To Save Us All

chapter 24~

A screamed as he lunged out at the wires, obeying the strange pull. The beast raised it's claw to wack G out of the way, but it froze as A screamed. The beast turned and automatically spotted it, the other ragdoll it was looking for, A. It's huge red eye had been following him, but the beast hesitated.

B watched with baited breath as the beast made up his mind, and in what seemed like a split second, lunged for A.

Everything slowed down, every detail crystal clear, nothing forgetful about any one of them.

A screamed slightly louder, and pushed his eldest body toward the wires, not bothering to try and dodge them, knowing he couldn't disobey the science behind the pull, not to mention outwit the creature. That was B's purpose.

A dove into the sparks, just as the creature sank it's teeth into his body, the powerful jaws crushing the ragdoll, it's insides, and the fraction of human soul inside of him. A's hand grasped air as he reached for his death, just barely latching his hand onto the metal inside the wire before the machine ripped his body into pieces, making quite a loud explosion of sparks.

The beast flew backwards, parts of it's metal armor melted from the intense electricity. It's cry was drowned out by the sheer noise of the explosion, and it's form lost in the light. Glass splattered everywhere, and red light evaporated into darkness. The beast could not see.

B flew backwards too, though much farther and with more pain. He screamed his last breath as he realized his mistake- he had been too close. The pain and ripping sensation he felt must have been cause from the electricity jumping the small gape in between him and the wire, zapping him and ripping him too nothing. Now he felt no pain, but he was still alive, just unable to do anything to help. It was OK, he thought to himself as he picked his soul form off the ground and located the biggest shred of his body- staying near something familiar, looking for closure- he had done his part. His purpose was fullfilled, and it was what he would be remembered for. He had outsmarted the beast.

A looked up from the ground he rested on, near the biggest piece of himself, and buried his face in his hands, too afraid, always too afraid, to understand it all yet.

All he remembered was saying "9 will save us, we just have to help."

F wailed into her arm, biting herself in terror and anger, feeling useless. She knew it was not her purpose, but she wanted to murder the beast for herself, to watch it die by her hands. She cried and held herself, wanting 6 more than any time in the past, more than anything.

She needed him. He needed her. But Time and Fate would not allow it, and so they stayed together in their minds.

7 spun the vehicle around the corner of the art museum just in time to see the explosion. She immediately swung her spear out of the car, firmly held it in her hand, and jabbed it in front of the tire, slowing the Cra and making it spin out almost comically. The machine screeched to a halt and she flipped out of it, landing in a graceful roll and sprinting to G, who had only been knocked to his feet in the explosion, but not injured. He had been too far away.

She helped him up, and he brushed himself off, looking around madly for the beast, hoping it was dead.

He saw movement across the courtyard and cursed.

"What in Creator's name happened, G?" she asked worriedly, scanning the area and finding the beast, cringing across the courtyard. "What the hell happened to it? What was that noise?"

"You guys talk to much." snapped G, too overcome with emotion to try and sound patient. He wasn't patient. He was here to kill this thing.

7 let loose on him.

"What?! You tell me what happened or I'll-" she practically screamed in his face, her voice ringing in his ears long after he clamped her mouth over her hands.

"Shutup! Have you learned nothing in the Emptiness?!"

7 looked away, knowing all of her careful training would be lost if she couldn't stop thinking of 9.

G turned, knowing he had shut her up, and saw the others get out of the Car, 8 having successfully parked it without dramatically leaping out of it.

"You brought them, too?!" G hissed, jabbing his pocketknife in the air toward their direction, acknowledging their arrival.

"I didn't have a choice." she hissed back, keeping her voice low as G began to run toward a small pile of rubble, in attempts to get everyone to hide there.

7 followed G, and so did her own guests.

"Debreif." said 7, staring hard into G's optics.

"A and B managed to blind the thing with that telephone pole over there, but died in the process,"- G pointed, not knowing A and B weren't technically dead...-"F is still in that building and we have to save her, and you guys came just in time."

7 nodded, scanning the area. She could see the frightened face of F in the building G had spoken of, her entire arm covering her mouth and her body shaking with sobs. 7 frowned but continued to search the courtyard. She could see a green glow coming from behind some more rubble, and assumed they were A and B and E, meeting up after their purposes were fullfilled. She looked back to the beast, the massive hunk of bones and metal that would have once been a human, and saw it getting up slowly, still alive.

It needed to die.

She turned back to the others, taking deep breaths that had no other purpose than to calm her down.

"There's a trench. They know what I'm talking about. I drove them over a bridge with it. If we can get the monster to follow us..." she turned back to the demon machine to see it throw back it's animal head in rage. "We can kill it."

G looked over their protective pile and watched the monster, the same hate reflecting in his optics as 7 felt.

"C, D, you have to go in there when 7 and 8 lure the beast to the trench. Get F out." G turned to look at the terrfied brothers, C staring horrified at the creature they all aimed to kill, and D hiding behind his older brother, his optics staring on sadly at F. "You guys have to be strong now."

C and D both looked at G with scared faces. 8 frowned and 7 put a hand on C's shoulder. The brothers each gave a single nod.

9 glared down at the factory, now five minutes away. He glared at it with hate, with sadness, and even- and he was no longer afraid to admit this to anyone- even terror.

Everyone watched the terrifying factory that drifted ever closer as they flew toward it willingly. Each expression held an appropriate mix of both terror and courage. Each knew what was at stake and each knew they couldn't hold back their fear, that they shouldn't.

No one spoke for a long time. What was there to say? What was going to happen? Would anyone die? Did it matter anymore?

But eventually someone had to ask the practical questions.

"So what exactly do we do?" asked 1, frowning frustratedly at the factory. "We can't just parade in there. We must have strategy!"

"I'm not sure." 9 said numbly, all emotion drained of the sentence. All he knew was that he had to get in there somehow. He had no idea what came next.

"Let it take you." whispered 6, staring hard at the factory. "It must take you. Save him..."

9 furrowed his eyebrows as he made sense of this.

"But how do we get in there without all of you dying?" he asked calmly. The sentence made 5 whimper.

6 just turned to 9, the look washing from his face and being replaced with the smallest smile.

That smile told 9 what he needed to know.

"We don't matter." 6 said calmly.

{C and D set up a trap}

{F takes a stand}

{6 is frantic, 5 is healing, the twins are driving???}

{cliffhanger: beast comes running out of nowhere, F caught on it's blade.}