Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Eclipse was floating.

There was no other way to describe it.

All he could see was the suffocating darkness decorated with the faint splatter of stars,

All he could feel was the weightless tug of his limbs, and all he could hear were his own thoughts. Even then, they’ve long become nothing but a distant murmur as he lifelessly drifted through the infinite cosmos.

He could move, but not by much, and there wasn’t much point in the needless motion anyway.

The floating soul sighed, moving his arm in front of his face, the only tangible thing he could truly see was his own body, but even it started to feel more and more alien the longer he looked at it.

He was bored, he had been bored for so long.

Was it even that long? It has to have been… it feels like he has been floating for millennia, but was that actually the case or was he already losing his mind? Just how long has he been dead? How long has he been bored and alone?

Tch, that was a dumb question…

He almost wished he could move more, it took ages to achieve motion in his fingers, let alone his arm. Maybe if he could move the rest of the body he could find more efficient ways to entertain his… self…?

His train of thought was swiftly interrupted by a sudden tug, like his whole body was being sucked down- up? Forwards… IT DOESN’T MATTER. HE WAS MOVING, AND **FAST**. Too fast actually- he looked around frantically, but all he saw was the same nothing… wait there’s something ahead… it looked like a black-

BAM

Chapter Text

“EARTH WATCH OUTTTT!” Lunar’s tired voice yelled, using all the remaining energy he had to charge up his power and aim for the nearest Zodiac, they were covered in spiked red armour which made for a very easy target to line up for. Even if it meant Lunar had to put much more power behind his attack if he wanted to do any lasting harm…

He was exhausted. They all were, but he couldn’t give up. Not when his and all of his friend's lives were on the line like this…

With no further hesitation, the small Lunar bot shot everything he had at Cancer.

BAM

There was a huge explosive burst of energy, surrounding The Star and causing them to scream. Their form simply turned to dust as a result, the only part of them remaining was the dark cape they wore. Slowly floating down to the ground like a freshly shed feather.

The others paused their fighting, staring in shock.

Cancer was gone but… the light wasn’t, in fact it was growing- GROWING TOO MUCH. He must have put too much power behind the blast, nononono-

It didn’t get too large before suddenly collapsing into itself, which while seemingly reassuring to Earth and Lunar, the other star signs eyes widened as they backed up.

“What did you do-” Gemini whispered under their breath, not in an accusatory way but instead they sounded… scared. Stepping in front of Lunar, weapons ranged as the light disappeared for a moment, “You two need to run, as far as you can. Get to the daycare and use the portal. Just leave-”

“What- why! The fights are still going on, and that light thing disape-” Lunar had to hold onto Gemini just to keep himself upright.

“Remember the Antimatter beings I spoke with you about?”

“Oh the ones you refused to tell me anything else about?” Lunar crossed his arms.

“Exactly. I believe you just made one.”

Before Lunar could ask further questions, a small glowing ball of purple something appeared in place of where Cancer once stood. No… glowing wasn’t the right word for it. The ball produced no light, in fact it seemed to make the room darker…

“Oh no…” Gemini whispered, their eyes widened, it was worse than he thought. The surrounding Star Signs seemed to have very similar reactions, everyone getting their weapons ready as one called out a familiar title.

Wither storm!

The ball of nothingness grew into a much larger shape, not nearly as large as it would be soon, but still nearly the size of Gemini themselves as it started sprouting limbs, black tendrils that seemed to go directly for near Star Signs, who already tired did their best to fight back, slicing at the antimatter as fast as it could attack.

Unfortunately, this had done nothing but anger it, a face starting to form as its sharp teeth and large purple eye appeared in the middle of the dark shape. It let out a ground rumbling roar that sent cracks through the floor. The chunks closest to it ripping themselves out of the floor and being swiftly absorbed.

Gemini quickly grabbed both Earth and Lunar and the nearest anchor they could find, the entire room seemed to warp around them. It almost felt like a dream, everything felt slower, yet moving at the speed of light. The surrounding area is loud with both the Wither Storms call and the Zodiacs collective yelling.

