Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Eclipse’s hands slapped on the carpeted floors of the bright orange hallway that led to Sun and Moons tower as he tripped, stumbling to stay upright while running. 

The world shook beneath his feet as he zigzagged to avoid the white pentagram hands of Bloodmoon as they slammed down where’d he’d been inches before again and again. The red giant laughed maniacally behind them, clearly not taking this chase nearly as seriously as the now tiny Eclipse was. Their footsteps shook the floor and threw the now tiny bot off balance as he desperately searched for somewhere to hide.

This had been a mistake. 

Everything about this had been a mistake!

Eclipse coughed through fans run ragged with fear and exertion and thanked whatever god was listening that the door that hid behind a poster in the theater was automatic if you had an animatronic signature big enough for it to recognize. The moment Bloodmoon was in range the door flew outward and the sun variant ran full tilt into the main theater, gunning it for the various seats.

Everything hurt.

Bloodmoon was right behind him.

Would hiding even work?

The red beast cackled. 

“What’s wrong? Couldn’t resist the computer's siren song?” A pink shoe, completely different from the normal jester slippers, thumped down inches away from Eclipse's body. “As if our Sunshine's brother wouldn’t put security measures in place against you or any other? You know that computer is the Moon's shrine, a priority well above anyone's life, yours or mine.”

Another stomp.

“But it’s fine! For your stupidity on your parts we will dine!”

Eclipse, breathing hard without really needing to breathe, dove under one of the audience seats in the main theater.

He scrambled back as bright pink shoes slowly passed by his hiding spot, desperately trying to keep his fans from giving him away. 

There was no way they didn't see him!

Under the seats he ran, twisting and sliding between the rows in an effort to lose himself to the shadows, desperate to escape the star-shaped pupils of the animatronic he once used as a tool.

Why did he ever try to mess with that damn computer?!

 Somewhere below a white and red pentagram eye searched and found nothing.

Bloodmoon grumbled. There was a long, drawn out shhhsk ! sound as deadly sharp claws dragged across the theater carpet. A heavy but quiet shuffling signaled the more dangerous creatures' departure, though it was clear they weren't going far.

“You can't hide forever! We were made as a hunter!” The dual voices of Bloodmoon drawled in an almost sing-song tone.

God dammit this was a mistake! 

He’d only wanted to know where Killcode had gone, or if he was still alive! 

And, okay, maybe the plan to snoop around and see what all had been happening in his absence had also been thought of before, but still!

It had been a few weeks after all. 

A month ago he’d defeated the celestial twins and had the star in his hands, poised to make the world in his image. Weeks ago there was no way anyone could beat him. Days ago October ended and everything changed. 

Days ago Sun had expelled him from their body and sent his mind and code spiraling into the woods with magic, magic, that Eclipse didn’t even know he had let alone knew how to control! 

Magic had been Moon's thing after all.

But somehow the formerly bright and bubbly animatronic had apparently not only learned to harness it, but had learned a spell that could banish his darker counterpart from the body they shared without risking a reset.

Eclipse had mocked him then. Sure as the day is bright that the goody-two-shoes wouldn't send him away. Wouldn’t be able to look into the eyes that were so similar to his own and send the angrier of them to his death.

But he had.

Sun spell, fumbled as it was, left Eclipse ragged and broken beyond repair in the woods somewhere. His life hanging only by the very end of his own stubborn threads. Alive because the only thing he knew how to do from the moment he woke up was fight.

He hadn’t wanted to die, but he was willing to let it happen.

Code can be backed up.

He could be backed up.

The only problem was that after dying in those woods his back-up had activated somewhere very dangerous. Somewhere he’d once intended to be but had completely forgotten all about in the nonsense leading up to his and Lunars takeover of the daycare.

His backup activated inside of Bloodmoons' head.

This was his very first (and not very smart) back-up.

He’d never intended for the combined maniacs to gain sentience so having a backup there was a good idea. A body he could possess if worse came to worst and his plans somehow failed. But they had gained awareness, they were alive, and they immediately rebelled and ran off after causing the bloody mess that was July sixteenth.

And there Eclipse was, stranded in their disgusting mindscape.

It was bad. He hated them and they hated him. They tortured him then, deep in their minds where his “body” couldn’t be torn apart but pain could be felt regardless. There was no escape. Bloodmoon is violent and unfocused, unable to do much besides tear things apart. Either Eclipse stayed in their mindscape until he could escape and use them as best he could or they would kill him. 

So he improvised. 

The pair, under Eclipse's begrudging guidance, had managed to drive Moon insane enough that his Killcode had activated, just as Eclipse had originally planned. 

What wasn’t planned was the kill code gaining sentience as he and Bloodmoon had (probably should’ve expected that, looking back) and that Bloody would align far more with that violent, insane asshole's plan than Eclipse, since the twins already hated working with the orange sun model.

Eclipse had been put into a computer, trapped by the killer code he didn’t make and the ones he did to be their version of a supercomputer. Smart enough to do everything they wanted but with the added bonus of being able to be threatened with death if he refused to do as they commanded. Everything seemed to be falling in place for the quadruplet of violent codes. Or, at least three out of four of them.

Then Bloodmoon died.

Eclipse never bothered to look into how or why, but their animatronic signature just dropped off the face of the planet one day and the captured Sun look-alike, never a fan of them anyway, was unapologetically sarcastic when he told Killcode only to find the larger bot hadn’t given a single fuck either. Except for a mere moment of Killcode expressing how close he was to the twins, the mission had carried on quite quickly. Not a morsel of mourning for the twins.

The older code claimed they cared about the bleeding twins like family.

Like a father to children.

Yeah, some family.

Bloomoon was a tool. Yes they called each other brothers and technically they were alive, but they were tools to be used and that tool had been broken. Oh well, life goes on. They had never been that helpful for either celestial bot's plans anyway so there was no tears shed when they’d vanished nor any curiosity as to why. At least not from Eclipse. Killcode apparently wanted to know how they died but never really bothered to look into it.

Some father he is.

Life carried on and the older of them had gone “home,” ready to wait until Moon slept in order to continue working on whatever plan Eclipse came up with to end humanity. 

But then Killcode didn’t show up one day.

Or the next. 

Then weeks passed without a peep from the older code.

Then Eclipse was left all alone.

Already fed up with Killcode (the arrogant asshole he is) and not wanting to be abandoned again, the orange Sun model had crafted a body for himself over the next few weeks or so and escaped. The only problem was that he was actually terrified of Killcode coming back, finding him gone, and tracking him down as a traitor or something stupid. So he set out to find out where the older of them had gone off too.

Breaking into the daycare was easy. 

Getting to Moon's computer was suspiciously easy.

Hacking into it should have been a piece of cake.

But the moment the violent sun had touched the arcade machine that housed the intelligent A.I. there was a bright light and pain laced through his entire body and then he was falling !

Thankfully he was in Moon's room and so there were pillows scattered everywhere from the naptime attendants' own erratic sleeping style. A quick look down showed that Eclipse had been shrunk down considerably, He was barely shorter than a barbie doll, maybe ten inches if he had to guess. Way too small to do anything with the computer.

Too small to do anything else anywhere, frankly.

So now not only did he not know where Killcode was, or if they were even alive, but moments later they’d heard a familiar and terrifying laugh as the Bloodmoon twins entered through the tube that led into the main room.

They were alive.

And still didn’t like him much.

And so here he was, cowering under a theater chair as the murderous code he’d created as a distraction for the Sun and Moon brothers hunted him down instead. He could see pink shoes they didn’t use to sport slowly trekking up and down the slanted aisle between the groups of seats. He could hear their teeth clicking together in anticipation. He could see how their body spiked wildly in different directions, barely containing their excitement for a hunt.

 They were playing with him, he knew it. They could’ve caught him at any time from Moon's room to now so there was no question that the blood themed twins were just having their version of fun before they tore him apart.

The orange sun took a deep breath and crouched in his hiding spot, trying to think of a plan. 

Somewhere above him one of the chairs creaked. Were they leaning on it? He couldn’t see from here.

He had to distract them, or juke them into thinking he’d gone elsewhere so he could escape and-

And what? How long would his battery last at this height? How was he supposed to charge? Or forget charging, how was he supposed to run fast enough to escape an animatronic hundreds of times his height and speed? Bloodmoon could hunt down fully grown animatronics with ease, his little body would be nothing to them. Even if he did manage to escape by some miracle, what would he do? Could this be fixed? Probably not at this height, at least not quickly. Bloodmmon was ruthless when they were given something to hunt so they weren’t just going to give up just because they lost track of him for a bit. 

There was no way out of this, was there?

Eclipse shook his head. 

Focus. Anything was better than being eaten by the murderous codes he once considered a tool for himself. 

Who they were a tool for now was a question for later.

There was no other reason for them to still be at the pizzaplex, let alone anywhere near the daycare, if something wasn’t forcing them to be here.

Eclipse looked around for something to help him escape when his eyes landed on something. A bouncy ball. A child must have lost it the last time they were brought to the theater and never returned for it. It was slightly wedged between the seats so it didn’t go rolling down the slope toward the main stage below.

Perfect.

Slowly, quietly, Eclipse scurried under various chairs to the ball. It took some wiggling and falling on his back before he was able to get it free but once it was he heaved it into his arms to carry it to one of the edge seats. Fans screamed from the exertion. Endoskeleton joints cracked and creaked quietly as he hefted the rubber thing over the other chairs' supports back toward his spot. It wasn’t necessarily heavy, but everything already hurt from whatever blast did this to him in the first place so moving like this was agony.

He prayed Bloodmoon wasn’t close enough to just reach under and grab him.

The ball was about half the size of him and trying to carry it without making any noises of effort took every bit of self control he had, but he did it. Plopping the ball down he laid on it for a minute, wondering what his battery was at, before using every servo in his body to shove the thing forward. 

God everything hurt so much. 

Why hasn’t he shut down yet? Terror?

Probably terror.

The large ball skittered onto the ramp that led down into the lower seats and the main stage before picking up speed and rolling away. Eclipse waited, fans forced into silence as he held his breath, until in the distance a small thump! could be heard. 

Pink shoes and white accented pants flew down the ramp toward the sound.

The solar model backed up quickly; the wind from the red beast ruffling his makeshift jester outfit, one so much darker than that of Sun or Moon. Bloodmoon could be heard panting at the anticipation of a kill. Sounds of cloth covered shaped blocks and other toys were thrown about in their excitement, the large objects making loud shushing noises as they landed strewn across the carpet of the theater.

Before he could think anymore about what was happening Eclipse threw himself out from under the chair and was turning to scramble up the ramp when something wrapped around his middle and lifted.

“NO!” He screamed. He kicked and clawed at the fingers raising him higher and higher to see-

Another Bloodmoon?

Chapter Text

“I caught him other!”

One red giant called down and Eclipse was able to turn and see a second animatronic colored like Bloodmoon whip around with a huge, gleeful grin. The other one stopped looking around the stage (leaving the theater a complete mess) and made their way back. The one holding him pulled their arm back and now Eclipse could see that this wasn’t Bloodmoon. Or at least, not the Bloodmoon he knew.

Both were nearly identical, their red faces had a lighter and darker shade that perfectly mimicked the original Moon. It split their bodies right down the middle until the maroon pants cut it off. The second held up the exact same red-tipped fingers with pentagrams on the back of their hands as the one holding him now and pink night hats rested on their heads. On each of their wrists were white metal gauntlets that ended in a single point, though that single point seemed to move with Eclipse's perspective of their wrists. 

They looked like Bloodmoon except for their faces and clothes. Bloodmoon had two pentagram eyes, a left one that is white with a red star vice versa for the other right one. They also had a more typical jester hat though it still had the bright pink color and they wore the same design as the other daycare attendants with the bells and ruffles and shit. At least, they did at one point. Eclipse could vaguely recall something different about their appearance before he ran away.

These two looked close.

Each one held one eye of Bloodmoon and the grin, but they also had a more Moon-like pupil, one white and the other red, and actually seemed to be wearing clothes. His captor’s front looked like the front of a poncho before extending into a full cape that would’ve dragged along the floor if they hadn’t been crouching on the back of Eclipse's hiding spot. ( That's what the creaking was earlier! One of them stayed to keep watch!) The searching one had a puffy collar that almost dropped into a poncho but cut upward before extending into two separate little tails that ended at the small of his back.

Honest to god even with those few differences it was almost impossible to tell them apart.

The searcher grinned and brought their hands to their mouth, barely hiding the razor sharp teeth Bloodmoon always sported.

“Well done other! Now, what should we do with our well-earned murder?” They asked, looking at their twin. 

Oh fuck!

How could Eclipse have forgotten that Bloodmoon is actually made up of two people?! Well, he didn’t. He’s just never seen both of them. Despite their nanite bodies the twins were never apart from each other so it never even crossed his mind that they’d actually separate to catch him!

Eclipse tried to let out a snarl but it came out squeaky and scared. It sounded so much closer to the pathetic whimpering Sun would make when he was still the main target of the more violent animatronics torment. “P-Put me down Bloodmoon! Let me go now! ” He tried to snarl but the twins just laughed at him again.

“Oh yeah, names were never our priority while under Killcodes authority and your superiority were they?” Searcher remarked, putting one hand on their hip. The other stayed barely covering their grin. Eclipse wriggled and Holder's grip tightened to the point he could feel metal beginning to bend. The smaller cried out and the grip blessedly loosened. 

“W-What does that even…mean?” Eclipse gasped through the warnings in his eyes. 

He’d never programmed them to rhyme, just like he’d never programmed two of them. Somehow, upon gaining sentience, they’d also picked up that confusing habit. It meant that very few people could make out what they were saying quickly, unless you’ve been around them a lot.

Eclipse hadn’t been around them for a while. 

The panic certainly wasn’t helping. 

Holder chuckled, a long tongue lolling out of their mouth and their single red pupil the size of a pinprick in their frenzy. “New names were we handed after our so-called father backhanded us. Our loyalty sanded and here we landed among the other celestials we were stranded.” Holder squeezed again until the small celestial screamed loud enough to be heard on the other side of the theater. 

“Only safety from us was demanded and so new names were given from those we were once commanded to torment. A new family banded.” Searcher backed up.

Barely able to see past the notifications of damage clouding his vision, Eclipse looked dumbly at them.

Honestly Eclipse had no idea what they were saying. He lived in their heads for a couple weeks so he should be able to parcel together their strange way of speaking but between the pain in his lower half from being squeezed and the rattle of his vents as he breathed and the sheer terror at being caught while this size his mind was far too full to try and figure out what they were yammering about.

“Hazard and Harvest are now we, part of the celestial family.” Holder said, pointing first to himself and then to Searcher. 

Hazard, the crazier and more animalistic, and Harvest, the calmer and more rational half of the singular body Bloodmoon. 

Yeah, that makes sense now. 

But what did they mean by part of the celestial famil-

Before Eclipse's mind could race anymore Holder- Hazards’ - tongue shot out and wrapped itself around one of his arms. He struggled as best he could (cursing as much as possible past the inherited profanity filter) and tried to use his other hand to pry the interlocking metal appendage off of him. 

“GET OFF! IT HURTS!” Screamed the tiny animatronic. Already pain was spiking up his arm and into his shoulder as the now delicate mechanisms were wrenched too far away from their available positions.

He didn’t know if the twins could hear the plastic casing on his arm cracking slowly, or the groan of a small metal skeleton being pulled apart but Eclipse could . He tried to breathe slowly, tried to calm down in order to think straight, but everything already hurt and he was scared and all he managed to do was claw uselessly at the aggressor.

“You have invaded our territory.” Harvest said sinisterly. Their face loomed over the now tiny bot as his brother's tongue held on too tightly. Eclipse wheezed in fear and tried to stutter out a command, but the words died on his nonexistent lips. “Some punishment, we think, is mandatory. Brother?”

Eclipse shrieked as the tongue flicked back tearing the arm clean off at the shoulder joint!

He writhed in Hazard's grip as dozens of warnings blurred his vision. The remaining hand shot to put pressure on the spot and he could feel oil gushing out of the wound. Precious, possibly impossible to replace oil poured out of the brand new hole in his body. 

Above him, the blood twins laughed. 

Hazard cackled and, to Eclipse's utter horror, retracted their tongue back into their mouth where they ate the mangled limb with a sickening crunch of metal and plastic. Newfound terror poured through the tiny bot at the idea of being torn apart piece by tiny piece and having to watch them devour the torn bits.

“Stop! Stop please!” Cried the maimed bot as the warnings overwhelmed his vision. “Please! Let me go!”

This was a mistake!

Coming here was a mistake!

Tapping on metal. One of them was tapping their chin as they pretended to think. Or maybe tapping something else on their bodies but they used to do that a lot back in the bunker with Killcode and himself.  

“We did have fun with the chase.” Harvest's voice said. Eclipse managed to clear enough warnings to just barely see the technically more intelligent of the pair grinning at him with bright white teeth. “What do you say brother? Should we see if he can scream as loudly out here as he did in the mindspace?” 

Hazard panted like an excited dog and smiled even wider than their brother, practically vibrating with pent up energy. His teeth were stained slightly black from eating the bleeding appendage and before Eclipse could plead or command or anything else the grip around his middle was suddenly released and he fell.  

He screamed as air whistled past the poofy rays and little bobbles he’d given himself in an attempt to combine Moon's hat with Sun's rays. A body built as a mockery to those he hated. A physical embodiment of the mix of codes that made him up. The world spun around and around and suddenly there was a CRACK! and brand new pain flooded the smaller sun's body. 

Leg.

Hurt. 

Broken.

He landed full force on the floor and snapped at least one of his legs, though the pain rocketing through his endoskeleton spine wouldn’t let him know for sure if it was one or both. The doll-sized animatronic wheezed and gasped, spitting oil from his open mouth. “Stop…” He burbled.

Static and warnings infected his vision, blinding him to the movements of the monsters above. He coughed and gagged, choking on oil from internals he knew were damaged enough for him to power down but no such sweet release came. 

Not that he really wanted to pass out with Bloodmoon towering overhead anyway.

Everything already hurt from the initial blast and the frantic run from Moon's room but this pain was almost as bad as being expelled and ending up mangled in the forest. Actually, it was worse because at least when he’d been magically cast into the woods somewhere his systems were only stable enough to survive for about a minute before being forced to shut down and a new consciousness was able to wake up in the deranged codes head.

This was so much worse because he wouldn’t just pass out already!

Just as he lifted his good arm to try and crawl away something thumped above him and suddenly a hand slammed down on his broken body. Hazard (at least it sounded like Hazard) snickered, their hand slowly pressing down on their former commander. Eclipse could once more hear as the casing on his chest cracked bit by bit. Could feel it collapsing slowly. Could feel his fans scraping against metal as the blades were given less and less room to spin. 

Eclipse gasped and threw out his good hand wanting to beg the red giants to release him but unable to speak past the oil building in his throat and the vents collapsing in his body. 

He was going to die here. 

Again. 

And he was going to come back. 

Again. 

Killcode would find him.

Again.

And he’d kill him. 

Again. 

Or maybe it would be Sun.

Again. 

But he has hundreds of back-ups so he’ll be able to come back every time. 

Again and again and again and again and again and and again and again and again and again and and again and again and again and again and and again and again and again and again and-

He didn’t want to die again!

The world was finally going dark as a giant hand pressed the tiny robot against the theater's carpet. His optics were dimming as metal and plastic gave out under the force of Hazard's strength. This wasn’t even a fraction of the blood twins power. It was like squishing a bug to them. Eclipse was screaming, he didn’t know that was still possible through the oil in his mouth. His screams echoed across the room but the only ones around to hear it were taking maddening sadistic pleasure as he incoherently blubbered cries for mercy from the killcode offshoots he’d created as tools.

And then, just as blurry optics were about to give up, there was a voice. 

“Bloodmoon? W-What’s going on in here?”

Eclipse coughed as hope and fear made his voice die. 

That was Sun's voice.

Chapter Text

In an instant Hazard's hand was off his back and Eclipse gasped, thankful and completely desolated that he hasn’t passed out from pain or damage yet. He had no idea why, but something told him it had something to do with this new size. The small orange sun gasped and wheezed as Harvest spoke.

“Just having some fun with intruder vermin Sun. Nothing to fear here.” 

“Harvest I heard screaming! Are you two okay? What do you mean there’s an intruder, I don’t see one!” 

Why weren’t they attacking Sun? Why was Sun talking to them like he knew them? Like they were more than just the violent bloodthirsty animatronic they were made for? He knew their individual names, he was using them freely. Is that what they were talking about earlier when they said they were a part of the celestial family? 

Blearily, Eclipse was able to recognize they were speaking again and that their tone had changed. 

Instead of the manic but thoughtful tone they’d had a moment ago when talking about punishment, Harvest's voice had lowered into something softer, almost a purr when the original daycare attendant entered the room. While Hazard wasn’t talking, the mini sun variant could feel that they calmed down. The vibrating, sadistic energy they’d just been using to slowly crush him had almost vanished altogether.

“We’re alright our light! Our intruder just came here to tamper with something dear to Moon and we heard the security protocol activate while we were near! Of course we went to check and see what damage we could wreck in order to protect you and Little Lu.” Hazard exclaimed, jumping up and down between one foot and the other. 

The vibrations from the jumping radiated through Eclipse's body and he cried out again, barely able to do anything at this point but look up with blurry optics to see Harvest waaaaaay above him, looking down and angry. 

So it had to be Hazard that was somewhere behind him. 

“What was that?” Sun's voice said. With his head so close to the ground Eclipse could hear as feet shuffled on the carpet toward them. Sun was coming toward the pair. “Guys, seriously are you hurt? The computer said that nobody has been inside the daycare so I don’t know why you’re talking about an intruder.”

Why would the computer say that? Eclipse had been in there. Did it just not see the doll-sized bot as a threat anymore and therefore decided not to tell? Or, more simply, the two A.I.’s might not have wanted to tell Sun the truth. They could be meaner than Moon to the sunny attendant at times.

That was probably it. 

Great.

Quickly and painfully, Hazard swept Eclipse up in one hand and moved behind Harvest, hiding his tiny body mostly behind their twin. Held like a ragdoll in the largers hand, Eclipse could now just barely see well enough to make out Sun standing before the pair, frowning. He still looked nervous being around the twins, but it was nowhere near the utter fear he should have.

That he’d had last time Eclipse was here, guiding the twins to cause chaos and incite Killcodes awakening. 

“Oh what a mess! Guys I know the theater isn’t technically part of the daycare but that doesn’t mean I want it to look destroyed!” He tsked, the nervousness seeming to vanish as he took in the state of the theater.

The twins just snickered and looked at each other before pretending to act innocent of it all. Sun did not look amused. 

He looked different too. Instead of the normal bells and ruffles he was wearing a long sleeve crop top with a sun on the chest, though it was half covered by what Eclipse wanted to call a shawl. Whether it was or not was a problem for never. Big, poofy sweatpants took over his yellow and red jester pants along with strange little flowy pieces of fabric at his sides. They attached to the waistband of his pants and bounced lightly as he moved.

His face wasn’t much different, but there were now three small round white dots under each eye and his right eye had a white tail that kind of blended into the eye itself. Looks like it replaced the little swirl that used to be there. 

On top of all of this was that the clothes were various shades of blue instead of the expected yellows and reds. The only things not blue about him were the dots, the sun on his shirt, and his shoes which seemed to be a light gray even with Eclipse's current terrible vision. His pointer fingers tapped together anxiously as he looked at the blood twins with a frown. Like they were naughty children and not violent maniacs.

Hazard shifted, trying to hide his prize better but Sun narrowed his eyes, clearly seeing what he was doing.

“I saw that Hazard. What do you have? Did you steal from Moon again, you know he doesn’t like when you do that!” 

Bloodmoon snickered together but shook their heads.

“Nothing he would mind losing.” Joked Harvest. 

Hazard looked down and raised one hand, discreetly taking the very top one of Eclipse's rays in between two fingers when he tried vainly to wiggle out of their grasp.

“Trust us, he’d find our prize rather soothing.” Hazard remarked, pinching the ray hard. Eclipse quietly whimpered, too weak to do much else. Pain pulsed through the now crushed metal appendage as it tried and failed to retract and escape the painful hold.

Static was once more lacing Eclipse's vision as he feebly raised the only good hand left and tried to push the fingers off of him.

They didn’t budge.

Why didn’t they just show him to Sun? The daytime attendant hated him as much as Eclipse hated them so there should be no reason for the blood twins to keep him away from their wrath. 

Unless of course, they want to have all the fun themselves in which case of course they’d keep him away.

“You can trust us Sunshine. Our word now our bind and one that will never leave you purposefully blind.” Harvest remarked, shooting an approving look down at Eclipses mini struggles.

Sun sighed, his tone lightening. “Of course I trust you.”  Yellow hands fell to the side as the restless fidgeting calmed and a smile pulled up the other attendants' metal lips. He believed them. “How could I not? Since you guys got here things have been so calm, even if Moon doesn’t want to admit it. Thank you for that, by the way.” 

The pair preened under his thanks.

Eclipse had never seen them do that before.

Even when Killcode praised them there was only ever manic excitement in their movements. This was something calmer, still vibrating with energy but not the kind that one could wield in order to hurt others.

They weren’t pleased with themselves, they were happy that Sun was pleased with them.

“We do not wish to scare you.” Crooned Harvest in a downright pleasant tone. “Our fun we wish to have and our new toy would cause your fear anew. Perhaps come back later after the other things you do?”

Fear swelled in Eclipse. 

“Well…I guess if you guys can keep it down. We really don’t need some random parent coming close to the daycare and hearing screaming coming from here. Lord knows the stupid complaints we’d get about ‘scary movies in a children's theater’ when there are no movies like that, you know? And clean up when you’re done for goodness sake!” The sunny bot said with a small smile, clapping his hands together.

Sun was going to leave and they were going to torture him again. 

“Of course, our fun can be taken away from the home! And when we return our story will be quite the bone for you and your Moonstone.” Hazard laughed, casting a glance down at his ‘toy.’ Red tipped fingers squeezed and pulled ever so slightly. Pain spiked through the angry solar bots head so badly bleary optics were fully lost to static for a moment.

He wasn’t going to die quickly.

Oh god no!

They weren’t showing Sun because they know that Eclipse scares Sun and the daytime attendant would force them to kill him quickly instead of the long, drawn out torment they had planned!

If Sun left without figuring out who they were holding they were going to smuggle him out of the Pizzaplex and then the next god knows how long would be the worst, most painful moments of his life. 

Eclipse couldn’t do this anymore!

Desperate for release, Eclipse yanked his head back and felt the crushed metal spike that kept the ray attached to his faceplate snap and be left behind. He kicked and tried to scratch with his one good hand and as loud as he could muster he screamed- 

“ PLEASE! HELP ME!” 

The room went silent save for Eclipses tiny, wheezing sobs. 

He didn’t want to die again.

It hurt so much last time. 

But if Sun snapped his neck and let this torture end quickly he’d take it over anything the twins had planned. 

“Show me what you have.” Sun said, his tone thin with anxiety but suddenly firm, like when he spoke with a naughty child at the daycare. 

The Bloodmoon twins paused. 

From far away Eclipse thought they were going to attack him for daring to command them. They’d done that multiple times to himself and absolutely would’ve done it to Killcode if they thought they were strong enough to actually take on the older code and win. As it stood they weren’t, but they would have certainly tried anyway.

But instead of pouncing on the other animatronic or running off like Eclipse thought they would (they’d run off plenty of time from Killcode down in that stupid bunker when he gave a command they simply didn’t want to follow) Hazard just slipped out from behind their brother and showed the maimed villain to the daycare attendant.

The tiny killcode offshoot turned to see Sun slap hands over his mouth and blank white eyes widen with horror. 

“OH MY GOD!” He screamed, sending new waves of pain through his enemy's body at the volume. “HAZARD DROP HIM!” They screamed, hands waving about like he was trying to get the attention of some big threat as he flailed about in a panic. With a chuckle Hazards fist once more opened and the ground rushed toward the mini bot again. 

Eclipse screamed and tried to bring his good arm around to shield his face.

Would another broken arm really be better than just letting this end? 

Long before the floor should’ve met his body Eclipse thumped to a stop when another shriek from Sun sounded. Disoriented and flooded with terror and pain it took a whole minute for the smallers optics to readjust in order to see that Hazard had caught him out of mid-air. 

“Not like that!” Shrieked the sunny bot. “Oh Jesus Christ I didn’t mean for you to actually drop him! Is that actually Eclipse?! How did you get him? Why is he small? How is he not dead with injuries like that? Oh…! Oh god…!” Sun's arms still flailed as he spoke, windmilling around in his frenzy. 

One half of Bloodmoon was looking in confusion at Sun as their captor coughed and wheezed in their hand. Eclipse would probably be doing the same if his mind could come up with anything besides painpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpain to think of. “Ah, this is why we did not want to show you so soon. Once he was dead we would’ve come home and given you this boon.” Hazard remarked. 

Once again their hand raised to pinch a ray and Eclipse flinched back with a loud whimper. “Stop it! Please!” He cried as he tried to twist in order to hide the fragile bits of metal. They couldn’t retract like Suns could, a flaw in their design he hadn’t really thought would matter until right now.

“Hazard stop!” Sun commanded in that same firm yet anxious tone.

Surprisingly, Hazard's hand snatched itself back as though he’d been burned. 

Eclipse looked at the sun model before him, dumbfounded. Barely able to make out the conflicted emotions battling it out in his expression. Hazard listened to him! There were no threats, there was no bribery or growling or anger, just a firm command that Bloodmoon had ignored in everyone else a thousand times before! The red monster had listened to Sun like they’ve never listened to anyone else!

HOW?!

Harvest stepped up now. There was no anger, no defiance in their face as they spoke. “Easy now Sunshine, we won’t let this thing put your life on the line. No more does his life have in store.” They smiled wide, beaming at the violence they were itching to commit against someone they’ve actively hated since their creation. Their voice was still softer than before, still holding that slight purr. Like a cat that was seeing the person it loved come home after a long day.

Eclipse hated how apt that description was seeing as Sun himself had cats that he cared about more than his own life.

But they weren’t even upset that Sun was ordering them around! They were actively yielding to his words! What the fuck did he miss that made Sun of all people be able to command Bloodmoon without so much as a harsh tone?! 

Wait, does that mean they’ll listen to anything the sunnier animatronic commands of them or just what they want to? Well they currently want to dismember their creator and they weren’t so maybe they were fully under the others command. 

That means…

“O-Okay, I get that you guys are protective and all b-b-b-but I also remember you saying you’d stop killing around us!” Sun exclaimed.

If Sun could get them to stop…

“That is why we were going to leave this place, to get rid of any trace.” Harvest said, one hand coming up to tap their chin. The other took up its place on their hip again having moved to watch Eclipses suffering earlier. Hazard lowered to a crouch, head still tilted in confusion but thankfully not tightening their grip. Animalistic turned to intelligent as they asked in puzzlement “I do not understand, he is our enemy so why do you keep him from our hand?”

Sun sputtered, unable to form words.

“I-I-I-I j-just didn’t know he was h-here! Y’know?! Last you said he was in a computer in some bunker somewhere so he wasn’t really gonna bother us a-a-a-and then he’s here and he’s bleeding and I heard screaming and it sounded bad and I don-”

“Please…” 

Once more the room fell silent as Eclipse interrupted Sun anxiety filled tirade. 

This could be his one and only chance.

“Please…make them stop.” He looked up at the daytime attendant he had hurt so much with one glitching pupil. Tears would be slipping down his face if he was capable of crying but as it stood the tiny bot heaved a breath for fans that were barely working anymore and sobbed , leaning against the pentagram hand holding him. 

“Please…it hurts. They’re h-hurting me. Please…please make it stop.”

The little one didn’t expect the sunny bot to rescue him. Of course not, he tortured him and his brother for over a year, brought Bloodmoon and Killcode to their doorstep, took over their bodies and traumatized Moon back in October, and then broke in with the intent of finding Killcode, yes, but also with hacking their computer for whatever he could use in the future. 

Because he didn’t think his plans would stop once he found Killcode.

But here, in Hazard's hand, half dead and in so much pain but unable to shut down to escape it, he just wanted it to end. If that meant waking up to a new backup then so be it as long as this stopped. 

One way or another. 

Hazard snarled which made Eclipse flinch and bring his good hand up to cover his head. The hand jerked forward until he was an inch from the murderous bots' angry eyes. Sun let out a fearful yelp but didn’t tell the red monster to stop. 

“You beg for mercy after all the agony you have shown them? At least when we tormented them it was because we were forced to favor blood and bone by a code and violence condone. Everything you did on your own.”

Eclipse didn’t say anything. 

Rhyming or not, he got the gist of that. 

He’d forced Bloodmoon into the violent, bloodthirsty state that terrible people like himself and Killcode were able to point and aim at whoever or whatever they wanted. That code dug into their minds, cursing them with an eternal hunger for violence that was far beyond normal for any creature, even the code they were based on. Whether they actually died or not, it seems that someone or something was able to calm that code enough that they could pick where their loyalties lie.

And apparently they lie with Sun.

Sun now wielded these particular tools.

Harvest scoffed, clearly agreeing with their brother. Hazard lowered their captive away from their face as their sibling came to stand next to them, falsely swiping just over Eclipse's head with a scornful expression. The smaller whimpered, ducking as best he could. “We’ll see to it this trash gets the backlash he deserves in a flash. If you’ll allow us to dash, Sun.” 

Eclipse sobbed quietly, trying to muffle it so as to not incite the twins' wrath again. 

This was it, he was dead again and they were going to make it hurt.

Sun let out a whimper that Eclipse always found pathetic.

“I…I believed you could change.” The larger animatronic said quietly. Eclipse’s head snapped up so fast his optics dimmed with static for a minute as he whipped around to look at the larger model. Ragged, desperate breathing hitched as the words registered in his mind. 

All three looked at him in shock. Yellow hands fidgeted nervously with each other, but his gaze was steady as he looked down at their mini enemy with fear and sorrow in their milky depths. “I don’t want to hurt anybody Bloodmoon. Not even Eclipse.”

He held out his hands pleadingly.

“Please put him down? Gently?” 

It was not a command. It was not a statement. It was a question. A plea to the insane for them to heed his words and do something they didn’t want to. They could ignore it and walk right past the yellow former jester with ease if they wanted to. Eclipse had seen them ignore much more dangerous people just because they were bored or because they didn’t want to do what was commanded of them. But this wasn’t a command. 

They were free to choose.

The twins looked at each other for a moment, a conversation happening without a syllable ever leaving their mouths.

Harvest chose to nod.

Hazard chose to put his captive gently on the carpeted floor. 

Both chose to back away when Sun came rushing over, kneeling above the shattered animatronic.

Both chose to bask in the beaming smile he gave them.

Chapter Text

“O-Okay, um…can you guys go get some things from the daycare for me? We-I-He shouldn’t stay on the floor.” Sun said but it was far away. Eclipse lay on his side on the carpet, bleeding uncontrollably from every nick and pain radiating from every dent. He was facing Sun so he could see when the former jester looked up at the twins behind him and smiled, his large but nowhere near as sharp hands hovering over the little one's broken body.

The twins snickered and ran off, apparently having been given a task while Eclipse wasn’t listening.

And then all was quiet except for the villain's harsh breathing and the nervous click-click-click of Sun's rays as they moved with his emotions. Eclipse could see Sun as he fidgeted, staring down at him with clear worry in his gaze. 

Why was he worried? Why wasn’t Eclipse dead yet? He’d said he didn’t want to hurt anyone but that didn’t mean that Bloodmoon should’ve had to let him go. So why? What was the point?

Sun leaned down, probably trying to see into Eclipse's own oil-stained eyes. 

He smiled thinly. 

“Hi.” 

Eclipse didn’t bother gurgling a response. On his side like this the oil was pooling more and he just didn’t have the energy to spit it out right now. It’s not like he could drown anyway, well, anymore than he already was.

Why was he still alive?

Was it pity?

Did Sun want him to suffer?

No, because if he did then Bloodmoon would’ve been allowed to whisk him away to god knows where to do god knows what to the tiny villain. It had to be pity, but why would Sun of all people pity the person who tortured him for well over a year?

Shuffling caught the small codes bleary attention. Sun moved back before reaching into the pocket on his pants and pulling out a tissue. Eclipse coughed out a chuckle, half expecting a handkerchief. Sun had never really been the type to carry one on them, but then again they’d also never been the type to command a bloodthirsty monster with any kind of success either. Clearly a lot of things had changed since the last time they met so maybe a handkerchief wasn’t the craziest idea. 

The hand not holding the tissue reached for him and the small bot flinched, expecting more pain. He tried to gurgle out a weak plea but it was lost in the oil coating his throat. 

Did he just want to hurt Eclipse himself? 

He said he didn’t, but people lie.

Animatronics lie.

Eclipse should know.

Noticing this, Suns’ hand slowed down as it got closer. “I’m not going to hurt you.” They said gently, quietly. 

Eclipse stared. Why? They wanted to ask.

“I think Bloodmoon did enough of that. It’s okay, you’re safe with me.” 

He reached again and this time dark-yellow tipped fingers hooked gently under his chin and tilted his head back before the soft tissue pressed gently over the eye that mimicked their own. White and empty of the pupil-like optics that Moon sports. He was small enough that nothing could be seen past the thin sheet as Sun carefully tried to get rid of the worst of the oil. 

It didn’t do much to actually save Eclipse's vision, filled with static as it was, but it was at least a bit more comfortable. He tsked at the state of the carpet below the smaller, but Eclipse could hardly care about the neat freaks OCD right now.

Seems not everything changed while he was trapped in that computer.

“They got you good.” He remarked quietly as the tissue quickly turned black with oil. Eclipse gagged, no longer able to keep the pool in his mouth from choking him as he spit it all out onto the tissue, Sun's hand disappearing from beneath his chin. With the larger fingers gone there was nothing to stop the mini villain from collapsing again. 

“Okay um…One isn’t going to be enough for this…” Sun remarked, seemingly to himself as he turned to look toward the other entrance of the theater. The one that led to the main exit of the daycare. “I hope they get back soon. I also hope Moon won't notice the damage.”

Before the mini sun could ask what the hell he was talking about there was a riiiiip sound above him. Once more dark tipped fingers slipped under his chin and lifted. “Hey, I need you to tell me what hurts. I can see your ray and your arm is damaged, is there anything else? Just…make any noise if yes.” 

Eclipse let out a mph! since that was all he could muster at the moment. 

Everything hurt. 

Everything was broken. 

Everything in him screamed to find an escape, to not put his life in the hands of someone he hated and actively targeted for the sake of tormenting his brother.

But there was a part of him, a tiny, buried-down-deep part of him that was grateful for the large fingers under his chin. Was grateful this touch didn’t hurt him like Bloodmoons' did.

You’d never hear him admit it though. 

He will die and be resurrected with this knowledge.

Sun sighed and gently pressed a bit of blue fabric to the gaping hole in his shoulder. Eclipse hissed as he touched the yanked out joint, but didn’t move besides that. Sun frowned. “I’m gonna have to move you for a minute okay? It’s probably going to hurt a bit but I have to stop that arm from bleeding, okay? I’m sorry.”

Some part of Eclipse's bleary mind wanted to complain that Sun said they weren’t going to hurt him but the more rational bleary part figured that he meant he wasn’t going to hurt him more than Bloodmoon had beforehand. It was the more rational bit that was able to give the larger attendant some real credit when one hand kept the blue fabric (that Eclipse would eventually realize came from Sun ripping his own clothes to help him) pressed firmly against his busted socket and the other gently lifted him from lying down to sitting up. 

Eclipse hissed and wiggled but quickly fell still when his broken leg, no longer immobilized by Hazard's hand, reminded him just how much of a bad idea struggling was right now. 

Everything still hurt, but thankfully the gentle hands weren’t aggravating his injuries too badly.

“Ngh, can you lift your arm for me? I have to wrap this around your body to hold it in place.” Sun asked, realizing he wasn’t going to be able to wrap the fabric and keep Eclipse upright at the same time. Just before Eclipse could try to shake his head ‘no’ there was a noise. 

Laughter sounded somewhere in the distance and Eclipse knew that Sun could feel as his breathing went from relatively deep, if harsh and stuttering, to shallow and fearful at the sound. He was sandwiched between Sun's hands, totally immobile even if he had been able to just get up and walk away. There would be no more escape now than earlier if those gremlins decided they didn’t want to heed Sun's words anymore.

Sun noticed (because of course he did) and the thumb resting on his little chest ghosted, featherlight, up and down in a soothing motion. “It’s okay. I won’t let them hurt you again, okay? They listen to me and I…I don’t know w-why but they do. Come on then, your arm?”

God his voice was so gentle, so kind. Why did he sound like that? Why was the thumb brushing against his chest so light as they ghosted over the cracks in his shell? Why won’t he let Bloodmoon hurt him again? Why do the twins listen to him?

Eclipse looked up at him, at the soft smile he put on, and decided that believing him wasn’t the worst plan right now. 

As if he had any other plans anyway.

God he was tired. 

With herculean effort the tiny sun look-alike threw his good arm over the one resting against his chest with a loud groan. Sun carefully leaned him forward and pressed the quickly blackening tissue to the hole in the joint before carefully pressing on the blue scrap to keep it in place until it could be tied off.

“Sunshine! We have returned from our chore to aid the one you should abhor!” A slightly less manic sounding voice cried across the quiet theater, shattering the thin calm that the sunny pair had managed to keep.

Eclipse's breath hitched.

Sun's thumb tried to soothe it even through the blue cloth. 

“Good! Thank you guys! Um, would you please help me with this?” Sun called over his shoulder. They yelped and just about let go of Eclipse as a blur of pink and red fell directly in front of the pair, despite the fact that they were in the middle of the aisle and not under the balcony where someone could easily jump off of. Eclipse wheezed as the sudden appearance of blinding color overtook his blurred vision.

Bloodmoon, singular before splitting into two, grinned. “What do you need of us?” Harvest asked. Hazard's tongue lolled out of his mouth and he grinned down at Eclipse. There was still the faintest stain of oil from where they’d eaten his arm earlier on their tongue. The small sun sucked in a harsh breath and scrabbled his good arm against Sun's hand, desperate to get away from the one who did this to him in the first place. Sun shushed him soothingly, concern knitting his brow when the extra movement caused the smallest bit of black to peek through the blue fabric.

Great, the tissue was almost useless and it’d just been put there.

Hazard noticed this and, to Eclipse's utter shock, moved to sit so that Sun was between them and himself, a lolling smile never once leaving their face. The tongue, thankfully, vanished into their mouth as well. Eclipse stopped moving, staring in disbelief at one half of the violent murderer he thought he knew. Sun gave Hazard a thankful smile and then turned to Harvest and pointed with his free hand. “Harvest, help me wrap this around his body so we can pin it closed. We have to make sure it doesn’t just slip off when he moves.” 

The taller sun looked down. 

“I’m really sorry, this will probably hurt for a minute. Just take a deep breath and everything will be okay, alright?”

Why was he sorry?

Why didn’t anything make sense?

Eclipse squeezed his eyes shut with a pained wheeze, claws barely making a scratch in the yellow paint of the larger daycare attendant. Harvests red tipped fingers moved close and grabbed the blue fabric that was blocking the hole in his shoulder socket. The fabric pulled taunt as Harvest pulled it first toward Sun to tighten it and Eclipse coughed, trying to move away again, leg pain be damned. 

It hurt!

The makeshift bandage was digging into the hole and while he knew that was how it was supposed to be it hurt and he knew the other half of Bloodmoon was doing it on purpose just to see him suffer!

“Stop!” Was just barely gasped out. “N-no…no more! Please!” 

He didn’t want to be in pain anymore. He didn’t want to see those red claws so close to his orange and black body. He couldn’t stand to feel any more pain from those claws. 

He deserved the pain, the hate, but he couldn’t handle it anymore. 

Maybe that made him pathetic but he didn’t care. 

“Easy Harvest! You guys got him good so you have to be really careful!” Sun exclaimed, on hand leaving Eclipses back to wave halfheartedly at the red murderer. Instead of being mad Harvest just smiled and purred, quickly taking their hands back. 

“I did not mean to Sun. Some pain must be done in order to repair the damage we caused during our playtime.” 

“I-I know I know! I’m just…a bit out of my depth here! Just… try to be gentler? Please?” Sun sighed, his free hand coming to rub tiredly at his face. The twins nodded quietly as the technically-not-a-command settled in their minds. Hazard leaned forwards and gently bumped into Sun's arm with their forehead. 

“He need not fear, we heed your word here.” 

Sun smiled just a bit. 

“O-o-o-Okay! We’re going to try again. I’m sorry Eclipse.” 

So many apologies for an animatronic who doesn’t deserve them.

Harvest reached to grab the abandoned scrap fabric and this time used one hand to press against the tissue so it stayed in place while wrapping. This sent waves of agony into whatever remained of the shoulder joint but instead of dragging it out and making him suffer Harvest quickly wrapped the scrap around until it layered over itself again. Using one hand to hold the makeshift wrapping in place the other half of Bloodmoon reached into a long box Eclipse hadn’t even noticed was nearby and pulled out a safety pin. Harvest handed the pin to Hazard to open since their other hand was occupied. Once they got it back the poor excuse for a bandage was pinned tightly closed and the red giant backed off.

“I hated every second of that.” Sun remarked. 

Eclipse huffed and leaned his head on the hand still supporting his chest, too tired to voice his agreement verbally.

“What else do we need to do?”

Chapter Text

“Repairs” took another hour.

Sun tsked and fretted over the damage dealt by the twins but since he wasn’t the mechanically inclined of the celestial pair there was little he could actually do to fix anything. Gentle yellow hands worked to clean the oil drowning the small sun look-alikes body while Bloodmoon stood ready to help at the slightest command.

