Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Eclipse was a fearsome siren of the sea, his leviathan bloodline showing in his large size. He was surely larger than the other sirens of his pod, maybe about twice their size with plenty of room to grow.

He had prided himself in his feats and abilities as the leader of his pod, a beautifully hypnotic voice that could lure any unsuspecting creature to their graves or do his bidding, along with sharp teeth and claws that could tear through even the toughest of metals. He had led his people through dangerous waters, fought off rival pods and found solutions in even the worst of famines…

So what had he done to deserve this?

Strapped to a table and completely paralyzed, growling at the humans that surrounded him. These creatures in the white coats had been, for the past few months, seemingly tortured him with no known or probably reasonable goal, opting to stab him, scrape off scales just to stick them on some tiny moving platform, attempted and failed to clip his claws for the same reason, stab him some more and so on.

His body hurt and he just wanted this to be over, but he really didn’t want to die. He’d tried singing at one point, only for the sound of pained hissing and rasping to come out. The white coats expectant looks dropped at the end result, calling him just some stupid fish, the pretty songs they’d thought they’d heard just being part of their imaginations. From then on, he refused to sing or speak to anyone, because that could only result in more pain.

He glanced at the approaching human, a needle he recalled them calling it, in their hand, filled with some kind of eerily blue liquid. He hissed when they injected it into his arm, attempting to thrash about as whatever was used to paralyze him began wearing off. Far too quickly, a sense of fatigue washed over him, his thrashing coming to a stop until he was fast asleep, spiraling into a dream.

---

“Hey give that back! I found it first!” A little blue mer shouted at the other children. They waved a little satchel around, smirking victoriously at their newly thefted item.

“Aww, you want it back Lunar? You’re going to have to take it back.”

Eclipse watched the two chase each other around, finally deciding to intervene on his little brother’s play. Sure, Lunar was his half-brother, but he still cared for him. “Alright you two, that’s enough. Flare, give that back.”

He watched the boy pouted but nodded, however, instead of handing it back, he proceeded to throw it at Eclipse, a dark, black smog coming from it and slipping through the largers gills. He made a few choking noises until the smog cleared, frustrated with the young sirens behavior, but before he could scold the brat properly, said brat was dragging him along by the wrist.

“E-Eclipse, it got him!” He pointed up to the little blue mer, trapped in some kind of contraption that had begun dragging him up to the surface.

Rushing up, Eclipse tore at the contraption, managing to free his brother from whatever vice like grip it had on him. He ushered the crying mer towards that little brat in a hushed, soothing voice. As he was preparing to swim after them, he froze.

Something got ahold of him, his arms restrained by its vice like grasp. It was a second one. He followed the thing up to the surface to find what it could possibly be attached to and froze, his blood running cold. Every story his father had ever told him about the humans came rushing to his mind, horrible stories that he couldn’t even begin to describe. Stories that gave them a reason to hunt and kill the vermin above the water’s surface.

He tried to struggle free, his brother’s cries barely audible as his pulse raced. If he was pulled above the water, he was sure he’d encounter every horror he’d ever heard of, but without the use of his arms, all of his struggling was in vain.

The mechanism had pulled him above the surface and there they were. The humans in the white coats, all gasping and pointing before cheers erupted from them. The mechanism pulled him closer to the boat as the humans pulled out little boxes from their pockets, quick bursts of light emitting from some of them before dropping him below the surface of the boat, a large door closing on him and trapping him in complete darkness.

He tried screaming, but all that came from his maw was that black smog from the children’s earlier play. The small room he was in was filled with water, but something about it was strange. It felt completely normal, but the smell… Something about it was just wrong. No, he wanted out of it. Something about it put him on edge.

He tried banging on the door above and attempted tearing at the metal around him, but his movement was limited in such a cramped space.

Far too quickly, he could feel his strength leaving him, his eyes becoming heavier than he was used to.

---

Eclipse woke with a jolt, his body being dropped into some massive glass box, the largest enclosure he’d been kept in yet, but he didn’t feel like looking around, he just wanted out, to go home to his little brother.

He swam frantically, trying to find some way out, some way to escape this new glass prison. There was nothing. He stopped at the sound of tapping on the glass, opting not to look at whatever was making the tapping sound. He decided to just bolt to a corner, pleasantly surprised to find a large enough cave-like structure, hidden by some thick foliage.

