Mable: And thus the daily updates begin again! I hope everyone enjoys and I don't own 9, Enjoy!

Souls run Deep

Chapter Thirteen: The Dark Clouds

It had been a few days since Nine's injury and Child was accepted officially into the Stitchpunks' family. It was early in the morning and most of the Stitchpunks hadn't yet gotten up to face the day. Two and Five were wide awake, though, and preparing to leave. Three was also awake, saying goodbye to Five while she was quite tired, but Five accepted it with a smile and slipped her a small kiss on the forehead.

For him, Two pretended that he didn't notice. "We shouldn't be out long. We're just heading to that tailor shop down the way. We should be back with the fabric in only a bit." He smiled as the two broke and watched Five enter the lift. The healer waved at the young librarian who waved back at him. Soon they were out in the Emptiness. It was a bit of a walk to the abandoned clothing store, in the area where the building stood more firm, but Two and Five took the time to speak.

"I don't know how to explain it." Five admitted, "I feel really good when I'm around her, like I'm floating, but my head is spinning, and I just want to hold her close and… I don't know." Two smiled and rested a hand on his apprentice's shoulder, "I understand Five. You may not realize it, but I am pretty sure you are in love with her." Five abruptly stopped as Two kept walking, taken aback. "Love- Wait, Two, I-I don't-."

"It certainly sounds like it." Two persisted; seemingly glad about it, "Love certainly is powerful and unpredictable, overtaking those in its path, especially young love…" He started to sound a bit lost in his thoughts and Five wondered what led him in to such a state. "Two… Have you ever been in love?" The Inventor paused as though he didn't know how to answer, "Well I… I know very much of love and… Yes, I suppose I have been in love."

Five perked up, "With whom?" Two actually did something that the Healer never expected; he actually stuttered. It was like he was almost as shy as Five was and quickly waved it off, "I-It is not important. Instead, let us look at the task at hand; replacing fabric. It will be difficult. Perhaps we should keep him completely under, using a stronger magnet?" Five agreed, but couldn't steer his mind from the thought of Two being in love. Honestly, he had a good feeling he knew who the Stitchpunk of his affection was.

They made it to the Tailor Shop where Two began to seek out strong fabric, anything close to burlap, and continued to avoid any mention of the earlier question. That was, until Five was alerted by the distant sound of rumbling and he jumped a bit. Two quickly spoke up, "Sounds like rain. Perhaps we'll get a bit wet on the way home." He seemed barely concerned and the Healer looked up to him, "There may be lightning if there's thunder."

"Well…" Two thought, then smiled, "Let us work quickly and we'll head home before the storm moves in." Five was relieved and agreed by going to assist his mentor. Neither expected anything more.

"Steady." One was actually filling in for Two as the Inventor was absent. The Leader wasn't too eager and much too overprotective to really be helping. However, he did allow Nine to lean against him as he started to put weight on his foot for the first time in days. For the last few days Nine had desperately attempting to begin walking again, but until today it had been hurting too bad to walk long.

He felt confident as he realized that the pressure didn't pain his leg as bad. "Okay, I think I can do it." One slowly released Nine until the Stitchpunk was standing alone. It was a shaky stance that seemed close to faltering, but Nine still stood solidly. One then handed Nine the Lightstaff to steady himself. "We will walk out to the throne room. If you have any pain like yesterday then we will stop and come back." The younger groaned, "I can't stay in this room anymore. I'm afraid I'm going to go insane."

One said something under his breath, but Nine wasn't sure what, and the two exited the room. Nine moved quite slowly and once in the hall was approached by Seven. "You're walking again! How does it feel?" Nine smiled and One answered, "Do not keep him still too long or you could bother his leg to the point that he will not be able to walk again." The pale female slowly inhaled and waited for him to leave. "I hate when he purposely tries to rile me." She pointed out, "Like he wants me to fight with him."

"I guess nobody fights better than you." Nine responded playfully and Seven gave a mock glare before smiling as well. Before anything else could occur, they exited into the throne room. Seven immediately noticed that Eight was entering the bucket lift and that Six was already inside. She felt disturbed at the connection, but couldn't do a thing as they quickly began to descend.

The vent window was opened to let in a cool breeze that felt quite comfortable. The twins were nearby looking at Six's drawing that were left behind by the Artist; Four was seemingly trying to keep her sister's mind off of the missing Stitchpunk. Nine could clearly see Child pacing on the opposite side of the throne, seeming to be lost in thought, and decided to simply wave to him.

"Why don't you go talk to him or the twins?" Seven suddenly suggested and Nine looked back in alarm, "Why?" She was solemn, "I have to do something for a bit." The zippered one shrugged it off, understanding and able to feel better when Seven faked a smile to him. As soon as he approached the twins, she turned to the throne where One sat there, staring out into the library, and acting as lost in his thoughts as Child was. He straightened as soon as Seven approached.