Until… it all stopped. The Wither was knocked off its own little axis without any visible interference, and it started to screech as it further changed in shape. Its previously blobbed shape now has more focus as it morphed into a humanoid shape, the head flattening out and growing large spikes. Its voice also changed, shifting from a pure Eldridge screech to a distorted yell.

After a matter of seconds, the being finally finished taking form. One side of it had started attracting the material from the destroyed flooring and left over armour bits that Cancer had left behind in the blast until that side formed a… familiar face.

Eclipse now stood before them… at least, that’s who it looked like… half of its face was still the impossibly dark antimatter, even his rays had been affected. Instead of the usual orange they were now a light purple. All his rays now had stripes, similar to that usually depicted around black holes.

Gemini looked at the shape, horror fully sinking it. It was someone that was irresponsible and the antimatter now in one. They prepared their power ready for the attack.

Lunar let go of Gemini and stepped back. That can’t be him… he can't be back, no of course not! The lightning started to swirl around him. Even if it wasn’t him, This was still a new threat to his family, and he wouldn't stand for it.

No one tried to stop him, everybody was too stunned to speak.

Eclipse just looked around then down at his own hands. He was out of the void but what was he now? Thoughts raced through as he looked around. His pupils then shrink as he ran out of the daycare. He needed answers. What was he, why was he back?

Before he knew it, he was running. He didn’t make it far until he had to take a break. Even before he died it had been ages since he had run.

And it sucked!

He stopped, breath heavy as he looked around- where was he? Somewhere in the Pizzaplex… it looked like he was just outside the daycare entrance. That wasn’t far enough, he had to keep going he-

“Aghk-“ he groaned as he felt a searing pain in his face. He reached a hand up and immediately regretted it, pulling it back with a hiss. Wait… his hand…?

It was blackened at his fingertips and was slowly spreading up his hand and arm.

Meanwhile, Lunar and Gemini were both panicking about the same things but for different reasons, Lunar obviously terrified at seeing not only a mini-wither storm, but Eclipse seemingly being FUSED WITH IT. Gemini was also panicking about the existence of Eclipse, but more so what they’ll have to do now. He is aware of Eclipse’s crimes in the past, but he was not the cause of this.

“We have to go after him!” Gemini said to the other Zodiacs and started to run in the same direction eclipse had. No one followed except for Nebula.

Lunar continued to panic as they left. They now had to protect their family alone which wouldn't be easy but they had to do their best. Started to refocus they got back into fight with the other Astrals, being sure no one got hit, but Earth pulled him back and away, the astrals seemed distracted enough right now and they still had to run. Who knows what that… thing is going to do, and they need to warn Sun and Moon before it’s too late.

Eclipse saw how he was changing and he tried to shake it off, it *shouldn't* be happening. But he knew he had to keep going. He tried to run down the stairs but he tripped and ended up tumbling down. His pained groans grew a lot more because of that.

Gemini heard the noise and looked around, seeing them down the stairs. They quickly slide down and grab onto his pants, to go dispose of him. They started to quickly leave the area as they dragged Eclipse along who wasn't very happy with the arrangement.

“What- LET GO OF ME!” Eclipse fought back against Gemini angrily, he tried kicking but it was no use, they had a tight grip on him.

He struggled to turn around to grab their hand, attempting to pry it off when suddenly Gemini dropped him to the ground. They helt their hand, it burned from coming in contact with Eclipse's corrupted “skin”.

Eclipse noticed they did not want to touch him for the time and quickly got up and ran. He needed to escape, to run.

Gemini seemed to take a moment to realise Eclipse had even started running. They looked at their hand and tightened the grip slightly before putting it down and chasing them once more.

"Get back here!" They exclaimed as they chased.

“No thank you!” He called out behind him, audibly both out of breath and semi-annoyed. He has to keep moving, he can’t die like this he just got back! Who even was this person!

And why is he even back! Too many questions, all of which he can find out later.

He skitted around a corner and continued his sprint down a long, frankly very narrow, hallway. For someone who just got reanimated he sure was quick! He stopped only at a security door that refused to open for him no matter how hard he tried.

Soon Gemini gained on the Dorito, cornering him.