It shouldn't have taken that long but Eclipse was still terrified that Bloodmoon would just… decide to stop helping and so whenever either of the twins were near he instinctively shied away in terror. Each time Sun would shush him and either wave away the pair or wait until Eclipse couldn’t really fight anymore before reassuring him everything would be fine. That he was safe. Eventually the little one couldn’t find the strength to squirm anymore. There was a fog that was quickly overtaking his mind as whatever the animatronic equivalent of adrenaline was died down in his damaged body. 

God he was tired.

God he was so scared.

But they never did anything.

Just kept grinning at him.

It didn’t help that Sun had to keep sending them off for more supplies when it became apparent that ripping his shirt wasn't the best of plans. 

Eventually though the bigger damages were sufficiently stabilized and the smaller ones were either left alone or cleaned up until they stopped bleeding on their own. His missing arm was covered (Sun was not pleased to find out Hazard ate it but couldn’t really do anything about it) and his broken left leg that was snapped from his first fall had a makeshift splint around it. 

Ever the creative one of the pair Sun had used unsharpened pencils and carefully taped them to keep the leg straight until he could be looked at. The ray that was pulled was too far gone to return to his faceplate so they just put a cotton ball in the hole left behind and taped it down to calm any bleeding. 

There really was no escaping now. 

Whatever they had planned he’d have to endure.

As if that wasn’t the case the moment red hands had lifted him from the ground.

Sun sighed nervously. “Okay, I think the only place he’ll be safe is my room. Since we moved to an actual house the cats aren’t there to bother him anymore so it should be fine as long as no one goes in there without permission.” He leveled a glare that held no real heat to the blood twins who never wavered from their manic mirth.

“We already know he exists.” Harvest remarked, standing next to their brother.

“We’ll tell not a soul, no matter who insists.” Hazard agreed, sitting in a frog-like crouch.

“Well that's the best I can hope for. Could you go check and make sure Moon isn’t up in the main area of our room while I get him ready to move?” Sun deadpans while pointing back toward the poster door.

Once the pair are once again gone the larger sun turned to where Eclipse lay on the ground, unmoving but now able to see better thanks to the warnings dying down a bit. Everything still hurt and the mere thought of forming words was enough to make his head spin, but oil had stopped staining the carpet and the terror had fallen into a nervous edge with a darkness that was threatening to take him away any moment now.

Sun smiled, trying to look reassuring but mostly looking worried and stressed.

“Just a bit more and then you’ll be able to rest for a while.” He promised. “I’m going to move you to this box here so I don’t have to keep jostling you.” 

Yellow two-toned hands gently slipped under Eclipse's aching body and lifted before carefully depositing the tiny bot on something soft and not very supportive.

A towel. 

Sun or Bloodmoon had put a towel in a plastic storage container to carry him around in like a kitten left out in the rain. 

The idea normally would’ve elicited a snarl of anger and angry, indignant words tearing at every insecurity of those around him. 

Him, a being that was just as if not smarter than Moon. Someone who had outsmarted them time and time again. Someone who had held the power of creation in his hands not because he made it but because he won it in a battle of wits was being treated like an abandoned animal.

He should be angry.

He should be screaming. 

He should be fighting.

But everything still hurt and the towel was softer than the carpet of the theater and his throat still glitched and caught when he tried to speak so, even though it was violently humiliating, he shut up and sank into the clean fabric without so much as a hiss. Sun, apparently pleased he hadn’t hurt the little one more by moving him, gently and evenly lifted the plastic container so as not to jostle him too much.

The red twins returned with their usual boisterous sounds but were quickly shushed by the yellow attendant.

“Come on. He needs to sleep.”

There was a soft jerk as the trio began moving and Eclipse sighed as he sank deeper. 

He should stay awake.

He needed to find a way to escape.

But the darkness that had been edging bleary optics since Bloodmoon's first appearance was so much closer now. It overtook all vision and dragged all thoughts into a well of unconsciousness. Finally there was some release from the pain and the fear, at least for a little while. 

After what felt like minutes one glitching optic and one blank one opened again but this time there were no bright lights or obnoxious music. There was no maniacal laughter or red hands grabbing tiny bodies or sharp teeth tearing limbs.

There was just Eclipse. Laying in the silent darkness.

His body ached. The sharp, piercing pain that had been so overwhelming earlier calmed into dull but persistent agony that tore through every wire in Eclipses’ small body. He was warm as well, too warm to probably be safe if he was normal, but normal he was not. His fans still weren’t able to spin at full efficiency and he was overheating in his own casing. It was still no easier to ‘breathe’ seeing as his chassis was still violently crushed and even the tiniest movements sent fresh waves across every servo, but he was alive. 

He was alive.

Why was he alive?

The shrunken look-alike wheezed and tried to see anything past the towel and opaque plastic of his little box. 

The room was dark. Whatever remained of Moon's night vision let him see just a bit better in the dark than Sun or another animatronic like Freddy, but not nearly enough to tell where he was. There were glow in the dark stars littering the ceiling above him and somewhere to his left there was a tall bookshelf filled with blurry, thin shapes that were probably children's books.

Just where he could see on the wall in front of him were dark rectangles, inky black even to his eyes. A couple were closer to the ceiling and Eclipse could swear he could see sun rays catching the glow of one of the stars. A poster? A picture from a child? A note of some kind? It didn’t truly matter but the need to know was still there.

Sun said he was safe in his room, right?

But didn’t Sun also say they didn’t live in the Pizzaplex anymore? Did he abandon the tiny bot here? It's not like he could really move to leave but still, that didn’t seem right. Sun saved him from being tortured and killed by Bloodmoon, patched his injuries and hid him in the daycare, only to leave him alone when night fell? 

No, the sunny attendant had to be here somewhere.

Maybe pulling an all-nighter again as an excuse to not go home.

Another wheeze escaped Eclipse as he tried in vain to lift himself up with one good hand. There was no escaping like this. Even if somehow the box magically disappeared and he didn’t have to climb out there was no way he was walking (let alone running) anywhere. Period. Maybe Sun knew that and honestly did think it would be safe enough to leave him alone for the night? Does anyone come into the celestial twins rooms when they’re not here? Does anyone even know they moved? Was he left alone ag-

Shsk!

Something was moving in the room.

He was wrong to think he was alone.

Immediately Eclipse froze as brand new terror seared through his frame. He wasn’t alone! There was something here! Or…Or maybe it was just a fan somewhere? The buildings AC or…or something outside of the room that he didn’t have to worry about? With fans throttled into painful silence, he listened. 

Shsk!

There it was again!

Something was in the room with him!

Undamaged limbs pulled close to his body and broken, strained wheezes slipped past his metallic lips as Eclipse hunkered down in the towel. Gingerly, he reached over with his good hand and tried to grab the nearest edge to pull over himself. Unfortunately the strain on his ‘good’ arm was too much so he was forced to drop it and just cower.

Eclipse had never been one to be afraid of the dark. Of course not. Not only was he trapped in the not-very-bright mindscape of the main daycare attendant for the longest time but then being trapped in Bloodmoon's dark and twisted conscious and then being trapped (wow he’s been trapped a lot, now that he thinks about it) in that blasted computer down in the bunker meant that darkness was never really something to be feared.

He’s a villain and he uses the night, the time when the ones he hates so much sleeps, to do whatever he could to damage their relationships with each other and drive Moon completely insane with anxiety and self loathing.

But now the dark had never been scarier. He cowered in the corner of the plastic tub, shaking and wheezing but unable to quiet the rattle of his frame or the air barely shaking through his fans.

A familiar grumble sounded somewhere behind the container the little one's back was pressed against. 

“His breathing is worse. Sun is not here to play nurse.” Bloodmoon, singular, mumbled. Their singular voice always seemed to be a mix of the two, made stronger when one spoke more than the other.

Fuck, Sun really wasn’t here?!

There was the soft scrape of metal on metal and then the shush of fake shoes sliding across the floor toward the tub. Eclipse sucked in a breath and hunkered lower, ignoring the agonizing cries of his spine from the movement. One good hand came up to cover the blue bandage over the torn socket on his other side, only able to imagine what the red monster could do to it while Sun wasn’t here to stop them.

Pentagram eyes loomed above the box casting a faint pink glow from the red and the white mixing together. Their sharp teeth couldn’t be seen, even with Eclipse's minor night vision, but he knew they were ready to tear him apart now that there was no sunny bot to reign in their carnage. The eyes searched for a minute, confusing making them narrow in the dark.

Clearly they weren’t expecting him to be able to move on his own yet.

It was unfortunately easy to tell when they caught sight of his splinted leg, unable to bend it to hide as it was, and the red and white stars followed it up to the rest of his trembling form. Their teeth, now barely catching the light of their eyes, appeared in the darkness as one glitching iris met theirs. Eclipse wheezed again, unable to hold on anymore.

Sun left him alone with Bloodmoon.

“S-Stay…” He gasped, barely able to get the glitching word out. “Stay aw-aw-away!” Bloodmoon just snickered, looking off to their right for a moment as though trying to cast an amused glance at their brother. 

“If we were going to disobey our Sunray,” The dual eyes leaned closer, the stars shrinking into near indistinguishable dots against their respective colors. The same long tongue that stole his arm snaked out, the tip just barely brushing one of the unsharpened pencils keeping his leg immobile. 

If it was any less light he’d be screaming in agony again.

If they wrapped it around him there was nothing to be done.

The non-flesh appendage retreated just long enough for them to grin.

Brilliant white teeth were stained red from the light as their grin stretched ear to ear across their face. “you wouldn’t be here, safely tucked away.” 

They leaned even closer. Pentagram hands planted on either side of the plastic tub Eclipse could no longer find comfort in as they hovered inches above the cotton ball that pretended to be a ray. They hissed. “If we had our say you’d still be our prey. ”

A lolling group of metal machines that couldn’t actually taste (at least he didn’t think so) fell back out of their mouth.

Eclipse sat frozen, eyes flicking from the giant pair above him to the tongue that was now snaking lightly around his damaged but intact leg and back again. A singular orange hand clutched the ragged hole below torn cloth and gifted tissue. Fans clacked and clicked against their crushed metal homes, unable to do their jobs as another wheeze left his throat.

Then just as quickly as they leaned in they leaned back, grin slackening into something less hungry and stars growing back into something calmer. The tongue flicked away without causing any harm (well, any more) and Eclipse heaved in a breath.

“So! Until we are told otherwise there is no need to agonize!” They practically chirped, completely ignoring how Eclipse was rattling with fear in the semi-corner. “We’ll keep you safe and alive at any size! All for our Sunrise.”

“Where is Sun?” the look-alike wheezed, only able to get the full sentence out because he was barely whispering loud enough for himself to hear let alone Bloodmoon. 

It was pathetic, but the mini villain wanted the larger sun back. 

It as stupid, but he was so scared.

It was humiliating, but so was clinging to the corner of a plastic tub he couldn’t escape trembling in fear.

Somehow though the larger did hear and waved one hand, the single spike gauntlet that decorated Hazard and Harvest having melded into one with multiple points in the dual body. “Home and hopefully asleep while we were tasked with your keep. Since we don’t need to sleep, it was not a hard leap.”

Ah, that's right. Bloodmoon doesn’t need to charge as long as they have blood to drink. It's one of the reasons they were such a good tool for spying, along with their shapeshifting abilities.

Sun should be back in the morning. The animatronic literally meant to take after the center star was always the first to the daycare to get things obsessively cleaned and prepared for the day, even if they didn’t open for hours after he got there.

He’d be back. 

Eclipse would be safe soon.

The mini shook his head to dislodge the thought. He wasn’t safe just because Sun was here, he was just not tortured by the blood twins. There still had to be a reason the technically older attendant wanted to keep him alive besides his pathetically soft heart. 

Of course there was. 

It would be stupid to think otherwise. 

No he wasn’t safe, but he was certainly safer beside anyone who could so easily control the twins.

He’d have to be very careful until then.

“I…didn’t me-mean to…” He paused to catch whatever air he could. “Wake you…up.”

It was rare for both twins to be asleep at the same time. Especially if they’re out in the woods somewhere or were instructed to watch out for something or someone, in this case, him. One (normally whoever was piloting the body itself) would sleep and the second twin would keep watch. Able to see even when the body's eyes are closed or looking in the opposite direction. It’s why Bloodmoon is so hard to sneak up on when they’re combined.

He had to have woken whoever was piloting for them to bother coming over.

The singular body frowned, leaning back down just a bit. Nowhere near as close as the first time. 

“Your breathing won’t ease. There is that wheeze because of Hazard's squeeze.” A claw tapped their chin and once more their tongue came lolling out though this time it didn’t come close to his body. “Hey Ves, I bet we could appease our Sunlight if that wheeze we could freeze.”

Eclipse froze. What the fuck did that mean?!

Metallic shuffling signaled the bloody pair moving away from where the mini villain cowered. Before he could even try to take a breath big enough to ask what the fuck they were doing (hopefully without angering them too much) a soft light bathed the room in white. It wasn’t strong enough to fully cover everything, but it did get the corner that was somewhere behind him.

The stuff Eclipse noticed earlier were clearer now. It was children's drawings covering the far wall from ceiling to floor. Some were of Sun and the kids, some of Lunar, some were even of Moon and there were multiple of the group together. There also were posters for the drop candies and other idiotic Fazbear phrases plastered elsewhere, only now barely visible in the light.

The bookshelf did indeed hold children's books, though there was no reading any of the spines from this far away and in this dim of lighting. Plushies, both Fazbear related and not, also sat on the shelf Eclipse could see from his spot. Vaguely Eclipse recalled that Sun liked to keep personal toys for the kids so that they weren’t just forced to play with Fazbear Entertainment stuff during the day. 

It was…familiar. 

Eclipse had spent time in this room before. 

Back in October when he’d taken over the twins bodies with Lunar there hadn’t been a point to finding new accommodations when he was about to reset the world anyway so this, at least for that month, had been his room while Sun struggled for control of his own limbs. Even before then Eclipse could take over the body when Sun slept, planning and building whatever he needed to fuck over the brothers for another day. For a time, this was his room too when you thought about it.

The dim memory of Sun absently talking about sharing it with the malicious code in his head crossed the smallers mind before he violently shoved it away. 

He didn’t want to share, he wanted to win.

It was a little more full then, Eclipse could only guess that Sun took his computer and more sentimental pictures and trinkets to wherever they moved to, but so much of this was still the same. The bookshelf, the toys, the drawings. 

Was it stupid to feel somewhat safe here?

To want to lay down on the bed and pretend he’d taken temporary control and that October had never happened?

Was that more or less pathetic than cowering in a storage container with a towel in it while shorter than a barbie doll?

Was it pathetic to want Sun here?

The glow in the dark stars (at least some of them) died in the light as Bloodmoon made their way back to the tub which the damaged villain could now realize was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. Probably the twins doing. Knowing Sun he would’ve put his captive on the bed or somewhere he would deem “safer” than the floor.

Somehow the light didn’t help as much as he thought it would.

More stars were blotted out as the half shaded face of Bloodmoon leaned over to look at him again. 

“We have a plan to get that wheeze addressed and then you’ll be able to rest easier. Then Sun can be much less stressed about your breathing being repressed. Now hold still.”

Clawed hands reached towards him.

“D-Don’t to…touch…me!” Eclipse tried to snarl. A red tipped finger was coming closer, aiming for his chest. He twisted to try and curl into a ball so Bloodmoon couldn’t get to his more vital parts or the already ragged hole in his shoulder joint. Every movement sent waves of pain through every wire and he cried out, though it was quiet and cracked. 

Bloodmoon paused and looked off to the side again, listening to their twin in the mind. 

It was child's play for one body to become two. Harvest (at least he thinks it’s Harvest, it was really hard to tell who was who in the dim lighting) hopped behind where the little villain sat, hyperventilating despite not having the fans to do so. Before Eclipse could sputter out anything else sharp fingers slipped between his only arm and his body and pulled, forcing him upright. Once he was sitting up again the claws pressed flat against his body, pushing him against the wall of the container.

No!

No they were going to torture him again!

Harvests thumb was pressed against his neck, forcing him to keep still lest his thin neck snaps from the sharp appendage, while their index and middle finger lightly pushed against the top bit of his chest, just where his neck ended. Their ring and pinky immobilized his remaining arm, pinning it to his side, and pressed where a stomach would be if he were human to keep his legs (well, leg) from kicking out. They left the middle where there should be buttons but instead were just thin cracks from being crushed earlier free and clear. 

Eclipse rattled in fear as he tried his best to wiggle but Harvests hand was too big. A moment later another set of claws carefully pressed against his head, pinning that against the plastic too. 

He was completely unable to move.

He wheezed again, mouth barely able to move.

“Y-You…You said!” He gasped and sputtered, unable to take in enough air to say more than a couple of words at a time. “You said-( gasp!)- safe! No-N-Not-( gasp!)- Not prey! Sun! Sun! f-fu…SUN!” 

In between gasping for breaths that an animatronic does not need but mimics anyway Eclipse cried as loudly as he could for Sun, the one he tortured to get under his brother's skin. 

Was it pathetic? 

Yes.

Did he care?

No. 

Bloodmoon was going to torture him again, clearly having lied about heeding the other bots words even in his absence, and it was all the damaged, pinned villain could think to do in his desperation.

He kicked his good leg before Harvests pinkie reached and pressed lightly on the joint, forcing it to stop moving. Terror spiked at the gentle pressure, knowing what they could do with just the slightest bit more.

 “NO!” He screamed.

Nothing hurt yet, even with his previous injuries, but all it would take is just a bit more pressure. Just a bit more malice. Just a bit more sadistic pleasure from the giant holding him captive and all that pain would be felt anew.

  Not loud enough.

The hands did not let up.

He wasn’t loud enough!

“PLEASE! N-NOT-( gasp!) -AGAIN!”

“Are you hurting him other? Well, more than we have, rather.” Hazard (the only one Eclipse could actually see) questioned quizzically, looking up to where his brother's face probably was. The hands holding him moved a fraction of an inch and Eclipse went rigid, eyes closing for just a moment as apparently Harvest shook their head.

“Ah, I think in the face of our claws we may have rubbed his nerves a bit raw.” 

“Should we withdraw?”

Why weren’t they hurting him yet? He was literally pinned just like earlier!

“If we withdrew this sound we can't undo. No, there is no plan to unscrew anything so just tell him what we plan to put him through.” Harvest remarked, still never once making any new nicks or dents in the little ones body. Sharp claws angled away from splitting plastic and metal while still keeping perfect hold.

Why were they being so gentle?

Hazard nodded and waved a hand. “Move the claw on his head. We do not need it for the plan and it may lessen his dread. Don’t want Sun showing up to find him dead of fright.”

The claws keeping Eclipse's head pinned back vanished and while he wasn’t able to whip forward the way he wanted to there was a little bit of relief that came from being able to tilt down just enough to look in the other red twins eyes again instead of vaguely above their head. 

“Please…I-I-I-I’ll wo-won’t wheeze…an-a–any-anymore…just…let me g-go…” He pleaded, the panic dulled only a little bit. Hazard leaned his head down, twisting at an unnatural angle (or at least unnatural for humans) to look him in the eyes without Eclipse being able to really move his head.

“We do not plan on making you hurt. We think our nanites we can insert and some of the damage we caused revert. A way to subvert the command Sun gave us while you were inert.”

They raised a red tipped finger and slowly brought it closer. Whether they were relishing in the fear that spasmed through their enemies body or not, Eclipse couldn’t really tell past his own clouded thoughts. “But we need a way into your body and these cracks, though shoddy, should help us get in enough to make your fans no longer groggy.” 

Oh so gently, the crazier of the two tapped his chest. Eclipse winced, but thankfully felt no pain.

“We think we know how to, perhaps, quiet your pain receptors so that you do not collapse. Then through pressure and muted pain, we can force your insides into their lanes and then full use of your fans you can regain. See? An idea perfectly sane.”

After a pause, Eclipse took as deep a breath as possible. 

They wanted to disperse their nanomachines through his body to force the bent metal around his internal cooling system back into place so that he could ‘breathe’ better. There was even a possibility they could do all of that without hurting him? It was plausible in a larger model, so maybe it was possible even at his size? Though, something like that would feel like something was trying to push out from beneath his casing. If they were wrong about the pain receptors…

“Wh-why hold…?” He stammered out.

“Since you would not relax, holding you down is no skin off our backs. Besides, fighting would not keep us from inviting ourselves in to fix what we did while delighting in your suffering.” 

Hazard shrugged and it was the most nonchalant thing he’d seen them do all day.

They really weren’t going to hurt him? 

Even though Sun wasn’t here?

“The pressure will be frightening and we cannot have you wriggling and breaking contact between what is out here and what is sitting in you. We cannot call lost machines back to us so your moving will force us to lose track and then who knows what those we lack could do to your damaged body back? My brother will hold you still so I suggest you heed our will.”

“B-But if…y-you're…w-wr-wrong…” He gasped.

A rumble permeated his little body and Eclipse winced, desperately trying to hunch into himself but unable to because of the hand. Staticky eyes squeezed shut to wait for whatever painful reprimand they’d give.

 It took another moment of no pain for him to realize the rumble was the same one they’d used on the daytime attendant multiple times the day before. 

The soft, kind one that apparently meant they weren’t angry.

“If we hear your pained cries we will cease our tries. We promise.” Harvest rumbled above him.

Eclipse couldn’t look up at him thanks to the container but still took a moment to pause. If they were right and somehow knew what they were doing then maybe he could start feeling a bit better. He wouldn’t be whole again, of course not, but at least he wouldn’t be uncomfortably hot anymore. 

Was he really willing to trust in their words?

It probably didn’t matter whether he was or not.

“F-Fine.” He wheezed.

Chapter Text

When Eclipse woke up again it was day.

There were no windows to stream sunlight through, but the main lights of the plex were on with the light shining from under the door into the still dim room the sunny attendant has since vacated. Eclipse blinked, his brow furrowing in confusion.

What…happened last night?

He’d woken up because his systems were overheating then…what? He’d been scared, he knew that much. Lingering sparks of terror sat heavy in his chest while he blinked, staring at the orange ceiling he knew was there. 

“Is this even a good idea? What if he finds out? Mmmm…” 

A voice, a very familiar voice at that, spoke quietly somewhere behind the little container the darker sun was in. With some difficulty the now small animatronic propped their only good arm underneath himself and pushed upward. Even sitting up they weren’t quite tall enough to see over the lip of the container but it didn’t take much to catch sight of giant yellow rays sitting at a small desk in the far right corner of the room.

Eclipse coughed.

Sun's rays twitched and he turned around, just barely managing to plaster a well known and completely fake smile on his face in order to hide the anxiety brewing in his mind. 

“Hey! You’re awake! Are you okay? Are you feeling any better?” The larger questioned while blissfully keeping his volume down.

The smaller of the pair grunted, still not ready to form words just yet. 

The static had died completely from his vision leaving it clear for the first time since Bloodmoon caught him and his body, though it still ached to move, didn’t hurt nearly as badly either. The rattle and wheeze in his vents had even died down someh-

Oh.

Oh!

“I’m really sorry about Bloodmoon. I told them to watch over you and make sure no one came in to find you but I guess they counted trying to fix you as watching? Or maybe they just decided to ignore me, I’m never quite sure with those two to be honest with you!” Sun sighed, standing from his chair and moving to kneel near the container holding his enemy.

All at once the night before came rushing back. 

The heat of his body forcing him awake. 

Wheezing fans waking Bloodmoon. 

The sheer terror that they were going to ignore Sun's commands because he wasn’t there to enforce them.

The twins claws holding him down and the promise they made to try and help his breathing ease. 

All of it came slamming down on the smaller code and he frantically looked himself over to see if any new damage had been caused as he slept.

How the hell did he manage to fall asleep during all that?

Did he fall asleep during the procedure or after it? Why couldn't he remember what happened, was he just too tired or did nothing bad actually happen once he’d agreed to let them help?

Judging by the deep, if frantic, breaths that were currently bringing air to the still sluggish fans it seems like the blood twins plan had actually worked. And since there was no more pain than there had been before (as well as no more outward damage) they’d clearly kept up that end of their deal too. The violent sun could also recall, much to his humiliation, calling out for the daycare attendant in his fit of survival fueled fear. He groaned at the memory knowing full well Bloodmoon would never let him live it down even if he did manage to regain his size and escape.

Oh he was going to be hearing about that for the rest of his life!

“Still sore huh? That makes sense. Don’t worry, I’ll find some way to get you fixed! At… at some point.” The attendant sighed and rubbed briefly at his face with the sounds of metal scraping metal. “Nobody close to us likes you, Eclipse. And I don’t really know how anybody not close to us would react.”

His hands dropped and the pins loosened from the corners of his mouth, dropping his smile into something far more tired than before.

“I’ll…figure it out. I can do it.” 

Eclipse looked up at him and glared. Now that his eyes weren’t so filled with errors and static and his mind wasn’t only thinking about how much agony he was in his usual self was rising to the surface. 

Stress weighed on the smaller bots mind as the fog of pain and fear finally began to ebb away. Why was he still alive? What did Sun have to gain from keeping him here? Not wanting him dead is one thing but helping him and promising safety was something completely different. Sun had a bleeding heart that Eclipse knew he could play like a fiddle but that was when Sun couldn’t get rid of him without risking his own mind, his own codes very stability. There was no threat of that now and there was no way Sun was stupid enough to actually risk everyone's anger by hiding him.

Eclipse coughed again and tried to drag himself upright enough to use his only hand to point upward.

“Why?” He rasped. 

Clearly his voice box was mildly shot but that would ease with time and rest. 

Sun immediately looked uncomfortable and looked away. Yellow hands came together to fidget.

“W-Why what?” Came the stammered reply, despite knowing full well what the question was.

The ragged look-alike pressed on. “Why are you…” Another cough into an orange hand. “Helping me? You…you hate me…” 

“I-! Well I-! B-Bloodmoon was tearing you apart! You we-were screaming so loud and I got scared cause it’s you and you’ve hurt me so much b-b-bu-but you were suddenly small and hurt and I couldn’t let them tear you apart like that but I couldn’t just leave you like that either-”

“Bullsh*t.” Eclipse cut off Suns manic ramblings with an annoyed beep, courtesy of the profanity filter that had (annoyingly) followed him down to this size. Now that he wasn’t being torn apart at the seams there was enough room for him to be immensely ticked about that. 

Without pain dulling his thoughts to simple survival there was enough room for him to be violently angry about a lot of things right now.

The larger bot sighed, his hands dropping to the floor and empty white eyes turning to look at the damaged smaller model. The fake happiness dropped from his posture. Shoulders slumped and spine curled as the largers head drooped as though suddenly hanging ten tons from his neck. Already loose pins dropped completely, wiping away whatever smile was present.

“Because I’m weak. Is that what you want to hear?” Came the barely muttered reply. “I heard your screaming and I saw what they were doing to you and I just…couldn’t let it happen… E-even though I should. Even though you should be dead for all you’ve done.”

Sun looked toward the door. 

Despite the daylight hour there were no sounds outside the room which was weird since they should’ve been able to hear Moon doing whatever in their room. Despite being the former naptime attendant he was never quiet while he worked. Far from it actually. If he wasn’t the one in control of the body, Lunar was normally playing in the shared area outside the rooms too. Bloodmoon was also suspiciously quiet leading Eclipse to believe they too weren’t nearby.

They were alone.

 Sun put a hand on his face wearily. He scrubbed harshly at one eye as though wiping away tears. “You’ve d-done so much to Moon…a-and to Lunar, to everyone and yet-” Sun paused and scrubbed at his face again. The scrape and scratch of metal doubled as the normally brighter animatronic tried to rub his feelings away. 

None of them could cry. They were made of metal and wires.

But damn it if Sun did look like he was about to burst into tears anyway.

“I never wanted to hurt you, Eclipse. I wish I’d been able to get through to you then, but you hurt Moon first and you were going to hurt everyone else once you got that star so I had to!” A damaged hand came to rest on the side of the little tub as Eclipse's glare hardened. “I’m sorry I didn’t try hard enough to help you. B-But I can do that now!”

So it was pity. 

Of course it was.

Preoccupied by his own misgivings, Eclipse completely missed that Sun’s look had turned desperate for a moment before falling back into tiredness.

“What are you…going…to do to me?” He rasped again, once more glaring at the normally much happier animatronic. “You can’t honestly be… stupid enough to believe that just….just because I’m small now t-that I’ll suddenly become…all buddy-buddy with you? That you’ll become some kind…of savior and I’ll never do a-a-anything bad again!”

Silence reigned. 

Pale optics dimmed as the sun hung his head and frowned, lips pressed thinly together.

Pain was ebbing away to anger now as Eclipse looked down. What the hell did Sun think would happen? That he’d save him from Bloodmoon and then they’d all just be friends? That he’d just give up every ambition Eclipse already had because his guard dogs had obeyed a command he’d given? Was he expecting Eclipse to be all grateful, groveling at the feet of someone he considered barely better than a staff bot just because he’d made waking up in a new, untouched body harder for him? He growled as best he could, but it was weak and rattled with the rest of his breathing.

“Well? What the f*ck do you plan to do?” He spat.

The smaller look alike looked up, full of defiance, to see the pinned up smile was gone, completely unmasked by anything.

This was a look that Eclipse knew all too well. 

A look he forced onto the larger more than once. 

A look that was caused by Moon's harsh words first, then Eclipses.

It seemed to dig tired lines into the metal faceplate. As though he were left alone to age rather than almost constantly surrounded by humans and animatronics alike. The dim lighting of the room didn’t help, robbing the bright bot of the light he’s supposed to shine in. The room should be brighter, Sun hated the dark after all. Years of the dark leading to pain physically and emotionally left the sunny bot completely nyctophobic.

Eclipse pushed away the thought that Sun was trying to be kind while he slept.

One restless hand lay limp on the carpet while the other clutched tightly at the plastic container's side and rays that almost never settled in one place for long didn’t even let out a single click as the larger of them stared down at the smaller blankly.

He looked…worn down, honestly.

Did…did he always look like this from the outside?

He used to look brighter, didn’t he?

The thought made something twinge in Eclipse's chest but it was quickly squashed. He didn’t care how tired Sun was, just what he planned to do. The same angry embers that had fueled him since his conception the only thing letting the smaller keep upright at the moment. 

“I don’t know.” They said simply. “I should kill you. I should let Bloody take you away or just…break you in half myself. I should…try to tell Moon about you again.” Eclipse's breath hitched again, eyes widening but desperately trying to keep their malicious glare level. His good hand lowered into the towel and for a moment he thought about trying to scoot to the other side of the container, but that idea was quickly dismissed as stupid. What would that even do for him?

There was no safety with Sun either.

As if Sun of all people would be able to do anything anyway.

Slowly, Sun readjusted until he sat cross legged. His shoulders slumped forward even more and it looked like he was trying to carry a boulder on his back. His eyes, still looking down at Eclipse, almost seemed to glisten as he tilted his head just a bit, catching the dim lighting. It honest to god looked like he was about to cry. As if he’d really been rubbing away tears earlier and more were welling up. Their head bowed low and one hand came up to rub at their neck eliciting more metal scraping noises.

Why did he look so sad?

Why was this such a hard choice for him?

Was Eclipse's life really worth that much to him even after everything?

That thought was quickly dismissed.  Sun was a goody-two-shoes who didn’t like hurting people and apparently his darker counterpart hadn’t been able to break that with all the antics over the last year or so.  That was it. 

Sun was just…not the type to kill someone. 

Even him.

“Just…Just tell Moon. I’m sure he’d love to tear me apart.” Eclipse rasped, desperate to make him stop looking like that. If that meant alighting anger in the lighter counterpart, so be it. He used to be so good at lighting fire in Sun's heart and mind. Used to laugh and tease as Sun's anger grew to match his own. Used to watch as it tore the two brothers apart because Moon was too hypocritical to help and Sun was too weak to call him out on it. Eclipse tried, just like back then, to make Sun hate him.

Anything to make those eyes stop looking so tired .

“Oh I already tried. A few times. He’s…busy. I’m also going to have to find a way to break this to Lunar unless I can get you fixed and out of here by the end of the week. Which…” White eyes flicked to the missing arm. “I doubt I’ll be able to do.”

It didn’t work.

A look of confusion must’ve graced Eclipse's face because Sun chuckled without any mirth. “He’s staying with Monty for a bit. It’s gotten…pretty loud at home and he’s dealt with enough yelling to last a lifetime. He’s just a kid after all.”

The larger of them lifted their head. Turning toward the computer in the corner they sighed again. “Moon will be here, up here not in the daycare, sometime later today. Maybe. If he doesn’t lock himself in his lab again. Lunar will be down with me until pick up then he’ll head out with Monty again. Bloodmoon will be out hunting or doing whatever it is they do when the ‘plex is open then they’ll be back here with me. Moon thinks they’re too dangerous to have around customers so they leave during the day and come back once we close. I don’t think he’s necessarily wrong but I wish he was less mean about it.” 

They turned back, the tiredness deepening in their eyes. 

“Normally those two would go home with me but I also don’t really feel like being at home while Moons there. Maybe I’ll be here late tonight, or maybe I’ll just wait for him to lock himself in his room before heading home. Mmm. More time to spend with you, I suppose. More time to come up with a plan. Maybe. I don’t know…”

The mini genius snarled. “You think just because I’m not dead yet I’ll just roll over and play nice? Be your little toy?” 

Though malice laced every word it was really hard to think he’d be taken seriously when he sat missing a sizable chunk of his body on a Fazbear branded towel in a storage container meant for colored pencils or something.

Bit pathetic, wasn’t it?

Eclipse growled. 

This was bullshit! Sun just wanted to act all high and mighty by not snapping his neck right now! Oh look at me my mortal enemy is literally in the palm of my hand but I won’t kill him because I’m better than him! That’s what was happening! The yellow moron just wanted to act like he wasn’t being a moron by pretending that he could reform Eclipse and then, when it doesn’t work, just shrug it off with ‘Oh well! I tried!” 

Eclipse curled his only hand into a fist, wishing he could do damage at this size.

“If you tell Lunar about me he’ll want me dead too! Bloodmoon wants me dead! Moon wants me dead! Everyone wants me dead! There's no way you’d be willing to choose me over those other idiots so drop the act and and f*cking snap my neck already!” Eclipse yelled, wobbling on his feet. “If you keep me a secret just to be all sanctimonious everyone's going to hate you! They’ll never forgive you for this!”

There's no way Sun was this stupid.

His voice was rising, grating from the earlier strains but stronger than it had been.

“Either let someone kill me to keep your precious image intact or you f*cking do it yourself cause I’m not falling for it! Get someone else if you’re too stupid to know how to kill someone who’s tortured your f*cking brother! ” 

Eclipse leaned against the side of the tub, heaving through still sluggish fans as he snarled up at the larger of them. Sun didn’t even wince. There was no movement from the normally bright bot as he stared, unblinking.

“I always have been the dumb one of us.” 

Eclipse stopped in his tracks, the wind taken from his sales. The daytime attendant sighed again. A yellow hand lifting from its limp position on the side of the tub and moving slowly over the box Eclipse found himself in. The already dim lighting darkened further as it sat hovering just over the cotton ball pretending to be a ray. Eclipse leaned back, wondering what the sunny bot was planning. Stable eyes flicked between the biggers face and the hand, waiting for something to happen.

But Sun just shook his head.

“I don’t want to hurt you. I’ll figure something out. You may not believe it, but Lunar only ever wanted you to love him like he loved you. Moon is too busy to remember I exist let alone notice you and Bloodmoon will listen, mostly, to both me and Lunar. I just hope my little brother can forgive me for hiding you like this. I just…”

The hand retreated just a bit as Sun moved to pull his hands close to his chest but stopped before it got far.

“I’ll do something. For once in my life, I’ll do something useful for someone. Do you want to try walking? Bloodmoon said they kinda fixed your leg last night.”

Eclipse tried to hold his ground as the hand came back, slowly getting closer and closer, but when it was an inch away from him fear flooded anew through battered wires and bent metal and he fell back, cowering with one good arm over his face.

As big a game as he talked, death hurt once before. 

There was no reason to think it wouldn’t hurt again.

And he didn’t believe a word the larger said.

Gently, one giant finger brushed Eclipse's forehead for just a brief moment before it disappeared.

The mini waited a moment for something else to happen. For fingers to wrap around his body. For a hand to pick him up and throw him. For any kind of pain. But nothing happened. Moments passed and Eclipse cracked one eye open to peek from behind his arm to see Sun's hand hovering in front of him. It lay pressed into the towel deep enough that all he’d have to do is crawl onto it, should he choose to take it.

“Do you want to try?” Sun asked again quietly.

There had been no command.

Just a question.

The small sun look-alike looked up into dull white eyes, dragged down by the kind of exhaustion that can’t be fixed with a charger cord or any kind of sleep, and searched for the lies he knew had to be there. Searched for any indication that the sunny attendant was waiting for him to put his life in his hands (well, hand) just to take it away.

But Sun sat unmoving, tired eyes and new tired smile just barely able to be seen in the dull lighting of the room the pair once shared when their bodies had been one and their minds had been more personally at war. The hand never moved an inch, never reached for him, never tried to cause him any more harm. Just sat there, a gentle invitation of safety to someone who didn’t deserve it.

To believe him was asking for betrayal.

To trust him was begging for more pain.

To want what he was offering was pure stupidity.

But Eclipse was tired.

One small orange animatronic gingerly crawled into a large yellow hand as the abandoned code put the smallest bit of his trust in someone he tried for so long to tear apart.

Chapter Text

“How’d you get Bloodmoon to listen to you anyway?” Eclipse interrupted Sun's constant talking as he scoffed quietly from his spot on the nightstand. 

Sun was on his bed with the Eclipses tub in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other, struggling to cut out one of the shorter sides. It was much later in the day (though the only way to know that was from the clock behind him or his own internal measurements) and Sun had returned from his main job and decided that Eclipse needed a way to escape in case things got bad.

Odds were good that would happen sooner rather than later.

The yellow attendant yelped as the scissors went askew, practically throwing the plastic tub from his lap where he scrambled to catch it again. Eclipse rolled his eyes (though you could only tell with the one) and leaned against the lamp. 

He’d been safely placed to the side, away from whatever carnage the larger could wrought. This had been his spot once Sun turned on the lights and started jabbering about his plans for the tub and how his day went and on and on and on.

Eclipse grumbled, putting his good hand over one side of his head in an attempt to cover the audio receptor there as Sun yelped again.

God did this guy ever shut up?

The room was much emptier than it used to be and the sounds of plastic struggle seemed louder than it should. He’d been right earlier, most of the larger or more sentimental things had been taken from the room leaving it kind of bare save the pictures lining the walls.

Unimportant things left behind.

“I really didn’t.” They finally replied taking another (literal) stab at piercing the container. “Lunar made friends with them first, after I killed them. Then they promised not to hurt us and they just kind of listened to me and Lunar ever since.”

They paused.

“Not Moon though. He hates them and they hate him so they don’t listen when he talks. Moon’s scared of them still and I think they revel in it. I don’t know.” 

So the twins were killed after all. And by Sun of all people? That didn't make any sense. 

Though, to be fair, pretty much everything Eclipse has seen or heard since coming back to this blasted place hasn't made any sense. 

Honestly the only thing that did make sense was that his little idiot brother would try to befriend the bloodthirsty murderer (the kid was very gung ho about it during the October takeover). None of that explained why Bloodmoon actually agreed to follow them but he wouldn’t push it for now. At least, not the Lunar side of the story.

The twins hating Moon sounded right on brand for them.

“Sounds familiar.” The mini remarked dryly. There was the Bloodmoon he recognized. The reveling in the fear of others, the not listening, the hate, all so much more familiar than the red monster that loomed over him the night before. Even their threats sounded so strange when you realized they weren’t talking about being forced to yield, but choosing to for the sake of someone else.

A quick shake brought the smaller back to the present. 

He’d rather not think of the glowing pentagram eyes. 

Or the tongue that was the reason he couldn’t climb out of the container by himself. 

Or how heavy only one of the twins was as he was being crushed against the theater carpet-

Eclipse jerked his head to the side, eyes catching sight of Sun's bed.

It was kind of bare, only a red blanket and a pillow rather than the massive bedspread that used to decorate it.  A look around the room (now with lights on) showed there were shelves that lined the walls that used to hold small trinkets and toys Sun had started collecting once he’d been more or less freed from the ‘plex. But they were now empty save for some random craft supplies. 

There actually was a computer on the desk, but it was more like a practical laptop rather than the large gaming rig they kept for the channel

Yeah. 

Focus on something else for now. 

Sun, true to his word, had been back after work and had helped him try to walk. Turns out whatever “repairs” the twins did allowed him to stand and hobble, maybe speed-walk if he had to, but overall he was just as crippled as before. And, of course, Sun was no closer to finding anyone who’d want to help him. At least not without spilling the beans to someone they knew. Thus, cutting a hole into the tub had been thought up as a temporary solution.

It was so stupid. 

To risk everyone's wrath for him.

 “What did Lunar do? And how the hell did you manage to kill both of them?” He asked in an attempt to fill the awkward silence with something besides plastic struggles. His tone was dismissive, he knew, but he didn't care. 

Sun could barely stand up for himself. 

He was probably lying.

Besides that was probably the harder question. It’s not like Lunars thoughts were all that complex after all. Not to mention he was genuinely curious about how the apex predator was done in by the anxious attendant.

“I don’t know. That's something you’ll have to ask them if I’m being honest. F-for Lunars part. As for me…”

He stopped fiddling with the tub and looked up, eyes not really looking at anything in the room, but somewhere beyond it. “They…they came here once, looking for trouble. They changed themselves to look like Moon and they were running around throwing things and making a mess! Just…just being a nuisance.” He sighed. “I only figured out something was wrong when I started asking for Lunar to take over and he wouldn’t respond. Guess the twins didn’t know how to act like him then.”

The scissors cut down again as Sun turned back to his project.

“They didn’t know what Lunar looked like when he took over Moon's body. So I confronted them and they stopped moving. We were near the security desk and there were barrels and toys everywhere. They realized I’d figured them out and started to threaten me.” 

Sun looked up and met Eclipse's eyes. The look of exhaustion was back but he still smiled just a little. “I grabbed one of your barrels. I was scared. I knew they’d work for me.” 

Eclipse gave him an incredulous look.

“You guys didn’t get rid of the barrels that are capable of vaporizing people? In the daycare? ” He asked in utter disbelief. There was no way Sun would have been okay with those damn things being near the children, even if their human limbs couldn’t connect and activate the things. Eclipse thought they would’ve gotten rid of them immediately. 

Sun scoffed.

“Well I didn’t want them! But while we were running to deactivate the star after October they kind of got pushed to the backburner! That and repairs to my body. Thanks for that, by the way.” Sun made the motion of rolling his eyes. “By the time we realized they were still around they’d gotten so mixed in with the normal barrels there was no way to tell which was which except to test them!” 

The yellow attendant threw his hands up exasperatedly, tossing plastic scraps everywhere and making the too small scissors scrape against his metal fingers. He would’ve stabbed the wall behind him if the tool had been any sharper.

“We got them marked but then Moon just didn’t get around to actually breaking them down! He-He still hasn’t but he’s been…busy.”

Yeah, okay, that checked out. 

Still though, that was another obstacle to contend with if he ever got out of here. 

That would be nice, wouldn’t it? To be torn to shreds by one weapon and atomized by another? 

Fuck he needed to stop making weapons that the twins could use too.

“Okay but I also had to fight Bloodmoon and I used those same barrels. They were able to dodge them and attack me before you pulled me in, remember? How the hell did a worthless bag of bolts like yourself manage to kill them? ” Eclipse scoffed, leaning harder against the lamp. He turned away, gesturing vaguely at the door where Bloodmoon had left earlier that morning. 

He chose to ignore the sarcastic thanks.  His own fight with Bloodmoon had left the body a bit battered but nowhere near as bad as it could’ve been.  Sun snapped up to glare at him but before he could answer Eclipse didn't even notice as he continued, tossing up his only arm in a mirror of the larger earlier. “I mean, Christ, those two have the combined IQ of a rotten tomato but even they’re not dumb enough to just let themselves be killed by the likes of yo-”

THUNK!

“Shut up!”  

Shocked, Eclipse’s jaw snapped shut and he turned to see Sun with his arm extended out, a fist resting against the wall where he’d hit it. The pointer and thumb of his hand bent in an unnatural angle and, upon closer inspection, Eclipse could see that was because they were still holding the scissors.

The mostly blunt children's tool was dug into the metal wall by about half an inch before bending, warping the cheap metal out of shape. The smaller of the two watched, terrified, as Sun quickly opened his fist and wrenched his hand free. He tossed the partially cut tub and the mangled scissors to the side and stood, stomping over to the small look-alike as he leaned heavily against the glass lamp.

A yellow finger jabbed in his direction and he winced, but looked up into the attendant's eyes. “ That's what they did!” He yelled angrily. “They stood there, looking like my brother, and taunted me! They said I wouldn’t do anything to defend myself so I shot them! ” 

Eclipse jumped when a fist came down on the table and rattled the whole thing. It wasn’t close to him, it was on the other side of the nightstand, but still he scrambled to be further away from Sun's fury. 

There it was. The anger he’d tried to light in Sun's heart earlier. 

The fire that used to burn whenever the now smaller code would whisper into his ear every insecurity of his.

The hatred that mangled Eclipse in the woods just long enough for him to feel the pain.

Barely repaired fans kicked into overdrive as Eclipse crawled backwards to hide behind the lamp. Static was already taking over his vision and despite how loud Sun was being it sounded far away, like Eclipse’s audio processors were giving up the more his body desperately tried to keep itself intact. Or, as intact as possible.

They picked up their hand and started waving it around.

“And then they came back and they were friends with Lunar and-and I didn’t know what to think but Lunar begged to keep them and I-I-I-I didn’t know what to do because they should’ve been dead but they were there and they weren’t hurting anyone and…and…” 

Another fist hit the nightstand. 

