Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Screaming

Yelling

Running 

Those were the 3 things that Solar’s feeble mind had tried to wrap his head around, mostly the unmistakable echoing sound of someone screaming in pain. Moon screaming in pain. Solar was gone for only a moment, just to grab some water, but that seemed to be long enough for Nexus to get a hold of him.

He burst through the Parts and Service doors, Monty hot on his tail, and didn’t even have time to be surprised when he saw Nexus pinning a screaming Moon down. It wasn’t even normal screaming. It was soul aching, pain radiating, raw yelling. He felt stupid just standing there as Monty rushed forward to help the thoroughly in pain Moon who was currently unable to move. For Solar, everything felt like a blurry mess. There were a couple things that he actually noticed. First of which was Monty growling something to Nexus who responded by saying something nonchalant in response. There was a glimmer of silver and it didn’t take long for Solar to realize that it was indeed a shotgun, a powerful one at that. The second thing he heard was Moon saying something, obviously pushing through the pain to warn the two newcomers about something. The last and most prominent factor that he had taken notice of was the flash of a sharp and devilish grin from the tall moon animatronic before he disappeared. It was then where the splitting headache and pressure over his shoulders, the things he didn’t even realize were there, had lifted. He wasted no time in rushing over to Monty and Moon, trying to help them.

Moon was practically sparking with whatever “dark star power” bs Nexus had with him and it zapped Solar if he even tried to reach the terribly hurt lunar animatronic. As if it were going to stop him and Monty. In fact, the gator didn’t even need to instruct him to help move said lunar animatronic to somewhere else. A particularly loud curse came from Monty and Solar looked up at him worriedly.

“What? What’s the problem?” Solar asked, fear heavily making itself known within his voice box and Monty got up to the workbench on the other side of the room to grab something.

“We’re going to have to solder his circuit board back together or we’ll lose him. Forget about moving him…” He growled out, running back to Solar and the groaning Moon with the soldering kit. Solar’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets at his words. How damaged was Moon? Oh when he got his hands on Nexus…

As soon as the sparks started flying, so did the curses. Immediately, Solar was trying his best to get atop the blue animatronic while not getting in Monty’s way to help hold him down. There was much yelling from Moon, and a particular shock of a name that he was told not to ask about. You learn something every day, he guessed. As Monty finished the soldering, Moon's screams died down, leaving the former grimacing and the mechanic on top in fits of confusion.

“Monty… what the hell-”

“Not now…. I’m going to get him in the chamber thing. I need you to get those back ups of his. Whatever star… crap Nexus affected Moon with must have damaged his programming” Shit, Monty was right. Solar should have known that. What was going on with his head today? If it practically broke his circuit board in half, then it would definitely do something to Moon’s code.

“Yeah, I got it. Just… Yeah, I’ll be right back.” Solar stuttered before running off, and yes, he did mean running. In fact, he darted as fast as he could back to the daycare, even if this factor wasn’t the thing that kept Moon alive or not. That was all Monty doing that.

Solar was quick about sifting through the boxes behind the desk, mumbling vague threats towards Nexus, knowing he’d never really be able to go through with them. He could practically hear his dark chuckle, as if he were amused that the mechanic thought he could do even one of them.

…

Wait no… that was actually the dark chuckle from the ex-Moon animatronic. Solar whipped around just to be inches away from said animatronic. He bit his cheek suppressing the undignified yelp of surprise, not expecting him to be so close. Without thinking it though, he shot a punch at the dapper animatronic. There was no surprise about him simply catching the punch with an amused look on his face. Solar wasn’t lying when he told Moon a few days before that he was no fighter, and it was showing. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t try though.

“Hello, brother” Nexus purred out, a sharp half grin, half snarl shaped his mouth. Solar just returned a normal, angry snarl and a small “fuck off”, which Nexus ignored. Before he could snap at him about not being his brother, the taller spoke.

“You saw how much damage I could do, right? My offer still stands, just with one more benefit” Nexus leaned in close, dangerously close, to his ear.

Solar growled in response, ripping his hand out of his grip. He ignored the memory of Moon screaming on the ground that boiled up into his head and he instead clutched the USB in his other hand tightly pushing past the other in an attempt to reach the daycare computers. 

“Kiss my ass, Nexus. I’m not going to work with you.” A half amused, half annoyed huff came from behind him and he was suddenly shoved against the counter. The daycare desk was making itself known uncomfortably by digging into his back and he hissed in pain as he looked up at the piercing red-violet eyes above him boring into his soul.

“Give me those damn shards, or I’ll do worse to you and everyone you love…” He hissed, not stopping there. There was a blur of Nexus lifting his hand to his head before everything became dark and searing hot pain struck through his head made itself known quite quickly. Solar yelled out, trying to pull away from the outstretched phantom hand. God damn, that really hurt. He knew that Moon’s screams gave away how terrible it was, but fuck, this was indescribable. 

“How about we start with Earth…hm?” His voice echoed in his head and in the pitch black darkness, out came Earth. She looked… almost lifeless, and it broke his heart just seeing her like this. No emotions, no thoughts, just an empty husk. Solar tried to reach out to her, knowing what someone like Nexus would do to her, but it was as if he were walking through quicksand once he took his first step. Dammit, just how powerful was Nexus?

“Maybe we could… I don’t know, kidnap her, strap her to a chair…” Suddenly, Earth was squirming in ropes, tied to a chair. 

“Slowly dismember her…” painful screaming echoed through his mind, among other things, and Solar closed his eyes and looked away, fighting against the invisible force holding him still. He was sure that just hearing Earth, or anyone for that matter, scream like that hurt more than the pain being inflicted on himself at the moment. 

A pleased chuckle came from all around him and the screaming stopped, Earth now replaced with… Lunar…

No… not Lunar too… He already had to deal with his death once, he didn't know if he could see it happen another time

“People seemed to love making jokes about him blowing up… so…” A snap and something grabbed the fearful animatronic’s ankle and when he looked down, his heart dropped. "Lunar" grabbed onto his ankle tightly, and he looked... terrible. Half of Lunar’s casing was blown off and most of the rest was charred, cracked, or both. The cracks continued to grow with a purple-ish glow to them, slowly growing like a fungus all over Lunar’s body until he started crumbling apart and became limp on his foot. Solar himself couldn’t move… He couldn’t do anything to stop what was happening. He knew it was fake, just some hallucinations or visions that Nexus was giving him to torment him, but fuck, it seemed so so real. All of it still scared him.

“And how about… hmmm, how about Jack?” And just like that, Solar’s recently sentient son came into view, and even if they had just started the whole “father and son” deal, he felt a burst of both protectiveness and fear for his robotic son. Not that he didn’t feel the same for Earth and Lunar… just in a different way.

Nexus seemed to pretend to think about what to show Solar before letting out a pleased hum, seemingly thinking of something. That something that would bring back old trauma.

“It really broke you to see your Sun lifeless, shattered, and irreparable as you were forced to fix him, right?” He didn’t let the mechanic speak before showing him a mangled, and an animatronic equivalent to bleeding out, Jack, his endoskeleton showing in many places. More invisible forces went against Solar’s wishes, and instead of keeping him in place, it shoved him forward, making him harshly land against the workbench, his hands the only thing breaking his “fall”. One look at the pumpkin animatronic told him that he was completely unfixable, and he didn’t even need to look to know whatever Nexus showed him would be unfixable. He winced and turned away, not wanting to look at the tattered body much more.

“Nexus… stop…” He pleaded quietly, closing his eyes tightly. This was fake… This was all fake…Earth was safe and sound, Lunar was alive and well, and Jack was still in one piece. A growl that, surprisingly, was distinctly in front of him, sounded quite annoyed. No surprise there. However, there was something that surprised Solar greatly, and it was the fact that the burning and head splitting headache was fading, and when he peaked an eye open, so was the darkness. It seemed that Nexus had taken pity on him. He was now clutching one of the red daycare chairs tightly, the taller animatronic holding the other end of it so it wouldn’t spin with the angle of the pressure applied. He looked up at him before instantly being shot  death glare. If looks could kill, not even trading dimensional code, the thing that was borderline impossible to achieve but worked anyway somehow, wouldn’t be able to save him. Nexus leaned down to Solar, his chin resting on the back of the chair.

