Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the darkened space of the Superstar Daycare, Solar was sitting at his usual spot at the security counter, hunched over the computer and working on one of his many projects. His gloved fingers flew across the keyboard, his rust-colored eyes flicking between the lines of code that moved across the screen in front of him.

The Daycare was in Night Mode, with the only light coming from the glowing wall decorations and the bright fluorescent advertisement screens. He sat alone in the silence, with only the distant mechanical hum from the building’s electronics. He had worked all through the night again; he’d hardly moved from this position the whole time.

 He’d been working on this project for over a week, and it was just one of several projects he was juggling. He always had several projects going at the same time, often pulling all-nighters to make progress on each of them. Monty had coerced him into making this one -- as the gator so often did -- and Solar knew he would be expecting it soon.

After finishing a particularly difficult line of code, Solar paused and checked what time it was; it was about 5:30AM, a half-hour away from opening hours.

Taking an artificial breath, Solar straightened back up his seat. “Okay, that’s enough for now…” he hummed to himself, as he saved and closed the program for later.  

The Pizzaplex would open for business soon, and he needed to get the Daycare ready for the day. He’d already cleaned and sanitized everything the night prior, after the last shift had ended -- he always tried to keep that routine, so that everything was ready to go in the morning; but there were still plenty of things he needed to do.

Solar pulled up his to-do list, and took stock of everything that needed his attention.

Not only was he the primary Daycare Attendant currently working there, he was also the Daycare’s mechanic, which meant it was his duty to fix anything that broke in the facility.

“Mmm… Some of the lights are out in the ceiling… A dispenser… Some floor tile on one of the staircases is loose again…”

He pursed his lips in annoyance at a few of the tasks, because some of these were things that were always breaking, over and over, and he had to fix them, over and over.

There was always something breaking in the Daycare. If it wasn’t the go-karts, it was the soda machines, or the advertisement LEDs, or the light-up decals all over the walls and ceiling; if it wasn’t electrical, something structural was falling apart on the play structures, or the walkways and railings, or the party rooms, or any place a human could walk on and get hurt. The plumbing or pipes would leak, the fridges stopped running, the plush floors would rip, mold would magically appear somewhere.

“Right, I can get most of this done before we open,” Solar said to himself. “At least the places the humans will be.”

Ready to get right to work, Solar stood from his chair and stretched out his joints. His model, a dark orange-and-black one that resembled Sun’s, was a fairly shoddy one compared to his older brothers. His circuits and limbs weren’t as strong or durable as theirs were, and his body was clearly made to be a prototype, not a finished product. But it went beyond that -- there were clear signs of damage and abuse on his casing; a few of his rays were cracked and chipped, and most notably, there was a massive spiderweb crack on the left side of his faceplate, from his eyebrow down to his cheek. Some of the damage was recent. His pants had been ripped and patched in several places.

Solar went to the control panel and switched the Daycare back into Day Mode. The bright overhead lights flared to life, and he could immediately see which ones were out. The music played through the speakers and echoed around the vaulting space.  

He retrieved his tools from the cabinets behind the security counter, and fished out the replacement light bulbs; thankfully, they still had a few. He called down the old cable from the ceiling, the same one his older brothers used to fly with, and hooked it to the loop on his back. The old mechanism lifted him off the ground and pulled him high above the play structures, where he quickly glided over to the burnt-out lights and began to replace them.

He paused after he’d gotten the first dead bulb out.

“And I’m probably not getting any help from you today,” Solar grumbled and glanced over to the balcony, where Moon spent most of his time. “Tch. Yeah, definitely not.” He tossed his head and turned his attention back to the job at hand.   

Another day where Moon wouldn’t be doing his job, huh? It sadly didn’t surprise him anymore. The days where Moon occasionally graced the Daycare’s business with his presence were getting rarer and rarer. By now, it was to the point he hadn’t shown up for naptime in months. For Solar, it was irritating to be left to handle yet another job, but in his heart, he knew Moon shouldn’t be around children; he was far too volatile these days, and Solar knew he was dangerous.

After a few minutes the job was done, and Solar touched back to the ground. After disposing of the old bulbs, he made his way to the area in front of the Daycare’s entrance that was underneath the stairs, where a Fizzyfaz dispenser wasn’t dispensing.

“This thing’s out again…” he grumbled to himself. “Do people even use this one down here?...”

He removed the side panel to get to the machine’s insides. Its wires, gears, and circuits were old and in desperate need of replacement parts, which Solar had no access to; instead, he was expected to rig up repairs to keep these machines chugging along.

Most of the things he had to fix around the Daycare, he’d fixed dozens of times. If he could just buy new things instead of fighting a losing battle with machines that were ready to fall apart, a lot of these issues wouldn’t happen! But god forbid Fazbear open their wallets; their business model was to keep using what they already had for as long as damn well possible, and usually, far beyond that.

The equipment here was so old it was disgusting. Solar was in desperate need of new tools, new pieces and parts, new everything. He would have gladly ordered them all himself, but Moon had oh so generously locked them out of his bank account and changed all the information so that Solar had to go through him to get anything. And Moon could be petty and difficult.

As Solar did his best to clean and recalibrate the gummed up circuits, his eyes were narrowed, a frustrated shadow over them. He’d been inundated with this work for over a year, ever since he gained his body, and sometimes he really felt the bitterness of it…

But then, while he knelt there, another person walked down the stairs and turned the corner.

Lunar was making his way to the Daycare, humming and bobbing his head to imaginary music. He’d just woken up from where he’d been sleeping in the Theater.

Just as he made it to the big wooden doors, he noticed Solar wasn’t at the security counter. He looked around for him, and finally saw him.  

His face lit up and he called out, “Good morning, Brother!”

At the sound of his voice, Solar glanced up. As soon as he saw the smaller bot, his expression softened.

“Morning,” he replied, his tone much more relaxed. “Hang on, I’ll be done in a second.”

Lunar trotted over to his brother’s side. “Whatcha doin’?”

Solar reached into the dispenser with a wrench. “This thing’s clogged again. For the hundredth time,” he added the last part with a huff.  

Lunar glanced up at the machine’s interface, with all its drink options, and jumped up to start pressing the buttons. “Beep-boop, beep-boop. I want the Roxy-flavor faz.”

“Press the button all you want, it’s not on right now,” Solar called without looking up from the machine.

“Aaww.”

“You could always just get one from the other vending machines.”

Lunar perked up with a small gasp. “You’re right!”

Turning away, Lunar ran inside the play area and headed over to its left side, where the refreshment area was.

Solar finished what he was doing, managing to get the ancient contraption back into working order enough to dispense more drinks.  

“I’ll probably be back here next week,” he grumbled as he put the side panel back in place.

He stood up and wiped his gloves clean of the dirt as best he could.

Then, he sped through the final task he needed to tackle before the Daycare opened, re-setting the tiles that had come loose on some of the stairs.

There were other things on the list he needed to fix here and there, but they were minor and wouldn’t disrupt business or put any kids in danger, so they could wait.

He finally joined his brother inside the play area, and stowed his tools back in the cabinet. He could hear Lunar amusing himself, tossing the various foam toys around.

“What are you up to over there?” Solar asked, tilting his head.

Lunar was piling the toys around one of the play structure’s floor-level entranceways. “Goooo-nna play with the kids,” he sang. “Goooo-nna make a fort, in the jungle gyms…”

“Alright, sure,” Solar shrugged; then pointed over to the miniature playhouse near the ballpit. “Not gonna just use the house?”

“We got all squished up when everyone tried to fit in there last time,” Lunar said, then lifted his long arms over his head, palms facing the ceiling. “The fort’s gotta be biiiigger.”

“Snrk- okay,” Solar chuckled.

His little brother’s antics always helped to lighten his mood when he was surrounded by that cloud of negativity. Lunar was only a few months old, but already, Solar couldn’t imagine life without him.

Lunar was half Solar’s height, with big round eyes and a squishy face; he wore huge maroon sleeves, poofy pants, and a nightcap, which were covered in glowing golden stripes and stars.

In many ways, the brothers contrasted; where Solar was often low-energy, down-to-Earth, and a little dour, Lunar had big expressive eyes and was playful and a bit mischievous. But they were also similar in many ways; both their voices were soft and rarely loud, and they both had a constant need to be doing something with their hands, be it stimming or fiddling with something.

As Lunar stacked the shapes into a fort just the way he wanted it, Solar checked the time and saw it was very close to opening hours. They had to finish up.

He looked over to the security counter, where the colorful barrels were laid out in a neat row across the top; Solar had wiped them down last night.

He picked each barrel up and stacked them around the Daycare, in roughly the same areas they were “supposed” to be.

He didn’t care about the ritual itself, all that much… but he remembered how important it had once been for Sun. He wasn’t as meticulous as he had been, but he tried to get it as close to his standards as he could manage.

When that was done, it was time for the show to begin.

~~~~~~~~~~

Right on cue, the children started to arrive, and the Daycare opened its doors for the day.

Solar checked each of them in one by one, putting on his customer service voice to deal with the parents. Lunar started playing with them as soon as they came in.

There weren’t as many children coming to the Daycare as there used to be. There used to be anywhere from thirty to sixty of them, back when Sun was around, but now that number hovered just around a dozen or less. And while the job was easier with fewer charges to look after, it was tough for Solar to see the number become less and less over the year; it was just another sign of Sun’s absence.

One mother walked up to him, followed closely by her young daughter. He recognized the girl right away; she was one of their long-term patrons. She had been coming here for years, as far back as when Sun and Moon shared a body. Anytime Solar saw her, it brought up flashes of memories; but he was getting used to pushing down the terrible ones.  

“Welcome to the Superstar Daycare,” Solar went through his normal script. He was familiar with the little girl, and had seen the mother once or twice; her husband usually dropped her off. Her mother was decent and well mannered, which was always a relief when dealing with customers.

Just as they were about to finish the process, the woman paused.

“Hmmm,” she was suddenly looking at something behind him, squinting. “You know, I just noticed, you look different from the ads, Sun.”

Solar paused for a moment, too. In the past, those words might have thrown him off his game, but now the pain was familiar.

“Mama, that’s not Sun!” the little girl piped up.

“It’s not?” the woman looked surprised.

 “It’s true,” he said. “I’m not Sun. I’m Solar.”

“Oh, really?” the woman tilted her head.

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t know the Daycare got a new mascot.”

He didn’t want to consider himself that, not in a way that would take that role from Sun… but that’s kind of what he was now, wasn’t it?

“It’s a long story. I’ve been here for about a year now.”

“Silly me, then,” she shrugged. “If it’s been that long I suppose you must be fine. Take good care of Evelyn!”

“We will,” Solar nodded, before looking down to the little girl. “Want to go inside and play with Lunar, Evelyn?”

“Yeah,” Evelyn said sweetly, and hurried into the Daycare, while her mother left a moment after.

When both of them were out of earshot, Solar let out a sigh.

Every now and then, one of the humans mistook him for Sun because of their similar models. Most regulars to the Daycare had learned the difference, but even now, once in a while there was someone who hadn’t gotten the memo.

Even if it didn’t hurt as much as it used to, it was still a bitter pill to swallow.

Sun’s smiling face was all around him -- on the blindingly bright advertisement screens, on the decorations and posters all over the walls, and embroidered on the plushies and merchandise.

It was always a constant reminder that he wasn’t here anymore.

And Solar, standing below those images in this banged-up prototype body that resembled him, was a pale imitation trying to fill his role.

Solar tried his best to keep the Superstar Daycare running in Sun’s absence. Someone had to pick up his duties, and it seemed it had to fall to him. The staff bots were hardly competent, Moon couldn’t be bothered or trusted, the Glamrocks and other animatronics were too busy or didn’t care, and Lunar… Lunar helped him with the kids for some shifts, that was true, but Solar wanted his little brother to live freely, happily, to have plenty of time to himself and to just have fun in his life; he didn’t want to lay the tedious responsibility on him.

After that moment to himself, he checked his sign-in sheet.

“Okay. That’s everyone.”

The hours passed by, and Solar tried his best to take care of the children. He kept them from hurting themselves as they ran around the play structures, and Lunar did a good job of playing with them and keeping them entertained. Solar served them snacks, provided them with the activities such as arts and crafts, and cleaned up as they went.

The kids seemed happy enough, but Solar was aware he wasn’t as good at this as Sun was. Sun knew exactly what to do and loved this job, while Solar had never felt truly comfortable in this role. He wasn’t terrible with kids, but he didn’t have the innate skills to connect with them on their level fully; he knew how to care for their needs in a more logical way, but not how to make them laugh with joy the whole day long, the way Sun had.

Lunar liked the kids. He was good at playing with them and finding things for them to do. But he was also a lot like their friend, rather than a caretaker.

When naptime came around, they switched the Daycare into Night Mode and wrangled the children to lie down. Lunar climbed into the big doughnut toy they had, and fell asleep alongside them, leaving only Solar awake in the dark room, surrounded by eleven snoring bundles of blankets – ten kids and one small robot.

Just as he had expected, Moon didn’t bother to show up.

“I knew it,” Solar whispered under his breath, staring at the balcony, where a thin crack of light was visible from beyond the curtain.

As the rest of the day came and went, there were the usual ups and downs that came with dealing with children, but it passed without much issue.

And at long last, the parents finally started arrived to pick up their children, and Solar and Lunar bid them goodbye one by one.

~~~~~~~~~~

When they were finally done, Solar switched back into work mode; he retrieved the barrels, which had been predictably knocked over during the course of the day. Lunar’s fort had been torn down and thrown all over the place too.

Solar wiped the barrels down with sanitizer; he’d never seen the point in doing it so often, really, but it had been important to Sun

On the other hand, Lunar grabbed the big doughnut toy, which was taller than he was. “Hah-yah!” he rolled it like a tire. It whisked across the floor, under the bridge, and finally toppled on its side.

“Y’know,” Solar chuckled, “we’re supposed to be straightening up the place.”

“Mm-hmm!” Lunar grinned back.

“Why don’t you go bring it back for me.”  

“Okaaay,” Lunar did as he was told, retrieving the doughnut and rolling it back to the pile of other toys.  “Aaaall done,” he stood back.

“Great,” Solar said, then motioned at him with the sanitizer rag. “And I suppose you don’t want to help me with THIS, do you.”

“Nope!” Lunar shook his head fast.

“Yeah? Didn’t think so,” Solar chuckled.

The brothers were enjoying the moment, laughing amongst themselves.

But then, just as they were finishing up, Moon appeared.

In a quick motion he was on the lip of the balcony, jumped down into the ballpit, and vaulted over the barrier onto the Daycare floor, before marching towards the two of them.  

As soon as the brothers saw him approaching, their banter stopped. Solar straightened up tensely, and Lunar went silent.

Moon glared at Solar with his piercing red eyes. He motioned sharply with a hand. “You,” he spat. “Listen up.”

Moon started walking closer. Instinctively, Solar stepped in front of Lunar, so that the smaller robot was behind him.

“What is it, Moon?” he kept his voice even.

“Got a job for you,” Moon said. “Give me your arm so I can send it.”

“Ugh,” Solar sighed – of course, more work -- but held out his arm as he was told to. “Here.”

Moon grabbed his wrist tightly, and through their connection, a new list of tasks popped into Solar’s head. Some of them were Moon’s duties around the Pizzaplex, which he was now shirking and forcing onto Solar… but then there were orders for various gadgets or programs for Solar to make. He recognized what those were: they were all parts for Moon’s ideas that he hoped would fix Sun and bring him back from his coma.

He was used to doing all kinds of jobs for Moon like this; he almost never rejected an order from him.

Moon released Solar’s wrist. “Get them done.”

“I’ll get to them as soon as I can,” he said, filing them away on his to-do list.

“Make them your priority.” Moon’s voice dipped into a low threat.

“…Yeah, sure,” Solar narrowed his eyes at him, not wanting to spring up an argument right here.

While the two bots glared at one another, Lunar was still behind his big brother. He had always been nervous around Moon, but he was still curious about him. He peered around Solar’s legs to get a better look at him; Moon’s eyes flicked down to him, his expression cold, but he didn’t acknowledge him otherwise.

“Good. Don’t make me wait. Sun needs this.”

Moon stalked away, disappearing somewhere into the depths of the Pizzaplex, to do god only knew what.

Solar sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to think of how to fit the new orders into his schedule.

“That guy can be a real jerk,” Lunar said bluntly.

“Tch. You’re right about that.”

“He’s just always gotta act so pissy about everything, all the time. Why does he gotta be that way?”

Solar paused before answering. “…I don’t know,” he said quietly… but he was hesitant, almost guilty.

Lunar stared at him for another moment, but didn’t press him further.

Whenever Solar looked around the Pizzaplex, it wasn’t just Sun’s face that was plastered everywhere; Moon was always right there beside him, styled with a serene smile. Two of a kind. Brothers. Twins.

He knew that Moon was grieving over what had happened to Sun…  

The truth was, Solar knew more about Moon than Lunar realized.

Solar had evolved from the fragment of Moon’s Killcode left behind in Sun’s head; and because of that, he shared all of Moon’s memories from before the twins had separated. He knew Moon had been a violent, abusive asshole for as long as he’d been alive. He knew some of this behavior came from fear and anger at being trapped, but that excuse only went so far. At his core, that was his normal personality.

…But it had gotten exponentially worse after Solar manifested, after Sun had accepted the risk of separating and fell comatose as a result.

That event had destroyed Moon. Solar remembered how horrific that time had been to live through. Moon continued to live in that rage, even now; he practically CHOSE to hold onto that rage and keep it burning, no matter what, throwing aside all possible other avenues for recovering or healing or letting go. 

Solar had tried to earn Moon’s trust -- and if not trust, then at least his tolerance. But after a year of suffering, he knew that it would never happen. Not unless Sun woke up. Even then, the chances were slim.

But Lunar didn’t deserve Moon’s hate. When Solar built Lunar, he’d hoped Moon would be more amicable to him; he’d even built him to resemble Moon. He’d hoped Moon would see the similarities between each other, and feel some kinship with him… but it seemed it hadn’t happened.

The first day Moon had met Lunar, a few months ago… it hadn’t been pretty.

He had told Lunar about his origin, about what had happened to Sun… but a lot of those deeper, complex emotions were still unknown to the smaller bot.

But at this moment, he had even more tasks to attend to, and wanted to get on them.

“I better get back to work, I have a bunch of crap to do tonight,” he finally.  

“Okay,” Lunar agreed softly.

Solar thought about which task he should turn to next; there were just so many…

The Daycare needed cleaning. Then it needed an Attendant to watch the kids during play hours, and one to watch them at naptime while they slept. Then, the Daycare needed constant maintenance and repairs. Then, there were his engineering and programming jobs; then there were other important projects he’d taken on; then there were Monty’s schemes he was involved with that kept this place funded; then there were Moon’s orders… And on top of it all, he tried to be a good brother for Lunar…

It was never-ending, and he tried to bear it all. But there was still a truth to the situation: he was just one person.

He could only do so much by himself.

But… he wouldn’t complain.

He would grit his teeth and just do it

There was even a deep amount of pride he took in being useful.

“I’m gonna head out for a while!” Lunar said; there was still plenty of time in the evening for him to find something to entertain himself out in the Pizzaplex.  

“Have fun,” Solar said, once again heading to grab his tools.

Lunar bounded for the doorway; just before he turned the corner, he paused mid-step and looked back.

“I love you, Brother!” he called out.

Over his shoulder, Solar called back with a small smile on his face: “Love you too, kid.”

Chapter Text

Lunar trotted into the Main Atrium and looked over the balcony, where the late-night patrons were still moving to and fro, and staffbots flittered among the tables to serve them and clean up the mess they left behind. A lot of the humans who passed him didn’t even notice he was an animatronic, and just thought he was a weirdly dressed kid.

“What’s fun tonight?” he asked himself as he looked around at all the flashing signs.

The Pizzaplex was huge! It was fun to run around the big attractions like Roxy Raceway or the Fazcade; the Pizzaplex was like an indoor amusement park that way, so there was a lot stuff to see! Sometimes, Solar would let him off of shifts in the Daycare so he could go off to play around the building. He especially liked the attractions that had glowing things to look at! Glowing things mesmerized him.

“Ooh, Fazer Blast…!” Fazer Blast was always a good choice when he wanted to see the lights! But after a moment to think, tonight he wasn’t feeling it. “…Hmm. Nah.”

He could go to Rockstar Row and see who he ran into; there were all kinds of funny weirdoes living here. Lunar sometimes ran into the Glamrocks or humans or the other random robots from older Freddy places who weren’t supposed to be here but somehow shacked up here, but he didn’t know any of them very well. Solar and him weren’t all that close to anyone else!

Eventually, his bright pink eyes turned to the big Gator Golf sign. “Ooh, that one!” he immediately started making his way over in its direction.

Monty owned the whole Pizzaplex, but the golf course was the attraction his likeness was attached to.

Lunar slipped past the staffbot that guarded the elevator, impatiently swayed to the music for a few seconds, and then ran into the big room when the doors finally opened.

Gator Golf was huge and a ton of fun to explore. Sometimes Lunar would just run in there and pretend to be lost in the jungle! He used to go swimming in the waterways too… until he got stuck in a popup alligator’s mouth and it took Solar three hours to find him and rescue him.

It was crazy Monty never let anyone in there!

Monty treated Gator Golf more like his own personal giant open-concept mansion than a business, with a huge theater-sized television right in the middle of the golf course, in front of a luxury sitting area, where he liked to watch his weird British football.  Lunar half-suspected he slept in here too.

Lunar trekked through the big golf course for a while, playing around in the plastic vegetation and the stands you usually weren’t supposed to touch.

Eventually he made his way to Monty’s sitting area, with its huge plush couch, big fancy glass coffee table, and giant TV, currently switched off. Monty had a “butler” staffbot holding a tray with a kettle and tea cups waiting next to the couch. A side table also had a bowl containing a bunch of treats and candy. Monty was always importing weird British snacks. Like toffee. Or these weird big chocolate eggs with toys in them. But they were all the highest class stuff, not anything you’d find in Fazbear’s vending machines. Lunar liked sneaking in here to swipe those goodies!

He glanced around one more time to make sure no one was watching before snagging a big handful of the wrapped candies, and stuffed them in his nightcap. His nightcap was useful as a pocket that way.

He was glad Solar built him with the ability to eat! There was plenty of food to be found around the Pizzaplex… of varying quality, but a lot of it was still pretty good! He drank a lot of fizzyfaz. He was also a big fan of chips. And he didn’t know what he would do if he couldn’t have Nutella.

He was just looking over the bowl and deciding if there were any more pieces he’d like to take when a sound came from the distance and he froze with his hand outstretched. He knew what that was! Monty had come back into Gator Golf! He wasn’t exactly quiet, and he could hear him coming from all the way across the room.

“Those pillocks, making me miss football on the ol’ telly…”

“Oops!” Lunar scurried off to the side and ducked behind some of the fake vegetation, out of sight.

Nothing bad ever happened when Monty caught him in here… it was just… really annoying.

Monty cantered into the room, grumbling in his fake exaggerated accent about having to stay late for a meet and greet with fans after one of the Pizzaplex’s concerts, which he still did with his bandmates, Freddy, Roxanne, and Chica.

The butler staffbot got to work heating the kettle as soon as it saw Monty, and after a minute handed him a cup, which the gator drank daintily.

“Just the one, my good fellow!” he held up a hand to stop the butler from preparing another cup. “I still have business out there with a couple blokes, just popped by for a breather…”

Lunar shuffled along the walkway, from one fake plant to the next, trying to get out of the room before Monty had a chance to catch him.

Lunar’s arm accidentally brushed against some of the fake leaves, and the plastic shuffled loudly.

“What’s all that now!?” Monty was suddenly alerted.  

“Uh-oh!” Lunar gasped under his breath, and bolted in the other direction, into a hiding place behind some of the cardboard stands.

The gator tromped closer and looked around at where the sound had come from, and Lunar held still, waiting to see if his stealth would pay off.

After a moment of glancing around, Monty snorted.  

“It’s those rats scuttling around again,” the gator scoffed, then shrugged and started to walk away, muttering irately to himself. “Aaach! The Help’s always complaining about that! ‘I heard something scrambling in the basement walls!’ they tell me! I cheer them up by telling them not to worry about the rats, the inspectors don’t care, I pay them handsomely, they won’t bother us a wink! But then they complain ‘I know about THOSE rats, but these sound like some MIGHTY BIG ones, I think it’s something else’… Oooooh there’s scratching and something beating the floor under your feet, how teeeeerrifying…” he said sardonically, waving his clawed fingers like there was a ghost.

Lunar slowly peeked around the corner just in time to see his tail disappearing around the corner into one of the side corridors.

“Huh!” he shrugged as he stepped out and made a break for it.

Sweet, he’d escaped!

He could have just tried to sneak back out of Gator Golf, but Lunar was nothing if not stubborn. He knew where Monty’s hidden route to the catwalks was, so he slipped over to it, and a minute later he had walked out onto the catwalks. Gator Golf spiraled out below him, and the weird Gator coaster thing sat up there, not moving.

Lunar liked being up here too, because he could pretend to be flying.

He walked the catwalks for a little while, and looked at the coaster longingly. He wished it moved! It would be so much fun to ride on that thing! Then he’d really feel like he was flying!

Then he heard Monty’s voice down below and peered over the railing; Monty was down by his big sitting area again, standing in front of the snack bowl with a furrowed brow, peering down into it. He was picking over the bowl and seemed to notice things were missing.

Lunar suppressed a giggle as he watched.

After a little while of observing the confused gator, he just started to pull back from the railing; there was a vent up here that led to Mazercise, which would be his ticket out of here without being seen.

Unfortunately for Lunar, the catwalks could be creaky, being made of metal. And when Lunar stepped on one spot, the metal just so happened to let out a creak.

“’EY!” Monty yelled, whirling around and pointing dramatically at Lunar.

“Uh-oh!” Lunar yelped and sprinted off down the catwalk. 

“Ah-HAH! O’ COURSE it’s you! I KNEW I heard something!” Monty ranted indignantly, then puffed up in rage when Lunar made a break for it. “EY!! Where’re you going!? Get back here!”

“Nnn-O!” Lunar called back.

“Quit getting up on my catwalks!”

“Nnn-O!”  

He dove into the vent while Monty called after him, and then crawled forward until he reached the turn in the tunnel, and Gator Golf was out of sight.

“Phew,” Lunar sat back, resting against the vent wall, and mimicked wiping his forehead. “That guy’s weird!”

His hat ruffled with the pilfered candy. He retrieved some kind of cherry candy and ate one, before holding onto the wrapper to throw in the trash later. Solar scolded him when he littered.

After a while, Lunar realized he should probably start heading back Daycarewards. That meant he had to keep going and would have to pass through Mazercise.

Then his eyes went wide and let out a huge whine.

“Aww man, I hate Mazercise.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Sometime later, Solar was working at the computer again. He’d already filed Moon’s orders away, allotting time for them; he would start working on them within the next day or two. Even if Moon wanted them to be his priority, this was the best he would get.

He was currently working on a very specific project, one that was a priority over anything else on his list.  

“’Ello there, Solar! Are you in? Mind if I come around for a spell?”

When that loud voice reached Solar, he shut his eyes and groaned in annoyance. There was only one person who sounded so ridiculous.

“What do you want, Monty?” he called back impatiently.

Solar quickly hit a button on the computer, one he’d installed when the project began, which instantly closed and hid the documents he was looking at.

Then he stood up to deal with Monty.

The gator swaggered in with that irritating smug expression and that stupid manacle on his face.

“Ah, there you are! Just the man I wanted to see! Put her there, mate!” Monty reached out quickly and snatched Solar’s gloved hand up in his, and shook it vigorously. “Always a pleasure to see you!”

“…Riiight,” Solar slowly retracted his hand when Monty finally released his vicegrip on it. “If you’ve come to ask about the program, it’s not done yet; I’ll have it to you by the end of the week.”

“Mate, that’s fine, wasn’t coming here for that!” Monty waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t need that ‘un just yet anyway, that’s small potatoes!”

“Then, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Solar pressed. Having dealt with Monty for so long, he had a pretty good idea what the gator was gearing up to.  

“Ahh don’t sound so grumpy, I’ve come with a fantastic business proposition for you!” the gator winked, going into his salesman voice.

Yep. That’s exactly what Solar was expecting. Monty, shrewd corrupt business tycoon that he was, always had many plans and schemes going at the same time, and this meant he often came to Solar to give him a new project to add to his to-do list before he’d even completed the current one he was working on.

“What is it this time, Monty?” he hoped to just get it over with.

“This is a good, one, you’re gonna love this,” Monty said, holding up a finger. “We got so many children coming to this Pizzaplex, and I was thinkin’, how can we wring some more cash from them, right?”

“…Yeah?” Solar nodded, feeling that creeping nervousness about what Monty had in mind.

“We get them… to make merchandise for US!” he said with a flourish. “We market it as an Arts and Crafts class or some such, and when we get ‘em at their tables, we give ‘em the materials and templates to follow, and we have it in our contract that all the malarkey they make is property of Fazbear Entertainment, so we can keep it! And then we SELL it! We can even motivate them by telling them if they do a good job they’ll be given a special Artistic License, or whatever the hell, the same kind as the greats, Leonardo Da Vinci or Michelangelo! And if they don’t follow the templates exactly, they’ll fail as artists and won’t get the license! They’ll be paying for the lessons AND we’ll be making bank off their labor! It’s a double win for us!”

Solar listened, unimpressed. No, he hated that. Monty always had these horrible, immoral ideas.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking there, mate!” Monty pointed, his claw poking the middle of Solar’s nose. “‘Brilliant’! And yes, I am aware! It’ll make us a real bundle! Millions! Billions!” Then he paused. “But in order to do that, I need some things built for me. I need templates with instructions for the dumb little gremlins to follow, and I need a conveyor belt that will shuffle pieces along like a factory. Can’t be having those kids be TOO disorganized, you know, we’d hardly get anything! It needs to have SOME semblance of coordination! And that, my good man, is where you come in!”

“Mm-hmm, sure,” Solar sighed. “And let me guess, I get a ridiculously low percent of the earnings.”

“On the contrary, I think it’s a very fair amount!” Monty said. “Two percent! With the amount we’re bound to make, that’ll be enough to pay the Daycare’s rent another week or so, don’t you think?”

It wasn’t like Solar had a choice. Each of these “commissions” was one more week the Daycare had to stay afloat; they were barely scraping by, and turning one down might be the one that sank them.

And the worst part was: Monty KNEW he didn’t have a choice. And he took full, shameless advantage of backing Solar into a corner.

He hated dealing with Monty.

“Fine, I’ll do it,” Solar conceded. “Send over the specifications, and I’ll get on it.”

“Fantastic, that’s a good man,” Monty nodded and spoke like he was a good dog. Then he glanced around the Daycare, and then up at the balcony over the ballpit. “Used to do business with Moon. What a shame things turned out this way, don’t you think? Haven’t had much luck with that one in SUCH a long while! He used to be all over my deals, but he hasn’t been ever since, well…” he spun his hand in a circle, pretending to search for ‘gentler’ words. “YOU showed up and Sun went caput, and Moon went sick in the head, you know,” he twirled his clawed finger next to his head in the “coocoo” gesture.

Solar refrained from answering. Everything Monty just said made his distaste for the gator smolder more.

“Oh! And one more thing!” Monty said. “That Lunar of yours! Did you know I caught the little bugger up in my rafters again?”

“Did you?” Solar looked up. “Well, don’t look at me, I don’t encourage him to go to off-limits places.” And that was even usually true.

“I think he stole some of my prime candies, too,” Monty said, harrumphing.  

Solar allowed himself to chuckle at that. Frankly… that didn’t surprise him at all.

But then Monty waved his hand. “Ah well, I’ll forgive him this one time! I can’t stay mad at him! He’s good entertainment, this whole Daycare had gotten so unbearably dull in the year before he came along!”

“…Sure.”

“Speaking of which, where is the little devil?” he glanced around.

“Not here,” he shrugged.

“Ahh, probably off getting up into all kinds of shenanigans in my Pizzaplex… But it’s fine! It’s fiiiine. Once you finally put him to work around here, he’ll make up for all the trouble when he starts making me money.”  

“I’m not gonna do that,” Solar said flatly.

“Huh?” Monty sounded genuinely confused. “Why aren’t you putting that tyke of yours to work? Isn’t that what you made him for?”

“This might surprise you, Monty,” Solar narrowed his eyes. “But I didn’t make Lunar to be a work drone, or some servant to me.”

Monty stared at him like the concept was utterly incomprehensible.

 “Ah well!” he finally said. “Suit yourself! But take it from me, orphans make for a fantastic labor force! Get that kid doing something and it’ll be smooth sailing for you!”

“Mmm-hmm.” Solar ignored the comment, something he was used to doing with this weirdo.

If he just stood there and waited it out, Monty would talk, and talk, and talk, and then he would finally leave.

“With that settled, I must be off! Lots of business partners to parlay with! A pleasure doing business with you, chum!” Monty said with a stiff nod, before finally turning and leaving the area.

“Whatever you say,” Solar said back, but the gator hadn’t given him the time of day as he disappeared.

After he was gone, Solar massaged the bridge of his nose. He always felt like he needed to take a bath after Monty visited him.

“Tricking kids again, using kids again, huh…?” he muttered to himself, just disgusted at the thought of going along with it. If he could make his own choice, he wouldn’t collude with the gator on any of his schemes.

Unfortunately, Monty was one of the few stable sources of money that kept this Daycare going.

While he was standing there, Lunar slowly peeked his head around the corner.

“Is he gone?” he whispered.

“Yeah, he’s gone. Come on in,” Solar nodded.

The smaller bot padded in through the doors. He was carrying a box of nachos with the mazercise logo on it. “Man he’s fast!” Lunar said, popping one of the cheesy chips into his mouth. “He was just in Gator Golf!”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Lunar,” Solar said.

“Sorry!” he said, using his hand to cover his mouth as he spoke.

“But yeah,” Solar shrugged, “he just came here to make me work on one of his projects. It’s just more of his usual crap.”

“He does a lot of bad stuff!” Lunar noted.

“He sure does.” 

“I don’t think he’s really British.”

“Y’know, you’re probably right.” But then Solar tilted his head. “You were at Gator Golf, weren’t you?”

Lunar paused with his mouth open, about to eat a chip. “Yeahhh…?”

“Okay, well, look. I know you like going to Gator Golf, but just, be careful. I know Monty seems fun to play with, but he’s… not really someone you want to provoke, okay?”

“You’re worried about me making him mad?” Lunar scraped at some of the cheese with his finger, something Solar would normally tell him not to do, but his attention wasn’t on that. “He seems pretty chill around me!”

“He does,” Solar said. “I don’t think he’ll do anything to hurt you, right now, but… Monty is… complicated.”

It was a good thing that Lunar was on Monty’s good side… but Monty’s opinions and treatments of things could change in an instant if he thought he could get something out of people.

But Lunar didn’t really seem to be listening… It probably didn’t register to him, all that much.

Solar had kept a lot of Monty’s most serious crimes a secret from Lunar, so as not to freak him out… like he did for many serious things.

“He thought I was a rat!” Lunar said out of nowhere.

Solar perked an eyebrow. “Mm-hm?”

“Yeah! He heard me at one point, but I hid and he didn’t catch me, and he started talking about how the workers keep hearing really big rats in the basement!”

“Rats?” Solar repeated.

“Yeah, really big rats!”

Solar paused.

“Well, with you scurrying all over the place…” he snorted after a moment.

“Heeey,” Lunar put one hand on his hip, the nacho box in the other. He reached for the last few crumbs at the bottom, and then it was empty. “Aw, my nighttime snack’s gone. They never give you enough.”

“That’s how they get you to spend money on more of it,” Solar shook his head.

Lunar dumped the box in the trashcan.

“It’s getting pretty late,” Solar said. “You gonna head to bed soon?”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes.”

“Aww. Okay.” Lunar looked like he didn’t want to.

“Where are you gonna sleep tonight?”

“Just the Theater, I guess.”

Lunar could fall asleep almost anywhere. There were a bunch of different places he slept in; it was usually in the Theater, but he could also fall asleep in the miniature house, or up in the play structures or the castle area, or many other places. Solar just slept wherever, sometimes straight up on the floor.

Solar glanced at his own battery. He hadn’t charged in a while and he was getting close to empty; he would need to charge tonight.

Solar often went days without sleep. Sometimes he would only stop working when his battery ran out and charging became an absolute necessity; otherwise, he had to keep busy at all times.   

“Alright, head off that way,” Solar nodded. “Goodnight, kid.”

“Goodnight, Brother, I love you!”

“Love you too.”

The smaller bot started to head off.

“Oh and Lunar!” Solar called before he could make it three steps. “Did you take candy from Gator Golf?”

Lunar froze. “…Nnnooooo?”

Solar looked down at him.

“Lunar.”

“Nooooo…?”

“Lunar.”

“…Yes.”

