Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kacey didn't know what exactly Blood Moon had wanted to do with the dimensional gate Eclipse had set up but when they come back with a lighter colored, timid version of themselves, he's ready to listen.

"Father," Scarlet is hopping up and down, "we found this weaker version of us and beat up his Eclipse."

"And why was that?" Kacey asks, and as he move his hand the new blood moon flinches. Ah.

"He was trying to order us around, like he had some sort of say," Crimson spits the words, disgusted. "He also was hitting our new brother and we decided to teach him manners."

"Then let me see our new addition, boys. I'm quite proud of you for deciding to rescue him," Kacey opens his arms, and the twins usher a clearly reluctant third into his arms. His long hands wrap around this strawberry red stranger and he coos, "What sort of name would you like, my child? Blood Moon here separates into Crimson and Scarlet. Would another name on those lines fit you?"

"J-just as long as you do not hurt me," the new one sounded more like Scarlet with less grit in his voice.

"I will not, child. But is there just you in your mind? I have to make sure since my boys came as a set."

A small nod and he answers, "I was born alone to serve Eclipse."

"If only I'd been that lucky," growled Eclipse from his home in the computer system and Kacey had to tighten his grip to keep their new family from bolting.

"This is not the time for your input, son. Please refrain until we can get him settled properly," Kacey growled at him and got a grunt of displeasure but then silence. Sighing, he turned to the now trembling bot in his hands, "I apologize. I am Kill Code, but you may call me Kacey. And we will call you Vermilion. It is closer to your color, if not a bit more orange."

"Th-that serves fine, Kacey, sir." Vermilion nodded, not sure what to make of the way this massive Moon model was petting him. Eclipse only ever did this when he was trying to lure him into a false sense of security. "What can I do to serve you?"

"For now, you can rest, recover, and possibly spend time with Blood Moon and I when you feel ready," Kacey continued to gently stroke the side of his new son's face, "Code of my code, you are safe here. Eclipse is without a form here, and he dares not go against me. Scarlet and Crimson will be pleased to hunt or spar if you wish."

"N-no, please," Vermilion's eyes turned off and the shaking intensified, "Don't make me fight, please don't. I can't..." He swallows thickly as he sees the twins stare at him in bewilderment, "I've got no instinct for it, I have to have blood but it turns my stomach, please..."

The shock in the room is palpable and Vermilion crumples to the floor, pleading.

"Good god, what did he do to this guy?" Eclipse murmurs, and regrets it when Vermilion flinches.

"Boys," Kacey's eyes are dark, very gently scooping up his newest son from the floor to hold against his chest, "If that pathetic excuse for an Eclipse ever dares visit this world, you have my permission to destroy every last chip in his body."

Scarlet and Crimson both grin with their shared mouth, "Understood, Father."

"And Eclipse?" Kacey called, getting an answering hum of acknowledgement, "If I ever hear of you treating Vermilion badly in any fashion, you will know the meaning of pain. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

"Very well. I am going to be tending to him until he can tell us more calmly about his experiences," Kacey walked out of the room, heading into his chambers and locking the door. He'd spend the night comforting and gaining the trust of his youngest child before slowly reintroducing the others to him.

Chapter Text

Kacey had worked hard easing his newest child into life in this dimension, and Vermilion had settled in their shared space well. A bit of scuffle had happened when Solar Flare was introduced as his body guard, and when Pen, the first version of Eclipse, had come and smashed his back up self to bits (or at least the computer he’d been contained on), but Kacey was rather proud of his eldest for immediately seeing the situation with Vermilion and the blood twins and backing off for a few weeks after giving Kacey his number to call when things were ready.

All in all, Kacey was happy to have his family together properly, new members and all.

Now it was time for Vermilion to meet the origin point for all of them. Sun and Moon.

Moon had done…well, he’d given himself up for Kacey to live his life, but it was a gift he wouldn’t take for granted. Now he could guide his sons properly. Pen, keeping the alias he’d gone by in the outside world until now, had agreed to stay back with the twins so Sun and Moon would feel safe, and Kacey journeyed to the pizza plex to introduce Vermilion.

Carrying him in his arms, Kacey went to the daycare and walked in. Sun was cleaning the barrels and Moon was on the computers, but they both froze when they saw him.

“Kacey?” Sun squeaked, “Uh…who’s that you got there?”

“Sun, Moon, this is my youngest child. Vermilion.” Kacey was rubbing his back, as the poor thing was shivering in fear at being near a Sun and Moon again after all the fights he’d had with the ones from his home dimension, “The twins rescued him from a horrible life, and have basically adopted him as theirs. I wanted to show him to you, and to let him know you have no animosity toward him or myself.”

Sun seems wary, but he nods, “Okay. Uh, hi, Vermilion. I’m guessing you had problems with your versions of us?”

“Y-yes,” Vermilion clung to Kacey and looked over at Sun and Moon with intense trepidation. “had to…had to fight. No choice.”

Sun’s rays slipped into his head a bit, amazed and sad to see a Blood Moon so fearful and quiet.

Moon looked him over and said, “So you aren’t a hyper psycho like the one we have?”

Kacey raised a brow and Moon winced, “Sorry.”

“S-scarlet and Crimson are good to me. Treat me good,” Vermilion relaxed a little. He’d never heard a Moon apologize, and the Sun here was quieter.

“That’s great, Vermilion.” Sun sounded a bit strained, but pleased about it, “But your father’s right. We’ve got no ill will towards you. You aren’t from here, and you’ve never hurt either of us. We might not like your brothers, but we’re okay with you and your dad. So you’re not going to have to fight us.”

Moon nodded, “Seriously, we rescued Solar the same way. Nobody deserves to be in a shitty place, and I’m actually kind of rethinking my opinion on our Blood Moon if they had the presence of mind to realize you needed help and then take care of you.”

Vermilion looked at the two of them, then asked quietly, “Father, is it alright if you let me down?”

“Of course, son,” Kacey set him on the floor and smiled, “Sun and Moon are my dear friends, but you are my child. You come first, remember that.”

“Yes, Father.” Vermilion perked up a bit, then turned to the other two animatronics. “I…I never wanted to hurt anyone. I don’t like to fight, I don’t like to hunt, and I’d much rather just sit with Father and my brothers and eat fried chicken.”

Sun had to stifle a laugh, but it made Vermilion smile a little. “I actually wanted to make peace with my versions of you, but I’d have been killed by…by my Eclipse. So if it’s alright, I’d…I’d very much like to make peace with you two. I know we might not be friends but I-“

Sun had come over and gently hugged Vermilion. Shaking a moment, the smaller red animatronic then wrapped his arms around Sun and sobbed. “Vermilion, we’d love to have peace between us, and if you want to be friends, we can be. This is a crazy world, but we aren’t going to push away someone who just wants a nice life.”

“Hell,” Moon added, leaning on the computer desk, “we’re in the same boat as you. We never wanted any of this mess, so if you’re willing to be friends, cool. So are we.”

Kacey smiled at Moon as Sun gently comforted Vermilion, “Thank you, Moon. You may not be the code I came from, but you are the friend I cherish. I hope one day our families can be at least civil with each other.”

Moon snorted a bit, but smiled, “Hey, Pen’s done nothing to me, and you’ve kept the twins in check pretty well so…” he made a ‘I don’t know’ kind of noise and shrugged. Kacey chuckled. He liked this Moon’s more laid back attitude. Maybe in the future they could find a way to see his former self again, but for now, everyone was alright with this.

Vermilion gave one last nuzzle into Sun’s chest before pulling back, “I can’t express how…relieving it is to know my fight is over. I very much will try to be a good friend to you and Moon. Thank you for giving me that chance, Sun.”

“No problem!” Sun threw his hands up in the air, “Hell if I know what tomorrow’s going to bring, so I’m going to make things as easy on everybody as I can! Including myself, haha.”

“That makes sense,” Vermilion wiped the remains of tears off his face, then went back to Kacey. “Father, I want to go home now. Other brothers will be worried about me.”

“of course, child,” Kacey picked him back up, and waved to Sun and Moon, “We will all meet again soon for a good time. Perhaps a barbeque? I have been wanting to try cooking for a while now…”

“Sounds great,” Moon grinned, waving, “Bye, Vermilion. Tell Pen he can eat my dust on the leaderboards.”

“Moon!” sun yelped, but Moon just laughed as Kacey left with his son.

Chapter Text

Kacey supervised as Eclipse scanned Vermilion’s body.

“He’s not waterproof, but pretty darn close. Back of his head’s the only weak point,” growled the surly voice from the computer.

“That’s all I needed to know. Thank you,” with that he plucked Vermilion out of the scanner and carried him out of the lab room. The poor thing still was terrified of Eclipse and wouldn’t go near the lab where his computer was on his own two feet.

“Father?” Vermilion was just parroting the twins, not actually confident in his ‘adoption’ yet.

“It’s alright, son. We’re just going to get you clean now that we know you’re mostly waterproof.” Kacey soothed softly and went to a room in the base that had a drain in the floor and a few hoses. “Sit here on the floor and we’ll run some warm water in a tub.”

Vermilion flinches away from the water when it starts running, watching Kacey fill the tub with dread on his face. This was not an experience he’d ever had before in his life, as his Eclipse had never bothered if he was clean or not.

Seeing the look of fear on his newest child’s face, Kacey sighed, “Vermilion, would you feel more secure if the twins were here?”

He nodded quickly, wanting his rescuers close for this new venture. Not one to make things more difficult if not necessary, Kacey sent a call to Blood Moon.

-

Scarlet was the one in charge when the call came through, “Hello? Father?”

“Blood Moon, my children please return to the base if possible. Vermilion is very nervous about his bath and would feel more capable if you were here.”

“oh. Alright.” Hanging up, Scarlet mumbled, “Other, are we carrying enough for him, too?”

“I think so, yes.” Crimson checked their blood tank levels. “we’re at maximum, we can go now.”

“Good,” Scarlet took off quickly, rushing back to the bunker as fast as they could run.

They weren’t too far, having been hunting the woodland creatures around the area, and so they arrived quickly, heading down to where they could hear their father speaking. “When they arrive, we can try, alright? You deserve to be clean, Vermilion.”

“We are here,” Crimson said, stepping into the room and seeing the filled tub. “Oh. Baby brother needs to be clean, yes?”

“I’d like him to at least feel it once before making his decision on how he prefers to be, yes.” Kacey looks upset, “But he is fearful and I do not want to force him.”

“We know,” Scarlet hums, and they pick up Vermilion, “You’re going to take a bath. It won’t hurt, and it won’t kill you.”

“I-I know but…! Wh-what if I fall apart? What if the dirt is all that’s holding me together?!” Vermilion clung to them as they walked to the tub.

“Then we’ll get in with you,” Crimson said with finality, stepping into the tub and sitting down before slowly lowering Vermilion’s quaking form in with them, “See? It’s safe.”

Vermilion whimpered at first, but Blood Moon gently began splashing some water on him using their hands, removing some surface dirt, “You’re fine,” Scarlet added, “We don’t care about how clean we are, but you probably will. You’re more like Father that way.”

“I…I’m like Father?” Vermilion asked, cautiously putting his hand in the water and flexing his fingers.

“Yes,” Scarlet kept going. “You want peace, and cooperation and stuff. While Father lets us blow off steam and hunt and things, he’d rather nobody got hurt. You’re soft like that, too.”

Kacey came over at last and grabbed some soap and a rag, starting to scrub at Vermilion’s back gently, “They are correct, son. While you contain my code, or what was the beginning of my code, it manifested in you more like I am now than I was to begin with. Your body craves the sustaining power of blood, but your mind rejects the methods needed to obtain it.”

“Oh, that reminds us,” Crimson perks up and opens their chest, pulling one of the tanks inside out, “We were hunting for all of us just now. Blood for you.”

Vermilion looked at the tank, recognizing it as something he had inside himself, and blinked, “You…would feed me of your own kills?”

“Yes?” Crimson blinked at him and Scarlet scoffed, “You are us, we are you, that’s how family works for us.”

Kacey chuckled softly as Vermilion took the tank and unscrewed the intake connection at the top. He didn’t want to drink it, clearly from the disgust on his face, but he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, chugging the contents.

“that was very kind of you, Blood Moon. I appreciate you thinking of your brother,” Kacey said as Vermilion handed the empty tank back to the twins.

“Not a problem. We only have two tanks so we can extend out time between hunts. It doesn’t bother us to hunt more cause it’s fun.” Crimson shrugged and quickly brought their arms up as Vermilion jerked a bit. “Brother, calm yourself. You can keep it down. Focus on us and our voice.”

Kacey hadn’t even noticed his youngest gagging, but since their bodies were so similar, Blood Moon had. Their father kept gently cleaning Vermilion as Blood Moon took turns talking to him, “You’re stronger than your mind is, brother. That’s it, just swallow a few more times. We know what it’s like not to want what’s inside you. That’s how we feel when we talk to the stupid Eclipse and he talks about building us.”

“Yes, other,” Crimson cooed, smirking as he rubbed their thumbs over Vermilion’s little swirls on his cheeks, “Can’t you see, Vermilion? We know you as we know ourselves. Our precious baby brother, worth more than all others in the universe combined. Part of us, even though we just met. Always meant to be ours instead of that hated thing’s punching bag.”

Vermilion closed his eyes and nodded, swallowing occasionally to try and keep his blood down.

“Good,” Scarlet purred, turning to give a big grin to their father before going back to Vermilion, “From now on, little brother, we will make sure you are fed and can keep it. You’re ours and we take care of what’s ours. And you’re so cute, being our mirror and so cuddly, like a baby squirrel.”

“N-not a baby,” Vermilion squeaked, but that just made Blood Moon snicker.

Kacey was gently cleaning Vermilion’s arm and said, “You might be an adult, son, but you are the youngest. Also, as a father, your children are always babies to you. Thus, you three are all my babies.”

Blood Moon looked at him and Crimson growled, “Careful, Father, or we will show you how grown up we are.”

“I know, I know,” Kacey chuckled. “ah, but see? Vermilion is even softer red under all this grime. Look how lovely he’s turning out.”

Vermilion blinked and looked down at the clean part of his body and was shocked. “I…I wasn’t always dirty? I can’t recall ever being this shiny and soft colored.”

“then that poor excuse for a being who made you is worse than I imagined,” Kacey glared as he scrubbed at a stubborn spot. “You never have to go back there, and we are blacklisting that dimension so he cannot come here either.”

“Thank you…father…” Vermilion gave a small smile.

“Cute baby brother being cute,” Scarlet teased and Vermilion laughed a bit and put his now clean hand over Blood Moon’s face. Blood Moon giggled and the two of them began patting at each other as Kacey cleaned them both.

Even though Blood Moon had Vermilion’s hand in their mouth at one point, the bath escapade went well, and Kacey was more confident his children would get along.

Chapter Text

“Well, this is it,” the computer Eclipse drawled. “Meet Solar Flare.”

“Hello,” said the pale yellow and orange bot standing before Kill Code.

“Hello, Solar Flare,” Kacey said cautiously. “State your purpose, if you please.”

“I am Solar Flare, my purpose is to protect Kill Code and follow his orders over all others.”

Vermilion, held in Kacey’s arms as he mostly was of late, clung closer to his father.

Nodding, Kacey spoke, “I am Kill Code, and my first order is to call me Kacey when in my presence. I do not mind if you refer to me otherwise outside, but please respect my choice.”

“Affirmative, name change accepted. I will serve you faithfully, Kacey.”

Eclipse said spitefully, “changing your name doesn’t change what you are.”

“I understand that, I’m the one who changes what it means to be me,” Kacey chuckled, “Solar Flare, feel free to ask any questions you may have at any point.”

“He wasn’t programmed with sentience, just so you know,” the snarky computer pointed out, “though with our luck, he probably will gain some. And just like you asked, his priorities are you first, and only listening to me or Blood Moon if that doesn’t interfere with protecting you or your own orders.”

“Then you have done well, my son. Thank you. Come with us, Solar Flare.” Kacey walked out of the room and the new bot followed him silently.

As soon as they were out of earshot of the lab, Kacey said, “I have another order. You are to keep Eclipse from ever going through with any threats against Vermilion here. Or Blood Moon, now that I think about it, but they can handle themselves very well. I know you put myself first, but Blood Moon and Vermilion are to be put second on your priority list of protection.”

Solar Flare nodded, “Understood. Priority set for protection: secondary Vermilion, tertiary Blood Moon.”

“Good. Eclipse is also my son,” Kacey said softly, looking conflicted, “but he has not learned how to see beyond his own desires yet. I cannot help but be cautious for my other children, especially since he has already threatened to end them more than once.”

Solar Flare blinked at him and stated, “I will do everything in my power to protect you and your other children from Eclipse.”

Vermilion asked softly, “Does that mean I can have Solar Flare protect me if you’re busy and Eclipse gets angry?”

Solar Flare nodded, “Yes, Vermilion. You are second priority to protect, thus, if Kacey is not in need of me, you will be my next stop on seeking a purpose.”

“your purpose is to live, solar flare,” Kacey said gently, “I know you cannot understand that at this point, but remember I told you this, and when you do understand it, I will be happy.”

