Hey everybody. I am so incredibly sorry for such a long wait for this chapter. I've been having real…issues going on in my life with school, home, and just life in general. So I've been a bit too busy to just sit down and write. I'm finally taking the time to do just that, and so I hope you like the chapter and please, please review! Thank you! ^_^

3. Battle

Early beams of golden sunlight shone down through the clouds and into the Scientist's room, highlighting the little particles of dust floating around in the air. 3 and 4 began frantically cataloguing the tiny bits of dust, and after a few seconds of this they both returned to the large bookshelf to continue their reading. 9, underneath his and 7's book, groaned and shifted onto his right side. After a few seconds of just lying still he turned onto his back again and his optics shuttered open. As soon as they did he saw pure yellow, and he let out a little gasp of surprise as he jerked himself up into a sitting position. He reached his hands up and grabbed the little sticky note. He was still tired, and the words on the note looked blurry to his morning vision, but he read the note quietly and drowsily to himself…

9,

I know that you probably just want the best for me

and the Twins, but I know that I just want to make

sure that your aLL protected. So I set off aLone to

defeet the beast, despite what hapened between us.

I'm sorry, but I haVe to do this. Take care of the

twins and I'LL be bak soon, I promisE.

-7

9 "hmm"ed quietly to himself as he finished reading it and closed his optics again as he leaned backwards and rested his head on the cotton ball bed again. He held the sticky note in his hands as he lay there…

"What?!" he shrieked suddenly, bolting upright. He brought the note back up to his face and read through it again, his vision completely clear now. He couldn't believe it – he didn't want to believe it. He suddenly turned to his right to see the bed noticeably 7-free. He got to his feet and looked underneath the bed to make sure that she wasn't just playing a practical joke on him, looked over at her corner of the room to see that it was also vacant, and then read through the sloppy, grammatically mistaken note again. 5 had explained to 9 what 2 had taught him about grammar, and so 9 could easily point out the mistakes that 7 had made as he skimmed through it again and again. And finally, after about five minutes of just standing and repeating the note in his head over and over, he let the little yellow piece of parchment slip from his fingers and float gently to the ground. He stared in front of himself at the empty cotton ball bed.

"7's gone?!" he screeched, hearing his voice echo slightly. The twins, who were running towards each other on top of the Scientist's desk with two different items that they both wanted to show the other, were both startled and distracted by 9's sudden outburst, and they ended up crashing right into each other unexpectedly.

7 carefully and quietly snuck across the eerie landscape that she and the others had titled the "Emptiness", her spear tightly clutched in both of her metallic hands. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching for any moving thing. She jerked her spear into a defensive position when the corner of her eye caught a piece of rubble slide down from the top of a huge pile. She let out a hushed sigh and continued walking, completely unaware of the menacing red eyes following her every move.

The sun was halfway to the middle of the sky, so 7 knew that it was still pretty early in the morning. If she was lucky 9 would sleep in, she would defeat the beast, and she would make it back before he even woke up and discovered the note taped to his forehead. That's what she so dearly hoped would happen, and she almost smiled when she heard a low growl come from behind her. She whipped herself around in a 180 degrees turn, coming face-to-face with a giant machine that she hadn't seen anything like before. Its body was an oval shape with a circular hatch on top and a long, flexible spring with a sharp spear on the end of it as a tail. Its head looked to be connected to its body by a very short, slinky type neck, and its fierce, glowing red eyes stared straight at her. 7 stared back, her optics wide and full of surprise.

She was completely caught off guard when the beast struck her with its front leg, sending her flying backwards and crashing into an old, rusted car. The force of the impact made the last remaining window shatter, sending frail pieces of glass raining down on her. She pushed herself back to her feet, never losing grip of her spear. The beast opened its large mouth and let loose a loud, mechanical roar that pierced her hearing system harshly. She could have sworn that she felt sparks fly in her inner workings.

She began running forward again, her spear ready for attack, only to be knocked back again by the beast's tail. She crashed again into the old rusty car, causing the dent that she had made earlier to grow. She actually got stuck in the metal of the broken-down car and had to push herself out and back onto the ground. When she landed on her feet once again and the broken glass around her caught her eye she got an idea. She hastily picked up our pieces of the glass as the beast roared again. She stuffed the glass underneath the thin strand of wire that ran around her waist, making sure that they wouldn't fall out before running back towards the beast again. This time, when the beast stretched out its leg, 7 jumped to the side and dodged the attack. When she was close enough to the monster's head she grabbed on of the pieces of glass and threw it at the beast's face. To her extreme pleasure the sharp utensil shot right into the machine's eye, sending sparks flying and causing the red glow to instantly fade away. The beast reared back onto its hind legs, ripping a loud, angry growl into the air. 7 prepared herself as the beast fell back onto all fours and stared at the seventh stitchpunk menacingly. And just as 7 thought it was going to swipe its leg out at her again the beast stood up straight and stretched out its neck. 7 watched as long neck continued to stretch out until the beast's head was a good three feet high. 7 stared as the beast looked down upon her, opened its mouth again, and roared loudly at her.

"Oh shit," she muttered so low that she wasn't sure if she actually said it or not. The beast brought up its front leg and sent it back towards the ground at her, but she back flipped and dodged the attack. She began running in a circle around the monster, pulling out another piece of glass. Just as she was about to fire the item the beast's tail lashed out at her, wrapping around her arms and legs. 7 held tightly to the shard of glass in her metallic hand as the beast raised her off the ground, her body completely bound by its tail. The beast's neck turned so that its head could turn around completely to look at her. It opened its mouth to let loose another earsplitting roar, but 7 slashed her piece of glass through the machine's tail, cutting herself free. She dropped to the ground, and as she was falling she threw the glass at the beast's still-open mouth. The glass stuck right into the box that allowed the beast to make any noise at all, and a loud growl pierced the air.