“Nice.”

~~~~~~~~~~

When he was certain Lunar was gone, Solar’s smile faded, and he turned back to the security counter. There was the quick flick of the switches on the wall, and the Daycare’s music stopped and the lights faded back into Night Mode.

He sat at the computer again, but instead of pulling up Moon or Monty’s projects, he delved into a more restricted part of the machine – a part that wasn’t so easy to find.

He re-opened the files he’d hidden at Monty’s arrival.

And then before him, a hidden folder opened, and thousands of files appeared, exactly where Solar had left them off.

It was a mountain of information. Intricate blueprints and complicated technical documents, reports for testing phases for dozens of different mechanisms, documents with millions and millions of mathematical and scientific calculations; there could be entire encyclopedias about quantum physics, space and time, and the fabric of the universe here. It would have pushed this tiny computer to the bursting point if Moon hadn’t upgraded it years ago before Solar manifested, with Solar having added his own modifications to host this and protect this data too.

As Solar looked over it all, his rust-colored eyes narrowed, a shadow of seriousness and determination falling over his face. 

This was all the research he had about the Star.

Solar had always known about the Star’s existence; Moon had started working on it when the twins were still in one body; when Sun and Moon separated, he’d continued his research into it alongside all his other flights of fancy, but hadn’t had enough time to finish it before Solar manifested. And then, after the second separation and Sun’s subsequent coma, Moon had abandoned everything else to focus on repairing his brother.

For so long, the half-completed research on the Star had sat dormant in its secured server, and Moon hadn’t touched them since.

But Solar…

As the months had passed and he witnessed Moon try and fail every conventional method of repairing Sun, a thought had occurred to Solar; he remember the Star… and started wondering if it might be the solution to fixing all of his brothers.

So he had cracked his way into Moon’s secured server, and taken all of the information for himself and hidden it in a deep lock on his computer where only he could find it; and for months now, he had been picking through the half-finished details, finding the places where Moon had left off and trying to fill them in himself.

It was the most difficult, complicated, perplexing thing he had ever worked on.

There were so many places where he was stumped, and figuring out how to get over each of these hurdles was a new challenge unto itself. There were places that seemed to work against the conventional laws of science. The entire thing was like a giant 4D jigsaw puzzle, with the confounding madness of a black hole’s singularity mixed with magic.

Solar knew the Star was dangerous. And he knew its chance of succeeding at bringing Sun back was very low.

Even if the Star could repair near-anything that was broken, it could not revive the dead. And the truth was that, even if Moon insisted it was merely a coma that could be fixed, the two of them didn’t know if Sun was actually still alive or if he was actually already dead.

Even if Solar completed the Star, he might just find Sun had been gone from the very beginning.

So maybe Solar WAS just grasping at straws and holding onto false hope that a spark of Sun was still there, deep in his cold unmoving circuits… but this was the single remaining thing he could think of, his last-ditch attempt that might be able to fix everything that was broken here in this place…

To revive Sun from wherever his mind was now… to restore Moon’s sanity and the pieces of himself ripped away from him... And to fix them…  

And to also assure all of this, for Lunar’s sake and his safety…

Even though there was a deep, painful part of Solar that knew Sun was probably already gone… He wanted to try. His hope had faded over the year, and he had tried to accept he might never see Sun again, but despite that, he wanted to try. 

He wanted to believe there was still a possibility, however remote it was. He didn’t want to give up on Sun, not before he had exhausted the last possible option.

The Star was his Hail Mary.

Solar didn’t even know if he COULD finish the Star; but he was damn sure going to give it everything he had.  

He owed it to Sun…

And… he wanted it.

He wanted it so much. So, painfully much…

He thought of them, all of them, every time he looked at the Star’s data.  

If Sun could just wake up…

If Moon could just stop being cruel to both of them…

And if he could fix them…

“Maybe then, our family would be whole.”

Chapter Text

Lunar trotted through the Daycare’s doors, and noticed a distinct lack of Solar at the computers. He looked around for a moment, wondering where he’d gone off to, until his eyes finally landed on the tall orange bot, asleep on the floor next to one of the wall outlets. He was snoring, and curled up with his long arms and legs close to him.

Lunar bounced over and knelt down next to him eagerly.

“Wake up. Wake up!” he said loudly in Solar’s face, and waited a moment for a response. Solar just continued to snore, and Lunar tilted his head. “…Waaaake up, waaaake up, waaaaake up,” he chanted, and started booping his brother repeatedly – and forcefully – on the nose. 

At the sudden intrusion to his dreams, Solar started and blinked his eyes open, finding Lunar’s face inches from his, repeatedly poking him with his finger. 

“Okay, I’m-- ahhpphh--!” for good measure, Lunar poked him on the nose again. “Augh, okay, okay, I’m up, I’m up-- quit it, I’m up!” He waved his hand to shoo the smaller bot away.

“Good morning, Brother!” Lunar said cheerfully, standing back up. “It’s time to go to work!”

“Yeah--” Solar groaned as he gathered his limbs under him. “Yeah, okay, I’m coming.”

The smaller bot bounded away while Solar uncurled himself from the floor. He stood up with a groan and rolled his joints, which felt like they’d gotten stiff laying in that position for so long.

At least he could count on Lunar to wake him up.

He checked his battery; it was closer to a full charge. He was always nervous about going to sleep, not just for losing several hours of the day, but for anything that could happen to him while he was unconscious. There were times he’d woken up to Moon grabbing him and yanking him up to yell at him.

But there was no time to waste worrying about that.

A short while later, Solar was repairing the Go-Karts in the refreshment area just in front of the Daycare’s big pirate doors, a welding torch in hand and goggles down to protect his eyes. He was kneeling at the vehicle’s side, where it had sustained huge dents and broken off one of the connectors from its wheels.

“These things are so damn dangerous,” Solar scoffed. “Why do parents even let their kids ride these things?”

This was another of Monty’s advertising schemes, putting two Go-Karts right on display for the Daycare children to see, so that hopefully they’d coerce their parents into visiting Roxy Raceway. But the gator insisted on using real Go-Karts from the Raceway itself, because he was too cheap to set two vehicles aside to just be there for advertising. He also insisted they swap the Karts out every now and then, so the kids would see the different mascots.

That also meant that whenever it was a swapping day, the Go-Karts would arrive, damaged from the Raceway’s far-too-rough races where they were always slamming into things, and Solar had to fix them before it could be displayed.

But honestly, this was one of the jobs he didn’t mind as much as the others; he much preferred this over fixing vending machines or filling cracks in the bathroom pipes with silicone. He might even consider volunteering to help in Roxanne’s garages where her racing karts were kept, if he were free to make that choice.

Still, in this context, it was just another chore to get out of the way.

This time the Go-Karts were themed after Roxanne and Chica.

Lunar had stolen Solar’s rolling board, which was supposed to be used by an engineer to lie on their back and roll underneath a vehicle propped up on jacks. But Solar could reach the damage just fine, so he let him play with it.

Lunar zoomed across the tiled floors, taking advantage of the wide-open space and the long hallways that surrounded the play area. Solar could hear the loud rolling wheels behind him as he worked.

“Wheeee!” Lunar lifted up his arms as he went. It was fun to pretend to be flying. The board rolled to a stop in front of the refreshment area. He called over to his brother: “I’m zoomin’!”

“Yeah,” he said amicably. “I can hear it.”

“You ever wanna go to Roxy Raceway and race with those Go-Karts?”

“Nah, the races don’t really interest me,” Solar replied without turning around from where he was working. “I think I’m too tall for them anyway.” All nine feet of him would have trouble scrunching up in the small driver’s seats.

“I like the races! I sneak in and get in on them sometimes!”

“Uh-huh,” Solar chuckled, remembering Roxanne’s grumbling about it. “I know you do.” He believed she secretly enjoyed him shaking up the races.

“I gotta ride with those dumb assist bots though.”

“The assist bots are there to help the short kids.”

“I’m not short, I’m fun-sized,” Lunar protested.

“Riiight. My bad.”

A few more minutes passed as Lunar messed around behind him, occasionally saying something before zooming off on the board. He was getting impatient. 

“Are you done yeeet?”

“Nope.”

“I’m bored.”

“Well find something to do. You got games in your head, play those.”

“I diiid, I’m bored of those.”

The truth was that Lunar wanted to do something with his brother. He didn’t have anyone else to play with, not really.

“How long ‘till you’re done with that?”

“I’ll be done in a few minutes.”

“Mmmgh,” Lunar pouted. He jumped back on the rolling board and made it roll really fast.

There was a crash as Lunar ran into a wall somewhere. Solar heard a distinct “DHAH!” echo around the corner.

A few seconds later he shimmied up next to Solar, nightcap eschew but unharmed, and stared at him, a bit petulantly since he wanted his attention. Then he looked down at where he was reattaching the wheel.

“Why do you gotta fix them anyway?” Lunar asked. “The kids’ll think it looks cool like that!”

“In theory, these aren’t supposed to get so busted up,” Solar replied. 

“But that’s what Go-Karts are supposed to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hit things and get busted up?” 

“…You mean bumper cars?”

“Ohh. Bumper cars.”

“You’re thinking bumper cars. These are Go-Karts. They’re different.”

“Ohhhhhhh. Ohhhh. The Pizzaplex needs to get some bumper cars.”

“Wouldn’t be surprised if Monty would take that request…” images of the disaster that would be flashed before his eyes.

 And then, finally, a few minutes later, the last bolt was tightened into place.

Solar rapped on the Go-Kart’s side with his knuckles.

“Finally,” he groaned. He stood up and brushed himself off. “Thankfully, that’s the biggest thing I have to do today, the other things aren’t so pressing…”

Lunar gasped from where he’d flopped over against the wall to flip through the games in his head, and jumped up. “Is that all you gotta do today?”

“Yeah, that’s the biggest thing I have to do,” Solar nodded.  

Lunar gasped again. “Then you could take a break!”

Solar tilted his head. “Sure, I suppose I could.”

“Can we have Beanbag Time?” Lunar asked hopefully. The two of them knew what that meant.

“Hmm…” Solar paused and considered it for a moment. He HAD work to do… but, his little brother was the most important part of his life, and he had promised himself to be good to him. “You know what, sure, let’s go,” he shrugged. 

“Yay!” Lunar jumped up happily, and then quickly ran into the Daycare play area and off to one side, where a couple beanbag chairs were sat idly among the rest of the toys. He grabbed one of them and hoisted it on his back, and then ran back through the doors and towards the stairs, shooting past Solar. “Beanbags, beanbags, beanbags, beanbags…”

Solar went to retrieve a beanbag chair for himself, and then followed him up the stairs, amused as he watched the smaller bot ahead of him.

Lunar was probably the only person who could pull Solar away from his work.

They made their way up to the Daycare’s drop-off area, right in front of the Slide Into Fun slide. There was a huge advertisement screen on one of these walls, which they’d hijacked so they could play video games or watch TV on it, and they’d lowered it to a reasonable height on the wall. Lunar ran over to the seating area under the screen and threw his beanbag chair down, and then flopped out on it, his small body engulfed by the whole thing. Solar arrived a moment later and sat his beanbag chair down gently, and then sat on it like a normal person.

This was Beanbag Time, something Lunar had come up with: it was where the two of them laid down on the beanbags and did things together. They’d watch movies or show, play video games, or any other thing they wanted, and it was also a good place for them to sit and talk if they needed to. It was another one of Lunar’s many eccentricities that bemused Solar, but he just shrugged and went along with it. Now it was one of his few ways to rest.

They sometimes used the theater, but camped out here a lot of the time.

“So what are we watching?” Solar asked as he plugged the controls into his arm.

“The Amazing Digital Circus!” Lunar said almost immediately.

“Again?” Solar laughed softly. “This’ll be, what, the fifth time?”

“Diii-gital, Cirrr-cus, Diii-gital, Cirrr-cus,” Lunar chanted.

“Okay, okay,” Solar laughed again as he flicked through the controls to find the playlist. “Yeah, that one’s pretty good.”

He hit play and the show flickered to life on the screen above them, and they sat back to watch. They both enjoyed the show, and Lunar loved it especially.

They went through the playlist and watched each episode. An hour passed quickly as they were having fun. Lunar moved around and changed position on his beanbag a lot, swinging his legs or tapping his hands; Solar was much less restless, but did shift every so often, and bounced his legs and fidgeted with his fingers.

As the videos went on, Solar finally began to relax, the tension about his work ebbing away as the brothers traded comments back and forth.

Sitting down with Lunar like this was one of the few ways he had to truly relax and unwind.

“That’s exactly what it’s like being a service worker,” Solar mumbled at one point during the fourth episode.

They were engrossed in the show, but then suddenly, right in the middle of it, the big garage doors opened behind them.

Solar turned to see who it was.

There was Moon, walking back into the Daycare, his face as unhappy as ever, that negativity permeating the aura that followed him.

Solar was right on edge, like he always was when Moon had that expression and body language. Lunar hadn’t noticed the other bot, being so focused on the screen, and Solar didn’t want that to be interrupted.

Thankfully, Moon didn’t seem interested in them.

At first, it looked like Moon was going to walk pass them and leave them alone… but then he just had to catch sight of them sitting there out of the corner of his eye, and came to a halt. He turned his head to stare at Solar for a long moment, before his gaze drifted up to the screen where the cartoon was still playing; then his gaze returned to Solar, staring at him deeply unimpressed.  

Moon started to approach.

Protectively, Solar glanced over to his little brother and took note of where he was. The smaller bot finally noticed the air around Solar had changed, having become tense, and turned around to see Moon coming up behind them. He flinched slightly at the taller blue robot being so close, but looked at him curiously.

Moon came to a stop a few feet away from them, arms crossed.

“Is this what you spend your time doing now?” he tossed a hand at the screen. “Really. Out of everything you could be doing right now, you’re watching bullshit?”

“That is what I’m doing,” Solar narrowed his eyes, flicking the controls to pause the video. “I’m spending time with my brother. And if you don’t mind, I would like to get back to it.”

“Oh,” Moon said, sarcastic and reproachful. “It’s so good this is how you spend your time. There’s a million things you could be doing right now to make yourself a little bit useful, but instead, you’re lounging around watching dumb cartoons for babies. This REALLY makes up for what you did to Sun.”

Solar bristled at the low-blow comment, but a lot of practice, and a long history of abuse and exhaustion, kept that anger from flaring up.

“…It’s not dumb,” Lunar argued first, before his big brother could say anything.

“Lunar, hush,” Solar said firmly.

“But it’s not,” he insisted, looking at Moon. “Have you ever even watched it?”

Moon tilted his head at being addressed by the smaller bot, which wasn’t a very common occurrence. “No, because there’s more important things that I need to do,” he brushed him off and kept his attention on Solar. “Just like you’ve got more important things to worry about than this.”

Solar was about to reply to the contrary that his little brother was important, but Lunar spoke first. “But you do tech stuff too,” he said. “And Solar’s got so much to do around here, so… maybe, instead of being up in your room all day, you could… come down and, help him?” Lunar suggested, faltering. 

“What was that?” Moon asked and turned to Lunar. Once again that burning anger he had for Solar wasn’t quite as sharp when he looked at the smaller bot, though he still didn’t seem pleased by the comment.

“Lunar, be quiet,” Solar said with more force.

“I, uh…” the smaller bot shrank into himself under Moon’s gaze, hunkering down into the beanbag chair. “Um…”

“Kid,” Moon said, his voice not carrying that same malice, but rough enough for there to be a warning. “Here’s some advice. Be ready to follow through with your words or keep your mouth shut.”

“Hey,” Solar said louder, to pull the attention away from his little brother. He stood from his chair, so that he could look Moon in the eye. “Look. Everything that needs doing will get done. You’ll get the jobs you’ve given me. I’ve always completed them.”

“It’d be even faster if you weren’t wasting time with shit like this,” Moon growled.

Lunar watched the two nervously, not sure what he should do, hesitating between staying put and making himself too small to be seen, or standing up to run away.

And Solar—Moon wasn’t giving off the rage that would explode like a bomb yet, but there was a worry at the back of his mind that Lunar could witness Moon strike him.

“I know exactly how much time I need for everything,” Solar argued. “An hour or two isn’t going to bring the whole damn place to ruin. Like I said, you’ll get your stuff; I’m already working on them. So just let the two of us be, so we can finish up what we were doing.”

Moon knew he could have kept arguing, and probably even forced the issue enough to get Solar to obey, but he decided to back off.

“Ever since you built him, you’ve been getting lazier,” Moon muttered to him. “Wasting time with games, buying fucking beanbags…”

He finally turned and stalked away, disappearing down the walkway that led to the theater, and ultimately, the door to the back room where Sun’s body was kept.

When he was certain he was gone, Solar returned to his beanbag chair, closed his eyes, and signed. In the past, he’d always obey Moon’s commands, and would have dropped everything to rush back to work. But ever since Lunar was born… he’d started pushing back just that little bit, feeling the pull of new priorities.

Talking to Moon was always made him tense, but he hated it even more when Lunar was around. He knew what Moon was capable of and dreaded Moon’s temper flaring up where Lunar could see it, or worse, it being directed towards him.

“I’m sorry, Lunar,” he said, knowing how that sort of encounter usually made Lunar nervous too. “I hate when you have to see that.”

“It’s okay. Moon’s a big jerk,” Lunar flopped back into the beanbag so that he sank down into its middle.

Solar sighed again. “…Yeah.”

“I just don’t get it,” he mused. “We’re having fun. It’s a good thing! But he never does anything for fun. He doesn’t ever do anything, he doesn’t wanna play games or watch anything or read anything, he’s just angry at everything, all the time… all he wants to do is work, day in and day out… Why doesn’t he ever just, I don’t know, stop? Just do something that he likes?”

“I wish he would, too. It’s complicated, but…” Solar said. “…I think it’s because he wants to be that way. He wants to hold onto that anger intentionally. He doesn’t want to let it go.”

“That’s dumb. He’s dumb.”

Solar huffed out a dry laugh. “Well, like I said, it’s complicated. He thinks he has a job to do, and he blames me for how everything turned out with him and Sun. In his mind, that’s justification for why he thinks it’s a waste of time to do anything but trying to fix it.”

“Doing anything, like… you and me watching Digital Circus?”

“…Yeah.”

“Well, he can go screw off!”

Solar fell silent, that feeling of melancholy rising from old wounds having come over him again, which always happened when this topic arose.

Lunar however, readjusted himself in the beanbag and smiled over at his big brother. “I’m glad we have beanbag time! I like doing stuff with you!”

That warmed Solar’s heart and brought him back to the present. “Thanks, kid. I like doing stuff with you too.”

“Maybe you can take his orders and throw them back in his face. Tell him… ‘No, YOU do it! I’m gonna go live in Roxy Raceway! Have fun keeping everything going here by yourself!’”

Lunar was joking, only partially, but the little bot kind of liked the sound of it as he suggested it.

Solar, on the other hand, felt the full breadth of the complicated situation twisting up inside of him at the comments. He hated being beaten down by Moon… but he truly did blame himself for what happened to them. There was guilt, there was history, and there were many things Lunar didn’t know about or didn’t understand that were in play here, which made it not so simple.

“Not that that isn’t a great idea,” he said, half-meaning it. “But… I have to keep the Daycare running. It’s my responsibility now, I can’t just let it fall to pieces. And… I can’t just cut Moon off. There’s still something I need to do, and that means I have to work with him.”

That shadow of determination fell over his face, his eyes sharpening just slightly.

Lunar almost wanted to groan, but instead he slumped down. “I know… You wanna stay here for him…”

“Yeah,” his voice became quiet. “For Sun...”

Lunar readjusted in his chair and flopped onto his belly, laying his face on his arms; he looked half pouting, but also resigned. “And helping Moon helps Sun…”

Solar nodded slowly. “Moon is--… he’s trying to fix him. And if he CAN do it, then I will help him. I’ll take whatever he throws at me; I don’t care. I will help Sun, if I possibly can.”

“…Do you think you guys really can do it though? I mean, fix Sun?”

Solar didn’t answer for a long moment.

It was the same depressing question he’d asked himself for a long, long time -- and one to which a dreadful voice in the back of his mind whispered “no” to.

“I don’t know, Lunar,” Solar said. “I just don’t know…. But we have to try.”

Lunar lifted his head, up, those big, youthful eyes filled with curiosity.

“If Sun wakes up, d’you think Moon’s gonna be nicer to us?”

That was also a question Solar had asked himself many times.

He decided to answer truthfully. “Even if Sun wakes up… I don’t know if Moon will change.” His voice was calm and even, but there was a resigned sadness to it. “He’s gone so far in his anger and hated me for so long, I don’t know if… he can come back from that. I don’t know if either of us can ever come back from what me and him have been through.” Memories flashed before his eyes; Moon screaming hatefully at him, Moon’s fist impacting with his face; the feeling of cracks spreading and that burst of pain; Moon grabbing hammers or wrenches or pipes to bludgeon him with. “Moon and I… will never be brothers,” he conceded. “I might have wanted that once, but, no, not now. I doubt we’ll ever be friends. And that’s fine. I don’t care about that. Because at least Sun would be back with us, and that’s the only thing that would matter. That’s the only thing I care about.”

“Well Moon’s certainly not MY brother,” Lunar harrumphed. “He’s too mean!”

“And you have every right to feel however you want about him,” Solar agreed and nodded.

“But wow,” Lunar said innocently. “You must really love Sun to work so hard for him.”

“…Yeah.”

“You tell me he’s special a lot.”

Solar stared down at his gloved hands. “He was.”

“Cuz he helped you?”

“When I was born,” Solar explained again, a story he had told Lunar before. “He accepted me. When I first manifested and showed myself, he could have seen me as something dangerous, like, I guess some virus or parasite to kill. Moon thought that’s what I was and wanted to kill me right away. And I did hurt the two of them, when I first showed up; I took control of Sun’s body to confront them about why I’d been left behind. So it’s not like Sun didn’t have a reason to think I was dangerous. But instead, he chose to see me as a member of his family… And he chose to give me a chance to live in my own body, even when he knew he might end up dead.”

“I bet he was a real good guy,” Lunar said. “All the ads make him look so happy and fun!”

“He was,” Solar agreed. “He loved taking care of the kids; he was always finding new things to do. He loved to have fun with people, he could be very silly…”

Lunar sat up, looking eager. “He sounds like me!”

Solar realized that was true, heart clenching at that. “In some ways, yeah,” he chuckled. “Imagining you two together, the weird things you’d get up to… But, he was also a huge clean freak. Way more than I’ve ever been.”

“Ohhhhh,” Lunar said. “That’s not like me.”

Solar laughed at that, a short burst, which quietly faded out into his melancholy. He always got lost in thought when thinking about Sun.

They sat in that quiet for a moment, surrounded by the Daycare’s decorations that wore Sun’s face -- the one who couldn’t be there with them. Solar felt the emotions welling up inside, that deep pain of missing him that never went away…

“…You think he would’ve liked me?” Lunar asked suddenly, in a quiet voice.

Painfully, Solar took in a long slow breath.

“He would love you if he met you,” Solar whispered. “I’m sure of it.”

“I hope he wakes up,” Lunar said, sincerely. “It’d be cool to have another brother.”

Solar didn’t move for a long moment, staring right ahead of them. For a second, he looked like he wanted to say something… but refrained from doing so, in the end.

Instead he whispered, voice on the edge of breaking, “He is your brother. Already.”

Lunar leaned back into the beanbag, swinging his legs idly. “That’s neat.”

They were together there a while longer, saying nothing more, and Solar let the rest of the video play.

Chapter Text

The Superstar Daycare opened for another day, and the shifts came and went uneventfully as the brothers tended to the children. After they had closed for the day, Solar went to run a quick errand out in the Pizzaplex, and returned a short while later; Lunar had elected to stay behind while he was gone.

He walked through the doors, but didn’t see his little brother anywhere.

“Lunar?” he called out. “Lunar. You here?”

Then he glanced over at the miniature house near the ballpit. Right away, he noticed a particular barrel was sitting in front door of its closed door.

“Oh. Mmm. Alright.”

Solar knew what that meant. Lunar called that barrel his “Do Not Disturb Barrel”. When he put it at the entrance to that house, that meant he didn’t want to talk to anyone at that moment. Usually, his social battery was just drained, but sometimes it meant he was upset over something and wanted to be alone.

Lunar had been in good spirits earlier, so Solar guessed he just needed to recharge after another day with the kids.

“Take the time you need, kid,” he muttered to himself.

He respected his brother’s boundaries, and honored his wish to not be disturbed.

So instead, he went back to his work.

Sitting at the security counter, Solar pulled up one of his projects and got to work on it. He was making quick progress on Moon’s orders, having given them a high priority on his to-do list as he’d been instructed, and he wanted to get them out of the way as quickly as he could.

An hour later, he had finished the first of the orders. It was a simple thing, and just one piece for Moon’s latest attempt to repair Sun.

Though, Solar doubted it would work.

He decided to deliver it right away; doing this would hopefully placate Moon a little longer. Solar knew that if he ever took too long to finish one of Moon’s orders, he would always come around to make a fuss about it, which were encounters that could turn violent. So, he quickly tucked the file away in his system to carry with him.

Calling down the cable from the ceiling and hooking it to his back, Solar glided up to the balcony above the ballpit. He touched down with his feet as carefully and lightly as he could, trying not to make much noise.

“Moon, are you in here?” he called through the curtain. “I’m coming in.”

He listened for a response or any sign of movement; he needed to tread carefully in this space, especially whenever Moon was in there.

A few moments passed and he heard nothing.

“Hmm… he’s not here,” Solar muttered. He couldn’t lie: it was a relief.

Solar moved into the back room carefully, and found it in its perpetual state of disarray; there hadn’t been anyone here to clean it in a long time. His was correct that Moon was nowhere to be seen; he suspected he was out in the world somewhere, securing supplies or getting himself into some kind of trouble. When he wasn’t here, that’s usually what he was doing.

Normally, when finishing one of his projects, Solar would hand these things directly to him; but for the moments he wasn’t around, he would leave them on Moon’s work table.

That meant going into his work room.

And that… was always a challenge, emotionally.

Solar steeled himself as he looked at the tunnel entrance, knowing exactly what waited for him beyond it.

But he didn’t want to dwell on that awful anticipation.

Moving quickly, he ducked low at the entrance and crawled forward on his hands and knees, his large frame just fitting into the tunnel; his chipped and cracked rays knocked against the sides a few times.

He carefully emerged into the room that had once been Moon’s bedroom, but had long since been converted into a cramped laboratory. Some of the old decorations still remained, the walls still deep blue and painted with stars. But now, most of the space was taken up by racks of tools, shelves, a work desk, containers of spare machine parts, scanning equipment, tangles of wires, and the arcade machine that contained Moon’s supercomputer to which everything was hooked into… and where the bed had once been was now a lab table.

Solar had been in this room many times over the year as he worked with Moon… but it was rare for him to be here alone.

For a long moment, he stood there, pointedly keeping his eyes forward, avoiding that table. He stayed this way as he walked over to Moon’s workstation, which was covered in tools, pieces, parts, and notes that Moon had left lying in the open. Off to one side, he found a specialized tablet screen that Moon had invented, where Solar could interact with the supercomputer; it was built with extremely high protections in its software and had limited options for what it allowed Solar to do. Solar wasn’t given clearance or permission to interact with Moon’s supercomputer, and was barred from giving the voice-activated commands that Moon so easily commanded the system with. Solar was merely meant to drop of files or plug flash drives into this thing, which would be scanned before it would go into the supercomputer’s actual system.

So, Solar touched his hand to the screen, activating the connection that animatronics had, and sent his completed file into the tablet. Once it was finished, he was able to send a quick email to Moon, stating he’d completed one of the tasks and that it was awaiting him on his return.

Then, Solar retracted his hand. And from there, he was free to leave. But…

Solar hesitated, keeping his eyes fixed on that workstation. He could have left, avoiding what was laying behind him; it would have been easier, emotionally. But he understood how rare this was -- how rarely he got to be here by himself, how rarely he got to speak to him without Moon’s hateful eyes judging him and insulting his every word. 

So he made the decision that he couldn’t avoid it.

Slowly, he turned to face the lab table that had once been Moon’s bed.

And there, unmoving, was Sun.  

Sun was lying on his back, arms gently at his sides and his legs straightened. He didn’t look like he was sleeping. It had always reminded Solar of how a body might lay in a coffin.

His body was encircled by masses of wires and machine parts, with many plugged into his head, torso, and arms. When Moon needed to get to the back of his head, he would simply turn Sun’s head to face the wall, revealing the maze of machinery he had attached to his brother over the years. Every so often, a band was wrapped around Sun’s arms. Scanning monitors beeped incessantly around the table, keeping constant track of his internal workings.

He was completely still. His expression was empty. His systems were cold and unresponsive.

The person who had once been so bright and cheerful and hopeful was inert and lifeless. And his body was surrounded by machines that were all remnants of failed attempts to revive him.

Solar took a few steps closer and came to a stop beside the table, and stared down at Sun’s blank face.

He… he didn’t like to be in here if he could help it.

Every time he looked at Sun, it brought him fresh waves of guilt, touching those old wounds. So much had happened in this room, so many horrible things that haunted him. Sun was gone, Moon had been broken and driven insane, and they--…

Solar couldn’t help but feel he was responsible for this – for all of it. For everything that had happened to all of them.  

If it hadn’t been for him existing, none of this would have ever happened.

As Solar looked at his elder brother, all the old memories and pains came flooding back.

Sun had known the risks… and he had accepted them.

When Sun had come to Solar in the mindscape and laid out his plans and the risk involved, he had emphasized to Solar that this was his decision, and he wanted to do this, for him. He’d said it over and over. When Solar had voiced hesitation on whether Sun could really go through with it, Sun had always been certain, but firm, in his assertions that he was going to do it.

But even despite his assuring, it didn’t make the outcome any less painful.

Sometimes, Solar just couldn’t help but think about it all.  

He still remembered Sun’s voice, and his cheerful or anxious mannerisms. He remembered how much he had loved being a caretaker, and he was looking forward to improving the Daycare; his obsession with making sure everything was clean and orderly, and the playful way he interacted with others. He remembered Sun’s hopefulness, and willingness to give others a chance, the way he’d given Moon a chance to change and be better.

Solar remembered… when he and Sun had first met each other.

It… hadn’t been a happy first meeting. Solar had been… angry, when he first awoke and realized he’d been left behind. He’d forced himself through the mind veil to take control of Sun’s body, confronted the twins, and demanded answers. He demanded to know why Moon had abandoned him. Moon, immediately, had seen him as a threat to kill; but Sun, instead, had listened to him, and been horrified by the circumstances he was trapped in. Instead of reacting with hostility, he had been welcoming to Solar, apologized, and said they weren’t enemies. He hadn’t been afraid of him; he just saw a person who was hurt and scared, and had decided to help him right away.

Sun had even called him “Brother”. That’s what he wanted all three of them to be. And for a few weeks, Sun had carried him in his mindscape and shown him many things.

And then, he convinced Moon to look into the separation process. He wanted Solar to have his own body. If Sun and Moon could do it, surely Sun and Solar could just do it a second time.

But Moon had discovered that a second separation procedure carried a much higher risk than the first. Sun learned there was a very high likelihood his mind could be irreparably damaged… and Sun still chose to do it. Because, in his words: he believed Solar deserved to have a chance to live his own life and be free, and he was happy to accept any consequences that might come with it.

Moon had tried to talk him out of it, but Sun had made his choice.

…And when Solar had opened his eyes in his new body for the very first time… Sun was already gone. He was already comatose.

They never even got to look at each other face to face. Not once.

…Solar owed everything to Sun.

He took a step closer, looking at his face.

“Hey, Sun.” He spoke quietly. “It’s me. Solar.”

He hovered beside the table, feeling like an intruder in the room.

“I don’t… get to see you as often as I probably should, I’ve just… been busy. Real busy.”

He swallowed. He glanced at the monitors; then back to Sun’s face.  

“Uh… yeah…” he cleared his throat softly. “I, uh… I’m keeping the Daycare going -- as best I can, I guess… It’s still here, it’ll be waiting for you when you come back, you know… There’s a few kids from your time who still come around, they still ask about you sometimes…”

Sun never moved; his expression never shifted. The readings for his circuits didn’t change. There was no indication that any part of him was awake or aware, or that any of Solar’s words reached him.

Solar knew this. Over so many months, this wounds had scabbed over, but in moments like this, the pain flared up.

“Lunar’s been helping, in his own way,” he added. “He built a fort for the kids the other day, he’s always good at finding things to do.”

Even if he probably couldn’t hear him, Solar still spoke to Sun, when he could. He spoke of what happened in the Daycare. He had spoken of Lunar many times, ever since the day he’d built him.

In the slim chance Sun could hear him… he wanted him to know about how his family was doing. He wanted him to know that he was okay.

“I think… you’ll get along with Lunar,” he continued. “When you get back, I think he’d help you with the kids, if you wanted it… And-- I know he really wants to meet you.”

The thought of them, all being together, sparked such a deep longing in his chest… God, he wanted that so badly, so badly that it hurt…

Solar swallowed, inching just a bit closer to the table, so that he was right next to him. “I don’t know if you can hear me,” he breathed, “but I hope you do, somewhere in there. It’s... been so long now, since I woke up and you didn’t…”

He looked at all the machines all around him, everything that had been tried and had failed.

“I’m not giving up,” Solar whispered, wavering. “I’m… I’m still working on something to try and help you. And I’m helping Moon wherever I can. If there’s any way to fix you, we’ll find it.”

The silence stretched on; he wanted to say more, he felt he needed to say more, but he could simply never find the words to express what needed to be said.

“…I miss you,” he breathed, barely audible, voice nearly breaking. “Every day I hope that you’ll wake up…”

His fingers twitched. He wanted to reach out and take Sun’s hand in his. He’d wanted to hold Sun’s hand so many times. But he always held back. He never allowed himself to.

“I’m sorry it turned out this way. I wish you could have been here with us. I wish we could have been…”

He didn’t dare say the word ‘family’ out loud.

The idea he would never hear Sun’s voice again, that Sun would never get to see how Solar’s life turned out--

The idea Sun would never get to meet Lunar--

It was all so goddamn difficult to accept.

Solar flinched; he felt a stinging sensation in the sides of his eyes.

He threw a hand up to his face to wipe the tears away before they could form.

He exhaled hard to try and steady himself; he never wanted to let himself cry.

It was time for him to go. 

“I need to get back to the Daycare now,” he finally said. “I’ll… see you later, I guess. Bye, Sun.”

He turned to crawl back through the tunnel, leaving Sun there, alone, in that cold, dark, silent room.

But just as he made his way back into to the balcony’s back room, Moon had returned from wherever he had gone, stepping into the room expectantly.

Solar’s attention snapped onto him as he climbed out of the tunnel, his guard up. He wasn’t worried about being discovered, but he could sense there was something on the blue animatronic’s mind.

“You. Tumor. Come here.” Moon snapped his fingers like Solar was a dog.

And despite his irritation at being spoken to like that, Solar obeyed and walked closer.

“I just finished one of your jobs and dropped it off,” he explained. “It’s inside.”

“That’s fine.” Moon said. “But we need to discuss something.”

Solar didn’t want to do this right now. But he didn’t have a choice. He sighed in irritation. “What is it, then?”

“Let’s talk about these past few months,” Moon said disdainfully. “I noticed something’s been different about you. And I want to make sure you don’t lose track of your priorities.”

Solar narrowed his eyes. “What the hell do you mean by that?” 

Internally, Solar felt a thread of tension. Had Moon learned he’d stolen his research on the Star? He’d done everything he possibly could to cover his tracks…

“You’ve been taking more and more time off from your duties,” Moon continued. “You’ve been getting lazy with them.”

“Lazy?” Solar couldn’t keep the note of outrage from his voice. “At this point, I do all the work around this place! I maintain everything, I care for the kids, all of it, on top of the crap you and Monty throw at me! I stay up working all through the night most days. Half the time I barely charge!”

“And guess what? So do I!” Moon countered. “But now you’ve started wasting time on games and shows, and all kinds of bullshit that doesn’t matter. And you never did before.” 

“Mmmmgh,” Solar narrowed his eyes and growled in his throat.  He knew for a fact that he worked himself ragged. His days were spent, continuously, on tasks and projects and maintenance. And Moon was upset he’d started taking a few hours off here and there, to spend time with Lunar? “What, are you banning me from ever taking breaks?”

“If it keeps up and gets worse, I just might.”

“‘Keeps up and gets worse,’” he repeated incredulously. “And just what’s the point you’re trying to get at? Just spit out what you mean.”

“The point is for you to watch yourself, and not start falling behind on your work,” Moon said with a warning. “You wanna waste your time? Fiiiine. As long as you get your shit done. But don’t waste any more than you already are. Don’t start getting so lazy you start missing your deadlines. Don’t you dare start thinking ‘having fun’ is more important than your work.” Then that note of anger returned and his voice was clipped. “Don’t you ever forget that you’re the reason all of this happened.”

 “I haven’t forgotten,” Solar growled lowly.

“Then you’ll remember your priorities are to me and Sun, first and foremost.”  

At this, Solar internally defied him. He had not abandoned either of the twins, and he dedicated his waking life to them – but Lunar was his top priority now.

He would not say this, though. He didn’t want to provoke Moon any further.

“Of course I’ll always be there for Sun,” he said instead.

“Hmmph. So you say.”

“Yeah. I do say.”

“We’ll see…”

They stood there in silence for a few seconds; Moon still looked heavily displeased.

But then, he tilted his head, pretending to look thoughtful. “…You know where this all started?” he asked, and a smirk slowly formed on his face. “It started when you built that little brother of yours.”

