19 episode 4 part 2

  There are thoughts that people might think she's crazy or overreacting when it comes to hearing the news that something might be wrong with 9. But even if they do, she wouldn't even matter. She has seen almost her past friends perish right before her eyes and doing nothing but to helplessly look away. There was just no way that she would let the same thing happen to him. Sure, 9 was the reason they are dead, but it wasn't long when she realized that she makes mistakes too. Such as when she nearly killed 1 out anger for finding out that he sent 2 out to the Emptiness in order to die.

  Or when she has doubt 9 several times of all the ideas he brings up. Especially the time when he tries to explain that their friends' soul were all trapped within the machine. She did surely felt pity and some guilt when the youngest, at that time, grew upset at her disbelief and ran off to find answers. But more than that, her disbelief could have done more harm to the souls than what 9 mistakenly did.  She was guessing that's one of those reason why she can relate to him. 

   But it also not the only reason why she fell for him. Despite being clumsy from his curiosity, he has proved to be wise and filled with good deed enough to be a good leader. Even through every cruel event they might come through, he rarely doubts, which makes him the opposite of the female fighter. He always tries to find a better way in solving situations until it is finally solved. He even saved her back in the machine factory when she thought everybody, especially 1, would think that she was already done for. He was just a stitchpunk that she never thought would exist. The one who would stand up for what is right when others easily get put down by 1 or 8 for their beliefs. The one who has the ability to tenderly convince them, and at the same time, watch over them once he gets them into something.

 It gave her this affection for him that seemed different from all the others. A strange and new kind of love that she never experienced before, but at get same, hopes that it never ends. She was wondering off on those thoughts of her lover, but still in complete worry, as she was running past the hallways. It only took a minute for her to see a curtain entrance that lead's to 10's room, hearing the healer talking to someone, before she flew the curtain open.

  "9?!"

Both him and the leader, who was lying on the clinic bed with no visible symptoms of pain or illness, got startled and quickly turned at the white stitchpunk. His zipper was also opened up, revealing his voice box and a plugger below it, along with other metallic skeleton. As for 10, he was wearing his headlight that was lit up.

"7," 10 turned off his headlight in complete concern, "is everything alright?"

But she didn't listen and quickly paced up to her soulmate while taking her bird skull off her head and placing it on the floor. 

"9," bent down towards him as the leader was a bit surprised when she anxiously    stroke his head with both her hands until they went down to his cheeks, "are you gonna be okay? Are you hurt or weak?"

 "7," he responded in a soft teasing chuckle as he took one of her hand and gently grasp it with both of his hands, "I'm alright. It's just a little ache in my chest."

"Oh right," 10 rubbed his head in slight embarrassment, "I should have planned on getting you right when I heard that you came back. But 9 has a heat."

7 turned a blink in worry.

"Now luckily, it doesn't look bad," he placed his hand on his mentor's chest, "it's just a bit warm. The only thing that he needs is to place a cool wet cloth there so the heart engine can cool down. It can take around a day or two, so 9's gonna have to rest here for now."

  "That's fine," the zippered one spoke up, "I'll get back to my studies-" he made an uncomfortable wince for a moment, which was possibly another ache passing through his chest, before relaxing again, "-later."

7 and 10 glanced at each other when this symptom occurred.

"Go get him the wet blanket," she told him.

"On it," he dipped his head and grabbed a dry cloth from the medical desk before leaving them. As soon as 9 realized it was only the two of them, he looked up at the warrior.

  "So," he said as 7 turned her head to him, "did you find anything out there?"

"No," she sighed, "I was going to see the chancellor's mansion that might hold some answer. But the cat beast was wondering around there. I was thinking of killing it off, but I didn't want to take the risk."

"Good," he softly smiled, "I wouldn't want you to get hurt. But even if you did, the small good chance would be that you sliced its head off the same way you did to the last one."

  "That was a long time ago silly," she smirked, "the last time I killed a cat beast was when I first met you. Even if I did now," she took a glance at the leg that had a small stitch on the front and back from fighting a wing beast, "I won't jump high the same way I did when I cut its head off." 

"Maybe," he glanced at it too, "but you can always use the other leg." 

"That's not how it works," she laughed.

"You should try it," he meant it in a slight shrug, "that can be higher percent that you won't put yourself at risk."