"Yes?" He was waiting for a fight to begin, bracing himself, and Seven knew it. Instead she decided to stay calm; it wasn't One who she was angry at. "Do you know what Eight has been doing?" She asked and he seemed a bit confused, "Eight has not been doing anything out of the ordinary from what I have noticed." She shook her head, "I wouldn't think anything was wrong either, but I saw it happen and… The other day I caught Six and Eight together."

One immediately remembered a similar situation only a bit ago where he caught Six in Eight's room, "Yes, continue." She didn't want to have to go to him for help, but she had no choice. She was afraid handling it herself would only end up making it worse. As well, if One was going to be immediately be convinced by Eight then she wanted to get to him first. "I heard Eight telling Six that he, in short, had something against him that if you knew would cause you to get rid of Six."

The Leader showed a bit of confusion and perhaps recoiled as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "He's using whatever this is to make Six do something." Slowly the leader's look turned to anger, "What is he making him do?" Seven shook her head, "I'm not sure, but I know it can't be to pleasant, knowing how much Eight taunts Six." One finally stood, "I knew something was amiss." Seven blinked, "You did?" One nodded, "I certainly did! I caught them acting oddly in Eight's room the other day and knew that they were hiding something."

"What are you going to do?" Seven asked and One stood to his feet, "I will be going down there right now to demand-!" He cut off when he was interrupted by a boom of thunder. He tried to cover the look of sustaining surprise with a look of frustration, "Nine- Child- Someone shut that window!" However, the group was staring outside before Child spoke, "You may want to come take a look at this." One huffed and hurried over before looking out at the sky.

He was surprised to see how dark the sky was growing, rumbling and dark, and suddenly his mind changed, "Two and Five will need to hurry if they plan to make it back before the rain." Nine was hesitant, though, "Maybe someone should go out and get them." He suggested, but was abruptly turned down, "That is foolish, Nine. They will be back when they come back. We going out there will not accomplish a thing."

Nine was preparing to insist, but decided he was in no condition to travel anyway, so he decided to simply wait.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Eight and Six had no idea about the rain. They were standing outside the front of the library, but the weather was the last thing on their mind. Six felt uneasy as the other walked before him and put a good deal of distance between them. "You've got to learn how to control this thing against something that moves." Eight insisted, unsheathing his knife to be threatening and circling Six, "Throw something at me."

Six seemed hesitant to do so, "Eight… I don't want to-." Maybe Eight was really angry or maybe he was simply riling Six, but he began to speak, "Come on, Freak, I've seen you throw things before. Don't back down now." Six didn't think he meant it, but the names began to do what Eight wanted, and Six began to grow upset. He looked at the ground and Eight huffed, "Don't do that 'hurt' thing either. I warned you that I wasn't letting you off easy and you were stupid enough to go along with it.

Immediately, Six's mood changed again, but instead of feeling sad he was beginning to feel different. The more Eight taunted, the more this hot feeling grew, and not a pleasant one. Six only recognized it as anger as Eight's next comment was thrown. "I shouldn't have even agreed to this. What was I thinking taking someone like you and trying to make you do anything. Can't do anything but draw, and that's not even that decent."

Six felt the anger suddenly flare and a nearby rock flew in an uncontrolled direction. Six hadn't even been trying and Eight noticed such, "Well that was something-." More rocks began to just move a bit. "Yeah, there you go." Eight encouraged, the taunting immediately stopping, and it was obvious that he was purposely trying to rile Six. "Now actually throw something at me." When nothing came, Eight huffed, "Listen, I we agreed that-."

Suddenly something hit Eight. It was completely invisible so he only realized once he was on the ground that he had simply been shoved by Six's mind. The Artist's anger dropped at that second, even though it was pretty miniscule anyway, and he rushed up. "I'm sorry- I didn't mean to!" He looked like he was close to panicking and Eight quickly stood, "You see, that's what I wanted to happen." Then added in, "I can't believe you got me off my feet."

"I'm sorry." Six apologized again and the Guard seemed relatively passive about the entire thing. In fact, he looked pretty proud, "No, you were supposed to fight me. Now we just have to hope any Beast is going to start yelling at you before you fight it." This got a smile on Six's face and honestly Eight was glad to see it. Then he braced himself once again and lifted his knife in defense. Before he could tell Six to come again, something hit him in the head, something wet.

Both looked up to see that it was beginning to rain. Before they could move inside, as neither wanted to get soaked and heavy from water logged fabric, it began to downpour. They managed to get in quick enough that they weren't too wet. Six noticed something was wrong and looked at the sky, "Look how dark." Eight looked up as well, "That's going to be one hell of a storm. It's coming quick too; let's get up into the Sanctuary before it gets worse."