Solar’s shoulders stiffened. So that’s what this was really all about. His protective instincts kicked in immediately. He never wanted Moon’s attention to be on Lunar. “Leave him alone, Moon. He doesn’t have anything to do with all this crap.”

Moon let out a dry laugh.

“You think he doesn’t?”

“He doesn’t.”

“No? Ever since you built him, you’ve had to dedicate… a lot of time… to raising him,” he drew out those words, voice sardonic. “THAT’S where all this extra time is going.”

“Of course I spend time with him. He’s my little brother. That’s what brothers do.”

“You didn’t have permission to build him in the first place,” Moon countered. “You just decided all on your own, wasting valuable time and resources, and now we’ve got one more damn burden to take care of in this Daycare.”

Solar’s fingers twitched at his sides, curling into fists. “He’s not a burden. He’s just a kid.”

Moon stared into his eyes, as if searching for something. Then, that smirk returned, deepening.

“…How much does he actually know about you?” Moon asked with cold amusement. “Have you told him everything? Does he know everything about what you did?”

That put Solar on the defensive.

What Moon was implying hanged in the air between them; and deep down, a part of Solar was frightened by that implication.

“…I’m done talking about this,” Solar said firmly, and started to push past Moon. “If you’ve got more work for me, then hand it over. As long as it gets done, that’s all you should care about. If that’s it, then let me go.”

“You act like you can protect him from everything,” Moon continued, voice low and sinister. “But there are many things that could happen to him.”

Solar stopped moving; those words hit him like a warning of danger.

He turned to face the former Daycare Attendant.

Moon had never tried to hurt Lunar…

But Solar knew what he was capable of.

The deep cracks, dents, and broken rays that marred his faceplate were a testament to it.

His eyes narrowed and his fists tightened. When he spoke, his voice was a low, icy growl. “Don’t you dare ever lay a hand on him.”

Moon scoffed. “Don’t worry, I don’t care about him. As long as he stays out of my way, he can run around and do whatever the hell he likes.” Then he leaned in closer, an inch from Solar’s face, and said: “If anything bad happens to him, it’ll be your fault for bringing him into this world.”

Solar glared at him for a moment longer, before he turned and leapt from the balcony.

Chapter Text

After the argument with Moon, Solar was on edge.

Moon had raised a complaint about him spending time with Lunar instead of dedicating every single waking hour to his work. And there had even been something of… a warning? He didn’t know whether to call it a threat, but he had said Lunar wasn’t as safe as Solar wanted him to be, and that was enough to get Solar’s attention.

And he had alluded to some very deep wounds that Solar didn’t want to think about.

He had known Moon long enough to know where those complaints could go. The nighttime animatronic was getting more and more unstable, more and more unreasonable and demanding, with every day that passed. Solar knew he could get angrier and angrier about this, and then lash out in some way. He could decide to try and chain Solar down and force him to do nothing except work on Sun, forbidding him from taking breaks, period. But if he identified Lunar as the source of this problem… and there was no good outcome that could come from that.

And that meant Solar had to speed up his research on the Star.

He didn’t know why, but he had the distinct feeling his time wasn’t unlimited. Moon wouldn’t wait forever. He wouldn’t be placated forever. And if he kept getting more and more insane the way he was, Solar and Lunar would never be out from under his thumb.

He needed to finish the Star, his last ditch effort to fix all his siblings and hopefully put an end to this awful situation…

It was his only option left.

And if the Star didn’t work…

…He didn’t let himself think about what that would mean.

For now, the argument simply fueled his determination.

From where he sat at the counter, his eyes drifted over to Lunar. The smaller bot was playing by himself, unaware of what had happened on the balcony yesterday.  

“Mmmm…” Solar hummed lowly, thinking about what to do.

He was worried about his little brother; he kept replaying Moon’s words in his head. He wanted to say something to him, to warn him to be careful… but he also didn’t want Lunar to be scared.

But it was better to be safe about it.

“Lunar!” he eventually called out. “Come here for a second, I gotta tell you something real quick.”

Lunar stopped what he was doing. “Huh? Oh. Sure,” he skirted around the side of the counter. “What’s up?”

Solar inhaled, trying to find a way to word it so as not to worry him. He kept his voice even. “Listen. Just... try to stay away from Moon for a while, alright?”

“I already do that,” Lunar replied flatly.

“Well. That’s good, yeah.” Right, duh. “But just be even more careful about avoiding him from now on, okay? It’s even more important to do that now. Like, if you happen to see him in your vicinity, move to some other place. And if you DO run into him for any reason or he tries to talk to you, come find me right away. And you can always come find me at any time if you feel nervous or scared about something. Okay?”

“Alright, I guess,” Lunar shrugged. Avoiding Moon was just a given for him. But then he thought about it for a second, and frowned… because it was a strange thing for his brother to point out. He tilted his head up at him. “Iiiiis something… up with him?”

“Sort of, I talked to him last night, and… I just think it’s a good idea for you to stay away from him.”

Lunar blinked. “Is… i-is there something wrong? Did something happen?”

Solar was quick to try and quell his concerns. “Nothing really happened,” he said. “He’s just in one of his really bad moods, and I think this one’s gonna be bad for a while. I just wanted to give you a head’s up is all.”

Lunar hesitated. For some reason, he got the sense that… there was more to it than that.

“…Are you sure that’s all?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Solar nodded. “I’m sure.”

“…Okay,” Lunar said. He had no reason to press him further; he trusted his brother. But he couldn’t help but have this feeling…

“Yeah,” Solar nodded. “Uh, yeah, that’s really it.”

“Uh-huh.”

The smaller bot returned to doing his own thing, and Solar returned to his project.

But as he was starting to type, a notification came in for him. He read it, his face wrinkled into a grimace, and he stood from his chair with an angry huff and a facepalm. “God damn it…”

“Huh?” Lunar looked over. “Whuz-appened?”

“I gotta go fix something,” Solar grumbled, already reaching for his tools. “The pipes for the fountain in the pickup area exploded.”

“They cracked again?”

“No,” Solar’s face darkened. “Exploded.”

“Eeesh. Those things are really badly designed.”

 “Yeah, no kidding,” Solar huffed dryly. Also maybe the Star could magic away THESE problems. Maybe. The temptation was strong. “Don’t wait up for me, I’ll be gone a while…”

He’d have to get a water pump, then he’d have to make very sure that everything was properly dry and sanitized, and then check that there was no mold or mildew and that nothing else was damaged by the water, and on and on…

He went up the stairs and headed towards the garage door. He had seen Moon go off on another of his excursions that morning, so he didn’t feel too nervous about leaving his brother alone.  

“Bye, Brother!” Lunar waved as he walked off.

“Bye--” The garage door opened and a loud rush of water came pouring through. It hit Solar in the legs and nearly pushed him off his feet. “WHOA—JEEZ,” Solar yelled and he stumbled forward through the wave. “OH GOD!”

The garage door shut and the water splashed to a trickling stop.  

Now alone, Lunar tried to go back to playing in the Daycare. But after a while, he realized he wasn’t having fun being alone.

He had plenty of games in his head, and he could play the PC games on the computers. He’d gotten good at entertaining himself, since he was often playing by himself, but…

A while after cycling through some of the games in his head, Lunar then sat down on one of the plush toys, his face falling into a sad expression.

He could do all of those things, sure, but he’d still be by himself.

Solar was always really busy, which meant there were lots of times they couldn’t do things together. And he wasn’t really friends with Monty or any of the other animatronics or the patrons in the Pizzaplex.

…Lunar was starting to really wish there was someone else here.

“Mmm…” He realized that was how he truly felt, and he sunk into himself.

But then he remembered his conversation with Solar a few days ago; he’d talked about how Sun was their brother, and Lunar had gotten excited about being able to hang out with him or work in the Daycare with him when he eventually came back!

And sitting there in the empty Daycare really made him wish Sun was there right now…   

It wasn’t a mark against Solar. Lunar loved Solar! He thought he was a great big brother! And he was glad to live in the Daycare with him!

But… the thought of having another sibling was really nice. Lunar just didn’t have many people to talk to, and Solar couldn’t be with him all the time… so he liked the thought of having another family member to do stuff with.

Plus, he knew how badly Solar wanted Sun to wake up; so, Lunar did too!

“Hmm…” Lunar’s relationship with Sun had always been a little weird for him. Sun had already been in a coma for eight months when Lunar was born, so of course he’d never actually met him. That meant, even though Lunar thought of him as a part of his family, he didn’t know how to feel about him. It was all very vague and distant.

And to top it all off, he just didn’t know a lot about Sun; he knew what Solar had told him, and there were a few videos and pictures of him here and there on the computers… but that wasn’t much to go off of!

And Sun’s posters and advertisements and plushies were still all over the Pizzaplex. Right at that very instant, in the Daycare, his smiling face was on the huge bright board behind the security counter. Lunar had spent his whole four months of life seeing his face but never meeting him.

Why did they even keep Sun’s face up like that if he hadn’t been there for a year? Although, he supposed it wasn’t any stranger than the Pizzaplex keeping Moon’s advertisements up, or all the Helpies they had plastered over everything when there were no Helpies in the building. The advertisements presented Moon as a gentle sleepy guy. But he was really a grade-A asshole.

But just as these thoughts were crossing his mind, an idea came to him.

Lunar glanced in the direction of the balcony.

He had only been allowed to visited Sun’s body a few times, and only under strict supervision of both Moon and Solar. Never by himself.

“Maybe I could just go see him,” he mused aloud.

He paused. He was just being flippant.

But then he thought about it…

It made a lot of sense to him. Didn’t know Sun, so go see him, easy-peasy.

“Hey, yeah, I could go SEE him…!” He gasped and stood up straighter, suddenly really liking the idea. “Yeah… I could!” he started hyping himself up about it, getting more and more excited. “I’d get to see my Brother and talk to him. Yes. Then it’d be like having someone to talk to. I just gotta sneak up there. I can do it!”

Moon had gone out a little while ago and would probably be gone for a few hours, right? He could go there right now, and be back before anyone ever knew he was gone, if he hurried!

He had risen to his feel, feeling excited to put his plan into action.

But, then his shoulders slumped.

“Then again, Solar told me to never ever ever go up there… and Moon’s in a bad mood and he’ll get mad at me if he sees me… Aaand Solar said to stay away from him cuz he’s pissed off…”

Outside of those specially permitted visits, he wasn’t supposed to go up on the balcony, period, but especially ESPECIALLY not by himself.

“Okay. Okay.” He pointed up at the balcony. “I could go up there and see Sun for myself.” He paused and lifted up his other hand. “But then again, Moon might catch me, and if he does, he might kick me like a football.”

He thought for a moment. 

“Hmm. Don’t get caught by Moon… satisfy curiosity…” he lifted both hands, one for each option, and looked between them. “Don’t get caught by Moon… satisfy curiosity…”

Well, anyone who knew Lunar knew which one he chose.

By the time he made it around the theater and up to the balcony’s back room, he had gone all-in on this plan.

He panted as he finally got there. “Dang… If only I could just fly up there with the cable…” he took a moment to catch his breath, thinking about how Moon and Solar both used the ceiling cable to lift high in the air and fly around the Daycare, which also had tracts around the whole Pizzaplex. Lunar didn’t actually know how the cable worked. “How do they control it… I wish I could… That’d be so cool, flying for real…”

Then he shook his head and regained himself, and looked at the door that would led to the forbidden balcony.

Gulping, Lunar very gently cracked the door open and listened inside, for any noise coming from the room beyond. Even when he heard nothing, he very carefully pushed the door all the way open, and treaded carefully through the doorway, sneaking forward on his tiptoes, being as quiet as he could manage.

He kept listening for any sign of someone being there, but heard nothing. At last he stepped into the messy room, glancing around at all the random clutter, but when he moved forward he stepped as carefully as he could. The last thing he wanted to do was careen into something and make a lot of noise.  

He hesitated at the tunnel’s entrance, whirling back towards the door as if he expected Moon to burst right through then and there. But he didn’t.

“But wait!” he suddenly froze. “What if Moon got back and I just didn’t notice? And he’s napping in his room right now?” Lunar gasped, eyes going huge at that paranoid thought.

He stood there tense for a moment at the image in his head of getting to the other side and waking up a cranky Moon--

Well! He was willing to take that chance!

He hopped up into the tunnel and crawled forward, his little body fitting through the tunnel easily. He climbed out into the dimly-lit dark room beyond.

And Moon was nowhere to be seen.

“Phew!” Lunar sighed as his feet slid to the ground and he straightened up. “Okay… he’s not here…”

He glanced around the cramped room and shivered. All the instruments and monitors and blinking equipment seemed cold and almost frightening to him; this place was certainly not clean, with tools and mechanical parts laid out haphazardly on the workbench, and the shelves, and on the floor.

He was sure Sun would hate it here.

And then, he turned to the lab table where Sun lay. Lunar vaguely remembered what Sun looked like from his previous supervised visits… and he looked like he hadn’t moved an inch in all that time. He was surrounded by all those wires, which were plugged in all over his body.

Lunar had seen Sun those few times before, but he had never been alone in this room with him.

And suddenly filled with eagerness, he rushed over to the side of the table.

“Hey, hey Sun!” Lunar called over the top of the table, where he was just tall enough to get his chin over it. He had to jump up in order to see him properly. “Heya! …Oh wait hold on.”

He grabbed the table and heaved himself up, sitting down with his legs hanging over the side. Once he settled in place, he stared at the tangle of wires and sensors coming out of Sun’s body, before focusing on the daytime animatronic himself.

Sun looked a lot like Solar, with the same rays, and both of their pants had stripes; but their color schemes were very different. Sun’s was bright, being a mix of bright yellows, oranges, and reds, where Solar’s was a burnt orange, dark reds, and blacks. That probably made sense considering their celestial affiliations.

Well, he was here now. What now?

“Sooooo,” he started, looking for something to say. “I know you can’t hear me, buuut… It’s me, Lunar! I’m your brother, and I wanted to come say hi!”

Of course, Sun said nothing in return.  

“Guess you only hear from Moon up here mostly, right? Cuz he’s the one who’s up here most of the time. I know Solar comes up here sometimes too, but it’s not a lot. And I’m not allowed up here at all, usually. But I wanted to come by myself. So I did. And now I’m here!” He leaned forward next to Sun’s head and whispered, “don’t tell anyone!” as a joke.

Then he sat back up straight.

“Gotta admit, it’s kinda weird talking to someone who doesn’t talk back,” he hummed. “But it’ll be good practice for when you’re fixed. I hope you wake up soon! Cuz then we can do stuff together. You liked games, right? There’s a lot we can do together! I don’t think anyone’s touched your Roblox account, it’s still waiting for you. Oh! And the Daycare’s not bad too. I like playing with the kids. Solar tells me you liked the kids too. If you woke up, we could take care of them together.”

He swung his legs back and forth idly.

“I can’t wait to show you Beanbag Time! That’s when we go lay on the beanbags and play video games and watch movies and shows or anything we wanna do, really. Me and Solar do it, it’s fun, you’ll like it. You, me, and Solar can all do it together! That’ll be great. There’s been a lot of cool games and stuff you’ve missed since you’ve been out! You’ve got a lot to catch up on!”

He was smiling widely at the thought, but then he frowned.

“But Moon’s now allowed to come, though. Don’t take this the wrong way, but he’s kind of a jerk! He’s never been nice to Solar. He’s always yelling at him or insulting him. He pushes him around and makes him do a bunch of things. Solar does everything around here! Moon doesn’t even come down to do naptime anymore! I don’t know what’s up with him! Or why he has such beef with Solar …But he doesn’t even really look at me. Never really has. He’s weird and he’s a jerk.”

He didn’t know why Moon ignored him. He’d always just kind of glared at him, or gloss over his presence with a scornful sneer. The times they did speak directly were never pleasant, but half the time it’s like he barely acknowledged him. Sometimes that was a blessing, because he was nervous around Moon, but it also just felt… weird? Lunar didn’t know exactly why, but he didn’t like the feeling of being overlooked like that. Maybe Moon’s anger was so laser-focused on Solar he didn’t care about anyone else?

“You know, he won’t even let me or Solar come see you, usually… That’s really unfair. Solar didn’t mean to do this to you, he doesn’t deserve to be blocked from seeing you… and what does Moon think I’M gonna do, start yanking out all the wires around here?”

He grumbled, glancing around the dim blue room. But as he did, he started to frown sadly, his eyes trailing down to the floor.

“But… it must be pretty lonely in here. I mean, you’re not awake, you can’t see it... But dang, it’d suck to be all alone here all the time.”

It was sad to think about.   

“I mean, I’d be lonely if it were me,” he continued on, rambling whatever thoughts came to him. “Yeah, I would be lonely. W-Would.”  

He stopped, a feeling coming to him. And he suddenly couldn’t help but wonder.

…Was he lonely? Right now?

It was hard to tell. He’d never really thought about it like that. He’d always just wait for Solar to be done with enough of his tasks to take a break to play together, even if he was impatient and a little pushy. He’d never considered himself ‘lonely’ during those times.  

But, he must have been lonely, right? Or else he wouldn’t be up here right now, trying to get to know his other brother because he had no one else.

His shoulders slumped a little further, and he didn’t really know why.

“Well, I guess I am a little lonely. Just a little. Solar’s so busy, a-and it’s not his fault, but…” he spoke quietly. “I wish he had more time to spend with me.”

Seconds ticked by as the silence closed around him. But even though he had talked about something sad, he suddenly felt a little lighter inside, like he had gotten something off his chest.

It was… nice, to get to talk about his feelings like this with someone. Even if Sun couldn’t hear him or respond, it felt like being with someone else for a little while.

And when the silence started to stretch on, he continued.

“Just so you know, Solar really misses you,” he said. “He wants you to come back. I think you should too! I don’t know you, yeah, but… it’ll be cool to have you around.”

He thought of what else there was to say, having come up here without a plan. But because Sun was effectively a stranger, after introducing himself, he didn’t have anything else in mind.

Maybe it was better to take this slow, one step at a time, one visit at a time.

“Umm… but other than that, I think that’s pretty much it,” he said. “This whole thing was weird, but I liked getting to see you!”

It probably wasn’t a good idea to stick around much longer, and push his luck more than he already had.

“I gotta go now. I don’t want Moon or Solar to catch me. But I’ll see ya later! I’ll try to be back to visit you sometime, you’ll see!”

Lunar hopped back down to the floor.

He had just knelt down to climb back through the tunnel when he paused and gasped. He remembered he had to do something important!

He ran back to the table, back to Sun’s side.

“I love you, Brother!” he called, jumping up high beside the table to say it to Sun’s face.

Just as carefully as he entered, he slowly crept back out, anxious that he would be caught at the very last second. But Moon hadn’t returned yet, and Solar was still out in the pickup area, and he was able to head out to the balcony and jump into the ballpit without consequence.

When Lunar resurfaced and fumbled his way back onto the Daycare’s floor, he felt lighthearted. Happy. He didn’t know if he understood Sun more, but he was really glad to have gotten to spend some time with him, just the two of them, without the others watching his every move.

But there was also a strange ache in his heart. A longing. Now he really wanted Sun to be awake.

Lunar may not have been to him, emotionally, since they still hadn’t technically met, but now he really felt like a piece of his family was missing

But that longing was deep below his happiness. When he walked back into the Daycare, he was smiling.

Chapter Text

Lunar hadn’t told Solar about his visit with Sun yet.

At first he’d honestly just forgotten to. But when he eventually remembered, he thought he should do something nice for his brother first, to butter him up before telling him. But then a few days turned into a week, and well, bringing it up now would feel awkward. 

He’d disobeyed Solar by going up to the balcony when he was explicitly told not to, so he didn’t know how he would react. Would he be mad?

Lunar didn’t think he’d done anything wrong. He hadn’t hurt Sun when he was up there; he hadn’t pawed all over the machines or pulled out any wires. He’d just sat on the table and talked at him; that was all. It’d been nice to go and share his thoughts like that -- even one or two he hadn’t been able to share with Solar.

He mulled over his thoughts as he hiked down into the Pizzaplex’s basement, looking for something to distract himself for the day. The gargantuan building was set up like a maze of interconnected twisting corridors that spiraled up and down and all around its many floors, so when traversing across the complex, it was sometimes inevitable that one would end up on the lowest levels at a few points.

Lunar knew all the hidden paths in the Pizzaplex. He knew where the vents were and where they led, and all the back-ways and secret passages in and out of the attractions. He did try to stay out of the basement if he could help it, usually. It was creepy down there. But the service tunnels were also really good for getting across the ‘Plex fast and avoiding the human patrons.

“I don’t want to make Solar mad,” Lunar mumbled to himself. “Maybe... it’d be okay to just… keep it to myself! I don’t need to tell Solar. No harm, no foul!” That sounded good to him, and that’s what he decided to do. “Yeah, yeah! It’ll be me and Sun’s secret.”

Feeling better from his decision, Lunar bounded through the hallway and hopped up and around the various clutter piles; laundry hampers, trolleys, random wooden boards, pieces of metal, and everything else that was dumped down here for no reason.

He climbed up a huge pile of boxes, only for them to give way under him – “Wagh!” -- and he tumbled to the ground. He wasn’t hurt; he was back on his feet quickly.

But he did stop, standing there on three crushed boxes. “Hmmm.” Even if he wouldn’t tell Solar the truth, he had been thinking of ways to butter him up for the past couple days. “I still wanna do something nice for him, anyway… But what…”  

Solar was always complaining about a lack of tools and supplies during his maintenance jobs. And, well, the Pizzaplex had no shortage of stuff down here in its dusty catacombs. “I could raid the place for stuff Solar can use!” he snapped his fingers as he landed on that thought. But then he frowned again. “I mean, a lot of it’s junk… but there’s gotta be some things around here I can yoink!”

It was still worth a try, anyway! Anything would be better than nothing, even if it was just finding light bulbs, duct tape, silicon glue… any of the things he knew Solar used.

And so right then and there, he set out to begin his search; but when he raided the nearest shelves in this stretch of the hallway, a lot of it was just boxes with documents, spare printer paper, plastic plates and cups and other things for the restaurants, cardboard bits, towels... Nothing useful for a mechanic, he was pretty sure.

There was just so much STUFF around here! What did they even need all this stuff for, anyway!?

And even more of it was just trash. Big black bags, used-up containers of things… There was a can of compressed air he honed in on, but when he pressed the button, it was empty. Grumbling in frustration, he tossed it back on the floor with the rest of the garbage.

He moved further down the basement, sneaking into areas he didn’t traverse as often, dodging the occasional staff bot whose patrol line brought them through the area.

He found a few tool boxes lying around, but when he opened them, all he found were simple things like wrenches and hammers. Damn it! He was pretty sure Solar already had things like wrenches and hammers and was fine with them! No, what he was always short on were supplies!

He made another turn… and he found a stretch that was covered in a thick layer of dust. Jeez, the stuff in this corridor looked like it hadn’t been touched in ages!  

Getting impatient, he opened a random box to see what was in it.

A cloud of dust puffed up into the air off a bunch of Fazbear uniforms.

Lunar sneezed, the gold accents on his body flashing for a second. “Ugh, not that either.” He shut the lid in annoyance.

Then his eyes flicked to the top of a rickety metal shelf.

His eyes lit up. “THAT, however…!”

On the very top shelf was a stack of those cylindrical acrylic silicone tubes, which were used to seal cracks in things! He’d seen Solar use those plenty of times! If the glue was still good, then that was a place to start!

The stack was right next to some other doodads and junk, including one of those silly jack-in-the-box presents Monty sometimes hid around the Plex as an Easter-Egg-hunt-esque event for the kids.

“Ooo, bonus,” Lunar rubbed his hands together. The prizes inside were never that interesting, but there was always something weirdly fun about opening them.  

To reach them, Lunar started climbing up the side of the shelf. The shelf protested his weight and teetered, the items on it trembling and clinking together; Lunar flinched and held still, but after a second the shaking settled down.

“Whew,” he sighed, and tried climbing up another level.

The shelf shook even harder than before. Some of the items shifted their positions, sliding across their shelf.

Something big he hadn’t been able to see from the ground slid over from the back of the shelf just above him, and toppled right off the shelf and towards the ground.

“Ahp--!” Lunar yelped and leaned to the side to avoid this object as it careened down towards him; a white and purple mass missed him by an inch and landed on the ground below.

Blinking, Lunar craned over his own shoulder to try and get a view of what had just fallen… but this only caused the shelf to tip really far forward from the shift in his weight. The cylindrical tubes rolled out of their stack, sweeping everything up on the top with them, and it crashed into Lunar like an avalanche. Yelping, he fell down with it all.

“Oof!” he landed on his back.

The party box landed a foot next to him. The lid popped open and a Gator Golf T-shirt flew out, drifting lazily down to lay on Lunar’s face.

“Bleck!” Lunar flung the gnarly old shirt off of him and sat up. He still didn’t know what that thing had been, which had fallen down first. “Now what the hell was…”

He looked over his shoulder.

The thing that had been hidden on the shelf was a tiny bear animatronic, lying on its side, its stubby limbs eschew. It was white and purple with blue overalls, and a bowtie and top hat like Freddy. An orange visor was attached to the side of its head. Its casing was decorated with makeup-esque accents and lightning bolts, in the vein of the Glamrocks. But it was absolutely tiny compared to the Glamrocks, maybe two feet tall with the top hat, but it had the same sleek and shiny shell and the markings.

Lunar squinted at it. “What is… Oh! I know what this is!” he gasped. “That’s a Helpie! I didn’t know we had those!”

“Helpie” was a mascot on a ton of the advertisements and posters all over the Pizzaplex. They’d been a part of Fazbear’s branding for decades. But this was the first time he’d seen one in person!

Lunar went to examine the bear. It was even smaller than he was!

“Hello?” Lunar knocked on the bear’s head, but it didn’t move. “Hellooooo…?” He gasped in recognition. “He’s out of battery. Hmmm...”

He could just leave the bear here. As far as he knew, it could just be an old toy from an old merchandise line. But he had to admit, he was curious now! Its body was much better built than the Plex’s usual toys, so this might be another sentient bot. And that was something new!

“To charge him up… The charging stations should still work on him, right?” Lunar thought. “Mmm… right.”

He wrapped his long arms around the Helpie.

“UuuuUUP… we go…!” he strained. The bear was a little heavy, but he managed.  

He carried it back to a charging station a long distance through the hallways, huffing every so often due to carrying his weight, and plopped the hatch open. Heaving, Lunar shoved the bear into the cylinder.

It toppled over and landed on its face.

“That’s probably fine,” Lunar shrugged and shut the door, turning the machine on. Thankfully for him, the machine registered the bear as a compatible animatronic, and started pouring energy into it.

Then Lunar sat back and bounced up and down on his heels impatiently; even though it didn’t take very long, all things considered, he hated waiting! Haaaated waiting!

But at last the hatch lifted up, signaling the animatronic’s battery was filled to capacity.

Lunar looked inside, curiously, at the bear still lying on its face. “Hellooo?”

The Helpie’s body suddenly jerked, coming back to life. With a confused flail of his limbs, he put his hands on the ground and pushed himself up into a sitting position, shaking his head and sputtering. Then he opened his eyes, which were LEDs; the left was orange, and the right was a cyan blue.

“Augh, wow, what the heck…” the Helpie spoke in a slightly nerdy tone, rubbing his forehead. “What happened…?” The bear finally looked around at his surroundings, and his gaze landed on Lunar.  

“Hi!” Lunar waved. “My name’s Lunar!”

The Helpie blinked at the sight of this unknown robot staring so intently at him. “Oh!” he remembered his customer service manners and waved a purple-and-white hand in return. “Well, hello there!” But then he noticed there was dust on his fingers, and he looked down to see his whole body was dirty. “That’s strange, I’m all dusty… uh, where am I, Lunar?”

“You’re in a charging station,” he explained. “Down in the basement. I found you on a shelf! You were out of battery, so I brought you here to charge up.”

“I see!” the bear glanced around at the inside of the cylinder. “That would explain why I’m covered in dust. The basement is so dirty! But anyway, yes, thank you for your help!”

“You aaaare welcome,” Lunar nodded his head hard. It felt good to be praised.

“Hold that thought for one moment,” Helpie said, and stood up. On his feet, he was still shorter than Lunar, only reaching his chest. He brushed himself with his little hands to get rid of some of the dust, but plenty of it was caked to him and wouldn’t come off. He stepped out of the charging station. “There we go, now I can address you properly,” he faced Lunar with curiosity. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around the Pizzaplex. Are you a new mascot here at Freddy Fazbear’s?”   

“Nahhh,” he said. “Fazbear didn’t make me. My brother made me. I just live here.” He didn’t have any advertisements and wasn’t registered as a member of the Fazbear franchise.

“Okay, I see. Well, it’s nice to meet you, Lunar!” the bear nodded cheerfully. Then he struck a picture-perfect pose, like one might see on an advertisement. “My name is Helpie, at your service! You can always count on me to help you succeed at whatever job you’ve got!”

“Oh yeah, I know who you are,” Lunar said with a snap of the fingers. “I’ve seen you on the Save Station things all over the Pizzaplex!”

“Nice to know! I installed some of those myself,” Helpie put a hand to his chest proudly.

“Did ya? Neat. Hmmm… you don’t look like one of the toys they got around here. Are you, like, sentient?”

“Of course I am!” Helpie smiled and returned to his pose. “I’m just as sentient as the Glamrocks, just in a smaller package! As are all Helpies employed in this grand complex of a mall. You’ve seen my many siblings out in the Pizzaplex, I’m sure!”

“Umm, no, I haven’t,” he shook his head. “We don’t have Helpies at the Pizzaplex.”

“…Pardon?” Helpie paused, looking confused. “…You don’t?”

“Nope! Never have. And I’ve been all over the Plex, I would’ve seen them.”

“…That’s odd,” the bear furrowed his eyebrows, thrown off his usual script. “My siblings and I have been working in all corners of the building for two months now. And there are a lot of us! I can’t imagine we’d be easy to miss…” He glanced around the basement. “That place where you found me, on the shelf, did you see any other Helpies there?”

“Nope, it was just you,” Lunar said. “Oooh, that’s kind of a mystery, innit…” He tried to think of a way to solve this conundrum. “Hmmmmm... What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Last thing I remember?” Helpie held up his nubby fingers and started counting the events on them. “Well, I was writing up a report on the subpar electrical systems in the service tunnels. You see, us Helpies are doing a check of the whole building to make a comprehensive report of the whole—whatever, it was boring work stuff. Then, I got an email from the top telling me to check with my manager--”

“No no no, like, what animatronics did you know? Like, the mascots?”

“Ohhh,” Helpie nodded, understanding now. “Well there’s the Glamrocks, obviously, so that’s Freddy, Chica, Roxanne, and Montgomery Gator himself…”

“Yeah-huh?”

“Aaaaand then there’s nice old DJ, with his little music men, in the Fazcade…”

“Yeah-huh…?”

“Aaaaand, Sun and Moon in the Daycare. Or at least, it used to be them…”

Lunar opened his eyes wide.

“…But then, I think it was a few weeks ago? The Daycare got a new worker named Eclipse, and he’s taken over the Daycare’s duties while Sun is away somewhere…”

Lunar gasped. “Ohhhhhhhh. That’s a loooooong tiiiiiiime,” he jumped up and started pacing in a circle. “OHHHH man, that’s a long time.”

The bear watched him going round and round. “Wh… what is? What’s a long time?”

“If you knew Sun, but then you were there to see Solar first show up, oh man—“

“Wait, who’s Solar?”

“Uhh I mean ‘Eclipse’. He was called Eclipse back then, but he’s Solar now. But that’s not the point! Helpie, it’s been a whole year since Solar took over the Daycare!”

Helpie’s smile disappeared. “Wait, a… -a year?” he repeated incredulously. “Are you telling the truth or are you playing a joke on me?”

“Nnnnnnnope, not a joke,” the blue robot shook his head. “I’m being totally serious about that.”

Helpie put a hand up to the side of his head, and his visor lit up, a multitude of little lines and words appearing on the transparent glass; his pupils lit up with a bright light underneath it. A moment later, he lowered his hand. “I-- I’m cut off from Helpie network,” he stammered, sounding dumbfounded. “And I can’t log into my account on the Pizzaplex system at all, it’s completely locked me out. It… it says I haven’t logged in for…”

“…A year?”

“…Y-yeah,” Helpie nodded slowly, and looked like he didn’t know how to react. The light flicked off as he lowered his hand, processing the news. “Wow, that means I… I’ve been out for a really long time, haven’t I?”

“Yep, sounds like it,” Lunar nodded. He didn’t quite seem to understand this might be super distressing to someone, so his voice was still in its soft, chilled tone. “You know, that’s kinda like what happened in Avatar!”

His comment was out of left field, but at least, it seemed to distract Helpie from falling into an existential nightmare.

“…W-Weeeeell,” the bear coughed and laughed somewhat awkwardly. “Since it’s only been one year, it’s definitely not as bad as what Aang went through!”

Lunar looked excited. “Hey, you know about Avatar!”

“Of course, one of the best series ever! Me and my sibs love it!”

“Neeeeat.”  

“But either way…” he straightened up, back into business mode. “I guess that just means I have a lot of catching up to do! I just have to meet back up with my siblings, get rehired, and then I can get back to work.”

“You woke up from being iced and you’re thinking about going back to work?” Lunar tilted his head.

“It’s what I was made for, it’s what I enjoy doing! I love to help people!” Helpie said proudly. “And work is what I was doing, right before I got put on ice.” Then he paused. “Speaking of doing things… What are you doing down here in this creepy basement anyway?”

“OH! Oh oh, right,” Lunar slapped his forehead. He’d left the tubes on the ground all that ways back, and had just forgotten about them. “Duh. I’m trying to find stuff for Solar. He’s a mechanic and he does all the maintenance in the Daycare, so I was looking around for supplies I could swipe for him. But there’s just so much junk! And pizza boxes! And trash!”  

“Why didn’t you just raid the loading dock warehouse?”

He stared at him. “That’s an astute observation,” Lunar deadpanned. Then he pointed at him. “Your whole thing’s helping people, right? Caaan you help me with this?”

“That would be stealing from Fazbear, my own company of employment!” Helpie said with mock-indignation. “Hmmm…. WELL… Since I just woke up and haven’t been employed in a very long time, I suppose I’m not working in the capacity OF a Fazbear employee at this exact moment… Not until I get signed back on and re-registered…. So you know what? Yes! I can and will help you steal from Fazbear!” he smirked, a bit of youthful mischievousness showing itself.

“Phew, that’s great. Cuz I-! Don’t know-! What I’m doing-!” Lunar bounced up and down as he hummed in a song.

Helpie giggled. “Alright then, let’s go to the loading dock.”

They made their way down the dim hallways, going towards the lower-floor kitchens, which was a more populated area of the basement. There were more staffbots and human employees here, moving to and fro as they did their jobs. The smell, both trash from the overflowing compactor and the greasy pizza in the ovens, filled the air.

Around this part of the Pizzaplex, there were storerooms stacked high with freshly unloaded deliveries, as well as the main garage area with its massive industrial tubs that were unloaded off trucks.

 “Now, if I remember…” Helpie said as they snuck into one of the dark side rooms, which had tall metal shelves. He held out his arm to keep Lunar at the doorway, preventing him from going inside. “Wait right here a second.”

He suddenly hopped up on the shelf, and started climbing, which took a while with his stubby limbs. This shelf, however, was solid and didn’t teeter an inch.

“Where’re you going?” Lunar called.

“Just wait one moment!” Helpie climbed up to the highest shelf and disappeared over the lip. Then there was a series of jostling boxes and grunts as Helpie walked along the top; he made it to the edge of the shelf, where it met the corner of the room. After a few seconds, Helpie made the same noisy journey back. “Whoooo…” he looked down the big drop with trepidation, but he managed to climb his way back down without disaster.

“…What did you do?”

“Unplugged the security camera,” Helpie said casually.

“…Oh yeah, probably a good idea.” He paused. “You gotta teach me how to do that.”

They both moved into the room without fear of being recorded. “Back in my time, Monty was barely buying enough supplies for the Pizzaplex as it was; it’s one of the issues my siblings and I were trying to talk to him about. If Monty’s still in charge…”

“Oh don’t worry, he is, and nothing’s changed,” Lunar groaned and rolled his eyes. “It’s always a fight with Monty to get stuff.”

“Ugh. Then he’s still the same stubborn gator as before,” the bear facepalmed.

“Tell me about it!” Lunar huffed. “My brother wouldn’t need me to sneak around like this if Monty wasn’t so hard on us! He makes Solar do really dumb jobs and holds the Daycare over our heads.”

Helpie faced him with the same indignant energy. “Good lord, it was the same for us! Trying to help him make the Pizzaplex a better and safer place was the most irritating thing! Well, we DID our job, but he wanted us to find ways to save him money, and didn’t like our suggestions!”

“Yeah, Monty’s a bad dude.”

“He most certainly is. And I doubt he’s truly British.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Lunar gasped in delight at finally hearing someone else say it.

Helpie flinched and then blushed, realizing he’d just badmouthed his boss. He cleared his throat and murmured, “Er. Please don’t tell Monty I said any of that...”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“Good! Now let’s see…” the bear turned back to the tall shelves. He read their delivery labels and searched among them. “Right about… here,” he finally found a good aisle. “It’s not nearly as organized as it should be, but you can find stuff used for building maintenance in this general area. Glue, tiles, sanitizer… You said he’s also a technician?”

“Yeah. He needs to fix all the machines, and stuff like Go-Karts and wires and pipes. He says most of the parts are run down.”

“That kind of stuff, like spare machine parts, will be heading to Parts and Services. That’s the stuff out in those big tubs in the loading bay! But unless you know exactly what parts he needs, it’ll be harder to get anything useful for him. Machine parts are specific. The kind of parts used in a pizza oven, for instance, won’t fix a vending machine.”

“Mmm, yeah, that makes sense. Ehhhhh I’m sure I’ll figure something out.” Lunar popped open one box to check the contents, and found a dozen packets of light bulbs inside. The Daycare used a ton of different light bulbs, so they might use this kind. “Niiice, we’re always running out of these.” In another box was fresh silicone glue, which felt serendipitous after he’d left the ones in the basement on the floor. And nearby were things like gas cans, and stacks of paint cans; all things Solar used. “Oh yeah, this is definitely more like it.”

“That should do it, then,” Helpie said. He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially. “If anyone asks, you didn’t learn about this from me!”

