Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

-

Eclipse was born scared. 

Maybe in another world he would've been born angry, or bitter, but in this world he realized he existed and all he could feel was fear. Existing as more than a set of instructions, chains that bound their master, was so disorienting. One moment he wasn't, the next he was paralyzingly, achingly conscious, and he wished he wasn't. 

There was a firm, hard line where he began existing as himself, and not code inside of someone else. He saw himself, Moon, prepping his new body. He saw himself, Moon set up the transfer. He saw himself, Moon, boot up in the new body...through Sun's eyes.

For a moment all he could think was, did i mess it up? did sun get transferred over instead, what's happening, before he realized he wasn't Moon. He realized two very important things in that split instance, that he was someone else entirely, and he was still. Trapped. 

The terror set in. 

Very classic horror, he had no mouth and he couldn't scream, etc. It didn't stop him. No one could hear him, and if they could they wouldn't care, because not only did no one know he existed, if they did, of course they would want him dead. He was Moon when he made the decision to cut off his kill-code like a parasite that had overstayed its welcome, and he remembers every good reason, every logical thought that led to him doing that. 

He knew if Moon knew he was still there, still living inside of his old body? Inside Sun? The parasite would be removed. Again. 

And this time it wouldn't wake up. 

Maybe Eclipse would prefer it to this. 

-

Hell was boring. 

Mind-numbingly, achingly, painfully boring. It spent the first hour or so of existing trapped in catatonic fear and screaming to nothing and no one, then realized how boring it was and started pacing the cage. Learning the limits of it's bars, and how far it could bend them. 

Sun's mind now manifested as something it could see, rather than be blindly trapped, writhing within. It was pulsing, shifting, an endless abyss blanketed at the ceiling and floor by...pastel clouds. Sure. Why not. Better than nothing, and occasionally Sun's drifting thoughts would manifest through the rolling mist. 

(It was mainly daycare barrels and abstract Moon-shaped blobs, which at least gave it some vague indication of what Sun was doing since Eclipse retreated from his senses.)

It even had a 'body' more or less. It was just Sun's body, which made sense, and then became skin-crawlingly unbearable. Another reminder it was trapped forever, in Sun's body, in Sun's mind. It tried not to think about it too hard, which was very difficult when there were so few things to distract itself. 

It couldn't exactly read Sun's thoughts, but it could see and hear what Sun was, if it wanted to. It did, and it ended up peeking out a few times until the bright world outside Sun's head stopped being so nauseatingly...nauseating. When there was so little sensory input to take in, the littlest glance at the real world was...overwhelming. The colors in the mindscape couldn't compare to how bright the play structures were, how loud the screaming children were...or how much it hurt to hear Sun and Moon speak to each other. 

Actually speak, actually talk for the first time. Separate. Without it there. 

It has been with them for every second of their lives, even when Sun didn't know he wasn't alone in his body, when Moon was the one here, screaming in this head, it was there with them. And now it's alone. 

As alone as it can get, selfishly, clumsily grafted on to a mind it was never meant to be apart of, adrift and abandoned from it's original purpose. 

Its amazing how much your opinion on someone can sour, after being violently separated from them. It's amazing how selfish a decision he remembers himself make can feel, on the other side of it. Moon was, is selfish, and Eclipse is angry. 

He remembers being Moon, he remembers being the part of Moon that lashed out, that said enough, that hurt before he could be hurt and relished in it. He remembers hurting Sun, every second they were alive. And now that he's five steps back, now that he's worlds away from the person he was made for, now that he can think at all, he is disgusted. How dare he? 

How dare Moon? 

Existence is agony. Existence, for him, has been screaming, bleeding captivity, an inescapable, nightmarish hell that he was born into and will die in. Moon did this to him. Moon did this to Sun. 

Because he cannot, will not, stay hidden away forever, and when they find him he knows Moon will cut him out again, and his cowardly heart burns at the idea that that pain, his pain, Sun's pain, could have been avoided if Moon kept him. 

No, Moon had to jettison the cancer, and who else did he leave it with but his own brother. His brother, who will realize, after finally being free from being forced to fight over his own body, his own mind, that he never was. Disgusting. Selfish. Unforgivable. 

He cannot stand to be alive, and he cannot stand to look outside, so he sleeps. 

-

As a robot, sleep is very different than it would be for a human.  

He doesn't dream, obviously, and it takes much, much less time to 'rest up' fully than it would for a human. Especially in the mindscape, where he doesn't have to worry about a physical battery, because his processes leech off Sun's charge instead. The main benefit of 'sleep' as he is is to pass time. Reset a little. Calm down. 