"You can either come willingly to face your punishment or things will not be good for you Eclipse " Gemini stated in a demanding voice.

Eclipse just looked at them before his eyes darted around, needing to try to find a way to escape as Gemini got closer, probably to grab him once more.

Eclipse saw no other path to run, he was cornered and weak but he refused to cower.

“Punishment?” He exclaimed, “For what!? I just appeared!”

Maybe he can talk his way out of this… it hasn’t worked very well before but hey! Hundredth times the charm!

He scrambled for something, anything to say that might buy him time. He needed time! Time to think of a way out of this...whatever 'this' was.

"You seem like a smart....uhm... girl?-“ he started, but swiftly shut his mouth when he saw Gemini’s unimpressed expression.

“We have no gender.”

*Well, this is off to a great start!*

“Right, apologies, but you seem like a smart non-gender conforming individual!” He corrected himself, at least they were somewhat willing to listen.

“Yeah, we are. Smart enough to know everything you have done before your death and how you have seemingly now been fused with Antimatter.”

“…I DID WHAT.”

“You fused with Antimatter.” They repeated, “Have you not looked down at your hands?” They tilted their head ever so slightly, in a near condescending manner.

Eclipse looked back down at his hands, they were almost fully blackened now…

“But-“

“Due to the nature of Cancer's death… it seemed to have created a highly condensed collection of dark-matter, forming the beginning of a Wither Storm. Which apparently collided with your soul… resulting in this.”

"B-but I was dead!!...Wasn't I? Am I actually alive? How the hell did this happen?!" He said angrily, backing up further towards the still stuck security door.

“I don’t know,” They said with almost a hint of sympathy, “But what I do know is you are now fused with antimatter… making you a threat.”

Eclipse looked up at that, “threat” didn’t exactly sound like a good thing given the circumstances.

He took a shaky step back from the entity before him, though he had nowhere to go. Left without other options, he fell back on his old methods of self defence, "So what exactly are you gonna do with me, huh?" he hissed through a growing tightening in his center. Ow. That isn't normal.. He shook it off and tried to focus on the very real person intending harm before him instead

“We are simply going to take you to a place where you cannot cause any trouble.” They said it like it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

“And what is that supposed to mean! Are you going to kill me again?” He sneered, refusing to break eye contact with the other.

“We do not wish you any harm Eclipse-“ he scoffed, “-But we also do not wish for you to cause harm.”

Another pang inside had him wrapping his arms around his middle, bending forward slightly as he continued to maintain eye contact with his aggressor. "I'm not! I just got pulled in here, against my will mind you! I haven't done anything!”

“It’s not what you have done that concerns us the most, it’s what you could do.” They said, moving closer, “We are sorry, but this must be done… you can come willingly or by force.”

Gemini reached their hand out to grab Eclipse…

The revived bot's pupils shrank rapidly and as the arm approached, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Eclipse could feel the unpleasant sensation of his face plate separating as the mounting pain in his core became an all consuming urge to devour. Without any warning his body lunged of its own accord towards the outstretched hand, teeth snapping closed on the air where it had been milliseconds ago

They pulled their hand away almost immediately, backing up with a small yelp.

Eclipse’s eyes were still locked on Gemini’s as he slowly crept forward. Every part of him was screaming to feed, they were right there, the astral body was such a perfect meal… It's been so long since he’s fed.

They slowly backed away, becoming increasingly aware of what was happening and just how much danger they were in… “Eclipse, can you hear me, you need to st-“

Before they could finish Eclipse lunged again, leading with his hand and grabbing theirs. It immediately felt like fire and they tried to use their power to fight back, but it had hardly any effect on their assailant… in fact it seemed to make him all the more hungry. He gripped tighter, unknowingly draining the energy from their body

Now that the food was caught in his pull it could not leave. He opened his mouth again as he drew the arm closer to his eager maw that sparkled with the dying breath of stars deep within as minute particles from the being's arm flaked away around his grasp and drifted towards him. He had only begun to feel the matter and energy enter his own being when a shout from behind the food interrupted his focus.

He looked up and saw Nebula standing a few feet behind them. He made an odd growling noise as he tried not to let their sudden appearance distract him from taking in Gemini’s light.