Solar Flare’s eyes flickered a moment, “Understood. Committed to long term memory.”

-

Since Kacey was meditating in his room, Solar Flare walked to the upper parts of the facility and heard Eclipse, “Now come here, you little waste of code!”

“No!”

That was Vermilion’s voice. Solar Flare went at full speed to the lab and plucked Vermilion out of the robotic arms that were attached to the ceiling.

“What?! Give him back, Solar Flare,” Eclipse sounded angry. Solar Flare did not care.

“Vermilion is not to be harmed, as per Kill Code’s request. Eclipse request denied.”

“I was going to study him, not hurt him,” Eclipse growled and Vermilion clung to Solar Flare.

“It does not matter. Vermilion’s vital signs read as panicked and in danger, therefore you are no longer allowed access to him at this time.” Solar Flare turned around and walked away before Eclipse could even formulate an answer.

When they were in the lower levels of the bunker, Solar Flare asked, “Are you unhurt, Vermilion?”

“Y-yes, but he…Flare, I don’t want to go back in there.” Vermilion relaxed as Solar Flare sat him down on his bed.

“You do not have to, Vermilion. Your father will ensure he has no way to force you there and I will ensure he cannot ever have the ability to leave that room.” With what little will of his own he’d gathered, Solar Flare gently copied the gesture of patting Vermilion on the head. “Your father has tasked me with helping you when he is busy, therefore I will do so quite willingly. You are a kind soul, Vermilion, and I prefer you most of the children. Eclipse is rude and ungrateful, as well as violent. Your twin brothers are also violent and careless at times. You are quiet and kind, and very loving to those who have earned your trust. This is what Kill Code has told me he wants for all of you. Kindness and an understanding of the value of others.”

The small red bot nodded, still shaken after his encounter. “Thank you, Flare. C-could you stay with me until Father is finished with what he’s doing?”

“Of course. I shall be here if you need me.” Flare happily sat on the floor beside Vermilion’s bed and focused on his own thoughts and feelings about the situation here in the bunker. So, being occupied, he did not expect when Vermilion began to pat the flat part of his head spikes.

“What?” he asked, and Vermilion stopped.

“you pat my head like Father does, so…I thought I’d do the same to you. Because it makes me feel happy when I do a good job. And you did a good job saving me,” Vermilion said quietly.

“oh. Thank you. You may continue if you wish.”

Giving a small laugh, Vermilion did so, and Solar Flare found himself enjoying it.

Chapter Text

Blood Moon had never been fond of Eclipse in any sense. They’d run from him the moment they’d had a chance, and fought him till Sun expelled him and Moon had come in to chase them away.

So when a sun-model looking like a patchwork of silver and copper and metals of all grades, came stalking into the base and called them in Eclipse’s voice, they were confused and ready to fight.

Kacey was out, and only themselves and Vermilion were in the building. Scarlet growled softly under his breath, “Other, we can’t let him know about Mili. Go down to his room and stay with him.”

“On it,” Crimson swiftly separated their nanites and dashed down the stairs to the living quarters.

“Sending your brother away?” Eclipse asked, looking around the base, examining the magic circle in the middle of the floor, “Well, you’re smarter than you look, at least.”

“How are you here? You’re supposed to be in the computer or dead,” Scarlet hissed.

“He’s the original!” screeched the computer Eclipse, “How are you still alive?!”

“Because Sun can’t pronounce magic words properly,” the patchwork Eclipse replied, “And I’m guessing that computer over there is the home of my backup, right?” He pointed to the desk and Blood Moon tsked.

“You think we’ll tell you anything, hated creator?” Scarlet wasn’t having this, half hearing Crimson and Vermilion through his connection with his other half. “Wait until Father hears of this.”

“Father?” the patchwork seemed confused.

“Kill Code, it came out of Moon as its own being,” the computer explained, “But I bet you never thought of that, because I sure didn’t.”

“Shut up. You haven’t even built your own body yet,” the patchwork just laughed.

-

Crimson was in Vermilion’s room, and growling as he listened in to what was going on upstairs.

“Blood Moon, please, just call Father and have him come as soon as possible,” vermilion begged. Eclipse with a body, his worst nightmare, was coming true. He’d escaped his own Eclipse just to come to a world with TWO of them.

“Fine, but only so he can sort this out and destroy one or the other of those annoyances,” Crimson didn’t want to be separate from Scarlet for much longer either and calling their father would speed things up for sure.

Vermilion was relieved when he heard Crimson talking to their father, “Father, the original version of Eclipse lived and has come to the base. He’s upstairs arguing with Scarlet. Hm? I had to protect Vermilion. Yes, we are both in his room.” He went quiet for a moment, then an wicked grin spread across Crimson’s face, “With pleasure, Father.”

“What did he say?” Mili asked softly, wondering why his brother looked so pleased.

“That I can go back upstairs and fight if I want to. He’s teleporting Flare and himself here as we speak.”

“Go,” Vermilion urged, fright creeping back into his voice, “I don’t want either Eclipse to hurt Scarlet.”

“Don’t worry, baby brother,” Crimson vanished as his nanites separated, “We’re much stronger now.”

-

The argument between the Eclipses had escalated by now, with Scarlet just trying not to laugh out loud as he listened.

“What did you do that for? By this point, the thing probably has enough sentience to fight you if it’s that advanced!” said the one with the mismatched limbs.

“I can easily overpower it, just like you did to Sun!” snapped the computer bound one.

But a very harsh “SILENCE” came from the magic circle area and all involved turned to look as Kill Code stalked in with Solar Flare at his heels. Scarlet felt Crimson return to him, as well, so the only one absent was Vermilion, and that was for the better.

“What,” Kacey growled, “Is happening here?”

“I’m assuming you’re Kill Code?” patchwork Eclipse said. “I’m the original Eclipse. This…copy of mine is causing problems.”

“You’re the one who broke in here and started arguing,” hissed the computer.

“I am aware he is combative, but I want to know why you came here, Eclipse.” Kacey was in a pose that suggested he was prepared to jump this intruder to his home.

Scarlet sat down, realizing his father had things under control, so he was free to watch the chaos with his twin.

“I came,” the patchwork said, “Because I was tracking my back up to get rid of it.”

“What?” the computer growled.

“You were born from an inferior version of me,” the original waved it off, “I’ve had a loooong time to think about where I went wrong and what I should have done differently. Mostly, I realized you attract more flies with honey, so your sour bitchy attitude isn’t needed.”

“I’ll show you who’s bitchy!” Lazers descended from the ceiling and Solar Flare quickly disarmed them with his claws.

“No lasers in the lab, this is a violation of the orders of Kacey.” Solar Flare glared at the computer.

“Kacey?” the name made the original Eclipse turn to look at him. “Did you want to change your name?”

“Yes, child,” Kacey sighed, rubbing his eyes with one lanky hand, “I have had a similar epiphany as yourself, and due to unfortunate circumstances, Moon sacrificed his place in this world for my sake. That is why I can be here.”

This news seemed to floor the mobile Eclipse, and he choked, “Moon’s…gone?”

“And a new one took his place, we KNOW.” The computer was too incensed to have patience, “Now can we get back to how this intruder is standing in our base?”

“You shut up!” the patchwork shouted, arms curling around himself. “Moon was US, you moron! Everything he was, was us. And now he’s GONE in a HEROIC SACRIFICE?! We’ll never be able to show him up now! Or shove being a better person in his face or anything!”

Blood Moon thought this outburst, complete with tear-choked vocals, was strange to hear from Eclipse. He’d never been that vulnerable before he’d been expelled, and the computer one wasn’t that way either.

“Eclipse…” Kacey started.

“Pen.”

The room was quiet.

“Pen?” Kacey asked, and got a nod from the patchwork.

“I changed my name, too. Eclipse was too vague and was supposed to be temporary anyway. Now it’s Penumbra, or Pen for short. Been using it to get parts for myself since Moon would be looking for my previous aliases.”

Kacey smiled softly and opened his arms, “Pen, my child, please, allow me to welcome you to share your complex feelings about this with me. I am also reeling from the loss. I considered him my kin, after all…”

“WHO CARES THAT MOON’S DEAD?!” the computer screamed and Pen growled, raising his arm and firing a blast from it that vaporized the computer and the desk it was on.

“I CARE, SO DIE!”

Everybody was shocked, and Pen said, looking a bit scared, “He said he was planning to take over Solar Flare to betray you, by the way. Blood Moon can tell you that.”

A deep sigh goes through Kill Code and he nods, “I was afraid of that. Flare has become quite a dear companion, and with the averseness to change, I don’t think there was much hope for him but…I will still mourn a bit. I am sorry he drove you to that point, Pen.”

“I….I had meant to just absorb him but…” Pen rattled a bit and shook his head, “Ugh, I need to charge now. This body doesn’t hold a lot of energy.”

“Charge here then, Pen,” Kacey drug himself to his full height again, the sadness clear in his body language, “I have to go and see to Vermilion.”

“who?” Pen asked as he sat beside an outlet, uncoiling a cable from his chest.

“We rescued him!” Scarlet offered, and grinned, “From another you. Because he is another us.”

“Oh great, double Blood Moons.”

Solar Flare clarified, “No. Vermilion is a timid, damaged soul who would rather make peace than fight. He is more like his father is now than like his siblings.”

Pen was quiet about that, but then sighed, “Then I’d like to meet him eventually. Maybe once I can retrofit this body into something better.”

“that is first priority for you, then, Pen. I will…I will see you in the morning. I wish to have some time…” Kacey headed downstairs. He’d spend the night holding Vermilion close and quietly mourning the loss of one of his sons…even if that son never considered him a father to begin with.

Chapter Text

Vermilion cautiously looked at Pen as he was working on himself in the lab room. He came to use the lab and work on his body but didn’t stay because Vermilion and Blood Moon were uncomfortable with him.

As if sensing being watched, Pen turned around and tilted his head, “Vermilion?”

Wincing at being found, Vermilion came out from behind the doorway and looked at him, nervous.

“I thought I heard someone,” Pen looked him over a moment, then sighed, “I understand you don’t like me being here. I’m trying to get myself up to standard and then I’ll find somewhere else to do my work.”

“I just don’t understand you,” Vermilion said softly. Fiddling with his claws, he went on, “You come here and get rid of Eclipse, who hurt me, but then you don’t…act like him or try to hurt the twins, despite being angry with them.”

Pen’s mismatched rays shifted a bit and he sighed, “I don’t blame you for being surprised, but it does hurt to know even someone who never met me before knows that’s how I used to be. But you had that with yours, didn’t you?”

When he nodded, Pen put his tools down and sat on the chair nearby, “Mostly, I’m calmer because I ran out of hate. I spent weeks flat on my back in the woods, only able to use the phone in my own head and one arm.” He laced his fingers together and rested his forehead on them, “you can only run on spite for so long before you realize some, if not all, of your problems are your own fault.”

Vermilion’s quiet steps made him look up a bit, and the small blood moon sat in front of him, “You’re already nicer than mine. He would have hit me just for being near when he didn’t ask for me.”

“Well…I never got that bad but…Lunar probably thinks I am.” Pen shook his head slowly, “Lunar is who I made after Blood Moon. He’s nice, like you. Or…well,” he grins a bit, “He’s peaceful like you. Nice is a bit too plain for him. He’s a spicy little gremlin when he wants to be.”

“I didn’t get to meet him yet,” Vermilion explained, looking up at Pen shyly. “He wasn’t at the daycare when Father took me there.”

“oh? So you’ve met Sun and Moon.” He lets out a slow breath, “How’s…how did the new Moon seem?”

“Moon was…nice? He told me to tell you to eat his dust on the leaderboards. I’m not sure what that means.”

Pen laughed, and Vermilion found it interesting because it wasn’t unhinged or mean. It was sad instead.

“Well, seems he hasn’t fallen far from the tree of the old Moon. I only sent him an email…wow.”

“Did you apologize?” Vermilion wanted to know if he’d do that.

“I apologized for causing him any stress with my email?” Pen shrugged, “Basically said I was done with causing trouble for him and Sun and that if he wanted to fight me to do it in Team Fortress 2.”

“What’s that?”

A silence so heavy you could feel it settled, and Pen said, “Please go sit at the laptop I brought, you’re going to learn what video games are.”

Curious, and confident that the little lights that had appeared in the dark doorway was Solar Flare’s eyes, Vermilion did as told.

The next few hours, Pen guided Vermilion through a brief tutorial of TF2 and game etiquette in general. He even got a message from Moon asking for a match and explained what he was doing.

“you’re teaching him games?” Moon asked in the chat, and Pen answered.

“yeah? He’s supposedly my little brother. Didn’t you teach Lunar?”

“Oooh I see >:) You think you can make up for your mistakes by being nice to Mili instead. Lunar’s still going to see the nice you to get over his trauma.”

Pen felt the blow to his heart, but sighed and looked at how happy Vermilion was as he tried on all the hats Pen had in his game.

“Moon, I admit I was a horrible brother to Lunar and don’t deserve him or his forgiveness. That doesn’t mean I can’t try to be better now. Isn’t that what Kacey is doing? I’m trying to give this family shit a good chance.”

It was quiet after that. Pen was glad.

Vermilion giggled and shook the jester hat on his character, “Look, Pen, I jingle like Sun and Moon now.”

“Nice, you found the jester hat,” Pen grinned and gave Vermilion a squeeze to the shoulder, “Looks like three of your nightcaps all sewn together, huh?”

“Oh! Yes!” he got excited, “It has three points, so that’s like me and the twins. We’re all Blood Moon, but we’re different.”

Feeling an unfamiliar warmth in his chest, Pen nodded, “Clever. That’s some good symbolism you’re putting together. Why don’t you play while I work and we’ll see how we do against Moon’s numbers when I get done?”

“Thank you, Pen, yes!” Vermilion’s eyes were bright, and Pen liked that instead of the usual fearful dimness.

Chapter Text

Kacey watched as Vermilion timidly asked Earth to teach him to sew.

The large female animatronic clapped her hands, “Oh? You want to sew with me? Okay! I’d love someone who wants to sew together. What are you wanting to make?”

Her fluffy hair seemed to be distracting him, but Vermilion answered, “Hat. With bells.”

“oh? Like a jester hat?” she blinked her big, ocean-colored eyes at him.

“Yes. Pen showed me what they look like and I want to make some.”

“Okay then! We’ll find a pattern online, see what skills you’d need to make it, and teach you those first. Then you can use them on other projects!” Earth clapped her hands, smile soft and sweet as always. Kacey liked her quite a bit, a kind and understanding soul who was doing so much good for Sun and Moon, and so welcoming to his sons.

Pen begrudgingly accepted her, and the twins mostly ignored her because she’d scolded them for trying to pick a fight with Sun earlier. They were all in an area outside the pizza plex and Kacey was doing his best ‘typical American dad’ impression by grilling food.

While Vermilion was sitting with Earth and talking about the project, Solar slowly approached with Lunar in tow.

Lunar was shy as he walked up to the gathering, hiding behind Solar’s leg. Kacey liked Solar, as he was rather like Vermilion in that he was a version of one of his sons that came out good. Solar was an Eclipse, and Lunar seemed to like him as a method of therapy against what Pen had done to him.

Lunar, being Pen’s second creation and the one who stayed with him until it was too toxic, had a lot of fear and resentment toward Pen and had decided to join Sun and Moon’s family instead. Pen was keeping his distance, but the Blood Moons approached.

“Little Lunar, you’re here!” Crimson grinned and tilted their head, “Good to see you join in. Who’s this? Another sun man?”

“Solar,” says the dark orange and black bot, hand on Lunar’s head and keeping him close. “And you’re Blood Moon, right?” His voice was very flat.

“Yes, we are,” Scarlet nodded, “But so is Vermilion, so take of that what you will. Where did you come from.”

“He’s from another dimension, Bloody…” Lunar answered quietly, “He’s a nice Eclipse.”

“Nice? We were not aware an Eclipse could be nice in any sense,” Crimson snorted, but smiled sarcastically, “But alright, we’ll take your word for it for now. Little moon seems to like you, so we’ll give you a chance.”

“I’m so honored,” Solar rolled his eyes, but it was enough for Blood Moon.

“Lunar,” Scarlet asked, turning their attention, “we think you’ll like Vermilion, too. He is very like you, scared of Eclipse and hurt and needing a strong person.”

“mngh,” Lunar didn’t like how they said that, but they weren’t wrong. “okay. Where is he?”

Blood Moon pointed over to Earth and Lunar perked up.

Solar smiled a little, “Looks like he’s already made friends with Earth. That make you feel safer, Lunar?”

“Yeah, actually,” Lunar’s blue and teal face broke a smile.

“Ugh. We do not enjoy the stern woman, but we respect that you two do,” Scarlet gestured dismissively. “Tiny brothers like her, so we will tolerate her.”

“that’s very mature of you, Bloody, thank you,” Lunar said and scampered over to join Earth with Vermilion.

Solar stayed, arms crossed and fiddling with his ‘superstar daycare’ t-shirt as he watched.

“Be truthful, Solar,” Crimson smirked, “Do you really feel no longing for violence? Or conquest?”

“To be frank, no, I don’t. I thought about it at one time, but I just never felt like it would actually help my situation. And seeing how things turned out here, I was right. I do wonder what my creations would’ve been like, though, if I’d made any, after seeing you and Lunar.”