“You got it,” he gave a thumb’s up.

“Well then. That matter is taken care of! With that, it seems I have a lot of stuff to do since I am long unemployed. So…” He was planning on heading off.

But before he could, Lunar thought of something. He could have just let the bear go on his way, content with the unique encounter they’d had, buuuut… This was someone new to talk to! And, Lunar thought he was getting along decently well with him so far! So he wanted to spend more time with him.

“Hey, wait! Like you said before, you’ve been out for a year, so a couple hours can’t hurt, right? Before you get all engrossed with work again, wanna just go and explore around and have some fun?” he offered this hopefully.

“But don’t you have to get this stuff back to your brother?”

“Weeeell, now that I know to look here, I can swing by and grab this stuff any time! So it’s the same for me, a couple hours won’t hurt. Plus, I gotta have you show me that trick with the security camera. Anyway, I just think it’d be neat to go and do stuff together!”

Helpie hesitated. He was grateful to Lunar for waking him up, but he really did have a lot of stuff he needed to look into. He was kind of surprised by this strange new bot’s interest in him.

But still, he was enjoying this Lunar fellow’s company too, and he had done him a great favor by not letting him rot away on a shelf… he didn’t see any harm in it. If he’d been out of work for a year, putting it off for a couple more hours wouldn’t hurt anything.

“That’s fine with me,” he shrugged. “Where would you like to go?

“I dunno; let’s just run around and see what we can find!”

“If that’s what you want! I’ll tag along!”

They snuck back out of the loading dock, and scuttled away from the crowded kitchens, passing by the human employees and staffbots.

They ran off down the basement’s branching hallways, heading towards the elevator further ahead.

They passed under the patrolling security and mop bots, who shook their mops and flashlights in protest as the two youngsters ran around their wheels.

They hopped in the elevator and rode it upwards, where it deposited them in a room that exited onto the bottom floor of the Main Atrium. As usual, the gigantic chamber was buzzing with blinding neon lights, music, and hundreds of patrons milling about.

“Well,” Helpie said as he looked out at it all, having to raise his voice to be heard over the music and din of the people. “It’s just as lively as I remember. At least the Pizzaplex is still seeing a lot of business!”

Looking around for something to do, they first hopped in one of the many picture booths that lined the arena in front of the main stage. But when the picture printed out with their goofy faces, Helpie yelped in horror.

“AHH!” He snatched the picture up. “Look at how dirty I am!” All the dust and grime he’d accumulated in the basement was especially clear in the picture. And when he glanced down at himself, he remembered he was, indeed, filthy. Frantically, he crumpled the picture. “No, no, no! I cannot show up trying to get my job back when I look like this. I need to get cleaned up! Real bad.” He sounded almost panicked, looking twitchy and uncomfortable now that he was reminded of it.

“Hmmmm!” Lunar thought. “Whaaaat about Parts and Services, you wanna head there? You can get cleaned up, get a checkup, all that kind of stuff…”

“Yes, please! That’s a good idea. But how are we going to get down there? The main stage is locked up tight right now. And the only other way to get to Parts and Services is…”

“The elevators in behind the Glamrocks’ greenrooms!”

“Yes, but the doors to the greenrooms will be locked…”  

“Hah!” Lunar tossed his head, getting a spark of confidence. “Youuuu underestimate me. I know all the tricks about getting around the Plex. C’mon, I’ll show you how to get in there.”

“O-okay! If you say so!” Helpie said in surprise, following after him.

Lunar pulled the curtain aside and hurried out across the atrium floor, Helpie trying to keep up with his stubby legs. They ducked through one of the big bay doors, and made their way through the twisting, zig-zagged hallway that led out into Rockstar Row. 

“Showtime isn’t for a while, so they should be at their attractions…” Lunar mumbled as they exited into the curved hall of Rockstar Row; and true enough, no one was there besides a few staffbots.

Lunar motioned for Helpie to follow him to a spot on the far wall. There was an air vent there, about ten feet off the ground.

Helpie looked confused as to how they were supposed to reach it, but Lunar had a well-practiced plan. He quickly piled up a bunch of nearby objects, which Rockstar Row was in no shortage of. A hotdog cart, a Chica-themed and Freddy-themed trashcan, a maintenance trolley, a few of wet floor bots… And before long, they had a stack that could reach the vent.

“There we go.”

“Is that safe?”

“Oh sure. Probably. I’ve only fallen off a couple times. But I’ve never broke anything all that vital. We’ll be fine.”

First Lunar climbed to the top himself. His arms were very long, so he could reach up the rest of the way to the vent hatch; the hatch was, apparently, not actually screwed in, because it opened right up when he pulled on it.

“Whew boy, okay,” Helpie gulped as he went to make the climb himself. He could climb the warehouse shelves because they stayed firmly in place, but this looked like one wrong breeze would send it crashing down. Miraculously though, it didn’t.

Lunar had to help him when he climbed up onto the squeaking mop bot at the top of the teetering stack. He grabbed Helpie around the middle again, and somehow managed to hoist him up – the tower giving a big sway -- and shove him into to the vent without toppling everything over. Then he grabbed the lip of the vent and climbed in himself. 

“WHEW!” Helpie sat back, looking somehow paler with fright. “I thought we were gonna die. Okay. We made it.”

“Yep!” For good measure, Lunar had, at one point, brought a long metal stick from somewhere and laid it in the vent. He used this to reach down and send the tower toppling, and it all landed with an echoing crash. Now, it just looked like a big mess on the ground, and not a conspicuous pile of stuff next to a conspicuous air vent. “Theeeere,” he nodded. “They’ll just think the Mop Bots made a mess.”

“You’re pretty devious when it comes to sneaking around, huh?”

“Sure am!” He put the vent cover back into place, leaving it unscrewed for later use.

They crawled through the vents, and dropped into Chica’s greenroom, which was the first in the lineup. They hurried into the back area, and rode her service elevator down to Parts and Services below.

When the elevator door opened, they scurried along the crooked brick stretch and out into the large, creepy, dirty, almost scifi-alien feeling chamber where the robots of the Pizzaplex were repaired.

“Right! If I’m going to get cleaned up—Ugh! It’s still so dark in here!” Helpie looked up at the ceiling with scorn. Of all possible rooms, this place was the one that was even darker than usual, leaving patches of shadow and lowlight all over the place. “You know, we kept telling Monty he should put better lighting here, specifically because of the heavy machinery and risk of injury! But I suppose our words never stuck!”

“Oh yeah, Monty’s would say something like…” he put on a fake cockney tone: “‘Light bawbs cost money! You buggers can see right as rain as is, I ain’t wasting my money on that!’”

Helpie giggled. “That’s him exactly! Well, it’s a good thing I can do this…” he shut his eyes tightly for a second, and when he opened them back up, his pupils lit up brightly, one shining blue and one shining orange. His visor also lit up, matching with the orange pupil below it. It cast enough light to illuminate the area in front of him.

“That’s pretty cool, I like glowing things,” Lunar said. “Oh hey watch, I can glow like that, too!”

Hitting the mental switch in his head, he flicked on the golden accents on his pants and sleeves, and the stars on his nightcap. They were stark against the shadows.

Helpie whistled. “You have a neat design. But hey, look at that; with your gold and blue, we pretty much match.”

“Guess so,” Lunar stimmed excitedly, swaying from foot to foot and swinging his arms back and forth. When he did, it created golden light trails wherever he moved.

“Ooh,” the bear watched those moving lights. “You could be like a light show mascot.”

“I dunno about that,” he shrugged. “But it’s fun to look at!”

He took off at a run, arms out wide, and the streaks of light followed each of his golden accents. He made a lap around the Protective Cylinder, and was waving his arms and bobbing his head, to make the lights dance in patterns.

Helpie laughed and was drawn into it too, trotting alongside Lunar, his pupils leaving light patterns as well. He may have had a professional-ish way of speaking and thinking, but he was also a young animatronic, and could be caught up in playful games too!

For a moment, they completely forgot why they were there as they ran laps around the big circular space together.

Eventually the game brought them out into the hallway around Parts and Services, which was also dimly lit, fitting with their game. Since no one was around at the moment, they didn’t see the harm in running up and down the hall.  

They ran through the shadows, playing with each other by making different patterns with their streaks of light, and spinning or jumping. They were enraptured by the game and having a joyful time.

But, before they knew it, they accidentally went too far down the hall… much too far. They ended up in the grungy garage area near the end of the Parts and Service tunnels.

Lunar snapped to a halt when he realized just how far they had gone, nervous.

This was one of his least favorite places in the entire Pizzaplex. It was a hallway that dead-ended in a single room, with no other ways in or out. The walls were such a dark grey they were nearly black, and more disgusting than any other place in the whole building.

“Oops,” he gulped. “I don’t like being here.”

Helpie also came to a halt, and shook off the childish reverie. “Ugh, this place,” he groaned. “It’s gotten even worse.” With the tip of one of his stubby fingers, he picked at a long trail of rust and mildew that seeped out from between the metal panels on the walls.

“Iiiiii don’t think anyone cleans here. Like ever. Not even Staffbots.”

“Unless it’s for something dubiously legal, I’d imagine this isn’t a favored place for anyone…” But then, he looked around the entirety of the closed room, before glancing back to its only entrance: the hallway they’d just come from. “But… hold on. This wasn’t supposed to be the end of the garage. There was supposed to be a hallway here that goes on for several hundred feet.”

Instead, there was a giant canvas painting taped to the wall like a mural, depicting a happy child with balloons next to a stylized endoskeleton.

“That,” he pointed at the canvas, “wasn’t here before.”

“That poster’s always been here,” Lunar said. “At least, as long as I’ve been alive.” He remembered seeing it the first time he ever went exploring the Parts and Service section of the Pizzaplex; he’d gotten the daylights scared out of him, and ran all the way back to the Daycare and clung to Solar’s leg for an hour.

“That means… They must have put up this wall after I was shut down.” Helpie went up to the canvas and knocked on it with his knuckles. There was a solid wall below the canvas, but it also had the faintest reverb, like there was empty space behind it. “Ah-hah. That hallway’s still back there. Someone blocked it off.”

“It does sound like something the Pizzaplex would do,” Lunar hummed. He wasn’t surprised; there were plenty of places in the Pizzaplex that were boarded up, or had their doors permanently locked.

“He’s just wasting so much space. And who knows what safety horrors are back there!” the bear looked ready to panic at the thought.

“I wonder what was so bad. Hmmmmm…” Lunar started looking around the walls. “But there’s usually a way to get in… Like… this!”

When Lunar pulled up one of the nearby grimy panels, a secret button was revealed. Without hesitation he slapped the button… and then there was a whirring of gears around them.

The two jumped and wrapped their arms around each other in fright at the sudden noise; the picture of the happy endoskeleton ripped as the wall it was taped to slid open; they stared at it, still hugging each other.

A long, dark, dismal corridor opened up before them, spiraling off for a hundred feet in the distance.

Dozens of old endoskeletons were scattered along the length of the hall, frozen in various poses and states, all looking run down and showing signs of damage. But every single one of them had suffered great damage, limbs or circuits or eyes ripped from their bodies, or there were cuts or places where they’d been crushed or crunched. A couple had even been completely dismembered and were barely recognizable as a former humanoid shape. There were broken bits of metal and machine parts strewn everywhere in jagged piles.

The walls here were even more water-damaged than the garage, nearly solidly blackened with mold.

And along the ground, there were dead rats scattered in various places, which they saw when their lights trailed over them.

The dense unbearable smell flowed out.

 “EWWWW! It’s GROSS in here!” Lunar waved a hand in front of his face at the terrible stench.

“This…” Helpie was overwhelmed. “I can’t even BEGIN to imagine the size of the list of all the health and safety infractions here…”

They both backed away from the tunnel, but also couldn’t stop staring.

Then Lunar tried to break the tension by pointing to the endoskeletons. “Hehe, look at all of those naked fools.”

“It seems wasteful to just stuff them down here,” Helpie noted. “Even if they’re broken, they can be repaired.”

“Maybe they’re defective?”

“Even defective ones can be recouped.”

They paused. The silence grew uncomfortable as the yawning darkness of the hallway stared back at them.

“You know, I kiiinda don’t really wanna be down here anymore,” Lunar started backing up.

“Me either. May we head back to Parts and Services, please? I’m probably getting dirtier just standing here,” Helpie backed up too. “You too. You know what, both of us, we should scrub down with sanitizer… Yes, a lot of it…”

“Hell yes, let’s get out of this dump!” Lunar turned back to the button and pressed it repeatedly. “Lower again, close the door, close the door!”

The door didn’t close.

“No, no, CLOSE the door!” Lunar smacked the button more times.

It didn’t close.

“Ohhh, it’s a one way button.” That wasn’t ideal.

“W-Well,” Helpie gulped. “Until I can make reports again it’ll have to be someone else’s problem.”

“You know what! You’re right!”

Together they headed back the way they came. Helpie glanced back one more time.   

“Do you think anyone will notice this place has been messed with?”

“Nah, no one ever comes down this way. I don’t think they’ll even care.”

Judging by the dust all over everything, which had very few footprints of handprints, he was right.

“Well, alright…” Helpie shivered at the sight of the nasty hallway disappearing, but eventually turned his gaze away from it.

The two of them left the door to the hidden hallway wide open.   

As the two vanished from sight, they didn’t see one of the shadows in that hallway suddenly change position, moving out from where it had been hidden low to the ground behind a group of endoskeletons, and then slink across the darkness towards the open door.  

Chapter Text

When Lunar and Helpie made their way back to Parts and Services and left the grungy garage far behind them, Helpie was determined to get down to business.

 “Alright, we’ve had our fun,” he chuckled with a contented smile as they pushed through the big doors. “Now I really do need to focus on getting clean, getting a checkup for my systems...”

“…So you can get your job back?” Lunar finished.

“Precisely!”

He shrugged as they walked further into the dismally dark room, not wanting their play time to be over, but he could be satiated for now. “Sure, sure, if that’s what you want.”

“And obviously, I’d like to find out what happened to put me on ice for a year, and what happened to my siblings.” He paused as they neared the console. “But that reminds me. When I tried to connect to the system remotely, I was locked out of the Pizzaplex network. But, maybe, just maybe…”

“Maybe?” Lunar leaned forward, listening.

“Hmmm. I need to find a Save Station to try something.”

“Easy, there’s one riiiight up there,” he pointed to the balcony that overlooked the protective cylinder.

“Right, that’s nicely convenient.”

They hiked up the stairs and came to the Save Station’s big screen on the wall, which stood out under a glowing purple light; crates were stacked up all around it. Monty had decided to call these things “Save Stations”, because “if you got lost or were getting chased by something, you could go to these stations and they’d save you.” Supposedly. Lunar had never used them for their intended purpose, but the screens had funny animations of the Helpie mascot on them, so he’d sometimes press a bunch of random buttons to see what the animated Helpie would do.

“I’m not sure if this will work,” the bear muttered to himself as he approached it. “But maybe I can log back into the network through one of these…”

“You can do that?” Lunar asked curiously. He didn’t know these screens were anything more than just glass on a wall.

“Oh yes! My model was specifically designed to interface with these Stations. They all connect to the main network the way the computers do! If any of us Helpies got disconnected from the Helpie Channel, we’d come to one of these.”

“Dang, you guys could get disconnected?”

“Ughhh, more than we would care to admit,” Helpie’s shoulders slumped and he scoffed towards the ceiling, clearly exasperated with the old connection issues.

“Wow, sounds annoying, like the worst Discord call ever.”

“Sometimes it was exactly like that,” Helpie shook his head. “But anyway, if I can’t connect remotely, I want to try getting in through one of these…”

“And if you can’t maybe you could hack into it,” Lunar giggled; he said it more as a joke, but then Helpie actually paused and leaned towards him.

“I mean…” he was also giggling, whispering conspiratorially out of the side of his mouth. “I CAN hack. Like for real… pretty good at it too…”

“Wooooow,” Lunar whistled, impressed. “I can’t believe I’m gonna see some real hacking.”

Helpie laughed aloud again. “Well not at this exact moment. That stuff can take time, and I’d rather go the normal route before resorting to it. Right now I just want to run this experiment and see what happens when I try to use the Station…”

He climbed up on one of the crates and placed his hand against the screen. In an instant, the screen flashed to life in recognition of his touch, and pulled up a blue-and-yellow window Lunar had never seen before.

Helpie’s eyes suddenly flashed with bright light, and his pupils disappeared; one eye glowed completely orange, and the other glowed completely cyan. His orange visor also lit up, little lines, texts, and numbers flashing across it. He had plugged his mind directly into the Save Station.

But after a few seconds, his glowing lights suddenly died down, and his pupils reappeared. He stepped back, looking very troubled now.

“Yeah, no, it’s—it’s not letting me do anything. It’s like my whole registration is just gone,” he said, frowning, for the first time starting to feel worried. “So that… that’s not good.”

“But hey, that’s okay,” Lunar said, trying to be helpful. “We’ll figure something out. You already decided to talk to Monty and get rehired, right? When you do, he’ll let you right back in and you can check it all then!”

“Hmm, well,” Helpie said. “Now that I think about it, I don’t think I should go see Montgomery just yet.”

“Mmm? Why not?”

“Well, I’m way behind on the times! I… I don’t really know what’s going on in the Pizzaplex anymore,” Helpie explained, his ears drooping bashfully a little. “Or the whole world, really! Part of my job is being able to jump into any project, help diagnose issues, figure things out for people, help with individual chores, maintenance, customer service, I’m really quite versatile in my service!” and he sounded truly proud at that, but then that bashfulness returned. “But, I think I should hold off for a little while before I try to jump back in, cuz a lot can change in a year. I should catch up on what’s going on in the Pizzaplex first, and, you know, the whole world.”

“That makes sense, sure, sure,” he nodded. But then his own eyes lit up as he realized something. “Hey, heyyy, if you wanna know what’s going on in the ‘Plex, I can help you out.”

“Oh?” Helpie’s ears perked back up curiously.

“Like I said, I know all the ins and outs of the ‘Plex.” It was his turn to look proud. “I could show you all the rooms, and the attractions, and the guard stations with all the computers… and I can tell you what the animatronics are up to… and everything else! That way you’ll get to see exactly what’s going on with everything.”

“Hand’s-on experience,” Helpie hummed contemplatively. “That could be useful! If you’d be willing to do that, I’d be mighty grateful to you.”

“Yeah, it’d be fun,” Lunar said encouragingly.

He liked the idea of getting to spend more time with this wacky bear. He was already enjoying his company, so he was happy to have more of it.  

“Oh!” Helpie said. “And return, I can try to help your Daycare get a hold of the supplies it needs! Perhaps some new parts for the old, worn out machines?”

“Ohhh yeah yeah yeah. I ain’t got a clue what to yoink from Parts and Services, so I really need your help with that.”

“Fantastic, it’s a deal. Shake on it?”

Helpie held out his hand emphatically. Being a bot of business, especially one who had worked so close to Monty, he was used to occasionally turning such interactions into deals.

“I dunno why we gotta shake on it, but okay!” Lunar reached out a hand in return. But just as he was about to take the other’s, he stopped, looking thoughtfully for a moment. “Hmmmm…”

“Hmm? Sorry, did I make it weird?” Helpie pulled his arm back slightly, because that also wasn’t the first time he’d accidentally overreached.

 “No, no, I was just thinking…”  

Besides Solar, Lunar didn’t have any real friends. And now that the prospect of having one had presented itself, he latched onto it tightly and wanted to hold it close.   

“Sooooo, I think we’ve been getting along pretty weeeelll…”

“So do I, yes!”

“Sooooo,” he said, both excited but also a little anxious about it. “Can we add ooooone more thing to the deal?”

“And what do you have in mind?”

“I’ll promise to help you figure everything out around the Plex, if YOU promise to be my friend!” he said this cheerfully, trying to sound confident.

Helpie blinked for a moment. “Oh! Well, sure, I can do that!” he laughed, looking a little surprised by the request. “You did wake me up out of a yearlong nap, after all, and you seem like a nice enough fellow! I think we can be friends.”

Lunar smiled brightly, his chest flooding with warmth at the success. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s great!” almost immediately he was bouncing up and down on his heels and stimming with his hands, so full of excitement was he.

Helpie giggled at his reaction. “Well, if we want something to call it, we could call something fancy, like…” he hummed for a moment. “The Friend Pact?”

“Friend Pact,” Lunar repeated in a sing-song voice, bouncing excitedly up and down on his heels. “Now THAT’S weird, but I like it! Friend Pact, Friend Pact, Friend Pact, you gots it!”

And this time Lunar was the one who held out his hand first.

And Helpie took it gladly, and they shook on it.

“Right, I’ll start making a list of what I need to learn,” Helpie said. “And once I’ve seen exactly what the Daycare needs, I can figure out what new parts to get.”

“Mm-hm! Mm-hmm!”

“And of course, my siblings are still my highest priority.” Then a little bit of sadness crept into his voice. “We were always connected through the Helpie Channel before, but now…”

Lunar stopped stimming at that. “Oh, right, that’s still a pretty big deal,” he muttered, hoping he didn’t sound awkward. He wasn’t used to being around someone being vulnerably sad, or giving comforting words to someone, so he didn’t know what to say to his newly minted friend.

“The other Helpies were my family,” the bear said quietly, looking… lost. “And I don’t know where they are.” Then he made a determined face. “I’m going to find out where they went. Maybe they were fired and are working somewhere else now. Maybe they were put in storage somewhere, like I was, and I need to find them and wake them up. But no matter what, I’ll find them. I’ll find a way into the network somehow.”

Those last words sparked an idea. “Oh! My brother might be able to help,” Lunar said hopefully.

“Your brother? The one you called Solar, right?”

“Right. He’s been around a lot longer than me, so he might know what happened to them! Maybe he even saw it. And if he doesn’t know, he’s a genius with the computers, AND he has access to the network through the Daycare computer! He can probably figure it out.”

“…Do you think he’d really help a stranger like me?”

“He’s a pretty nice guy,” Lunar said. “I don’t think he’d say no… especially if I ask him!”

“Well! That sounds like a plan!”

“Okay!” the stimming returned. “I can go talk to him first and butter him up. How long will your maintenance take down here?”

“At my size, unless something’s damaged inside, not very long! I would give it an hour or two.”

“There’s plenty of time left in the day for that,” Lunar said. “So I’ll go off and see him first, and when you’re done down here, you come to the Daycare to talk to Solar.”

“That would be punctual. Very well! Let me go ahead and give myself a good ol’ checkup and scrub down. I’ll be okay by myself for a while. After I’m all done, I’ll come to the Drop Off area outside the Daycare. You can check with your brother and see if he’s okay with me coming inside, and if he says yes, I can introduce myself to him.”

“Exactly,” Lunar highly doubted Solar would turn his new friend down. Then without delay, he turned and ran off to leave Parts and Services, waving. “I’ll see you in a bit, then!”

“Goodbye!” Helpie waved back.

The greenroom passageway door opened and closed as the small blue bot left.

When Helpie was certain Lunar had gone, his hand dropped, and he sighed sadly now that he was all by himself.

He looked at the floor and was finally alone with his thoughts.

“Well… this is certainly a lot to take in…” he mumbled glumly to himself, ears drooped, and he allowed himself to show all the sadness he was holding back. “I’m just out there, doing my job, everything’s fine, everyone’s the same as ever… and then I just blink, and I’ve lost a year? I’ve lost all this?”

He walked slowly over to the computer terminal, still whispering to himself.

“Where are you, family? Where have you gone?” he looked at his dust-covered paws and shook his head. “I miss you. I can’t feel our connection anymore. It’s so empty without you all… But I’ll find you…”

He sighed as he opened the Protective Cylinder, so that he could start the checkup procedure.

“That Lunar fellow is trying to help, at least…” he mumbled softly. “Kiiind of overeager, but… he doesn’t seem bad… I think it’ll be okay to be friends, I made a Pact after all... That’s the least I can do…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back in the Daycare, Solar glared at his computer screen, a tense expression on his face.

In the week following his and Moon’s talk on the balcony, he had started to feel an ever-growing sense of urgency.

Moon hadn’t tried to force him to stop spending time with Lunar, but now that he’d made that complaint, he was worried those complaints would escalate. They always did. And Solar could handle Moon yelling at him or harming him, but now that he’d identified Lunar as the “origin point” of the “problem”… if he turned his ire on Lunar and started working that anger up into a rage as time went on…

Solar needed to speed up his work on the Star.

But he was having trouble.

After coming to a particularly complicated equation that needed to be solved in the makeup of the Star, he had been running it over and over in his head for days on end, with no success. Nothing had moved forward for nearly five days.

He hated this feeling of being stalled.

Sitting there, he finally settled on another possible solution and punched it into the computer. But like the hundred other attempts, it came back negative – that wasn’t the right answer.

“Another failure,” Solar groaning and rubbed the palms of his hands into his eyes, resting his elbows on the counter.

He was barely making any progress, and there was still so much to do after this one problem. He felt like he was just spinning wheels.

In his previous estimations for how long this project would take, he had been counting on being much further along than this by now.

“What if I… never…” he mumbled and trailed off.

The intrusive thought was small, but for the first time he felt a prickle of fear that he might not be able to complete the Star.

His chest tightened. Internally, his pride was wounded at the thought of not being smart enough to do it.

But—

No.

No, he’d do it. He would, damn it.

He slammed his hands down on the counter and looked back at the screen with determination, forcing himself through his exhaustion. Just because he was running into these difficult challenges didn’t mean he couldn’t solve them. He WOULD.

But just as his fingers hit the keyboard again, suddenly, an odd warbling rushing sound came from further in the Daycare.

Solar looked up. What was that…?

He scanned play area for a moment, before finally noticed a large silhouette moving beyond the play structures. Narrowing his eyes, he looked closer. “What the hell?” he murmured to himself.

The silhouette dodged around a corner, becoming briefly visible. Solar realized what it was, and groaned in annoyance, putting a palm to his forehead.  

Goddamnit.

This was something that happened every now and again.

“I don’t have time for this,” Solar stood up to go and deal the situation.

He walked towards the jumble of bars. He caught sight of the figure on the top of the structure.

“Hey,” he called up. “I know you’re up there.”

There was a voice up above, which gasped like it didn’t want to be caught. It pulled further back over the lip of the structure, vanishing from view.

“Hey!” he said more firmly. “It’s not like you can really hide in here. Just get down here and talk to me.”

There was some shuffling before that same voice finally went “aww,” as if in disappointment. The figure slumped down, before finally jumping over the edge and landing on the floor.

“Ugh… You again?” Solar sighed.

Yep. The creature was a big red blob in the vague shape of a humanoid, with two upward horns and a lolling tongue that never went back in its mouth.

He’d seen this guy before. He and his ilk were always annoying.

But the creature didn’t stop to talk. He rushed up one of the other slides, sniffing through the jungle gym, before eventually making his way to the bridge and jumping back down to the floor, with an unnerving too-quiet thud. His weight always seemed far too light for his huge body.  

“Ugh, inter-dimensional travelers,” Solar groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Sometimes they just popped out of nowhere to cause a ruckus. “Okay…”

He approached him. The creature was snuffling along the foam flooring.

“Hey,” Solar said firmly. “What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for--”

“Look buddy, I didn’t even like the pancreas joke when it was relevant. Now it’s old.”

“Aouuuu, that’s not very fun,” the creature moaned. “I’m hungry!”

“There’s no food for you here, Banban,” Solar said, like he was talking to one of the unruly children. “So you should just go back home.”

“But I smelled something here,” the red creature turned its head back and forth, looking at the plush floors.

“Well there’s nothing. There’s no... pancreases or whatever. WHATEVER you’re smelling, there’s none of it. Just drop the joke.”

“It’s not just that particular organ that I have the ability to smell,” Banban explained. “I can smell other things, like blood! And my sense of smell is unmatched! Godly, even! I can tell when blood has been spilled somewhere, even years after it’s been cleaned up! AND I can tell exactly how old the blood is down to the day, the exaaact amount of time that’s passed since its spilling, without fail!”

“Congratulates. Go home.”

“AND! There’s been blood on the ground here,” the creature noted, sniffing harder. “Oh, lots of it!”

“Welcome to the Superstar Daycare,” Solar grumbled, his shared memories of Moon pre-separation flicking through his mind. “Moon killed people a long time ago, here in this Daycare. He had a killcode that made him do it. But he doesn’t have that code anymore. So there’s no more killings. The Daycare is safe.”

“Oh, this Moon-man, you say? How long ago was that, that this Moon-man killed people?”

“Several years. There hasn’t been anything wrong in this Daycare since then.”

“Ahh! Ah-ah-ah!” Banban almost sounded like it was laughing. “True, there are lots of old blood splatters around here, much of it many years old, yes! Lots of little splashes, going back years and years! BUT…” Then he stopped… and honed in on one spot on the floor. “Oh, but what’s this? Some of this blood is more recent than a year… by a few days, so only slightly more recent, but slightly enough!” And then he moved a few steps further down… “OH! Well my, my! Right here, RIGHT here!” he pointed emphatically to a spot. “There is a BIG splash here! The blood was extensive in this spot! A ton of it was spilled all at once!”

Solar stopped cold, and didn’t move for a very long moment, before forcefully regaining himself. “Yeah.” His voice was clipped. “Again. Say thanks to Moon. For him. For his killing spree.”

“Nooooooo…” the creature said in an odd tone of voice, nearly a growl, as he turned to stare at Solar. Then in a swift movement, he suddenly grabbed Solar by the arm and pulled him close, pressing his spindly body against his face; and to Solar’s disgust, he took a big sniff of him.

“Whuh-- HEY!” Solar growled indignantly and tried to pull himself free, but he didn’t get the chance to; after that one big inhale, Banban shoved him backwards, hard enough that Solar tripped over his feet and tumbled to the ground with a grunt.

Then, the creature pointed at him and spoke loudly: “There was blood all over YOU!”

Clenching his teeth and ice spiking in chest, Solar suddenly growled in anger and heaved back to his feet.

“Alright!” Solar yelled, his patience used up. “You’re done. Get out!” 

“But--” Banban whined, the odd tone of voice suddenly completely banished favor of looking like a sad puppy.

“Time for you to go! Remember there’s plenty of stuff to eat back in your place!” He planted his hands on the creature’s side, and tried to physically push him into motion; it felt like it was made of some kind of plastic, and not nearly as heavy as it should be for its large size.

It hung its head sadly, but looked like it was about to signal the portal in its dimension to take him home. He stopped just at the last second, looking back at Solar. “But mayyybe-”

“Back in you go!” Solar shoved as hard as he could.

“Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…” It was enough to make him finally get the picture, and with one last sad whine, at last he vanished through his portal, which was somehow remotely activated to take him back to his home dimension. The Daycare was mercifully quiet once more.

Solar’s shoulders slumped after tension had built in them, relieved the noise was gone, but rattled by his words. “Ugh...” He stalked back to his chair and flopped back down, trying to forget what it had said. “Other dimensions…”

That was the problem with Moon having built a fucking inter-dimensional portal without ANY plan in mind other than “it would be fun”: for some reason, opening a gate into the multiverse seemed to invite people from other universes in, just as much as it let the people in it to go out.

Which meant that sometimes these weird things just… showed up to bother him for no reason.

At least Banban wasn’t the worst he could deal with. Some travelers were fine, some were annoying, sometimes they could be way worse. There were infinite dimensions out there, after all, meaning infinite possibilities for passersby. But it was always a tossup and Solar never knew what to expect. He didn’t know much about the multiverse; he knew pop culture characters existed, and he KNEW everyone had other versions of themselves in the other dimensions…. He had never met another version of himself or anyone in his immediate circle, but a couple times, he’d seen a few Glamrocks and other Daycare Attendant models he didn’t recognize come through.

“Never really thought about it,” Solar muttered to himself as he returned to his research, “but why the hell did Moon build the damn portal here? In a Daycare. Where the kids could fall in. He could have put it anywhere. Mmm. Then again, no, that PERFECTLY makes sense for Moon… Well, at least it’s BROKEN now, so people can’t just fall in and fewer jerks come through… not that it’s stops other dimensions who ALSO have a portal from coming through…”

He was only at his computer for a few minutes when Lunar made his way back into the Daycare, skipping down the steps as he hummed another song to himself.

He was literally glowing with happiness, because his golden accents were still on. He’d wanted companionship, and now he had it! It felt great to find a friend to talk to. And because they made a Friend Pact, that meant their friendship was official and he could officially call it friendship!

“I’m back!” Lunar sang as he strolled passed the security counter.

“Hey,” Solar replied idly, but then he noticed Lunar’s extra-excited movements out of the corner of his eye. He looked up curiously. “Well, you certainly look happy about something.”  

“Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm!” Lunar hummed.

“Well…” Solar said. “You wanna tell me what it is?”

“Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm!” the smaller bot said brightly, stimming by swinging his arms up and down around himself. “I was out in the Pizzaplex and I ran into someone new, and they’re my friend now!”

Solar blinked in surprised. “Oh yeah?” He knew his little brother ran into a lot of people when he was out exploring, but he hadn’t heard him ever call them friends. “Who is it?”

“He’s a Helpie,” Lunar explained. “Like one of the bears you see on the Save Stations and merch.”

“You met a Helpie?” That was unexpected. He thought back to the little prototype servant robots Monty had been trying out a while back. “Hmm. The Pizzaplex hasn’t had one of those in a long time. Where the hell did you find him?”

“I found him stuffed on a top shelf way down in the basement. He was out of battery, so I brought him to a Charging Station.”

“Well, then he must be a Fazbear animatronic if that worked on him,” Solar hummed. “And he’s still functional? He’s working alright?”

“Sure does. He’s up and walking and talking and everything. He sounds a bit like a nerd, but he’s fun.”

“Hmm. Well,” he started, wanting to know more about who his brother was interacting with. “What… is he like?”

“He’s short, like me,” Lunar motioned to himself. “And he’s a young animatronic, like me. And he’s cute, like me.”

“That’s nice, then,” he nodded, then stopped, then blinked, then furrowed his eyebrows. “Wait, ‘cute’?”

“Weeeell, he was covered in dirt from being in the basement for so long, so we went to Parts and Services so he could get cleaned up. He’s down there now and said he’d come back when he was finished down there.”

Solar was still thrown by the ‘cute’ comment and was about to say something about it, when Lunar snapped his fingers.

“OH right! He said there were other Helpies around the Pizzaplex a year ago. But he doesn’t know where they are now. Do you know what happened to them, Brother?”

“Mmm. Not really. I know Monty commissioned them to be a new kind of service bot, but other than that...” Solar tried to remember what he’d known about them. Monty had so many schemes and so many individuals involved with those schemes that a lot of them blurred into one another, especially one like this, which happened so far back. “Let’s see. The Helpies were introduced a short while before I manifested, maybe a few days. Then a month later I separated from Sun. Then I remember seeing them for about a month after that, I think? Obviously, I had other priorities at the moment and I didn’t really FOCUS on them or anything.”

“But, where’d they go?”

“They kinda just disappeared, I guess? I don’t know why though.”

“Aww, we were hoping you knew.”

“I don’t.”

“Aww.”

That would be a bit of bad news for Helpie but that only answered the question of what Solar knew off the top of his head and didn’t mean Solar couldn’t use his super computer skills to help Helpie figure it out and oh shit Helpie was coming over.

“Um… Brotherrr…?” Lunar shuffled his feet, a little nervously. “Can Iiii ask something else?”

Since he was using that tone of voice, Solar looked down at him, skeptical of what the question could be… “Maybe… What is it?”

“Caaaan Helpie come over to the Daycare for a little while?”

“Like… for a visit?”

“Yeah,” Lunar nodded. “He wanted to ask you for help with finding out where the Helpies went, and that’s a part of it, but I also wanna hang out with him.”

“I mean, sure, why not?” Solar shrugged.

“Oh! Really?”

“He’s a new friend of yours, right? And he’s not going to break anything, I assume?” he said that a tinge of seriousness in his tone, eyeing the smaller bot, and Lunar shook his head ‘no’ emphatically. “Well, then there’s really no reason he can’t…”

“Alright!” Lunar jumped up happily. Yes! He knew his brother would come through for him with this! “I’ll go get him right now! I’ll be back in a bit!”

He took off running back towards the Daycare’s Pickup Area before Solar could object; and Solar did stare after him, bemused by his outburst of energy, but didn’t stop him.  

Solar smiled contentedly as Lunar disappeared from view, and returned back to his research with a much lighter heart.

He was happy for his brother. It was good for him to make friends.

Chapter Text

Lunar ran out into the Daycare’s Pickup Area to wait for Helpie, just like they’d discussed. He sat on the edge of the water fountain, kicking his feet and playing games in his head to pass the time.

“Na-nah, na-nah, nah, nah, nuh…” he hummed along with the music in Stardew Valley’s volcano mines. He flopped out flat on his back, able to play the game even if he was upside down, one arm draped over the fountain’s edge. “Hmmm.” His fingertips touched the tiles and he realized how dry they felt. “Wow, Solar did a real good job cleaning this place up,” he mused, remembering last week when the pipes had exploded out here. “Doesn’t smell like mold or mildew or aaanything.”

But then, the thought of Solar repairing the pipes reminded him of something important and he tensed; shit, he’d forgotten to grab the supplies from downstairs to give to his brother!

“Dang it!” he slapped his palms against his knees in annoyance. “Aaawww. Mmmmm. Well, I can… just grab ‘em tomorrow.” He waved an unbothered hand, putting the thought out of his mind.

He was just sitting up, pausing Stardew Valley, when Helpie arrived. He first appeared like two glowing yellow and cyan dots that stood out in the dark chamber, walking around the corner, before he got close enough for the dim lighting to reveal the rest of him. His casing was now shiny and clean, his colors gleaming when the light hit it.

“Oh hey, there you are,” Lunar jumped down and waved in greeting.

“Yep, made my way over as soon as I was done,” Helpie grinned. “Looks like we’re both right on time!”

“Mmm-hmm. Wow, you’re shiny now. Does that mean everything went okay in the checkup?”