But before he could get too far Gemini suddenly vanished.

The shining celestial reappeared at their comrade's side, and now that their arm was out of Eclipse's grasp they looked down to see what damage had been done. A darkened discoloration to their forearm spread like a bruise from the spot he'd contacted, and it felt cold as the vacuum of space. Vibrant splotches of indigo were already fading now that contact had been broken, and they began their rapid healing process as they turned their attention back to the crisis at hand.

Eclipse almost stumbled over at the sudden loss of Gemini, his normal eye glitching as he felt an odd anger bubbling up in his gut. It was dark, and it was consuming his own thought. The world around him seemed to faze in and out of perception.

He reached forward, trying not to trip over his own feet, but they were too far away from his pull. He could reach and couldn’t move without feeling disoriented. They’re too far.

The hall was suddenly illuminated in a bright purple light, grabbing a hold of both Nebula and Gemini, pulling them towards him.

So close…

The hall itself seemed to stretch longer around them as they were forced towards the half robotic being in front of them. That is, until something appeared in their path.

Other, inanimate objects joined them in the slow, but gaining in speed, march towards their doom. gravity seemed to be increasing every inch they slid towards the ravening bot.

Panes of glass shattered and display cases imploded, shards swiftly singing through the air to dissolve into nothingness before they even reached him.

The parade of debris intensified, and though they were still being drug down the impossibly elongated Rockstar Row, the several larger than life statues became their saving grace.

The golden monuments twisted free from their anchors, clanking as they tumbled his way. Suddenly his focus was on them and no longer the small beings that surely held less matter within them than these massive items.

For a black hole, quantity always won over quality.

While Eclipse was distracted by the large statues, Nebula got Gemini out of there as fast as possible. The Pizzaplex wasn’t much of a concern to them, the twins were.

So Eclipse was left to devour the statues on his own for now as Nebula brought them to safety, “What happened?” They asked the other a tad frantically

Gemini took a moment to collect their thoughts. How could they have been so stupid as to think they could face a black hole solo? The absolute foolishness!

"It would seem that Lunar's creator we thought dead has returned. Cancer fell, and as they collapsed into themselves, the normal dark matter appeared, though we did not expect it to reform into a new being so soon." No, Normally, when a star being's life ended, the dense ball of creation energy would invert itself after a time of development into a new iteration of the same being. Or the energy would dissipate after a few thousand years.

This event was unprecedented.

Nebula thought for a moment, “Wasn’t that how Lunar got his star powers…? His ‘soul’ or whatever these robots have collided with Ophiuchus while they were ready to reform?”

“That… would be reasonable. But if that’s the case then we have no way of knowing just how much of a threat he may be.” And to think, they had just begun to finish dealing this near exact scenario with Lunar.

"We need information, Gemini. I know but a moderate amount regarding black holes. Their appetite is insatiable, although a being created from one may be able to work with keeping itself fed. I have never encountered any storms aside from those that form after the deaths of true stars. I can safely say that in all my travels, I have never met a being like this before." Nebula confided in the constellation

"How did he seem to you? Were you able to speak with him? Reason with him at all before his attempt to devour you?"

Gemini thought for a moment, recalling the conversation, “Aside from the expected fear and slight hostility he displayed, we were able to have somewhat of a conversation with him. He was determined to escape from us and was cognitive enough to try and talk his way out of it before I’d imagine his hunger got the better of him…”

Nebula nodded, "As is to be expected of a black hole. Do you believe that he may be reasoned with? Does he seem *sane* to you?"

“No, I don’t think he can. What little trace amount of himself that was left may be completely engulfed by now, and I don’t know if we’ll be able to get that back.” He looked down at his hand, “But at the same time… on the off chance that the sane part of this new being is still accessible… hmm.”

Gemini closed their eyes for a moment and took a small breath before continuing, “I think our best course of action right now is to contact the others about what happened and place him somewhere where he won’t be a threat to us or this planet until we can figure out how to approach this.”

"Very well. Now, may I ask just how you propose we contain him until then?"

