Chapter Text
“Sun and Moon... already moved on from me, I see..~”
He had woken in a hall just barely a few minutes ago, without any recollection of how or why he’d gotten there. His sensors were new and his core was fully functioning, unlike what he was used to. Every touch was new and yet not, every image curiously different yet so familiar.
He didn’t give himself the chance to start hyperventilating before he made his way down the hall. Into a room so familiar to him but not. Climbed up the ladder and stepped out onto a sickeningly familiar balcony to stare out at a disgustingly familiar sight.
And as he did so, they called him Solar. He had not changed visually, vocally— nothing but mentally, from what he could tell. There was only one plausible reason they weren’t immediately on the defensive.
“Got yourselves another eclipse to deal with...”
He couldn’t help the way he spat out those words. Rolled them on his tongue to taste them and expelled them as quickly as he could.
The thought of there being another Eclipse here had him feeling unnaturally... upset, about it. Nonetheless one they were clearly friendly with...
(He doesn’t even want that for himself. Why would he ever want that?)
Sun and Moon stared up at him with more horror than usual.
“Oh, please don’t act coy,” he said through a feigned purr, “as if you didn’t expect me to be back.”
However, Eclipse’s smirk was quick to fall.
“No, you’re dead. You’re dead.”
What the fuck was Moon going on about this time? Of course he’s not dead— did they really think they could even get close to killing him?
Eclipse didn’t let himself process the words too much, too thoroughly. No, Moon was just trying to piss him off. Disorient him even more than he already was.
Maybe he’ll entertain them for now. Go along with their dumbass story just to fuck with them.
“I did die...—”
“I destroyed you in another dimension!” Moon spat back, though, as if not having heard him, “You’re dead!”
Oh. Well, that adds a little more to the story. There was still a good chance he was lying. Eclipse had no reason to believe he was honest.
But then Sun backed his twin up, saying, “You shouldn’t have been able to come back at all! Your backups, and- and— we destroyed everything you could’ve used!!”
They... they had?
Eclipse could feel his emotions starting to writhe within, clawing to escape and be seen. He forced himself to reel them back, though, and kept his demeanour up.
They were being so insistent on that death story, maybe they were... no. He’d never admit them of all people were right. They likely had just agreed on this stupid story. He’ll catch them in their bluff soon enough.
“Backups, shmackups,” he mocked Sun lowly, starting to make a slow pacing pattern on the edge of the balcony like a predator stalking, “do you wanna know how I survived?” He pretended to think for a half second, “I think I’ll keep that a little secret for now, actually.”
He could barely stop himself from flinching as Moon suddenly shouted, “TELL ME!”
Eclipse sneered to hide the way he faltered for barely a moment. He didn’t understand exactly why he was suddenly so reactive, though; likely just the new auditory sensors.
“Oh, is someone a little angry right now?” he mocked the lunar bot, rolling his eyes at the unrestrained display of fury, “It’s good to see you too, Moon. And Sun too. And... oh, what was his name again, Solar? Right?”
He could’ve purred for real when he watched the two twins bristle at the mention of the other eclipse.
“You really couldn’t resist having me around, could you?”
He didn’t know why he liked how that bothered the two of them so much. While he was well aware of the satisfaction that came from simply pissing them off, he wasn’t sure why that specifically made him feel better. At least it was distracting him from the... suddenness of everything, so to say.
Eclipse watched almost patiently as the two spoke to each other, quiet enough that he couldn’t hear their words but loud enough he could hear the growl in Moon’s voice.
Then he felt himself stiffen as Moon said, “Computer. Defenses.”
The voice from above responded with its confirmation, and for a moment, Eclipse considered himself.
He was in the daycare, alone and confused. He’d woken up in an unknown hall not even fifteen minutes ago, and had no idea where else to go if he did end up surviving an attack.
He considered himself, and then he considered his life.
For just the smallest of moments, there was a sense of clarity in his head.
He had no life to live, did he? It wasn’t as if he could get the star anymore, since that’d been destroyed a while back.
...if he had no life to live, then why not make their little story come to life?
“Oh go on, give it a shot,” Eclipse purred, stepping forward and raising his arms to the sides, “let’s see what’ll happen next.”
He silently hoped the stain he left behind would be impossible to clean up. He’ll leave his mark, and they’ll never be able to rid themselves of it without replacing the balcony in its entirety. (Which, with any hope, Fazbear won’t let that happen.) Even in death, he’ll be an inconvenience to them, and at this point it was all he could ask for.
“Computer. Kill him.”
Eclipse couldn’t help his grin as the computer aimed to fire.