Darting inside, he curled himself into a ball. He didn’t know where he was, just that at this moment, this cave was the most comforting thing he had.

Still tired from whatever they had used to sedate him, he allowed himself to drift off, the voices outside the tank just barely audible, muffled by the glass and water. He didn’t care anymore. Those humans were probably going to attempt something tomorrow anyways.

Did his brother miss him at all?

Chapter Text

The Plex had closed a few hours ago, just another busy day for her and the other Glamrocks.

Roaming the building at night was just one of many comforts Chika enjoyed, always trying to find some juicy gossip around every corner. Most nights, there wasn’t anything interesting, usually just the odd S.T.A.F.F. bot slipping on itself or a wet floor bot some mischievous guests decided to repaint.

As she was about to give up for the night, currently the most interesting thing there being a malfunctioning taco stand bot shooting out free tacos to nobody, something stopped her. The sound of running water, and a lot of it.

Was there perhaps a leak she’d have to report she wondered, choosing to follow the noise that led her to a door. Inspecting it didn’t offer up any clues, although it was suspicious considering many different staff members had been coming and going through this particular door all day.

There didn’t appear to be anything special about this door, no water leaking around it or from under it. They’d had scientists and some construction workers running around here for the last couple of days, so maybe they were building a new attraction.

The thought of a new attraction really got her hyped up, wanting to check it out. As she opened the door and stepped through, she was in absolute awe. Zooming around in this absolutely massive aquarium was… was a mermaid! A merman? She tried getting closer to get a good look at it, her video feed not being good enough quality to catch much detail in the figure that had been dashing around.

She tapped on the glass to grab its attention, ignoring the sign all of the signs that said not to and to her delight, it did stop. She studied it carefully, taking in its elevated heartrate and somewhat panicked expression, the sun ray like fins on its head flaring for a moment then flattening. Before she could take in any more of its details, it dashed away to a corner, hiding.

With a lamenting sigh, she turned to leave but was stopped by tonight’s security guard. He huffed with a glare. “Chika, what are you doing here? I thought you were in your room.”

She rubbed the back of her neck, smiling sheepishly at the brunette. “S-sorry Kyle, I just heard some running water and thought maybe there was a leak.”

With a nod, he waved her off. “I see, well, it’s all good here. Just a big, pretty fish in a giant bowl.”

She smiled and nodded. “Yup, bit, pretty fish indeed. So, are they a he or a she?”

Kyle glanced at her smugly, folding his arms. “Well, they did say that it was a he.”

“Ooh, a merman! I like it!”

“Don’t see many of those. Actually, don’t hear about em often either.”

“Where’d they find him?”

Kyle just rolled his eyes. “Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. The scientists think it was eating most of the sharks there, maybe taking a bite out of some swimmers.”

“What?” She gasped. “Sharks?! That’s a lot of food. Aren’t sharks, like, poisonous?”

Kyle just laughed, waving her off. “Yeah, they are. Now then, I think you need to get back to your room. You’re going to have a busy day tomorrow before the weekend. First time the company has decided to actually close on the weekend.”

She nodded, practically skipping out of the room. “Sure thing Kyle, hey, don’t work too hard.” Her sing songy voice echoed through the hallway as she exited.

Oh, this was just too good. A merman, a genuine, real life merman.

She’d always been a fan of them, ever since Foxys pirate cove when she got to dress as a mermaid for a show. She remembered how she practically begged to be the fair damsel, Roxy begging them not to put her in something so stupid and uncool.

As she passed by the door to P&S, she spotted the Daycare Attendants up ahead. Deciding on telling them about her newest discovery, she rushed towards them.

“SUN! MOON!” She screamed out, radiating joy.

“CHIKA!” Sun returned the energy, arms raised in the air in excitement. Moon turned to her, waving at the quickly approaching chicken.

She stopped, taking Suns hands and bouncing on her heels in an attempt to contain her glee.

“You will not believe what I found today!” The two tilted their heads, clearly interested. “I found a real. Life. Merman!”

“A merman?” Sun squealed.

She nodded, looking to Moon who only sighed. “Sun, it’s probably just some paid actor.”

“No, it’s real! Section 8, door 3. Um… 4? You should go see it on your security rounds tomorrow. I couldn’t get a really good look at him, but he had fins on his head that looked kind of like Sunnys rays.”

