Fanfiction: 9

Chapter 4~

9 frowned, and his whole body shook violently as he stormed into the medical room. There was a feeling so powerful burning through him, he could actually feel it. It was heat, fire, anger. He was angry. Sure, 9 had felt frustration, depression, and maybe he had been mad a few times, but all were nothing in comparison to this. His anger was controling him, he had no power over it, he was going to question this new stitchpunk that started all this. This madness that changed everything. he was going to beat the questions out of him, if it came to that!

He threw open the cloth doorway and stomped into the room, his body practically on fire from the heat his anger produced! He was so mad, he was going to-

He stopped. In the healing bed, there sat G, blissful and full of life, smiling down at the twins like a pleasant surprise had awoken him. The twins were cuddled into him, clutching G for comfort and smileing blissfully in their sleep. All of 9's anger, all of the heat, all of it. Blew away like smoke. The once solid feeling of hate, all gone like a vaccum against helpless dust. The twins had reaped 9 of his anger with their sheer hope and purity as they clung onto G, almost like they were protecting him.

9's body relaxed. He had'nt known he was so tensed. He sighed and G looked up, looking geniunly shocked and feeling as though he had been caught doing something he shouldnt have. But it was the twins who clung to him. 9 smiled.

"I- I just woke up like this." said G, slightly unsure due to the smile that blossomed like a flower on 9's face.

"No, they do that." said 9, coming to sit by him and not disturbing the twins. There was enough room on the bed for two at a time so he fit fine. "But only to those they trust." he finished, letting G know he trusted him. 9 somehow knew, the anger would never come back. If the twins trusted him, that was good enough for 9.

G understood. Completely.

"You want to ask me a few questions, I bet." he said, not really needed to because he already knew the answer, but still he said them. "What do you want to know first?"

"Well," began 9, looking at the twins absently, "I guess where you came from. And who you are. And what happened. And-"

"Hold on a sec, first things first, OK?" said G, sounding a little like 7. 9 looked down at his hands, hiding his expression. Those hands had killed so many...

"My name is G, and basically I was scouting when I got attacked. The beast had a bull's head and one mechanical red eye. It's hard to describe because I had only a second to really look at it, so all I can tell you is that it was huge. Three times the size of us. He probably could have swallowed me whole, had he not run off suddenly, leaving me there to die..."

"But who were you scouting for?" asked 9, keeping a straight face. He knew there were still beasts out there! But now he was'nt so sure he was proud of being right.

"My family. C, D, E, and F. There were more of us, before the machines came back. Eight in all." said G, resting his hands on the twins' heads, looking down at them sadly, but his mind focused on something else.

9 looked up at G, trying to hide his surprise and guilt. Before the machines came back. Did he mean that when 9 had set the B.R.A.I.N. free accidentally, it had known there were more stitchpunks? The brain had hunted them too... and 9 had killed more souls...

9 gripped his knees, digging his fingers into his burlap there, and causing pain to himself. He was punishing himself, he knew he deserved it. He deserved to have his soul ripped from him, so he could'nt hurt anymore innocent souls. He deserved so much more than the pain that he was causing to his knees right now. He did'nt derserve friends that forgave him...

All 9 wanted was to be alone, to scream in hatred of himself. He wanted to lock himself away from the others, he felt like a monster that could at any moment unleash his fury on them. Like a werewolf, he thought. 3 and 4 had told him of that mythical creature some humans belived in, about a monster that would appear human most of the time, but would become a killer to anyone who came across him at night. Im a werewolf, he thought drily.

"9?" asked G's voice, slicing through 9's terrible thoughts like a knife. "Are you OK?"

"I need to be alone." was all 9 said, before storming out of the room and running to the platform, holding back a scream. He pulled himself up to the roof, pushing his mechanical self to the limit. He began to hear thunder boom outside, a flash of lightning coming soon after. After what seemed like eternity, 9 reached the roof, and locked the string in place so no one could come up via platform.