“They didn’t tell you the full story, did they?” He mumbled under his breath with a hint of amusement that didn’t fully meet his eyes, thoroughly confusing Solar. What did that have to do with showing Solar’s visions of his family being terribly hurt? Whatever connection it had, Nexus didn’t elaborate and instead continued. 

“You have a week to decide.” He said vaguely. Solar wanted to grab Nexus by the arm, wanted to interrogate him and ask him what he was missing despite what his head was saying; he wanted to follow what his heart was saying, as cheesy as it sounded. His "brain" said that Nexus was irredeemable, but his heart knew that something had happened for him to become like this.

Before Solar had time to snap out of his thoughts himself, Nexus pulled one of Solar’s arms, making him land roughly onto the chair, quickly disappearing, and he let out a low grow.

…

“Piece of shit”

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A week passed, and all Solar could think about was that stupid deal. During that week, he made a point to spend more time with the family. During that time,  Moon’s mental health had depleted drastically, and both Solar and Sun didn’t know what to do. He felt weirdly responsible for what had happened with Moon and Nexus. If only he hadn’t stepped away for a moment. Then again, there were a lot of things he would have done if he had insight on the future. He would have just stopped Ruin from ever activating that button. He had seen the simulations, and Nexus would have still been…

But that was still wishful thinking, and Solar was stuck in the here and now. Instead of thinking of what he could have done, he needed to think about what he could do to make things better, and that started with helping Moon and trying to think of a way to twist the deal in his favor. Yes, it was shocking that he even considered accepting it in the first place, and he himself was surprised, but after thinking about it some more, he thought of a couple things. First, Sun and Moon had recently acquired a very very small shard, about the size of a fingernail. (Don’t ask him how they found it.) It wouldn’t give that much power as, at least compared to the other shards. Second, he was pretty sure that he could barter for the safety of his family instead of joining Nexus. He also thought that he could join him so he could relay information back to the family, but he didn’t have a doubt in his mind that Dark Sun and/or Nexus would have a fail safe for that. That’s why he has been refraining from telling them. If the evil moon animatronic was watching, which very likely, even if he was busy, he would have caught wind of any plan of theirs and shut down the deal. So he couldn’t tell them, but that was also a pain because if he joined to gather information, he wouldn’t be able to try them in a viable way.

Solar groaned out loud and “face tabled” as Lunar liked to call it. He inhaled shapely, annoyed. Dammit, why couldn’t he think of anything good? He wasn’t as smart as Moon or good at fighting like Sun. 

Now that he thought about it, he didn’t really fit.  He wasn’t a peace maker like Earth, and he definitely didn’t have superpowers like Lunar. Solar was just kind of… There. He didn’t have a specific trait that could help someone. Moon was… just better. He was smarter and would actually be able to fight. The reason why Solar didn’t fight back was because the only one attacking him back then was his Moon, and he thought he deserved everything he was given.

If he was being honest, and don’t tell anyone else, he really missed Nexus… well, technically his missed the less deranged and psychopathic Nexus, but he still missed him. 

Solar gently brushed over the compartment on his arm, opening it and closing it again. He had lost the matching stickers that they had put on their arms when he had died. He felt quite bad for Nexus. He tried and tried his hardest to bring Solar back, the intense pressure of his family weighing down on him, and Solar didn’t know the full story, but somehow, that drove him insane and indirectly tried to kill Earth. There had to be other pieces of the puzzle that he was missing, because there was no way that he had just snapped one day without any prompting. It felt like he had only twenty pieces to a one thousand piece puzzle. He was given only the edge pieces, and without the rest or more pieces, he couldn’t even guess the full picture.

He sighed one again, opening the arm compartment to turn down the volume on the music he was playing in his head. Maybe he should stop moping and get some fresh air. Maybe get some water. That would help him. He needed to work on Jack anyway… though, he was a bit reluctant due to the newfound sentience. He didn’t want to mess that up.

A loud sound from the other room broke Solar out of his thoughts and he paused his music. 

“You guys ok?” He called out no one in particular, just whoever was out there. The silence greeted him and he furrowed his “eyebrows” (He still wasn’t used to the whole “expressive” thing going on with his face). Ok, usually someone would have responded. 

As he trotted out into the living room where the noise came from, he was greeted by the surprising sight of Nexus sitting on the couch comfortably,As Solar’s eyes widened, the taller animatronic snapped up to look at him and gave the mechanic a devilish grin.

“Ah, Solar! Just the person I was looking for!” Nexus exclaimed with a slight growl to his voice as the purple-y smoke from his hand dissipated and the deal came back to his head.

So much for feeling sorry for this megalomaniac.

“What are you doing?!” Solar growled out himself, genuinely shocked for the lack of a quiver in his voice. Nexus chuckled lowly and made his way over to him. He instinctively took a step back, scowling at the approach. 

”Bargaining” He said simply, as if it were the most obvious thing ever. He took a step back, sitting on the top of the love seat, falling backward for his back to hit the seat cushions and his long legs dangling in the air.

“You said I had a week” He growled, rubbing his eyelids irritably and he heard the other sigh, as if he was the one irritated with what was happening. As if he were the one being tormented.

“Yeah, well, what’s one less day? Really, you’re lucky that I gave you more than a day.” He huffed as if he were doing him a favor. This git. He was acting like some self entitled teen.

“Let’s get to the point, shall we? I need a shard, and you want your ‘little family’ to be safe.” He growled before Solar could even speak up. He sent the other one more glare before sighing and went to sit on the couch next to the Nexus.

“Just give me one shard, Solar… just one. It’s not like I need your entire stock, though that would be nice…” He trailed off, flipping himself back upward. He gave the eclipse a sharp smirk and Solar felt a little light headed, swearing that his vision turned a little more purple, but that was probably just him. He ignored Nexus for the moment and grabbed his half drunk water bottle on the coffee table, taking one swig before completely downing the rest of it. That at least got rid of some of the lightheadedness. 

“I’m not giving you a shard, Nexus.” He growled, trying to make his statement very clear before he could try to convince him otherwise. Nexus sighed and grumbled to himself irritably.

“Alright, fine” and for a split, hopeful second, he thought that the villain had finally caved. Instead Nexus lifted his hand and out from the back of the couch, bound in purple smoke, came Moon, his hold on hiding his pain slipping, quite slowly, but still slipping. 

“Give me a shard, or I’ll kill him” Nexus said simply and Solar gulped. Fuck…The didn’t surprise Moon all to much, but it sure did make both of therm terrified for the lunar attendant’s safety. Sure, he had back ups, but they didn’t know if Nexus had already taken procedures, and it could have been stupid to not tamper with the backups. He seemed amused at the sight of Moon in silent pain, now writhing on the ground. Solar was sure that he would be screaming if it weren’t for the weird purple smoke around his neck, probably Nexus’s powers keeping him silent. 

“I-… Don’t hurt him” He looked at his face filled with worry and fear. Sun, Moon, Solar had all agreed to not give Nexus the shards, no matter what. They had backups, yes, but they didn’t know if Nexus had already taken procedures, and it could have been stupid to not tamper with the backups. Or, Dark Sun could have told the little robot, Neptor, to get rid of all the backups that they had. Also, they didn’t fully know the extent of Nexus’s powers, and frankly, Solar didn’t want to find out by it being tested on Moon.

Nexus lifted his eyebrows in slight amusement. Did Solar think that he could stop him? How cute… Though, he guessed that if he wanted the shard easier, he would humor him for a moment. Next time however, Moon wouldn’t be so lucky.

Solar bit his cheek. Dammit. His weak spot was this family, and Nexus definitely knew that. He was a couple seconds away from caving that other time a week ago but the only thing that stopped him that last time was the fact that he knew it was all fake. Now, Moon was actually in danger, but neither of them knew what sort of precautions the villain had put in place.

“I-… I'll give you… one shard, and don’t expect to get another one.” He bargained, surprised that he himself had even agreed so quickly. “Just… leave him and everyone else alone… please” He begged, the panicked and desperate words slipping out. He didn’t even mean to say them… and yet, but that was really the only thing he could do. Beg for the psychopath to not hurt his newly found family. He saw Moon’s eyes at his words, and he averted his eyes in shame.