“Oh…creative type then. Interesting,” Scarlet chuckled, “Father will want to talk to you, probably adopt you, too.”

“Kill Code can feel how he wants. I don’t mind being friends if he wants but…takes me a while to trust someone.”

“That we can agree on,” Scarlet nodded and began to slink away. They’d be watching like a hawk if Vermilion so much as got a paper cut. If he COULD get papercuts.

-

On seeing Lunar, Vermilion perked up, “Hello. Pen told me about you, and Earth.”

“Hello Lunar!” Earth smiled happily, “Vermilion is interested in crafting with us.”

“Crafts?” Lunar tilted his head, “I figured he’d be more interested in sparing or pvp games or somethin’.”

“N-no,” Vermilion shrank into himself a bit, “I don’t like to fight. My brothers must feed me off their kills.”

Solar meandered over as Lunar sighed, “Good, then we can get along. I don’t like to fight either. I had enough of that with Eclipse.”

“Same,” Vermilion gave a small smile, “I’m calling mine Shroud. He covered my life in a death shadow…it took the twins to allow me to escape.”

“And well you deserved it, Vermilion,” Earth began to pat his back gently, “Nobody deserves to be in pain or forced to do awful things to survive. We’re all very proud of Blood Moon for doing that.”

“Yeah, it surprised me,” Lunar agreed, crawling up in Earth’s lap, “I never expected they’d ever do anything nice for anybody.”

“We are the same,” Vermilion answered the question unasked, “I am Blood Moon, they are Blood Moon…they saw themselves in me and I see myself in them. We are three, but one.”

Everyone else blinked, but Earth smiled, “That makes some sense to me. It’s like how I felt when I first met Sun. I knew he was my brother even though I’d never met him before and it felt like a connection was made as soon as he looked at me.”

Lunar took a second, then went, “Ooooh! Yeah, I’ve never felt that, but it’s cool.”

Solar was giving a strange, warm smile at Vermilion, “huh… I remember feeling that way once. With my Sun…”

Vermilion seemed happy, “Oh oh! You’re the nice Eclipse Father mentioned. Hello! I’ve already made peace with Pen, but I’m excited to meet you.”

“Can somebody tell me who Pen is?” Lunar asked, and Vermilion answered.

“He’s the original Eclipse from here. Why?”

Lunar’s eyes went blank, “He’s….here?”

Solar sighed and Earth held Lunar close, “Lunar, remember the breathing exercises we went through.”

Vermilion got up, backing away, “I didn’t…I…”

“Hey, it’s alright,” Solar hugged Vermilion, who jolted but then relaxed into him, “Lunar’s been through a lot. It’s like if Shroud came here and was just hanging around. You’d be upset, too.”

“I…yeah…” Vermilion pouted a bit, putting his hand on one of Solar’s, “But Shroud is bad always…Pen’s trying to be good.”

Solar sighed and bopped his head gently to the top of Vermilion’s, “But that doesn’t erase how scared he makes Lunar, or what bad he did do. You both have the right to feel how you feel about him, okay?”

“Okay…” Vermilion just didn’t want Lunar to be scared, especially not because of something he said.

It would take time, but Vermilion really wanted this world to know peace, as it was this world that had brought peace to him.

Chapter Text

Vermilion clung to Pen as he walked with him into the daycare, “It’s okay, Mili. Sun already explained things for us. I just want you to meet the person who’s responsible for all of us even being here. You don’t have to like him or come back if you don’t want to.”

“And my Moon is still okay? He doesn’t have to leave?” Vermilion asked hesitantly. He knew the two Moons had separate bodies, but it made him nervous.

“of course. Moonrise gets to stay, he’s just getting repainted. He’ll look more like Lunar now.” Pen was very understanding of how nervous Vermilion was. He was quite anxious how Moon would take not only the new suffix of his name but also Pen still existing.

The two of them walked into the daycare where Sun was working.

“Oh, Pen, and Vermilion! Hey!” Sun was always happy to see Vermilion, even if he still hated seeing Pen to some extent. Things weren’t nearly as hostile between them since he’d volunteered to bring his brother back from the dead, even if he’d let Monty take the credit for it.

“Hello, Sun. How’s your brother doing?” Pen asked quietly.

“Hoo boy, ah, which one? I’ve got three now…well, four if you count Solar.”

Vermilion smiled a bit, “We mean Moonset. Pen brought me to meet him.”

“Really? Okay, uh, one sec,” Sun went to the middle of the daycare and screamed, “MOON! GET DOWN HERE!”

“Ack!” came a shout from the room above the daycare and one of the Moons came out, “What? And when did you start just yelling for me when nothing’s wrong?”

“Recently,” Sun grinned up at him, “You’ve got visitors.”

Looking down, Moonset glared, “Oh. It’s you and your little toy.”

“Hello, Moon.” Pen sighed, “This isn’t my Blood Moon, this is Vermilion.”

“Then paint him different or change his body, cause I can’t tell the difference,” Moonset leapt down to the ball pit and crawled out, “ugh, so you came to see me, so what? You wanna fight again? That’s usually what you want when you show up.”

Vermilion clung to Pen’s cloak, not liking the angry aura he was getting off this new Moon.

“Moon, we talked about this,” Sun glared at him and came to stand between the two visitors and his twin, “Pen is trying to better himself, Earth has told you, Lunar has told you, I’ve told you. Dial it down.”

“Uuuuugh,” Moon held his head, “right, right…wow…” He seemed to deflate a bit, “Okay, right, and I shouldn’t be dismissing Vermilion like that. Sorry. Hard to keep everything straight.”

“It’s fine, Moon,” Pen gave a buoying squeeze to Vermilion’s shoulders, “It’s been a while since you’ve been out. I’d have done it sooner but…well, until Ruin arrived, there wasn’t a need and Moonrise was perfectly capable. There’s just too much information to sift through and we needed your knowledge of the bunkers to find him and that backup of mine.”

“yeah…yeah. I would want all hands on deck for this, too. And you slipped,” He smirked a bit, a lot more like a snarl than Moonrise’s had ever been, “Monty told me it was you who did the heavy lifting on getting me back, so don’t worry but…I don’t know how to feel about it.”

“I did it because we need you, and because I have a lot to make up for, if I even can,” Pen huffed. “I started with Mili, and I’m trying to cover all my bases.”

“Pen,” Sun sighed, “We really do appreciate what you’re doing, it’s just hard.”

“I understand,” he lowered his head, a small breath seeping out.

Feeling like the subject was too raw to continue, Moonset looked at Vermilion, “So…you’re the peaceful Blood Moon. What’s that like when you see the other two?”

“My brothers are wild and free, we love each other,” Vermilion says honestly. “I can’t imagine them different, don’t want to. I’d guess that’s what you feel about Sun.”

“Yeah…yeah.” The night animatronic rubbed the back of his head, groaning a bit, “It’s just weird. And with what Moonrise shared with me, there’s another set, too?”

“Venom and Carnage,” Vermilion growled, “They tried to hurt Father, take our places, cheap imitation, shadows of my brothers…”

Pen blinked and Sun commented, “I’ve never seen you angry before, Mili.”

“I…” the fire in his expression faded and he curled in on himself again, “I can’t stand what they tried to do. To break my family like that, take my home from me. They are my home, and the fakes wanted to end them, take their place with their undeserving hands.”

“Well, he has a lot of the vocabulary of a Blood Moon,” Moonset snickered softly, “But yeah…that’s how I felt when Pen took over Sun and tricked us.”

“Being on the other end of it helped cement how much of a jackass I was,” Pen groaned under his breath. “I watched the show back and I hate myself.”

“Good. You should,” Moonset was pulling no punches, but he looked at Vermilion and gave a bit of a smile, “You’ve got your heart in the right place, kid. Remind me of Lunar. If you need help, we’re here, even if we don’t exactly like your brothers.”

“Besides Solar Flare,” Sun added, and Moonset gasped.

“I forgot that guy! Yeah! He’s cool!”

Vermilion giggled, “Flare is the best protector around, yes, and we love him. And you’re technically my uncle since Father sees you as a brother.”

He turns to Sun, “You hear that, brother? You already lost the competition to give me niblings to KC.”

Sun groaned but laughed, “I didn’t even know this was a competition. Wow, I’m gonna have to find a girlfriend.”

“good luck with that, you’ll probably get Miku again,” Pen teased and Sun began gently flapping his hands against his shoulder.

“Stop that! No!”

Vermilion felt the tension lift, and Moonset murmured softly to him, “It’s going to take me time, kid, but…If things are better this way, I’m ready to accept that.”

Chapter Text

It wasn’t a good idea, but it was what Ruin had ordered and they had no choice but to comply.

Clad in their blue cloak, the freshly birthed twins scuttled down into the depths that housed Kill Code and his brood. They would lure the weak Vermilion into following them as if they were his brothers, then Ruin would use him as he would. They weren’t privy to his plans, nor did they care to be.

On finding the place, following his scent, they entered, “Vermilion~” cooed Carnage, the more chaotic of the pair.

The lighter colored robot blinked and tilted his head, “Blood Moon? Did you change your look for a reason?”

“We did. We wanted something darker,” Venom snickered and motioned for Vermilion to come closer. “Now why don’t you come with us. We want to show you something.”

Trusting and naïve, Vermilion followed them up the stairs and out into the woods.

Once they were far enough away that there was no way the magic or cameras around the place could possibly see them…the twins attacked.

-

Crimson heard a screech and both of them felt their heart drop.

“Vermilion!” he gasps and takes off in the direction of the sound.

Every nanomachine in their body was ready to fight as they heard Vermilion scream and beg.

“Father! Pen! Flare! Help!!!”

Then they heard their own voices mocking him.

“No one can hear you,” Scarlet felt sick as his own voice growled the words. “We’re not your twins and we will bring you back to Ruin in pieces.”

Crimson burst through the bushes near the area and saw a blue shape slashing with claws at their baby brother and his own voice gleefully gloating, “You were so easy to fool with familiar voices and a lie. Some Blood Moon you are.”

Scarlet and Crimson looked at their baby brother struggling and made a decision. It was new, and different, but if anyone was deserving, it was Vermilion.

Their nanites fell to the ground out of their own form and flooded to his, mending cuts and flooding into him.

“It’s alright,” Crimson cooed into his mind, “It’s your brothers, we’re here for you. Let us take over.”

Vermilion whimpered and passed out in the twins’ arms inside their mind, but the twins now had control of the body and eagerly fought back.

“What?” the blue imposter seemed confused when his previously weak and frightened prey began to overpower him, and spoke in a voice much more like one of his own.

“You thought we’d let you hurt our own? No,” Scarlet cackled, “we’re the real deal and you’re a pathetic impression. Now die!”

The blue pair were no match for Vermilion’s solid body enhanced by the twins’ nanomachines, unnatural strength pushing them and scraping into their chest and arms.

“Brother, we must run,” Venom yelped as their faceplate was scored by their claws, now much sharper than their usual dull state.

“Agreed!” Carnage took the first opportunity to turn tail and run, dashing as fast as he could away.

The twins chased them for a long time, but when they reached the edge of the forest, they growled in Scarlet’s voice, “AND DON’T COME BACK, FAKER!”

Snarling softly, Scarlet began to make their way back to the bunker, but was mostly in their head. Vermilion had woken up.

“What was that?” Vermilion whined as the twins cradled him and gave him gentle pets in their currently shared mindspace.

“A cruel imitation of us,” Crimson muttered, nuzzling their little brother softly, “we put ourselves into you to save you from them.”

Scarlet began gently licking the side of his face, like a mother cat with its baby, “Never would let them take you away, no. You are us, ours, always.”

Vermilion simply cried, clinging to his brothers and wailing out his pain and fear and desperation as it was replaced by their steadfast and ever-blooming affection. When he was safe, and quiet, and reassured, they would exit his body, but until then, it was good to be whole together.

Chapter Text

Solar brought Lunar with him as he went to meet with Vermilion. The twins had dropped him off at the mini golf course when Kacey had told them he wanted Vermilon and Lunar to have a ‘play date’ of sorts to commiserate on their joint traumas and have a bit of fun together.

On seeing Lunar and Solar, Vermilion waved excitedly, “Hello, friends. I have four hours till the twins come back, so let’s have fun.”

Solar chuckled and Lunar rocketed forward, hugging Vermilion, “YAY! Trauma buddies!”

Vermilion giggled and followed Lunar as they went into the mini golf course, Solar paying and the two of them picking colors for their golf ball.

“Green? Why?” Lunar asked, his own sky blue ball in hand.

“Because it’s the opposite of red. I…I don’t like red very much,” Vermilion fiddles with the ball in his hand and feels a bit self conscious, “Or black. Oil and blood aren’t…good. I like green, like trees, and grass, and pretty glass bits.”

Solar comes up and asks quietly, “If you like it, you like it, doesn’t matter why. Every color is good enough to be someone’s favorite.”

Lunar nodded, “I just like blue because I’m blue. Blue.” He holds out both his arms and shakes them, “blue dabadee dabadie.”

Vermilion blinks then points at him, “Old reference.”

“Very old. 90’s,” Solar snorts and uses his caution orange ball to start the game. “I’m not waiting on you two, so either go or don’t.”

“Nooo, I wanted to go first,” Lunar huffs but follows along. The thing is, Vermilion just holds his club and watches, but doesn’t move.

“What’s the hold up, V?” solar asks, and Vermilion makes an uncomfortable face.

“I wasn’t allowed to go near Gator Golf at home. I don’t know how to golf; I just liked the dinosaurs here.”

Both Lunar and Solar stop and walk back to him, and Solar gestures, “Let us show you, then. ‘s not hard, but it makes sense you want to do it right.”

Mili smiled and let Solar show him how to hold the club and Lunar was in charge of keeping all the scores and balls and clubs in order while their new friend learned.

After a few holes, Vermilion asks, “Lunar…did Pen ever take you apart and make you watch him breaking your body parts?”

The other animatronics freeze and look back, Lunar’s eyes as big as half dollar coins, “NO?! He did scan after scan after update on me and basically just yelled until he hit me that one time and said he’d kill me if he had the chance to. Obviously he dropped that by now but…no, he never did that.”

“God, I want to kill that guy,” Solar mumbled, and Vermilion flinched a bit. “Hey, no…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t talk like that, and I know better. You’re safe here, Vermilion.”

“I-I know, but it still…hurts,” Vermilion rubbed his arm and explained, “When I wouldn’t fight, Shroud would pull my head off my body and make me watch him break things before he put me back on so I’d feel all the pain at once.”

Horrified, Lunar walked over and took his hands, “Mili, that is awful, but it wasn’t your fault, okay? He chose to do that. He chose to be cruel to you for wanting to be peaceful. He’s the butthole.”

“A really stinky one, too,” Solar nods, and it makes Mili giggle through the tears that had been threatening to fall.

“I’m glad my brother didn’t hurt you as bad as Shroud hurt me. I’m glad he made you so Sun and Moon could have you, Lunar.” Vermilion hugged the smaller robot and got a tight hug back.

“And I’m glad he’s a better brother to you and Bloody than he was to me. I don’t think I can ever call him my brother anymore,” Lunar nuzzled into Vermilion’s ruffle, “but I think I’d be happy to call him yours.”

Solar just shrugged and joined the hug, “And I think we need to hurry up with the golf or Monty’s going to realize I stole his credit card to do this.”

“you did what?” Lunar looked up at him, then laughed.

“Won’t Monty be mad?” Vermilion was worried about this.

“Yeah, but they tried to steal mine first, so payback. Also they price gouge everything, so even more payback.” Solar smiled a bit, and Vermilion finally laughed.

“I guess all Montys like money then. Mine kept coming to fight because of the money I cost him in repairs.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Lunar nodded, then wiggled out of the hug. “Okay, let’s do this golf thing and see if we can win the prize for best score of the day.”

“doubt it but we can try,” Solar sighed, but ushered the two younger bots along. It was a fun outing, and when the twins picked Vermilion up at the end of the day, they found a very happy brother chasing Lunar around the parking lot in a game of tag.

“We see it went well,” Crimson grinned at Solar.

“Yeah, he’s a good kid, him and Lunar are well matched in energy, and I don’t mind chauffeuring them around for a little fun. They need it,” Solar gestured, “and I think they probably need each other, cause Mili can see Pen and give Lunar a new perspective on his experiences.”

“Huh…” Scarlet blinked as Vermilion pounced on Lunar and began to tickle him, “Well, whatever it is, as long as baby brother is happy, we’re happy. Hey!” The two playmates looked up at them, “It’s time to go home, Vermilion.”

“Okay!” Vermilion grinned and gave Lunar a quick hug, “Bye Lunar, we’ll play again soon.” He then got up and ran at Solar, giving him the same hug, “Thank you for teaching me golf! Bye, Solar!”

“U-uh,” Solar awkwardly gave him a pat on the back, “Yeah, you’re welcome. Bye, Mili.”

The twins finally pried their brother away from Solar, chuckling, and headed back to their home base.

Chapter Text

Moon wasn’t sure what to make of this, really.

