Archive of Our Own

The dining room was a little messy when children were in it. Mostly because Jack was always covering his face in whatever he was eating. Or Nexus would somehow have food on his head, or his clothes, or pretty much anywhere that wasn’t his mouth.

Molten was playing in the living room with Jack and Waning, being cowboys and pirates. While Sun sat with his two children at the table, occasionally glancing at the group.

Nexus waves his arms happily as he smiles at Sun, “Dada!”

Sun turns to his son in his high chair, “Yes, baby?”

“Abadadada!” He babbled happily

Sun tilts his head, gladly playing along, “Is that so?”

Nexus slams his little hands down on his tray, “Ah!”

Sun gasps, a hand dramatically placed on his chestplate, “No way!”

Dazzle looks over, her plate of sliced apples laying ignored for a moment, “What's he saying?”

Sun turned to her, “He's telling me all about his favorite hero!”

Nexus then continued to babble nonsense.

“Really?!” Sun asked, pretending to understand what Nexus was saying as Dazzle turned back to her fruit while watching

Nexus suddenly pauses for a full ten seconds, then sneezes, and Sun can't help laughing at Nexus’s little surprised face. The baby goes from a surprised to confused face, but soon forgets he was upset at all, and mimics his dad’s laugh.

Sun smirked at him, “Still don't like sneezing?”

Nexus slaps his little hands on his tray, as defined as he can be (not very much), “Ah!”

Sun laughs harder, “Sorry, Nexus.”

Dazzle’s giggling at the two, then gasps, the kind of gasp that says she has an idea, “He's like a tiny president!”

Sun nods, “You're right!”

Nexus rediscovers the fruit in his plate and puts it and his hand into his mouth.

Sun smiles and lets him eat while Dazzle hops up from the table, “I'm gonna make him a costume.”

Sun turns his smile to his little girl, “Good luck, Dazzle.”

Dazzle runs off, already excited as ideas come into her mind, “It's gonna be so pretty!”

Nexus finds a piece of an apple and holds it up, “Aba.”

Sun dips his head to the side once, then smiles at him, “Close!”

“Aba.” Nexus repeats again, then puts it in his mouth.

Soon after the snack time, Sun cleans up. Nexus is being a baby and hitting stuff just to laugh at the funny sound it makes. Sun smiles at him constantly, making sure he’s stable in his high chair.

Nexus then suddenly sneezes again and someone appears in the kitchen.

He is a red animatronic with brown hair, glasses, and yellow striped pants. He’s talking as if he had just been cut off from a conversation mid-response, “...understand Earth, I- Oh. Well this is quite new.”

Sun immediately jumped into defensive mode and stood in front of his baby as the new guy looked around, “Who are you?!”

Their eyes met and the man spoke politely, “My name is Mars. Who might you be and where exactly am I?”

Nexus babbled about until Sun picked him up, “Sun. My house.”

Mars nodded, staying in the same spot, hoping to not startle Sun any further than he clearly already had, “Ah. By any chance do you know how I got here? Because last I checked, I was talking with my sister.”

Nexus then got distracted my his Applejack hat and tries to eat the plastic apple on it, “Aba!”

Jack suddenly ran into the room, hearing Mars and runs in, yelling and tackling Mars to the ground, “INTRUDER!”

Mars goes down fast as he is not built for combat and was caught completely off guard, his glasses getting knocked askew.

Sun held out a placating hand, “Jack, hold on!”

Waning peeks in followed by Solar with his toolbox.

Jack had Mars pinned to the floor with his taser out and ready, “PErmiSsiOn tO tASe?”

Mars recovers from the initial attack and registers that he is in imidiate danger, but defends himself with his only weapon, his honest words, “I have not so much as attempted to harm you!”

Sun nods, even though Jack can’t see and he has to adjust his hold on Nexus, “He's right!”

Solar stayed quiet for a moment, lowering his toolbox before deciding, “Hold, Jack.”

Jack doesn’t put his taser away, but he does keep it steady just in case, “OkAy!”

Mars takes that as an opportunity to explain himself further, “If it's any amount of consolation, l am not going to harm any of you. Nor am I even capable of doing so.”

Sun watches him carefully, taking note of his claim with how he’s not fighting back against Jack’s sudden attack, “I think he's okay.”

Dazzle poked her head in from the kitchen to living room hallway just behind Waning, aware that there could be danger but doesn’t want to get in the way, “What’s going on in here?”

Mars looks to her in confusion, vaguely recognizing her voice, then her small deerlike stature when he squints just enough, “Dazzle? How are you here?”

“How do you know me?” She asks him, unsure of the guy who is just suddenly in the kitchen, “I don't know you.”

“But we've-this is dimensional stuff, isn't it?” Mars wants to sigh in exasperation, but still has a animatronic on his chest, making it a bit harder to breathe in general.

Jack moves the taser a bit closer, wanting to see what he would do and if this guy was a threat, he’d probably show it the most under pressure.

Mars’s pupils shrink a small fraction, but still makes very little effort to get away for the fear of actually being tased, “Please don't use that on me.”

Solar stepped in at that, “He's from another dimension. Let him up, Jack.”

Jack did so with an “OkAy.” And put the taser away, backing up just enough that he could still pounce just in case Mars is lying.

Mars slowly gets himself up, adjusting his glasses so he can properly see again.

Solar stepped forward, “Thank you, for that. Tell me stuff about your dimension.”

Mars nodded and explained as calmly as he could while his heart raced after being threatened with a taser, “My name is Mars, as I said earlier. I have a sister named Earth and she works with Lunar, Dazzle, and myself in the daycare. We also have a Comedy Bot, Chico, Andromeda, Roxas, and Bonnie. If that information helps any.”

“That narrows it down a lot. Anything else? Relationships? Other people? Events?”

“Day and Night are an issue. I believe that would help. They've burnt down the daycare and...I'Il say, harmed many children.”

Solar nodded, “Alright, I think l've got it.”

“If not, then I don't think it'll be a problem again.”

Solar tilted his head to the side once in consideration as he opened the portal, “Yeah.”

Mars felt relieved seeing that portal and hoped he would find himself in the correct dimension, “Thank you. I hope I don't surprise visit again.”

On the inside he was questioning how he even got there when he hadn’t been anywhere near the lab. Still, he stepped through and found himself back in his home dimension again.

“Alright, that's solved.” Solar said once the portal closed, hoping it was Mars’s correct dimension.

Dazzle stood in the hallway, puzzled before asking, “There's another me out there, too?”

Solar nodded, “Yeah. Sounds like it.”

Dazzle smiled, “That's so cool!”

Solar couldn’t help but smile back, then he saw something in the corner of his eye, “Jack stop trying to tase the table!”

~in the LAES dimension for a bit cause we can~

After stepping through the portal, Mars got to finding Earth, who had been freaking out on where he's been, so he quickly cupped his hands to his mouth and called out to her, “Earth!”

“Mars!” She rushed to him, making sure he was alright before hugging him, “Where did you go? You scared me half to death!”

Mars got straight to explaining to Earth what happened to him and where he was once he had found her. Harvest listened in from around the corner. This was vital information.

Mars finished his explanation with, “Thankfully I wasn't tased in the end, but it was a terrifying possibility for those few minutes.”

Harvest seemed to just appear from behind Earth, “It is a problem. We should seek to understand the odd misplacement.”

Mars nodded, “I agree, but we might need to be careful. Regardless of the cause being voluntary or hostile.”

Harvest raised an eyebrow, “First, what do you suspect?”

Earth quickly recovers from the little scare that is Harvest spawning behind her, “Were you experimenting before we talked?”

Mars was about to speak when his eyes widen and he remembers the answer is yes. So, he curses and runs to the lab where he was experimenting.

Earth chases after him just in case something bad happened and he’d need protection. Harvest followed the two at a walk.

Mars is thankfully able to get whatever situation that would've happened under control with only a minor explosion that he had to duck to avoid the glass shards, thinking to himself, ‘Alchemy's off the table for now, then.’

He also made sure to contain the remainder of his projects as well, before they could turn into future problems.

“Leaving that unattended was unwise.” Harvest said, once he arrived, arms folded.

Mars sighed, partially to himself and partially to Harvest, “I don't know if you've heard yet, but I was teleported to a different dimension without my knowledge or consent until it had already happened. I didn't exactly have the time to watch over the safety of my projects.”

“I was under the impression you left it beforehand. Next time have someone nearby so such projects can be watched.”

Mars felt his frustration beginning to rise, but kept himself in check with a deep breath, even if it did still slip out in his tone, “I can do my best, but can't promise much.”

Harvest unfolded his arms, “Then get to a point where you can.”

Mars gave him a mild eye roll in response.

Harvest elected to ignore the gesture, “Find another conclusion.”

Mars turned to him with the most polite sarcasm known to man, “Thank you for the advice.”

Earth jumped in, taking pieces of glass from Mars’s hair, “Guys, let's not fight.”

Mars put his hands up in easy surrender as he turns back to his things to check just in case he missed anything. Also to calm down as he was getting more frustrated and did not wish to explode on anyone.

Harvest huffed, “What is life without the rush of battle?”

“Um....well, people don't get hurt.....” Earth started with

Mars found himself speaking before he could think on his words, “Actually peaceful?”

“Cowards.”

‘Not cowards.’ Mars thought bitterly, wanting to not be in the same room as Harvest anymore

Harvest continued, unaware of Mars’s thoughts, “You both lack something to fight for.”

Mars retorted, “Well, we don't know that for certain.”

“What do you fight for then?”

“This place and all it’s animatronics, specifically.”

Harvest raised a brow at him, “Have you ever fought for it?”

Mars turned around to look Harvest in the eyes, “I know I can help to fight for it. I don't need to be on the front lines. I am perfectly fine being the support.”

Harvest turned away, waving his hand, “I am done with this conversation. Your attempts to sound worthy are weak.”

Mars frowned, “I don't know what you were expecting, exactly.”

“I expect you to grow a backbone.”

Mars rolled his eyes, “We don't have bones. The metaphor stands, I’ll give you that, but the legitimacy falls apart.”

Harvest glared, “If you cannot understand the meaning of the words I say then you lack knowledge you claim to have.”

“At least I'm not one of those know-it-alls who try to flaunt it about like an unsuccessful peacock.”

“Discovering what you are not will only bring you a portion of the way to what you are. You must also discover what you could be.”

“And I will do so. You seem to have it all figured out.”

“Fighting is my passion.”

Earth pinched the bridge of her nose, “Why are we still having this tense conversation?”

Mars shrugged, “Harvest started it.”

Earth tossed her hands up in exasperation, “You know what? Sure! I'll just leave then.”