  "Alright," she playfully shook her head and tenderly stroke his head, "you know what? Why don't you go ahead and take a rest? I think the heat is taking over your mind a bit,"

"But why would I want to stop the good conversation when you're still here?" 

 She rolled her eyes a bit,

"Alright, you got me there. But I hope you're not doing the conversation so I can stop worrying about you."

"Well if I actually am," he place his hand on her cheek, "it's working."

She smiled in a mixture of a lovingly and teasingly way.

"You stupid dork," she made a soft tone before leaning close to him enough to press her lips against his. He did feel a bit surprised when she did it, but already decided to accept it after a second before closing his eyes. Letting the warmth of affection for her spread across his body, they kept kissing for several seconds. 

 That is, until 10 came into the room with a wet cloth and halted at this sight. They immediately pulled away and look at him, right when they heard him approach, remaining silent for a moment. But with how both of their embarrassed  expressions were shown, 10 felt that he was forced to humorously smile.

"You guys just never seem to impress me,"

"Oh yeah," 7 rubbed her head and clear her throat, "we try our best."

But besides being embarrassed, 9 let out a soft laughter from this scene, which atleast cheered the female up and look at him heartwarmingly. 

 His laugh. It always had a way in making her smile.

"Well anyways," 10 continued, "I didn't mean to break your privacys, but I going to need a bit of room."

7 dipped her head and moved back a bit so the young healer can stand in front of the sick patient. Gently placing the wet blanket and spreading it out on his chest, 9 can felt the hot and aching feeling melt away a bit, giving him the moment to sigh in relief.

"Yeah," the younger male said, "I think that should do the trick. The only helpful thing you can do now is just try to get some rest. Usually, the temperature in our body cools down a bit whenever were asleep, so it should recover it faster."

  "So you sure he'll be okay?" 7 asked the question again,

"Ofcourse," he looked certain about it, "we all get a heat at times. Especially 11, and look how good she's doing."

"I agree with 10," 9 looked at his lover, "I'm sure I'll be fine by tomorrow."

7 was glancing at them both and thought about.

"Well," she spoke, "10 is pretty wise when it comes to healing."

The buttoned shirt one did look a bit flattered by that one sentence. 

"So," she grasped at 9 hands again in now a calm smile, "I'll just stay with you until you feel better."

 The leader was satisfied by this and decided to kiss her back, with the warrior exchanging the kiss back from him. 10 teasingly rolled his eyes.

"I'll just let you guys have a moment alone," he told them and turned his body away, "I'm going to see what 11 and 14 are up to."

By this, he left the room, letting the couples having a loving moment of peace.

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  Few more months has passed since the small sickness incident. 7 yawned as she was strolling past the hallways during the night towards the studying area, which was where 3 and 4 would use to analyze stuff and play around in. It was there that she saw a zippered stitchpunk sitting on a ring box as a chair and a hand-made table, with a dark blue book, stitchpunk sized, on it. It was opened up and 9 was using a thred needle to use it as an ink pen, as he was writing down something on the book. His light staff was leaned against the wall and lit up for him to see.

 

  Curiously walking up to him, she took a closer look at his writings.

"Hey 9," she finally spoke, "I'm going to bed. Are you going to sleep too?"

 "Maybe later 7," the leader answered, "I have to do this first."

"But you've been studying about the machine for hours," she sounded a bit irritated by this, "I think that you should-"

She became more curious by the book.

"What are you doing with that?

  "I'm using it to record my findings on my study," he answered, "I often have hard time finding the clues that we found around here. So putting them all in this book  can atleast save the troubles. I think it'll give us a faster guess as to what we can find more about the machine."

7 took a pause at his work.

 "9," she walked close to him enough to place both her hands on each of his shoulder, "I know this means so much to you more than we see it. But you have to take a break. Take a rest with me or take a fresh air outside. You don't have to be doing this all the time."

 He sadly sighed and stopped writing. 

"You know," he murmured, "I can be doing anything right now other than this, I can sleep right now with you and feel your warmth as I fall into a peaceful slumber. I can go outside and look at the moonlight, reminding myself how there is still beauty left in this lifeless world. I can go around and hear the friendly hellos of all the people that we gave life to, or hear the sweet tone of 11 as she shows all the new dances or hobbies that she made. I can be just talking to you instead of doing this."