“No internal damage, nothing wrong with software,” he affirmed. “Aside from a nasty buildup of dirt and dust,” he shivered. “But that was easy to take care of. It took exactly one hour, on the dot!”

“Phew, good thing you didn’t get dented when I dropped you off the shelf onto the floor,” he joked

“I’m much more durable than that,” Helpie said proudly. “…You dropped me off the shelf?”

“Uhhhhh you’re not dented, so don’t worry about it!”

“Alright, you got it,” he gave a bright thumbs-up.

“Anyway I talked to my brother! He said you could come in. I asked him about the Helpies, he doesn’t know what happened off the top of his head, buuuut he can still help you figure it out, probably!”

“Ah, okay,” Helpie said, trying to hide his disappointment about the lack of upfront answers. “And you’re sure he’ll be okay with me coming in and asking him about it?” If this Solar fellow did help him with this, he’d have to make especially sure to keep his end of the Friend Pact by helping fix up the Daycare.

“Totally!” Lunar nodded. “C’mon, let’s go meet see him, I told him I’d come back with you.”

“Lead the way, my friend.”

The big doors opened and they re-entered the Daycare; the huge golden statues of Sun and Moon looked back at them.

Helpie glanced around the entrance area, and then pointed at the statues. “They haven’t given you or your brother a statue?”

“Nahhhh, Solar’s just standing in for Sun right now, and I’m not a Fazbear bot.”

“Odd, but okay,” he shrugged; he noticed the comment about Sun and was curious; he was around when Sun was still around, and when he’d suddenly disappeared and Solar had shown up, but he didn’t know the details. He decided to ask about it later.

They made their way down the stairs, and walked towards the play area. 

“Heyyyy,” Lunar asked. “Does the Daycare look any different compared to what you remember? It’s gotta have changed at least a little bit.”

“Well I wasn’t assigned to the Daycare so I only came around here a few times but WWWHAH!”

Solar stepped around the security counter, his nine foot tall frame towering over the tiny Helpie; he was even taller than the Glamrocks, scaring the daylights out of the little bear. “There you are, Lunar.”

“Hi Brother!” Lunar waved happily, motioning to Helpie. “Here he is!”

“So this is your new friend?” Solar looked down at the tiny bear animatronic, tilting his head.

“You’resotall!” Helpie sputtered, then shook his head and tried to stand straight, though was a little frazzled. “I mean yes hi! My name is Helpie!”

“Hi,” Solar said neutrally; he was used to new people being startled by his height, but it was usually only kids who were that small. Now that he got a look at him, the little bear had the same cutesy and nonthreatening design that he remembered from all that time ago. “So I heard something about you being asleep for a year?”

“Right, that, yes,” Helpie cleared his throat, and then spoke in his proper salesman-like voice again. “That is true, and here I am! Your brother Lunar here was a real pal for waking me up, and now I owe it to him!”

“Well,” Solar hummed, looking down at his little brother, “Good job helping someone out, Lunar,”

“Awww,” Lunar blushed from both of their praises.

“But as you can imagine,” Helpie continued, “This leaves me with a lot of catching up to do!”

“I would imagine so,” Solar mused. “How did you even end up down there in the first place?”

“That’s the strange thing,” the purple bear explained. “I just remember getting an urgent work email telling me to report to my manager, which I did. And then, boom! It all goes black, and I woke up here.”

“Were you charged up before that happened? And you didn’t have any viruses or anything?”

“I was decently charged, and no, my systems were clean as a whistle.”

“Hmm, that’s strange,” Solar rubbed his chin. “So you didn’t just run out of power at a bad time, and it wasn’t a virus that made you shut down or anything…”

“Do you have any idea what could’ve happened, then?” Lunar asked curiously.

“There’s a few ways he could have gone offline like that, but I don’t have enough info to form a guess just yet.”

“I’m certain we can sort it out eventually,” Helpie said.

“Yes. But for now in the meantime, now that you’re up and walking--”

“I’m gonna show him around the ‘Plex again!” Lunar explained, jumping right into it. “We’re gonna go to all the attractions, and I’m gonna show him all the hiding places…”

“Mmm?” Solar hummed, surprised they’d already made plans for that.

“…Y’know, so he can get caught up with everything!”

“Hmm-hmm, if that’s what you want to do, that’s alright with me,” his big brother said, his mouth twitching into a slight smile. He got the feeling he also just wanted to go and play with his new friend.

“Lunar’s already told me some things are still the same as they ever were,” Helpie said. “Like… Montgomery…”

“Heh. Yeah that’s about right, that guy never changes,” Solar agreed; none of them could ever resist a good Monty gripe session. “Probably never will.”

“But bad bosses aside, I’m eager to see what’s all out there,” he glanced around the Daycare. “I’ve already noticed some things that are different.”

“Oh?” Solar asked.

“Well… I don’t know if you remember me or not, but I met you before, briefly.”

“I’m pretty sure I ran into a Helpie once or twice,” Solar shrugged. “I guess one of them might have been you. I don’t think anything important happened, though.”

“Yeah. I remember you were going by the name ‘Eclipse’ back then; Lunar told me you changed it. And… have you changed your body as well?” Helpie asked, squinting at him. “I seem to remember you in a different shell, one that looked like…”

“Yes, I had to change into a different suit,” Solar said quickly, hurrying past that topic, because the memory of when he changed bodies was a traumatic one.

He had looked exactly like Sun back then, aside from always keeping his glowing functions on. His new body was even taller than Sun had been.

“I mean, i-it’s just something I noticed,” Helpie said quickly.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Solar dismissed it just as quickly.

“Oh, and also, Brother,” Lunar added. “There’s something he wanted to ask. Right?”

“Ah, right,” Helpie once again straightened up, trying to look his best when he made the request. “I came here to ask if you knew what happened to the others of my line… But Lunar’s already told me you don’t, is that right?”

“I had other things to worry about at the time,” Solar said. “I know Monty commissioned you guys to be experimental workers who served the Pizzaplex, but then you all just kind of disappeared. There wasn’t an announcement or anything, just one day you stopped showing up around here. If I had to guess? Monty probably just wasn’t happy with the results you were giving him.”

Helpie frowned, looking down sadly. “It… makes sense.” He was thoughtful for a moment; those words, Monty not being happy with them, were… troubling. Because when Monty wasn’t happy with something, there were very few ways that ever ended. But he lifted his head up again, looking sincere when he spoke next. “I want to know where the others ended up. I already tried to access the Pizzaplex systems to check for myself, but I can’t log in anymore. My whole registration has been deleted, I think. But, through the Daycare’s computer, you can, can’t you?”

“That’s right…”

“Can I ask you to look around, and see what Monty did with my siblings?”

Solar thought about it. It wouldn’t be the longest or hardest job in the world to just look that information up, but his workload was already starting to get backed up as he researched the Star, and each hour of his time was valuable…

“I do have a lot of work on my plate already--” he started, looking ever so slightly hesitant. He glanced over at Lunar, who seemed to be invested in this. He sighed internally at that hopeful look on his face; he already knew he was going to agree, but he stopped to mentally run over his schedule that was already stretched thin as it was.

“Please,” Helpie said, some of that internal sadness and desperation coming through. “I’m worried about them. They were my siblings and I don’t know where they are.”

Solar paused; deep down, he felt a pang of sympathy. If he was suddenly separated from Lunar and had no idea where he was, he didn’t know what he would do; there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t have done to find him.

So couple that with Lunar wanting this, and he felt urged to give it a try.  

But, unfortunately… he knew what Monty could be like. He didn’t have high hopes for the safety of this little bear’s line. But he wasn’t going to say that right now. Not to their faces. Not to make them upset right away.  

“Fine,” he said at last. “I’ll make some time to look around and see what I can find.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Helpie said, looking relieved for the moment. Some tension had left his little body.

“Yay, that all worked out,” Lunar said with a nod. Then he asked, “But, while you wait for that… where’re you gonna go now, though?”

“Good question. I don’t think I have a designated place to stay anymore,” Helpie said. “I used to stay in a room with charging ports for all the Helpies. But if none of us are employed, the room’s probably not there either.”

“Do you have any other place in mind?”

“Oh, there’s plenty of storage rooms, closets, nooks, and crannies out there in the Pizzaplex, I’m sure I can find one, no problem!” Helpie even smiled at that.

And it was true, the building was so large there was no shortage of places one could stuff themselves in and not be found for days, or ever. But Lunar had gotten another idea.

“Well, you know… there’s lots of room here in the Daycare,” he said, glancing between the bear and his brother. “Maaaaybeeeee you coooould… stay with us?”

“Stay with--” Helpie started, furrowing his brow.

“Hey, hold on,” Solar held up a hand.

Lunar flinched. “Uh--”

Solar sighed. “Sidebar, come on,” he motioned with his hand towards the go-karted concession area underneath the second floor walkway.  

The two stepped away to talk, leaving Helpie to stand there awkwardly by himself. “Yes, okay, I’ll wait right here!” he waved and saluted after them.

Once they were out of the bear’s earshot, Solar looked at his little brother. “Okay, Lunar, it’s nice that you have a friend,” he told him. “And it’s fine if he’s here to visit, but if you’re asking if he could live here…”

“Nononono--” Lunar waved his hands.

“That’s a LOT to ask especially because you’ve just met him.”

“Nononono, that’s not what I meant.”

“Alright, what do you mean?” he perked an eyebrow.

Lunar thought of how to word it properly.

“He doesn’t have a job in the ‘Plex anymore, but he wants to get it back,” he explained. “That’s why he wants to learn everything again, so he’s got all the knowledge so Monty will hire him! But, he also doesn’t have anywhere to go until he’s all done with that, and WE got all these rooms we’re not using here, which would make it easy, so I thought maybe… he could stay here a couple days?”

Solar hesitated. With his research into the Star being such a delicate issue, one he was doing everything in his power to keep secret, having an unknown party in the Daycare could be… an issue. The last thing he wanted was this random bot somehow passing by and seeing what he was doing.  

“It’d just be a few days!” Lunar said again, more insistently. “He’ll be out of here in no time. So… Can he, Brother?” He looked up at him with those big eyes, with a mix of hope but also nervousness.

Internally, Solar could already feel himself give in.

He wouldn’t call himself the most trusting person in the world… but this Helpie didn’t seem bad. If Lunar was telling the truth, and he had no reason to doubt it, then he was just a little guy in an unfortunate position.

Besides, as far as he could tell, Lunar was probably treating this as a slumber party or something. And it would only be temporary; if he just went ahead and got the “look for information about the Helpies” job over with, and then found an updated technical map of the Pizzaplex he could study, he could probably have the bear out of here pretty quickly. 

“…Well, we have the room,” Solar glanced up in the direction of the party rooms on the upper floor. “…I don’t see why we couldn’t have him around for a bit…”

“Yes!” Lunar grabbed Solar around the side for a hug. “Thank you, Brother!”

Was it a little guilt-trippy? Yes. Did it work? Yes.

“But only for a few days,” Solar told him firmly. “When you’re out showing him the building, make sure to find a place he can stay that’s not the Daycare, in case he doesn’t have a job back by the end of the week.” He hoped to have him out sooner than that, but a week was a good cut-off point.

“I promise I’ll do that!” Lunar nodded excitedly.

“Alright,” Solar sighed, almost feeling silly for having given in. “But he has to agree, too. He might not actually want to stay here, or under those terms; and he doesn’t HAVE to if he doesn’t want to. Let’s go ask him what he thinks about this.”

“Mm-hmm!”

They walked back to where Helpie had been shuffling his feet by himself. “I hope I haven’t caused an… issue,” he told them when they returned.

“Nope, it’s all good,” Lunar said. “Soooo we talked it out, and if you want, you can stay here in the Daycare for a week while getting back on your feet! When we’re out and exploring, we’ll find you somewhere else in the Pizzaplex you can stay after that. How about it?”

“Aww, you don’t have to go that far for me, I’ll be alright. There are plenty of rooms in the whole mega-Plex I can stay at.”

“You don’t want to run into Monty just yet,” Lunar pointed out. “If you’re out there, he might run into you! Which would ruin the whole surprise. Buuuut Monty only comes around here to bother us sometimes, but he only ever stays out here in the main room. So you’d be safe all the other times!”

“I guess that’s true,” Helpie admitted. “Well, if you’re really serious, I’d be completely grateful.”

“Yay, that’s great!” Lunar said happily.

And Helpie still grinned, but he looked a little awkward; it was true that Lunar was coming on a little strong with this friendship, offering so much. But he really was grateful.

“All I need is enough space to lay down next to a charger. Which, given my size, should hopefully be easy!”

“Yeah, shouldn’t be too hard,” Solar agreed. “Uh, Lunar’s got the theater, there’s the gift shop…”

“Although if I’m in the gift shop,” Helpie laughed, “then someone might try to buy me!”

“Uh-huh. You know what, we don’t use those party rooms all that much, you can have one of those.”

“Very fine with me!” Helpie nodded, before checking his internal clock. “Since it’s getting on the later side now, is it alright if I go up there to sleep?”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

“Alright then; let me head there now and get out of your hair.”

“We don’t have hair,” Solar said dryly.

“Huh!?” Lunar said, offended. “What do you think this is!?” He grabbed the fluff of his nightcap.

“That’s the brim of your hat, that’s not hair.”

“It’s the brim of my hat and my hair,” Lunar corrected, folding his arms. “Hmmph! C’mon, Helpie, let’s get out of here.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” the bear said as he followed him out of the play area, “I’m bald too!”

“You’re actually bald, cuz there’s no fluff on your tophat,” Lunar pouted. “I’m not bald cuz my hat DOES have fluff.”

“Take it off then, does the fluff stay attached to your head?”

“Nooo?”

“Then you’re bald!”

“Hmmph! Both of you, bullying me!” Lunar harrumphed.

Solar watched them go, their voices disappearing into the distance.

Seeing how they seemed to get along, any worry Solar might have had was swept away. They were an odd pair to be sure, but it might be good for Lunar to know someone with that disposition -- responsible, but still energetic like a kid, and able to have fun. He deserved to have a friend like that.

…None of them noticed that Moon had been watching them. He stood on the balcony, and had been peering through the gap in the curtain, observing their exchange.

He watched Lunar ran up the stairs with his new friend at his side. He only gave him a moment of attention.

More importantly, there was Solar, of course, wasting time dealing with that strange little bear.

“Hmmph.” He scrunched up his face bitterly. “Idiots.”

He disappeared behind the curtain again, going into the balcony’s back rooms once more.

The two small bots made their way up to the second floor, and chose the party room closest to the theater, which had the seaside theme. Inside, the chairs were stacked on top of the party tables, and the party favors were lying in stacks that hadn’t been touched in weeks. The counters were cluttered with unused birthday decorations. There was even a slight buildup of dust in some areas which hadn’t been touched in some time.

“Yep, no one should bother you here,” Lunar said.

Helpie looked at all the party favors, plates, cups, and other items that were forlornly on the counter. “It looks like this room hasn’t been used for a while...”

“I think we used to have a lot of birthday parties in here?” Lunar said. “But, not all that much anymore.”

“That’s a shame. I remember, back before I went to sleep, the Daycare had parties all the time. Lots of kids would have their birthdays, graduations... school clubs…”

“That was probably when Sun was around.” He said this nonchalantly. By the time he was born, this had become the Daycare’s normal level of attendance; he didn’t really connect the fact that the Daycare’s quality had declined since Sun’s departure. Instead of dwelling on it, he started walking the length of the counter. “There should be a power outlet on the wall here, and it should be right abouuut...”

“Ah here it is,” Helpie walked over to one of the walls, and sat down by the power outlet. This one was low enough to the ground he wouldn’t have to crane his body awkwardly to use it. “This’ll be fine. I think I’m gonna just relax. Check up on the internet and see what’s happened out in the world… Maybe check in on some things I liked, see how they’re going…”

“D’you watch any shows? Or were you looking forward to any games or anything? You’ll have lots of new things to do!”

“I did, and you’re right. That’s one silver lining I suppose.”

“You should check out The Amazing Digital Circus, it’s new and it’s funny.”

“Hmm-hmm, we’ll see,” Helpie said. That could be something for them to watch together, if Lunar enjoyed it.

The door suddenly slid open again, and Solar walked up to the room. He was carrying one of the beanbag chairs from Lunar’s collection with him; a pale purple one. “Thought you might want something more comfortable to sit on if you’re staying in here,” he said, dropping it on the floor.

Helpie looked at it curiously, before dragging it closer to the outlet; he was small, but he was able to manage with a bit of straining. Then he squished down into it; the plug that extended from his back reached it comfortable. “Well, it’s better than sleeping on the floor,” he shrugged. “Thanks.”

“Hey, this beanbag’s great,” Lunar told him. “It’s one of the softest we got.”

“Don’t worry, it feels comfortable,” Helpie assured him.

“Good!”

Then, Solar motioned to his little brother. “Alright, it’s really getting late now. C’mon, it’s time for you to head to bed. He’ll still be here in the morning.”

“Okay,” Lunar said, the tiniest bit of disappointment entering his tone, but he did as he was told. He glanced back at the bear. “Night, then.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, my friend!” Helpie called after him.

“Bye,” Lunar waved quickly, before disappearing through the door.

That left the bear animatronic alone in the tropical-themed room, which was completely silent, save for the buzzing ambiance of the lights above.  

Again, now that he was alone, Helpie’s happy expression fell into one that was now a little lonely.

“Mmmm…”

He sank further into the beanbag chair, trying to get comfortable as he charged. Not long after, through the window he saw the Daycare go dark as it was switched into Night Mode; that included the lights above his head throughout the party rooms. It was a good thing his eyes could glow in the dark, though he wished he’d been warned that would happen.

With so much strangeness going on, he was restless, and it was hard for him to hold still. Losing a year was a lot to take in and he didn’t know where to even begin; he didn’t even know why it had happened. Worse than that was not knowing where his siblings were.  

He was getting ready to pull up the internet and check on the news and things he’d been missing out on. It seemed the passwords for the internet were all the same as they had been, anyway.

He also thought about Lunar, and now Solar; he knew he was getting a lot of help from them without much to offer in return. But he’d find a way to make up for it. He was sure of it.

Lunar was coming onto the friendship pretty strong, offering him a lot of things right from the jump, but he did see him as a genuine new friend; and he couldn’t deny he was being kind and helpful.

But, Helpie also felt… uncertain. When Solar had talked about Monty potentially not liking the results of the Helpie line, that caused him to think of a frightening scenario that sat like a rock in his stomach. He didn’t want to think about it, but… He was worried now, and unsure of what he’d find at the end of this.

Rolling over onto his side, he hoped Solar would find him the answers quickly, so he could just know one way or the other.

For the rest of the night after setting the Daycare into Night Mode, Solar spent time catching up on a few of his other projects.

He had been working on the Star so much over the past week that some of his work orders were falling to the wayside, and he had to remind himself to give them some attention, lest Moon or Montgomery start getting agitated and come to see what was taking so long. He wanted to keep up with them, but god, was it hard to pry himself away from his research into the Star, especially with that feeling of ‘you won’t have time forever’ looming over his head.

And through the night he made some decent progress on those other projects… But then 6AM approached, and it was time to get ready to open the Daycare, and all of his duties there interrupted his duties on the computer, and--

He shook his head and scooted back from the counter. “Focus,” he told himself to halt his thoughts. “You can do this…”

He sat there and rubbed his eyes to give his processor a moment to switch gears. He yawned deeply; that was another night he hadn’t slept, and he was beginning to feel that creeping tiredness in the back of his mind that always started up when his lack of sleep started catching up with him…

“You can do this,” he reaffirmed to himself again.

After that moment, he heard movement approaching the doors.

Lunar and Helpie had both woken up; and this time, Lunar didn’t lag in bed for ten minutes, though he still looked sleepy as he hauled himself down the stairs.

“Good… morning,” the little blue bot yawned at Helpie as they met up in front of the doors.

“Good morning, Daycare Attendants!” Helpie responded. The bear seemed spry after a good night of sleep, or as close as he could get to it after having stayed up to peruse the internet. He’d done his own search on various Fazbear-related sites, but didn’t find anything regarding Helpie animatronics at the Pizzaplex, even on the Fazbear wiki page, to his disappointment.

Lunar yawned again and stretched, craning his head on his spindly neck far backwards.

When he straightened back up, he peeked around the corner into the security room.

“You there, Brother?” Lunar called.  

“Yeah, morning,” Solar returned as he stood up to greet them.

However, when he took a step, he suddenly grimaced in pain. His battery was getting very low again due to so many sleepless nights back to back, and his body was starting to pay the price again.

He quickly hid his pained expression as he rounded the corner to join them.

“Mmmmmm, maybe I’ll get some chips for breakfast,” Lunar was thinking out loud about what to eat. Then he asked Helpie, “Can you eat?”

“Eat?” the little bear almost laughed. “No, of course not. You’re saying you can, though?”

“Yep,” Lunar nodded. “My brother built me like that. But wow, it’s a shame you can’t eat, eating tastes so good. You should upgrade yourself if you ever can.”

“I don’t doubt there are some delicacies out there, but knowing how the food is in this Pizzaplex…”

“There’s way better things out there, like Ruffles, like Werther’s, like…” then Lunar let out the biggest gasp and put his hands up beside his head in distress. “You can’t eat Nutella! Oh my gooosh!”

Helpie did laugh at that. “The peanut butter?”

“It’s not peanut butter, it’s hazelnut,” Lunar corrected. “And it’s the best tasting thing ever!”

“Pfft. I take it you enjoy it a great deal, then?”

Solar scoffed at that. “Enjoy is a bit of an understatement. I have to limit how much he can have every month or we’d have a hundred jars all over the place.”

“Yeah, and it’s STILL not fair,” Lunar folded his arms with pouty cheeks.  

“Tch-heh,” his big brother chuckled.

“Fine theeen,” Lunar stuck his nose up at him, before turning back to the bear. “Welp. Where do you wanna go first?”

“Out in the Pizzaplex, you mean?”

“Yeah! There’s a lot of places, so there’s all kinds of places we can go first!”

“Lunar,” Solar eyed him. “If I recalled, you were supposed to help me with today’s shift.”

“Uh--… Oh, right,” the smaller bot stopped, sheepishly. He’d completely forgotten that he’d already set that up with Solar a few days ago; he’d been swept up by all the fun he’d been having.

“Well, that IS important!” Helpie said, and then suggested, “Why don’t we both help out today?”

“Yeahhh, we can,” Lunar agreed, though he sounded a little disappointed; he’d really been looking forward to just jumping out there at the first chance they got, which is why he’d managed to get up so early. Still, he turned to his brother. “So what do we gotta do? Got more repairs to take care of?”

“Yeah, always,” Solar said, having his list of tasks in mind again. “Some of the machines are down, some of the wall stars don’t work, aaand…”

Helpie looked up, getting an idea. “You’ve got repairs to do?” he asked. “Well, I’m pretty mechanically inclined myself. Is there anything I can give you a hand with?”

“Ahh,” he shook his head immediately. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it.”

It would be quicker to run through his list if he had someone helping him, but while Solar was willing to indulge his brother’s new friendship, he wasn’t willing to just trust an important task like this to any random person if he couldn’t see their work first and confirm they were ‘mechanically inclined.’  

“If you’re sure!” the bear nodded. “Hmm… I could help with customer service, maybe?”

“Yeah, that’s fine, that’s something I’m not too good at,” Solar nodded; then motioned at Lunar. “Go grab something to eat real quick and hurry back. You can set up the Daycare for the day.”  

“You got it!”

“And don’t forget the barrels this time,” Solar added.

“Alright, alriiiiight! I’mma go grab some chips!” he ran towards one of the vending machines.

“Ah-ah, that’s one of the one’s that’s out--!” Solar called after him.

“Then come on!” Lunar called back, doing a little spin in midair to face his brother before turning back towards the vending machines and continuing to run. “You can open it up and I’ll grab my chips!”

Solar took in an artificial breath and exhaled. “Yeah, okay. He’ll be back in a bit, Helpie, just give me a second.”

“I will wait right here!” Helpie gave another thumbs-up.

A short while later, Solar was just able to finish his tasks in time for the Pizzaplex to open; Lunar and Helpie had finished the preparations, stacking the barrels and arranging the toys on the foam mat and prepping the snacks and the blankets and pillows for later.

The children began to arrive right on time.

Solar let Helpie take the lead, checking them in one by one. Solar stood in the doorway to greet the kids and set them up with a toy or a task, but he stayed close to the counter and kept watch on Helpie just in case. Fortunately, the little bear was good at interacting with the public, and everything went smoothly; some of the humans seemed surprised that he was there, while others were so oblivious they glossed right over it.

Eventually, a pair of humans arrived: a father and his daughter.

The little girl noticed Helpie right away. After her father checked her in and stepped back, she walked up to him, curiously. “Who are you?” she asked curiously in a soft, sweet voice.

“Why hello there!” Helpie smiled. “My name’s Helpie. Who might you be?”

“I’m Evelyn,” she replied.

“It’s nice to meet you, Evelyn,” Helpie said brightly. “Are you going to have fun in the Daycare today?”

“Yeah,” she replied; then, she tilted her head. “Are you a new robot kid? Like Lunar?”

“Sort of,” he said. “I’m here to give Lunar and Solar a helping hand for a little while. Because I’m Lunar’s friend, and friends help each other out!”

“Oh, okay,” she said. Then she glanced around for a moment, before leaning closer and looking hopeful. “Do you know where Sun is?”

Helpie was about to respond, before realizing he didn’t know where that particular animatronic was. “Oh? Sun?” he asked, hoping she would clarify.

“Yeah,” she said. “Lunar’s his brother. If you’re Lunar’s friend, I thought you might know where he was.”

Helpie hesitated, because this wasn’t part of any customer service script he had.

But thankfully for him, Solar had overheard her question, and quickly walked over.

She looked over at him, completely comfortable in his presence.

“Hi, Evelyn,” he said softly. He knelt down low to the ground, so that he was closer to her level.

“Hi, Solar,” she replied.  

“You see, Helpie’s really new here,” Solar explained softly. “So he doesn’t know too much about Sun.”

“Oh,” Evelyn said, slowly lowering her eyes and looking a little sad. “I really miss Sun. I wish he’d come back already.”

It hurt to hear her say it again.

Solar didn’t know how to respond. He never did, when she asked about him.  

“…He’s still on vacation,” he said, using the same excuse he always had. “I know it’s been a really long one, but…”

“It must be the longest vacation ever,” she said with a little pout.

“I know,” Solar agreed quietly. “It definitely is.”

She had grown up so much in the year Sun had been gone. She was one of the Daycare’s children who had stuck around the longest. When Solar had changed into his new body four months back, some of the children had a hard time understanding what that meant, but Evelyn seemed to understand soon enough after. She’d likened it to changing a costume.

Solar didn’t want her to be sad right at the start of the day, so he tried to send her off before she could dwell on missing Sun for too long.  

“But run along now, go play,” Solar said, motioning with his head towards the play area. “Have some fun today. I’ll be there soon to set up the paper and crayons, or read you one of the picture books…”

“Okay,” she agreed, still looking a little downcast, but he knew a few plushies and some arts and crafts would cheer her up.

Little Evelyn hurried through the doors to where Lunar was already playing with the others, and Solar had to force himself not to watch her go.

He had learned to bury and compartmentalize the pain he’d gone through with that poor little girl, but sometimes the reminders flared back and remind him it still existed.

Solar remembered when Sun had first gone into his coma, and he’d taken over his duties. A lot of the children had been confused, a lot of them hadn’t understood why Sun had suddenly started acting different; those who were able to wrap their heads around it asked where Sun had gone, and wanted to know when he’d be back. Evelyn had been one of them.

In fact, she’d kept on asking even longer than any of the others.

A couple children hadn’t liked Solar. They’d complained or cried that they wanted Sun back instead. But Evelyn had been one of the children who’d gotten used to him, and even seemed to like him, even though she still missed Sun dearly. She’d asked about him for months, before her questions slowed, and then almost stopped; but she still brought it up at least once a month or so, asking if Sun was coming back yet.

Solar… never knew what to say… He didn’t want to tell her that Sun was dead, on the tiniest chance he was repaired; but he didn’t know how to explain the concept of a coma to a small child. Therefore, whenever asked, he’d always just defaulted to saying Sun was on a vacation, and no one knew when it’d be over.

It was both sweet and heartbreaking; Evelyn hadn’t seen Sun in a year, but she still remembered him and missed him so much.

Whenever she sat down to do her arts and crafts, she still kept a Sun plushie with her, which she’d set up in a chair beside her, saying it was so Sun could be there even if he wasn’t there.

He didn’t want to watch her heart break, if Sun’s death became permanent one day and he had to tell her he was never coming back at all. If only he could… just finish that Star and fix it…  

And then, after everything that had happened to them, it used to be so hard for him to look at her. Sometimes it still was.

But he had gotten used to burying those traumatic memories.

“Um,” Helpie’s voice broke in and interrupted his thoughts as he was standing there. “The girl, Evelyn, is she okay? Is everything okay?”

Solar forced himself to focus on the present moment. “She’ll be alright,” he replied. “C’mon, time to work.”

As a trio, the three of them cared for the children throughout the afternoon, playing with them and providing them activities, making sure they were safe, and giving them snacks.

Helpie was even smaller than some of the kids, meaning he was treated a bit more like a toy… but he was just the right amount of energetic to play with the children in return. And being a service bot, he was actually programmed to deal with humans, including the youngsters!  

Having three attendants there actually made the job a lot easier.

By the time the kids had to take their nap, Helpie looked a bit frazzled by having been picked up and carted around by some of the rambunctious ones, but he was still holding it together.

Working together, they finally managed to wrangle the kids into their blankets. It took some effort to get a few of them to go to sleep, but eventually they’d gotten them all to lie down and, at the very least, stay quiet. Evelyn hadn’t finished with a drawing she was doing yet and was a little resistant to lying down, but she was placated with the promise she could finish it after waking up.

With that finished, the trio stood further away from where the little ones were bundled up with their pillows and stuffed animals on the foam floors. They spoke quietly so as not to disturb the children.

“Phew, daycaring is definitely a lot of work,” Helpie said.

“Yeah,” Solar nodded, feeling that in his core.

Lunar was lying inside the donut toy, his legs kicked out of it as he lounged. “It’s so exhauuusting, I feel like taking a nap.”  

Helpie chuckled quietly, but then stopped and looked around again, a little confused. “But, Moon isn’t here…” he noted. “Is he, you know… still around?”

Solar frowned. “Ugh, Moon.”

“Weeeell,” Lunar said. “He still lives here…”

“…Does he not do this job anymore?” 

“No. He doesn’t.” Solar shook his head.

“Hmm,” the bear looking thoughtful about that. “He didn’t seem to like doing his job even back during my time, even when Sun was still around…”

“Nooope,” Lunar said. “That guy makes Solar do everything in here.”

“That’s pretty rude.”

“He is!” Lunar agreed wholeheartedly.

“Yeah, the other Helpies and me, we… we certainly had things to say about Moon,” he cleared his throat.

The brothers were both thinking the same awkward thing. They didn’t know whether to mention that Moon had killed children in the past. They decided not to.

“That’s something we can all say,” Solar nodded. “Having things to say about him, that is.”

“You might not like the opinions we had on Moon,” Helpie muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

“Ohhh? Liiike what?” Lunar asked.

He avoided their gaze and spoke hesitantly. “We kiiinda sorta highly recommended Moondrop be discharged from the Pizzaplex altogether, if you get my drift…”

“You know what,” Solar said. “I can’t even blame you. Moon’s as terrible a fit for this job as one can get.”

“Oh! Okay. I was worried I’d have to defend that opinion.”

“Don’t worry. Moon and I aren’t all that cozy with each other. I don’t care if you criticize him.”

“Okay! Cuz I’d still do it even if you didn’t like what I had to say,” Helpie nodded. “And I think he should be gone.”

“Well, it’s good to speak your mind!” Lunar kicked his feet back and forth. “Right Brother?”

“Um. Right.”

Would that be what Solar wanted, for Moon to be thrown out, or even scrapped? From a moral standpoint it was probably better to get him away from the children permanently. But from a personal, sentimental standpoint, with Moon having been his something-like-family… he honestly didn’t know.

 “I’d be okay with him being gone,” Lunar held up his hand bluntly.

Solar sighed. “I’m sure you would.” It would be… difficult to explain the emotional complications he had with Moon to Lunar.

There was a pause in the conversation.

Lunar eventually sat up and asked the same question from earlier. “So Helpie when we’re done, where do you wanna go first?”

“I’m honestly not sure,” Helpie said. “You gotta show me what’s out there at all first, you know?”

“Urrg, it’s gonna be a while before we can, still,” Lunar sounded impatient and let his head drop back to thump against the donut.

Standing there, Solar pressed his lips. He considered just letting them go right now, and taking care of the rest of the day on his own. Lunar was supposed to help him through the rest of the day, but… he knew he’d been itching to go off and play with his friend since the day began.

And they’d helped him with this early shift, which had gone veryeasily, so it should be okay to let him off the hook this one time.

“Hey,” he leaned down to look at Lunar through the hole of the donut. “You two can take the rest of the day off. Go on, go play in the Pizzaplex.”

Lunar looked up. “Really?” he asked just a touch loudly, but then remembered to keep his voice down. “A-Are you sure?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. I can handle the rest of the day.”

“Okay! If you insist!” He couldn’t help but show he was excited, shamelessly jumping up. He turned to Helpie. “Yay, we can go now!”

The bear had been willing to help for the rest of the day, but he was just as eager as Lunar to get out there. “If the offer is open, I’ll accept it!” But before leaving, he glanced back at Solar. “It felt good to help someone again. If I’m going to be staying here a few days, why don’t I keep helping you guys out until I’m gone?” He suggested. “I can keep this up, it’s no problem.”

“I guess that’s fine,” Solar shrugged. “It makes it a lot easier to have a third attendant around to keep watch on the kids.”

“Perfect,” Helpie said, glad he now had a way to pay them back for the time being. Then he turned to Lunar. “I believe you wanted to go and explore the Pizzaplex with me. Would you like to take the lead?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” he nodded. “See you later, Brother!”

The two of them ran off again, inching out the door so as not to make too much noise.

Solar was left alone in the Daycare again, all by himself with the sleeping children.

“Hmm-hmm-hmm…” He chuckled and shook his head as he watched the two go. He was glad they were getting along so well. He didn’t want to make a habit of letting Lunar play hooky like this, but he was willing to indulge them for just a little while.  

Chapter Text

The two small bots ran through the Daycare’s pickup area and hurried out into the Pizzaplex Lobby, where the gift shops, lost and found, information desks, and the Faz Pad were already packed with customers. Humans hustled to and fro, accompanied by the familiar sounds of shrieking children as they ran amuck or threw tantrums.

“And here we are,” Lunar motioned with his hand. “It’s like the Main Atrium if it sucked and was all squished up.”

“A very apt description,” Helpie chuckled. “I only caught a glimpse when I was coming to the Daycare, so let’s see…” Playing up his movements like a dutiful inspector, he walked forward, and made a show of scanning the big space as he stroked his chin. “It looks like the layout hasn’t changed much around here…”

“Gift shops’re probably different, right?” the celestial bot pointed to the double-leveled store across the balcony bridge. “Different stuff in it, y’know.”

“Oh probably,” the bear said. “Let’s go take a look. I wonder if the lights are still a fire hazard in Lost and Found…”

The two spent some time running back and forth around the Lobby, visiting each of its crowded rooms. They moved around the staffbots who looped through their endless cycle of work, and dodged around the legs of the grownups while trying not to bump into any of the kids.

Helpie paused as he looked up at the menu of the Paz Pad -- just one of the many displays for the strange food served at the Puzzaplex.

“You know,” he said quietly to Lunar. “I know Fazbear is a really terrible company, but… I can’t help but feel a strange sense of nostalgia here.”

“Uh-huh? Really?”

“I suppose it’s because I was made for this Pizzaplex. It’s the only thing I’ve ever known.”

“Mmmmmmm, I guess the same could be said for me,” Lunar replied. “I don’t even think I’ve left the ‘Plex more than…” he counted on his fingers for a second before giving up. “I dunno, but it’s not a lot. Solar only takes me out to, like, grab some foods and some Nutella once in a while.”

“Dang. I suppose that puts us in a similar boat with this place being our home for better or worse, then.”

“Sure.” He paused. “Doesn’t make Fazbear any less terrible though.”

“Oh absolutely not!”

And speaking of Fazbear’s terrible nature, if there was one thing Helpie had a good eye for, it was diagnosing flaws and weaknesses in the foundation of things after a quick look. The technological knowledge was baked into his very code, after all.

“I can already see some flaws,” he shook his head as he noticed several health code violations around the place… including some that had been reported last year.

“And that’s just what you can see with your eyes?”

He shuddered. “Yeah. Just with my eyes.”

“Ew. Imagine what’s under the walls. Where you CAN’T see it.”

“That’s the stuff of nightmares…”

The Faz Pad kitchen was almost enough to send Helpie spiraling into a mental breakdown, so for his sake they bolted down the stairs and back into the gift shop, scaring the daylights out of a mother on the way there.

Once inside, they caught their breath and let the nastiness of the kitchen fade away. Secretly though, Lunar wasn’t too bothered by the mess; he knew it was a bad thing for it to be messy, but he hadn’t inherited Solar or Sun’s fussiness when it came to cleanliness.

“Phew,” Helpie mimicked wiping his forehead, even though there was no sweat. “That was almost too much.”

“Oh it gets worse,” Lunar said idly.

The bear didn’t respond; he could only shudder at the thought.

Lunar turned to look at one of the merchandise racks, and found a curious bauble with Helpie’s face on it.

“Hey look at this,” he held it up.

Helpie blinked at it. “We’re still on merch?” he thought for a moment. “I guess it’s not unusual, though. Our ‘character’ existed a long time before we were built, after all.”

“Mmm-hmm.” Lunar put the bauble back… on the completely wrong shelf.

Helpie glanced around; the faces of all the Pizzaplex mascots were plastered across those mountains of cheap knickknacks. “If you’re not a Fazbear robot,” he said, “Then… I’m guessing there’s no merchandise of you?”

“Nope.” The celestial bot said it so casually.

Helpie noted that Lunar didn’t seem bothered at all… but, from where he was looking, just behind Lunar’s head were pieces of merch with Sun and Moon’s faces on them. That struck him as odd, considering the current circumstances.

