Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Celestial family finally settled on a movie that they had wanted to watch.  

Everyone in the family was there.

Everyone but Cosmos, since he was off being an astral in their original home dimension. It had been at least five years since they last saw him…

He had been gone for a while, but he had said goodbye before he had left. Cosmos said that the Astrals wanted him to complete a mission, and he wasn't sure how long it would take. The family of course missed Cosmos, they missed his presence, his ass, his humor. It felt as if their happy little family wasn’t whole.

Especially for the holidays, and other events. Such as Terra’s and Monty’s wedding, and birthdays… Cosmos had already missed five of his birthdays, but each year the family got him a gift, hoping that he would return.

He never did.

But they couldn’t focus on the things they didn’t have, sulking around wouldn't do any good. So they tried to pretend and be a whole family, even though each one missed Cosmos in their own way. They knew that Cosmos would one day come back, even if they didn’t know when they would come back. The family knew that Cosmos would make their way back.

Sun had the controller in hand, they had settled on a family movie. Since the children were also watching, which no movies that were rated R. But the kids still wanted to watch something mature. After at least have an hour of debating, and 3 popcorn refills. The family had decided on SpiderMan into the Spiderverse.

“Okay, okay settle down, we have decided to watch Spiderman into the Spider-Verse for this family movie night” Sun announced before facing towards the TV, and looking up the movie in the search bar.

“Yep!” Everyone in the family all agreed in unison.

“Okay, I’ll turn it on,” Sun said, as he had finally found the movie, he was about to click on it before he heard his daughter speak up.

“Woah, Dad, what’s that?!” Dazzle exclaimed, as she ran towards the window.

Sun halted as he and everyone else peered through the window, and there in the night sky, a fiery blaze fell from the sky, that streamlined through the stars.

The family looked in awe.

Looks like a shooting star…” Sun said, as he watched it fly across the sky.

“Shooting star?! Make a wish!” Jack exclaimed, he shook his hands in excitement, before quickly closing his eyes, and clasping his hands together. “OKAY!” Dazzle gasped, as she did the same and shut her eyes tightly. “What should I wish for…?” Molten thought out loud as he just stared at the falling star.

But the Moon noticed something, that star… it wasn’t just flying across the sky… it was falling, falling towards the earth. It was starting to make a crash course from across the lake and near the woods by their house. “Wait… That looks like… it’s falling…” Moon said out loud, which got the family panicked. “Really close-” Moon couldn’t say anything before a loud noise exploded from where the meteor had fallen.

“GAH!” The family screamed, Terra grabbed onto Monty, who held her close. Jack ran to Solar, and Dazzle ran to Sun. “PAPA!” Jack screamed out in fear, as he latched onto his father. “It’s okay Jack…” Solar said, trying to calm him and his son down.

“Dad, will we be okay!?” Dazzle exclaimed, looking up at her dad. He could see tears welling in her eyes, she was afraid. And to be honest, so was Sun. He was still shaking from the loud noise. “Yes, we’ll be okay.” He said wanting to comfort his daughter, but frankly, he wasn’t sure if they would be. He was glad that the meteor hadn’t struck their house, but he worried that maybe some sort of space radiation would hurt them.

While Moon looked outside in curiosity, he could see the crash site from where they stood. Smoke rose from the forest, and it didn’t appear too far away. He could reach there on foot if he really wanted to. “We can go out and see-” Soon tried to say but was immediately cut off by Sun.

“Are you crazy!?” Sun exclaimed, before Terra very quickly jumped in. “THat’s how people die in horror movies!” She said she hadn’t watched too many horror movies, because they frightened her. But the ones she had seen were with Monty, and from what she gathered. Doing stupid things like going towards a crash site, when you should be running away, could very well kill you.

“Good thing, we aren’t in one.” Moon said, as he watched the smoke start to float above the clouds. Did the government know about this yet? Would there be CIA agents coming to take over their property pretty soon? Or was this out of nowhere?

“Moon, what if it’s radioactive?!” Sun exclaimed, he wasn’t wanting his metal layers to melt off or anything! They weren’t even sure if this space rock, or whatever fell from space was even safe! “We’re robots, Sun, we won’t die. I think.” Moon shrugged it off, as if he was talking about the weather, and not something that could very well kill them!

Moon went to put on his shoes, and then he started to head for the back door. “YOU THINK!?” Sun exclaimed in outrage. Frustrated by Moon’s lack of survival skills, and rational reasoning. He knew his brother was smart, maybe the smartest person in the entire dimension, but his brother could be so stupid something.

“Look, I just feel like we should go check it out…” Moon says, as he placed a hand on the door, he looked at the smoke that was coming from the crash site. It was if some imaginary string was pulling him to follow it. To see what had landed so close, yet so far.

“Feel?! You're doing this based on feeling!?” Sun screamed out, why was his brother this unpredictable?! Why couldn’t they have stayed at home? “Sun, can we just go check? If it’s just a space rock, I can collect it in the morning, and we'll go back to our family night.” Moon promised, turning to his brother, with a determined look on his face. Sun stood his ground, but so did the Moon.

After a period of silence, Sun finally gave in. They could go investigate, but it was most likely some space rock. This way Moon wouldn’t be nagging him, and they could go back to watching their movie. “Fine…” Sun sighed, Dazzle turned to him. She looked at him with her eyes, and she looked like she was begging him to stay. But she didn’ t say it out loud, not wanting to scare some, because she was 12 years old! And they don’t get scared!

“Dad?” She asked, still worried about what she had heard, could the shooting star be dangerous for her dad? She didn’t want her dad to get hurt! “Don’t worry Dazzle, me and Uncle Moon will be right back!” Sun comforted his daughter, planting a kiss on her forehead, before following Moon towards the back door.

“You guys better not and get yourselves killed!” Solar yelled at them as they were both headed out the door. “We won’t!” Moon shouted back, as he headed off into the cool night. “You better!” Monty added on.

The celestial twins made their way to the crash site, which was about two miles away. Which wasn’t that far, especially since they weren’t humans, and could easily walk that time. They knew they were getting close when they saw trees which were knocked down, and some branches were burnt off.

Though Sun was still bitter about this whole situation. He just wanted to have a normal night with his family, just like every other weekend had been! “Ugh, I just wanted to have a normal time, with our family, and a shooting star just comes out of nowhere-"

Moon froze in front of the crash site, his eyes peered below into the carter that it had left. It stretched across a football field, to the rating place of where the shooting star had finally come to a complete halt. Those cool colors were unmistakable…

But Moon tried to find anything, anything that was proof that it wasn’t who he thought it was, but there was no mistaking who lay in the crater below.

It was his little brother.

Moon couldn’t see the facial features, the hood of his cape was hiding his face, but he could tell from the other clothes he had worn, his pants, and those colors, along with a dim glow coming from the body. And he could see golden liquid that had splattered on the clothing, making Moon feel at unease.

 “Sun…” Moon said, his voice shook, and sounded as fragile as glass. One wrong step and it would shatter. “What!?” Sun exclaimed angrily, but his facial features softened by the sheer horror and fear on Moon’s face. He turned down to look into the crater and part of him wished that he hadn’t.

“I don’t think it was any ordinary star…” Moon said, as he slid down into the crater, as he slowly approached the body of the former animator. “Cosmos…” Moon said in a shush voice. As if trying to keep everything a secret. As if saying something too loudly would trigger enemies to arise from the shadows.

Sun followed behind, and his eyes widened as he got closer to his little brother. His breath started to become panicked. What happened?! “COSMOS!” Sun shouted as he started to run towards the young astral, but something grabbed his arm, and held him from reaching Cosmos. He extended his hand, tears burning at the corner of his eyes.

“WAIT!” The Moon shouted, Cosmos would be scorching hot from the fall. He had fallen from an unknown height, but he fell down fast enough that it appeared like a shooting star. Cosmos skin might melt metal if Sun would dare touch him. “He’s still piping hot from the fall!” the moon animatronic exclaimed.

But Sun couldn’t care any less about that. He could see a glowing golden liquid dripped from all parts of Cosmos’s body. It was blood, or whatever astral equivalent it was, but he had clearly lost a lot of it. Could Astral die of blood loss? “He’s bleeding, Moon!” Sun exclaimed, as he pointed to his smaller brother, who had never looked smaller than now. Sun realized that Cosmos had been missing an arm, it was leaking with astral blood, and a nub was left behind. “Look at him! He’s missing a limb!”

“Ugh, fine!” Moon shouted, because he also wanted to save Cosmos, but wasn’t sure which would be the best method. Though he knew that doing nothing, and letting him bleed out, wouldn’t fix anything. “I’m calling Solar to get a room ready.” Moon said, as he let go of Sun’s arm, and he dialed Solar’s number

The phone rang, and it felt like an entirety of waiting before Solar picked up. “Hey, what’d ya find?” Solar sounded relaxed, far too relaxed, even if he was unaware of the current situation. “We found Cosmos, but he’s hurt, like real bad.” Moon said, trying to keep himself calm, but it was hard not to with his little brother, for unknown reason, being brutally mutilated and laying in a crater.

“What?!” Solar exclaimed, Moon could hear him stand up as he started to walk away from the group. “How’d he even get here!?” Solar yelled in a hushed tone, most likely not wanting the children to hear. But what confused him is how did Cosmos get to this dimension? Wasn’t he in their home dimension!? So how’d he even get here?!

“I don’t know, and frankly, we have to worry more about his wounds right now.” Moon said, as he glanced back to see Sun trying his best to hold Cosmos, but clearly unsure what would be the best way to hold him. “Can you prepare the room downstairs?” Moon asked, “Yeah.” Solar said, as he could hear Solar walking towards the entrance of the basement.

“Thanks.” Moon said, before he very quickly added. “Can you make the kids go upstairs, it’s pretty bad from what we can tell…” Moon gave a worried glance to where Sun kneeled. He couldn’t see Csomso clearly from his angle. and Solar ended the phone call, and with that Moon turned his attention back to his twin, who was currently trying to pick Cosmos up. “Yeah, sure thing.” Solar said, before hanging up the phone.

With that Moon turned his full attention back to his twin.

“Cosmos, what happened to you-” Sun whispered to his little brother, he tried to take the hood off, for it was blocking the complete view of his face. But once he lifted it up, he dropped the hood down. Sun froze at what he had seen, but he lifted the hood up again hoping what he had just seen was a trick of the lights.

But it wasn’t.

He really wished it was

There was a gashing hole in the side of Cosmos’s face, and that’s where most of the astral blood had been spilling from. And Sun could see that whatever had caused the wound, it went directly through Lunar’s head, it was a gushing hole. And then Cosmos’s eye… Oh his eyes…

It looked so cold, and they looked so empty…

It was open but unseeing…

What happened to you, Cosmos?

“Moon…his head…” Sun almost burst out into sobs. What had happened to Cosmos for him to receive such a big? What could have happened for him to be this badly injured?! Was Cosmos even alive?! Moon didn’t know, and his head was buzzing like a hive of bees. All his questions needed to be answered, but nobody knew the answer beside Cosmos, and he was bleeding out.

“We have to get them home right now, Sun.” Moon said with urgency, the sight of the wound almost made him throw up. The wound clearly looked fresh, and how Lunar looked so empty. Cosmos’s eyes were always filled with life, and excitement. But now they looked so devoid of life.

He looked dead 

“Right…” Sun says as he holds Cosmos, as he would a child. Letting the small astral’s head rest on his shoulder, he held the lower portion of the body with his hands. The astral blood soaked into his clothes, which left his clothes feeling wet, and made Sun shiver. Though Sun could care less about that. Clothes could be washed, but Cosmos was irreplaceable. “You’ll be alright, Cosmos, you’ll be alright.” Sun whispered to Cosmos, as if he was still conscious. As if he was listening, and for Cosmos’s sake, Sun hoped that he was unconscious, so he wouldn't be able to feel the pain.

Moon quickly opened a portal, since they knew the coordinates of the house, but once they ran through it. Moon realized he had gotten the coordinates wrong. They were outside of the house and not inside where they needed to be.

But Sun and Moon quickly ran towards the warm glowing house, as Moon slammed the door open, and Sun came running through it.

“Solar!” Moon exclaimed as he swiftly turned to the orange bot, who was waiting at the entrance of the downstairs. While Sun followed Moon, swiftly, and carefully maneuvering through all the furniture. “It’s ready downstairs!” Solar said, as he let Moon rush down stairs. “THANK YOU!” Sun nodded his head in gratitude.

Solar got a glimpse of Cosmos’s body, and his eyes widened at how grotesque the injuries were. “Holy sh-” Solar almost said, the sight alone made his stomach churn, and want to reject all food he had eaten. “Yes, we know it’s bad, but we need to look at him and see if we can save him.” Sun said, as he raced down the stairs.

“Is he even alive?” Solar questioned, as he also went down the steps. Sun wanted to freeze at that, but he couldn't freeze, every second counted, so he continued. “We don’t know.” Sun said truthly, but practically prayed that whatever god was out there, that Cosmos would be okay.

In the basement, the bar table had been converted to a surgical table of sorts, a sheet was placed over it. And everything that was once on the bar was removed. Sun gently placed Cosmos on the table, before quickly moving aside for the mechanics to do their job.

Moon watched Cosmos, he had to save Cosmos, but he had to make sure he was actually alive so he could be saved. If he was dead… He didn’t know what he would do…

Moon watched, as the room was dead silent, but from the silence arose shallow breaths. It was coming from Cosmos. “He’s breathing…” Moon gasped, he could feel a bead of sweat roll down his forehead, he wasn’t sure that Cosmos would be alive, but he’s alive. And that’s what mattered.

“But it’s shallow…” Sun murmured, still worried for his little brother’s safety, would Cosmos even survive? It was shallow, he could barely hear it. If a fly had been in the room, or any other noise, they would have missed the breathing.

While Solar was impressed, and maybe terrified at how Cosmos managed to survive a hit like that. He didn’t know that was possible. “How did you even survive a hit like this…?” An even better question is how did he get so wounded in the first place.

“We don’t know, and frankly I don’t care.” Moon came to the conclusion, they could ask questions later. Later being when Cosmos was stabilized and his wounds were all patched up. “He’s alive, and we need to save him”

“We need to stabilize him.” Solar said, as he analyzed Cosmos’s body, he noticed how the structure seemed to be based on the endoskeleton of an antimonic. He was part astral, part animatronic. Very interesting. "It looks like his body is made up of stars, and animatronic parts.” Solar noted out loud.

“We don’t even know how this body works!” Sun said, realizing another problem, did Astral anatomy work differently from humans? What did he need? Did he need food, nutrients!? “Well, we’re going to learn, we have to.” Moon determined. He didn’t even have a doctor's degree, but he bet he could download a textbook of some sort. He’ll learn, one way or another.

But one mistake could be fatal.

“I-I’ll go get spare parts from the Pizzaplex…” Sun stuttered, as he looked at Cosmos’s body, before turning towards the staircase. Seeing his body in such a horrifying manner, it was sickening to even imagine it. “Yeah, and call Monty down, we need his assistance.” Solar said, as he pulled out a spare toolbox that Jack kept downstairs.

“Sure will.” Sun whispered, but he bet that Solar and Moon didn’t hear him.

When Sun reached upstairs he shouted for the gator. “MONTY!” The voice rang throughout the household, and Monty appeared from the second floor. “What!?” The gator shouted back. “Solar and Moon need your assistance, Cosmos is in bad condition…” Sun said, fidgeting nervously with his rays, trying to think too long about what he had seen. Yet the astral blood stained his clothes, and his mind.

Cosmos’s blood

Cosmos’s blood

“Sure thing-” Monty said, but was interrupted by Sun, who realized that the kids were gone. “Hey where are the kids…?” Sun asked, worried, and shopping the kids were in a safe place. “Terra took them upstairs to watch Gravity Falls.” Monty grumbled.

"Oh, okay!” Sun sighed, that easing his mind slightly. “I’ll be back with some spare parts.” He said, as he grabbed his keys. “Okay, hurry, sounds bad from what I’ve heard so far!” Monty said, before he and Sun both went their separate ways.

Deep in the forest lies a guardian.

One that protects something far more valuable than all the gold and money in the world.

One that protects this person from people that may want to hurt it.

Protects them from people who have hurt them

But something went wrong.

The shadows no longer moved, and the whispers had stopped

It was never that quiet in the forest.

The guardian knew something was wrong, and what he did not know.  “Something's wrong…” He whispered to himself, he put the weapon in his hand away. There was nothing to fight anymore.

“It’s so… quiet… That’s not a good sign…” The guardian faced towards the center of the forest, in which the person they meant to protect resided.

They could be hurt.

“Luz…” They whisper, before running towards the center.

In the center of the forest, lie a little field, one that was filled with flowers, pens that you could create flower crowns, and play in the fields without a care in the world.

And in that field lie a little house, one that was homey and cozy.

And in that little house lies a child, one that was short, had blue and white, pink eyes, and that much too big for their small body.

And they lie in fear, because something had gone terribly wrong, and they didn’t know what to do.

“Something went wrong…” they muttered to themselves, as they looked out the window, hoping for a friendly face to show up soon. Yet he was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh… dear…” They mumbled, as they grabbed a stuffed reindeer, which had been given to them by their big brother, one christmas that was so long ago. They had proudly named the deer spigot, and it had resided as his friend ever since.

“Where are you, Orion…?” They whispered, as they waited by the window, clutching their stuffed animal close to their chest.

You may now ask questions for Luz and Orion

Chapter Text

Orion stopped dead in his tracks.

What was that noise?

Sounded like a voice…

It couldn't have been one of the manifestations. For they whispered, from the shadows. They were much too cowardly to show their faces. They knew that Orion would dispose of them quickly, like he had done to others.

Another reason being that the voice was clear, the ones that come from the shadows were mostly distorted. They sounded like the person they were impersonating, but small differences. Some voices glitch in and out, others were much too aggressive. Some others are giddy, and other voices were too low. Small things that Orion had picked up on.

But the voice that had come from all around, like someone was talking directly to him, when he very clearly did not see anyone in front of him.

Were they friend or foe?

Even more important question, how were they there? This was the mind of Cosmos, this belonged to Cosmos and Cosmos only, a safe place for his innermost thoughts, and fears.

And even more so, how did they know the nickname that Luz had given them? They were the only two sentient beings inside the mindspace. The others being intrusive thoughts, which derived from Cosmos’s mind, that managed to reach down to the mindspace. They constantly tried to find Luz, but Orion never let them.

Maybe he should dispose of this new voice.

But Orion also knew that he should tread carefully, not wanting to make an enemy, they could be a danger to the inner child. And the inner child always came first, his top priority was the safety of Luz. His very being of existence was the protection of the child.

He decided it would be best to answer the question, but still stand on guard.

“I have no idea. I don’t have access to memories, the only thing I can do is protect the inner child from the memories, and the thoughts that come with them”

“Hello?” Luz said, standing up, looking around from where the voice had come from.

It didn’t sound like Orion, his voice always sounded tired, and monotone at the same time. That meant this had to be someone else. Someone who wasn’t Orion.

But who else could it be?

Luz knew that Orion was the only friend he had in this place, the rest were things that wanted to hurt him. Things that had hurt from before.

But the voice sounded friendly ...

Which was new in this place, no one, other than Orion, was friendly towards Luz. He debated on whether he should respond, on one hand Orion might get angry at him, for putting himself in danger. On the other hand they could lose the possibility of making a new friend!

“Hello voice!” Luz said aloud as they looked around. The voice had seemed to come from right in front of him, but he knew that no one was there. It was just him in his house. “Uhm… Yeah, I do live here.”

Luz continues on.

“Orion, my big brother, and my best friend, says it’s safer here! But don’t worry! I’m not that lonely, I have things I can play with! And Orion likes to come every so often to play with me!”

Chapter Text

Luz turned to behind him, that sounded like another voice. It was different from the last one, but they didn’t sound mean. They sounded curious, they sounded nice.

New friend

More friends?

But they were asking about his stims! He had lots of stims, for his different emotions, but his most favorite one is the one he’s happy with! “Oh, my favorite stim?!” Luz exclaimed, almost jumping up from his seat at the window with excitement. “I flap my hands when I’m really happy!” Luz explained.

“Like this!” Luz carefully set Spigot down, before flapping his hands, and giggling out loud with giddiness. “But that only happens when Orion is here with me…” Luz says, stopping, and feeling a pang of loneliness. He misses Orion, he knew Orion was alright, but he still worried. Orion would be here any second now

The other question was about animals, Luz liked lots of animals! He liked so many! But his most favorite of all...

“And my favorite animal? I like giraffes, and their really looOoOng necks, and their purple tongues!”

Orion almost halts at the sound of the new voice, almost pulling out his weapon. But quickly realized it sounded just like the other. It came as if someone was talking right in front of him, it was everywhere, but Orion could see no one.

It wasn’t dangerous, not yet, at least.

Orion breathed in, before responding.

“I don’t drink coffee, in fact I can’t consume any food, neither can Luz.”

Chapter Text

Orion continued running, speeding through the bushes, and the dead tree branches. “Nexus…?” That name hadn’t been spoken to him in a long time. Cosmos’s fallen brother, the one that had been banished. “Nexus isn’t a name I’ve heard in a long time…” Nexus always lurked in the back of the mind, they weren’t as big of a threat as the other manifestations.

They weren’t dangerous, just whispered things that could’ve been.

“I don’t care much for him, he’s a manifestation that rarely shows, it’s the others you have to worry about.”

Luz froze at that name. Sure Nexus, didn’t put effort into knowing them better. But they still missed him, he deserved better than what he got. “I… I miss him…” Luz sniffles, tightening his grip on Spigot. “It wasn’t his fault… he had too big of shoes to fill…”

Luz knew how that felt, being forced to grow up, Nexus was thrown into a situation that they didn’t know how to handle. He went insane because of it. “I know how that feels…” Luz hides his face in Spigot, as an effort to wipe away his tears.

“I wish we saved him.”

“I wish Cosmos saved him…”

Chapter Text

New voice

They kept saying ‘hi’ to him! That must mean there was more than one, he liked having so much friends! Or people who want to talk to him, at least. While he waited for Orion to arrive.

“Hello, again!” Luz waved, and he made Spigot wave to the voices as well. “You must be new…” Luz hummed as he fidget with his hat. “I can hear so many different voices…” Everyone had a different manner of speaking, different pitches in their voice. But all of them seemed friendly. “That’s okay! That just means more friends for me!” Luz giggles to himself, more friends the better.

“Yeah, Orion is the best!” Luz nods his head vigorously. Orion was his ebay friend! He played games with him, and talked to him, and they didn't mind his rambling! “Just waiting for him to get here…” 

Luz looks back outside, no one to be seen. “he’s taking a while, but the forest is big, and I know he’ll get here soon!” Luz couldn't wait, but talking with his new friends helped

“oh he’ll be so happy to see I’ve made more friends!”

Chapter Text

ASTRALS NOT FOUND

ASTRALS ARE UNAVAILABLE 

Chapter Text

Orion almost froze.

Key word being almost.

“Family…?” He muttered out, the word being strange on his tongue, he and Luz were family. Even though they were technically one person. But outside from them… They had a big family… one they hadn’t seen in a while…

“They… They mean so much to us…” They do, they were the ones that kept them going in the darkest of moments. They were the ones that Cosmos had the happiest memories with.

“It’s been years since we’ve actually last seen them…” Orion says, five years to be exact, but it felt longer than that. Battling in the depths of space will do that to a person. Time distorts, and bends. Sometimes it feels like the moment will never end, sometimes it’s a blink and you’ll miss it moment.

But the family still haunted them. They always would. Whether it was good or bad, Orion didn’t know.

“Yet their manifestations remain… And so do their words.”

Luz froze.

Family?

“F-family…?” Luz looked down at the ground, tears starting to well in his eyes. “I… I miss them a lot…” Luz sniffled, as he tried his best to keep tears from falling, but it was no use. “I wish we could go back home…”

Home was safe

Home was cozy

Home was where you weren’t fighting to survive.

“I don’t want to be a soldier anymore..”

Chapter Text

“Do I like head pats?” Luz asked, tilting his head. Kind of a strange question, but he’ll answer it anyway! “O-oh, yeah, of course!” He nodded his head vigorously. “But only when Orion does them…” His head pats were nice, and they didn’t hurt him. It felt like affirmation on how little he was. Even thought sometimes luz hated being small, he really liked head pats.

“I haven’t had a head pat from anyone other than him in a while… Or any physical contact at all…” The only physical contact that he’s gotten is-

“No-”

“STOP-”

“IT HURTS-”

Luz froze at the memories… Nothing ever came good at someone touching Cosmos, only pain. There was no such thing as affection anymore. At least not for Cosmos.

“But Orion’s hugs are the best!” Luz tried to distract himself, his voice slightly cracking, and tears pricking the corner of his eyes. He wished Orion was here.

“I guess I get overwhelmed sometimes… But that’s because too much on the outside is going on…” Luz voice died down. “Which happens most of the time…” Luz quickly remembered his new friends were still watching, before switching the tone. He didn’t want them to worry.

Don’t be selfish.

“Oh! But don't worry! I can deal with it! I’m a big kid! I can take care of myself!” Luz said confidently, chuckling nervously.

Orion eyes widened.

Luz?

These voices could talk to him!?

That must mean Luz was still alright!

“You can talk with Luz?! How is he? Is he all right!?”

Chapter Text

Luz tilted his head, Orion had used that word, but he never understood it like he did. But he did know they lived in the mindspace “Mindspace? I don’t know much about it, but Orion does!” Orion was super smart! He knew all parts of the mindspace! He was sort of like a scientist, or something. “He’s smarter than me!” Luz said proudly, Orion, his big brother, was super smart!

Orion hummed in response, sounding like they needed a basic run down of the mind space. These voices weren’t familiar with how the mind works, apparently.

“Mindspace it’s like the mindscape, but Mindscape is where the person, in this case Cosmos, is conscious. This is typically where all their thoughts go.” Orion hums, that place always seemed to be shrouded in smoke, from what he could recall. But he couldn’t access that plane, and neither could Luz.

“Me and Luz live in the mindspace, which is essentially the unconscious person.” he continues to explain, tree branches snapping whenever he steps.

The inner person, dare he say.  

“This is where repressed memories, beliefs, and manifestations go.”

Chapter Text

Luz had gotten bored of waiting for Orion, so he had pulled out some paper and crayons, but he still stuck close to the window. In case Orion came by before he finished his drawing.

Luz perked up when he heard the voice. “Oh, they’re scary things…” He muttered, they were so scary… They looked just like his family! They told him so many things… Things that Prion had told them weren’t true! “That’s how me and Ri first met!” Luz remembered.

“I was being attacked, and he came to the rescue! Like a hero!” Luz was stuck, the manifestations had cornered him, and attacked him! But then Orion came to save the day! He was like a super hero! Luz quickly drew up a picture of what had happened, once he was done he pulled away, revealing his masterpiece.