Blood Moon was in his daycare, but it wasn’t actually Blood Moon. It was Vermilion, who was guest starring on Lunar and Earth’s show to play games.

“Hi guys! Welcome to the Lunar and Earth show, now guest starring my friend Vermilion!” Lunar chirped.

“Hi!” Vermilion blushed a bit, smiling.

Lunar nodded and went back to the recording, “Today, we’re gonna be playing Animal Crossing New Horizons, and since Earth already set up our island, KC let Vermilion bring his switch here so he could play with me!”

Sun was out of the way, running a cleaning cloth over every inch of the jungle gyms, so Moon went to him, “So, we’re both okay with Vermilion, right?”

Nodding, Sun continued his motions, “Of course. He’s nice, Lunar likes him, Solar likes him, and he seems to be a good influence on all the guys over in their base. Oh, and Solar Flare is here, too,” pointing to the pointy headed yellow figure sitting against the wall of the daycare. “Apparently while KC is scrounging parts out of the lower levels with the twins, he’s guarding Vermilion?”

“Oh. He’s new…ish?” Moon looked at Sun, who nodded again, “Okay. I wanna talk to him.”

“Go ahead. He seems bored enough, and he doesn’t seem interested in helping me clean, so…” Sun shrugged and made a noncommittal noise.

Walking over, Moon crouched in from of Solar Flare, “Hey. I’m Moon.”

“I am aware. I am Solar Flare, bodyguard for Kill Code and his family.” His big yellow eyes blinked at Moon curiously, “You and your family are on the list of those considered allies. You may enter the bunker whenever you wish but a call ahead would be appreciated by all.”

“heh,” Moon grinned, “I got a lot of things to do, Flare, so nah, but I appreciate the invite. I was more wondering about you.”

“I can answer your questions to the best of my ability,” Solar Flare’s voice had only slight inflections, but it was enough to tell he was just as curious about what Moon’s questions were.

“Mostly I wanna know who made you,” Moon’s analytical mind was already churning with possibilities.

“I was made by the backup of Eclipse that was put in Blood Moon. He was disembodied and lived within the computer, creating me on Kill Code’s orders.”

That was startling to Moon, and he stood up as he heard Vermilion and Lunar giggling about finding a bee hive and getting chased. “Wait, so there’s another Eclipse besides Pen?”

“There was. Pen’s arrival included the destruction of the computer housing his backup. My creator was planning to take over my body and betray Kill Code.” Solar Flare blinked at Moon, “While I do not mourn him, I do wish he’d have at least had the time to realize his faults even if he did not end up with the time to change.”

“well…Sun could talk to you about that kind of feeling. ‘s how he feels for the old me,” Moon sighs, looking at his brother. “But it’s good you take care of Vermilion and KC. They’re both cool people.”

“Yes. I am very honored to be considered a part of their family.” Solar Flare’s facial vent finally matched the vibe of his words, the smile pairing with the brightness of his lights and slight cant of his head and eyelids.

“I like you,” Moon decided aloud, “so if you have any ideas or hear anything that would be of use or important to me, you come by and I’ll talk with you.”

“I will file that information appropriately, friend Moon.”

Their conversation ended and both of them sat watching Lunar and Vermilion crowing about what they’d found on their game.

Sun, meanwhile, had been working hard and was up on top of the jungle gyms with his cleaner, and looked up from his cleaning.

Seeing Moon hanging out with Solar Flare, Lunar with Vermilion, his heart panged with loneliness. His twin was gone, the Moon he was looking at was as much a stranger as Solar Flare to him, and Lunar was busy living the life he deserved. But what did he have? Well…nothing.

Then he saw Earth walk in and smiled. He had a sister, at least, and she saw him immediately and waved up at him excitedly before talking a little to Moon and Solar Flare. His family had changed, but most of the changes were good.

Clambering down, he walked over to hear the tail end of what Earth was saying, “…and then I had to tell them that I’d never done anything like that but I’d love to have a friend outing with them.”

“What are we talking about?” Sun asked.

“Monty wants to hang out with Earth,” Moon said, and Sun felt confusion.

“Is this a scam?”

“I don’t think so, they even offered to buy me a drink but then realized I might not drink liquids,” Earth giggled. “I like them, they’re very strange but interesting.”

“And apparently Foxy works here now,” Moon added. “The one that hit on the old me.”

“Wait, really?” Sun found that hard to believe.

“Yes, really. Or at least I know he’s a Foxy model that Monty is friends with,” Earth seemed to be in thought, “Oh but he didn’t seem to know anything about the plex because Monty was showing him around.”

Solar Flare piped up, “I have logged what information I can of these two new entities to my data banks. I would like to go and investigate them further.”

“They were in Mazercise when I talked to them,” came Earth’s helpful answer to an unasked question. “We’ll take care of Vermilion just fine, so you do your reconnaissance, Flare.”

“I will entrust him to the three of you then. Be aware he might have triggers that are unexpected, but you are ready for that eventuality already.” The golden guard stood and nodded once before going out the doors.

Lunar and Vermilion had no idea, as Vermilion had found out he could give gifts to villagers and was handing out bananas.

Chapter Text

Kacey was finishing a ritual in the caves that adjoined the bunker when he received a distress call from Vermilion’s room.

Rushing to the door, he opened it up and found…well, it was Vermilion but not. His eyes had darker pentagrams layered over the stars in them, his hat had three prongs instead of two, and his claws were sharp when he had previously come to him with them filed off with an emery board.

“My son?”

It startled him when Crimson’s voice came out, “Father, there was an intruder. We merged with Vermilion to save him from a fake version of us.”

He felt his metaphorical heart skip a beat and he picked up his combined children and said quietly, “Let me call the family together, sons. This is a threat that concerns us all.”

Walking up out of the depths, Kacey sent a group message, “Pen, Solar Flare, meet me at the Daycare. Something has attacked Vermilion and we must confer with Sun and Moon.”

Clanging was heard, and cursing, but Pen emerged from the lab and growled, “Where is it? Where did it go?”

“They will tell us in time. I have the boys here,” Kacey tilted his head down and Pen saw the fused Blood Moons.

“Oh…” He was panting as if he’d run there, and slowly relaxed as he followed his father. “Thank god they were able to get home.”

“It was difficult, Sun Man,” Scarlet whined, “but the fact you want to fight for baby brother is winning you points with us.”

“Oh god, you fused?” Pen’s disgusted tone made the twins laugh, but Vermilion came through tearfully next.

“Pen, I’d be dead if they hadn’t repaired me with their nanites…”

That sobered the dark bot and he nodded, “Okay, Mili, I understand. We’re going to get to the bottom of this and keep you safer in the future.”

Solar Flare appeared silently and his tone was glowering, “I could not catch the perpetrator in time. There was no activity on the perimeter.”

“It is alright, Flare. We’ll discuss things further when we get to the daycare.” Kacey held his children close and went as fast as possible toward the Pizza Plex.

-

Sun, Moon, Solar, Earth, and Lunar were in the theater when Kacey and his family arrived.

“What’s going on, KC?” Moon asked, very serious, “You said someone attacked Mili?”

Sitting in one of the large beanbag chairs, Kacey nodded and held the trio of Bloodmoons close, “I have not made them tell their story yet, but the twins fused with them temporarily to save him from the attacker.”

“Oh wow,” Sun murmured.

Pen sat close on one side of his father and Solar Flare was on the other.

Lunar still was unhappy with Pen in his presence, but with Earth and Solar beside him, he felt brave enough to speak, “Can you tell us anything, Vermilion?”

“They had the twins’ voices, but they were blue,” Mili’s trembling voice seemed to be swallowed by the fabrics around the theater and the big space.

Slowly, as if a fog was issuing from his joints, Vermilion started shedding nanites until the twins were separate from him, but holding him tight between them like a cage of protection.

“Blue?” Earth questioned, “What about them was blue?”

“Their clothes. They work a cloak…white face and swirly eyes. They said they were my brothers but…” Vermilion began shaking and the twins took up the tale.

“He lured our brother to the woods,” Scarlet growled, his faceplate softly rubbing against Mili’s, “beyond father’s magic or the cameras Pen put up. Then they tried to take him apart.”

Crimson held Vermilion’s hand and purred a bit before answering as well, “Baby brother fought well, but it was two against one. When we heard him scream, we came running. Fusing was the best option to ensure he was both healed and safe while we fought the imposter.”

“Oh Vermilion,” Sun whimpered softly, his rays almost fully vanished into his head.

Solar looked at Pen, “What did your cameras see?”

Lunar walked past Solar Flare and crawled into KC’s lap with the twins so he could hug Vermilion, getting engulfed into the tangle of arms. He didn’t care that Pen was next to him now, because Vermilion and Blood Moon were there. And Kacey, all of them needed to know he cared about them right now, and that was more important.

Sighing, Pen pulled up his camera feed and projected it onto the screen. “There they are. Just a bit taller than Lunar, blue cloak, everything Vermilion said. It didn’t have any sort of signature from any known animatronic.”

Vermilion said quietly, “They were going to bring my pieces to someone called Ruin.”

“Who is this Ruin, then?” Solar Flare asked, and Moon groaned.

“He came out of the portal and acts insane. I thought I’d caught him but somebody let him loose. Now…ugh, he has this fake Blood Moon…he must have built him.”

“Those fakers won’t touch our brother again,” Scarlet growled, “and if you join us in this vow, we forsake all past anger at you.”

“Vermilion is OURS,” Crimson hid his face in Vermilion’s neck, hiding the tears of fear that had started to form, “and we won’t lose him to pale imitations.” He’d almost lost the most important treasure in their lives, and while Scarlet could hide his tears in anger, Crimson could not.

Sun was the first to approach them, the only one of the still standing bots who knew how much it meant that Blood Moon would set aside their grudges. They truly loved Vermilion as themselves, and it gave Sun more hope for them than he’d ever dared have. “We will do everything we can to find Ruin and these fakes so they can’t hurt your brother or anyone else again, Blood Moon.”

The twins dared to look at him, and Lunar added, “We promise, Bloody. We promise on each other.”

“we’ll hold you to that,” Scarlet murmured, but nuzzled Lunar in thanks, and Crimson grabbed Sun to pull him in, too.

“We understand actions, weak sun man. Show us.”

It was unnerving being pulled in like that, but Vermilion scared but hopeful eyes made Sun relax and join the group embrace. “Okay.”

Earth came up and Kacey smiled at her, “Come, child. I believe we all would enjoy some affection at a time like this.”

“Good, because I want to hug you all so much!” Earth sat next to Kacey on the other side from Pen and leaned on him as she hugged onto Scarlet’s back. “I have security protocols and I will very much use them if that little gremlin ever shows up here. He cannot be allowed to hurt Vermilion or traumatize him ever again.”

Scarlet didn’t know how he felt about Earth hugging him, but her words rang true and Vermilion liked it, and Father approved, so he accepted it.

“Welp, this is happening, I guess.” Solar came over and plopped in a corner between Crimson and Lunar. “Get over here, Moon.”

“uh…okay?” Moon awkwardly sat behind Lunar and leaned on Solar, not knowing what to do with himself. “This feels weird. But if it helps Vermilion, I guess it’s okay.”

“It’s helping,” Vermilion hiccuped, but his voice was stronger and less watery.

“Fine,” Pen slotted himself under his father’s arm and leaned on Crimson, “If this is an everybody thing, I’m here, too. It’s the least I can do to support Mili and the twins.”

Lunar dared to look up, a moment of flaring fear, but saw Pen’s new face was soft and worried instead of angry. It hurt that he couldn’t have been better for Lunar, but it also reassured Lunar that he hadn’t imagined that Pen might have cared at least a bit. Because he could care, it wasn’t impossible, because he was caring for Vermilion now. Their eyes met, and there was no hiding the grimace of guilt before he looked away.

Solar Flare just bopped his head gently against Kacey’s, still standing. There was just no room but he was there, “We will all increase our observation to ensure safety for the more peaceable members or our group.”

In the center of all this, Vermilion slowly stopped shaking and crying, feeling so many people agreeing that his safety mattered for the first time in his life. It was too real for his self loathing to overpower, it was immediate and overwhelming in a wonderful way.

“I…I love you,” Vermilion whispered to his family, and the twins purred deeply while Kacey answered.

“And we all love you, Vermilion, in our own ways. You are inexorably part of all of us now.”

“But mostly ours,” Crimson hisses with a smile in his ear and Vermilion smiles as tears of happiness replace the fearful ones. The twins grin at each other and continue nuzzling their most precious brother, to the confusion and joy of the others around. Blood Moon had never been seen as a soft sort of being, but with the evidence so glaringly obvious, no one could argue they were heartless killers anymore. Killers yes, but heartless? Decidedly not.

Chapter Text

Pen had finally finished working on his body, and Kacey smiled as he was the first one to see the results. He’d decided on going with a golden cast, but it was just a paint job, as there were much sturdier metals underneath. Going with a typical physical form instead of nanomachines like Lunar and Blood Moon, it meant he would have more defense even if he wasn’t as quick or agile, but there was a blue-black around the joints and on the center piece of his hands, as well as the right sided of his face. It was matte gold, he didn’t want to blind everybody if he went out without his preferred black cloak on, but it made him look like a god. And that was as close to godhood as he was going to get. Having realized how stupid being a god would be while out in the woods had been quite eye opening.

“you look glorious, my son,” Kacey’s voice was warm and pleased. “And remember, you may use my lab at any time you see fit.”

There was a commotion, and both Vermilion and Blood Moon fell over into the lab door.

“What are you three doing?” Pen asked, and Blood Moon answered as they helped Vermilion up.

“We heard,” Scarlet explains, “that you were going to leave, Sun Man, and Vermilion was upset, so we came to support him.”

Kacey had to untangle them in the end and then he asked gently, “Are you truly unhappy at the idea of Pen leaving us, son?”

“Yes!” Vermilion’s face was etched in worry, “All the people at the pizza plex don’t like him, and Blood Moon told me about Sun and Moon’s dad being evil, and I don’t want him to hurt Pen!” He then ran over and hugged Pen around the waist, “Please stay home! I wish you’d made me instead of Lunar, because you’re so much better than Shroud ever was.”

Pen’s eyes were wide, but they closed softly as he hugged Vermilion back, “Mili, I had to make Lunar first so I’d realize what I was doing wrong so I could be good for you. And you like Lunar.”

“I do, but I like you more.”

“Also who is Shroud?” Crimson asked.

“It is what we’ve agreed to call his Eclipse of origin.” Kacey sighed softly and put his hand on Pen’s and Vermilion’s backs, “My sons, this is not a one person decision. I have no objection to Pen living with us, but I want this to be democratic. It is an all yes requirement because everyone deserves to feel safe in their home.”

“Pen, do you want to live with us?” he asked, and Pen thought about it, still holding Vermilion to himself.

“I would like to, if possible. I’ve been liking this…family stuff. It’s mind numbingly boring on my own, just to name one reason.”

Nodding, Kacey looked at Vermilion fondly, “I do not even need ask, do I?”

“No, Father, I want him here with me.” He never even moved his head, still flat against Pen’s chest.

“Then the twins,” Kacey nodded and turned to them, making the twins fidget and look away. “Boys, you can be honest with us. We are your family and we love you.”

“We don’t like Pen,” Crimson groaned, “but he hasn’t done anything bad to us now, and Vermilion adores him. As long as he leaves us alone, we don’t care.”

“And as long as Father still likes us,” Scarlet added quickly. “If he takes our place in his good graces we will riot.”

Kacey chuckled and smiled, “Each of my children has their own place in my heart, boys, and no one can change that. So I am taking it we’re in agreement?”

Solar Flare, who’d been casually watching, piped up, “I also do not like Pen on many levels, but it seems good for both Kacey and Vermilion to retain him. I vote yes.”

“Ah, yes, thank you, Flare.” Kacey nodded at him and then sighed, “it seems we are all in agreement. I’ll help you prepare your room, Pen.”

Vermilion relaxed a bit, looking up, “Thank you. Thank you for staying.”

Sighing, Pen knelt and hugged him closer again, “Mili, you don’t have to thank me. I only stayed away this long because I didn’t want to remind you of Shroud or the twins of how much of a jerk I was to them.”

“Putting it lightly,” Crimson quipped, grinning.

“Yeah, but Mili doesn’t like the swears, bro,” Pen’s clearly irritated, but he’s only being sarcastic and Vermilion appreciates that.

“We’ll work this out together later,” Scarlet gives a dark chortle, “we’re going to get dinner for us and Mili.”

When they left, Vermilion let go and said softly, “They don’t trust easy, but they will if you keep being so kind to me and Father.”

“I know,” Pen gave a deep sigh, “I’m just glad they were willing to let go enough to let me stay. Let’s go get started on my room.”

Kacey was just happy his boys would all be under the same roof now. As they filed out, they never noticed the tiny flashing light in the corner of the room, recording the whole thing.

Chapter Text

After everything that happened, Kacey and his boys stayed in the basement of the theater for security and to cooperate with Moon in finding the source of the infiltration.

Moon had a swearing fit when he realized that he’d been hacked and his information stolen, and Pen was glad Mili was downstairs with Lunar, Sun, and the twins. Solar sighed and rubbed his eyes, a gesture that was becoming well known to Pen.