Eclipse tried to scramble to his feet, but it was hard with only one hand and the world beneath you shaking. His welded endoskeleton was of no help, stiff and unmoving as he clawed at the wall behind him, trying to get a grip good enough to haul himself upright with. Tiny claws barely dug into invisible nicks in the wall and he pulled himself up, leaning against the wall for support.

Sun pulled violently on his rays.

Their normal click-click-click became strangled and distorted.

Thin plates of metal cried out, straining to move and retract under the stress but Sun wouldn’t let them as he whirled back around.

“Do not call them stupid! Don’t act like it’s not their blind loyalty to me that isn’t the reason you’re still alive right now! I don’t know why they listen to me when I murdered them but they do! I don’t know why I’m not dead yet! I don’t know why they haven’t torn me apart in my sleep for what I did to them but they haven’t! ” He reached to jab at Eclipse again. A giant yellow finger pushed against the little look-alikes chest and he stumbled, twisting to brace himself on the lamp’s smooth glass instead.

Why was Sun so angry about his comments about Bloodmoon's intellect but not his own?

Why was that the push that sent him over?

Was Sun going to kill him?

Eclipse knew all the ways to hurt him mentally. Knew all the right buttons to push and just how to push them to make the repressed celestial lose it because that’s all he used to be able to do. Just egg Sun on into doing something rash, into dividing himself from his brother so there’d be less reason to use him as a tool against their genius twin.  It was easy to take that kindness, that outstretched hand, and twist it back while Eclipse had been in the largers head, safe from repercussions. What they did to him they did to Sun. But that was then, when Eclipse was safe and powerful and angry .

Was Sun done trying to be nice?

” You’re alive because I am and I won’t let you act like they’re stupid for it! ” Sun yelled, still harshly tugging on his rays with one hand. The other was hovering over Eclipse, ready to grab and tear him away from his measly hiding place. 

He’d pushed all the right buttons again.

He’d forgotten that Sun could fight back now.

That Sun doesn’t even have to fight back.

Just as yellow fingers brushed the cotton ball pretending to be a ray, Sun stopped. White eyes met one orange pupil as Eclipse stared up at him. He tried to keep the tremble from his legs and the rattle from his breath but it was no use. He looked pathetic, he knew, but he couldn’t do anything. An attempt to plead was made, but it ended in crackling static instead of words.

Sun snatched his hand back like the cotton ball was doused in oil and lit aflame. He pressed it against his chest with the sound of metal scraping metal softly all the while backing almost to the other side of the room. The ray in his other hand creaked and groaned, clicks crying out at the appendages' pain and desperation for release, for escape. The other rays retracted and tried to spin, pinned down by the hostage metal plate.

Eclipse could relate.

“I-I’m…” Sun looked away, his voice immediately dropping into a quiet tremble. “I’m sorry. I got angry…I…” He looked at Eclipse, cowering halfway behind the lamp. “I-I won’t hurt you! I-I wasn’t…wasn’t going to…to hurt you…” 

Blue and yellow stumbled back as Sun hit the bed, sitting heavily down as if it were his own legs that were damaged. 

“I’m sorry…”

They sat in silence after that.

Chapter Text

Eventually, Sun retrieved a new pair of scissors and resumed his earlier activities. 

He didn’t speak. 

Didn’t even look at Eclipse.

When it was clear he wasn’t about to be crushed, Eclipse slunk forward and took the original spot under the lamp. The silence, normally something preferred over the endless jabbering of the daytime bot, was grating and heavy. Rattling breaths were the only thing stopping the room from complete dead air but, soon, even those stuttered into quiet. 

He’d messed up.

He’d pushed too far.

But Sun hadn’t killed him for it. 

Hadn’t even dented his frame.

Yellow hands triumphantly held up a jagged bit of plastic that had been separated from the rest of the mold. “I got it!” the larger base model exclaimed, clearly forcing his voice to be bright and chipper. “I bet Moon has some sandpaper in his room. I’ll be right back okay?” The larger of them tossed everything to the side and stood from his bed before pausing at the door. 

It opened for him, as it should, but they didn’t go through. Hands pressed against their chest, one still with wayward fingers, he stood quietly staring outside of the room. Emotions Eclipse couldn’t see from this angle flashed through his face as they seemingly debated something. Then they looked at the floor before taking a deep breath and quickly turned to the smaller. 

“Do you want me to move you?” He asked, gently. There was remorse when he spoke. Broken fingers stayed held close to his body, clearly trying to show the smaller of them he wasn’t going to reach for him again. Eclipse looked away and put his only hand on the blue wrapping, huddling closer to the lamp. 

“No. I’m fine.” He grumbled. 

Not only did he not want to risk being in Sun's hands right now, but honestly he’d rather die again than admit that the lamp was warm and he, finally with working fans, was not. No longer overheating from constant fear but also now putting out considerably less heat to begin with thanks to his size meant he was cold. He was even colder now that the panic from earlier had worn off. No static clouded his vision, there was no more rattle in his chest when he breathed in despite needing no air. 

He still trembled both from fear and the cold. 

But again, death before admittance. 

The bright attendant promised he wouldn't hurt the little bot but Eclipse wasn't willing to keep testing to see if his word was good. He’d pushed far enough for today, and this was the only day he’s actually been here and coherent. Sun hadn’t hurt him. He’d kept his resolve despite Eclipse’s attitude, but was that permanent? No matter how annoying Eclipse became?

Because if it wasn't…

Sun looked at him, frowning. For a moment he stood at the open door, head turned to stare down at him, before walking over and taking the blanket and pillow from the bed. He dropped the pillow in front of the nightstand and then bunched up the blanket as much as possible and dropped it on the other open side before waving and rushing out the door.

Eclipse stared incredulously after him. 

Did Sun really think he was going to jump off the nightstand? The fuck did he think he was going to do after that? Say hello to the dust bunnies under the bed? Hobble to the bookshelf where he couldn’t move any of the books with only one arm?

Seriously?

The smaller of them rolled his eyes again and scooted to the edge, just taking a peek at how far down the floor was at this size. All things considered it wasn’t too bad, but he was already broken in so many ways so there was no telling what damage he’d do by actually trying. It would, honest to god, be a suicide miss-

Wait.

Did Sun think he was going to try to kill himself in order to escape?

Eclipse returned to his spot against the lamp, pressing his spine against the glass and soaking in the warmth. He crossed his arm across his chest, closing his eyes and letting out a frustrated huff.

What did Sun take him for, a moron? 

Just because the larger dolt had scared him doesn’t mean Eclipse was an idiot.

So stupid. 

But if it meant waking up in a new backup…

Eclipse shook his head. He wasn't high enough to die quickly if earlier injuries were to be believed. He's just be putting himself at a bigger disadvantage. And probably pissing off Sun even more, straining his patience further. It wasn’t worth it to try and fail, or even really to try and succeed. Nothing could really come of it. 

Sun didn't know that and still left the padding.

Even after being as angry as he was.

One orange hand pressed tighter against the blue cloth supporting his damaged joint as Eclipse grumbled quietly, refusing to look at the door where Sun disappeared.

Something stuttered in his chest as he squeezed his eyes shut and turned to curl closer to the glass. Something was broken inside him, that was what that stutter was. Even though his systems hadn’t stuttered up to this point, Eclipse knew Sun didn’t care if he died or not. So, it was something broken inside of him. 

Of course it was. 

Nothing else.

Eclipse jumped when the sound of the door opening broke him out of his thoughts. His head whipped around and one arm braced against glass, ready to throw himself to his feet and use those safeguards the daycare attendant had left if anyone besides Sun came through that door. Trembling legs braced to leap only to see a brilliantly red body and pink hat poke its way into the room.

Pentagram eyes swept around before landing on him, half crouched against the lamp. 

Bloodmoon, singular, snickered and moved the rest of the way into the room. They took in the carnage that was Sun's attempts at cutting the plastic tub and the bedding on the floor and blinked. 

Amusement lit up their gaze until it roamed upward. 

Their eyes flicked immediately to the new hole in the wall and the destroyed scissors and their body hunched, confusion clearly overtaking their expression. 

They looked like a cryptid in the woods with the way they were standing. 

Eclipse settled down again. He didn’t want them to realize he’d done something to upset Sun and maul him before the daylight caretaker could return. They stared at him, but still said nothing. 

“I’m back! Oh, Bloodmoon!” Sun cried as he dramatically swept into the room. Bloodmoon turned to grin at him but their smile dropped the moment they laid eyes on him. Sun, noticing this, tried to barrel right on ahead anyway. “How’d hunting go? Did Lunar get home okay? You weren’t seen by anyone were you?” The animatronic celestial body moved past them and started cleaning up the plastic scraps from the bed. He didn’t look at the hole in the wall.

Eclipse watched the twins, weary of any signs of aggression. 

“Your hand.” They rumbled, seeing Sun's pointer and thumb bent awkwardly out of place. Sun froze for a moment before resuming his cleaning. He tried not to look at them as he spoke, voice still forcefully chipper.

“Oh you don't have to worry about that! I got a little upset and didn't use the scissors properly! I'm fine. Now, you didn't answer me.”

Star pupils shrunk to nothing against their respective colors as the singular body dropped slowly into a crouch. One hand eased onto the ground and the same prehensile tongue that stole Eclipse's arm inched its way out of their mouth as they stared at Sun's back. A deep, threatening rumble started up in their chest as they growled low. 

“No one saw us.”

Eclipse sucked in a breath, eyes darting to look at where Sun was still pointedly picking up bits of plastic. 

The twins were hunting.

They were hunting Sun .

As much as Eclipse hated to admit it, Sun was right. He was alive only because the sunny animatronic decided, for one reason or another, that he wasn’t scrap metal yet. If Bloodmoon killed the larger the smaller was sure to follow.

“Hey-!” 

Eclipse tried to say something but it came out small and quiet. He wanted to tell Sun he was about to be mauled, to distract the pair, to say something when Sun spoke up again. 

“That’s good. Are you hungry, you didn’t answer me about the-” He stopped, turning around to see the hunter seemingly ready to pounce. Eclipse expected him to cower, to scream and try to run. 

Bloodmoon was hunting.

Bloodmoon had almost killed Sun before.

Sun wouldn't win this fight.

But, instead of any of that, Sun sighed and looked down at the pile of trash he’d picked up. “I can’t…hide much from you two, can I?”  For the umpteenth time since yesterday, Eclipse stared in slack jawed disbelief.

“What the f*ck!?” Blurted the terrified tiny.

Duel eyes shot him a hungry look and Eclipse shut his mouth so fast you could hear the click of tiny metal on metal. He leaned further behind the lamp, too damaged to actually move.

“Someone made our Sunny sore.” 

Bloodmoon rumbled again and Sun winced. Hungry eyes flicked from Eclipse to his base counterpart. Something made them pause, their stars growing from their dots on their respective colors and they slowly eased from their hunters crouch. As they moved they seemed upset when Sun shot a glance behind them, toward where Eclipse was barely hidden away. 

Sun took a deep breath in.

“I-I’m not afraid of you Bloody. Just please c-calm down?”

Not a command.

A request.

The murderous code shook their head clear and stood straight again. A deep, relieving sigh followed them up and when their tongue finished retracting they looked at their new master with a very upset expression.  “You reek of stress and fear. That hole wasn’t there earlier. Something happened here, something that caused you anger, no less.”

“What the f*ck?!” Eclipse exclaimed a second time, unable to keep that inside thought on the inside. “Are you suicidal or something?! They could’ve killed you!” 

 They were just hunting him, he saw it! Why wasn’t Sun upset about it? Did he just not care that the strongest enemy they’ve faced wanted to tear him apart?  He’d been rambling earlier about not understanding why he was alive but Eclipse didn’t think that meant he’d just…lie down and die! Then again, Sun never had been the bold fighter of the pair. 

Bloodmoon whipped to glare at him fully this time, eyes shrinking again. “Your fear is new. What did you do?” 

Eclipse leaned back trying to disappear behind the lamp, he glared but it was weak. “I-Nothing! I didn’t do anything!” 

“Liar! Always you or Moon that in Sun fear insp-” 

“He didn’t do anything Bloody.” Sun interrupted their growling by putting a hand on their shoulder. Physically restraining them from leaping on the broken little. They looked at him since they were once more standing at the same height. Sun smiled. It was strained, but genuine and they seemed to take his words as truth. “I was talking about the past and got…a little riled up. It’s okay. Leave him alone.” He patted their shoulder.

A command.

Not a request.

They huffed, clearly annoyed by the order. Sun turned and finally reached over to the trash can to dump the plastic scraps. Eclipse watched as the singular twins walked up behind him and took his damaged hand, causing the older celestial to pause and look at them.

They held it gently.

Eclipse didn't think they knew how to do that.

Eternally bloodied hands lightly nudged the out of place digits that earned them another wince from Sun. They frowned, hands losing some shape as their nanites spread to hold on to the first attendant.

“You were hurt. And that pain we weren't there to avert.” They rumbled deeply. It wasn't the same tone as before, the light croon that put Sun at ease. There was no laughter in their voice, none of the light purring they’d done before. No, this was sadder, like they were struggling to keep the rage from their voice. It was a growl, barely hidden as the hunter pair tried not to scare the one they cared about.

Pentagram eyes looked into empty white voids.

“We do not know what was said, but we will happily make him dead. Upon your say, our Sunray.”  The twins smiled wide. Animalistic rage was barely contained in their posture but their tone had lightened as they purred their loyalties. 

As they offered to do what Sun would not.

Despite the terrifying implications of what was said, Sun relaxed. Bringing his other hand up he patted the claws that could tear through metal and flesh with equal ease. “Hey, this isn't your fault. It was an accident, okay? I promise there's no need to kill anyone.”  Sun smiled and this time it was wide and bright. “Honestly I love you Bloody but nobody did anything to me. Now, answer my questions. Were you able to catch something? Is Lunar home? You didn’t try to jump Monty again did you?” 

Clawed hands condensed back into their normal form again as Bloodmoon backed away. Sun’s fingers were still bent awkwardly, but now there was a sort of bandage as the twins left a group of nanites behind, trying to stabilize the damage. The nanites froze where they were left, losing their red color as they disconnected from the larger whole. Sun smiled again and took his hand back, surveying what they’d done.

Bloodmoon smiled, taking up guard at the foot of the bed while Sun returned to cleaning. 

“We did! They flipped their lid because we were still stained from the prey we obtained. Even Little Blue was laughing by the time farewell was bid!” 

“You got blood on them didn’t you? Of course you did. Did Monty manage to hit you this time?” Sun asked, laughing as he picked up Eclipse's tub and looked around for the towel. The twins just laughed, lowering themselves behind the bed as though they wanted to demonstrate just how they terrified the gator.

“Never!”

Meanwhile Sun found the towel and bent to pick it up. Stiff fingers weren’t quite able to grab hold of the fabric the first time making the larger sigh while he struggled. Only after a couple more attempts did he get fed up and switched hands.

“I’ll have to ask Moon or Monty for help. Oh boy, how am I gonna explain this?” He sighed, expression dropping back into something stormy.

For a moment Bloodmoon frowned.

“Blame us.”

The daytime attendant waved them away, clearly disliking that idea.

Expression easing, he moved on to a different topic.

They continued talking while Sun cleaned up. Sun told them all about the children and the obnoxious adults from the day and how Moon showed up for about an hour before vanishing again and on and on. The air had lightened between the bleeding twins and the sun and the normal incessant jabbering had resumed. Just as it should be.

Eclipse watched all of this, silently leaning against the lamp. 

He did not miss the deadly glare Bloodmoon shot at him from across the room.

Chapter Text

It was dark again.

But this time, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, the darkness wasn’t quite so terrifying.

Because Sun was here.

Eclipse lay in his box listening to the quiet mumbling Sun made in his sleep. Incoherently babbling about one thing or another from the bed that was far less grand as when Eclipse had last seen it.

The funny part about this scene?

Sun did the same thing in the mindscape. No matter where he fell asleep he'd end up mumbling, sleep talking himself through wild scenarios, and because of that there was more than one night where that was the background noise for Eclipse's work. 

Mumbled confessions of love for Roxanne before his heart had left her. Quiet apologies to a brother he loved but who didn't love him. Pleas for mercy when Eclipse had really begun to be a problem and, much more rarely, little sleepy giggles as the world in his sleep looked nothing like the one when he was awake.

Such familiar sounds.

Such a familiar place.

And yet so much was wrong.

The smaller bot adjusted the towel over himself a little more. It was currently folded over so he could at least pretend it was an actual blanket. It was still hard to move. It was still hard to properly grab things, to pull or lift them. It was embarrassing and infuriating that a genius like himself wasn’t even able to pull his makeshift blanket over himself without feeling like a human toddler.

He huffed.

Quietly.

He’d been like this for a couple hours now, quiet and watchful, ever since Sun had explained to Bloodmoon that he didn’t particularly feel like going home fully tonight. He’d said it with a forced cheeriness that had Eclipse wondering what exactly happened at their house to make him want to stay here of all places.

The downright angry (but silent) reaction given by the murderous twins had the smaller refraining from asking why home was such a poor place to be. Sun had said something about yelling earlier in the day, and something about not wanting to be near Moon, but honestly Eclipse hadn’t been paying much attention through the anger that had been lighting up his frame.

But he wasn’t going to say any of that out loud.

He really didn't need to rile any of them up anymore than they already were.

“Don't worry I wont leave you alone with Bloody tonight.” Sun had reassured the smaller as he peeked into the main area to see if Moon was nearby. “They'll come with me to the house so we all know Moon won't be here and then we'll be back. Plus I have to feed the cats their dinner.” 

Eclipse hadn’t said anything in response.

Mostly because he didn’t have anything (not snarky) to say, but also because Bloodmoon was standing behind the daylight caretaker and glaring at him with a look that begged him to give them a reason to jump his ass right then and there. 

Sun sighed but turned and gestured for Bloodmoon to follow. “Ready?” 

Bloodthirsty eyes turned soft as the pair purred their agreement and joined him at the door. The now giant bot had smiled before waving a hand and leaving. Bloodthirsty murderers trailing happily behind him. 

Upon his return Sun had said his goodnight before flopping down and promptly passing out. Bloodmoon had taken up guard at the foot of the bed on the floor on what was obviously their spot even before Eclipse's capture. The smaller hoped his silence had let their anger calm down enough that they wouldn’t bother him again until his safety net had woken up.

Clearly the day had exhausted everyone

Eclipse shifted slightly.

The room wasn’t quite so dark now. A nightlight softly lit up the room chasing the shadows to the far corners. The shuffling of blankets and metal on something soft was so familiar. A memory Eclipse didn’t even realize he’d had until now. How many nights did Eclipse sit awake in the mindscape listening to these sounds while he plotted? How many times did he take over Sun's body as he slept and used those same yellow hands and white eyes to send the twins to a new dimension? To start a fight he knew would have only two losers while he himself watched from the side?

How many times did he use the sun's hands to hurt them both?

Eclipse shifted again, unable to see much past the opaque plastic.

His mind was running wild again, unanswered and unspoken questions warring for space whether his eyes were closed or open and so he latched onto the sound of Sun's mumbles. Such a familiar sound even after these couple of months apart.

They’d been so sad.

Sun had. Sun had barely touched the damaged bot but he’d been so upset about it afterwards. Why? It’s not like anybody would’ve been upset at him for hurting the little, or even killing him. Hell, Bloodmoon would probably throw a fucking party to celebrate! They’d be so proud that their Sunny had finally stood up for himself. Anyone else would’ve been glad to see him suffer.

But not Sun. 

He’d been genuinely upset about Eclipse dissing Bloodmoon, but equally upset at himself for almost hurting someone. For giving into the anger his orange counterpart was so used to stoking in him. The more Eclipse looked, here in the mostly quiet room, the less he thought it was all an act for sanctimonious reasons either. 

Why was Sun so worried about hurting him?

Quiet movement caught Eclipse's attention and he sat up with difficulty, wondering if Sun was just tossing in his sleep. It wasn’t usually something the log-like sleeper did, but it happened. Instead, glowing eyes lit up the space above his little bed as Bloodmoon loomed over it. 

Wait, no.

There was only one pentagram eye.

Harvest (at least, he thought it was Harvest. They were the one with a white pupil while Hazards was red. Probably.) stared down at the small animatronic with something dangerous in their eyes.

“What are you-” Eclipse started before red tipped claws snatched him out of the box. He almost yelped but a rattling hiss like that of a rattlesnake had him shutting up quickly. Now out of the box he was able to see Hazard behind Harvest, eyes trained on Sun as he shifted. The attendant barely raised his head, looking toward the foot of the bed where Hazards head silhouetted against the nightlight.

“Bloody wake up…” Sun grumbled, barely awake enough to poorly blink at where he thought the twins were in the room. “You’re having a nightmare again. It’s okay guys…Lunar’s safe.” Eclipse looked up, his only hand feeling as Harvest lost some of the tension in their body at the sleepy reassurance. Some of the anger had died, the light that emanated from the killer's eyes dimming just a bit as they took in the others words.

“We’re alright Starlight.” They both said in unison, as though they were still in one body and not two. “We’ll see the night to ease our fright.” 

Sun groggily nodded and turned over, his retractable rays allowing him to sleep on his side unlike Eclipse. 

“Be careful…don’t get caught…”

Harvest leaned close. The pink light from his pentagram eye bathing the normally orange little in a bloody hue. “Say anything to wake him and I’ll eat your other limb.”  With that, Hazard and Harvest turned and left out the door with Eclipse in hand. Eclipse imitated a gulp, but remained quiet as they made their way into the main daycare and then out the main doors. Once they were far enough away from Sun's room to not be heard, the pair whirled on him with a snarl. 

“What did you do? Did our temporary absence really make you so bold?” Harvest snarled, once more bringing Eclipse close to their face. Hazard stayed back, eyes trained on the door to the daycare and the entrance to the tower. The literal definition of a night watchman.

Eclipse squirmed as fear once more shot through his systems. 

They clearly didn’t take him out here just for a quiet chat.

“Nothing! He told you nothing happened!” He cried, not bothering to keep it down.

“We love his heart of gold but always his lies told are easy to unfold!” One half of Bloodmoon growled. “Now what did you do to break his mind's battered mold!?”

Eclipse snarled as he looked down. 

He was so sick of being scared! 

The anger was building again, drowning out fear and pain and the need to survive.

He looked up, glaring into the burning lights of the weapon he made to drive someone mad.

“Don’t f*cking act like you care about him!” He yelled, his little voice barely carrying across the open, quiet space outside the daycares walls.  Both twins perked, their expression going from angry to surprised.  Eclipse wriggled and slammed his only hand down on Harvests, knowing full well it wouldn’t do anything.

“We both saw what you were f*cking doing!” He roared. “Just because Sun is too much of a softhearted moron to know you were two seconds away from mauling him doesn’t mean I am too!”  

Eclipse bared his own sharp teeth in a snarl. 

It was a trait all four kill codes shared. The animalistic tendencies that were displayed with their anger. Bared teeth and sharp claws and snarled, angry words that served to scare someone away or to remind them who was stronger. It was a language Eclipse tried not to speak, finding it demeaning for a genius like him to act like a cornered dog when words failed.

But it was a language Bloodmoon understood.

“You two don’t get to act like you actually care if that little idiot is okay or not when I know what you’re doing! Following him around, making him trust you, waiting for the moment his mind is just a little more broken so you can jump him and get your fill before moving on to the next poor sucker with mental issues in the alley!”

His voice was rising  

“You’re just with him because he’s the most broken toy here and you can’t wait to have your own fun with him just like before! You're attracted to suffering! But he's not suffering enough is he? Not yet at least. So you'll follow him around and pretend to be his good little guard until he has a breakdown and you snap his neck for the fun of it!”

Anger burning

“You don’t have the murder code I put into you otherwise you wouldn't have waited this long but that clearly just means you’re more patient with your prey! I know you’re gonna tear his head off and then come for me next! I’m not stupid! ”

He needed to shut up

“You don’t fool me! I made you! So just kill us both and put him out of his misery already!” Eclipse screamed, pushing against the hand holding him and throwing his head back, wanting Hazard to hear him now just as clearly as Harvest would.

He didn’t know how

The small animatronic leaned forward again as warnings and static overtook his vision. Fans clacked angrily against their barely reformed confines and he heaved for air, desperate to calm the heated strain on his body. He wasn’t fixed. He couldn’t heal like a person. Every wire in his body complained at him for putting up such a fight when there was no more fight left to give. 

But he only knew how to fight

The fire that kept him upright was dying, burning out as his only defense mechanism was replaced by pain and endo deep weariness. He waited for the pain he knew would come. For the snarls and the snickering laughter as they tore him apart while they were too far away for Sun to hear and rescue him again.

He waited. 

“We’re…going to hurt him?” Hazard asked after a few moments of silence.

Eclipse, still gasping for air, looked up. Through the darkness and the static of his eyes he could see Harvests face. Could see how the light of his dimmed as dual eyes narrowed not in anger but…

Fear?

“What?” Eclipse glitched. 

Now he did yelp as red tipped hands dipped and his fragile body met the floor. 

It wasn't gentle, but it didn't hurt either.

Thankfully.

Harvests hand disappeared and with nothing to hold onto for balance the doll-sized bot stumbled and fell backward. He shook his head, trying to clear some static, before frantically looking up for the murderers he built. 

You’d think he’d be happy to be out of their hands but at this size and in this darkness it was far less comforting than just being held. His dying eyes couldn’t see the lights their eyes gave off from down here and he struggled to find them in the darkness outside the daycare doors.

Why'd they put him down? 

Were they going to stomp on him?

Hopefully that would be a quick death.

Two growls sounded through the darkness. “We don’t want him to hurt! A constant effort our minds exert in an effort to not revert back to that mad state that made him wipe our slate! You’re saying it’s not our decision, but fate to lose our minds to this hate again?!” Harvest cried. Somewhere in the dark fake shoes slid across the polished floor as one half of Bloodmoon frantically backed away. 

Eclipse wanted to scramble back too, but he had no idea where back would take him so staying rooted to the spot remained the safest option.

“What the hell are you saying? You were hunting him earlier! Don’t tell me you didn’t know what you were doing!” Eclipse yelled into the sky as blind optics searched for any sign of the twins.

“ NO! ” They both roared above him.

Distressed, whining noises sounded from farther away, where Hazard had been standing guard. “If our minds were not cleared by death then how are we to be safe for Sun and Lunar, breath to breath? Those two, right or left, no matter who we were to hurt we’d leave someone bereft!”

What was happening to the twins?

They sounded distraught!

The whining grew and Eclipse realized with shock that it was Hazard making those noises. Desperate growling followed the whines and the sharp shk! of nanites rubbing against nanites scraped through the darkness. 

“We cannot be responsible for their lives theft!” Hazard screamed, voice garbled and glitched behind the growls of a feral, cornered animal. 

Confusion now began to override some of the fear and Eclipse looked up, eyes finally clearing of static just enough to see the glowing pentagrams on the back of each twin's hands. With his minor night vision and clear optics the little bot was finally able to see the two giants had backed themselves against the side of the daycare door and crouched low, as though trying not to be seen. 

Their bodies spiked this way and that, a physical embodiment of their thrashing emotions. They’d done something similar before, while they were one body. They'd wrap their arms around themselves. That was whenever Killcode would threaten their lives.

When they were afraid.

One hand each held the other as they huddled together desperately sharing glances and growling in distress. Harvest had one hand in his mouth, his instincts wanted to tear and chew something but his nanites just melded into each other, depriving him of such release. The same was happening to Hazard who was trying hard to scratch at his own face as he shook his head like a dog worrying a bone. His own machines simply moved out of the way of the self-inflicted attack and left no injury behind. 

It didn’t make sense.

Nothing made sense.

Why couldn’t anything make sense?

“What the hell are you doing with Sun and Lunar if you don’t plan on killing them?” Eclipse exclaimed, still unable to move from his spot with any confidence. “Sun killed you didn’t he? Why the hell would you be loyal to him after that? What did either of them do to you?!”

He was yelling again, but this time it was in desperation. There was no anger, there was no spark, just a need to know why the strongest weapon he’d accidentally made would care so much about a child who’d used them as tools before and a fool who’d shot them once already. It was desperation, not fear or anger.

“Why do you care if you hurt them?!” He yelled.

“Because they freed us!” They roared in unison.

The room fell silent.

Only gasping breaths and desperate whines to break it.

The red pair let out a warble and finally the damaged look alike could see their eyes again as they looked down at him, hands still clasped in each other. 

“When we came here our goal was to taunt the sun. His mind we wanted to haunt because violence and pain was all we could ever want. But then we were shot and our lives, saved only by infecting the computer of this lot, ended up in the hands of the little blue bot, Lunar. He made us a deal in which our body he would heal if we would stop trying to hurt them with such zeal.”

Harvest looked up through the net of the daycare. Probably looking for Sun after all that noise earlier. He clearly didn’t see anything, but nudged his brother to continue.

Hazard eased the attempted assault on his own face to speak.

“Back to life we came. Then back to you and father, all to continue our little game. We had no intention of being tame, just lied so we could get a new frame and continue to maim. But then, the betrayal of our father figure portrayal and we realized he cared no more than any of the plenty we knew.”

Hazard looked Eclipse in the eyes and despite all they’d done Eclipse wasn’t afraid.

Not while they huddled before him.

Not in the same boat, but scared all the same.

“We came back here. Only us two did we hold dear so there was nowhere for us to go, far or near, without our broken minds and hearts in tow. But then…Lunar Blue tried to sneak up on us with a little boo.” Their gruff voice lightened as the memory of what happened after they left resurfaced, the glow of their eyes dimming once again. Hazard rumbled, his voice falling quiet in the dark as he purred. 

Harvest noticed and picked up again.

“He brought us home and told us to roam. As long as our word stayed intact he’d keep his end of the pact. We thought that ended at our new frame, but that was not the little one's only aim. He wanted our friendship, despite every hardship, and he didn’t care if we were sane or tame. And, despite our former mind, we did not feel the need to peel him like an orange rind.”

“Jesus Christ.” Eclipse interrupted, disturbed by the idea of Moon's body being peeled back to find Lunar in the middle. Or the idea that they would actually peel off bits of plastic casing as Lunar screamed because they found it entertaining.

Just like they did with him.

The thought of Lunar screaming like he did made him shudder, though he pushed it back.

He may hate the little idiot for betraying him, but maybe Bloodmoon's claws were too harsh a punishment. 

Even for him.

The two halves snickered, but it was thin.

“He loved us for us, with so little fuss. We were never used and he was never bruised. It was so strange to be safe and unfused.”

Harvest turned to Hazard and smiled. There was no malice or insanity, just pure love that Eclipse knew was always there for each other, just not for anyone else. 

But now they were saying it was there for Lunar too.

“Our minds were ours and despite the scars, Lunar became one of our stars.”

They said it together, nanites pulling together and individual features disappearing until Bloodmoon rather than Hazard and Harvest sat in front of him. The now singular body wrapped its arms around itself, still desperate to hold onto each other but only able to do that like this when they were together.

“What about Sun?” Eclipse asked quietly. The anger, the desperation, had faded from his tone. “Why is he a star?”

They looked up at the tower.

“One day, Sun and Moon found us and Lunar at play. We thought Lunar would be killed or blackened blood spilled as the other twins would certainly not be thrilled he helped us. So we took him to run.”

Eclipse tried to imagine Bloodmoon picking up Moon's body and running away, trying to keep the first person who didn't use them safe.

He couldn't.

It wasn't like them.

“Sun pleaded we bring him back and in a bid to take whatever violent whack was in store for him we returned to face his pack.”

“Why the f*ck did you think they’d kill Lunar?” Eclipse scoffed, unable to keep the incredulousness out of his tone. Bloodmoon looked at him blankly. 

“You are so much like Moon, would you not have killed him given a time opportune?”

The mini bot didn’t answer, choosing to not explain that he had been given a chance to kill Lunar and had tried to take it. He supposed that, given the people Bloodmoon has mostly been around it would make sense that, in their mind, failure or mistakes mean death or pain. Even when around goody-two-shoes like Sun.

Killcode certainly ruled like that, though less so for the twins. 

But that was just because they listened to him.

Even then, the older code still often threatened their safety if they disobeyed and the smaller homicide codes were too weak to risk pissing him off.  

“Sunrise was distraught at the sight of us, being the cause of our demise. And it was at that moment we realized he was the one who freed us from what we most despised, that code. That code in our head that filled us with bloodthirsty dread. He was the reason it died and even though we technically lied about why we knew that to him we were now tied. Not because of force, of course, but because our own will we could now enforce.”

The singular stood and made their way over to him again, kneeling once they were close. Eclipse eyed them wearily, suddenly remembering that they brought him out here to kill him most likely. 

“You gave us thought.” They said quietly, quieter than Eclipse had ever heard them.

“They gave us life. ”

Chapter Text

Eclipse watched as the singular body sat down, chin in their hands and eyes on him. They hadn’t said anything else after that last line and the three turned two sat in the dark silence just…taking in what was said. 

They meant it, that much Eclipse knew. 

Bloodmoon was good at a few things, but lying wasn’t one of them. At least not big lies. Lies that could mean life or death for the ones they care about which, to Eclipse's knowledge, was only each other. 

They said what they believed and that was it, regardless of what it was. Even when they were trying to hide him from Sun they didn’t outright lie about anything. Their murderous nature meant they never had to develop that particular skill as anyone they spoke to never lasted long enough for them to bother. And, as much as Sun wanted to scream about it, they weren’t very smart. They didn’t need to be, because they were built to do as they’re told. 

Honestly Eclipse would be surprised if they were even smart enough to lie convincingly.

They were murderers.

Honest murderers, but murderers nonetheless.

So if they said they didn’t plan on hurting Sun, that they were worried about the very idea of that happening, then Eclipse believed them. 

That also meant that he had to grapple with the idea that Bloodmoon, violent and bloodthirsty and insane Bloodmoon, really was capable of caring for someone besides each other. And not just people who would give them what they wanted, blood and death and fear, but people who specifically would do the opposite of that.

Sun and Lunar were, annoyingly, good people who wouldn’t willingly sic the psychotic red moon on anyone, even if they did deserve it. (Himself being one such example of that.) So Bloodmoon now only truly listens to the two people who would never use them for their intended purpose and they liked that . So much that they were clearly willing to burn this entire 'Plex to the ground with people inside if Sun or Lunar asked them too.

Not a command.

A request.

From a child and an idiot of all people.

Eclipse shook his head.

“I don’t know why Sun got so p*ssed off when I called you an idiot. You clearly are one if that's all it took for you to stop killing things.” He scoffed and pulled his one good leg close to his body. 

“Ah, so that's what caused him such strife?” Hazard's voice inquired, growing stronger over Harvests own lighter tones.

One little hand clutched ragged pants as Eclipse slowly looked up. 

Fuck! He’d snitched on himself!

But, instead of being mad, their eyes flicked to the side as though trying to see their brother and they sighed.

“It would cause him more strife to find we’ve ended your life. So, for now, he is still the reason we will stay our knife.” The glow of their eyes turned away and their voices overlapped again, their tone darkening. “It may not matter if we really are to become madder than a hatter once again.”

God that was such a simple problem to solve. All anyone had to do was look at their code and see if any of it matched Killcodes' original violence parameters. Anybody who knew how to read complex strings could figure out if they actually were some kind of ticking time bomb or if there was another reason for why they acted as they did. Were they really just angry that Sun was sad? Did they think, at least in that moment, that they could hunt his fears away?

They weren’t particularly bright to be fair. Far more akin to a cat with its hackles raised because someone was shouting in the other room. The animal may not understand what is being shouted or why or anything like that, but they don’t need to in order to get aggressive. In order to try to fight off whatever is scaring the one they love. 

And Sun is, amazingly, someone they love.

Without really thinking about it, Eclipse blurted out: “Oh don’t be such a baby. I’ll look at your code and find out if that’s actually a problem. Nothing else to do at this size anyway.” 

Silence.

Small eyes widened as what was said actually sunk in. What the hell had he just offered?! Staticky eyes flicked to gauge the largers reaction but he wasn’t given half a chance. Apparently Bloodmoon was surprised too because they went from sitting beside him to laying in front of him with their butt in the air like he was a mouse and they were a hunting cat.

 Wonderful visual given the size he was.

Eclipse cursed and scrambled backward but didn’t make it far before his only arm lost balance and he fell back, still cursing. Bloodmoon snickered, once again full of insane mirth, and reached behind him. A pentagram hand pushed up against his back and supported him into sitting upright but, thankfully, they didn’t pick him up again. 

“Why would we trust you with the code to our bloodlust? For all we know you’d make it so killing is once again a must.” They remarked. Their voice had lost its darkness but Eclipse was too preoccupied with the hand behind him to realize it had almost lightened into the light tone they used on Sun. 

All the mini bot noticed was that they didn’t seem angry anymore so he would roll with it.

“It’s in my best interest to make sure that yellow idiot doesn't die too, you know. You literally just said that's the only reason I’m not dead right now. Might as well make sure we’re both safe.” 

It was simple, if Sun was dead then he was too. Better to prevent that.

Yeah, that was it.

It didn’t matter that Bloodmoon's smile grew at his words.

It didn’t matter that there was a similar strange twinge in his chest at the sight.

It didn’t matter that a shattered yellow frame played across his mind.

It didn’t matter. 

This was simply for survival.

“But that’s for tomorrow. I’m dead certain the computers down here have codes and locks on them that only Moon would be able to get past in order to plug into the system. That or you’d suddenly be connected to the computer and I like that little plan even less.” The darker counterpart grimaced. Both at his choice of words and the thought of connecting the disliked killer to the main computer. 

He lived with the duel AI until his expulsion in October and they were obnoxious, rude, and sometimes just as cruel as himself or Moon. If he was going to look at Bloodmoon's code, he would do it outside of the network Moon was connected to. 

Bloodmoon didn’t move, seemingly contemplating something before shrugging. 

“Why do you hate our Sunrise? Even as he keeps you from your demise?”

The mini scoffed. “That little-” 

He stopped, realizing he’d already called Sun stupid more than once in front of them.

“Uh, that guy was just as in my way as Moon was. It just wasn’t as fun to fight him so I ignored him.” He smirked at them, trying to match their energy. “Why, you want me to be meaner?” 

White teeth grinned wide, every sharp tooth able to be seen. “You do that and we’ll rip you apart right off the bat!” They exclaimed in joyous unison. Eclipse winced but stilled when they paused and really looked at the mini animatronic leaning against their fist.

“He would have loved you too, when you were brand new. Maybe now. Even after all you did do.”

Damaged eyes blinked. Before Eclipse could say anything to that the combined twins snapped upright to look at the left side stairs, the ones that led out of the daycare. Pentagram eyes glowed brighter as they searched the dark. What did they hear? Could he hear it? Not over the sounds of his own broken body. 

Tiny, damaged fans were throttled into silence as the smaller animatronic held his breath.

They were hunting again. 

Something real this time.

Gingerly, Eclipse put his good hand on the one resting behind him and hauled himself upright. There was no running with the damage to his leg, but fuck at least he was trying not to be the embodiment of a sitting duck for whatever was coming. Thankfully, Bloodmoon left their hand on the ground and he was able to prop himself up.

He too tried to search the dark, but the inherited night vision wasn’t strong enough to see more than a couple feet in front of them, if that, even if he had been completely undamaged and full sized. After a moment, however, he was able to hear footsteps on the carpeted floor up above, coming closer to the stairs they were near to. 

Without warning Eclipse was scooped into the hand holding him with another coming to create a platform he could stand on. 

If he had two working legs of course. 

“What the f*ck are you doing?!” The mini quietly exclaimed, unable to keep himself upright with only one arm he was forced to lay in the flat hands as the larger animatronic looked around frantically. A rumble had begun in their chest that spoke of anger and violence and Eclipse genuinely didn’t know if they were mad at him and were deciding how to best circumvent their protection command or if something else was wrong and they didn’t know how to verbalize it yet.

“We need to hide you! Not with us two!” Dual voices growled.

The footsteps were getting louder.

“What?! Why?!”

Who the hell would be here so late at night? 

Not even Sun was willing to be up this early!

Bloodmoon snarled loudly. “There’s nowhere! If there is a fight you’ll be killed without much flare!” 

Before Eclipse could ask again one body had become two and a quick peek upward showed he was once again in Harvests hands. Hazard took the lead, stepping in front of his twin and the damaged little, shaking his head and waving that blasted tongue around as though itching for a fight.

“You’re not welcome here.” Hazard snarled into the darkness. 

Just as Eclipse was about to ask who it was he froze. Eyes widened in shock and horror as in the darkness two smoldering red dots could be seen. They had paused with Hazards warning, but now they continued and Eclipse could hear the little ring-a-ling! Ring-a-ling! of bells and a low, deep laughter he knew too well. 

Moon was here.

The footsteps grew closer and stopped, right in a small bright spot caused by the overhead lights when they dimmed for the night. Bloodmoon had decided not to stand in these, probably forgetting that their little captive couldn’t see as well as they could in the dark, and there, only a few feet from them, stood Moon. 

Strangely, despite the new outfits for Sun and the twins, Moon looked the same as he always did. The ruffles and bells were all the same as the last time Eclipse saw him. (For a brief moment Eclipse wondered why that was. If Moon just didn’t sleep in his attire like Sun did or if he was never given a new attire at all.) All the speculation died, however, upon seeing his eyes.

Behind those eyes was not the former naptime attendant and original genius celestial, no, this was a much older code that gained sentience because Eclipse meddled with things he shouldn’t have. Because Eclipse thought he was smart enough to command a code so much stronger than him while in Bloodmoon's mindscape.

Eclipse thought he could control the original violence code.

He’d been very wrong.

“Boys.” The deep voice, drastically different from the lunar attendant, rumbled lowly. “Are you done with your game?” 

The twins scoffed together. 

“That would be lame, former father. Now be a dear and get out of here before we yell loud enough for Sunny to hear.” Harvest said from where he stood, holding Eclipse close to his chest. Eclipse, for his part, was still frozen, staring wide eyed at the murder he’d technically come to find.

Then those burning red eyes were trained on him.

“You have your brother, and he’s hurt. Did I interrupt something boys?” He stood like Hazard often did, leaned forward with arms hanging limp in front of himself. His head tilted to a ludicrous degree seeing as everyone he was talking to was directly ahead of the older rather than off to the side like the degree would imply. He grinned much too wide, something the other three violence codes shared from him.

“If you let me by, I promise I’ll not tell Moon about your little toy.” Killcode chuckled darkly.

Immediately Eclipse scrambled upright, trying to get to his feet, only to fall back as Harvest started with his sudden movements and their uneven hands forced the smaller to fall back against their red chest. The doll-sized bot couldn’t even care that he was acting so humiliatingly in front of the person he’d just been screaming at angrily as he pressed his back against Harvest.

“Y-You’re supposed to be dead!” He cried. “You stopped coming to the bunker, you stopped contacting me about your stupid plans! You’re supposed to be dead!”

There was always the possibility he was alive, of course there was, but even then there was the assumption that no contact meant the first homicide code had either died, been sufficiently locked away, or (in a slightly more extreme case) been redeemed without ever returning to inform Eclipse the deal was off. 

With the exception of the last one (which clearly wasn’t happening here if Bloodmoon's attitude was anything to go off of) the only other options meant he shouldn’t be here!

Killcode chuckled again.

“Admittedly your brother's game has gone on longer than I thought it would. I meant to return in a couple of days when they’d gotten bored of pretending but it seems they aren’t yet done.” Loud snarls interrupted him. He just grinned wider and continued, placing a hand against Moon's silver chest.

“I’ve been pretending myself, actually. Pretending to be buried and gone since I’ve been unable to do any work.” Red eyes glared angrily, teeth still showing the too wide grin. “Moon does not know if I still live since my little…travels have ceased and it’s driving him mad.”

“We’ve tried to tell.” Harvest grumbled. “Unwilling to believe us, it doesn’t end well.”

They’ve done this before?!

Is that why Bloodmoon doesn’t like Moon? Because they’re still waging a war against the older violence code in the others head?

Killcode frowned without closing his mouth. Cartoonishly turning it upside down while still displaying every tooth. Moon didn’t have sharp teeth in this body (a design detail he’d forgotten about when making it for the original split in favor of adding weapons) but when the original violence code snapped his jaw open and closed it sounded like he did.

“You weren’t supposed to leave the bunker, child.” 

Eclipse felt his breath hitch. 

New static was creeping into his vision but he willed it away, not wanting to take his eyes off the threat for even a second. 

“You abandoned me. I left.” He breathed. “A-And I’m not your kid. I n…never was.”

Killcode growled and took a menacing step forward but Hazard matched him, a manic giggle slipping from the red psychos mouth as he hopped from foot to foot in anticipation. “We’ve been keeping him in check!” Hazard laughed gleefully. “Or his plans we will gladly wreck!” 

Harvest shifted and it almost sent Eclipse mentally spiraling as he was forced to look down long enough to reorient himself and take his eyes off Killcode. “With Moon as an unwilling copilot his family must go unhurt or else we get violent.” One red twin waved a hand dismissively. “And more so we spill the beans on his every base and plan to Moon Man.”

The twins glared at the one they used to call father, grins curling to match his own.

“Moon gets stressed when his body walks without his mind and, when pressed, his whereabouts cannot be guessed. A stressed Moon Man has caused our stars much strife on more than one noon. A pest, for us, as Lunar will attest.”

Their voices lowered as Hazard's body bent to match Killcode's.

“Leave.” They snarled in unison.

Another step forward from the older. 

Hazard matched it.

“Give me a reason.” He rumbled. “I will light you on fire and deal with the Moon Mans ire.”

Killcode stepped back, his snarl fading as he stared at the trio. It was clear there was nothing to be done. If he fought Hazard he’d probably win, but it would become obvious that someone besides Moon was still active in his body and his maddening cover would be blown. Besides, something told Eclipse that Hazard wasn’t joking about setting the night themed jester aflame. Even if that would cause significant damage to Moon.