“I say we try to distract him as long as possible with more matter that isn’t us while one of us transports him up into space.” That plan has its risks but then again they’re dealing with a partial wither storm, an incredibly dangerous class of anti-matter being and an unpredictable one at that.

“Do you really think that will work?”

“It’s our best chance, unless you have a better plan. We don’t know how long we have to wait for others to come and aid us, and the longer this… thing is on Earth, the more danger it poses to everything and everyone around it.”

Nebula sighs but nodded, knowing that they didn’t have much of a choice. They looked around, trying to see what could help distract the monster inside of the Mega Pizza Plex.

"How about these light pole things? They have some light which can help buy some time and then he can absorb the pole itself," Nebula offered, still looking around for anything else that could work.

Gemini followed their gaze to the poles, “Maybe, although it may be difficult to have it produce a constant stream of light when we move it… perhaps one of us could use their power to keep it on long enough to serve as an adequate distraction”

Nebula nods to Gemini "So which would you rather deal with, the light or the monster?"

They glanced down at their hand, “I would much rather be the one holding the large pole.” Fishing for the blackhole felt safer than being the one getting close enough to catch said fish.

Nebula nodded and watched as Gemini ‘carefully’ pulled a pole from its base, the only careful part being their attempt not to damage the wiring until it was long enough to severe and still be able to be held in their hands.

Once ready, Nebula came over and transported them both back to where they had left eclipse

Eclipse was still there, finishing the statue, his mouth unhinged as the eye helped get it into his mouth. The pupils were small, the satisfaction wasn't there. Hunger leading his thoughts, his eyes darted around, looking for something big before his eyes landed on the glowing stick. Without hesitation he lept for it, trying to pull it in with his gravitational pull

As Eclipse was distracted, Nebula pulled a long piece of cloth that they had picked up from the ground, it was Cancer's cape. One of the only surviving pieces of their fallen sibling and like the other pieces of protective armour they carried, was the only material known to be resistant to both star and antimatter power.

They tried to use it as a barrier between themselves and Eclipse, avoiding touching his blackened parts.

There was so much around him, so many objects, so many bright lights, yet nothing looked satisfying and he couldn’t make up his mind on what to target next. It was too much, everything right now was too much!

Gemini moved the pole away quickly, taking some steps back as Eclipse lunged again.

Eclipse tried his best to fight his way out of Nebulas grasp, his attention snapping away from the light and at a much more *promising me-*

Before he could attack Gemini shoved the light in his face again, stealing his attention as he immediately latched onto it

Nebula then wrapped the cape completely around him and focused all their energy towards teleportation. It took a minute due to the anti matter making them feel sick. Though soon they were both gone. Disappearing and leaving nothing but sparkling dust behind.

It didn’t take long for Nebula to return, they were wobbly and unstable, and if they could they may have thrown up. But instead they just steadied themselves and spoke.

"That should take care of him for now. But you may now want to return to Lunar. I am sure they aren't happy about being left alone with the others," Nebula said to Gemini who had put down the pole in their absence. No longer glowing without its astral assistance.

“You’re right, thank you for helping me, please go and inform the others about what’s happened. I’ll come to help as soon as I sort out things here.”

Nebula simply nodded before disappearing

Now in the daycare Lunar is tired and cursing up a storm, still having to deal with the Astrals on his own. Apparently Sun and Moon were off dealing with things in another dimension, unknowing of the absolute chaos that’s happening back home. They were back in conflict once more when Nebula appeared in the middle of it, pulling out their book. Most stopped fighting, although it took one of them to realise the battle had been paused again.

"I have a message from Gemini for you all. We all saw the threat created here. At the moment it has been taken care of as they are on an isolated planet, but if you wish to do something different then you will need to hold a council meeting," Nebula explained to them all.

A few of the other astrals glared at Nebula, they were in the middle of a fight!

“Okay cool, sounds like something we can deal with later.” Aries said before shipping his deathly glare at Lunar, “We’re sort of in the middle of something right now.”

“Wait, if that thing was part black hole, then that is a serious issue.” Virgo piped up, lowering their weapon.

“Yeah but it can still wait, can’t it?” Scorpio said with an annoyed flick of their tail, “We’re so close to finishing this and one of us has already fallen!”