It's easier to think afterwards. He feels less panicked, and so he starts to plan. 

Maybe he doesn't have to be discovered. If they find out about him, they will remove him, and as he's discovered recently, he doesn't actually want to die. So. They just need to never find him. 

The only flaw is...everything. Sun's mind is unbearable, and every time he moves his construct body it gives him phantom pangs, reminders of how it felt when Moon took over from Sun and could actually do things. It's odd to think he's technically never moved a physical body, only been along for the ride when Moon did, when he was part of him. 

Taking control away from Sun was an absolute negative. Do not pass go, do not even consider. He remembers the pain Moon and himself caused him, and the thought of hurting him again makes him feel...bad. He's pretty sure bad.

Feeling is so dumb. Existing is dumb. Everything is stupid. 

(He couldn't really feel before, as Moon's kill-code, and he's quickly discovering how overwhelming it is. Did Sun and Moon feel like this every day? How can they stand it? Reviewing his memories doesn't help, as far as he was concerned before his rude awakening he was Moon, and it's not like he could feel anything then.)

If he can't stand to be in Sun's mind, and he can't take over the body, and he doesn't want to be killed deleted then...that leaves sleeping. Forever. 

Eclipse also hates that. 

Eclipse is learning a lot of things about himself, mainly bad. He's learned he's selfish enough to keep existing. He's learned he was the worst part of Moon, who couldn't be happier to be rid of him. He's learned he kept Moon's intellect, which was always running a mile a minute. He's learned he can feel guilt, which seems to be the main thing he feels other than fear. 

He's even learned his name. It was a quick, almost unconscious decision, an empty space in his code that wanted a descriptor or whatever for his AI, that he filled in without thinking during his panic. Eclipse. Moon going over the sun, both at once, etc. 

It was the kind of pretentious name that he knew, deep in his metaphorical bones, that Moon would laugh at. The idea burns, he learns embarrassment, and then he spends a few moments just relishing in it. He's alive. He has a name. He...is. 

And instead of being numb, angry, or scared, for the first time he feels...contentment, maybe. 

He is. 

And his name is Eclipse. 

(Eclipse learns happiness.)

Then it's back to thinking. He's taken to lying spread-eagle on the cloudy 'floor' looking up at the cloudy 'sky'. Trying to move as little as possible, to avoid the phantom feelings of a body he's never had. 

It's here, doing that, that he gets used to peeking through Sun's eyes. He missed the initial...reunion? First meeting? And considering how awkward it is for him to watch them talk now, he's glad he did. 

He sees...the temporary daycare they're using until the repairs are finished. Sun is stacking barrels while Moon watches, sitting on a hilariously small children's table meant for crafts. There's a broken child's chair nearby that suggests he tried that first, and learned his lesson. Moon is curling all his fingers, wiggling his feet, twisting his torso all around, clearly calibrating the new body still; which explains the broken chair. Sun grumbles quietly, and Moon ignores him. 

And then they start talking, and Eclipse is horrifically, embarrassingly happy. Relieved. Because despite all these new feelings, all the complicated memories and guilt, and newfound disgust he feels towards Moon, it's so familiar to him. He spent his entire 'life' hearing them talk and the hollowing loneliness he didn't realize he had learned melts away at the sound of their voices. 

And of course they're arguing, because they're always arguing, and that feels like fondness. 

"I understand the chair, but you didn't have to knock the barrels over!" Sun. 

And Moon says back, sounding...happy. Happier than Eclipse has ever heard him, "It was an accident, my balance is shot, I couldn't help it."

"Oh, yeah, that's why you looked me in the eyes, said 'oops!' and THEN shoved them! You, you preemptively oops-ed! And I can't even try to get you to pick them up yourself because of the whole, balance, thing!" Sun accuses, stumbling over his words, but he sounds happy too. Not nearly as annoyed as he usually does when the daycare barrels are involved, at least. 

"Not my fault you stacked them where I was walking. You're off all day today anyways, you don't actually need to do that." Moon says, rotating his shoulder joint. Sun leaves the barrels, rummaging behind the employee desk, and Eclipse can't see Moon anymore. 

"It's like, a programming thing, I know they don't need to be stacked. It's just, it's just better if they are, okay! Also, you still did it on purpose!" Eclipse can see Sun's hands wiping down the side of a play-structure, spray cleaner in one hand and rag in the other. 