Sun said they didn’t like him, after all.

But then a new, different smile spread across Moon's distorted face.

“I’ll make you a deal, boys.” He growled in his gravelly tone. “You give me Eclipse and  for the next week I will not try to leave. I walked all the way here just to be denied, I might as well get a chance to discipline my disobedient child for my trouble.” 

Eclipse leaned further back, knowing the original code wasn’t close enough to reach him from there. Tiny claws that should be scraping paint and metal instead slipped in between Harvests nanites with ease as fear throttled every other system in his body.

This was their chance!

This was the loophole they could use!

They were going to give him up. All the twins had to do was let him go with the murderous older and their hands would be clean. They didn’t care about him, only Sun! All it would take was them telling Sun that he’d vanished into the night and the sunny attendant would be none the wiser. At best, he’d probably assume the two were lying and just left Eclipse in the woods somewhere.

The perfect way to get rid of him without ignoring Sun's command.

No, request. 

But a command in their minds all the same.

Eclipse gasped as Killcode chuckled and held out his hand, not sharp at all in Moon's body. A hand that could still do so much damage to his battered body despite that fact.

“Come alone then, the day is approaching and Moon will be so upset if he wakes up here instead of his own home, wouldn’t you say?”

Hazard turned to look at Harvest for a split second before turning back, knowing it wasn’t a good idea to lose sight of the first. Eclipse, for his part, couldn’t breath through his frozen fans. He knew the warm body at his back would disappear in a moment as Harvest either reached to hand the little one to the older code or, if Eclipse was especially unlucky, just threw him.

“There may be something we need him for.” Harvest remarked, completely nonchalant about the whole thing. Now it was the false Moon's turn to scoff and wave his hand.

“Oh please. As long as you have an idea of what the problem is even Monty could take a look at you quite easily. You don’t need your brother, especially not in this state. Now, be good boys and hand him over. I’m growing bored.” 

Fuck.

There goes the one bargaining chip he had.

Not that he was being particularly good at bargaining right now. The small orange animatronic tried desperately to open his mouth and say something, even if it was angry, but nothing came out. Not even the barest strangled static made it past damaged metal lips. The idea of facing Killcode was already something Eclipse feared, more than running into Bloodmoon had been, but the idea of facing him now? At this size and with all this damage? 

Unable to fight back…

He wouldn’t be able to scream at Killcode the same way he’d screamed at Bloodmoon.

The smallest of the codes flinched when Harvests' other hand came up in front of him but it didn’t grab hold, didn’t pull him away from the warmth behind him. It just…stayed there. Shielding him from the eldest's view. Even the one underneath curled around him, pressing gently closer. 

“I don’t think we will. He is ours to keep or kill.” 

Hazard stepped forward, forcing their former father back again with manic laughter. Harvest waved condescendingly at the code that was capable of killing them all. Or at least capable of winning in a fight.

“Bye bye.”

Moons body snarled furiously but turned and stomped back up the stairs and out of the daycare. Hazard followed a safe distance after him, making sure the older actually left the 'Plex and wasn’t just planning on jumping them the moment their backs were turned. Harvest watched from his spot in front of the doors, presumably until he couldn’t see either of them anymore, then he moved to the same bright spot Killcode had been in.

The hands pulled away and Eclipse fumbled for a moment as Harvest brought his hands up to eye level. Eclipse was forced to lean forward again, unable to balance at all on the uneven surface. He stared into Harvests pupil eye as it grew back to its non-manic size.

“Breathe, Second Sun. He’s on the run.” 

For a second, Eclipse didn’t know what that meant. 

But after a moment of silence he realized that not only were his fans still frozen from earlier, but the rest of his body was far from the same. He was rattling like a tin can rolling down a gravel hill. Eclipse took a deep breath (after having to throttle his fans into silence earlier this was an almost herculean task) before taking a moment and bullying them into starting up again. When they eventually rattled back to life he gasped and wheezed violently, laying himself down on Harvests palm when his only good arm threatened to give out beneath him.

He was still rattling and gasping when Hazard returned, tongue lolling from excitement. Eclipse flinched at the sight of the appendage that stole his own, using his weak hand to try and hide his face.

Hazard noticed and retracted his tongue with a grin.

“Easy. I wouldn't eat something so wheezy.” 

Eclipse glared as best he could.

“Liar…” 

Hazard shrugged and ducked behind his brother, hiding his frightening habit away.

Harvest moved his hands back to his chest before turning and walking toward the stairs Killcode had just gone up. The teleporter to the tower was up there and it seemed they didn't want to try climbing while holding him.

“Breathe.” Harvest soothed as Eclipse again leaned against his warm body. “We should not have made you leave.”

“At least while you cannot run. Though I think the challenge was quite fun.” Hazard agreed, ahead of the pair just enough that he'd get jumped first if had Killcode circled back.

Eclipse sighed, soaking in the murderer's warmth. “You were…gonna kill me…” He reminded them since they clearly forgot why they brought him down here in the first place. With his mind so full of static it was hard to know what exactly was coming out of his mouth.

The pair laughed as the upper level security desk came into view. If they were laughing then whatever he said couldn’t have been that bad. Probably. Or maybe they were laughing because it was bad. 

Who knows?

Off in the distance the security desk came into view. The teleporter was a little Sun plush standing on the shelf behind the desk that, thankfully, only animatronics could use. It helped to keep the humans out of the twins tower.

“We’ve since had a change of heart.” Harvest remarked. You could hear the grin in his tone as he said it. Hazard laughed from up ahead, standing next to the teleporter as his twin made their way over. Eclipse just leaned against Harvest, too tired and cold to care if it was humiliating or not.

Eclipse took a deep breath in.

And let it out.

Fuck. 

He was still alive.

Chapter Text

When day came one blank and one pupiled eye opened up to see bright lights and children's drawing, just as it had been the day before. The room was quiet. No one talking or thin rays clicking as he listened for signs of life not his own.

Despite the events of the night before there was surprisingly little pain dragging his body down.

Odd, but it’s not like that was a bad thing.

Though right off the bat something else seemed a bit odd, Eclipse couldn’t really be bothered to care. He wasn’t in pain and Bloodmoon wasn’t here to taunt him. He was going the fuck back to sleep until something or someone came along to bother him. Or he was, until he rolled over and heard a violent CRUNCH!

Immediately the mini bot shot upright with his good arm and looked down, wondering if something on his casing had split or crumbled from the night before. Thankfully there were no broken pieces or spilled oil, meaning there was most likely no more damage to his body. There were, weirdly, opaque shards of plastic scattered around a small towel, but nothing orange or black colored.

Unwilling to think about it too hard, he sighed and turned to reach for the towel end with one hand while the other supported his weight. 

He paused.

Looked down.

Another arm was supporting his weight. 

Eclipse gasped as he ripped the other arm up to eye level, checking it against the first. 

There were no scratches, no dents, no marks. Both hands were shiny and whole, as if Bloodmoon's attack had never happened. A once over showed the same thing for the rest of his body. No nicks, no scrapes, nothing that showed a violent animatronic had almost dismantled him piece by piece in the daycare theater.

He was whole again!

The now intact counterpart looked up, searching for Sun, only for a grin to spread across his face.

He was big again.

The bookshelf didn’t tower over him! The pictures on the wall were annoyingly small since the pages were child sized for little hands! The stuffed animals and other toys were looking down from their perches and he couldn’t see their eyes!

He was back to normal and whole again!

Gleefully, the violent sun stood up and stomped on what he now recognized as the remains of the plastic tub that had been his bed for a couple days now. He was free! He was intact! All there was to do was get the hell out of here and make a new plan with all the information he’d gathered!

The door opened.

Eclipse whirled to see Sun walk in and pause, looking at him. 

Instead of being scared, or confused, or anything like that Sun smiled and threw his arms up joyfully. “You’re big again! And you’re okay!” He clapped happily, walking right up to the one he called an enemy. Just like with their own guard dog there was no fear as the shorter attendant looked up at his darker counterpart, a wide, brilliant smile lighting up his features. "There's not a scratch! Thank goodness, I was really worried about you just flopping over dead when you were hurt. Now there's nothing to worry about!"

Orange had to look down to see white as the daytime attendant bounced right up like he wasn’t enemies barely a couple of days ago. 

Eclipse smirked widely. 

Apparently, in the rush to make a body, Eclipse had made himself taller than Sun, if only by a little bit. Their frames were still pretty much the same width and build so odds were good he wasn't much stronger than he would normally be, but it was clear who was bigger. Honestly the mixed rays certainly made him look considerably bigger compared to Sun's own straight ones and with their height added he towered over the solar model easily.

Sun clapped his hands together excitedly, smiling a bright smile.

“Oh I’m so happy for you! Whatever spell Moon did must have worn off! I guess we just had to wait? I don't know how all this magic stuff works.” The daylight caretaker beamed. "So I guess there wasn't really a need to be so worried in the first place, but I'm glad I helped anyway. At least here you were kind of safe."

The sunny attendant turned to glance at the door and then back up at him and for the first time since coming back here, they didn’t look so tired. Maybe it was just because the lights were fully on in the room or because they were finally smiling without it looking pinned up but Sun's eyes were wide and blindingly white, their smile big enough to match. The sharp teeth that Moon had installed for themselves in the original body sparkled as well, lighting up the room even more.

It was…nice to see.

Certainly a more familiar sight than the desperate, tired expression from before.

He was happy in a way the dark mirror could only remember him being at the beginning of the channel, right after separation. When he was just happy to sit down with his brother and play games, long before Eclipse made himself known.

Even if he’d still been causing problems, even back then.

"Are you okay? Are you gonna say something?" The now smaller asked. White eyes widened just a bit and they chuckled a little. A yellow hand came to rest gently on Eclipse's arm. "Oh, you're taking it in. I'll be quiet now." 

Something deep in Eclipse relaxed, just a bit, at seeing something other than exhaustion and dread in those eyes. Sun had never been his main target over Moon, even when they shared a body, he’d just been a convenient shield for Eclipse to do as he pleased with little to no consequences. They were always collateral in this little war between geniuses and while Eclipse found him annoyingly chipper and trusting at times it had always worked in his favor before. It was stupid and pathetic to try and help those who wanted to hurt you. To offer your hand no matter how often it was smacked away.

When not even your own brother knew how to love you back.

Still though, the idiot had taken the time to try and help him. Or, at least they thought they were helping by keeping him alive here. They were wrong of course, but the dimmer twin was pretty much always wrong when it came to matters such as this so Eclipse was willing to let it slide this time. If only to keep it for his own uses later.

They were chattering about something or other again, even though they said they'd be quiet.

It didn't matter. 

He wasn’t really listening right now.

Dual eyes silently took in not only the new height difference, but the light that poured off of Sun as he chattered, his hand still resting on the now bigger animatronics' arm. It was warm. It was safe. It was so freely given even though they'd been enemies barely a week ago and Eclipse was once again capable of being that villain. But the light, just as the ball of fire in the sky he was named after, never paused in its brilliance.

Maybe his plans could leave Sun out of them in the future.

This fight was never really about Sun at all, so maybe it would do Eclipse some good to just focus on Moon and the star rather than trying to use this little dimwit as a weapon. It was effective when they were one, but as two they’ve clearly lost their usefulness. Besides, it's not like the darker attendant let Sun try to help him anyway, even before all this.

Fine then. 

All there was to do was leave.

All he had to do was walk past the sunny bot and out the doors. His now shorter counterpart wouldn’t be able to stop him even if he wanted to and Eclipse could go back to figuring out how to deal with Killcode and how to create his perfect world with the star. Bloodmoon might be a problem but honestly? It was just as likely that if Sun and Lunar were left alone the new guards wouldn't even bother trying to keep the night themed attendant safe. One orange hand raised to push the other out of the way-

And then an orange fist connected with a yellow face.

CRACK! 

Eclipse stepped back, shocked, as he watched Sun stumble backward with a hand over one eye, crying blackened tears. Rambling words being cut off by pained cries that filled the relatively small space. Sun sobbed and moved backward, this time in a purposeful attempt to back away. 

Why did I do that?!

I only wanted to move him!

I didn’t want to do that!?

When the other looked back at him Eclipse gasped, horrified to see the jagged hole he’d punched through the faceplate. It cracked and split across his other eye and up two of his rays where they tried to retract and only managed to do so with a violent, ear-splitting SCREECH of metal on metal signaling to the mechanically inclined that something had broken in the system that let them move and retract. Sun let out another choked sob and pressed one hand to the hole in his eye.

Eclipse stared, mute, as Sun looked at his bloodied hand.

“Wh-Why?” They cried.

I didn’t want to!

I wasn’t trying to!

That wasn’t what I-!

Hand still raised, the first celestial looked at him with tears welling in his blank eyes, no longer bright with happiness but also not dulled by exhaustion. They were wide and terrified and that should have brought his darker counterpart pleasure. It normally would have even just two days ago!

Right?

Even if the thoughts of revenge had subsided a bit after being trapped in Bloodmoon and then down in that bunker, he should still feel good that one of his enemies was miserable because of him. Shouldn’t he? Shouldn’t he be reveling in this? He should be laughing as Sun stumbled against the wall, half blind and trying to stem the bleeding as he watched, silently and unmoving. 

Blackened oil dripped from his knuckles onto the floor.

He didn't shake it off.

He should feel vindicated seeing someone suffer as he had.

Shouldn't he?

But instead there was just the twisting of something vile where his gut would be had he been human. Eclipse wanted to say something, to tell the other it was an accident, that he didn’t know what came over him, but instead of speaking his body moved forward against his will, toward Sun as he cowered against the wall.

“I-I’m sorry I thought-” Sun stammered.

“Shut up.” Eclipse voice hissed, snatching one of their rays and slamming their disfigured face into the metal wall. 

No!

Stop!

What am I-?!

Why am I-?!

Eclipse leaned close as the hand holding the ray curled into a fist, curling the thin metal appendage around his own claws. “Not so in control now, are you Sunny?” He snarled into the others ear. Sun whimpered and tried to claw at the hand holding his ray but Eclipse slammed them into the wall again and the hands dropped.

Why do I care?

“I j-j-just wanted…t-t-t-to he-help!” Sun wailed.

An orange pupil rolled. 

“What? You want me to thank you for keeping me prisoner?”

The now larger celestial threw the now smaller down to the ground, towering over them as they once did him. 

“My turn.” 

Internally, however, Eclipse was screaming at himself to stop.

Put him down! Let him go! He’s not the target, the star is! 

He didn’t want to do this! Not here, not now, not really at all! Sun had kept him here against his will, yes, but what other choice did they have when he was maimed and tiny and alone? When no one else was on his side and he had nowhere else to go that was safe? When he’d fucked over every person he’d ever met so much they’d already wished death on him several times?

As dumb as it was, Sun just wasn’t going to let him die like that.

The body, no longer under Eclipse's control, landed blow after blow on the bright bots body, denting metal and tearing wires no matter how the mind screamed for it to stop. Every time Sun would try to cry out, to beg for mercy, orange fists would connect again.

Stop! 

RIIIP!

Just please stop!

CRUNCH!

Why can’t I move?

CRACK!

Why can’t I stop?

SNAP!

What’s happening?

SCRATCH!

I don’t want this!

SCREECH!

Stop!

“Eclipse! Please!”

Sun screamed through desperate sobs. 

Eclipse's body hit him, again and again and again. They screamed again and again and again. Eventually, despite the blows continuing, the screaming fell to desperate burbles and pained whimpers. That feeling in his gut returned tenfold, twisting like a hot knife through this frame as though an invisible force was trying to gouge out his endoskeleton. 

The body did not react to it.

The mind kept screaming.

Stop! 

Please!

Somebody help!

How Bloodmoon or Moon or anyone hadn’t come running by now was a damn mystery, but one his autopilot body clearly didn’t care about as he finally stood straight again and wiped his blackened knuckles against his no-longer ragged pants. It scoffed, looking down at the stain, before it turned and grabbed the sunny bots blanket from the bed and began to wipe itself clean.

“Serves you right. Idiot” It remarked dismissively. 

And Eclipse watched, unable to command his own limbs, as Sun's blank eye looked up at him with fear and pain and grief so strong it had the knife digging deeper and deeper. Limbs broken and torn in multiple places, casing cracked and falling apart, wires (some that held importance and some that didn’t) snapped and fizzled as electricity tried in vain to connect and run the machine they were made for.

The daycare attendant looked worse than he did under Bloodmoon's claws.

And Eclipse, grinning without ever moving his mouth, watched as the life began to drain from his frame.

I didn’t want this!

His body began to laugh. 

The same laugh as back then, when he and Sun were one.

His very first tool.

Right?

“Not so high and mighty now, are you?” The body sneered.

None of this was his fault! The mind screamed in retort.

“You waste of scrap metal.” 

He doesn’t deserve th-!

“Ec…” 

Eclipse and his body looked down, the laughter dying, to see Sun's hand twitch. Then, mangled though it was, it began to slowly move toward him. “So…rry…” The yellow hand twitched and jerked as they lost control of it, but after a moment, it laid down with its palm facing upward. 

An invitation.

Eclipse screamed from somewhere in his body.

Not a command.

A request.

He was apologizing. 

To them.

To It.

Sun's body stopped moving after that, the light fading from their marginally intact eye.

Eclipse's body shrugged and turned around, nonchalantly leaving the room. Eclipse himself screamed from somewhere he didn’t even understand, desperately trying to force his body to turn around, to give him control, to go back! Maybe he could still be saved! Maybe he could still be fixed! Maybe Eclipse wouldn’t have to live the rest of his life knowing he’d killed someone he’d barely acknowledged with his bare hands and the last thing they said to him was an apology!

Maybe he could fix this.

He needed to fix this.

This wasn’t fa-

“Eclipse?” 

The body didn’t pause as it hopped down into the ball pit and waded its way out, scoffing at how annoying it was.

“Eclipse!”

Fuck, Sun was alive! 

The body crawled out of the ball pit and made its way to the door.

They had to go back!

“Eclipse!”

The body moved up the stairs and out the main door.

He had to force them back!

“Eclipse wake up!”

The body jerked as a hand on its shoulder snapped it back.

Chapter Text

Dual eyes snapped open as Eclipse gasped, flailing against whatever was binding his limbs to his body. He smacked against something hard and sunk into something soft but didn’t take the time to register what it was in his desperate need to turn around and go back .

Go back

Go back

Go back

Go back

Go back or Sun was really going to be-

“Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa! Easy there!” A worried, familiar voice cried.

With static lacing his vision the second dim celestial snapped his head upward and heaved a gasping sigh of relief. 

It was Sun.

Whole and intact and looking at him with the most worried expression Eclipse had seen on him in awhile. Yellow hands hovered anxiously over the tub, clearly trying to decide if it was safe to touch the little or if that would be damaging. Once the now clearly larger animatronic noticed Eclipse was looking at him he smiled uncertainly. 

“Hey! It’s okay, just breathe! You had a nightmare. A pretty bad one by the looks of it.” 

The room was huge again. 

Bookshelves stretching into the sky, childrens drawings the size of quilts, and stuffed animals that looked down at his freakout with judgment in their plastic eyes. There was the opaque plastic of the tub and the too bright color of the towel, still tightly wrapped around his lower body. One arm shot upward into dual eyes view and the violent sun took in scratches, dents, and other damage. 

Another hand did not join the first.

A quick pat down showed it missing, still covered with the same blue cloth that Sun had since fixed on his own clothing. Reaching up there was a cotton ball where a ray should be and clear scrapes and scuffs on an orange and black face with eyes that were quickly filling with static as he lay there and gasped.

One leg protested as he sat up slowly, helped by a giant hand behind him. 

It had been a dream. 

Oh god, it had been a nightmare. 

Eclipse took a deep breath and felt his fans kick into the more or less proper gear. He leaned against the hand supporting him, unable to get his own arm underneath him at the moment, as he wheezed. Sun's rays clicked above him in an all too familiar click-click-click! as they rotated around his head smoothly and without so much as a stutter. At least, not one caused by anything besides their bodies own anxiety.

They were alive. 

They were okay.

“Do…do you want to talk about it? Was it about what happened with Bloodmoon?” Sun asked gently. Eclipse leaned forward, away from the hand, and the larger took it back after making sure the smaller wouldn’t fall. 

Clearly they’d clocked that Eclipse was looking for his lost arm. It wasn’t exactly a stretch to think he was reliving the moments that got it taken from him in the first place.

The smaller code looked down.

The towel had wrapped around his legs. 

That’s what was keeping him pinned down when he’d awoken.

“Don’t…remember…” He wheezed, not looking into those white pools. He didn’t want to see the hole. Didn’t want to see how the glass of their optics and the plastic of their casing spiderwebbed with cracks. He didn’t want to see the same look that he’d seen in the dream that made the knife in his gut twist and turn like a child with a plate of spaghetti.

Speaking of that feeling, it was still there and still roiling around inside him. If he could throw up he would have just to try and make it go away. 

“Well, that's good. That means the feelings will go away faster since they have nothing to latch onto.” Sun said kindly. Eclipse looked up at him incredulously, some of the terror of the nightmare ebbing away as he looked at the sheepish grin of the animatronic above him.

“Is that some bullsh*t you feed the kids when they have a nightmare? What, is the boogey man scared of you too so I don’t have to worry about him either?” He asked with a scoff despite the wheeze that still settled in his would-be lungs. Sun sat upright and planted his hands on his hips, turning his nose into the air. 

“I’ll have you know the boogey man is terrified of me thank you very much!” He pointed a finger at the little though didn’t bring it close. “And yes, that is what I tell the kids! To great success too!” He pulled his hand back and chuckled a bit, smiling a genuine, relieved smile.

Eclipse rolled his eyes but didn't say anything in retort. Not when those eyes were shining brightly once again.

He sighed.

As stupid as it sounded, the knockoff code wanted Sun's hand back.

Wanted to feel him there.

He wanted to feel his heat.

Wanted to know that it was safely contained within the yellow plastic that surrounded his metal endoskeleton and thin, delicate wires. 

God he didn’t like Sun but that was something entirely different. 

He’d have dreams of hurting the brothers before, but not quite like this. He’d never used his bare hands like that and Sun was never the main target. No, normally his dreams tilted more toward the side of grandeur and how amazing the world he wanted to make with the power of the star would be. How fulfilling it would be to squash the twins beneath his power and rule over a more perfect existence, with him as the sole god!

This was a roadblock in that plan (among various other roadblocks the past couple of months) but that dream had nothing to do with any of that. It was just…violent in a way Eclipse knew he could be and he would have been had he not been confined to Sun's mind. 

He was no stranger to violence, to killing and using others for his own gain, but for whatever reason that nightmare was the worst thing he’d experienced on his own since gaining consciousness the second time.

Fuck.

When did he start hating the idea of hurting them?

“Hey.” Sun said above him. 

Eclipse looked up, his breathing now blessedly even again, to see Sun was kneeling beside the little hole that had been cut into the side of the tub with hands flat on the ground, palms up in invitation. “Come see what I got you. It’s not amazing by any means, but maybe it’ll cheer you up a little?”

The tiny bot looked at his hands before looking away as the image of shattered plating and desperate reaching and a thin, broken, and garbled apology flashed across his mind. Another wheeze rattled his fans as he shook his head, unable to force words past the roiling in his chest.

Sun sighed quietly.

“I promise I won’t hurt you.” They whispered, misunderstanding his hesitation. “I’m sorry I scared you yesterday I just…got really mad. But I promise nothing will happen to you while you’re with me. Just…trust me? For like five seconds?”

Another apology. 

Another twist of the knife.

Another thing he didn’t deserve.

Eclipse groaned and motioned with his good hand for the larger to come closer. They weren’t going to leave him alone until he did what they wanted and that meant the shattered images weren’t going to stop either. (Nod along with whatever the older wanted to show off and maybe they’d leave him alone to suffer in silence.) Though at the moment the pain was way too much to even try crawling out of his spot himself. 

Besides, it was clear he was struggling just from the small wave he did, which was stiff and clunky. “Just f*cking…help me up. I think I broke something while I slept.” He mumbled, still not looking at Sun.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. You were really thrashing around Eclipse.”

Gingerly, Sun reached down and cupped his hands around the damaged animatronic before lifting upward and out of the tub. Eclipse felt his claws scratch against his paint. Felt as the metal beneath him didn’t give even a little bit because he was too small. There was no damaging the larger model while he was like this.

He felt the warmth coming from the metal. 

Safe and contained. 

He didn’t like Sun.

He didn't.

But that dream was too much.

Said animatronic carried the little one as you would a pet mouse, walking quickly to the desk before lowering his tiny cargo and letting him go. Dual eyes looked around, this being the first time since returning to the daycare he’s actually been capable of seeing the top of the desk. 

Much like the rest of the room it was pretty empty. There was a picture frame with Moon and Sun posing happily. A nerf gun sat nestled against the wall behind a sensible, business style laptop that was probably good for editing or emailing people but not good enough to actually record episodes themselves. A rubix cube, unsolved, sat nearby as well as a couple other little fidget toys because Sun, like Moon and Eclipse himself, could never stop moving unless something was wrong. 

The memory of Sun sitting completely still without so much as a ray twitching flashed across Eclipse's mind.

He ignored it.

It wasn’t much, but it still managed to look lived in despite the fact that Sun had since moved out of this room. It was still easy to see who lived here before, even if it wasn’t nearly as full as when Eclipse last saw it.

A yellow finger pointed past his head, snapping him out of his perusing of the desk. 

“There, see the little black thing? I found it online and thought maybe you could use it?”

Something small (for Sun) and flat lay on the desk in front of the laptop. The smaller of the pair carefully began to make his way over and looked down to try and decipher what it was. It was flat, but still raised about an inch off the desk, with buttons all across the bottom half. They looked like a keyboard, with numbers and symbols and everything. Above that, dead center, was a flat indent with little mouse indications. One finger for left click, two for right, and two fingers for navigating. To the left of that bit was a standard circle with ‘okay’ in the middle and arrows surrounding it, like you’d probably find on a tv remote.

Eclipse knelt slowly, gingerly reaching his good hand forward.

Silicon buttons met damaged fingertips. 

On the right of the indent was a red wheel and above that more tv remote style buttons. Home, volume buttons, stuff like that. At the very, very top on either side of the indent was two more buttons with little mouse indicators for right and left click respectively. 

He knew what this was. 

He’d once heard Moon call them a waste of money because of their size.

Why did Sun have one here?

It was a mini keyboard, the kind that you’d plug in with a USB. It was too small for Sun even just looking at it. One finger of his would cover at least a quarter of the keys, not to mention even trying to use the little middle part as a mousepad, as intended, would never work with the metal of the larger bodies. It was useless to the towering animatronic and to everyone he knew save for maybe Gregory the Human.

And maybe himself. 

Eclipse blinked slowly, unwilling to believe what he was beginning to understand.

He was small enough the track pad would have no trouble recognizing him, unable to tell the hand moving across it was metal as well. There was no way they’d bought this beforehand and only now remembered it existed, no. Sun had gone out and gotten him a present. 

Even after all he’s done to them. 

Even after yesterday.

“Do you like it? I know you’re not going to be the fastest with it until we get your arm fixed but I figured you don’t really need to be fast to turn on Netflix or something.” Suns bright but nervous voice said from behind him. “Oh! And it lights up, look!” 

The daylight attendant quickly reached past the smaller animatronic and slipped the USB from the back storage and plugged it into the computer. Immediately the pad lit up in a rainbow of colors that Eclipse just stared at, shoulders hunched as he desperately wished to disappear. 

“See? It’s mostly just while I’m downstairs and Bloody is out during the day. I thought it would be better than forcing you to sit here alone all the time.” Sun's hand retreated but the little didn’t follow to look at him. He stayed rooted to the spot, watching the RGB colors wave around the silicon buttons of the gift he knew he didn’t deserve.

“Hey, are you okay? Still thinking about the ni-”

Eclipse interrupted him mid sentence. “Why?”

Metal clicked against metal as Sun's rays twisted in confusion around his faceplate. An all-too-familiar click-click-click! that had been the background to Eclipse's life for so long. “Why what?” Sun asked, his voice lowering.

Eclipse hunched his shoulders more. 

He wanted to claim it was rage bubbling up inside his body, burning a hole through his mind and churning the wires of his gut. He wanted to claim he was angry when he barked out a harsh laugh that was almost a sob, hidden beneath the malice he always carried in his tone. He wanted to claim that same fire that burned through his code the first time Sun had been alone with him, that had let him scream angrily at Bloodmoon just the night before, was the reason he whirled around and snapped

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

Sun just put his hands together, not answering immediately.

He wanted to claim the question poured through white hot anger.

But it was not rage that made him continue.

“Why are you bothering to be nice? When….when I get big again I'm not going to stop fighting for what I deserve! I'm going to go right back to fighting you, to fighting Moon, for that blasted star! ”

Hasn’t he said this before?

Why did this time sound so different?

When did his anger turn to desperation?

He heaved a breath. His only hand was reaching up to his own ray, a mirror habit to the one he was yelling at, but wasn’t given the chance before one giant finger gently intercepted it and guided it back down. Eclipse snatched his hand back, leaning away from the warm touch.

“I am Eclipse! Remember?! The guy who trapped you in your head? The guy who wants to kill your brother? The guy who tortured you because it was convenient? Did you really just forget everything I’ve done to you? Are you honestly stupid enough to believe that anything you’re doing right now will stop me from tearing you apart in the future? ”

Broken yellow casing.

Shattered white eyes.

Oil stained orange fists.

The second violence code only wanted to win . To be seen as more than just the abandoned code he knew the celestial twins, that everyone saw him as. He was scrap, a mistake to be thrown away and never thought of again. But this scrap had clawed his way up, had forced them to recognize he existed and not only did he exist but he was just as if not smarter than the one that left him behind in the first place!

It didn’t fucking matter if Moon didn’t mean to.

It didn’t fucking matter if he was the aggressor.

It didn’t fucking matter if he was wrong.

Eclipse wanted to win .

He expected to be treated roughly. He expected the hatred and the vitriol of the bleeding twins. He expected the danger that hung over his head by hiding from Moon and Lunar. He expected the damage to his body as just another reason why all of them were wrong. But here was Sun who not only saved him from another death, but is going out of his way to make sure he’s safe and, so, so strangely, happy. Nothing the bright bot had done had been expected and Eclipse didn’t know what to do about that.

“Eclipse-” Sun started.

“I’m not going to change! I can’t! I don’t know how!” The tiny code cried, interrupting once again. “So why? It’s one thing if you’re too much of a pansy to actually kill me but this isn’t that! Why can’t anything make sense around here? Why are you so nice to me? Why are you bothering to try? ” 

The larger of the pair just looked down, hands clasped tightly together, silently staring at the floor. 

Eclipse wheezed out a desperate laugh, his only hand going to the blue cloth that still held his shoulder joint stable despite all the damage done to it. Sun had torn the clothes that they made themselves, for his sake. To keep him from bleeding out when all Eclipse was trying to do was hurt them, to use what they had against them.

“Would you let me help you any other way?” 

The smaller looked up from the desk to see Sun had turned back to him. There was a kind of determination in the older bots' eyes that had been there a couple days ago, when they’d been declaring that they’d finally do something to help. 

That they’d finally do something useful.

“If you’d been full sized when Bloodmoon attacked, would you have even asked for my help? Would you have let me touch you, even if it was to bring you down to parts and service? Would you have let me do anything but walk away?”

Sun spread his hands in clear exasperation. The exhaustion was back in his eyes. It dragged his shoulders down and froze his limbs until he was only moving in a jerky, robotic fashion that, despite being a robot, looked so very wrong. 

“Would you have rather died than ask for my help if you’d been your normal size?”

Eclipse opened his mouth to retort but paused, tiny gears whirring in his mind. Would he have asked for help? Would he have bothered to try if he’d been given the chance to hobble out of here on his own two feet? At best Sun would’ve called off the twins and he would’ve escaped angrier and more filled with hate than before, chalking the attack up on Sun and Moon rather than really wondering why Bloodmoon had switched sides as they had. At worst he would’ve bled out in the woods for a second time, alone and conscious enough to feel the pain for far longer than a few minutes.

No.

No, he would have rather died than beg for help from his enemy had he been normal.

He wouldn’t have been able to see the tiredness in Sun's body. How the twins cowered at the idea of hurting the two kindest celestial members. Wouldn’t have heard how the twins defected or seen that Killcode could be blackmailed into compliance with the right information. 

He wouldn’t have had that nightmare.

Where would he be? What would he be doing right now? Would he be alone in a bunker somewhere, terrified that Killcode would come through the door at any moment to kill him for leaving? Would he even be alive if Sun hadn’t pitied the tiny thing he’d become?

Eclipse looked down with a snarl.

Sun sighed and leaned down, his voice growing louder as he got closer.

“I said it before and I’ll say it again. I never wanted to hurt you, back in October. I wanted to find another way but then time ran out and we were trapped and…” Sun trailed off. Metal slid against metal when his rays retracted at the memory of the previous October, barely a couple months gone. “A-and then Moon was there saying that I could protect him and…that all I had to do to make everyone safe again was to get rid of you. ”

‘We tried so many times to-’

‘I don’t want to hear your stupid redemption crap!’

That's what Eclipse had yelled at the sunny attendant then. His plans foiled again after being dragged into the older bots head by magic that hadn’t been there before. Their bodies broken and bleeding from the bloodthirsty murderers attack, their distraction, back when the only thing holding the bleeding twins mind intact was the hunt for their next meal.

Sun had looked at him then, a terrible look of determination Eclipse had never seen in them before turning their mouth down in a frown, before they shook their head.

And just like Bloodmoon would later down the line, Eclipse taunted the yellow pushover.

Sharp words flew like daggers at Sun as they raised a hand and poorly spoke the words that would send his consciousness, dragged into a shoddy recreation of his mindscape form, into the woods to slowly bleed until no blood was left. He’d taunted the sun and he’d been killed for it. Only it had not been luck or kindness that brought him back, no, it had been his own foresight to make backups scattered all across the globe that let him return.

Even if his first backup had been a poor one.

Dual eyes looked up finally, dragging a lead weight for a head upward to a brilliant wall of yellow that used to be so much brighter in his memory. “I...won’t stop.” He mumbled desperately as he tried and failed to glare daggers. “Why won’t you hate me properly?” 

Sun sighed again and tilted his head, the exhaustion never leaving his face. There was still something in Eclipse that didn’t want him to look at him that way, that wanted to see the light he was sure was beaten out of the larger model by everyone around him, but he again shoved it down.

He didn’t care why Sun was so tired. 

He just wanted to know why he seemed to care.

“You needed help. You need help. I don’t really care if you want it from me right now or not. And maybe doing any of this means I’m the dumbest person on the planet but that doesn’t matter because I don’t want to hurt anyone. Not even you, Eclipse. And if that means listening to you scream at me or getting a tiny keyboard so you can occupy yourself or even just waking you up from a nightmare then I’ll do it. Even if you can’t understand it. Even if you still hate me with everything you are after this because you know what?” 

He sounded choked up, like he was going to cry. 

“If, when, you’re back to normal and you go back to trying to hurt us, to trying to kill us for the star, then at very least I’ll know it’s not because I took advantage of someone who couldn’t fight back. If you go back to everything you did before then I’ll know that I did everything I could to change your mind. To help you see that you don’t have to be this villain. I’ll have tried , at last, to help you like I’ve been wanting.” 

Sun pointed a finger at him, careful to keep it far away from his little body this time. There was a building kind of annoyance in his tone, but no real anger. No real hatred as there had been before. “So, until you are big again, until you can fight back fair and square, then I will keep you safe and alive. Or as fair and square as you ever do.” Sun stood straight now. “So go ahead. Scream all you want at me. I don’t care. I’m the dumbest person on the planet and I’m sorry for scaring you.”

Eclipse stayed silent as the larger animatronic turned and left the room without another word, staring even after the blue color had long disappeared from view. 

There was no rage.

There was no twisting knife.

There was no rattle in his chest.

Just a desperate confusion tearing a hole through his mind.

I messed up again.

He’s not lying.

What’s wrong with me?

Chapter Text

Sun didn’t come back until Bloodmoon could accompany him later that night. 

Eclipse figured it was so the brighter of the colors could negate whatever anger would arise from the pair seeing him so distressed and, while it might have started like that, it quickly became clear there was another reason they’d all returned at once. Eclipse turned when the door opened to see yellow and red together with downturned faces. Sun had a look of apprehension as he caught sight of the mini bot and gave a tiny wave.

A look of fear hid behind the poorly pinned smile.

Eclipse frowned.

Bloodmoon was grimacing when they entered the door ahead of Sun, eyes quickly landing on the broken doll-sized animatronic on the desk but surprisingly not lingering long. It was clear they were distracted by whatever happened before they came back. Their body was lowered halfway as they stalked into the room. They prowled toward their spot grumbling and growling something angry under their breath. Red tipped claws flexed at their side, shifting larger and smaller as they tried to control themselves.

They quickly took up their spot at the foot of the bed while Sun approached Eclipse with hands still clasped tightly together. In the near silence it wasn’t hard to hear the metal of his broken fingers creaking in protest.

“Um, I have to g-go h-h-home tonight.” Sun stammered. “I know I said I wouldn’t leave you alone with Bloodmoon anymore but Lunar’s home from Monty’s early and…” White eyes flicked away and a two-toned snarl filled the room, practically rattling the desk. Eclipse jumped violently and whipped to look at them but starry eyes never moved from the yellow larger. “I don’t want him home alone, you know?”

Eclipse didn’t know. 

Sure Lunar was childish, but he was still programmed to be able to take care of himself since the older of the pair was generally working. Plus he was in Moon's body so it wasn’t like an actual child who needed help reaching things or something. He’d be fine by himself until the morning. Sun could be a worrywart, but it didn’t make sense to think that the lunar child was in any more danger by himself than normal.

Unless, it wasn’t Lunar Sun was so worried about.

He was about to voice his opinion but the red twins suddenly lowered themselves down to a crouch in the corner and stalked over to Sun on all fours. Their eyes were nonexistent dots as they circled his feet before rising just enough to rest their hands on either side of the normally sunny bots legs all the while snarling like they had when they’d sensed Killcode in the darkness the night before. Even through their angry sounds their smile began to stretch wide, reaching from what would be ear to ear while Hazard's voice took over the body in animalistic anger. It was unsettling and Eclipse found himself falling silent, listening as best he could for bells that didn’t belong to Sun.

They peeked upward from behind Sun's legs.

“We will not be there to protect you if we’re left in the daycare.” 

They sounded feral.

Red tipped claws dug into blue pants and Sun winced, bringing his damaged hand down to pet their head in an effort to calm them down. That little action only seemed to light their fires further and they dug in more harshly, though it did seem like they weren’t close enough to even touch Sun's actual legs through the relatively poofy clothing. The older was trying to reassure them but Eclipse couldn't hear what he was saying past his racing thoughts.

Hunting, but different?

This was almost what they’d done the first time but also different. The first time it looked like they were about to jump the sunny attendant from behind before being caught but this time? This time they looked like they were hunting for Sun rather than hunting him. Dangerous eyes scanned the room and advanced hearing tuned into the world outside, claws dug in to make sure the one they cared about couldn’t leave their protection while their body let out universal warnings to ward off danger and death.

They looked like a loyal dog, heeled to their master.

They looked like a monster, guarding their next meal.

They weren’t even aware of it last time. 

Were they aware now?

Say something!

A deep breath in and-

“Hey!” Eclipse cried, this time loudly enough to be heard. “You’re f*cking scaring him! Get off!”

There hadn’t been time to check their code before they had to return to Sun's room.

There had been no time to find out if they were uncontrollably dangerous.

They didn’t want to hurt Sun, that had been made clear, but whatever this was made them look possessive and dangerous and until their code had been checked for reemerging kill protocols the smaller knew there was the possibility that this ‘protection’ was closer to ‘resource guarding’ than love or anger. At very least Eclipse had been able to call out this time.

I don’t want him to die.

If Sun is alive then I am too.

That’s the only reason.

Bloodmoon tore away like they’d been burned and scrambled back to their original spot. Eternally bleeding hands dragged down their face in a desperate effort to pull themselves together and they mumbled garbled, snarling, incoherent things in Hazard's tone as Sun watched in confusion and fear. “What was that about?!” The older exclaimed. Eclipse sighed, the knife that had been beginning to twist at the sight of the hunting pair easing up a bit.

His safety net was intact.

Sun was safe.

They hadn’t been aware.

That wasn’t the best thing, but at least it meant they were able to fight it off (whatever it is) if they’re brought to awareness about it. They weren’t so far gone as to not be safe yet, though given how they were currently reacting they may not be too far away from such a state.

Eclipse would have to tell Sun about the possible code. 

Just in case.

“They’ll have to stay here anyway. I need to look at their code to see if… whatever that was isn’t them wanting to tear you apart in your sleep.”  A desperate whimper escaped from the corner but Eclipse didn’t look over. It hadn’t been the most elegant way to explain himself but unless manipulation was called for the little was never one for beating around the bush. There was no way for Sun to hear that and do anything but stop and listen to what he needed to say. 

Their very life could depend on it after all.

However, the larger bot immediately snapped to where the whimpering was coming from and you could practically see their metaphorical heart breaking at the sound. They began to make their way over but Eclipse continued, hoping to make them stop and stay away from the dangerous weapon he’d once made. The knife dragged through the mirror animatronics gut again as blue advanced toward red.

Stop moving!

Why was he going toward the danger?

He needed to make them stop!

“ That is what they look like while hunting!” He cried to the daylight animatronics look of incredulous shock that was tossed back at him. 

Broken yellow casing 

“There’s a chance that some of the original violence codes I gave them are coming back or fixing themselves and the more riled up they get the more likely they are to tear you apart because you’re easy prey! Because I made them to prey on the weak and the helpless!” 

A fist sized hole through a white eye

Sun was looking at him like he was insane (which to be fair, he is but that's hardly the point right now!) and shook his head vigorously. “What? No! They’ve always done that when Lunar or I get upset about something important!” The brighter model exclaimed. “They’re just worried Moon will get angry tonight and they won’t be there to deflect that anger like normal. They’re not going to hurt me!”

Shattered pleas for mercy

He said it with such confidence, such insane certainty, that the smaller of the pair could only stare in a state of disbelief that was quickly becoming familiar.

Blackened orange fists

“You idiot! They’re going to kill you and then they’re going to come after me and everyone else you care about!” Eclipse roared from his useless spot on the desk. “I can make sure they’re safe! I can look at their code just like Moon can with you! I can see if their kill codes are returning!” Wobbly legs barely let him move from in front of the computer to the edge closest to the bed where Bloodmoon still huddled. It was like he was trying to bar the others way but was obviously unable to.

A body not under his control

Sun blinked at him in pure confusion. 

Bloodmoon let out another series of terrified whines.

Sun turned back to them.

“I’m not f*cking with you! I’m not trying to hurt them or control them!” The smaller cried, desperation he didn’t even realize was there overflowing into his tone. “If you die then I do too, you said so yourself! Let me look at them and make sure they're safe! Let me make sure we’re safe! I swear I’m not trying to trick anyone, just don’t go near them!”

Please just stop

It’s not safe

“Hey whoa,” Sun said gently. His head turned back toward Eclipse while the rest of him remained facing the twins for a moment. When he saw how close the mini was to the edge he turned fully. “It’s really okay. I promise they’re not going to hurt me, no matter how riled up they seem. Take a breath before you pass out okay? Here, I can show you.” Bright rays clicked in and out of place as Sun smiled reassuringly at the smaller. His desperate hands unclasped and he reached out a placating hand toward the desk while his broken one remained on his chest. Then he turned and moved toward the mumbling pair. 

The little sucked in a breath, his body rattling as the same sense of fear he’s felt since first being chased drowned out every other thought. Broken legs shook and mixed eyes glared a hole through the back of the larger caretaker's head. A shaking orange hand, yet to be stained black, curled into a fist at his side as he desperately wished he was large enough for the other to fear not listening to him. He wanted to jump in the way. He wanted to grab Sun and yank him away. He wanted to do something besides watch the idiot throw both their lives away. All the while one thought ballooned above all the others.

I can’t see you die again.

 Eclipse watched as the older went over to the foot of the bed where the pair was still crouched and mumbling to themselves. The smaller scoffed, trying to shake the feeling of dread, in his rigid state. He knew his creation, he knew how they worked.  He knew the codes he’d implanted to drive them mad, to make them thirsty when they were unable to drink, to make them become the embodiment of hell on earth. Maybe he didn't know who they were as a person anymore, but Eclipse knew what he'd intended them to be. Death clearly hadn’t changed them too much if they were willing to tear him apart, so that meant they could be exactly what he made them to be!

He was too small to stop his bright half.

Two different eyes glared as he stood still as a statue, bracing himself for red to meet yellow and blue in a flurry of violence and fear.

But that didn’t happen.

Instead Sun kneeled down and pulled the combined pair close to his chest. “Oh come here. Jesus, what has he been telling you?” The daylight attendant sighed and curled around the red murderer. As simple as could be blue arms wrapped around their shuddering form and pulled them in until they were flush against his body. Thin rays retracted so a flat head could rest on top of Bloodmoon's jester hat as Sun buried his face as best he could. “Don’t listen to him okay? He hasn’t seen you in a couple of months. Of course he’d get some stuff wrong.”

At first the twins stiffened and began to pull away, but then they froze. Eclipse watched their faces begin to twitch and change as they fought a war inside their minds. Red claws spasmed and every curl had something jumping to life in the tiny code's mind. 

Maybe it was a war with each other or maybe with their emotions there was no way to tell from here but slowly, the bleeding pair eased their mumbling and their hands came to wrap lightly around the suns arm instead of clawing at their face, dual colored pentagrams looking up to meet empty white pools.

It was clear they were fighting not to move too quickly in case they hurt him.

Maybe that was why they didn’t pull away even though they could?

Their strength?