 Nexus’s grin stretched from ear to ear, not knowing that Solar would accept so easily, but not quite complaining. That made his job 20 times easier. Now the taller animatronic didn’t have to go with the so-called “plan B”. He dropped Moon harshly on the floor, a great, loud thump echoing. Nexus seemingly did not giving two fucks about Moon who had recently shakily got up and was using the other couch as a support, sending the other moon animatronic a withering glare.

“Good boy…” Solar cringed at the mocking “pet name” and the harsh unceremonious fall. Nexus made his way over and he, thankfully, stepped over Moon on his way to “meet” the eclipse properly. 

The mechanic stole a glance at Moon to find him seemingly no longer in pain… physically. He was shaking slightly, and if that was from the lasting pain, or fear, (possibly both), he wasn’t able to tell. What he was able to tell was the fact of the lunar animatronic giving him a worried and please-don’t-do-anything-stupid-or-I-would-never-be-able-to-live-with-myself look, and he felt bad for doing this to him and the rest of the family when they eventually found out. Solar looked back up into the insane animatronic, who had been giving him another one of his sharp, unhinged smirks.

“Let’s go, shall we?” He asked, and before Solar could question him about where the fuck he was being taken to, the two were teleported away.

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Moon was frozen on the side of the couch, using the arm rest to keep himself standing. Even after the two disappeared in a puff of purple smoke and after the pressure around his voice box that prevented him from talking was lifted, all he could do was stand there and gape at where Solar was kidnapped.

The front door was practically thrown off its hinges as Monty ran in with his shotgun, only to find Moon standing there, alone. The gator made quick work of helping him up and giving him hushed whispers as to not trouble him any more than whatever had happened.

“What the hell happened??” He asked in a hushed tone and helped Moon up to sit on the couch. He kneeled in front of his terrified and shaking friend, Moon tried to get up, but Monty held him down, not wanting the starry animatronic to exert himself any more. Whatever happened must have messed him up badly.

“H-He just showed up… t-threatened me and Solar again… a-and…” He mumbled in a hoarse, tired, and broken voice and Monty felt a heavy pang in his heart at Moon’s voice. He was so quiet that the latter had to lean in closer to even make out the words. The whole “being tortured by Nexus” Thing from almost a week ago weighed on both of their minds, and Moon definitely wasn’t going to be over that any time soon. In fact, he probably blamed himself for this as well. He shot a glance at where the lunar animatronic was looking, finding no trace of Nexus or Solar, and he didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to guess what had happened to the both of them. He scowled and ushered Moon into the kitchen and up the stairs to Sun’s room, thinking that he needed to break the news to the other twin. Monty was glad that, (hopefully) like last time, he didn’t aim to kill Moon. Hurt? Yes. Cripple? Most definitely. To break a mental state? Almost certain. But not to kill… and it was probably just to fuck with him some more

As the two were up the stairs and entered Sun’s room, the solar animatronic took one look at Moon and Monty and knew something was wrong. Moon didn’t need to have an expressive face for him to know that; Sun knew his twin well enough to read his emotions just by his body language.

“What happened?” Sun asked worriedly, dropping Muffin onto his bed and making his way worriedly to the troubled duo, snagging the lunar attendant from Monty’s hold. The cat let out a cry of dismay from the lack of petting, but that was the last thing on their minds. All Moon could do at the moment was give him terribly distressed eyes and tightly engulf him into a hug, as if he were his lifeline.

The daycare attendant sighed and wrapped his own arms around his brother, pulling him closer. He didn’t like how this was starting, and he doubted that he would like where it ended.

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⭐

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Originally, Nexus had brought the two to a forest, but Solar did need to get that shard. The former had let him go, but only gave him 10 minutes or he would go after the celestial family. What else could Solar do except comply? In the containment area for all the shards, there were several traps, contraptions, and tests for the enter-er to face in order to get to the safe itself, which had a 20 digit code. Not only that, but you had to have either Sun, Moon, or Solar’s dimensional code to even enter any digits. The latter two put in many precautions to make sure those shards wouldn’t end up in the wrong hands, and look at how that was going for the two of them. 

Solar stared at the containment capsule in his hands, the tiny, glowing, paper clip sized, purple shard held within. He didn’t know how much power this would give his ex-friend, but he prayed to any god listening above that it would barely give him any. However, knowing how much power these things held within, he wasn’t sure, but on the other hand, negative star power was hard to control like Nexus was controlling it without something as powerful as this.

A text on his HUD popped up in front of his eyes and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the mystery number that had shown up was said to be maniac.

“Tick Tock, brother” was the mocking text that he had received and he sighed. He couldn’t dwell on anything else anymore, but the one thing he did do was save that new number as “Noxious Nex, Puppeteering Pain and Nonsense”. He might have been glorifying Nexus too much, but that was really just the format of everyone else’s contact names. “Adjective Nickname, Short summary”.

He opened a portal to the forest area that he was at not too long ago. He just wanted to give him the shard and go. As he stepped out, his arm was grabbed and pulled into another. He growled lowly as he was pulled and quickly shoved Nexus back.

“Don’t touch me. I just want this done as soon as possible, as I’m sure you do as well.” He huffed. Nexus let another low snarl, not liking Solar’s tone but ignored it anyway. If his plan worked, then he wouldn’t act like this towards him anymore. He held out his palm, silently waiting for the shard. The mechanic glanced down at the open palm and then the container within his hand and then back up to Nexus’s face. He didn’t want to do this, but at this point he already had the shard and it would just cause more pain for him and potentially his family if he resisted. With a sigh, he reluctantly placed the container on his open hand, avoiding eye contact. He didn’t want to look at him, knowing that if anything bad happened to anyone, it would be all his fault.

Nexus smirked and retracted his hand. He shattered the glass of the capsule, brushing the translucent shards away and he held the little purple one like it would break at the slightest gust of wind. Immediately, he could just feel the power coming from the shard, and he couldn’t wait till he had it incorporated into his body…

And what he meant by “couldn’t wait” was opening his arm compartment and sticking the shard in it. His eyes glossed over the sticker as he closed the compartment.

Oh that felt much much better. He grinned and looked back up at Solar, who continued to avoid eye contact and picked at his own arm compartment. 

“Now that you’ve got what you wanted, I’ll return home now…” The mechanic mumbled, accessing his teleporter to create a portal. He just hoped that Sun and Moon weren't too worried.

A hand was placed on his shoulder and he instinctively turned back around.

A big mistake on his part.

Nexus’s hand went straight through his head making his vision flash purple before turning to black.

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Solar felt a feeling course through his body... A warm, comforting, euphoric even, feeling. Somehow, he allowed himself to get lost in the feeling, practically melting into it. All his thoughts and worries melted away…

Actually, why was he worried? What was there to be worried about? After all, he was...

Wait… the last thing he remembered was-

Solar’s eyes shot open, and he didn’t even realize he closed them. He shot up in… bed? Wait, when did he get in bed. Last time he checked, he was with Moon, Sun and... Ruin... right

The clearing of a throat came from across the room and his eyes met red-ish purple pupils. He panicked for just a moment before relaxing. He recognized that sound.

“Hey, Moon…” he greeted, slipping out of the bed and his socks hit the floor.

… wait… socks?

Solar looked down at himself in awe, realizing that, yes, his body had been upgraded. Also the fact that Moon’s body had been upgraded. Not only that, but, what he guessed was Moon's lab, was upgraded. It had a more industrial feel to it; there was a lot of metal. In fact, he was almost positive that the entire room was make of metal. It was also mostly painted white with red accents. He didn't know that Moon liked this kind of design, but he wasn't going to question his best friend. The two things he was questioning was why he had a head splitting headache, and why it felt like he had a two month memory gap. 

He looked back up at Moon, taking in his appearance. He looked between the suit to the suspenders, to the overall new casing. It looked a little like… dammit, what was his name? Right, KC….

Nexus Moon must have noticed that something nagged at Solar’s mind and he made his way over to the mechanic, an odd look on his face. Then again, with his new face, everything might as well be “new” and “odd”.

Moon sat down on the bed gently pulling the mechanic down with him.

“You must be confused… yes?” The lunar animatronic asked, and Solar nodded. What had happened, and why did it feel like he had a couple months or so gap in his memory. Moon let out a sad sigh, and he couldn’t help but feel worried for his best friend. What happened?