Mars’s tone shifts to something nicer because it's Earth and he holds respect for his sister, “You're free to. I need to restart these projects anyway.”

Earth sighs before she leaves, “Alright.”

Mars opts to not say anything after she leaves and refocuses on his projects, trying to think on whatever happened to make him teleport into another dimension. While Harvest decided to go interrogate people about the teleportation.

~~~~~

He stays and works on figuring out dimensional energy and how that could've played a part.

Could it have been something he’d done? He hadn’t messed with the portal system that Moon had installed. Too many risks if it was overdone. Then they’d all be out a portal and he’d be the one who’d have to fix it.

He wrote out what happened and felt like he was starting a conspiracy board. All he needed was some red string to connect the details on pins. It sounded silly, but he actually considered it for a while before deciding to just lay it out on a table with some tape instead.

He paced and thought about what he’d been doing. Yes, talking with Earth when he was teleported away. But he was also standing by the soda machines just outside the daycare.

But if it were something in the soda machines there would’ve been more incidents. Especially if Day had been able to tamper with them, which was unlikely.

On second thought, Day had been able to get into the pizzaplex and did so without being detected. But it didn’t seem like him, and that could take hours. He would’ve been spotted by any of the staff or animatronics before then.

Moving on, he had only walked from the daycare…before then he had been working on his projects, and had set that one beaker to the lowest heat setting as to not risk blowing anything up with some basic compound. Which…hadn’t been his smartest idea.

Perhaps he should run a scan on his systems. Make sure he wasn’t infected somehow. How a virus would be able to take him out of an entire dimension was beyond him, but it couldn’t hurt to check. He started a basic scan, following it with a more in depth one.

Looking at his papers on the table he sat and sighed, and got an alarm in his head he forgot to charge during all his pacing and thinking. He was on less than 1%. He quickly stands and then immediately collapses onto the lab’s floor.

Earth ends up coming back a few hours later to see if there was still a fight, her voice rising as she comes over to check on him, her worry spiking as she she’s him on the floor, “Mars?!”

Mars just kinda laid there, unconscious.

Earth grabs his back charger and plugs him into the wall, ‘Maybe he forgot to charge?’

It takes about 10 minutes until Mars comes back online.

“Are you okay, Mars?”

He nods once he reenters reality, “Yes. Just got caught up in my projects and possible theories on how I got suddenly teleported away. They're not as dangerous as the one with that beaker this time around.”

“Okay.”

“I apologize if I startled you.”

Earth sighs softly, “It's okay, I just would like if you would charge so you're not passing out.”

Mars chuckled, “I prefer it as well.”

“Thanks, Mars.”

The two sit there for another half hour as Mars let himself charge some more and checked on his scans before he stands up.

Earth smiles as she stands with him, “I'm glad you're okay.”

Mars also checks that his glasses are still in place, and wonders why he even needs them, and takes them off, then finds he is basically half-blind without them and puts them back on. Sight is an important thing to have.

“Are you sure you're okay?”

He nods, “Yes. Or, I will be. Just need to find a better place to charge while my codes run.”

She nods in return, “Okay, let's do that then.”

Mars does make sure everything's stable before heading out with Earth. He adjusts a few things and seems it safe to leave and return.

Earth lets him lead and the two are able to find a charging pod and Mars steps in to charge. Then Earth goes to check in with others.

She finds Lunar doing backflips as per the usual while she watches without much to say.

~about an hour later~

Earth tapped her foot nervously, “Mars should be here by now....”

“Well where was he last?” Lunar asked

“Charging.....”

“Then I think he's taking a long nap in there or something. He sometimes sleeps with the kids, right? I don't know. I don't watch that closely.”

Earth shifted her weight, then stood, “Maybe he went back to his experiment?”

Lunar shrugged, “If that’s what he was doing before, then probably.”

Earth nodded and began walking, “I'm gonna check.”

Lunar gave her the thumbs up, “Okay.”

Earth goes to Mars’s area, finding him at his desk, but is clearly slower than usual, to the point his hand is nervously twitching. He’s also staring at a bunch of paper where half the words are written over each other.

“Mars? I think you should take a break, come hang out with everyone.”

Mars takes a second to realize that she's there and blinks because he should have noticed and that's weird for him not to, “Oh. Yes. Sorry, suppose I got carried away.”

“That's okay.”

He gets up from his desk, then gets slapped with standing up too fast and grabs the desk to keep from falling over, his head falling with the motion while his brain readjusted to the new height, “I'm coming.. just give me a moment.”

“Did you charge fully?”

Mars nods, “Yes, just got a little dizzy spell for a moment. I'm alright now.”

Earth gave him a concerned look, “Alright.....”

He sighed, “You know I'd tell you if anything were wrong.”

Earth nodded, giving him that much because the two were very open and honest with each other since past events, “Yeah....okay.”

Mars took a deep breath and lifted his head, more stable as he turns to leave the lab, “On that note, we should go meet with the others. What are we doing tonight?”

“We were going to play board games....”

“Just as long as it isn't Life.”

Earth raised an eyebrow, “Oh um...okay.”

“I have issues with that game.”

That got a giggle out of Earth, “Okay.”

The whole group does have fun, but Mars is bad at uno because someone keeps shuffling the deck and looking suspicious (Roxas).

Earth got competitive and loud when Andromeda stacked a plus two card.

Mars sat between lunar on his left and Earth on his right, Andromeda was just across from him. Roxas left after the previous round ended, watching in amusement when it isn’t his turn. He shouldn't be surprised, but enjoys it. At least it’s not Dazzle kicking his behind in Life.

Lunar disregards pretty much half the rules and screams at everyone else through half of it.

Andromeda laughs a lot during a particularly heated debate. While Mars quietly enjoys the sound and watches her for a moment before returning to his cards, as staring at a lady is quite rude. Dazzle laughs at and with Comedy Bot, both of them having fun too. They’re playing go fish at another table and ironically enough, Comedy Bot is comically terrible at it.

Then about a half an hour later, Mars gets into an argument with Lunar over something like THE GREEN CARD and gets really frustrated about it.

Earth breaks into the conversation, “Get over it and play the game!”

Mars bristles, very frustrated at the moment, “I am playing the game! Lunar's the one who keeps reversing and making me draw half the deck!”

“Because it's funny!”

“Not for me!”

Lunar cackles at Mars's misfortune.”

Earth suggested, “Then go until he runs out!”

Mars is still very miffed at Lunar, but finally gets a green card and puts it into play, “I swear if I have to draw more cards I am going to rage quit.”

Andromeda then decided to skip Lunar for Mars, forgetting that Mars is next to play a card after Lunar reversed the deck 25,000 times.

Mars sighs with the calmest rage ever as he has to draw more cards, “I am not fond of that choice.”

Andromeda hides behind her cards, “Sorry, I thought it would help!”

Thankfully for everyone’s sanity, Mars only has to draw two until he can put down another green.

Lunar immediately reverses back to him again.

Mars stands, having felt his limit being reached, “That's it. You can have my cards, Lunar. I'm going to go check on my projects.”

Earth reaches a hand out to him before he can leave, “Mars, don't leave...it's a game....”

Lunar muffles himself slightly but not very well as the whole table can hear him, “Says the queen of competition.”

Mars gently works his hand out of Earth’s grip, “He's ragebaiting me and it's worked.”

Lunar tried to backtrack, “Dude, it's a joke.”

“And one I've gotten tired of.” Then he looks to Earth and sighs, “One more chance. But if you do it again I'm leaving for real. Shuffle my cards back into the deck.”

“Okay!” Earth says as her brother sits back down

Lunar, again, for the sake of the sanity of the table, actually doesn't do it again. Even though he kind of really wants to, he doesn’t see Mars get mad very often. The whole table is glad for the somewhat calm and Mars is able to focus on the game, though he still loses at the end.

Earth gathered everyone’s cards as Roxas walks in for two seconds, then walks back off to who knows where, “Why don't we play another game?”

Lunar shrugs, “Sure, I’m down.”

Mars looks at the time and stands, “I’ll rejoin later, I do actually need to check on my projects.”

Earth looks to him, “Um...okay, see you later.”

“I'll only be gone a half hour at most. Mostly due to all the walking.”

“Alright, be safe.”

He huffs affectionately, she always worried about him, “I’ll be safe, Earth.”

Andromeda gave him a small wave, “Bye.”

“Farewell.”

He then walks off and finds things going along well at the lab. Everything functioning well and notes are taken. Even his scans have turned up negative. Maybe it wasn’t something Day could have done, but it didn’t hurt to be too careful.

It’s only when he goes to leave, he then realizes he's not seeing straight anymore, but he feels that his glasses are still on and texts Earth about it, •I think there's something off with my optics.•

He has to sit and take a breath, his back to a cabinet and his knees drawn close as he hopes the floor is decently clean (even though he knows it really isn’t) while his vision remains blurred, •And my general balance. I need help with a diagnostic check. I don’t trust my systems to be accurate right now.•

Earth stands up, setting her cards on the table, going from competitive to concerned in less than a second, “Mars needs me.”

Lunar gives her a minor salute as she heads out, “Okay.”

Then he keeps playing uno with Andromeda, which is much less chaotic than when the siblings are here, and Comedy bot cheats at go fish. He’s started a war in the corner that everyone else mostly ignores.

Earth finds herself at the lab in half the usual time it would take to get there, kneeling down by Mars, a hand going to his shoulder, “Hey, what happened?”

Mars takes a breath and explains, “I was checking my projects, then my legs felt unstable. I couldn’t see, so, I sat down before I had the chance to collapse again.”

“Okay.” Earth then picks him up in a princess carry to bring him to parts and service.

He doesn't comment as it makes the most sense for her to do so (though he’d have preferred a different carry like the piggyback style the children enjoyed) that aside, he didn't trust his legs to hold him up at the moment.

Earth puts him on the chair, making sure he’s comfortable before she steps out to the computer, “Which button is it?”

“Left-right-left-right-up.”

She does it and lets the thing run, “There.”

Mars on the other hand, feels a bit awkward cause he's in the chair instead of someone else this time. It was a bit awkward to just lay there.

After some time has passed, the computer prints the results, but she doesn’t understand a thing that’s written, “I should get Chico.”

“That depends on the results.”

“Well, I don't know what I'm looking at.”

“Tell me what it says. There should be a point where the picture ends and the text begins.”

So, she reads it out, hoping that she’s pronouncing everything correctly, “Base code cleared, high motor functions stable, I’m not seeing anything wrong in the descriptions…”

Mars sighs when she’s finished, “Wonderful. That's nothing more than what we already know.”

“What do I do then?”

“Let whatever this is pass? And reread the results for anything we could have missed.”

“Mars. We need to address this.”

“I'm not quite sure on how.”

“Me neither, but we'll figure it out.”

“I'd appreciate trusting my legs again.” Mars joked.

Earth sighed, “I'll get Chico.”

“Alright.”

Soon enough, Earth was back with Chico, who looks over the data as best he can.

Earth bit her lip, “What can we do?”

“Not very much, but I can do a quick physical in case there was something the machine missed. It's not likely, but it doesn't hurt to check.”

“Okay...”

Chico checks Mars over, letting him move as needed, but something cracks in Mars’s neck and his hand flies to it instinctively, “Ah! Chico.”

“I was checking your arm.” Chico said in a simple defense, “You almost hit me.”

“Not what I meant.” Mars winced as he feels whatever it is shift, “Agh.”

Earth looked between the two, “What happened?!”

Chico looked to her, “I'm not sure.”

“It’s my neck.” Mars said, hanging his head to try and alleviate the pain that’s becoming a pressure

Chico carefully moves his hand to check his neck and surprisingly finds nothing on the outside, “I’m not seeing anything here.”

“Something's gotten inside then. I don't know what it is. Or how it could’ve gotten in.”

Chico opens the panel checks inside, feeling a bit frustrated at the lack of results, but finds nothing right away, “It looks fine to me.”

“Is there like some kind of animatronic X-ray?” Earth asks

“That would probably be this, honestly.”

Mars piped in, “You could also just check my neck's plating.”

“I don't know what we have!”

Chico tipped his head to her, “Fair enough.”

Mars rubbed his neck just out of where Chico was looking to try and ease whatever it is he's feeling, “Just get a screwdriver and check.”

Earth nodded, rubbing her arm, “Let's try that.”

Chico grabs a screwdriver from nearby and inspects his neck, pausing when Mars keeps flinching.

“This isn't right....” Earth said, shoulders tensed as she watches, unable to bring herself to look away

Chico spends a few more minutes, finds what’s wrong, and removes the problem, “Mars how did you get a shard of glass in your neck?”

Mars shakes his head once it's removed, “Exploded a beaker by mistake.”

Earth leaned forwards, trying to see if there was anything else, “Is that the only problem?”

Chico gave his neck a once-over and nods, “It looks like it. This is so thin, I’m surprised I even saw it at all.”

“I'm just glad for no pain in my neck.” Mars said, resisting the urge to rub his neck by gripping the seat

Earth sighed, shoulders dropping, “That's good.”

Chico sets the shard aside and checks for any more, but can't find anything more in his neck, “Looks like you're all good.”

Mars relaxes as the plating is replaced and he can rub it gently, “Thank you.”

“Is everything else okay?” Earth asked, though less stressed, she was still rubbing her arms in worry

Mars nods, “Everything else feels fine now and I think that glass was sitting on the wire connected to my sight.”

“So you can see now?”

He nodded, “I can see now.”

“I'm glad!”

“Thank you both, for the help.”

“Of course.” Chico stepped back with a small sigh, “If we are all good, then we can get back to the game night if you'd like.

Mars sighed, “Yes, I'm sure they've gotten worried by now.”

Earth lightly slapped her forehead, “I forgot about that!”

Mars chuckles and stands, finding he’s regained his balance, and he walks back with the other two.

Earth watches him, staying close just in case, “Are you up for that? I don't want to make you upset...”

“I feel up for one more game. But after that l'll turn in for the night.”

“You sure?” Chico shot him a look, “We wouldn't blame you if you wanted to go to bed.”

Mars nodded, “I'll be alright. I can say when it's too much, Chico.”

“Alright. If you say so.”

~the next day~

Lunar looked around the daycare, it was pretty busy during the day, but someone was missing, “Hey Earth?”

She looked up from watching over the kids who were excited and screaming with joy next to them in the ballpit, “Yeah, Lunar?”

“Where's Mars?”

“I haven't seen him today?”

“Oh. I just wanted to ask if he cares how I stack the nap-mats. I swear he silently judges my stacking skills.”

Earth snorted, “Why would he judge that?”

“I swear he does it. It's a very specific little head tilt.”

“Head tilt?” Earth gave a small laugh as she though about it, “Okay, maybe a bit.”

“So he does!” Lunar silently pumped a fist to himself, “I knew it!”

“Well, have fun with that.”

Lunar checked the time, “Well, since it's not that close to naptime, I'm gonna go give him a little piece of my mind.”

Earth glanced at the kids to be sure they were still okay, “Okay?”

“I'll be fast. Once I figure out where he is.”

Earth gave him a wave, “Okay, have fun.”
“I will be back.” Lunar says as he heads out

“Bye.”

Lunar was back fifteen minutes later, “I decided no. He is asleep in his room.”

“Oh....”

Lunar nodded, “He is like, sacked out in there.”

Earth’s worry began to grow, “Do I need to do something?”

Lunar just shrugged, “Dude. I have no idea.”

Earth pursed her lips together in thought, “Mmm.......”

“You are welcome to check.” He checks the time again, “It's actually almost naptime anyways. I thought I had more time. You can step out for a second.”

“Okay.”

Lunar goes to take care of the kids, round them up, then get them all settled for naptime.