“Who accessed it?”

“It says Eclipse, but I know Pen didn’t do it because he wouldn’t have a reason to! Or you, because your user ID in the system is Solar!” Moon growled and stomped his foot. “Fucking hell! I have to rebuild the fucking AI’s from scratch now! I’m only making one, so whoever’s most complete gets the other one’s bits shoved in.”

“Ew,” Pen said, and had a sinking feeling, “Moon…did you happen to talk to my back up while he was active?”

“Once?” Moon said, and then it clicked, “Oh fuck me…”

“When?” Pen said, and Solar snorted.

“When what, Pen? When to fuck me?” Moon asked, and Pen’s rays went all the way into his head.

“Oh my god, no. When did you TALK to the BACKUP?”

“Around the time Solar Flare said he was made.” Moon explained, and Pen groaned, heading out of Moon’s room and sitting on the couch in the sitting area.

“What did you realize, Pen?” Solar asked, and Pen answered with a very tired tone.

“My lab has been acting very slow, and the nanites I did use to expedite my revamped body weren’t many despite Kacey saying he had plenty on hand.” Looking up at the other two, his rays now out and pinned back to his head, “He used the nanomachines to construct his own body, and he used his connection to your computer to survive after I blasted him. He fried your systems just now to keep us from following his tracks.”

“Greaaaaat,” Solar sighed deeply, gently pressing the heel of his hand into his forehead, “So what are the chances Ruin found that out and they’re working together?”

Moon flopped onto the floor and arched up in anger, “PROBABLY A HUNDRED PERCENT! MY WHOLE LIFE IS A SHITSHOW!”

There was a noise from the balcony and Sun was there, his own rays mostly inside his head, “Moon? I…I don’t know what happened, but can…can you not swear? Please, Vermilion’s starting to cry and it’s making the twins antsy. Me, too, actually.”

That just made the lunar genius make frustrated, almost sobbing noises, “Sun, the backup of Pen is alive, he hid in my computer and teamed up with Ruin and they’re lose together.”

“That’s why he targeted Vermilion,” Solar said, voice going low in anger, “because he knew if he had a hold of him, none of Kacey’s family would be able to do anything. He’s the tender spot of all of them.”

Pen looked up at Solar as a slow fury built behind his face plate, “He’s targeting our baby brother because he wants to paralyze us. The only innocent life in our midst and he wanted to harm him. What kind of disgusting monster is this Ruin character?”

Sun buts in, “He…he came out of the ball pit from another dimension. Moon said he talked about a virus that destroyed his world.”

Moon nods, “I looked at his dimension. It’s barely got any life left, and most of it is mechanical. He also kidnapped Sun and I had to go get him.”

“Alright,” Solar nodded, setting his jaw and adjusting his gloves, “Then the first thing we need to do is build something to protect Vermilion, Earth, and Lunar. Moon, if you can help me with that, we can let Pen and Kacey try to salvage what they can from the computer.

“Dad lived in it for a while,” Pen sighed, “He might have enough knowhow to get it working again.”

“yeah, and he was in the head of the old me, so let’s get him up here.” Moon finally agreed, feeling drained already and a headache coming on.

Sitting next to him, Sun gave Moon a soft pat on the shoulder, “At least we aren’t in this alone anymore, right? Ruin is…a lot, and with that on top of the creator being himself…eugh.”

“yeah…yeah. At least I got a chance to settle into being alive for a while, though…” Moon sighed and leaned his head onto Sun’s arm, “okay. Let’s go build a bodyguard for our side.”

“Let’s get Flare’s opinion on it, too. We don’t want to treat them badly,” Solar suggested and Pen nodded.

“Yeah, this one needs to know he’s part of us right off the bat…wouldn’t be nearly as loyal if he doesn’t have some kind of investment in his duty,” Pen added.

Sun and Moon both got off the floor and followed the two Eclipses out of their rooms.

-

Flare was holding Vermilion when Kacey came to the daycare. Lunar was snuggled up to Mili’s side and Earth was manning the computer to que up soothing, happy gameplay videos like Stardew Valley and My Singing Monsters and such.

“Hello, Kacey,” Solar Flare blinked up at his master, “Vermilion is very sensitive to swearing, and Moon’s computer being hacked made things…uncomfortable for him.”

Waking up from the doze he’d fallen into, Vermilion looked up and smiled weakly, “Hi, Father….”

“hello, my precious son,” Kacey smiled happily as he knelt.

“Hi, Kacey,” Lunar said as the doting father took his son into his arms. “I’m tryin’ to be a good cousin or whatever I am to Mili.”

“I appreciate that, Lunar,” Kacey’s eyes squint as he smiles, “you’re always welcome to be his brother if you want, but I understand if you don’t ever want to.”

“I’ll think about it. Cause he’s cool, and Bloody is fun to listen to talking,” Lunar shrugged, “Mostly I’m happy here, but thanks!”

“Hi, Mr. Kacey!” Earth waved, “Mili actually handled his trigger very well, and when the twins got rowdy about it, I gave them some raw chicken and sent them back to their room for a nap.”

“That was perfect, thank you, Earth,” feeling Vermilion relaxing in his hold, Kacey asked, “I just came from viewing the bunker and it seems to have been raided. Our personal possessions are intact, but the laboratory is in shambles.”

Solar Flare got up as Lunar crawled off to another spot, “The scientists of our families have suggested I aid them in creating a guard for Sun and Moon’s family as well. I was waiting for your arrival to broach the subject.”

“That seems very kind of them to include you, Flare, and I encourage it,” Kacey nodded, “You have a unique perspective on the subject of being created for a hyper specific purpose.”

“They also wished for you to aid Pen in restoring Moon’s computer, as it has been hacked,” Flare added.

For a moment, Kacey thought about it, then he nodded, “I will do what I can, but I was not as…technologically minded as my Moon was. I was born more partial to his magical endeavors.”

Lunar nodded, “You’re still cool for helping.”

“Alright,” Kacey smiled as Vermilion had dozed off again in his arms, “I will go put Vermilion with the twins, as they will be wanting him close tonight, and then I’ll go to parts and services, correct?”

“Yes, that’s were everyone’s gone,” Earth nodded, “and Kacey, really, I want to thank you for being a strong and stable figure for Vermilion and all your children. It’s very important for personal development to have someone who will be there for you emotionally and physically, and who reliably keeps you out of danger.” Her smile was so soft, “You do that for your sons, when they had nobody who’d do that for them. You’re doing a wonderful job as a father.”

It was hard to keep from tearing up, but Kacey managed to keep the tears in his eyes and not falling, “That means more to me than I can say, Earth. I only hope that someday, we may all be able to have the trust in our family that I am trying so hard to build with mine.”

Lunar grinned, “Go home, dad man. We can hold it down here.”

Nodding, the large animatronic left through the doors and went down into the basement to soothe his twins and keep his youngest safe while he went to work.

Chapter Text

Solar smiled tiredly as he watched Vermilion and Jack excitedly watching the workings of their cobbled together marble run.

While it had been touch and go during the chaos of Ruin’s machinations, Jack had gained quite a solid hold on morality and philosophy while still being childlike, thus very much matching with Vermilion’s slowly growing sense of self.

Jack had recently started calling Solar “father” because of Vermilion and the Blood twins doing so to Kacey. As much as Solar didn’t think he deserved the title, it felt…warm. He knew, having studied the dimensions as the old Moon here had, that Eclipses made Blood Moons, and then, if they lived that long, Lunars.

But Solar had never had the impetus to do either of those things in his own world, and instead met the Lunar of this world, who became his lifeline in a hopeless time. He has no idea if he’d even have had the willpower to keep living without that visit.

Now, though, he had a creation of his own, a very unique one. He’d never heard of a Jack existing in any other world besides one, the one most closely related to this one, that Puppet had told him about.

Jack was good, silly and friendly while still being deadly in his protective qualities. Yes, he was rushed and very slowly gaining his mind, but what existed now was a happy and devoted person and Solar was proud of him.

Watching him play with Vermilion, and with the Blood twins who were fascinated with his knife fingers and toes, and his laser eyes, made Solar more convinced he’d done the right thing by building him.

Turning his attention to the bot beside his creation, Solar began to walk over. He’d had a lot of feelings when he first learned about Vermilion. How could he not, when the small red being was the focus of another story so much like his own? The one who created him hated him, and innocents paid the price of that hatred, though Vermilion had killed far more than Solar had. Not willingly, explaining his instant panic on the thought of battle, and not to his own grief like Solar, but still the comparison held.

Jack notices him and looks up, his yellow smile glowing in his pumpkin orange face, “Father, hello.”

“Hi, Jack. I want to talk to Vermilion about something, so can I borrow him for a minute? You can play more once we’re done.” Solar watched his creation look at Vermilion in consideration, as Vermilion looked up at him worriedly, and then nod.

“Okay. I will go find more objects to add to the marbles,” Jack gets up and wanders away slowly (for him) and Vermilion stood up.

“Have I done something wrong?” Vermilion asked, and Solar shook his head, smiling warmly at him.

“Not at all. You’re too sweet to ever be in trouble with me, Vermilion,” He assured, and Vermilion relaxed a bit. “I wanted to say…well, you know about other dimensions, and how Eclipses make Blood Moons, right?”

“Yeah?” Mili tilted his head, an action that reminded him of Kacey, and also Sun.

“Well,” he grinned, “I’ve decided that, for me, that Blood Moon is going to be you.”

“Huh? Me? But I’m already made?”

Solar chuckled, that answer sounding so like the twins, “Basically, I’m not going to make a Blood Moon of my own, or a Lunar. So I was wanting to kind of adopt you as my blood moon in case someone comes asking questions. Or just because I like you and Jack likes you.”

“you really….want me? To be your Blood Moon?” his eyes were huge and bright.

“I do,” Solar offered his hand, “if you want to be.”

“I want it!” Vermilion squealed and quickly shook his hand before hugging him, something that Solar had gotten used to by now. “This has to be the best world in the whole multiverse.”

“It’s at least better than the ones we were from,” Solar hugged him tight and chuckled, “Now I’ve got a blood moon, a Jack, and a Lunar. Lucky me.”

“Full set!” Vermilion eagerly agreed, nuzzling him. “I have two Eclipses who love me and all kinds of brothers and friends. Both lucky.”

Nodding, Solar lets him go slowly and backs up a bit, “Okay, that’s settled then. We’re both a lot more suited to each other than either of us would be to a…typical person from our respective roles.”

Vermilion gave a small laugh and slowly let go, and Jack came back with several small food boats, “I have returned! These little bowls will make good supports for small tracks!”

Smiling at him, Solar said, “Jack, Vermilion’s your brother now. I adopted him as my Blood Moon.”

“Does that mean Scarlet and Crimson are also my brothers now?” Jack asks, and Vermilion nods. “That is amazing. I am very happy to have my best friends be my siblings.” He claps his hands together and giggles.

“yeah, but your my only kid, alright?” solar ruffles Jack’s hat fondly, “They’re just yours because you want them.”

“that makes no sense, but I like it,” Jack replied, and went to hug Vermilion. “I get to keep you now, Vermilion. We are forever friends because we are brothers.”

“heehee,” Vermilion was happily swaying them both back and forth. “Now we can be unstoppable at all the games. No one can beat our team of four.”

Solar just laughs and goes back to what he was doing before. It just feels nice to have chosen someone, like Moon and Lunar chose him.

Chapter Text

Kacey was confused when he saw a very strange Moon model walking into his family’s home in the basement of the theater.

It stood there, with a dimensional face instead of a face plate, the crescent of its face going outward instead of just flat. Also, it was blue and white, but was showing rays and then getting rid of them without any prompt. And all the while, it was breathing heavily.

“Hello?” he called and the strange moon turned to him. Tilting his head, before breathing even faster.

“Father, who is that?” Vermilion came up being Kacey and held onto his pantleg, curious until the model came forward, “What does he want?”

“I don’t know, son.” Slowly, Kacey leaned forward since the new animatronic was rather short compared to him, “Hello. My name is Kacey.”

“Wrong.”

The father and son duo startled at the strange voice, as if being spoken while breathing IN instead of out.

“I beg your pardon?” Kacey asked and got a decisive answer.

“Wrong.”

“Why are you being mean to my dad? That’s the name he likes.” Vermilion pouted but then shrank back when the strange being lurched forward.

“Face it…your nature. Both of you.”

“Fatherrrrr,” Vermilion felt the fear welling up in his chest, and the figure focused on him.

“why are you afraid? You fear both doing harm and being harmed. Face it. You cannot depend on others forever.”

Kacey began to growl, “Cease this. Whoever you are, you are not welcome here. This is my home and my family’s, and you are frightening my son.”

“You cannot escape your fears. You can only accept them and push through.”

A set of feet on the stairs made everyone turn and Earth looked down, “Frank, why are you down here? Kacey hasn’t given you permission yet. I’m sorry, sir! Frank was coming to meet me for snow cones.”

That killed the tension immediately and Kacey let out a deep sigh of relief, “thank you, Earth. I am no longer feeling threatened since I know who he is now.”

“Threatened? Oh no, are you afraid of him like Sun and Moonrise are?” Earth frowned. “Yes, he’s unnerving, but he’s a perfectly nice person.”

Frank turned his head to look at Earth, “Snow cone!” then he waved at Kacey and Vermilion and dashed up the stairs to join her.

Vermilion watched him go and said softly, “He wasn’t wrong, Father…”

“No, son, he wasn’t,” Kacey’s face was hard to read as he watched the two figures going up the stairs together with Earth gently scolding Frank for scaring people again.

-

Vermilion was alone the next time he encountered Frank.

“Hello,” Frank said, waving.

“Hi, Frank,” Vermilion frowned a bit but stayed where he was, playing with his plastic marble sets. “I’m not mad at you, even if you are scary.”

“Don’t mean to be.” Frank shrugs and sits, watching the marbles as they slip along the tracks. “trying to help.”

“Oh…that makes sense. It’s…hard, when you’re afraid, to do anything.” Vermilion was still looking concerned, but kept adding to the track slowly. “I’m working on it slowly.”

“Could be faster, but good.” Frank picked up a marble and put it on the track, watching it go, “So much fear, sadness, in you. But so much good comes from you. You are strange. I like it.”

“Thanks, I think?” Vermilion watched Frank’s marble and tilted his head, “But you were right. I’ve been trying to learn magic from Father to protect myself better, but it’s…hard.”

“Doesn’t matter how hard. Keep going. Win.” Frank nodded and put on another marble.

“Yeah.” The two of them sat there, Vermilion switching around track pieces and Frank just placing marbles now and then.

“Nice. Kind. Good.” Frank finally said, patting Vermilion’s shoulder awkwardly. “Don’t forget.”

The soft Blood Moon smiled softly and nodded, “Thanks, Frank. I won’t forget.”

Chapter Text

The backup Eclipse, now the only Eclipse since his former self had taken a new name, pulled at his rays in frustration. Ruin had built him a body, infuriatingly giving it a shock feature the same as the false Blood Twins had, but he couldn’t put anything into his programming since he was a separate entity.

“Oh aren’t you delightful!” Ruin giggled, and Eclipse just got his little device and stuck it to Ruin’s side to shock him too. This had passed as ‘fair’ to the unhinged robot’s ‘rules’.

“Don’t touch me, we’ve been over this.” Eclipse growled, and Ruin convulsed on the floor a bit before answering.

“o-ooh, but you shock me so sweetly, Eclipse~”

“Shut up. You’re annoying,” what had he expected? The virus riddled amalgam was a masochist. “Your twins failed, so thus far the only plans that have succeeded are mine. Can we at least agree on that?”

“certainly, and I do enjoy your…particular genius.” Ruin’s janky body rattled as he got up, shaking off the shock. “Soon enough we can have a lovely little house in the country without those ruffians.”

“Whatever,” he gave a huff of disgust and watched the camera feed. Vermilion was crying with joy as Kacey gave him a plush green gummy bear. Disgusting, “We’ll get Kill Code’s brat under our thumb at some point. I guess we’re going to have to go in a different direction for the moment, though. They’re all together and that’s irritatingly hard to deal with. So we hit other targets, send the twins to scout for us. We’ll wait until they lose the plot again and strike then.”

“Brilliant!” Ruin crowed, rolling his R’s for effect. “Now, we pick the daffodils and get some cheesecake for breakfast, yes?”

“No, you dolt.” Eclipse hissed back. He hated this, having to deal with the inane nonsense between Ruin’s small windows of lucidity. But it was a means to an end. If his former self could pretend to care about Lunar, he could pretend to tolerate Ruin.

-

Vermilion was hugging his new friend, Apple Pie, to his chest. He’s been so scared after the attack by the fake twins, and even being in the Pizza Plex was making all his bad memories with Shroud stay close to the surface of his mind.

But his father had noticed and given him something.

“My son,” Kacey cooed softly as he knelt to his level, “I know this upheaval has been a horrid development when you had only just found your peace.” His large hands had held Vermilion’s face so delicately, “I understand this place gives you no joy, and until we can fortify our home, it is a necessary evil. So, I have acquired a knight for you, of sorts.”

