Chapter 27~
To Save Us All
C and D both raised their stitched eyebrows and exchanged a confused look. What did F mean by "The Sister"? Who's sister?
F just smiled once more as she slowly ducked back into the shadows of the broken building, one arm extended behind them, a single finger knowing how to kill this beast.
The brothers blinked and turned around, their useable optics adjusting to see what F was referring to as "The Sister".
They shuddered, for at first it looked like she was pointing to the beast itself, but when they looked closer they saw F's finger was directed off to the side of the beast, to a half-pulled-down telephone pole, dragged down by the wire of it's... sister...
"Take it down?" asked C, turning back to F, unsure of what she meant.
Only F's head was still visable in the daylight, the rest of her body hidden in the shadows. She looked hard into C's optics, the same finger she had used to explain who the sister was now coming up to her neck.
She made an ugly sharp ripping sound as her finger slid across her wire neck, motioning them to cut the few splinters of wood keeping the sister telephone pole balanced and upright.
The brothers thought about what that would accomplish. The beast didn't look like it had moved much from it's spot ten minutes ago, though it had been fighting two stitchpunks for a while now. They still needed to trap it, and the only way to do that was to get it in that trench. If they cut the rest of the splinters apart, it should hopefully send the pole flying, swinging down onto the beast.
And judging by the size of the chunk they would be cutting off... This just might work.
C nudged her dazed and in-thought brother gently, pointing to a huge kitchen knife sticking straight up out of a rubble pile. It called to them, they both knew what to do.
F slid back into the shadows of her mind, concealing her form from sight in the building.
Pain. Everywhere. But 9 still propelled his body in front of the massive machine, screaming his hate towards the single thing that had taken everything from him, and everything before he even existed, left him with nothing, left him with this hate he didn't want.
The B.R.A.I.N looked up from it's work, clearly in shock despite it's limited expressions. It dropped the part of whatever monster it was working on as it's hateful red eye widened, then adjusting to recognition.
9 held his ground, glaring back, just as defying and stubborn as ever, fear no longer being an influence on him. As he looked up into that machine, he remembered what the Scientist had hinted to- what HE had hinted to however many years ago it was. What he had said made him stronger, now able to face what he knew had to come.
The B.R.A.I.N snatched him up with it's free hand, it's metal head sparking with rage, but knowing the 9th couldn't get away now. To the B.R.A.I.N, this was life, and the damage the Chancellor had done to it's once innocent mind had burned the insane message into it's head: Life must die.
It remembered, as it always would, and now performed something similar to a cackle, insane with happiness at the jewel it had just found. In it's firm grip, this little spec of life would be nothing but energy soon, providing it with power. There was no point to life in it's hateful unseeing eyes.
9 struggled, a fighter til the end, kicking at the metal claw he was being contained in, trying to scratch at it with his bound hands. He threw his head back and screamed, challenging the monster before him, no longer afraid of it. Yet it felt so right to be in it's hand, like he was doing something right for once, righting his past wrongs...
The B.R.A.I.N's red eye closed and it's once alive and whirring gears and machinery grew silent. A flash of green, and 9's attention was focused on the talisman, his ticket to saving the world.
His ticket to saving us all.
5 could only watch in horror, panicking and wanting to throw himself in front of the talismans spark. He had always felt the need to protect 9, to keep him safe from the cruelty of this harsh world, like a big brother. But 9 had long ago surpassed him in knowledge about safety, and was now prepard enough to face this on his own.
6 hadn't moved from his position, though his shifted nervously, not blinking, not taking his optics from 9, wanting to give him at least his full attention. 5 put a hand on his shoulder, and 3 hugged his sister tight, so that even in her stressed and injurred form she wouldn't see what would become of their savior.
What would become of 9?
7 grunted as she fell back, hearing a rip and feeling it in her fabric leg. She ignored the pain, letting G distract the beast as she examined her wound. It wasn't too bad, just a small tear on her knee, exposing her metal structure beneath. She began to feel dizzy, though, and closed her optics for just a second to right herself.
8 was panting heavly, a little ways beside her, and she looked down at him with pity for the huge tear in his stomach. Sometimes strategy was more effective than force.
As G repeatedly swung at the beast, flipping and jabbing his body around on the ground, dodging the beast and it's dangerous swipes, 7 unfocused her optics, noticing two shapes running toward the fight.
Two familiar shapes... And both holding up one side of a butcher knife...
C and D panted as they ran closer to the beast, each holding one end of the knife they had found. As they got closer they realized how lucky they were, yet how careful they should be. It was a wonder that thing wasn't already failing and swinging down! The splinters were jagged and dangerous, and the drop down looked painful, though not deadly due to the coincedental positioning of a car, which made the drop from deadly to seriously injurring, the telephone still being very high up.
They were absolutely terrified of the beast hearing them and turning around, but they had no choice, this had to be done. It already had been done before.
Instead of running right up to the pole, they dashed inside of the building it leaned against, the window right at the same height as the splinters alllowing them to hang out and cut the pole loose, if they were careful enough.