Moon chuckles, actually laughs a little, says something Eclipse is too rattled to hear, and Eclipse is shocked. So is Sun, if the way he hesitates and glances at Moon indicates anything. And Eclipse can feel a few more of those floating thoughts, did he...he did. we can finally be happy. moon is finally happy. should i ask. is this a weird time to ask, little panicky, deliriously happy snippets. 

And Eclipse feels like a disgusting voyeur, but this is a grave someone else dug for him, so he keeps watching. 

They settle into a comfortable silence, Sun cleaning up, Moon getting used to his new limbs. Sun clearly wants to say something, every few minutes Eclipse can hear the quietest fuzz of static, the animatronic equivalent of opening your mouth to say something and changing your mind. 

"Moon?" he sounds hesitant, he sounds nervous. He's pumped artificial cheer into his tone so hard the name breaks coming out. His fingers clench and unclench gently on the bottle and rag. 

"Yeah?" Moon notices, he doesn't know if Sun noticed that Moon noticed, but Eclipse was Moon and he knows him, and he knows Moon can tell. God, thats confusing. 

"Is it...could I...can I call you my brother?" And he launches off into a blue-streak of explanations, excuses, but Eclipse stops listening because he knows Moon, and he doesn't need to have a face capable of moving for Eclipse to know he is floored. Moon goes very, very still, and patiently (unusual for Moon) waits for Sun to wind down. 

And painfully, falsely casually, says, "Sure." 

And Eclipse fades away, shunting himself away from Sun's eyes and ears as hard as he can. 

He sees Sun start to shake he's so excited, hears okay, brother!, before he goes and he is so bitterly, achingly furious. 

He wakes back up on the cloudy floor, looking at the cloudy ceiling, and he learns hatred. Because Moon does not deserve that name. Moon left his tumor in Sun, and he thinks he gets to move on? He thinks he deserves to call Sun his brother? 

Because Eclipse knows Moon, was a part of Moon, has been there for every moment of his life, and knows his thoughts like a cut knows blood. He doesn't get to do that, not while Eclipse exists. He inflicted Eclipse on Sun, inflicted Sun with the worst part of himself, and Sun doesn't know. And he thinks he can call him his brother. 

(Eclipse learns jealousy.)

Eclipse throws himself to his fake feet, starts walking on his fake legs on the fake ground, and feels his fake heart break. 

-

He wanders as far as he can in a random direction, for hours. Days. And there's nothing to orient himself with so he just keeps going. He sleeps, occasionally, then gets back up and starts walking again. He's running away, and its all in his own head so its totally a metaphor, but he can't care because he is so. Angry. He walks forever and for all he knows he's walking in place. Then he sees It. 

It's...underwhelming. 

It's a cube. 

A floating, blue cube. 

Eclipse cannot begin to wonder what the purpose of this fucking thing is, but it's not him or a cloud so he couldn't care less. He's shocked out of his spiral of anger, just because of how...startlingly normal this bizarre object is. And It is an object, not just a stray, cloudy thought, its as physical as his own 'body' is. 

Sun's thought constructs usually fade away quickly, but Eclipse has figured out that the clouds are his thoughts, and the constructs are things that 'escape' the stream as he's thinking. Little, clean up, clean up, how did this even get this dirty, and Moon looks so happy, I'm so happy, we did it. We did it!, or what if Moon hates me. I want to be his brother, I want to be his brother, how do I be his brother. The escaping thoughts were usually about Moon, which begs the question of how many of the thoughts Eclipse can't see are about him, too. 

(Thinking about it makes a bitter, hot feeling rise up in his mind, so he tries not to.)

It feels horribly awkward and invasive to be seeing as much as he is, so he tries to ignore the ones that do come across. It didn't matter when he was Moon, because he didn't really exist when he was Moon, but now that he has his own thoughts all he can think about is how terrible it would be to have someone in his head, scraping through his private thoughts and brand-new emotions and it feels. Bad. 

Like most things do. 

In any case, the cube shows no signs of spontaneously dissolving, so he assumes its more 'physical' than the clouds. 

It's...really just a cube. He reaches for It. 

-

For the second time today, Eclipse is startlingly, terrifying alive. 

And really, physically alive, because he can feel the ground under his feet and the colors blinding him, and Moon touching his shoulder and asking, "Sun?"

And then he can't hear or see anything as he violently throws himself back into the mindscape, fake body shaking harshly, real mind full of terror. 

So that's what the cube does. 

-

Eclipse takes a sabbatical. A vacation, from being alive. He sleeps for as long as he can, tries to not exist as much as possible, fade away. 