~~~~~

Earth finds him in his room, “Mars?”

Mars is lying in the recovery position in his bed, his glasses resting nearby.

Earth steps in and shakes his shoulder, “Mars?”

Mars wakes up after a bit, needing to blink a few times before his brain catches up with him and he rubs his eyes, reaching to his table and putting his glasses back on, “…..Earth? I thought you were in the daycare.”

“I was, but I haven't seen you today.”

He takes a moment to process the words and sighs at himself, “The day has started already, hasn't it?”

“It has....” Earth nodded, but felt something was off

‘Dang it.’ Mars sighed, “I thought my alarm would've gone off.”

Earth helped him up, “Sorry I didn't look for you sooner, but you never sleep this long....”

“No. A minute or so past my alarm, yes. But not...how many hours has it even...” Mars
checks his clock and sighs, “Three hours.”

Earth gave him a look of concern, putting a hand on his shoulder, “Are you sure you're okay?”

Mars shook his head and grabbed her hand with one of his, “Not after oversleeping for that long.”

“Do we need to check again?”

“That would be a great idea.”

Earth leads him into the parts and service chamber, Mars followed her, but he was slower.

“Are you hurting?” She asks as he sits back in the chair

He shakes his head, “Not particularly. Mostly general tiredness and what feels like a haze in my brain.”

“Um.....”

“You can tell me what you're thinking.”

“I'm just worried, this isn't normal....”

“True. But tis also why we need to figure out what's going on with me.”

“Yeah, I want to know.”

“Try running a different scan. Right-left-right-left-up.”

“Okay?”

“It should do a more thorough scan and get more answers.”

Earth types the command in and quietly reads the results to herself when they come.

Mars, for his part, just lays there and puts a hand to his head once he's sure the scan is done, “What's it saying?”

Earth reads it aloud, “Systems stable, optics require mild repair, mental coding system up to date…Any of that helpful?”

Mars sighs again, “No, it still tells us nothing.”

He takes a moment to think, ‘We could check my code. It would only take about five minutes.’

He’s about to suggest this when he feels something inside go wrong that has him sitting up fast and coughing. This is certainly new and he instantly isn’t a fan.

Earth moves inside the chamber instantly, hand on his back to try and help, “Are you sick? Can we even get sick?”

Mars tries to speak, but it comes out garbled, so he moves to sign instead with the little he's learned from online tutorials and the two deaf children that come in,

Earth quickly stands once he’s recovered from his coughing fit, “I'm going to get Chico again.”

Mars waves a hand so she’ll see and shakes his head, pointing to the clock on the wall and then struggling to come up with what to say next so he just pantomimes singing. It’s the best he’s got for now.

Earth looks and sighs hard, “Right. Who else can help?”

Mars points to her, then remembers he can just text her instead, •It's something in my throat. I'm sure it got mixed up in my voicebox. Maybe a piece too thin for Chico to spot? How the scans wouldn't notice it, I blame on the faulty machinery in desperate need of an upgrade.•

“What should I do then?!”

•This is going to sound unhelpful, but I need you to remove my voicebox so I can take a look at it and fix it. I don't think either of us want to need to order a new one.•

“I don't know what I'm doing!”

•l can guide you, or do it myself if you’d hold up a mirror for me. I doubt you’d feel very helpful, though.•

Earth thinks then decides, “Just tell me.”

Mars does so, slowly, through many texts and is able to figure out his voicebox with Earth’s help by disassembling and reassembling it before fitting it back into where it needs to be and gives it a moment to settle before attempting to speak again, “Testing, testing. There. I think we're good to go.”

Earth doesn’t look convinced as there is a very small piece of glass sitting on the tray the two had been using, “Are we? I'm not sure I believe that after everything.”

Mars nods, “At the very least, I can speak again. It's not an issue, just prefer to use my voice instead of mostly texting.”

“Yeah, but everything else is going wrong too!” Earth throws her hands into the air and soon rubs her arms

Mars sighed, taking one of her hands into his, “I think it's just our daily lives at this point.”

“Yeah, but l'd like to prevent as many as possible!”

“Fair enough. Though you know you can't prevent everything.”

“Well yeah, but this is getting old fast!”

Mars winces slightly at the volume, “It is.”

Earth takes a breath and returns her attention back to Mars, kneeling so she’s not hitting her head on the ceiling, “Does anything else feel off?”

“Still my head, mostly. The haze hasn't changed.”

“How do we fix that?”

“I have no idea.”

“Is it a virus?”

Mars shook his head, “It doesn't feel like one.”

Earth was still skeptical, “Okay.....”

“I'll have Chico see if he can figure it out once the day is done.”

“Okay.”

~timeskip to the end of the day and now Mars is nowhere to be found~

Earth rubbed her arm nervously, “Has anyone seen Mars?”

Andromeda looked up from her computer, “I haven't.”

Lunar called over from inside a slide, “He’s not in Parts and Service or his room! I checked earlier.”

Chico overheard as he entered the daycare, “What's happening?”

Earth sighed, rubbing an arm, “Mars keeps disappearing and being found on the ground.”

“Oh. Yeah, that's not good.”

“Do we need a search party for him? Or do we just call him Ghost Mars, now?” Lunar joked with a smirk

“We need to find him, Lunar.” Andromeda spoke up, fidgeting with her hands in her lap

“I know, I'm just making a joke.”

Chico sighed, “Where was he seen last?”

Andromeda chose to speak up before an argument could break out, “I saw him leave the daycare two hours ago.....though, I thought he would be back by now.”

“Did you see where he was going at all?”