“See!?”

Orion grumbled at the mention of manifestations, they were a problem, One that no one could control, not even Cosmos. They just appeared, and all they wanted to do was hurt. “Manifestations are inner fears, and thoughts.” Orion says, which is why they take on the figure of family members, or astrals. Because of what they had said in the past, band memories, and words that left scars. “Ones that really stick to Cosmos, and cause him harm.”

Orion remembered how Luz had been crying out the day that he had first appeared in the mindaspace, he was so helpless. He couldn’t do anything, and all he did was cry. “And try to cause harm to the inner child. Which is Luz.” The inner child needed to be protected at all costs. Cosmos depend on it, Orion depended on it

“But I can take care of them, I’ve always had.” Since the first, and until the last day, Orion would. “The problem is that there isn’t any.” Which should be a good thing, but it wasn’t. No manifestations meant something had happened outside. “That means Cosmos isn’t conscious.”

“And ever since he joined the astrals, he’s always conscious."

Chapter Text

Luz hummed, looking up from his paper, his brothers? Yeah! They were his (best friends) family. “Solar, Sun, and Moon?!” Luz exclaimed. “yeah of course I know them!” Moon and Sun saved him from Eclipse! Then he (became friends) and Solar became family! Because he helped him join his bigger family! “They’re our big brothers after all!”

Luz hummed as he looked outside, missing Orion, and his other big brothers. It’s been too long, he wants to see them again. He wants to go home. “I miss them… I hope we can see them soon.”

Orion grunted at the voice. Solar, Sun and Moon? The older brothers of Cosmos. “Yes, I know them.” The things that Cosmos yearns for the most, his family. “They’re Cosmos’s older brothers, me and Luz's older brothers by default.” Which was a strange concept in itself.

Orion sighs, Cosmos did his best to keep the best memories of his brothers, but for some reasons it’s always the worst ones that haunt him. “Even though Cosmos tries to remember in a positive light, that doesn’t mean they don’t show up as manifestations."

Chapter Text

“Hm?” not dangerous, they say? He'll be the judge of that.

Orion hummed, as he pulled the dagger out, and sliced tree branches in the way. “No, it’s a dagger.” One powerful one at that, hasn’t broken a single time, and he could summon it as well. “close range, like how Cosmos attacks.” Cosmos always got close to the attacker, before killing it.

Even though Cosmos preferred far range, the Astrals insisted on close range. To make sure that the attacker was dead. Cosmos could do nothing but comply with the orders of his superiors.

“It’s made out of pure energy from what I can tell.”

Orion made it disappear before continuing his venture towards Luz.

Luz squeals happily, happy that someone was able to have the same nickname like him! “NICKNAME BUDDIES!!!” Luz happily stims, shaking his hands, and giggling out of pure joy. “YIPPIE!”

Once he finally calms down from his little happy dance, he tries to search his mind at other nicknames Orion called him. “Oh, Orion also calls me by, Lu, kid, and child.” Luz crosses his arms, remembering how Orion would just call him ‘child’, which Luz did not like at all.

“He used to just call me ‘child’ all the time. But that was before I convinced him to call me ‘Lu’! We’re best friends now!” Yeah, they were better than best friends! They were brothers! And Orion was his big brother!

Chapter Text

Orion hummed at the question, glad that Luz enjoyed his head pats. The kid was touch deprived, he needed much more than the life that was given to him. “Mm.”

And then the question, when he first gained consciousness… When he was ‘born’, or something along those lines. “I first gained consciousness after Cosmos’s death.” The bang, as Luz called it.

“When we were revived…” Orion hums, as he remembers how dark and dangerous the forest had gotten, every tree looked like it had been burnt, and the shadows lurked, and they screamed. Luz was scared, because he was a child. Cosmos was scared because he survived something that should’ve killed him.

But it didn’t.

“His mental health took a toll on the inner child, along with expectations being placed upon him. He could no longer act like himself.” Orion grunted, he remembered how Luz would cry, they would cry so much. Realizing that his family no longer saw him as a baby. They all did little things, they all showed that they expected him to be older.

“So I was made, as a defense for the inner child.” One that would protect Luz, his being of creation, was to protect the inner child from manifestations. Ones that aimed to get rid of it, forever. But Orion was to make sure that the manifestations wouldn’t touch Luz, again.

“Also ever since Cosmos has become an astral, he’s never gotten time to rest.”

Astrals ran on positive star energy, and positive star energy alone. They didn’t eat, they didn’t drink, they just absorbed. Cosmos was so hungry those first few years, whether it was because he grew accustomed to the star energy for power, or whether he repressed the hunger Orion didn’t know.

“He doesn’t need to.”

Chapter Text

Orion froze at that question.

He stayed silent.

But one person came to mind.

Terra.

Luz froze when he heard the question, his body stiffening.

Any regrets?

He had so many.

Cosmos has so many.

But it all lead back to one person

“T-Terra…” Luz said, as tears started to run down his face like a waterfall. “S-She didn’t d-deserve it…”

Deserve any of it,

All his fault

All his fault

It's all his fault!

It would've been better than they hadn’t come back from space at all!!!

Luz’s breath started to pick up, his hands started shaking, as he struggled to breathe. 

Where’s Orion?

Chapter Text

Orion felt his blood start to boil as he heard this.

Why was Luz crying?

Luz doesn’t cry unless something triggers them.

“What!?” he roared, as he picked up the space, his speed increased

“Why is Luz crying!?” The only thing that could trigger Luz right now was that one of the voices must’ve triggered him. There was nothing else that could hurt him.

 “What did you do?!”

Chapter Text

Oh, good question!

Let’s see…

Three…

Two…

One…

POOF

Wow, looks like it can work!

To be fair, not all things can be manifested into the mindspace, but you can try. The mindspace is tricky, and sometimes it doesn't connect, not all gifts given will enter the mindspace! Especially since it's Cosmo's mind, and not yours.

Luz looked up

He needed to calm down.

But when he did, he noticed a bunny plush laying in front of him. Luz was surprised. “A-a bunny…?” He didn’t have a bunny plushie, he didn’t have any other stuffed animals, besides spigot… “Didn’t have this here before…” Where did it come from? No one could’ve given it to him… expect…

 “D-Did one of you guys send this to me?” Luz looked up, looking around from the imaginary stranger, as he grabbed the rabbit. It was soft to the touch, and had a cute pink nose, with floppy ears, and beady eyes. “Thank you…” Luz said, as he wiped away tears that remained. Holding the bunny in the other hand

But then one of the voices arose from the emptiness of his room, asking him of his favorite sibling. “M-my favorite sibling…?” He sat there in thought. Sun was mean, he said mean things. Moon put him in scary simulations. Terra…

Terra-

The only one that was kind to him was Solar… He used to play with him all the time… Before the bang…

“Solar… I guess… He’s nice…”

Luz murmured as he rocked the rabbit in his arms, like he was lulling the bunny off to sleep.

While Orion ran, a soft thing blocked his view, he halted to a stop as the thing that had obscured his vision fell to the ground. He looked down, and he saw a pair of black gloves on the ground. “Gloves…?” Orion observed it, looking for any possible points of ambush, before he picked it up. They felt soft to the touch.

“Hm.” He observed before safely tucking it away in his robe.  

Then a voice asked the worst memory they had of the celestial family.

“Worst memory?” Orion asked, there were so many.

Too many.

“Terra.” Orion said, the memory always haunted Cosmos

The way she screamed

She was in so much pain

All their fault ALL THEIR FAULT!!!

The guilt that drowned them in grief and fear.

So many nasty looks-

So much hate-

They hurt their sister

And she will never forgive them

 “Definitely, Terra…”

Chapter Text

“Cosmos does not know we exist, since we are in the mindspace.” Orion explains. The mindspace was the state of the unconscious person. Cosmos didn’t have access to this layer of the inner mind.

Though Luz used to access the mindscape, which is why Cosmos was able to act so childish. Which is how Cosmos had been able to regress. But since then…

Cosmos blocked off Luz from entering the mindscape, which in turn. Completely shut-down his ability to regress.

You don’t act like a child in war.

“Luz used to be able to affect the way he acts, but he has no power anymore.” Luz had been one of the first things Cosmos had shut out. Then it became memories, belief, and emotions. Cosmos didn’t see cause for them. Because the astrals had no need for any of them.

But Luz still needed Cosmos.

And Cosmos needed Luz.

“I’m getting close”

But right now, Luz needed him.

Chapter Text

“Hm?” Luz looked up from his spot, he had been mindlessly cradling the little bunny in his arms. Just needing a rhythm to keep him grounded. “O-oh.. My reindeer?” Luz asked, feeling too weak to get up, but he managed to reach for his deer. Which had been left on the ground, discarded.

Luz knew what that felt like

“Yeah, his name is Spigot!” Luz showed off his little reindeer happily. “And he’s my friend!” He made the deer wave to his friends that weren’t there. But I could still see him, and everything he was doing. “My brother gave him to me! Before… The bang…”

“Monty Please-”

“After the bang everything changed…” People had started to expect too much from Cosmos, too much from him. But Cosmos still changed for them, he changed for his family.

He realized how grim he was sounding, so he quickly changed the topic.

There’s no need to cry.

“But that doesn’t matter! Spigot is my friend, and he’s never changed!” Luz said proudly, Spigot had stayed by his side, since forever! Spigot was cool and brave! Spigot protected him from things!

“And now he has a friend, meet Tap!” He lifted up the rabbit, which he had so proudly named Tap.

“Hm.” Orion grumbled to himself.

Luz needed him

And these questions from this unknown voice were slowing him down.

“I’ll be there soon enough.” If he ran faster he could easily get there. But he had to only focus on one thing at a time.

“I’m not letting anyone stop me.”

Orion is no longer answering questions.

Chapter Text

“Oh! You’re talking to him!?” Luz asked, slightly surprised, he didn’t know his friends could also talk to Orion! “I didn’t know that!” He hoped that they managed to become friends! So they could be best buddies together! “I’m glad he’s coming though…” Orion was talking to them the whole time… Which means now he’ll be coming even quicker now! He needs to get here faster though…

“I hope he gets here super quick…”

MANIFESTING NIGHT LIGHT WITH RABBIT AND DEER SILHOUETTES 

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING…

ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR!

MANIFESTED SMALL PORTABLE NIGHT LIGHT

Luz heard a whir occur, and some appeared in the corner of his eyes, Luz turned in that direction, and he saw a little night light, which seemed to be in the shape of a star, but also had a handle so he could carry around. Woah.  

“WOW!” He was star struck form where the magical little thing came from. “Look at that!” Luz said, getting up, and grabbing it. It was small, and he was able to grasp it in his hand. He looked around, wondering where it could’ve come from.

“Is this another gift from one of you guys?!” He asked, realizing that they could send more and more gifts! His eyes practically sparkled at that. “So cool!” He said, as he held it close to his chest.

“Thank you guys, thank you so much!!!”

Chapter Text

Oh, What inspired me to write this?

Well, I’ve been wanting to make a Cosmos/Lunar angst story for a while. It just seemed so unfair how he was shoved under the rug in canon. Like all his trauma, and experience was vastly cut down, for simplicity’s sake. Like, he was sent off to war, for his family, mind you. And then literally a week later, his family LEAVES him in the dimension where he’s fighting a war.

I thought about other Cosmos angst ideas, but none of them ever clicked, or worked out the way I wanted them too. Until I thought about this idea, before passing out in my bed. I knew that the idea was probably not to go anywhere, until I woke up in the middle of the night, and read the fic “A Sweet Little Face (That can’t be possibly be Mine)” by LuxaraOwO. I lowkey read that thing in a sleepy haze, (I also lowkey recommend) and my thought was.

‘Oh yeah, I am so going to make that fic now…’

AND HERE WE ARE!

Thank you all for reading, and I can’t wait for ya’ll to see what I have in store!

Because I plan on being as evil as possible! (Maybe even adding some inspired scenes from LuxaraOwO)

Chapter Text

MANIFESTING FLUFFY BLANKET AND STRESS BALL!

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING…

ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR!

MANIFESTED A SMALL BLANKET, AND A STRESS BALL!

“Woah…”Luz said, looking at the things that had suddenly appeared before his eyes. A small sky blue blanket, along with a dark blue stress ball lay together. “You guys are soooo nice!” He grabbed both of the things.

“This cute blankie can be for my stuffed animals!” He said, as he put Spigot, and Tap in the bundled blankie, they slept cozy, cuddling with one another. “I’ll save the stress ball for Orion! It’s his favorite color!” Luz said, before he put the ball beside the window.

Still waiting for Orion.

Chapter Text

“I know, I still miss him though.” Luz mumbled as he continued to cradle his dolls. He wished he had something else to do, rather than wait.

“And I have loads of favorite colors!’ Luz hummed, as he swayed his head to an imaginary tune in his head. “But I guess I like pink, like my eyes!” Luz pointed to his eyes, before using his hands to make circles around them, and showing how pink and big they were.

“See how pink and cute they are?!”

Chapter Text

“My favorite lullaby?” Luz tilted his head, he had only one favorite one, that was his most favorite one ever! “I love the one Moon had, he used to play whenever I needed to sleep.” Luz recalled how Moon would sometimes cradle him to sleep. Other times Moon would wait in Cosmos’s bed, and wait for him to fall asleep, before leaving him all snuggled up under the covers.

“and it was super secret, and he’d only play it for me!” Luz giggled, glad that Luz had decided to spoil him with the little things. It was always the best when Moon put him down for the night. Not even the daycare kids got to hear it! It was only for Cosmos, and Cosmos only! It was the best thing ever!

“Though he didn’t play it anymore, because Cosmos was supposed to act older…” Luz said, saddened by what had happened for Moon and him to drift so far apart. It didn’t help that it wasn’t his actual big brother Moon, it was Nexus. And they had a hard time connecting…

“But it sort of went like this!” Luz said, trying to switch the mood to happy again. He closed his eyes, recalling how the lullaby went. So soft and peaceful, always calmed Cosmos down, even on the worst of days. Each note twinkled like the stars had been singing.

“La, la la la la la la. La la la la la la.” Luz sang as he rocked the dolls as Moon once did to him. “I really liked that lullaby, my most favorite one, ever!!!”

Chapter Text

MANIFESTING SUNFLOWER

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING…

ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR

MANIFESTATION FAILED

“It’s okay if you can’t send me flowers…” Luz hummed, as he looked outside another window other than the front. “I have lots outside!” Luz said as he looked at the flower field right outside the house. Varieties of flowers were close by his house.

“Also, we don’t have access to any tv shows or video games, other than the ones we’ve watched already.” Luz explained, that’s one of the reasons it had been so boring in the mindspace without Orion there with him, He had nothing to do, and all the memories of past video games and TV shows were blurry. Which made it even harder to play and rewatch some moments.“But all those memories are blurry.”

“It’s hard to remember things when you’re fighting all the time.”

Cosmos was brave for fighting and protecting his family

Even if his family did sort of leave the place Cosmos was protecting.

That’s okay, they’re safer now.

Chapter Text

Terra and Sun waited anxiously for the entire night in the living room. Sun had changed with Terra urging him too, Sun didn’t want to, not wanting to even miss the slightest thing, but with the encouragement of Terra, he did. The kids had gone to sleep around 8:00 so that meant they could focus all of their attention on the well-being of Cosmos.

Even though they couldn’t do that much, they were stuck on the couch. And each could not feel any more useless. They wanted to help, but they didn't want to interrupt the others.

While Solar, Moon and Monty worked on Cosmos throughout the night. Occasionally one of them would come up and get a drink of water, or take something. Terra and Sun would both spring up to ask if Cosmos was okay. Though they would always respond back with a:

“We don’t know.”

“We’re still in the process of stabilizing him”

“Hope for the best”

And that’s all they would say. For the trio truly didn’t know, Cosmos autonomy was far beyond anything they could even comprehend, they were basing their predictions off of the human body, and animatronic. Yet that wasn’t even enough to comprehend what made up Cosmos.

Sun and Terra waited up for the entire night. Sun let his baby sister sleep in his lap, and lean on him so she could get some much needed shut-eye. Sun would hum her to sleep, while running his fingers through her hair, which was comforting for the earth-animatronic. Terra was absolutely terrified of losing Cosmos. Sun knew that they had rough patches, extremely rough patches. But they still loved each other, he knew Terra did.

They were still siblings.

The hours dragged on, and Sun drifted into a light slumber, not enough for his system to completely go into rest mode, but enough for him to still be aware of his surroundings.

Eventually the night came to an end, and the sun started to rise. Terra had awoken, but she didn’t feel well rested, she supposed that her brother being on the verge of death would do that. She noticed sUn had been sleeping, so she left him on the couch, as she got breakfast ready. She knew that her siblings, and husband would be completely drained when they got out of the basement.

The clock continued to tick by, and around 7:17 the trio came out of the basement. Terra walked over to greet them, their eyes looking sunken in. Even though they didn’t have any skin, Terra could see it. Their clothes were stained with the astral blood, like the Sun had been.

Moon dropped something off on the bar, which seemed to be a pint of blood, and a vial rack, with one vial filled with the astral blood. They quietly washed their hands and splashed water on their face, before they slumped down on the couch, completely exhausted. Sun had woken up with a start, with the shift in the couch. While Terra went to go sit next to her partner, who gave her a peck on the cheek.

They waited in silence, as they waited for one to speak up. “Is he… alright?” Sun decided to speak up first, he needed to know the condition of his smallest brother. Last he saw him, he was in bad shape. His arm was ripped off, and there was a hole in head, and who knows what other hidden injuries there could’ve been.

Moon grunts, as he sits back up, but slumps over, he puts his weight on his knees, as his arms are the only tuning keeping him upright. “Monty, Solar, and I, have managed to stabilize him… We think…” Moon said he wasn’t confident, none of them were. This was their first time dealing with anything so complicated, and medical. They were engineers, inventors, they didn't work with the body.

“You think?” Sun asked, slightly accusative, he didn’t mean it to be rude, but he wanted to make sure that Cosmos was stable, not based on a ‘maybe’.  

“Look, we aren’t astral body experts.” Solar said, slightly annoyed at his tone. “Plus we've been working non-stop for around 12 hours." Monty adds in. “But from the medical material we’ve stolen from the hospital-” Moon said, before he was interrupted by Sun.

“YOU STOLE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT FROM THE HOSPITAL!?” Sun exclaimed, shocked at what Moon had done. Don’t get him wrong, he wants Cosmos to be better, but he wasn’t expecting Moon to steal equipment from a hospital. Terra was also shocked by this information.“That’s not a good Moon.”

“Well, our brother is in critical condition, we’ll return once he’s okay.” Moon said, getting slightly more frustrated, he rubbed at his temples, a headache that had been gnawing at him for hours, due to a lack of sleep, and a very stressful situation.

“Stop complaining, and be happy that we have materials that could possibly help Cosmos.” Solar said, a little snappy, he quickly gave an apology, he didn't act rude. Everyone was just… tired.. It had been a long night, possibly the longest night they’ve ever had.

Terra, sensing the tension in the air, decided to switch topics. “So, what have you discovered?” She asked

“That an astral body is incredibly complex.” Monty grumbles, stretching out their arms in an exhausted manner. “They’re composed of elements that we ain’t even familiar with.” Monty blinks, his eyes threatening to stay closed. Solar and Moon discovered around five new elements that were found in Cosmos’s body. Each one is far more distinct than the other.

“But one thing we do know is that they’re partially animatronic, and it shows.” Solar continues on. “His entire body is based on his endoskeleton, it forms around it like flesh would.” It was the skeleton for the body, and unfortunately, his endoskeleton had been pretty banged up. So many things had broken, especially the arm…

“That seems to be the only part that’s made out of animatronic, though.” Moon grumbles, if only it had been that simple. It would’ve been a quick fix, but it wasn’t. It was much more complex, much more.

Moon got up, before bringing the cylinder full of blood, while holding the dropper in the other hand. “Another thing we discovered is that astral blood seems to convert another's blood into its own.” The moon set the glass down. “Observe.” Moon said, before pouring the astral blood into the glass.

Sun and Terra looked at the blood, as the cloudy yellow slowly became more vibrant, and the entire glass of blood changed into astral blood. “Woah…” Terra gasped, shocked at what she had seen. “So it just changed all into Astral blood?” Sun asked, looking up from the glass, and towards the Moon.

“Yep.” Moon nods, as he crosses his arms, clearly tired. “We still don’t know what, or even how this happens.” Monty grunts. “All I’m glad about is that we won’t have to ask any astral beings to donate blood.” Solar sighed. They didn’t want to mess with the affairs of this dimension, especially the astrals. They didn’t need to get caught up in their problems.

Then an idea came to Terra. “But what about the other dimension?” Terra asked, they could still help, right? “Don’t you think that the astrals will be able to take better care of him than we can?” They probably know what they would be doing. While everyone here had no idea what they were even doing, or looking for.

“We tried that, darling.” Monty said, resting his hand on her lap, as a way to comfort him. “But when we opened the portal…” Monty said, his voice becoming slightly shaky.

“The only thing that was on the other side was the dark abyss. Absolutely nothing. ” Solar ended the comment. He didn’t want to think about it. Looking into the dark abyss was… eerie… It felt like something was watching him. Right back, and gazing into his very soul. The three of them felt that, which is why they stopped any more search attempts.

“Oh…” Terra hummed to herself, quite surprised, and slightly scared. “That’s not good…” She mumbled, with no one else in the other dimension to help them, this meant that would continue not knowing what to do. Unless they contacted the astrals of this dimension. Which none of them were in a rush to do, knowing there could be severe consequences.

“Yeah…” Monty said, rubbing his hand back and forth, in order to comfort Terra. She gave him a smile, and put her hand on top of his. “Do you think that has to do with Cosmos’s condition?” Sun asked. “Most likely it does.” Moon agreed.  

They sat in silence for a minute, before Sun asked. “Can.. Can we go see him?” He wanted to see his little brother, and make sure he was okay. He was in bad condition last time he saw him, he was bleeding everywhere… “Yeah, he’s sleeping.” Moon nodded, everyone got up and followed him to the basement.

Once they were in the basement, the air was filled with a sterile smell, mixed with fresh bandages, and the stench of the astral blood, the smell wasn’t potent as before. But now they could smell it, the blood couldn’t be described. There must have been different elements that they were not familiar with. But it still made the family queasy going down into the basement. Knowing that the smell was the blood of the youngest brother..

They turned to the couch, which was a make-shift bed. Thankfully it was a pull out couch, so Solar had pulled it out for Cosmos. While there were other smell tables which contained medical equipment that they must have used. There were needles, scalps, and other medical equipment which were supposed to make precise cuts. It made Terra and Sun nauseous just looking at them, knowing it must likely pierced into Cosmos.

Cosmos laid there, their eyes closed, and a bandage wrapped around the part of his head which had a big gaping hole. There were other bandages wrapped around his arms, where it had been clearly ripped off. His clothes had been disposed of, and was wearing light clothing . He wore a breathing mask over his mouth and nose, and IV’s and Astral blood had been connected to him.

“Oh…” Terra said, covering her mouth, as she felt tears starting to prick the corner of her eyes. What happened to her brother? “His body,...” Terra whispered, as she fought the urge to cry. “Yeah…we tried our best to patch him up…” Monty grunted. There were internal injuries, his shoulders had been dislocated, many burn marks, and other injuries which none of them had any experience in doing.

Sun looked at the breathing mask, slightly confused at its presence. “Why’d you give him a breathing mask, we don’t need to breathe, and I don’t think astrals do either.” Sun stated, he suspected astral didn’t need to breathe, they lived in space, and visited other planets. With probably different air, and versions of oxygen.

“No, but we simulate breathing, and we feel the urge to breathe.” Moon explained, which is why they mimicked breathing. Along with the fact that when they found Cosmos, they heard faint breathing. Which showed that Cosmos was still alive, even if it was just barely. “So a breathing mask would simulate breathing, which then in turn, would encourage Cosmos to breathe.”

“Same for the IV, I guess?” Terra asked, looking at the IV bag. They probably also took the IV bags, and the needles along with the other medical equipment. “Yeah, we don’t know what Cosmos runs on, so we’re sending their body nutrients.” Solar said, as he fidgeted with his rays.

“What about his head…?” Sun asked, he was slightly worried about that. You don’t exactly recover from a wound like that. But still Cosmos was alive… “Last I saw him, his head was shot through.” It was horrifying to see.

“Well that’s the interesting bit.” Moon said. “their body seemed to heal itself really quick.” Moon explained, he remembered how the body seemed to have repaired itself without them having to do anything. “Though from what we can tell, the head is still healing itself, which leaves it vulnerable." The part of the head had been soft and mushy, and was a different color from the rest of the body. Which was something the others had realized with strange markings that had decorated Cosmos’s body. “So we wrapped it up, to prevent infections.” He continued. “We’ll be changing the bandages in the night…”

“Oh… I wonder what they went through to get that injured…” Terra said, some tears starting to trick down her face. While her partner comforted her, nuzzling their head to her chest, and holding her close. She hadn’t forgiven Cosmos for what he had done all those years ago, maiming her. But now she wasn’t sure if she would ever get to forgive him now.

“We all want to know.”

“But we won’t know anything, until Cosmos wakes up.”

Luz continued to look at the window with his two stuffed animals in his lap. He had been waiting for what seemed to be like forever and ever! Yes he had new friends, who talked to him, but he still missed his big brother, his friends said that he was okay. But Luz still waited for him

But off in the distance, Luz could see a small figure approaching, it first started off the size of an ant, before it slowly and slowly got bigger. It approached from the dark forest. Luz gasped, as he pressed his face against the window, trying to get a better look.

But there was no doubting it.

It was Orion.

Luz shot up, as he quickly bolted for the door. “THERE’S ORION!” Luz gasped, as he grasped at the door knob, and quickly slammed the door open. Before running through the field. The grass was long, but a little path had been made from how many times the way had been trekked through.

And Luz ran dead straight for Orion, he could see him! And he was slowly getting bigger and bigger!

“ORIONNNN!!!!” Luz screamed, as he ran faster and faster. His legs burning, and his chest hurting, but it didn’t matter Orion was here!

“LUZ!” He could hear Orion yell back. Luz’s heart practically jumped at the sound of Orion’s voice.

It was really him.

His figure became clearer and clearer. Luz could start to see the stars on his cape, he could see Orion’s tired but glad eyes. Luz squealed, as he could feel tears of happiness starting to prick the corner of his eyes. “ORIONNNN!” Luz screamed back.

Once he got close enough, Luz jumped into Orion’s arm, tackling him in a hug. Orion grunted as he fell back, due to how Luz threw him off balance. They landed on the ground, but Orion kept Luz safe within his arms. He also returned the hug to Luz. It wasn’t as tight, or as snuggly, as Luz was giving him. But the hug still felt good.