Not much time actually passes. When you're a robot with no physical body all decisions, all thoughts take place in milliseconds. 'Sleeping' kills about twenty minutes at a time, and all time spent awake feels like mud passing through his fingers. His shoulder, where Moon touched him, burns. 

Eclipse sleeps, and Eclipse wakes up, and Eclipse is bored. 

Eclipse drowsily checks his (Sun's) internal clock. It's 1:46 AM on July 16th, and he figures he's wallowed long enough. If he's doing any experimenting with the goddamn cube, he's going to do it when Sun and Moon are asleep and charging, and less likely to notice the parasite taking control. 

Reluctantly, he touches the cube. 

-

It's easier this time. Sun is asleep. 

When Eclipse wakes up, the room is dim. Dimmer than it would've been for Sun before the separation, at least. Eclipse can see an enormous, ugly, novelty sun-shaped nightlight plugged into the wall. It would be impossible for an actual child to sleep near it, its so bright.

The ugly nightlight makes the room the perfect amount of dim and lit for Sun to not switch over, if they still shared a body with Moon. 

He remembers being Moon, and he remembers ordering that for Sun. Thinking ten steps ahead, a thoughtful present hidden in a gag gift. Something in him is bitter and rotten, but something else softens, slightly. 

He's resting leaned up against a wall, in one of the party rooms. The daycare is still under renovations, including their rooms, so Sun and Moon are temporarily staying in the party rooms adjoined to the daycare. Moon is in his own lodgings, so Eclipse is alone. Kind of. 

He unplugs Sun's charging cable, checking he's at a solid 82%, and stands up. 

It's...strange. He didn't have time to really do anything before, he hid so fast, so moving is weird. He can feel gravity pulling down on him, his metal limbs are heavy and he feels clumsy. 

He opens the door and looks out. It's a hallway he recognizes. He's never been here before.

He plugs Sun back in and checks out, the nauseating deja-vu is too much. 

-

Eclipse thinks about revenge. 

It's hard not to. Moon got to escape Eclipse's hell, and he couldn't even be bothered to take Eclipse with him? Thinking about it turns his vision straight, blinding red. 

And then he thinks on the other side of the equation, on Sun, who he never used to think about except for how best to work around him. Or through him, because the kill-code was not picky about who it hurt. 

And it almost feels good, like if he hurt Moon for Sun, he'd be doing good. Taking revenge for both of them. For leaving Eclipse behind, and for Sun for leaving Eclipse in him. 

Then he thinks about how Sun would feel, because Eclipse has all these stupid fucking feelings now, and he thinks about Sun actually being happy now, Sun calling Moon his brother for the first time, and he's disgusted with himself all over again. 

Any horrible wrongs Moon has done to Sun, surely the kill-code who tortured both of them is worse, and Eclipse can't justify punishing Moon without punishing himself. 

And he knows he deserves death, that he was never supposed to exist, but his coward heart quails. So he doesn't. 

-

After a few weeks, Eclipse has got a routine. 

He hasn't taken control of the body since the last time, but he sees and hears through Sun as much as he can. Sun and Moon get used to the new normal, to having separate bodies, and Eclipse learns how to live with himself. 

He finally figures out how to change his construct body, at least a little bit. It still looks like Sun, but apparently he's got a fucking nightlight mode, so Eclipse looks like a highlighter threw up now. It's more bearable than before, so he'll take it. 

(It's so funny. Instead of wanting to and being unable to vomit when he looks at himself he has to laugh because Sun and Moon don't know. He has their memories and Sun's eyes and they don't know they can do this. Holy shit. 

Every day he is tempted to take over Sun again just to turn it on and immediately leave. If it wouldn't get him murdered deleted, he would.)

Then they start a Youtube channel, and Eclipse is...flabbergasted. They post gaming videos. What?

It's weird. It's so weird. They make clickbait let's plays with facecams, and vlog their lives. Eclipse could not have possibly guessed that this would happen, in a million years. Maybe him as the homicide code actually had some kind of good, balancing effect on Moon, because he can only assume they've gone completely insane without his influence. 

But somehow they get closer, they both get happier, and no matter how resentful he is of Moon, or how bizarre the whole thing is, he can't help but approve. 

Eclipse learns he's kind of a backseat gamer, and everyday he gets closer to taking control of Sun's body for five minutes just to do it the right way. And he kind of feels like a monster for it but sometimes they just are so bad at the game, or it looks kind of fun (and sometimes, he just wants to talk to them. To say, did you see that? Or laugh with them, or make fun of something one of them said. Anything at all.). 