“Yes, but that’s exactly why we need to put this on hold. If this thing turns out more dangerous than we think, then we will need as many hands as possible available.” Libra’s voice was calm and collected

"I can stay here and keep an eye on Lunar while you guys deal with this much more important issue," Nebula offered.

"I can concur with Libra. It appeared to be combined with that… What was his name? Eclipse…? Well whatever its name is, we know the things it has done with star power, imagine what it can do with the powers of the anti matter" Capricorn added on.

“So wait, you’re NOT going to kill me today!?” Lunar was unbelievably tired, but managed to yell, great all this fighting and he doesn’t even get to be left alone! He doesn’t want to do this again next week!

“Would you prefer us to just finish off the job now?” Scorpio crossed her arms

“No no! We’re okay, thank you!” Earth said, stepping in front of Lunar

The astrals glanced at them and left, leaving Nebula with the Daycare attendants.

"Well that is taken care of for today," Nebula bluntly stated.

Chapter Text

Eclipse found himself on his back, laying down in a large open field. The grass felt oddly sharp and flat under his more rounded features. His eyes were closed and he could hear a wide array of random noises… baaing, mooing, a few bees hissing, oinking- wait hissing?

He opened his eyes and was face to face with a Creeper who had been watching him sleep. And was not happy about his existence.

It exploded as he scrambled to his feet to run, just barely knocking him over onto his face. Unfortunately he landed directly on a giant spider that had just so happened to have wandered over at the wrong time. It hissed and tried to bite Eclipse, but before it could do much damage it disintegrated in his grip.

Eclipse groaned into the ground where he now laid face first. Hardly 5 minutes of existence and it was sucking! Why was everything attacking him!?

After a few moments of rest, he got up and wandered around, he had hoped to find somewhere to get away from all of these weird creatures. Unluckily for him, he found out what skeletons were as a result of it.

Eventually reaching the safety a village, he managed to pull all the arrows that got stuck in his cape out, tossing them carelessly to the ground. The villagers did seem to pay much mind to him, in fact they looked away whenever he got close. Everyone there avoided eye contact, and when he went up to ask any of them where he was, they would simply respond with a strange noise and walk away.

This was getting him nowhere, these ‘people’ didn’t even seem capable of communication outside of those weird trumpet sounds! He highly doubts anyone here speaks english.

Accept for… there was a voice coming from the other side of a building, the source looking very different from the bland villagers around him. They were more colourful and hardly had a nose at all. They were talking to themselves as they walked but it was in english!! He cautiously walked up to them, incase they too decided to follow the recent trend of attacking him.

The player upon seeing Eclipse just sort of… stared at his general area (careful enough not to look in their eyes) in shock. They said something quietly to themselves that he couldn’t quite make up, building themselves a few blocks up above the ground… AND THEN STARTED INTENSELY STARING AT ECLIPSE.

“C’mon… get over here…” they mumbled, an odd blue sword in their hands and ready.

Eclipse involuntarily hissed at the player and made high ground for himself.

The player was startled but also fascinated. A mob BUILDING?? This was so cool! The minecraft update must have finally gotten good!

“What is this thing… hey chat any ideas??” The player said louder than before, still staring into Eclipse’s soul.

“Who are you talking to??” Eclipse raised a brow, causing the player to jump.

 “IT-YOU CAN TALK?? And hear me??”

“Yeah obviously! And quit staring! It's fucking rude."

Eclipse hated the feeling of eyes on him even before he died. But now? somehow the feeling of being watched irritated him even more.

The player was amazed… Minecraft hired voice actors to do this?? But they looked away for the time being. Trying to find it in the patch notes when this guy was added or even a name. The excited rush of something like that in minecraft was in full swing.

Eclipse just wanted to be left alone right now! Too many things were going on for him to be bothered by this random player. He ate the matter from the blocks he was on and quietly walked away while the player searched through the notes

Walking through the forest again, a random stick he picked up in hand, he came across a hill. He might as well go up and see where he’s going… after a long and difficult climb he reached the top and looked around at the thick forestry stretching as far as he could see, aside from the village of course.

