Title: His mission

After The BRAIN is destroyed, the world begins to settle once more, everything heals and life begins to grow. One of the fallen gets a second chance to revive what was lost in battle. But can he succeed?

I Still Own Nothing!

_-_-_Part 3: Truth _-_-_

When 5 woke up, he wasn't on the streets anymore, and 3 and 4 weren't there with him. He tried to move but his legs were still so sore from the fall. He made a sound of discomfort and pulled himself into a sitting position with his arms. Hit eye slowly opening, making a small sound as it did. He looked around and didn't know where he was, though it seemed so familiar, he found he was on what seemed to be a bed, it was small, and he was covered with spare material.

All around there were small trinkets, objects like screws, tools, cloth, needles, books, and so on. It was warm, and he was dry. Looking down at the bed he moved the cloth covering him and looked to his knees. The tears were still large and they needed to be sewn up soon, otherwise he might damage the parts inside of his leg.

He looked around for anything he might be able to use to fix himself, as his eyes fell on a small bundle of sewing needles. He looked at them carefully. They were across the room, he wouldn't be able to get to them without falling, maybe if he could find some string he would be able to get it without having to stop moving, if he could reach it on one go, he might make it back to the bed without falling over.

He spotted a strand of brown string not too far from the needles, given they were still crammed into a tight corner which would require him to put more weight onto one of his injured legs. He sighed, what was he waiting for? His legs weren't getting better any time soon, and they never would if he didn't get up.

He held his breath as he clenched the cloth of the bed in one hand and swung his legs over the edge, trying to get his feet as close to the floor as he could before placing them firmly on the ground. Pushing himself off a little more he stood up, his knees shaking as he began his painful 'journey' to get the items. He limped across the room and grabbed a needle from the pile, using it almost as a cane to help carry him to the string. He looked to it and thought for a second, the area was really tight; it was really going to hurt if he fell.

He tried to balance on one leg, hoping that if he put the rest of the pressure on the area surrounding the string he would be able to grab it. It wouldn't be as easy as just holding one of the sides, and he ended up falling over, hitting his shoulder against the sharp corner. He held his arm, nothing was torn and he thanked his luck that it wasn't, he would have had hard time sewing up his own shoulder. He sighed and got up again, leaning as far forward as he could he stretched out his metal fingers and barely touched the string. After a few more tries he finally grabbed it and jerked back before he fell forward, but his legs were still injured and he ended up toppling backwards not hearing the sound of footsteps that seemed to quicken when he began to fall.

He closed his eye tight, preparing for his crash landing; he was surprised when he didn't feel it at all. In fact, he didn't even fall. He blinked and his optics made a sound as he turned around and saw the reason he didn't fall. 9 was standing behind him, his arms open, holding the older stitchpunk tightly, and preventing him from falling and getting hurt.

Gasping he stared at the other. "9" he said looking up into the others eyes. He now had a mixed emotion, as did 9. 5 looked worried, scared even, and 9 looked confused, mixed with relief. The younger of the two helped 5 up and then pulled him into a tight embrace. The fifth stared out as he was held, and a second later he dropped the needle and thread and wrapped his arms carefully around the other. His fingers held tightly to the younger one, using him a bit, leaning so he wouldn't lose his balance, which 9 didn't seem to mind.

After a few minutes in silence, 9 helped him back to the bed, sitting him down before going to get the supplies that the other was getting to fix his tears. Bringing them back he handed them to the other, shyly, as a person would do after not seeing the one they cared about for a long time. 5 took them gratefully and threaded the needle. Looking to the other as he started to sew himself up, wincing at each time the needle was driven into the burlap material.

"It seems like it was only a short time ago that it was me getting patched up by you" 9 said as he broke the silence. 5 nodded in agreement.

"It does…." He continued to patch up the wounds. He looked at 9; he was gone for so long. 9 seemed to have grown up since he was last alive, even if just a little. He seemed stronger not like the one he was so familiar with. And he couldn't help but look away, when he had finished sewing, he didn't know why, maybe it was the fact that it was 9's doing that he died that made him confused about how he should feel about him, though a minute later he felt the other stitchpunk's arms around him tightly from behind, holding him he felt the others gears tremble, which made his own body shake.