“Solar… you died… and it took me so long to bring you back…” He mumbled, burying his face in his hands. 

To Solar, that wasn’t that shocking. He did kind of get Thanos snapped by Ruin after all. Right now, he was more worried about Moon.

“Oh…” was all he could say at the moment. He could tell that the other was troubled at the moment, and he wrapped his arm around him, despite being now smaller than the lunar animatronic. Was that what that month or so of no memories was? Was that him being dead? Maybe being repaired.

“So… you brought me back?” He asked, soothingly rubbing his thumb over Moon’s shoulder. He sighed and nodded, leaning into the touch. Star could tell that he wasn’t much for conversation, so he didn’t try to continue to speak. Instead, he sat there with his best friend, only wanting to make sure he was ok. After all, the mechanic did die in his arms. It wasn't that Solar didn't have question, in fact, he had many many many questions, he just figured that now wasn't the best time to ask them. Now was the time to comfort Moon.

Unknowingly to him, as "Moon" buried his head in Solar's shoulder in an attempt to look vulnerable (which deffinitly seemed like it was working) he was trying to hide the smirk on his face from being too noticeable. 

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Nexus was ecstatic. Finally, he had gotten that shard, and he was going to use it to hurt and break the so-called family, starting with Solar. But for some reason, instead of his powers showing him all the terrible terrible memories, it had erased some of them. At first, the bot was confused. Was this because of the shard? Why did it alter his commands like that? But, soon, he had an idea. If he turned Solar against the family, wouldn’t that hurt them more? He could brainwash the mechanic into thinking he was the good guy… the victim, which yes, that’s really what he started out as, but after seeing that his “family” actually didn’t care for him, he became his own puppeteer… and he was going to play with Solar as long as he wished.

So there they were, sitting on Nexus’s bed as Solar tried to “soothe” the villain. He would be lying if he said that he didn’t like the familiar comfort from him and he instinctively leaned into the touch. God… he forgot how much he did actually miss him. As much as he wanted to be all cold hearted, he couldn’t deny the comfort he got from him. 

Maybe… 

Maybe he would keep Solar around for other reasons besides to get back at the celestial family. After all, he was really the only one he cared about anyway. Everyone else could eat shit.

He had a new plan now.

Chapter Text

“Moon?”

His head snapped to the side, locking eyes with the solar animatronic and his shoulders became less tense, something they did automatically whenever he was around the eclipse. As the animatronic walked closer, Moon sat straight, pushing himself away from his knees as he looked at Solar. He made a move to get up, but the mechanic knew him well enough and gently gestured to him to sit back down before he could start to push up against the roof tiles. With a sigh, he obliged and the other sat next to him.

“You know, Sun is a little worried for you…”  Solar started and the two looked out at the water.

Moon had been sitting on the roof of his own house for about an hour now. Just… sitting… with his thoughts. He knew from experience that it wasn’t maybe greatest for his mental state to do this, but did he care? No, not really. Well… maybe a little, but it’s… whatever. It didn’t help that he didn’t have the greatest day today either.

“I can hear him pacing a path in the floor from here,” The other continued with a chuckle, and Moon let out a weak one himself.

“He still thinks I’m in the lab?” He asked, finally looking at the crimson and charcoal animatronic and he nodded in response. The lunar animatronic sighed and was half way to leaning on Solar when he stopped himself. What was he doing? He didn’t want to make his best friend uncomfortable, so he just played it off as a sway from side to side. It looked like Solar caught on to the terrible cover up, but instead of just looking back at the ocean like he thought, he put his hand on the lunar animatronic’s shoulder and pulled him into a side hug. Despite it being quite awkward, Moon couldn’t help but feel comfort from Solar’s body, not being able to stop himself from leaning into him. He ignored the heat coming from his processor, and had to stop his fans from turning up in speed. 

“Do you… want to talk about what’s on your mind?” Solar asked softly, as if he thought that if he talked any louder, he would shatter whatever connection they were having at the moment. Ah yes, he forgot that the eclipse was insanely good at reading people and their feelings, along with reading the room, which he guessed was a roof at the moment. He sighed and nodded, yet it took him a minute to actually get going. He just wanted to enjoy Solar’s body nice and warmly pressed up against his as he laid his head on the mechanic’s shoulder.

“I… was just… thinking about the old Moon…” He mumbled, trying to find footing on starting this would-be-vent,

“Sun seems to prefer him more… at least, I feel like he does…”

“And why do you think that?” Solar asked and Moon let out his billionth sigh that hour.

“He… keeps talking about him… about their memories together. A-And I know that he isn’t trying to make me feel bad… but I can tell he misses him…” Moon looked away to the other side and Solar could tell that there was more to it, so he didn’t speak up.

“I guess I just want to… I don’t know, be a better brother… A brother that he deserves. But now… I-I… I can’t be who I want to be… I can’t be my own person without being compared to the Old Moon in some way… I can’t do anything without someone either comparing me to him or then saying how ‘I’m acting different’. No, I’m not acting ‘different’! I’m just not acting like the Old Moon, and I feel like people don’t see that…” As Moon ranted, Solar had pulled him slightly closer, rubbing his shoulder with his thumb in a soothing manner. He didn’t like how the other had this stuck inside him without anyone to talk to. 

“You know, if it makes you feel better, I never compared you to the Old Moon, and I never will,” Solar softly spoke once the lunar animatronic was done speaking. In Solar’s eyes, he loved the way Moon was already. He felt as if Moon was just… perfect. He was smart, funny, kind, protective, sassy, but most of all, loved his family. His Moon was never like that. He hurt Solar at any chance he had, and he obviously jumped at the opportunity to either kill him or make him leave forever. This Moon was just… Well, Solar owed him everything . Moon was the person who helped him even before he moved dimensions, and not only that, he not only allowed him to stay, but tried his best to make him comfortable… though he should probably not make this all about himself, huh? He was here to make the lunar animatronic feel better, not reflect.

“You’re your own person. You don’t need to be like the other Moon to be a good brother”

Moon sighed and nodded, putting his hand on the one on his shoulder. After the quiet “thanks, Sol”, they sat in silence. Moon didn’t want to speak up, quite enjoying the silence himself. Though, he did question why his fans were running faster than usual. It wasn’t even that warm out, the only real warmth he was getting was from his face, unusually, and the other animatronic next to him holding him in a side hug. He didn’t know how long the two of them sat there, but eventually, they had to go in, and again, this time Solar was the one who spoke up first.

“As nice as this is, we should probably get inside before it gets any later and Sun starts to call Lunar and Earth.” The hand on his shoulder was reluctant to leave, but with one final squeeze from the theater attendant, he pulled the two of them up.  As he started to make his way off the roof, Moon grabbed his hand quickly, something that neither of them were expecting. Yes, he had something on his mind, but he didn’t think his body would practically have a mind of his own. Well… technically-

“Before we go back… can I ask you a favor?”  Moon mumbled, deciding to bite the bullet after a moment of silence. Solar was quick to turn around and gave him his full undivided attention, looking him softly in the eyes (Moon ignored the tiny zap in his processor at this). 

“If I ever turn evil for some reason… o-or try to hurt the family, can you please promise me …. Promise me that you’ll try to pull me out of whatever spiral I go down. I would hate to hurt anyone…” He huffed, looking back towards the water. There was a beat of silence….

“Of course… I-... don’t know how much I could do to help, but I promise to try to help in any way I can..” He smiled, trailing his hand down to Moon’s, and he looked away again. He just hoped that the moonlight wasn’t bright enough to let Solar see his bashful face. He wanted to tell him that just being there with him was enough for him… to tell him that Solar’s kind, soft, and yet confident words were enough… and most of all, he wanted to tell him that he felt more like a brother then Sun has, but he refrained from saying any of that. Instead he simply smiled up at the eclipse and nodded.

“Thanks… now let's get back so Sun doesn’t throw a fit”

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Solar woke up.

It took him a moment to get fully oriented, rubbing his eyes tiredly. That was the 3rd dream like that this week…

He had been having… weird dreams ever since he woke up, some of them being from his own perspective, and weirdly enough, most being from Moon’s. Usually he didn’t remember them after he woke up, but this one seemed to last… though, the dreams weren’t the only things that were weird.

