A New Beginning

Chapter 1: "He" Return

Just after everything they have been through he stared at the sky, and back at the still burning fire. He wished that he could have saved them, but couldn't. What will we do now? He thought, where will we go, as he stood there in silence, but speaking in his thoughts. Then suddenly a voice broke the silence, he knew the voice and turned, it was seven, she asked.

"Are you okay?" Seven saw the look on nine's face. "Seven…" Nine began, she knew what nine was trying to say and walked up to him and set a hand on his shoulder, and gave a reassuring smile.

She felt as bad as nine did, but worse because she lost eight, six, five, two, and One,at least she still had the twins.

The twins looked at both nine and seven, and gave a blank look, then they scurried to seven's side. They then flickered at each other, and then tugged at seven's arm, and pulled her towards the talisman. Nine then looked over and followed seven and the twins.

"What are we going to do with this?" Nine asked as the twins held the talisman in their hands.

The twins shrugged and they then noticed something hiding behind a small pile of rubble, seven and nine looked at each other and carefully walked towards it. Seven held her spear, nine held his light staff, ready to scare off the creature that lurked behind the rubble. As they got closer they started to see what it was.

"What…" Seven said in an uncertain tone.

"This can't be…" Nine spoke in sudden alarm, knowing that they disappeared in the sky.

"I thought you were gone… forever!" Nine said as he recalled seeing them fly away.

"How is this possible!" Still surprised at the figure that stands before him, Seven and the twins.

The disembodied soul was given the chance to come back, but he had only 24 hours to find and return to his body, and yet was given a voice, so he can communicate to his four friends.

"I am so happy to see you again!" Said the once living stitch punk.

"I'm able to come back, but I must find my body before time is up." Five spoke as if there is no hope of ever finding it.

Nine looked curiously at five wondering how could five come back. Then seven said.

"So, how can we help you find it?" As if thinking that Five knew the answer.

"I remember us… being near the factory…after…it blew up." Five remembered some of it, but not much.

"So, that means we should look there." nine said as he started to walk away, towards the factory.

Seven looked at nine then back at five, "Well I guess we better get going."

So, seven, five and the twins walked, following nine closely. Hours later they were there, at the factory, well, what's left of it anyways.

"Here we are." Nine announced, "The factory…" Five exhaled loudly.

"We better start searching, before night falls." Seven said boldly, as she walked close to the rubble.

"Wait!" Five said as he remembered exactly where his body is.

"Nine," Said five as he pointed to a small hill.

"Where are we going?" Seven asked as they walked to and up the hill.

"Five, over here!" Nine shouted as he stood near five's motionless body.

"You found it." Five said excitedly.

"Nine, how could you have found it so quickly?" Seven was surprised of how quick of a find it was.

Then five looked at them and smiled, they looked at the limp body and… POOF! Nine, seven and the twins watched as five was reunited with his original form. As five and his original form came together, the optics reformed and the body sprang to life.

Five ran around with excitement, yelling. "I'm back! I'm back!" Nine smiled and so did seven and the twins, yet the twins ran to the music player and started it up.

They all celebrated.

Then the unexpected happened…

The music rapidly stopped because of the twins not making the record move. They all stared at a creature who looks like them, but covered in a thick, black cloak that hid the creature's face. The creature said.

"…Help…me!" As it fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Find something that we can put it on!" Nine said as he rushed over to the unconscious creature that laid on the ground.

"Will, this work?" Five said as he and seven brought a plank of wood to Nine.

"Hurry, it's almost dark!" Nine said as he looked across the horizon seeing the sun starting to set behind the ruins.

Later at the library, they set up some extra beds and placed the creature on one of the finished beds.

"Five, could you figure out what this thing is?" Nine asked as he watched five take the cloak off the creature and set it beside him, on the ground.

"I can't tell, although it seems to be just like us." Five curiously examined the being, but it suddenly awoke with a start.

"Who… are you?" it asked as it backed off, away from those who stood before it, they stared at it.

Then Nine said, "You're okay, we're not going to hurt you. I'm Nine and this is five, we helped you." As the three talked, they explained how they helped, and who else is with them.

"So, you and others helped me?" The being asked as it looked at all of them.

"I would like to ask, who are you?" Five asked as he looked the being over.

"Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm ten." As ten spoke five and nine looked astonished to meet another one of them even though they thought that there was only Nine of them in the beginning, before the machine awoke.

"How is this possible, I thought there was no one else!" Nine said very loudly as if to attract the twins and seven's attention and yet it did.

"Nine, what's going on!" Seven and the twins rushed over to five and nine. "No, sorry, was I that loud?" Nine said as he turned in embarrassment.

"So, nine, who is this?" Seven asked as she looked at ten in curiosity.

"Oh, um, that's Ten, Ten this is Seven." Nine said as he pointed to both Sen and Seven.

"Hi." Ten said in a friendly tone.

"So, can you tell us what happened, before we found you?" Seven asked giving Ten an unsure look.

"I was running away from… a beast… it followed me, I had no place to hide, but I heard the music and… I followed the sound. Of course, the beast heard it to, but the sound prevented it from following me." Ten looked down and gave the ground a fearful look.

"Hey, it's okay, your safe now." Nine said as he gave a reassuring smile to Ten.

"Thank you." Ten smiled, but there was still fear in Ten's eyes.

"I guess we should get some rest." Five said sounding very tired.

"Your right, let's get some rest." Nine said also feeling tired too.

The next day, Nine, Five, Ten, and the twins stayed at the library while Seven went out to scout. The twins just couldn't help themselves, they checked out the new comer, which is ten. Ten tried to ease away from the twins, then ten started to find them very amusing and started to laugh, uncontrollably.

"Stop…stop!" Ten kept laughing, trying to make the twins stop, nine then saw the three.

Nine elbowed Five, they both walked over, yet the laughter was contagious and the both of them started to laugh as well. Once the twins stopped, the laughter slowed to a halt, and everyone fell silent.

"What, what are you looking at?" As Ten stood to take a walk around the library.

Later after nine and seven spoke about ten, everyone gathered around one of the twins' book. To search for anything about why there would be another one of them even though there was only meant to be Nine of them. And to also figure out how could Five come back, but as his normal self. As time went by they read through the book and so far, nothing, no information about Five nor about Ten's awakening.

"Hu, I don't understand, there has to be something to explain all of this." As nine looked away in disappointment.

"We can figure this out, together. Nine, we just need a little more time." Seven looked to nine and gave a nod and a reassuring smile.

Just after night fall everyone was get ready to sleep, except for nine and seven.

"Seven, are you going to keep watch?" Nine asked as seven walked past him.

"Yes, yes I am." Seven called back as she walked to the entrance of the library, Nine was about to say something else but couldn't find the courage to do so.

Nine stayed up for a while, but he started to feel very exhausted and went to the room that had five sleeping in one bed, and the other bed just waiting for someone to climb under the sheets. Then nine, as quietly slipped to his bed and slid under the sheets, and he fell fast asleep.