Chapter Text
"Is there something you want to say?" Moon asked.
Sun wrung his hands. What could he say? He had just finished the first real fight in his life, which had ended with a giant monster ripping his opponent apart. Everyone was safe now (well, safer), but as soon as they stepped back into the Pizzaplex, he and Moon would go right back to the daycare. Forever.
"Me? W-well, I…"
"Oh!" Sun said out loud. "Vanessa, we need you to quit our jobs for us."
"Of course. I'll do it first thing tomorrow."
"Quit?" said Chloe. "You mean you're not coming back?"
"No… Not that I don't want to! I would love to! I really wish I could've… met the rest of your family." Yeah, meet her family, that was it. That was all he wanted to do. Definitely. For sure.
"Why can't you?"
"We would need that ball. The one that's currently in… there." He looked at the creature resting on the floor. There was no hint of light in its eyes, no movement of any kind.
"Are you sure that it's gone?" Gregory asked. "There might be enough of that stuff left in there."
"I doubt it. Even if there was, what am I supposed to do? Dig through that?"
"Yeah."
"You might not want to do that," Vanessa butted in.
Sun tilted his faceplate and retracted his rays slightly. "I already didn't, but why specifically?"
"Because of the, um… corpses?"
"The what?" Chloe squeaked.
"We already know about those, silly!" Sun chuckled.
"You do?"
"Obviously. We can see them right there."
Sun pointed to the lifeless heap on the floor behind him. The Rabbit's remains and whatever grime it had picked up down here added some organic matter (likely including tons of germs) to the mix, but it seemed to be mostly metal. They had learned not to be squeamish around exposed parts years ago.
"It's worth a shot," said Moon in a casual, shruggish sort of way.
"Is that so, Mr. Can't-Wait-To-Escape-This-Nightmare?"
"Shush. I can do it if you're scared."
"It can't even move, Moon, of course I'm not scared."
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not!"
Sun paused, then turned the lights back off. He wasn't scared, how could anyone be scared of anything after all that, but he doubted much light was able to penetrate the inner layers, and Moon was the one with night vision. Besides, his rays would only get in the way in such a narrow space.
"What is it this time?" asked Vanessa.
"Sun was too scared," Moon snickered.
"I am not scared, Moon! You take that back!"
With one last glance over the surface, Moon dove into the heap. It started out with standard endo parts, nothing they hadn't seen in parts and services, and nothing that should have allowed this behemoth to move smoothly. He was hoping that was all that would be in there.
~~~~~
Then, Moon saw an odd-looking hand. It was small, very small, and it had been stripped of any wires. It wasn't quite like any model he was familiar with, but he knew he had seen it somewhere before. He searched his memory for something like it. The most recent thing that came up was the Rabbit, who had a couple of fingers that matched the strange model. That didn't tell him what it was, though. As he continued further into the heap, he found something unmistakable that made him freeze.
It was a human skull.
The mysterious model he remembered was a fake human skeleton from a previous year's Halloween decorations. This hand and skull were much smaller, though. Small enough to be…
"…children." Moon could barely finish the thought.
"Oh my stars," Sun whispered, "it's them. They're all here."
The Rabbit had mentioned what he had done to the children, but he didn't mention storing their remains in here! Was this what Vanessa was talking about? They had assumed she meant the animatronic "corpses," although they should've known she wouldn't use that word to refer to them. Most people didn't.
Numerous other victims had been reduced to skeletons, but some still had rotting flesh on their bones. All of the faces were too mangled to recognize. It was probably better that way. Nothing could have prepared them for seeing all of those little faces again.
Not like this.
~~~~~
Despite the... less-than-ideal circumstances, Moon had a job to do. He made his way through the tangle of remains, searching for any trace of the remnant, and trying not to think about what he was touching. His grainy black-and-white night vision cameras that Faztechs had the audacity to call eyes didn't help. He made his way from the bottom to the top without finding a single drop, not even a shard of the protective membrane. It must have already been reabsorbed into the metal.
All of that, and he couldn't even find what he was looking for. He burst through the top and crawled down the side.
"You can turn the lights back on, now."
When the lights were back on, they found themselves dirtier than they had ever been (which was really saying something, considering their job). They were covered in grime and traces of various liquids, and some wires were wrapped around their leg. Even when he had regained control, Sun made no attempt to remove them.
"Did you find anything?" Chloe asked. By the look on her face, she already knew the answer.
Sun said nothing, only bowing his head.
There was a sickening silence as the weight of this realization settled over the group. If they really wanted to, they might be able to "harvest" it from the metal again, but it would be wrong to the children, stealing what little they had left in this world. Sun and Moon at least owed them that shred of respect.
"That's ok," Ginger sputtered. "Wh-who said that this remnant stuff was the only way to turn you back? This place is full of weird mad science stuff, I'm sure we could find something-"
"Oh, you don't need to worry about us! Sure, we had a fun vacation, but it's about time we got back to the daycare! After all, the kids need us!"
"I guess they do. I'm going to miss you, though."
"Me too," said Chloe.
"Miss me? That's silly!" Sun laughed. "Why, Chloe, you can bring Tommy to the daycare anytime! And Ginger, don't forget we're going to be working together!"
"And if that's not enough, you can visit after closing, as long as you give me a heads-up first," offered Vanessa.
"That's very kind of you, Vanessa!" said Sun.
"It sounds like I'll have to do that sometime," said Chloe.
"Great! I would like that very much, friend!"
"Oh, um… yeah, friend. I guess that's… that's what we are." She was smiling, but more tears were coming to Chloe's eyes.
"Hahaha, of course we are! What else would we be? HAHA! Now that everything is settled, let's go upstairs! We need to get you out of here before opening!"
The Glamrocks were waiting for them outside Roxy Raceway. They eagerly welcomed Sun and Moon back to the Pizzaplex before returning to their greenrooms, because in their minds, that was the best possible outcome. When they got to the lobby, Sun headed towards the daycare while the others made their way to the prize counter elevator.
"You aren't going to walk us to the door?" Ginger asked.
"I- we would love to, but we really need to clean ourselves up. You can't run the best daycare in the world when you're covered in motor oil and the blood of the innocent!"
Sun wasn't actually sure what he was covered in, but he was certain that some of it had to be blood, blood that came from children he was supposed to watch over. He decided to stop thinking about that before he lost the strength to walk back to the daycare.
"Well, it sounds pretty bad when you put it that way… but can I at least give you, like… a hug, or something?"
"Again, we would love to hug you, but we don't want to- oh!"
Ginger wrapped him in a big bear hug.
"This is for both of you," she whispered. Gregory soon followed her lead, then Chloe, then Vanessa. Sun could do nothing but wrap his long arms around all of them.
Chloe started to cry again. Ginger tried not to, but a few tears escaped nonetheless. Inside, Sun wept so loudly that Moon wondered if the others could hear him.
They kept on hugging until an alarm went off on Vanessa's phone.
"It's 5:30. We should get going," she insisted.
They said their goodbyes, and the humans went up the elevator. When they were alone, Sun was tempted to collapse on the floor, but he headed to the daycare to clean himself up, instead. He wasn't sure how well he was going to be able to remove the stains with their cleaning wipes, but he had to try. They had to be ready for the kids. The kids needed them.