  He became silent for few moments before raising his head up in sadness.

"But every time I take one step back from these studies," he continued, "just...one look away from it and I start having the thoughts that just one move I do can almost have all of us dead. Just like I did just one move and the next day, five of our friends were dead."

He the turn to her.

"We made such beautiful people in order to continue life...and cover our losses.  I will not take more losses again. I know that the nightmares means something's gonna happen," he then turn back to the book, "and it when it comes, we have to be ready. We have to keep them alive, even if it cost our lives."

  By the words that escaped his lips, she somehow feels as if she feel the same feelings that he is going through. She can understand how their creations means so much to them, especially working all these years to make them exist. 10's loyalty and protection towards others. 11 sweet happiness and positivity that can cheer anybody up. 15's strength and determination, despite being awoken with blindness. The people all had abilities and personalities that makes them extraordinary. And the warrior, as well, cannot risk herself in thinking what will happen if they get killed by something. She finally sighed.

"Fine," she placed one hand on his shoulder again, lifting his head up a bit, "you can continue your studies. But please promise me you will go to bed afterwards."

 He rest his hands on her.

"I promise," he spoke softly.

She blinked before leaning in and kissing his head and releasing, getting lightly drowsy when she left the room. 9 waited for her steps to fade away. Then he continued writing down his studies on the book.

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  7's body awoken out of nowhere in the middle of the night. She let herself try to sleep, but she can never go back to sleep. During this, she remembered last seeing 9 at the study room, realizing that he still hasn't returned yet. So she decided to get out of bed and walk over to the study room. When she was walking towards the opened door, she noticed that the room was still glowing from his light staff, which gave her a bit of anger that he broke his promise, which he never does. She was preparing to shout at him when she was going into the room and see him still studying.

  But right as she was opening her mouth by the time she went in, it almost immediately closed when saw the leader's head resting on his wrapped arms against the table. She was glad that nothing was wrong with him, seeing that his breathing with slowly expand his body a bit before relaxing. She took a look at him before looking around the room. Afterwards, she exited the room.

  Several minutes later, footsteps can be heard again until it halted. 9's body was then half covered and spread out by the white female's blanket. She then let her hand gently stroke his back, feeling her chest feel warm by the male stitchpunk's peaceful expression from his slumber as she continued watching him make slow and quiet breathings. She emotionally smile and let her face lean close to him.

"Goodnight, my sunshine."

She lightly pressed her lips against his cheek, hearing his breathings quiver a bit as a response before it relaxed again.

 

With her soft chuckle she never took her eyes off him when she walked near the light staff. She grabbed the lightbulb and twisted it, causing it to stop glowing and leaving the room into darkness.

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 9 still felt tired when he was waking up, but he decided to slowly open his eyes anyways. The room was now lit up again from the rising sun and heard the wind blowing from outside. Making a soft groan from the sudden hotness on his chest, his visioned cleared to first see 7, who was fast asleep while sitting against the wall and her arms slightly wrapping herself. He smiled at the sight of her until he can hear her making a soft sound and seeing her eyes flicker open. She tried shaking off the drowsiness and look up to check on her sleeping soulmate, only to fully awaken from the realization that he was looking back at her.

 "Goodmorning 7," he had a tired tone, but was mixed with happiness in seeing her.

"9," the female said while rubbing her head, "I-I didn't expect you to get up."

"Hm," he smirked, "that makes two of us." 

7 just gave him suspicious smile for a while.

"So how did you sleep?"

"Pretty well," he said before glancing at the blanket, "couldn't have slept well without putting this on me,"

"I was worried you would get cold," she shrugged.

"Well that's very sweet," he replied as he started to get up from resting on the table and letting the blanket slip off him. While he was doing so, a sudden familiar ache passed his chest, giving the zippered male an uncomfortable expression and hesitate. 7 noticed this and just responded in a tease. 

"Hey, what's with that expression on your face?"

He made an exhausted sigh.

"Body still trying to wake up," he muttered and finally got a chance to fully sit up and relax.

 "Yeah," she responded, "I think it's from all those studies. Maybe you should freshen it up. Maybe take our groups to the phonogram area and get some fresh air."