Life was…

It was certainly something… and the dream, which was starting to fade the more he tried to remember, was a clear indication of that.

When Solar first woke up in the lunar animatronic’s lab, everything was so different. He didn’t know that so much could happen in a little over half a year. 

He peeled the covers off his body, stretching in the oversized PJs that were gifted to him from a certain animatronic.

Yes, that’s right, Moon gave Solar some spare clothes that he had, seeing how in the first couple days of working on the robots of his, his clothes really needed a good wash. Now, he wasn’t going to walk around naked while his clothes were being washed, so temporarily, the starry animatronic had given him clothes to borrow.

Well, he guessed Moon didn’t really go by Moon anymore. In the 7 months that he had been dead, many many things happened, which included the family shunning the animatronic out and replacing him with the Old Moon (How they managed to bring him back completely flew over Solar’s head). Now the animatronic’s name is Nexus . He adapted quickly to the new name, seeing how he was better with faces than voices. Anyway, not the point.

In the first day, or Solar guessed hour really after Nexus was done side cuddling him, which he found positively adorable for someone in his nature now, the first thing he did was ask what the plan was.

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“Plan? Oh right” To be honest, Nexus didn’t really think this far ahead. All he really planned for was getting the shard, and now that he had acquired it so easily… he didn’t really have too much in mind.

“Does it perhaps have to do with the papers on your workbench?” Solar asked, knowing the slightly sour expression on Nexus’s face like the back of his hand. As soon as he got up to look at the papers, Nexus’s eyes widened and he shot up to snatch the papers out from his line of sight. Fuck. He may or may not have forgoten about those plans , and no way in hell were they going to see the light of day… ever, and he would be damned if he let Solar see them. He quickly folded them in half, resisting the urge to just crumple them up into a useless and pathetic heap of paper and graphite. 

“No, not those. Those are…” God dammit Nexus, think of something!!

“…Not finished. Once I’m done, I’ll show you the final plan of action once they are done.” He said, and Solar quirked an eyebrow and flashed a smirk, quickly catching on to the nervousness. He forgot how well the mechanic could see through him as if he were a shard of glass. 

“Why are you saying it like you are some evil mastermind who’s planning to take over the world?” Solar joked, and Nexus bit his cheek. Well, he wasn’t going to break it to him… probably ever.  

“ Ooo, look at me… I have to finish my top secret plans to take over the entire dimension via… I don’t know man, whatever powers I’ll pull from my ass??”  Solar guessed wildly, completely ditching the whole mocking Nexus thing, which caught him off guard and he fought back a snicker. 

“Ha ha, very funny.” He snarked, flicking the eclipse on the head before pulling himself back into his “serious mode”.

“Now, I have this robot army-” Nexus ignored the snort of amusement from Solar.

“-that needs to be looked over. For now, you can do that because you are good at robotics and shit” He finished, shooting him a glare before walking towards the door way.

“You should have my phone number if you need me…” He grumbled and Solar as quick to check his contacts. He was confused when he had a contact for… Moon and one for Nexus… odd.

“Hey, is there a reason for your name being ‘Noxious Nex, Puppeteering Pain and Nonsense’?” He asked, utterly confused why he would have his contact name like that. The other’s head was quick to spin around, and if he were human, he was sure that he would have died. The eclipse thought that the tall animatronic had said something under his breath before sighing.

“Just change it to whatever… besides that” He responded, not answering his question, and he walked out.

Rude.

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And so, for the past 5-ish days, Solar had been keeping an eye on the little robots, adding tweaks to help them perform better. The ones that sustained the most damage were the ones spying on whoever Nexus made them to spy on, and he couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. Some of the little bots were really banged up, but they seemed to beep in thanks wherever he finished fixing one of them. A little like a pet now that he thought about it… but that wasn’t what he was going to think about today. He just wanted a lazy morning today…

As Solar started to make his morning coffee, making sure to set aside another mug for Nexus, he caught movement in the corner of his eyes and all he needed to see was the flash of yellow, and looked back down at the grounded coffee. Dark Sun was not someone he was expecting to work with, but apparently more drastic events led Nexus to form a sort of partnership with him. Last time he heard anything about this Dark Sun character was when he asked Nexus to go into the portal all those months ago. How they went from wanting to avoid this Sun and failing to blacklist the dimension, to working and living in the same building as him completely flew over his head, but he had much faith in Nexus, so he wasn’t going to question the starry animatronic. 

Ah right, speaking of living in the odd castle, it was quite the adjustment. Solar himself wasn't exactly keen on the idea of a room in general, but he definitely did not like the idea of living in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar person who was probably keeping an eye on his every move. Nexus made it at least tolerable. Speaking of people keeping an eye on others, apparently, as the tall starry animatronic had briefly mentioned, there was another, as he stated it, “the lacky”, who lived here. He didn’t know who it was, but all he knew was that Nexus didn’t want Solar anywhere near the other animatronic (or who he assumed was an animatronic. He didn’t know anything about them.)

The unmistakable smell of coffee burning filled the air, and as soon as Solar caught a whiff of it, he cursed and scrambled to turn the machine off. Dammit… Solar would have to make another batch. 

And that he did, making sure to not have his thoughts wander. If he was going to do something, he needed to do it right…

Ah, that reminded him. He needed to-

Nope! Don’t get sidetracked.

After just aimlessly staring at the coffee rise in the pot, letting it get to 4 shots, he flicked the knob to the side, putting the cup of milk up to the steamer to let it… well steam the milk. Simultaneously, he poured the 2 of the 4 shots of coffee into a clean mug to the side, grabbing a second mug, one that was more used, and poured the rest of the coffee into it. He waited a little more before pouring the now steamed mug of milk into the mugs, half in one, half in the other. He debated for a minute before reaching up to the cabinet space above him to pull out the barely used caramel syrup, drizzling some into one mug, the more used one. Solar wasn’t much of a basterista, just he at least knew how to make decent coffee. Nexus always made better tasting coffee than him.

With two steaming hot coffees in hand, he made his way around the castle, idly sipping at the more caramel flavored one. Around and around he went, doing his best to remember where he needed to go before spotting the familiar painted metal hall. He made his way down it, his mind thinking about Nexus all the way down until he finally made his way into his lab. 

There sat the lunar animatronic, head blocked by the monitor of his computer, angrily grumbling nonsense to himself as he typed away. Solar shook his head fondly and momentarily distracted Nexus by setting the untouched cup of coffee next to the keyboard, taking a peak at what the other was working on. 

Before Solar could make sense of the strange blueprints on the screen, Nexus shot him a glare before closing out the tab. The former offered the latter an apologetic smile and he grumbled to himself as he rolled his eyes.

“What do you need, Solar?” He asked, spinning his chair so he could face him. The first the mechanic noticed was the tired and worn out look on the other’s eyes, something that had gotten progressively worse since the moment he noticed it, aka even since he woke up from his “long extended nap”.

“Oh come on, do I need a reason to spend time with my best friend?” Solar asked, and Nexus gave him another sigh. At least it wasn’t a scoff. One of the things that he had picked up quickly was that Nexus was different compared to before he died, and he didn’t just mean physically. He knew that he was different from the other Moon, and he didn’t expect him to act like him, but that’s not what he meant. He meant that he was a lot more distant. Much more reserved and harsher. Solar remembered that he was very kind, willing to help his family. He still was somewhat playful with Solar, just not as much as before. That and he was much much more moody. 

But that was fine! Even if Solar was confused about many things, mostly about what the fuck happened when he died, he knew that something like what happened to Nexus would leave scars, so he never brought it up or addressed it.

“So… are you just going to stand there?” The voice brought Solar back to the present and he quickly noticed the bored look on Nexus’s face. 

“Sorry, sorry. Just thinking…” with a moment's pause and no questioning from the taller bot, which Solar was silently thankful for, he pushed on.

“Do you need anything before I head out?” He asked and Nexus glanced at the computer. He could tell that he was debating something, but he shook his head anyway.

“Run along. I have important things to do.” He said plainly, and the mechanic fought back a frown. Yep, there was the harsher personality he didn’t miss. Nonetheless, he nodded and quickly shuffled out of the lab. 