She looked down at her hands now resting them on the desk, “I didn't want to seem nosy....”

Lunar slid down the slide to talk more clearly, “Any general direction?”

“Left from the door?”

Lunar nodded, “Okay. We can go with that.”

“I can also just check the security cameras for you. Might be easier to find him that way.” Chico suggested

Earth nodded, setting her arms at her sides, “Do that.”

Lunar turned to Earth after Chico went to the desks to begin his side of the search, “Do we still want to track him on foot in case anything bad happened or something?”

Earth nodded at him, “Yes.”

Lunar nodded back, “Okay. Andy said left, so to the left we shall go.”

Andromeda nods to them as the two leave, working with Chico on the camera footage.

“You’ll want to click here.”

“I know how the security feed works, Andromeda, you don’t have to show me.”

“It’s a bit different on the daycare computers.”

“Oh. Then just click here?”

“Yes.”

Lunar and Earth call out for Mars for the next half hour, checking anywhere they can think of. Including behind trash cans at Lunar’s insistence.

Lunar ends up opening a supply closet door and makes a shocked noise, “Guiah...I uh. Oh..uh, Earth? I found him.”

Mars blinks awake in the supplies closet, looking around as if trying to make sense of his surroundings.

Earth runs over, practically shaking the ground to get to him faster, making Lunar have to dodge her as she approaches and kneels, a hand gently going to Mars’s face, “Mars? Are you okay?”

Mars shakes his head and blinks, “…A bit disoriented. How did I-?”

He suddenly gets interrupted by his head spinning as he sits up and he grabs it with a wince.

Earth wastes no time in calling Chico, “We found him.”

Chico sighs on his end, “Oh thank goodness, Andromeda and I were looking on the cameras and he was stumbling around in the hallways. I'm surprised nobody found him until now.”

“What do we do?”

Chico sighs again and it sounds like chairs moving, “Let's get him to Parts and Service. I’ll see what I can do there.”

“Okay.” Earth turns her attention back to her brother, “Mars....what happened?”

Mars takes a moment to respond, “I don't quite remember. I honestly thought I was still in the daycare.”

‘Day's doing?’ Earth quietly seethed, “Let's go to parts and service.”

He sighed, “I'm going to start to hate that place.”

“No one likes that place.”

Mars slowly got up, with Earth’s help, “Correction; nobody likes going inside.”

Earth snorted, “Okay, sure.”

Mars ends up stumbling over his own feet multiple times during the walk to parts and service, ending in his sister catching his arm, “Mars, you don't seem fine.”

He barely lifted his head to try and meet her eyes, “In what way?”

“You're walking funny.”

“I don't understand what you mean. Am I not walking straight?”

“You're all over, dude.” Lunar pipes in, “Are you sure you’re not drunk or something?”

He sighs like he wants to facepalm himself because of course this would happen too, “Fantastic. And, no, I’m not drunk. I’d be surprised if animatronics could get drunk.”

Earth wrapped one of his arms around her neck, keeping him steady, “We'll figure it out though.”

Mars just sighs and nods, “Yes. I hope so.”

“Maybe it's something to do with Day?”

“That would be arguably the best outcome.”

“How?”

“It's reversible.”

Earth gave him a skeptical look, “Right, okay.”

Mars gets to parts and service okay enough with Earth’s help, but, his left leg locks up suddenly and stiffly and he nearly falls, almost knocking the two off balance.

Earth is able to catch him, but barely, “Careful!”

Mars tries to move it, but it's stuck now and he tries to make it better, “Wasn't trying to do that.”

Chico noticed their arrival, having just gotten there, himself, “Do you two need any help?”

Earth struggled to keep Mars’s body upright, with one leg locked up and the other not quite coordinated enough for this, “Yeah.”

Chico quickly gets Mars's other side to balance him out. While Mars tries to not be embarrassed about being half-carried while his body betrayed him. With any luck at all his leg would unlock.

“We need to find something this time.” Earth said, get Mars into the chair more comfortably

“This time?” Chico questioned

Mars sighed, “We've tried this a few times.”

Harvest suddenly speaks up from behind the group, “I have been watching you.”

Mars sighs again, now more used to Harvest just showing up randomly, “Of course you were.”

“You are acting more pathetic than usual. Why?”

He didn’t have the energy to deal with him, “Something's wrong if you couldn't tell.”

“I know that.”

Earth sighed, “Harvest, not the time.”

“What is the cause of this....ailment?” He asked her

Chico was already at the computer, “We are trying to figure that out.”

Mars didn’t have the coordination right now, but if he did, his hands would have been tossed up in exaggeration, ‘Things just keep going wrong.’

Harvest turned to him, “That is the smartest thing you've done, Chicken.”

“Thank you? I'm just going to go with it.” He sees something before he does the scan and adjusts it more properly, “Did either of you know a wire has been disconnected from the computer?”

Earth looked at him in confusion, folding her arms, “No?”

“I had no idea.” Mars said, feeling his leg unlock on its own, “I couldn't see the computer from in here.”

“Well, the good news is that, it isn't anymore. And now we run the scan..”

Earth rubbed one arm, looking between the computer and her brother, “Okay.”

Mars feels the electricity this time and lets it happen, hoping that it’ll make more sense
Chico stared at the results with wide eyes, “Well...it is saying there is glass. In your head.”

Earth sighed, “Great.”

Harvest shook his head as if disappointed, “A consequence for a stupid decision.”

Chico examined the results closer, “I think it just got in there the same way it got into your neck. How did it get into your head though?”

Mars thinks on it for a moment, “Probably when we were clearing it out of my voicebox, is my best guess. But I swear we got it all out..”

“Your head was fuzzy before that.” Earth pointed out.

“Maybe a shard made its way in?”

Day suddenly spoke over the intercom like a weirdo, “Do you really think it was just a shard that hit you? I do know that lab pretty well after all.”

Chico kept himself from punching something and just rubbed his forehead with a hand like he was tired of this, “Crap.”

Harvest turned to the nearest loudspeaker, calmly stating, “You are so cowardly you won't come speak in person.”

Day sounded as he normally did, stringy and like he was trying to be the most powerful guy in the room, “To be fair, I did see how you managed to take down Night and I don't want that kind of damage on my body if I can help it.”

Harvest growled, “I care little about your desires. Come face me!”

Day just ignores him, “Have fun with that 'gift' Mars. I worked hard on it.”

The intercom clicks off.

Harvest growls as he leaves the room, “I will search for him.”

Earth was pretty darn close to following Harvest, but reminded herself that Mars needed her here more than tracking down a stupid animatronic playing as a god, “I'm gonna beat him up when he shows his face.”

Chico nodded once, “I wouldn't blame you.”

Mars was more confused on Day’s message, ‘What did he mean by "gift"?’

“Can you figure out what he did, Chico?”

Chico nodded, turning back to the computer, “I think so.”

Mars’s hands suddenly shoot to his head and hold on tight.

“Mars?”

He cringed and held tighter to his head, “I think I found Day's 'gift.’”

“What?”

“Ngh-! Yes. Migraine. Ghh-!”

“Chico, hurry!”

Chico quickly got to it as fast as he could go with the computer having four buttons and a very slow mouse.

Andromeda came in with Lunar, leaving Mars absently wondering when had he left the room, “I heard Day on the intercom. What’s wrong with Mars?”

Lunar stands close to the entrance, panting, “Saw Day run off...then Harvest went somewhere...oh, good sour sweet potatoes what happened to Mars?”

“Day.” Earth said, “He did this.”

Andromeda balls her fists, “I’m gonna kill him.”

Mars, meanwhile is just trying to not pass out from the migraine.

Chico is trying to do what he can, but in doing so, he kinda stresses out like a teenager who didn't study an ounce of algebra before a huge test.

Earth stands, deciding to track Day with Harvest.

Lunar doesn't know what he can do here and turns to Andy as she is the only one who is also not doing much.

Andromeda looks back at him before walking to the chamber and taking one of Mars’s hands.

He squeezes her hand back in response, hoping that it’ll doesn’t hurt her, ‘My head will literally explode if this keeps up.’

He keeps trying to distract himself but can't and that alone makes it worse.

“Isn't there a way to lower his pain?” Andromeda asks, holding Mars’s hand tightly

Chico chuckles nervously, “I am trying, but- Mars. You need to move your hands for this.”

Mars tried, but he literally couldn't move if he wanted to.

“Can you still hear me?”

Lunar jumped in, saying what was on his mind as he can’t think of anything else to do, “Probably. Wait...dude can you move your hands? Like, on your own?”

Mars responded through gritted teeth, “Dealing with a splitting migraine. What do you think?”

Lunar stays back after that, shuffling his feet, unsure how he could help, then gets an idea to tell jokes and does so, plus multiple backflips to distract from serious situations.

Andromeda takes his other hand from his head and squeezes it, “Just focus on me, okay? Chico will handle the rest for now.”

Thankfully with Chico working on getting the last piece of glass out of his head the pressure is mildly alleviated for about 0.2 seconds before becoming a problem again. Chico works through it a bit more and is able to tone down the pain at the very least.

Mars instantly feels when it happens and relaxes his shockingly tense body while feeling like he's become a puddle.

“Is a migraine the only thing that’s wrong right now?” Andromeda asks him, keeping her voice low

“Most of the problem, yes.”

“Alright, what can we do to help?”

“I'm not entirely sure.”

“Robo Tylenol.” Lunar said, “I'm telling you, we need that to be a thing.”

“I don't think medicine works on us.” Mars removed one hand to pinch his nose instead, mindful of his glasses

“Yeah, but it would be so helpful.”

“Maybe.”

“I think it's just turning down our pain receptors.” Chico piped up from the computer

“Yeah.”

“How much did you turn my receptors down?” Mars asked

“As much as I could without removing the sense entirely.”

“Oh my gosh, you made him the Hulk.”

Andromeda ignored Lunar’s commentary, “Can I bring you anything, Mars?”

Mars squeezes her hand, hoping it's still gentle, “Just stay until I feel like I can walk again.”

Chico spoke again, “Your coordination might still be off for a bit though. If earlier is any example.”

Andromeda got a little flustered, but pleasantly surprised at Mars’s request, “O-Okay.”

“What was his coordination like, again?” Lunar asked Chico

“He looked kind of drunk.”

Mars hides his face behind his hand, a bit embarrassed at the fact, “Yes, I did. Apparently.”

Andromeda squeezed his hand, “Chico will get it fixed up.”

“Or he doesn't and we get videos and make more money.” Lunar suggested, looking between Chico and Andromeda, “Call it Backstage.”

Andromeda frowned, “I don't think we should leave him like this.”