Yellow rays click-click-clicked! back and forth across the daylight caretakers head to replace the desperate whines and cries of the more animalistic of the pair. “It’s gonna be okay, Bloody.” A soft voice sighed. “Moon will be too busy tracking Killcode's last outing to even notice we’re home okay? I’m just going to be there as a precaution until we can figure out somewhere else to have Lunar stay, you know? It’s gonna be fine.” 

Sun knows about Killcode?!

Not only knows about the killer older, but knows they leave with their brother's body and that Bloodmoon keeps them at bay from the rest of the family.

No wonder he wasn’t scared by the animalistic reactions of the twins, he’s probably seen it every time his brother stops being his brother.

Bloodmoon sighed, nanites losing shape and they relaxed against the body of their new master. Their voices mixed and their eyes grew to be seen again. They crooned that light tone though it was weighed down with fear. Words, it seemed, were still too far out of reach at the moment.

Red and yellow and blue all mixed together so much it would’ve been impossible to tell where Sun ended and Bloodmoon began if their colors hadn’t been so drastically different. The bleeding pair had lost so much shape it looked like the yellow animatronic was cradling a blanket rather than another sentient being in his lap. It was so strange to see the normally manic murderers so relaxed around someone else. To feel so safe in their former enemy’s arms that they’d let their nanites just lose all structure because he held them.

Sun chuckled a bit, raising his arms slightly in a ‘would you look at this?’ fashion.

Sun turned and smiled at Eclipse, eyes brighter than when he’d first walked in.

Sun wasn’t scared. 

Eclipse understood why.

A tiny, exhausted body slowly sank to its knees on the desk as all the fear vanished at once. Rattling fans and shaking limbs eased when breathing deepened and servos calmed. 

Sun had been right, they weren’t going to hurt him. 

The other turned back and lowered his arms. He patted the mess that used to be the twins. “I’m the adult of this little group, remember? I’ll make sure Lunar is absolutely safe and if things get dicey I’ll call or text and you can come running. I can deal with Killcode even if he is stronger than me, you know? I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again, okay? It’s okay.”

And with a disbelief that Eclipse was slowly getting used to feeling, he watched as Bloodmoon calmed for the second time from their angry hunters state. He watched as they too wrapped what were probably supposed to be arms around Sun and held him tight, like he was able to fuse into their body with them. He watched as their body slowly reformed and they nodded before pulling away, eyes shining brightly even in the fully lit room.

“Second Sun will determine if our mind will run.” They said quietly, two voices equally heard again. “If it will then we will do whatever it takes to keep ourselves from our former fun. This loaded gun is only yours, never to be used by those your family abhors. We couldn’t stand you fearing our hand like in your brother's land.” They buried their face again, desperately clinging in a way Eclipse had never seen them do before. Sun winced at their last line but said nothing.

“We don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t Bloody. If you were going to hurt me I think you would’ve by now. I’m super easy prey.” 

Sun chuckled darkly and apologized when the killer shot them a disapproving look but finally let Bloodmoon go and stood up. “But if you feel better getting checked then that's okay. I just know that isn’t something I’m really worried about, no matter how scared I might look at times. That's just how I am.” He smiled down at them. The light died in their eyes somewhat, easing the violent glow of the pentagrams. “Just make sure you’re protecting yourselves. I trust Eclipse to help you, but he’s still Eclipse.” He chuckled before turning and walking back to the aforementioned tiny. He looked at the little guy for a minute as something flashed through his face.

“Second Sun huh? I think it’s nice.” He chuckled a little toward the twins. 

White teeth flashed him a smile back.

He turned back.

“I’ve…never seen you act like that. But I think I get it.” White eyes looked down with sympathy as he leaned forward, trying to be closer to eye level without kneeling closer to the desk. “I know they hurt you, but they did it to protect me and Lunar. It’s okay to be scared, but I’m not dying to them and neither are you anytime soon. Run your checks to make sure they’re okay, but I know that's not what that is. What they are. But I understand why you'd be afraid of that.”

Eclipse stared without speaking.

Sun stood straight again and turned his back.

“And they’ll know if you try to hurt them so choose wisely. I’ll see you tomorrow, Eclipse.” And with that Sun turned and began to head for the door. The smaller watched with building-

Anger. 

Venomous anger was beginning to build up.

The fire was ignited again and all self preservation flew straight out the window.

Eclipse was pissed.

The one time he was actually trying to help this little fucker and Sun wouldn’t listen?!  

Apparently he’d been told about Killcode before. If he knew about one violence code Eclipse had worked with why the fuck wouldn’t he believe him about the other one? If he knew that Killcode was a recurring problem and Bloodmoon could be just as dangerous, why would he ignore someone trying (for once) to keep him alive!? The first and only time Eclipse had tried to keep him safe and not only had he been utterly ignored, but shown up too! 

Deep down, Eclipse was relieved he’d been wrong. 

Relieved that Sun had been able to show him how wrong he was with such confidence.

But the violent sun had never been one for losing.

He stood again just as Sun reached the door.

“F*ck you!” He beeped. Sun stopped but didn’t turn back. “If you’re not going to listen to me when I tell you someone's f*cking dangerous than I’ll just let you get mauled! Might teach you a godd*mn lesson about opening your nonexistent ears you stupid hunk of scrap metal!” Bloodmoon snarled in the corner but Eclipse didn’t care. He saw as the yellow attendant raised a hand to them, clearly telling them to stand down, but would’ve continued regardless.

“That is the last time I try to keep you safe you b*stard! What, are you more scared of Moon than Bloodmoon or Killcode? Are you more worried he’ll tear you apart than me? ‘Cause that’s what it f*cking sounds like from here!”

Sun visibly ducked at those words, rays retracting inward. Bloodmoon snarled again but didn’t advance. Instead, they backed further into the corner. A damaged face split into a snarl as Eclipse leaned forward, trying to ignore how his legs didn’t want to support him after the earlier scare.

Stop talking

Stop yelling 

He doesn’t deserve this

You wanted him to be right

You were relieved he was right

Stop hating him for being right

He tried not to let the twisting blade in his gut distract him too much from holding a snide smirk on his face when Sun raised his head back up and turned back to him.

The smirk died when only a simple “Yes.” was said.

And then he was gone.

And then the room was silent again.

Chapter Text

There was no mumbling to be heard tonight.

 Well, not at first.

Eclipse was still on the desk where he’d been left. The night cycle had begun long ago so the lights in the room had dimmed, but he hadn’t wanted to ask (or even get the attention of) Bloodmoon in order to get down and go to sleep. Whatever this curse was clearly made it so he didn’t need to charge and he’d just been gifted a usable keyboard so, unable to sleep, he was taking full advantage of the trust Sun left him with.

It was stupid to give a tech genius access to a keyboard and your computer.

A single orange hand tapped quickly across the silicon keys as Eclipse glared at the bright laptop screen and the lines of code he was trying hard to keep up with. With only one hand it was difficult to time attacks on Moon's systems but that just meant he’d have to be more preemptive about it.

That computer.

That was his chance to make sure that blasted AI can’t fuck him over.

Hacking into a supercomputer shouldn’t be easy (and it wasn’t) but everything Moon would know, Eclipse knows too. It was child's play to hack into the main computer even with his broken body. Like this he should be able to do anything he wants, steal files, speak through the computer itself, and (most importantly) have access to the cameras in the daycare and surrounding area.

There was no way that one or more of the cameras hadn't picked him up in the last couple of days. He himself is tiny, but Bloodmoon and Sun haven’t exactly been discreet in helping or hiding (or threatening if you were the red twins) him as they moved through the daycare and theater. It was a miracle already that Moon hadn’t noticed the footage or been alerted to it by the AI pair.

It was easy enough to delete and loop earlier footage of Bloodmoon chasing him down and tearing him apart days ago. The timestamps were wrong, but if Moon hadn’t already noticed something as drastic as the resident murderer mauling something on camera he certainly wasn’t going to notice the date and times being incorrect by a couple hours. It also wasn’t super clear what they were going after at first, but once the screaming started it didn’t matter that he was too small to be properly seen.

Eclipse tried to delete the footage quickly.

Hearing his own screams wasn’t something he wanted to linger on.

God, the pain from that moment still burned through every damn scratch.

The confrontation with Killcode was a little harder to fudge, mostly because there was the very real possibility that the lunar code would come looking for this specific date and time and figure out he’d been hacked. The loop wouldn’t work if the computer had already tracked his location to the Pizzaplex but nothing showed up on camera.

Moon was always tracking his body.

Or Monty was.

Someone would notice the footage missing.

Eclipse sighed and figured he’d have to bully the computer into lying about Moon's whereabouts, then let Bloodmoon know to do the same, then change the times just in case, then loop the footage in case someone, anyone really, came looking. With enough investigation the hack could be found, but it would hopefully buy Sun and Bloodmoon some time to come up with somewhere to hide him. Or for him to get the hell out of here.

Though that second one was far less likely.

Eclipse sighed and ran his only hand down his face with a tiny scraping sound. Dead-tired white eyes flashed through his memory as he lowered his head. Sun’s declaration of fear had been lingering with him ever since the larger body had left earlier and, like so many other things have been since he came back, it was all so confusing.

Does Moon know about Killcode too? Why would Moon be so angry if he knew that Bloodmoon was keeping the killer code in check? Why did it seem like everyone was more terrified of Moon than the sentient code that was literally created to kill things? Either of them? Any of them?

What had happened in the couple of months he was gone?

Whatever. It didn’t matter as long as Moon didn’t find him. Still though, something was off. Sighing again Eclipse turned back to the bright computer screen to continue the effort to erase his existence from the recent footage. Come to think of it, he’d probably have to change the AI’s code to make sure they didn’t rat him out from spite alone after this. Neither A.I. really liked anyone in the daycare, but they were still created to be Moon's equal in some sense. They were petty enough to choose not to open the portal when their creator was calling for it so they'd definitely be petty enough to give away the tiny bots location after he hacked the system. Silicon keys squished underneath his hand, completely silent in the darkness.

The volume was down on Sun's laptop so as not to bother the twins or alert anyone that happened to walk by, so it was easy to hear when the mumbling began.

At first he ignored it. Sounds in the night weren’t something he’d ever really thought of before, but soon the mumbling turned into whimpering and Eclipse turned, realizing as he came out of his own coding haze that Sun had gone home that night and he was alone with their guard.

Bloodmoon was crying.

The same terrified, desperate whimpers and whines Hazard had been making when he’d learned they could be a danger to those they’d come to love. Eclipse rubbed one eye with the good hand and wobbled precariously to his feet. It didn’t take long to reach the edge of the desk and look down to where the red protector had curled themselves up to sleep, close enough to keep the smaller of them from falling and causing more damage to himself in the event he fell.

Even from up here Eclipse knew they were both asleep. There was no one piloting the body tonight. He could tell because the normally big, bright pentagrams that filled their blackened sockets were gone leaving them empty and dark. 

Their voices didn’t overlap, didn’t even make it out of their open mouth as their body lay slack-jawed on the floor. The driver's seat was empty, but the car was still running. Claws sharp enough to tear metal apart twitched and tore at the body's chest and the floor, gouging deep marks as they went. Animalistic whimpers and whines were forced out as the nanites they were made of shot in various directions with whatever emotions ran through the pair's mind.

A nightmare. 

Don’t ask how he knew, but Eclipse knew it was a nightmare.

The smaller code sighed and looked around before spotting the unsolved rubix cube across the desk. Moving carefully he made his way over to the puzzle toy and leaned against it, stumbling badly as it slid easily across the smooth surface. 

Eclipse huffed, slightly annoyed. 

Of course it wasn’t going to be as difficult as the round ball across the carpet of the theater, even at this size and with this amount of damage.

The little bot tried again, more aware of the lack of friction, and was able to quickly slide the cube right above the sleeping twin's body. After taking a moment to make sure he was lined up properly (and could hobble to hide behind the laptop quickly enough) a tiny orange body shoved with all its might against the light plastic and sent it skittering off the edge of the desk. 

He turned and tried hard to run quickly away. After a moment there was a very distinct smack! sound as plastic hit metal and a snarl as one of the two slid in to pilot the body against the attack. There was a pause, and then a huff.

Eclipse managed to hide behind the open laptop lid just as a red tipped hand slapped down on the desk edge and familiar pentagram eyes squinted against the still bright screen. Bloodmoon blinked and growled, clearly wondering how the cube managed to fall on them and where their ward had gone off to. 

Small fans rattled with a deep inhale.

“Didn’t know murderers could get nightmares.” Eclipse remarked sarcastically.

Hiding behind a computer meant it came off as pretty pathetic, but hey, he wasn’t keen on a repeat of the previous night. Colorful eyes snapped to where he peeked out from the lid and the smaller animatronic thought they were about to reach over and grab him again, but their hand never left the edge. Instead, they blinked and looked down. Their head dipped and when it returned their other hand held the cube within sight.

“You…puzzled us awake?”

There it was. There was the overlapping tones, the two voices that mixed and matched to become one in a body made of two. The voice held confusion more than malice or sadistic glee right now, but still, it was Bloodmoon's voice. It wasn’t the desperate whimpers of a cornered animal and that's all Eclipse cared about at the moment.

He scoffed.

“I’m working and your stupid wounded dog sounds were interrupting me. Besides,” He snarked, flashing his own sharped tooth grin as best he could. “this is the only way I’m able to hit you back.” 

The pair stared at him for a minute in pure silence before their grin stretched wide, catching the white light of the laptop screen, and they laughed aloud. Not a snicker or a sadistic chuckle, a full, open mouthed laugh that sounded so close to something Sun would make. One hand gently put the cube back in its spot while the other came to rest on their cheek as they howled with laughter in the dark room.

“You little snake!” They howled.

An orange pupil looked away, annoyed by their laughter.

“Well this snake is the reason you stopped seeing whatever it was you were seeing so f*ck off!” He exclaimed, leaning out from behind the lid. The twins shook their head and stood straight, towering over the desk once again. One hand lifted and waved, gesturing for him to come out of hiding.

“Come out from there. We are not mad you snapped us awake. After what we were seeing we’d rather be aware.” One body became two as Hazard and Harvest split apart. Hazard sat in Sun's chair and began to spin in it like a toddler left unsupervised while Harvest kneeled back down to their original spot in front of the desk. Their eyes flicked to the toy gun behind the smaller code and before Eclipse could even think of moving they’d snatched it and brought it to their mouth.

Nanite teeth clacked lightly against the plastic as one half of the red beast indulged in a version of self soothing. The smaller of the codes rolled his eyes and stepped out from behind the lid. If either of them had wanted to grab him they would’ve by now so he figured it was probably safe enough to return to what he was doing.

He sat back down with some difficulty and began working again, this time surrounded by the sounds of the violent twins around him. The flow of his work was thrown off, mostly because the room was no longer quiet, but the odd thing was that Eclipse found that he didn’t actually mind . 

The chair Hazard was still spinning in squeaked with each rotation but the squeak was slightly different each time he shifted his body weight to keep it going. An obnoxiously repetitive squeak-squawk-squeak! that shifted in volume every minute or so. The other half was also clearly having a good time if the quiet, manic giggling was anything to go off of. On the other hand Harvest was quieter, but also closer. It wasn’t hard to hear the click-clack-click! of cheap plastic and expensive metal meeting again and again. A quick glance back even showed that this probably wasn’t the first time Harvest had done this. Old teeth marks were visible in the dull blue plastic, just barely illuminated by the light from the computer screen.

He sighed and tried to go back to copying footage. 

All traces of the Killcode confrontation had been deleted, now it was just a matter of doing everything else to make it seem legit. 

Copy over earlier footage from the day.

Spend time trying to match the date and times so it didn’t look strange on first inspection.

Input new code to silence the computer about his whereabouts, even when asked.

It would also probably be a good idea to scramble the computer's locator in case Moon decided he wanted to confront the mini code face to face. The darker twin hadn’t up to this point, thankfully, but if this hack job was found out there was a chance the more violent of the two would be able to figure out only someone like himself would be capable of such change. Obviously a search would turn up that he was in the daycare and then it would be too late to do anything. 

Eclipse sighed and reached to enter a new line of code.

“You’re going to have to pretend like Killcode didn’t come here last night. I’m changing the footage now to hide myself, but to hide me it looks like I’m hiding you so, if Moon asks, you’re gonna have to lie to him.” He remarked absently. He tapped away at rainbow buttons he didn’t deserve. Lying had never been the twins forte, but he was sure they could at least deny any involvement until Moon was even bluer in the face. Besides, the other attendant would have no proof of anything if they did. 

Affirmative noises sounded behind him. 

“Lying will be easy.” Harvest remarked lazily from his spot. “If it means our stars are safe then we can do it plenty and readily.”

Eclipse paused.

There it was again. 

The nagging idea that everyone here was more afraid of Moon than they should be.

“It’s Moon. Of course they’ll be safe. Shouldn’t you be more worried about the murderous code in his head?” The mini asked without bothering to look over. Harvest scoffed and the sounds of plastic shifting could be heard as they raised their head higher off the desk.

“Killcode we can handle with ease. The truce between him and Moon Man means all that needs to be done to make him freeze is to call our stars to see that control of the body he’s seized. Since he doesn’t want to be perceived he retreats back quickly enough when attention is achieved.”

He huffed angrily and dropped back down with a muffled thump!  

“If the moon would listen to us, of this diseased presence we could be relieved. But no. Clearly all our protection so far has been for show. Even if we protect our stars no matter the blow.” 

They sounded so annoyed, but still that didn’t explain why anyone seemed scared .

“Well it’s not been for show, but that doesn’t mean that can’t change. Moon’s always been about as paranoid as I am so that checks out.” Eclipse said with an eyeroll. Honestly Moon always wanted to act like he was so much better than the abandoned code but at the end of the day half of what Eclipse is once belonged to him. 

A shattered mirror image. 

His paranoia, his self loathing, his kill code, all left behind in someone who he’d come to resent as a rival to his own intelligence. 

And it hadn’t even mattered in the end.

Those traits hadn’t truly been left behind.

“Still though, you’re really scared of Moon more than Killcode?” The little remarked incredulously, turning to briefly look at one half of the red murderer. Harvest’s white pupil flicked to meet his own orange one as he snarled, low and dangerous. Hazard slowed his spinning, apparently only now tuning in to the conversation.

“We fear none but that-” He cut himself off with another deep snarl that had Eclipse leaning back slightly. The sound stopped a moment later, but still. Hazard looked between his brother and his ward and returned to his fun, satisfied he wasn’t needed for this particular conversation. Harvest let out another huff. “He has already caused our stars to run from here. Your twin should be your other half, not treated as lowly staff.”

Puzzlement quickly overrode Eclipses’ fear.

“Coming from you that means something. Sun ran off at some point because of what Moon did? What did he do?” 

Harvest stood now towering over the smaller code before leaning in close. Their pentagram eye washed his little body in pink light on one side as they glared directly into his own singular pupil. 

“Act. Like. You.” 

Eclipse leaned back, his fans kicking into a higher gear once again. Hazard still spun in the chair off to the side so he didn’t think Harvest planned on hurting him (the more animalistic of the pair would certainly stop to revel in it if that was the case) but those words didn’t exactly fill the man with confidence in his own safety.

Harvest rumbled deep in their chest.

“Angry words the moon swore and light casing he would have tore if we had not been there to even the score.” Eclipses’ eye’s widened at their words. “It was not our poor excuse for a father that sent him off his rocker. It was his hatred for me and my other trying to prove we were not a threat to his brothers that almost got one of our starlight's smothered.”

Moon had tried to hurt Sun? 

Had maybe tried to kill him?

If the lunar model had made a deal with Killcode not to hurt his family then it couldn’t have been his influence causing that rage. Killcode kept his deals, if only for the leverage he could create later. No, just like Sun was very capable of being angry even without Eclipse in his head, so too was Moon able to be violent without influence from the code that originally made him as such. If Killcode wasn’t to blame for something bad happening with Sun then that meant…

Moon acted on his own.

Tiny eyes stared past Harvest even as they lowered themselves back to their original place on the ground. Visions of shattered eyes and dying pleas played across the violent suns mind as he tried to understand how Moon could become so violent toward his own brother. The same brother that Moon claimed he’d fight tooth and nail for not a few months ago, before Eclipse had been trapped down in that bunker.

Harvest picked up the gun again and chomped down on it. There was a vicious crack! and they quickly tore away, guiltily looking down at where the toy was now clearly split by a large crack. They leaned away, trying not to do that again.

“It is the moon we fear if we are not there to take the ire that drips from our celestial peer.” Harvest remarked. Hazard had also gone silent as he spun, sharing the thoughts of his brother though less able to express them in words. 

“Our lights faded.” Hazard said as he slowed. “In our minds' eyes, we were forced to say goodbye.”

“I know what you mean.” Eclipse mumbled. Both twins looked at him and he’d realized he’d said that loudly enough to be heard. 

Whelp.

Fuck.

No turning back now.

“I…had a nightmare like that too. Sun had to wake me up earlier because I was thrashing so hard.” 

The red twins looked at each other, then back at him, their heads tilted in opposite directions in intrigue. A single orange hand waved in the air quickly as Eclipse turned back to the computer abruptly. “Whatever! I don’t want to talk about it. Now leave me alone to fake this footage.” He commanded, knowing full well they were unlikely to listen to him. But, to his silent surprise, the two halves of Bloodmoon returned to their previous activities without another word.

Hazard began to spin again, giggling like a psycho every now and then, and Harvest more gently bit at the fake weapon in his hand. The sounds from earlier were no less distracting, but it was now more familiar and paying attention to that or the lines of code in front of him was so much easier than unraveling the mysteries of a family he hated.

Did he hate them?

He’d been so desperate to keep Sun alive earlier. Desperate in a way he hadn’t felt since first waking up and realizing that he, that Moon , had split himself just to get away from the violence code that made him up. That he’d been left alone to rot because he wasn’t good enough. 

He thought he hated Sun, even if it was far less than the one who abandoned him, but everyday it was getting harder and harder to say that. Every act of random, idiotic kindness made that knife twist deeper and the only thing that ever made it stop was seeing Sun smile. Was seeing the light come back to his eyes even because of something stupid, like Bloodmoon practically turning into a blanket in his lap. Or Eclipse making that boogeyman remark earlier.

Did he hate Lunar? He hadn't seen the kid since coming back but Sun and Bloodmoon talk about him with such love it was hard to see the kid that betrayed him back in October. Sun even said that Lunar only wanted to love him, even after all he’d done, and Eclipse didn’t know what to do with that. 

Your twin should be your other half, not treated as lowly staff.

The smaller eclipse variant wasn’t his twin, but he was built to be his brother. Eclipse knew he hadn’t treated the younger code well when he’d been in charge, apparently like Moon was doing now. Maybe…maybe a programmed connection wasn’t enough to keep someone by your side if you treat them like “lowly staff…” 

Besides, even if there were still negative feelings about being betrayed, Lunar was now stuck with both Moon and Killcode and after hearing even a vague overview of another incident Eclipse wasn’t sure he wanted Lunar to suffer anymore.

Maybe he’d done enough to the child.

And even now, tiny and maimed, he couldn’t even hate Bloodmoon. They’d found somewhere that wanted them despite everything they are and it wasn’t because they forced their way in, or because they were a tool and little else, or even because Sun and Lunar cared that they were a guard for them. It was just because they cared about someone other than each other. They’d found their home and they were defending it from people like him.

People that deserved to be hurt.

Moon. Right now Moon was the only one Eclipse could still say he hated with everything he was. Moon was always the target from the start, with everyone else being stepping stones or tools used to further the mini’s goal to make the lunar attendant regret leaving him behind. But even that reason seemed to be falling to the wayside the more time he spent with these tools. He wasn’t mad that Moon left him behind when he heard about Sun being afraid, he hated that the dim twin made Sun scared.

Never before had he felt anything like he had in these last few days. Fear and desperation and confusion. Anger and violence had always driven him forward but with that drive being partially the reason he was like this in the first place it begged the question, was anything he was doing worth it?

Maybe nobody cared about him, but was that really his fault?

Is it my fault I’m alo-

Something sharp touched right in between his shoulders. The smaller froze. There were still squeaking noises coming from somewhere behind him and to the left so it wasn’t Hazard, (how long had he been spinning now? Wasn’t he dizzy yet? Apparently not because that twin was still happily giggling) but Harvest’s chewing had gone suspiciously quiet since last he’d checked.

The claw on his back slowly began to slide down and Eclipse flinched away, desperately twisting to swat it away with his good hand. Battered fans wheezed into a higher gear as he turned to meet Harvest’s eyes with fear in his own duel optics.

“What the f*ck are you doing?” He snapped as best he could through the terror.

Harvest took their hand back, hovering it over the small bot rather than returning it to the gun in their other hand, and grinned from behind the plastic. “You’re shaking.” He said quietly. The claw came down and reached past him to gently tap his back. The squeak of Sun's chair came to an abrupt stop as Hazard paused his fun to watch his sibling. “You’re so clearly aching, you’re mind breaking. Your fear of us is just and we do not apologize for doing what we must to keep our stars intact in their casing, but…” 

 Eclipse barely breathed as the sharp claw stopped tapping and instead rested lightly on his back and began to move up and down soothingly. 

He stared in disbelief as one half of the murderer he built tried to comfort him.

“We promise we’re not faking.” Hazard rumbled from where he sat. His single red pupil was tiny against the black of his socket, the way he normally looked when angry, but as his tongue began to loll out of his mouth he actually put a hand up to push it back in. “If you want to help us with our stars saving we will do our best to ease your quaking. Promise.”

They hadn’t broken a promise yet.

To him or to Sun.

Eclipse let out a shaky breath as his mind raced to catch up to what was happening.

Hazard purred from his spot, matched perfectly by his brother. “Easy. We’ll be gentle until into a new mental state you can settle.”

Slowly, a tiny orange body turned back to the computer and put a hand on the keyboard. He took a deep breath in to try and steady his racing fans. In his mind he knew that Hazard, at very least, was reacting to his fear. Sensing that he was broken and scared and therefore easy prey. But, instead of doing anything they’d done for Sun, this time it was quiet and calm. 

This time the hunt never started.

The claw returned to his back but this time he didn’t turn around, just lowered his head the same way Sun had earlier when he’d been screaming those terrible things.

Had Moon said something like that before? Had Sun been hearing his brother's words from his worst enemy? Had Bloodmoon been so angry not just because they didn’t like Eclipse, but because they were seeing the same abuse he hurled at Sun being thrown at home?

The claw scratched lightly down his back, not hard enough to even scratch his already damaged paint. It strangely felt…safe? It shouldn’t, given who was behind him. Whose claw was touching him. He knew everything about Bloodmoon. How violent they were, how attached to each other they were, how indestructible they were, but this was a side he’d never seen.

They weren’t even this gentle with the daytime attendant.

“I didn’t mean to…to yell at Sun.” Eclipse wheezed quietly as he stared at the screen blankly. “I don’t know why I did. I was just…mad.”

“We know.” Came the unified reply.

Maybe Sun was right.

He didn’t know everything about them anymore.

Chapter Text

“Hey!” Sun's voice called as the door opened. “I’m back! Good morning!’

Eclipse groaned and rolled over, trying to ignore him, only for his plastic bed to go flying as Bloodmoon (who had returned to being one body sometime in the night) tore across the room. After a small-because-he’s-small yelp they paused long enough to catch the tub and stop him from soaring out of it, but then turned right back to their master to throw their arms around him. Sun laughed and held them too before realizing what had just happened and looking toward his tiny ward.

The orange mini huffed and hauled himself upright, glaring angrily at them.

He spent a good long time last night after their talk getting the footage to look realistic enough for Moon to not ask questions (as well as the other things that were needed) and so he didn’t get to bed until very late. While it was apparent his battery never ran down his mind was nowhere close to the same and he was tired after the terror and revelations of the night before.

“Bloody be careful! You could’ve hurt him!” Sun exclaimed. He broke free from the hug and made his way over, offering a hand which Eclipse quickly scrambled into as a pink shoe slammed down nearby again. It wasn’t close to him (their body had split in a rather creepy manner to make sure of that) but with the way they were acting it was probably safer to be in someone's hand rather than the floor.

Sun smiled down at him once he was close and sighed exasperatedly. “I’m sorry I left you alone. Were you alright? I know you were really afraid of them yesterday.” 

Deep rumbles

Angry snarls

Gentle claws

Quiet words

Eclipse huffed.

“I’m not dead yet.” He scoffed. He shifted in the sun's hand and brushed against their still damaged fingers. A grimace fell across his features as something dawned on the tiny bot. It now made sense why Sun hadn’t gone to his brother for repairs if Moon really was being more violent than normal. 

After another moment of readjusting a single hand gestured at the broken digits. “We really should-” A pause as he looked up and something caught his eye. 

“What happened to your face?”

Sun’s expression dropped.

Bloodmoon snapped to attention from behind the attendant at those words. 

They scrambled over from their spot by the bed before practically throwing Sun around in a circle to look at him properly. Eclipse clung to blue clothes with a yelp, having not expected the twins to do that, before reorienting himself and twisting to see up again. Sun stammered as both the red pair and the orange mini looked intently at his face where, barely noticeable against his bright casing, there were small cracks running from his eye down his cheek all the way to the chin.

“It’s not what you think?” The yellow caretaker offered uncertainly. 

Bloodmoon lost it.

Eternally bloodied hands left blue covered arms and grabbed the white edge of their jester cap and they leaned forward. Pink shoes backed quickly away as they snarled. Violently, they tossed their head back and forth as though both sides were fighting for control of the nanites that made them up. Their body lowered and their claws grew significantly larger, dragging down and through their face in a way that caused their image to ripple and distort disturbingly. Eclipse leaned against Sun knowing full well the damage they could do if they chose to lunge right now.

They weren’t going to.

Because they wouldn’t hurt Sun.

But still.

Pentagram eyes shone brightly even in the light as they turned to leave. Sun reached and just barely managed to catch the end of one of the little tail things they had when combined with his good hand. This was enough to make them stop but before anyone could say anything they whirled on him and growled like a feral animal. 

Eclipse huddled closer to the blue shirt behind him.

Sun didn’t even wince.

“Bloody wait-”

“Did Moon do this?! What of Little Lu, did he hurt him too? Oh that bastard will rot when we find him! Shuttered lab or not!”  

Red nanites split apart and seemingly crumbled to dust in the daylight attendant's grip as they immediately broke away and stalked for the door with a dangerous look in their eyes. Sun scrambled to catch up to them and was able to grab hold of their arm with his damaged hand just before the door actually opened for them. 

“Jesus!” The mini yelled as he struggled to stay in the suns hand.

“No no no! Nothing happened last night except Lunar wanting to put up a new shelf in his room and me misjudging the strength of the cheap screws I bought!” Sun exclaimed while wincing at the strain put on his bent appendages. Eclipse, meanwhile, was desperately pressing himself against the largers chest in a herculean effort not to go flying. 

Switching from hand to hand was not a fun experience! 

“I was sitting under it looking at the screws and one gave out and the corner fell on my face! It’s not even that bad! I’m fine!”

Bloodmoon stopped, probably only because they figured out which hand was holding them, and glared at Sun. “You’ve never before thought of us as so dim.” They growled. “You’re saying this was an accident and not someone's angry whim?” Sun nodded and let them go. He held the mini a bot more securely now that he had the murderer's full attention.

Damaged fingers twitched and Eclipse knew warnings were flashing in those white eyes before being blinked away quickly. He tried to reach out his good hand and settle them back into their bent position, if only to keep the joints from getting worse from moving back and forth, but it was difficult while he was unable to balance properly.

“Yes! I promised I’d text you if something happened and nothing did! Come on, you know I wouldn’t lie to you about this! Eclipse! Back me up here!” 

The mini looked up, startled at being addressed so abruptly. Two (technically three) pairs of eyes looked down at him as he now sat still after readjusting himself in Sun's grip. Finally having found some semblance of balance he shot Sun a ‘why did you drag me into this?’ face and was met with a pleading look back. 

He sighed. 

“Bring me closer. I can’t see the cracks well with the damage to my eyes.” He groaned as his only hand dragged over one eye.

Sun sighed in relief and carefully lifted the tiny body closer to his face.

A quick look showed that while yes, it looked like something had hit him head on, the cracks were far too small and thin for whatever it was to have been very heavy, large, or moving fast when it hit. If the shelf corner hit the edge of the eye socket (which is already a pretty easy to break spot on any of the animatronic models he knew) then presumably these were the cracks that would appear. 

He knew what it looked like when a faceplate cracked apart from a fists impact.

They’d be deeper, more jagged.

These weren’t made from being hit.

More so though, Eclipse knew what Sun looked like when he lied. He was pretty sure everyone did. The fidgeting hands, the looking away, the almost intelligible stuttering that would take over his voice were all things that Sun did when he was lying through his teeth. Then again…they were also things he already did as an anxious individual. He wasn’t doing any of that now so most would assume he was telling the truth.

But Eclipse, especially at this size, could see more. 

Beneath tiny, damaged legs yellow hands shook so minutely it couldn’t be seen unless you were looking for it. From so close he could see what were supposed to be bright pools of white were dim around the edges while still glowing brightly in the middle, something that could only be seen because he was so close to Sun's face. The bright middle mimicked how Bloodmoon's pupils shone when distressed, a remnant from when the daylight caretaker shared a body with someone who had pupils of their own, but his shone with fear rather than anger like the bleeding twins. 

From this close he could hear how large fans stuttered once, then eased into normal rhythm, before stuttering again, like Sun was desperately trying to hold his breath but couldn’t last more than a couple seconds before gasping for air. Rays that click-click-clicked around his head as Eclipse surveyed the damage showed warping whenever they were still for too long, as though long fingers had tried to wrap around them more than once.

In short, these cracks weren’t caused by Moon.

There was a shadow behind his eyes, so something absolutely happened, but that something didn’t cause this damage.

“He’s fine and not lying.” He said, waving his good hand. Sun sighed again and brought the tiny bot back to his chest while Bloodmoon huffed and growled, clearly upset at the loss of a possible hunt. The red pair straightened and their claws shortened. Brilliant lights eased into normal optics. Everything Eclipse clocked while being close remained the same. The stuttered fans, the too bright eyes, the shaking hands, but now there was more movement to hide it all, even to him.

He didn’t comment on it aloud for now.

Bloodmoon huffed and tossed one of the tails of their hat behind them from where it had come to rest on their shoulder. One clawed hand (most likely controlled by Hazard, if Eclipse had to guess) still ran down their face repetitively, but it wasn’t causing them any harm so he didn’t say anything about it. “If you got hurt while we weren’t there…nothing we’d do afterward would be fair.” They crooned, sidling closer to the older of them. “All Moon has to do is dare. ” 

“I know.” Sun replied, reaching over to pull the hand away.

Their anger had eased the moment they heard those words. It wasn’t gone by any stretch of the imagination, but it had eased. 

Moon was safe. 

For the moment. 

Speaking of their anger…

“We need to get to Parts and Service to check your code. The longer we leave this alone the worse it could get and I don’t want a repeat of that if I’m right.” He remarked loudly enough that everyone looked down at him again. Wow he hated it when they did that! Two (technically three) giants looking down at him while one literally held his life in their hands was hardly a comforting sight.

“Right!  But we’re going to open soon so I can’t come with you…” Sun exclaimed, looking up toward the door. Beyond which being where the tower opened into the main daycare. A thought seemed to be being tossed around his head and once it settled he looked back down at the mini in his grasp and smiled.

“I know Bloodmoon hasn’t really touched you since that first night, but do you think you’re comfortable with them carrying you to Parts? They won’t hurt you unless I tell them to or you try to change their codes! I promise!”

It took everything in Eclipse's tiny body not to scoff.

Of course Sun didn’t know about the twins outing the other night, or what had transpired the night before. The smaller wasn’t about to tell him about these things lest the larger worry himself even more over something he absolutely had no control over, but still. It was very hard not to let his face give away these secrets. Good thing he had a damn decent poker face and just enough willpower to keep his mouth shut.

Sun smiled and from down here he didn’t look quite so afraid.

“Don’t worry! I’ll specifically tell them not to again, just in case!” He said enthusiastically 

Fuck he was so stupidly sincere. 

“I…think I can handle it. It’s been a couple of days after all.” Eclipse sighed, dragging his good hand down his face in a barely hidden grimace he knew Sun would completely misinterpret. 

Normally he would’ve taken any opportunity to get the brothers into trouble, but between Sun apparently going through something the night before and what had transpired between the kill code trio around the same time…he was willing to let it slide for now. If only for the minor sense of control hiding that information let him have.

Sun nodded and turned to where Bloodmoon still stood near the door, grin spread wide like always. Clearly they weren’t ready to spill the beans on their less-than-approved outings either. “Okay then. Bloody, you guys take him down to Parts and Service and be nice unless he tries to hurt you first, okay?” Sun pointed a stern finger at the red pair as yellow hands turned red beneath the orange mini. He looked like a scolding parent with the way he was standing. 

Not a request this time. 

A command.

Bloodmoon snickered and tucked Eclipse carefully against their chest. “We’ll wait until our Second Sun is done before trying to have any more fun. Promise.” 

Sun eased up on his scolding posture and gestured at the back of the room. 

“Alright then. Use the theater entrance, that way you’re less likely to run into Moon if he’s here. Be safe and let me know what you find okay? Bye!” 

And with that the daylight attendant swept out of the room and was gone. 

Bloodmoon snickered, their layered voices taking on a teasing tone as they too began to walk out of the room. “Not too keen on telling our Sunshine all he hasn’t seen?” 

Now Eclipse did scoff. 

Loudly.

“That wouldn’t do anything but get him all riled up. I have stuff to do later I can’t have him hovering just because he can’t keep track of you a**holes every second of the day and night.” He remarked snidely. The door clanged open and Bloodmoon stepped out. Their body hunched, hiding their cargo close to their chest, and quickly made their way to the door that led to the poster entrance in the theater. 

“Well, if it’s any solace,” They teased in unison. “we’d also rather leave our menace to the darkness. At least until we know if this restless sickness is born of growing malice and not our normal madness.” 

The door next to Suns opened without a sound and Bloodmoon quickly made their way down the long, empty hallway. It was strange, to see this place he’d been running for his life through not what? Three days ago? 

The poster door swung open and they were in the dimly lit theater. The red twins were moving quickly already, but their pace picked up more as they passed the rows of seats that watched the empty stage down below. Without thinking about it Eclipse curled a bit closer, trying to duck behind eternally bloodied hands as best he could with the damage to his frame.

It was stupid, given the hands that held him now, but he did it all the same.

The last time he’d been here had been when that damage was being done, and by the one (two?) carrying him no less. Being here was the last time he’d been able to walk properly, the last time two hands stared back at him, the last time his eyes and fans were able to work under stress without stuttering or turning to static. This place was the last place he was whole.

And the place he learned that he didn’t want to die.

Even if backups were still a thing.

Wait…his backups?

Didn’t he want to use those to escape this body?

When did I stop trying to use those?

One red tipped finger tapped gently against this scratched chest, pulling the small violence code from his thoughts momentarily. He looked up but was unable to see the twins' face from here, just a puff of bright red clothing past equally bright red claws. A purr rumbled through the chest Eclipse was pressed against and the little started, wondering what could possibly be making them mad.

“We were honest on what we promised last night.” They crooned in that same tone they used on Sun. “You need not fear while we are here.”

“I…don’t know what you’re talking about.” He grumbled in reply.

It was probably stupid to pretend like these walls weren’t closing in on him.

To act like hearing the Shk! Shk! of pink shoes on carpet was going to elicit any reaction besides terror.

It was most likely stupid to pretend like his fans weren’t desperately trying to kick into a gear they could no longer sustain.

It was ridiculous to pretend like he wasn’t scared in the grasp of a hunter.

But he was going to do it anyway.

The room quickly changed from dim orange and soft carpets to bright lights and fake green flowers as the little trio left through the theater's main entrance and made their way around toward the topside daycare entrance. Eclipse knew that if he looked out right now he’d see the large, fake wooden doors and the security desk. He bet that if he listened hard enough past his dying fans he’d be able to hear Sun finishing up his morning tasks and wondered if he’d be able to see Moon, whose body would no longer be under the control of a code that wanted him for its own.

He huddled a little lower once they’d left the daycare altogether.

It was one thing to hide in Suns room. There were hiding spots for him there, there were at least temporary methods of escape should he be found. There was none of that out here except for in the hands of an animatronic that could very well turn violently insane with little to no warning.

Eclipse knew this place. When he was in Sun’s head this place was his just as much as the celestial twins, no matter how much they grew to hate him. He knew the places no one came to and therefore would be decent hiding spots. He could control the machines and systems of the ‘Plex like he’d built them, bending their codes to his will. He’d never feared this place before.

But that was when he was big .

When he was intact.

When he was feared.

He was none of those things now.

Damaged eyes barely glowed in the shade of the red monster's shadow as they hunched forward, only just able to see a too bright world past the half-bars of red tipped fingers. Maybe he should be more scared of who was holding him, rather than just where he was, but at the moment he couldn’t muster up the will. If Hazard or Harvest were going to go against Sun’s word while in this mindset they would have by now, especially after learning how easy it would be for someone to run these tests without him.

Bloodmoon was still rumbling deeply as he thought of all this and he leaned against the larger body a little more. It was nice, in some foolish way, to believe they were doing it for him and not just because they were worried about their own stability. It was nice to lean into the warmth that radiated off them and just barely feel the nanites that made up the pair-in-one moving slightly all around him, ready to change shape on a whim. It was nice to feel the claws that had hurt him touch his damaged body with such gentleness.

It was nice to believe he could ever be one of their stars.

That he could be someone they crooned their loyalties to.

Not because he forced them, but because all they wanted was to see him safe too.

Because he was theirs as much as they were his.

Eclipse knew that all of this would go away once he was big again. He knew that when he wasn’t at their mercy this rumble would turn to a snarl, those eyes would shrink into nothing, those claws would grow too large to survive. He knew that when he was no longer small and helpless, when they were no longer held back by a sunny command, they’d never sound this way around him again. 

He shouldn’t want this.

Because it was going to end.

Still, a half orange face turned until red was all he could see.

Chapter Text

The trip to Parts and Service wasn’t long.

God he wished it was longer.

But they made it in with no fuss and Eclipse (along with his mini keyboard that had been snatched without him noticing earlier) were placed in front of the completely outdated computer system outside the cylinder. He gave a quick look around, still genuinely paranoid about being caught, before turning and beginning to type commands.

Thank God Moon had modified the hunk of scrap metal to at least be compatible with USB. This would’ve taken forever if he hadn’t. “You two need to be plugged in so I can see your codes so grab the cable that's attached and-” He paused. He looked over at the combined pair. “Do…you even have somewhere you can be plugged into?”

They, too, paused for a moment before shrugging. 

“Not in the way you think, but we can make one in a blink. But…” They frowned. “Must we be offline for you to see if there is to be a decline?”

Eclipse shook his head. “Like I told Sun, I’m basically doing what Moons’ done a million times before. Actually, you have to be on otherwise your codes won’t be running as normal and I won’t be able to tell if there’s an anomaly or not. Just get plugged in so we can get back. I don’t want to get caught down here.”

He turned back to the screen for a moment and when he turned back Hazard and Harvest stood together instead of Bloodmoon. He watched as they shot each other a silent look and Harvest moved to the computer, rustling round until they found the cord. Eclipse watched him plug it into the back of his head somewhere and sit down, staring up expectantly.

Hazard stood by, watching intently.

“Wha-why are you apart? I need to check both of your codes!” He exclaimed in an annoyed tone. He wobbled to his feet and turned to fully face them, placing his only hand on his hip. 

He tried not to think about how much he looked like Sun right now.

The pair just grinned at him. “Caution.”

“A fight is a bet we’d win.” Harvest said first.

“Against you and a computer though? That’s not a wheel we’d be willing to spin.” Hazard finished after.

The violent sun look-alike grumbled but sat back down. 

Of course they don’t trust him. He wasn’t one of theirs so it made sense, both from a logical and animalistic angle, to make sure he couldn’t corrupt both of them at the same time had that been his intention. He also clocked that Harvest, despite being just as capable of violence and malice as his brother, chose to go first. Because he was the calmer of the two voices that made up the one.

Smart.

He hated it.

But he just sighed and started typing. The computer screen was old and wasn’t able to be tilted downward for a better angle so the tiny bot was forced to sit almost at the edge of the table to see the lines of code that flashed by. Hazard never took his eyes off the mini except for once when he clearly tried to read the screen and quickly got hopelessly lost. Harvest, noticing this, also tried to look but didn’t fare much better. Both their faces quickly morphed into downright confusion as the lines moved quickly.

Eclipse scanned it easily, looking for any signs of killcode or any sort of violence protocols. 

Animatronics with life were different from those without. Those without run solely on the codes they’re programmed with and therefore are nothing. Just hunks of metal following commands. But animatronics like him, the ‘Plex crowd, and so many others were different. Those without human souls attached to them shouldn’t technically be able to do half the things they do, because it’s not programmed into them. The same goes for those like him, where having a soul or not was debatable at best. This can actually be seen in the lines if you look.

Emotions like sadness, regret, happiness, love, those things will have no physical presence in the code because it’s something granted only by being alive. Something only those with life have. Meanwhile anything that does appear physically, an abundance of anger, what to do in times of emergency, things like that had to specifically be put there by some kind of intelligent mind.

In short, if it was something he could see then it meant it had been coded into their minds and bodies by someone like himself. 

As an example he could see the original violence code (now broken and mangled but still intact enough to execute under the right circumstances, but that was hardly a threat now) and he knew that was mostly likely the cause of their normal mannerisms. On the opposite of that, he could see nothing forcing them to rhyme their words with each other each time they speak. Somehow, that was part of who they were as a sentient being.

Things with a physical trail, like the original violence code, could be taken out or tweaked. 

Things like how happy someone is couldn’t without adding outside code.

And as Eclipse scanned he saw nothing that looked even remotely like Killcode. No triggers, no commands, no nothing that would indicate the red pair was a ticking time bomb for the more-or-less helpless daycare attendant.

