Back at the Library, the twins were watching from the entrance, waiting for 9 and 7 to return as the sky started turning a little bit orange in the horizon. It was hours away from sunrise and they were so tired after being up all night, but they stayed awake and waited for their parental figures to come home.

They heard footsteps behind them, and they looked behind them to see 2 coming up to them. He said to them, "Lad, lass. You two have been up all night and it's almost sunrise." 3 and 4 looked at the courtyard and back at 2, gesturing something to him. Understanding what they were trying to tell him, he said, "Listen, I'm worried about 9 and 7 as much as you two are. But I assure you, they're alright. They'll be home later." He put his hands on each of their shoulders and said to them with a stern yet kind look, "Now let's get back to the globe. You two need to go and get some sleep."

The twins nodded, yawning. They followed him back to the globe and he took them to their quarters. He tucked them into their sock beds and made sure they were comfortable enough. He waited for them to go to sleep before saying goodnight to them and leaving them to take their rest and he used the lift to take him back down to his workshop. 1 would have woken up grumpy if 2 hadn't provided him with a lantern to use as his bed along with some cushions and rags for blankets. When he got back to his workshop, he got off the lift and walked over to his slipper bed. He got under the rag blanket and began closing his eyes to fall asleep.

He woke up a few hours later.

He listened as he heard the sound of something being dragged on the floor coming from outside. He came out from his workshop and saw some shadows from outside the globe from the rays of the rising sun. Grabbing a homemade staff for protection, he went over to the entrance and prepared to defend himself. But he was relieved and happy with what he saw next.

He ran over to the figures and smiled, "7! 9! You're back! Where have you been? You were both gone the whole day, and I was worried sick about you two." He chuckled, "Well, I wasn't the only one. The twins were up all night waiting for you."

9 explained, still carrying 5 on his shoulders, "We found 5 near the Factory, but before we left to go home, 7 and I stayed there for a while to find 8." 7 nodded, "It wasn't really easy to find that big lug. We couldn't find him around the rubble and it took us forever to find him."

"But he wasn't anywhere around the rubble." 9 added. "He was in the rubble."

"I can tell." 2 laughed, seeing how dirty 8's body was as he was lying on the gurney. He dropped the laughter and said, "But all joking aside, did you find anything broken or torn on his body?" 9 shook his head, "No, he was in perfect shape when I found him. But just to be safe, we were hoping you could look into him and see if there was anything crushed like his arm or leg or back."

2 nodded, "I'll do what I can. Now, may I have a look at 5?" 7 took 5 off of 9's back and they both rested him on a book laying flat on the floor. 2 came over to them and looked at 5 with sadness. It pained him seeing his fallen apprentice in front of him, especially after he saw him as a son when he was alive and they were always spending time together working on new inventions and practicing their medical lessons. 9 knew exactly how 5 felt when he was looking at 2's body when he died, and from the look he saw on 5's face, it truly broke his heart to lose a man he looked up to as a father.

The old inventor ran his hand over 5's burnt eye patch and sighed, "You'll be home soon, lad." He looked at 9 and 7, and he said to them, "I'll need both him and 8 in my workshop. Can you give me a hand taking them there?"

"Of course." 7 nodded. 9 stopped her, "Hold on, 7. You pulled 8 with you all night, so I think you need some rest after all that." 7 assured her, "I'm fine. Honest." 2 said to her, "I'm going to have to agree with him, lass. You must be exhausted from being up all night, so once 9 and I get these two in my workshop, I think you and 9 need to get some rest." 7 was feeling too tired to argue with him, so the least she could do right now was to go back to the twins and go get some well-deserved sleep. She figured she was going to be asleep all day, which was fine by her. It would be the first time in a long time she actually had a better sleep without the Cat Beast hot on her tail when it was still here.

Before she went to her and 9's quarters, she brought 5 to the workshop while 9 and 2 worked together to get the gurney carrying 8's massive body into the globe. After getting the bodies to the workshop, 9 went to his quarters to see the twins asleep in their beds, and 7 was already fast asleep in her and 9's bed with her helmet off and placed next to the bed. He placed his lightbulb staff next to her spear, which was close to the bed, and he crawled in with her. Seconds later, he fell into a dreamless sleep.