Lunar did his signature smirk that disturbed/got on everyone’s nerves, “That's why it's called a suggestion.”

Mars sighed at him, “Please. Not the smirk right now. It's not the time.”

Lunar backed up, “Okay.”

“Lunar, do you need charge?” Andromeda asks, hoping it’ll be a welcome distraction

“Eh, probably.” He quickly checks, “Oh. Yeah, I'll be back. I am at like, 10%.”

“How?” Chico asked

“The kids really wanted to play with me today.”

Andromeda sighs once, glad when Lunar leaves, “I know he was trying to help, but you didn't seem pleased.”

Mars nodded, “Honestly, it was going to get to be too much eventually.”

“So...what have you been working on?”

Mars tells her about his projects for a few minutes while Chico tries to repair him.

Andromeda listens, trying to understand, but ends up getting lost in his voice rather than just his words, a soft smile crossing her face.

Mars pauses in his explanation and his whole body convulses when Chico hits the wrong button and sends a shock through him by mistake.

“Sorry!” Chico called out, quickly undoing what he did

“What happened?” Andromeda asked, taking Mars’s hand in her own again

“Wrong button.”

Mars cringed, “And now I know that it feels like to be tased.”

“Oh....”

Mars settles in, mostly just waiting for this to be over.

~a short while later~

Day ends up hiding somewhere far away from the pizzaplex so he doesn't die via Harvest.

Harvest clenches his fists, frustrated that Day got away again.

Day, on his own, seethes in a half-decent hiding place a while away from his cave system hide out as he didn't want Harvest to ever find his hidden lab, ‘The price I pay for giving him sentience.’

Harvest leaves the plex to look for him, hoping for some luck. He ends up searching for a while before returning empty handed.

Lunar’s walking around, now done charging, when Harvest comes back inside, “Hey dude.”

Harvest growls at him, “What do you want?”

Lunar pauses, then takes a step back, “Was gonna ask, but now I'm afraid to.”

“Ask what?”

“What you were doing, but now I feel like you'd stab me for it.”

“I was searching for Day.”

“Oh. And I take it you didn't find him?”

“No.”

“Cool. I'm gonna go check on Mars real quick, so you can do whatever.”

“Do what you want.”

“Cool.” Lunar slips off and heads to parts and service and finds people have left already, then finds them in the daycare

As it turns out, Mars is asleep in the naptime area now. Guess it was his rite of passage even though sick.

Andromeda gives him a wave and whisper-calls, “Hi, Lunar.”

“What's up?”

“Not much, just cleaning.”

“And the deal with Mars? He doesn't look too hot, still. And to be clear I'm not just talking about his general appearance.”

“He's tired, but we think Chico found it?”

“So he'll probably be fine in like, two days or something?”

“Yes?”

“Cool.”

Mars shifts around a bit at the noise, but doesn't wake up.

Andromeda glances at him, then continues her work, “It’s better if he gets his rest, anyway.”

“True. And now he is officially one of us.”

“How do you mean?”

Lunar looked her in the eyes, and smirked, “Sleeping on the daycare mats is a rite of passage.”

She sighed, “Whatever, Lunar.”

Lunar hangs out for a while, and ends up aimlessly wandering through the jungle gyms.

Earth walks in, “Pizzaplex is clear. Is Mars okay?”

Lunar slides down a slide to meet her and explain, “Better than before. I'm guessing two days recovery max.”

Earth rubbed her arm, “That's if we can keep him in bed.”

“But is he stupid enough to try and work through being uncoordinated?” He asked, sounding doubtful

“He kept trying to work with a dazed head!” She pointed out

“He's halfway incapacitated now! And I'm pretty sure he was delirious earlier!” Lunar pointed out

Mars wakes up at the sounds of their voices and just puts a hand to his head as subtly as possible.

“Okay…..”

Mars winces as he comes back to the conscious land and squints, “Ugh... Earth?”

Earth knelt by him, running a hand through his hair, “Hey, how do you feel?”

“Head's still sensitive.”

“Do we need to turn the light off?”

“Either that or I find a different room.”

Lunar comes over, “Maybe that's how you ended up in that storage closet.”

Earth quickly turns off the lights and returns to his side, “Better?”

Mars visibly relaxes, “Much better. Thank you.”

“Yeah.”

“So l guess we're treating this like it's a bad headache, right?” Lunar asked

Earth sighed, running her hand through his hair again, “Only thing we can do.”

“Cool. I'll get the robo Tylenol.”

“Still on that?”

“Yes. Because we need something that works like it.”

“Okay.”

Mars runs a hand down his face as he agrees with Lunar on this one.

Suddenly someone sneezes and ends up on the mat next to Mars, looking around in much confusion, it is a very small child, not quite an infant, but also not yet a toddler, “Dada?”

Lunar stared at the baby that suddenly appeared in the daycare, “Oh, and now there's a child that can teleport. Apparently. Awesome.”

Earth stared at the little one, wary after the last time there was a random baby in the daycare, “That's a baby. Where did it come from?”

The baby sticks his hand in his mouth.

Mars cracked an eye open, recognizing the baby from when he was teleported to another dimension just the other day, “Oh. That's...Nexus.”

Nexus turned his head at the sound of his name, “Ah?”

Lunar whispered loudly behind his hand, “Earth, he's delusional again.”

Andromeda ignored Lunar and came over, kneeling behind the baby, “The baby recognized that. Nexus? Is that your name, Sweetie?”

Nexus turned his head to her, his hand leaving his mouth, “Aba?”

“He's from another dimension...” Mars muttered, just loud enough to be heard, “I can't remember which one. But his father is a kinder version of Day.”

“Oh. I guess we just wait for his mom or dad to pick him up, then.” She said, while scooping up the baby and placing him on her hip, “Hi~”

Nexus’s eyes go wide and he tries to grab her halo once he spots it, but his little arms are too short and he ends up smacking her face. It isn’t enough to hurt as he’s curious, so Andromeda gently brings his hands down and thus begins the mini battle between the two.

Mars looks up at the scene softly before resting his head again. Though something about seeing Andromeda so caring to, practically a stranger’s child was endearing to him. How had he not seen this side of her during their work days? She was a natural.

“Do we even know who his mother or father is?” Lunar asked

Mars responded with his eyes closed, but still awake, “I already said he’s another version of Day.”

Nexus pouts as he realizes that he can't reach the halo and play with it.

Lunar snickers, “That is a really cute pouty face, but it's not gonna win any lollipops from me, bud.”

“It’s not even safe to give a baby a lollipop, Lunar.” Andromeda pointed out, glad that the baby isn’t grabbing at her face anymore, but offers her hand that isn’t supporting his back as a toy to play with instead

Nexus enjoys playing with her hand…and also her face.

Comedy Bot suddenly barges into the daycare, yelling even when he’s speaking, “WHY ARE ALL THE LIGHTS OUT? ARE WE GOING INTO THE APOCALYPSE?!!”

Mars grabs his head with both hands this time to try and block out Comedy Bot’s ridiculously loud voice. Nexus starts crying at the sudden scary noise.

Earth turned to him with a frown, “Comedy bot, Shhh.”

Comedy Bot screamed the words louder, “BUT WHY?”

“Mars is hurting.”

“BUT I HAVE A GOOD JOKE!”

“Tell me outside.”

“WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?”

Earth takes him outside the daycare, “Why?”

“BECAUSE IT WANTED CHICKEN NUGGETS!”

“That's great.”

“BUT IS IT FUNNY?”

“Kinda funny, it's not your best.” Earth admitted to Comedy Bot’s dismay, “How about you go and work on some more with Dazzle? Bring her five lollipops for bribery.”

“WE WILL MAKE THE BEST JOKE! PHYSICAL LABOR.” He wheeled off fast after that, leaving Earth concerned and confused for what was going to happen next, and ended up following him to prevent any damage he might cause

Nexus keeps crying, with no reason behind it besides probably Comedy Bot’s loud voice.

Andromeda picks him up and starts lightly bounces him on her hip to try and calm him down, “What's wrong? Comedy Bot’s not mean. He’s just really loud.”

Nexus just waves his arms and keeps crying as if that explains everything. Mars presses his hand to his head, trying to not let his head explode even with his lowered pain sensors.

Andromeda tries to give him her halo, “How about this?”

Nexus does get distracted by the shiny for about two seconds, but quickly goes back to being upset.

Mars pressed his hand closer to his ear, “Do we have anything to block sounds out in here?”

“Uhh..two seconds.” Lunar said, coming back 5 minutes later and puts a pair of noise canceling headphones on Mars's head.

Mars adjusts to the slight pressure they bring, and gives him a thumbs up and is able to fall asleep with little to no noises.

“Are you missing your parents?” Andromeda asked, walking as she bounced him, trying to calm him down

“Probably is.” Lunar sighed

Nexus cries and fusses more, not knowing what those word mean.

Andromeda kept up her light bouncing, “Do you want your dad and mom?”

Nexus recognizes one of those words and nearly screeches it into her ear, “DADA!”

Lunar goes right ahead to state the obvious, “I think he wants his dad.”

Andromeda winces at the volume, “How do we make portals?”

Lunar rubbed his neck, “Mars knows the most about that...”

Meanwhile, Nexus is still quite distressed and still practically screeching and waving his arms around.

“Oh, for the love-“ He finds an unused red pacifier in one of the desk drawers and gets it out of the package with some struggle and gives it to Nexus, “See if this works. I got it from the lost and found. I don't even know why it was in there to begin with cause it’s unopened.”

Andromeda tries giving it to Nexus, “It's okay.”

Nexus resists the offending item at first, then settles after a half an hour of battling and flops against her shoulder, too tired to fight much anymore for now.

She patted his back, still bouncing him gently, “We'll figure it out....”

“I really hope so. We are not equipped for babies.”

Andromeda then starts humming as she walks around, continuing to lightly bounce Nexus. The baby looks up at her with his big ol' eyes and tries to grab her shirt, but his lil fingers can't quite grip it.

Andromeda finds herself pausing to watch his eyes, “Hi.”

Nexus mimics Sun's laugh, “Aah.”

She giggles, continuing to bounce him. Nexus tilts his head a bit, not used to that sound coming from anyone besides maybe Dazzle.

“You're so sweet.” Andromeda nuzzled his face, making him giggle

“Only cute when he's not screaming.” Lunar said, adjusting Mars's blanket for him

She sighed, “Babies scream, Lunar.”

“Yeah, but that was something from Tartarus.”

“He's in a new place.”

“Yeah. True.”

Nexus suddenly baps her with his whole hand, “Ah?”

Andromeda boops his nose. Making him pause, then hits her back, not understanding the concept of strength at all.