He groaned and walked back from the edge, deciding to try the other side of the mountain he began walking through the oddly large, flat hill top. His gaze drifted down to his hands, they were as dark as the night sky, reminding of the void he once resided in. What was this? Some form of corruption? A side effect of his resurrection? He had just about reached the center when suddenly the ground beneath him gave out, sending him falling down through the Earth and pummeling towards a new ground.

His landing was not soft, cushioned by nothing except his cape. It knocked the wind out of him, and it took the bot a solid five minutes to finally get up, surprised to be surrounded by… trees? The foliage was dense, but he could faintly see the clear blue of the sky above. Had he fallen off the side? Wait… no, there was a circle of what appeared to be rock or dirt circling the soft blue, he was inside of the mountain.

Unlike his previous stroll through the woods, there were hardly any sounds around him. No soft steps of the animals, no buzzing and no wind. The only thing he could hear was his own breathing and… a soft warbling in the distance. Weighing his options he decided to follow the noise.

When eclipse came across the large collection of endermen he stopped, hiding behind a tree just at the edge of a farm. Or at least… he assumed that’s what this was, there were large collections of small buildings on the other side of a large faintly purple dome with dark fencing at the bottom where it touched the ground. On the inside there was a large field of grass with the odd pile of dirt and other blocks he didn’t recognize and a large collection of tall, pitch black humanoid creatures. On the outside the enclosure was surrounded by a large moat, almost making it look like the field was in the middle of the lake. The water wasn’t high, barely going up past his ankles as he waded through it to get a better look. The buildings on the other side seemed to be much more advanced than the structures back at the village, if no one would assist him then he can help himself to some of their tech to get himself back to Earth.

Nearby, he saw a small gray bot observing a small group of the humanoid boings, taking down notes on a little clipboard.

"These creatures are simply just too simple minded to know what kind of purpose they hold.” It muttered to itself, scribbling its notes.

He tried to climb over a wooden fence but was halted by the dome barrier. Unknown to Eclipse, a message would pop up notifying the Creator of something trying to get through the barrier. He had made it to keep the Enderman from escaping the enclosure.

[Mob detected outside barrier]

“Hm, that better not be another creeper…” The Creator muttered, pausing his notes to go inspect the intrusion.

Eclipse eternally swore to himself, obviously this dome would be some sort of barrier, he stepped back and looked around, looking for the closest building instead, but his thought process was soon interrupted by the Creator’s droid ducking under the fence and popping out in front of him.

"Hello there young chap, what are you doing here?"

After a critical look at the supposed mob at his border, he reconsiders. "On second thought, you don't seem to be a native of this place now do you? No, you seem familiar. Forgive me, have we met prior to this?"

Hunger bites at his middle again, and he'd rather not lose control again so soon after regaining his wits from the previous frenzy to feed. He picks up another dirt block and chomps into it to stave off the feeling inside. Why did he feel so… empty?

“Hmmm…” The Creator said, taking a closer look at them with his robotic eyes, “No no, you definitely seem familiar… say, why are you eating dirt?”

"Because mind your own business, that's why!" Eclipse snapped with a mouthful of rapidly disintegrating soil, crumbs that fell from his mouth as he spoke, dissolving into atoms as they were also absorbed before falling too far.

The Creator watched as the soil turned to less than dust, interesting… “Do you eat anything other than dirt, or are you simply a highly evolved worm?”

Eclipse scoffed as he reached out for another block. "I eat everything, apparently." he huffed and started in on a stone block, biting down into rock already crumbling at his proximity

“Interesting… would you like some real food? I have chests full of the cooked… ‘leftovers’ from unfortunate mobs that happened to come across my fence. I have no use for it, all it’s doing is creating more clutter.”

Something he doesn't have to go look for? Something that might have more flavor than just dust? He can't deny his interest, and it overrides his caution.

“Okay…?” He said, a tad weary but he didn’t see too much harm in trusting this complete stranger farming humanoid entities for god knows what.

“Excellent! Just follow me.” The Creator said happily, walking towards a small shed, the only thing “interrupting” the perfect dome above the large fenced off area. He opened the door and stepped inside, grabbing a pumpkin from an armor stand and equipping it onto his robot. He then pressed a button and an iron door opened out into the large farm. Right across the field was a large stack of double chests.