As Nexus watched him exit, he felt something spike in his chest, but ignored the feeling he could only guess was guilt . He didn’t need any petty feelings anymore. He wasn’t weak…  Besides, the plan wasn’t to be nice to Solar, it was to separate everyone from Sun… and Solar was just another person in the way…

He needed to get back to work .

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⭐️

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Moon had his head in his hands and he heard his twin pace back and forth through the room. It had been almost a week since Solar had been kidnapped, and Moon hadn’t come up with anything to help their situation. Everyone had started to put their heads together to try and think about what they could do. The kids couldn’t do too much to help — Dazzle couldn’t defend herself, Jack didn’t have the advanced weaponry he needed to fight Nexus and didn’t think when he needed to, and Molten could only detain him — and Sun refuses to let them get involved, which everyone except the children themselves agreed with, so they were off the table to help. That left Sun, Moon, Lunar, Earth, and Monty. Earth couldn’t fight, and Moon didn’t know what Nexus could do to Lunar, seeing how he hand negitive star power, and didn’t intend to find out. That really only left Sun, Moon, and Monty to be fighters, Lunar only being there just in case to jump in.

Everyone was beyond worried and, understandably, annoyed. They had just gotten Solar back, now finally being able to call him a brother… just for him to be stolen right from their hands. Speaking of everyone, they all had an accurate reaction to the news…

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“Nexus did what??!!” Came the shout of the little Nutella lover, and Moon looked away shamefully. Sun rubbed his back, trying to comfort him, knowing damn well that he was blaming himself, and himself alone.

“I-I’m sorry! I know you guys just got him back… I-I was just… Nexus had me trapped with his powers a-and-“

“Moon, we don’t blame you…” The soft voice of Earth interrupted the currently more depressed animatronic and in the corner of his eyes, he saw Sun nod along. 

“Why is everyone s-ad?” Everyone’s head snapped towards the pumpkin animatronic and Moon’s heart shattered into pieces. Jack was the reason he didn’t include any of the children in the conversation. He had just started to bond with his father and now that Solar had been kidnapped by someone who was almost impossible to find, no one was jumping at the chance to tell him.

“Jack…” only Sun was brave enough to speak up, and even then, his voice was wavering.

“Your dad… he was taken” Jack blinked at them before he practically teleported in front of Sun, eyes scarily emotionless.

“ Who?” He grumbled, growling growing from his chest. Sun flinched back, but Jack didn’t seem to notice. Either that, or he didn’t deem it important.

“…Nexus” And just like that, the little pumpkin was taking long strides towards the door. Sun was quick to grab him and hold him back.

“Jack, wait! You won’t find him in this dimension…” the usually anxious bot seemed concerned for the smaller, but he simply just ripped his arm out of his grasp.

“Then I’ll look in every single dimension until I find him! I’m going to kill him. That fu-“ Sun was quick to cover his mouth as he saw Dazzle on the bridge above them on the second floor. She looked nervous at the sight Jack aggravated, and to be honest, almost everyone did. Jack didn’t talk like this much. His voice didn’t have a hint of that robotic drawing out of words like before. Moon couldn’t blame him for his reaction. He blamed himself.

“Jack, you have to calm down. Moon and Solar had a way to locate their dimension. Then we can try and get your dad back.” Sun tried to rationalize, and even with Jack aggravated, he listened, though rather reluctantly.

But when Jack got his hands on Nexus… 

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That was a long conversation, one that Moon didn’t really want to look back at. He looked up from his hands and quickly caught sight of Sun scratching at his hands, so much so that his paint started to come off. Dammit, that wasn’t good.

He quickly stood up and grabbed his brother’s hands with his own and inspected them, making sure that there wasn’t any damage done. He himself had rubbed his own paint off a couple times, and it was quite the hassle to repaint it. Fazbear has some specific paint that is quite limited. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t that bad, but he still worried. Worried about every little scratch, paint flake, and scrape on Sun’s body. Whenever he found any damage on his body, he felt like a terrible brother, and what had been happening ever since he woke up, the feeling got worse and worse.

“Moon… I’m fine ” But even with his words, Moon just tightened his hold on Sun’s hands.

“I know… I’m just… nervous .” Sun sighed and intertwined his hands with his worried brother. As much as he wanted to seem like the strong big brother of the family, Moon was no less terrified about what was happening than anyone else. He just hid his problems better, and it was something that Sun had secretly envied.

It was quiet in the living room for a moment, the two brothers just simply holding each other. They both just enjoyed the warmth from each other. 

“Do you think Solar’s…” Sun trailed off from that though, and Moon didn’t want him to finish, already knowing what he was thinking. Thankfully, he didn’t say the thing that everyone in the family had feared.

“I hope… I really hope he is keeping him around…”

Another pause.

“What do we do?” Came the quiet and anxious voice of who had broken the silence. Moon sighed tiredly and Sun rubbed his back in a soothing manner. In all honesty, he didn’t know what he could do. After all, he didn’t have many leads, he couldn't communicate with Solar, he didn’t know if Solar was even alive , and he didn’t know where he could find them to make sure-.

…

Wait, he did. He did know how to find them. Moon mentally slapped himself as he pulled back, a spark of newfound determination welling up in his chest. He had one lead. One small, minuscule lead, but it was one nonetheless. For all he knew, it could be a red herring, but this was the only thing he could do, and he wasn’t going to pass up this chance. He was going to get Solar back, his friend back, and he was going to kill Dark Sun and Nexus, or he would die trying. It all started with that debris that Ruin “mistakenly” dragged along with him. He guessed that was at least one of the reasons for him to join them. Remind him to punch, and thank, Ruin the next time he saw them.

Sun, who knew Moon all (most) of his life and literally shared a body with him, knew that look like the back of his hand. Moon had an idea, and whatever it was, the sunny animatronic was going to do his best to help, no matter what.

“What do you need?”

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⭐️

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“There we go, all fixed now” 

Solar huffed, wiping the grease from his forehead before realizing that he just slathered on more due to the amount of oil on his gloves.

God dammit. Now he needed a shower…

Well, more than he did before.

With a sigh, he patted the smaller, 4 foot, less sentient, robot on the head, and it let out a chirp at the action. Personally, he found these little bots just slightly adorable. He knew damn well that Nexus hadn't made them like this, but they kind of reminded him of the wet floor bots in the pizza plex. Ah, speaking of the pizza plex, he missed everyone. Don’t get him wrong, he liked it here with Nexus: occasional banter, working on projects, other-things-that-Solar-was-sure-they-did-but-just-forgot-at-the-moment-because-he-just-spent-the-last-5-hours-fixing-all-the-little-robots, but at the same time… he missed Sun and his little quirks, Earth and her kindness, Lunar and his energy and childlike tendicies, and Jack . Now, when he died, Jack didn’t exactly have sentience, but sometimes when it was late at night and when Solar couldn’t sleep, he would think about how Jack would be if he was sentient. Maybe he would be silly like Lunar, or be protective like Nexus. Maybe he could be kindhearted like Earth, or strong spirited like Sun. He sighed as the chirp from the little robot below him reminded him of the task at hand.

“You go run along to the others, alright? I’ll see you tomorrow” He gave one more head pat to the robot, something that it loved, before standing up from his kneeling position he had been holding for quite some time and stretched. With one final wave, he started to head back into the egg thing , something he constantly questioned the design of to be honest. How the hell did that look like a castle inside???

As he made his way to his room, the entire trip there being a blur seeing how he had memorized the path and had basically turned on auto pilot, he smiled at the little rumba-things that Dark Sun requested he make. The castle was huge, and to be honest, when Solar woke up, he was surprised that there wasn’t more dust and grime everywhere, especially in Nexus’s lab. Of course, he had also been requested to make other little bots, for example security for if or when intruders come in, or just a cook for when someone got hungry, aka an excuse to have room service (Solar made that without a request), or even just another AI like the computer. He was thankful that he was able to keep himself busy here. He didn’t like to be alone with his thoughts with nothing to distract him with. It was something that he had always hated. Thankfully, when he didn’t have anything to work on, Nexus was somehow able to distract his thoughts when he was around. 

He slipped off his gloves and goggles, tossing them lazily on the desk as he passed. He made quick work of his clothes as he entered the bathroom attached to his room. Usually, if and when he was in a hurry, he would just splash some water on his face and wipe the grime and grease off with a face towel. Now, not only was the towel in the wash, like everything he needed, but also he was so much more disgusting than how he usually was, and there was no way in hell he was going to let Nexus see him like this… He wasn’t going to let his best friend, the person who he had the highest opinions of, see him icky like this. 

