The next morning, 7 woke up from her sleep. She got up from her bed and stretched as she let out a small yawn. She looked to her left to say good morning to 9, but her smile turned into shock when she saw the other half of the bed empty. She got out of the bed and looked around the room to see if 9 was anywhere, and she found the lift already at the ground level of the globe. Without hesitation, she jumped off the ledge and landed on the floor with ease and ran out of the globe.
She looked around with concern and called out, "9! 3! 4! Where are you?!" She began to get worried and said to herself, "Oh, I hope the Beast hadn't come back from the dead and took them!"
She looked around the Library more and searched frantically for her love and the twins, and she calmed down and sighed in relief when she found the twins sitting on a partially burned textbook. She noticed 4 crying silently and 3 was trying to comfort her. 7 came over and sighed as she embraced them, "Guys! I was so worried about you two." She looked at them and asked them, "Where's 9?"
The twins had sad looks on their faces and 4 turned her head to an upright book and flickered her lights on it. Her lights showed a recording of 9 leaving them and saying the words he said to them, "No! Nothing you can do can change my mind! I'm never coming back. Ever!"
7 felt a pang of sadness seeing the recording. She felt like she was stabbed in the heart when she listened to the last thing he said to them, "I'm sorry, but I need to leave so you can be safe from the world, from me. I know you won't see me again, but I'll never forget you guys. So don't you forget about me, okay?"
4 finished the recording and she collapsed into her brother's arms in exhaustion. 7 nearly collapsed to the ground herself, but she kept her posture and crossed her arms in sadness. She cried silently, "I guess he's gone." She began sobbing softly in sadness, and 3 and 4 put their arms around her to comfort her.
After a few minutes, 7 brought herself away from the twins and assured them, "Don't worry, guys. We'll find him." She ran back to the globe and the twins followed her. By the time they got in the globe, they found 7 putting on her skullmet and shield and arming herself with her spear. She looked at the twins and said, "I'm going after him. You two stay in the globe until I get back so you'll both be safe." She came over to them and said as she embraced them, "Keep each other safe. I'll be back before nightfall."
She ran out past the books and the twins watched her leave as they walked back towards the globe to stay safe until 7 got back.
9 woke up with a start after having the same dream from last night and panted heavily. He got up from his spot and looked around the broken down car he found as a place to sleep for the rest of the night. He sighed, "I've been having that dream for a while." He grabbed his lightbulb staff and walked out of the car to continue his journey. He didn't know where he was going, but he didn't care either. As long as he is far away from 7 and the twins, they were safe.
Thinking about them made 9 regret his decision to run away, but his biggest regret were his friends he lost to the Fabrication Machine long ago. He tried pushing those memories of his friends aside and focused on his journey through the Emptiness, but they just wouldn't go away. He had been walking for what it felt like to be two hours until he had finally arrived at the outskirts, and he rested near an empty crate for a while. He wanted to go to sleep, but he feared he would have the same nightmare that haunted him for days again.
He looked up at the sky and watched as the sun started setting in the distance. He stared at the horizon as he started closing his eyes and started drifting off to sleep again. He slept for what seemed like hours when he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night after hearing a voice calling to him
"9..."
9 looked around his spot in fear to find the voice that called to him.
"H-hello?" he called out. The voice called to him again, and 9 gripped his lightbulb staff tightly in his hands, ready to fight the stranger who was stalking him. He heard the voice again from behind him, and he turned around and noticed a pale white light at the corner. Out of curiosity, 9 made his way to the source of the light and heard the voice grow louder as he got closer to the light. He stopped in his tracks when he arrived at a small hole where a Walker bomb had went off during the war, and in the center was a small pile of burning white flames. Out of curiosity, 9 walked over to the fire to get a closer look, but he noticed the fire was far from hot.
9 reached his hand over the flames and put it over them, but he felt no heat from the fire and his hand wasn't charred or blackened. 9 began to wonder what sorcery this was when pale white fog started circling around his feet and he heard the same voice call to him, "9..." He turned around and watched as the flames died down a little and the fog coming close to them. 9 watched in wonder as they started forming into a human figure, one he recognized from his past when he first awoke in the dead world.
"Greetings, 9. It has been so long since I've seen you, but sadly I was not alive to see you awaken." 9 finally recognized the voice and the man's face. He gasped, "You! You're the scientist who created us all!" He corrected himself, ashamed and saddened, "Well, I mean back when everyone was here before me."