"Honestly," he looked at her, "I may still finding studying important, but your probably right. I can't focus when my body is like this. So I think a little music with the group out there sounds like a good idea."

 "That's what I wanted to hear," she praised him, "you want me to announce it?"

"Nah, I'll take it from here," he shifted his seating to the other side of it where he can face his light staff. Just as he started getting out of his seat, the sudden ache started to turn into a burning pain, which pressured him enough to take short breathing. He fell shocked by his body's behavior, causing to collapse back on his seat.

7 was now given a slight concern.

"Do you need help?"

"Yeah," he just tried to act normal in order to not see her panic, "it will be nice if you hand me my staff,"

"Sure thing," she got up and went over to get his staff while 9 tried to figure what the sensation was earlier. It was a very short time when the fighter grabbed his staff and walked to him with it.

"Here you go," she handed it to him, with him thanking her before taking it. Pressing it unto the ground, it gave him the strength to pull himself out of the chair.

 The pain returned right when he was doing this, only worse the more he kept pulling himself up, causing him rarely breathe and feeling his legs wobble.

"9?" 7 rush to try to catch him, only seeing him use both his hands to grasp on the staff and remain standing . His legs were still shaking during this and he can feel his breathings start to quiver unnaturally.

"9," she began helping him keep balance, "are you ok?"

He didn't speak from his lack of breath, but he gave a very slight nod, making her release him so he can start walking to the exit.

  As much as she decided to anxiously watch carefully at him, the walk didn't even take a minute. Each of his steps were becoming very little and he wasn't even further away from the seat. It was finally that another wave of pain and the lack breathing cause his vision to go blurry. His body shook more for a moment before having it half bent the ground and try to catch as much air as he can take.

"9!" She rushed unto him again and try to pull him back to his feet. She tried to make him face her completely worried.

"Sweetie, what's wrong? What's happening to you?!"

He groaned before weakly opening his eyes and placed his shaking hand underneath his hanging zipper, which can be where the pain is coming from.

"It's...ugh...my chest," he then weakly looked at, "it bur-"

The last word was then transformed into a painful groan before finally loosing the strength to stand. 7 immediately caught him right before he started to collapse as she looked at her wounded soulmate in horror.

"Good scientist. U-um here, here!"

She let her body carefully kneel down, letting the leader's body lower unto the ground and have his head laid on her lap.

Seeing the mixture of pain and fear form on his expression as he was squeezing his eyes shut and continuing to tightly clench his chest, all she can do was to gently hush him in order for him to not fall into stress. Just as this was happening, she heard quickening footsteps and looked up to see 11 skip pass by.

 But just as she glanced at the room, her joyful expression quickly disappeared and halted just to take few steps back and look at the scene. She looked as if she was trying to process on what she's exactly looking at.

"Umm," she then frowned in slight fear and confusion, "what's going-?"

"11," she spoke out seriously, "I need you to get 10! Get him immediately!"

11 still tried to see if she can process this, fearfully stepping back. 

"U-um-"

"NOW!" 

 She responded in a jump and ran the other way in which she came in from. With 9 hearing this, he croaked,

"Shouldn't have yelled."

He then groaned and clench tightly on his chest again, causing 7 to immediately try holding his other hand, in which he accepted it but grasped it as tight as he can. 

7's lips quivered by his condition and couldn't do anything but continue trying to aid him. At this moment, he can feel himself slowly drift away into unconsciousness.

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"11," 10 told her as he quickly pulled the unconscious patient's zipper down, "go get the stethoscope while I check the temperature of his heart engine."

"On it!" she dipped her head before rushing over to a tube that is connected to a horn and grabbing it. She then went back to the clinic bed and placed the horn part on the upper part of his belly. Her mentor notice this while he was about to touch the chest and moved close to her. 

"Here," he moved the stethoscope up to 9's chest, "the chest is always nearby the front side of the neck. Remember that."

"Okay," she said as she place the tube on her invisible ear.

 When this was happening, the leader can be heard making a soft painful grunt, as 10 turned to watch him wince for few seconds before relaxing a bit.

"Make sure his soul is still pulsing," he replied while resting his hand on his chest. A second after touching it, he quickly let go in sudden shock. 11 noticed this and tilted her head in confusion.