"Why are you storing cooked food in a box outside?" he asked as he stepped toward the promised stockpile

“Food from this world doesn’t go bad, and it’s easier than finding space in my research facilities.” He chose to trail a little farther behind Eclipse, watching both what he’d do and what the Endermen’s reactions would be. Like any other idle mob or player they didn’t pay him much attention.

“That’s impossible.” Eclipse said bluntly, looking at the chests he could feel his insides tighten again.

“Oh really? See for yourself.”

He makes a noncommittal grunt and proceeds to the chests, kneeling to open one and finds piles upon piles of goods, some obviously meant to be edible and many others very obviously not. He salivated at the sheer amount of matter within the chest, and grabbed the nearest item. To his surprise, picking up one item from the storage gave him ...what, 64 of them? Whatever.

Wasting no time, he simply began popping the pieces of cooked steak into his mouth, hoping to taste them at least before they shrivelled into....whatever they were turning into.

Alias, the food was far too drained by the time it reached his mouth to even give him a taste of actual food. It tasted no different than the blocks of dirt and stone he had consumed earlier. But… it was still much more filling, especially the quantity!

If he could, the Creator’s droid would have smiled behind the robot, backing away from Eclipse and back towards the entrance.

“I hope you enjoy your meal.”

Eclipse broke his focus off of the food as he heard the door click, spinning around as he saw it close. The door completely shut, the hiss of an air lock sealing both the door and his fate. He felt a sudden surge of panic as he banged on the door.

“HEY! LET ME OUT!”

There was no response…

He stopped, staring wide eyed at the door and stumbling back a little. “Hehehahaha..

This isn’t happening.” He sounded almost annoyed as he brought a hand up to his face. A small sense of panic bubbling up in his chest and he tried to claw against the door to no avail. 

He took a shaky breath and looked around, spotting the Creator's droid walking on the other side of the fence, “Hey! HEY!” Eclipse called out, running up to him but knowing better than to try and reach over the dark-oak fencing.

“What do you think you’re doing!?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be let out soon enough. Once I learn more about you, I’d imagine you’d be visiting so many different places. This is simply temporary.” Eclipse could swear he saw a glint of amusement come from the expressionless droid. “In the meantime… enjoy your food! Spend time with your new family.”

He crinkled a nose he didn’t have, “Family? What are you talking about?”

“Why the other Endermen of course. Come on now, I thought you were smarter than that Eclipse .”

. . . 

“How do you know my name…?” Eclipse lowered his voice, ever so slightly moving back from the fence, “I thought you didn’t know me… who are you.”

“Hmm, maybe you’re not as smart as I thought,” he chuckled. It made Eclipses blood boil, “I’m fairly certain you spent quite a bit of time searching for me once, part of some… deal with Moon…?”

“Oh. It’s you . The “Creator”.”

“Now you get it.”

Eclipse laughed, “I always thought that was a stupid name. A tad egocentric, all you managed to create was two dysfunctional dunces.”

“Dunces that are not only fully sentient AI, but at least one was intelligent enough to crack inter dimensional travel all on their own.” He pulled out the clipboard he was previously taking notes on, checking something while he chose to entertain his new possession’s desire for conflict. “Not to mention one created more sentient AI as well.”

“Moon did not create me.” He growled, narrowing his eyes.

The enderman watched Eclipse talk. One of their kind looked really odd, he wasn't as blocky as they were. Plus they are shorter. Are they a weird baby? It must be. So one of the enderman approached Eclipse and just put their arms over Eclipse's shoulders, trying to hug him. 

Eclipse was trying to form another response for the creator, but his train of thought was very shortly interrupted by the ENDERMANS ATTA-

“ACK-“ Eclipse said, jumping away from them and falling to the ground.

Can he please STOP DOING THAT TODAY.

His motor skills clearly were affected by his recently immobilized state.

When he noticed the forest of black angular legs gathered around him, he looked up to find multiple curious endermen staring at him

Hello child.

Welcome child

Hello.