It was the most intense and relieving burst of joy Vermilion had felt in his life when he laid eyes on Apple Pie. The soft fluff of its body, the rounded shape of its ears, head, and limbs, the soft scent of warm apples, all of it soothed him and it took every bit of his anxiety to hold him back from snatching it. Instead, he slowly reached out his arms until his father pressed the velvety bear into his hands.

“Name them what you will, son, but they are here to serve you. Your fears, your dreams, your wishes, all of it they will listen and understand when no one else would. One day, I hope you share with us what this tender knight will know, but until you are ready, or not, you have someone.”

“Thank you, Father!” Vermilion had sobbed, and now he was cradling his little confidant like a child of his own.

The twins came to his side, separate as they’d been doing more lately to increase their patrol coverage, settling on both sides of him. Scarlet asked curiously, “Are you really that pleased with the toy, brother?”

“Yes,” Vermilion humming happily, head against Apple Pie as he softly rocked his body to increase the feeling of giving his love to it.

Scarlet and Crimson looked at each other, surprised smiles growing, and Crimson asked his own question.

“Then do you need us anymore, little blooddrop?”

“Always,” Vermilion whined at the implication, opening his eyes and frowned at them, “You are my brothers, my other selves. Apple Pie is my knight, but he isn’t able to talk to me or hold me like you can.”

That made them chuckle and slowly melt, inserting themselves into his body again as they had when they saved him. Vermilion was surprised, but loved the sudden feeling of warmth and affection in their presence flood his whole being.

“Our sweet baby brother,” cooed Scarlet in their now-shared mind, gently pressing his feelings of pride and amusement forward, “we will always be with you as well.”

“You cannot be rid of us now, not when we can be one so easily,” Crimson added teasingly, feeling as if he was being embraced bodily despite having no arms around him, “It is so nice to be in your mind instead of ours alone. We can rest so easily with you, baby brother.”

It was hard to argue with them when Vermilion felt his own fears ebb when their confidence was glowing from within. It was only the second time they’d been mixed together, but Vermilion had to say it was the most reassuring and restful experience he’d ever had. Parts of his code that felt raw and vulnerable, frayed at the ends, stopped bothering him when his brothers shared his mind.

There was a general shifting inside, and Crimson asked, “Mili, is it alright if we see some of the memories that have bothered you? You do not have to look.”

“Of course,” he thought back to them stroking their hands over Apple Pie. “You have showed me the ones you have of Pen to warn me, so you deserve to see what Shroud has done, too.”

“Thank you, little one,” Scarlet added, and the two other voices in his mind fell silent for a time. Vermilion amused himself with thinking of making hats for Apple Pie to test the skills Earth was teaching him, since he was using his bigger, more successful projects as gifts for his brothers.

After a while, Scarlet’s presence was a weight on the back of his mind, “Brother…we do not know how you survived.”

“Huh?” Vermilion tilted their head and Crimson elaborated.

“There was so much pain, Mili,” he swallowed back what sounded like tears, “hunger, shocks…him taking you apart to break you all at once. We would have died.”

“Why though?” Vermilion couldn’t understand it. His brothers were so much stronger than him.

“Because you were alone,” Scarlet confessed, and it was like both of them engulfed his whole being in warmth and love. “We survive and fight because we are together, but you faced it all in solitude. You are strong in a way we cannot understand.”

Crimson added happily, “now you have your strength AND ours. Father was right about family ties making you stronger.”

Vermilion just laughed softy. His brothers had seen his torment and instead of being annoyed at his weakness, they admired his resilience. Even now, in the silent joy of each other, their feelings washed over him of sorrow for what had been, anger at his poor treatment, and overwhelming gratitude that they had come when they did, to just have him there. Even without fully asking, his question of whether their code, too, felt more complete together was answered with a resounding positive.

Each lacked something the other fulfilled, and in combining, they were complete.

Chapter Text

Ruin lived in a haze most of the time. He was aware enough to know that something felt good, or someone was speaking, or he was hungry even (had he been able to eat before? Who knew?) but not to truly know what he was saying or doing.

It itched, inside his head, and sometimes he knew he was speaking to someone, but not the words. But there were moments of clarity.

He knew he was working with someone who was also called Eclipse, as he had once been. He missed that name dearly, and all those who’d called him that. But that was not him anymore, and he thought this Eclipse rather handsome, if sarcastic, when his thoughts were his own.

There was also a being called Blood Moon, a blue thing with a white face and swirling eyes. Apparently he made them? He had vague images of blueprints and machinery, but they idea of them…no, they rang no bells.

He kept seeing himself, well, his old selves, talking on the screens. Eclipse had many monitors up, and many faces passed in them, but those two were front and center. It was…strange, seeing the kindness and care between his former identities, especially in the unsteady hold on consciousness he had. He could feel something burning in his code, but not do anything to stop it.

Moments happened, where he felt something, a full body jolt that was heavenly relief from the itching. He liked that. It was the one moment his horrid affliction and his actual mind agree that something is pleasant and desirable.

And usually, when that feeling arises, it is Eclipse delivering it. Sometimes Blood Moon’s face is the one he can see briefly in the fog, but it’s fine all the same.

Besides those two, his other selves, he only hears a few other voices. A woman, happy usually, soft and kind if he had to guess. A younger voice, laid back in tone from the screens. Blood Moon’s voices, too, come occasionally, and a dark rasp that isn’t Moon. Eclipse, too, he hears, but with less fire and a softer amusement than the one he hears beside him at times.

And then…he thought it was a very strange day for Blood Moon the first time he heard it, but after a few rounds he realized it was another person. Vermilion, Mili, these are the names this voice went with. Soft, timid, everything Blood Moon would never be. Usually the other voices were happy with this one.

Ruin wished he could know more, but the clarity waned quickly when he tried to concentrate. Well, at least he had some idea there was a world outside his head still, even if it was obviously not his own. It was nicer, having intact buildings and working technology and all sorts of delicious things that he occasionally was awake to taste and….well, it was good to be in a real world again instead of a dilapidated wasteland.

But he wished he could feel the love from the voices. He wished he had someone who’d hold him the way Earth would hold Lunar when he was upset. Touching his own shattered face did very little, as a being born of resentment and pain, and he had no idea what happened while the fog was thickest.

Well, at least he was alive, and free from that world, and out of his Creator’s grasp. Maybe Eclipse would cure his virus. Maybe Blood Moon would help? Though they didn’t seem very interested in doing anything with him.

Whatever happened, he hoped that someday he’d be able to be present more.

-

Vermilion held his plush tight as he watched cartoons with Lunar and Earth, then asked softly after one scene, “Ruin…Sun and Moon said he had a virus, like they did.”

The characters on screen were slowly snapping out of the ‘virus’ and becoming their usual kind and friendly selves after acting like zombies. It gave Vermilion ideas.

“Well, yes, but I don’t exactly know what the virus entails,” Earth answered, her fingers laced with themselves on her lap, “Sun and Moon have interviewed him once or twice, and I think they’d have answers if you have questions, Vermilion.”

“okay,” Vermilion nodded, “But I do hope if it is that way, we can fix him. Nobody deserves not to be themselves.”

Lunar was listening and shrugged, “Never thought of it that way. Never had a virus before, so I dunno how it feels but…yeah, maybe it is like in the show. If it is, Moon’ll fix it.”

Vermilion liked the confidence that having Moon around gave everyone, and he liked Moon in general. Father called him a brother, so Moon was his uncle, yes? Maybe. But the other Moon. This Moon…Vermilion smiled. This Moon was his, and that meant he could call him what he wanted.

“Friend Moon makes us all feel safe. I think we should make him a thank you present after the cartoons are over.”

“that’s actually a good idea,” Lunar nodded, “Moon’s been kinda scared he’s not as good as the old one was lately, so we probably need to remind him he’s our brother, too.”

“And even if he isn’t, in Vermilion’s case, he’s still their friend and valued. I think this would be really good for him,” Earth nodded. “so it’s agreed. We make appreciation gifts for Moon!”

The three of them quietly chattered about what they might make for Moon while the last episode of their cartoons for the day began to play.

Chapter Text

Moon and Solar smiled at each other as they slowly brought the new protector out in front of the group of their family and friends in the theater.

“well, he’s not fully finished, but he’s enough to work for the moment,” Moon shrugged and gestured at the figure draped in a sheet.

“Everybody,” Solar took hold of the sheet, “Meet Jack.”

Under the sheet was a Moon model animatronic, dressed in what looked like burlap pants and a matching dark beige half of his upper body mixed with the dark brown of the patches on his pants, a green ruffle, and orange claws and palms to go with the orange crescent on his face. His eyes and mouth glowed bright yellow once Solar pressed a button on his arm panel, and he started up.

“Hello.” A scratchy, strangely emphasized voice said. “I am Jack-o-Moon.”

“Hi Jack,” Moon said and gestured forward, “the people in front of you are under your protection, do you understand?”

“Yes. Registering facial and digital signature data.” His eyes flickered a bit like a guttering candle before going full yellow again. “Registered protection targets. Please insert priority.”

Solar pointed, “Vermilion, Lunar, both equal priority, pick them first in any situation. If both are in danger, focus on distraction of whatever’s threatening them if it cannot be instantly eliminated.”

Jack tilted his head then nodded, “Understood. Lunar and Vermilion, top priorities.”

Moon then gestured, “Sun and Earth come next. They can both defend themselves to a point but need help next after Lunar and Vermilion are safe.”

Jack sat on the stage of the theater, looking at the group and nodding, “Understood. Creator Moon sets priority 2 on Sun and Earth.”

“Kacey comes next,” Solar smiled at the big bot as he shyly looked away, “because while he is more than able to defend himself, he would rather not hurt anybody and thus needs assistance if Solar Flare isn’t available.”

Flare added softly, “I am always available if present.”

“Affirmative. Priority 3 is set,” Jack sounded pleased.

“Then we have Pen, Solar, and me. Cause the Blood Twins and Solar Flare can fend for themselves very easily, and the three of us are also pretty able to handle things but might need a hand if things are really serious.” Moon finished the assignment and Jack nodded.

“Creator Moon and Creator Solar as well as Penumbra set as priority four. Blood Moon designations Scarlet and Crimson and fellow guard Solar Flare set as lowest protection priorities.” Jack’s eyes blinked a few times as they took in the world around him, curious as a newborn since he essentially was one.

“We’ll upload the other people from the Plex to Jack’s list later tonight,” Solar said, gesturing vaguely toward the atrium. “Monty, Chica, Freddy, excetera and onwards. But we wanted you to be here so you could see him in person and he could see us all together. He’s not got a lot of sentience right now, just enough to make decisions, but it’s going to grow as time goes on, probably quickly. He’s not finished yet but he needed to be up before we thought about going after Ruin.”

“Designation Ruin and Designation False Blood Moon are on the kill list,” Jack spouted, sounding pleased.

“Yes, Jack, they are,” Moon sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“Moon, I don’t know if we should really want to kill Ruin?” Earth said softly, seeming uncomfortable. “I know the fake blood moon is very much a threat and did something utterly vile, but Ruin is…well, he’s just sick, isn’t he? Wouldn’t capture be a better option?”

“yeah, probably, but I don’t want to take chances,” Moon said with a frown, looking at Solar.

“Moon, I kind of agree. Ruin himself hasn’t done anything but run from us and smack you that one time,” was the mechanic’s answer, and that seemed to be enough.

“Fine, fine, Jack, change Ruin to the capture if possible list. I kinda want to study that virus he says he has too…science must, I guess.”

“Priority changed, Ruin is now capture if possible.” Jack swayed back and forth on the stage, looking over the assembly.

“Thank you, Moon,” Earth smiled.

Lunar piped up, “How’s Jack gonna protect us when we’re all running around crazy and separate and stuff?”

“That’s why he needs priorities,” Solar said, “and you and Mili like hanging out together, and when you aren’t with him, Blood Moon is, so Jack will probably hang out with you mostly.”

“Oh. Okay,” Lunar shrugged. He didn’t mind as long as Jack didn’t get in his way or break his stuff.

Sitting where he was, Jack’s newly activated mind was taking in lots of things. Moon and Sun immediately gravitating to each other and talking about him, Solar and Pen having a bit of a glaring contest but Solar looked smug, Kacey sitting and looking at him thoughtfully, the Blood Twins on all fours and combined, slinking up toward the stage to sniff him and mutter about this new person in their midst.

He hadn’t had a lot of time to develop before during testing, but Jack was at least aware enough to have a sense of self. He was a separate being from those before him. He was here to protect them all. That is why he had his lazer fingers and knife hands and toes, as well as all the fighting techniques programmed into his brain and the ability to become invisible.

But he saw the twins run back to Vermilion and nuzzle him, purring their motors and all involved looking happy. They had claws like him, sharp teeth like him, were Moon types like him. He was happy Vermilion had the lowest priority target with him regularly. It was a distant sort of happiness, mostly from practicality of having a protector available for his high priority target, but there was a little more. He liked that the person who’d be around Vermilion was so loving toward him.

Looking at Lunar, he saw that Moon and Sun and Earth were all around him, and that too caused that distant shine of light inside his newly formed consciousness. His targets were all cared for by each other, and his creators were happy among them. Solar had left Pen to Kacey and Flare, now joining in a gentle ribbing of Lunar by Moon, while the twins took Vermilion back to their father. He knew that relationship, it was in his information about Vermilion and all the members of this branched family. But he wasn’t sure what that really meant. Hopefully, he would learn. Hopefully, one day, that distant light would be much closer, and those warm smiles could be his, too.

Chapter Text

Vermilion was staring at his father as he said sorrowfully, “The daycare has been blow up.”

Pen startled from where he’d kept working on his latest project (a holographic appearance changer so they could go out in public without getting identified as animatronics), suddenly alarmed, “What?!”

They’d only moved back to their bunker last week, and getting resettled had been derailed completely now.

“The call was from Solar. Apparently Ruin and his twins came to the daycare and set a bomb in the ball pit portal. Sun and Moon were right next to it when it went off. There’s no telling if they’re alive or not, but Solar’s working on at least having eyes on them. Jack is keeping Lunar and Earth safe while this goes on, and if worst comes to worst, they’ll be coming here to shelter until the horrors are over.”

It was like static invaded his brain, Vermilion couldn’t move or speak, but his whole frame began to subtly shake.

“Moon man surely survived at least,” Crimson sputtered, “They have done far more than survive blasts in the past. They fight beasts and such!”

“No no no, I do not want to have to give credit to the false us at all!” Scarlet growled, “Surely, they had outside help, yes? And what of the hated backup of Pen?”

“He’s pulling strings from the shadows as far as I am aware…” Kacey’s conflicted expression wasn’t missed by any of his children, but Vermilion was falling into a panic attack.

The twins were aware and quickly came to his side just as he began to collapse, silently working as a team to get him safely laid out as he began to whimper and clutch at them.

“oh my son…” Kacey sighed in guilt, but he sat beside the twins as Pen kept silent and distant.

Pen knew better than to speak right now, knew better than to get into Vermilion’s space or line of sight. It’d happened before after nightmares, and the first time he’d tried to help it had ended badly. So instead of joining his father and brothers, he sat under his desk, rays tight into his head with barely a point sticking out, and checks the cameras at the daycare.

Rubble was all he saw on the ones that still worked, and he sent a text to Earth.

Hey, R U and Lunar ok?

She didn’t text back immediately, so he went to the camera in their room. The two of them are curled up in the pit of foam blocks, and blankets are thrown over the obnoxious golden statues of Sun and Moon in the neon area. Nobody’s there besides them but he can see the tracker Solar gave him for Jack sitting in front of the door. He must be invisible.

Solar himself was still pinging as alive and well, but Pen couldn’t find him. He’d expect nothing less of another Eclipse, especially one who’d survived a Moon hellbent on his death.

But knowing what remained of the Celestial Family was safe, that did nothing to quench the worry and preemptive grief stinging through his chest. As well as the helplessness of hearing Vermilion sobbing and wailing on the ground, he had to come to terms with the possibility that not only had his back up escaped him, taken up with a true lunatic, and destroyed the one place he knew best and wanted to reclaim as space he could exist in freely, but he’d also succeeded where Pen had not. If Sun and Moon were gone for good, the back up had killed them, not him. He didn’t WANT to kill them anymore, not since he’d talked to Moonrise about it.

Stars, even that nickname hurt to think now. They’d decided to use that as the new Moon’s name when discussing the old one, Moonset. It was just the two of them who knew, so that name was…was just his to hold right now.

“You better not have died, Moonrise. Not when we had an accord, not when we were actively working to better ourselves from where Moonset left us.” Pen had very much identified with the struggle of trying to live up to “The Great Moon” in their minds. And it was partially from watching Moonrise that Pen had gotten out of his awkward state and begun being a real brother to not just Vermilion, but to the twins as well. Lunar…he was so glad Lunar was okay so far. His backup had been born of his memories right before death, so he was incensed that Lunar betrayed them and probably planned to go an extra mile in cruelty to get back at him.

But now was not the time to be future proofing. That was a Sun thing. It felt so strange to know the one person who’s head he’d lived in for most of his short life was probably dead. He had inherited the trapped Moonrise’s hatred of Sun, and it had grown from his own isolation, but that flame had fizzled long since and now he was left with an aching gap where his memories of Sun lived. They were untethered now, rather than a hard knot between him and another person or a warm candle in the dark hours. Now they held the chill of loss, and he could only hope it wasn’t forever, that it was just a little while before they’d all find out the Celestial siblings had pulled another miraculous escape.

