A/N: I had thought this fic to be a one-shot, but some of my unused ideas kept nagging me. Hence, an epilogue! I needed 1 to face his actions before I could put this fic to bed. Setting is just moments before 1's death. It's more stream-of-consciousness than I normally write, so I apologize if it's disjointed (not to mention waay too emo).

The blast threw 1 to the ground. He put his hand down to push himself up, only to feel a jarring flash of pain. He raised his hand in front of his face, horrified at the smoking mess it had become. Only two fingers remained, and the remaining metal was badly warped.

I can hardly blame 5 for screaming if this is how his eye felt, 1 thought as he regarded his hand, remembering how he'd nearly sacrificed the boy so long ago. He was sure 2 had never forgiven him for his apprentice's wounds. Unbidden the memory surfaced of 2's dead body before his eyes as he woke from the Seamstress's induced stupor. Glassy, unseeing cylinders which had once been gentle optics. Limp hands that in life had never stopped moving. So unlike the 2 he had known, the 2 he had touched with his now mangled hand. The 2 that had gazed at him with warmth and awe as he reverently explored 1's inner workings. Looking into those dead optics, the reality of 1's actions hit him full force. He had killed his first and only love.

1 had watched from a distance as the remaining stitchpunks carefully laid 2's body out on a raft before setting it adrift. He may not have ripped 2's soul from his body himself but he had sent him out to die. He had no right to be there, with 2's adopted children, as they grieved for their kindly father. They could freely show their grief, but he could not. Someone had to be strong enough to keep them safe. But had 1's strength been worth their hatred? The others would never mourn him as they mourned 2. Had his strength been worth 2's life? For the first time 1 regretted his actions.

He hadn't realized just how brutal a death he had condemned the inventor to until he witnessed the Machine kill 5. After seeing the boy have his life torn from him 1 couldn't find it in himself any longer to remain jealous of his bond with 2.

Is that what 2's last moments were like? he'd thought even as he fled with the others, Is that what happened to 8?

8. Reliable, fiercely loyal 8. The closest he'd had to a child of his own. And how had he shown the young stitchpunk affection? By using him to enforce his will on the others, even encouraging him to bully them. 1 saw at 2's funeral the friendships his own ambition had denied 8. He had wanted to protect the others with his leadership when he brought them to Sanctuary. When had protecting those younger than him turned into using them for his own ends?

"Sometimes one must be sacrificed for the good of many," his own words rang in his head. He knew 2 would disagree. This world had hardened 1 from the day he was born. Why had the Scientist sent them out into this void of a world?

He saw the Machine looming over 9, the youngest stitchpunk standing brave in the face of his end. Another of his kind, about to be nothing but another sacrifice. Just like 2. He'd had enough of sacrifices.

"They left us with nothing," 1 murmured to himself, "Why should we have to right their wrongs?"

"We have our lives," 2's voice said from his memory, "You have me."

And I deprived us both, 2.

If he ever got the chance he would seek 2's forgiveness. This wasn't about the humans anymore. 1 had his own wrongs, and it was time to atone for them.

"Sometime, one must be sacrificed."

Then with the same speed he used to save 2 the day they'd met, 1 threw 9 from the machine's path and accepted the same fate he'd decried for his first love.