“Well… it’s Solar and you who run the Daycare,” he said. “But Sun and Moon still get advertised as the Daycare Attendants, even after all this time. I don’t think it’s really fair that you don’t get anything.”

Lunar paused. That sentiment was… strange to him. “Mmmmmm,” he wasn’t really sure how to articulate his feelings. “Weeelllll, Iiiii’mmm just not a Fazbear robot. My brother isn’t either. Soooo, weeee, don’t get merch.”

“Do you guys… even get paid?”

“I’m preeetty sure anything we make in the Daycare just goes to Monty.”

Helpie could have argued against that, and said they deserved to get paid – Sun and Moon used to -- but he wasn’t really sure how to word his thoughts about that, either.

But Lunar saved him the trouble of having to figure out something to say, because he walked forward and ducked into one of the circular T-shirt racks. For someone so short, it was like being inside of a fort.  

“C’mon, come in!” he stuck a hand out and waved for him to join.

Chuckling, the purple bear did, disappearing behind the wall of shirts. For the next few minutes they dodged from rack to rack, spooking some nearby kids when they jumped out every so often.

Thankfully the cashiers weren’t paid enough to care, and they didn’t stop them.

Eventually they had seen everything there was to see, and ran back to the Lobby’s upper floor, where they found a quiet spot along the wall to talk.

“I think that’s all I’ll need for here,” Helpie said. “It’s really not that different from how it was before, so there’s not too much for me to learn.”

“You sure?” Lunar asked. “Nothin’s changed at all?”

Helpie stepped back, putting on a super serious face like he was seriously examining the Lobby. Then he pointed at Lunar. “You definitely weren’t here.”

He snorted and laughed. “Yeah. For you it’s been a year, but I’m only four months old. So like… duh!”  

Helpie hummed. “Oddly enough, I think that technically makes you older than me. I was only two months old when I went to sleep.”

“Yeah that’s pretty weird,” Lunar nodded. “But, we’re robots, so stuff gets weird with us.”

They glanced at the time; there were still plenty of hours left in the day.

“Let’s go to the Atrium,” he motioned towards the elevators with his head. “There’s waaay more to see there.”

They rode the elevator with two dozen humans before running out into the Main Atrium. Right in front of them was the huge decorative map of the Pizzaplex, and it was just as uninformative as it was before. The two disregarded it right away and ran to the glass barrier that overlooked the giant cavernous hall that was the building’s center of business. And once more, even though Fazbear was a terrible, morally bankrupt company that sucked the souls out of their employees and customers, this was a very impressive sight to behold. Yes, even if you knew the business was held together with glue and cardboard from old moldy pizza boxes.

Standing together, the two friends pointed at all the attractions around them, taking note of their favorites. The bright neon lights bounced off their shells.

“It looks like some of the decorations and lights have changed,” he noted, having to raise his voice to be heard over the endless clamor and music. “But a lot of it is just the same as it was before.”

“Yyyep, you know how it goes around here,” Lunar said. “If it breaks just duct-tape it back together! Keep using it until it disintegrates!”

“Mm-hmm,” the bear nodded. Then his eyes lit up and he pointed up to the cupcake factory. “Hey, Chica still has her cupcakes, that’s good!”

“Oh yeah. People like that place for some reason. Lots of people going in and out up there.”

“Aw, good for her! She was having a hard time with her business before, feeling real down about it, so I hope she’s feeling better now.”

“She seems fine whenever I run into her,” Lunar said. “I swipe some cupcakes from her line when I’m sneaking through sometimes. I think they’re pretty okay, I’m not a really big cupcake guy.”   

Helpie shrugged too, because he wasn’t a “food” guy at all. Then he leaned in conspiratorially. “Doooes she know you do that?”

“She does! She lectures me that it’s not good to steal, but she always lets me go ‘with a warning’. With the cupcake I grabbed, even.”

“Ahh, then she is doing better! She would’ve walloped you for doing that back in my day.”

He glanced around again, gaze landing on another particular attraction. At this one, however, he looked disdainful.

“Did they ever fix Mazercise?” The name was scornful coming from his mouth.

“Fix, like what?”

“Did they ever get rid of that AWFUL maze?”

“Nope,” he shook his head. “I don’t think they’ve even added any new ones.”

“Ugh! Figures!” the bear rolled his eyes to the heavens. “That place always sucked! We kept telling Monty how to make a better gym, but he didn’t listen!”

“Monty doesn’t listen to aaanyone.”

“Some things never change.”

“Uhh-- oh yeah! Speaking of, since you’re supposed to help make things better around here, what about the animatronics? Did you guys ever try to get them upgrades or anything?”

“Nah… Well, we did help with repairs for them since we helped with general maintenance, but we didn’t deal with their designs. But we did see them around a lot! Especially since we worked in all their attractions. Freddy was always pretty nice to us; I think he kind of sees us like nephews. We’re kind of like Freddy models, so that makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“I guess so. Robot family trees are weird like that.”

“Oh yeah. Especially if you start taking into account the same meta ‘character’ who has had different models designed for them, or if there were different builders, or if there were pre-designated family roles…”

“Heck, look at me and Solar. He’s my brother, but he MADE me. If we were going with, like, human family trees, Solar would be my mom… and he’s not. And Solar was made by Moon, but he grew out of Sun’s head… but they’re all brothers, or at least Sun and Solar are, they’re definitely not Solar’s dads…”

“…Is that all?” Helpie chuckled, still not knowing the story of how it all happened, and frankly he still didn’t get it.

“Yeah, juuust about.”

“Well! That just goes to show how weird we robots can be! You’re correct!”

“Yeeee-ep.”

“But you asked about me and the animatronics. What about you? You said you run into Chica sometimes, right? Are you friends with any of the Glamrocks?”

“Nah,” Lunar shrugged.

“None? Not at all?”

“Nnnope.”

“Not even… Freddy? DJ?”

“Not really, nope. We don’t really talk to any of the other animatronics? Or any of the people? We kinda just do our own things. Solar doesn’t go out of the Daycare that often, and the Glamrocks, I think I kinda annoy them. Which I mean, fair. I guess we get Monty coming around to bother us sometimes, but he’s only there to get stuff out of us. So nah, we’re not friends with any of the others bots.”

…Lunar and Solar were just two brothers alone in that empty chamber of a Daycare, with the only other people they ever saw being Moon or Monty, who abused them.

It was a little sad to think about.

And, honestly… that was one of the reasons Lunar had latched onto Helpie so quickly and so tightly.

“…But, we’re friends now!” Helpie said, trying to be helpful.

“Yeah,” Lunar lifted his head, smiling a little. “Yeah we are.” Then he paused, thinking of something that made him nervous. “When you get your job back, will you still be my friend?”

“Of course, Lunar,” Helpie nodded. “I made the Friend Pact with you, like you wanted, right? I’ll still be your friend then.”

That was a relief, and he relaxed immediately. “Phew! Okay, good.”

They continued to look over the attractions, watching the humans flocking around them.

Off to one side, there was the huge, colorful sign for Fazerblast, one of Freddy’s main attractions. Right away, Helpie thought it could be a fun place to go.

“That’s a place dearly in need of some inspection,” he groaned, but it seemed a little performative, especially after he stopped and flicked his gaze over to Lunar out of the corner of his eye. “…You wanna go play there later?”

“Yeah, yeah! We just gotta be careful not to look at the laser light. I did that once, my whole body locked up and I fell right off the upper floor.”

“Ouch!” Helpie hissed at the thought

“Yeah, Solar was reeeeally mad when he saw my faceplate was bent.”

“Ouch!” Helpie yelped at the thought.

“But it’s worth it, the glow is really cool in there.”

“You really like glowy things, don’t you?” Helpie snorted. “Do you think you got it from Solar?”

“Uh, no? Why would I?”

“Mmm, actually, I remember when I met Solar -- back when he looked just like Sun? He used to glow all the time.”

“He did?” Lunar looked up with wide-open eyes. That was something he didn’t know about his brother! And it’d never crossed his mind to wonder about it!

“And man! He was like a beacon; you could see him a mile away. Although, his colors are a lot different now! Does he glow, like… a reddish orange now?”

Lunar paused. “Actually, I dunno if his body can glow,” he tried to remember if there was a time he’d seen his brother with any lights on. Solar’s eyes could light up, but that was standard to most animatronics. But other than that, he had no idea! “Dang, I gotta ask him!”

“Hmm-hmm,” Helpie chuckled. Then next, he finally noticed the jungle-themed sign near the lower floor, which still had the big tape laid over it to declare it out of commission. He put his hands on his hips, looking down at it sourly. “Huh. Gator Golf is still closed. I can’t believe it! It’s such a good attraction. He could make a boatload if he just opened it!”

“He could make it like a jungle playground. Instead it’s like his own weird mansion in there--”

But before he could finish his sentence, Helpie suddenly gasped and pointed forward, craning to look across the glass barrier eagerly.

“The Raceway!” he practically yelled. “Look, look, the Raceway! It’s open!”

“Ooh yeah,” Lunar came up beside him. “Roxy’s gonna be racing right now!”

“C’mon, let’s go!” Helpie bounced off without waiting, running as fast as his stubby legs could carry him.  

Lunar hadn’t expected the sudden burst of speed, but he hurried after him.  

They trotted down across the middle floor towards the entrance to the raceway, passing around the legs of a bunch of startled humans. Lunar had slightly longer legs and was able to catch up before too long.

“You really into the wild west?” he guessed as they trotted.

“The Raceway had been undergoing construction for months,” Helpie explained. “I never got to see it open!”

They made their way into Roxy Raceway, which was packed with onlookers that crowded around the observation platforms. A race was currently underway, the Go-Karts being displayed on the huge overhead screens.

They fished through the crowd, pushing and shoving their way up to the front where they could see the racetrack. They looked down, mouths agape, watching for the go-karts to come around--

A few moments passed as the racers turned the corner on the other side of the room… then the Go-Karts thundered past, Roxanne in the lead, with the younger racers close behind. The crowd cheered loudly; Lunar and Helpie watched with wide eyes, their face pressed against the glass.

“This is pretty cool!” Helpie said to Lunar with excitement; Lunar glanced back at him with an equally wide grin.

They watched the rest of the race; they’d arrived just in time for its second lap. The Go-Karts were definitely moving faster than what was legally or morally safe for an attraction like this, but as long as it was cool, no one seemed to care, least of all the kids, teens, and Roxanne fans who wanted to get in line to go next.

Roxanne pretended to be on the ropes for the final lap, letting the children think they had the chance to beat her. But at the last few seconds she pulled ahead with a burst of speed, and like most races where she wasn’t explicitly instructed to throw the match, she was the victor. She passed the finish line, and the spotlights and victory music flashed to life, creating a cacophony of noise and colors; the crowd let out another cheer for her, especially the fans who bought into her mascot’s characterization, and those who were enamored with her appearance. Helpie cheered too, taken in by having never seen this before.  

Roxanne pulled to a stop in front of the crowd and stood from her seat, flipping her long hair through the air as she turned to look at them, and basked in the cheers of the crowd. The cameras made sure to hone in on her face with all the makeup she was forced to advertise to the humans; the huge overhead screens displayed it all.

And though Roxanne loved the attention, a lot of this was just for her performance. While she had a genuine passion for racing, she had done this same routine so many times that the cool, winning grin she gave to the cameras was sometimes a little forced.

Still, she did her job and gave the crowds her victory stance and let the advertisements play.

But she didn’t stay long; she got back into her Go-Kart fairly quickly and left for the garage. After all, there was still time in the day, and another race was to begin soon.

Helpie squinted down at the Go-Kart garage. “Hey, I got an idea,” he leaned over to his friend and whispered.

“Huaa?”

They jumped into the Go-Karts, pushing the staffbots out of the way by disabling them with another trick Helpie knew, and took off down the track as the next race began. They raced each other in particular, cheering and whooping as they whipped around the corners of the track.  

They were almost to the front, where Roxanne was holding back for some of the kids, as was her routine.  

But then she glanced over at the crazy pair of kids that were gaining on her.

“What!? You again!?” Roxanne yelled when she noticed Lunar on her track.  

“HAA-HAHA!” Lunar was having too much fun as the wind whipped him in the face.

“Oh no you don’t!” Roxanne immediately hit the acceleration and pulled away, not even going through her usual gig of letting the other racers think they could beat her. When she pulled ahead, she wore a competitive smirk that she rarely got to show off.  

By the end of the race, the two had somehow not crashed and gotten themselves killed.

It didn’t matter that they didn’t win; they still laughed as they pulled to a stop near the garages and jumped out of their Go-Karts.

“We gotta do that again sometime!” Helpie said.

But, soon they heard another Go-Kart approaching; after quickly finishing her usual victory pose, Roxanne had pulled into the garage beside them.

“You know,” she called down to Lunar. “If you’re going to insist on hijacking my track, you should at least try not to get completely destroyed out there.”

“C’mooon, you enjoyed that,” Lunar smirked knowingly and waved a finger at her. They’d all seen her grin plastered on the big overhead screens when she’d gotten to cut loose.

“Harrumph,” Roxanne closed her eyes and lifted her nose at him, but the sassy way she did it gave off the impression she definitely HAD enjoyed the race. But then she opened one eye and glanced down oddly at Helpie. “When did they bring YOU back?”

Helpie gasped. “You remember me!” he said happily.

“I mean, I remember there used to BE Helpies but not any of you individually,” she shrugged.

“Let’s not get into the specifics, but I have a question, if you don’t mind,” he said. “Do you know what happened to the rest of the Helpies?”

“Couldn’t tell you. Monty doesn’t see fit to include me in any decision making for anything,” she shook her head. “Well, now that you two have had your fun, are you two going to leave here?”  

Lunar looked over at the Wild West beauty salon area; this was another place he liked to pretend to get lost in, like he did in Gator Golf.

“Nah, I’m gonna go exploring,” he said. They were supposed to be out here for a reason, but having fun had taken priority right now.

Roxanne looked contemplative for a moment.

“Well then,” she said. “I might as well tag along with you and make sure you don’t get into any more mischief around here...”

“Ooh yah?” Lunar glanced back at the track. “Whhhaaat about the races?”

“Whatever, it’s time for my break,” she waved a hand. “This is the time when the kids race by themselves. The mechanics give my Go-Kart a once-over to make sure it’s all clean, too.”

She hopped out of her Go-Kart and left it for the Fazbear employees to handle, probably rudely.

The two little friends looked at each other, but both nodded and seemed fine with it. Now they were two fun-sized shorties with an eight-foot-tall beautiful behemoth. That was fine. 

The odd trio left the garage and went out to see what they could find, trying to avoid the human crowds. Roxanne simply tagged along while the two small bots ran here and there; they reminded her of the human kids, who liked to run all over the place.

They heard the races resume. They had to stay against the far wall of the vaulting space to avoid the spotlights that were watching the racers. Since this was her break, the last thing Roxanne wanted was for the crowds to see her and then swarm her again.

Even with the assisting bots to help them, they watched as one Go-Kart smack against one of the walls; it didn’t tip over, but it was enough to jar the passengers inside.

“Oooh, that’s gonna leave a dent,” Helpie noted.

“Hmmph… As it always happens,” Roxanne said.  

Lunar watched the Go-Karts vanish around the turn again, and remembered something. “Hey,” he looked up at Roxanne. “Do you think you could send karts that AREN’T so broken to the Daycare?”

“What?” she furrowed her brows in confusion.

“Y’know,” he said. “The ones that get sent there for advertising. They show up busted up real bad, and Solar’s the one that’s gotta fix them.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t get to choose which karts go to the Daycare,” Roxanne folded her arms. “It all gets ordered from the top. I just do what they say, and send you guys the ones they tell me to rotate.” Then she looked at her nails nonchalantly. “For what it’s worth, that Solar does a passable job… Even when we send you the most broken Go-Karts, they always come back functional.”

“Yeah, cuz my brother’s the smartest guy I know!” Lunar said proudly.

Roxanne allowed a small smile to come onto her face. When Lunar spoke like that, he was kind of a cute kid.

They continued on, further into the Raceway, and climbed up one of the flights of stairs to a part of the upper floors that overlooked the ground floor; less people were around here. It was pretty dark up there too; if stayed near the back wall, they shouldn’t have to worry about being spotted and swarmed.

But then Lunar caught sight of one particular spot along the upper walls. There were posters for all of the Pizzaplex’s mascots hanging there.

Lunar gazed at the row of pictures, following them down the line… Roxanne, Freddy, Monty, Chica, DJ… and then there, again, was a poster for Sun, bright and holding up a sunnydrop candy. And a few spaces down, there was a poster for Moon, looking so nice and tranquil with his moondrop candies.

When Lunar paused and didn’t say anything, Roxanne noticed his sudden silence and followed his gaze to the wall. “Ah,” she said as she realized what he was looking at, that normal sassy tone disappearing from her voice. “Hmm.”

Helpie noticed the change in attitude, too. He considered if now was the right time to ask, and decided to finally broach it. “You know, I never learned what happened to Sun…”

“Sun’s my big brother,” Lunar explained proudly, before some of the happiness left his expression. “But I never got to meet him. He’s been in a coma since before I was born.”

“A coma?” So that explained Sun’s sudden absence, and Solar’s sudden arrival.

“Yeah,” the celestial bot said. “That’s why Solar had to take over for his duties.”

“Everyone in the Pizzaplex knows about it,” Roxanne explained. “That this Solar guy just replaced Sun out of nowhere.”

“That’s a shame. Is there anything you guys can do to wake him?”

Lunar’s expression fell even further.

“Solar’s been trying to fix him, and so has Moon… but they haven’t gotten anywhere, I don’t think.”

Helpie shook his head. “I wish I could be of assistance. But I remember Moon… That one wasn’t very approachable. And he was a veritable genius, and one of Monty’s best contacts. If he’s the one in charge of the problem, I don’t know if he’d even let me get close to it.”

“Probably not,” Lunar agreed, and remembered Solar’s words of warning a week or so ago. “It’s better to stay away from him.”

Lunar glanced back at the poster, and went quiet as he looked at Sun’s face for several long seconds.

He remembered back to when he’d visited Sun’s body, and all the questions he’d had about him. He suddenly thought of something.

“Hey, guys… Helpie?”

“Hmm?” he replied.

“You said you met Solar once, back in your day. Buuuut did you ever get to meet Sun, too?”

“Sun? Mmm… yes, I’m pretty sure I did, once or twice! And my siblings came around the Daycare a bit too, and since we all shared info, I know what THEY saw, at least.”

“And,” he looked a little more hesitantly at Roxanne. “You knew Sun, right?”

She looked down at him, considering her words. “Well, you could say that I did. We were never the closest, but I considered him a friend. We spent time together.”

Lunar turned to them, looking hopeful. “…What was he like?”

“Sun?” Helpie asked. “You mean like, personality?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Cuz I know what Solar TOLD me, but I don’t know how he actually was, you know?”

Roxanne took in an artificial breath, considering what to say. “Normally, I’d worry this would be… stepping over his privacy. But… alright, I’ll tell you what I know. Just because you’re his brother, and you should know about your own family. Alright?”

“Yes, yes please!” Lunar said, sounding almost desperate for the knowledge.

“Alright,” Roxanne nodded. “Well, where to begin…”

“Okay, well, let’s see!” Helpie started, giving Roxanne a chance to think. “Sunrise was nice and cheerful, and the real face of the Daycare, yes indeed. He always managed to keep the premises spotless from top to bottom, no matter what befell the business. Of all places in the whole Pizzaplex, it was surprisingly the Daycare that had the highest cleanliness status! If there was any kind of mess, Sun was on it shortly after. He must have had eagle eyes for any unsanitary thing that popped up. He could successfully keep an eye on a large number of children, switching from one to the next to make sure they were all cared for. Moondrop, as the overseer of naptime, was… there, occasionally…” he paused. “He wasn’t exactly welcoming whenever one of us Helpies came around, but he never did anything to hurt us, at least. When we told him we were around to evaluate the Daycare, he seemed to like pointing out all of Fazbear’s weirdest or worst design choices.”

“Okay, that sounds about right…” Lunar said. Nothing too crazy there…

“We definitely preferred seeing Sun, cuz I think he’s just nicer in the core.”  

Roxanne then chuckled. “Sure, Sun was nice. But whenever I saw him, the main word that comes to my mind is anxious. It’s amazing he could handle the chaos of the kids, cuz whenever any of us saw him, he would get flustered if things went off schedule or didn’t go the way they were supposed to.”

Helpie also laughed. “I remember he stammered all the time! For almost anything that came out of his mouth!”

And that sounded about right too; in the videos Lunar had seen of him, Sun had stammered a lot, or his words ran together…

“He was always flittering and fluttering,” Roxanne went on. “He was really animated with his hands, and he never kept still…”

“Like this!” Helpie mimicked Sun’s fidgety movements with his stubby arms.

“Yeah-huh…?”

Roxanne giggled at the memory. “Oh, he was anxious about everything! More than once, someone had to give him a huge push to do something fun, like… way back when he first started hanging out with me? Freddy had to push him to come talk to me. Sun had been panicking in a hallway, and he was rehearsing different greetings that he could say to me. But then he decided not to approach me at all, and started trying to run back to the Daycare instead… but Freddy had overheard the whole thing, and gave him a pep talk to come say hello.”

“Oh—really?” Lunar blinked; that was a new story. 

 “Yes, it was quite the funny anecdote to hear from Freddy later on. But,” Roxanne said, turning a little more serious. “I think he really did have an anxiety disorder, more than just fretting. I’m pretty sure it affected him more deeply than it seemed on the surface. I think… talking about bad stuff made him really stressed, so he tried not to talk or think about it, if he could help it. And whenever I saw him, the times we’d hang out, he didn’t like to be in the big crowded areas that much. He always wanted to go to a quieter place, or familiar places. I think he was just shy around other people in general, when they weren’t kids or when he wasn’t in work mode. ”

“I kinda got that sense too,” Helpie added. “Whenever one of the Helpies went around the Daycare, he always seemed a little confused about what to do with us. But he also tried really hard to sell to us how the Daycare was safe and clean and no one would ever get hurt… and when Moon would try to point us to the weird stuff, Sun would get flustered. Like he was trying not to snap at Moon for going against what he was trying to do.”

Anxiety, huh? Lunar hadn’t heard that about Sun… Solar always said could be particular and fussy about things, but he didn’t know it was a full-blown anxiety disorder. Solar had emphasized his kindness, compassion, and organized nature over anything else.

“But,” Roxanne held up one of her clawed fingers. “I can tell you he really DID love his job, even if he was exasperated by the kids. That was never a lie, and he was good with the children. I think with them, he knew to EXPECT chaos and having to shape plans as they went along each day, so it never bothered him.”

“That’s one thing everyone always says,” Lunar agreed. 

But then Roxanne grinned again. “But you should know, he also had a mischievous side…”

“He did? Really?” Now Lunar was intrigued. He most certainly hadn’t heard that before.

“Oh, when he was comfortable with you, he could be really sassy, and he loved to make jokes and bits and have a good time.”

“Really?” Lunar’s eyes sparkled.

“Oh yeah,” she confirmed. “He was such a funny guy. He was good at making quips and comments that could make people laugh.”

“Oh!” Helpie grinned. “One of my sisters – when she came into the Daycare for one of her checkups on it? She came in just in time to catch him playing a prank on Moon!”

“No way!” Lunar buzzed with excitement. “What happened!?”

“I saw this through the link we all shared,” he giggled. “My sister was just outside the doors, Moon was at the security counter, and Sun was sneaking up on Moon with a doll in his hand… and he put the doll on the counter and kept inching it closer to him… waiting to see when Moon would notice, and he was so engrossed in what he was typing he missed it for soooo long…”

Lunar tilted his head. “How’s that a prank?”

Roxanne covered her mouth and let out the biggest giggle yet. “It’s because Moon’s scared of dolls!” she said between laughs.  

Lunar blinked. Now THAT was completely new info! “H-he is?” he snorted, shoulders shuddering as he tried not to devolve into laughter. “Really!?”

“Moon screamed like a little girl and leapt out of his chair!” Helpie cackled.

Lunar burst out laughing, and had to brace himself against the wall. He tried to imagine Moon, so sour and sulking and angry all the time, yelling out like that!

Maybe he should keep that in mind for the future; if he found a way to spook Moon with a doll and get away with it, boy, was that a tempting thought… some payback…

But it was incredible to learn of that more playful side of Sun. he didn’t know he could be mischievous, or sassy, or play pranks!

“It’s so weird to hear that! Solar never mentioned any of that stuff to me.”

“Maybe he just didn’t think to,” Roxanne said. “Sometimes people just don’t think about everything like that until it’s brought to their attention.”

“Maybe you could ask him to tell you more about Sun?” Helpie suggested.

“Maybe,” Lunar considered.

He was glad he’d asked them. Learning that Sun had anxiety, could be funny, loved children and was fine with their chaos, needed a push to meet Roxanne after fumbling lines in a hallway, and butted heads with Moon during Daycare inspections made him feel more ‘real’, in a way.

But then his eyes trailed away from Sun’s poster, over to Moon’s.

…The other figure he just didn’t know a lot about.

He was nervous around him. He tried to avoid him, and avoid being seen by him, even if being overlooked also left a bad taste in his mouth. He knew he was mean, and particularly mean to Solar.

He didn’t like Moon…

But he just didn’t know anything about him, below that surface.

And he was still so, so curious…

“And… Can you tell me anything about him?” he asked, indicating the blue poster.

At that, Roxanne looked less than thrilled. “Him—well… he’s a hard one to get the right words for…”

“Please?” Lunar asked.

Roxanne looked conflicted, moved by his big hopeful eyes. “Alright,” she conceded. “But just remember this. I don’t know everything about Moon, just as I don’t know everything about Sun. This is just what I picked up over the years of living in this Pizzaplex and knowing the two of them. I was built and activated around the same time as Sun and Moon were, so even though we didn’t work close, I had years to catch glimpses of them, talk to them, and pick up little tidbits of their lives. And then when Sun and I became friends, he would confide some things to me here and there. All of this included what was happening with Moon.”

“I gotcha, I gotcha...?”

“Right. Well. I won’t bore you by saying Moon was a jerk; I’m sure you already know that. But you have to remember… he used to be trapped in Sun’s body. For years, he wasn’t able to do anything on his own.”

“I know that, yeah,” he nodded.

“When Moon finally got his own body, he was finally ‘free,’ as both twins called it. He could finally move around any time he wanted, and could do whatever he wanted. Before the separation, he had to force Sun into submission to move the body at all, and that was incredibly painful for Sun; but now he didn’t have to worry about hurting his brother. Moon was so happy about that.” She paused, hesitating to say what was next, but she figured Lunar had the right to know. “Just a few days after they separated, I got to talk to Sun. HE looked happy, too. I gotta admit, I’d never seen him look so genuine with how much excitement he had at that moment. He… he told me that Moon had made a promise to him to be a better brother. He’d promised he wouldn’t hurt him anymore, he wouldn’t hurt anyone else anymore, and he wouldn’t let harm come to Sun by anyone else, or harm to come to either of them. He’d said Moon wanted to be a ‘real brother’ from then on.” She closed her eyes and sighed, looking pained. “And Sun was so certain it was going to happen. He was so certain that life was looking up for both of them.”

Lunar listened to everything without a word, confusion washing over him. “Moon-- he… he promised that?”

“That’s what Sun told me he did,” Roxanne nodded. “And Sun never struck me as someone who would make that kind of thing up.”

“But, how would he…?” It didn’t make sense. How could Moon, of all people, have made a promise like that? To be ‘better’, and ‘not hurt anyone’? Of all people, Moon might have been the person Lunar feared the most in his life; at least Monty pretended to be amicable and he could banter with the gator. Moon was unmovable and hated everything. Moon was scary. Moon did hurt people. Moon did hurt Sun, in the sense he was spitting on Sun’s wishes. 

And if Moon had wanted to be a ‘real brother’, he had completely failed in every single possible way due to his treatment of Solar, who was supposed to be his brother – the third member of the family. And Solar had even tried to be his brother for a while, despite the abuse. And Moon had failed in regards to Lunar as well, who, in some distant reality, could have been his sibling too.   

“I could see it in Moon, too,” Roxanne went on, sounding somber. “That guy… he was happy. Sun told me he’d never seen Moon so happy; he said he was going a hundred miles a minute at all times, just doing whatever he wanted to because he could. When I saw him, even I got the sense he was trying to make up for lost time.”

That also surprised Lunar. Moon… happy? Those words just didn’t go together.

“And if he got a new interest, or just… any idea in his head… he’d just DO it, he wouldn’t think ahead any further than instant gratification of an idea.”

 “Wait, he had interests?” Lunar stopped her. “I didn’t know he HAD interests!”

“Well, everyone has interests,” Roxanne said. “Moon did too; of course he did, he’s a person. He was always jumping into a bunch of weird projects and experiments just because he thought they would be fun. He did whatever took his fancy in the moment.”

Lunar’s curiosity bloomed by the second. “Like… like what…?”

“I don’t know everything he did, of course… But sometimes, the things he invented would get out into the rest of the Pizzaplex, and the rest of us had to deal with it…”  

She started listing off the things Moon used to get up to on her fingers.

“He sometimes built weird bots that would go haywire, which would get up to all kinds of mischief before Sun or Moon could stop them… He used to take Sun on a BUNCH of weird trips to a bunch of weird places, I don’t even know where to, but they always came back talking about ‘dimensions’ and having a bunch of strange souvenirs, it was weird… One time he accidentally made himself and Sun switch bodies, and they both ran around the Pizzaplex pretending to be each other and making fun of each other… Oh! I know him and Monty were working on nanomachines at some point, which got loose and transformed into a bunch of random things around the building that would move around and mess with people behind their backs, and it took days to get them all rounded back up -- and good god, he thought it was all the funniest thing in the world. He always laughed whenever something happened.”

“…I never heard any of that,” Lunar said, completely dumbfounded and blindsided. He tried to imagine it, but he just… couldn’t.  

“Oh, that’s not even all of it,” Helpie groaned. “He built a TON of weird items or weapons from video games. And WE had to make reports about the subsequent mess they made!”

“Oh right!” Roxanne snapped her fingers. “Whenever he got into a new game or movie or TV show, he’d build some of its tech in real life!”

“Guess where that tech always ended up, that’s right, the Pizzaplex! He was not good at keeping his stuff in check, I’ll tell you that!” Helpie griped, shaking his fists in the air.

“He played GAMES?” Lunar repeated incredulously, skipping over everything else.

“He and Sun played games together all the time,” Roxanne shrugged. “Sun loved playing games with Moon because that’s one of the few times they were equal at an interest.”

Lunar had never even considered that. That Moon might have had interests in the past. That Moon might have played video games. That Sun and Moon TOGETHER might have played games – like brothers did.

…Did Moon have a bunch of old save files for games he used to play that were just sitting there on the old security computer? And Lunar had just never noticed them?

Then Helpie folded his arms. “You know… once, he gave a Sun plushie and a Moon plushie the ability to move around,” he scrunched up his face and pouted. “And then proceeded to almost laugh himself to death when the plushies jumped one of my brothers. Then they jumped my sister. Then a bunch of wet floor bots. Then some staffbots. Then Sun, when he tried to grab them. They tried to jump Freddy too.”

Lunar tried to actually picture everything they were was saying. That just didn’t sound like Moon. The Moon he had known all this time hated doing anything frivolous, fun, or anything that wasn’t trying to fix Sun. He wouldn’t stop working for a moment, not for anything. He always chastised Solar for taking a break or doing anything that wasn’t work. Now, he was supposed to believe he used to have fun?

“He even used his tech to play pranks on people,” Roxanne added.

“Wait wait wait,” Lunar waved his hands, finding that a bit too much. “Moon… played… PRANKS?”

“Ooh!” Helpie nodded. “He and Monty used to prank each other all the time. I know this, because us Helpies saw more of Moon when he was making deals with Monty.”

“Whoa okay, okay stop, that’s enough,” Lunar held up his hands, then started pacing around as though the knowledge itself might break him. “Whoaaa that is a LOT. Phew! Lot to take in, lot to take in…!”

Helpie hesitated. “Did I say something… wrong?” he hazarded.

“No, no, no, I mean,” Lunar insisted. “I’ve never even seen him smile. I don’t think I’ve even heard him laugh? Honestly I didn’t even think he could do those things! Imagine, Moon, having fun…” he said that as though the idea was absurd.

But if all of this were true, then… why couldn’t Moon just be that way now…?

Lunar remembered something Solar had said, that Moon was being this was intentionally. If he was behaving this way because he chose to, couldn’t he just make the choice to do something else, to hold up his promise and make himself better?

If these two were telling the truth, then Moon had changed more than he could even imagine.

Lunar looked away, a sour look coming over his face.

“Moon could have been me and Solar’s other brother. I think he was supposed to be. But he doesn’t act like it, ever.”

Roxanne looked down at him; she may have had a hard exterior, but she seemed to have sympathy when he said that.

It was an odd situation for her too, because the Daycare was mostly a mystery to those of the Pizzaplex. They knew the broad strokes of Sun’s disappearance, Solar and Moon’s deals, and they all knew of Lunar’s existence… But few knew of its inner dynamics.

“But,” Roxanne asked, wanting to make sure he was alright. “That Solar of yours. Is he good to you?”

“Yeah!” Lunar said immediately, and there wasn’t even a hint of uncertainty in his tone; his face even lit up. “He’s a great big brother!”

“That’s good,” Roxanne said, reassured the kid was at least alright with him.

But another thought did cross his mind, which made his smile slowly fade. “I love Solar, but… he’s always so busy. So a lot of the time, he can’t really do too much with me…”

“It sounds like that must get lonely,” Roxanne said.

‘Lonely’; it was still a hard word to swallow.

But he said quietly. “And I can tell he’s sad, a lot of the time… And he’s not sad with ME, he just looks sad, and I wish I could make him NOT sad, but…”

“Situations like that are hard,” Roxanne hummed; she didn’t know the specifics, but she recognized the sentiment he felt immediately. “But if you’re there for him, you’re already doing a lot.”

“Mmm… I guess,” Lunar sighed. “He’s just… really sad about Sun being gone.” And the way Moon treated him, but… he didn’t really know how to bring that up.

“Well, Lunar,” Roxanne said. “I hope Sun comes back. Both for Solar’s sake, and so that you can have someone else there with you.”

“Me too.” Lunar looked down at the floor sadly.

Helpie reached out and put one of his little paws on Lunar’s shoulder, and smiled at him. “But, I’ll keep you company in the meantime, you know?”

Lunar returned a small, sad smile to him. “Aw, thanks.”

And Roxanne realized she’d gotten a little too kindly to him, and she did turn her nose back up to regain some of her sassy demeanor, but she also added: “Well, perhaps I was a little hasty earlier. If you wish to come and join more races, there shouldn’t be an issue with it, after all…”

With the two of them trying to cheer him up, that was enough to get Lunar to smile for real again.

And for a second he didn’t feel quite so lonely.

But not long after, Roxanne’s break came to an end, and she had to get back to work.

 “Oh well, unfortunately, I must get going. More races to do, more kids to demolish,” she flipped her hair back into place.  

“Okay,” Lunar nodded, before turning to Helpie. “We should probably head out too.”

“It was nice to see you again, Roxanne!” Helpie said. And right at the last second an idea came to him. “Hey, I might be homeless in a week! Do you know a place I can crash for a while if that happens?”

“Hmm,” she thought. “You seem like you won’t get into any trouble, so you could stay in the break room in the garage if you needed to, I suppose...”

“That would be great!” Helpie grinned. “Will that be alright?”

“Sure, why not, I don’t sleep there,” she shrugged.

“Thank you! Let’s shake on the deal!” he held out his hand.

“What…” she looked puzzled. “Ah whatever makes you happy.”

She wrapped comparatively-massive hand around his itty-bitty paw, with one claw extended like he was a china teacup. She shook him up… lifting him right off his feet – “Wh-ooo-ah!” – before she shook him down and sat him back on his feet. 

“Great!” he said dizzily, holding his top hat as if to readjust it. “I’ll let you know how that turns out!” 

“Right, do that.” Then she cleared her throat and put her sarcastic, sassy mask back on. “AHEM—Mmm. Now you’ve had your fun, so, out of my Raceway, you two scamps!” she said and flicked her wrist at them as if to shoo them off, but still had a hint of a smile on her face. Then she turned and strode away, leaving the two of them on the upper floor.  

“Awww,” Lunar grinned. “She totally likes having us around.”

“And I have a backup place to stay! Yippee!”  

“Ooh, you could get your makeup done at the salon…”

“By the way, Lunar, about Sun?” Helpie added as they left the Raceway and returned to the Atrium. “I AM sorry that happened to your family. It must be hard not even knowing your own brother. I couldn’t imagine it.”

“Mmm,” Lunar replied. He’d just learned a lot about both Sun and Moon, and he was still processing it. “I guess it was different for you, right? Were you with the other Helpies a lot?”

“Oh, I was with my siblings all the time,” Helpie explained. “We were connected through the Helpie channel on the Pizzaplex systems, so we were always in each other’s heads, too.”

“Really? Was it noisy?”

“A little, but we were built for it, so it wasn’t too bad.”

“Oh, okay,” Lunar nodded. “How many of them were there?”

“Monty ordered us in bulk. There were exactly forty of us! Me included!”

“Wooow,” Lunar whistled. “You got a LOT of brothers.”

“Not just brothers, I had sisters too,” Helpie corrected. 

“Oh riiight, you said a sister came to the Daycare. Some of the Helpies were girls?”

“There were girl Helpies! And Helpies who were neither -- we came in all kinds!” he said that with pride.

“Niiiice,” Lunar nodded.  “Wow, it sounds like a lot of work to have so many siblings. I’d be happy with just the one more!”

“Once we find where they went, I’ll make you an honorary Helpie, how’s that?”

“Nahhh,” Lunar waved his hand. “I’m a Celestial model. But I’d be happy to have forty friends!”

“We’ll call that thirty-nine more Friend Pacts pending, then,” Helpie chuckled.

And some time after that, while they were prowling around the lower food court of the Atrium, Lunar realized the crowds were getting smaller than they were earlier. People were starting to head home.

“Oh!” the small blue bot jumped up when he realized what time it was. It was late, that’s what it was. “We should prolly get back to the Daycare now.”

Solar might let him go out by himself after the Daycare shifts were over, but he didn’t like Lunar staying out too long into the night.

“Sounds like a plan! Today was very fun. Tomorrow I’ll try to be more attentive, though,” Helpie blushed slightly, bashfully. “I got a bit distracted. Caught up in the fun, you know!”  

“Yeah, me too. I had a lot of fun today!”

It was easy for him to lose track of time. Lunar was having so much fun! The little bear was actually interested in doing things with him like hijacking the race, which he’d never done with Solar!

But just as they were starting to head back, an idea rushed back to Lunar.

“Oh, before we head back, there’s just one more thing we gotta do…!”

