.
Then there was a sharp intake from the door and both realized they weren't alone. Eight moved back from Six quickly and then seemed to grow much slower as he turned to look at the door. "Sorry-umm-I didn't-Well-I-Umm-Sorry." With that ramble, Five disappeared again, probably trying to get that picture out of his mind. The other two Stitchpunks both found the same situation occurring; their voices seemed to be gone. They didn't know what to say until Eight spoke, "I'm going to go find him." Each word was spaced out and it came out more like a question than a statement. Six tried to force words out, his words weren't nearly as stable as Eight's, "I… Need sleep." Eight nodded, "Yeah." They moved away from each other and the Artist almost fell down the wall.
The guard almost ran out of the room and Six stumbled to his bed where he collapsed on it. That bit of pleasure finally eased his mind and he actually felt able to sleep comfortably. However, he only then realized how that tingly feeling before had returned, so much stronger than before, and was lingering inside. Meanwhile, Eight was becoming frantic, suddenly imagining One yelling at him about what he did with Six. All because Five saw and could easily tell anyone and everyone about what Eight did. Eight wasn't even sure what he did except it felt amazing and that for some reason he only wanted to do it with the Artist who was slowly overtaking his every thought. At this time he saw Five, standing some ways away from Seven, Nine, and the twins.
He hurried over and sort of moved to a position where he blocked Five's escape route, "Five, that wasn't what you thought." Five looked down at the ground, "I don't know what you're talking about." Eight saw past his pretending it didn't happen, "Yeah you do. It was an accident, I fell on him, and it looked like we were doing something that we weren't even doing." Still the Healer was adamant to pretend it didn't happen, "I have to go." Finally Eight got to the main concern, "You can't tell anyone, Five. No matter what, you can't tell anyone, or I'm dead." Five nodded immediately, speaking as calm as possible, "It didn't happen." Eight huffed, "No, it did happen, I'm telling you not to…" He paused, "Never mind, never happened." Then he decided to try to avoid Five for some time, Five decided to do the same thing.
Two awoke to feel quite refreshed and even a bit exhilarated. He felt quite good and wondered what had woken him only to look over and see One standing right there, somewhat startled but kept calm, "One, I was just-." One waved it off, "Five told me. I am impressed; for once you've actually done as I asked from you." The Inventor caught on quickly and, seeing as though his pain was gone, ignored it completely and spoke, "I didn't want to risk overworking and suffering for it." He began to slowly stand and could hear One still speaking out of his line of view, "Yes, understandable. I could tell you were injured yesterday when that beast attacked you, at least that became nothing." At that second Two started to stand and felt a second of dizziness that quickly passed.
"I was just shaken up a bit." Slowly the feeling of dizziness came back again, along with this weird clenching in his middle, but he tried to hide it. "Nothing to worry about." One nodded, "It eases my mind a bit. UI still cannot help but worry about you. You care nothing of your health." Looking over, Two realized that One wasn't looking at him, and took this opportunity to try and fix himself, knowing he would soon have to peer inside and see what was really occurring. "I might go search out Five." One nodded, subtly approached Two and chastely pressed their lips together, then allowed Two to scurry off. As he got out of view, Two let himself slowly growing more and more strange, dizzy, confused, and then suddenly he let out a noise that could only be considered a sob.
A few minutes later Five found him, "Two, you're awake! How are you feeling?" He could see the Inventor tying his front up like he was previously opened and was curious about it. Two smiled, but Five could tell something was occurring, even though Two didn't say what, "Much better, but still a little tired. If you'd like we can do a little work." The healer shook his head, "No, we can work anytime, you should rest now." Then Two said something odd, "Well alright… But I'd like to see us get the work done… As soon as possible." Suddenly the one eyed Stitchpunk felt a wave of dread fill him. Something there sounded too weird, but Two came close, an arm around Five's shoulders, and led him along, "It will be nice once it's finished… We should try to accomplish as much as we can with this. Perhaps even start another project right after."
It was around this time that they ran into Nine, Seven, and None. Two greeted them and they began to speak cheerfully even though Five felt uneasy, wanting to know what was making Two act so strange, and hurt so much. It wasn't him who wasn't paying any attention to the conversation though. None was nodding and acting to be paying attention, but something else was plaguing his mind, that hidden object that he only saw a glance of. Slowly he began to wander off, trying to look like he was innocently looking around, before quickly heading past the books and heading to the other side of the Library. It took some time to find the hole which he reached in and found this very bizarre object. It was confusing, but he remembered it.