"Are you okay, 10?"

She noticed that his eyes widened in complete disbelief, almost looking like there was horror in it too.

"His chest is hot," he carefully placed his hand back in his chest, "too hot. It shouldn't even be like this."

"Um, 10?"

"But how is it possible?" He lifted his head in complete confusion, "I cooled it down few months ago."

He fell silent, the dwarf seeing his face go blank.

"Unless..."

 He turned to her.

"11," he spoke, "9 tells you about himself too, and I want make sure it's true. How long did it take for him to awaken?"

"Which one?"

"His FIRST awakening. In the first room. How long did it take for him to awaken right after his soul was transferred.

"I think he told me around ten years. Atleast that's what he thinks, since the war ended ten years before he awoke."

 She later realized that the healer was now growing pale, with the fabric threads, that resembles his hair, standing up a bit. 

"10?"

"I should have known," he murmured and stared at his mentor.

"Should have known what?"

His eyes glance back at the younger one.

"Keep checking his soul pulse," he told her, "I'll be right back."

 He was walking out of the room, but immediately stopped and run to a bucket of water, where a wet cloth was within there. He picked it up, squeezed water out, and rushed towards 9's side to place a cloth on his chest, which settled his troubled breathing. She then watched 10 take few steps back, taking one last check him, and finally left the room.

After taking a gaze at the door he exited, she looked back at the unconscious leader and kept stirring the stethoscope around his chest.

 She then found the right spot where she can hear a gentle eerie sound that almost sounded as if it was dancing with a breeze, giving the soul pulse a harmony that gave the blue bow female a gentle smile.

Meanwhile, 7 was anxiously twiddling her finger near the door to 10's room, as well as all the groups, who were either sitting and standing around it. They were exchanging murmurs and whispering to one another, waiting for the result of their beloved creator's condition. As for 12, who was not wearing his helmet,  was sitting right next to the leader's worried lover, having his sights staring unto the floor and lost in thoughts about this whole situation.

 After thirty minutes of waiting, they heard 10 pull open the curtain and turn towards the eldest female.

"7," he called her.

She quickly got up,

"What's wrong with him?"

"You're gonna have to come with me to understand-"

"I DON'T care for proof," she narrowed, "now tell me what's wrong with him!"

 "7," 10 begged, "you just have to listen to me."

Growing impatient, she pushed him out of the way, catching him in surprise, and watch her storm into the room. He glanced at crowds staring in silence and decided to halt in order to tell them to remain out there. He then walked back into the room, hearing 7 talking to 11.

"Tell me what's wrong with him!"

By the time he entered his room, he can see the female clenching her hands into a fist, which made the dwarf to look at her in surprise.

 He can also see that she was still in the position of checking his soul pulse, but he didn't care about that and was starting to feel worried that she might threaten her.

"7," he paced up to her and grabbed her wrist worriedly, "you have to calm down." 

"Calm down," she glared at him and then slightly shoved him while saying, "I WILL calm down if you tell what's going on with my sunshine!"

 11 suddenly heard a groan while 7 was panting impatiently and turned to see the patient's expression wincing. The round black eyes then slightly flickered open, seeing nothing but blurriness and pain. The others heard it too, but it took them a while to process if they were just hearing things or not.

"10, look," They decided to slowly turn to him while the female was happily shouting, "he's waking up!"

With his head pounding from the loud voice he tried to shake it off and concentrate on the one right to him, which the first thing he noticed was a pale stitchpunk with a blue bow.

"E...le-"

He groaned again in pain, feeling an ache on his chest, which recalled a memory of him passing out from a terrible chest pain while lying on 7's lap. 

When 7 noticed him gaining consciousness, her eyes widened in slight relief.

"9!"

He then heard a familiar voice before hearing fast footsteps and seeing another face that had a white fabric. His sight quickly cleared at this point to look back at his smiling soulmate. He felt his emotion race by the sight of her beautiful face and exhaustingly smile.

"H-hi, 7."

"Alright. Um 11," the female took her face away from the sick leader to look at someone else, "give me some room so I can look at him."

She easily obeyed him and watch her move out of 9's sight, with 10 taking her spot a second later.

 "I'm impressed that you woke up earlier," his first creation said, "I thought you would be out for a day."