Until that was confirmed, Pen would have to be strong. Pen wanted to prove he could be trusted and was truly changed, so trying to help Earth and Lunar, trying to keep his own family here together, doing everything he could to track them back…he’d do it.

And if that earned him nothing more than his baby brother’s grateful smile, that would be enough.

Chapter Text

Solar came to them with amazing news. Moon’s computer had told him Sun and Moon were alive, because the computer AI had sent them through to another universe.

That had Pen setting up the portal that the backup had left in their bunker and Solar came over to search for their signatures in the multiverse. They quickly were located and pulled to the safety of home.

Vermilion instantly was clinging to Sun and Pen growled at Moonrise before hugging him tightly, “You moron! Don’t you dare make me worry over you again!”

“i-I won’t.” Moonrise shook and held him back. “Thank you, Pen. You and Solar got us home safe.”

Kacey bundled both of them into his arms when his sons let go, and the celestial brothers gladly accepted being supported by his fatherly energy, “You are safe and will remain so now. Rest your souls, both of you.”

And rest they did. They took two weeks to rest, had Earth and Lunar come to reunite, Jack came and watched curiously as always but he went to Sun and Moon first.

“Creator Moon, I must apologize.”

“what?” Moonrise tilted his head and asked, “Why do you say that?”

“Even though you are lower priority than Lunar and Vermilion, it is my duty to protect the family and I did not.” Jack said it flatly, but his posture was extremely clear that he was upset about it, even nervous. “My laser fingers are not capable of disarming explosives.”

“Jack,” Sun cut in, softly, “That happened way too fast for any of us to have acted other than we did. We aren’t upset with you, so you shouldn’t be upset with yourself.”

“I’m also fine with you, Jack,” Moonrise smiled, “You kept Lunar and Earth safe from the fake Blood Moon, so you did your job perfectly in my eyes.”

“I will continue to do so, yes,” Jack nodded, straightening up, “But I would like to request explosive detection capabilities as a future upgrade.”

Solar nodded and gave him a pat on the head, “Sure thing, Jack. Now that we know that’s even a thing to watch for, we’ll get you bomb sniffers.”

“Hooray!” Jack’s eyes squinted to match his permanent smile.

“but,” Solar put forward gently, “Right now, we’re going to focus on getting another brain on our side.”

“Who?” Sun asked, and Pen replied while rolling his eyes.

“The original Moon.”

“huh?” Moonrise looked between the eclipses and asked, “Isn’t he like dead-dead? Reset and gone?”

“Actually no,” Solar sighed and handed Moonrise a paper printout of his own schematics, “Sun and Earth’s creator, and yours technically, really likes his backups. Turns out, if you look at the back of your heads, there’s a chip there to back up your data in the event of a catastrophic event.”

“We…we can bring him back?” Sun seemed shell shocked, but when Solar nodded he started to shake. “And he’ll be all there?”

“Yep,” Pen sighed, “We’ll have to manufacture a dummy chip to put in the slot of Moonrise here, but you’ll get your old Moon back the way he was exactly.”

“What about me?” Moonrise had a fearful look on his face, and Solar quickly clapped a hand on his shoulder and held tight.

“You will stay right here,” Solar gave him a firm squeeze. “You’re my Moon. You’re Earth and Vermilion and Jack’s Moon. You are all we know and love of a good Moon.”

“And you’re still my brother, even if you aren’t my twin,” Sun murmured, reaching out a hand, “You kept me stable after he was gone, you saved me from Ruin, you treated me well when he never…never remembered to. I want to be able to work through things with him, like I’ve been doing with you. But YOU,” Sun smiled when Moon took his hand, “You gave me back the idea that siblings can actually live without trying to hurt each other.”

“And Earth?” Moon asked shakily as Sun and Solar both hugged him.

“She’s obviously an angel incarnate,” Pen snorted, “she’s an outlier. And she’d get her holy sword out and strike us ALL down if we ever did anything to you, Moonrise.”

“Is that your new name?” Sun asked and Moonrise nodded.

“Pen and I have been using it for a bit since we talk about the other one a lot. You like it? Pen said it matches yours.”

Sun got teary and beamed as he hugged Moonrise tighter, “It does, and I do like it. God, Moonrise, I…I’m so glad, even though it hurt, that I got you out of this. All this. You’re worth it.”

“You’re worth it, too,” Moonrise nodded as Solar let go so the two could fully embrace. “Don’t ever forget it, Sun. I love you, brother.”

“I love you, too.”

Pen looked at Solar and made a gagging face, and Solar grinned but pointed to the other room. Looking over, Pen saw Jack and Vermilion having a great time looking at Vermilion’s marble collection.

It made Pen sigh and nod, agreeing with what Solar meant. You’re the same way with him.

Chapter Text

Pen and Kacey looked at Vermilion’s sleeping form in the chair in parts and services. Moonrise was working with Solar in another desk to assemble a body for Moonset so he could be revived.

But there was a loose thread that Pen and Kacey had both agreed needed to be tied off. Shroud, the Eclipse who’d terrorized Vermilion and still presumably existed in some form. Moonrise and Pen had already searched Mili for a backup of Shroud and removed what they found, but there was always the question of how far it went.

Vermilion couldn’t bring himself to relate all the abuse verbally, but when his brothers had asked for permission to see the memories, he’d given them it. Crimson and Scarlet had already seen them, having fused with Vermilion and watched them that way. They had gone off on a killing spree afterward, asking Pen to send them to Florida to battle the pythons invading the everglades for “a decent challenge”.

So now it was Pen and Kacey’s turn.

“here we go,” Pen pressed the button, and Kacey was sitting on the floor next to him to be level with the screen.

-

Vermilion’s voice wavered as he woke, “Blood Moon online…”

Shroud was visible, a glowing Sun at the moment. “Alright, state your purpose.”

“To serve Eclipse, fight his enemies and kill them when ordered,” Vermilion’s tone became more and more scared as he listed his duties.

“You’ve got it, but where’s that tone coming from? You act like you’re scared. I didn’t program you to fear anything.” Shroud growled, putting his hands on Vermilion’s head and glaring at him, “Listen, I created you and I can create something better if you fail me, do you understand?”

“Y-yes, Eclipse.”

“Good,” Shroud held his head and glared at him a minute longer, then turned him around, “Now you’re going to wait here, and be quiet, so I can get your body built.” He then walked off to another part of the dark and misty area that was Sun’s mindscape.

Next came several clips of Sun and Moon’s voices interacting, and vague thoughts about how he wished he had a brother like Sun. Then another Shroud memory.

“Blood Moon, you’ve been very quiet for me. Thank you,” the condescension was clear in his voice, but at least it was saccharine sweet. “Now, you’re going to go to sleep and wake up in your new body. As soon as you do, I’ll have my first job for you.”

“Okay. U-um, but Eclipse, what are we?” Vermilion sounded curious, but afraid, “Are we brothers?”

“I made you, I’m your creator, that’s good enough. Stop being sappy and just turn off already.” He smacked the side of Vermilion’s head, and the memory went black.

-

Pen and Kacey had to pause there, unable to continue for a minute.

“God…is this what Lunar saw me as?” Pen felt his chest getting tight, recognizing himself at his worst in Shroud at the beginning of his descent.

“I cannot say, but that is now you now,” Kacey put a bracing hand on his son’s shoulder. “But we must soldier on. For Vermilion’s sake, we must know the depths of the depravity he endured.”

“Yeah…yeah.” Pen took a deep breath that he didn’t physically need, then pressed play again.

-

Shroud was before him, Vermilion’s internal clock reading midnight. “Alright, now, you’re going to go up there to the daycare, and you’re going to attack Moon. Braek his legs, arms also if you can, and then get out, got it?”

“a-attack?” Vermilion sounded so panicked, “I don’t know how.”

“What do you MEAN you don’t know how? That’s all I programmed you for is to be my muscle!” Shroud punched him in the chest and Vermilion whimpered. “Go do what I said or I’ll tear you apart while you’re alive!”

“A-alright, yes sir, sorry!” Vermilion scuttled off and his new family watched a frantic and very one sided battle between Mili and his Moon. Moon did get his leg’s broken, but Mili was heavily injured, too.

Shroud berated him and repaired him without letting him sleep, causing horrid pain.

This sort of thing repeated. Shroud built himself a body with the parts Sun and Moon ordered to repair themselves, transferred himself out of Sun which left Sun reeling, only saved by Moon’s magic intervention.

But then something new happened. Mili discovered marbles after a child left their sack of them in the daycare. He loved the little glass things, but had already learned that if he gave in to his softer and more childish tendencies in front of Shroud, they were taken away or destroyed in front of him.

So they heard him say softly to himself, “Well, he can’t take them if I swallow them, right?” And he did, eating every one of the shiny colorful spheres. But he could keep them, and that was what mattered to him.

-

Kacey seemed alarmed and asked, “Pen, did you do a scan on his internals?”

“Yes, and he didn’t have any marbles anywhere. He seems to feel safe enough not to secret them away that way anymore.”

Sighing in relief, Kacey allowed his son to play the memories again.

-

Eventually, Shroud heard the clicking of the marbles in his belly and screamed at Vermilion.

“What do you think you’re DOING? I am your master, you will do what I SAY, and you will NOT HIDE THINGS FROM ME!”

Pen and Kacey felt sick as they saw the torment begin. Shroud took vermilion’s head off in parts and services and began to break his body parts, “Bad slaves get punished, you hear me? You are not supposed to THINK, you are not supposed to FEEL, and you are not supposed to WANT anything! You are going to watch me break you, and then you get to feel all the pain of it at once.”

Shroud took a hammer to the soft silicone pouch that was his stomach, crushing the marbles inside into slivers of glass, “I can’t wait for you to feel this one in particular, Blood Moon. You’re going to have to use the little nanomachines on this one and it takes them a LONG time to fix this part. You’ll have nice big scars inside you to remind you exactly why you shouldn’t try to grow beyond servitude.”

Vermilion whimpered and cried, the vision in the memory wobbling with the cleaner fluid oozing out from the overwhelming dread and disappointment of not only his treasures being destroyed but also the safety of his own body was gone.

--

Pen and Kacey had to turn off the sound when Shroud reattached Vermilion’s head, because the agonized screaming of their brother and child were too painful to bear.

Kacey sobbed once, but composed himself with a sniff, “I had no idea…even the sanctity of his body was taken from him.”

It seemed as if Pen was shocked into silence, but he turned to the side and heaved. Wiping his mouth in disgust, he turned to his concerned father, “I couldn’t…couldn’t stand the idea that this is what he was thinking when he saw me. When he heard me.”

“Pen…” Kacey helped him back up from where he’d leaned over, “perhaps we’ve seen enough.”

“No. I’m going to watch every one of these. Because when I ever consider going back to how I used to be, I need to remind myself why I changed. Because this,” He pointed at the screen,” is who I was going to become. And I can’t ever forget what this kind of thinking can do.”

“Then I will stand with you, my son.” Kacey wasn’t going to leave Pen to suffer this horror show alone.

-

The ‘head removed and broken’ treatment was the worst, but it happened repeatedly after that, any time Vermilion got even a modicum of an idea of his own. Tried to make a friend outside the plex? Shroud shot them and took Mili apart. Tried to keep a pet rat? Mili had to EAT IT and then got taken apart.

By the end of the memories, both the members of the audience were sick to their stomachs and more than ready to go back to Vermilion’s home universe and end Shroud.

It ended with Shroud doing a mild beating on vermilion, and Scarlet and Crimson coming out of seemingly nowhere to utterly decimate Shroud.

Kacey turned the computer off, and the two of them had to compose themselves before waking Vermilion up.

Mili blinked awake and looked at his oldest brother and father curiously, “You both seem upset. Did I do something wrong?”

“No, Mili,” Pen denied quickly and got him out of the cylinder shaped area, “We just hated to see what that awful jerk did to you.” He had to be very careful not to curse as they’d heard and seen a lot of Shroud cursing. No wonder it triggered Vermilion to panic.

Kacey picked Vermilion up and held him close for several moments before saying quietly, “We’re going to go home, and I’m going to order you some Pokemon marbles.”

“Really?!” Vermilion squeaked happily and hugged his father tight, “Oh thank you, Father! You’re the best father in the world!”

Pen smiles and waves them on, “I have a mess to clean up. You two go ahead and I’ll be back in a minute.”

When they left, Pen called Moonrise.

“Yeah?” Moonrise answers, sounding like he’d been half asleep.

“When you get Moonset awake, all of us and the twins are going to go and kill Shroud.”

“I’m guessing Vermilion’s memories are even worse than you expected?” Moonrise sounded curious.

“He would remove his head while he broke the body so he could feel all the pain at once.”

He hard Moonrise slam his hands on the desk before screaming “WHAT?!”

“So you agree?” Pen asked with anger burning under his words.

“Oh, yeah, this guy’s dead. But why wait till Moonset gets up?”

“Because he isn’t going to get to kill ME obviously, but…” Pen grinned viciously, “He can kill Shroud and feel that sweet catharsis without doing anything wrong.”

“And what are we going to do?” Moonrise huffed and was doing something on the computer keyboard from all the clicking.

“We’re going to do everything to him that he did to Vermilion.”

“Oh. Oh that’s good,” Moonrise snickered, “As much as I wanna be a better person than Moonset was, THAT is an idea I like.”

“Then it’s settled. That bastard is going to feel the pain he inflicted before he dies.” Pen hadn’t felt this kind of wicked glee since before he’d reformed, but he was going to now. “Also, I suppose offering this chance to kill an Eclipse is part of my recompense to you and him. And what better candidate than the one who hurt my sweet baby brother?”

“Lunar is not going to let you live this down if he finds out, you know.”

Rolling his eyes, Pen sighed and smiled, “I know. I’m just glad he’s healed enough to not be afraid of me anymore. Because in my own twisted way, I did care.”

“Yeah, we know that now, Pen. Just make whatever preparations you need. I’ll pinpoint Mili’s dimension so it’s ready when we get there.”

“Thanks, Moonrise. Later,” He let his friend hang up and cleaned up the mess he’d made being sick. But as he did, he meticulously went over the way he was going to rid the multiverse of Shroud once and for all.

Chapter Text

The snow was falling thick outside, but that was perfect for the celestial family inside. Ruin had been cured thanks to the information gathered by Sun and Moonrise in his dimension on their exile, the Blood Moon clone had vanished and the second Eclipse had escaped with the Star, but seemed to be leaving everyone alone for the most part.

So the families were going to have a nice Christmas together. Sun was kind of disappointed they wouldn’t be renting the little cabin he and Moonset had before, but maybe next year, since all the scientific minds were working to bring Moonset back, the two of them could have a little private celebration of just them. To reconnect mostly.

Moonrise had helped him and Earth set up the theater and daycare proper as a big party for the family, and everybody had arrived in sweaters that were in some way very silly and festive. But it was a very important holiday this year, because it would be Earth, Vermilion, and Jack’s first holiday with the family. Kacey was excited because it was also his first holiday in general, and especially with his boys.

The tree in the daycare had presents piled under it, food was available for those who partook, and Christmas movies were playing nonstop in the theater. Kacey’s family arrived and everybody piled together into the various areas of the room. Crimson and Scarlet were fused and Vermilion held their hand, carrying around his teddy bear, Apple Pie. It was cute, watching the twins going to each plate of food and letting Mili taste some before deciding if he wanted any.

Kacey and Pen stood back, watching, and Solar was the one who went up to them and started talking. He didn’t want them to feel left out, and Jack was busy playing chase with Lunar.

Moonrise and Earth sat with Sun in the theater, enjoying their hot chocolates and surprised when Solar Flare settled with them to ask small questions about the holiday and its purpose.

In the corner, hiding in the bathrooms, Ruin watched and felt…out of place. He knew he wasn’t invited after all he’d done, but he had been in the ball pit for who knows how long and just wanted to look at all the joy.

Jack knew he was here, as did Solar Flare, but both were content to just keep on alert and leave the outcast to his viewing. It was actually Pen who went to retrieve him.

“Ruin,” Pen crossed his arms and looked at the broken robot, “why are you skulking in here?”

“I-I just…well, Pen, I was…” Ruin tried to find the words, but fell short and ended up murmuring, “I don’t mean any harm. I just…wanted to look at it. I know nobody wants me there.” Not knowing what to do, he just put his head down and folded his hands over each other in front of him.

After a moment of looking him over, Pen sighed and offered a hand, “Mili wants you there. He’s asking about you. And I do, too.”

“what?” Surprised, Ruin blinked his functioning eye, “Young Vermilion? And you, Pen? To what do I owe the pleasure of that?”

“Vermilion is pretty forgiving. Knowing you only acted that way from being sick, as he put it, completely erases any bad feelings he had toward you. As for me,” Pen led him out of the bathroom when he took his hand, “I was in your shoes not too long ago, except I actually DID all the things that made people upset. So since you’re sort of absolved of fault, I think you should be there with us.”