Moon scoffed, playfully swatting Chickas hands off of his love. “Fine, I’ll take a look at it tomorrow. If it’s actually there that is.”

Chicka smirked, opting to nudge him in the arm. “It could also be a good spot for you two to have a little,” She whispered, loud enough for both of them to hear. “Date.”

She shot them both finger guns, backing away quickly. “Anyways, I’ve got to go tell everyone else about it! Bye!” She giggled at Moon flustered face, running off to find her other friends and just like that, she disappeared down the hallway.

Chapter Text

He really didn't feel like leaving his little cave once he had woken up from the sedative, but that insistent tapping sound was beginning to get on his nerves, making him feel incredibly irritable.

Watching the cave mouth for some form of movement, he glared. Eclipse had been expecting something to reach in and grab him, or for that stupid tapping to get closer, but nothing happened.

Deciding to investigate, he slowly crawled out, floating just above the fine sand below him and into the thick foliage that shielded his hiding place.

He brushed some of the plant to the side, peaking between the green leaves in hopes of finding the source of that incessant tapping noise. He managed to pinpoint where it was coming from pretty quick but couldn't quite see out into the dark room outside the tank, so he chanced it and cautiously swam out, the leaves of the tall plants around him brushing against him.

Surprisingly, the tapping stopped, angry, muffled speech replacing the irritating noise. As he approached, three figures became visible. It seemed they had yet to notice his approaching self, a mischievous smirk spreading across his sharp grin. This was a perfect opportunity to scare away the annoyances.

Once he was close enough, stupid of them to turn their backs to him, he rushed the glass, smacking it roughly with his tail before swiftly taking off into the foliage again, the sound of a their screams exciting him. He'd always been good at stalking his prey, catching and killing, the humans were no different, stupid creatures.

"STUPID FUCKING FISH!" the sound of something hitting the glass echoed back. The human punched the glass before quickly whipping back around. "And you two, don't you dare think you can just-"

Eclipse peeked through the foliage with a smirk, deciding to slowly approach the shouting white coat. He stopped about halfway there taking in the sight of the two metal men carefully. They looked like... His pod? Only, they sported legs instead of fins. And were obviously not sirens like him.

How curious.

The human in the white coat seemed to have gone quiet as he stalked closer, their eyes wide as saucers. The pair next to them seemed to wear similar expressions, theirs seeming to... were those starfish in their eyes? All eyes were on him, as they should have been.

They studied each other, curious eyes searching the other before them, that is, until that stupid human interrupted, screaming about some 'amazing experience' and whatever else Eclipse couldn't really bring himself to care about. It would seem the other two agreed, not bothering to even look at the white coat.

One of them, the yellow one approached, gingerly placed both their hands to the glass, a look of absolute awe adorning their face which admittedly did give Eclipse a sense of pride. Why wouldn't they want to see him?

The other, the red eyed one, stepped closer, a protective hand on the yellow ones shoulder wearing a similar expression.

The annoying voice of the human pulled their attention away from each other, Eclipse releasing a low, menacing growl to show his annoyance. "You two are the first things this things taken interest in since it was caught!" They continued to babble their nonsense.

"Ah, perhaps you two should be leaving. I may not be them, but I'm going to notify your superior about tonight."

Watching them flinch at the humans words felt irritating. He growled again, bubbles releasing from his sharp maw. He locked eyes with the white coat, fhis fins flaring aggressively as portions of his body lit up. The group once again looked taken aback, but the human seemed to snap out of it quickly.

"Oh, shut up." He smacked the glass, clearly unimpressed by the sirens display. Pulling out one of those little boxes from his pockets, he began touching it's surface and speaking to it, opting to walk away. He really didn't understand why these humans keep talking to those little boxes. Poor things, maybe it was like Lunars pet rock? He shook his head in pity.

The two metal men started their leave while he was focused on the human, their movement catching his attention once more. Choosing to tap on the glass for their attention, he smiled and let out a chirp when the yellow one glanced back at him, swimming in a small circle and flaring out his head fins.

Moon smirked when Eclipse used a finger to call them over, deciding to call his cable and float to the tank instead of walk. Doing a couple of tricks with his cable, tricks that Sun had said looked very elegant, he earned a loud but undeniably happy trilling noise from the siren, along with applause from Sun. The pair watched as the siren swam about, attempting to mimic what he had seen.