The Cat Beast scavenged the streets of the city ruins to find the creations, but it was getting nowhere. It was about to move on when it heard the sound of footprints from close by, followed by the sound of something being dragged. It looked over a pile of rubble that was near a destroyed building that used to be a café, and something caught its eye.

Two small creatures, a white female and a brown male carrying and dragging two more creatures; one that was bigger and heavy-looking than them and another that had one eye.

The Machine recognized them immediately as the Stitchpunks it last faced before it blacked out. It let out a small growl of anger, quiet enough not to be heard by its prey, as it followed them down the path as the sky turned to orange from the sun. It watched as they arrived at the abandoned building that the humans have called a library. It figured that the rest of the still-living Stitchpunks and the revived ones were also in there, and the two lifeless ones were going to be the next to be alive again.

The feral beast wanted to strike and attack them, but it could not be seen in broad daylight when it would be easy for them to spot it. It knew that nightfall would be the perfect chance to plan its attack, but with the slender white one, it was going to be hard for it to capture the creations again, although the Fabrication Machine had provided its neck wiring with protection after being repaired.

The Cat Beast retreated back to the Emptiness to await its time to attack. But to attack, it needed back-up. It returned to its hideout and went over to a large crack in the wall. It let out a large, lion-like roar into it.

It waited a few minutes later for its 'roommate' to wake up from its sleep and come out of it den. The once silent building now had the sound of a snake rattling through the walls. A snake-like creature made of old rags for skin, sewing needles and a pair of sewing scissors for arms with thread attached to them. It's head consisted of a shattered doll's face and its red mechanical eye appeared out of it, and teeth-like structures appeared below its doll face that kept the thread it held untangled and straight.

The Seamstress stared at the Cat Beast and gave it a loud, blood-curdling screech that sounded like a horse in agony and close to death. The Cat Beast growled in response, both Machines exchanging words.

'How dare you interrupt my sleep?'

'I have located the whereabouts of the creatures our master had faced before Master was destroyed.'

The mention of the creations made the Seamstress screech in anger. Before the day their home, the Factory, the very fortress of their master the Fabrication Machine, had been destroyed by those Stitchpunks, the Machine had been so proud of its work on the first Seamstress, it decided to make it a twin 'sister', but with just one minor difference; since there was only one creation's corpse in the Factory, it was left with only a club-like tail. After its 'sister' had been slaughtered by the very Stitchpunk that awakened their master after it gave the Fabrication Machine one of the others that it captured, the Cat Beast, who had been repaired at the time, had gotten it out of the Factory, along with some stray Spiderbots, before the explosion that destroyed the building occurred.

The remaining Machines took shelter far away from the Factory after their master survived the explosion and extracted some more souls from two other creations. After the Machines heard of the destruction of their master, the Seamstress, like the Cat Beast, wanted to avenge both its master and its 'sister', and both Machines have been working together for the last month to plan to destroy the last Stitchpunks.

The Cat Beast continued through its growls.

'There is more. I've discovered that the souls of the creatures the Master extracted are returning to their shells. And it appears they're using the device!'

The Seamstress screeched angrily at the news, flailing its tail around in rage and hitting a piece of wood nearby. It shattered into splinters and wood chips with a strong swing.

'Are you sure?!'

'Affirmative! And the returned souls are hiding away in that abandoned library.'

The Seamstress knew this would be a perfect chance to get even with the one who killed its 'sister', and it wailed to the Cat Beast to prepare an attack on them when they were ready.

'But remember this, the best time to strike is at night. We must capture them using the element of surprise.'

The Seamstress hissed in agreement, and they proceeded to prepare their assault on the Library and capture and kill the Stitchpunks as the Spiderbots scavenged for things the two beasts could enhance themselves with to make them powerful.

So what did you guys all think? While 9 and 7 have managed to bring 5 and 8 back with them to the Library, the Cat Beast is plotting to attack them and the other Stitchpunks, with the help of the most terrifying Machine ever created that the Stitchpunks have faced. I thought it would be clever to have the Cat Beast and Seamstress talk to each other in a language only understood by Machines, and from the looks of it, they are both animalistic and display their own free will judging by the way they interact with each other.

Just to let everyone reading this know, it's only the Cat Beast and Seamstress returning in this story, but the Fabrication Machine and Winged Beast won't be returning.

9 belongs to Shane Acker and Tim Burton.