~~~~~~~~~~

The two hustled back into the Daycare, carrying several plastic bags filled with a bunch of random supplies they’d snagged from the loading dock down in the basement.

Solar was busy with the Daycare’s usual cleanup routine, using a rag and sanitizer to wipe down the barrels to be ready the following morning. Standing there, he looked even more tired than he had that morning, his eyes half-closed and the movement of his hand somewhat sluggish.

But eventually, he heard the sound of the two smaller bots returning, their feet pattering on the tiled floors… accompanied by the odd rustling of plastic.

“We’re back, Brother!” Lunar announced as they rounded the corner.

Solar dropped the rag on the counter and turned to greet them. His legs swayed and he stumbled for a moment, but he was able to stay upright.

“I was wondering if you were gonna come back,” he said tiredly, but his tone was still light. They were cutting it right down to the wire before he would start to get worried, but they both seemed fine. Then he furrowed his eyebrows. “What do you have there?”

“I have something for you!” Lunar said brightly, and hefted the plastic bags down in front of him. A load of supplies tumbled into view, including the silicone glue that Lunar had been eyeing for so long. Helpie also sat down the bags he’d been carrying.

Solar blinked, staring at it a bit dumbfounded. “…Where’d you get all this?”

“Well!” Lunar started, putting on a massively wide smile, trying to look as innocent as possible. “We were juuust… perusing the Pizzaplex… Uh…”

“Examining things!” Helpie added in his best salesman voice. “Going from attraction to attraction, and learning a great deal! Just like I had been wanting to!”

Solar looked down at them.

“And we, uhhhh, were down in the basement,” Lunar continued. “Aaand we happened toooooooo…” he fished for words, rolling his hands in a circle around each other, until he realized he couldn’t think of anything, and flicked his eyes over at Helpie for help.

“Come across an abandoned shipping container, which was sitting out in the open and unaccounted for!” Helpie nodded. “No one among any of the staff had claimed it!”

The sides of Solar’s mouth twitched upwards as he continued to look down at them.  

“And, we thought!” Lunar exclaimed, holding up one pointer finger dramatically. “That! If no one wanted it, uh, then…”

“We could go ahead and take the supplies within, and bring them to a place that needs it more! Therefore making good use of it! And the Daycare seemed a good place for it!” Helpie finished, with a confident flourish at the end.

Then the two of them grinned widely up at Solar, to see if he’d bought it.

Solar stared down at them with that small, knowing grin.

They stared back up at him with those wide smiles.

Solar stared…

They stared…

Then, Solar snorted, before he went into a fit of chuckling, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

The two small bots held their expressions, not sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign.

“Ehh-heh-heh, you kids.” Eventually Solar regained himself, and reached down to pick up the plastic bags. He cleared his throat. “But you know… you shouldn’t steal… It’s not good to steal…” and with his tone of voice, it was clearly just a platitude… because he looked down at the silicone glue and remembered a ton of cracks in a bunch of things that he hadn’t been able to fix up, due to a lack of supplies and a very slow distribution process. “Uh, you really shouldn’t steal any more in the future… Probably… Uh, yeah.”

Even as he said that, he turned to one of the cabinets behind the counter, and stuffed the bags in them.

Lunar watched his brother’s movements, hesitating, as he couldn’t tell if he’d done right or not--

“But uh,” Solar closed the door and walked back to him. “Thanks for thinking about that. This stuff will be really useful. I’ve been out of a bunch of this stuff, and I haven’t been able to get a refill on them for days now. It was starting to drive me mad. So that really helps me out. I definitely needed these.”

Eyes opening and shining bright, Lunar practically bounced with excitement over the success, the smile turning into a much more sincere one. “You’re welcome, Brother!” He felt so happy at knowing he’d done good!  

Solar then leaned against the counter and asked, “So, how’d it go out there?”  

Helpie stepped up, looking quite pleased. “We had a very fine day today,” he told him. “I’ve already seen so much! I can tell a lot has stayed the same, but I’m picking up on what’s different.”

“Yeah? That’s good,” he replied. “Where did you go out there?”

“Oh, we went to a bunch of places,” Lunar started listing them off. “We went all over the gift shops, the atrium, the Raceway… We wanna check out Fazerblast soon…”

“Ooh, and definitely the Fazcade,” Helpie added.

“Those?” Solar tilted his head, a tiny grin on his face again. “You sure you’re not just going out on a play date?” he said that as a bit of dry humor.

“Nooo, no, we’re learning!” Lunar insisted. “I promise!”

Helpie briefly looked like a deer in the headlights. “I’m learning a lot, I swear.”

“Hmhmhm. Alright,” the tall bot said with a good-natured shrug.

“Oh!” Helpie said. “And if I need to leave the Daycare at the end of the week, Roxanne said I could stay in the Raceway instead.”

“Hmm? Roxanne?” he sounded surprised. “Of all animatronics?”

“Yeah, we met her today,” Lunar said.

“You did?” he didn’t sound worried by this, but he knew Roxanne could be rough around the edges, and that she had griped about Lunar hijacking the races more than once.

“Yeah, she was really nice.”

“She was nice,” Solar repeated, sounding impressed that she’d managed it.

“Yeah; she’s real sassy, but she doesn’t seem like a bad person.”

“And anyway, if it comes to that, I won’t be in your non-existent hair longer than you want me to be,” Helpie said, perfectly content with that outcome.

“Right, good,” Solar nodded. But then he suppressed a yawn, quickly throwing his wrist up to cover his mouth, and shook his head to clear his vision.

Lunar saw this, and blinked. He walked up to him. “Are you gonna sleep tonight, Brother?”

“I dunno, we’ll see,” he stretched, already knowing he intended to stay awake.  

“Okay,” Lunar said. But then he hesitated for a moment, looking at his brother’s face, seeing the way his eyes were shadowed and sunken, and noticing the way he was pressing against the counter like he was bracing his weight. “You-- you do look really tired, though,” he said quietly, trying not to make it a big deal right then and there, but he couldn’t help but think he really should really get some sleep…

“I’m a little tired, but I’ll be alright,” he replied, downplaying how exhausted to the core he was. His battery was very low and there was a burning in his joints.

“O-okay,” Lunar said; deep down, he didn’t want to leave it like that, but his new friend was standing right there, and he didn’t want to make an awkward scene in front of him. Instead, he decided his brother must surely know what he was doing. So, he turned back to Helpie. “Are you gonna head off to bed?”

“Actually, I was thinking of checking out some more things on the internet! There really is a lot to catch up on. I’ve missed so much.”

Lunar suddenly looked like he’d struck gold. “Ooooh, if you dooooo… Would yoooou like toooo, maybeee, watch something with me?”

The little bear looked appraisingly. “Hmm! Depends!”

An idea had struck the blue bot. “There’s some really cool web animations that’ve stared up in the last year that could be fun to watch…”

“Liiike…?”

Solar snorted, knowing what he was going to say before he even said it.

And Lunar looked like he’d waited his whole life for this. “There’s one that’s called The Amazing Digital Circus!”

“Oh? That sounds, uh… colorful!” Helpie tried not to look skeptical. He had to admit, that name put an odd image into his head, one that seemed a little too “aimed at kids” for his tastes…

“Oh it’s really good, don’t worry!” Lunar immediately went into a pitch to try and sell it. “There’s a loooot more than the name implies. It’s SO funny, and it’s got real serious moments too! Some real good characters and some real heartfelt interactions! It’s only four episodes, so it won’t take long to get through, and we can stop anytime if you don’t like it!”

“Hmm! I suppose I’m curious,” Helpie shrugged. “It’d be a good way to wind down, then, sure!”

Solar checked the clock; it had just struck 10PM, and for them to stay up to watch the series would put them past 11PM, which was a later bedtime for his brother than he’d like… but he was already being lenient with him, and he was willing to let Lunar get this big burst of excitement over having a new friend out of his system before he started coming back down on him about the rules. “Alright, you can watch that,” he told them. “But when you’re done with it, it’s off to bed right away, okay?” 

“OH-kay!” Lunar agreed with a big salute, smacking the side of his forehead with his hand.

“I’ll make sure of it!” Helpie added, mimicking the salute.

Then without another word, the two ran off towards the theater, where they could watch it on the big screen.

Solar blinked when they suddenly broke into a sprint at the same time and bolted out of the play area. He shook his head, but he was smiling.

Lunar deserved to have someone to do stuff like that with.

“Hmm-hmm. Those kids.”

As Lunar ran to set up the projector to play on the big screen, just like Solar had showed him, he talked Helpie’s ear off about the show, and Helpie was a very good sport about the whole thing, listening with a bit of bemusement; it was like Lunar had gotten the green light to talk about his special interest. Solar listened whenever he rambled, yeah, but he’d already watched this series with him; it was nice to have another person to share with! 

And so the two watched the series together; Helpie was skeptical at first, but had thawed out by the end of the first episode, was won over by the second, and was convinced it was great by the third. They bantered back and forth about it excitedly.

Lunar was completely thrilled, especially since Helpie was more like a kid, and would get more excited and animated about it than Solar would have.   

Sitting there next to Helpie, on the nest of plush things he’d collected to sleep on, Lunar thought this was pretty great. He couldn’t have been more delighted to have a friend that he was getting along with so well. The lonely weight he’d been carrying seemed to have ebbed back quite a bit now.

And just as they promised, after they reached the end of the fourth episode, they finally went off to bed for the night. The two had tired themselves out, so they were actually glad to get to sleep. Helpie returned to his beanbag chair in the party room, staying awake a little longer to look through more news articles and broaden his search on the internet, and Lunar remained in the theater, snuggling down into his lumpy nest of pillows, blankets, and plushy toys.  

Solar could sense his battery getting lower and lower, but he forced himself through it.

He didn’t want to sleep just yet. There were still things he needed to do, things he couldn’t get out of…

He yawned hard, before focusing hard on the screen in front of him, keeping his dark-ringed eyes open with some force. “Just a little more…” he told himself as he brought his fingers back to the keyboard.

He worked on a few of his projects, jumping between them…

He cursed under his breath, seeing how some of them weren’t as far along as he would have wanted at this point.

Because he was focusing so much of his time on his research into the Star, he had started skipping an hour here or there that would have normally gone to his commissioned works.

He hadn’t fallen behind, not yet, but he was dangerously close now, and he knew he had to be careful… That was why he couldn’t sleep just yet.

Today, Helpie, with Lunar, had eased some of the workload in the Daycare… a-and if he had to bet money on it, he would bet the Helpie line wasn’t coming back, so… maybe…—no, he couldn’t start jumping on ideas like considering letting Helpie stay. He couldn’t start relying on random people, ones he didn’t truly know and who he couldn’t be sure would want to stay.

He rushed on through a few of his projects, giving each a little attention.

But after a while, his mind turned to the Daycare’s guest; Helpie’s request for a search of his name was also technically a project, but it would be easy enough to get through. So, instead of letting that one sit around, he decided to just tackle it and get it out of the way.

Opening a command box and putting on protections for the Daycare’s computer, he got to work for what he thought would be a quick job.

Solar had hacked into the Pizzaplex’s systems several times before; he wasn’t supposed to do this, but he had his reasons to.

The Pizzaplex’s system was divided up into two main layers. There was the first layer, accessible to all normal employees and animatronics, which hosted individuals’ emails, important documents and information needed for work, and basically an encyclopedia for the Pizzaplex; and then the second, much better secured layer only accessible to the bosses -- and the other higher ups – where they talked business and managerial orders that needed more privacy.

Solar had learned how to hack into both of these levels, and could look through all correspondence sent between any computer attached to the network. It was fairly easy to get into the first layer, since protections were much weaker there, and it carried little risk of him being detected. But it took a lot more time to get into the management sections, where a lot of the Pizzaplex’s sordid secrets were spoken of; it was much harder to do, he needed to be much more careful when doing it, and it carried a much higher risk of getting detected, which Monty would definitely learn about and wouldn’t be pleased of.

For this simple job, where he only needed to run a scan for the name of a one-off mascot, he would only need to get into the first layer. There would be plenty to look through there.

The Pizzaplex’s system was just as unkempt as the building itself could be. It wasn’t often cleaned out, which meant most of its old folders, files, emails, memos, documents, and everything else was just left around in its depths, gathering metaphorical dust. That meant it should have been easy to find Helpie’s name, and hopefully the reason for their disappearance. Like anything else, there would be mentions of them in all kinds of work memos, emails, messages the Helpies themselves had sent or received, various correspondence between people where the name “Helpie” came up, blueprints and repair orders, probably even the records from the Helpie channel his line had been hooked into. 

Solar punched in the word “Helpie,” set the parameters to encompass the last two years just to give it a generous enough span of time, and set the search to chug away.

A few minutes later, that search came to an end and the results were displayed in front of him…

Solar furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.  

“…Hmm?”

The following morning, when Helpie and Lunar finally woke up, they ran downstairs to meet up in front of the Daycare’s doors.

Despite his best effort to stay awake, Solar had succumbed and fell asleep at the desk, lying on his arms with his rays pressed at awkward angles.

When the two smaller bots started talking to each other, their voices woke Solar. His eyes came open with a start, and on instinct he quickly unfurled from where he was laying on the counter. He pushed himself up in his chair, and put a hand to his forehead.

“Ugh, fell asleep,” he sighed deeply in annoyance and rubbed his eyes, pressing hard with his fingers.

His nap had only lasted about three hours, so he still wasn’t all that rested, but it had given him a small boost for the day. He would still need a full night of charging and sleep to be back to full capacity, though.

He shook his head and blinked to bring his senses back into focus. He glanced at the computer screen to make sure he hadn’t accidentally hit a bunch of random keys and messed anything up, and thankfully he hadn’t.

As he made sure everything was still in order, the voices of the two smaller bots reached him; he remembered he’d finished something for them.

“Hey, you two,” Solar called out. “Come here, I need to talk to you.”

The smaller bots walked around the corner and joined him at the computer.

“What’s up, Brother?” Lunar asked.

“I finished the search you asked me to do,” he replied.

“You did?” Helpie lifted his eyebrows. “Wow, that was quick!”

Lunar also perked up. “Ooh!?”

Helpie moved closer, feeling both eager and nervous, with Lunar shortly behind. “What did you find?”

“First of all, I ran a search through everything that was available to the employees of the Pizzaplex. That includes company emails and memos, and records of everything going back years. If the name ‘Helpie’ was mentioned anywhere, I would have found it.”

“Okay…” Helpie nodded as he listened, and urged: “And… And?”

“But that’s the thing.” Solar explained, eyes darkening. “I couldn’t find anything about you guys. There was nothing. Aside from your name being on merchandise and crap like that, there’s no mention of Helpies anywhere.”

“…None?” Helpie repeated, looking dumbfounded. Lunar’s curiosity turned to confusion.

“Yeah. Nothing about the animatronics, nothing about your line or blueprints or anything, no one’s mentioned you in emails or memos or work notes, not even the most casual texts… there isn’t even a mention of your line being ordered or terminated. I even looked up a whole bunch of different spellings for your name, but it was still the same.”

Helpie looked horrified. “How can that be?”

“I don’t know,” Solar said. “And that’s the thing. There should be. The Pizzaplex just leaves all that kind of stuff lying around. They never delete anything even if it’s stupid old and outdated. Hell, you can probably scroll all the way back to when this place first opened and find all the things the employees were jabbering about back then. This Pizzaplex keeps stuff for pretty much every staffbot and animatronic and everything… but there’s nothing about Helpies.”

“…What?” the bear mumbled under his breath, more to himself than to them; he was running that information over in his head, not knowing what that was supposed to mean for his siblings.

Lunar hesitated. “Could that mean they were… scrapped?”

Helpie tensed at the word. That was the possibility that had frightened him the night prior to last.

“It’s not impossible,” Solar said slowly. That was the possibility he’d been leaning to at the start of all this, but he wasn’t sure now. “But… it’s weird. The Pizzaplex scraps bots all the time, but even when that happens, they still don’t erase everything about them. Fazbear really just does not give that much of a fuck. So even if the Helpies had been scrapped, we’d still find all their old stuff in here. Hell, we’d probably find the damn termination order. But there’s nothing. That’s why this is weird.”

“That is weird,” Helpie repeated, his eyebrows furrowing. “I—I know we WERE here, we definitely were, I know I’m not mistaken…”

“I know you were here, too,” Solar said. “Because I remember seeing you guys. And apparently you met me once before, too. So we KNOW you were here, but your name is gone from the system. So I don’t know what the deal is with this.”

Helpie didn’t know how to react at first; instead of getting answers, there were only more questions.

“So… so what does that mean now?” Lunar asked, being completely out of his depth when it came to this sort of technical talk.

“I don’t know,” his brother hummed. “The only thing I can think of is that someone at Fazbear ordered the information hidden, maybe? But I don’t know why they’d do that.”

“I don’t either,” Helpie said, troubled. “There wasn’t anything special about us, all we did was do inspections, show where they could make the business and the building better, and helped with chores around the place, that’s it. That’s all we were built to do. There wasn’t anything else.”

“Hmm…” Solar thought for a moment. “The only other thing I could do right now, is go into the second level of the system, to see if any of the higher ups were talking about it…” Solar would have to break in, if that were the case.

Lunar urged them. “Hey, if the answers are in there, I think it’s good to try!”

“Hmm, maybe,” Solar nodded.

Helpie was deep in thought, looking more troubled now than he ever had before. That… that wasn’t good. That just wasn’t good. What could that possibly mean? He’d never even heard of that before—

“Helpie, you okay?” Lunar asked nervously, noticing he’d gone quiet. He didn’t really get it, in its entirety, but he could tell it was bad, and that it had upset both Helpie and confounded Solar.

Helpie stared at nothing as the information ran over in his head, before he remembered to reply. “I think I, uh… I think I just need some time to think about this,” he hummed, his usual professional tone thrown off its script; he sounded overwhelmed.

“Well, we can take a break from this if you want,” Lunar offered. “We can go out in the Plex to look around some more, maybe that’d distract you?”

Helpie glanced at him, wordless for a moment, as he considered it.

“Yeah,” Solar added. “It’s probably a good idea. It’s upsetting news, but staying upset isn’t going to help anything. Go on out and take a break, get your mind off it. I’ll see what I can do from here.”

“…Okay,” Helpie conceded finally, though he didn’t quite sound perfectly thrilled. “Right,” Helpie cleared his throat, some of his customer service voice returning. “Right. Thanks for looking, Solar. I’m sorry it’s turned into more of a… weird thing like this. I didn’t expect it would just be something out of the ordinary like this.”

“Whatever it is, it’s not your fault,” Solar said, though it was good to hear a word of thanks like that. “But, yeah, just try to take your mind off it for a while, take a bit to process it if you want. I can’t tell you exactly when I’ll have it done, I’ll let you know when I’ve made any progress on looking into the second layer. That a deal?”

“A deal,” Helpie almost managed to chuckle at that, because it reminded him of his habit of making deals with people just because he could. “Yes, it’s a deal, you got it! Wanna shake on it?”

He held out his little hand, which was comically small compared to Solar’s, which could snugly wrap around a human’s entire head.

“Uh, sure,” Solar hadn’t meant it to be that serious, but he reached down with a gloved hand, only using the tips of his thumb and forefinger; that was enough to fully envelop the bear’s stubby paw. “…Yeah.”

“Right!” Helpie quickly turned back to Lunar. “Alright, let’s go ahead and clear out of here. Lead the way?”

“Okay!” Lunar turned and began to lead them out of the Daycare again, Lunar at the front and Helpie slower behind.

Solar watched them go. He had to admit, he was curious now. He wondered why Helpie’s information could have been, potentially, deleted from existence. That implied there was a reason they would want to hide the existence of Helpies from the world…

He had told the bear he didn’t know exactly when he would get around to doing it, but the question had wrapped itself around his mind, too.

“Hmm…”

So he opened another command box, and started the longer, harder, tedious process to break into the Plex’s higher level…

Chapter Text

With Lunar taking the lead, the two small bots trekked out into the Lobby once more. It was still early in the morning, and guests hadn’t started arriving yet, meaning they had the building all to themselves -- aside from the staffbots and the human employees who were setting up for the day.

Lunar hurried over to the glass barrier and peered out over the Lobby, his spirits high. Helpie was a few paces behind, and Lunar didn’t notice he was slower to catch up with him; the bear had seemed positive when they left the Daycare, so he wasn’t thinking anything of it. Helpie had quieted down on the way out here.

The Celestial bot turned back to his companion. “Sooo, where’d ya like to go this time? I’m open to-o-o-o anything,” he gave a big nod.

His voice was cheerful, maybe a little too much so; he honestly expected this to be another fun day out in the Pizzaplex. He understood they were supposed to be taking a break after learning about the weird situation with the Helpies, and he was giving the floor to him.  

But Helpie was staring out over the Lobby, clearly lost in thought. It took him a second to realize he’d been spoken to. “Oh!” he blinked and put his smile back on. “Erm, well! …Do you have any idea where you’d like to go?”

“Oh-- me?” Lunar repeated, not expecting the request to be turned back to him. He was trying to be nice and let him make the choice. “Well, hmm…” he glanced around the upper floor. “We’ve already been through here… I guess there’s the big entranceway, that’s got some stuff, some computers, some confection booths, but… Mmm, nahhh we can hit that one later, it’s kinda big and empty. We still got plenty places in the Atrium to go to first.”

“That works,” his friend nodded. “Off to the Atrium we go, then!”

When the elevator arrived a minute later, Lunar ran over to the glass barrier and looked out across the big chamber. “Okay, we could uh--” he started, but stopped when he realized Helpie wasn’t beside him. He glanced around for a second, before locating the bear several paces back, taking longer to catch up.

That was when Lunar finally noticed his behavior had changed. It was a stark difference from the enthusiasm he’d shown yesterday.

Still, he waited -- maybe a little impatiently -- for his friend to step up beside him.  

“Okay!” Lunar started again, putting a lot of energy into his voice in an attempt to keep the mood cheerful. “There’s still a whooole lotta places out here. Anything catch your eye now?”  

He finished with a smile and waited for a reply; with all the flashy lights and attractions, he must’ve had some idea about what he wanted to do.   

But this time, Helpie didn’t even seem to hear him. He stared at the Atrium’s center floor, a blank expression on his face. It was like he’d zoned out, thinking.

Lunar waited a moment, his smile faltering when he got no response. This was… a very different reaction than what he’d been getting the days prior. Thus far, Helpie had been very attentive, very quick and eager to answer him, but now…

“…Mmmmmaybe we could go to Fazerblast?” the celestial bot suggested hopefully, choosing one of the attractions he like the most. “We could play a round together, that’d be fun. It’d help take your mind of things—and, we’re supposed to see all the attractions, so it’d be two for one, right?”

He waited eagerly again… but for the second time, he got no response. Helpie went on staring at the Atrium floor.  

Lunar leaned forward and looked at the bear’s face. He saw the odd look in his eyes; he was clearly distracted and upset. And Lunar was trying very hard to think of something fun to do to take his mind off things, just as Solar had suggested… but he’d come up against an unexpected roadblock, and didn’t know what the right action was here.

“Uhmm,” he finally hazarded, and waved a hand in front of the bear’s face. “Heeelpie…?”

The bear blinked when his sightline was broken, as if being brought back from some daydream. “Oh! Oh, right,” he artificially cleared his throat. “Sorry, I’m just-- Erm, I’m not quite sure I’m feeling up to Fazerblast right now. I’m not feeling so energetic at the moment.”

“Oh-- alright,” Lunar shrugged. That had been his foremost guess, and also the one he’d been looking forward to the most; even though he was trying his best to be accommodating, a big part of him was disappointed. “Then how about… hmm…” He trailed off, thinking.

He went through a mental list of the other attractions, searching for one that wouldn’t be so intensive.  

Mazercise was definitely out of the question, and Gator Golf was too… They’d already been to the Raceway…

Chica’s Cupcake Factory, maybe? Helpie didn’t eat, but the place could be fun to look around; and that extended to all the restaurants, like El Chip; maybe the shock of El Chip’s terrible sanitary conditions would do the trick and shock him into focusing on that instead? There was also the bigger gift shops here in the Atrium, with more stuff to look at, and there were the winding hallways near it, and its big glass dome…

And, arcade games were easy and mindless, and bowling was pretty chill, right?

“I got it!” he snapped his fingers. “We can go to the Fazcade and play some games!”

Helpie made sure to respond this time. “Ah, those sound fine, yes!” Because, true, those kinds of games were great for distractions, and easy to get lost in.

“Gotcha, gotcha, okay,” Lunar said happily now that they’d finally landed on something. “Which of the games do ya like?”

“There’s a lot to choose from!” For a moment, this brought some energy back into his words. “My siblings and I didn’t have too much free time to just play around, but when we did, we made up a game to play together! We’d go to one of the parlors, and we’d all sprint inside and grab whichever cabinet we reached first. And we’d play whichever one we ended up with! Then after a while, we’d all run back together as a group at the front of the parlor, and we’d sprint out again to switch up the cabinets we were playing…” he chuckled at the memory. “We only got to do it a few times, but it was really fun when we did. I always particularly liked ones like… Fruity Maze, Chica’s Feeding Frenzy, Cyber Fox VS Mecha Mangle… And uh, this is a little embarrassing, but there was one called Ninja Attack that I liked the best…”

“I think I’ve seen that one,” Lunar said. “Uhh, I can’t remember where exactly, but I know I’ve played it somewhere, so the good news is it’s still here and we can find it!”

“Oh good, good,” the bear said bashfully. “It’s a little silly, buuut…” then he struck up a vague martial arts-like pose, which was indeed silly with his small, stubby proportions. “It’s fun to hide in the shadows, where the enemies can’t see you, then you swoop in and…” he gave a fake chop with his hand, mimicking what the player character would do in the game.

“I thought it could be a little slow, but the stealth was cool for an old arcade game,” Lunar added. “Y’knooow, the stealth stuff is kinda like, what we do when we sneak around in the vents or unplug the security cameras.”

“I suppose it is like that!” That got Helpie to laugh. “That’s funny, thinking we’re like ninjas…”

“Yeahhh, it’s just fun to pretend. Anyway, okay! Let’s go see if we can find that one!” he turned and started heading towards the stairs that would lead up to the Fazcade.

“Whew, time for another long walk…!”

They arrived at the entrance to the Fazcade a few minutes later, and hopped out of the elevator into the massive flashy chamber, where those hundreds of arcade cabinets were set up in spirals and rows across its multiple floors. If someone was looking for a particular game, there was a good chance they’d find it here.

“Phew, okay!” Lunar rubbed his hands together as he looked out across the big expansive space. “Let’s get searching.” Glancing back at the bear, he pointed to one side of the room, and then the other. “You take that side, I’ll take this side!”

He ran off to search his portion of the floor, looking back and forth between the arcade machines to read their labels, trying to find Ninja Attack among them. He could’ve just asked Helpie if he remembered where it was, but he didn’t think about that. “Nope, nope, nuh-uh, nope…” he mumbled as he passed each one; after a moment, he disappeared from view.

Helpie started to do as he was told, and moved towards the side of the room Lunar had delegated to him; he was planning on searching, too… but after taking a look at the nearest arcade cabinets, memories of the game he used to play with his siblings came flooding back, and with it came all the conflicted thoughts he was trying so hard to avoid.

He came to a halt after only a few paces.

Lunar eventually completed his circuit around the big space, and made it back to where Helpie was, still looking at each of the titles. “Uhhh, nope, nope, uhhh-- did I miss some back there?” he paused and looked back at an outcropping of cabinets clustered together near the wall. “Mmmmmm-nah I didn’t. Probably. Okay!” he faced the bear again. “So! I don’t think it’s… down ooon… this fllllloooorrr…” he trailed off and came to a stop when he saw Helpie’s face. “Oh.”

The bear had gone silent again. He really had tried to be present in this moment, but he couldn’t stop his mind from spinning, or that anxiety from rolling inside him. The information refused to stay silent in his head, and the more he tried to distract himself from it, the more he failed.

In truth, he was stuck. He didn’t feel he could take his next step until he understood what it all meant.  

And Lunar…

Lunar might have been sheltered, and he didn’t have a lot of social skills due to a lack of contact with others, but he wasn’t stupid or blind. It was pretty obvious he was having a rough time.

And that was as new to Lunar as having a friendship at all was. Now his new friend was upset, and he had absolutely no idea what to do when a friend was upset. He’d been upset before and Solar had comforted him, of course, but he didn’t know how to be comforting like that, or how to calm people down and make them feel safe the way Solar calmed him down and made him feel safe. And this was his peer, which was a lot different from a brother.

“I, uhhh…” Lunar hesitated.

He didn’t know how to broach it, but he didn’t want to just sit there ignoring it like an asshole; he wanted to at least try to show he cared.

“Are you, uh…” he stepped closer, trying to find the right words that wouldn’t come off as super insensitive or too blasé. “Are you worried about your sibs?”

Helpie’s ears drooped without turning to face him. He decided not to lie, because it was eating him up inside. “Yeah,” he said sadly. “I’m really worried about them.”

“Ohh,” Lunar replied quietly. “I figured.”

“I was hoping that, when Solar looked it up, it would just say they were in storage, or were fired and went somewhere else,” Helpie admitted. “I kind of knew there was a chance something bad could have happened, but I was trying to keep from jumping to conclusions. But now we know something really unusual happened to them? They were erased from the system?” he turned to the Celestial bot, that worry clear in his eyes. “What if they’re in danger? Or hurt?”

It was even more terrifying to speak those fears aloud.

And Lunar was caught in a moment of standing there, trying to find something to say, probably looking very un-helpful. “I, uh--” he stammered, running his hands together anxiously over his chest; how did you comfort someone? How? He felt like a foolish deer caught in the headlights when he’d really, really been trying to do something nice. Finally, though, he managed to find something to say. “It sucks you don’t know where they are; I hope we can find them!”

“Yeah. Me too. I just want to know one way or the other, you know? It’s the not-knowing that’s the worst… It’s like… imagine if you guys knew Sun could go into a coma, but right at the last second, he just disappeared. So you wouldn’t even know what actually happened, whether he did go into a coma, or if he’d died, or was still alive, or what.”

Lunar hadn’t considered it that way, and it was pretty awful. Sun might be gone at the moment, but they still had his body. There was still a sense of knowing what had happened to him. If, when he and Solar were separating, Sun had somehow magically vanished and they didn’t even know the outcome of the procedure… that would be even worse.

“Yeah,” Lunar admitted. “That would suck.”

“Yeah…”

“But… but hey!” Lunar moved in closer with a smile, trying to be reassuring. “We’re looking for them, right? And Solar said there’s no, like… an order of termination? There wasn’t anything saying they GOT scrapped, you know? They could still be out there! Maybe they got recruited for a really big secret mission! The kinda stuff that Monty gets up into! And they had to erase all that stuff about them to keep the mission secret! Or, or maybe they started a union and went to work somewhere else! And Monty had them scrubbed from the system cuz he’s mad at them!”

He didn’t really understand how that kind of technology worked, or business for that matter, but he was trying to think outside the box for ways it could have turned out alright.

And Helpie’s expression still looked worried, and he wasn’t really convinced, but… the attempt was very sweet, and it did make him feel a little better to hear his friend say that. “Well, I suppose if things are already weird,” he said with a small, shy smile, “then it’s not out of the question something weird like that could be the answer…”

“Yeah, yeah; and hey!” Lunar offered, jumping closer with an energetic gleam to his accents. “Even if your sibs aren’t here right now, I’m still here with ya! I’m still your friend!”

“I appreciate it,” the bear replied; a bit of that dark, frightening fog was chased away. “I know I sort of came out of nowhere, and started kinda taking up a bunch of space, but I’m really grateful for it.”

“Thaaat’s- what friends- do!” Lunar gave a big nod of the head. “Just like you said you’d still be my friend even after you get your answers.”

“Of course,” Helpie said, with a smile that was much more soft and genuine. “I’ve been having a great time with you. And I take the things I’ve shaken on very seriously!”

“Dawwwwww,” Lunar said, the bashful one this time. Then he thought of the habit he’d seen Helpie do before. “You wanna do the shake thing again? Like you did with me and Roxanne and Solar? Would that help you feel better?”

Helpie snorted. “In fact that would,” he said.

“Alrighty,” the celestial bot extended his arm.

They clasped hands again, just like they had when they made the Friend Pact two days before.

“Why do you do this, anyway?” Lunar asked in the middle of the shake.

Helpie furrowed his eyebrows, looking down at where their fingers were intertwined. “You know, I don’t really know, I think it’s just… a weird thing my sibs and I liked to do? And we were commissioned by MONTY…”

“Well I do weird things all the time, so it’s all good,” Lunar replied idly.

“That’s good to know!” Helpie laughed.

They took their hands back.

But despite Helpie feeling better, it’s seemed their search for Ninja Attack wasn’t going to go anywhere.

But it was while they stood there, wondering what to do next, that Lunar got another idea.

“Hey, what iiiif…” he started conspiratorially, “…we do some investigating on our own?”

Helpie tilted his head. “On our own? You mean like--”

“We could go look for clues! Maybe we can find out what happened to your sibs if we look around! You know, do some detective work!” His eyes started glittering at the prospect, because it also just sounded like fun.

Helpie considered it, and when he realized there was nothing stopping them, he latched on right away. “That might actually be a good idea,” he said. “Yeah… it is a good idea!” That meant they wouldn’t have to wait for Solar to figure something out!

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Lunar nodded. 

“Do you feel like getting started right away?”  

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! We’re going on an investigation,” He bounced up and down on his heels, pumping himself up. He pounded one fist against the other palm. “So! Uh. Where do we start?”

He didn’t actually know what you were supposed to do for an investigation like this.

“Okay, let’s think,” Helpie considered what the best move would be. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to contact someone -- a higher up might have the info, but it isn’t safe to just call them to ask.”

“Why not?”

“Because if my line has been scrapped, or if Fazbear erased us because they want us gone for good, then we don’t know how they’d react to learning one of us survived. They might want to scrap me to finish the job. And who knows, worst case scenario is they’d want to scrap you too.” It was a far-off possibility, but one they had to consider. 

“Ohhh, I hadn’t thought of that… Hmmm…” Lunar rubbed his chin, his other hand on his hip, as he tried to use his brain. “I’d say we could snoop around their stuff secretly then, without them knowing, see if they’ve got any clues tucked away, but…”

“...We wouldn’t know where to start looking?”

“Yeah.”

“Aaand I don’t even know where Monty lives. Do you?”

“Nope. He hangs out in Gator Golf a lot, but I dunno anywhere else he goes outside the Plex. I’ve been in Gator Golf, too, I don’t think he keeps anything important in there.”

“Figures. Well, we also have to remember, for all its weirdness, this matter might not even be important enough for them to keep records over. Hmm… Maybe we can start our search with something more local…”

“Okay, let’s think!” Lunar said, trying to look very serious. “Hmmmmmm…” he lifted one hand. “You turned off for a year,” he lifted his other hand. “And your sibs went missing…”

“Mm-hmm?” Helpie waited for him to finish.

Lunar repeated the same motions and repeated his words to himself: “Turned off, sibs went missing… Turned off, sibs went missing…” then a moment later, “hey, why DID you turn off, anyway?”

“That’s a good question,” Helpie realized. “I don’t remember why.”

“Then we could check that out!” Lunar realized. “Maybe there’s a clue in the last place you remember being!”

“Hey, yeah,” Helpie said. “You found me on a shelf, right? We could start there! Then we can trace my steps back to where I went offline, to see if I was moved after being knocked out, and if so, how far.”

“That sounds like a plan! And I remember exactly where I found you. Okay, I’ll lead us there!” He took off at a run again, and this time Helpie kept up without issue.

Walking back into the Atrium, they were on the balcony’s topmost floor. Helpie glanced out across the Pizzaplex, which, for all its huge flaws and cheap tactics and bad practices, was still an impressive sight.

Ahead of him, Lunar was the one who started to slow this time. What would actually happen when they found the other bears?  

“…Helpie?” Lunar asked. “If you find your sibs, what about them? Do you think they’ll want to stay here too?”

“I don’t know how they’ll feel after all this,” Helpie said. “What I can say is… I think I’d still stay here, if I could. It’s weird, but, just like we were talking about yesterday, this place still feels like… home, I guess you could say.”

“If you still like it here, then they probably will too, I think!” Lunar said with a big nod. “After all, it’s still the same old Pizzaplex, and it’s stiiiill as gross and as unsafe as it’s ever been.”  

“It is indeed!” Helpie laughed. And for a moment he seemed to be brightening up. “And unfortunately for me, that means I got my work cut out for me!”

“Huaah?” Lunar blinked. “You still wanna try to make things better around here?”

“Yeah, I’d love to see it improve,” Helpie said, and there was a bright sincerity to his voice. “My siblings and I, I guess we’ve seen the good and bad sides of the Plex? The good because it’s home and there are still good things here. And the bad is, well, everything else… but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be fixed! That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be improved and cleaned and everything. And yeah, that’s what us Helpies wanted to do. I’d still do it if I could.”

“Really? Even with Monty being such a hardass about everything?”

“In spite of Monty!” Helpie corrected.

“And even with everything bad and weird in this whole place?”

“Sure!” he stood up in that picture-perfect pose once again. “I’m Helpie! I help things!” And he still took pride in that.

“Pfft. Why’d I even ask,” the celestial bot rolled his eyes, but it was a good-natured gesture.

But, Helpie…

Despite truly meaning what he said… he hesitated. He suddenly looked uncertain about his own words.

“At least, I--…” he faltered. That fear and uncertainty flashed through his mind again – that fear of what would happen when he got his answers. “That’s what I thought I would do. But if my sibs are—if they were…” 

Lunar caught the change in his voice and hesitated too. “If they were…?”

If they were killed by Monty, then…

“U-um,” Helpie shook his head, not wanting to speak those thoughts aloud and make them become real. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it. Let’s get this investigation underway!”

“Okay, if you say so,” Lunar nodded; even if he caught that note of hesitance, moving along felt like the best thing he could do right then.

When they hiked back down into the basement, Lunar didn’t even care that it was creepy down there. He was starting to feel very excited about going on a secret mission like this, where none of the Fazbear people or even Solar knew what they were up to.

They trekked back through the dimly lit corridors, and eventually came to the same dusty branch in the hallway where Lunar had found Helpie two days back.

Everything was exactly where he’d left it; all the items that had fallen on the floor were still where they had landed, including the silicone glue tubes that he’d forgotten about.  

“Ahh!” Lunar grinned and picked up one of the tubes. “You came back to me!”

“Oh good, you can take those to Solar too.”