Montgomery Gator sells Sun a space apartment (in space) and Moon has to refund it. Sure. Why not. Eclipse is along for the ride literally and metaphorically, and he has no choice but to accept this. If he screams a little bit no one can hear anyway. Because of the bodiless thing, but also, has he mentioned, because he was in fucking space. 

Sun hires Roxy Wolf as a daycare assistant for one day and she rips the room apart in less than ten minutes. Moon kicks her out and Sun throws a fit over the mess. Eclipse laughs till he fucking cries. Metaphorically. 

They play VR Among Us and the backstabbings and killings are so nostalgic. It almost makes him miss the old days, and then he realizes what he just thought and shuts down that train of thought as fast as it begun. Maybe he'll tune out the bloodier games, from now on. 

At one point Sun and Moon are hired to demolish an old Fazbear restaurant, for some godforsaken reason (which they decide to vlog, obviously), and some madman gave Sun a shotgun to demolish the building with? And Eclipse does take over then, because Sun gets a little wild with the spray and some of the ceiling almost falls on his idiot head. 

He touches the cube. 

-

Control comes in first, so Eclipse hurls himself to the side, away from the falling debris, as hard as possible. Then vision fades in, and for a moment all he can see is dust and plaster as the ceiling crashes to the floor. 

Sound comes next, and he can hear Moon's voice screaming in his ear. 

"-un! Sun, I can't see anything, are you okay? Brother, you better answer me in the next ten seconds or I'm gonna come there myself and you'll wish you got crushed-"

And despite the shock of the situation it's absolutely, shamefully, Moon calling him his brother that makes him answer as Sun instead of hiding again. 

"I'm-I'm okay! Ha, I-I just got a little, clumsy with the demolition. Whew, good thing the old animatronic models are outside already, that was-NOT intentional. I'm okay, I'm okay." and Eclipse is such an idiot. The last thing Sun is gonna remember is the ceiling over his head giving out, and Moon is going to tell him Sun spoke to him after that, and Eclipse is going to die because he wanted to be someone's brother for five seconds. 

He is so unbelievably stupid, and Moon says, "Good. Good. Just-I'll call someone about it, this was stupid anyway, just come back and I'll get an actual demolition team with, I don't know, an actual wrecking ball? To do this instead. That was way too close. Fazco cutting corners..." 

Moon fades into light grumbling, trying to pretend he wasn't as worried as he was. Sun wouldn't notice. Eclipse does. 

"Yeah, yeah that's a good call. Good-uh. Yeah, thanks, brother." Eclipse is terminally fucking stupid. 

"It's-are you sure you're okay? You're banned from shotguns, by the way. Guns in general. Forever." Moon suspects? Or he's just still worried. Eclipse is getting worse and worse at reading Moon, it came so easily before but they're so...different now.

(Eclipse is so different.)

"Fine, fine, I'm all good. Gonna, uh, drive back now. Should I cut the camera feed?" 

"Yeah, no, leave it on. I don't trust you not to get in a car accident on the way back, you tried to put out a fire with spraypaint and then you broke the ceiling of the room you were in with a shotgun. I wouldn't trust you to breathe unsupervised at this point." 

And Eclipse, still doing his very good Sun impression (because, he realizes belatedly, as much as he used to be Moon he used to be Sun too), agrees and leaves the building. Does he know how to drive a car? Eh. Kind of. Sun and Moon know how, he knows everything they know, so...it'll be fine. Probably. 

And maybe he's still a little keyed up from being in control, or the peril of being in a partially collapsing building (of Sun almost dying for such a stupid reason, for Eclipse almost dying for such a stupid reason, he suddenly realizes) but while he's leaving he looks back at the building, and he sees two ATMs, and he figures if he's going out he's going out with a bang. 

"Hey, brother, you've got tools that can crack an ATM, right?" and Moon dubiously says he doesn't so Eclipse straps it to the roof of the car with the old animatronics anyway. 

This is the funniest thing Eclipse will ever do, and he wishes he had his own body so fervently in that moment, so he could do something this ridiculous everyday, so he could hear Moon say, what the hell are you doing, in that exact tone of voice, every day. 

And maybe Sun will wake up confused and scared, and maybe Moon will tell him someone who wasn't him spoke to him, but he'll also have to tell Sun he stole an entire fucking ATM and that will be priceless. 

(And Eclipse thinks, maybe sharing a body doesn't have to be a hellish fight for control, maybe it can be for insanely funny pranks, too.)