"An.." He cleared his throat to hide his weak tone, "and how long was I out?"

"Only few hours," he told him while pulling the wet cloth out a bit in order to check the temperature, "7 and I had to carry you all the way here and call 11 in to help me out with the diagnose."

"And what did you find?"

 He blinked and took a while to respond while giving a concerned frown He glanced at the healer trainer.

"11, you're done for today."

"Already?" She made a slight frown, "but I wanna keep taking care of 9." 

"You will do so later," he said, "but this is a talk that has to be heard by 9 and 7 alone."

She sighed,

"Ok," she easily answered and walked over to her creator to gently wrap her arms around his neck.

"Feel better 9," she told him, causing him to exchange the hug back.

 "Thanks sweetie," he slightly patted her back and released her,  "just go play with you brother." 

She nodded in a slight emotional smile and finally let go him in order to quickly leave the room.

10 waited for her to be completely gone and sadly sigh,

"She would get really worried if she stayed here."

 9 grew confused by this, with 7 growing suspicious.

"What are you talking about?"

He walked back near the bed and moved the wet cloth away from his chest.

"Here," he told the female lover, "touch it."

9 felt it was a bit off with the way he's making her do this, but never decided on questioning it. 7 looked down at his chest and cautiously let out her hand to rest on it. She paused at that moment as he watched the warrior's eyes slowly widen.

"9," she fearfully faced the leader, "your chest is burning."

He blinked in slight shock by her response. He looked down at it and placed hand right next to hers, getting off guard that she was right. It's as if the sun cooked it for hours.

"Is it normal to be like this?" She looked back up to him after glancing at him feel it too, which he shook his head as the answer.

"Neither have I," 10 spoke again while analyzing it, "and I have seen 11 and others go through different kinds of heats. But out of all of them, this is the worst heat I ever seen."

"We can just cool it more, right?" She replied.

"It might be possible, but there is a good chance that it will only come back even worse."

"No that's crazy," she narrowed a bit, "the cooling is ALWAYS the key to curing anybody with a heat. How is it not working now?"

"There can only be one reason," he turned to look at 9, "there has been times that 9 recalled to me and 11 about how he awoken. How it took his body ten years to wake up in the first room. If this is true, that means that the complete lack of activity in his body caused parts of the metals within him to rust, which can also include the heart engine."

10 then looked at the chest.

"Because of this, the rust on his heart engine, mixed with the energy he's using on it as time passes, it's making the engine rapidly deteriorate more than what we have as our body ages. With how weak the engine is, it's easily getting overheated. "

He fell silent.

"Meaning?" 7 asked.

"Meaning that if it keeps getting worse like this, it will malfunction and shut itself down."

The whole room fell silent, with the couple having a hard time processing of what he's saying is not exactly what they think he's saying. And that's when 9 finally asked,

"So your saying that my illness is fatal."

"Most likely, yes."

"Wh...what?" 7 burst into a laughter, making it look completely unexpected for the males, "you're...you're joking. Cause that's a really bad joke!"

"But your laughing," 9 pointed out.

"I know," she kept laughing, "it's so bad, it's funny."

9 then narrowed a bit.

"Aw come on sweetie," she nudged him, "where's your humor? You're suppose to laughing. Theres no way such a rookie like him would know that it's a...'fatal illness'."

10 can feel his body grow hot in embarrassment and confusion if his diagnosis was even true, now not even sure if becoming a healer like his deceased father is his purpose.

 "And what if he's right?" 9 voice then deepened to a serious tone, giving a bit of an offended look towards her.

 7 felt backed off by the sudden reaction of his towards her behavior. 

"Ha," she made a broken smirk, "no, he can't be right."

When she turned to 10, she finally grew furious.

"There's just NO way that your telling me that my beloved friend, my only friend that is still alive when none of my old friends did, is now DYING in front of me!"

 "S-7," he tried to reason, "please. If my diagnose is correct, I can try to find a cure. I-I promise!"

"Oh how can you try to find a cure when it's OBVIOUS that a healer can know that he can just give him a new heart engine?! Just take out the old one and put in the new!

"That's the problem," he then gave a defeated impression, "he NEEDS the heart engine that he has no matter what! If I remove it, he will immediately die!"

Her anger expression vanish, leaving her with complete disbelief in what she was actually hearing. 