“Mmm-hmm.” Then he pointed upwards. “And here it is, you were right there on the top shelf.”

Helpie peered up at it. “Right there?”

“Yep, tucked all the way at the back.”

“That feels almost like… they were trying to hide me from view?” Then started glancing around the area. “Okay, maybe something noteworthy was left here too. Let’s look around, see if we can find anything unusual, or out of place.”

“You got it.”

They picked through the contents of that section of the basement, taking everything off the shelf and pulling boxes away from the walls. But even though they were diligent in looking everything over, in the end, there was nothing of note.

All that movement kicked up dust in the air. Lunar sneezed and his accents flashed like beacons. “Ghhyuuuuh I don’t like dust,” he groaned, shaking his head and waving his hands through the cloud.

“So… It doesn’t look like anything important is here,” Helpie concluded. “It looks like I was just dumped here after I went offline…”  

“Okay, I think that makes sense,” Lunar hummed. “Where DID you go offline?”

“Not far from here, actually,” Helpie realized.

“We should go look there too! If there’s any clues, they’d probably be around there, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” the bear agreed, and then took the lead, running down the hall towards the place where he last remembered being.

In fact, their next destination was only a single turn down the hallway, fifty feet away from the shelf at most. Helpie came to a stop there, at a nondescript point in the hallway next to a standard employee workstation.

“I was right here,” Helpie said. “My manager was sitting there. And I walked up to them, and… that’s the last thing I remember.” It was strange for him to describe it, because for him, that was only a few days ago.

“Do you think your manager still work here?” Lunar asked.

“I couldn’t say one way or the other, but with how Fazbear goes through employees…”

“Could be anywhere, yeah. And you probably don’t want to contact them, right? Like how you don’t want to contact any higher ups?”

“Yeah. For now at least. I don’t think they’re dangerous, not as bad as someone like Monty… I remember they were just scatterbrained, got things mixed up… they were pretty young and new here, they were still getting lost sometimes and didn’t know how to read the map yet… that sort of thing. But I still think it’s better to wait.”

“Hey, it’s your decision, I guess,” Lunar shrugged.

They searched the area for anything noteworthy, rummaging through the workstation and going through all the clutter. It was difficult to tell what should be interesting to their eyes; this was a general workstation that was used frequently by dozens and dozens of employees, which meant anything from a year ago was probably long gone.

Lunar even searched around for any hidden buttons, compartments, or tunnels on the walls, but couldn’t find anything of the sort. There wasn’t even an air vent here, probably not helping the quality of the air. And Helpie scanned around for anything off with the electronics.

In the end, everything was completely normal.

“Another dead end?” Lunar looked disappointed.

“Mm… okay, let’s review.” Helpie started to comb over a mental map of the Pizzaplex. He walked to the L-shaped turn in the corridor, where down one branch he could see the workstation, and down the other branch he could see the shelf.

“I was turned off a there,” Helpie pointed to the workstation. “But I was put there.” He pointed to the shelf.

Lunar ran back to the shelf and glanced around at the area. “But why here!?” he said loudly, his voice echoing down the hall back to the bear. The question was starting to worm its way into his head.  He threw his hands in the air. “What’s actually here, even!? Is there anything special here!?”

Helpie joined Lunar by the shelf, and focused on the map in his mind. “Actually… I think this spot is right on top of the entrance to that nasty garage!”

Lunar blinked and then shuddered. “The garage? You mean that creepy place with the endos and dead rats?”

“Yeah, that place! We’re right on top of that entrance, with the weird secret door we opened.”

Lunar looked down at his feet, horrified. “It’s right down there!?”

“Of course it’s right there,” Helpie almost giggled. “It’s a regular part of the Pizzaplex. We’re just lucky it’s on the basement’s second level, hidden well past the hallways and Parts and Service, where we don’t ever have to see it. But object permanence prevails and it does indeed still exist even when we can’t see it.”

“Oooh, that is so gross,” Lunar said. It was creepy to think the garage was right under their feet, including all its dead rats and discarded endos. “Wait, maybe there was a TRAP,” Lunar gasped and dropped into a kneel on the floor, and started knocking on it with his knuckles. “Maybe something came from under here!”

“Nah, I doubt anything came up from the garage,” Helpie said, disappointedly. “The garage was built with stupidly strong walls; it’s like an impenetrable box. It’s almost like a bunker or something. Even if you crawled into its electricwork, there’s still a shield that encloses it so that nothing can cut its way in or cut its way out. You could claw and bang on those walls for years and you’d never get out.”

“Ohhh,” Lunar said. “That’s awful, let’s never ever ever go down there.”

“Agreed!”

They started to walk away from the shelf, and back towards the workstation.

“Hey, you got that map in your head, right?” Lunar asked. “Are we like on GPS? Can you see where we’re walking right now?”

“I can!” Helpie nodded. “Right now, we’re still walking over the Garage’s entrance. If we just walk a few more paces…” he counted as they stepped down the hallway. “One… two… three… four… Aaaand five! There we go!” he held up a hand. “We just left the garage. We are now back in the REGULAR hallway, the one in the territory of Parts and Services.”

“Are the walls still armored here?”

“Nope! That’s exclusively in the garage. Not here, though. Right here, a simple termite could start chewing on this floor and dig all the way through to the next level, easy-easy.”

Lunar immediately looked down at the floor. He lifted his foot and stomped hard on the ground several times. “Then! The trap! Could be here!” His stomps echoed down through the hallway and through the floor.

“Ah-ah,” Helpie looked taken aback for the first time. “No no, no need to make so much noise!”

Lunar realized what he was doing and blushed. “Sorry,” he said bashfully.

“Don’t worry,” Helpie waved it off.

“So uhh, what do we do now?”

“Now we…” Helpie paused and put a hand to his chin. “That’s something we need to figure out.”

Lunar also put a hand to his chin, thoughtfully. Okay… They hadn’t learned anything. But that couldn’t be the end! There HAD to be something else they could do!

A few moments passed in silence.

“Ah!” Helpie suddenly gasped, making Lunar jump.

“What? What is it?”

“Before I was called to talk to my manager, I was at work. I was in the service tunnels writing a report.”

“Oh, phew,” the celestial bot felt better now that they had another lead. “We can check that out too!”

“And thankfully it’s not all too far away!”

“Yeah. Man we’re getting good exercise today. C’mon, let’s get rolling.”  

They turned to leave the hallway behind…

But then, just when they were starting to walk away, they became aware of a sudden sound – it was in the distance at first, but then started to get closer to them, and louder.

The two of them froze mid-step, spooked, and their gazes slowly turned in the direction it was coming from.

It was like a scuttling -- like little clawed feet on tile – and something thudding against metal as it moved.

“Oh god what’s that!?” Lunar grabbed onto Helpie and held him tight, the bear holding onto Lunar in return.

But when it drew near enough, they realized the sound was coming from underneath the floorboards.

“Phew…” Helpie sighed, relaxing. He let go of his friend and mimicked wiping his forehead. “That would be… the rats. Horrible little things, but not… unheard of in the Pizzaplex.”

“Little?” Lunar repeated. “That sounds kinda big…” He had heard the pitter-pattering of rats in the Pizzaplex before, but these were the loudest scuttles he’d ever heard.

The click-clacking of little claws moved right underneath their feet.  Lunar could swear he felt a weight shift on the tile he was standing on, like something was up pressed under it.

Lunar reacted with horror at it having gone directly underneath them.

“Ew, ew, EW! Gross!” Lunar stomped on the ground again on reflex, trying to scare away whatever it was, but it was unfazed. “AaaAAH!”

“Whuh—Yeeek!” Helpie also jumped back.

Both of them danced backwards a few paces, staring at that spot on the floor.

The scuttling had gone silent for a moment… and then in a burst of movement the sound quickly darted in their direction, moving even faster than before, like it was trying to get underneath them!  

“GYAA-HAH!” Lunar flapped his arms so hard that he swore he could almost fly. “Why are these rats so big! These things are so grooooss! C’mon, let’s get away from here!”

“Weh-wiih-with pleasure!” Helpie agreed, his voice jumping with the panic; he had a deep fear of rats.

They both trotted away as fast as their little bodies could carry them, the noise briefly perusing the footfalls of their feet; but thankfully it wasn’t able to keep up with them. The moment the two boys turned the corner and were out of earshot, whatever was moving came to a stop.

The corridor was silent once again…

…And then, suddenly, from the space underneath the floor, an incredible force slammed into the tile the boys had been standing on a moment before. The impact was so great that it rattled the nearby objects, and the sound echoed far.  

Without hesitation, a second powerful impact bashed into the tile; then another, and another…

Something was beating against the floor, over and over again.

After so many strikes, the noise changed. Now there next came a long series of scrapes as something sharp was dragged across the floor’s underside, as if it were searching for a seam or a weakness.  

It drew across the floor until it came to the hallway’s walls; it climbed upwards, and the scratching began to search those walls…

After a long moment of searching, a weakness was found. There, at a corner where two panels met; it was old and splintered there, the seams having come undone. When pressure was applied to it, the cracks and the panels shifted. 

Then with calculated aim, there came another loud bang as the inside of the wall was struck… then another, and another…

The cracks spread further, the split in the panel giving way--  

And at last, the pieces gave way under another impact, opening a hole that let out into the hallway.

And from the darkness within, a hand burst through.

Taking another long, winding path, they made their way into the service tunnels.

It was unsettling how red this part of the Pizzaplex could be; the dim lighting seemed like it was designed to tint the area in that color. There were corralled groups of staffbots left to sit around uselessly, some of them broken down or missing pieces.

Lunar wasn’t very fond of being here either. He hoped they’d be done quickly. “It’s not much farther, is it?”

“Not far, it was right about… here!” Helpie suddenly pointed to a spot up ahead. There were dozens of crates stacked tightly here, pressed against the wall. But there was just enough of a gap to reveal one of the Save Stations on the wall, directly above one of the crates. “I was working right here when I got the order,” he said. “I’d just finished looking at the electrics, and was writing up my report…”

“You guys all shared a mind link, right?” Lunar said. “What about… what were the other Helpies doing at the time?”

“We were all over the Pizzaplex,” the bear explained. “Earlier that day, we were given an order to spread out to every room. We were each assigned different sections to look through, to cover the most ground. The service tunnels were my assigned area.”

He tried to remember what his siblings had been doing, trying to remember if there was anything that shouldn’t have happened…   

“Oh! Oh, wait,” he said. “Right before I got the order, not even a minute – my sister was going towards the garage…”

“That place just keeps coming up,” Lunar frowned.

“Yeah. But I remember – she’d just made it to the entrance, and then she disconnected from the Helpie Channel.”

And that wasn’t unheard of. Like any Pizzaplex system or chat messaging program, the Helpie Channel could sometimes be finicky with its connection, especially when one of them was down in the armored depths; and the Helpies themselves could freely log on and off whenever they wanted, which plenty of them did for a variety of reasons.

So when one of their sisters had suddenly disconnected, the other Helpies thought absolutely nothing of it. Totally normal, nothing to be concerned about. 

But since the two were searching so desperately for a lead…

“She could’ve logged herself off, but I don’t know why she would,” Helpie explained. “And she might’ve just hit a place with a bad connection. But…”

“It’s a big coincidence it happened when it did?”

“…Yeah.”

They performed another search of the area, but for the third time, there was nothing to find.

Lunar sat down on one of the crates and sighed. “Welp, this was our third miss!”  

Their investigation had turned up nothing. And while Lunar still felt like this was something entertaining he was doing with a friend, it was greatly disheartening to Helpie.

The bear didn’t respond; he was thinking about something.

Lunar thought again. “Hmm. Since your sister was there… I guess the garage could be the next place to look? We didn’t really look around when we were down there.”

“Maybe,” Helpie frowned. It was a long walk from here, but also, he was starting to get impatient with the search.

“Or we can go back to Solar, and figure something out with him!” Lunar suggested. His brother was the smartest person he knew; he’d come up with a way to fix this, surely! “He’s gonna search the other layer of the Plex’s network too!”

“Maybe,” Helpie mumbled noncommittally.

He just couldn’t shake something from his mind.

They could keep searching places like this, but would it actually amount to anything…?

His gaze slowly trailed over to the Save Station on the wall. It was a terminal that connected directly to the Pizzaplex systems. His employee account may have been deleted, but he was built with innate knowledge of how to hack into computers; he could still break in and search however he wanted.

He was afraid the safety of his family, and he needed answers – right now.

His eyes sharpened in determination. He wasn’t willing to wait for answers any longer.

He glanced up at the ceiling; just as he’d noted a year ago, there were no security cameras in this specific spot on the map – another of the building’s faults, but one that would serve him well here. He wanted to do this without getting caught, so the lack of prying eyes was perfect.  

But he hesitated when he lowered his gaze and saw Lunar, who was there with him, idly kicking his feet where he sat on the crate, waiting to figure out their next move. If he did get discovered hacking into the Pizzaplex system, which was unlikely but not impossible, he didn’t want Lunar to be implicated.

And that meant he had to do this in secret, and send his friend somewhere safe for a little while. He could explain his hacking escapade later, after it was over.  

So, he turned back to the celestial bot. “Hey, Lunar?”

The celestial bot looked back at him. “Yeah-huh?”  

“Is it alright if… I can be by myself for a little while?”

“Huh?”

“I want to be alone for a little while,” Helpie explained. Internally, he dreaded the idea of being alone right now, but he really wanted Lunar to be somewhere else; with his skills, the chances of being discovered were low, but he wanted to play it safe. “Just by myself. Just, so much has happened, and I need to think about some stuff...”

“I mean sure, if that’s what you want,” Lunar said. “You wanna head back to the party room?”

“No, no,” he shook his head. “I’ll be okay right here… it’s a good place to sulk.” In truth he hated this place. But it was probably the safest place to do this.

Lunar glanced around uncertainty. “Uh, right here, in the creepy and the dark and the everything?” Surely the party room, with its beanbag chair to sit in, would be a more comfortable place to sulk.

“Oh yeah, I’ll be alright,” Helpie said.

“Okaaay…” Lunar was still uncertain, but he’d let him choose the place he wanted to wallow. “You need me to bring you anything? Like a beanbag?”

Helpie snorted in laughter. “Nah, don’t worry, I’ll be back before that’s necessary. I’ll come back to the Daycare when I’m feeling better, okay?”

“Okay, I guess, sounds good to me.”

But right as he said this, Lunar noticed a particular stair well just a short ways down the hall. His eyes opened wider. He remembered exactly where this was: this was the tunnel right under Gator Golf.

Solar had warned him he shouldn’t go messing around with Monty anymore, since the gator could be unpredictable. And if Helpie stayed here, he’d be right next to the gator’s turf. And he didn’t know how often Monty came down here, but the chances weren’t zero.

He could have insisted Helpie move somewhere else in the Pizzaplex, so he’d be further away from Gator Golf... but, he also didn’t think it’d be a big deal. Monty was a bad dude, sure, but Lunar was used to bugging him and getting away with it. And if Helpie had picked this place to be his Do Not Disturb playhouse, then he might as well let him.

So he shrugged off any concern he might have had.  

“I guess I’ll head back to the Daycare to wait for ya.”

And a lightbulb went off in his head. Wait! It was in the Daycare’s little arcade section -- that’s where he remembered seeing Ninja Attack!

So while Helpie was down here, he could go check the arcade corner and see if it was still there, and then surprise him with it when he got back. Perfect plan.

He was grinning to himself when Helpie responded a second later.

“I’ll see you then!” Helpie waved. “Bye, Lunar!”

“Buh-bye!” Lunar waved back.

He hurried off into the distance, turning a corner and disappearing down the tunnel, leaving Helpie alone in the corridor.

The bear quickly dropped his wave and walked to the Save Station, climbing up on the crate and sitting down below it. He put his hand against the screen. His eyes flashed and his pupils disappeared, his mind linking to the system.

He was determined not to leave until he found his answers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lunar returned to the Daycare by himself.

“Hi Brother!” he called out as he zoomed past the big open doors on his way to the little arcade area.

“Gah!” Solar jumped and whirled around in his chair, but Lunar had already passed him by. “Ahh, kids,” he sighed with a quick wry grin as he turned back to the computer. He was still tired to his core, so that jolt helped him wake back up a bit.

He was making good headway at breaking into the system, but there was still more to do. His programs were running and needed more time to finish. Now he was simply waiting, and tended to a few smaller tasks as he kept close watch on its progress.

Lunar hurried into the Daycare’s little arcade corner and looked around. After a few moments, he gasped as his eyes landed on the desired cabinet.

“Ninja Attack!” he pumped his fists in triumph. “Yes!”

As soon as Helpie got back, he’d be able to surprise him!

With the location secured, he planned to go out to the pickup area and wait for Helpie to come back. But he decided to stop in with Solar real quick beforehand.  

“Hi Brother!”

Solar was ready for him this time and didn’t jump out of his skin. He turned to face him curiously. “What are you doing back so early?” He noticed he was by himself. “Where’s that bear gone?”

“Oh, he wanted to be alone for a bit, so I let him,” Lunar explained. “He said he’ll come back when he’s done sulking.”

“Ah,” Solar hummed. Well, he supposed it made sense; after what Helpie had learned, he probably needed time to process the information; that, and he’d been glued to Lunar’s side for most of the time he’d been awake. It was fine for them to be friends, but it was also good for them not to be overly clingy to each other.

“And I came back here to find Ninja Attack,” his brother continued.

“Huh. Okaaay,” Solar said. He didn’t know what “Ninja Attack” was, but he wouldn’t question it.  “…Did you find it?”

“Yep!”

“Alright… But where is Helpie now, in actuality?”

“He’s down in the basement under Monty Golf.”

Solar paused. He didn’t like the sound of that. “Lunar, you think you should go get him, and tell him to move his sulking to somewhere… less near Monty?”

“Nahhh, he said he’ll be fine,” Lunar waved a hand. “And he just wanted it to be a little while.”

Solar really didn’t like the sound of that, but… maybe it would be okay for just this short amount of time…

“Anyway, we’ve been out there doing an investigation! Trying to find out what happened to the Helpies.

“Oh really, what does that mean, what are you actually doing?” Solar asked. An ‘investigation’ could mean anything, from them just looking around to them trying to break into Monty’s space to steal from him. “You’re being careful? You’re not doing something crazy or dangerous?” 

“Nooo nooo, I promise, we’re not doing anything bad like that, we’re not even gonna try to call anyone higher up,” Lunar said. “We went to look for clues back where I found him on the shelf, and where he last remembered being, and where he was working right before it all happened.”

“Well, alright…” That sounded fine enough. “Did you find anything?” He glanced back at the screen to check on the progress of his programs; they were almost done.  

 “Not yet, but I think we’re gonna keep searching,” Lunar said. “Maybe after we take a break and he’s feeling better.”

“Okay, you can keep doing that. Just be careful,” he reminded him. “And tell me whatever you’re up to, I want to make sure you’re safe.”

“We will, don’t woooorry,” the smaller celestial bot said. “It’s a lot of fun sneaking around with him like we’re detectives! And we went to the Fazcade, but we had to look around for his favorite game, but it’s right here in the Daycare so that’s good, and I got spooked by a really big rat, and he told me about the garage and how it’s like a bunker…”

“Glad you’re having fun, kid,” Solar replied as his little brother described the day he’d been having. “You’ve taken a real liking to that bear haven’t you?”

“Yeah! He’s kind of a nerd, but he’s fun.”

“That’s nice.”

“And he’s kinda cute.”

Solar stopped, blinked, processed that, and then glanced over at him. “‘Cute?’” he repeated, dumbfounded.

“Yeah,” Lunar nodded, swinging his arms back and forth. “I think he’s pretty cute.”

Solar sputtered, taken off guard. “You think he’s cute?”

“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.”

He considered that for a moment. “…Do you…” he paused, searching awkwardly for the right words. “…like him?”

“’Like’ him? Like what?”

“You know, like…” Solar fumbled vaguely at the air with a hand. “…Like?”

Lunar’s cheeks flushed bright red and his whole body flustered up. “N-Noooo? No? Nnnoooooo?”

A smirk spread over Solar’s face and he stifled a snort, eyeing him teasingly.  

Lunar’s cheeks started glowing. “Nooooo, shut up!”

The taller bot chuckled aloud and turned away from him, his shoulders shaking from his quiet laughter.

“Shut up!” Lunar bounced up and down, flailing his arms. “Shut up shut up shut up!” 

Solar continued to chuckle as his brother got more and more flustered.

“AHHHH!” the smaller bot yelled with wide open eyes; then he turned, and skittered out the door.

 Solar sighed contentedly when his brother was out of earshot.

Obviously, the two kids didn’t know each other well or long enough for a crush to really be there… But what brother could resist teasing their sibling a little bit about it? It was all in good fun.

With that little bit of levity taken care of, he checked on the progress of his programs again.

They were just a minute or two away from being done, and then he could begin his second search.  

“Alright, Monty,” he put his hands to the keyboard. “What ARE you hiding from us…?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Down in the darkness of the service tunnels, Helpie sat under the Save Station, its light gleaming on his casing. 

His eyes were pupiless as he pressed his hand against the screen. He had successfully broken into the restricted area, needing only a few minutes to do so. Now, he was combing through the countless classified documents, searching for his name.

If he could just find something that had been overlooked…!

“Come on,” he growled under his breath. “There has to be a match; just one…!”

A few unsuccessful moments passed as he searched through another set of internal communications between the higher ups… but then, he suddenly gasped and sat up straighter.

Was that… yes!

There was an old forgotten folder, which looked like it had once been part of a series that had since been deleted, but this one had accidentally been locked and protected from deletion. When he opened this folder, there was a series of disjointed notes and ramblings; he recognized Monty’s writing style right away, with the occasional fake British mannerism thrown in even when he was just typing. These notes had no rhyme or reason to them; Monty was probably scribbling down random thoughts throughout his day. Some half-formed ideas for schemes, observations about the Pizzaplex or some of his old projects, random sentences that probably made no sense to anyone except the gator…

And there were also a few documents that had been passed back and forth between Monty and the other higher ups of the Pizzaplex.

And it was in a long-forgotten folder, in the very back of a long-forgotten document, the Helpies were mentioned.

Helpie was so excited at the match that he leaned closer to the Save Station, even pressing his other hand to the screen. 

It was short, just a footnote in between a dozen other ramblings -- but it was here!

“Yes! Yes!” He opened the document immediately, honing in on that line of text. “Okay, okay…”

He began to read.

But as he did, the smile faded from his face.

“It says… ‘Target located in B2 garage, Helpies ordered to report to their managers…”

He paused for a long moment. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.  

“…It says… ‘Paralysis set to trigger in ten minutes… Helpies to be brought to B2 garage to be used as…’”

He froze, his pupiless eyes opening wide.

“…’Bait’…?”

The footnote ended there, and there were no further details.

Helpie sat there, reading the sentence over again, the horrific implications settling in.

“T… target?” he whispered, the fear now evident in his tone. “They were hunting… a target?”

He had no idea what that target was, or--…

The pieces slowly came together in his mind.

Monty was hunting a target that was loose in the building -- the Helpies were sent out to all corners of the Pizzaplex…

Helpie’s sister suddenly disconnected from the Helpie Channel after she arrived at the garage -- “Target located in B2 garage…”

Helpie received an order to report to his manager -- All Helpies were ordered to report to their managers…

The bears were going to be paralyzed – Helpie arrived at his manager’s station, and suddenly went offline…

The Helpies were then to be moved to the garage… his manager was new and scatterbrained, and didn’t know the layout of the Pizzaplex; they might have read the map wrong, and thought they were heading to the garage, but had mixed up which basement level was which; when they realized they had gotten turned around, they dumped his body on a shelf to just be done with it, shoving him to the far back so no one would notice…

The Helpies were to be used as bait for this target – his siblings were gone.

And the Helpies were then erased and forgotten, like the target was so important that Monty needed to cover all of his tracks…

Was that it? Was that the complete picture? But it still didn’t make sense, he still didn’t understand--

Helpie suddenly felt very afraid – he wanted to be out of the service tunnels as fast as possible. He wanted to get back to the Daycare where it was safe, tell Solar and Lunar what he’d figured out, and try to figure out what to do next--

But before he had the chance to, a door slammed open in the distance, breaking into his thoughts; and after a moment, a voice flowed across the service tunnel.  

“…just don’t bloody GET you being this way!”

Helpie whirled around in the direction it was coming from, quickly removing his hand from the screen, his eyes returning to normal and the light going dark. He recognized that voice, and it was getting closer, and it was the last person he wanted to see in this moment.

Glancing quickly around the corner and down the hall, Monty and Moon were approaching, Moon walking ahead and doing his best to ignore the gator, who was arguing at his back.

“…Monty,” Helpie whispered fearfully.

His instincts told him that he was in danger, and he wanted to get away. But, he couldn’t just run; if he did, Monty would see him immediately.

He looked at the crates to see if there was a crevice for him to hide in. But no -- the crates were packed so tightly against the wall, with no spaces in between.  

Praying that they would just walk past, Helpie backed up until he was pressed against the corner between the wall and the crate, hoping the darkness would shroud him.

Anxiety hammering away at him, he watched the dim shadows of the two approaching animatronics, and had no choice but to listen to the gator’s yelling.

“Just… just keep hashing it out,” Helpie muttered pleadingly. “Just keep moving on…”

He kept silent as he possible could as they finally reached where he was. First Moon strode into view, and Monty soon followed; mercifully, neither of them noticed he was there.  

Monty’s voice was bursting with annoyance. “I already told you, Moon, I ain’t quite pleased with you going silent on me all this time!”

“And I already told you-- I don’t care!” Moon snapped back.

“It’s been a bloody YEAR, you daft twat! That’s practically forever in shareholder time! You just leaving me out to dry like this, it’s a scandal! I’m trying to run a business and you used to be one of my best contacts! So much better than that SO-LAH lout you got running the place now, ugh, that one ain’t got nearly the wit you do! With that deadpan dullard, I don’t make HALF the money you and I once did!”

And then, Moon stopped moving, bringing the two of them to a stop maybe fifteen feet ahead of where Helpie was still hiding; and to Helpie’s terror, Moon turned to face towards the gator, and he was now in full view of the nighttime animatronic.

“Hey, so, let me make this clear,” Moon finally said in a tone dripping with sardonic glint. “I don’t care about money, or business, or any of that bullshit. MY projects are the only things that matter to me. THAT’S it.”

“By ‘your project,’ you mean trying to resurrect that bloody vegetable you got lying up in that balcony, aye?” Monty asked.

“I’m not trying to ‘resurrect my brother’,” Moon narrowed his eyes, “because he’s not dead. Something’s just damaged with his brain. I just have to find the right method to fix him.”

“Mm-hmm. Mmm-hmmm. Mmm-HMM. Sure Moon, sure, whatever you say,” Monty nodded, the tone of his voice utterly dismissive, clearly thinking he was delusional. “And while you’re tangled up in all that rubbish, Solar just ain’t turning a profit the way I’d like!”

“Sucks,” Moon said uncaringly.  

“Ah, but listen, that Sun of yours? You got a place to keep him cuz of me. If I got sick of you I could always just have you evicted, thrown out on the cold uncaring streets…”

Moon actually threw back his head and laughed, putting a hand to his forehead, like what the gator said was the most absurd thing ever. “Oh my god, you’re so stupid,” He laughed in the gator’s face. “You can threaten me like that all you want, but you KNOW you’ll never go through with it,” he said through cackles; he looked back at the gator with mocking eyes and a smirk. “Because Monty, you know I’m way too valuable to actually get rid of. Keep me around, and you MIGHT have me as your partner in the future, MAYBE. But the moment you put me and Sun on the street is the moment you lose me forever. And I mean that. You KNOW me. I will NEVER work for you, ever, for the rest of this damn eternity, if you throw me out on the street. And beyond that, you know it won’t even hurt me, because I don’t even need that damn Daycare; I’ve got bunkers I can go live in. You’ve got NO cards to play against me. So, buddy, here’s a new deal: you’ll keep making deals with that orange reject, and I’LL keep repairing my brother. Do that and maybe someday I’ll be your business partner again.”

Monty had gone completely still, the theatrical flair disappearing; with every word out of Moon’s mouth, his shoulders, back, and fists began to tighten in rising fury. He stepped closer to Moon, and next to the celestial animatronic, Helpie was reminded of Monty’s incredible size – and the terrifying power his body possessed.

For a moment, the little bear wondered if Monty was going to bash Moon’s face right then and there; and Moon seemed to wonder that as well, folding his arms and staring without a hint of fear, even perking an eyebrow as if daring him to do something.

But then, Monty relaxed and stepped back, folding his arms and staring down the length of his snout disdainfully. When he spoke, his fake accent was gone, his voice back to its natural deep Southern growl. “You know, I’ve always hated that you know me so fucking well.”

“Heh. Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Moon replied, and started to turn to walk away. “Now get off my fucking ass.”

“Now hold on there, Moony!” The accent was right back on, and he reached out to grab him by the arm, keeping him in place. “I’m not right done with you, just yet! It’s not just a benefit for ME you need to worry about -- remember that my deals are also beneficial for YOU!”

Moon yanked his arm free in rage. “What do you have to offer ME?” he demanded. “And I mean now, with MY project, at this very moment?”  

“OHH-HOHOHO!” Monty laughed, throwing his hands in the air. “Funny joke there, ‘what do I have to offer’—you know I can offer you a great many things to you and your cause, IF you’re willing to pull some favors for me!”

“Like…?” Moon asked expectantly, impatiently.

“I have more resources than you can imagine! And near endless money, and contacts I can forward to you! I have station deep in the deepest ocean waters, I have bunkers, I have ties with the most illicit of markets… So many things that can be at your disposal, you’ll no longer need to scrounge for parts or products for that Sun of yours! Anything you require will be at your fingertips! So c’mon, c’mon, be a good little Daycare Attendant and work with me, eh?” he tapped a clawed finger to Moon’s nose.

Moon just rolled his eyes. “I ALSO have all that shit. That means you’ve got nothing to offer me that I can’t get on my own.”

“Damn it, Moon! What DO you want!? What can I bloody well give you that’ll give you pause!? What more can there possibly be!?”

“Who knows,” Moon shrugged casually, completely stonewalling the gator. “Oh well, maybe someday I’ll need something, and then we’ll have reason to talk. Because of that, you KNOW you can’t afford to get rid of me.” And then his eyes narrowed, and some of that darkness returned to the creases of his face. “And let me promise you this. If you ever try to do anything to Sun, if you ever threaten him, or kidnap him, or use him as blackmail in any way, you know I could be a very dangerous enemy, and that I can make you regret it. And if you hurt Sun, I swear I will make you regret ever being built. So keep- your claws- off my brother.”

The gator growled lowly in his throat, sounding very close to the snarl of a real alligator. “Turning my own threats back around on me, you’re still as devious as you used to be,” he said in that growing rage. “Fine, Moon. Fine. I know when I’ve botched my sales pitch, and it looks like you’ve evaded me once again.”

“That’s right,” Moon said dryly. “Now piss off.”

“I’ll find something that’ll get you one of these days, mark my words!” Monty called after him, pointing one of his clawed fingers in his direction. “My contact is always open and willing to hear from you, Moon! Just remember your old friend Monty the next time you’re in a bind and need to something unobtainable for that bloody fucking ‘project’ of yours! I’m sure you’ll find something even crazier to do to him than you’ve already tried!”

Moon snorted once more and was about to walk away, when his gaze suddenly drifted past the gator… and down to Helpie.

Helpie stiffened, looking right back at him, their gaze meeting. Helpie didn’t know what to do, to react or just stand there, or…

Moon perked an eyebrow at the discontinued model; he wouldn’t have been interested otherwise, but he remembered seeing Lunar with that bear a little while ago. Was that one of his companions now?

“Hmmph.” He eventually just seemed to shrug it off, and looked back at Monty. “I’ve got shit to do, and I know you’ve got more orphans to exploit. So c’mon, don’t stand down here and sulk like a bitch, let’s get out of here,” Moon motioned with his head towards the tunnels – away from Helpie.

The bear blinked; was he… trying to lead the gator away from him? Why?

But Monty could never change his flair for the dramatics; instead he immediately started speaking and moving his hands as he talked, as though he were putting on a personal performance in a play. “Aaaach, get on out here yourself, you dense--”

He had turned around to do some kind of head-toss, and when he did, his gaze landed on the little bear.

Monty blinked for a second, and then lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “Oh?” he turned to look at him curiously. “What’s this, then?”

Helpie was frozen for a moment, a spike of fear going through him.

Monty walked closer, clearing the distance between them.

Helpie wanted to step back, but there was nowhere for him to go. His shoulder was against the side of the Save Station, which he pressed himself against.

“Save… save…” he stammered, low enough that only he could hear, his hand fishing against the screen behind his back. “…me…”

The screen briefly flashed, a window popping up, but nothing happened otherwise.

He thought quickly. He needed to respond, and this was a delicate situation; he was tiny compared to the towering alligator, and he didn’t want to anger him right off the bat by jumping at him with demands and accusations. Instead, he thought it best to be professional, and pretend to be a loyal employee eager to serve him. Fawn.

“Montgomery Gator! It’s been a while!” he struck the familiar pose and saluted. “Helpie at your service!”

He couldn’t even make a run for it. Monty could catch him in seconds.

And Moon, frowning, just walked away. Well, he’d tried; and now whatever happened would happen.

“Well my, my!” Monty’s eyes lit up in recognition.”It’s been ages since I’ve seen one of you! Good heavens, you must have heard all that, didja?”

“Your business with Moon is no business of mine,” Helpie shook his head, repeating a platitude he’d learned when he was still serving the Pizzaplex.  

“It’s most odd,” Monty rubbed his chin as he leaned forward and looked Helpie over. “I thought we got rid of you lot. But here you are! Where’d you come from, little tyke?”

“It seems I ran out of battery and was out for quite a while, stuck in a corner of the basement, Sir!” he lied. “But I’m ready and eager to be back to work, Sir!”

“Ahh the basement, that makes sense, we do lose SO much down there,” he said. “Ahhh, I think I know what happened! After the paralysis was triggered, one of our lazy staff didn’t want to deal with the hassle of bringing you to the right place, so they just left you somewhere, and we all plum forgot about you!”

Helpie’s smile wavered. A hesitant look came over him. Oh god. He’d said those words and they were real now. Oh fuck. “Erm… p-perhaps?”

“How’d you come back to life, by the by?” Monty asked. “Deactivated bots don’t just come back online by themselves, you know!”

“I was found and reactivated by someone called Lunar,” he said before his mind could tell him not to. As soon as the words were past his processor, he realized what he’d done and flinched internally. Don’t blame Lunar, don’t see him as an accomplice of anything…!

“Lunar! Should’a known that one was part of this, he gets all over the Pizzaplex, he does.”

“A-And since then I’ve just been looking around the Mega Pizzaplex, getting reacquainted with everything!” he immediately tried to redirect to something else. Keep pushing the lie; if he could just placate Monty for this moment, if he could just get away from this encounter intact, he could run to safety. “I’m learning everything quickly, and I’ll be ready to get back to work for you very soon!”

“…Wait, what’s this about ‘work’?” Monty tilted his head, sounding genuinely confused, some of the accent even slipping.

“Well I’m Helpie, of course! I’m ready and eager to help again!”

Monty then chuckled and shook his head. “No, little guy, no.”

Helpie blinked, his script thrown to the wayside with those few words. “I- what? ‘No’ what?”

“Sorry to say, little tyke,” Monty said, and his voice had the tone of an adult speaking to a child, trying to let them down easy when something wasn’t going to happen the way that child wanted. “But there are some secrets I’ve locked away for a reason. And there are certain people I have to keep those secrets from. If you’re just out here running around, and anyone gets it in their head to look into this matter, those people might catch wind of my secrets.”

“You’re not gonna… you’re not…” Helpie shook his head. He let the act drop, little fingers grating against the Save Station’s screen as anger broke through his fear. “You- you did something to my siblings!” he yelled, glaring up into the gator’s eyes, the friendly expression wiped away. “Where are they!? What did you do to them!? What… what target were you using us as bait for!?”

Monty crossed his arms. “Ahhhh, there it is. You’ve already done some digging.”

“What did you do to my siblings!?” Helpie yelled frantically.

“That’s something you’re simply not allowed to know, little tyke,” Monty said, like he was soothing a small child. “But I can tell you why I chose your line; when I had you built, your mission was to help me cut costs and corners. You were supposed to make this business better for ME. But you were too concerned with employee and customer safety is all, wanting to waste money on fixing things or complying with OSHA and health regulations… so when I needed to pick someone to take the fall, you guys were just the best option. I was already planning on getting rid of you anyway, so it killed two birds with one stone.”

Helpie’s eyes widened, the realization of horror coming over him, and incredulous rage and betrayal flaring up inside.

“Y… you… you monster--”

“It’s not that I hated you guys or anything! Your model was quite adorable! It’s just that sometimes, a gator’s just gotta make tough business decisions. If it makes you feel any better, it was just a wrong place wrong time kind of deal, it was nothing against you lot specifically! And neither is this.”

Helpie only had a moment to blink. “What are you--”

Monty wound his arm back smashed his hand into the little bear animatronic. His eyes widened for only a split second.

Helpie was slammed into the Save Station, the glass shattering on impact, his head bursting open and spraying oil across the wall. Electricity flashed from within the broken screen and surged through his systems; his orange and cyan lights blazed at their brightest for just a second, and the LEDs within the dying Save Station briefly flashed the same color, before the current finally died and both lights when black.  

Monty pulled his hand back, and Helpie fell to the ground. His body was crushed and twisted from the chest up, his head and processor mangled. Circuits and wires spilled out of his shattered casing; smoke drifted up from his fried internal workings, and oil dripped down the broken glass fractals of the screen above him.

Then, almost delicately, Monty grabbed one of his legs and lifted him up. Helpie’s arms and his spilled insides hung limply in the air, unmoving.

“Hmm,” Monty mused to himself. “How did he know all of that? Thought I had it all erased… did I miss something by accident? Bah. The rats are louder than ever, Moon’s being a bastard, now this kid comes back. Hmm… may be time to check on some things…”