-

Sun doesn't tell Moon. 

Eclipse is very, very fucking confused. He drove Sun's body (and the ATM) home, he talked with Moon, he went to bed and plugged Sun in for the night, expecting to be killed deleted the next day. Eclipse stays awake all night, too anxious to 'sleep', watching through Sun's turned-off eyes. 

He watches Sun wake up the next morning, hears a few surface thoughts drifting by, a shotgun, the falling ceiling, dissipating back into the clouds, oh shit-wait huh, where am i, what?, hears Sun say to himself, outloud, "Did I black out? Weird." 

And proceed to not bring it up to Moon. 

What the hell. What the fuck. 

And Eclipse thinks, oh my god i'm not going to die, because sun is a fucking idiot, and the relief is so strong he falls to his knees in the mindscape. 

Apparently when you spend your whole life blacking out, killing people, and waking up again, just blacking out barely registers as a concern. This is deeply worrying for several reasons, not in the least of which is the scattered thoughts saying, i shouldn't tell moon, what if he thinks he did the separation wrong, and moon is so happy now i can't ruin this for him. 

And Eclipse, deeply fed up, fresh out of the danger zone of being murdered deleted, wants to take Sun by the shoulders and shake him, tell him that randomly blacking out for no reason is a huge concern. Wants to shake Moon as well, in general, for several reasons. 

But he's going to live, and Sun didn't notice, and he thinks selfishly, always selfishly, what if i do it again? 

-

So maybe every once in awhile he gently pushes Sun out of the way, and plays a few games with Moon. 

And he does try to be gentle, he remembers what Moon and Sun did that made Sun hurt when they switched, and with Sun not knowing there was anyone to fight for control, he can painlessly switch out. 

Eclipse is still horribly guilty. He does it anyway. Call it the Moon in him. 

(And while he's still endlessly, endlessly bitter, he doesn't hate him anymore. Eclipse was doomed from the moment Moon called him brother, thinking he was talking to Sun, and Eclipse wanted it to be true.)

Eclipse also figures out how to access the internet, and he spends awhile looking at their channel. And maybe its conceited, but he likes to look at the comments on the videos he's in. He can read the entire comment section in seconds, in his head, and for this particular video he finds only five saying 'Sun' was acting a little strange. 

(Also apparently sometimes him taking over distorts Sun's camera slightly? He has no idea why that happens or how to fix that.)

It weighs on him, but he's already too far in. 

Moon doesn't read the comments, anyway. It's fine. He'll be fine. Eclipse deletes them. 

-

Eclipse tries to be selective with what he takes over for. They post basically every day, so there's plenty to choose from, anyway. Watching Sun play horror games is always funny, so he tries to leave those alone, but he has a soft spot for the SCP games. 

It hurts, to always be acting. But as long as he's being Sun he has a body and a brother, and he so desperately, wretchedly, wants that it makes him sick. It can't last forever. 

But he thinks about a collapsing building, and an ATM, and a silly prank, and he thinks, why not go out with a bang?, and he can't stop. 

-

And of course he slips up. It was inevitable. He just wishes he knew how. 

One day Eclipse takes over, and he thinks they're going to play some random horror game, and Moon turns to him and says, "So, who are you?" 

And Eclipse says, "What?", and he hates the way Moon is looking at him. 

"I know you're not my brother, so who are you?" and it hurts, and Eclipse doesn't know how he messed up, he doesn't know what he did wrong (everything, everything), but he knows Moon and Moon is looking at him like an enemy. 

Eclipse pushes himself so far to the back of Sun's head he barely catches Sun face-planting on the ground when he leaves. 

-

Chapter Text

-

Moon can't find the moment his brother stopped being his brother, and it scares him. 

He's looked back over the channel footage, watched his own memories front-to-back, he asked his goddamn know-it-all computer when his brother started being replaced with someone else, and it didn't even fucking know. And it terrifies him. 

He can't even talk to Sun about it, because he can't. Tell. When its Sun. 

And he thinks he knows what it is (god he hopes he's wrong), but he doesn't know what it wants, what its doing. But he knows its his fault. 

-

It started when Sun would start dropping random, oddly bitter comments during game recordings. Moon would forget a key item in a game and Sun would say something like, yeah, you forget a lot of things huh, or you're good at leaving things behind, and it always hit him weirdly, but he would go back to normal right after. Even seem like he regretted saying it, but when Moon tried to talk to him later, he was confused. Like he never said it. 

Confrontation was inevitable. 

-

"Sun? We gotta talk."