The brothers huffed as they saw the staircase inside the building was well enough intact for them to climb, then running up to it. These stairs were small enough as well, allowing them to scale them quickly, even with the huge knife on their backs.
There was no time to stop and rest, but for a heart-stopping second, C, who was ahead, tripped, sending the knife flying as D had come down after him. But thankfully the knife had landed on the floor they hadn't known was so close. Instead of stabbing into a wall or step of the staircase, it slid across the floor, scidding to a halt right under a pile of concrete from the roof that had caved in right next to the window they needed to climb out of.
The brothers smiled and got up, running after it. That little happening of luck gave them hope to keep pushing on, and they ran right over to the rubble they could climb easily, picking the knife up from the ground, each holding one end. Surprisingly, it wasn't as heavy as it looked, but it was still more than one of them could hold.
C and D lifted the knife above their heads and held it down onto their backs, so they could both climb up facing forward, making it less dangerous. C kept his head down, his face hard as he stared at the ground, carefully but hurriedly scaling the chunks of concrete.
Soon they reached the top, the residing light from the dwindling day outside streaming in through the window they had reached, beckoning them near.
When the pair looked out from the window, they noticed the distance from the ledge to the splintered telephone pole was too far to step onto. It was a jump, not too far but not close enough. They couldn't land on the splinters or they would be impaled, but there was a metal plate just above the cut, now diagonal and hard to stand on, but still better than the splinters. C shut his optics and held his frustration in, then letting it out in a huff.
D turned to his brother. "We can make it." The emphasis loosening and raising on each word, as each was a voice D didn't own, and had been said in different circumstances each time it had been recorded.
C looked back at his brother, the closest stitchpunk companion that knew him more than he knew himself. He smiled, nodding gently.
The two stepped back a few paces, eyeing the piece they saw as a goal, keeping their knees bent and ready, tensing first, then running. C reached the ledge and his optics went wide as he sprung his legs upward into a jump, followed by his brother.
It was over in a second, their feet slamming somewhat painfully onto the metal plate. C and D barely had a chance to smile before their wooden feet began to slip, the lack of friction too much for their body weight. D yelped, but C jumped right onto the pole of the chunk of the pole they needed to cut off.
D jumped for it too, his feet almost slipping but thankfully righting themselves as the wood meet wood. The bit of the split pole they were on was rickety, like an old bridge. It swayed with the wind, but wouldn't break unless the two stitchpunks managed to free the splinters. Both stitchpunks took a moment to get used to the swaying and ricketing noise, both catching a breath they didn't know they had been holding. D's optics were wide as the moon, and C was smiling with the thrill of what they had just done.
"Let's never do that again." D said, catching C's smiling and sending him a glare.
"Let's get to work." C said back, rolling his optics with a smile.
7 watched in horror as the brothers jumped from the ledge, and actually gasped when D almost slipped. Why on earth were they climbing that high, with a weapon, and on that broken telephone pole?!
"No." she said softly as the two began to lower the knife onto the already splintered pole. Were they trying to pry it loose?! She looked back down at G, now gasping and panting for breath, yelling for her to help him.
"I know your injurred but it doesn't look that bad! Help me godammit!" he cried, swinging again at the beast. 7 set her jaw and glared at the beast, then getting up and running right in front of hit's crazed, mad face, doing jumping jacks to get it's attention. The beast's head snapped to the side, now trained on her. She took the attention and ran, sprinting for the trench.
The Beast ran after her.
She hissed in pain as her knee stung with her streinuous running, but she kept at it, the trench coming closer with each step.
But the beast wasn't as stupid as she had thought. It saw the trench and immediately halted, skidding a bit before turning back, running for G, who had fallen and not bothered to get back up. He probably didn't have the energy.
7 heard the pounding of the skeleton human feet against the Emptiness floor cease, and she cursed, pausing to swing her body around and full out screamed in frustration when she saw the beast headed for G.
She sprinted after the monster, the fierce look in her optic burning into the skeletons retreating form.
C and D had managed to get two whole splinters done by the time 7 had figured out the beast wasn't running after her anymore, only one more to go before the balance should finally be off enough for the rest of the telephone pole to be detatched.
They worked tirelessly, their bodies almost upside-down to get around the metal plate, legs entwined so they wouldnt fall, each holding an end of the knife, and sawing at the splinters with the blade.
Each loss of a splinters connection made the whole pole lurch, which in turn made the two panick and sit up, clinging to each other. They would stay like that for a second or two before relaxing and settling back to work.
As they sawed back and forth on this one last jagged splinter of wood, they began getting tired, huffing and puffing and straining to pull and push thhe blade across the fragment of wood.
After a few more strokes, the now familiar sound of cracking wood filled the air and they both sat up, clinging to each other and letting the knife go, their optics shut tight, ready for the ride of their life.
There was a pause after the noise, and the two blinked, beginning to relax.
"Why isn't it-?" D began, but was interuppted by the sudden lurching of the pole as it let go of itself.
They clung tighter than anything, both unable to scream from the amout of terror in their bodies.
The pole swung down, headed straight for the beast.