He turned on the water before stepping into the shower, letting the warm water engulf him and cover him up like a blanket. Yes, he was a warm shower kind of person. Have a problem with that?

He scrubbed away at all the discoloration and black spots on his body, watching the murky water off his body go down the drain and enjoying the warm water hug him close. Sometimes, when he wasn’t busy or dirty, he would take a quick shower before taking a bath. It helped his head calm down and clear his thoughts. Not only that, but it helped him think more on what he could plan on in the future. Usually, he would be much more stressed about thinking of the future, but whenever he was with Nexus, it felt like he was safe from any harm. It was funny really… from an outside perspective, it might have seemed like Solar was under a spell with how tranquil he was compared to before, but he guessed it was just the effect the starry animatronic had on him. That’s how it was before, after all. Nexus had helped him calm down even before Solar had died, and vice versa. 

After several minutes, Solar reluctantly turned off the soothing warm water and grabbed his towel as he stepped onto the bath mat. After a moment of wiping all, if not most, of the moisture off his body, he slipped on the borrowed pair of clothes from Nexus. Something that Solar would never admit would be the fact that he isn’t too worried about his normal work clothes getting dirty partly because if they are too dirty to wear, he would borrow Nexus’s lounge clothes, something that he found quite comfortable. Yes, he liked the fluffy and slightly oversized clothes, shut up.

As he stepped outside of the bathroom and into his room, he quickly spotted a light peach colored sticky note attached to his own computer that wasn’t there before. 

‘ Sol,

Once you are done in the shower, I need you to report to my lab. I need to test some things and would greatly appreciate your help.’

The note ended with a purple shard symbol instead of a signature and he raised an eyebrow. Nexus? Being formal ? That was a little new. Usually he would say something along the lines of “hey, robo twink, get your ass down here. I need your help”, or something. Though, he did like the nickname, something that hadn’t been used in what seemed like forever. Eh, whatever. Time seemed to be confusing ever since he woke up, and he wasn’t going to start questioning it now. 

Solar folded the sticky note in half, then in quarters, sticking it in his pocket. He snagged the goggles and gloves on the way out, sighing tiredly as he resisted the urge to make another cup of coffee (how the hell did the caffeine even work for animatronics anyways?)

Back to work he went. 

Chapter Text

It wasn’t common that Moon didn’t have nightmares, it was actually quite frequent. It was the content that was mixed: Kids screaming, hitting Sun, dying, all that jazz. The good news was that more often than not, the nightmares would happen in the lab. That way, he did have to worry about Sun coming into his room while he had an occasional panic attack. The bad news was that his back was probably permanently bent because of how he laid down on his desk.

Moon grumbled, rubbing the bad dream away, deciding to actually try and fix his terrible back posture.

Dammit. His papers were everywhere. Now he had to organize them… again. He was sure that spending the last couple days in his lab had worried everyone, but he had to keep working, testing, persevering. It was the only way to get some sort of lead on what was going on. He wasn’t going to give up on Solar any time soon. 

He grabbed all the loose papers and sloppily shoved them to one side of his workbench, resulting in some of them fall off the edge. He didn’t bother to pick them up, too mentally and physically tired. He needed to get up; Sun had to be worried sick about him. He had promised to not work himself to exhaustion again, look what he was doing now.

He stood up from his chair, letting it roll out a little before sighing and brushed past the papers, keeping it for “later-Moon”. He glanced at the bulletin board, sighing deeply. If he was being honest, it looked a little like one of those suspect boards from those crime shows, minus the red string and entering many many more notes. There wasn’t too much on it, seeing how he didn’t have a lot of information on what the hell happened with Solar, but there were a lot of theories, building up a rough idea. For some odd reason, the cork board helped organize his ideas more than anything, so if it worked, it worked. No complaints.

He let out a sigh, preparing a portal back home, not even wanting to look at the board right now. He had been slaving away for the past week. Even if he didn’t really know Solar too well, he mattered very much to his family, and that was enough of a motivation. He had done worse for less when it was just him and Sun. Now, there were more people relying on him, and that included Solar himself. He couldn’t let them down.

“Data completed scanning.”

His head snapped up to the overhead speakers, the voice of his new computer. It wasn’t as advanced as the other one, but then again, it did take half a year to make the AI, and he didn't exactly feel like going through that grueling process again. He took a step back away from the multicolored rip in time and space to listen to his computer in the sound system.

“What did you find?”

This was what he was waiting for. If he got this information, he would know where Dark Sun and Nexus were camping out. If he found that out, he could see if Solar was still alive. If he was still alive, then they could A. Keep him safe and B. Maybe get some information. If he was still alive, he would have probably been kept in a cell of sorts. Even if he was locked up, he could have gotten some information, right?

That’s a lot of “what-ifs” and probabilities Moon. Don’t get your hopes up.

“The coordinates you needed.” That was all he needed to hear and he let out a breath that he guessed he was holding for some time.

“Start to put in the coordinates, I’ll be back in a bit.” He instructed before being engulfed by the bright array of colors that was the teleporter. 

He guessed he did have some good news to relay when he got back home.

“Nexus?” 

He didn’t need to turn his head to know who it was but on instinct did anyway. He could sense him coming down the hall a couple minutes before he actually entered the room. It was a little strange, this new power… new control. It was like a third eye opened up and he was seeing the world in a new light. One that was odd and distorted, sometimes even dizzying, but if it gave him powers beyond belief, he guessed he couldn’t complain. Speaking of powers beyond belief, he wasn’t lying when he said that. Even he didn’t exactly know what the shard did to his already unknown powers aside from enhancing them.

That’s why he called Solar in here, to help.

“Come on in, I was just finishing getting everything ready” He spoke, typing in a few things before making his way over to Solar. He didn’t want to stall any longer, seeing how he thought of this as a pressing matter. 

“So what do you need help with?” The shorter mechanic spoke as he watched the other set a couple of boxes on top of each other with a confused look on his face. 

“Testing” Solar waited for more of an explanation, but when none showed itself and he didn’t push. He just guessed he would find out in a minute.

Nexus waved him over to the computer, letting him sit down in the chair.

“All I need you to do is to keep an eye on the monitor. If anything looks like it’s getting too high, tell me immediately,” He explained before setting off to stand in front of the boxes. Solar guessed it was easy enough…

There were two sections: Mana use and pulse rate. Mana was a flat line at rock bottom while pulse rate was steady with spikes.

With a deep inhale, Nexus seemed to try to focus on something. That “something” became immediately apparent as the somehow familiar feeling of power pulsed through the room. Pressure was really the best way to describe it. As if something was looming over him. Watching his every move. He felt uneasy and instinctively brought his hands closer together.

There was motion on the screen and he could see the mana usage line start to go up by a little. Was this the power that Nexus had gained while he was dead? The feeling of being watched was almost suffocating. 

“Explode” came the unexpected growl from the taller. However, instead of the boxes… well exploding, they simply burst into purple flames. Solar could just feel the annoyence radiating off of him and he let out a knowing sigh. Nexus had probably been at this for a while if he asked for help. He hadn’t been very keen on asking for his assistance as of recent, which was a little odd. At least he could help now.

He glanced at the monitor, Nexus’s heart rate a little faster and the mana trend line going a little higher.

With a long exhale, he tried again, this time, he didn’t even try to keep the annoyance out of his tone.

“Explode” this time, the fire put itself out, not something Solar guessed Nexus wanted to do, but at least a little helpful. He could tell that he was about to try again, but even with just those two tests, he knew that it wasn’t going to work.

Heart rate went up.

He sighed a searched around in the blue suited animatronic’s drawers, looking for something. After a minute (and another, slightly more pissed off “Explode” from Nexus), he found what he was looking for and slotted some cords into the computer then into his arm compartment. He stood up and walked over to Nexus, who had noticed the movement in the corner of his eye and thankfully made it easier by giving his attention to the mechanic. Thankfully, the cord was pretty long, but not long enough. 