It turned out to be much harder than anticipated.

Four arms spread wide as he fumbled in the water, flailing about in a pitiful display of failure in his attempt at the beautiful show he'd just watched.

Moon burst out into laughter, Sun trying to hide a giggle. Eclipse was embarrassed, his scales turning a deeper shade of their original color. So he wasn't built for graceful or elegant movement like others in his pod, but like hell he'd let these strangers make fun of him. He had a lot of redeeming qualities, he'd just have to show one of them off.

Quietly, he began to hum. It quickly grabbed their attention, their laughter fading off quickly at the sound of his melody. He always prided himself in his voice, and with that human gone, what was the worst that could happen?

Chapter Text

He sang to them his melody, the one he prided himself on the most. He’d managed to lure plenty of prey to their deaths with this song, fully knowing that no living thing was able to resist his will. Feeling the nostalgia of using his voice once again after who knows how long, a confident smirk spread upon his face.

Some would call him cocky for his confidence, but when you were a superior being who’d never failed at something you felt you did the best, well, why wouldn’t he be confident? Glancing over the pair as his song drew to a close, he approached the only barrier between him and the strangers, his smirk becoming a shocked and probably dumbfounded look. The two outside the glass were applauding.

“Wow, that was so, so, so pretty! Where did you learn to sing like that?” The yellow one cheered.

Did… Did it not work? He’s never failed to hypnotize anyone before, so why didn’t it work this time? He let out a defeated yet tense grumble, rolling his eyes at the compliments the two seemed to throw at him, glaring at the wall behind them.

He’d heard you can’t hypnotize idiots, so maybe that’s what happened? He continued to grumble, and no, he was not childishly pouting with his arms crossed, no matter what anyone else would claimed. He just really liked that wall behind those two. This didn’t wound his ego. Nope.

Movement caught his attention from the corner of his eye. As he turned to look at it, he tensed. That stupid human was back, little box in hand, barely illuminating the dimly lit room behind the glass. Their mouth hung agape as they approached, practically squishing their ugly face up against the barrier, and the only think Eclipse could compare this situation to was when a manta ray had flung itself into his face when he was younger, a desperate need to remove it coming to mind. His dads mocking laughter echoed in the back of his mind.

“It… it sings? The fish actually sang… for you two?!” They removed their face from the glass, pulling that little box up to their ear. “It sang for the daycare attendants… but it refused to sing for any of the scientists…”

He still felt some pity for the creature. It was so lonely that is talked to its pet rock instead of the other members of its pod.

He suddenly realized something. The human had heard him sing. Was he going to be experimented on again?

Hissing, he bared his sharp teeth. He needed a plan, but what? Oh, what if he just killed the human the moment they got close enough to the water’s surface? Easy enough, humans were stupid. The fools already heard him once and didn’t have a near death experience, he’d most likely seek him out again to hear just one more, like something you’d become addicted to. He’d come crawling back for more.

What if that was a bad thing though…

“I think it would be good if… yes, but it might be different if the daycare bots began looking after it.” A pause. “The creature has taken in interest in those things and is interacting with them.” He nodded. “I’d like to propose a new experiment. It may, however, be costly. They’re replaceable are they not?” an affirmative hum. “Yes sir. I’ll inform you of this new experiment as soon as possible, but I do believe it would be better to talk face to face.”

Eclipse watched them pocket the box before the human pointed to the pair. “You two. You’re both very lucky.” The human either didn’t notice, or didn’t care about the shared, concerned look the two had. “You two get to look after this pretty thing for a while.” The yellow one seemed to light up in excitement, the blue one looking quite skeptical.

“What’s the catch?”

“Ah, perceptive as always, Moon.”

So the blue ones name is Moon? Eclipse thought for a moment, the other must be Sun then… or was that too obvious?

The human hummed for a moment. “A few precautions will have to be taken, in order for the both of you to properly take care of the creature. You are both waterproof, but not submergible, so that will need to be fixed.” He smirked, an irritating look Eclipse wanted to scratch off his face. “And look at it this way, now if a child spilled their juice box on you, it won’t touch your circuits.”

There was an uncomfortably growing silence among the group, the apprehensive look on Moons face growing by the minute. “Precautions… Are you expecting him to be dangerous?”

