Hey guys! Glad to see that you are all enjoying my story so far! This chapter should be the longest one yet, with some interesting discoveries! Stick around!

CHAPTER 5: LOCK AND KEY

The sun had already risen to midday by the time the stitches reached the old building. 9 had never realized how unstable it really looked, as if it could collapse at any moment.

"Well 9, I think you should take it from here." 7 hadn't spoken since the conversation about his latest flash that morning. 9 smiled, it was good to hear her voice. It reminded him that he hadn't truely lost everything dear to him when he woke the machine. He couldn't imagine what he would have done had he been left all alone. He turned his optics to face her and replied with a simple nod, and he proceded to run up to the pile of rubble. It was easily climbed, 6's key jingling against his zipper with each swift, if not clumsy, movement. He looked back to see 7 gracefully climb the rubble. He smiled again.

After all four of them had gotten in the building, 9 led them to the stairs. He didn't remember them being all that large. Then again, he remembered going down the stairs had been much easier than going up. But hadn't he climbed these very stairs when he returned the first time? Yes, but still, they had never seemed so huge to him until now. He attempted to climb the first step, but began to slip. Suddenly he felt something holding him up, he turned to see none other than...7. She always seemed to be there for him, and that made him glad.

"Here, I'll help you up." She then proceded to make a foothold with her hands. After a couple minutes of stair climbing they finally reached the top. Slightly winded 9 said,

"Jeez, can someone tell me why we were made only 7 inches tall?"

this aroused slight chuckels from the group, although 9 could only hear 7. "Anyway," he continued, "we got work to do."

As the small group returned to the place of their birth, they were welcomed with the chilling draft of a place long devoid of life. 7 stopped when she saw the body. 9 remembered that he had been the only one to see their creator, who had always seemed to be so full of life, lie unmoving in his old lab. She took a deep breath and continued to seach the room, easily climbing to the desk. The twins went off on their own, most likely to go catalog some things for their database, leaving 9 alone to seach around on the lower level. As he walked past the body of the man he only knew as the scientist, he tripped, his hand briefly brushing against the hand that had made him.

9's vision intantly went bright. Did I trigger that? Apparently specific things allowed 9 to instantly flash. Well you learn something new about your freaky phycic power each day, he thought to himself. Although he was surprised to see that he wasn't in the usual white void that he used to find himself in. Instead, he was still in the lab, yet it looked different. There was no rubble, no toppled piles of books, no body. Instead, the scientist stood before him. 9 tried to call out but was hushed when he saw what the scientist held. A ragdoll, burlap, closed with a zipper.

It was him.

I'm in the past! 9 thought. Or at least, I'm 'seeing' it.

"Oh, 9." the scientist said to the lifeless doll, "You will do great things, but even the savior makes mistakes."

9 had never thought himself a savior. He hadn't been able to save 1, 2, 5, 6, or 8. How could he be a savior?

"But you must remember 9, nothing is permanent. Even the greatest of mistakes can be reversed if you believe."

As he said this the scientist put down the lifeless 9 and picked up something else... The box! 9 thought. I'm being shown where he hid the box!

"I just hope that you can open your eyes and SEE! Please 9! Find this..."

The scientist then proceded to take the box and place it gently into the desk drawer that 9 stood next to.

"Please 9...find it." The scientist seemed to be looking at 9 when he said this, but not the 9-to-be, but the real 9, as if he could see him watching from the future.

All went dark.

9 woke to see that 7 hadn't noticed what just happened, she was still deep in wonderment of all the things packed into the small room. 9 wasted no time running over to the drawer. Before he even opened it he knew it was there.

"7! I got it!"

7 immediatly ran over to the nearest desk leg and gracefully slid down to meet 9.

It took merely seconds to get the box out of the drawer, since it was so light, but it did take several minutes to find the twins. The four stitches stood several steps away from the box, staring.

"Well? Open it!" 7 ordered. 9 seemed to respond instantly, walking over to the keyhole at the front of the box. As he turned the key in the lock he heard a click! At this faint sound the other stiches stepped closer so that they could see what was inside. 9 undid the latch above the box and lifted the lid.

Inside the box was one small scrap of paper and a faded photo. The picture caught 9's optics first, it was a boy, human, about 13 years of age. He didn't recognize the boy, so he looked at the paper and gasped. 9 could easily recognize the scratch marks as 6's handwritting. He slowly read the paper. There where only three sentences.

(A/N: I can not stress this enough! What you are about to read is very important! DONT FORGET IT)

In life, there is purpose.

In death, there is sacrifice.

In spirit, there is hope.

9 didn't understand, but knew that this was very important. He just had to put it together. First he picked up the picture and flipped it over. Also written in 6's handwritting were two words.

Find him.

He looked back at the spot where the picture had been and noticed a map carved in the wood. Okay, follow the map, find the kid. But what else!

At this point 7 and the twins had stepped back. 7 knew that 9 was on to something, so she let him work.

Finally, 9 picked up the scrap of paper and flipped it over. Again there where only two words, but these disturbed him more than any of the others.

In large, bold letters read:

LOOK OUT!

Before 9 could even comprehend this, he heard a loud metalic screech.