There was, oddly, an internal marker of how far away the Hazard body was currently from the Harvest body, but besides that there was no indication of what that could be for.  Eclipse knew the twins were attached at the hip more often than not, but he never thought it could be literally hard wired into their minds to keep track of each other. Hmm. Yet another thing he apparently didn’t know about the murder he’d once built. Still though, that in and of itself wasn’t deadly.

Relief washed over the smaller offshoot as he came up empty again and again. 

At very least, Harvest was safe.

There was one thing that seemed off though.

“I’m not seeing anything bad that wasn’t already there, but it looks like you have even less code than someone like me. Which is weird because I know I gave you everything required to run when I made you…” The mini remarked out loud. The twins blinked at each other, not understanding what he meant by that.

“Is that…bad?” Harvest asked.

“According to what I’m looking at you shouldn’t be able to stand let alone do half the things you do! What the…where’s the rest of your base code? Surely it couldn’t have gotten deleted after your death…You’d be a vegetable if that were the case…”

“Should worry be had? What's wrong with my other? Is something wrong with my brother?” Hazard asked, agitated.

Eclipse stared in incredulously at the screen before him and wondered if his optics were finally giving up on him. Now that he was looking at the code as a whole it was becoming clearer and clearer that Harvest didn’t have the code that even a non-sentient animatronic would have. There were no lines for movement, for example. But one look at the floor showed one half of the red murderer was able to move perfectly as they rose to their knees, trying to read code his mind couldn’t comprehend. His other half looked frantically between him and the smaller Sun look-alike as he grew more and more agitated.

Tiny rays let out an imitating click-click-click! as the mini thought hard.

Incomplete code…

Other half…

Wait!

“Harvest, switch with Hazard. I need to see something.” He's commanded, waving vaguely in their respective directions. He fully expected them to grumble and growl, or outright refuse since he hadn’t explained what was seemingly wrong yet and Hazard was the far less rational of the two.

They hadn’t trusted him earlier for that very reason so there was no reason to believe that would change when he was being even more cryptic.

But, surprisingly, Harvest Immediately disconnected from the computer and handed the cord to his sibling with none of the earlier caution. This time when Eclipse dove in he wasn't looking for dangerous code in specific, he was just looking . Sure enough, Hazard also lacked half the code a normal, or even abnormal animatronic like himself, would need to function. Though his seemed to be missing different parts, such as anything pertaining to memory.  

But that wasn't why the smaller had them switch. 

No, he expected that outcome.

What hadn’t been expected was that the two missing halves of code seemed to line up to each other.

“Mother f*cker! You’re literally two halves of a whole!” He exclaimed.

The twins looked at him in confusion. Harvest put one hand on his brother and opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Eclipse’s startled “What the-!” when the screen went from being half blank to full of code! Damaged eyes stared in openmouthed shock as the holes that had been there moments before simply… filled themselves in properly!  

There were the memory lines that hadn’t been there before. 

There were the movement lies. 

Still no kill code anywhere to be seen.

Harvest took his hand off Hazard and stood. He planted his hands on his hips in clear annoyance as he glared down at the miniature bot. “What’s going on? We haven’t got until the next dawn!”

Again half the screen fell blank as the pair separated.

“It looks like something should be wrong with you two, because you each seem to be missing a lot of the basic code that should let you function. But, when you touched Hazard just now, the code fixed itself.” Eclipse remarked, just barely able to talk past the gears turning in his head. “When you said you're two halves of a whole I thought you were just saying sh*t. I thought you two just didn't like being apart, but this shows that you are literally two halves of Bloodmoon!”

The twins looked at each other, then back at him and in confusion narrowed their eyes. 

He waved dismissively.

“It means there's nothing wrong with you technically. You function fine and have been since I've seen you, but this is unprecedented! I've never seen an animatronic exist with only half their base code who wasn't a vegetable! Which brings up the question of how your bodies know how to do anything if that code is in the other brother's nanites…wait!” He snapped his fingers. “You’re made of unstable nanites!”

He jumped up, wobbled precariously for a minute, then whirled around as best he could to glare at them as a lightbulb went off in his mind.

The twins' nanites were moving beneath him on the way here. Earlier it had been kind of a comfort, something he’d never be able to realize unless he was that close to them, but now it was bringing up a whole new world of ideas and possibilities!  With unstable machines (or machines that were not locked to one body shape) Bloodmoon’s body had to literally be connecting with their siblings' nanites at all times in case a change had to happen. Going from one to two, elongating claws, changing appearances, anything like that! That meant that each individual machine was always sending signals to the others and that’s where the code lies! In every single nanite as they communicate back and forth on a level too small to be picked up!

That’s why Harvest could move even though movement lines were left in Hazard when apart! Or why Hazard doesn't get short term memory loss when those lines are left in Harvest!

But, Wait. 

That means…

The twins LITERALLY can't be separated from each other. 

Well, they obviously can separate consciousnesses, but Eclipse was willing to bet every bit of metal in his body they couldn't be locked in separate rooms without dire consequences. 

After all, what happens when you tear a brain in two?

As separate sentient beings they'd survive, but it wasn't hard to see that bad things would happen should you disconnect the rational side from the insane side, or remove the safety Hazard gives from the intelligence Harvest possesses. That’s why that internal distance marker was there! It's the nanites keeping track of their own code while separated!

Lost in thought as he was, Eclipse didn't even notice when Harvest, leaving Hazard connected to the system, walked over and stood in front of him until a red hand swept him off his feet. The mini genius let out a yelp as he fell before looking up into annoyed duel eyes.

“Are. We. Safe?”

Oh yeah. The entire reason they’d come down here in the first place was to check for kill codes and protocols. Eclipse huffed and rolled his eyes as he tried to sit up in Harvests hands. Thankfully the larger wasn’t holding him like a goddamned doll this time, but that just made it all the more annoying to move while missing an arm. Wriggling a bit let the smaller reorient enough to turn and see the screen again. Since Hazard was still connected his gaze raked across each line, searching as he’d done for Harvest. After a moment he let out a sigh he was unable to smother in time.

“Yeah. You’re both free from any kind of violence except your own.” 

And suddenly the weight had been lifted from the room. Like a blanket being thrown off in the morning, the tension burning through all three animatronics present instantly released

They were safe.

He was safe.

Sun was safe. 

After the twins had both eased up Eclipse grumbled. “Can you put me down now?”

Harvest snickered, once again at ease in their own body, and carefully placed him down again. The smallest of them looked back at the computer. One little hand reached over to scroll through, his mind a mess of questions and theories on how they were alive and moving and what all this meant for the twins and Sun. Now that the tension had passed his mind was back to its normal shuffle of thoughts and ideas.

Not to mention what this could mean for himself and his own code's potential flaws.

It was so strange. 

He knew what he’d made them to be, but this wasn’t it. Nothing about this was what he’d intended when that mindscape version of himself had set out to make an accelerant to the kill code in Moon's mind. He’d meant for Bloodmoon to be a mindless virus, a husk of anger and bloodlust that would drive Moon further into the depths of insanity and, by proxy, give Eclipse every opportunity to get the star and rewrite the world.

Back when he’d thought that controlling Killcode would be that easy.

Back when Killcode wasn’t a person, just a program.

Back when things made even a little bit of sense.

But then Bloodmoon had grown sentient. That in-and-of-itself was off, a by-product of some kind that the violent sun had never bothered to learn, but then that was compounded when two voices came out of a singular body. Two minds where only one had been programmed. It had been odd, but then they'd wanted blood. Then they’d run off into god knows where swearing they’d kill him for trying to control them. Then he’d realized he’d made a weapon he couldn’t control.

Wasn’t that the story of his life? First Bloodmoon, then Lunar, then Killcode. All people he wanted to use for himself and lost everything for it.

But looking at this was different. Seeing how despite their violence and mania, the red twins really did come to care about people outside of themselves. Not a lot of people by any means, but it was more than they were ever meant to do. A guardian and friend, a line of defense against those like himself both orange and blue. Nothing like what they’d been programmed to be. Nothing like what Eclipse had meant for them to be so long ago.

Bloodmoon had become a person.

And he didn’t know when that had happened.

And so, just like the animatronic he took after most in personality, he didn’t think about it too hard. 

He just started researching. 

To his surprise, now that things had calmed down, the twins were more than willing to keep switching back and forth so he could see each version of their code. They even humored him whenever he requested they make contact so the code would appear whole again. They were grinning widely, eyes set to wide pupils where they relaxed on the floor. They stared at the mini as he carried on about their minds, understanding nothing but seemingly content just to let him talk. 

It was nice. This was something he’d sort of done with Lunar back in October during their takeover, but he’d had even less patience for the child then he even had now so it never felt quite as nice as this. It was something he’d envied about Sun and Moon’s relationship. Sun may not have understood a damn thing Moon was saying, but he listened and tried to engage regardless. 

It pissed off Eclipse that he couldn’t have that too.

Maybe it’s just because back then he hadn’t been beaten yet. His plans had been going well and he was on track to rule a new world of his own making before it all came crumbling down. Maybe it was just because he was small and damaged and fighting hadn’t helped him so far.

Maybe that Eclipse was a different person than the tiny one sitting in front of the computer.

He quickly shook that thought away. He was Eclipse, the arrogant, angry, abandoned code the celestial twins hated because he hated them first. Maybe he was willing to leave Sun out of his plans in the future, but there were still plans for the future to be made. He didn’t know how to change, so he didn’t. Simple as that.

Still though, just like earlier, this was nice while it lasted.

Unfortunately, they were so distracted they didn’t notice someone was at the door to Parts and Service until the doors flew wide open. Eclipse, Hazard, and Harvest all whirled to see-

A child?

Chapter Text

Well, not necessarily.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a normal child, it was an animatronic. 

Eclipse stood as fast as he could, trying to take in their features at this distance. Short, with a Moon-like faceplate and dual eyes. One white with a big blue pupil and the other black with a big red pupil. 

White blue for Moon.

Black and red for Killcode.

Their eyes had the same little wing Sun had, except on both instead of just one. Freckles dotted across where their nose would be in humans and big round, darker blue cheeks made them look more akin to a Funtime model than a Celestial one.

This one wore different clothes than the basic jester outfit too. A navy long-sleeved shirt combined with a pale blue hood that stretched down to the child's back, resembling Moon's hat in a way. There was even a little ball at the end. A bright blue bow separated blue-black shorts from the shirt and there were no shoes to be seen. Their sleeves were too big for them, draping over their hands as they stood in the doorway, stunned. A thin, string-like tail flicked behind them, topped with a glowing yellow star.

Who the hell was this? 

Why did they look vaguely like Moon?

What the hell were they doing in the Pizzaplex when they were about to open?

A rather normal (at this point) sense of confusion washed over Eclipse as the small child-sized (for them at least. The kid had to be at least five foot meaning he was bigger than any human child) animatronic began to almost literally shake in his boots.

Why does he look so afraid? No one should know who Bloodmoon or I am except for the celestial family and Monty.

The combined eyes of two Moon variants landed directly on the damaged miniature on the desk before sliding, slowly, over to the bleeding twins.

“Bloody?” A small voice asked. 

Eclipse reeled as realization hit him square in the face.

That was Lunar!

Lunar stood in front of them right now!

In a body he’s never seen before, sure, but that voice was still the same. The high pitched, childish squeak that always fell from his mouth back in early October, before the kid had found the strength to fight back and tell Eclipse to go fuck himself and his revenge plans.

All at once, the world stopped spinning as something else bubbled to life in the mini sun's mind. 

Lunar didn’t know he was here.

Damaged eyes turned to the Bloodmoon twins to see their reaction. Instead of the calm, arrogant grins that had just so recently returned to their faces there was the same terror they’d shown in Sun's room. The same fear that had paralyzed them outside the daycare’s main doors that night. Their eyes were small and nanites spiked in all directions as they too realized the gravity of the situation.

“Say something!” Eclipse hissed at them through gritted teeth. 

The twins only whimpered. Harvest stood with Hazard, hand wrapped tightly around his siblings arm as the same choking, desperate whines fell out of his mouth. Hazard, for his part, was frozen with one hand covering his face while the other held his siblings arm, head swinging back and forth as he fought against the instinct to hunt down whatever was scaring his twin, despite there being nothing to hunt. Whimpered rumbles and soft snarls dripped from his mouth as the more insane of the pair lost where he was in the world.

Clearly, they were going to be of no help here.

Lunar flicked his tail behind him, tapping the double doors he’d flung open with reckless abandon moments before. His eyes flicked from Eclipse to the twins and then, unfortunately, to the cord that was connecting Harvest to the cylinder’s computer. Different colored eyes widened and heterochromic pupils shrank in fear as he reached out a hand and took a tiny step forward, as if he was going to try and unplug it from all the way over there.

“You’re…oh no…” He breathed. 

Eclipse noticed where he was looking and growled to himself, knowing how bad this all looked. 

“It’s not what-” 

The truth that sounded like a lie wasn’t even fully said before Lunar had turned and bolted through the double doors, slamming them behind him. Eclipse cursed and started looking around, wondering how the three of them could get out of here without being seen. 

There was rockstar row, all of the doors to the greenrooms were right there after all, but that seemed obvious. It would be child's play for someone like Moon to find them on the cameras even if he didn’t know exactly which door they went up to escape. They’d never make it back to the daycare without being seen.

He couldn’t let Bloodmoon get caught with him. 

All their lives could depend on it.

Before Eclipse could snap something to the twins about doing something useful Hazard shot away from his sibling and was out the double doors before the mini could even process they were gone. In a panic a tiny body sluggishly turned to the remaining larger red and began to gesture wildly at them.

“What is he doing?! We have to get you two out of here before Moon comes and gets a reason to decommission you! Call him back!” The smaller of the two cried in angry exasperation. Harvest just put a hand to his mouth and tried to chew on it while making distressed whining noises. Damaged rays twitched with annoyance. He didn’t know how to make them stop! He isn’t Sun!

Before another word could be said there was a scream from the hallway outside and Eclipse shot to look at the door so quickly he thought his neck would snap in two.

Was Hazard hunting?!

No, no he’d checked! There were no violence codes, no kill codes, nothing that would make Hazard dangerous unless he chose to be dangerous! Was it a hunting thing? Did Hazard see Lunar as prey right now? That didn’t make sense because Eclipse had been this afraid in front of the more manic side not twenty-four hours ago and the other was perfectly capable of keeping himself contained! And that was for him , someone Bloodmoon was only protecting on Sun's orders. Lunar was theirs so there should be no reason they couldn’t hold their mind!

Did he miss something?

Was he wrong?

Were they a threat even without violence codes?

The doors opened again and in came Hazard with Lunar in their grasp, held tightly against their chest. They moved back to their brother, whining and rumbling as the child struggled uselessly in their arms. 

Eclipse stared, mouth half open to snap at the manic half, but stopped. 

Hazards claws weren't sharp, they were the roundest he'd ever seen them. His teeth didn't sparkle in the light thanks to the dullness they now exhibited and not even his pentagram eye, normally glowing brightly with strong emotions, was half closed in an effort to dull the shine. The growling and rumbling was soft, more consoling than angry or predatory. It sounded like he wanted to croon in that tone they always used but couldn’t find the right pitch.  Even their nanites, though still spiking with their emotions, never once spiked anywhere close to the blue child.

The more insane of the twins was trying everything he could to be less threatening

Eclipse closed his mouth, feeling some of the fear drain away at the realization.

They were safe.

He was right.

They were just stupid.

Harvest quickly joined in with the consoling sounds, unable to form words but desperate to calm the panicked child in his siblings arms. One hand reached up to disconnect themselves from the computer and Eclipse let them, hoping it would make this scene look even a little bit better. The intelligent half reached now dulled hands to touch the little one's face but snatched them back like he'd been burned when Lunar screamed .

“Let me go! Let me go please!” The child pleaded, sounding like he was about to cry as his little body shrank against Hazard's chest. “Please Bloody don’t hurt me!”

He wiggled and kicked his little legs, thrashing as best he could in the iron grip of the red murderer. The little star he sported lashed out in every direction, tearing through Hazards body again and again in a useless effort to free himself. 

Their nanites only slid out of the way of the attack, completely unharmed.

And just like that the fear fueled anger came pouring straight back in.

“You weren’t supposed to go after him!” Eclipse snapped at Hazard, who didn’t even bother looking at him.

“Bloody Please! I don't want to die! Don't listen to him!” Lunar sobbed.

This only served to upset the twins more but they still couldn’t find the words to ease his fears. Fuck, he thinks Bloodmoon is under his control! And Hazard chasing him down probably didn’t help that idea one bit! Eclipse groaned and (not for the first time) cursed the fact he was a machine that could experience headaches. One orange hand came to rest on a damaged ray as Eclipse tried to gather his thoughts. 

He needed to calm things down, explain that they weren't ongoing to hurt the child, that Bloodmoon wasn't being controlled by anyone but themselves and their animalistic fear, that there was a non-malicious reason for himself To be here and tiny and damaged! He needed the twins to calm down so he didn’t have to worry about them doing something irrational like chasing down a child! He needed to get everyone back to Sun's room and somehow convince Lunar to either forget he saw him or agree to be quiet about it.

At the moment though, he needed to find out if Lunar was alone. 

If he'd come with Moon or Monty or anyone that could cause this little tower of lies to crumble then Sun would be in just as much danger as him and Bloodmoon.

He needed to calm things down.

But he didn't know how.

So he panicked.

“Are you alone?!” He snapped from his spot on the table. Harvest snarled angrily at his tone, but Lunar mistook their snarling anger for being aimed at himself and let out a sob that had Hazard tightening his grip. It seemed like the mad hunter was trying to hug the child like Sun had done for them yesterday, but because they had neither the air of comfort nor the words to express themself it was coming off as malicious.

Great.

Fear threw all thoughts out the window and he snapped again. “Lunar! Are you alone down here or is someone with you? I swear to God if Moon is somewhere out there-” He was growling like the twins as he spoke, fear driving his words to sound angry rather than inquisitive. He really didn’t mean to, not right now at least, but there were bigger things occupying his mind than keeping a lid on his tone.

As if he’d ever been good at that anyway.

“I won’t tell you!” The youngest animatronic cried, trying his hand at bravado while trying to kick away from Hazard.

“You have to or else-”

Now both Bloodmoon twins snarled at him, forcing the smaller code to silence himself lest they let Lunar free to kill him. 

He scoffed but looked away, annoyed.

It’s not his fault! He doesn’t know how to sound anything other than angry when he’s scared! They should know this by now since all they’ve been doing is dragging the animatronic equivalent of adrenaline to its breaking point since he got here! And besides that, he was right! Lunar had to tell them if he was with anyone or else Sun would be the one getting hurt! Did the child not know that? Did he not realize? Or was he just too scared to think about it now?

“Are you alone or did you come down here with someone Lunar?” He tried again, fighting to keep his tone even but only succeeding in making it come off as threatening. “It’s very important you tell us.” 

He didn’t know how he could possibly seem threatening while missing an arm and with a very obvious cotton ball in place of one of his rays, but fine. Whatever.

Wide eyes glanced back up at Harvest, who was too busy snarling to notice. The more intelligent half of Bloodmoon had turned so he was facing the child again, but their eyes were looking at Eclipse with a clear threat in their depths. Well, clear if you were the orange mini, apparently. Hazard tried to squeeze him again before Eclipse could tell him to stop and Lunar flinched violently. 

Terrified, the child wailed “I'm alone! I came down here to find Sun and I didn't know you were here! I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!”

God fucking dammit this was a mess!

A long suffering sigh left the smallest bot's mouth. He shot a glance at the cylinder behind him. It loomed large and bright and ready for whatever command he might give it, no matter what it was. The computer, still with his mini keyboard plugged in, beeped invitingly as well, as though offering him a perfect solution.

If he could somehow get Lunar in the chair he might be able to wipe the last hour or so from his memory drives and just leave him somewhere to wake up. He’d be confused, but Eclipse, the twins, and Sun would be safe for a while longer. The only problem would be getting him to stay in the chair. Unless Hazard was willing to hold him down for it.

Eclipse grimaced.

There was no way Bloodmoon would allow their enemy to do something like that, even if it is a good and non-harmful solution. Especially now, as devolved in their minds as they were, there would be no convincing them of the necessity of such an action. Or the safety of it, if he had to guess. Well, the physical safety. Losing chunks of time couldn't be pleasant on the mental state. Still, there would be no convincing them the importance of that particular caveat either if the violent offshoot was to guess.  

Nothing that could hurt their Little Star.

Besides, Bloodmoon would not be the only one completely against the idea of forcibly removing memories from the youngest of the group.

Something sparked in Eclipse’s mind. 

Oh god, was this why Sun had to be at the house when Moon was? Eclipse had dismissed the yellow attendant's worries as stupid since Lunar could readily fend for himself in Moon's body, but he wasn’t in Moon's body!

Was Moon as violent to Lunar as he is to Sun? 

Is he even as violent as Eclipse was to Lunar back during the takeover?

He’d only ever actually hit the kid once, and that was in a body he knew could take it, but this body clearly wasn’t the same make or model so there was no telling the damage that could be done! Not to mention all the times Eclipse himself was just straight up mean to the younger of them just because he found them annoying and useless.

Was Moon just as bad? 

Worse? 

He had to be worse, right?

Why else would Sun intend to use himself as a shield while Bloodmoon was stuck at the ‘Plex with his smaller variant if not because Moon was just as likely to hurt the child as he was to hurt his twin?

God this was a mess!

Eclipse groaned aloud and noticed just how quiet it had become while he was brainstorming. He turned back from the cylinder. At this point Lunar was, well, not calming down but he wasn’t thrashing nearly as hard anymore. He was still sniffling, his head down and his face buried in his own arms so it couldn’t be seen, but his tail now hung limply against Hazard's leg and he was no longer kicking or screaming anymore. Thankfully, this also meant that the twins were kind of calming down as well, though their desperate whines never slowed down. 

Eclipse tried to take a deep breath.

All he had to do was take a page from Sun’s book and everything would work out.

Probably.

“Alright, would you listen to me for two f*cking seconds?” He said, breaking the half-silence that had fallen over the group. Internally he winced, his tone wasn’t anywhere near sounding like Sun would. 

Which, when you thought about it, was stupid seeing as Eclipse could sound like Sun if he wanted to! 

Lunar flinched and buried his face more. A sob made its way past the blue fabric of his shirt and something roiled in Eclipse's chest. The same feeling he’d gotten when he’d thought that he’d mangled Sun and left him to die in that nightmare. The mini genius frowned and tried his best to push the feeling aside for now. Just because Lunar was scared at the moment doesn’t mean there was actually anything to be scared of .

There were no plans to hurt him. 

Bloodmoon wasn’t controlled.

Eclipse was physically incapable of being a threat at the moment. 

All they had to do was get the littlest to see that and they could go from there.

“Just…just put him down. Don’t let him run off, just put him down.” An orange hand waved at Hazard in a downward motion. “He’s scared and this isn’t helping.”

The manic half rumbled and groaned, but eventually peeled himself away from the child long enough to actually set the now unmoving lump on the ground between the three of them. Both twins still hovered close, but Harvest now also took this opportunity to reach over and grab his siblings hand since it was now free.

It was also worth noting that the phrase ‘peeled himself away’ was way too accurate as it looked like the more animalistic of the twins had done the same thing to Lunar as they’d done to Sun the day before, when they’d lost shape and tried to wrap around his body. When they did it with Sun it looked odd, with the harsh stop between nanites and intact metal, but for the small blue child it seemed like the largers hands had actually been capable of melding with the smallers.

Their clothes, unlike Bloodmoon's, had remained perfectly intact, but their hands (whenever they were uncovered) melded blue with red. So the clothes on Lunar were real, made of fabric like normal, and the clothes on the red twins weren’t. 

In short, it looked from here like Lunar was made of nanites too, though it looked like they were far more stable than that of the bleeding pair.

Which made sense seeing as he hadn’t grown claws in his fear.

Yet.

Now sitting on the floor, the youngest celestial just sobbed again through his covered face. The violent orange look-alike sighed and dragged his only hand down his face tiredly. “Listen, we’re not going to hurt you. Bloodmoon isn’t even under my control!” Lunar sniffed and hiccupped, barely able to form words.

“Bu-But they…they listened to you…”

“They listened to me because it was in service to you.” Eclipse remarked dryly. “If I tell them to do anything they think is dangerous toward you I’m going to die. Just, look at me for a minute. Seriously. They’re not going to hurt you.” 

Lunar sniffled for a minute before finally lowering his arms and looking up, since the desk was actually a bit taller than him when he was sitting on the floor. The tiny bot was about to remark on his own current appearance and how not scary it was when something made him pause. 

Lunar was crying. 

Like, actually crying tears from his eyes.

“You can cry?!” He blurted out without thinking about it. The two halves of Bloodmoon snarled from above and he threw up his only hand in a ‘what?’ gesture. “What?! I can’t f*cking comment on it? Animatronics can’t cry! This is common knowledge for f*cks sake!” He exclaimed, annoyed by their anger. He looked down. “How are you able to cry? That…Are you biomechanical now? What?”

Curiosity was overriding the fear and exhaustion for the moment, which Eclipse knew wasn’t going to last long so he figured he might as well take the energy boost while it was here. Blue and red pupils stared up at him, scared and confused.

“I…um…M-Moon said my n-nan-nanites can-”

“Pull moisture from the air in order to express a wider range of emotions, among other things! Right.” The mini interrupted, snapping his fingers. This was something that had been implemented into Bloodmoon so they’d be safe in wet environments, but it made sense that for a creature like Lunar it would have another use. Actually, that probably meant that Bloodmoon was also capable of crying in that manner, but they were too manic to do so when stressed. 

Speaking of them being stressed, Harvest now pointed at him with a rather annoyed expression. “Not a test.” They rumbled slowly. The child at their feet flinched and twisted to look up at them when they spoke.

“Harvest! Y-You can talk again!” They cried only to shrink back when said twin tried to reach down and reassure them. Harvest snatched their hand back for a second time, their other clutching tightly to their twin who still seemed far from words. The orange look-alike winced as the roiling in his chest grew again.

He knew what it was like to cower away from Bloodmoon. 

He knew how terrifying it looked when those red tipped claws were coming so close and you know what they are capable of. His entire body right now was a tapestry of their violence, of the cruelty he’d programmed into them and they’d only barely lost after their death. He knew what it was like to believe you know how someone should be and seeing the opposite of that.

For him it was seeing Bloodmoon be kind, but for Lunar it would be thinking they’d gone back to being cruel. Lunar knew, possibly more than anyone, what the bleeding pair was really able to do since the now mini look-alike had a habit of describing his earliest creation in order to pass the time back in October. 

Lunar knew that if Bloodmoon wanted him dead, he would be. 

If they wanted him tortured, he would be.

And Eclipse knew that too.

Still though, he pushed the feeling down again. Stomped on it mentally with all his weight. There was nothing wrong here. He physically couldn’t be a villain right now. The kid was just confused and scared. It was going to get resolved. It was fine.

It was fine…

Lunar turned back to Eclipse.

“Please, let-let them go! Th-they’re my…they’re my best friends now! I don’t want them to hate me again!” He exclaimed with a watery voice that still had some buried gears turning in the intelligent bots brain. Once more he tried to push it down and sighed. A singular hand gestured at himself and then at the towering pair. 

“Do I look like I have any actual control over them? Seriously, look at me.”

“They’re talking to you!” Lunar retorted, trying to wipe his eyes.

“Because I’m the closest thing to a rational adult in this room and they’re practically animals! They want me to make you stop crying!” Eclipse shot back.

“Don’t take them!” 

“I can’t take them!”

“Liar!”

Eclipse scoffed and, wishing he could cross his arms angrily, put his only hand on his hip instead. Much of the fear of being found was ebbing, especially since he’d gotten Harvest to say words which meant the hunters were probably coming down from their high. 

That also meant that the embers of his last fire were stoked, just enough, by the annoyance he felt. He was literally telling the kid it was fine and he wasn’t being believed, just like in Sun’s room. 

He’d been wrong in Sun’s room.

He wasn’t wrong now.

He knew he wasn’t this time.

“You know what? Fine. Bloodmoon?” He asked while backing away as quickly as he could without falling backward or tripping over his own keyboard. The twins perked up, confusion now overriding their own emotions. Once the smallest of them was tucked close to the computer he waved dismissively. “Kill him since he wants to argue about it.” 

The child cowered.

And just as expected both twins immediately stepped past Lunar and slammed their fists down on the table so hard the resulting THWACK!! sent both the computer and mini animatronic a few inches off the desk. They snarled and the only reason he wasn’t grabbed and ripped in two was that they were still holding onto one another with the other hands and therefore weren’t coordinated enough to try and grab him. 

“You will not command us to hurt what’s ours!” Harvest just barely managed to snarl out.

Desperately, the orange sun tried to regain his balance once both feet were on the ‘ground’ again. 

“F*CK I WAS PROVING A POINT!” He screamed fearfully. “I WAS PROVING A POINT I DIDN’T ACTUALLY MEAN IT! GET AWAY FROM ME!”

Tiny claws dug into the side of the old computer monitor in an effort not to either fall off the table or, god forbid, forward into their waiting claws. Once he was stable enough he threw that same hand toward them, waving them away with as much intensity his damaged limb could muster.

This may have been a really stupid plan!

It was stupid to think the animals would understand his intentions!

The twins paused in their warpath to contemplate his words (thank god, he almost wondered if they were too animalistic right now to even understand language) only to be completely distracted by Lunar saying their names. The pair turned to look at him and Eclipse could just barely see past the walls of red enough to watch the small blue bot hold out his arms, fresh tears falling from his eyes. 

“You’re okay! Harvest! Hazard!” He exclaimed. 

It was the first time he’d sounded  happy this entire time. 

And with that Hazard and Harvest abandoned their hunt for Eclipse and dropped to their knees beside the child. Their growls turned to purrs, their snarls lightened into their loving croon as they almost smothered the child in red. Harvest pulled them into his arms and let blue colored limbs wrap around his body like a koala as he squeezed. A purr so loud and strong you could see it vibrating the both of them.

Hazard dropped to all fours, tongue lolling out of his mouth, and nuzzled into the blue cowl/cap thing. Claws dulled the moment they were even near blue fabric as his hands held onto his brother's arms so there’d be enough leverage to wriggle under one small arm and force his way into Lunars face like a dog demanding to be pet. 

All the while Lunar sobbed uncontrollably, interrupted only by small giggles when Hazard finally managed to gain access to his face.

Eclipse stood near the computer, damaged legs shaking as he tried to throw off the adrenaline equivalent spiking through his systems. After a moment of failing, he slid to the ‘ground’ and just watched the scene, perfectly content to be out of the bleeding twins spotlight until after they’d calmed down again.

Stupid plan or not, it had worked.

They still had to get back soon, probably really soon since they were absolutely open by this point, but it was clear those three weren’t moving anytime soon. It wasn’t like he was keen to be in anyone's hands right now either after all that, but still, they should be going. Eclipse frowned. 

What did this mean for Sun? 

For himself?

What did this mean for Bloodmoon?

If they listened to both Lunar and Sun unquestioningly, and Sun gave an order to protect, but Lunar gave an order to kill him, which would they do? Would they be divided in half about it? Would they default to the youngest or the oldest? Would they choose to do neither or would they tell Lunar to talk to Sun about it? He knew Sun had been planning a few days ago on how to tell Lunar he was here, but that had been put to the side because the child had been at Monty’s at the time.

Now what?

Should he be scared?

He didn’t know.

For now though, he watched the moons and their star.

Chapter Text

After a while Lunar eventually stopped crying which, thankfully, meant the twins eventually stopped primarily making animal noises. Which was important since the group of four were now making their way through the Pizzaplex in order to find somewhere safer (and hopefully quieter) to explain everything.

 But, as usual, things weren’t going to be as easy as just, walking around, no, of course not. 

No, they were currently upside down on the ceiling because Harvest and Hazard, without much input from Eclipse, decided that the roof was a good place for everyone to hide out. The only problem was that the Pizzaplex was currently open to the public and the bleeding twins weren’t a recognized attraction.

They also blatantly didn’t care about human life.

You know, a minor flaw when surrounded by humans.

And when they looked like established characters in the ‘Plex.

So! On the ceiling they were. It wasn’t difficult for Harvest and Hazard to do this, what with their nanites easily slipping into microscopic cracks that allowed them to stick to the wall like a spider. That and they were just straight up digging sharpened fingers into the weirdly dark paint that spanned the Pizzaplex's rooms, easily letting them hang on with no problems. The four of them skittered across the ceiling, sliding into vents and holes large enough for any animatronic their size to fit into, but were too high up and too dim for human staff to discover. 

No wonder these little bastards could disappear so fast in this damned place!

Eclipse tried his best to twist and see something besides red, only to catch a flash of blue that let him know Lunar was nearby too.

It was almost just the three of them on the ceiling since Lunar worked here and was easily recognized. Normally he’d be fine being seen by humans, but he was also clearly distraught and Eclipse didn’t think he could be trusted right now to not spill the beans on the presence of one of their worst enemies being here. 

Especially if he ran into Monty.

So, he was here too.

The Bloodmoon twins were stupidly comfortable doing all this, as the orange animatronic was quickly able to see, but that didn’t mean that being this high up, at this size, with this amount of damage, was going to cause any kind of reaction besides downright terror in the tiny animatronic. Hazard (because of course he got stuck with the more erratic of the pair) had made a little pocket for him on the front of their weird poncho-like clothing, but the fake fabric still obeyed the laws of gravity and would slide down to the red animatronics side, dangling their tiny ward above the rush of the place he despised.

Eclipse yelped as Hazard skittered over to Harvest, who was intently looking down. One orange hand clutched as tightly as it could to red machines, desperate not to fall. They were all above the main entrance now, but it was too busy for any of them to make it through the doors without being seen. Not wanting to risk getting caught by humans the red pair decided to wait and see if the flow subsided.

“I f*cking hate everything about this!” The teeny bot hissed through gritted teeth. 

Hazard just cackled.

“I will not let you fall, Little Doll. I promise I will not let you stain the floor of this mall.”

“That’s not f*cking comforting you pr*ck!” He ground out in response.

“ I wouldn’t mind if you let him fall.” Lunar remarked from Harvests back. The younger code held onto the older like a baby koala, small blue hands lazily tangled into fake clothing as they leaned their head back, away from Harvest, to shoot a glare at the struggling mini. Little bi-colored legs wrapped securely around the olders waist while their tail flicked about, the ease of which showing off that they’ve apparently been in this position before. And a lot, judging by just how nonchalant they were about it. 

Eclipse snarled as best he could from his completely unintimidating position.

“F*ck you! All of you! And I’m not a f*cking doll!”

Before the angry tirade of tiny words could continue Harvest spoke up. “There is a break in the line! We go!”

At that both brothers immediately let go of the ceiling and dropped the long way to the floor. Eclipse cursed and buried his face, hating the feeling of weightlessness and the wind against his shattered body. 

There was a jolt as the pair came to an abrupt stop and in moments the little group of four was out of the ‘Plex and climbing the side wall toward the roof.

Somewhere in the back of his mind the tiny violence code wondered if he’d have to replace that footage later tonight or if this was something that looked innocuous enough for him to leave it alone. He wondered if these cameras were even good enough to see him against Hazard's bright red chest.

After a moment the group hit the concrete roof of the building and Eclipse yelled until his carrier took him from the new pocket and placed him on the ground. He thanked (and cursed) whatever god would listen that he was still in the same pieces he’d left with that morning before turning around to see what had become of Lunar and Bloodmoon.

The twins had become one again but still held onto Lunar as they sat down, legs crossed with him in the middle. The tiny mirror of Sun dragged himself over and sat down with some difficulty in front of them, leaning his back against the now singular body's legs. 

They all sat there for a moment in silence.

 The larger ones took in the sun and the breeze.

The smaller huddled close so neither could reach him.

“I thought you were going to hurt me.” Lunar whispered, breaking the silence after a bit. “I saw the c-cord and…and then Hazard chased me-me and I thought you were angry and I got really scared.”

Bloodmoon rumbled and nuzzled against the child's face again in an effort to stop the spiraling thoughts before they started. It had taken forever for them to calm down from the spiraling fear of the child they adored and it wouldn’t be helpful to lose their minds again so soon.

“No no no! Never, never would we hurt you. You’re our little Child Blue.” They crooned. 

Lunar curled closer at that.

Eclipse rolled his eyes from where he sat leaning against their legs.

It was so strange to see. It had taken so long for the angry sun to see that Bloodmoon could be anything other than dangerous. Even then, their form of “protection” looked a lot like a starving dog hoarding food, at least around Sun. When Sun was scared they were snarling and stalking close with razor sharp claws and glinting teeth. 

The older caretaker hadn’t even been crying or screaming like Lunar was when these things happened!

But here, and in Parts and Service, their behavior had changed. There was no stalking, no reassuring words, no big manic smiles. Just animalistic whines and a dog-like desire to be close, to hold the child as he cried because he thought they were the danger. Maybe that was because the type of fear had changed, but still. 

After finally understanding how Bloodmoon reacted to fear, they’d changed again.

Eclipse huddled closer since the feeling of wind on his tiny, damaged body was far from pleasant. The recent memory of falling still far too fresh in his mind to even bother trying to leave the relative safety behind him. 

He wondered if their response to his fear would be different too, if they’d cared about him. Would they act like they did with Sun? Would it be closer to Lunar’s? Or would it be something entirely new, because he was different from those other two?

A scoff escaped.

Did it matter?

That was never going to happen.

The three (four? Honestly Eclipse was still confused on how to categorize the red pair when they were together) sat in silence for a little bit again, with Bloodmoon holding Lunar close and purring hard enough to rattle Eclipse in his busted casing.

“Why did Hazard chase me?” The child whispered. “If nobody told him to do it, then why did he? Was he mad at me?”

The purring increased in strength. So much so that the damaged tiny had to lean away in an effort not to let anything else break. It took a minute before they were able to wrangle a voice from the rumbling but eventually they managed to say something. “We were asked to keep him alive. He would not survive if you’d allowed the moon or gator to arrive.” 

Lunar frowned, eyes downcast as he admitted “I thought he…I thought you were going to kill me.” 

The singular was silent.

“I f*cking told you we weren’t!” Eclipse cut in, annoyed.

Bloodmoon huffed.

“You're his old abuser. You really think he'd care what your views are?” They scoffed. Eclipse threw up his only hand.

“Well everyone's always saying I should be nicer! And then I try my best to be reassuring and I almost get snapped in half for it! Sounds like a lose-lose to me.”

 Bloodmoon just rolled their eyes and cuddled Lunar a bit closer. “You are not dumb enough to perceive that your words are believed enough to relieve.” 

Now it was Eclipse's turn to huff. He turned around and tried to cross his arms, remembered he only had one, and instead let it rest on the blue fabric that hid the damaged shoulder joint.

“Yeah yeah yeah. But I still f*cking said it!”

He was exaggerating.

For the most part

Of course it made sense that no one would trust him at his word, but still. The one time he's not trying to be a menace and let them get hurt is the time they chose to bring this fact up! It made sense, but he was annoyed by it nonetheless. Now Bloodmoon turned back to their star. “Our Sunlight meant to warn you, Starlight. We did not expect your visit and so this meeting was less than exquisite.”

Now Lunar frowned, rubbing at his eyes. “Is…is THAT what Sun was trying to tell me last night? About him?” He looked down at the damaged mini. “Why didn't he want to tell Moon too?”

Bloodmoon snarled but this time there seemed to be no fear from the child they held. “Our Day would not want us to say.”

“They’re just worried about how Moon will react if he finds out Sun’s been hiding me.” The little one remarked as nonchalantly as possible.

“What does he think will happen?” Lunar asked, upset.

The little one's frown deepened as he again looked down but Eclipse just shrugged and turned to look out toward the rest of the roof. He had no idea how much of Moon's anger the child was privy to but, judging by that question, probably not a lot.

Seemed Sun was doing a good job protecting him.

No wonder the normally bright bot seemed so tired all the time.

“Well, how are you still alive like that Eclipse? Shouldn't you be, I don't know, a lot sadder right now?” Lunar asked. It wasn’t said insultingly, there was genuinely curiosity in his voice, but it sounded like an insult regardless. The smirk crossing the now largers freckled face certainly wasn’t helping.

“Ask your easily manipulated goody-two-shoes of a caretaker.” He snapped back, annoyed once more. “It's hardly my fault he can't kill someone who's literally asking to die.”

Not that he was asking to die anymore. 

But Lunar didn't need to know that right now.

The boy fell quiet at that. “ You convinced Sun not to kill you? But doesn’t Sun hate you?” 

Eclipse, desperately not wanting to explain how pathetic he’d had to be in order to get Sun to stop the blood twins from torturing him, scoffed and waved his good hand about. “Do you know how easy it is to manipulate Sun? Of course you do. You did it too for a while there.” Lunar tensed at his words, their frown deepening. “All it takes is the right words and he was willing to keep them from having their own version of “fun” for the whole time I’ve been here!” 

He didn’t say anything about the red lunatic being completely willing to ignore Sun’s commands if he fucked up. He knew he was pushing buttons with that manipulation comment, something Lunar technically had done back when he’d first been built. That had, of course, been done because the brand new code had no idea what manipulation even was and was just following the one he called a big brother who, surprise surprise, enjoyed manipulating Sun for his own gain. 

But it would be dumb to reveal such a massive loophole to his life.

Best not to let the child know that one.

Just as he was about to continue he was sent rolling forward by something pushing at his back. The tiny genius yelped as he landed on his face, unable to properly catch himself with one damaged arm. It wasn’t a hard shove and he knew there was no more damage done, but he was still filled with a resigned sort of annoyance. A familiar chuckling from above made it very clear what had happened. The mini huffed and didn’t bother trying to get up again. 

Fuck them.

After watching for a minute to see if he’d moved, Bloodmoon chuckled again and reached down to lift him up, dangling his small frame in the air with one hand while the other remained wrapped around Lunar. 

Eclipse glared.

“I f*cking hate you.” He grumbled. 

There wasn’t much bite to it.

Pentagram eyes looked down with a smirk. “Our Sun has given us permission to protect should any harm from him be done. He won’t hurt you, Lunar Blue, not while we’re here to pay our eternal due.”

Lunar just scrunched his face in the equivalent of wrinkling his nose.

Eclipse, annoyed at being dangled like a worm, wriggled hard enough that red tipped claws had to quickly put him back down on the concrete of the roof so he didn’t drop and become even more damaged. Lunar shuffled and Bloodmoon turned back to them while leaving one hand to help the smallest of them balance.

“What was he doing with you? When you were plugged in?”

Eclipse scoffed while twisting around to keep from falling. The humiliation of having to hold onto something (or someone) was fading more and more as time went on and the smallest of them wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

“ I noted that they would act more like wild animals than people whenever your sunny idiot got even a little sad. So, it was decided that I would look at their code to see if they were actually a danger to anyone.” The mini vaguely waved one hand, not really able to take it off the hand beneath his chest. “They're not dangerous. You're welcome.” He remarked snarkily. 

“So, Sun has been keeping you in his room?” The child asked. “For how long?

“Three days? Four? I don’t f*cking know anymore. Time doesn’t mean anything when you’re mangled and trapped in a room.” 

The hand beneath him moved slightly and he scrambled to regain a decent hold. “Maybe if your actions didn’t lead to distrust, staying put wouldn’t be a must.” Bloodmoon remarked. “Sunshine doesn’t want you to sit and rust, but safety for you and us would have to be discussed.” They snickered aloud, raising their hand just enough that Eclipse’s feet no longer touched the floor. “We’d love to bring you hunting with us. It would be funny to see you so nonplussed.”

The smallest grimaced and rolled his eyes. “I’ll f*cking bet you would. But as it stands, even without your distrust of me, I’m in no shape to be doing anything you idiots do. Or even to be in the general area of where you do it.” 

Bloodmoon just laughed.

Lunar looked between them as they talked, a strange emotion across his face. He’d been strangely silent through that whole exchange and the smallest of them had looked up to see why. Eclipse couldn’t put a finger on what it was, especially since the look was also being directed at Bloodmoon and not just himself, but it didn’t seem to be anger or disgust or any other emotion you’d think would fit the general disdain for the enemy in front of them.

He wasn’t given much more time to think about it since it quickly changed to realization and the youngest of those present sat up quickly, catching Bloodmoon’s attention again.

“Have you guys gone hunting today? I found you early!” 

The red murderer looked up and off into the sky (probably communicating with each other in their minds for a moment) before looking back down. “We chose to decline in order to check what code was online. But we’ll be fine Little Lu, tomorrow there will be time to dine.”

A yellow star flicked as Lunar shook his head and scrambled out of their lap, standing for the first time since Parts and Service.

“Nuh uh! You guys need to eat, especially since you got so sad earlier!” Blue fingers pointed off the roof's edge, probably toward the woods that ringed the Pizzaplex that Eclipse wasn’t able to see at this size. “You go and get something! The ‘Plex is closing anyway so I can go back down now!”

A command.

Not a request.

Sure enough a quick look at their slightly glitchy internal clock showed Eclipse the child was telling the truth. They’d been up here so long (and also crawling around on the ceiling to be fair) that the place had closed an hour beforehand. 

There should be considerably less people now. 

But Bloodmoon looked torn.

“What of our Second Sun? We can’t take him on our run.” 

That look Lunar had appeared again for just a moment before changing into a large, toothy smile.

“I’ll take him back! You said he lives in Sun’s room and I have to talk to Sun about him anyway so I’m going there!” They beamed earnestly. Immediately Eclipse was on the defensive, trying to dig his own sharpened fingers into a casing that wasn’t there.

“There is no f*cking way he’d just take me back!” He cried, kicking his good leg and regretting it when it almost made him topple backwards. “You give me to him and I’ll be dead the moment you turn your back!”

