9 watched as 5's hands and feet began to twitch, and then he suddenly let out a huge gasp for air back into the world. He panted heavily as he blinked his one eye and looked around with it. 9 didn't know what to say when he saw his best friend alive again in front of him.

"F... 5?"

The one-eyed Stitchpunk looked over at 9, and a big smile lit up his face. The smile that 9 had missed so much. 5's breathing had slowed down to normal, and he said to him softly, "Hello, 9." The young Stitchpunk couldn't hold back his emotions anymore and wrapped his arms around his one-eyed friend. 5 returned his embrace and they didn't let go of each other for a long time.9 said to him, "I missed you so much. It's so good to have you back again."

"I missed you too, my friend. It's great to be back." 5 said. 9 let go of him after a few seconds and looked at 5. His smile disappeared and he sighed, "I'm so sorry." 5 asked him, "For what?"

9 answered sadly, "For letting you and everyone else die, and for killing your friend 2. After everything I put you and everyone else through, you deserve a better friend than me, and not someone who'd put you or any of your friends in danger." He looked away from 5 in shame, not bearing to think about the horrible memories that haunted him for the last month. To his surprise, he felt a hand on his shoulder and 5 said to him, "9, the past is in the past now. Everything that had happened is all behind us, and we're free thanks to you. I'm free from my fears thanks to you. No more sadness or blaming yourself, okay?"

9 nodded, knowing this wasn't a dream where he would see his friend only in it, and hugged him tighter. 5 put his hand on 9's arm and chuckled, "Uh, 9? Think we can continue this later? There's still others I need to see again."

9 replied, realizing he was too busy reuniting with his best friend that he forgot all about the others, "Sure." He let go of 5 and he got off the brick. He was too excited to realize that just after coming back to life, his legs were still a little weak. He nearly fell down, but 9 grabbed him and stopped his fall. 5 sighed in relief and looked at 9 with a grateful smile before walking towards 1, 2, the twins, and 7. 9 smiled as 2 and 5 both hugged each other and 2 chuckled with joy now that his apprentice had finally come back home to join him. When they were done, he came over to 7 and hugged her tightly, and the warrior retuned it with a soft smile. He let go of her and went to the twins, who both ran over to him and knocked him off his feet. 5 laughed as they hugged him, and he rubbed 3's hooded head before doing the same to 4's.

He watched as 1 came over to them and he cleared his throat to get 5's attention. Hearing him, 5 turned around and nearly jumped in alarm. He saw the old leader standing near him and he began to shake a little seeing that stare he was so afraid of the last time he was alive and living under his rule. He expected him to still be his hardened, cold self, but much to his surprise, 1 placed his repaired hand on the one-eyed medic's shoulder and smiled softly at him. He said, "Welcome home, my boy."

5 shook at his touch, but he began to calm down when he heard this soft words. He had never heard 1 say anything this nice in a very long time ever since they first awoke before the war. He kept his guard up, but not enough to refuse 1's warm welcome back to the living world. He smiled at his leader, "Thank you, 1."

9 smiled at his beloved friend, his brother, with everyone. He could feel the void in his heart and soul disappearing. His entire coven was almost whole again.

The Cat Beast hid within the shadows of a ruined building nearby the Library and watched the creations revive one of their own, and the revived Stitchpunk that it recognized from before the white Stitchpunk sliced its head off was happily embracing them all before they started heading back into the building. It waited until the Stitchpunks went back into the Library before it ran back to its hideout.

It found the Seamstress watching the Spider Bots scrounging the rubble for anything useful that they could use while hunting down the creations. The Cat Beast came over to the Machine.

'I've made the decision; we must finally make our move and attack the creations.'

The Seamstress screeched in curiosity, questioning it.

'But what about the large strong male? It would be a matter of time before they bring it back. And we are powerless.'

'Have you forgotten that it was your sister that captured two of those creations, including that large one?'

'Only because she had one of them on her tail as bait, and the large one was so easy to capture! Sure he may have looked threatening, but he was the easiest to fool.'

'With that tail of yours, you can take out more of them than me and it would disable them long enough to take back the device, and then we'll hopefully for our Master, we will take the one who destroyed Master and avenge the deaths of our fallen comrades. After all, is avenging your sister what you wanted to do?'