“Come here” He instructed and Nexus raised an eyebrow, reluctantly taking a step. With a fond roll the his eyes, Solar grabbed Nexus’s hand and pulled him closer. He glanced at the screen on his arm.

Heart rate slowed, but still faster than usual.

“I’m going to try something, ok?” Nexus gave him a look. “Just- try to do what I say, ok? And don’t give me that look. It’ll be better than what you’re doing right now.”

With the only protest being the roll of his eyes, Nexus nodded.

Now focus on the feeling of…” He paused, not sure if it was magic or star power his was using. “Your power. Just… focus on it” 

“Why?” Solar looked up at the confused animatronic and sighed.

“Because from what I can tell, you’ve been trying this one way and doesn’t seem to be working. If this doesn’t work you can go back to commanding the boxes to light themselves on fire again” Nexus gave him a look but just gave up. Solar raised a brow as he closed his eyes. He thought he was imagining it earlier but it seems like he was right. Nexus was oddly…pliable today. Not a lot of backlash from what he’s seen.

“Now what?” Came the growling voice of his friend, who had closed his eyes, and he smiled.

“Uh… I guess…” Solar hummed. He didn’t actually know where he was going with this.

“Try to make it… cover you — is that the right way to describe it? Kind of like-, like blanket… just… let it engulf you…” Nexus muttered something under his breath and compiled anyway. Solar glanced at his arm and hummed softly as he noticed the heart rate go down. Though, something else made itself known was the mana leveling out steadily. Nothing leaving, nothing coming in.  

“Now… What I think is happening is that your powers are reacting to your emotions… so just focus on one emotion… preferably something positive. Once you have it wrapped around your finger, just let it out.” Nexus’s eyes twitched as if he wanted to open his eyes but didn’t.

“So you don’t even know what you’re doing?” Was the only thing he was given as a response. Solar didn’t respond, but he didn’t need to. Slowly but surely he started to slip his hands out of the other's hold, taking a step back. 

“again, it’s a better idea then waving your hand at boxes and asking nicely to get them to combust or whatever you were doing,” 

A scowl made itself known on Nexus but Solar couldn’t care less.

“Ok, try it, though, not at me please.” He joked, yet not really. Getting hit with whatever power his best friend had wasn't exactly on his bucket list.

Well, you already died, so… he pushed that thought back.

With a particularly breathy exhale, Nexus clenched his fists and instantly, Solar felt a wave of glee fill his chest and he couldn't help but grin. 

Woah, so Nexus could manipulate emotions? That was definitely something he would be interested in! How did he do that? If Nexus would let him, he would like to know what other things his powers could do. His hypothesis was correct at least! Yes! Damn, he was really mostly just guessing based on what he knew about Lunar’s powers.

He barely noticed Nexus opening his eyes, but as soon as he did, Solar felt more — well he  guessed the word would be normal.

“Well it worked. Not for long, but worked” he said, taking one more glance at his arm before taking the wires out and placing them back on the desk. It didn't seem Nexus wanted to talk, too confused as to why that actually worked. Solar came back with a chuckle.

“So let's keep trying something like that until we can form commands via emotions, seeing how you were doing that before, yeah?” He asked and Nexus nodded. It was only then when Solar noticed the look in his eyes. The all too familiar look he had seen in the mirror. With the 50th sigh in this room on the past 5 minutes, he grabbed Nexus by the wrist and dragged him to the door of the lab.

“What the hell are you doing?” He growled as Solar started to feel around the wall for a light switch before realizing that it was on the other wall and flicking it off.

“Getting you some much needed rest.” He huffed, pulling the taller one out of the room and closing the door behind them. Solar was quickly taken off guard by the action of Nexus actually listening. For the past week or so of being here, he had noticed that Nexus was doing his own things and going by his own rules. Just wanting to do something was enough of a purpose to do said thing. When he questioned it, that's all he got: “Why not?”. He knew Nexus well enough that he probably wouldn't like this and would easily just say how he didn’t need sleep and would just push him away. 

He kept the question of why Nexus was allowing himself to be pulled along to the side and simply lead their ‘walk’. Not a word came from the white and blue animatronic next to him. He stole a glance at his best friend and noticed him yawning tiredly, his expression much softer then what he was used to on that usually hard and cold face. He missed it. Looked much better than the usually grim face.

“What?” Nexus grumbled out when he noticed Solar staring at him and his face soured. Well, there went. 

“Nothin’. Just plotting the best way to get you to trap you  in bed,” He lied smoothly, turning away to put his hands in his pocket. “Might have to tie you if it comes to that…”

“…didn’t know you were into that,” a joke. An oddly rare joke came from Nexus and Solar couldn’t help but laugh ludicrously at it, not expecting it in the slightest.

“Oh shut up.”

It was quiet again, unsurprisingly. Well, that and the tapping of metal against metal each time one of them took a step, which was slowly driving Solar insane. If he was going to go off the deep end, he blamed it on these damn floors.

“How’d you know what to do?” Solar turned towards Nexus, who was still facing ahead as if that would somehow get him to avoid the embarrassment of asking questions. 

“You mean about the power thing?” A nod prompted him to continue.

“Well, I’m going to be honest I was kinda winging it the whole time.”

“I knew it.” Nexus hissed, though he sounded a little more amused than actually angry.

“What, you think I had actual experience? No. Of course not. I’ve never touched magic in my entire life.” 

Nexus huffed and shook his head fondly as if he couldn’t believe that he thought otherwise. Solar was glad to see that there was still a ghost of a smile on his face.

“Ok, fine. Where did you pull that out from? Your ass?” 

“Eh, close,” Nexus laughed (actually laughed!).  “I actually asked Lunar about his star power stuff before I, y’know, kicked the bucket.”

“Really?”  Nexus asked. “The astrals allowed that?”

“I’m as shocked as you. Though, I didn’t really learn a whole lot. Most of it went over my head, but thankfully, this was one of the things that stuck,” Solar gave Nexus a side glance. “It worked though, didn’t it?”

Nexus let out a hum, one that Solar knew as his pondering hum. Solar let a fond smile slip onto his face at the familiar look. Did he really know Nexus well enough to differentiate his different expressions just based on the slightest eyebrow movement or mouth twitch?

“What? You scheming,” Nexus hummed and his smirk twitched up slightly at his question. 

“You’d like to know, huh?”

The two shared a grin in the empty hallway, letting a blanket of comforting silence cover them. Solar stole another glance at his friend, a warm feeling spreading through his chest as he saw a lingering smile. 

Ever since Nexus had brought him back from the dead, Solar had noticed that he felt more at ease. Like when he was close to him, he was safe. Sure, he felt like this before as well whenever he was with Nexus alone but… call it silly, but the best way to describe it was that he was under a spell with how calm and lenient he was.

“Mind if I make a quick stop? It’ll just be a minute,” Solar glanced over at Nexus and then to the door to Dark Sun’s office. 

Why would he need to see Dark Sun?

Not my problem…

“Uh… sure? I’ll just wait out here.”

“You can go to bed if you want. I don’t want to hold you up,” Awe, Nexus was so sweet. Just don’t mention he thought that of him.

“Thanks for the offer, but I gotta make sure you get sleep tonight.” 

“You’re serious about that?” Solar nodded and Nexus sighed. “Fine, wait if you want to..” and with that Nexus knocked on the door before slipping inside the room when a monotone “come in” was barely heard through the thick wooden doors.

And now it was time to wait.

Solar sighed and leaned against the wall before deciding that it was only worth it if you were leaning on your arm and settled for just sitting on the ground. 

Now that he had gotten some time to think, he realized just how weird Nexus had been acting. Something definitely happened while he was dead but he hadn't gotten a lick of information about what. There was some sort of falling out between the family, that much was clear, but what drove that? And why was Nexus so much colder than before? He expected some change. He'd be worried if he wasn’t affected, but not like this… instead of wanting Solar closer or something like that like he thought, he was… pushing him away. Was that some kind of defense mechanism? Did he think that if he disappeared once, he could do it again? He didn’t know what Nexus was thinking, and every time he asked, he either brushed him off or never gave a straight answer. Dark Sun was even less likely to tell him. He didn’t even know the guy, plus he was just not the kind of person to give out information like that, even if he knew. Christ, why where they the only three people in this stupid building-

“Solar?” And just like that his head whipped around to look at someone very familiar and very british.