"I have seen the angst, regret, and emotional pain you have been going through, my greatest creation, and I am here for you. " the Scientist said to him in his gruff but gentle voice. 9 sighed, "I'm not your greatest creation. I don't think I ever was. All I am was the last thing you created when this whole world became ruins."
The Scientist said to him, "You have always been my greatest creation, along with your loved ones and the friends you lost. You may have made a mistake with my machine, but you have fulfilled my wish to end what I have started, and you have saved the future of humanity from extinction."
9 snapped at him, "But I'm not a hero! I was everyone's enemy and murderer! The one who activated your machine and had them slaughtered!" He sighed, "I should have died in their place. They didn't deserve to die, I did." He was about to break down at the memory of his first friend 2 having his soul sucked away by the Fabrication Machine after he inserted the Talisman into it, and the other memories of those he knew having their own souls taken and killed. He asked him sadly, "Why are you here? Was it just so you can see me like you first saw my friends?"
The Scientist answered, "Before I gave you the last piece of my soul, I neglected to mention that there is more to the device I entrusted you with. Your fallen ones have not completed their mission on Earth, and they must be brought back to play their part in protecting humanity's future. With that device, you can bring them back to Earth and let them walk on solid ground once again." 9 had no idea what the man was saying, but his thoughts about his fallen friends finally made him snap.
He yelled in anger and sadness, "No! They're all dead because of me! None of this would have happened if I didn't have that Talisman with me! You've picked the wrong person to do this task. All I ever bring is death and suffering, and I don't want it to happen again! Just please leave me be so I can always remember them!"
He turned around and was about to run away, but the Scientist said outloud, "YOU WERE THE ONE WHO REUNITED YOUR PEOPLE IN THAT BATTLE!" The Scientist's voice boomed so loud that 9 fell back, landed on the ground and curled up in a fetal position in fear. "IT WAS YOU WHO SAVED THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY! YOU WERE MY LAST HOPE TO ATONE FOR WHAT I HAVE DONE TO THOSE I KNEW AND CARED ABOUT AND MANY INNOCENT LIVES LOST TO MY MACHINE!"
9 tried to speak to him, but he was alreay too scared to move or say another word. He began to break down in silent tears, and the fogs streamed away from the flames and the Scientist's image appeared on solid ground. He came over to 9 and knelt down to him and gently rubbed his back to comfort the Stitchpunk.
"9, you have been in this emotional pain for so long. It pains not just your beloved or the twins, but it pains me to see you like this." he said in the most gentle tone 9 had ever heard. "You need to take this task to ease your pains and heal your scars." 9 looked up at him and saw the soft smile on his face. He said to him, "When there are things going wrong on your journey, I will be there for you, even when you won't see me. I will be watching over you and your family. " He drifted back to the flames and looked over at the Stitchpunk.
" To regain your friends, you must restore their outer shells from where they lost their lives, remember the sequence to the revival process, and aim the Talisman to the sky where your people are waiting to return to Earth after pressing the markings in this order. " the Scientist told him as he waved his hands and the smoke formed into the shapes of the Talisman and its markings. The lower left marking glowed first, then the top marking, and finally the lower right marking.
"I have faith in you, my child. I have done all I can in humanity's final days, now it is your turn to protect our future." the Scientist said to him as he put his hand on 9's shoulder and nodded with a soft smile. He brought his hand away before his image disappeared and the flames died down completely until there was nothing but ashes on the ground.
9 brought out the Talisman from his chest and looked at it. He memorized the sequence the Scientist showed him, and he said, "I won't let you all down again. I promise." He grabbed his lightbulb staff and made his way into the outskirts of the Emptiness to start his journey. It had already been sunrise and the sun was starting to come up. As he made his way back to the Emptiness, he looked over and saw the moth resting on a dead flower.
Instead of showing fear or worry, 9 said to the moth as he tightened his grip on his staff, "You! What do you want from me?" The moth just fluttered away and headed for the city ruins. 9 wanted to know where the insect was going and decided to follow it. His journey had begun.
So what did you guys think of this? 9 has met the spirit of his creator and he now has a chance of redemption, and now he may have found a way to fill the void in his heart. Will his mission be successful or will it be a failure? A part of this chapter was inspired by the Prince of Egypt where Moses meets God.
9 belongs to Shane Acker and Tim Burton, the Prince of Egypt belongs to Dreamworks, and the story belongs to me.