“Strike me down, computer!” he all but cheered, “Go ahead! I stand as an apostle to you!”
Forgive him for the theatrics, but what more would you expect from Eclipse than a performance in his final moments?
He closed his eyes and waited for the computer to gun him down. Beat him into the ground his lasers or bullets or whatever the fuck they used until he was one with it.
He waited.
But death did not greet him.
“Guns unable to fire.”
Oh.
“...would you look at that.”
It was a miracle he kept his smug demeanour up.
All that, and the computer refuses to kill him? The fuck?? What the fuck, universe, he’d made peace with himself and his nonexistent life and everything, and then he just... gets to live???
“What do you mean, unable to fire!?” Moon all but screamed at the computer. Thankfully, he and Sun were much too focused on the AI to see Eclipse’s rays briefly shrinking into his head as his entire body jolted from the volume.
“I am unable to fire,” the computer simply responded, and suddenly, with the look of rage that’d appeared on Moon’s face, Eclipse was thankful he was on the balcony.
Eclipse took that as his moment to speak. To escape.
“You know, I don’t think I have anymore business here,” he hummed, pretending to check his nonexistent nails just to see Moon seethe, in turn distracting himself from the growing coldness in his chest, “you’re clearly already struggling enough as is. Really, it’s a little pathetic how weak you two have gotten since I last saw you.”
Part of that was said purely to piss the two of them off further. However, it was also said partially due to the fact Moon wasn’t even trying to kill him himself, and if Moon was this angry now, then that meant he wasn’t able to go up and kill him himself.
“Not to mention I know I can’t get the star anymore,” he continued, feigning nonchalance as best he could as he began inching backward, “destroyed and all that. So I have absolutely no reason to be here.”
Part of him seemed to argue that he did, there was some reason he was here, something tied to why he’d woken up in the damned hall.
But that part of him had no logic to it that he could see, no logical reasoning as to why he felt that way. Therefore, he had no reason to care about it either.
He turned to the tower, sparing one last glance behind himself just to give Moon a grin.
“If you wish to chase me, there is only one entrance...”
Eclipse turned and hopped down and out of sight, a hand immediately shooting over his mouth as his vents forced frantic puffs through it.
He needed to leave. Now, now, now.
It was a miracle he was able to get out the incantations, reciting the quickest teleportation spell he knew. His vision spun as he suddenly found himself in a random supply closet, and just as quickly, he spat out another, slightly longer spell.
This time, he’d dropped in the middle of his forest. His knees buckled underneath him and his rays rattled in their sockets, his own arms wrapping around himself tight enough to kill the average human. If he could hyperventilate, he would; he probably already was, if he asked an outside observer.
Had Eclipse really died?
He’d accepted his potential death so quickly, so easily— how farfetched could it be that he’d... actually died?
But the problem then is how. How did he die? And when? Had he been dead for long?
Moon said that he’d killed him in another dimension, but he doesn’t remember hanging out in another dimension. In fact, he barely remembers anything at all!
The last thing he remembered... had to be a bunker. The details are fuzzy, but he’d been in a bunker, and he’d been doing... something. Anything.
Should he search for that, then?
...wait, he doesn’t remember which bunker it was.
That definitely complicated things immediately. Both him and Moon had created half a goddamn million of the things— how miniscule of a chance did he have of even getting close to that same bunker? And how much smaller of a chance would there be of him finding anything useful anyway?
What was he supposed to do?
Eclipse subconsciously looked up as if waiting for an answer from the universe. Unfortunately, that answer came in the form of dark grey skies and a droplet of water landing on his right optic.
Looks like his first objective would have to be finding somewhere to stay.
He obviously couldn’t hide somewhere in the pizzaplex— like hell was he about to risk running into any of the celestials when Moon was so insistent on wanting his head on a pike. He’d have to look for a bunker, maybe even one of the further ones just to make sure no one found him.
And after that, he would... well, he’d burn that bridge when he got to it.
In the meantime, he wracked his memory for the bunkers he figured Moon wouldn’t think to touch. Or at least ones that’d be further down the list of search priority to give himself time to find somewhere more stable.
While a lot of his memories were fuzzy— why, why, why, he’ll need to investigate that at some point, but not now —he still managed to remember a smaller bunker near the corner of a forest bordering the city. One that sat at the bottom of a mountain range for just that extra bit of protection.
He remembers planning to use it as a subpar vacation home, although he couldn’t remember the last time he had the chance for a “vacation.”
Shakily, Eclipse stood up and started trudging through the forest.
He needed to make some distance from his initial “landing” site before he said the teleportation incantation.
Just in case.