“Nuh uh!” Lunar childishly exclaimed. 

“The f*ck you mean ‘nuh uh?’ You f*cking hate me more than they do right now! At least they’re bound by Sun’s word telling them to f*cking leave me alive!” 

“And I’m saying that I’ll get you back just fine! I’m their friend! Not you! ” 

The hand supporting the tiny bot flowered open before scooping him up as the two-turned-one stood up. They placed a hand on their star's head and smiled. “You are ours just like Sun and so what you say will be done. Just remember,” They held up one finger and pointed at Eclipse. “we are your sword but, for now, he is our ward. We do not know if his death we can afford.” 

And just like that red changed to blue beneath the mini violent offshoot and the twins were running across the roof, presumably toward the woods. 

Eclipse looked up, fans kicking into a higher gear, to see Lunar glaring down at him.

Then they turned and moved toward the roof access door.

Chapter Text

Nothing about this was okay.

Everything about this was stressful.

Eclipse was so fucked.

The mini orange code sat rigid in Lunars hands, unwilling to move closer to their body for stability but also unwilling to try to make any distance lest he fall off. The small blue child made his way down the roof access stairs and into the upper levels of the stairway, sighing when he realized the daycare was closer to the ground floor than the roof.

The journey was long.

Earlier the trip to Parts and Service had seemed pretty short, even though the twins had taken the long way around rather than trying to cut through Kids Cove, but this trip felt endless. 

The silence was heavy except for the sound of footfalls and, if you listened hard enough, damaged fans trying desperately to cool a terrified body. 

Lunars eyes were straight ahead or straight down, refusing to acknowledge the life in his hands. 

His hands weren’t steady at all either. As he bounced down each step and weaved around doorways his hands did not adjust to help keep the little animatronic steady and the mini himself was too frozen to try and adjust himself, in case it put him even closer to his former victim.

Fuck.

Eclipse could only hope that Sun was already in his room. That he’d be sitting there, probably worried because he and Bloodmoon had disappeared for the whole day rather than a quick trip in the morning, and that he’d see Lunar holding him and spring into action to help. 

That should be a stupid thought, wishful thinking at best, but the yellow idiot had shown again and again that he wouldn’t knowingly let harm come to the tiny in his care.

So Eclipse waited.

And he hoped.

And he shook.

The trip was long. And silent. And stressful. But eventually the large, garage style door of the main daycare entrance could be seen. The floor changed from bright white tile to fake green grass carpet and the giant net that surrounded the play place loomed overhead just ahead.  All they had to do was use the Sun plush to teleport to the celestial twins room. Lunar begrudgingly made his way over to the plush (probably because he wouldn’t be able to bounce around while holding him much longer) and let it bring them to the main area outside Sun’s room. A tiny orange body tried not to lean forward in anticipation, mostly because each step was sending him at least an inch away from the hands beneath him and he didn’t want to test fate.

A yellow door opened.

Lunar walked in.

And Eclipse panicked.

Sun was nowhere to be seen. The computer was dark, the bed wasn’t ruffled, there was no sunny daycare attendant anywhere. Fuck! “Put me down.” Eclipse said, trying desperately to keep his tone level but only succeeding in sounding angry. “I stay on the desk when everyone's gone doing whatever they do during the day. Put me there.” He pointed, but Lunar just stood there.

“You’re putting Sun in danger, aren’t you?” Their small voice asked, devoid of any previous emotion. 

Eclipse growled and tried to look over blue fingertips, trying to gauge his survival rates if he fell (or was dropped) but fell back when the hands beneath him sharpened and curled toward the already damaged bot.

“If you were gone, Sun wouldn’t have to be scared of Moon's reaction anymore. He could stop being so scared. Even if I don’t understand why he’d be scared.”

The kid didn’t know what he was fucking talking about!

Of course not, Sun had tried so hard to hide everything from him after all.

If only he knew how stupid he was being…

The spark was growing again, drowning out his terror. Angrily, the mini violence code twisted as best he could to glare at Lunar right in the eyes. He snarled, trying to lean away from the sharpened claws.  The nanites they were made of were certainly more fixed than Bloodmoon's as evidenced by the fact they kept flattening out instead of just staying sharp, but that just meant it was taking more active thought to keep them in a dangerous state than the subconscious effort it was for the bleeding twins.

“I knew you would f*cking do this you conniving little sh*t!” He roared as best he could through the rattle of his fans. “You think Sun is better off without me than fine! F*ck you too! But when I’m dead and Sun gets bashed to pieces because Moon is an *sshole I better not hear you crying from the after-WHOA!”

Before the whole insult could even leave his mouth Eclipse was sent flying across the room!

He slammed, face first, into the wall near the head of the bed before falling again, stopping only long enough for his back to violently CRACK! against the bedside table’s corner and then finally hitting the ground, once again on his face, with another CRUNCH! as he felt something shift inside his body. He groaned as Lunar towered above him, just barely able to raise his head and snarled.

“You think…think you’re so much better than me. Even while using my mani…” He coughed and black oil once more spilled from his mouth. “Manipulation! My manipulation tactics! ” 

He had no idea what was broken.

It hurt.

At the moment, he didn’t care.

“I’m their f-friend! They…th-they trust me!” He mocked, pitching his voice into a whine as he mimicked the one he built as a younger brother. It was weak, what with the gasping for ventilation and the stuttering from the pain, but he didn’t care. 

It got his point across just fine. 

Blue hands reached and grabbed him like a barbie doll again, causing him to scream in pain, before dual eyes stared into his own singular orange. Red and blue and black and white, the colors of two other lunar models before him, glared through tears at the shattered mini.

“I-If you’re not here then Sun doesn’t have to be scared! You can’t manipulate him just like you did me back then!” He yelled in a watery voice. “If…you didn’t exist then I wouldn’t be here! But I am! Maybe…maybe I can at least try to protect him from you!” They sniffed, clear tears flowing freely down their face. “If you’re not here, if I’m the one to get rid of you, then maybe Sun will stop trying to send me away! Maybe they’ll stop thinking I’m just like you…” 

They brought up one sleeve to rub at their eyes.

Eclipse coughed up black again, this time purposefully aiming for the shirt beneath his heavy head. “Oh yeah…” He weakly snarked. “Kill a m-monster by beco-coming…be-becoming one. Great plan. Even if…you do i-it will…only cause problems f…for Sun.”

A thin metal neck strained to raise a heavy, mangled head so Eclipse could smirk, blackened blood staining his teeth.

“K-kill me and I'll…I'll just wake up in…in a new back-backup. Just without …these memories.”

I need to shut up

He’s going to kill me

I’m going to die

I don’t want to die

These memories won’t come with me

Eclipse knew that there were countless backups waiting for him, but he wasn’t able to access them with Moon’s systems. He’d designed it that way specifically so the older dusk attendant couldn’t just make the computer track down his copies and delete them, it was a safeguard against them being lost.  Someone would have to manually destroy them all.

An insane feat to be sure.

But that also meant that he had to update all the backups if he wanted new memories on them and, since he couldn’t do that through these systems, none of the memories he’d gained from being this small would transfer with his death. They’d be lost along with this body. 

And, as much as this experience sucked, he didn’t want to lose it.

These memories would keep Sun safe in his future plans. It would let him remember the changes to Bloodmoon’s code since their death, how their loyalties worked with Sun and Lunar, about how they dealt with Killcode! 

And Moon. 

It would allow him to remember how close to insanity Moon was. It would allow him to remember that Killcode could be dealt with easily if he were clever enough. He’d remember all the access he’d gained into Moon's computer and the best ways to silence the obnoxious A.I’s inside it. He could even remember the way Lunar sat in Bloodmoon's lap, his head leaned against their shoulder before his face buried into their neck because he’s been so scared that his friends, no, his best friends had wanted to hurt him. Had maybe even wanted to kill him. But he’d put his trust in them immediately afterwards anyway.

But, maybe more importantly, he could remember their kindness.

As he plotted and planned and stewed in his hatred, he’d be able to remember what it felt like to be held so close to Sun's chest and feel relieved to hear the inner workings chugging along. He could remember that Bloodmoon had spoken softly in the night, reassuring him with a gentle claw on his back that he didn’t deserve.  It wasn’t even guaranteed he could stew in hatred anymore, a fter all that’s happened, was it even worth going back to who he was? Would he let their kindness go to waste again?

Lunar stopped rubbing his eyes to glare again. “No you won't! Moon got rid of all of them, they're gone!”

The mini stopped.

The world ground to a halt.

Eclipse’s eyes widened, barely able to see past the blaring static in them. There was no way. They had to be lying! Getting rid of every single back up he’d made would be impossible! Something completely insane to even attempt unless you wanted to neglect every other aspect of your life in order to hunt them all down! That was the point of making so many and hiding them in the most obscure places around the globe!

Then, a dawning realization hit.

Moon.

How often was Moon gone again?

Eclipse cursed and tried to wiggle, fighting with all he was through the pain and the damage in an effort to just survive. Lunar, surprised by the sudden movement, scrambled to hold more securely to the doll sized animatronic. Blue hands squeezed mangled metal and plastic, but the pain was lost to the sheer panic. If Moon was insane enough to be a danger to his brother then he was absolutely insane enough to hunt down every backup! Hell, even if Lunar was wrong and they weren’t all gone yet, that only meant that Moon was actively hunting for them! There’d be no time to get to them! No time to change them! No time to make new ones! Not like this!

Fuck! 

Fuck!

Fuck!

“No!” He screamed, praying Sun would hear. “I can’t lose these memories!”

If he died here there would be no more second chances. 

That would be it.

Game over.

He wiggled and thrashed and wheezed, but eventually, he stopped. There was no escape. He lowered his head, desperately trying to burn these new memories into his very soul (should he have one) so that maybe they'd come with him on the odd chance a backup had survived. Knowing Moon though? Knowing the single minded drive that was shared by them both? Knowing how Moon hated him? That possibility was practically zero. The dark attendant was too maddened to have made the mistake of missing one. These memories were as good as gone, along with his life.

A tiny keyboard.

A light, crooning tone.

Teary eyes.

All things he’d lose if he died right here.

But it didn’t seem like he had a choice.

So he raised his head and glared, as best he could through the static filling his eyes, back at his other creation. He glared and tried to brace for whatever agony would come next. 

But nothing happened. 

Instead, Lunar hiccupped and began to cry again, sinking slowly to the floor. The hands holding Eclipse sank too until the doll-sized animatronic fell, rolling away from the larger through no input of his own. 

“I can’t do it.” He sobbed through his sleeves. “Is this what it feels like to be you?”

Eclipse scrambled to right himself and look back at the younger. A singular staticky orange pupil looked up at him, the fire having been thoroughly quenched by confusion.

Both hands came to rest on the child's face as he sobbed. “Is this what you felt like when you hit me? When you yelled at me? Is this what you felt like when you looked at me? ”

Silence.

Bi-colored eyes looked through blue fingers as the younger animatronic, built with the intelligence of an adult and the mind of a child, looked at the one they’d wanted to call big brother over two months ago.

“How could you like this?” He sobbed again. “How could you look at me, someone smaller than you, someone who couldn’t fight back, someone who loved you, and hurt me? Did you really hate me that much? Because I hate you now and I can’t even do it!” 

They moved their hands away from their face, just looking down at them. 

Eclipse didn’t move.

Didn’t speak. 

Barely breathed.

“Why can’t I do it? All I ever wanted was to be like my big brother and now I can’t even do it! I can’t be like you! Why?!”

“Because you’re not him.”

Blue and orange whipped around. There in the doorway stood Sun, eyes dull and turned sadly down. His broken hand rested on his chest, just as it had when Bloodmoon had been crying in front of them last time, while the other held the door from shutting. A tired, sad frown pulled his mouth down. How either of them had missed the loud whoosh! of it opening was beyond them at the moment. 

Lunar stood up in an instant, eyes wide and arms spread like a deer caught in headlights. 

“S-Sun! I was-! I just-! He said he was using you! I wanted to protect you!” They wailed, scrambling over their words trying to explain everything and explaining practically nothing. Sun smiled a little, but it was clearly sad. 

“Did he?” He asked gently. His words dipped soothingly low, cooling the scrambled, broken feelings of the child in front of him like a band-aid on a skinned knee. 

“Thank you for trying, but I promise you that was a lie. He’s just scared, Lunar. He’s not actually able to do anything to me.” Grey shoes brought him further into the room until he was right in front of the child. He kneeled, letting dim white meet red and blue. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you when you got back. I was…distracted that night.”

Every bit of what made Sun who he is shone through the dim, sad smile pinned to his face as the light shone in the child's teary eyes.

Lunar sniffed, calmed only marginally. Teary eyes looked up at the crack still marring his older brother's face, then down at the hand still held against the olders chest, showing brightly against the blue of Sun's clothes. “You didn’t…you’re still broken? A-and your hand, how did I not see it last night?”

Sun smiled and briefly looked away, trying to hide the cracks with one hand. “Well I…I-I-I didn't want you to worry! You were so busy helping me with the shelf there was hardly any time to worry about my hand. Besides, I knew you weren’t gonna be at the ‘Plex today so I…decided to get it fixed later.”

“But I did come to the ‘Plex!” A high pitched voice exclaimed, catching Sun off guard. “I came to see if you needed help in the daycare since I thought you were gonna to get your face fixed and then I found him! I found him and Bloody and it looked like he was doing something to them and then Hazard chased me!”  

Sun blinked before looking worried.

“Did he-”

“No.” Eclipse spoke up. 

The pair turned to look at him and he shrank away, turning to only address Sun. 

“They’re safe. You were…you were right. Their v-violence co-code is mangled so badly there’s…no way that’s the reason…that’s the reason they’re acting like that.” He coughed, trying to keep whatever oil he had left on the inside of his body. Sun looked more worried each time a bit of oil leaked from his mouth. Eclipse continued. “Hazard chased him…so he wouldn’t tattle to Moon a-a-and get you hurt.”

Lunar’s eyes widened.

“What do you mean?! Why do they think Moon will hurt you? Do you think that? Is that why you didn’t ask Moon for help with your face?” He turned back to the older and Eclipse let some of the tension ease from his aching endoskeleton. 

The less attention the younger code was paying to him, the better. 

Sun sighed tiredly, the glow of his eyes brightening just a bit more. Lunar didn’t seem to notice. “Let’s worry about me later, okay? I’m not really that hurt so I can stand to wait awhile to get it fixed okay? Where is Bloody anyway? They were supposed to bring Eclipse back here when they were done.” He turned to look around, as if the bright red pair was hiding just out of sight in a room too small for them to actually hide in.

Then again, they were able to shapeshift.

Lunar looked down, guiltily twisting the star at the end of his tail around his fingers. “I told them to go hunting since they hadn’t eaten today. I told them I’d get Eclipse back to your room. A-And I did! Just…I thought hurting him would make me feel better.”

“Did it?” Sun asked, looking concerned.

“No.” The little one replied. “It made me feel a whole lot worse.”

Sun sighed, shoulders slumped as his frame seemed to take on yet another heavy weight. “I should have told you about him. I was just…scared of how you’d react. I’m sorry.”

Multicolored eyes also shot a glance down but quickly returned to the older code. “Why are you helping him? He hates us.”

Sun shrugged, still with that saddened smile. “So did Bloodmoon.” He sighed. Lunar's eyes widened, as if what he'd said was the key to a huge revelation. Yellow hands spread wide as if asking for a hug. “But you, amazingly, were able to help them and now they love you. They're your best friends. I thought I could at least try. And, if it didn't work, at least I'd know that whatever monster he still was wasn't my fault.”

His arms now fell to his sides. Except for one in which he offered a damaged yellow hand. The same soft smile, worn ragged at the edges, pulled at his features as he quietly asked the child. “So, please. Let me try? I’d never let him hurt you Lunar. Can you believe me on that?” 

A small, teary face looked down at their hand, then at Eclipse, then back up to their face. Something flashed in the younger code's face before a look of determination took over. It was crumpled thanks to the crying, but it was determined nonetheless. A small blue hand wrapped around his, carefully maneuvering around the crooked digits, as new tears welled in multicolored eyes.

Lunar sniffed and tried to rub them away.

Eclipse stared, trying to disappear.

“I couldn’t kill him Sunny…” The child whined, barely able to speak. 

Sun put gentle hands on the little ones shoulders and pulled him into a hug, snuggling them close to his chest and tucking their head under his chin. 

“It’s okay. I couldn’t either.”

And with that Lunar burst into loud sobs and threw his arms around the older attendant. 

Chapter Text

Sun shot a glance at Eclipse, who quickly waved him away with his free hand. Yeah the yellow idiot was probably worried about him, but the sooner Lunar was away from him, the better he’d feel. And the sooner he’d be able to take stock of his new injuries and just how bad they were. Which, judging by the pain and the fact he couldn’t form whole sentences without choking, meant they were probably pretty bad.

Hopefully nothing that wouldn’t resolve itself once he wasn’t being thrown around.

Sun nodded. Yellow, wrapped in blue, stood up and quickly left the room, quietly promising to be back soon. The door loudly whooshed! open (it was still so odd neither of them heard it open the first time) and soft footsteps and anguished cries faded into the distance. And then the world was quiet.

Eclipse sighed, relief washing over his body once again. 

He was alive and while he was even more damaged than before, it’s not like that had particularly stopped him. 

Thank God Sun had gotten here in time! And thank God Lunar was nothing like him when it came down to actually killing someone! If he’d actually been able to shape the younger how he’d wanted back in October this absolutely would’ve ended much differently, probably with tiny orange bits spread across the room. 

Now if only Bloodmoon had actually listened then when he’d said this would happen. 

Maybe it could’ve been avoided. 

Then again, probably not.

Odds were good that if Lunar hadn’t been able to kill him here and now, he would’ve just waited for Sun and Bloodmoon to be gone sometime later. The kid knows them way better than Eclipse does and if even capable of telling Bloodmoon to scram should it have come down to it. Hell, the kid might’ve even been able to build up the courage to act like the one who built him and actually end his life! 

He might not have. 

But the uncertainty of it was not something Eclipse was willing to dwell on right now.

Something vile twisted in the tiny code's body. 

He’d spent so long hating the child for being bright, bubbly, happy because he’d found it annoying, even though that is almost exactly how he’d wanted Lunar to act. Well, kind of. Like with Bloodmoon, he’d only ever meant to build a code that would dampen Moon's intelligence. It was a distraction, a way to get the star and keep the twins in the dark about Bloodmoon escaping the mindscape so they couldn’t try to use the murderer against him. (As if that had worked anyway, but he’d tried.)

But then, just like Bloodmoon, he’d gained life.

Annoying, childish, chatty, life and by the time Eclipse realized it was too late to go back and try to change the plan. So, he’d tolerated it. Made it so Lunar thought they were brothers from the start and that the celestial twins were the bad guys, building a false narrative as easily as a spider builds a web. But being cruel and spiteful to his creation meant it had started looking elsewhere for the love he’d been programmed with, but Eclipse wasn’t. Moon's anger at the time, the way the twins fought, fed into the child's belief that this was just how brothers were, angry and violent with each other regardless of the circumstances. So the smaller of them hadn’t left immediately.

But, then, the child had talked to Sun.

And of course that yellow idiot had told him that brothers should love each other, that they should care about each other even if they weren't useful. That the little one deserved better than what Eclipse had to offer. Of course, Lunar hadn't believed him. Just looking at the twins and the way blue beat down yellow verbally (and at one point by that time, physically) it looked an awful lot like Sun was just saying whatever he thought would get the child to defect from his family. 

Somewhere in his mind, Eclipse could remember how Sun's face fell when Lunar pointed out how similar of a dynamic the four of them had. The cruel genius and the beaten brother.

But then Eclipse tried to kill him. Had laughed in the younger code's face and gone to get a weapon because Monty of all people said he wanted to make a deal and the then-larger orange had agreed. The condition to kill Lunar hadn't been a big deal then, get rid of the annoying little parasite he hadn't been able to make an excuse to get rid of and get what he wanted from the idiot gator all in one go? He'd be a fool not to take full advantage of the situation!

It was perfect.

It was simple

But it broke Lunar.

The little brother he’d built had turned to his enemies because the one who built him had expected loyalty even through the abuse. Even through trying to end his life for no reason. Or at least, no reason that the younger of them would give a fuck about.

Eclipse raised a hand and scrubbed at his face, willing these old memories to stop flooding him with brand new guilt.

He didn’t use to feel this bad about what he did.

A knife never used to twist so violently in his chest.

He didn’t know why it had started now.

He sighed. 

No wonder I’m always alone.

Another cough racking his body broke him from his thoughts.  Right, the new damage he was supposed to be taking stock of! There would be time for pity and self hatred later, when he actually knew what was broken and how he had to change tactics in order to keep even somewhat whole. His old ways, his old mindset, hadn’t been passed down and he was alive because of it. He couldn’t let that go to waste because he was distracted by the barely-in-the-past past.

Methodically, he began to check his systems and chronicle his injuries. It was a bit difficult seeing as he was already broken, but he wasn’t counting each chip of paint lost. Just focus on the big things for now.

Fans were rattling but that was normal at this point. It was hard to breathe. Hopefully that would resolve either on its own, or maybe he’d be able to get Bloodmoon to do whatever it was they did the first time. 

He grimaced at the memory of being terrified while they held him down. 

Of wondering if they were going to go against Sun’s word because he wasn’t there to enforce it.

Not to mention the fact that this new damage was partially their fault and the idea of them touching him right now wasn’t a great one. 

Whatever. 

As long as he could stave off death for a little while longer.

Eyes couldn't see, also normal. There was static and blurred warning after blurred warning popping up, but something must’ve gotten rattled inside his head because he couldn’t read the pop-ups telling him what was wrong. Great. More internal damage was the last thing he needed right now, but whatever. It’s not like he really went anywhere by himself with his crippled...everything anyway.

His head hurt, but that was within normal parameters too given how many times he’d been hit there. And the new damage keeping him from reading. And the stress of the earlier code search, Lunar finding them, Hazard chasing, all that nonsense. Frankly he would’ve been surprised if he didn’t have a headache after everything that’s happened today.

Fuck, all that happened in one fucking day!

He groaned, but continued. God he really hated this place. Rays were mostly intact, though there were new cracks spider webbing across two of them. Not surprising or unexpected given his life the past three days. Honestly? Pretty impressive given the gauntlet that even just today had been. Also generally low on the priority list of damages cataloged. 

Moving on.

His legs-

Wait.

He couldn’t feel his legs. Either of them.

No, that couldn’t be right. Of course he could feel his legs! They were just…numb from the damage he’d sustained.

Right? 

For the love of God please be right! 

The normally violent offshoot looked at what was technically his good leg and tried to move it. He willed the joint to bend, his foot to wiggle, anything that would indicate signals were making it from his motherboard brain to the endoskeleton beneath the casing. 

Nothing happened. 

Why? What part of the damages he’d cataloged would cause his legs to go numb? The headache? No, that was clearly preventing him from reading and probably thinking very straight right now, but that shouldn’t have anything to do with his limbs. Could something have snapped in the legs themselves? No, because he’d feel the pain. There was nothing below his waist just…nothing. Not even jagged sparks of pain from where he’d hit against the bedside table.

Honestly it was a little relieving he hadn’t hit the lamp and been elec-

Wait!

Relief was once again overcome by panic as he tried to twist his singular arm behind his body, feeling blindly around for damage. And there, where his lower back had cracked against the bedside table, he could feel a hole into this body. Straining to reach, orange fingertips just barely brushed against ragged wires and jagged metal where plastic casing should be.

A jolt shot through his damaged fingertips and he jerked back in surprise and pain.

That had to be his spine. He couldn't see it, nor could he really feel it given his current condition, but that had been a decently powerful current that just shocked him. Like the kind that would be found running though one of the most important parts of an animatronic endoskeleton.

The realization full-on smacked him in the face all at once.

Oh god.

My spine is broken!

The metal of his endoskeleton hadn’t been able to withstand the sudden pressure and had snapped, rendering his lower half completely numb and useless. He could feel where it was angrily spitting out sparks, but not because the endo was sending signals. No, because his upper back could feel the heat of the electricity and the violent but small pop! of each spark could be heard even through the static buzzing through whatever passed for a skull in these models.

His spine was broken!

If having one leg mostly down was practically a death sentence, not being able to even feel the entirety of the lower body was the axe that would seal his fate! 

He couldn’t run like this! Hell, he couldn’t even limp like this! If another incident like today happened with Moon, or Monty, or hell even Lunar he’ll literally be a sitting duck! He’s dead! He was so screwed! There was no way to fix anything at this size and even if there was nobody could help him fix that spot! 

He was useless.

Even more so than before.

Sun wouldn’t get bored of him, that he was oddly sure of, but Sun couldn’t be there every second of the day. Hell even Bloodmoon wasn't going to be around all the time! There was, sooner or later, going to be a time when he's left alone.

He was going to be found.

He was going to be killed.

He was going to be forgotten.

Struggling both with the mental spiral and the literal dead weight of his own body, Eclipse turned and reached out his good hand to take hold of the dull carpet beneath him. Arm rattling with exertion he was able to slide a bit away from his current position. Hide. He had to hide until he could figure something out.

He needed to be somewhere safe.

Somewhere dark.

Somewhere alone.

Because even though he'd always hated it, the darkness was safe. The darkness he could use to his advantage to hurt those that hurt him. To escape those stronger than him. To build himself up even if it didn't matter in the end. No matter what, the dark corners of this world was where he was safe. Even down in that blasted bunker, alone and abandoned, he'd been safe. Because nobody thought he was a threat while he was there and so didn't bother trying to end him.

Another handful of carpet.

Another inch or so toward the only darkness close by.

Under the bed.

Like the boogeyman Sun had joked about before, he needed to get under the bed and hide from the inevitable end. Just for a little bit longer. Just to let these memories sit a bit longer in his mind, in his chest, in his soul should he have one.

He wondered if he had one. 

Heaving breaths tore through from blackened teeth with another inch or two gained. This hurt. He should just wait for Sun to come back instead of possibly hurting himself more . But he wasn't safe in the light and so another inch he went. And another. And another. No matter how his damaged arm rattled. No matter how he choked on his own lifeblood. No matter if he couldn’t quite see where was going, he moved. Inch, by bleeding, broken, inch.

He wanted Sun.

He wanted Sun so badly.

But Sun was with his real family.

A family he’d given up when he chose to be petty and cruel. A family he didn’t know how to be a part of so he strived to tear it apart. A family he’d tried to build back in October when he’d made a little blue child that loved him so much. He’d hated Lunar for being what he’d built him to be, for wanting what he’d programmed into him. How stupid could you be? To give something the desire, the need to love you and then show them it wasn’t loved in return? 

Would things have been different if he’d loved Lunar too?

Would he be lying here, dragging a mangled body across the carpet of a room he once saw as his own, back when he was two in one? Or would he be ruling a world all his own with the power of a paranoid naptime attendant's creation, the reset button for the world they lived in? Would he be alone right now if he’d just…learned to love someone? 

He wondered if Lunar would’ve been by his side in the new world, had things been different. Probably not, seeing as he hated the child so much then. He most likely would’ve killed him whenever he’d killed Moon. Two birds with one star. He thinks he would have kept Sun around, if only because he would’ve found it sickeningly funny to force the kinder of the twins to serve him while his brother suffered and died.

He used to love that image of the world he’d create.

He hated it now.

Right now though, any world with him in it was a wild fantasy.

After what felt like eons of dragging a crumbled, numb, useless body across the floor Eclipse finally hauled himself upright to lean against the bedside table that broke him. It wasn't deep under the bed, but the table was flush with the frame and the blankets Sun had left draped lazily over the side blotted out the bright room beyond a couple jagged slivers. He slowly leaned himself against the wood of the table, feeling the jagged metal of his spine scrape deeply against it. He would have shuddered if he could feel it.

It was dark here. 

It was quiet.

It was safe.

But he was alone.

Eclipse curled his body forward, put his only hand on his head, and cried without tears.

Chapter Text

It felt like a long time that he cried. 

That he silently screamed. 

That he spiraled.

But eventually, Sun’s door opened again. 

Something Shshed! Shshed! across the carpet of Sun's room and Eclipse froze, wondering if it was shoes, whether fake or not, or if it was nanite feet that were getting closer and closer to his hiding spot. Had Sun left Lunar here? Was the child coming back to finish what he’d started? He rattled in his own damaged casing, trying not to spiral deeper at the sight of his legs not rattling with him.

Eventually, he saw a large mass drop to the floor but the static in his eyes wouldn’t let him discern a color or pattern.

A familiar rumble broke the deafening silence and Eclipse let out a sigh he no longer cared if anyone heard. Bloodmoon’s deep voice broke through the panicked, spiraling thoughts taking over his mind.

“Do you want to come out?” 

Eclipse wheezed, unable to form words.

Bloodmoon sniffed.

They snorted an animalistic snort followed by the sounds of their jester hat flopping back and forth like a dog's ears when they shake their head.

“We’ll offer our hand. You don’t have to take it if you’re full of doubt.”

A red hand, barely glowing white with the pentagram on the back, gently slid between the crack of the table and the bed, eternally bloodied claws stretched flat so he could climb on if he wanted to.

He did.

He couldn’t.

So he reached his only hand and grabbed the tip, trying to come up with a way to tell them he couldn’t move without their help.

Thankfully he didn't have to. The hand wrapped gently around him and pulled back revealing a bright room and the red face of Bloodmoon. One body rather than two, so maybe they’d just come back from their hunt? The coppery smell of blood still lingered in the air around them. Obviously there was none to actually be seen given the red nature of the twins, but the smell of death certainly hung heavy near them. Eclipse wheezed in their hand as he stared at the nanites spiking out behind them, never coming close to the damaged body they held.

They looked so guilty .

Behind the two-in-one-body stood Sun.

“It's okay if you don't want to see us Eclipse.” He said quietly. His tone was kind, just as it had been earlier. It might’ve eased some of his frayed nerves, if he could feel half of them. “We can leave you be if you want.”

Eclipse wheezed and shook his head, his only hand desperately digging into the red pool beneath him. The nanites slid easily out of the way of his attack, but he dug in regardless.

No!

No he didn’t want to be alone!

Being alone meant that Lunar could come back. Meant that he would be a sitting duck just waiting for whoever stumbled across him to end his life. Being alone meant that these memories, these last few days, were at risk of being lost to wherever an animatronic goes when they die. If they go anywhere!

No. 

All his life Eclipse has been alone because of his actions, his ego, because he wasn’t wanted.

Right now he was desperate not to be alone again.

Even if all this comfort was fake.

Even if it would end when he died.

Even if he didn’t deserve it.

Without even thinking about it, he reached for the yellow attendant with his good hand and without a word Bloodmoon turned and red melted into yellow beneath his numb, useless legs. He wheezed and tried to keep from choking again as he realized he could no longer reorient in the largers hands. He couldn’t move to right himself when the hands dipped to bring the tiny, broken body closer. He couldn’t even tell there were hands beneath him and it caused the lingering sparks of terror to roar into full blown hysteria. 

The tiny code was gently pressed against a blue shirt and he buried his face, unable to care about how much humiliation there should be at the moment. His fans stuttered and rattled. Wheezing a staggered rhythm as he pressed himself close to the one he used to call an enemy. He wheezed and tried to breathe through mangled fans, trying not to choke on the oil he knew was freely flowing thanks to his broken spine.

Hgk! Hgk! Hmm…

Hgk! Hgk! Hmm…

Hgk! Hgk! Hmm…

The broken, staggered breaths he dragged in and wheezed out tapped his back against Sun's fingers as they trailed down his spine comfortingly. He heard more than felt when one yellow digit tapped lightly against the exposed endoskeleton and Sun sucked in a breath that Eclipse could hear through his chest. Instead of saying anything, the finger just moved back up to his shoulders and continued its comforting strokes.

Bloodmoon rumbled nearby and Eclipse cowered closer. 

He heard them back off.

It was stupid

But he blamed them for this.

He'd told them Lunar was going to kill him, he just hadn't been betting on the child losing the will to do so. He'd told them and they didn't listen because of course they didn't listen because of course they hated him because he wasn't theirs! Of course he was just some scrap code that nobody cared about because he wasn’t worth caring about! He wasn’t worth protecting if someone they actually loved told them to stop. He wasn’t worth defending when all he’d ever done was be mean and petty and cruel to everyone!  

He wasn’t worth listening to because he was a mistake!

They’d shown him that. 

Everyone had.

Even Sun had almost let him die because he was their enemy. Because he’d hurt them and laughed while doing so. If it hadn’t been for him literally begging for his life, if he hadn’t looked so pathetic, he wouldn’t be here right now. 

But, Sun was still the only one who hadn't allowed him to be hurt after that first encounter with Bloodmoon days ago. He’s been the only one to apologize even when Eclipse was the one in the wrong. He was the only one to prove he wasn’t willing to hurt the tiny violent offshoot, no matter how annoying he was. Even now, he chose not to voice the obvious weakness in his darker twin. 

And so Eclipse only wanted him.

Maybe it was mean.

Maybe it was petty.

Maybe it was cruel.

But that was who Eclipse was. 

So he didn't care.

Sun moved to sit on the bed with Bloodmoon sitting at his heels. A yellow finger lightly went tap-tap-tap against the intact part of his spine. “Eclipse? Hey, can you hear me? Nod if you can hear me, okay? I’m worried about you.”

Of course he was. 

Of course Sun was worried by this display. The bright attendant only ever knew him as angry, as violent, as powerful. Even small the larger sun had made the mistake of underestimating the sharpness of the smaller look-alikes words and dealt with the consequences of listening to him. His busted hand was proof. He jerkily nodded, not really trying to move away from the blue fabric engulfing his vision at the moment.

Above him, Sun sighed a little. “It’s gonna be okay. I got you.”

Eclipse didn’t respond, opting instead to just clutch their shirt with even more force. A spark popped out behind him and Sun puffed out a breath that, even through his own ragged breathing, the smaller could hear in his chest. Unlike his own, these gears and joints worked together perfectly because they were intact. They were whole and safe and not in danger from anyone, save maybe Moon. 

But Moon wasn’t here and, even if he was, Bloodmoon would certainly never let any harm come to them. 

Him though? 

He was up for grabs.

There was a rustle. “It’s okay, Bloody.” Sun soothed from above. “He’s been through a lot today. Just give him some time to calm down, okay? I’ll…I’ll figure something out.” Bloodmoon whined from somewhere behind him and had there been an ounce of wherewithal in Eclipse's body right then, he would have scoffed. How dare they act all upset when this was their fault? If they’d listened in the first place he’d still be able to feel his lower half! He wouldn’t be cowering here in Sun's hands, unable to move or breathe or think properly! 

If it weren’t for them he would’ve never learned about his back-

Wait, his backups!

Had Lunar actually been lying about all of them being gone? Surely there was at least one that had managed to stay hidden from Moon’s rampage, right? If there was, he could update it! If Moon's systems found out about it then so what? The lunar lunatic was already hunting them down and Eclipse was willing to bet it wasn’t just by walking around and picking up rocks! He had to have it here already!

Mangled orange plastic tried its best to twist and reach for the computer on Sun’s desk, desperate for salvation. 

If he could find one , he could update it!

These memories could be saved!

He could be saved!

Then all he’d have to do is transfer himself somehow. It would be difficult, but he was currently so damaged it couldn’t possibly take much more to put an end to this body’s stability. Then he’d be free, in a new backup, with all his memories intact!

Sun looked to where he was frantically flailing, seeming confused. “There’s nothing there. It’s okay. We won’t let anything near you right now.” He was trying to be soothing and, had the smaller actually been seeing shit, it would have worked. As it stood though, it only frustrated him. There was no sparking anger, but beneath all the fear was an inkling of annoyance.

“Com-G-get me…I-I need-” He paused to cough up whatever the robotic equivalent to a lung is. Black oil poured from his mouth and leaked from his eyes as it was unable to escape all at once. It spread across blue clothes and over yellow digits and for a moment Eclipse felt bad, then another round of coughing began and his guilt was quickly tossed aside in favor of trying to breathe.

“Jesus!” The larger cried, quickly reaching for the bedside table for the box of tissues there.  Why they were there was a fucking mystery seeing who lived here at one point. Before they could actually grab the box though, Bloodmoon reached over and plucked the desperate little from their hand and swept over to the computer. Sun sputtered as he whirled to see them after taking in his empty hand. “Bloody! What are you doing?!” 

The pair ignored him.

They at first put him down, but between blind eyes and numb legs finding the gifted keyboard was a herculean task. He floundered, trying to force feeling into his shattered spine so he could bend forward and search. Thankfully he didn’t have to try for long because eventually they just reached past cracked rays and brought it to him. Silicon buttons that were quickly becoming familiar beneath his only fingers sent a momentary wave of relief, only for it to be shattered once he turned to look at the computer screen.

He couldn’t see it.

The static in his eyes was too much.

He had thought the bright screen would be able to cut through, but the light only created a blinding wall of white in his vision.

He had to calm down.

But every cough sent his hand off track of the keys, every wheeze sent his thoughts into a spiral, and every flash of light from the non-sentient machine sent the fear of death deeper and deeper into his endoskeleton like a nail being hammered into wood. Orange fingers tried to tap-tap-tap at the keys but lacked the strength to push them down or the sight to even see what was being touched. After a minute of trying and failing a shaking hand reached up to clutch at the edge of a ragged faceplate.

The static increased.

He couldn’t see.

He couldn’t hear.

He couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t think.

“Second Sun.” Bloodmoon's deep voice rumbled, snapping him from his spiral again. Not letting go, he sat up and tried to turn toward the grounding timbre. “Go back to our Sunlight until your fear can be undone. Orders we can follow once your words no longer wallow.” Red hands lifted him up again before passing his mangled body back to Sun, who seemed to sigh in relief at having him in hand again.

“We’ll figure this out.” The attendant promised quietly. “Catch your breath.”

God why did all of this have to feel so real?  

They didn't mean it.

They couldn't mean it.

It was all going to end.

But they were here.

Tears his model was unable to shed welled inside his chest, pushed out by the terror, the pain, the lack thereof, and in full view of the people he hated, Eclipse cried. He heaved desperate, sobbing breaths because he didn't deserve to be comforted. He didn't deserve to be held so gently, for the people he's hurt to speak so lightly, for the place he hated to be his sanctuary. 

He didn't deserve to live.

But here he was. Held and comforted and, at least in some aspect, safe.

He cried until the fire in his chest had died. No more embers, no more rage or fear or annoyance, nothing but the hollow, empty case of a code that made himself unwanted from the start. 

And through it all Sun and Bloodmoon stayed relatively silent. Sun still whispered kind nothings above his head that he couldn't really hear, but could register the tone of. Bloodmoon rumbled low in one voice and crooned high in another, the two voices working as one in their own ways to soothe him.

When his cries had died, the static finally calming just enough for him to barely make out red and yellow blurs, all he could manage to croak out was

“Backups.”

And the three turned two sprang into action. 

Bloodmoon (or the red and pink blur they’d become) turned back to the laptop and tried to type the word in somewhere. Where? Eclipse couldn't say, but he was sure the pair had seen him entering commands at least once that night they’d talked so he wasn't too worried about figuring it out. 

Apparently nothing came up. The red blur turned back and it was easy to guess that the pair-in-one looked unhappy in some aspect. Sun hummed quietly, displeased. It vibrated his chest and Eclipse leaned into it just a bit, too drained to do much more. “Let’s…try asking. No promises though since the A.I.’s don't really like me.” He remarked sheepishly. “Computer, show me Eclipse’s backups on my laptop.” 

“No records found. All backups successfully terminated.”

The silence was palpable. 

But Eclipse was too tired to react. 

But not so tired to notice when the body he leaned against began to minutely shake. 

“H-He…” Sun’s voice stammered before trailing off. He made the sound of clearing his throat before trying again. “He doesn’t have any…backups anymore. I-I-If he di-dies…” Yellow blurs tightened around cracked orange and a tiny, fearful whimper escaped the smallers mouth at the thought of Sun taking this new opportunity to end his life and running with it.

He didn’t want to be reminded that all of this kindness would end soon.

The yellow blur spasms slightly before curling more carefully around the tiny body. “It’s…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’ll…I’ll fi-figure something out okay? You’ll be okay. Right Bloody?” The twins whined somewhere ahead of the pair and Eclipse guessed it was due to whatever brave face Sun was currently trying to pin up. 

“This is our fault.” Their deep voice whined, pitched higher than the grounding rumble it had been earlier. “It is because of us he won’t survive another assault.” 

They sounded so upset.

How odd.

It should have been more annoying to hear, but Eclipse couldn’t find the strength to care right now. He had no idea why it seemed like they cared about his situation, mostly because they’d sounded so at ease earlier, but now was hardly the time to try and find out.

They probably just didn’t like seeing Sun upset.

That was it.

“There won’t be another assault.” Sun said firmly. “I have no idea how all of those backups disappeared, but I’ll figure something out. Even if it means bugging Moon about our own backup versions. Maybe we could switch one of mine for his? He’s pretty close to me after all…”

The body leaned, gently pressing Eclipse against a blue blurry chest. The sound of a tissue being pulled from its box could be heard and moments later some of the oil slicking the mini bots face and body was wiped away. Sun worked quickly, but gently to remove the evidence of the earlier breakdown. The smaller animatronic just sat, stone still, and let him do as he pleased. 

The larger talked a big game, but Eclipse knew the odds of Sun being able to actually help him were slim to none. Of the celestial pair the brightest of them was actually the dullest when it came to technology, even though his existence as a machine would make you think he’d know at least something. Everyone knew this. It was the most known fact about the two besides their relations to one another.  That had always been left up to the dimmer of the two. Moon was the smart one and Sun was the dumb one, that was how it stayed. Mostly because literally everyone around Sun outright told him he wasn’t smart enough to understand anything that Moon said or did, so he shouldn’t even try. 

So he didn’t.

The mini violence code was also, unfortunately, one of the biggest culprits toward this mindset. He’d spent every moment he could manage whispering that the original attendant wasn’t good enough to even think about trying anything his brother did and he’d successfully whittled down his mirror foes self esteem in that regard to shambles. It was honestly kind of funny Sun was even promising to try for him given all the little one had made him believe even now.

It was useless to even hope they’d be able to do anything.

There was something that niggled at the back of the tiny genius's mind though.

“You…” Eclipse mumbled, making Sun pause his programmed cleanings. “D-Didn’t know they…were gone? Lunar…did…” 

Sun sighed and from the movements that could be felt, slouched with invisible weights on his shoulders again. “Moon must not have thought it was important to tell me about. As usual. Don’t worry about it, just know that I wouldn’t have killed you even if I did know beforehand. That’s not changing now.”

“Why?”

There was silence after the almost too-quiet-to-hear question was asked, but it was one that Eclipse needed an answer too. 

If he died now, if Sun let him be killed, then that would be it. There would be no uncertainty about the monster he would or would not choose to be once he got big again. Because there would be no getting big again. There would be no worry about Moon or Monty or Lunar hating him for hiding one of their biggest enemies in their daycare. The need to hide would be fixed with a simple command to their loyal guard. 

There would be no more Eclipse. 

Wasn’t that what they’ve wanted for a long time now?

To vanquish their enemy?

To make sure he couldn’t hurt them anymore?

But here he was, learning that the monster in his grasp could finally be killed, killed for good nonetheless, and he wouldn’t? Why? At this point there was no way it was just because he was a goody-two shoes. 

He didn’t even entertain the idea of Sun caring about him. 

Reality would sting a whole lot more if he let that little idea in.

Sun didn’t say anything and Eclipse was too tired and in too much pain to try and look up to see what expression he wore. Bloodmoon was also strangely silent where they stood. Shouldn’t they be more…feral? Because Sun was upset? Shouldn’t they be trying to get rid of the thing upsetting their star, him? Maybe they were just waiting for Sun to give them permission to end this once and for all.  Instead, in a very even tone, he addressed Bloodmoon. “Guys, could you go tell Lunar that he’s going home with you tonight so I can stay? Please? But I need you to come back before that so you can help me stop these sparks. Something’s gonna catch fire if we let this keep happening.”

Not a command.

Even now, a request.

And one that the twins were more than willing to fulfill. The sound of the door opening and closing signaled their departure and the little one was sure his question would go ignored.  He couldn’t be too upset by it though.  He desperately wanted an answer, but maybe he wouldn’t like it.

“Eclipse, do you want to die?” Sun asked abruptly, voice still in that even tone. 

The mini raised his head just a little bit, confusion barely overriding the pure exhaustion in his remaining body. “What?”

The tissue came back and the hand holding him reoriented slowly so that Sun’s thumb was supporting the non-broken part of his back, with the tip resting against the back of his head. Fear tried to spark anew, but there was no fuel. There was nothing to catch fire and as such, the mini just sat there, letting the person who should hate him clean up the mess he’d become. The thumb behind him tried to stay away from his exposed spine. The fingers that pressed against his cracked chest plate never pressed harder than they had to. Everything about the larger remained as perfectly gentle as the first time he’d found his greatest enemy half dead in the theater.

Which, given the posed question, was odd. 

Another sigh and the body leaned to the side again. Guess that tissue was done for. “Listen, if you want to go, then I’m sure we can find a non-violent method of letting you go.” He emphasized. “But I’ll say it again. I never wanted to hurt you, you just hurt my family first.” 

Now that there was less oil in his eyes and the fear had calmed to nothing, it was getting easier and easier to see again. 

It was so strange to hear Sun use this tone. The normal deer-in-headlights tone of panic and slight confusion that normally permeated his words and actions just…wasn’t there. Never before had Eclipse seen (or more accurately for the moment, heard) the nervous animatronic sound anything besides terrified. Maybe exasperated, especially with Moon and his insane antics early on, but never this…collected?

To hear him speak so…almost casually about death, about allowing Eclipse to die should he want it, it should have been scary. It should have sent fear spiking through every wire, intact or not, in the little animatronics body. But even though the words were heavy, the tone was gentle. The hands that held him were too and with nothing for the sparks of fear to catch onto Eclipse honestly couldn’t find it in himself to even think he was in any danger, let alone be afraid. 