He noticed when the Artist stared outside quietly. It was almost like he saw something in the clouds. "You see something?" Honestly, the Guard didn't know whether he meant seeing with his optics or the other 'sight', but either way Six just turned to follow him. "No… I'm okay…" They boarded the lift and Eight turned the crank until they rose back to the Sanctuary. At that second, One seemed to appear before the lift, looking stern and studying the two.

"And where, pray tell, have you two been?" Six felt nervous under the Leader's gaze; fearing he would figure out what was going on and send him away. Eight managed to keep his calm, though. "Went down to see if they got back. I walked out a bit, but it started coming down." One was glaring sharply at him and Eight felt a bit small under the shorter Stitchpunk's gaze. They were interrupted by Nine, "Look how hard it's raining." Nine suggested as he pushed the vent window open and One huffed, "I told you to keep that bloody thing closed!"

"Look at it." Seven murmured as she stared out. It was raining harder than they had ever witnessed, and slowly they began to feel more concerned. Especially Nine who spoke up, "We can't leave them out there in this! What if they are in danger?" One seemed to completely ignore him, "Nine, it is just rain, nothing more. Now Eight, what exactly were you doing-?"

Nine huffed, frustrated, and began to limp out of the throne room. Seven watched after him, quietly, and she knew he was frustrated. However, she decided to stay and listen to what One was going to get out of Eight. Though, from how dodgy Eight and Six were being, she doubted they would get any answers. Nine stormed into his room as best as he could and immediately began to look around for something, anything, and eventually looked to his blanket.

Doubling it over, he began to tie it about his shoulders like a cape, and was only interrupted by the sound of a voice, "You're leaving?" Nine looked back to see Child standing in the doorway, and paused. "Are you going to stop me?" He countered and the other gave him a quizzical look, which probably meant that the answer was a 'no'. "Yeah, I'm going. I can't sit here while Five and Two are out in this."

"Do you think you can help a thing?" The other continued cynically, "Do you expect to stop the rain? Or do you believe your leg will magically heal the second you step out of the Sanctuary?" Of course he began to bring up the same doubts that Nine didn't want to hear, but the Stitchpunk merely threw his blanket down on the bed. "Maybe I can look around and see them nearby… If I knew where they went I could go and get them."

"They went to wherever Two calls 'the Tailor Shop'." Child pointed out and Nine remembered the location immediately. However, he also noticed that Child had bluntly given it to him, "Why did you tell me if you're trying to convince me not to go?" The other male leaned against the frame, "I'm not convincing you not to go. I am merely questioning your plan. You know it's dangerous and yet you're still willing to attempt it; interesting." He suddenly seemed to be studying Nine, even when the other male faced away and all he could see was his back.

"Don't do that." Nine spoke quietly. He didn't want to admit it, but he suddenly had an ill feeling of déjà vu, with red optics staring upon him. As though he was standing with the Machine. Thankfully, the other directed his vision to the wall, "Besides. It is very obvious that you cannot go alone." Nine huffed and turned around, "I'm tired of everyone acting like I can't do something without messing it up. I can do something."

"Nine," Child began passively, "this is the first time you've walked in how many days?" Nine backed down a bit as he remembered exactly what was holding him back. "I did not suggest you couldn't be alone. I was suggesting that you shouldn't be alone, and contemplating if I should come as well." The zippered one smiled, "We might be able to move faster with the both of us. It would be safer, too." This seemed to convince Child enough, though he didn't exactly seem hesitant, and the two soon headed back into the throne room.

Surprisingly, Child was more than willing to lie on behalf of Nine's sake, or at least managed to twist his words in a way that wasn't a lie. "We will be heading down to see if Two and Five have returned." He explained, and that was technically what they were going to do. One, meanwhile, was still trying to grill and unmoving Eight and decided to allow them by without much trouble. Child even turned the crank and Nine was glad to be able to rest against the lift and off of his foot.

They soon arrived at the Library below and began to head towards the exit. Once there, Nine could only stare at the heavy rainfall, and then Child passed him by, "Are you coming?" Nine tensed up before walking after him, "Yes… Yes, let's go…" They then started out into the wet Emptiness.

Two finally managed to find enough fabric and Five packed it into his bag as the Inventor crossed to the entrance of the Tailor Shop. Looking outside he could see the rain pouring down and exhaled with a smile. While it was a bother, certainly, rain was a comfort since bringing them back to life. Rain meant rebirth. That was, until Two noticed something. There was more water expected pooling on the ground.

Small streams seemed to be coming from everywhere and every little rivet was now submerged in rainwater. Only then did Two know that this wasn't just normal rainfall and gasped, "Five!" He called to his apprentice, "Five, we have to get back to the Sanctuary! It's flooding!"

Mable: Thank goodness Two and Five aren't the kind to swear. Anyway, I will have the next chapter up tomorrow, as promised, and I hope everyone enjoyed!