“A little too hard.” She takes his hand to show him soft.

Nexus takes a second, then understands enough and repeats it.

She smiles at him, “Yeah!”

Nexus giggles in response, knowing he did something right. Then he finds her hair and starts slapping it.

“Don't pull okay?”

The baby ignores her entirely and laughs as he slaps it.

“You really like that, huh?” She giggled

Lunar spoke up from her left, “A mother's touch.”

Andromeda tilts her head at Lunar, secretly glad that Mars is passed out and didn’t hear Lunar’s comment as she fakes confusion, “Huh?”

“Nothing.” Lunar says, going back to what he was doing.

Nexus ends up dropping the pacifier, “Dada.”

Andromeda picked it up and cleaned it before returning it to him, “He'll be here soon.”

“Do we even know that?”

Andromeda was left confused, “Who wouldn't come looking for him?”

~~~~~

Thankfully for the two animatronics, a portal opens close to the naptime/play mat space and Sun walks through after traveling through 185 different dimensions before Moon thought to just let Sun track his child via magic.

Sun rushes over the second he spots his baby, “Nexus!”

Andromeda startles at the sudden arrival and the speed at which Sun practically ran to get to his baby, “Hi, you must be-oh! You're Moon's brother.”

Sun blanked on her name, if he could put a loading screen on his face it would’ve popped up as he tried to remember her name, “Yeah, you're.....”

“Andromeda.” She says as she passes
Nexus over, “There, Sweetie.”

Nexus bounces as he’s back in his father’s arms, now a very happy, very full-of-energy baby, “Dada! Dada!”

Lunar quietly watched the scene, thinking to himself, ‘Single dad. Huh. Does that mean we can have kids too?’

“Hi, Nexus. You scared me so badly, baby.”Sun hugs him close, then looks up at Andromeda, “Thank you for taking care of him.”

Andromeda smiled, “Of course. Tell Moon I said hi.”

Sun chuckled, a slight nervousness or possibly stress from being terrified about his baby’s whereabouts sneaking its way into his voice, “I can do that.”

Lunar called over as loud as he dared with Mars still trying to sleep by him, “Just keep an eye on the kid who can teleport.”

Sun sighed, “I’ll try my best. I just don’t know how-“

“Wait.” Andromeda cut him off, “Can he teleport others too?”

Sun paused, thinking as he shifted his weight and gently rocked his baby, “I don’t see how it’s impossible…I’ll need to ask Moon about that. He knows more on the dimensional stuff and Star Power than I do.”

Nexus, for his part, leaned against Sun and sighed while gripping at his frills.

“Ready to go, Nexus?”

The baby tries to eat Sun’s chest buttons, but can’t grab them because they’re flat red dots. Sun gives Andromeda and Lunar a quick wave and leaves with his baby secure in his arms.

~now in the SAMS dimension~

Moon looks up, glad that this time worked but before he can get a word out, Sun speaks.

“Andromeda says hi.”

“He was in that dimension?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool. I will probably go over there later.”

“Okay.”

Dazzle runs over to hug the two, her tail moving happily now that Nexus is back. Sun returns the hug, taking a moment to breathe and enjoy the fact that both of his children are safe now.

“What should we do for this magic thing?” He asks Moon, looking at him while gently ruffling Dazzle’s hair, “Andromeda thinks it could teleport him and others with him.”

“Well, it's happened twice, I’ll have to check his energy and code to see what's sneezed, so we just stop him from sneezing.”

“How?” Dazzle asked, “But what if he needs to sneeze?”

“That was a joke, Doedrop.” Moon sighs, “I'II need to scan the star things going on inside of him.”

“Oh.”

“He'll be fine.” Moon said reassuringly, “Sun’ll just need to stand so Nexus can still see him.”

Sun nodded, “I can do that.”

Nexus let out a yawn instead, his arms falling to his sides and his eyes closing as he calms down from all the excitement.

Sun chuckles and looks at him, “Aw, did they tire you out?”

“That's fine.” Moon said, checking something on his arm

“Makes it easier doesn't it?”

“Yup. Also my scanner's portable so we can just put him in his crib and scan.”

“Oh, that's great actually.”

“I made it after we found out he has star power so we can better monitor it.”

“Okay, that's good.”

Jack stood just around the corner, having peeked into the room and listened just long enough to understand what happened, then zooms off to tell Solar, “ThE bABy'S OKaY!”

Solar looked up from his book, “They found him?”

Jack nodded, “Uh-HUh!”

Solar sighed, a quiet weight being lifted from his shoulders, “That's good.”

~back in the LAES dimension~

Mars lays on the Daycare floor, trying to sleep, but now everything's bothering him and it's just generally uncomfortable as he tries to shift into a more comfortable position. Even the headphones are starting to bother him with their pressure and just being on his hair.

Earth had long since returned from babysitting Comedy Bot and was sitting at her brother’s side again, “Mars, do we need to go somewhere else?”

Mars moves his headphones and has one ear uncovered and available for hearing, “I don't think I'd be comfortable even if we did.”

“What can I do then?”

“I'm not sure.”

“Oh, um we could take you to a different room. Like mine or yours?”

“No…not your bed.”

“Is it because it’s not manly to sleep on a heart shaped bed?” She teased, getting a soft chuckle from Mars

“No, I don’t want to sleep there because it’s your bed.”

“I don’t mind sharing.”

Lunar walked over, staying standing, “We do have a kind of hidden sick room.”

“Your own doing or Fazbear's?” Mars asked dubiously

“Personal construction. Fazbear could care less.”

“I can even keep watch for you.” Earth offered

Mars sighs, “Sure.”

“Okay.”

“I can show you where to go.” Lunar said, “This is the one place where it won’t take me fifteen minutes to remember where the elevator is.”

Earth chuckled, then turned to Mars, “Want me to pick you up?”

Mars thinks about it for a second, then nodded, “Piggyback style. Princess carry's a bit embarrassing at our height.”

“Okay.” She picks him up piggy back style and lets his head rest on her shoulder

Lunar leads the way and actually gets them there through a weird series of turns he remembers taking before.

Earth looked around the cozy place, it had blankets, pillows and plushies, even a small box of fidgets and the entire floor was padded like a mattress, “When did you do this?”

Lunar’s explanation, “I got really lost, and really bored.”

Mars is just glad there's not a million lights blaring in his face, even with them all dimmed in the Daycare, it still could be a lot.

Earth puts Mars down in the room and gives him the pillow and blanket. He tries to get comfortable and finds a very strange position is actually the most comfortable, noting it absentmindedly, but also doesn’t care.

Earth sat nearby, running her hand through his hair again, “Alright, I'll keep watch so no one bothers you.”

Mars nods and falls asleep again soon after.

Lunar hands Mars’s glasses to Earth and starts walking out, “I'll let people know to not come over here.”

Earth looks to him with a grateful smile, “Thanks, Lunar.”

Lunar threw her some finger guns before leaving, “No hay problema amiga.”

Earth stands in front of the door for a while, making sure Lunar keeps his word before walking around for a bit. Eventually, she sits next to her brother, hoping that at least her presence is comforting. Though the thought it appreciated, it only works for a little while, it doesn’t prevent anything and Mars has a nightmare, ending with him coughing on a choked back scream.

Earth gently puts her hand on his shoulder, “Mars?”

He takes a second to feel like he's breathing again before responding, “I'm alright now.”

“What happened?” Earth asked, concern lacing her voice while she rubs his arm

Mars flopped his head back onto his pillow, rubbing his eyes, “Some nightmare.”

“I'm sorry.”

“It's nothing to apologize for,” He sighs, “It just happens sometimes.”

“Yeah, anything I can do?”

“Practically? Not much.” He sighed again, thinking to himself, ‘If this is going to be the pattern, I'm not going to have a good time.’

“Okay....”

“I wouldn't mind if you stayed close in case anything else happens.”

“Okay.” Earth gives him a soft smile and sits with him, humming softly while rubbing his back, “Do you want your headphones?”

“No thank you. It’s quiet enough in here.”

“Okay.”

Mars stays awake for a while longer, the lure of sleep pulling him down before he suddenly feels something snap in his head and he grabs it tightly with one hand, “Agh-!”

Earth instantly went on alert, “What?”

“I... don't know. Something just-just snapped.” He slowly released his hand and sagged once the pain disappeared, “It's gone now, but still...”

“Snapped?” She asked, her voice a bit shrill with the surge of protectiveness coursing through her metaphorical veins, if Day was going to keep harming her baby brother then he was going to have a serious storm coming for him

Mars winced at the volume, but didn’t comment, “It felt like it.”

Earth focused back on Mars, “That doesn't sound good....”

“I don't even know-“ A hand flies to his mouth and his voice becomes shaky, “….Earth?”

“Yeah?” She asked, alert at the sudden change in his tired voice, “Are you okay?”

His voice came out small, “I think something else went wrong.”

“What went wrong?” She asked, ready to spring into action

“I-I don't know.” He shakes and his eyes widen as he vaguely recognizes the sense by definition as nausea and his other hand holds his stomach area as if that could help relieve the feeling in his gut

Earth brings a trash can over, noticing the signs from a few instances with some of the children in the daycare. Mars hopes to not, but his body has other ideas and seems very insistent on making its point clear.

Earth’s hand rubbed his back as she helped him sit up to avoid choking, “Mars, don't hold it in.”

He still tries to, but still ends up losing the battle with his body and vomits into the trash can. Earth holds him until the spell is over and he can breathe again. Mars coughs a few times as his body calms down, but he doesn't make any eye contact, hiding his face in embarrassment.

Earth sets the can aside and rubs his arm, “Mars? Are you okay?”

He takes a few minutes before responding, quietly, and still shaking, “...Hurt more than I thought it would.”

Earth sighed, switching to running her hand through his hair again, it was basically getting brushed by it now, “You weren't letting it out.”

“Can you blame me? I didn't want to learn what vomiting felt like.”

“I didn't think we could.”

He cringes as he feels the nausea rise again, “That too.”

“Are we sure Day didn't give you a virus?”

“I don't know.” He grips her arm with his hand as he's starting to shake again, thinking, ‘And that's more terrifying than learning that I am able to vomit.’

Earth wraps her other arm around him, bringing the can back to him. He doesn't know how to react before he's hurling his guts out again, unable to do much besides focus on the pain it brings him and his throat and middle.

Earth whispers softly into his ear, “I've got you.”

He’s is able to recover a bit quicker this time, leaning into her in half-hug gesture, but still hates the experience as a whole, wishing for it to just be over. Even with his pain receptors dulled, this was too much.

“Should I call Chico again?”

Mars responds once his stomach’s more stable, “If it means another trip to Parts and Services, then please, no.”

“Mars, this isn't getting better.”

Mars gives a weak nod, still not making eye contact, “I know.”

“Mars, we need to figure this out.”

He sighs, who is he to fight his big sister while he’s sick?

“...Alright.”

Earth piggy backs him when he’s ready.

He stays okay-ish for most of the trip, mostly dozing on her shoulder and not caring who’s seeing him. Everyone would know by this point.

