To Save Us All
chapter 19~
That night, as everyone was making their beds out of bits and pieces of cloth, 9 realized there wasn't enough for everyone- some would have to share beds. 9 began to pair everyone up.
"The twins can sleep on that wider bed over there," he said, standing above them all on a book that would normally have just acted as a place to sit for the stitchpunks. "1, you can sleep on that one, 5 on that- yes over there- with E if you don't mind-"
It went on, 9 showing everyone where they could sleep on the cold night. After everyone began to settle, 9 found his calculations must have been incorrect.
Then he noticed 7 behind him, and jumped to the ceiling of the desk room.
"Oh, sorry 7! I didn't see you there. Um, you can sleep with the twins if you'd like..."
7 raised an eyebrow, "And how will I fit?" she said, pointing behind her, to where the twins were now cuddled into each other tightly, yet leaving no space for any other.
"Um," 9 looked around. This was getting awkward. "M-maybe 5 has some room?"
7 didn't even look where he pointed, keeping her gaze on 9 carefully. 9 was reminded of how well 7 studied the room when she came in. She seemed to know every nook and cranny.
"You paired him with E." said 7, narrowing her optics.
"Well then-" 9 began, looking around him for someone 7 wouldn't mind sleeping with for the night.
"9, you're the only person who has space." she said, studying his reaction carefully to this truth. 9 felt exposed, open.
"Well... well, yeah, but-" he said. He wouldn't mind sleeping in the same bed as 7 if she couldn't sleep with anyone else, but he had gotten it into his mind that maybe 7 wouldn't want that. She was a fiercly independant warrior, after all.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, taking off her birdskull and laying her spear on the floor near the last remaining bed- 9's bed.
"N-not unless you think so..."
"Good, because I don't." she said with a finality, sitting down on the fluffy bed 9 had made for himself.
9 looked around at everyone, mostly peacefully asleep or just cuddling with themselves and getting ready to fall into it. 9 looked over at 5, who was sleeping next to E. Niether seemed to mind they were paired together. 5 caught 9's stare and his guider smiled with a thumbs up, pointing to 7. 9 smiled nervously and 5 shrugged, settling with himself in the twin of the bigger bed 9 hadn't realized he had gotten, yet no one seemed to mind.
9 lay next to 7, who was turned facing the twins. 9 turned the other way, facing 5. As the last candle in the desk room was blown out by F- who had woken up earlier, telling 9 she was 6's partner even before he had the idea to make beds from the cloth- 9 felt himself going stiff when he felt 7's arm brush against his. What kind of power did she have? 6 could travel through time and possibly read 9's mind, but 7 had some sort of... control over him. He would do just about anything for her.
As the night passed on, 9 found himself relaxing into 7, not too tired to care if it would make her uncomfortable, but rather too tired to do anything about it. His body needed sleep, and it didn't seem to care if 7 would feel awkward if he recieved any.
9 had no idea how much time had passed when he finally closed his optics, too tired to think about anything anymore.
Not even the terror in 6's vision sketch could keep him awake.
9 woke up, not knowing the time of day it was, and honestly not caring. Not at the moment at least.
7 had somehow managed to wrap her arms around 9's midsection and bury her face deep into his chest during the night.
9 froze, not fully awake yet, but just enough to register 7's arms around him, binding him from any arm or torso movement. 9 was as still as the dead ragdoll he was without his soul. He contemplated whispering for help, but that idea was quickly terminated as he came upon the realization that if he made enough noise to actually wake someone, 7 would be the first to hear it. And for some odd reason, 9 didn't want her to wake and find herself in that position. He didn't want her to feel embarassed.
9 thought about just wiggling out of her arms gently, but this idea was blown far from his mind as he realized what 7 would do to him when she woke up with him "wiggling" in her arms. He could pass on that mental image.
9 eventually settled for just lying there, enjoying himself as everyone else slept quietly. 9 realized, because you realize a lot of things when you wake up entangled in your secret fantasies, that there was no other place in the world he would rather be than in 7's defending arms.