9 decided to get up in order to come and calm her down, but this only resulted in his pain collapsing him back on the bed and laying there. He turned and decided just to call her. But right when he opened his mouth, her furious emotion returned, causing her to frustratingly shove 10 away from her. She watched 10, with no regret on her face, let out a short yelp while tumbling back onto his desk and using his whole arm to grasp onto the surface.  As soon as he landed, with his legs trembling to keep balance and making quivering pantings, few of his medical objects fell unto the ground and each of them making clanging or thudding noising.

The healer tensed his throat while making soft whimpering and look down at the objects, trying to hold in from easily freaking out like he normally does in situations like this. He then looked up at the angry warrior.

"7," 9 tried to reason again, "that's enough."

"You think you may now know everything about taking 5's place and being as good as he was," she ignored the older male, "but you're not."

 

She then glared at him more for few seconds. 

"And I highly doubt that you would ever be like him." 

His eyes kept locking onto her, especially with those hurtful sentence that easily triggered a sudden strong emotion within him that is made out of embarrassment and doubt. 

And that was when she knew that her work towards putting stuff into his mind was finished and took one last glance towards her lover. She almost had a warning on her look that was challenging him on whether to trust 10 or side with her. 

 And she just stormed out of the room, despite the fact that calling her didn't do any good. That's when 9 realized by the time he heard the movement of the door curtain that it was him and his apprentice in the room now. Turning to him, he can tell that 7's last argument literally hit him like a boulder, putting him in a moment of staring down at nothing. Taking a deep sigh, he used the surface of the table to haul himself up in standing straight again and palming his had unto his warm forehead. Watching his hand slowly stroke all the way back to his head, he looked back down at the equipment and started to bent down while slightly shaking his legs. 

 He then took a pause after doing so and started to pick up the first object, only to freeze after dazing off again, making it look as if he ended up staring at it.

"10?"

He remained silent, causing the leader to get a bit worried. 

"10," he kept using a gentle tone, "speak to me."

It took several seconds for him to let his hand slip the object back unto the ground and make another huge sigh. 

"Now I'm not even sure what I'm capable of."

9 responded his answer in a frown, knowing that most of his sentence, while struggling through these emotions, are not true. But he didn't want to admit that, since he knew that he would suddenly argue with him. Luckily, he knew a better way in talking him out of these thoughts.

"Here," he patted the clinic bed, "grab a chair and sit next to me."

10 looked at him in a blank confusion, but decided to obey him, as he got up and found a hand-made chair pull it over to where the patient's bed was. He then sat down and waited for him to answer.

 

 But feeling his emotions tense again, he struggled to fight it back and worry on what his mentor was going to say to him. He obviously noticed this and took the younger male's hand and then using both his hands to gently rub it.

"10," he patted it before tracing his eyes back up to his, "when I created you, I knew that you will be capable of something special."

"And how do you know that?" he challenged him with emotional stress, "you don't even know I'm capable of being a healer!

"Probably not," he told him, "but there can possibly be more about you than just a healer. If I can trust you that your diagnosis is correct and that you will find a way to cure me, than will you trust me that that what I'm saying to you is true?"

His lips quivered when he told him that he believes he's telling the truth, but then got another worried thought.

"A-And what if I don't save you in time?"

"I'm certain that you will find something," he place his other hand on his shoulder and rubbed it a bit too, "and if not, than that means my work in this world is finished."

10 sniffles a bit, but gave a slight confident nod before grasping unto his hand back.

"Okay," his voice cracked a bit in determination, "I'll try to see if I can encounter 5 so he can tell me what to do."

"5 is not the only one who will try to save me, " he adds this, along with a smile.

"R...right, right."

10 nodded again in easily noticing who he was referring to and got up, letting his emotions easily swift away, thanks to 9's words. 

"I won't let you down," he told him and started packing his stuff for a while before putting his backpack on and leaving the room. 

He smiled at his departure. But by the time he left, he was alone, with his smile fading away into concern about his health. He then rolled his body to face the ceiling, letting his thoughts take over his mind. Despite trusting 10 to find a cure, there is still a chance that he won't make it in time. If he dies, there is no one to analyze on what is about to come. And when it comes, who would be there to protect the family?

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