~~~~~

Lunar finds the siblings with Chico in Parts and Service about a half an hour later, ‘Is it still going on?’

Earth paced just outside the chamber, “I don't understand how we're missing it!”

Chico acted as if he could wipe sweat from his brow, mostly just to punctuate his stress, “Neither do I.”

Mars texted Earth from the chair, •Maybe Day actually did a decent job at coding this time.•

“How do we find it then?” She asked, seemingly to neither of the two and both of them

Chico types away, having no idea how it's so hidden and wishing that he did while searching, “I am working on that now.”

Mars tries to remain as still as he can, still battling with his nausea, but much less likely to vomit now compared to before.

Earth worriedly shuffles around, trying to be patient, but suddenly comes to a stop, “We need to find Day and get the answers out of him.”

She turns to the doors of Parts and Service, “I'm going to get Harvest and look around.”

“Okay.” Chico says, pausing his work to at least wave goodbye, “I will do my best and give you any updates.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course.”

Earth nods to him gratefully as she leaves.

Chico keeps his watch over Mars for the next two hours.

~~~~~

Day keeps moving, not staying in place for too long, but makes the mistake of breaking into a convenience store because he's an idiot like that sometimes.

Earth hears the triggered alarm and has an argument with Harvest about checking it out eventually winning. The two opening the door expecting a random human. Only to see Day with a bag of electronic parts with him.

Harvest grins, eyes sharpening on Day, “Found you.”

Day plays it off, pretending he expected them while seething on the inside, “Good to see you again, Harvest.”

Harvest does a gremlin head tilt of confusion, “Good? What are you trying to do?”

Day grinned, as if unbothered by the danger in front of him as he secretly hits a wireless button, “Only the completion of my plans.”

~
Mars shouts like he’s been hit by a bullet, and worsens, curling up in the Parts and Service chair. Chico hurries inside trying to help that way as the coding he’s tried hasn’t worked.

He mutters, “You’re going to be alright Mars, it’s going to be okay.”
~

Harvest waits for a few seconds for something to happen then chuckles as he rushes Day. Earth quickly joins him, trying to puzzle out what he's talking about.

Meanwhile Day dodges their attacks as best he can, still planning. And trying to puzzle out how they found him in that store specifically. Harvest’s jabs at him makes Day glad for his personal upgrades. Harvest himself keeps his focus on Day while Earth tries to herd him into a corner. Day surprisingly defends himself kind of well in comparison to Harvest.

“You are good at evading. Does that mean you are not durable?”

Day knocks a display stand of key chains and stuff onto Harvest to get him down and trip Earth.

The two try to get up as fast as possible, Harvest getting up first, growling his annoyance.

Day uses that small time frame while the two are struggling to stand, to get away with his stuff.

Harvest almost gives chase before seeing Earth struggling and rolling his eyes in frustration before helping her up.

Day keeps moving and constantly changes direction entirely, intending to make this as much of a wild goose chase as he could, he needed distance, ‘At least I can get Earth where it hurts.’

Chico quickly texts Earth while trying to help Mars, •Mars just got a lot worse in the last few minutes.•

Earth realizes after reading and freezes leaving Harvest alone to finish the chase.

Day manages to get away again during this, gaining more time as Earth’s worry for her brother increases.

Harvest turns back, “Earth, why did you stop?”

Her voice was full of dread, “We played into Day's hand.....whatever he did is hurting Mars.”

Chico types a quick response as he’s trying to keep Mars’s skull from imploding from pain, •His fans are working overtime. I'm doing what I can to cool him down.•

Earth responds fast, •I'm coming.•

Chico’s next text comes as Earth begins turning back, •Doesn't Harvest need you with him?•

“Harvest, I need to see Mars.”

Harvest nods, turning to give chase, “I will follow Day.”

Earth gave him a grateful smile as she turned back to run to the pizzaplex, •I'm coming back. He'll be fine.•

Chico sends her a quick, •Okay.•

Day continues fleeing the scene. Not wanting to die at Harvest’s hands.

Harvest swiftly begins tracking Day. His combat partner’s family seemed to take priority over tracking down a murderer.

~~~~~

Mars is not looking good by the time she's back, he’s curled up on the floor now, gripping his head tightly and his face is pinched in pain. His fans could be heard shuddering against the heat no doubt surging through his body. It was surprising he hadn’t shut down yet.

Chico does his best to help, but he doesn’t know what else he can do besides what he’s already done.

Earth nearly knocks the doors to Parts and Service off their hinges, “Have you found anything?”

Chico jolts at the sound, but quickly stands, “It's pretty much been acting like a really bad flu, but his symptoms spiked while you were out.”

“Day’s connected to Mars somehow. He did something while we were with him.”

“How? He's not connected to anything in the pizzaplex anymore. l've checked multiple times.”

Mars lets out a small whine when he hears Earth's voice, like an attempt at speech that failed.

Earth quickly kneels by him, a bit squished in the Parts and Service cylinder, her voice soft as she asks, “Mars?”

He manages to crack an eye open at her.

Her expression softened, “Hey.”

Mars can only give a weak wave back.

Earth gives him a sad smile, gently cupping his face with her hand, “We’re going to fix this, okay? Harvest is tracking Day down as we speak. He’s the one responsible for your pain.”

Mars let out a small whine again and Earth rubber her hand on his cheek.

“We’re going to figure this out.” She said, ‘I hate seeing you in so much pain.’

~~~~~

Harvest keeps on making progress, feeling himself getting closer to Day.

While Day forces himself to stay on track, refusing to fall to his creation. He has had a backup plan in place for this exact situation. He just needed to get to the right place and Harvest would be trapped.

Harvest gets close, just around the woods where Day is hiding, looking for any signs of movement.

‘Stay calm, Day. Remember to run and make it look like you're scared before you go into the trap you have for him.’ He thinks quietly, watching for Harvest’s next move

Harvest follows the signs in the brush that will lead him right where Day wants him to go. He ends up in the cave with the bad WiFi. Warily, he enters and looks around. Then something comes down around him, making a loud clanging noise that bounces around in his skull.

Day grins and chuckles at Harvest’s predicament.

Harvest remains calmly, “What is this?”

Day giggles at him like a mentally broken man, “You'll see. Try those bars.”

Harvest shoots him a glare before he tries to bend the bars discovering the stubborn metal, “What is the purpose of this? I have nothing you want.”

Day giggles again, “Wrong.”

Harvest crosses his arms unwilling to let his guard down in front of the likes of Day, “What do you want then?”

“l've already got it.” He adjusts one little thing mentally, “It'll work in just a couple seconds now~ my annoying and troublesome router.”

“I see.” Harvest said, wondering how that works when there’s bad WiFi in this cave, then gives up on trying to understand how, “There's nothing in Mars is there?”

“No.” Day grins and walks off, “But you won't get out of that cage anyway, so what does it matter if I tell you?”

“We shall see.” Harvest starts punching the cage in one spot.

Day grins, knowing that he knows something Harvest doesn't for once.

Mars’s pain would only stop if he wanted it to.

~~~~~

Mars starts screaming and grabbing either his head or stomach, switching arms between the two like he can't decide where it hurts more. Nearly falling off the chair in his struggle.

Earth reaches out, but hesitates to touch him, “Chico, what's happening?!”

Chico instantly wirelessly checks Mars’s systems, “I don't know! It's got to be Day somehow but I don't know what.”

“The only way to help is to track down Day then? I left Harvest to do that alone!”

Mars grips his hair tightly, one arm on his stomach, trying in vain to ease his pain.

Chico gets a determined look on his face, “I’ll go find him, then. You know caretaking more than I do and I'm reinforced now, thanks to Mars.”

“Okay.” Earth gets some soft things to bundle Mars in as well as some ice packs and microwaved rice bags.

Mars lays there, now on the floor, too out of it to know what's happening around him right now. Earth moves him to lay down on gathered pillows then uses the ice pack first to see if that helps. He shivers at the cold contact, his internal fans audibly sputtering.

She gently runs her hand through his hair, “I know, Mars.”

Mars suddenly gags and sits up before he registers anything, eyes wide and panicked.

Earth quickly gets the trash can, thankfully not very used, “Here.”

She helps him to lean over it as he’s not very coordinated and supports his body as he vomits. He barely coughs up anything and is nearly crying by the end of it, “...Earth?”

“Yeah?” She moves some hair out of his face

Mars whimpers really quietly, “...It h'rts.”

“Are the ice packs helping at all?”

Mars grunts and tries to grab his head with the hand supporting himself on the floor and falls, “...kinda.”

Earth catches him, “Would a rice bag help more?”

Mars shakes, suddenly feeling cold despite his overheating systems, “Don' know.”

“Want to try?”

Mars just gives her a small nod in response as his head pain spikes and he curls into himself more.

Earth goes to warm them up again and replaces the ice packs with them slowly, “....ls that better?”

Mars nods again, “Little bit.”

~~~~~

Chico went off to find Harvest and reverse what's happened to Mars…at least that was the hope. Finding him in a reinforced metal cage, punching the heck out of it, both did and didn’t give him hope. Harvest still punches the same spot which probably won't do anything until two weeks later.

Chico somehow manages to sneak in and is able to find Harvest thanks to the punching that sounds like crashing footsteps, but he figures if he follows that sound it'll do something at the very least and he was right but also kinda stupid for that.

Harvest glances at him through a small window and keeps punching, “Aren't you supposed to be helping the red one?”

Chico ignored that and went to analyze the cage, “Earth's got him. He needed her more than me.”

“I see. I have inadvertently discovered the cause of his pain.”

“Oh. That's great! What is it?” Chico starts trying to undo whatever mechanism got him stuck in the first place

“He monologued about needing me. He has done something twice now and nothing happened to me.”

Chico tilts his head, glad for the straightforwardness, “Sounds like Day. He's using you as a tool to hurt Mars.”

He quickly relays the message to Earth even though it's not completely new information. Though it doesn’t hurt to have the confirmation.

“Did he give any hints on how to reverse it?”

Harvest shook his head, “No, it was the shortest monologue I have heard from him.”

“I don't think that's a good thing.”

“Just get me out, Chicken. I expect to get him this time.”

“I don't blame you.”

Harvest keeps up punching the cage a little harder now. Chico studies the cage and finds a mechanism and after doing what he can to confirm it'll open the cage, he activates it and the cage opens with a loud crash.

Harvest walks out smoothly, “Prepare yourself, Chicken.”

Day angrily activates scrappy looking-like-a-DIY-project machine guns. Harvest follows the squeaky startup noises. Chico stands, ready to defend himself. Harvest moves in first, fed up with Day’s antics.

To the two’s shared surprise, Day is already gone and leaves his DIY machines to do their job as they start firing and realistically hurt the two.

Harvest grins and enjoys the pain as it's a new experience, absently noting how many bullets he can take. Chico then grabs a piece of the now discarded metal and uses it as a shield. It doesn’t help much in the way of defending as much as it does blocking his view of Day.