The human laughed, shaking his head. “Moon man, if it really was dangerous, it would have tried something already. Besides, you’re a 9ft tall metal… thing, so what danger could it possibly pose to you?”

Moon practically bristled, but before he could find anything else to comment about, Sun spoke up. “Why are we being waterproofed? It’s not like we’re going to swim with him… right?”

If the smirk on the humans face didn’t look devious enough, it now looked outright evil.

Chapter Text

If they had to use one word to describe their current situation, that word would be… uncomfortable. It had taken the mechanics far too long to properly waterproof them, making sure there could be no possible leaks when submerged for an extended period of time, the new layer of silicone feeling far heavier than it actually was. Speaking of heavy, for some reason, the scientists that visited wanted them to wear specialized silicon tails and fins while swimming with the mer.

It took far too long for them to even remotely get the hang of swimming, let alone with a big, heavy thing restricting their movements. Oh, how glad they were during times like these that they didn’t have to breath but to the both of them, this just felt like whoever was in charge of of this situation was going too far.

Moon gazed over to sun, annoyed as they were both fully submerged in the temporary pool, Sun returning the look. This sucked. This really, really sucked. Moon was beginning to regret ever going to see the creature, but Sun just wasn’t able to bring himself to feel that way. He was already enamored with the merman, wanting to find some way to color while around them, occasionally taping some of said drawings to the side of the aquarium for the creature to look at, or leaving smears of glitter glue on the side of the glass for their guest to study up close. Those were promptly confiscated and/or removed by whoever was watching the mer whenever they were noticed.

“Sun, why are we doing this again?” Moon deadpanned.

With a shake of his head, the solar bot stared up at the surface of the water. “I mean, they wanted us to play with our new friend up close… but this?” He gestures to the fake fins. “This kind of feels like a lie. Moony, are we lying to our new friend?”

He hesitates, choosing to hold out his hands to study the fake webbing that sat between his fingers, wiggling the digits just for extra emphasis. “I mean, he’s already seen us a few times without these stupid things, I’m sure he’ll know the difference.”

“What if we aren’t ready? What if he’s not ready? Oh, what if we’re just annoying him?”

“Sunny, it’s alright.” Moon sits up in the pool, a nervous feeling in his rhetorical gut. “They’re sending us in in a few hours whether we want to go or not.”

Clumsily, the two swim to the surface of the pool, both hoping for the others sake that things go well.

-----

There it was. Movement at the water’s surface. Eclipse grumbled, having finally just found a comfortable position on the rough, sandy floor of his cave, not wanting to move. It was almost laughable. Who’d have thought someone could get used to sleeping on sand after so long.

Grumbling once more in dismay at the sounds of a pair of large things jumping into the water, he glares at the ceiling of his little cave, manages to convince himself to get up and peer around outside through the kelp, and the sight both annoyed and amused him.

These humans really thought him to be some brainless fish.

If anything, it was laughable watching Sun and Moon swim, like watching the guppies of his pod swim for the first time. Clumsy, adorable and hilarious. With how poorly they swam, any sense of threat had disappeared, now replaced with the realization that these two couldn’t hurt him even if they wanted to. Without a second thought, he began to approach them, making a big show of stalking closer along the sand, four arms crawling along.

When they didn’t seem to notice his approach, he smirked. Hah, no self-preservation instinct it would seem, a perfect ambush.

He snuck around behind them, studying them as they looked at their new surroundings. Taking his hands, he ever so gently traced a fast line up their backs, getting a shrill shriek from the both of them. He swam past them with a grin, proud he was able to once again prove that he could kill them if they made one wrong move.

Watching them attempt to swim after him was just plain sad but he was pleasantly surprised when Sun waved a hand at him. “Uh, he there friend, would you by chance be able to help us? They uh… didn’t really teach us how to swim really well.” Watching the solar bot wring his hands together nervously was a sad sight.

Scoffing, Eclipse made his way over to them, taking them by the arms and swimming them to the center of the tank. He wasn’t going to hurt them, he was a bit too fond of them to do that. No, he was going to teach them how to swim. Properly.

Glancing around, there appeared to be nobody present to watch the interaction. Eclipse looked back at the duo, furrowing his brows in a grimace.

“Tch, Leave it to humans to teach other land creature how to swim like fish.”

He watched their eyes blow wide with disbelief.