The Seamstress didn't hesitate to agree with the Cat Beast. For their master and its 'sister', the creations and the ninth one will pay for everything. They assembled every Spider-Bot in their lair and ordered them to have it ready for when they bring the creations so they could finish what the Fabrication Machine started.

9 sat alone on a book at the fountain. He stared at his reflection in the crystal blue water as the light from the sunset glowed on the water, making it look more an orange colour then blue. Back in the globe, the others were helping 5 adjust to living again and 2 helped him in getting a spot set up for him near his new living quarters. 5 was happy that the telescope they built together that 9 had salvaged from the remains of their old home had survived the fire, and he was working on a couple of new things with 2 from the junk he found in the office in the Library.

When he was done getting all settled in, 5 decided to go for a walk around the Library. He missed the place so much since he had left the world when he died, and although it didn't feel much like Sanctuary, it gave him and the others more than enough space to roam around. But his legs were still a little weak since he had been revived earlier and started walking again, and when he tried jumping around from book to book, his legs gave in and he slipped off of the book he landed on.

He landed on his back onto the floor with a grunt, then he got back up again. He said to himself as he rubbed his lower back, "I guess I need to slow down on the jumping a little." He continued walking around the Library floors, jumping over a couple more books on the way, but not as much as he was earlier. He stopped walking when he saw 9 sitting near the fountain by himself when 5 looked down from the balcony that was above the fountain. From the solemn look on his face, 5 knew that something was troubling his friend.

5 made his way down the marble steps to the fountain to meet up with 9, and he seated himself next to his friend on the book he was sitting on. 5 greeted him, "Hi."

9 returned the greeting with a smile and repeated, "Hi."

5 said to him as he put his hand on 9's shoulder, "What are you doing out here all by yourself? Everyone else is back at the globe." 9 sighed, looking down at the water, "I was just thinking."

"Is this about what I said to you earlier?" 5 asked. 9 shook his head before turning away from his friend. He said sadly, "The truth is it's just that I've been bothered by this dream I kept having since you and the others had died."

He explained, "It keeps repeating every night. It starts with me trying to catch up to 7 and getting chased by a moth, then the Machine and its creations start cornering me. The Machine grabs me and I see you, 1, 2, 6, and 8 close by. I begged you to help me, but you all refused, and you called me a killer of our kind." He rubbed his arms as if he was feeling cold, despite the air being warm.

5 put his hand on 9's shoulder and said to him, feeling pity for him for all the pain he had to go through after his and the others' deaths, "9, what makes you think I would say something like that to you? You know as well as I do, you never meant for what happened long ago. None of us knew about the Machine either. All our lives, we never knew that there was a much bigger threat than the Beast." 9 looked away and said, "But after I awakened the Machine, 1 was right about me putting you all in even more danger."

"But you also put an end to it." 5 said. "Without you, we never would have known about the Machine or the truth about our existence, or our purpose for this world. Even though you did awaken the Machine, don't ever think of yourself as a murderer or killer of our kind." He wrapped his arms around 9 and held him in a comforting embrace. 9 began to feel calmer being in the safe and gentle arms of his best friend, his brother. He returned the hug and his sorrow vanished for a brief moment.

9 let go of 5 and got up from the book, and he said as he grabbed his lightbulb staff, "We'd better get back to the others. We'll need to bring 8 back now."

5 said in agreement as he got up to join him, "You're right. I just hope he doesn't go back to his old ways, or I won't be able to sleep right with him around. He still scares me a little." 9 chuckled, "I hope so too."

They walked up the stairs together to head back to the globe. Little did they know, something was outside the Library in the courtyard waiting for them.

So how was this chapter? Our beloved one-eyed medic is back, and he and 9 share a brotherly moment before 9 prepares to revive the bodyguard 8 next. But things are about to go awry when the Machines are planning their next move and are planning to show themselves to the Stitchpunk coven!

So very sorry this chapter took forever! I was trapped in a writer's block for this story and I was focusing on my other ones, and I was so busy with them that I lost track of focusing on this one. But hopefully this chapter would make it up for it.

9 belongs to Shane Acker and Tim Burton.