After a couple minutes passed, of them hugging each other, after so long apart. “I’M SO GLAD YOU’RE HERE!!!” Luz said, finally pulling away from his big brother, and looking up at him. Luz smiled, as tears started to stream down his cheeks. Orion's face stayed monotone, but Luz knew he was feeling as happy as he was “You were taking forever and ever!”

“Sorry about that.” Orion said, his voice as monotone as he looked, but that didn’t matter! Because Luz knew he was happy, and really did feel bad for taking such a long time. The Dark Forest was big after all. “But the only thing that matters is that you’re here with me!” Luz nodded his head, wiping away the tears.

“You okay?” Orion helped wipe some tears from Luz’s face. The smaller being leaned into the touch, hoping to receive another hug. “I heard that you had been crying.” Orion continued, as he pulled away. “What?” Luz blinked, he had gotten distracted by the touch. He quickly remembered what Orion had said. “Oh… Yeah…” Luz looked away, almost ashamed. He didn’t mean to cry.

“One of my new friends-” Luz tried to explain but Orion interrupted him.

“The voices?”

Luz perked up, that was one way to call his friends. “Oh, yeah!” Luz remembered the voices telling him that they had also been talking to Orion. “Are you friends, as well?” Luz questioned, hoping that they had the same friend! “Not relevant, continue your story” Orion grumbled. Luz frowned, he should’ve known that Orion wasn’t as trusting as Luz was. Orion always said he needed to be careful

Luz quickly shook it off, before continuing his story. “Well… they asked a personal question…” Orion’s face didn’t change, but Luz could feel his demeanor starting to change. Sparks of anger started to radiate off of Orion. “Made me cry… Not their fault! I’m just sensitive!” Luz quickly defended his friends, not wanting Orion to scare them off.

Orion patted Luz’s head, trying to calm the kid down. “Kid, it’s okay.” Orion hummed. He still didn’t trust them, they could hurt Luz at any time. Especially since they apparently had full access as well, but they were both vulnerable. “But you’re feeling better, right?” Orion asked, that was the only thing that mattered right now.

Luz nodded his head vigorously “Yeah!” He exclaimed, trying to put on a brave face. To be honest, he was still pretty sad, but now that Orion was here, he could feel better now! “Do you want to talk about it?” Orion continued to push on, knowing that Luz tends to suppress some emotions.

“uhm… No, I’ll be okay.” Luz said, but he said it was an uncertainty. “You sure?” Orion wasn’t fully convinced. “One more hug will make me feel all better!” Luz nodded his head. A hug was all he needed. “Go ahead.” Orion said, before Luz tackled him with another hug, as he giggled mischievously.  

“So when did you start hearing these… ‘voices’.’’ Orion asked, he had wondered, and it had plagued him, did they start hearing voices around the same time? “Around a couple hours ago!” Luz explained, humming as they fiddled with Orion’s cape, counting the stars. “Same here…” Orion grunted in return.

“They just want to know about us…. It’s strange.” the darker entity thought out loud. These voices seemed to just want to know more and more about their existence. It was strange, especially since this hadn’t happened before. “That's because they’re caring about us!” Luz quickly went to defend his friends.

Orion shook his head, trying to be as gentle as he could be with Luz. “You gotta be careful, kid.” Orion warned. “not everyone is a friend.” They both knew this, they both learned it the hard way.

Cosmos learned it the hard way.

“I know…” Luz grumbled, kicking his feet in frustration. Not everyone they met could be trustworthy, actually no one other than the astrals were ever trustworthy, there was just so much lies, and enemies lurking in every corner. But his new friends didn’t seem bad! “But I still think they’re good people!” Luz exclaimed, “They’ve been super nice to me!” They asked him what was wrong, they even comforted him when it was getting scary! And when he was super lonely!

“They gave me gifts! And they even sent one for you!” Luz shouted, raising his hands, he had so many things now! His friends had given him so many things! They even gave things to his big brother! They were so nice, and actually cared about him. They cared about Cosmos!

“If you say so, kid.” Orion grumbled, giving the smaller entity head parts. For now, he would trust Luz’s judgement. But he’d make sure that the kid will be protected at all costs. Even the smallest threat, and Orion would strike them down. Even if he didn’t know where they were. He could still be them.

“ So… Tell me what’s wrong…” Orion finally came to that topic, Luz visibly shrinked. He didn’t like talking about things that were on the outside. Everything outside was messy, everything was scary, and there never seemed to be a correct answer. Luz was lost in all of it, it made his head hurt!

“I… uh… Cosmos got himself into some trouble…” Luz murmured, as he rubbed his sleeve, looking down. Squeezing his eyes, trying to remember the messy memories. “I know, there’s been no manifestations in the forest.” Orion grunted, remembering how the shadows, and the whispers came to a sudden halt.

“I-I don’t know all of it… only saw bits and pieces… but…”

Flashes of gold, and dark purple, the purple one that always made Cosmos queasy at the sight of looking at it.

It danced across the starry sky, in a battle of life and death, but the fate had already been sealed.

There was no winning this battle

One last flash, before everything reputed in molten hot pain in the left side of his head..

 “Cosmos got himself hurt in a battle…One of the negative stars hurt him badly… He’s been asleep this entire time…” Luz whispered. Luz wasn’t sure if Cosmos would come out alive. What would happen to him and Orion? A hand gently resting on his shoulder, he flinched before relaxing; it was just his big brother. His brother who was trying to calm him from having tremors.

“You did a good job, Lu.” Orion said, trying to calm him down. Luz nodded, as some tears trickled down his cheek. Orion wiped them away with his thumb. Knowing that looking on the outside was tough, there were things that terrified Luz. Those were things that Orion couldn't protect Luz from, and it angered him.

Orion pulled Luz into a hug, Luz melted into the touch. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll be okay…” Orion whispered, rubbing his back, as he could feel Luz cry a little bit more. He didn’t know what Luz had been experiencing, he could only see the fears through Luz, and the manifestations.

“Y-yeah…” Luz sniffled, pulling away, not wanting to seem like a baby. “Can we play? I don’t want to talk about this grown up stuff anymore…” Luz murmured, and Orion nodded, knowing that Luz needed a break. “Yes.”

“HURRAY!” Luz cheered, throwing his arms up, before getting off the ground. He dusted off his pants, as he looked for things to do. “Let’s make flower jewelry!" Luz cheered, as he grabbed Dorion's hand, as they walked towards the flowery parts of the field.

They could face the dangers ahead, and they would do it together

You may now ask Luz and Orion questions.

Questions previously asked will be answered in the following section, if they are still relevant, thank you for your patience.  

Chapter Text

Luz and Orion had been sitting in the flower field next to the little house. Orion had been working with some daises, and dandelions. Braiding them to create a flower crown. While Luz had grabbed a sunflower, and had been using a daisy for their flower crown. Their friends continued to speak to them.

They could both hear the questions that the voices would ask them. Then a voice came from what seemed to be nowhere, but right next to them at the same time. It asked questions of how it felt like to live in the mindspace.

“What’s it like living in the mindspace?” Luz parroted the question. “It gets pretty boring sometimes.” Luz hummed as he picked another flower that had been close to him. He remembers the long stretches of silences, which had taken up lots of time. Orion had to be in the Dark Forest to take care of the manifestations. “Like, SUPER boring.” Luz grumbled, feeling bored just thinking about it. “But Orion makes everything less boring!” Luz turned to Orion who was focused on braiding his flowers.

“I take care of the dangerous manifestations." Orion grunted, not looking up from his flower crown. “They aren’t a problem for me.” Nothing got past Orion, and not a single manifestation had managed to hurt the inner child.

Luz perked up listening to the other question. He hummed as he shook his leg fidgeting on the ground, rocking back and forth. “And there is another entity in the mindspace. But we don’t ever visit them!” Luz said, slightly saddened, wanting to make a new friend, but they lived far away. They only came when they felt like their presence was needed. ‘To help,’ they had said each time they visited Luz. “For they live in ‘ THE RAVINE OF THE LOST!” Luz said super dramatically, raising his hands, with the flower braid in one hand. “Hehe, Orion let me name the different parts of the mindspace.” Luz twiddled on.

“We don’t go there, it’s far, and on the outskirts of the mindspace.” Orion grunted, this being… He had seen them time and time again. They usually came during the worst days, when the manifestations seem to never end. They do something, and everything seems to calm down.

Orion would investigate for himself, but to see them, it would mean they would have to travel through the Dark Forest. And Luz wouldn’t be able to make the journey, danger was at every corner.

Chapter Text

"Kerian and Rez?!” Luz exclaimed, just listening to their names made them want to retch. As if they had smelled something gross, or were being forced to eat a food they didn’t like. “BLEH!” they stuck their tongue out in disgust. “bunch of bad guys! I hate them!” Luz crossed his arms in an angry fashion.  

“They sometimes form as manifestations…” Orion grunted, they appeared from time to time. They would always tell Cosmos that he hadn’t done enough to save his family, that they would be doomed in some way. Reminds Cosmos that the reason his family hated him was because of Cosmos’ own doing. “Reminder of what Cosmos has done, and what he fights for.”

“He fights for the good and safety of all people!” Luz said, jumping to his feet, and pointing a finger to the sky. “He’s sort of like a superhero!” Luz giggled, before sitting back down, and continuing to braid the crown that was too big for his head, but perfect for Orion’s

Chapter Text

“Letter?” Luz asked, one of them had just asked if they could write to Cosmos! “If I had to write a letter to Cosmos…” Luz though, he had lots of things he wanted to tell Cosmos. “I would tell him to run away from the astrals! Because they are too serious!” the baby blue child said, finally coming to a conclusion “And that fighting is not good, if you’re fighting all the time!

“Hm.” Orion hummed, as he grabbed another dandelion. “I don’t know what I would tell him.” He could tell him lots of things.

Get out

Please go home

You’re not happy

We’re not happy

“Not much we can tell him that he doesn’t already know.”

“And if I had to write a letter to Orion while waiting for him, I would tell him to come home soon! And then put loads of stickers and drawings!” Luz said, imagining all the stickers he would put on. He’d also put on lots of hearts, and glitter, maybe even glitter glue! Glitter glue was the best…

“And I would tell Luz that I'd be trying my best.” Orion said in response to what Luz would send him.

“But you take forever!” Luz whined, remembering how long it took for him to actually get to the house. “Cuz the manifestations never seem to go away.” Orion counted, his voice still monotone, but slightly rising. Luz was always so impatient, but Orion would always explain that it wasn’t his fault he took so long.

“BoOoOooOO, I hate the manifestations." Luz blows a raspberry. “So glad there’s not anymore!” The smaller entity got closer to his older brother, and practically snuggled next to him. “So you can spend all your time with me!” the child giggled mischievously.

“I’ll still have to go on patrols, kid.” Orion warned, he didn’t know how safe the forest really was. Or if these manifestations could come back any minute, and then the peace would be robbed. And then “AWHHH!” Luz whined, throwing themselves onto their back. Before quickly getting up, an idea pops into their head. “Wait, can I come with you?!” Luz exclaimed, excitedly. Maybe he could finally go into the dark forest!!! And he could play out there!  

“No.” Orion responded quickly, and stern.

“WHY NOT!?” Luz shrieked out, shocked at how quickly Orion had responded.

“Because it’s dangerous.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

Chapter Text

"I don’t know.” Orion grunted, plucking another flower from the field, before braiding it into his crown. Before he tied the finishing knot. “They never talk to me, they only talk to Luz.” Orion grumbled. It wasn’t like he tried to get close, he did, he tried to ask. But they never responded, they were like ghosts.

“Oh, don’t be sad Orion, maybe they’re just super shy!” Luz said trying to cheer his older brother up, he continued to braid the flower crown. “They don’t talk to me that much either.” The baby blue entity hummed, recalling that they spoke very few words. “They never said their name…” Luz had always been too overwhelmed, or crying their eyes out, before they could ask anything. “But they always say. ‘I’m here to help’ or ‘I'll take the pain away’ they are very mysterious…” Luz hummed. Their voice was quite wispy, but it contained a promise, and they always delivered.  

“And I would make them a flower crown, but I don't know what colors they like, or even how big their head is!” Luz exclaimed, as they finished and tied the knot. “Which is a problem when you need to make a crown.” Luz wished he could, he would love to have a new friend, maybe even a new family member! He would love that, but he couldn’t reach this mysterious entity…

“Look! I finished!” Luz said, as he proudly showed his flower, while also showing flower bracelets he had made. “You’re faster than me…” Orion noticed he had just made a small crown, one that was much less complicated, and some of the flowers had been crumpled in the process of making the flower crown. While Luz created one that was perfect, and two other smaller accessories. “It’s because I have a lot more practice!"Luz patted Orion on the hand, having to stand on his tippy toes, even though Prion was fully seated down.

Luz gracefully plopped the flower crown on top of Orion’s head, before giving him the bracelets, which he put on himself. “Ta-da!” Luz said proudly “It fits"

Chapter Text

“We’re safe?” Luz gave a sigh of relief, before plopping down on the field, relaxing into the blissful warmth of the blades of grass. “Phew!” another fear and worry ticked off the imaginary list inside their head. Cosmos was safe, which meant they were safe! That’s good…

“Makes sense, sounds like Cosmos would’ve died without getting treated.” Orion noted, especially if it was bad, and Luz had described it as pretty bad. Cosmos most likely would’ve died of blood loss, or something along those lines. Especially at the mercy of the negative star entities, who knows what they could’ve done to Cosmos… Most likely torture him…

“Yep, but we’re safe now!” Luz exclaimed.

“And that’s all that matters!”

Chapter Text

"The astrals?”

“Bleh…” Luz stuck out their tongue, as they pout at the very thought about the astrals. The demi-gods of space, and the protectors of the universe. “They are really pushy!” Luz complained. “First they started off with pushing this super serious star business on us!” FOr some reason they decided they would be better off with powers, when they woke up from dying! “Then they always expect Cosmos to become perfect, and then they changed his name!” Luz grumbled, tugging at the hem of his night cap. “Super annoying!” The small entity kicked their fight in frustration. “We didn’t even like the name!” In fact Cosmos hated the name at first! But they just went with it, because he didn’t want to seem rude! Or disgraceful!

“It was supposed to be a gift or something, but it feels more like a punishment..” Luz flips down, face first into the long grass, as their complaints become more muffled. They were so frustrated at everything! They had forced Cosmos to become something he wasn't! They made him into a soldier, when he just wanted to be in a family! 

He just wanted to be happy! Was that too much to ask?!

“We don’t like them…” Orion grumbled, as he rubbed Luz’s back, to provide comfort. “Even though we do look to them for support.” That was only because they were older, much older, and they fought in war before. While Cosmos was new to it, they hadn’t completely numbed everything out.

“They knew what they were doing.”

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MANIFESTING CAMERA!

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTATION COMPLETE!

LIMITED AMOUNT OF PHOTOS IN CAMERA!

UP TO TEN PHOTOGRAPHS!

“Can we do that?!” Lux exclaimed, jumping up at the idea. “I suppose we can.” Orion hummed to
himself. “But… will Cosmos like it?” Luz questioned, unsure if Cosmos would enjoy the name change.

He so firmly believed that he was Cosmos, not Lunar. Maybe at the beginning of his training he
would still have liked the name Lunar, but now… Now he completely disowned that name. Seeing his
new name as a gift from the gods.

“Cosmos isn’t awake right now…” Orion explained, sensing the rising tension in the smaller entity.
Luz’s eyes brightened up, realizing that they could be called Lunar once again. How it was always
meant to be.

Not Cosmos

Lunar…

“Then yeah! You can call Cosmos, Lunar!” Luz cheered, repeating the name over and over. It rolled off
the tongue much easier than Cosmos ever did. Lunar was their real name, it was who they were. Not
an astral, named Cosmos.

Not a demi-god.

Not a savior.

Just Lunar.

“And what was happening before… The manifestations were becoming more violent, and they were
spreading like wild fire. Before everything just stopped…” Orion remembered, he hated to admit it, but
he could barely keep them at bay. In fact he was about to run towards Luz, to protect him, before
they simply just faded away.

“It was quite concerning.”

Luz ooed as he saw something shiny in the distance, before he quickly ran towards it, the flowers, and tall grass whacking him in the face. Before he finally reached the shiny thing he had observed in the distance! It looked like a blue camera! Luz gasped “A CAMERA!” he giggled, as he happily stimmed by shaking his hands. “THANK YOU GUYS!”

Chapter Text

"Oh, this is the middle section of the mindspace! Which is what we call ‘Home’ because it’s all cozy like one.” Luz exclaimed, as he showed the home, quite proudly. It was the most comfiest house he had ever been in! “Then we have the ‘Dark Forest’ because it’s super spooky.” Luz pointed to the outskirts of the house. “Also because it holds the mean manifestations!" Which made the forest dangerous and why Luz was forbidden to enter it! “Then Ri said he saw some of the last part!” Luz jazz hands over to Orion.

“Yes, I was investigating the forest, when I reached the very end, it was quite barren.” Orion recalled, it had the semblance of a desert. “But I did see a gaping crack in the ground…” Orion hummed, it was off in the distance, and all he knew he could’ve imagined it.

“Which is why I call it the Ravine of the Lost!” Luz exclaimed as he giggled, finding joy in naming things. “Because we would have to get really lost to get there!” and when Luz meant lost, he meant SUPER lost!

Chapter Text

"Oh… that’s kind of a big question…” Luz stumbled over his own words. The question hit deep, it was a big question… So… it must deserve a big… answer… One that hurt to admit, because Lunar and Luz had tried to bury it. “Uhm… I felt really sad. Cuz Lunar felt really sad.” Luz remembered, because they both felt wounded. Moon said he was going to be their big brother, forever! But he didn’t keep his promise… He chose some other person over his own family! Why did he do that!? Were they not good enough!?

“But we didn’t want to face it… or talk about it, cause we were scared…” Everyone else has their own problems, they feared that everybody would see them as a nuisance. Due to how small their problems seemed in comparison, they just… bottled it up… “And we were sad because Sun was super sad, so we pretended not to be sad, to maybe help Sun feel less sad…” Lunar’s original purpose was to be a distraction, so that’s what they tried to do, distract others from their pain and misery, while they drowned in it….

“And when the Moon came back… We were happy! Very happy!” The real Moon, not Nexus. Not the one who was forced to be someone he wasn’t. They were so happy! Because Moon, the one who treated him like a little brother, who treated him like a kid…. “But no one treated us… everyone thought we were adults…” Lunar had his own apartment for goodness' sake! Lunar paid taxes, and did other grown up things!

“So Moon just… didn’t do anything that fun with us…” Moon simply played games for the channel, and that was rarely. It felt like everyone spoke one language while lunar spoke on alien to it. He couldn’t fit in, he didn’t know how to. He was the only thing left in the past.

Why was he left behind?

“I mean it wasn’t his fault!” Luz quickly said, defending his older brother, tears starting to prick the corner of his eyes, like thousands of tiny needles, edging him onto to cry. “Lunar had said many times he was an adult!” Lunar always got angry when people treated him like a child. Maybe it was because he wanted to be treated more seriously, for someone to see him for who he was. Not some dumb child.

 “Which was a funny thing to lie about…” Luz realized that a long time ago. “Maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess if we had been honest…” Why didn’t they tell the truth? They were still a kid, they still regressed. Why couldn't they be a child anymore? What was the point of pretending to be older when you just wanted to be held?

“Maybe the astrals would’ve left us alone”

“Maybe we wouldn’t have hurt Terra”

“Maybe we wouldn’t be fighting in this stupid war.”

“Why did I lie…?”

Luz was full on crying now, silent tears streaming down his cheeks like waterfalls. Orion got closer to the kid, not knowing what to do. THese situations have happened before, but he always somehow to calm Luz down. Even though he had no idea what he was doing half the time. “Not your fault kid.” Orion whispered, so only Luz could hear him. “None of this should’ve happened. Come here.” orion opened his arms so Luz could hug him, and Luz bolted into his arms, hugging him in return.

“I’m sorry… I’m supposed to be braver…” Luz sobbed into Orion’s chest, as he gripped at the cape. Holding onto it like a lifeline. “Why can’t I be braver?” Luz murmured, why couldn’t they just be enough. Why couldn’t they just be good enough. “It’s your job to be a kid..”Orion continued on, rubbing Luz’s back as he continued to silently sob into Orion. “They forced you to grow up too quickly…”

“and the manifestations I see the most are family members, Moon, Sun, mostly Terra… And the other manifestions… they mostly consist of victims Cosmos killed…” Orion murmured, hoping only the voices could hear, and not Luz. He knew Luz had been haunted before, the manifestations would attack him. They tried to kill the inner child. Luz didn’t deserve any of it

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” Luz chanted and whispered. Like he was reciting a prayer, and he was begging for forgiveness for all his grievances. His little body shook and trembled like a lead in a storm.

“Shhh… You’ll be okay, little one.” Orion whispered, rocking Luz.

Not knowing if his words were sweet lies, or the truth.

Chapter Text

“Sleep?” Orion whispered, sleep was something they could have. But not something they needed, unlike what other animatronics needed. "We don’t need it, but we can sleep…” Orion explained, looking up at the sky. It was once a sky blue color, but now it became more of an indigo color. “There’s a day and night cycle…” Orion hummed, as he got up, while continuing to rock the small one to sleep, and then walking home.

“And right now it’s about time Luz should be getting to bed…” Orion stepped inside, and walked over the toys, not daring to flick on the lights as he maneuvered through the messy little house.

“C-Can you sing me to sleep…?” Luz murmured, on the verge of dozing off, but not ready to enter into dreamland. He needed someone to help him, he didn’t feel safe. He needed something similar to guide him to the world of dreams. Where he could hopefully dream of before everything went wrong. “The one Moon did…?”

Orion nodded, Luz had hummed the song before. Orion knew it by heart, since Luz hummed it quite often. Orion would sing it to him on hard nights, and hard times, much like tonight.

“Yes…” Orion confirmed before rocking Luz to sleep, and humming the lullaby.

Luz is no longer answering questions 

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Luz’s silent sobs slowly turned into sniffles. He would wipe his tears and snot onto Orion’s cape, not that Orion minded. He did not care, he continued to hum the lullaby, which continued to calm the baby blue entity. Before Luz’s sniffles dwindled into soft and even breathing. Orion knew at this point that Luz had finally fallen asleep.

He slowly shifted his body to move Luz towards the bed, each time Luz slightly stirred, or groaned. Orion froze in place, until Luz settled back down into sleep. Once Luz did, Orion returned to moving Luz to rest upon the bed for the remainder of the night. Once Luz’s head touched the pillow, Orion slowly let go of the smaller entity, and put him on the mattress.

Once Orion pulled away, Luz groaned, and turned in his bed, before settling once more. The darker entity grabbed the blanket and covered Luz in them, making sure that every part of home was covered, which wasn’t so hard due to his small body. Orion slowly got up, before he made his way towards the door, and there he saw two abandoned plushies. One he recognized as Spigot the Reindeer, another was a stuffed rabbit. Orion tilted his head, trying to recollect if Luz had introduced the rabbit to him, and he had not.

But Orion suspected that Luz cared a great deal for it anyway. He grabbed both of the stuffed animals, before walking back towards the bed, and settling the two animals by their owner. Who quickly sensed their presence and grabbed them, and pulled them into a tight hug.

The soft voice from their ‘friends’ had arisen, it was much softer than normal. Orion appreciated them for being much quieter this time around. He didn’t want luz to be awoken from his slumber. “Favorite color…?” Orion repeated the question. He looked back down at the smaller one laying in bed, helpless, and at the mercy of things beyond their control. But Orion would give his life to save them.

Orion settled down in a recliner chair, not far from the beanbag. It was much darker compared to the rest of the room. But it fit him, as he was to stick to the darkness. “Baby blue…” Orion hummed, as he kept an eye over the sleeping child.

Chapter Text

“What could I change? I can’t really do much to change anything inside the Inner Mind… all I did was protect Luz…” Orion responded. He was just an entity inside the mind of the host, he had no other purpose other than to protect Luz. He couldn’t change anything in his position, the only thing he did was kill manifestations, keep Luz at bay, and navigate the Dark Forest. Which Orion had all done successfully.

“I suppose you are questioning if I were Cosmos?” Orion continued on, unsure if he was answering the question correctly. “I’m sorry, I do not understand the question that well.” Orion murmured, his social skills were not quite as well as Luz's was. Luz knew how to talk to people, while Orion did not.

“If I were Lunar…” Orion hummed to himself, he could’ve done a lot of things, he would’ve been more honest.“I would’ve told our family how we felt…” with that, the family would actually treat them like a child. They wouldn't be forced into an adult position. “Then deny the astrals offer…” Another mistake, but they would correct it, they would not be sent to a war they could not win. They would not have to watch billions die. “Luz would be much happier if we could change the past, we’d learn from our mistakes…”

Prion sighed sadly, knowing that they could not do such things.

“But we cannot focus on the past, and what we could’ve done, we can only move forward…”

Chapter Text

MANIFESTING BINOCULARS!

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING...

MANIFESTING…

ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR!

FAILED

"Those simulations…?” Orion huffed, just the name made Orion feel alert. “Can’t say Lunar enjoyed them, but…. The manifestations did subside…” he recalled how the manifestations had dimmed, there were less of them. Their numbers dwindled.“For a while… After the simulations they would spike…” The forest would suddenly be flooded, and the manifestations multiplied. THey were stronger, Orion almost couldn’t hold them off.

“Luz was terrified of them…” Their whispers had turned into screams, and proclamations, and Luz could hear them from the little home. Luz said that he hid himself under his bed, with a pillow over his head to muffle the screams. “The simulations came up with new fears, and insults… Ones that actually hurt…” Orion continued. The insults hit his heart, it made Lunar want to sob, and never stop. It made Lunar want to lay down, and give up, and never move again. “Ones Lunar hadn’t thought of it until the simulation had said…”

Orion looked over to Luz, as he peacefully slept, hopefully dreaming about a better time, one far from here. “Even though Luz can’t access the conscious part of the mind, he had blips and flashes of moments.” Orion remembered how Luz’s happy face would sometimes turn into pure terror. Orion tried his best to comfort him, for when he snapped out of it, he would sob. Silently crying into Orion, as he held him close.

“Luz was more scared and tense around Moon. I'd expect that to happen, especially since Moon, who was originally our caretaker…” Moon who had rocked him to sleep, Moon who had played with him, Moon who had adopted Lunar, and claimed him as his own “had become the one who put us in the simulations…” Moon who became their own jailer, Moon had insisted on this form of treatment, Moon who believed that he was helping him.

“A form of mental torture, dare I say…” Orion muttered, it was not treatment, it was torture.

“He didn’t understand why the Moon was hurting us.” Orion would comfort Luz while he babbled out questions. None of which Orion could answer. “Luz saw, and still sees Moon as the older brother.” Luz would still talk about their older brothers with such pride. Like they had been put on a pedestal, as if they hadn’t hurt him so many times.