“And it would make Mili happy,” Ruin adds with a small smile that looks odd with his half exposed endo.

“That. Mostly that.” Pen shrugs, “I’m not going to pretend he doesn’t have me wrapped around his finger. But he doesn’t know that and even if he did, wouldn’t take advantage. He’s too good for me or any of us, actually.”

“Hm, well,” the dry tone of Ruin’s voice was set off by his smile, “If you have to be a sucker for someone, that’s the best kind.”

“Right,” Pen brought Ruin to the party and called, “I got your friend for you, Vermilion.”

The little red blur rushed over from the food table and tackled Ruin, “YOU’RE HERE!”

“oof!” Ruin was bowled over but flattered, “Careful, Vermilion, dear, I’m quite fragile!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Vermilion got up on his hands and knees, but was smiling ear to metaphorical ear, “I just knew you’d be lonesome if you didn’t come, so I wanted you here. My guest, yes.”

“Thank you, Vermilion,” Ruin got to his feet as Mili did and chuckled, “I…I wasn’t brave enough to ask for myself, so your invitation is a boon. If it’s alright, I’ll stick by you and Pen tonight to make sure I don’t make the others uncomfy, hm?”

“yes, good. Father will be fine with you as well, because we talked about it, but I’d be happy just being your shadow if you want,” The joy in his face was priceless and Ruin felt very touched by it.

“Then so it shall be. Come, show me everything you want to and I’ll listen,” Ruin let Vermilion take him by the hand and lead him around the daycare happily.

Solar came up to Pen and asked, “So, you sure about this?”

“I’ve scanned him myself, he’s clean of the virus and doesn’t show up as lying magically. Mili’s been worried about him since hearing about the virus and wants to include him.”

Nodding, the other eclipse watched Vermilion laughing as Ruin did a dramatic show of introducing himself to the giant Freddy plush in the back of the daycare, “Well, Vermilion’s a sweetheart. Even if Ruin IS just faking being cured, he’ll either slip up or lose his will to do harm around him. Worked pretty well for you.”

Pen saw the smirk on Solar’s face and gently pushed it away with one hand, “Oh shut up.”

-

Crimson and Scarlet didn’t like Ruin near Vermilion, but Mili was so happy and Pen was around, too, so they relented that it was alright. Besides, Father was happy about it, too, so that meant it must be okay, and Flare hadn’t moved from his spot in the theater either.

Jack had talked to Ruin and Mili for a while, and Lunar had stayed either with Earth, Sun and Moon, or them, but had talked with Vermilion some, too.

“Lunar,” Crimson asked one time when their first little brother was close to them at the food table, “are you okay with Ruin?”

“Him? Nah, but he did get cured so I guess he’s okay in general. Just not with me?” Lunar quirked a brow at Blood Moon. “Why?”

“Because Vermilion is being very insistent we include him and we were unsure,” Scarlet answered.

“oh.” Looking over, Lunar noticed and shrugged, “Well, we got a lot of security with Jack and Solar Flare and you guys so I dunno if I’m worried about it.”

“True,” The twins looked at the situation that way and shrugged, “Just don’t want his feelings hurt unnecessarily.”

Lunar snorted, “None of us do, but if Ruin even sneezes on Vermilion, we’d all dismantle him for it.”

That got the twins giggling and Lunar felt accomplished.

-

Kacey sits with Moonrise as everybody starts opening their presents.

Kacey only has a few, just from his boys and Moonrise since the others don’t know him well enough yet, so he’d already opened them. A collection of interesting bones from Blood Moon, a new cooking pot from Pen, and a ‘world’s best dad’ mug from Vermilion, along with a star made out of sticks by Solar Flare. Moonrise had gifted him a meditation book, which he very much appreciated as it helped him center himself and tap into his own magic.

Moonrise had gifts from all his family as well as Kacey and Vermilion, and it was the same for most of those there. What was different was Vermilion sitting in a pile of gifts and looking lost.

Looking over, Pen said to Vermilion, “Mili, you can open them in any order you want.”

Ruin was sitting with Vermilion, with only one gift, and he suggested, “Since Pen said something, why don’t you open his gift first and I’ll open mine from you, yes?”

“O-okay,” Vermilion leaned on Ruin and did as he suggested, opening his gift and smiling happily, “Oh! A chicken from Stardew Valley!” It was a plush, and he hugged it tight.

Ruin opened his gift from Mili and smiled softly. It was handmade, just a little roughly sewn thing, but it was a yellow bear with blue feet, arms and ears. Lopsided and button-eyed (one red one white) it was clear what it was, and he loved it. “Oh, Vermilion…I adore him. We’ll have to think of a name for him together.”

“Okay!” Mili chirped happily.

Moonrise chuckled softly as Mili started opening more gifts, “Your son’s defanged the horror.”

“Vermilion does tend to have that effect, yes.” Kacey sees Vermilion squeal as Lunar explains he got him a penguin to be friends with his reindeer, Spigot. “He’s seen Pen’s struggles to redeem himself, and feels it’s unfair for Ruin to struggle the same since his ill deeds were done essentially by an intruder in his body.”

Nodding, Moonrise sighed, “I just hope for all our sakes that’s what happened. But at least Ruin’s harmless at the moment.”

The sound of crying breaks the thoughts as Vermilion is hugging the twins, who are giggling and hugging back.

“What happened?” Moonrise asks Sun, who’s on the other side of him.

“The twins said they’re taking Mili to the Slime Rancher universe and gave him a Tangle slime plush,” Sun was smiling indulgently.

“He has been wanting to go,” Kacey said with a laugh in his voice, “but too afraid to ask Pen to take him. The twins decided to pester him in Mili’s stead and asked me to order the plush.”

“Just be careful of the Tarrs, okay?” Earth said to Vermilion, who nodded while sobbing in joy.

Chapter Text

The first thing he saw when he woke up was his own face and Eclipse’s looking at him.

“What the f-“ his jolted up and the faces retreated.

“Welcome back, brother,” said his mirror, smirking at him.

“You the new me?! Why is Eclipse here?!”

“I’m Solar, actually,” said the Eclipse, goggles on his head near his rays and a daycare t-shirt over his chest, “I’m the ‘nice one’ you sent Lunar to see, remember?”

It took a bit, but that memory surfaced and he nodded, “Oh….oh yeah, I do. Uh…you live here now?”

“Yeah. Long story. Anyway, welcome back to life, Moonset,” Solar smiled softly and backed off, “I’ll go get Sun.”

“Sun! Wait, what did he call me?” he looked at the other him.

“Moonset,” was the answer as he watched him putting his tools away, “I’m Moonrise. I’ve been using that name for you since it was hard talking about the situation without differentiating us.”

“That…makes sense. Yeah,” he flexed his fingers and huffed, “How long have I been gone?”

“About a year, give or take,” Moonrise gestured at him, “You’re wearing a shirt, by the way, like solar does, but it’s just to give you some visual differences from me besides the slight paint color one.”

“cool,” Moonset looked at his arms and saw soft black material, “Sun’ll like it. He loves how sweaters feel.”

“He does, yeah,” Moonrise smiled fondly and leaned against the glass of the parts and services room, “That’s why I chose it. When he gets done talking to you, he’ll probably hug you.”

“Oh…” he hadn’t expected Sun would want to talk first, but that made sense, “Yeah. A lot of history has to be worked through.”

“I’ll give you some of my memory files if you want?” Moonrise offered and his other self nodded, “’kay. I’m gonna leave when Sun gets here, but I’m going to tell you something right now.” Moonset looked at him curiously, “While Solar isn’t the Eclipse you remember, Pen is.”

“Pen? Did he change his name just to be stupid or what?”

Moonrise laughed, “No, he changed his name to indicate his change of heart. Also because his back up is still around and using the Eclipse title.”

“Change of heart? HIM? Are you saying this is the original?” Moonset was flabbergasted to say the least. He was sure he’d gotten rid of that nuisance but apparently he’d just multiplied it.

“Yes,” Moonrise sat on a chair and sighed, “He went to Kacey and tried to end his back up. It didn’t work, but he tried. And Kacey adopted a fourth kid,” he brought up pictures on a tablet and let Moonset look. “Pen’s on the far right, the Blood Moon next to him is Vermilion, the adoptee. He’s very shy and soft, born alone with a, if you can believe it, worse Eclipse than Pen ever was.”

“That is…it is hard to believe but I can see some ways it could be worse,” Moonset’s eyes looked at Pen’s reluctant but genuine smile, arm around Vermilion’s shoulders. That was the weirdest thing about it, actually. Not that Kacey had adopted a kid, but that Pen existed and seemed to be happy. “How does he act now?”

“Pen?” Moonrise shrugged, “I kinda like him, actually. Yeah, he’s an asshole when he decides to be, but he spent a LONG time making amends. Lunar’s even okay with him being around, so that’s definitely helped.”

Moonrise had to jump back as Moonset screamed, “OH MY GOD LUNAR! I FORGOT!”

“Huh?!”

Moonset tried to get up fully but stumbled and leaned on the table he’d been laying on, “I forgot to leave a message for Lunar! Oh my god, he’s…it’s been a YEAR?! It felt like ten minutes!”

“Time dilation effect from only being given power from our body for a second or two every so often, yeah.” Sighing, the younger Moon rubbed his face, “He was scared, and upset, but Earth helped us all so he’s okay now. Excited to have you back, though.”

Before either of them could say anything else, Sun came running in and stopped.

“Moon?”

“Sun.”

Moonrise got up and gave Sun a pat on the shoulder as he left, “I’ll be in the daycare if you need me.”

He wasn’t going to intrude on their reunion, nervous as he was.

-

Lunar was vibrating with nervous energy as he and Earth sat with Solar in the theater. Moonset had just woken up and Sun was talking to him, but Lunar wanted to be next. His big brother had been gone so long, and even though he really REALLY liked Moonrise as a brother, he wasn’t his original Moon. He wasn’t the one who’d shared his headspace with him, let him play games, introduced him to his favorite things or given him Spigot.

Earth put her arm around him and smiled, “He’ll be here in a bit, Lunar. It is alright to give him and Sun time to talk through their feelings and reconnect.”

“I knowwwww,” Lunar whined, but fell back in his beanbag with his arms spread, “but he hasn’t gotten to know you, or Solar, or Mili or anybody! Heck, he’s probably still mad at Pen and Bloody for everything!”

“I…do not blame him if he is. He hasn’t had the chance to see Pen’s improvement and dedication to change yet and they were once one person. It would be hard for both of them to believe in the other, I’d think, after the betrayal of leaving him behind with Sun.”

“Yeaaaah…” Lunar was still wanting his older brother back, though. Moonrise walked through going toward the balcony room and waved at them, and they waved back. It was nice to see him, a living reminder that no matter how this reintroduction goes, Lunar still had a big brother, and arguably one who’d been with him longer.

After a few minutes, Sun came in with Moonset behind him and he looked at the two. “oh. Okay, wow, uh, hi.”

“Hello, Moonset!” Earth smiled at him and Lunar ran up and hugged him.

“BIG BROTHER!”

“Oof,” Moonset was shaken by Lunar’s tackle, but chuckled, “Okay, I see somebody missed me.”

“Of course, you dingus,” Lunar huffed and looked up at him, “You’re the one who got me a real life, so I’m gonna love you for…ever, I guess.”

“And I’m Earth, although I think we did meet, briefly? Maybe I’m misremembering,” Earth huffed, “I tend to forget the oddest things.”

“Yeah, I don’t think we met, but it’s nice to meet you now, Earth.” He extricated himself from Lunar and offered a handshake, “Sun says you’ve been helping everybody with therapy. I really appreciate that. We all need it.”

“Oh it’s literally what I’m made for!” Earth giggled, shaking his hand, “Father created me to be the perfect caretaker, and I am programmed with a lot of techniques for therapy and caring for special needs.”

“We’re all proud of Earth, actually,” Sun said with a smile, and his sister beamed.

“ah…and Father is the Creator, got it,” Moon put a hand to his forehead. “information overload…uuuugh.”

“Are you getting a headache? Moonrise gets those when he gets overwhelmed,” Lunar asked and Moonset nodded.

“Yeah…uh, can I go to our room now?” Moonset asked Sun, who squeaked.

“A-actually, um, the…the room got blown up.”

“WHAT?”

Chapter Text

Moonset and Moonrise both were present when Ruin woke up from the full system restart that had happened when the magical binds had held Ruin in place long enough to have the manufactured cure uploaded to him.

“Wh-where…am I?” Ruin’s British lilt mumbled out.

“We’re in the parts and services of the Pizza plex,” Moonset said, pecking with his finger at a tablet that showed all of Ruin’s stats, “We stole a piece of your virus code in an earlier encounter and used it to make the cure for your virus.”

Moonrise added, “And as of now, you’re virus free, Ruin.”

“I…am? Moon?” He looked between the two and seemed confused, “Why are there two of you? Or did my vision get further damaged?”

“I’m Moonset,” said the first, smirking a bit, “Original Moon of this universe, this is my younger self, Moonrise, the Moon you’ve been dealing with.” He put his arm around Moonrise and the younger huffed and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah yeah, anyway,” Moonrise helped Ruin sit up and asked, “Take your time, or you’ll be on the floor. We’ll make you a new body eventually, but right now we don’t have the parts.”

“Thank you, dear Moonrise…mn,” Very slowly, Ruin got to his feet with his help, and sighed, “I haven’t been this lucid in half a century…mn, how…how is Sun? A-and all of you, really, I hadn’t…” A groan went through him as he held tight to Moonrise’s shoulder, “oh dear…a bit nauseous.”

“That’s to be expected,” Moonset sighed and came to his other side to help support, “there was a lot of damage to your code and some things were even completely swapped. Your pain receptors were messed with and there was some code damage to your digestive system. The fact you even HAVE one of those is weird.”

“It was originally for the children to give me snacks, actually,” Ruin mumbled, “but that’s fine. I never really got used to the upgrade…a-at least my Sun half didn’t.”

The Moons guide him up to the surface from parts and service, and Ruin asks them, “What, exactly, am I going to be doing, now that I’m at myself?”

“It’s October,” Moonset mentions, and you’re pretty spooky looking right now, so maybe you can be a surprise in the ball pit?”

“Better than nothing, which is my options,” Moonrise says.

Ruin nods and stays quiet for the rest of the walk to the daycare.

-

On hearing that Ruin is cured and accepting visitors, Vermilion ran to the daycare. He’d been wanting to meet who was really inside the unhinged madman for a long time.

Making his way down the slide, Mili plopped into the ball pit, and as he was wading through, something grabbed him.

“Ack!” panic filled his chest but then he looked at the person who’d pulled him under the balls and saw the face he was looking for.

“Oh, Vermilion! I’m so sorry, my dear fellow!” Ruin brought him back to his feet and brushed him off, “I have been tasked with giving a bit of a seasonal spook to the children, but I had meant to have a better first impression. It’s good to meet you in my right mind. I’m Ruin.”

“Hello, Ruin. I came specifically to meet you.” Vermilion felt his fear vanish now that he knew who he was around, smiling even as his fans slowed down from their frenzy, “let’s get out of the pit and talk! How about the theater?”

“oh,” Ruin smiled and nodded, “Yes, of course! Though you may have to help me balance as I’m still lacking a foot.”

“That’s no problem for me,” Vermilion helped Ruin out of the ball pit and stayed on the side where his foot had broken off, letting him use his arm as a crutch of sorts. “Have you had a good time since you woke up?”

“I…well, I’ve honestly just been alone with my thoughts, Vermilion, but the others are at least tolerating me. I think that’s rather good after all my virus did to them. Surprisingly the most generous person toward me has been Solar, but being a fellow refugee of the multiverse, I suppose it does follow logically that he’d understand more.”

Ruin sighed softly as he sat in a beanbag in the theater, “How about you, Vermilion? I honestly have been wanting to talk with you since before I had full control. Your voice was always so soft and sweet when I’d hear it in my little moments.”

“Oh, that makes me feel good,” Vermilion smiled, settling in the beanbag next to him. “When I found out you were just sick and not actually evil, it made my heart hurt for you. What do you want to know?”

Thinking for a moment, Ruin asked, “Well, I want to know a lot, to be honest. You’re so kind to the others, and even the most destructive of them have care of you. It’s lovely and…it made me remember better days. I’d love to know how you do it.”

“I…don’t know?” Vermilion swayed his head back and forth as he thought, “The twins have been protective of me from day one, and Pen was cautious at first but just was nice. I dunno.”

Ruin sighed and fiddled with his hands, “I see. I had hoped there was some secret to getting along with the people here, but I suppose that’s to be expected.”

Mili reached out a hand, “You can do it, Ruin. It’s scary meeting new people, but I’ll help. Uncle Moonset says you’re cured, and I’m going to help make you comfy here, cause this is your home.”

Chuckling softly, Ruin took his hand and nodded, “I don’t quite feel that way yet, but I hope to soon.”

Vermilion squeezed his hand and started walking with him, “I’ll show you around so you know all the places to go, and we can play games or try snacks or even find a little place you can sleep in if you don’t want to stay in the daycare.”

Well, he was very touched, having to keep from letting his optics leak, and nodded with a watery smile, “I would adore that. Thank you, so very much.”