He slumped to the floor and let the rain soak into his burlap, into his mechanical workings, into his soul. He had to cool it off, his soul was burning. After a few minutes of laying unprotected in the rain, every fiber in his burlap body soaked through and every metal piece inside of him cold, 9 crawled under the pipe. His body felt like lead, the water was trapped in him and it weighed him down.

When he was under the pipe, he let out the scream he had been holding in since the funeral, when it first hit him fully that he had been the reason for their deaths. His scream rang out through the emptiness, and the thunder seemed to challenge him, booming continuously, as his friend lightning struck the Earth to help. He kept screaming until his voice box malfunctioned due to the rain that had finally seeped through.

Yet still he screamed, now shouting words that made no sense into the night. "!!!" he shouted, not caring the slightest how stupid it made him sound, just letting it out.

And then suddenly, he stopped. He had no more energy to release. He knew what he had done, and he knew what he could have done, but there was no changing it now. He thought of 7's words. She told him to let go, she had fogiven him. And he had let her slip away. He still did'nt know where she was! He wanted to scream again, but he could'nt. Something was wrong.

He tried to say something, anything. Just say something softly into the night, to test out his theory. He could'nt. Had he damaged his voice box? That could'nt be good. He would need to rest, that was the best thing he could do. Yes, he must rest...

9 woke up the second the sun broke the horizon, it's red glare shining onto his optics and waking him up. He crawled out from under the pipe and found standing was harder than he thought. He was still slightly damp, and still heavier than usual.

But he managed to walk to the platform, almost dragging his feet as he found he was not used to this weight at all, and making a scraping sound on the roof's shingled surface.

9 considered just leeting the platform fall until it hit the first floor. Then he realized he would surely die if he lost control, which would'nt be easy to keep. So he lowered himself steadily, testing out his voice box on the way down. He found he could make small noises and talk just above a whisper, but it hurt and his voice was crackled and raspy. He decided not to talk much, as they would spend most of their time looking for 7 anyways today.

When 9 reached the floor, G and the twins were waiting for him, ready to go. G had his pocketknife and the twins had gathered a box of matches and some rope, making 9 smile for the first time since last night. The twins always made him smile, they were so pure and... defiant.

Without a word, they set off, moving through the hole in the wall and out into the early morning. The sun made the sky blush red, caressing it with it's glorious rays. Thought the morning was cold and wet, due to the night's previous rainstorm, the sun warmed the stitcpunks as they searched for their lost friend.

As the day wore on, 9 and the twins had found nothing. Not a trace that 7 had been there at all. But just when 9 was feeling the urge to scream again, G found something he recognized: 7's skullmet.

That was enough for 9, he knew she was alive, just by seeing the birdskull 7 had fashioned into a hellmet all those years ago. It reminded him of her strength, and her stubborn will to fight, and her power when she unleashed that will. He knew she was alright. She had to be, she was 7.

But as they continued to search, knowing she was out there somewhere, they found no other evidence as to her whereabouts. They knew she had gone East, due to the positioning of the birdskull, but they had no idea where she was exactly, and why she was where she was in the first place. Had she been captured by another beast? She had killed it, so there must be another.

Unless it was'nt a machne that took her...

"G." said 9 suddenly, causing G to wince. 9 had'nt spoken all day, and now that he had, he knew what he had been doing on the platform last night.

"Yes?" said G, looking at 9 sympathetically. 9 did'nt notice, he was facing East, the general direction of 7.

"Where's your family?" asked 9 carefully. He did'nt know if this was a tender subject but he thought he should take his chances.

"A three days walk, in that direction." he said, pointing to where 9 was looking. 9 did'nt see him point, but he knew where he meant instantly.

"Then that's where we go." said 9 with a finality, making his way to where he knew G had pointed. The twins hugged G close as they noticed something.

That was the direction of the factory.