“Lunar… more or less started to dissociate from the sessions…” The memories would blur, and Moon had insisted for more sessions, it had turned from every week, to every other day. The voices would swirl, but Lunar wouldn’t hear it, everything rolled over him, like a stone worn down by the river. “He’d numb his body to everything, and the insult no longer hurt… nothing did.” His heart had built barriers, and his mind had shielded itself.

“In hindsight, it prepared for what war had in store.” Lunar had become like stone, nothing could shock him after the first year. He had seen almost everything, the fall of societies, he had seen people become twisted and mutated, they were beyond recognizable. “Lunar did not let his skill go unused.”

“He used it every single day.”

Chapter Text

Terra sat on the bed next to Cosmos, who had been unconscious for over a month now. There had been no sign of waking up, from the astral. Cosmos' clothes had burnt off when he had gotten to the house. So Dazzle had offered some of her clothes. So Cosmos wore a baby blue shirt, with a light colored star in the middle. The oxygen mask had been taken off once it was clear that Cosmos could breathe on his own, so that equipment had been returned to the hospital. Along with the blood bags, Moon did some calculations using Cosmos’s weight and height to determine if he had enough. By the end of the first week Cosmo had regained what they thought was the regular blood pressure. So they returned those materials as well. The only they hadn’t returned was the IV’s, which Cosmos still needed to receive the nutrients that he needed. So a needle and a tube had been stuck in Cosmos’s skin, and had stayed there. Continuing to provide support and necessary nutrients to the body.

Though his wounds had slowly, but surely started to heal. The wound that had burnt off his fingers, and left the endoskeleton behind had healed up nicely. New astral-like flesh covered the wounds, it was a different shade of purple, but it was still healed. Another wound which was healed was Cosmos’s arm, or lack of arm, the nub of the remaining arm had sealed itself up. And then the major wound that had been struck through Cosmos’s head, it also, miraculously, healed itself. Even an eye had formed, which was quite impressive. But the smallest family member continued to sleep, unaware of the situation around him.

“Cosmos…” Terra said softly, as she watched over Cosmos. “Just wanted to catch you up on what’s going on… It’s been a month since you arrived…” One long and harrowing month at that. Moon, Monty and Solar had done rotations on who would do the check up for the day. Even though none of them were even practiced with astral autonomy, they still practiced. “We don’t know why you still haven’t woken up…Moon, Monty and Solar think that you’re resting until you regain your strength… But we’ll have confirmation once they take you to a government facility.” Moon had called in a few favors from his friends in the government, even though he promised not to get involved with them, he somehow managed to get tangled up with them. But that was alright, because he needed the government to be indebted to him. So he could take Cosmos in for a check-up.

“The kids are really worried about you, they even made ‘get well soon’ cards.” Terra said, as she looked over to a table that had been right next to where Cosmos was laying. When the kids had first heard they asked immediately to go down to see their uncle. The three were all shocked to see Cosmos in his condition, even Molten expressed worry, which was surprising, since Molten almost always had a natural expression on his face. Dazzle was the one who suggested making cards, and they all agreed. Before they ran upstairs to create their card. It was really sweet of the kids to do it. They then stood up their cards neatly on the table, each one had a different design, and behind the cards was a flower bouquet that Terra had made herself, for Cosmos.

“I’ll read them to you.” Terra gently grabbed the first card, it was pink, and had lots of hearts. “This one's from Dazzle.” Dazzle may have grown up since Cosmos had left, but she still loved the color pink. “Dear Uncle Cosmos, I hope you wake up soon. I remember having so much fun with you, when I was smaller. I hope we can have fun like that again, and get better soon! And then she left you some hugs and kisses, and even drew a picture of her and you.” Terra pointed out, showing Cosmos the card as-if he was awake, Terra didn’t wait for Cosmos to respond. “Her art's gotten a lot better since you left… I think she’s quite talented, I think she’ll grow up to be a fine artist…” Dazzle loved to draw, Terra even got her help for her flower boutique.

“Then Jack left you a letter as well. This is what it says” Terra grabbed the next card, which was orange, and had Jack’s signature pumpkin drawn on the cover. “ Hi Uncle Cosmos, I hope you get better soon, Dad’s been super worried about you, but I know you’ll be okay. You’re super tough, because you’re an astral, and astrals must be strong. Especially since you saved me from the Creator… I don’t remember if I thanked you, my memory was really bad. But if I didn’t, thank you so much for saving me. I love you so much! We can eat sponges together once you wake up!” Terra smiled softly at it, did Cosmos even eat? “Then he drew some hearts, and sponges…” She showed the sleeping astral once more, pointing to the messily drawn sponges, and the red hearts.

“Even Molten left you a letter.” She grabbed the next one, it was just a plain blue card, with the words written in bold ‘GET WELL SOON’. “Good morning/afternoon/evening Cosmos, I don’t know what to say, but I hope you get better.” Molten was a bear of very few words, but he got his point across quite well. “He’s sweet, he just doesn’t really know what to say, but he tries.”

Terra put the cards back, standing them neatly how they were.“I made you a flower bouquet, I didn’t know your favorite flower, or even your favorite color…” Terra felt a pang of guilt, as his sister, she feels like she should know this information. “So I put flowers that I wish to get well, such as panises, daises, and some tulips as well…” Those flowers were known to wish whoever received them to have a safe and quick recovery, this was especially the occasion for Cosmo.

“My flower store has been pretty popular as of late, I’ve even started doing weddings!” Terra smiled, recollecting how a young couple came in, asking for wedding flowers. She congratulated them before she filled out the order for what the couple wanted.

But frowned once she remembered how she had her own wedding. It had been a spring wedding, she had worn a beautiful dress, while Monty had worn a suit. But then for the reception Monty wore a dress, and Earth had worn a suit. The party had been wonderful, but everyone felt like something, or someone was missing. And they all knew who was the missing piece. “I know you weren’t there for my wedding, but it was lovely… We got married in the spring, and I had such a flowy dress.” Terra smiled, thinking about that wonderful day. It had truly been the best day of her life. “We did all traditional wedding things, we fed each other cake, we danced, we ate so much food…” They did all the cute traditional wedding things, and everyone had a good time. “But everyone missed you.” Nobody wanted to say anything, but everyone had felt it. Beats of silence had taken place, where instead should’ve been a quip, or a sarcastic comment.

“Once you wake up, I’ll show you some pictures, we have a whole album.” Terra smiled, as she slowly reached for her brother’s hand. His only hand, which had also been wounded, must have been burnt off, because Moon recalled the endoskeleton being slightly charred. But thankfully it healed itself, but replaced the finger with the same scarred skin color like it had been working on other parts of his body. Terra wasn’t sure if it was skin, but that was the closest thing she could compare it to. Whatever it was, it felt so soft, it was similar to how tender a baby felt. He felt so fragile, and one wrong movement would shatter the sleeping astral like glass. They were so quiet, Cosmo was never quiet, he was always loud, and so very proud. The silence was disturbing, it should never be quiet when Cosmo is around.

Terra looked at the time, it was around 6:00, which is when Moon scheduled the time with the government officials. Moon explained that they would have access to all hospital equipment, and no one would disturb them. This way they could to a through examination of Cosmo. “It’s almost time… Monty Solar and Moon decided that you should get your brain scanned…” Terra tilted her head slightly, examining the scar that was left on his head. His head had a wound that should’Ve been fatal, but he still surived… If he did have a brian, shouldn't it have been destroyed? How did astrals even function…? “Do astrals even have brains?” She chuckled sadly, why was her brother in this condition…? “That’s what we’re gonna to find out, they're taking you to a medical facility, Moon called in some favors, and is going to check on you.” She massaged the back of his hand with her thumb, she worried if she pressed ot har,d his skin would bruise. “So you’ll get scanned, and see what’s wrong, and see if we can get it fixed.”

She heard people walk down the stairs, and she knew it was time to say goodbye. Her partner came down, and whispered into her ear. “It’s time Terra.” Monty said, planting a kiss on her cheek, trying to comfort their lover. “I know…” Terra said, her eyes stinging, and tears threatening to fall, but she promised she wouldn’t cry. This wasn’t about her, this was about Cosmo. “We’ll be back in a couple hours, sweetheart.” Monty hummed, pulling her away from Cosmo. THey gave her a hug, before a soft kiss on the lips, before she was escorted out by Sun.

Sun had been just as tired and as drained as the rest of them. Worry for his youngest brother always rattled in his head, the deepest corners of his mind would whisper horrible ‘what ifs’, which he always ignored. He had to remain strong for his family. “You were talking to him?” Sun asked, as he helped Terra about the stairs. “Yeah… I know it’s silly, but I hope he can hear me.” Terra said softly, as she crossed her arms, trying to mimic an embrace. “I just… I just feel so guilty.. I didn’t get a chance to forgive him!” Terra exclaimed, that fear was always at the edge of her mind. What if COsmo died thinking they hadn’t been forgiven, that Terra may hate him. She didn’t want him to feel that fear! “I don’t want him dying thinking I hadn't!” And that was the thing that broke her, she started to cry, and Sun was there to embrace her.

He knew that the two were once as thick as thieves, but ever since Cosmo had maimed her… Their bond seemingly shattered overnight, and he wasn’t blaming her for it. Cosmo shouldn't have been meddling in affairs he didn’t understand. He shouldn’t have had such a violent outburst, but he did, and there were consequences for what they did. “I’m sure it’ll be okay Terra…” Sun said, as she rubbed her back, and held her close. Even though she was bigger, she curled in on herself to be held.

They stayed there for a while, and Sun only spoke after Terra’s sobs had subsided, and had turned into shaky breathing. “I made some mac n cheese… Do you want some, the kids are eating it.” Sun said, wanting to check in on the kids, he’d leave them to eat their food. “Is it extra cheesy?” Terra asked, peeking up slightly, her makeup had been slightly stained, but Sun could care less. He gave her a soft smile, and nodded. Yes it’s extra cheesy…” Terra pulled away, raging her natural height, before wiping her tears, and left of make up, on her sleeve. She nodded, trying to regain her composure. “Yes please…”  

Terra and Sun once again had to put the children to sleep. After they watched an episode of the Owl House, which was the news show that they had started. Which all three of the children adored, but they were eventually tucked into bed. They should not have to worry themselves with what’s going on with their uncle, bad news could send them off into a panic. And Sun only wanted good news to reach their ears, so he kept the situation under control.

Terra and Sun once again sat on the couch, trying to watch mindless trash television, but it didn’t work. Their eyes would always drift to their phones so they could see the seconds tick by. It felt like one entity after another, no news coming from or texts coming from them. Sun and Terra could only hope for the best, even though they felt absolutely useless just sitting down. They wanted to do something, but they couldn't. They weren't as smart as the others, they did not know what to do. They could only provide comfort to the best of their ability, but even that didn’t feel like it was enough. It felt just like the night that Cosmos had come back home, all the two could do was just sit. It was an awful feeling of deja vu.

Finally 10 rolled around and steps from the basement arose. It first started as a soft pitter, before the stairs creaked, and that’s when they knew that they had come back from the examination. Sun quickly turned off the TV, and Terra adjusted herself on the couch, both sitting up as straight as possible, awaiting the news. The three walked in, and they seemed to be quite tired, which was fair, but Moon seemed to have a small glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“So what did the tests say?” Terra asked, as she fiddled with her fingers, she needed this to be good news. She needed Cosmos to be okay. “we tried our best to calculate his health” Monty grunted, before he sat next to his wife, and planting a kiss on her cheek. “He’s around four feet tall, and we think he’s underweight.” Solar said, crossing his arms. “Due to size, and age…” Moon mumbled as he massaged his temples. They had a pretty big debate on whether what age Cosmo was, before that discussing if Cosmos was healthy or not. Because his body had been so drastically different. “But again, we don’t know the health ratio for astrals.” He continued.

“We weren’t able to take an x-ray, due to it breaking, most likely due to the amount of energy he had or had.” Solar said, slightly amused. “It’s incomprehensible to the machine.” Each time they had tried, the X-Ray had just shut down in the middle of scanning, and even one time it almost burst into flames. Which is when they decided to give up on figuring out the autonomy of an astral.

“But what’s really interesting is that he shows signs of brain activity Or astral equivalent to brain activity, we believe.” The moon popped up, and Sun and Terra perked up when they heard this. Brain activity? That means Cosmo was still very much alive, or at least resting…? The only thing that mattered is that they still had hope, and this only reinforced it. “Once again, we are not versed in astral anatomy, so we don’t know what’s normal.” Moon shrugged, but he too was hopeful for this. He had a chance to help his brother. “But it appears that they have brain activity similar to dreaming.” Moon continued on, the records had come back similar to animatronic dreaming. The way that Monty, him and Solar had cheered that Lunar had still been alive, and somewhat conscious.

“Really?” Sun said, his hope was starting to lift off. He knew Cosmos had still been alive, with his breathing, but that was the only confirmation they had that they weren't housing a corpse. So this was ground breaking, he was dreaming. “So he’s alive?” Terra said, practically starting to sob tears of joy, her brother hadn't been dead, he was still there. She could still apologize to him, she could still mend their relationship, at least get back onto good terms. “Yeah.” Moon chuckled, glad to see his siblings so happy. It had been a while since they were grinning ear to ear, everyone had been so tired and busy. There wasn’t really time to relax, so this was refreshing to see them so happy.

“He just won’t wake up.” Solar mumbled, still realizing that Cosmos was still very much in a deep slumber. “Like a coma…” Sun muttered out, a coma, when a person is unconscious for a long period of time. It typically took a person a week to a month to wake up, maybe even years. He decided not to say it out loud, or it would be stating the obvious. “Yes.” Monty nodded his head “Oh..” Terra said, his smile fading once she heard the news. Would Cosmos even wake up? People stuck in comas sometimes don’t wake up….

They all sat in silence as they tried to process the information. It was a lot to handle at the moment, they hoped for answers when they went to the lab for the observation. But they hadn't entirely accepted the bad news. Sun was searching for his mind, for a possible solution, racking through almost every memory, even though he wasn’t equipped with the knowledge.

Suddenly an idea flashed into his mind. “Wait, Moon, one time you took me to Mindscape to bury some memories, remember?” Sun said, shooting up from his seat. He remembered how Moon told him to bury the memory of Nexus, since it was becoming too much for Sun to handle. It had helped, but it wasn’t what he did in the at place. It’s what you could be in that place for Cosmos, right this very moment.

Moon seemed to understand what SUn was trying to get across, he also shot right up. “That… that wasn’t the mindscape, but it was the mindspace!” He snapped his finger in Sun’s direction. “Wait, when did this happen?” Terra asked, slightly concerned for her brothers, when did Sun go bury a memory, but most importantly, who was this going to help Cosmos? “Yeah, don’t remember that.” Monty grunted, also wondering how this could aid the small astral that was currently residing in the basement. “It was a long time ago, but what matters is that it’s a way to enter Cosmos’s subconscious.” Moon said ignoring what they wanted to know, but it did provide a possible solution to get into Cosmo’s memories.

“Okay… Well what’s the difference between mindscape, and mindspace.” Terra asked wanting to know the difference, she did know a little about it. Her older brother would sometimes bring it up in conversation since they used to share a body they also shared a mind. Which is what she is guessing is the mindscape. “Mindspace is the unconscious level, this is where dreaming can occur.” Moon says, as he starts to space around, clearly trying to come up with a plan. “Which is exactly what’s going on with Cosmos.” Sun added in, and Moon nodded. “So we could do that, and retrieve Cosmos ourselves.” Moon explained. This way that Cosmos would be a belt return to them sooner.

Terra quickly got up, not wanting her brothers to get too far ahead of themselves, she wasn’t sure if this idea was safe. And the least thing they needed was her two older brothers getting injured as well. “Is that even safe?” Monty added in. “It should be, as long as we don’t do anything to drastically change the mindspace, Cosmos should be fine.” Moon said matter of factly. Monty massaged his temples. “Okay…” Monty grunts, as he gets up and also starts to walk around his tail swaying ever so slightly.

“Moon, do you even have the machine?” Solar asked, they needed the machine to work, and if they didn’t have a machine the plan would be summed up to nothing.

“I don’t, I left it in the other dimension…” Everyone fell silent once more, their only chance at waking Cosmos up escaped their grasp. “But I did save the blueprints!” Moon exclaimed, and everyone's spirits returned as quickly as it had vanished.

“So you’ll be able to do it?!” Sun exclaimed excitedly, there was still a chance to wake Cosmos up! “Yeah, I should, but once again I don’t know if it’ll work, since Cosmos is part astral,” Moon said as he started to head for the stairs.

“We’lll have to try anyway.”

Weeks passed by in the mindspace,and Luz and Orion spent time together. They had played many games, and very soon had no games left to play, which left Luz quite bored. Orion still did routinely check up around the Dark Forest, wanting to make sure no manifestations had returned, and none ever did. Their friends seemed to have gone quiet, but not entirely quiet. Some questions did reach them, but they were too low or two far away for them to hear. So Luz would just shout “SPEAK LOUDER” to them, because he had started to miss them quite dearly.

Though the two did enjoy the gifts that had been sent from their friends. Luz and Orion would play along with the stuffed animals, Tap and Spigot. Luz would be Spigot, the brave hero, and Tap would be the scared rabbit, but who had a good heart, that was Orion. Orion also found good use of the stress ball that one of their friends had apparently given to him. He liked squishing it, it brought some peace of mind. Then for the camera, they knew they only had ten sets of pictures they could take. So they had to ration the pictures. The first thing that Luz wanted to do was take pictures of them both, taking two, so each could have one when they were far from one another. Luz had the picture under his hat, and Orion kept the picture in one of his pockets for his hood.

But finally, while out in the field, a voice had said something to them. Requisition Luz go on a scavenger hunt! Which Luz had been so happy to hear! Especially since he could hear on of his friends again at last! “Savenger hunt?!” Luz exclaimed happily, he practically ran around in circles and the sound of that! He’d been playing so many games, but he;d been doing them repeatedly, which made him bored… But something new to do sounded so much fun! “Okay!” He nodded his head vigorously before turning to Orion. “Don’t help me Orion!” THe darker entity nodded in agreement “Okay…”

The first they had to find was something that started with the letter ‘R’... Luz racked his brian for anything that started with an ‘R’ before gasping and running inside. Orion sat outside waiting for the return of Luz. The small entity came rushing back out with a stuffed animal in his arms. He then showed it off proudly, his brown little stuffed rabbit which had been gifted by his friends. “‘R’ is for a rabbit!” Luz smiled, Orion nodded and clapped. “And I have Tap, who’s a rabbit! So that’s one thing!” Luz gently put the rabbit next to Orion, it slumped against his leg.

Luz now had to find something heart shaped… Which would be hard… Luz didn’t really have anything with that particular shape… Luz looked around as spun as he examined as he looked at the house and at the fields. But nothing stood out to him. Nothing that wasn’t heart shaped… “Okay Orion, think about something heart shaped.” Luz commented, scratching his chin. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to help you…” Orion said, amused how quickly luz turned for some help. Orion faced towards him and had a pouty face. “Just a small hint!” Luz begged before making puppy eyes. Orion deadpanned in his direction, but Orion truly was affected by Luz’s face. His defenses always fell short when it came to the tyke. “Look at the flowers…” the bigger entity pointed to the field. Luz skipped over there before examining one of the flowers. “Hmm…” he hummed, absorbing all the features on the flower. It just looked like a regular flower to him… Before something caught his eye. “YES!” Luz screamed out, plucking the flower. “A leaf!” Luz squealed as he ran back and proudly showed Orion, as if he had been the one to have found it without any hints. He put the flower in Tap’s arm. “Here, this leaf is heart shaped…” he patted the stuffed animal's head before returning to search.

“Now something purple…” Luz hummed, turning to face Orion, before his eyes widened in realization. “You know Orion is somewhat purple, especially his pants…” Luz smiled brightly, as he pointed to Orion's dark colored pants. Orion didn’t have the heart to tell him it was in fact a dark shade of blue, he let this slide, it was a game after all. “SO Orion is the purple thing!” Luz cheered, jumping up in the air. “Woo.” Orion said, in a monotone voice lifting up only one arm in a celebratory. Luz giggled excitedly to see Orion playing along. “He’s super excited!”

For the final item they had to find it had to be something that smelt nice…. Which was the easiest thing on the entire list for the scavenger hunt! “Now something that smells nice…” Luz said innocently as if they didn’t know, before spreading their arms wide. “WHICH WOULD BE THIS ENTIRE FIELD OF FLOWERS!” the baby blue entity exclaimed. “It smells super sweet!” the flowers smelled pleasant, as it floated along on the breeze. It flowed along the breeze throughout the entire field.

Luz lied down on his back next to Orion, which Tap the rabbit along with the flower he had found earlier sat. “Hehe, that was a super fun game…” Luz took a deep breath trying to calm himself, before he felt the sudden urge to play a different game.“But now… Can we play hide and seek?!” Luz turned to the older entity, hide and seek was a two player game, after all! “It’s been forever since we played that!”

“Luz, it’s only been a day.” Orion deadpanned, Luz always loved playing games But he had been getting more and more rambunctious, due to the lack of things that they had available to him. Orion truly did wish that Cosmos would awake soon. He wasn’t sure if Cosmos had been slowly saying, and perhaps some of the mindspace has been slowly dissolving away because of it. That luz could be in danger and none of them even know it. “But it feels like forever!” Luz said slumping back down, face first. His face in the grass making his voice seemed muffled. “I’ll count…” Orion quickly gave in as he covered his eyes. And like a rocket, Luz shot up, and squealed. “YAY!” before running off in the tall blades of grass.

Some parts of the field had been taller than some other sections. And the place he was going was up to Orion’s hip! Which meant if Luz crawled he’d be completely invisible to Orion! Which made a great hiding spot, even though Orion always found him… But that was okay! Orion was a really good hider! He always seemed to blend into the shadows… Luz wished he could do it.

Luz was deep in thought, which is why he didn't notice the two large figures ahead of him. And if he was looking he most likely wouldn't have run into them. But he wasn’t looking so he did. Luz's head collided with the leg of one of the figures, and he grunted as he bumped his head. He rubbed his head where he had crashed into, he wondered what could have caused him to stop. He wasn’t near the rocks, in fact they were on the opposite side of the field. Luz looked up, and there he saw two new entities, ones that looked eerily similar to the ones on his wall. THe ones he had called brothers… They wore different clothes, and sure they seemed to be not as bright in the picture. But it was still them.

The Sun model was the first one to speak up, tilting his head ever so slightly. “Oh hello!” The Sun had said, it sounded so much like his brother. But it also sounded different, his voice sounded calmer, a little more… tired… Luz wasn’t sure what to do, so he stood there frozen, like a baby deer in headlights. He didn’t know what to do. THis was the first time he had seen different entities in weeks. Were they manifestations?

“Is that Cosmos?” The Sun whispered, turning to the moon model, but not low enough that luz couldn’t hear. These two were looking for Cosmos? What did they want with him? “I don’t think it is… Maybe an inner child of some sort…?” The moon explained, he sounded about the same. “Wow, he looked like Cosmos when he was younger…” Sun observed, looking at Luz like he was an animal in a zoo, A sight to behold. Luz didn’t like this, he managed to force himself up, wanting to seem bigger, but still shrinking in on himself. He fidgets with the bell on his hat. “Yeah… It’s uncanny.” Sun hummed, not seeming to notice that Luz had gotten up. “Uhm, we’re kind of new around here…” Moon said, his voice shifting back to normal. “We’re-”

Luz looked up at them, staring the dead in the eye. Trying to make himself seem bigger than what he was, make him bigger than what he felt. “Sun, and Moon.” Luz examined them looking the up and down. They looked different from manifestations, at this point manifestations would be trying to attack him. Manifestations were dull in color, getting close to grey, and their eyes were pretty much lifeless, kind of like a zombie. But these two still had colors! So were manifestations becoming more advanced…? “Yeah, you must know us then.” Moon nodded.

“What are you doing here?” Luz asked, and before the two others could respond, Luz asked another question. “Are you guys real…?” They both looked confused,, their eye brows furrowing, trying to understand what this small entity was saying. “What? Yeah we’re real!” Sun nodded “Yep.” Moon popped the 'p'. “we come from the outside world… and not this place…”

“The inner mind?”

“Is that what you call it?"

“Uhm, yeah!”

“Yeah, we don’t come from here.”

“Wait… So that means you’re the real Sun and Moon…?”

“yeah?”

“We’re Cosmos’s real brothers, I guess you're by default as well… Whatever you are… Sorry, I don't know what you are.”

And like that Luz opened up, these were his real brothers! Real, the ones femur the outside world! Which meant that they were the ones that cared for Lunar, the pens that held him close! The ones that helped him become part of the family! “My name is Luz! I am the inner child of the inner mind!” Luz yielded as he stimmed happily, shaking his hands. The two others were quite surprised at how positively ‘Luz’ was acting. They hadn’t seen Cosmos in such a long time, much less his child form. And seeing this inner child bubbling with excitement gave them nostalgia from when times were simpler.

“And you guys are my big brothers! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you guys!” Luz squealed as high as he could go, shaking his hands when doing so. He was so excited that he ignored that they had called Lunar ‘Cosmos’ “ooh! What’s your favorite colors! Favorite food, favorite movie!?” Luz fired questions, he needed to know everything! He had been trapped for so long! He wanted to know what had changed, they wanted to know everything about their brother that had changed, stayed the same! How much he had missed out on, all of it! “Has another Kingdom Hearts game come out!?” Luz remembered the game fondly, he had the gaming chip in his indie, which was glitchy, but it was still all the fun to play. “Oh I have so many questions-”

But a shadow flashed by, and Luz flinched, squeezing his eyes shut, expecting the worst. He backed away and put his face in his hands. What was going on, had they attacked? Were they actually manifestations? But he snapped out of his inner spiral when he heard Orion speak to him. “Back away from Luz…” Orion practically growled out. Luz slowly looked up from his hands, and there he saw Orion standing before him, his white dagger out, as he faced the blade towards the two. “Oh, uhm hi-” Sun tried to give a small wave but Orion saw this as a threat.

“I said back away.” Orion said more clearly, as he stepped closer to them, Sun and Moon backed away, unsure with what they were dealing with, But they knew if they didn’t comply it would surely be the death of them. “Luz are you okay?” Orion turned his head to Luz, who was currently behind him, he was no longer shaking realizing he was not in danger. “Yeah! They seem-” Luz tried to explain the situation, how they came from the outer world, and were not manifestations. “Get to the house Luz.” Orion said blankly before he pulled out his other dagger and slowly started to approach Sun and Moon like a predator is to prey. “what?” the kid tilted his head, wondering if they had heard that correctly. When Orion didn’t respond Luz stamped his feet on the ground“But I don’t wanna! They’re our brothers!”