Not even in a parallel universe where he didn't kill half the members of his tribe with a talisman the size of his hand.
The next morning- presumably, because everyone was already awake- was like a street market, full of noise and chatter, along with trade..
The inventors and engineers all set to work on the contraption 9 realized he hadn't studied yet. The twins and the brothers C and D, the knowledge of the group, were showing each other things they have cataloged and trading information in the farthest corner. F was currently painting with 6, showing him how to use the limited colors to paint scenes that need more detail. The warriors, defenders, were trading their knowledge, showing each other moves that had saved their lives in the emptiness, dodging and ducking swings of each other's weapons, laughing and joking and teasing. Having fun.
Likewise, everyone else who had a sort of double with the other group was chatting with them. 1 was showing A his staff, and talking in hushed tones, expressing secret feelings they had when ruling their group. 8 was happily showing off his huge blade, and H his sharpened bolt. 8 pulled out his magnet, hiding it from 1 by turning his back to him, and smiling as he placed it over H's head.
As 9 sat up, having been laying down in his bed the whole time, he couldn't help but realize no one was talking to him. No one was here to talk about what it was like to be the newest, or what it was like to have made mistakes that you weren't sure how to correct. Everyone was having so much fun sharing their feelings with those like them, and 9 thought this was wonderful- everyone needed to get along with each other. It had everything to do with their survival- but 9 couldn't help but feel left out.
9 felt alone.
A may know the hardships 1 went through when he lead the group, and E may understand the thrill 5 gets when he makes scrap into something useful, but there was no "I" to talk to 9 about how confused and scared he was when he woke up in that room being the last, the only one to see the dead body of your creator. There was no "I". No 9th in the other family.
What did it mean? Weren't there 9 parts of a human soul? Why couldn't "Mike" make a 9th?
Did he?
This thought made 9 stand up and run over to F. If he was right she would know. He only hoped she would tell.
"F!" he called out to her, not attracting much attention because all the chattering in the room was as loud as he was.
The female artist raised an eyebrow as he came rushing over to her, grabbing 6 when she sensed 9's question.
"F." said 9, now right next to her, "Did Mike make a 9th one? Is there another one out there?"
"No 9th. Only you." she said somberly, and 9 visibly drooped, like a wilting flower. "Special."
9 looked up, "Special? Me?"
F nodded, and 6 smiled.
"But why am I special? What can I do that the other's can't?"
F opened her mouth to say something, but it shut as she realized she didn't know how she could say it.
"Can't." said 6, speaking up for the first time since he woke up.
"What?" asked, now possibly more confused than he had been in a very long time, despite all that had happened.
"Can't do." said 6, a pleading look in his eyes, trying to make 9 understand.
"What can't I do?" 9 straightened up and asked them the question his mind burned from with his optics.
"Save Us. Need him. Save Us, save humanity." said F, now tugging at her hair absently as she looked to the ground. Her optics seemed unfocused, like she was remembering something. "Special, Mike said you were special."
"Mike? Your creator?"
"Yes. Said 'Save 9. Special'. Need you." said F.
9 was shocked, this was the first time F ever phrased the whole "Save Us" like that. She actually said 'Need you'. So 9 knew he was heading down the right path, he just needed to keep moving forward.
"OK," said 9, thinking he might actually figure something out by pushing F with another question, "Why am I special?"
"Different." said F, for the first time sounding frustrated that she couldn't word her thoughts, "Made different. Can't be taken."
"Taken?" the word caught 9's attention, and almost everyone else's since he practically yelled the word out. "I can't be taken? By what? Is something going to try and take me? A machine?"
Everyone walked over to the scene, 7 pushing through and coming to stand next to 9, her hand on his shoulder.
"Taken. Can't be taken." said 6, frustrated as well. He gave a frustrated tug at his hair before closing his optics altogether and becoming silent. F stared at him, as if listening to a conversation ony she could hear. She could read minds! 9 knew it!
"You can read minds! Why didn't you just-" he began, losing himself as he thought about how amazing that was.