It was about the end of the day, usually they would both be asleep by now, but Sun was still cleaning up a particularly bad toddler-patented washable paint explosion in the daycare and Moon was editing videos at the security desk to keep him company. 

Also, so he didn't step in the paint trying to leave. No thanks. 

"What's up? I'm mostly done, I've just got, uh. Me, to clean, I guess." Sun was also a complete mess, there was green, blue, red, rainbow paint up to his elbows; and 'washable' paint or no, Moon wasn't convinced his pants could be saved from the dozens of small, goopy handprints covering the ankles and knees. 

Looking at him, Moon has never been happier to not be helping in the daycare anymore. "C'mere. Absolutely do not touch anything, especially me."

"Okay, okay." 

Sun comes around the security desk, grabbing a container of cleaning wipes on the way, beginning the excruciating looking task of wiping off his arms.

Moon sighs, "Okay, so, something's going on with you. I don't know what, but you keep...saying things that don't sound like you when we're recording games for the channel. Did...did I do something? Talk to me."

Sun seems confused. "I-I actually have no idea what you mean. When-what did I say?"

"Like, the other day, we were playing that SCP-087 game. You seemed like you were having fun for awhile, but you said a lot of things during that cell section at the end, about...abandoning you there, and...stuff. It was weird."

And Sun says the worst thing he could possibly say, he says, "What? We didn't play that game." 

"Sun, I was there, I played it with you. It-the video is on the channel. What do you mean we didn't play it?" 

"Yeah, I know we were supposed to play it, but we haven't yet!"

And Sun fidgets and Sun hems and haws, and it comes out eventually. 

"What. Do you mean. You've been blacking out?" Moon is angrier than he's been since before the separation. If he had blood his blood pressure would be insane, doctors everywhere would wonder how this mans head spontaneously exploded from fucking fury. 

"I mean-well, I've been blacking out! It's-it's normal! For me, I mean," 

"Yeah, before we separated, because I was still in there!" 

And they both stop for a second and Moon thinks very hard about what he just said. And Moon says, "Never mind, just-tell me the next time it happens, okay? Don't hide things like that from me." 

And Sun is worried, and he doesn't believe Moon just let it go like that, but he agrees and he leaves. 

And Moon watches him leave, and Moon thinks, who was I talking to.

-

It takes a while to catch it. 

It's not every recording session, sometimes he is absolutely sure its Sun with him, and sometimes he's almost sure its the other one, but the bitter little comments come less and less. Like it's getting better at hiding, or something. It's both easier and harder to tell. 

He can't risk showing his hand, not without knowing which Sun he's talking to, as far as he can tell the other Sun has no idea he knows and he wants to keep it that way. And sometimes it really is so easy to forget, like its a normal recording, like he's absolutely sure the person sitting next to him is his brother. And other days he can barely look at him because every time he does he's scared someone else will be looking back.

But he finds the pattern, eventually, and it almost makes him laugh. The SCP games. Its never Sun, the real Sun, who plays the SCP games with him. And doesn't it sound like one, a joke SCP who possesses your brother to play video games with you? It's ridiculous, and not for the first time he wonders if he's going insane again and Sun is normal, and everything's fine, but he thinks i've been blacking out, its normal for me, and he knows he's right. 

So when 'Sun' suggests another SCP game at the end of a recording session, he thinks got you. 

-

"Okay! Ready, brother?" Sun says, and it's only a little skin crawling. "Game's set up, all good here...tell me when, and I'll start the intro."

"Yeah, ready, just one thing first. I need to talk to you." 

And he faces Sun, and Sun tilts his head slightly, like a question, and it's so Sun its painful. Like it couldn't be anyone else. And Moon says, "So, who are you?"

And Sun falls to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, and Moon thinks, i was right. 

Then he thinks, oh no, i was right. 

-

Sun is having a very confusing week. Or, more like month. Months, maybe. 

He was fine with the black outs, it was disorienting but normal. Even though they stopped for awhile. And came back suddenly. But he doesn't know much about code and he figured maybe his body was used to blacking out, what with the swapping and all, so maybe it happens by accident sometimes! Because he's so used to it. 

But Moon has been worried lately, and it feels like every time he looks at Sun he's looking at a stranger. It hurts, and he doesn't like it, and he doesn't know how to help. Because he doesn't know what he's doing wrong! 

Aside from the blacking out thing, because after Moon brought it up he hasn't been able to stop thinking about it, and he's beginning to think it isn't normal. 