“They aren’t, they’re just manifestations, pretending so they can hurt you.” Orion said, as he turned back to Sun and Moon, examining them. There were no other entities that were able to enter the inner mind, but somehow these two managed to enter. They were more advanced than the manifestations, but perhaps they were evolving… Orion did not know, and did not care to find out. “But they said they came from the outer world!” Luz exclaimed “Do you believe them, or do you believe me? Now go back-” Luz tugged at Orion’s hood, holding him back, and even though Orion could as easily pull away, he could hear Luz start to cry. “No please! Hear them out! If they hurt me, it’ll be my fault!” The child looked at him with his pink eyes which started to well with tears, Orion felt himself hesitate. “If they do something to hurt me, you can kill them! Okay?! But listen to them! Please…” Luz hid his face into the hood, as he practically begged Orion to not harm them. Orion lowered down his weapons slowly, he couldn’t do it.

“Fine.” Orion gave in, but turned back to the Sun and Moon look alikes, and gave them a warning glare that they were still very much in danger. One step out of line and it would be their demise, Orion would make sure of that. “You two are on thin ice, who are you and what are you doing here?” Orion said, his weapons had faded back, and Luz had started to wipe away his tears, his eyes stung, but he was glad Orion had listened to him. Orion still covered Luz keeping him from the line of sight from Sun and Moon. “Uh…” Was the only thing Moon could say, he and his twin’s life were just put on the line, and they were still recovering. If it hadn’t been Luz, the one called Orion, would’ve minced them by now. “Answer.” Orion bellowed, and Sun was the one to speak up.

“My name is Sun, and this is Moon… We come from the… out of mind… I think?” Sun chuckled awkwardly, watching the beings hands instead of their face. Waiting if they were to unleash the weapon. “You think?” Orion asked, his head tilting in a menacing way, even though his face consisted of just eyes they stared right into their very soul.

“Don’t hurt us!” The sun squeaked out. “What we’re saying is true!”

“Then prove it.” Orion wanted proof, and come to think of it, there wasn’t that much. But he wanted any excuse to end their existence right here.Sun and Moon had caused Lunar and Luz so much pain. One of the main reasons Luz was locked down here was because of the need to grow up, forced upon the older brothers, forced upon almost everybody. But it hurt the most coming from them, because from the beginning, they were supposed to accept Lunar for who he was, but instead they shunned him. Luz seemed to have turned the other cheek, because he had defended them so fiercely. But Orion would not forgive or forget the pain that they caused. Even if they were the fake versions, and just manifestations, Orion would end them quickly, they would not harm Luz.

“Cosmos right now, is at our house, he’s resting in the basement, but he’s in a coma…” Moon was the one who started, he seemed nervous, on edge at how quickly he could’ve died, and how truly helpless he was in the mindspace compared to the ‘outer world’ “He was gravely injured during a battle, which we don’t know what happened, or how he became so injured.” He continued on, remembering the hopelessness he felt during the first day, wondering if Cosmos was going to survive. “Cosmos lost his arm, and his fingers had been burnt off, and his head had a wound that seemed fatal.” Luz seemed to freeze up at this recalling the major battle and the flashes of purple and white, that’s how Lunar got so injured… “But we managed to heal him up, his wounds recovered, and now he’s stable, he’s just… won’t wake up.”

Orion stood in silence repeating the words that Moon had said, examining each and every word. It made sense why Lunar had been sleeping for such a long time, he was in Tacoma, but Orion did not expect the ones who were taking care of Lunar was his own family. Orion felt a tug at his hood, and looked down to see Luz clutching onto it for dear life. “Orion… PLease…” Luz begged, seeming to hear Orion’s thoughts and wanting to convince them to not harm his potential older brothers. “They seem to know enough,m and they’re smarter than manifestations, they have to be from the outside.” Luz had a pint, but was it enough to let them live? That they had a risk that they could end up killing Luz? But if he didn’t Luz would never forgive him, and their friendship would be strained…

Orion decided to let them go, for now. One wrong move, and he would kill the both of them with no hesitation. “...Fine...” the entity finally said, the two twins releasing their breath and sighing deeply. And Luz smiled and gave Orion a grateful look, Orion eyes softened at it, before quickly turning back at the matters at hand, his expression hardening once he set his eyes on the pair. “If you really are the real versions of Sun and Moon, what are you doing in the inner mind?”

“We think Cosmos is somewhere in the mindspace, can you help us find him?

You may now ask Orion, Luz, Sun and Moon questions.

Chapter Text

Sun and Moon flinched from where the voice had come from. They looked around frantically, realizing that someone had called them. Was there another being similar to Luz and Orion?! “Gah!” Sun squeaked out, still a little on edge from what Orion had threatened them both. “Did you guys hear that?!” Sun was still looking around, wanting to make sure he hadn’t hallucinated the entire thing. The last thing he needed was to go insane inside of his little brother’s mindscape!

“That’s our friends!!!” Luz squealed, today had been the best day ever! Everybody had started to come back. Luz started to stim as he waved his hands and jumped up and down. “Hi guys!” he waved frantically, with a big smile on his face. “Your friends?” Moon asked, slightly tilting his head. “Yeah!” Luz turned to Moon and nodded his head. Orion did not say anything, but kept his eyes on the twins, which sent a shiver down each of their spines, they quickly turned away.

“They sort of just came out of nowhere, but they are nice!” Luz explained, their appearance was out of the blue, but they were the best sort of surprise! They were so nice, and kind! THey managed to calm him down multiple times, and they even helped Orion! “They even sent us gifts!” Like Tap, like the cool camera, and other things for Orion! “Friends! Our brothers came from the outer world!” Luz told his friends

“Ugh… Are they like omnipotent beings?” Moon asked, scratching his night cap, they seemed to be everywhere and now where at the same time. They also didn’t seem to be an original entity of the mindspace, they seemed to be… invading this plane of existence. “If you guys claim to know a lot of information, do you know where Cosmos is?” Moon exclaimed, if they knew where Cosmos was they would be able to leave the inner mind quicker, and Cosmos would be saved.

“They sometimes take a bit to respond, let’s go tour around home!” Luz said, grabbing the hands of their older brothers, and guiding them like an excited puppy. Wanting to show the world that they called home.

Chapter Text

Luz guided them over to the rock field, which consisted of boulders of many different sizes! Some were even taller than Orion! But the rock field also had some pebbles surrounding the boulders. Luz liked to organize the pebbles based on how big they were and their different colors.“And this is where all the big rocks are!” Luz proudly showed off the boulders. “They are very cool.” Luz commented, before walking over to one. “Sometimes I like to climb to the top!” Luz explains, he would pretend he’s a giant, or sometimes a dinosaur, and just be the king of the entire world! Sometimes he would just sit there and think. “but then I get scared, and Orion sometimes has to carry me down…” Luz confessed, his twiddles with his fingers.

“Uhuh…” Moon said unimpressed and slightly annoyed at the younger child's antics. Even more annoyed that he hadn’t gotten an answer yet. He would rather just back this a twenty minute trip, he didn’t want to stretch this out. “See, let me show you how to climb!” Luz said, as shifted his focus to the boulder, he grabbed onto it, before trying to climb it up. But he struggled, his slippers not having enough friction to grip onto the rock. “Orion, please help meee!” he squealed out. THe twins watched the shadowy figure stare at them, before shifting his focus onto Luz, helping him up, and lifting him to a ledge.

Suddenly a question flowed into their audio receptors. Moon turned around expecting to see someone, but no one was there. Moon grumbled, why had they just asked another question? He was the one who had asked! “What do we think about them?” Moon grumbled, massaging his temples. “Are we just going to answer all your questions?”

Sun was the one who tried to calm down Moon. Putting his hand on his shoulder, as a sign to take a breath. “Moon, let’s be polite, they might know where Cosmos is. And Luz did say it’d take some time. ” Sun tried to reason, the little one seemed to know the place very well. Which was perfectly reasonable because he lived in the mindspace. “Fine.” Moon rolled his eyes before answering the question “Luz reminds me a lot of Cosmos when he was younger.” The child-like innocence was something he’d never think he’d see again in Cosmos. “and the big guy… He’s pretty on guard all the time…”

“Yeah, I wonder what part of the mind space he’s part of…” Sun hummed, it seemed like that part was very defensive of the inner child, like a protector of sorts, but was that the only job of Orion?

“But they both seem to love each other very much…”

Chapter Text

“What do we think about our big brothers?!” Luz exclaimed, as he mounted on top of the boulder, Orion at a lower level than what he was, but still within arms reach. “I love them!” Luz stimmed happily. “They are soooo cool!” He’d never thought he’d see his older brothers again! And this was nothing but a dream come true to the small entity. “I have to think of more questions for them!”

Orion grumbled. “I still don’t trust them.” He was still staring at them, and they didn’t even seem to be focused on Luz. Who had eagerly wanted to show them things, but they both seemed rather annoyed at the energetic ball of energy. It irked Orion the way they were treating Luz. They were the ones to come into Lunar’s mindspace, why are they acting like it’s theirs to control?! “One wrong move and it’s over for them.” Orion would not hesitate.

“But they haven’t done anything bad, so that means you have to treat them nicely!” Luz chastised, he understood why Orion was so protective. He just wished his older brother would loosen up, and warm up to their presence. THey were still older brothers to him as well. Luz tried to climb down, realizing that his brothers weren’t paying attention to him, he frowned. Why weren’t they paying attention?

“Orion…” Luz realized as he looked down, the ground below seeming so far away. He gripped tightly onto the boulder with fear. He hated being scared. “I think I’m stuck again…” Orion lifted his arms and gently grabbed Luz, before climbing down with him.

Chapter Text

“I’m back!” Luz rushed to their older brothers, who suddenly seemed to look towards him. Sun smiles brightly, as Moon looks as uninterested as ever. Luz wish he could peak his interest, so maybe he would be able to play with him again. “And so is Orion!” Luz shifted hsi focus ot his other older brother who was following behind him, not needing to run as Luz did due ot his longer legs. “You wanna try climbing the rock now?”

Sun shook his head, and crouched down slightly. “uhm, no thank you.” he had a smile on his face, but his voice seemed to be slightly strained. “We’re not really good at climbing. Especially Moon, he’s got bad knees.” Sun whispered the last part, as he looked back at Moon. Did Moon always bad knees? Did he just develop it? Luz had so many questions, but they seemed a little rude ot ask, so he didn’t question it. “No problem!” He said cheerfully, before looking around, wanting to find the next thing eh could do with his family. “Uhmmm. What do you guys wanna do now…” He scratched his chin

Moon tried to intervene, wanting to know more about Cosmos “Actually-”

But Luz didn’t notice, before int with his own idea. “We can go to our house! I have so many things to show you guys!” Luz cheered as he started to bolt for the house, skipping ever step or so. The bell at the end of his hat made a tinkling sound. “Let’s go!” Luz turned back and made a gesture to follow him, before going back to skipping, Orion followed behind the child.

Another question danced upon the wind, that the twins heard. “What do we think of the mindspace…?” Sun asked weakly. “I guess it’s okay.”

“We just want to find Cosmos.” Moon grunted before following the guardian, begrudgingly.

Chapter Text

“Unfortunately, we didn’t really try to contact Cosmos…” Sun said shamefully, maybe if they tired to reach out more, Cosmos wouldn’t be in this situation…. “We thought he would be busy all the time, and thought it best not to contact him…” Sun explained, they didn't’ want Cosmos to worry about them when he was the one battling literal demons, that’s only purpose was to bring death and destruction upon other worlds. “I occasionally tried to send him messages over the phone, to wish him merry christmas, and happy new year.” Sun admitted, he’d send pictures of the kids, and other family members. “But they were always left unread…”

Moon sighed, ashamed also to say that he didn’t try to make more of an effort to contact his little brother. “We thought he’d be okay, especially with the astrals, their basically gods.” But maybe they weren’t as trustworthy as they seemed… They didn’t make much of an actual effort when Jack, his nephew, was taken over by the negative star power.  

“Demi-gods.” Orion grunted, turning to look behind them. Sun and Moon almost froze in place when they heard his voice, it was threatening, and it had an edge to it. “THey are still vulnerable to death, Lunar is still vulnerable to death…” Orion glared at them, before turning back.

Sun and Moon felt as if they had made a serious mistake.

Chapter Text

Yes! I do accept hugs!!!

Thank for them, I'll be taking them all, before you start throwing rocks at me, because of the ending I have in store. Y'all are not going to be happy with me. 

Also you don't have to type out my entire username! You can just call me Clown! Because I am the friendly neighborhood clown, who will not give you pain or misery, I repeat, will not give you pain or misery.

Chapter Text

Sun flinched when the voice concluded with yelling at them. He was never a fan of yelling. And they did seem very protective of those two. They must be good friends, Sun was happy for that, Luz seemed kind of lonely despite Orion being there with him. “We’re not trying to ignore him…” Sun said, but there were bigger problems on his hand, maybe if it were under different circumstances, he would love to hang out with Luz.

“We’re trying to find Cosmos…” Moon said he needed to find his little brother, and these inner entities were only slowing him down, even if he didn’t even know where to start looking. But he just wanted to find Cosmos, and get him home safe and sound. “He’s just really energetic…” Moon continued, it almost hurt to look at, not in a bad way. It reminded him about simpler times, when Lunar was just a child. One that liked to cuddle with him, and sleep. One he would sing to sleep, one who loved playing video games.

But that all… just stopped.

Chapter Text

Luz hopped up on the front step of his little house, before he opened the door revealing what’s inside. “Here’s our house!” Luz cheered, before walking inside, Orion followed, and the twins walked inside. The home felt nice and cozy, with a faint smell of lavender that floated atop the breeze. THough the house itself looked quite messy. There were toys scattered on the ground, along with books, and blankets.

“It looks nice Luz.” Sun commented, but his rays twitched, his OCD irking him to clean up. But the sight of the mess reminded him about how Cosmos used to be, and how disorganized he was. Moon looked around, staring at all the toys, for some reason he didn’t think the inner child would have toys. It makes sense that the child would need something to play with.

Luz smiled at the twins before remembering something. “Oh wait, I want to show you something!”Luz rushed to his bed, before he grabbed Spigot from it. He ran up to Sun, who was still looking at the mess that surrounded him. “See, look at the Sun!” Luz said proudly holding up his favorite reindeer that he had gotten so long ago.

“It’s spigot! Remember that time you gave Lunar him for Christmas?! That was the best Christmas I ever had!” Sun had given him the bestest gift ever! And Moon gave him a beanbag factory… Even though he ended up selling it off later on… “Sure it was my only Christmas… but it was still nice.” There were no holidays or celebrations when you were an astral, just work… Never a break.  

Sun smiled softly, remembering fondly upon the memory, remembering his Cosmos’s eyes brightened up, how he tenderly cradled Spigot, and dubbed him the name. But Moon noticed how the entity used ‘Lunar’ instead of his other name. “Lunar?” Moon asked. “You mean Cosmos?”

“No, I mean Lunar. That’s his name.” Luz said quite confidently. Before his mind shifted its focus to something else, he didn’t see how Moon’s face morphed into confusion. “Oh yeah! I also have a Nintendo, let me get it!”

Chapter Text

"So Cosmos really goes by Lunar…?” Sun asked, slightly tilting his head. Cosmos seemed to be proud to be dubbed the name of Cosmos, as it was a gift from the Astrals themselves. But if he remembered correctly, Cosmos seemed hesitant at first by the name. “At least the entities of the inner minds do…” Moon commented on digesting the new information. Even if Cosmos still refers to himself as Cosmos, Luz and Orion don’t respond to that name. “We should call Cosmos by Lunar, so we don’t end up enraging them.”

“Esspcially Orion…" Sun shuddered imagining how Orion would always seem to stare right at their souls, and seem to be trying to kill them with his very eyes. “So are they both Cosmos- I mean Lunar?” Sun said moving onto the next thing that Orion and Luz’s friend said. Explaining how they both were a variation of Lunar.

“Maybe different points of Lunar’s life… But not the current Lunar…” Moon hummed, examining Orion and Luz. Definitely not Luz, but maybe Orion…? He seemed a little… detached, he didn’t even have a mouth, just eyes that look tired all the time. Was that a variation of Lunar, is there a version of Lunar that looks dead on the outside, and inside. “Also since you ‘voices’ don’t know where Lunar is, it means you have a limit on how much power and knowledge you have…” and Orion and Luz didn’t seem to know where Cosmos was, which left them stuck. In this house

While Luz was looking for a new toy that he wanted to show his brother, his friends asked another question. They wanted to know if he could see the outer world. He wasn’t able to, and he refused to force himself to see, he hated what he saw. He always did, it was always too violent or too scary, and he couldn’t handle that. “Nuh-uh, like I said before, I only see bits and pieces of the outer world.” And that was “Since Lunar sort of locked me here, but I can't see pieces, especially in moments of vulnerability.” it gets bad when Lunar would hesitate, flashes would enter Luz’s own mind, and he was left vulnerable to the horrors of the outside.

“It gets kind of scary.” Luz whispers, head looking down. He flinches when someone rubs his head, he looks up and sees Orion giving him a soft look. And once Luz knows who’s touching him, he melts into the head pat. "It's ok, Lu.” Orion whispers so only Luz could hear. “Thanks…” Luz whimpers.

But Sun and Moon seemed to overhead, because they both walked up to them. Luz flinched once in a different voice and interrupted their moment of peace voice “Why were you locked down here?” Sun asked softly, trying to coax the answer out of him, Orion took to getting in front of Luz. But Luz gulped down his fear, as he shuffled next to Orion. “Uhmm…” Luz didn’t want to tell them the truth, that would break their heart. And he didn’t want to hurt his older brothers! He didn’t want to do that! “Becuase Lunar wanted to grow up…?” he lied, it left a bad taste in his mouth. He knew it was the exact opposite of that lie, he knew Lunar did it because he was afraid. He was no longer accepted, being an outcast to his own family.

“That makes sense.”

Chapter Text

Moon perked up, another entity was in the mindspace. Another person who may know the whereabouts of Lunar. “Third entity?” Moon looked up. Orion and Luz were right next to them so they heard what the voice had said as well. Luz nodded his head, confirming what it had said. “Oh yeah them!” He said cheerfully,as if he knew them. “They’re super nice!” Luz smiled and remembered how caring they had been in the little moments that they shared together.

“Do you know where they live?!” Moon said as he started to approach Luz. While the child seemed to shrink each step Moon took, he didn’t notice, he just wanted an answer. “ Yes. We do know, back up.” Orion said, stepping in front of Luz. That seemed to be enough for Moon to back up a couple of steps, he realized his mistake, and felt guilt. “It’s okay Orion! They’re just excited!” Luz quickly rushed to their defense, he understood why they could be excited! A new friend they could make, someone to help them look for Lunar.

“Yes, they could know where Cos- Lunar is!” Moon exclaimed, glad that Luz understood what he was getting at. Luz tugged at Orion’s hood, and Orion looked down towards him. “What do you think, Orion?” Luz asked, Orion’s har glare had softened when he met eyes with Luz. His voice also softened because of it, not as cold as it was just seconds ago. “It could be a possibility.”

Luz gasped an idea flowering in his mind, a big smile formed on his face, one of eagerness, and maybe a slight bit of mischief. “We’ll have to look for them! It’ll be like an adventure!” Luz said stimming, this way they could also go look for them! THey would be able to make a new friend as well! They would finally be able to talk, and maybe they could meet up more often! And then they could play games that have three players instead of just two! That’d be so much fun! “It’ll be…” “A FAMILY ROAD TRIP!” Luz beamed at the idea, and practically started jumping up and down. "We've never been on one Orion! What should we bring?!” Luz was about to start scrambling for this to bring, before Orion grabbed him by the night cap, stopping him from going anywhere.

“Woah, Lu, remember outside is dangerous.” Orion reminded Luz, he knew that even if the forest was quiet, it didn’t mean it always would be. Danger prowling at every corner, and too many possible blind spots that Orion wouldn't be able to cover, because half of his attention would be on Luz. “Why is it so dangerous?” Sun asked, tilting his head.

Orion wanted to respond with

'Because you’ve hurt him in more ways than one. Lunar has memories of you rejecting him, always haunting the back of his mind. You’re hurting Lunar, all the time’

But he didn’t, he could start conflict, not now. It wouldn’t be right, his personal vendetta with the family wasn’t what mattered right now. What did matter was that Lunar was in a coma, and Luz was oblivious to the tension between him and the family. He needed to keep the peace as long as he could.

So instead he responded with.

“The mindspace is an unfriendly space, I don’t know how it’ll react to outsiders.” Orion grunted, which was another worry. He wasn't sure if they got hurt if they would just die, or   they’d die in the real world as well. Luz wouldn't like that,and probably cry for weeks on end. “Yes but your friends said it was dangerous!” Moon continued to push “They also said that you know more about them, could you please explain?” Sun asked, he was fisting with his hands.

“Manifestions roam around the dark forest, what you might've seen when you first showed up, it’s a forest that’s quite literally dead.” Orion explained, Luz had told him that it used to look like any other forest, and it had been peaceful at one time. But it clearly wasn’t like that today. “Yeah, it burned down a long time ago…” Luz said wistfully, remembering how friendly the forest was friendly. And how he could play in the trees. Until it was all burned down of course, leaving nothing but manifestation in its wake. “What?” Sun asked, confused at the sudden shift in tone, and how casually Luz had just said that. “Oh, I should bring a jacket!”Luz pulled out a box of costumes he had, it was also where he stored some spare clothes. “Luz we haven’t even decided if we’re going!” Orion sighed.  

“What are manifestations?" Moon asked, the only time he heard the word ‘manifestions’ it came from a tik-tok video, and he was pretty sure it didn't have the same meaning in the mindspace. “You might be shocked by this, but Lunar hasn’t gotten over his trauma, in fact it’s multiplied greatly since last time you saw him.” Orion said, giving a dirty look to Sun and Moon. Both physically shivered, feeling it was a comment that was meant for them.

“Oh… right…” Sun chuckled nervously, Lunar’s trauma only got worse? He felt like it would, he was in fighting in a war for goodness sake! But how deeply has Lunar become affected, it’s been five years. WAnd he had so many scars. How many stories did he have, how much horrors had he experienced? “Mianfestions are essentially his darkest fears, along with some memories that always seem to haunt him.” Orion continued on, ignoring them, letting their guilt swallow them whole. For it had swallowed Lunar, and it never let him go. “But since he’s fallen into a coma, they’ve completely disappeared.” This was most likely due to Lunar being unconscious, therefore the manifestations could not form. “But I worry they are still lurking in the forest.” but his theory wasn’t confirmed, all he knew was that they were still there. Even if he did do patrols, he didn’t do it deep into the dark forest, wanting to keep Luz safe.

“Oh… That is worrisome…” Sun hummed, the thoughts about these ‘manifestions’ took the form of a beast? Or was it something even worse? Sun could not imagine it, that Lunar had to put up with that. But he supposed everyone did have inner demons, and inner thoughts that haunted them all in some way or form. “Do they just… attack? Do they have a goal?” Sun asked, “THey keep trying to get rid of me for some reason! But don’t worry, I’m very brave!” Luz said, putting his hand on his chest, and slightly puffing it out a little. Sun looked over at Luz, and he couldn’t help but be reminded of how Dazzle used to act, when she was just a fawn. And now Luz acted so similarly. He smiled softly “THat does sound very brave, Luz” Luz responded with a bright smile, he was glad to be recognized for being brave. That way his older brother won’t think he’s a wimp, or a cry baby! Even though he did cry… when he was scared.. But he’d just have to get over it!

“Are there other dangers?” Moon asked, the manifestations sound like they would be trouble, but Orion said that their number had been dwindling. “Those are the only ones i know of, they tend to keep me busy, because they come in droves.” Orion explained, where one was, others' worlds quickly followed, Orion defeated them all with ease. “They always manage to respawn or something like that.” But they always came back, they just couldn’t stay dead. With the fear and trauma still alive, the manifestations would always come back. “Huh… That’s interesting.” Moon scratched at his chin, these manifestations thing sounding fascinating. “I wonder if there’s something that’s revving them, or some spawn point for them…”

“I don’t know. I just killed them.” Orion responded simply, not wanting to even entertain a theory that Moon would have.

“So the place where the third entity lives… the Ravine of the lost?” Sun asked, it sounded quite… dreadful… Especially that name… It seemed rather depressing, what was lost in the ravine? Or was it just a name, surely not…? “It just seems to be an endless expanse, but far off in the distance I am able to see a ravine that runs along the land.” Orion explained, the ravine seemed more like just a flat land, but look a little closer you would be able to see the ravine, it ran along the land, like a vein, encircling the entire mindspace like a trap.

“Family roadtrip time! Destination the Ravine of the Lost!” Luz said excitedly, he didn’t care where he was going, as long as it was his family! He didn’t care where he went, as long as they went together! “Luz, I don’t think you can come.” Orion said, turning to Luz, kneeling to meet up with Luz’s height. “Wait- what?!” Luz gasped, he stamped his foot, and looked Orion into the eye. “why not!?”

“Think about it, it’ll be dangerous and I’m not sure if manifestations are wandering around. You could get hurt!” Orion tried to explain, he couldn’t have luz getting hurt. Luz was too precious to him, and he was vulnerable. One hit could be fatal to Luz. Orion couldn’t lose him. “You can’t leave me here!” Luz exclaimed, throwing his hands up. He could feel tears start to prick the corner of his eyes. He wasn’t going to cry, not in front of Sun and Moon, he was going to be brave. He wasn’t going to cry. “I won’t let you!” He didn’t want to be left behind again. “Luz, I don’t want you to get hurt-” Orion continued but Luz interrupted him. “And I don’t want to be stuck in a house, while you’re off adventuring with our brothers! That’s not fair!”

Sun feeling the air get even more tense, he slowly approached Orion, staying a few feet behind him, not wanting Orion to react violently. So he gave him space, so he wouldn’t get pounced or attacked. “Orion…?” Sun said softly. “Yes.” His voice had become cold. “Sorry if it seems I'm interrupting… but don’t you think we can take Luz?” Orion turned towards him, and he was giving Sun a look that just screamed ‘say the wrong thing and i will end you’

“Leaving him here seems kinda…” Sun says choosing his words wisely, not wanting to end up being minced. “Counter productive…” He squeaked out, before quickly blabbering. “what if he gets attacked while you’re with us…” He explains the possibilities thousands of things could go wrong. He told the kids when they didn’t get their way, they would somehow manage to get their way. “Or maybe he’ll get himself into more mischief…” He quickly backed away back to his brother “But you know what’s best!”