Then he gasped as he remembered the one book he could read, written and put away in the First Room, and this drawn in it. There was one page that had taken interest and he wanted to know more. He hurried to the Twins' book and began to search through the pages to when he found the one with the Fabrication Machine. It was that one, that's the one, and then he looked over to see something pasted to the page alongside it and his optics took interest.
Nine only realized that None was gone after he trailed from his conversation with the others. "Where's None?" The others looked around before Two suggested, "Perhaps he's with the twins." They began to search and, upon finding the twins without None, Nine suddenly remembered what occurred during the Beast's attack. "He wouldn't have…" he suddenly began to sprint towards the other side of the library. "Nine?" Seven asked confused before following, the others following slower. Nine managed to get to the hiding spot and reached into it, "No… None, no." He muttered in panic and Seven came up behind him, "Nine, why are you looking in there?" Nine looked up in panic, "None found the Talisman!" Silence filled the room.
Then Nine began to run in another direction, barely caring about anyone other than his twin, "I have to check the book!" He just had this feeling that led him to the main object of the twin's work and the male rushed to the book only to see it opened to a series of pictures, one being the picture of the Fabrication Machine. It was a single picture in particular caught his attention near it and Nine was horrified to see it was a make shift map, leading straight to an area that was marked in a black hue with a single dark eye. He ripped the picture away from the page, much to the horror of Three and Four, and suddenly began to run again, this time to Six's crevice. "Why did you draw this?! Did you give it to None?!" Six sort of jumped at the sudden yell, having been sleeping, and looked confused, "Did I… Did… What?" He came forward, his voice full of fear, terror, and desperate, "Did you tell him about this map?"
Six looked at the map in confusion, now it was much closer, "I can't… I didn't tell None anything." Nine was now panicking worse, "He had to say something! Why would you-?!" Suddenly a large hand was on his shoulder, ripping him back, and he immediately seemed to be knocked out of the state he was in. Eight was the one who suddenly grabbed him, "What's wrong with you?!" He demanded, obviously very angry, and Nine just stared at the floor. Behind Eight was a very annoyed One who seemed to also be oblivious to what was occurring. Six then spoke up, trying to defuse the situation, "I drew that after the Incident. It was just a map for the twins." Nine's optics closed, "It leads to it, doesn't it?" He pulled away from Eight and looked to the others, "He took the Talisman and he's heading to the Fabrication Machine…"
The others only now saw exactly what was disturbing him and Five tried, "He… He doesn't know how to wake it up, does he? Can it be woken back up?" He began to slowly grow worked up as though he was going to hyperventilate. Two was still staring at the drawing when he stroked Five's shoulder, "I'm not sure. What is confusing enough is why he wanted to get to the Machine." Nine shook his head, "We're twins; what if he puts the Talisman in the Fabrication Machine? I… I can't lose my brother. I have to go after him." Seven seemed determined, "We'll come too. We let you go alone before, but this time it involves of all." The panicking Five nodded in agreement, and the others were determined to come. "That's good." Nine started, "I'll get a head start." Then dashed off without another word.
"If None wakes it our lives are all in danger." Two insisted and began to follow Nine, only to feel a little dizzy, the others now noticed his stumbling movements. "What are you doing?" One asked and Two looked back, "I'm following Nine." He insisted, but the way he was swaying showed how he could barely stand. Then, only a few more footsteps, and he clutched his middle and bowed over. Five gasped and rushed forward only to be reassured by Two who attempted to stop him. "No, Five, I'm fine, I'm just going to lie down." He lay on the ground and One was a mix between still confused and horrified, "Right there? On the floor?" Then he caught on, "You were injured, weren't you?! You've been lying the entire time you said you were fine!"
"We need to go after, Nine. Will you be okay?" Seven asked down at Two and the male nodded, "Go." Five touched his hand and Two stroked it before pushing it away, "Go, I'll be fine, but be careful." The healer nodded, knowing he was serious, and then ran after Nine with Seven. The others were left behind for a brief time, "Eight, Six, you two will come with me. Help me move Two first." They did, moving Two back to the cushion, where the male was laid on the pillow, "We will be leaving immediately." One insisted, "You two grab any weapons. Three, Four, you will stay here and watch Two." The he looked over to Two, "Two…" Then huffed, "You drive me insane." The Inventor smiled, "Don't you like it?" The leader kissed his lover gently before moving back.
"Five and I will look at you when we come back. Rest." One didn't seem upset at all anymore and began to leave, leaving Two to lie limp against the cushion, silently trying to rest his pained insides. He could only wish and pray for the best.
Mable: Two is in pain, None is waking Beasts, Eight can't grasp pretending that something didn't happen; The Stitchpunks are having some strange luck here. :) Anyway, I will update the next chapter as soon as possible, I hope you enjoyed!