Chapter Text
Eclipse heard the screaming first, leaning over his modified vibrant red computer in the lobby of the Daycare Theatre.
He clocked it as a Sun’s voice immediately, so he didn’t think much of it. Probably just Daylight getting into another screaming match with Nightlight.
One that no one but the two intertwined animatronics could hear, courtesy of them both being in the same body.
Naturally, Eclipse assumed that Daylight was in control.
There were no other Suns that had any reason to come for him other than that asshole Dark Sun, but he was busy planning his stupid “Sanctuary,” or whatever shit that was.
So he had no reason to assume it was anything problematic at all.
Until he heard Daylight swear.
…the fuck?
Daylight would literally berate Nightlight (in their head. obviously.) whenever they swore.
So what had compelled him to say the word “fucking”? Eclipse pondered.
Then he heard Monica’s scream-
Which was promptly cut off.
“…Monica?
Is that you?”
Of course it's her, moron.
What a stupid question, Eclipse thought to himself as he dialed Monica’s phone inside their head.
The line picked up.
“Hey there!”
“Hey, Monica, what the-”
“Ha ha, got you again! Leave a message after the beep, motherfucker!”
Beep
“Fuck.”
Of course Monica had to inherit the same stupid traits as all her other dimensional counterparts, including the stupid voicemail gimmick.
Eclipse was doing important research, though, and he wasn’t about to leave that all behind to find Monica when they could easily be playing a prank on him.
Again.
Eclipse sighed his usual, tired sigh, continuing to type away on the computer, continuing to make his posture even worse than it already was by hunching over the screen.
It was a bit of a requirement, though, since he was so damn tall.
…but, damn it all, his back couldn’t handle it anymore. Not after…the Mimic got to him.
He really needed to get on building a new body for himself one of these days, huh?
One that wasn’t made by Ruin, that utter fucking idiot.
One that didn’t have the mark of a gaping hole on the back.
One day.
But not today.
No, today he was busy, trying to build something, anything, that could track down Stitchtrap.
And, by extension, his kids.
“Eeeeeeccccclliiiiiipppssssseeeeeee-”
Oh, for the love of KillCode.
Eclipse sighed.
“What, Charlie.”
“What are you doing?”
Charlie said, leaning over Eclipse’s shoulder to look at his computer.
Eclipse turned around, about to speak, but was caught off guard.
Charlie’s body always caught him off guard.
It was just a normal Marionette model, but…
All Eclipse could see when he looked at her was Puppet.
“…Clipse? Hey, Eclipse, what’s wrong with you?”
Eclipse was snapped back to reality by Charlie’s voice. He sighed a long, painful sigh.
“Nothing, Charlie.”
“Well, then can you play with me? I wanna play Hello Kitty: Island Adventure!”
“Wha-
No.
I am not playing that-
That game again.”
“Uuuuuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh…Clliiiiiiiippppssseeeeee…”
“Go bother Monica for me, then.”
“You’re right! She’ll want to play with me!
Bye, ‘Clippy! It’s been nice!”
Eclipse froze.
Those words…
The door out of the Theater opened up as Charlie ran out, and shut behind her.
“…God fucking damn it, Puppet…”
Eclipse said, wiping his eyes before tears even came.
And then he heard Charlie scream.
Instantly, Eclipse was running out of the Theater, bolting to the tall, lanky figure that was Charlie’s body.
She was crying.
“Charlie? What the hell are you-”
“SHE’S DEAD!”
Charlie cried, leaning down to hug Eclipse as she sobbed.
“Wha-”
He saw the oil on the ground first.
Monica lay there, optics gone black, throat slashed open, bleeding oil onto the flat carpet of the Daycare. Wires jutted out at odd places, cut and frayed and gruesome. You could see her voicebox in the wash of oil.
Eclipse’s rays retracted as his eyes widened, disgusted at what he saw.
And then he remembered who was leaning on him, crying.
“…Hey, Charlie, you wanna go find Dayli-I mean, Sun for me?”
He spoke softly, something he didn’t do often.
Charlie wiped at her mask, sniffling and hiccing.
“Ye-yeah…I ca-can do th-that…”
“Alright.”
Eclipse awkwardly patted Charlie’s back for a moment before she let go of him.
“Stay safe, ok-okay? I’ll be ri-right b-back!”
Charlie said, still trying to get over her tears.
“Don’t talk to anyone but Sun, okay? Promise me!”
“I pro-promise!”
By the time Charlie said that, she was already on her way to the Daycare Tower.
Eclipse watched her until she was out of sight. Then, he glanced back at what could very well be the corpse of his friend.
God damn it, just a minute ago he was thinking about how stupid and annoying Monica was! What the hell was wrong with him?!
Ballora crossed his mind. What would she think about her girlfriend being dead? Or, at the very least, severely injured?
Should he text her? If it was something that he could fix, he didn’t really want to bother with worrying her in the first place.
Uuugggghhhhh- this is why I don’t have friends, Eclipse thought to himself, trying to write off his concern as annoyance.
He began to drag Monica to his lab. By the time that he managed to get her all the way the the back of the Theater concessions stand, Charlie was back-and with Daylight.
“I brought him back and didn’t talk to anyone else, just like you asked.”
“Hey, E-OH MY GOODNESS! MONICA!”
Eclipse looked down.
“Yeah,”
He murmured, looking back up at Daylight.
“Did you do this, Sun?”
“WHAT? Why in the world would you ever even think that I could be CAPABLE of such a thing?!”
“Because I heard you scream fu-the...f-word, outside the Theater, like, 20 minutes ago. You’re a suspect.”
“I WOULD NEVER! This is SLANDER! And anyways, I wasn’t here 20 minutes ago! I was getting me and Moony a drink at the Faz-Pad!”
Charlie nodded as solemnly as a 9 year old could.
“I did see them at the Faz-pad…”
“Charlie, when the hell were you at the Faz-Pad?!”
“Uhhhhhhhhhhhh-
Not important!”
“Have you been sneaking out of the lab?”
“NO!”
Eclipse let a deep scowl set itself into his face.
“…maybe…”
Charlie muttered.
Eclipsed sighed.
“You know what? Bigger problems.
Namely,”
He gestured at Monica.
“Who did this. Because if it wasn’t you, Sun, then it was someone who sounds just like you.”
“…could it be our Sun?
You know, from where you and me came from?”
Eclipse shook his head.
“No. Sun wouldn’t do anything like this. He has no reason to.”
“Hmmmmmm…”
“I’m sorry, what’s this about another Sun?”
“The one you and Moon met. That was separated from his Moon.”
“OOOOOOOHHHHHH, the SAD one!”
Daylight said innocently.
Eclipse stifled a laugh.
“Yeah. That one. But it couldn’t possibly be him, so…”
Charlie looked down at Eclipse, bending over a little so she could get closer to him.
“Clipse, who could it be if it wasn’t either of our Suns?”
“…I don’t know.”