Orion waited, thinking about what SUn had said. Luz would be upset with him, and it would be harder to keep an eye on Luz, while also looking for potential threats. But with Sun and Moon there they would be able to help and keep an eye on Luz. The question was if Orion trusted them enough to take care of Luz. “Hm.” It would be better to take Luz… bUt Luz had to agree to a couple of things first. “Will you do exactly what I tell you?” Orion asked, and Luz nodded his head vigorously

“Yes!”

“If I tell you to run, will you run?”

“Yes!”

“...Fine…”

Luz squealed as he cheered, shaking his hands, and stimming happily. “YES! YES YES YES!” He rushed into Orion’s arms and gave him a big hug, squeezing Orion as tight as he could with his small arms. “Thank you Ri!!!” He then rushed to Sun and gave him a tight hug as well. Seeing as he was the one that managed to convince Orion that he could come along! “Thank you Sun!” Sun was surprised when Luz tackled his legs in a hug, but he looked down and smiled, before patting the nightcap of the young kid. “No problem, Luz…”

“I’m going to start packing!” Luz said rushing away to go look for a bag to carry all the stuff he wanted to take

Chapter Text

Luz scavenged around his room as he looked for things to take along with the road trip. He wanted to take lots of things, but he knew he couldn’t take everything. So he started with the essentials! “What should I bring…” Luz looks around, before settling his eyes on the bed, as he sees his stuffed animals. “I wanna bring my favorite stuffed animals! Tap and Spigot!” Luz rushed to his bed, as he grabbed his two stuffed animals, he put them to the side of the backpack, not wanting them to be stuffed under all the things he was going to pack. “I wanna pack my blanket!” Luz said as he took his blanket from his bed, and neatly folded it and then out into his backpack. “And a jacket!” In case of on the go coldness.

“I should also bring my camera! I wanna take lots of pictures!” Luz exclaimed, as he grabbed the camera his friends had gifted him. He took two pictures, which meant he had eight more pictures left to take! Which was plenty for a road trip. “Maybe I can even make a flower crown!” Luz giggles, as he said that/. Like his friends had suggested, everyone loves flower crowns! “I’ll have to get them in every color of the rainbow! Just to make sure they get the colors they want!”

“I don’t think we have time.” Moon said he wanted to get to this other entity as fast as possible. THey would surely know where Lunar was kept, finding and waking Lunar was his only priority as of right now. " Sun gave Moon a glare, he knew where his brother was coming from, but still. "I'm sure we'll have enough time if we all work together!" He tried to say cheerfully, this time Moon was the one who gave him a look.

"Oh..." Luz hummed, as he realized what Moon was saying was right. They couldn't waste time, especially with something as silly as flowers. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Luz packed his two stuffed animals in the bag, and zipped it up, but not the entire way, just enough so that Tap and Spigot's head stuck out, so they could see where they were going. "I think I'm ready to venture on!" Luz exclaimed. Orion looked around the room one last time before nodding. "I believe you are right."

"Alright then let's go." Moon said as he opened the door outside, it was still rather bright outside, but Luz could tell that it was starting to get darker, he wasn't really a fan of the dark. And it would only be more scary if they were in the dark forest. But Luz didn't want to slow everyone down, so he sucked it up! Orion would be with him keeping him safe! Everything would be okay!

Luz grabbed Orion's hand as they walked out, and started to head for the forest. Orion is still very uncertain if taking Luz would be the best course of action. "WAIT!" Luz exclaimed, as he took off the backpack, and opened it, pulling out his camera. "I wanna take a picture of home! Just in case I get homesick!" Before the twins could respond, Luz clicked the button, and the photon was taken. THe camera whirred, before giving Luz his desired picture of his little house. "There!" Luz said proudly, as he stuffed the camera in his bag, and put the picture under his hat.

"Now I'll remember what home looks like!"

Chapter Text

Orion was the first one who took a step inside the dark forest, he made sure to listen to the surrounding objects, searching for any noise that even sounded slightly like a manifestation, but there was nothing. But a question floated along the wind, asking him a peculiar question.

'Would you like to talk?'

What was there to talk about? The twins that had so rudely interrupted their day, that now Luz was at risk because of them? That Luz had trusted them wholly, and had not doubted them for a second? THat Luz forgot almost everything that they put him through, that they put Lunar through?

No.

"I have nothing to say."

Best not to stir the pot

The quicker the twins were out of there, the quicker Luz and Orion could return back to their lives.

Yes he hated what Sun and Moon had done to Lunar, encouraged him off to some war that he did not fully comprehend, and then left the very dimension he was protecting. He hated them because they tried ot help him, but in fact it was just some form of psychological torture. He hated them, he hated them for everything wrong that they did. Every hurt and ache that they caused Lunar.

Yet he had the same weakness, and naive hopefulness, as Luz did. Maybe they truly did care for Lunar. And maybe that is why Orion took the first step inside of the Dark Forest.

Chapter Text

"Lullaby?" Moon asked, as he walked behind Orion, the forest had been tough to walk through. Branches would snap under his feet, and the weeds had been long, and sometimes held him and Sun back. Orion and Luz seemed to easily walk through the obstacles, unsurprising since they were residents of the mindspace. Luz seemed to have heard the voice ask Moon, because he practically sprang up. "Oh that lullaby!" Luz exclaimed, as he was stimulated with excitement.

The way Luz reacted was quite adorable in its own way. He had been so excited to hear it, it reminded Moon what song they were referring too. He used to play the music box that was hidden away in his chest, he let it play almost every night Lunar went to sleep. It was like a spell, it calmed Lunar down, and rocked him off to sleep. Monty had installed it in Moon’s body when he was rebuilt, the gator had followed the blueprint to a ‘T’ even got the same music box with the same tune. Moon was glad that the gator had done so, because he played every now and again for his niece. Not as much as Lunar used to listen to it, but just enough that Moon didn’t consider taking it out.

"It went sort of like this!" Luz said, once Moon didn’t respond, he hummed the song, hitting every beat. It was clear the little one memorized it. Probably spending countless nights humming it to himself, maybe as a way to self-soothe. Because at one time Moon had been the one who had played it for them.

"I don't think I have enough time to play it." Moon grunted as he almost tripped over a root. As much as he'd like to sit down and relax, they were on a mission, and he couldn't stop to play a tune. Luz physically melted at this rejection. He had been holding Orion’s hand, and the dark figure had to practically drag the little one now.

"Oh..." Luz said, as he practically became half his height, which he was already quite small. "But I promise to play it at some point." Moon felt guilt hit immediately, he may not be in tune with his emotions as well as his other family members, but he hated disappointing kids, especially the ones he liked. And Luz may have been loud, and hyper, but he still reminded Moon so much of Lunar. He was Lunar in some way, perhaps one of a distant past. An innocence he hadn’t seen in Lunar for a long time. "Pinkie promise?!" Luz said, stopping, and turning back, sticking up his right hand with his pinky sticking out, a look of sheer ferocity all over the little one's face.

Moon smiled, and nodded, bending down to Luz’s level before sticking out his pinky as well.

"Pinkie promise.”

Chapter Text

"Uhm, no.” Moon walked through the large weeds. It had become easier to walk, it had just been weeds, and tall grass, each cone seemed to have been tainted by black. The trees of the forest were all bare, but they were still thick with branches. Which in turn made shadows that moved, and shifted, keeping everyone edge. The trees themselves were burnt. Moon had touched one of them before, flailing and catching himself on the tree, it left ashy residue on his hand. The trees were all damaged, it must be what Luz had referred to as everything burning down.

“Lunar never really brought it up, so we didn’t ask him.” Moon continued, they didn’t want to talk about it. He thought it might come off as being nosy. Plus he deserved to not think about work. “We didn’t want to to bring up work in a family setting.” Sun continued, he knew that war… was not so much of a pleasant subject. The knew Lunar had seen some things, he must have, he literally ventured off into space, fighting the horrors of the negative star entities. They had seen what they could do, small villages had been in ruin, Jack had become traumatized beyond belief. “He came home to relax after all…”

Orion grit his teeth, he didn't know much about the outside world. But he knew for a fact that Lunar had tried to tell about it. Luz had told him that Lunar tried explaining about everything great he had done, in the first year of being an astral, he saved at least two dozen planets, saving trillions of people in the process. And he did tell his family that, but they didn’t listen. All of them bluntly ignored what the astral had said. Luz had cried over it, feeling as if that Lunar wasn't doing enough, that he hadn’t done enough. Orion had to reassure him that he did everything in his power. That he was enough.

Luz on the other hand tried to be positive about this. “Did you guys ever think maybe he did want to talk?” Luz put his finger on his chin, coming off as innocent, even though he knew the truth. “What?” Sun asked, cocking his head, giving a weary smile to the young child.

“Yeah, maybe he did wanna talk, but he never did!”

Or maybe people ignored what he had to say.

“People are funny like that.”

Why didn’t anyone listen?

“People should just tell the truth, or they’ll end up regretting it later!”

He was a liar.

“You might be right, Luz.”

Chapter Text

Sun rays twitched at the sound of the voice, oh, he hadn’t gotten a question directly before. “What's it like in here?” Sun walked through the tall grass. The forest certainly wasn't as comfortable as the home in the middle of the forest. But on top of all of that, they were in his brother’s mindspace, this is what Lunar’s innermost thoughts looked like. And they were a small blue gumdrop, and a tall monotone protector, who only showed a shred of kindness with the child.

“Uhm. it’s a little awkward being in our little brother's mindspace, feels like we’re violating his privacy a little.” Sun chuckled nervously, as he rubbed his arm. They didn’t want to enter his mindspace, if there was another way, they would’ve. “We’re just trying to wake him up…” Was Lunar even okay? Was he suffering, was he sleeping, was he wondering where he was? Or was he just unconscious…? “and Luz and Orion…” “They’re sweet, especially Luz.” The small hyperactive ball of energy was sweet. Just like Lunar had been, before everything became so much more complicated than anybody expected. “He’s just like Lunar.”

and then Orion was cold, but Sun knew that it was just a front. Like how Moon was at times, he seemed cold and distant, but he was sweet. Especially to Luz, he spoiled the kid, and maybe that wasn’t bad, Luz was down here all by himself. And it seemed that sometimes he didn't even have that, because Orion had to go defeat 'manifestations' or whatever they were called. The kid had been here all by himself. “And Orion takes good care of him.”

Chapter Text

Luz had run ahead, he wanted to see what was left of the once lush forest, it was nothing but burnt trees and darkened weeds. It was exactly homey, but Luz wanted to take a picture of it. So he did his best, finding the best position he could so he could find the perfect snap shot. He took it, and he grabbed the paper that came from the camera, it was perfect! He returned the camera and the photo into his backpack.

A question whispered into his ear. “Huh?” His friends told him to tell the truth. He supposed it was iconic, especially since he told his older brothers that people should be honest. He himself was not being honest, he was a liar. And he knew his family hated liars.

“Oh…” Luz fiddled with his fingers, staying slightly ahead of the group. Not wanting Orion or the others to hear. He didn’t want them to know. He knew Orion knew he was lying, but he didn’t want to confront them on that now. “It can’t really hurt them if they don’t know, right?!” a simple white lie, it doesn’t hurt them if they don’t know! It’ll be for the best anyway! “Last time Lunar was honest, things didn’t exactly turn out well…”

Kicked out of the house

Homeless

Isolated

Separated

Lonely

Guilty

Abandoned.

All things he knew he deserved. Selfish people deserve bad endings. “Lunar sort of got banished from his family!” He was alone, Lunar was alone. He was never more alone in his life, not even when he drifted in the emptiness of death. “And then people wanted us to go to the astral war, to save Jack.” That’s all they wanted from Lunar. They all urged him to do it, they wanted Jack to be saved, but they didn’t know they’d be a dooming Lunar..

A life for a life.

He supposed that was fair.

“And that’s all they wanted me to do…” To free Jack, and go become something greater in the battle of gods. And he couldn’t blame his family. Lunar wasn’t wanted, everyone felt uncomfortable around him, after what he did to terra. Everyone feared he’d do the same thing to them. Lunar was a liability. The only reason Luz knew all this is because Lunar never felt like regressing more than those weeks of numbness. Just to run to his big brother’s arms, and beg for forgiveness, and cry until he couldn’t breathe. But Lunar didn’t do that, no one would accept that as an answer.

“I don’t want to push them away again.” not left alone, he didn’t want that loneliness to consume him once more, and leave him in nothing but a void. Where he was too numb to think, or feel. “I don’t want to be left alone.” not again.

“Promise you won’t tell them.” Luz begged.

“Please.”

Chapter Text

The smaller entity had joined back with the group, sticking close to Orion. Luz practically jumped up when he heard that! The nieces of Lunar! “Dazzle, Jack, and Molten?!” Luz exclaimed. “It’s been forever since I’ve seen them.” It’s been five years to be exact, and even then Cosmos really had limited time to talk to them. He tried to be the cool uncle, and give them other-worldly gifts, and they seemed to enjoy them all. “How are they doing!?” Luz asked, turning to his older brothers

“Oh, they’re good.” Moon said, focusing on where he was putting his feet, so he wouldn;t trip over any of the weeds. “They all made Cosm- Lunar lots of cards for them to get better.” Sun remembered Terra had been the one to encourage them to make cards. They all made nice cards,s and put a lot of thought and effort into it. “Wow, I can’t wait to read them!” Luz said he wondered what they said. He was sure whatever they wrote was sweet, and caring. He wondered what colors they used, what color the notes were, how many pictures… He couldn’t wait!

“They’ve grown a lot since you’ve last seen them.” Moon said, they really did grow… It seemed like only yesterday they were small and innocent kids. They had grown up before his very eyes. “Dazzle is 12, and Jack is around the mental age of a young adult, and Molten is… Molten.” Dazzle was still a little sweet-heart, even though she got into a lot more mischief nowadays. Sun blamed Moon, and Moon couldn’t deny it. While Jack was a little more well-behaved, he still acted gremlin-like. And Molten… No one knew what age Molten was… but he didn’t really change.  

“Wow… they really have grown up…” Luz said quietly, what did the outlook like? They surely didn’t like the same games they used to play. Do they even like the same things? “Do they like to play games?” Luz asked, he hoped he’d be able to see them. Maybe get to know them better. But would they have anything in common? And it wasn’t even him they’d be seeing, it’d be lunar! Would Lunar fit in!? Would they even like Lunar?!

“Yeah, they all still do” Sun gave a comforting smile to Luz, and that put him at ease.

Chapter Text

“I enjoy it so much!” Luz happily stimmed, shaking his hands. “Orion is super fun to play with!” Luz hummed happily, as he swung his hands back and forth to a fast beat. Orion always did the best plot twist when playing with their stuffies. And played the best games of tag and hide and seek. “Luz always makes the best games..” Orion murmured, so only Luz could hear him. Luz practically jumped up at that, it was from excitement of course! “What! Awwwhhh Thank you Ri!” Luz looked up beaming. Girning from ear to ear… if they had ears. Orion patted Luz’s head in return. Glad to have made them smile.

While Sun and Moon were alarmed they said the least when they heard the news. “Really…?” Sun whispered out loud, covering his mouth in shock. “He didn’t eat?” Moon said, racking his memories to prove this outlandish claim wrong. But nothing he could find to disprove it. “I don’t think I remember that, but I do remember him eating a lot of food when he came.” Moon whispered, realizing that they were right. “but that was after the first few visits… after a while, they sort of just… stopped…” Sun realized. Cosmos stopped eating… They didn’t ask for food...

They just... Stopped ...

Chapter Text

Moon walked a little closer to the brothers of the mindspace. He needed to know something that Luz had said earlier. “So… Luz, you said that this forest burned down… could you tell us why?” Luz halted in his foot-steps, freezing at the sound of the fire that burned down the forest that was once a safe haven. “Oh, uhm, sure.” Luz said nervously. Just thinking about the flames consumed his thoughts. How everything burned down, how he was so helpless to stop it. He took a shaky deep, someone patted him on the back, he looked up and saw Orion, giving a supporting look.

“So a super long time ago, this forest was a safe place!” It was the safest place, and it was so fun to explore. Every day was a new adventure, in and out of the mindspace. The world seemed so harmless, and so safe. “How long ago?” Moon asked, and Orion gave a nasty look to Moon. Which the moon model ignored. “UHm, back when Eclipse made me.” Luz fidgeted with his fingers, not daring to look up to his older brothers.

“It had lots more flowers, and I could climb up the trees.” none of the forest had yet been burnt. It was like the field that he played in everyday near home. Except it was so much bigger, and better in almost every possible way. “Uhm… but then lots of bad things started to happen…” So many things…

Yelling

Screaming

Hitting

Choking

All at the hands of Eclipse

His so-called brother.

“What kind of bad things…?” Sun asked softly, Luz took a step back once he realized that Sun was kneeling on the ground, and Moon was bending over to be one the same level as Moon. While Orion stayed behind him, keeping him close. “It’s okay if you don’t wanna talk about it.” Moon said softly. He didn’t want to send Luz off again, it physically pained him to see the small child cry. He didn’t know what to do to help, and Orion would no doubt give them a smacking.

Luz looked up at Orion who stared at him. They could tell that Orion would support them either way… So he continued on… “No, it’s okay! I’m super brave.” Luz tried putting on a brave face, and touching his chest.“He was brave, and he was strong! He could face it, and Orion was there to help if it became too much…

“Then Eclipse sort of started to hit us… and was mean to us…” It hurts a lot… No one would come help them. Lunar was stuck, and had no one to go to… He looked up and could tell his older brothers were worried so he quickly came up with a solution, to put their minds at ease. “But don't worry! I had places to hide in the daycare, so he wouldn’t find me!” this seemed to backfire, as their faces scrunched up with more worry. So he switched the topics.

“Back then I also had access to the inner mind, and the outer mind.” It was nice. He could shift between worlds, it was quite easy, and he was always safe… “but since so many bad things happened… Part of the forest burned down… You know nothing too bad.. Just the edges!” It was consumed by the same orange flames of Eclipse. Eclipse had done this to him, and had ruined their sweet innocence. Making the forest an ungainly place.

“And then we found you guys” And the flames died down… Finally a family that could care for him. ONe that wouldn’t judge him, or ridicule him for his childish behavior. They let him be free. They didn’t place expectations upon them. He was safe… “And we were safe…” they could play uno games. They could play with the kids. Sun and Moon would play with him. Moon would rock him to sleep. Sun would play make-believe. Monty would tease him just enough. “Until we died…”

“Then when we woke up… we were consumed by fear… and the fire spread… Manifestations started to pop up, but I ran from them…” Luz was too fast for them. He was brave, and he bolted. They couldn't stop him, the first manifestations were weak. They were slow, just some that looked like Eclipse. THreanting to fin Lunar and kill him, torture him, hurt him. “this is also around the time I was sealed away…” Lunar found no reason to keep a child with him. It wasn’t the time for it. Everything had changed. Moon died, and Nexus replaced him. Terra was there, but she was there but they were like patient and doctor… And SUn was sad. And Lunar couldn't do anything to stop it.  

“A little time later, the rest of the forest burned away… and I was stuck with my field and my home…” Luz can’t remember exactly when it was, but it happened. Memories blurred into one, and combined into an ugly mess.

He felt a finger wipe away his tears, he looked up to see Sun giving him a soft comforting smile. But he could tell he held sadness behind his eyes… Why was Sun sad…? “That sounds awful… I’m sorry that happened to you…” Sun whispered, Luz shook Sun’s hand off. He liked the touch but he needed to be brave. “You do sound like a brave kid,” Moon said softly, as he stuck out his fist. Lux returned the gesture, bumping it with his own fist. Moon pulled his hand back. Luz chuckled softly as Moon did the symbolic ‘explosion’ of a fist bump. “Would you like a hug?” Sun asked, and Luz’s eyes brightened up.

“Y-yes!” Luz stuttered, before crashing into to hug Sun. Sun enveloped him in a tight, but not too tight, hug. One that comforted him, and reminded him why he missed being little, and having his big brother there… Moon gave a pat on Luz’s back, and Luz felt his eyes start to sting. He couldn't cry… not right now… they were on adventure, and adventurers don’t cry!

Luz pulled back,as he sniffled, and turned away. Facing Orion,and grabbing his hand. He felt a little woozy at the moment, his head feeling light weight, after so much had been taken off his shoulders. He’d been waiting to get hugged for a while… “Let’s get back to adventuring… I don't want to keep you waiting!” Luz said, as he walked forward, and took Orion with him.

“It’s no problem Luz-”

Suddenly they heard soft groaning coming from dead ahead. It sounded distorted, and low, as if

“What’s that sound…?” Sun whimpered, his rays shrinking in on himself.

Orion pulled out a weapon, and shielded Luz with his body.

“Manifestions.”

Chapter Text

MANIFESTING WEAPONS

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING…

MANIFESTING…

FAILURE!

FAILURE!

FAILURE!

Moon heard the friends just try and send something, it sounded like weapons… “Did someone just try and send something?!" Moon exclaimed, as he looked around frantically, for the possible weapons. “Yeah! They wanted to send weapons…” Sun said, as he also looked around. He didn’t know how to use any weapons, but any sounded better than fighting with fists with these ‘manifestions’.

“I don’t really like weapons…” Luz whispered, he hated fighting. Weapons were destructive, it led to death. War was a dangerous thing. He backed up, running into his older brother’s legs. Not that he noticed, he was just afraid. His chest was pounding, remembering how the manifestations would corner him. Grab at him, try and tell him all the nasty truths that he couldn’t face.

“It’s okay, those weapons might’ve not been effective.” Orion said, his stance wide, and his daggers in his hands. Analyzing for any manifestations abusing them, but none had approached. It only came from one direction, and it didn’t seem to get any louder, it just stayed in one place. “Thank you for trying though…” Orion was glad at least their friends were trying to help… “Stay close Luz…” Orion ordered the smaller entity, who happily complied. “Yes Orion…”

Orion sifted his head, listening for any potential palace, but no. The dull whispers seemed to only be coming from one place, and it was ahead. “The noises… it seems to be coming from over here…” Orion pointed his daggers in that direction. “Are we just going to walk into danger…?!” Moon whispered and shouted,unaware if sound was something that could attract these beasts. He would rather not find out, and he would rather not walk straight into danger.“it’s better to get rid of them now…” Orion mumbled, it’s not like they would go away if they went around. It would stay, and it would pile up upon one another. Best to be rid of the small threat, then it becomes a large one.

Sun looked towards Luz, who was now physically shaking. His mechanical heart pounded as he got closer. But not by much, not wanting to scare the child. “Luz, is it okay if I carry you?” Sun asked, extending his arms, wanting to make sure he could run away with Luz, if he needed to. Orion could easily strike the manifestations down, but Luz was exposed.

Luz looked up, his eyes starting to tear up from everything, he reached out as well. “mhm…” He whispered,and Sun gladly scooped him up. His backpack was slightly heavy, but nothing that he couldn’t handle. He held Luz close to his chest, as Luz snuggled into the crook of the neck, not wanting to see the manifestations.

“Ready?” Orion mumbled, as he was ready to pounce. The older brothers nodded, and Luz squeezed his eyes shut, and hoped that his nightcap would muffle his hearing enough.

Orion took a grand leap into the clearing, and Moon and Sun followed

But instead of seeing a grand beast, composed of nightmares, that were undescribable.

Instead of seeing the things that cause Lunar the most

Instead of seeing monster

They saw the celestial family.

Chapter Text

"What…?” Sun looked in shock, as he stared at the imposters standing before them. They looked… wrong… everything looked wrong about the fake family. But it wasn’t the entire family… It was Sun, Moon, Terra, and Monty. Their head drooped down, and their eyes were a void that only showed black behind the eyes. The colors were dulled down, and resembled a shade of grey. And their mouths moved, but instead of talking, all they heard was whispering. “Is…that us…?” Moon murmured, in complete shock at what he was seeing.

Where were the manifestations?  

The fake family sure didn’t look like them…

But…

Were those things the manifestions…?

Orion slashed through one of them, but it just phased through them. “Huh?!” He grunted in surprise, he tried again, swinging his hand back with the dagger in his grasp. But it phased through once again. His breath started to pick up. “Why won’t you disappear!" Orion says growing frustrated, as he continues “My dagger just phased through them…” He tried again, and again.

It didn’t work.

No.

The manifestions…

Were they growing immune to his weaponry…?

Sun observed, eyes fixed upon “Woah, why do the manifestions… look like us?” Sun whispered out, and he could physically feel Luz tense. His joints stiffening, and head going rigid, his grip tightened, and suddenly he felt heavier. Sun had to adjust his grip on the smaller entity, as not to drop him.

Moon pointed to the one that looked like their baby sister. But they all knew it wasn’t, her eyes were black, and there were very clear eyeballs under them. ALong with the hair, that was usually a fluffy white, looked like stormy rain clouds. “That one looks like Terra.” Moon murmured, he was still trying to process what was in front of him.

Orion backed up, his weapons wouldn’t work on these manifestations. He expected them to attack, but they just stood in their place, unmoving, and only swayed, which was the only form of reaction. “Something is different about these manifestations.” Orion said, his voice had a slight shake to it. He hadn’t experienced these kinds of manifestations before. “They aren’t attacking…”

The twins were shocked, questions buzzing within their heads.

The fake family wasn’t attacking?

Why were they manifestations?

What was going on?

Luz whipped around as he looked at the manifestations himself. Orion… was right… something was wrong with them. They weren't attacking… The presence of Luz alone would be enough to make the manifestations aggressive, they should be trying to rip past Orion. They should’ve been crowding his older brothers. BUt they just stood, as if their feet had been frozen to the floor. He needed to get a closer look, even if he was scared. The thought of approaching the manifestations was enough to make him shake, but he needed to be brave. “Let me down, please!” He requested Sun, he leapt from his older brother’s hands. It wasn’t much of a struggle, Sun's grip had weakened…

Maybe it was because they were shocked at what they saw

The manifestations, the things that kept Lunar up, the things that made Lunar doubt himself… That they were all their faults… Maybe they hadn’t even understood that yet… Luz shook his head as he pushed those thoughts to the back of his head. He needed to focus. He approached Orion, gripping onto his cloak.

“I don’t know if it’s a facade…” Orion mumbled, not to anyone in particular. Maybe just to restate the facts he already knew. If weapons wouldn’t work, what would? Would they attack? Was Luz in danger?

Luz observed the manifestations,keeping his gaze away from their soulless eyes. That scared him the most, how they always managed to look so empty, but still carry the same level of disappointment, no matter where. Their gaze would always look at him like that. But then something caught his eyes, their feet, roots overgrew over their feet, and grounded them to the floor.

“Look at their feet Orion!” Luz exclaimed, pointing to the feet, Orion snapped his head in that direction. “They're rooted down…” Orion murmured, realizing that they were quite literally stuck. Rooted in the Dark Forest, as if the forest claimed it as one of its own. Nothing could move them, they were bolted to the ground,, maybe that was why they weren’t attacking… Wouldn’t they still be at least making attempts to grab at Luz…? These manifestations were like no other he had observed. “Other manifestations aren’t like that…”

Luz took a step closer, but Orion quickly grabbed him and pulled him back, watching the manifestations if they made any sudden moves. And they didn’t, they were as still as stones, beside from their mouths murmuring out whispers of the past. “Stay close Luz, just because they’re grounded, doesn't mean they won’t try and attack.” Orion warned the smaller entity, Luz looked up at his older brother and nodded.  