~~~~~

Night walks into the room and rings a bell he was given for when he had something important to say.

Earth looks over at him and has to keep herself from glaring, “What do you want?”

Night tentatively rings it twice more. Mars puts a hand on his ear to block out the sound, the headphones having need discarded in the small sick room earlier.

Earth stands and brings the paper over, if only to make Night stop ringing his bell, “What is it?”

Night takes it and writes, ‘Harvest is the router. I think I can disable it. I don't like hearing Mars hurt.’

Earth pauses, trying to make it make sense, “Why Harvest? How?”

Night thinks before writing, 'Put in him when he was first built, I think. Like the shock. Unfortunately I don't remember too many details about it.’

“You know where it is though?”

He nods, ‘In Harvest's head. Close enough to his personality chip for it to hurt.’

“Oh....”

'That's most of what I know. I’m sorry I can’t give you more information.’

Earth sighs, “Okay. I'd have to talk to Harvest about letting you help as it would affect him.”

Night raises an eyebrow as he shows her the next line, ‘Doesn't he like pain?'

“Yeah, but....he also doesn't like people operating on him.”

Night nods his understanding.

Earth quickly texts Chico, •Did you find him Chico? We found the cause of Mars's pain.•

Chico finds his message to her didn’t go through, but it can be resent now that he’s in better WiFi range, •A bit damaged from the machine guns, but we're now on our way back. Somehow Harvest is acting okay with this and that fact alone kind of scares me.•

Earth sits by Mars as she sends her response, •Okay, see you later then......•

~~~~~

Chico arrives a while later, with Harvest in tow. Mars is trying to not exist and curled up on the floor, hugging Earth’s middle like a child scared of a thunderstorm.

Earth sits there, trying to help ease the pain by rubbing his back, and whispers, “Chico, Harvest!”

Chico takes one look at the scene and crosses the distance quickly, “Oh, crud.”

“Night says he knows where the router is.”

“That's good. You don't sound happy about it, though.”

Earth looks to Harvest, “....lt'll hurt you, Harvest....It's next to your personality chip and he wants to help get it out.”

Harvest stays scarily silent for a moment too long.

Earth has to ask again, unsure what he’s thinking about, “Harvest?”

Harvest met her eyes, “I care little for the pain as long as I get to experience it. However, I do not trust his intentions.”

Night turns back to his paper and draws a smaller version of Harvest as a stick figure, putting stick figure of himself beneath it as if he was getting kicked by the stick figure Harvest and then writes underneath it, 'I don’t blame you.’

Earth is glad for the simplicity of the drawing and relays, “He doesn't blame you.”

“I can read.” Harvest takes one look at the drawing and turns, “Chicken, you will do it.”

Chico sighs, hating this but is also willing, “Okay.”

Mars barely cracks an eye open, but one look tells him everything he needs to know that his ears missed.

“Be careful....” Earth says, as she rubs Mars's back, “Hold on Mars, it'll be okay.”

Mars appreciates the gesture, and attempts to burrow his face into Earth more, desperate for any kind of comfort he could get. Earth warmly obliges.

Chico takes a simulated breath and gets started once Harvest is ready. It takes about ten minutes to find the spot he needs to act on and works as quickly as he can without damaging Harvest.

Harvest, to his disappointment, doesn't feel the pain at first. It takes some time, but Chico eventually finds the spot after a bit of work and removes the device entirely. Harvest laughs loudly, as if someone was tickling him once it kicks in.

Earth gently fixes Mars’s blankets, trying to comfort her brother any way she can. Mars tenses and grabs his head again. So, she takes off her bandana and gives it to him, hoping it'll help and hopes she hasn’t tied it too tight.

Chico shows the thing to Harvest, “That's what it looks like in case you were wondering.”

Harvest doesn't do more than glance at it, “I care not.”

Mars still feels it for a while, then his hand drops to the floor in exhaustion.

Earth gently shakes him, “Hey, how are you feeling?”

Mars responds, fairly quiet, “Less like I'll explode.”

Earth sighs in relief, “That's good.”

Harvest hops out of the chair, seemingly unbothered, “Why isn't it working?”

Mars barely lifts his voice enough to be heard, “It is. Just slowly. I can feel it.”

Harvest crosses his arms in thought, “Mm...”

Chico kneels by the siblings, “Why don't we get him somewhere more comfortable than the Parts and Service floor?”

Earth nods, “Yeah.”

Mars reverts back to being more quiet, “Please.”

“Piggy back?”

“Yes, please.”

With that, the two get situated and are soon on their way back to his room. Earth takes a back way to avoid any unwanted eyes on Mars.

Chico fully breaks the dumb thing in case it's still transmitting signals once the two are outside the room. It easily shatters like glass.

Harvest unfolds his arms, “I'm going to make pigs in blankets.”

“And you don't want me to come with you to make them?”

“I will not share them.”

“I don't expect you to.”

“Do what you wish.”

Chico ends up following Harvest to the kitchen to make sure it doesn't burn down.

~~~~~

When Mars wakes up again, he finds himself back in his room. Just to his left he finds his sister watching and offering him a soft smile.

“Hey, Mars.” She ran a hand through his hair, “How do you feel?”

He takes a second to analyze how his body felt before he slowly sat up, “Much better than earlier.”

Earth sighed, “That's a relief.”

“The symptoms have also lessened significantly.” He smirks a bit as he plays into his little ‘role’ as the nerdy one who says words he doesn’t fully understand, before rubbing at his eyes, “..The only thing is I can't see very well-“

He takes a moment and feels his face more fully and furrows his brow in confusion, “Where are my glasses?”

“I moved them so you could sleep.”

“Ah, yes, that makes sense.” He look around for a moment unsure what to do now, as recovery is another strange experience for him.

Earth noticed, “Do you need anything?”

“Maybe a small activity. I don't know if I'd be able to go back to sleep again.”

“Okay! What kind?”

Mars thinks and decides, “Maybe a puzzle game. I know we have them somewhere.”

“Good idea!”

Mars speaks up before she stands, “And my glasses so I can see the puzzle game.”

“Oh, right!” Earth quickly passes them over

Mars smiles as he slips them back on, being able to see is something he definitely needed, “Thank you.”

“I'll be back.” She gets the puzzle and comes back.

Mars gets himself situated and finds that he has some fun with the game, and playing it with his sister, but he still tires of it fast.

Earth noticed and gently took the game and set it to the side, “You can sleep more, I'm gonna tell everyone you're okay.”

“Thank you, Earth.” Mars paused then spoke quieter, “Though, I do admit I'm a bit embarrassed about vomiting earlier. I'm aware that the children do that sometimes, but I still wanted to apologize.”

Earth sighed at him, leaning back on one hand, “I didn't mind, Mars. I was more worried about you.”

Mars fidgets with his glasses, “Yes, but that's doesn't make it any less embarrassing.”

“I'm sorry.”

Mars shrugged as he laid down, “It isn't your fault.”

“Yeah, but I don't want you to be embarrassed.”

“It's a little hard not to be.”

Lunar comes in kind of quietly, “Hey, Earth?”

“Yeah?”

“Is he not dead?”

Earth rolled her eyes, “No, he's looking much better.”

“And I'm awake.”

Lunar literally jumped in surprise, “Okay, cause that was my next question.”

Mars chuckled softly, removing his glasses and setting them aside to lay down more comfortably, “I'm sure it was.”

“Did you need something, Lunar?”

“Just checking in.”

“Okay!”

“Had to make sure he's not dead and report back to the others.” Lunar sighed and put his hands on his hips, shifting his feet, “Gonna be honest, since Mars fell back asleep and Harvest dragged Chico to the kitchen he's been stress baking and cooking and it smells so good.”

Earth smiled, “Chico are Harvest are hanging out?”

Lunar nodded, “Yeah. I was surprised, too.”

“That's great!”

“I think it's the least violent Harvest has ever been.”

Mars mumbled, “Christmas miracle.”

Earth lightly slapped his arm, getting a chuckle in return as she turns her head back to Lunar, “Are they getting along?”

“Over pigs in a blanket, yes.”

“So....they're in the same room doing their own thing?”

Lunar nodded, “Oh, Harvest is feral over his food. I don't think anybody else is going to eat pigs in a blanket ever again with him hoarding them all.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Dang.”

Earth turned back to him, “I can make you some in secret, Mars.”

Mars blinked before responding, “Oh, I don't mind. It's just the only food he likes to eat.”

“Yeah, I've tried to get him to try other things.”

“Not marshmallows or chocolate.”

Earth shook her head, “He doesn't like sugar....”

“But meat and buttered bread are on the table.”

“Guess so.”

Lunar piped up again, “What about beans? Has he tried beans yet?”

Earth cringed a bit, “I doubt he'd want after....”

Lunar tilted his head, “After what?”

“Your um...liking for them.”

“I can share!”

“That's not what I meant....”

Lunar insisted, “He can try beans. It's not illegal.”

Mars thought to himself, ‘The way you eat them is disgusting.’

Earth still tried to give the hint, hint, wink, wink, vibe to him, but he wasn’t catching it, “I'm saying I don't think he'd want to.”

Lunar shrugged, deciding it's not worth fighting over too much, “Guess that just means there’s more for me, then.”

“Exactly!”

“I still think he’s missing out.”

‘Not on much.’ Mars thought

Earth still tried to be supportive, “Okay!”

Mars quietly announced, “I'm going to nap.”

Earth stood, “Alright.”

“Goodnight, then.”

“Goodnight.” Mars replied, getting himself comfortable and nodding off soon after.

Earth waited until she and Lunar were outside and the door was closed, “How's everyone else?”

Lunar shrugged, “Mostly worried and hoping he isn't dead or anything.”

“We should go tell them.”

“That is my next thing to do. I just wanted to know what to tell the others.”

“Okay, thanks, Lunar.”

“No hay problema señorita.”

And with that, the two left Mars to rest.