9 was silenced as F put an impatient finger on his lips, still looking at 6, closing her optics in deep concentration. The whole crowd became silent. Had they been talking or murmuring? 9 hadn't been paying attention...
The only sound left was 7's chuckling at 9's expression when F shushed him with her finger.
She didn't need 9's rambling right now. She was listening to 6. He was telling her the answer, because 6 knew F could possibly word it better.
Then, everything seemed to go back to normal, F opened her optics and looked directly at 9, who still had her fingers on his lips.
"Oh, sorry." she said, removing her fingers and smiling innocently.
"What did he say?" asked 9. Everyone's attention focused on F.
The female artist simply grabbed 9's zipper wthout warning, and pulled it halfway down, exposing his inner gears.
7 gasped, but her gaze didn't stray from 9's inner mechanisms. 9 could only gape.
"Um, F?" he was about to ask why she did it when F answered him.
"Look." she said, pointing to something inside of him. Everyone peered inside 9 and he felt incredibly exposed. But his curiosity overode his humility and he opened himself a little more to look inside. He saw his inner workings, and noticed that he really hadn't ever had the chance to explore what made him tick.
"There." said 6, pointing to something in particular, a circular object in his lower stomach.
"What is it?" asked 1, raising an eyebrow.
"It looks like it can hold something." said 5, squinting at the round object 9 hadn't the chance to notice before.
"It looks like a penny," said H, "But black."
"Do you think it opens?" asked G.
"Looks like it." said E.
"But what's inside?" said 7. Everyone's comments stopped here as they pondered that very question.
"Can't take." said F absently as she pulled on 7's shoulder, leveling 7's ear to her mouth. F whispered something and 7 gasped.
"What?!" she said, her mouth open and her head shaking rapidly.
"Do it. You'll see it." said F calmly.
7 looked like she was about to protest, but then she just looked around her embarassed. "I can't." she hissed, as if no one could hear her.
"You have to. He'll understand."
7 took a deep breath and closed her optics. "Are you sure, F?" she asked.
"I see the future, 7." was all 7 needed.
7 leaned forward without warning and kissed 9.
9's optics widened as he shockingly returned the kiss. His instincts told him what to do, and he obeyed, honestly forgetting everyone was staring at them. His lips moved over hers fluidly, and she tensed only the slightest bit before melting into the kiss as well. 9 never felt so happy in his life, nowhere near this blissful! He wrapped his arms around her waist, as if keeping her for himself, protecting her from any other who could try to harm her. Heat shot up his back as he found 7 was doing the same, except with his shoulders.
"What in creator's name is she doing?" asked 1, too shocked to look away but poking 6 with his old fashioned finger to address him.
"Kiss. Show what's inside." said the artist, taking F's hand and smiling.
"What's inside? How's doing this going to-?"
1 was interuptted by a green glow that was steadily eminating from the curious container inside of 9.
"What's that?" asked 1, copying everyone else by leaning in to get a better look, despite the still kissing lovers. No one payed attention to 7 and 9 kissing, only the green glow attracting their curiosity.
"What's inside." said F, smiling hugely, running her hand through 6's hair and leaning into him, as if seeing these too finally show their emotions was the most romantic thing in the world.
9 pulled away from the kiss gently, opening his optics slowly, still in a state of bliss. 7's face was so close to his, and he loved her nervous smile. She bit her lip and looked down, to where 9's glow was showing through the small round object inside of him, brought out by 7's affection.
"No matter what happens," said F, attracting everyones attention again. "Save him."
A/N: THINGS ARE GETTING INTERESTING. YES. I hope you like this chapter as much as i do. Sorry if the kissing wasn't as fluffy as it was built up to be, I'm not so good at writing fluff or smex yet cuz I haven't ever experienced the feeling...
Anyways, so this is a major plot twist (just another to add to the increasingly huge book of this story's plot twists), but only if you understand 6 like 9 does. I tried to make it very criptic because I don't want you to know just yet the huge surprise so... I should say no more.
I have about two or three more chapters (who knows, maybe even five) to this story. But do not fret! I may make a sequel! A sequel to a sequel... how do you like that? ^^