Moon stepped up, finally processing everything he was seeing. It was unbelievable, the Celestial family were the manifestations. What Orion claimed to be the things that haunted Cosmos’s mind! Why were they the bad guys?! “OKay, but why do they look like us?!” Moon exclaimed, anger creeping in along his voice. Kuz tensed, sensing the rising anger, his mind flashing back to how Moon used to act with the Killcode.

Orion noticed this, he stepped in front of the younger entity, blocking Moon’s sight from Luz. He should not get angry at an innocent bystander, he should not get angry at the inner child. After all it was their fault, not theirs. “Because you caused Lunar pain.” Orion said simply, as if he were stating the sky was blue, instead of accusing the Celestial family of harming the youngest brother.

Moon was furious, he seethed, he did not cause his youngest brother pain. “When have we ever done that?!”

Orion tilted his head, he was genuinely confused, but anger flushed through him. Were they really that oblivious to what they did to him? That all the damage they caused was because of them? That Lunar is in coma because they pushed him to go to a war that could never be won. “Do you really not know?” Orion said, his voice with hints of anger, it slowly rising, and bubbling to the surface. Orion pointed to the ‘fake’ Moon. “Why don’t you get closer.” If Moon didn’t believe him, he could hear for himself.

The damage they’ve caused was because of them.

Luz tugged at Orion’s cloak, panicking. He didn’t want his older brother to be hurt, by the manifestations or what Orion was saying. “Orion, don’t be mean!” Luz pleaded, Orion didn’t dare look down at the child. “No, they’ll hear it, they’ll hear everything you said, everything that haunts Lunar.” Orion gave an accusing glare to Moon. “Get closer.” He urged

Moon’s hands turned into fists, shaking, before agreeing. “Fine I will!” Moon walked to the manifestations, each step giving a hard ‘thump’ on the forest floor. His twin grabbed on his shoulder,sometimes trying to hold his destructive twin from doing some rash. “Moon, are you crazy!?” Sun exclaimed, Moon was not just going to walk up to the imposters, who could very much kill him. “They don’t seem to be attacking, I’ll be fine.” Moon grunted, pulling away.

“If you get killed, I swear-”

“I’ll be fine.”

Moon walked closer and closer to his doppelganger. It was unsettling, the void eyes, so he focused on the mouth of the faker. Each step he took he could hear the whispers, becoming more and more clear. They were actually forming words, it wasn’t just blabber.

‘You’re not mature enough’

‘One more simulation’

‘It won't hurt’

‘you need to control your emotions’

‘You need to leave'

‘You no longer live here.'

Moon went rigid, he… said all of that…? A noise escaped his mouth. “Oh…”He took a few steps back, suddenly wanting to run from this. Those were things he had said… He said to them all to Lunar. Was this the things that harmed Lunar, that wounded him deeply? He was just trying to help-

Orion arms were crossed, looking unimpressed, they had truly forgotten what they had said to Lunar all those years ago. They didn’t see it as anything big, but to Moon they were like a conviction. He was guilty, guilty, guilty. “You see?”

Moon tried to come to his defense, he was trying to Help Lunar. He hurt Terra, he was a danger to them all. He needed to get his emotions under control, what if he hurt one of the kids? That’s why Moon provided a solution, to fix everything! “But those weren’t- I didn’t mean it like that-”Moon stuttered, how do you convince the literal entities of your brother's mindspace, supposed to keep Lunar safe? But they view you as the enemy? “Lunar was out of control! He maimed Terra! You don’t just-”

“Shut. Up.” Orion’s voice was cold and sharp, Moon halted in his tracks. Shutting his mouth, he would just make things worse. “This is not your mindspace, Moon.” Orion said, Moon could try and defend himself as much as he wanted, but this wasn’t his Mindspace, his narrative was not the way Lunar viewed it. “You are not the judge around here. Lunar is.” And Lunar was in a coma.

“Then why-”

Moon tried to sneak one last thing, but Sun grabbed him, looking at him with tired eyes. “Moon, stop.” He didn’t know what Moon heard from the manifestations. But it didn’t look good. What did the other manifestations say, what else did they parrot?

Moon looked over at Luz, who stared at him, his pupils small, as he was shaking like a leaf. But this time without the older brothers comforting, he stared at them with fear. As if they were once of the cursed manifestations themselves. He reached for the kid, even though too far away to actually grab him. “Luz-”

Luz shook his head, hiding behind Orion, his voice weak. “No.” His voice was a whisper, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear. “I don’t want you to talk to me.” Luz didn’t want to see them right now. Why was there always so much fighting?  

“I’m sorry-” Moon tried.

“I said no, please don’t…” Luz whimpered, as he ribbed his face against Orion’s cloak, tear marks were left upon them. He felt guilty for doing so, but he knew Orion wouldn’t mind.

Orion turned, giving them the cold shoulder. The sooner they get to this 'entity' the sooner they would know where Cosmos was, and the sooner the twins could be out of their mindspace. They had no place, and everything would go back to normal. “We have to continue on. Luz, give me your backpack, I can carry it.” Orion offered, extending his hand to Luz. The child sniffled, before [passing on the bag full of things, but right before he took out Spigot. “Thank you…” He murmured.

Orion and Luz walked ahead, Luz staying close to Orion, and gripping onto his pants as they walked past the strange manifestations. Luz tried his ebay to ignore the whispers, he’s heard it all before, but it always hurt, like a new wound each time it was repeated.

Sun and Moon walked past the imposter family, and Sun heard a whisper of what his version of the manifestation said.  

‘They hurt Dazzle, you know what to do’

‘You’re a danger to us all’

Sun said those things… Did they haunt Lunar…? He got an idea of what they were looking at.

What they had done.

He looked at Moon relaxing the damage they had done, whether it was intentional or not. It clearly hurt Moon. It hurt him enough that literal monsters of themselves formed, and haunted Luz, the inner child Enough that Luz almost burst into tears just looking at Sun and Moon.

“What did we do…?”

Chapter Text

The questions rang out, each question setting the heat higher and higher, sending Moon to the point of boiling. “We did think about him!” He exclaimed loudly, Cosmos was his brother. H.e was a part of the family, so yes they did care. “Of course we did!” Saving Jack was his choice. “And his free week was his own choice, he was doing it for family, and family is important.” Family always came first, that’s a rule that everyone in their family followed, it was like an unspoken law, which everyone abided by.

Moon continued on, he remembered Cosmos who had come home, saying the news that his name had been changed. He seemed unsure at first, but that seemed normal especially if he was going to change his name after so long being called ‘Lunar’ so yes they did notice, but they thought that was expected!. “And his name, he seemed okay with his name being changed!” Cosmos was fine, he liked his name, they all remembered how they joke around about ‘dead naming’ him whenever they did call him Lunar. So everyone really did think he had moved on from his old name, his supposed deadname.

“We didn’t want him second doubting himself or anything.” Sun also tried to explain. He was fiddling with his hands, looking down at his feet. “So we just went along with it… We really thought he was okay with it…” They all did, which is why he told Dazzle to start calling him ‘Uncle Cosmos’ instead of Uncle Lunar. “From the way he said it, it was like a gift, and we didn’t want to change it.” he said it was a title given by the astrals, which only brought more importance to the fact

And that question about Terra, it was infuriating, sent Moon’s oil boiling. His little sister was being slandered. She had every right to be angry at Cosmos for what he did. He hurt her, he maimed her. And that was unforgivable! And she and she alone would decide when she wanted to forgive Cosmos for what he did. Whether that was in a 100 years, or a day, Cosmos did not deserve an apology from Terra. “And about Terra-”

“Stop fighting.” Luz's voice rang out, it was shaky, and weak, but everyone had heard it. “Luz?” Sun asked, realizing that he’d been yelling and Luz was listening to all of it. He immediately felt shame and regret start to stack up. Yelling in front of a child, telling him things he couldn’t be hearing. Luz was the inner child, he knew all their struggles, and he didn’t think of it the same way Moon and Sun did. Orion was right, they were not the judge of the realm, and yet they still tried to get it to agree to what they thought, and said.

Luz loved his older brothers, but Sun crying out to him made something in him crack, he couldn’t take anymore of this bickering. This going back and forth, this endless blame game. Even though everyone knew who’s fault. “Stop it! Fighting won’t help the Lunar!” He continued on. The twins saw the back of the small Lunar bot, as they watched him. He stopped walking, and was now standing still. His fists clenching into a small fist, he hated them fighting so much. Why were they fighting? It wouldn’t help, yelling at each other wouldn’t help. “So please just stop.”

He forced his feet to keep walking, each step shaky and uncertain. His body swayed, the world spinning around him. Why must anything good that happens always lead to something bad? His friends were making the situation worse, as well. They didn’t do it out of malice, they were just worried for him, for Orion, for Lunar… But them being mean… won’t help…“That means you too, friends.” Luz whispered, his voice sounding hollow. “Don’t start fights, it’s not nice…”

Orion could understand the sudden shift in the inner child’s demeanor, it was frightening how his attitude had just flipped on a dime. The second a fight broke out, Luz’s energy disappeared, Orion knew the child had depressive episodes, but he’s never seen it happen this quickly. He would’ve gotten rid of the problem… But he knew that would only send Luz a downward spiral. And that’s the last thing Luz needed, so instead he offered comfort.

He walked in front of Luz, and crouched down. He could tell from the corner of his eye that the twins were looking at him, uneasy. As if they were expecting him to ask luz to decide a fate for them, which he would be doing, but he knew it was an unwise decision. “Luz… are you okay…?” He whispered.

“I’m so tired…” Luz’s voice sounded of utter defeat, like a mask of innocence that had been broken. Too tired to pretend to be cheery, for the cruel world they had been set in had beaten and broken them down. “Why are they fighting…?” Luz mumbled, as he rested his head against Orion’s chest.

“Take a break, I will guard you…” Orion said, as he picked Luz up. Orion could feel Luz relax, and melt into the touch, as his breath evened out, and he slowly went to sleep.

The thank you was left unsaid, but it lingered in the air.

They continued to trek on.

Luz will no longer be answering questions.  

Chapter Text

Orion hummed in response, he was glad they were apologizing. “Thank you, for your apology.” He said, as he felt the steady rise and fall of Luz’s body against his. “I know that you have Lunar’s best intentions at heart…” They had so bravely defended him, even if it did break out in an argument. They were all questions that had rattled inside Lunar's mind. He would question himself if he was in the right or the wrong. He was his own worst enemy, always doubting himself, and excusing other’s behaviors. “It’s just I’ve never seen Luz shut down like that…” Orion looked down, to see the fuzzy cap of Luz, the stars still shimmered ever so faintly. Luz would have depressive episodes, but they were when Orion had to be out. He was constantly fighting manifestations, while Luz stayed at home. Orion wished he could be there, right at Luz’s side, but he couldn't. “It worries me…” He stroked the hate, flattening out the fabric, making it smooth, and silky to the touch.  

Moon looked down ashamed, Luz had already told them to calm down, when they saw the manifestations of themselves. But then the next thing that he did was start another fight. It was a mixture of frustration and fear. Frustration that they hadn’t found Lunar yet, and fear that they were the ones who had caused so much damage. “We shouldn’t have acted like that…” Sun said.

“I acted brash, and violent…” Moon confessed, he had acted like such an idiot. He acted like Killcode, or old Eclipse would’ve done. And Luz was the literal impersonification of that time period. Where he was nothing but a child, nothing but innocent child-like wonder. When had Cosmos changed into an adult? “No wonder Luz was triggered…”

Sun swore he wouldn’t let that happen again “We promise to try and act more rationally, we understand that now…” Moon nodded his head, he’d try his best to keep his temper in check. He then noticed that Orion seemed to be slightly struggling with carrying Luz and the backpack, so he offered a helping hand. “Orion, do you need help carrying Luz’s backpack?”

“Yes…” Orion said slowly, uneasy, as if admitting he needed help was a sign of weakness.

Orion slipped off the backpack, and Moon grabbed it, he slinged it over his shoulder. Carrying it carefully, as not to break anything that would be inside. While Orion carried the precious cargo that rested upon his chest

Chapter Text

Now looking back, it almost seemed so obvious that there were problems boiling under the surface. But they hadn’t noticed it, caught up in the moment that Jack would be saved soon, and Lunar would be leave soon. He had that talk with Eclipse, and he talked with Terra. So they thought everything had been solved and that the problem would stay in the past. It was clear from the manifestations that this was not the case. It could’ve been further from the truth. “We thought he had solved all of them before he went…” Lunar seemed so confident when Truas had come to pick him up, everyone believed him. “We didn’t know he was suffering…”

Sun hummed in continuation of the question that followed. It really was the same thing that Moon thought, they had just considered that Lunar would be content with a new life, not really thinking about what would happen during the time. That Jack would’ve been saved and Lunar would move out. Did the astrals even have a form of therapy? Did they have someone safe to go to? Gemini seemed to hate Lunar, and Turaus seemed to be more of a mentor than a friend. “I-I don’t know, it didn’t come to mind when he went… He just seemed content with his choice!”

The only thing they could say was:

“We didn’t know.”

Chapter Text

“Really?!” Sun exclaimed, the voices could help them on their mission of finding Cosmos! Or just provide some helpful insight that they could use. “Do you know what happened to Lunar in the past?” Sun asked, hoping to get information about Lunar's space adventures. “Wait, wait, do you guys have a preferred name or something?” Sun backtracked, he wanted to know their actual name, so far they had referred to the voices… as well… ‘the voices’ and sometimes ‘friends’

“Are there multiple of you?” Moon chimed in, they always seemed to have different tones with them, different pitches in the voices. “Becuase you have the impression of multiple entities watching over us…” which was not creepy at all…

“And who is… the one ‘above us’ are you talking like a deity or something…?” Moon continued to question, so there must be someone above them in this power dynamic? Is there a host of mindspace? Like Lunar was he the one? But Lunar was unconscious and in an unknown place? So who would it be? ‘“The host of the mindspace?”

Another question popped into Sun’s head. “What is the extent of your power?” He asked, so far it seemed like they could just see them, and communicate to them, providing information that no one knew. They knew so much more, and were revealing more than Orion and Luz. Who just seemed to be ignoring the problem, whether it was because they didn’t care for it , or they could not handle the mental strain. “Can you just see… and talk?”

Finally Orion spoke up, what’s been rattling in his mind since the beginning, since they revealed themselves to Orion and Luz. If they had been there forever, why were they now showing up? Why now when everything felt like it was falling apart? ”Where have you been all this time?” Orion asked, his voice crackling ever so slightly. He felt the steady breaths of Luz against him, grounding him. For his little brother, he will keep calm, he will continue on. “Why here, why now have you shown up to help us?”

Chapter Text

MY FAVORITE LUNAR ANGST FICS?! YES I WILL BE LISTING THEM OFF!!!!

Goodnight Travel Well by LuxaraOwO THIS FICTION IS PEAKKKK!!!!! I LOVE YOUR WORK *consumes*

Literally any of Awakeformyfuneral especially their series ‘Esmeray’ but absolute favorite, I love war torn Lunar/Cosmos, it’s some I absolutely crave and need more fics for it

Then another work I’m working on with Oh_Fiddlesticks it’s called ‘Restart, Reboot, Revive’ yeah we kinda need to work on that… BUT DON’T WORRY IT’LL PEAK! WE HAVE IDEAS ON THAT!

Then one of my mutual friends Sabronda made a fic called ‘Moldy Lunar gets a bath’ which is peak character analysis. She did a wonderful job.

And my other mutual Dreamy_Mirastone who made other lovely fic, my favorite being 'Fix' I love it. 

GO CHECK THOSE OUT!!!!

Chapter Text

Moon froze when he heard that, his mind starting to race. “Could’ve… still… be a child…?” he said it out loud, it sounded strange and foreign on his tongue. No way, there was no chance of Lunar being a child. He rejected that idea, so much. He absolutely despised it. Right?

 “No, no, no!” Moon said out loud. “Lunar said that he was older now!” Moon explained, his voice slowly rising. He did this unconsciously as he searched his memory. What had happened when Nexus and Sun were his older brothers. He got bits and pieces from Nexus’s memories, but it was never a full picture. What happened with Lunar when he died, and by the time he went back.

Sun piped in, he remembered how Lunar would scold them all for all, treating him like a child. “He hated being coddled, and babied!” Sun's voice raised unconsciously, he was so surprised by this outlandish claim…. But maybe not so outlandish…? Did Lunar think they wanted him to be older…? Did they show any signs of that? Did they really force him? “He took on more responsibilities! He insisted-”

“Be quiet.” Orion hissed, as Luz started to tense up in his sleep. Luz could sense the panic starting to rise in between the twins. The last thing they needed was for them to question this. It would cause more disturbances, it would only cause Luz to panic more at the fighting. What would happen when the truth is revealed to the twins. That so many things were buried because of them. Whole memories bloated out to just cope with the amount of abuse, the amount of violence Lunar’s been on for years. They knew the small things, they had a bad reaction, but whole memories, buried because of trauma alone…? Their outburst…

“You’re disturbing Luz…” Orion grumbled, as he rocked Luz, trying to edge him away from the land of the conscious. The more he slept the more he would be safe from the problems that disturbed Lunar. Luz eventually settled down, perhaps the kiss that was sent helped him...

“Sorry.” The twins quickly apologized.

They sat alone with their thoughts

Chapter Text

Orion heard the voices, his face crunched up in confusion, unsure if they were joking or if there was truly a being called ‘Clown’ it sounded ridiculous, as if a joke was being played on him. He did not find this amusing in the slightest. “What do you mean Clown…?” But the ‘higher being’ caught his interest, though some part seemed to have been sielnced… Which was strange, perhaps they misspoke? “So… there’s a higher being…?” Orion asked, slightly tilting his head. “That doesn’t even make sense…” Who else would have access to the mindspace other than Lunar himself, some other entity knowing all thoughts, fears, and past dreams of Lunar…? It was slightly disturbing…

Moon also listened in, and the way their friends described it sounded quite strange, definitely a complicated, but somehow a simple straight forward method…? “So ‘the one above us’ is able for you to communicate with us…?” like a god of some sort? “And you are uncertain if you can contact the outside world.” Moon hummed, fidgeted with the cuff of his sweater. He wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing… On one hand they would be able to inform the family members how they were doing, on the other… everyone would totally freak out with these semi omnipotent beings.

“And your power is limited…” Sun added on, the twins had already suspected that. WIth how eager they seem to want to help Lunar, they would’ve given the coordinates away in a heartbeat. “And apparently there’s more than one of you…” Which they also suspected but now they had confirmation. They really were that many people watching them… Kind of creepy…  

Chapter Text

They had been walking for a while, in total silence, it was silent but a somewhat comfortable silence. No one had anything to say, and everyone was focused in one finding Lunar. But they came to a small clearing. Barely enough for any of them to fit, but there in the center like a rusted figure. One that was slouching, and crumpled in on themselves. Around this one particular person's head was a halo of rays. Some of them completely rusted off, others just barely there. They may have been once shiny, new, sharp, but they were nothing but rusted and dulled down now.

The figure looked so familiar, it was on the tip of their tongues. Orion on the other hand didn’t even seem to have noticed, he trekked on with the child in his hands. His grip seemed to tighten ever so slightly on the small figure. But as Orion marched past, the twins could not help but look at the broken figure that laid before them.

Sun was the first one to speak up, recognition sparking in his eyes. He knew who it was. It had haunted him so long ago, but now seemed like nothing but a bad thought, one that drifted so very far away, hauntings of the past. “Is that…?” He was hesitant at first, unsure if he should say it aloud. “Is that Eclipse?” Sun finally whispered.

Moon realized Sun was right, it was Eclipse… An older model of Eclipse… Still very much in that phase where he was just the glow in the dark Sun… The once gold color was a rusted orange, but the similarism was still there. “Oldder version of Eclipse.. He’s clearly rotted, and rusted…” Moon said, almost pitying whatever was left of this manifestation. “He’s almost completely broken down…” Sun said “And he’s got the roots almost completely entrapping him..” they looked down at the lower body, almost completely engulfed in the forest.

“Orion…?” Moon turned to the tired entity. Who seemed to be running from the scene of the crime. He froze when he heard Moon cry his name out. He knew he wanted an explanation for why Eclipse remained, but there really was no reason. Other than it was a relic of past times, back when times were simpler, and the villain was always so clear and in front of your face.

Orion did not dare turn around, if Luz woke up it would frighten him. “Very first manifestation.” That’;s what Luz told him, the thing that terrorized the inner child back when the forest was green and lush with growth. He brought the flames, and the end of Lunar’s innocence.

“He’s old… Lunar’s gotten over his fear of Eclipse.” Once Lunar visited Eclipse back in his new dimension. Lunar felt jealous, Eclipse had started a new family, he adopted kids, why did Eclipse love them, but never did love him? What made them so different? Lunar just wanted a brother, someone to care for him, and he was pushed to the side, a pawn in a game. Lunar left that dimension, not with fear, but with utter disgust, at himself. His fear seemed so irrational now, Eclipse was only a husk of his former self. He had no power over Lunar any longer. The night-model was no longer scared of Eclipse. Perhaps his family was right, he did over-exaggerate his fear, his trauma. Things got blurry when he tried to remember things back then.

“But replaced with newer ones, ones that hurt a whole lot more.” Family members that knew just the right words. Knew which ones would cut deep, they knew him so well, knew his inner fears. Then other fears, but they usually were in the outer mind, the mindscape, where he was conscious, always aware of the danger that lurked in every shadow, and every corner. “He’s nothing but a bad dream…” compared to the nightmares that formed, and were very much an actual threat.

Moon and Sun got slightly closer, they could hear the voicebox crackling. As the manifestation still tried to make threats. Ones that would fall upon deaf ears. He was no longer feared.

‘I w!ll b-br3@k y0u’

Eclipse abused Lunar

‘N-n0 0n3 l0^3z y0u’

Which was something Eclipse said to Lunar

‘Y0u @r3 n0th!ng but @ t0-0l’

Why Lunar was made

‘N0 0n3 w!ll 3^3r b3-3l!v3- y0u’

…belive what?

“His voice box still seems to work…” Sun whispered, as they deferred whatever Eclipse was saying. They sounded like pathetic excuses for a threat. His voice was so ld and glitched out, that they could barely make out what he was saying, “Just an old fear, nothing that can hurt him now.” Orion mumbled.

Because Lunar knew there were bigger threats. Ones that could hurt him. Ones that had hurt him.

They continued to walk on in silence. The celestial twins trying to process the existence of Eclipse. He was so rusted down… he could have easily been killed… Just a dying fear… One that would be completely engulfed by the dark forest, and nothing would be left of it. The only proof of its existence would be the residents who held onto the old memories.

But they didn’t realize how the trees started to dwindle in numbers, how it became easier to walk. Once they looked up, instead of seeing a forest with burnt trees crowding every corner of their sight. They saw a barren wasteland, and in the far distance, a black line that stretched across for miles.

“What… what is that…?” Sun whispered out.

And Orion responded.

“It’s the end of the forest…”

Chapter Text

The day started to break in the outer world, and Monty and Solar were monitoring their family members. The body was hollow of any consciousness, since it was currently hooked up into Cosmos’s mindscape. They had remained vigilant that entire time. Yes Monty and Solar were sore, and their eyes had been drooping, but coffee was invented for a reason.

They chugged down around three cups already. Though Monty had to drink more, due to him actually having a sleep schedule, while Solar not needing as much offense, due to his sleep insomnia. Terra walked downstairs, two cups of freshly made coffee in her hand. She could hardly sleep, each time she attempted, her stomach felt hollow, while her mind rushed in with horrible scenarios.

What if she lost Sun and Moon?

What if the backups didn’t work?

What if Cosmos was truly gone?

What if

What if

What if

That was all she could think about. So instead she cleaned up bits of the house, and was the one that kept making coffee for her brother, and her lover. She didn’t know what was the best way to help, but giving them drinks seemed to be the best course of action. She hated feeling useless, especially when her family members had a possibility of not waking up.

Once she reached the bottom step, as she walked, her footsteps were light and soft on the carpet. She observed as Monty and Solar were hunched over their computers, whether it was from exhaustion or them analyzing the code, she didn’t know. She gently set the cups down right next to them, “How are they?” Terra asked softly. Monty was the first one who responded, awakening at the sound of their wife. “They’re pretty stable… Nothing seems wrong…” Monty says, comforting his wife. They truly were one the best things to ever have happened to him. Solar looks up, “If something does occur, their back up will immediately wake up in their body.” the solar model said, trying to comfort his younger sister. Even if their current versions did end up dying in the Cosmos's mindscape, they already had backups.

Even with his attempt to console her, Terra's frown still stayed. “I hope everything is okay…” Terra murmured. Monty caressed her cheek, and Terra melted into the touch. "We all do…” He planted a kiss on her forehead. While Solar turned away from the intimate scene.  

Terra eventually pulled away, deciding that was enough of their time that she was going to waste. It was around 6:00 so the kids should be waking up soon enough. She might as well make them breakfast, she knew that Dazzle would need to pick me up. “I’ll go make breakfast for the kids.” Terra said, while collecting the empty coffee cups that they had drank an hour earlier. “Okay, babe.” Monty nodded, he wished he could cheer his wife up some more. But he had to monitor Sun and Moon's consciousness. “Love you.” Terra said cheerfully, as she started to head up the stairs. “Love ya too!” Monty said before Terra disappeared upstairs.

First Terra washed the cups, the cuffs of her sweater slightly getting wet. But it quickly dried off. She then looked in the pantry, looking for something to whip up, her eyes landing on a pancake mixture. Some pancakes, with butter, and syrup seemed like a good option. She grabbed the largest bowl, and put the milk in the mixture. The mixture quickly turned from a liquid to a solid. So Terra started up the stove, and placed a pan on top, with cooking spray. Before grabbing a measuring cup, scooping some of the batter, before pouring it into the pan. She managed to put five pancakes before the pan was too full. She waited and flipped them once it was ready.

She made twenty more pancakes, before she heard some footsteps walking down stairs. She turned around, and there she saw Dazzle, she was already, and had her play clothes on. Jack came down as well, apparently he had decided to sleep upstairs to comfort her. But Must Molten just stayed upstairs, he stayed on the chairs supervising the rooms. He said that he didn't need sleep, and much rather guard the family than rest. “Good morning!” Terra said, putting on a cheerful voice, even if she didn't feel all too cheerful herself. She couldn't show how she was feeling to the kids, especially to Dazzle. who was worried for her dad.