5 reached up and held the others hands, rubbing over the wooden parts with his fingers, his mind still recovering, it was odd to say he was recovering from being dead but that's what he was doing. Turning himself he wrapped his arms around the other and rocked him slowly.

"9…I'm here now" he said softly, pulling away to look at the other through his eye.

"I know…but you never had to die…it was my fault" he said looking at the other. 5 looked down and shook his head.

"It's ok….I guess I should have expected it" He sighed. "It is your fault 9, I'm not going to lie, but I'm not going to blame you…you didn't know, No one knew when that machine was going to stop…after …2…I knew it was only a matter of time before it got me"

The two stitchpunks were quiet after that, 9 was actually grateful that the other was honest, even though it hurt, it also pulled some of the pain from him. Looking to each other they thought and thought, neither of them speaking, but they were thinking the same exact thing.

"How did you come back?"

5 shrugged. "I don't know…All I know is…I remember being released, and the next thing I'm aware of is waking up in a giant pool of water…"

The two looked at each other and tried to think of how this was possible. Given, there was a lot that they didn't know about the world and the way it functioned, but one thing they knew was machines didn't just come back to life after being dead for a whole year. They just stared at each other, both thinking of how ever many questions they wanted answers to. Though it would have to wait as there were more footsteps coming from the door way, and soon the material covering the opening were moved as a bleached white figure entered the room. 7 looked at 9 and 5, smiling as she moved to 5 and wrapped her arms around him. She was a bit more calm then she was when she first found him yesterday, it was dark out now, and she and 9 had talked about it for as long as they could, lack of rest made them tired but they had to figure out how on earth 5 was able to come back.

"5…." She said her voice was soft and tender, looking at him she couldn't think of anything to say. Finally after a minute she did. "We…Missed you"

5 smiled when she said something, but as soon as she did he looked down, his voice became heavy.

"I-I can't really say the same…up until now, I was dead… I never worried about you, I knew you would be fine….I knew you could handle anything the world had left…"

9 looked down; he seemed to flinch at the mention of the word 'dead'. It was his fault that the stitchpunk that he regarded as a brother had to die. 5 seemed to notice this and reached a hand to hold 9's looking him in the eye he tightened his grip, showing the other not to dwell on the past at the moment. He was all too curious about where he was.

"Where are we?" the eldest of the three asked.

"We're in the first room…the one where we were all created" 7 said after a second. "We decided…that in order to live…we needed to be close to where your graves are. This place has many tools that are extremely useful, especially since we try to clean up this whole place."

5 nodded, before a realizing thought filled his head. "Where are 3 and 4?" he asked and looked around for the twins.

"Their exploring, trying to see if there's anything at all that we can use to find out why your back." 9 whispered, he was still stressed from guilt, and 5 nodded patting the others shoulder. 5 was about to say something as the twins came into a room, pulling a large wooden box with a tree pattern on its cover.

"That's the object that the scientist left me…" 9 said and noticed that 5 was looking at him oddly. "The scientist left me a box…it had a recording, it told me how to defeat the machine…" he then looked at 4 as he shook his head, getting help from 3 they pushed the box around and showed the large tag labeled 5. "No wait…this is yours" he said turning to five.

"But that's impossible…I was made as the groups guide and healer….I wasn't ment to do anything more than that…you had the box for reasons, why would the scientist make this for me?" he wondered looking to his companions.

"Let's find out" 7 said as she moved to the box and opened the box, the gears and metal like clockwork spun around and soon produced a stream of the scientist.

---

"Greetings 5, if you are watching this then I have contacted you under grave circumstances. As you know, I have created each of you for specific reasons, you were to help the others, and your kind nature proved that this was the best job for you, but you've had an inner job that I hoped you would never have to do." The animation looked down, "If you are watching this then the others have fallen and are gone, it may not even be all of them, even if a few have, this was a job I fitted for you. You have survived and it is your job to help bring them back. As the healer I have made you a special device." He lifted the small device for the others to see; it was a long cylinder with straps and what seemed like a metal detector with a tube on the end. "I know not how or why your comrades have fallen, but this will help you greatly. When one of you were to die, your body was designed to release your soul so they wouldn't be able to be captured by anything else, this device was made so you could track the others souls, knowing the souls with be all together, or partially together, this is to help harvest them together. The bodies should be accepting to their own souls and will reattach themselves when they are brought close, this machine will help, as normally the body will not accept the soul without the symbols on the machine to help. It might not be easy, but if they have died then you are the only one who can work this machine. It's up to you to save the others, if you are not together as a whole, the world may never get the chance to mend"

--

5 was still after the recording. He was deep in thought, trying to figure out this whole thing. 9 who was also thinking suddenly stood up. "It doesn't make any sense…this machine is to help gather and return souls… how was your soul able to returned to your own body without it?"