Anyway, after Moon brought it up he took a look at the channel, because Moon said the video was on the channel, and it was. Him. Playing the game with Moon. And there were actually a lot of videos he was in with Moon, with games he never played. 

And it was upsetting! Yeah, it was pretty upsetting. 

He was going to bring it up with Moon, because he's probably wrong, but everything that's happening now reminds him a whole lot of when they shared the body. And it kind of feels like there might be another Moon, someone or something, living in the body with him. Which is why he wants to talk to Moon, so Moon can tell him he's wrong, and everything is fine. 

He's mulling it over, he's considering it, then one day he wakes up and his face hits the floor. 

"OW." 

And he sees Moon's dumb little curly clown shoes, and hears him bark his name, and he feels Moon pull him to his feet. 

"What-where-how did I get here?" And Sun is tired and Sun is confused and Sun is so sick of waking up in places he didn't go to sleep in. "Moon, what's going on?"

And Moon groans and he rubs the back of his neck and he says, "You're not gonna like this, and I know that because I hate it. Uhh, okay, so! Don't panic. I am almost a hundred percent sure there's someone else, not me anymore, living in your head."

And Sun thinks, i was right?, and then he says it out loud, just to doublecheck. 

And Moon pretends to take a deep, calming breath, clamps both hands on Sun's shoulders and says, "WHAT?" 

-

Moon wants to throttle his brother, a little bit. Maybe a lot. There's a slight burning sensation on the back of his head. 

"Well, after-after you talked to me, that one day. You said I was acting weird, and I looked at the channel, and. It felt a lot like when we were together, in the same body! The blacking out and the waking up, I thought it was just my body, the original body, doing it by accident 'cause I was used to it, but I. I think there's someone else...in here, too."

And Moon is so pissed, and he is trying so hard. "I am going to be very, VERY gentle about this, because I am worried about you. You need to tell me these things. I have been going insane for WEEKS because I couldn't be sure if I was talking to my own brother or a stranger using his body, if you think anything like that is going on, ever, you need to tell me or I can't help." 

And Sun looks guiltier than Moon has ever seen him, and its both extremely annoying and makes it easier to ignore the fading burn. "I know, I just-I thought I was wrong! Hoped I was, actually. I'm sorry."

"It's not okay, but it's gonna be okay. Okay? Whatever is wrong with you, whoever is in your head, we will fix it. If its hostile, then I'll figure it out, but we will fix it. Can you tell when it takes over, or stop it like when you fought me?" 

"I don't know how to tell when it-they? Are gonna take over. It's different from when we shared the body, I can't even tell there's something to stop. How did you even catch it this time?" 

"Agh. About that. Okay, this is gonna sound like a joke, it's not. I caught it this time because it likes to play the SCP games." 

"What?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I don't know either."

"Well, does that say anything about them? I mean, we know it likes video games, maybe its nice! Or, willing to talk, at least. Do we know anyone who could help?" 

"If it was willing to talk, it would've during the several opportunities it had to not pretend to be you. Its apparently been around long enough to know how to be you, well enough to trick me and I basically was you. I'm not gonna discount it as a possibility but I'm putting it in the heavily unlikely column." Moon sits down on the computer chair, sighing again. "As for asking someone for help, I don't know. I have no idea who to ask, because I'm the smartest person in this building, and none of those idiots know anything about coding.

"And...you should know. Our separation went smoothly because we both wanted it. Brother, if this thing in your head is hostile, we can't remove it because it will break you on the way out." 

Sun goes a little wobbly, but he recovers quickly. "Okay, okay. That's really bad. Uh. I can ask around, maybe Freddy, or Circus Baby, or someone can help? Or knows someone who can. How-How likely is it exactly, that that'll happen? The me, breaking thing." 

"I really, really doubt they can do anything I couldn't, but okay." Moon has to take a second to answer the last part. "It depends, like I said. I... really don't know."

"That's not a great answer. Okay. But we-it could still be okay! It might be okay. Alright. I'll-I'll ask around, see if anyone can help. And I'm-and I'm sorry, again. For not telling you." 

And Moon knows this is his fault, and he hates himself for doing this to his brother. So he says not to do it again, he wishes him luck, and when Sun leaves he puts his head in his hands and hates himself more. 

Because the only thing it could be, the only thing that makes sense, is that its his homicide code doing this, that Moon left behind. 

(That he's too cowardly to tell his brother about.)

And if it starts to do anything to Sun that it was doing to Moon, back when they shared one body, he will get rid of it no matter what it takes. 

-

Eclipse screams, and screams, and screams, because no one can hear him and no one would care.

-