In a fraction of a second, however, the beast recovered, slashing out its leg at her again. She was thrown into a high pile of rubble, debris, and other various items left by the old inhabitants of the world. She grabbed her spear from the ground and charged at the monster. When it threw out its leg she jumped to the side to dodge, but found the monster's open mouth clamped around her body a second later. In a sudden wave of surprise her spear slipped from her hands as the beast lifted its head to its highest, its captive tightly inside its mouth.

"Let go of me you hunk of junk!" 7 screamed, trying to reach one of her two remaining shards of glass. Her left arm was trapped inside the mouth with the rest of her body, whereas her right arm was completely free. Neither of these did her very good; her right arm couldn't find a way to get inside the mouth and her left arm was too cramped to even move. She punched the monster's face, trying to get it to release her.

When she realized that she wasn't going to even get a chance to grab one of her pieces of glass, her left hand brushed over something sharp on the inside of the beast's mouth. She gripped it tightly with her left hand and pulled as best she could until the item came loose of whatever it was stuck into. She rubbed her thumb across the side of the object until she realized what it was and smiled. Without any hesitation whatsoever she stabbed the piece of glass into the roof of the beast's mouth, causing it to cry out in pain. When its mouth opened 7 instantly jumped out of it, and threw another one of her shards back up at its face as she soared down towards the ground. She landed easily on her feet, went to grab her spear, and ran in the opposite direction of the beast to put a little bit of distance between them. The third piece of glass she threw was stuck into the beast's face, right between the two eyes.

She decided that distance wouldn't mean anything, and if she wanted to defeat this monster she would have to close the distance that had just created. And so she gripped her spear tightly and charged again at the machine, which was trying to rip out the pieces of glass with its leg. While it was distracted 7 took out her fourth and final piece of glass, which she threw hardly right at the beast's long neck. When it stabbed into the material what looked like steam began to pour out, and the beast yelped in pain. 7 watched as the long neck began to slowly retract into the beast's body until it looked just as it had when 7 first saw it. And then, without warning, the beast fell to the ground as its remaining red eye faded to black. It was still and quiet, but 7 could hear the sound of processing gears and mechanics. She, after a few seconds, identified them as her own and she walked cautiously towards the large machine.

7 stabbed her spear into the top of the beast's oval-shaped body after she had climbed up. She looked all around the fight scene, seeing that not too much damage was done to the surroundings. She pulled her spear back out of the beast's body and flipped back onto the ground again. She gave a huge sigh before beginning to walk back to the Scientist's building. She was excited to 9 and the twins what she had done, but then remembered that they couldn't find out that she had even left. And so she immediately wiped the thought of telling them anything clear out of her head.

As she walked away from the still beast it stirred slightly, its black eyes slowly illuminating red again. The beast slowly pushed itself back to its feet, its neck stretching as far as it could again. 7 heard the sound behind her, and she whipped herself around with her spear up and ready. And when she saw the beast standing over her, noticeably free of any shards of glass or anything, her optics widened. The beast roared louder than it ever had earlier, and 7 had only time to gasp before the beast struck.

"Why would she do this? Why would she go? We took a vote, and she agreed, not to go…so then why'd she go?"

9 paced the floor of the Scientist's workshop with his left hand behind his back and his right hand on his chin. 3 and 4 sat cross-legged on the floor beside where he was pacing, watching him walk back and forth. Their heads turned from side to side as they watched, as if their eyes were glued to him. Every now and then they would turn to each other and have a quick little flickering conversation, but then they both would turn back to watching 9.

"We need to help her," 9 murmured to himself. "But how? We don't even know where she is."

3 and 4 enjoyed watching 9 talk to himself, and they began to catalogue as soon as he looked to be starting another sentence.

Suddenly and abruptly 9 stops, the hand on his chin snapping and pointing as a smile appeared on his face. 3 and 4 instantly began to record his position as he turns to face them.

"The souls!" he tells them. They stop cataloguing, look at each other briefly, and then both give him a look of confusion. "They can help us! We'll go to the cathedral, tell them about what happened with 7, and they'll help us find her and save her!" 3 and 4 turn back to each other again and have a short flickering conversation before looking back at 9 and nodding slowly at him. 9 smiled and rubbed both of their heads before rushing over to 7's designated corner. 3 and 4 get up from the floor and shuffle over to the book case.

9's hand ran over the smooth surface of the sharp rock that 7 usually uses to sharpen her spear before taking it and stuffing it into his body. He also took a short length of wire, some string, and a couple of needles. He wished that 5 were there so he could carry all of these items in his makeshift quiver that he carried around on his back. 9 was able to fit the wire and the string inside of himself with the sharpening rock, but he handed the needles over to the twins for them to carry. He walked over to the upside down book that he and 7 stayed under, and picked up his light staff from the floor beside the cotton ball bed. He made sure that it still worked before walking back out into the room with the twins.

"Alright, let's go," he announced, heading towards the door. The twins quickly flashed at each other, looked down at the needles that 9 had thrust into their arms, and then hustled off after 9.

*sighs* Done. Wow, that fight scene between 7 and the beast was actually pretty hard for me to write. I don't usually do good at fight scenes like that…oh, and yes, 7 swears in this chapter. Oooooo...

And I realized something that I totally messed up on chapter one and two. I saw a YouTube vi