7 was also thinking about that, she suddenly nodded. "Oh" she thought "…Remember…when they were set free…the first thing it did was rain…maybe, the pieces of their souls were in the water…since 5's body was under water when he woke up…maybe his soul had come together and found his body"

"Right…I was in water when I woke up." He sighed. "I…I don't believe this… what does he expect me to do…I have to return the spirit to the body…but…there are two whose bodies I won't be able to find." He shook his head and stood up, walking to the box he closed the cover and the look of sadness could be seen in his eyes. 9 and 7 looked at each other and then to him.

"5…this is your job…I would be happy, after all…isn't there a chance of bringing 2 back now" 9 said, unaware that he hit a nerve. 5 rubbed his head and turned around.

"We don't know where his body is…I would never be able to find it!" he yelled a bit. The twins look startled and hid behind the box, peaking out. 5 looked at them. "I'm…sorry…But…he was injured. I…made sure to fix him before we sent him away…made legs for him, I put him back together, but it was just so I could remember him for what he was…he would be in pain if I brought him back now…with such badly repaired limbs."

"You don't know that…2…cared deeply for you, if you were to save him, a little pain would mean nothing!" 7 said looking at him. "2 never cared if he got hurt, you remember right, he went back for you, even though he put both of you in a tight spot, he was prepared to get hurt if it ment getting out of there…"

The oldest turned away, hands rubbing one of the buttons that held him together. He reached up to trace the patch. "It wasn't a perfect job…"

The others stopped to look at him and 5 looked at them in turn.

"The patch…it…wasn't perfect…but he did what he could for me…" He then put it together. "I repaired him…it wasn't perfect, but I did what I could for him…I could function with the patchwork he did for me…maybe…he could function with the repair work I did for him…"

7 smiled, the other got it. She looked to the twins who looked as though they were waiting for her to tell them it was ok to take the other. She nodded to them and they moved and took 5's hands, one in each of the smaller ones and dragged him off, they were smiling, their eyes flashing and clicking to bring him to where he could find the machine. 5 was nervous, thinking of how he was going to do this. There was so much of the world and so many possibilities as to where all the bodies and souls could be.

When they finally reached their destination, 5 saw the small contraption for the first time, it was about 2 inches smaller then he was, and there were dark brown straps all around it. Moving to it he looked it over, and saw the attachment to it. It was a small tube that stretched for about five inches. 5 took it off the hook it was on and saw the end. Towards the end of the tube there was something that appeared like the talisman that destroyed the machine, most likely to harvest the souls, and there was a flat handle on the attachment. He looked at it and touched it with his finger; automatically it lit up, reveling four different dots of light. He knew what this was. This was what would show him where the souls were, suddenly he became eager to leave, the thoughts of being able to reawaken the fallen stitchpunks…to reawaken 2…and all of them. He smiled to the twins.

"I finally got back…and already I have to leave again"

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Third chapter done, and including the ending comments is had over 3000 words!…they seem to be getting longer.

Notes:

Location: For the story I moved the location of the other stitchpunk's graves close to the room where they were created, I'm not sure why, but I just felt like it fit in with this story

2's lower body: In this story's time, right before they sent 2 off on the floating funeral, 5 worked on his mentor to give him legs and sew new material over his legs and torso, I will fit into the story later so bare with it, I know it's a little odd for him to do, but I felt it also would be a little heartwarming for him to 'help' the other like he helped him.

Thanks for reading! I changed it so now new chapters will be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so check back those nights and a new chapter should be up, and hope you enjoyed it! A lot of dialogue this time around, next chapter things begins to change as 5 sets off to find the lost souls.