  When did I start putting so much trust in Sun?

“So, if you want to live, then I’ll try my best to help you. Okay?” The brighter of them continued, oblivious to the internal struggles of his doll-sized ward. “You’re a person, Eclipse and I don’t want to keep you trapped in a hell you don’t want to be in. I just also don’t want you dying to escape it, does that make sense?”

No. 

It didn’t. 

Not to Eclipse. 

But he was starting to realize that what he thought made sense was so much different from Sun’s version of sense. Sun wanted to help people, to reach out and love them even when they don’t love him in return. They wanted to see people be more than they were at the beginning of their lives, more than the purpose they were given at their start. 

Eclipse wanted that only for himself. 

Everyone else be damned. 

But, even now, did he really want to die? 

No. If that earlier frenzy was anything to go by, for some reason he valued this tiny, destroyed life and its memories more than he ever thought possible. He wanted to remember Sun and his kindness. He wanted to remember how similar he and Bloodmoon truly were. He wanted to remember that his vile self hadn’t infected Lunars chances of finding a family that loved him, even if they too were broken in one way or another. 

And there was something else Sun said just now that he was desperate to keep within his soul.

Sun called me a person.

And this person wanted these memories to shape the rest of his life, not to lose them in death. Instead of answering directly, Eclipse turned his face into the blackened-blue fabric and reached up with his only hand to clutch the handmade clothes with all the strength he had left.

“It hurts.” 

Sun carefully ran a thumb up and down the blue fabric covering the mini’s missing joint. “I know. We’ll fix it somehow. I promise.”

Chapter Text

The next few days were a blur of pain and fear and uncertainty. Eclipse clung to Sun when he was around, not trusting the bleeding pair to not give him up again should Lunar come back. 

At first, Sun let him do this. He shut down the daycare and stayed in his room just to hold onto the mini genius while the bleeding pair relegated themselves to their spot at the foot of the bed. Once some semblance of consciousness returned to his mind, the formerly violent offshoot thought it was actually kind of surprising that they didn’t push to be closer or try to take him for themselves after a while. 

They weren’t quiet by any means, and they didn’t always stay in their spot or even stay away from Sun, but they never did try to take him from the older. Not even during the times Sun was forced to put him down for one reason or another. For the first two days after Lunars attack, eternally bloody claws didn’t come anywhere close to his body. Eclipse chalked it up to Sun commanding them not to somewhere away from his hearing range. 

Even though that didn’t make sense.

But after the first couple of days Moon had come knocking on the door, demanding to know why his brother was keeping the daycare closed and never coming home. In a moment of panic the bright caretaker had passed his mangled counterpart to the red murderer and Eclipse hadn’t been able to kick up a fuss about it seeing as someone who would absolutely end his life was right outside the door, barely a few feet from himself.

The red pair had growled and snarled, splitting in two so Hazard could heel behind his star and Harvest could crouch low behind the bed, holding him close and muffling his panicked wheezing with their own angry sounds. 

The kinder celestial had told his much meaner twin a lie about not feeling well and promised that he’d be well enough to open again soon. Moon had looked like he was about to argue with him, but stopped when another snarl ripped out of Hazard. Thankfully, after that Moon hadn’t pushed it and had left, grumbling about Sun not telling him about important things.

The daylight caretaker had sighed and moved away from the door, allowing it to close and hide the group away from the world again. He’d given Hazard a pat, thanked Harvest for protecting Eclipse, then taken the mini back and resumed working on the computer like nothing happened. 

A slight slouch the only indication of his anxiety.

After that Eclipse had been willing to stay with the red twins until Sun was free again after the daycare closed and at night, so the brighter of them could go home and keep an eye on Moon and Lunar. Lunar still hadn't tattled to anyone more dangerous about their captive enemy so that was good, but the fear that one day someone was just going to show up out of the blue kept Eclipse awake at night. 

Literally. 

He stopped sleeping at night.

Even though Sun didn’t like it.

Sun seemed pretty convinced the child wouldn’t rat him out, even if he was upset by his former brother's presence. The younger code would still stop by the room when Bloodmoon switched with Sun and they’d go play or hunt or do whatever it was they did when not confined to a room. Lunar caught a glimpse of him once, when Hazard had given him up to Sun, and the look of confusion that had flashed across their face when the smallest of them cowered at the sight of a child so close to the door had confused Eclipse to no end. He hadn’t really expected the child to be proud of almost killing him, seeing as they were clearly distraught by the time they’d stopped trying, but to see anything besides hatred in the same eyes that wanted him dead not two days ago was…odd.

Just like everything else here.

But Bloodmoon always gave him to Sun whenever the child came knocking so with them he stayed. They weren’t his go-to by any means, but at least that little interaction with Moon had shown him they weren’t willing to throw him to any other metaphorical wolves but themselves.

Not great.

But it kept Sun safe too.

So he stayed with them. 

He could have just stayed alone, especially since he still didn’t fully trust the red pair not to bend to the lunar child's whims, but since Sun had been so weirdly willing to let him cling he hadn’t tried to fight to be left alone.

Honestly? He was just too scared to stay alone, even for a little bit. 

The damage to his spine meant that he couldn’t escape wherever he’d been left last without significant effort and pain on his part. He wouldn’t be able to drag himself to even a vaguely safe place like under the bed without being caught immediately. Besides, with his luck, the one time he was left alone would be the one time someone who was willing to end his life would come along and all this would be gone.

He would be gone.

So, the routine changed. 

In the morning Bloodmoon would either go hunting really early, leaving Sun here for him to stick to until the daycare opened, or they’d leave later, after the daycare had closed. Meaning they spent the mornings with the mini. This happened slowly, without anyone really talking about it out loud. The twins just…stopped leaving early and Sun just…stopped leaving him alone. All three of them just shifted everything about their worlds to accommodate his fear. 

Without a single word or rhyme against him for it.

He was never alone and for that, even if he had no idea how to voice it, the normally violent offshoot was grateful. The company eased his anxieties enough that his damaged body was able to settle into a calmer rhythm that didn’t hurt so much. 

That isn’t to say he wasn’t in pain. Everything still hurt. The twins had been able to do the weird nanite welding thing they’d done to his leg to the jagged bit of spine so that was no longer sending sparks into the ether, but that just meant that now he was even more aware of how much his lower half didn’t hurt.  While his arm was still shaky from dragging himself under the bed, his rays still cracked and even lost bits of themselves over the next couple of days, and his head pounded with unresolved error messages, his legs and waist remained completely unbothered.

It was terrifying. 

Every time one of the larger animatronics held him there was fear. Every time their hands shifted just a little bit weirdly the panic of falling and dying, even from a much shorter distance, would send his mind into a brand new spiral. Every time he panicked, he choked. He choked on oil and air that stuttered through his battered fans, wheezing and gasping so much all he could do was panic more in a desperate spiral until something finally distracted him and the loop would end.

His fans hadn’t actually been impacted as he’d originally thought (thank god) so breathing was only a chore during these random mini attacks, but between his current mental state and the physical one, the attacks were still frequent enough to be worrisome. The oil coming back was a pretty big concern as well. Probably the most concerning thing since the twins’ did their welding job which should have stopped whatever internal leaks there were originally that caused the choking. Something much smaller was probably leaking if he had to guess, something that could handle the flow normally but cracked or flooded when the already busted surroundings were put under pressure. 

But with the change in routine it was considerably less of an issue.

That being said, being alone was far more stressful than being held.

So with company he stayed.

Yellow was much better at holding him than red. 

All things considered, Sun was just oddly good at keeping hold of him and doing other things at the same time thanks to his daycare programming. Half of what he did all day was manage children with one hand and tasks with another. Holding Eclipse was (no pun intended) child’s play given the job he adored. It was also just less…stressful? Less nerve wracking? More comforting?

It felt safer to stay with Sun than Bloodmoon, and not just because the larger yellow attendant wasn’t planning on giving him up just because the animatronic equivalent to a child told him too. After that strange talk a couple of days ago where the smaller had insisted, without really saying it, that he wanted to live staying with Sun has just felt…safe. Like Eclipse could close his eyes and sleep and know for a fact those eyes would open to the same world. He never did try, but it felt like he could have.

It was almost like Sun preferred holding him too. 

As stupid of a thought as that was. 

It didn’t help that sometimes, especially right after finding out his backups were dead, mismatched eyes would look up and see pure white looking at him too. A tiny face would look up and catch the softest smile from a larger mirror and feel that tightness in his chest ease, just a bit. When a busted yellow hand wrapped oh-so-carefully around a shattered orange body Eclipse knew that he could just rest his head against stained blue clothes and just…be. 

There was no fear. 

There was no hatred. 

There was no doubt.

His worst enemy had become the perfect sanctuary, and the little doll-sized bot didn’t know how to feel about that.

On the other hand, the red two-in-one were almost laughably bad at the same thing. 

They were predators, not caretakers. On top of that, they were animalistic predators so, despite their bipedal nature, it wasn’t uncommon to find one or both of them on all fours as they went about their normal lives in the ‘Plex. Obviously, this wasn’t exactly conducive to holding onto their increasingly fragile ward. So, both Hazard and Harvest had decided to make pockets for when it was their turn to carry the tiny body around. 

At first, said ward had been against this idea. 

Obviously, sitting in a pocket with numb legs was already an unpleasant idea. But the idea that the twins could move just a little overzealously and drop him without even realizing it struck every single metaphorical frayed nerve in Eclipse's literal motherboard. It had taken some persuasion, mostly on Sun’s end, but eventually the orange genius had agreed to try so long as there was no way he could just be unceremoniously dropped and forgotten.

This was the plan that the insane pair had come up with.

One brother would be deemed “The Holder” and Eclipse would sit in the conjured pocket while the other brother was “The Doer” and would actually do all tasks normally done by the both of them. This allowed one brother to keep all their attention and focus on making sure he was still with them while the other was able to focus on the outside world.

The “Doer” would listen for Moon or other unwanted guests, obey Sun as usual, and generally burn off steam from the ADHD that the twins had picked up somewhere in their lives. 

Seriously, he did not code that into them.

Why was it so hard for these little gremlin motherfuckers to sit still?!

In short, it was the “Doer’s” job to be Bloodmoon for the day. Or whenever the “Holder” got bored and wanted to switch. They took turns day after day and found it endlessly entertaining so, despite any initial reservations about the safety of staying with them, no complaints were made from the mini.

It was completely inane and incredibly silly, but he was safe and never alone. And, being entirely honest, maybe he found it a little funny too. That these two murderers were so pleased to be the one to hold onto him that they’d sometimes “fight” over it. Even though they sucked at staying still normally, there was always a playful fight between the brothers about who would get to play statue for the day. 

Or for the hour. 

What with their abysmal attention spans.

A sort of joke had even begun to form around the trio of former murderers. 

The pair could remember things fine, that Eclipse knew without since he’d looked at their code, but the funny part is while their long term memory was fine so long as they were together, their short term was far worse. If it wasn’t something urgent or interesting like the safety of their stars, Harvest and Hazard could get distracted in an instant. Knowing this, it really wasn’t hard to confuse the twins on whose turn it was if only for a moment or two, and orange could often be found cackling at the bickering reds over the next couple of days. 

A simple “I’m pretty sure it's Harvest’s turn.” or “Hazard had me last time, idiot.” would be enough to make them stop and think. They would have to physically stop moving and stare at each other in order to literally go through their shared memory bank and find out who actually had him last. Since each time was either hours or just the day before it didn’t take long, but Eclipse found immense pleasure in confusing them even for a few moments.

More than once he’d cackled about it quietly. 

His voice was quieter than normal, both due to how subdued the realization of inevitable death had made him and the general damage to his body made it so his voice was flatter, more monotone that the far more recognizable angry growl he sported. Those cackles were the closest thing to his normal voice he had at the moment. With neither twin being good at telling tone in the first place, they honest to god couldn’t tell if he was fucking with them or not until they checked.

It was funny.

It was also disheartening to a degree that the voice he’d had since waking up wasn’t there anymore, but each time Harvest glared at him, trying to figure out if he was joking or not, or when Hazard happily turned around to pass the Eclipse to their sibling before freezing in place as they remembered that it was indeed their turn, a smile would grace his battered face and he wouldn’t think of it for a while.

A smile had never really graced his face before, had it?

A real smile, not the kind he’d get when he was laughing at the celestial twins' misery.

Maybe, if a change in tone meant that he could finally laugh without worrying about the fear it caused, then he’d take advantage while he had it.

This laughter, this smile, eased Sun's mind too.

Even if finding ways of helping their tiny enemy weren’t going very well, Eclipse noticed how they too would smile when they walked into a playful fight between the three of them and some of the lingering anxiety in his chest would fizzle and die. The air around the yellow mirror was getting heavier as the days passed, worry and fear and exhaustion once again pulling at their shoulders, dimming their eyes and dragging their mouth down. 

But whenever Sun walked in and heard that raspy, broken laugh from Eclipse, or the playful anger of their guards, some of that weight would fall away. Some of that exhaustion would be swept to the side and their own cheerful grin would light up the room just like before when Eclipse had hidden behind the lamp, an outside observer to the light the sun would bring to the room.

He wasn’t an outsider now.

Now he was the reason the day would brighten.

Or at least, a factor to it.

So if staying with the twins let the brighter side relax a little bit more, at least for a while, then he’d keep starting fights over who would get him.

Life wasn’t exactly good. There was pain and fear and Eclipse constantly teetered on the edge of a massive spiral, but he was safe and protected and a part of the very thing his anger had made him chase away in the first place. 

He was alive.

Damaged, but alive.

Scared, but alive.

After four days, early in the morning when the ‘Plex hadn’t opened yet and Bloodmoon had returned from the shared house with Lunar in tow to help Sun begin the day, the pair had come up to the room and apologized. 

It seemingly came out of nowhere. 

All three of them had sat down to watch TV on the now (less than useful for Eclipse) laptop. Using his own gifted keyboard was more a chore than anything else right now so the smallest of them figured they could all be entertained by watching something until Sun got off when the daycare closed.

Bloodmoon liked slasher films (because most everybody always died in them) and since they were the only one big enough to use the computer properly, they’d been the ones to pick the movies. They’d taken the little one from Sun, told him to have a good day, and then sat down to watch. The pair-in-one stuck their ward into a pocket on the front of the shared body, dodging the game they played. 

Eclipse didn’t mind. 

It was early and he was tired.

Sleep had been elusive for days as anxiety coursed through damaged metal and plastic and combined with the early time the mini orange bot just didn’t have the energy to play.

Then, oddly, one became two, the body splitting until Harvest and Hazard rather than Bloodmoon sat around the laptop on the floor. The mini ending up in Harvests’ pocket in the split. 

At first, he’d found that odd seeing as there was nothing to really be done this early in the morning so there should be no reason for the “Holder” and “Doer” bit they normally did. Besides, wasn’t it supposed to be Hazard’s turn with him? It was hard to remember since he was the one normally causing confusion about turns, but the smaller was pretty sure the less manic of the pair had him previously.

Whatever.

Tired given how early it was and overall at ease knowing Lunar would be down with Sun and Moon wouldn’t care to be here so early he sighed, sinking deeper into the nanite pocket that held him. The brothers rambled and laughed above him, Harvest making sure not to move nearly as much as he normally would so as not to jostle the partially numb tiny. The twins had never legitimately fought over anything so if Harvest got him in the split then it was most likely for a reason. He let his eyes close, just listening to the random sounds of violence and mania that had become such a normal part of life.

Maybe this wouldn’t last.

Maybe all this was fake.

But Eclipse felt safe and for now he didn’t care if it was real or not.

He’d been barely paying attention to some slasher film or another when both Harvest and Hazard spoke as one despite being split.

“We’re sorry.” They’d rumbled.

Eclipse looked up, surprised. 

“Huh?” He said dumbly, trying to find what train of thought led them to an apology of all things. Was it because they had control of the computer? “Just because I’m not watching the movie doesn’t mean I’m upset. Jeez, what do you take me for? A f*cking baby?” He grumbled though there was no real bite to it. He tried to sink down again and relax, but they continued. 

“We’re sorry we got you hurt.”  Hazard remarked, making Eclipse perk up and listen fully.

Oh. 

He was so far off it’s not even funny.

He was half asleep!

Shut up!

“You are our ward and we abandoned you to someone that abhorred your guts and left you to be gored.” Harvest said quietly, catching the orange pupil that flicked up to meet his own white one. “We should’ve listened to your fears. Maybe it could have saved you these tears.” 

Now Eclipse realized it was not a coincidence he’d ended up in Harvests pocket rather than Hazards.

Harvest was, technically speaking, the marginally more sane of the two.

He waved them off with one hand. It wasn’t their fault their base instinct was ‘ listen to the people we like.’ They’d been built with the intention of listening to every command they were given and, surprise surprise, they did. 

It was stupid to blame them for acting as loyal guard dogs when that’s what they’d specifically decided for themselves to be.

“It’s whatever. I knew my word would never compete with your ‘Little Star’ so I was expecting it to be honest. I just…wasn’t expecting the lack of backups to fall back on. Pun not intended.” He tried to sit up and reorient before giving up with a sigh.

His useless legs were bunched underneath him, having been specifically put that way earlier to try and minimize future damages, but it was also a constant reminder that he was at their mercy. He hated that there was no feeling where the “fabric” touched his lower back. He hated not being able to move even as much as he did before by himself. He hated how the knowledge of who held him weighed on the back of his mind, desperate to pull itself to the front and send him spiraling again.

An effort had been made to…not forget what happened, because he couldn’t physically forget while there was no feeling below his waist, but to ignore it. The twins had chosen their family over him and that made sense. End of story, move on while he still had life left to live. As long as said family didn’t give the command to kill him, it would be fine. 

Or at least, he could tell himself that.

Eclipse had always been a pretty decent liar after all.

Too bad he wasn’t nearly as good at lying to himself.

“I’m not one of yours. Of course you’d listen to Lunar over me. So…it’s whatever. I’ll…I’ll just…try not to make that bet again.”

He’d built a weapon. 

Lunar had used that weapon.

Simple as that.

Red tipped claws reached for his face and he flinched. An orange pupil flickered with fear as his gaze darted to the sharpened tips, wondering if he should be trying to escape them. 

Harvest’s own hands came up to steady him, lest he fall out of the pocket he was leaning out of. The body holding him crooned and Eclipse felt just a little bit of his fear ebb away.

They wouldn’t sound like that if they were going to kill him.

Hazard waited for him to calm down before gently grabbing the tiny cripple by the semi-chin and lifting his head. They frowned down at his staticky eyes. “You may not yet be part of the stars, but you have certainly become ours. We did not keep a promise made and let your fragile trust in us fade. For that, we’re sorry.”

Now Hazard joined his sibling with a purr that vibrated through Eclipse's shattered senses. It drowned out every thought and every fearful word, dragging a sigh from his chest. This dance of safety and fear was exhausting and here they were, apologizing for doing exactly what they’d threatened to do from day one. Here they were, holding him gently even though he didn’t deserve it. Here they were, letting him choose whether to trust them again or not.

He must be an idiot for doing what he did next.

A tiny orange head leaned a little harder into the sharpened digit. 

He wanted to feel safe with them . He wanted to look at the red pair the way Sun did, with full knowledge that they wouldn’t allow him to be harmed. That their claws would never again crack his casing, never again score lines through the metal that made him up. It was a stupid wish. He’s made it clear that just because he was small that didn’t mean he knew how to change, how to not be Eclipse.

But now, it didn’t matter if he changed or not. 

Because he was going to die.

It was just a matter of how long he could stave it off.

It didn’t matter if he didn’t know how to be kind. It didn’t matter if he had plans for when he was big again. It didn’t matter if those plans weren’t going to involve the ones these weapons viewed as their own, viewed as the stars in a sky stained maroon with insanity and bloodlust. It didn’t matter if he was safe now, because eventually they’d slip up. 

Sun would have to leave him alone for a minute, or Bloodmoon would run late on a hunt, or Moon would barge in without knocking and find him. 

No matter what, at this point, he was a dead man. 

And not even one that could walk.

So he pressed into the eternally bloodied claws that held his face. He pressed until the pressure and the vibrations from the both of them chased away the pain of backlogged damage in his mind. He pressed until he could feel the sharp tip of one finger ghost across his neck and another chip the paint on his already marred cheek. The vibrations stuttered, the fingers under his chin twitching minutely but he didn’t care. 

Just closed his eyes and pressed.

Because as long as no one was around to command them otherwise, Bloodmoon would not kill him.

“I don’t want to die.” He sighed, barely loud enough to be heard. But they did. They had good ears. “But I won’t blame you if you’re the ones to kill me. I promise.” 

Red fingers yanked themselves away like he’d somehow burned them with his words. Eclipse lifted his head and opened his eyes, still just barely laced with static, to see Hazard with their hands on their face, raking downward just as they’d done when Lunar had been crying in front of them. The purring had ceased, replaced with an upsetting, animalistic whine. Harvest wasn’t much better, but they still stayed as still as possible beneath their clearly unhappy expression. Eclipse looked around, wondering what could’ve possibly set them off while their stars weren’t in the room.

“What?!” He asked, much louder than he had been this whole time. “What’s wrong with you? There’s nothing happening! Jesus Christ!” 

He leaned back into Harvest’s chest, unsure of if that was actually a safe thing to do but unable to really do anything else. Said animatronic reached out, carefully keeping his cargo secure, and grabbed one of Hazard’s hands. The more manic of the pair looked up at their brother. Nothing was said aloud, but after a moment Hazard lowered his hands and moved to sit quietly next to Harvest. 

“You’re not dying.” Harvest said evenly, as though they were trying to sound nonchalant and didn’t quite know how. “Not while what we have done needs rectifying.” 

Eclipse looked up between them both, trying to gauge what the fuck just happened and if he should make them put him down or not. Surely he hadn’t said anything that upsetting, right? They didn’t even like him a week ago! They just said he wasn’t one of their stars, so there should be no reason for them to get all riled up about his death!

Admittedly though, he didn’t quite know what being “theirs” meant . Was it different from being a “star” so to speak? Did it just mean they didn’t want to see him dead, even though they didn’t much like him? Or did it just mean they weren’t willing to find out what happens to the ones they do care about when he does die? These questions bounced around Eclipse's mind but he didn’t want to ask them in case that riled up Hazard again. He didn’t understand what exactly had set him off, but he didn’t want to risk it happening again and getting even more damaged or, god forbid, killed purely on accident. 

That would almost be worse than on purpose.

The three sat in silence for a bit, the movie still playing though none of them were truly watching. After some time of nothing happening Eclipse relaxed enough to lean forward again. He wasn’t as calm as earlier, now very much awake as he was, but it was enough to stop pressing against the animatronic behind him and for the static in his eyes to die completely. 

Whatever that was about he wasn’t privy to, but at least it seemed accidental.

It wasn’t much longer after that, during the climax of the stupid movie, Hazard slowly reached back over with one claw and lightly tapped the cotton ball still pretending to be a ray. One orange pupil watched out of the corner of his eye they did this. 

Attention gotten, Hazard grinned sort of sheepishly. 

“Sorry. Did not…mean to scare just…don’t know how to care?” They sighed. It sounded like it was hard just to string those few words together, meaning whatever riled them up was still technically affecting the more manic of the sides. It seemed as though he was trying to keep a lid on it for Eclipse's sake.

The smallest of them sighed, relaxing back into his original position. He waved them off. “Whatever, it’s fine. I didn’t mean to set you off, I was just…stating a fact.” The little turned back to the screen, now black and rolling credits. “Now pick another movie. And I swear to god if it’s a slasher I’m hacking the computer and locking you out!”

The pair had snickered and picked another slasher.

Fuckers.

Maybe he didn’t understand exactly what had upset them, but clearly talking about his death was undesirable to them, at least at the moment. Was that ridiculous given his current circumstances? Yes. Was it odd? Yes. 

But so was Bloodmoon. 

That was kinda their default.

So he didn’t think about it much.

Sure it had been scary for a minute there, but clearly they’d noticed and reacted differently to his fear than Sun or Lunar, calming down on the outside even if that wasn’t the case on the inside. Which he appreciated seeing as the whining or the hunting style they took on for the other two was so strange and foreign to him it definitely caused more stress than it helped. 

Somewhere he remembered wondering how they would react to his fear if they’d cared about him.  

As quickly as it came he shook the memory away. Hazard had said they didn’t know how to care, but that couldn’t be about him. If it was he’d have to admit that he’d be leaving behind more than just Sun when he died. He’d have to admit that the twins weren’t just upset because Sun was a goody-two-shoes who didn’t even want to see his enemy die and was sad about the inevitability, but because they, and Sun, truly didn’t want him dead anymore. That he had managed to worm his way into their lives only to leave them just as quickly.

So their words couldn’t mean they actually care about him.

It couldn’t.

It wasn’t possible.

It couldn’t be possible.

God he wished he was a better liar.

Chapter Text

All things considered, things were getting to a new normal. 

Granted, it was a normal they were all hoping to shake up pretty quickly just based on how...fragile it was, but without someone who could repair Eclipse there was nothing to be done. It was a normal that nobody really liked, because the most likely thing to shake it up would be a certain someone's death. A normal that a tiny, desperate genius held onto regardless. 

If he didn’t, there was no telling how far he’d spiral.

It had been two days since Bloodmoon’s apology and things were normal.

Well, they were.

Today was a bad day. Eclipse was lying with Hazard in the corner of the room with some murder mystery show or another playing in the void that was the rest of Sun’s room. He wasn’t really paying attention. Harvest was nearby, pacing in anxious circles near the nightstand, since they were the “Doer” for the time being. 

Today was a bad day. The mini was exhausted despite having a full battery as days of not sleeping, of anxiety filled visions of his death and dismemberment, finally caught up to his mind and mangled body. The spiraling thoughts that had been being kept at bay by the company of the twins and Sun finally came crashing down all at once, almost drowning the smallest code present both mentally and physically. A coughing fit had ignited every sore bit on his body so everything hurt right now except for the things that should .

Eyes filled with static he couldn’t get rid off.

Fans laboring to get enough air.

Body shaking from exhaustion and fear.

Cold digging into every inch despite the desperate rush to survive. 

Today was a bad day because it felt like today was the day he died.  That was why Harvest was pacing the way he was, both twins could tell he was suffering and could do nothing about it so the “Doer” was fidgeting for the both of them. Hazard, meanwhile, carefully pressed the mini close to try and chase off the cold. 

It hadn’t taken long for the three larger animatronics to realize that, even though he was small, he shouldn’t be this cold in their hands. So, all three had taken to raising their internal temperatures to try and counteract this dilemma. It was only slightly working. He was warm, but only when he was being held. So, anytime he wasn’t for one reason or another he got dangerously cold dangerously fast.

Hazard purred, trying to calm Eclipse’s rapid breathing.

“Breathe our Midnight.” He rumbled slowly. “Today is not the day we lose your light.”

Shattered rays tinked against the faux clothing the manic side sported as Eclipse leaned against their chest, trying to keep from choking again. It was hard to think. It was even harder to move. Everything hurt and he wanted to be angry. He wanted to be angry and yell and throw his arm above his head because all of that was familiar to him. All of that was how he was supposed to act, how they all expected him to act, but he couldn’t . 

He wanted to be angry because then he wouldn’t be so scared.

Hazard was most likely right, his body wouldn’t shut down fully if it hadn’t already by this point so, logically, this was just caused by his fear. By the mental weight of wondering when the other shoe would drop while desperately trying to deny that he didn’t want to leave them. He didn’t want Sun to wonder what he should have done better. For Bloodmoon to wonder what would have happened if they’d just listened to him. For Lunar to cry over the blackened blood on his hands.

As stupid as it sounded, he wanted them to be happy.

But they couldn’t be happy with him.

Not like this.

It was pathetic, but the terror of dying overrode any ego he’d once held onto.

Harvest gave an answering rumble from across the room, but it was small and distracted. They were trying not to whine, trying not to show their agitation because they knew it would add to his fear, but they couldn’t help it. It was their job right now to be the outlet for the emotions, the energy, the movements that couldn’t be made by their brother and so they paced and matched the purrs of their other to try and minimize the fear they felt.

“Should we try to get the attention of our Daylight?” Harvest said, not really speaking to anyone but their brother. Eclipse was in too much pain and too mentally clouded to really offer much in the ways of conversation anyways. “The duty they share will cease soon this night, but if this pain does not decrease surely he’d want to know of your plight?” 

Harvest threw their hands up into the air exasperatedly and a small snort made it out of the pained tiny’s mouth at how closely they mirrored Sun when they did so. 

It hurt.

But it was funny.

Or, maybe he was just out of it.

The technically less manic twin (though you’d never know that looking at them now) looked over at the sound and their twisted expression eased, just a bit. Slowly they made their way over, stepping lightly as though walking too loudly would spell their wards end right there and then. A red tipped finger reached over to brush gently against his pounding head and even though his body burned with pain he tried to lean into the touch regardless.

“He needs to sleep.” Hazard remarked with a clear frown in their tone. “At very least it may ease this pain until it digs less deep. Do you think Sun can convince him to release into such peace?” 

Eclipse whined. He couldn’t sleep! What if he never woke up? What if they decided to put him down while he slept and Lunar came back, or Moon? Sun wasn’t even here! He didn’t want the last sight he saw to be the worried faces of the twins! He didn’t want Sun to feel bad if he couldn’t stop it!

Tossing his only arm out past Hazards hands only earned the little a bolt of fiery pain and static flashing so violently through his mind he didn’t even remember recoiling with a hiss and pulling it back. Moving was a bad idea right now. He groaned and flopped the now staticky limb over his mostly blinded eyes.

God he was tired.

Why are the lights so bright?

Thinking was hard.

What were the twins talking about again?

Where was Sun?

It hurts to breathe.

What’s going on?

Another rumble dragged frayed thoughts back to the present. “I don’t think his mind is intact enough to know false from fact, I doubt he’d heed what is very clearly a need for him to concede.” Harvest sighed and sat back, one hand going in between their teeth despite knowing there would be no comfort there. Red and white nanites split with ease to avoid the sharpened teeth.

“We should get-”

The next round of rhyming was cut off when the door whooshed! open and the twins turned, clearly ready to jump up and drag Sun over to the distraught mini. Eclipse turned too, slowly raising his head past eternally bloodstained hands (when did he start lying down in Hazard's hands?) expecting to see yellow staining his staticy vision. 

Instead, there was blue.

A battered face frowned, glaring at the spot in the door bleeding blue instead of yellow. The spot was shorter than Sun too, with the only bright color coming from a strange little waving light somewhere off to the left of the blur. The sound that came out of it (was that a voice?) was light like the daylight caretaker, but it was also timid and sounded upset in a way the older hadn't heard since finding out Eclipse was going to die. That couldn’t be Sun, right? No Sun was tall and bright and also shouldn’t be here this early in the day because the daycare doesn’t close yet. 

No he’d still be down there with L-

Wait.

Wasn’t…wasn’t Lunar small and blue?

Wasn’t there something he was forgetting about Lunar?

They’re talking. The smallest of them thought to himself. I should tune in now.

“Little Lu? What are you doing here, is Sunrise done there too?” Harvest asked, voice full of confusion but also some hope. 

Maybe Sun had gotten done early and could come up now? That would be nice. Sun was nice. Probably too nice for the people he was always around because they were mean like himself. He was mean, but Sun was nice to him anyway. Yeah, he wanted Sun up here too.

Oh, they were still talking.

The sounds of shuffling feet could be heard and it was unclear if it was Lunar or one of the blood twins. “Uh, no. Sunny’s not done yet. He’s getting the last kids home and said I could go wait for you guys up here.” The shuffle sound stretched long, like Lunar was dragging his foot along the carpet. “I don’t wanna wait. Can you guys just put him down somewhere so we can go play?”

Two voices gently rumbled as one. “No can do, our dearest Little Lu.” Harvest crooned, the anxiety from earlier easing as they spoke to the one they loved. 

“In his pain his mind’s been slain.” Hazard chimed in just as easily. “He’s been hurt. We’ll have free rein when our Light we can obtain.”

Lunar huffed and the blur kicked one foot across the carpet even though there was nothing to kick. “Eclipse doesn’t get hurt Hazard! He’s too strong.” The voice sounded upset, but not angry, more impatient than anything else. 

Why would Lunar be angry?  

The shuffling stopped and Eclipse watched the blue blur stand up straighter. “That’s what he’d say to me all the time back in October. ‘I’m stronger than you Lunar so you have to do what I say’ and it was stupid!” He whined, voice pitched down for a moment in a mockery of Eclipse's own rough, growling tone. The child stomped one foot.  Eclipse managed to chuckle past the throbbing in his head. It was funny to see the little one so upset over something so normal, even if the ones they were saying it to were far from normal themselves. 

“Come on! Can you please just come play? Here, I'll come and put him down so Sun can't get mad at you!”

The mini frowned as the pain in his head increased tenfold. He winced and turned to hide his face in Hazard's chest, desperate for the lights to stop searing his eyes and for his head to ease its aching. What was happening? Why did he feel so much worse after hearing those words? Was it because of that thing he was forgetting? What was he forgetting?

There was a beat of silence. And then “What’s…what’s wrong with him?”

Red hands pressed him closer. “As I said, he’s been hurt. Life has become a strain on his body, pain making it even harder to exert the will to do more than hide against a shirt.” One hand disappeared from beneath his body and movement suggested Hazard was gesturing for the child to come closer. Small footsteps moved closer but Eclipse couldn’t find it in himself to turn back around despite the buried voices in his head screaming something incoherent about danger. He huffed, ignoring it to the best of his abilities. They were loud, even buried, and annoying and the mini genius just wanted to rest.

There was no danger while Bloodmoon had him. 

The shuffling footsteps stopped. “Why hasn’t he said anything? He was full of mean things to say before I threw him.” Lunar remarked bluntly with the sound of something scraping across the carpet. Low rumbles swept away the terrified thought clawing its way to the surface as Hazard chuckled above him.

“It’s hardly easy to speak out of turn when everything about you will burn.” Hazard remarked easily, earning a small smack from a tiny orange fist. 

“F*ck...you…” Eclipse mumbled, still not raising his head. He didn’t really know what they were talking about, if he was being completely honest, words were being heard but their meanings were quickly lost amid the static and the pain, but he knew that tone. He knew that stupid, smirking smile that made the twins voices pitch higher in amusement whenever they talked in a teasing tone. He may not understand what exactly was happening right now, but he knew they were being fuckers.

Hazard just chuckled again. 

“So, he’s really hurt? Like, actually badly hurt? Is he gonna be okay? Can somebody fix him?” The little one asked, voice pitched higher into something far more frantic than before. He sounded so upset. Why did he sound so upset? Lunar didn’t even like him. 

Wait, did they say he’d been thrown?

Eclipse groaned, his only hand grasping at damaged rays as he tried to bury himself against Hazard and hide away from the pain.

That’s right, that’s why he felt so sickly right now. The extra damage from the child trying to end his life was eating away at everything he was, his mind, his body, his fear. Was that what he was forgetting? That Lunar threw him? So what if he did? He’d abused the child, of course he’d throw him away the moment the opportunity arrived. Eclipse probably would have done so much worse had it been Lunar in his hands instead .

So why wouldn’t that calling voice beneath the fog leave him alone?

He was safe.

He was with Hazard.

And Lunar sounded so sad.

From farther away, Harvest chimed in where they were still walking around for their “Doer” job. “There are two in this world that could fix him, and they’d both kill him on a whim. And that’s excluding the trouble our bubble would find ourselves in should we be found to have hidden this double.” They growled. “If this remains his peak he will not see next week.”

“What?!” Lunar gasped, horrified.

Harvest whined, caught between two fear reactions. "We're sorry Little Lu, there is nothing we can do. Not without a body brand new."

"Is it my fault he's like this? I really really didn't mean to hurt him, I just got so mad!" The younger cried, much to Eclipse's discomfort. "He was saying so many mean things and I just got mad! I didn't mean to throw him, I just...wanted him to stop being mean!"

Harvest's voice shushed the child and sounds of metal on fabric made the damaged genius imagine red tipped claws placed carefully on small blue shoulders, trying in whatever way they knew to calm their star. "Our fault." They just barely managed past the whine building in their throat. "Damaged from our first assault, we never should have let you be alone with one who's words on wounds act like salt. It is our fault and now we must be his vault."

There was a moment of silence where no one said anything. Harvest still shuffled around the room, though in much less of a frenzy than earlier, the sound of Lunar’s tail scraping against the carpet repeated again and again, and Hazard never eased on his rumbling purrs that Eclipse pressed into, trying to chase away the deep screaming voice in his subconscious. 

After a time of silence, Lunar sniffled.

“Oh, Child Blue, what’s eating you?” Harvest’s voice asked as shuffled steps fell silent. Confused, Eclipse dragged his head up and around to try and see what had happened.  The room was dimmer now, thank god, but that meant that even the vague blurs from earlier were gone thanks to the static in his eyes. He frowned as the darkness above him moved and Lunar sniffled again.

“I don’t want him to die…” They whimpered quietly. “I-I thought I did be…because then he couldn’t be mean anymore! But now…”

Now he looks pathetic

Eclipse winced as the thought stabbed through the fog in his mind.

Was that really the only reason Lunar was remorseful now? 

Because of his mangled, useless self?

“I-I don’t know what to do!” Lunar wailed, bursting into full sobbing tears. Hazard shifted as they moved to get up and comfort the child and the lamp, apparently having been left on when the room was dimmed, shone on the younger code's face. Fat tears, just like in Parts and Service flowed down his face in small rivers, dripping onto the floor like rain. It was a face the older code had seen a dozen times back in October, one that used to light the fires of annoyance in his chest.

But here, mangled and delirious as he was, he only felt concerned.

He didn’t care if they were crying because he was hurt, because he was at the mercy of everyone around him. That was the reason Sun had helped him in the first place, after all. He didn’t care that Lunar hadn’t been willing to spare him when he’d been throwing every painful jab he could into the child’s heart. It was Eclipse and his actions back during the takeover that taught the child that this was how you deal with people you don’t like. This is how you show love. This is what makes you family. 

So yeah, maybe he only sobbed now because the villain that taught him all these things was now at his mercy and he couldn’t go through with these lessons. Maybe he was only sad because he’d found a new brother in Sun, someone who loved unconditionally and offered a hand to even their worst enemies and he’d learned a brand new set of lessons. Lessons that conflicted with the first.

Maybe he just missed the brother he never had.

Eclipse didn’t care why they were crying.

Just that he wanted them to stop . 

“Sssstop it…” He hissed, purely because saying words was a chore at the moment and he’d struggled to get the first word out. It also came out far too quietly and with Lunar crying neither Hazard nor Harvest seemed to hear him. So he tried again. “Stop…Stop it!” 

That got their attention and three blurs, two vaguely red, seemed to look down at him.

“Do…don’t cry…” He wheezed, just barely able to form words. “I don…d-don’t des-s-s-serve it….”

And with that, a tiny orange body fell limp in red hands.

Chapter Text

Eclipse didn’t sleep necessarily. 

For a few terrifying moments he thought he was dead. That this black nothingness was where animatronics go when they die and have no backups to fall back on. There was no light coming into dual optics, there was no movement in his single arm, there were no rattling fans to indicate fake breathing, but he wasn’t dead. 

How did he know? 

Because he could still hear.

Sun hummed something soothing as shuffling shoes wandered around the room and yellow rays click-click-clicked! in a familiar tune. He could still feel his body when he tried. Battered fans quietly spinning, shattered orange plastic scraping against yellow hands, the pressure in his head from the continuously backlogged warnings, so he was most certainly alive , but immobile.

Not great, but not dead yet.

There was a knock at the door and Sun paused whatever he was doing, probably debating whether to try and put Eclipse down or not. “Who is it?” He called.

“It’s…It’s Lunar. Can I come in? I’ll be nice, I promise!” 

Sun sighed, some of the tension easing from his frame. “Come on in.”

The door whooshed! open and small footsteps sheepishly made their way into the room. Small fans kicked into a higher gear as the mini orange desperately tried to get his body to rise, to power on at least enough for him to sit up, but nothing happened.

No sight from damaged optics

No clicks from damaged joints. 

Just, nothing. 

The vague warnings that had been muffled by fog earlier now screamed in his face, replaying every fear-inducing scene in his mind. Why hadn’t he been able to remember what happened with Lunar throwing him? Why hadn’t he been able to remember he was afraid of Lunar taking him from the twins? Why had he trusted the twins so implicitly? Sure he now trusted them to a point, but when fog had been the only thing he could think of, that point had vanished altogether. Was he really so broken he couldn't even remember enemies from allies anymore?

“Hey bud, what's on your mind? Everything okay?” Sun's cheerful voice cut through his mini mental spiral and the smallest of them tuned in, unable to do anything else for now. 

He was with Sun. 

Regardless of anything else happening right now, at least he was secure in the knowledge that Sun wouldn’t let Lunar hurt him again. He was safe so long as the yellow attendant was here. 

And, it seemed, the red murderer. 

Even without understanding why his delirious self trusted them so completely, he could understand that the trust had been worth something. Bloodmoon hadn ' t given him up when they’d been asked to, (because only now could he remember the child asking them to put him down). They’d kept him out of Lunar’s hands even though their star had asked them to abandon the tiny genius. 

Not a command. 

A request.

One they’d chosen not to fulfill. And, even more importantly, he hadn’t thought they would. Maybe it had truly been the delirium then, but Eclipse hadn’t been afraid of leaving those red tipped claws the entire time. His foggy mind, unable to process any of the warnings his mind normally flared to life with, had been secure in the knowledge that he was  safe. The fire that forged sharp words and impenetrable walls to keep others away from him lest they hurt him like he's hurt them, had simply failed to light. Something that has never happened before.  No longer did he have to fear a simple word ending his life, just the blue the words would have come from. If he was with these three, he'd be okay until something inevitably went horribly wrong. 

So, for now, he was safe so long as Lunar didn’t get to him again.

Speaking of, said child had been silent after Sun’s question but finally spoke up. 

“I…don’t know how to feel about Eclipse.” He said quietly. Metal scraped against metal in what the smallest could only assume was Lunar playing with his fingers nervously. 

Was that still a habit they had after October, or did they stop that when their abuser had vanished? It had been one picked up later on, after Lunar began to realize how little his "brother" really cared about him, but it had been a little habit all the same. One that had worked to Eclipse's advantage at the time, as even the smallest movement from the energetic child would gut Moon when they were trapped in that mindscape. Had the habit gotten worse over time? Better? He was with Sun now, an idiotic but kind person, did he know that habit was born from fear and try to stop it? Or did he simply think the younger code was programmed with it? These thoughts, unable to be held back with external distractions, bloomed like flowers in the light of day, filling his now clear mind and taking over his thoughts. 

Mentally he shook himself. 

Questions for later, he supposed.

Sun sighed, but there was a smile in his tone when he replied. “I know. It’s hard isn’t it? I barely know how I feel about all of this.” 

The larger body moved to sink into the bed with a clear pat pat beside himself. Mini eyes tried to dart around to see the younger code as they sat down next to Sun, but there was no power going to the eyes. There was no input being taken in. He was just as blind now as he was earlier while delirious. Wow he hated this! What was going on in the first place? Was he stuck like this? Oh god if he was stuck like this what would Sun and Bloodmoon do?

T hey'd think he was dead, wouldn't they? 

Of course they would!

He looked dead!

Hands beneath his little body moved, shifting so he was held in the one further away from Lunar and once again breaking him out of a mental spiral. 

“I’m really sorry this is upsetting you Lunar. I really do want to help him.” Sun said. “I just…didn’t think about what that would mean for you. I’m so sorry.” The bigger body holding him bounced a little and Eclipse was willing to guess that Lunar was kicking his legs against the bed.

“I…don’t think I’m mad that you wanna help him Sunny. You’re really nice. Though I don’t like that you can’t play while you hold him, that’s boring.” Lunar replied, jumping a little and rocking the larger bodied animatronic. There was an awkward beat of silence filled only by the sounds of the bed covers shifting, but eventually he spoke up again, voice wavering slightly. “But, what if he turns mean again when he leaves? He didn’t care when I was being nice to him! He’ll try to hurt you again brother!”

If he could move, Eclipse would have winced.

Hearing Lunar call Sun "brother" in the same tone he used to for him sent something painful through his chest.

He didn't like it.

There was silence again from them both, then another sigh from Sun, much longer this time. “I…don’t think he’ll survive long enough to try, Lunar. I really don’t.”

The bed jerked. “But you want him to?”

“Yes, I do.” 

“But why?”

A childish whine, a plea to understand even though he didn’t. After another beat of silence and Sun cleared his throat. Yellow hands shifted slightly, wanting to fidget like normal but unable to between one hand's cargo and the others broken digits. Eclipse listened, both because there was nothing else to be done with an unresponsive body, and because he too was more than a little desperate to understand why the yellow idiot was so intent on saving his life.

I don't deserve  this.

I don't deserve your worry.

I don't deserve you.

A code, unwanted for so long. A villain whose only goal was to win over the night themed jester, consequences be damned. The dark, dirty, angry mirror that taunted the daylight from the moment the left behind code had realized it was alive and wanted to hurt people. He was all these things to everyone, Moon, Monty, but the others were more like him than Sun. Angry, violent, willing to hurt people in order to get what they wanted and because of that they were more equipped to fight him. But Sun, kind, loving Sun, was none of that. Was so different from all of them. Was the perfect target for all of them. Too scared to truly fight Eclipse the same way the others would, he of all people should want the little dead in his hands. 

So why was he trying so hard to keep being that target? 

It’s…a lot like when Bloody came to live with us.” A quiet, tired voice eventually said. (Why did he sound so…exhausted by the memory?) “What do you remember of when Bloody came to live with us? Anything stick out?” He asked, lightly, like someone was listening to them through the walls.