“Morning Aunt Terra.” Dazzle said, as she pulled up a seat to the bar. Jack sat down right next to her, his feet and arms on the chair, much like how a cat would sit. “GoOoD MorNInG!” Jack greeted, waving vigorously. Terra looked towards Molten, who just stared at her before saying: “Hello.”

Jack's eyes quickly found its way to the pancakes that Terra had made. He happily stimmed, flaying his hands up and down.“OoOooH Special brEaKFaSt, with pAnCAkeS?” Jack exclaimed. Terra nodded, before serving pancakes. She gave extra pancakes to Dazzle, who looked up, and smiled for the first time today. Her eyes glimmered when she saw the food. “Thank you Aunt Terra!” She said graciously.

Jack examined Dazzle’s plate “No SPoNgES?” Jack asked in a teasing way, which got a giggle out of Dazzle, Jack smiled bright, proud he made the fawn laugh. “I have a special plate for you, Jack.” Terra said, as she set a plate down, with sponges on top of the pancakes, with syrup drizzling. “THIS IS WHY YOU'RE MY FAVORITE AUNT!" Jack exclaimed happily, Terra didn’t point out that she was his only aunt.

Dazzle looked up towards Terra, her eyes wide and big. Her mind is thinking back to what her dad said last night before dinner.

‘I need to go help Uncle Cosmos, okay?’

‘Why are you going?’

‘Because we think your Uncle is dreaming, and can’t wake up.’

‘Oh, have you tried tickling him?’

‘We’ve tried everything, even tickling him.’

‘Oh, he really must be asleep’

‘Yes, that’s why i have to go in his dream and help him’

‘Will you be okay?’

‘It should be safe, but I just wanted to tell you before I went.’

‘How long will it take? Will you be back for bed time?’

‘No, I won’t, but Aunite Terra will tuck you in, okay?’

‘Okay…’

‘Love you dad’

‘Love you too, Dazzle’

“Is dad okay?” She asked, Terra tried not to frown. For she was unsure of the answer herself. “Everything seems to be okay so far! He’ll be back soon, okay doedrop?” Terra said, trying to reassure her niece. Cosmos had been the one who instated the nickname ‘doedrop’ which was now something everyone used for the little deer. Dazzle quite liked the nickname, it made her sound like a candy! “OKay…” She finally said, before picking up the fork and knife, Terra had given her to cut the pancakes.

“Do NoT WoRrY DAzzLE!” Jack said proudly, putting his hand on where his heart should be. “My FaTHEr wIlLL kEeP thEm SAFE!” He knew his dad would do his best! Solar was the best at everything technology, so she knew that Moon and Sun would be safe!

“I know, I’m just still worried.” Dazzle said, before she took a bite of her pancakes, she kicked her feet in delight once the flavor hit her tongue. “If he doesn’t get back, he won’t kiss me goodnight!” Dazzle said, Sun always kissed her goodnight, even before he went away to help Uncle Cosmos, he gave her a kiss for the night.

Dazzle’s hope helped spark some of Terra’s own. She smiled back at the deer. “I’m sure he’ll be back before then, but if he isn’t I can tuck you in.” Just like how she did the night before. Dazzle tried her best not to frown, she liked the way her dad tucked her in for the night. He would lay her in bed, before then covering her in blankets, and then making the blanket all cozy, by scrunching it up, so it fit her perfectly! “Hmph.” Was all she responded to.

“Is CoSmoS OkaY!?” Jack asked, his mouth full of pancakes and sponges, but Terra was much too tired to scold him on talking with his mouth full. “We really can’t say, but we’re all hoping he is.” Terra said, her stomach did flips whenever she thought about Cosmos, how weak and frail he looked, he looked like he could shatter if someone simply touched him the wrong way.

Molten finally spoke up. “I can tell, he is still in there.” He said simply, Terra looked down, and saw all his pancakes gone. She was quite impressed, he ate quickly. “Wow, how can you!? You have like super power, Molten?” Dazzle asked, stimming her hands in excitement. Molten having a super power would be so cool! “No, but I can feel it.” Molten simply responded. “In your heart?!” Dazzle squealed.  

“No, in my centralized processing center.” Well that was a dull answer, and clearly not one that Dazzle was expecting her excitement vanished in an instant. “Oh…” Not as cool as super powers.  

They continued to talk as the clock ticked on, Terra watched as her nephews eat her pancakes. They continued to talk, the conversation slowly shifted from Sun and Moon, to what they wanted to do for the day. Dazzle said she wanted to go to the park. And while Terra wanted to stay at home, so she could get immediate updates on her brothers, she also didn't want the kids to be cooped up all day. So she agreed.

She just hoped her family was okay.

They stared at the landscape before them. Orion could feel Luz’s chest rise and fall. Orion needed to wake up the kid, so he was alert and ready, in case of any attack. Besides, Luz would like the new landscape, even if it was dry and barren. Luz would somehow make it interesting. “Luz…” Orion said softly, as he patted Luz’s back. The kid started to stir, his body tensing, and his eyes squeezed shut, before slowly fluttering open. “Wake up…” Orion said, before Luz could drift back off to sleep.  

Luz looked up at Orion, eyes bleary with sleep. “Yeah…?” Luz murmured, his voice slightly dry. “Hey, Lu…” Prion said softly, so only Luz could hear his nickname. “We’ve made it…” Luz rubbed at his eyes, scaring away the sleep. “To the edge?” Luz murmured, as he started to look around. His eyes focused on the landscape.

“Yep, to the edge.” Orion confirmed. Luz watched in amazement, there were so many trees that it was surprising to see just land, with nothing obscuring his view. Sure the land was… not all that too pleasing to look at. The ground was plain and cracked, sort of like a desert. “Woah…” Luz said amazed, Orion smiled, glad he could surprise Luz with something.

Luz quickly scrambled from Orion’s arms, the dark entity, let down the “I need to take a picture!” Luz announced he wanted to keep this landscape forever immortalized as a picture. Luz looked at Orion, who did not have his backpack. Where’d it go?! “Where’s my backpack?!” Orion asked, starting to look around, where was it?! He looked down at Orion’s feet, not there. Looked behind Orion, not there!

Moon stepped up, before taking off the backpack, and holding it to Luz. “I have it.” They said, offering a kind smile. Luz looked at him, wondering why they had it. Before remembering his tantrum he threw, his cheeks flushed, not it seemed like he overreacted, like he always did. He wished he hadn’t acted like that. “Okay! Thank you!” Luz simply says, as he quickly takes it away, before turning around to his embarrassed face.

Luz took a breath, before looking for what he needed, which was his camera. “I need my camera!” he announced, he gently took his stuffed animals out of the pack, before grabbing the camera at the bottom. He flicked it on, as he looked through the lens. “It’s not the brightest land… but it’s still cool!” Luz said, before snapping a picture. The camera whirred as it processed the photo. “Never seen anything beyond the Dark Forest!” The camera popped out a photo, which Luz looked at, and beamed happily. “Let’s go!” Luz said, slinging the backpack over his shoulder, and running off.

Everyone chased after him

Luz looked down at the ground, kicked at it, dust flew up, and he coughed. “Very dry…” Luz noted, he was like a researcher! Discovering different lands, if only he had a pen and paper to document his discoveries! Then he’d be like a real scientist. “Hmmm…” He continued to look around, but it was barren. “Be careful Lu, we don’t know what dangers there are.” Orion warned, keeping his eye on Luz, but also glancing away every so often for potential danger. “But it’s like an adventure!" Luz exclaimed

Sun looked ahead, the ravine being so close yet so far. Another step closer to Cosmos, but not close enough. “Hopefully we get there soon…” Sun said, looking around, dust picking up, and getting in his shoes. “What if we run towards the ravine?” Luz suggested, he was just bursting full of energy, then nap rejuvenated all the lost energy he had. “There might be manifestations here, or a different form of manifestation, Luz.” Orion cautioned, that’s why they were going so slow. Orion could’ve easily gotten to the ravine, but unknown territory meant unknown dangers. “

I agree, slow and steady.” Moon said, adding onto what Orion said. Luz popped up at the familiar saying, he remembered that Lunar had heard it back when he was at the daycare! “Like the turtle and the rabbit?!” He exclaimed happily, one of the simple, but sweet tales that he knew. “Yes, just like the turtle on the rabbit.” Moon nodded, smiling at the burst of energy.

They continued to talk, Luz started playing ‘eye spy’ but it was pretty hard to play when there was nothing but literal dust everywhere. So Moon suggested they switch to ‘tic tac toe’ but they had no paper. And when they tried keeping score in their head, Luz quickly got confused. Sun then suggested they played sticks, which Moon completely dominated at, but he did let Luz win a few times. Orion remained a vigilante, searching for any potential danger.

It took them a while but they finally reached the edge of the ravine. Luz looked down, the nothingness stretched on and on. “Wow! Look at the ravine!” Luz booed, as he bent over to get a better look. But eventually settled on looking at it by laying on his stomach, and gripping the edges. “It’s so deep…” Sun shuddered, if they fell from here it would surely kill them.

Moon smirked, unable to stop himself from doing something stupid, and rash. “I wonder if it can echo!” Luz looked up, his eyes shimmering, as if he were daring Moon to do so. And Moon was going to do it anyway. “ECHOO” He yelled. And the sound bounced off the walls of the ravine, his voice carrying throughout the ravine.

Luz did an excited shake, as he whispered,“Hey it can!” Luz smirked up towards Moon. “Watch this...” Luz took a deep breath, before making a bird noise “CAW CAW CAW!!!!” Luz yelled as loud as he could. The bird cried, filled the ravine, it echoed, and bounced, until it slowly faded away. Luz happily stimmed, shaking his hands, and kicking his feet.

Sun screamed next. “WOOO!” He threw his hands up while doing this, wanting to get involved in the shenanigans. The cheer echoed, before fading. Sun laughed at how childish it was. “Really, that’s the best you got?” Moon rolled his “Hey, didn’t know this was a competition!” “It’s always a competition, Moon!” “Ha.” “Sure thing kid.”

Luz peered down, a faint light catching his eyes. They looked like lanterns, or candles with a flickering flame. “Woah.. I can see dim lights…” Luz ooed, squinted his eyes to get a better look.They definitely were little lights… what was down there…? Was it like a fire? Or a house? “I wonder what that is…” Luz said, starting to lean to far over the edge

Orion reacted almost immediately, he lunged forward for Luz, outstretching his arm, “Luz, careful-” He tried to say, but gravity was quicker, Luz’s body went toppling over the ravine. Orion's eyes widened in horror, as he watched his brother fall in the darkness.

Luz screamed out, unsure of what had happened, one moment he was with his family, the next the darkness was consuming him. He tried to turn back,as if to turn back time itself. But he couldn’t, he looked at his brother, and he outstretched his hand to them. As if they could reach him if they wished hard enough. But that wasn’t going to happen. Luz watched as his brother became smaller and smaller, like stick figures, before they were no longer visible.

Luz shut his eyes, and covered it, like it was a bad movie, and the scene would soon go away, but it was hard to believe when the wind screamed in your ear, and your older brother screamed back.

Orion was about to jump, outstretching his arms. “LUZ!” He screamed, he took a leap, before hands grabbed him, pulling him back onto solid ground, the one place Luz was not.  

Sun was the first one to react, grabbing Orion, and holding him against his chest. Orion screamed, and thrashed and kicked. Moon joined him holding Orion back. “Don’t just go after him!” Sun urged, Orion may know how to fight, but he was surprisingly light, but that didn’t mean he didn’t put up a fight. “BUT HE’S FALLING!” Orion screamed, as he continued to try to claw at them, so they would let him go after Luz.

“SO WILL YOU!” Moon screamed back. He couldn’t help Luz, he couldn’t, but he could still help Orion,and jumping off a cliff would surely kill him. Then their efforts would’ve been in vain. Cosmos would be dead, consciously, and subconsciously.  

A ‘thud’ echoed throughout the ravine, as it went deathly silent. “LUZ!?” Orion screamed frantically, as he finally shoved Moon and Sun away. “LUZ!?” He screamed louder, his voice turning more into a screech. “PLEASE ANSWER ME!” The darker entity’s mind was already filling up with gruesome pictures of Luz’s tiny mangled body. Dead. All because he let his guard down, dead, because he couldn’t do the one job assigned to him. “LUZ!” He could feel tears starting to form in the corner of his eyes.

“I’M OKAY!” Luz yelled. The echo bounced off the walls, but it was enough for Orion. “Oh thank you, goodness…” He breathed out. Wiping tears away, his heart, if he had one, would’ve soared. Uz was alive… but was he okay…? “ARE YOU OKAY!?” Orion yelled. “Mmmm.. Yeah…?” Luz said, but it was unconvincing, before Orion could shoot another question Luz added onto his statement “my head hurts, but I’m still okay…”

Orion looked at the wall of the ravine, it was smooth, but he could find foot holders, he needed to get down to Luz immediately. Assess the damage, it would be harder for Luz to see any real injuries. “I’m coming down!” He said, as he gripped the sides of the ravine wall. Moon and SUn physically jumped, as they grabbed at his wrists. Orion was about to snap at them, he was not a child that needed to be taken care of.  

But what stopped him was Luz screaming “NO!” Orion froze. “You might get hurt Orion!” Luz said with an exasperated tone. And Orion couldn’t do anything but listen to his brother’s pleas.

Moon pulled at Orion’s hand. “Listen to the kid!” Moon begged, he had no idea how Luz got down there, but Orion may not be so lucky. “Please, we can find a better way!” Sun added on. Orion shook, with frustration. “...Fine.” He gave a shaky breath out. He quickly concocted up a new plan, one that could work for everyone. “Okay, Luz, We’ll continue walking along the ravine, until we find a better place to climb down, and you can follow us down there.” Orion concluded, that was simple, they could continue talking with Luz, make sure he’s there, and everything would be okay!

They could faintly hear Luz grunt, before saying, “Uhhh… I can’t…” Luz said softly, as if embarrassed. “Why can’t you!?” Orion exclaimed. Sun and Moon eyed each other worriedly. “I got stuck in between some rocks.” Luz chuckled out awkwardly. “But I’m not hurt! I promise!” He quickly added, as if he could sense the panic bubble and boil underneath Orion’s skin.  

Orion took a deep breath. It wasn’t Luz’s fault he got stuck, it was his fault because he wasn't paying enough attention. Now whatever monsters, or manifestations, or whatever this screwed mind had, could now attack Luz. He was completely and utterly vulnerable, he couldn’t even run! “Okay…” Orion said as calmly as possible, as if he didn’t feel like spiraling. “Try and be quiet Luz, don’t touch anything that is unfamiliar, we’ll be right there.” he had to stay calm, it would keep Luz calm, and he wouldn’t panic as badly.

“Don’t worry kid, we’ll be there soon enough!” Moon added in his own little way of comforting people. He knew that Orion was panicking, he could see the look of panic, and worry grow in his eyes. And who wouldn't? This mindspace was filled with treacheries that were unknown. “Yeah! And I have your things all safe!” Sun exclaimed, gripping tighter onto the backpack, as if it was his sacred job to keep Luz’s things safe.

“Thanks, you guys!” Luz said.

Orion walked ahead of the twins, his hands clenched in a fist. Moon and Sun watched cautiously, as if he was going to jump at them at any moment. They could feel the inner turmoil from here, it was a silent storm that raged. Sun took a shaky breath, he walked a little quicker, so he could reach Orion. “Look Orion, it’s not your fault-” He tried to say, extending his hand, to grab his shoulder.

Orion snapped back, his whole body doing a 180, Sun flinched back at the sudden movement. The rage in Orion’s eyes was undeniable. “Of course it’s my fault! I should’ve been there!” Orion roared, Sun’s rays physically hid in his head. Moon caught up with them two, surprised at Orion’s sudden burst of anger. “I should’ve known he would’ve fallen down!” Orion continued to say, “Now Luz is at the bottom of the ravine, and scared for his life!” Orion panted angrily, his eyes narrowed. “Orion, look, I’m sure he’ll be okay… maybe he’ll run into this third entity.” Moon tried to argue, but that was probably the wrong move.

Orion seethed. “what if the third entity actually means harm?!” Orion said, his fists wanting to punch something, wanting to channel his anger into. “What if they hurt Luz!?” This new entity was a whole new problem, sure they’ve helped in the past, but what's stopping them from hurting Luz now!?

Sun stepped in, clearly seeing the paranoia seeping into Orion, completely consuming him. “But what if they help Luz?” Sun asked, “What if they keep him safe, until you arrive…?” Moon added on, he could see the anger cool, before Orion snapped the other way around, continuing to walk “Shut up. And continue walking…” Orion walked in strides, his hands held at his sides, and his cape hid how his fists continued to shake.

They continued walking, the pace quickened. Sun’s mind flashed to the manifestations they had encountered, the manifestations that were them. How they uttered such.. Harsh truths… that Sun and moon had barely remembered, but it seemed like they were engraved into Lunar’s subconscious. “Orion…” Sun said, Orion didn’t slow down, it was as if he didn’t even hear Sun. “Does Lunar… really fear us…?” That’s what stopped Orion, but he didn’t turn around.

“He had manifestations of you, what do you think?” Orion said bitterly, before continuing to walk, clearly not wanting to expand on the subject. Moon knew this was stupid of his brother to edge on a currently unstable entity in the younger brother's mind. He tried to grab at Sun, telling him to stop, but he spoke out before he could put an end to it. “Yes, but-”

“But what?” Orion’s voice rose, it became deeper, and louder. “You want me to comfort you, that maybe it was all one big misunderstanding?!” Orion yelled, his pace quickening, each step he took was bigger, and heavier with the anger and weight the entity held. “That Lunar misunderstood the situation and was in the wrong?!” Orion continued, he hated that they continued like this. As if they’re the victims, as if they needed to be consoled and held, and comforted. Why couldn't Lunar have those things? Why couldn’t Luz have those things?! “Do you want me to comfort you instead of the literal inner child? Well, it’s not!”

Sun and Moon were struggling to keep up, Sun had shut his mouth, so Moon spoke up. “So he really is scared of us…” Moon finally accepted. “We didn’t mean it…” the moon animatronic continued. “We thought it was what Lunar wanted to do…” He remembered how Lunar made his decision, but was it really his decision…? He was so caressed into doing so… “be bigger, and go help other people…” Lunar said he wanted to atone for what he did to Teraa, which is why he went in the first place, so she could be better. “with the space war efforts…”

Orion fingers twitched “You’re actually stupid.” Orion realized. Lunar and Luz had viewed their older brothers like white people, that they knew what’s best… but… To Orion was clear, they didn’t know anything, they were insensitive, they were so brash, and they never thought things through. “Lunar didn’t want to go, he thought that’s what you wanted.” Lunar wanted to make them proud, if going to help other people would do that, what's more helpful than staving off the end of a dimension from evil entities. “He tried to make you proud, after he became an astral… He tried so hard….” “He tried to tell you stories, how he braved death in the face, and saved billions…” Why didn’t they listen? “You were so dismissive of his stories.”

The family knew of the stories, and they just wished for their brother to have a place to go to when they got home. How Cosmos would be so exhausted, and sometimes just nap for an entire day. “We just wanted him to feel comfortable at home-”

But Moon interrupted. “Look… A staircase.” Moon pointed looking at the strangely placed stair, it seemed to have been made of the ravine itself, was it naturally made? Did someone put it there? I looked like it was made out of the same material of the ravine itself. But Orion was too rushed to rethink logically like he normally does, so he just said “Let’s go.” and started climbing down the stairs.

They continued in silence, the light from the surface slowly getting dimmer and dimmer, and there were no railing for the stairs, so they hugged the wall, incase they mis stepped, they would fall into the ravine, and perhaps not be as lucky as Luz was, and simply just die.

But once the light from the surface was merely a faint glow above them all, little lights began to form, and they danced around the group, Sun and moon watched them. Shadows of their figures benign to flicker behind them.  

“What are these lights…?” Moon whispered, the urge to outstretched his harm and just grab one was tempting.

But the lights merely whispered in a voice that could be only requisitioned as young Lunar hummed.

‘I am loved…’

It sounded happy

‘I am happy…’

It continued on

‘I am brave…’

“Wow… Are these his inner thoughts…?” Sun looked at them. “They seem so positive.. Despite what you told us…" Sun looked at Orion, maybe things were different… Maybe he liked being an astral. "maybe he’s secretly happy…?” Moon tried to suggest. But that was the wrong move. Quite an idiotic one now that he thought of it.

“If you are that naive to believe that, you are more idiotic than what I originally thought.” Orion hissed, these thoughts had not traced Lunar’s consciousness in a long time, they were buried away in a dark place, the ravine, to be hidden and never seen again. They were no longer useful to Lunar, these beliefs were old, and new ones had taken its place in the outer mind

Things Lunar once believed with his soul

Now they just floated in the deepest darkest corner of the inner mind

“These are lost beliefs.”

Luz continued to stay in the dark, will it be mostly dark… There were little balls of lights that accompanied them, but as per Orion’s orders, he stayed as far away as possible from them, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t count them.  

When he fell down here, he thought he was as good as dead… But somehow he survived the fall?! He didn’t even know that was possible… But his foot, his left foot to be exact, was stuck under some rocks… He could feel his body ache, but it was mostly his head. Luz could hear Orion scream out to him, so he yelled back, to comfort his brother, who sounded like he was about to cry… which never happened… that worried Luz a lot… But once he heard Luz’s voice, he calmed down… But they had to continue on without him… because he was stuck… So now he waited in the dim little lights, which kind of looked like fireflies.

“La la la…” Luz whispered to himself, trying to find some form of entertainment. His leg was stuck underneath some rocks, at least that what he could tell, the little balls of light were not a reliable light source. They would flicker and float, wherever they pleased. “Counting the magical floating lights…” Around 30 so far as we could tell… He wasn't sure the lights would move around, and he would sometimes miscount them.

He wished Orion could be here soon. And his older brothers… and his two plushies, Tap and SPigot… Because heed needed soft and cuddly on the rock floor of the ravine. He wanted to go back home, a nice bed, and some flowers to make flower crowns.

The lights floated on by, as Luz tried his best to steer as far away as he could, but was limited due to his leg being stuck under some rocks. But when they did, he could hear someone’s soft voice, it sounded so much like Lunar’s… Like Lunar back when he was a child, he didn’t have a care in the world…

‘I am loved…’

The voice said softly, much like a whisper

‘I am happy…’

Another said, in a hushed voice, like a secret that must remain hidden

‘I am brave…’

It continued on and on. Each little light had it’s on variation. But they were everywhere. Luz's eyes winded.

“Lunar… Is that you?” Luz whispered or itching out for the light, but suddenly he heard something move. Luz yelped, pulling away, his hands clenched into fists, as they were held tightly against his chest. He looked around, trying to figure out where the noise came from.

Luz wanted to cry, but he summoned his courage, he took a deep breath. “WHO’S THERE!?” He realized that was a stupid move. Why was he so stupid!? Can’t he think these through!? Luz scrambled, looking on the ground, shadows danced as he looked for a weapon of any sort. His hands landed on a jagged rock that was bigger than his hand.

“Don’t come any closer!” Luz gripped the rock like a life line, lifting the rock above his head. His eyes fixed on the walls, to see if a figure moved. “I’ll- I'll throw this rock at you!” Luz knew how stupid, and small he looked. Whatever was going to attack him, might have teeth, and claws! The rock won’t do any damage, and Luz will go out with a scream, and never be seen again. Luz didn’t want that, so he couldn't help the tears that rolled down his cheeks. He really was a cry baby.

But instead of a beast coming from the shadows, to swallow him whole. A voice came from the shadows. “Do not be afraid, little one…” it was soft, like honey to the ears. And Luz knew that voice from anywhere, the one that would help him when everything was too much. When every horrible little thought, and truth tried to swallow him whole… They brought him back…

“It’s… It’s you…” Luz gave a shaky breath out, his body relaxing almost immediately, the rock slipped out of his fingers, as he arms fell back down. He was safe, he didn’t need to be scared. They would help him.

The entity continued to move, yet not footsteps fell, they moved silently, as if they floated on air itself. “Hello, Luz…” The voice moved around the ravine, in ways that Luz did not know possible, his head turned and tried to face to where the voice came from. “How did you wander so far away from home…?” The entity said with worry and concern, like a person would address a child lost in a mall. “You should not be here.” They continued, the shadows starting to reveal some of their form, but not the full picture. “Much too dangerous for a child.”

“I was going on an adventure! Me and my brothers are looking for Lunar!” Luz tried explaining, but words were hard to come by right now. He had so much he needed to say… Did this person know where Lunar was? Did they know if they were okay, were they alive!? “He’s really sick…”

The figure stopped moving, their figure much more clear, a head, which seemed to have a night cap, much like Luz’s, but instead of one end, there’s two. “Huh…” The entity said, confused…? Worried? Shocked? Of course they were, they didn't know that Sun and Moon were in their mindspace! They were left out of the loop! “Brothers…?” They asked cautiously.

“Yeah! Moon and Sun are in mindspace!” Luz explained, “they want to cure Lunar!” Moon and Sun were so brave for doing that! It was amazing! Luz wished he could be as brave as them! “Do you know where he is?!” but right now, Luz needed to know where Lunar was, so they could save them!

But all the entity responded was: “In a safe place.”

Luz stuttered “B-but-”

“Shh…” Hushed the entity, as their voice slowly got closer, and and closer. “We’ll talk about it once your brother comes down…” Why didn’t they say ‘brothers’ Luz had just told them that Sun and Moon were down here… “Okay…” Luz gave up, he did “You know what my name is… What’s yours…?”

The entity stepped into the light, the shadows distorted their face in which Luz could not discern what part was what… But one side seemed to be milky white, and the other grey. “My name is S-” But they stopped, they turned away, as they looked for something.

Luz looked around frantically as well, was their an enemy close by!? “What’s wrong?” Luz asked in a hushed voice, in case something was hunting them.

“Something is watching us…” the entity said. “listening to us.”

They stopped in front of you, looking at you and staring, they found you.

And you did not reside here

You were an intruder.

 “You…”

They rose their hand towards you

“Begone.”

YOU MAY NOW ASK LUZ, ????????, SUN, MOON, AND ORION QUESTIONS

Chapter Text

Everyone walked down the stairs in silence, it stayed like this for thirty minutes. This was because Sun and Moon were silently, trying to digest what Orion had said, as the lights continued to dance around them in a taunting way. To remind them of how they failed, and how gravely they did so. Out of all the lost beliefs that should be down here ‘I am loved’ should not be down here. How’d they fail this badly?

More lost beliefs danced around them, making their shadows flicker, and distort. Making their shadows more monster-like, like how they felt about themselves. Because how does the person fail their own brother? How did they not understand, or see the signs? The lost beliefs continue to whisper past truths.

‘I am safe’

It was expected when he was in war. But it still hurts to hear.

‘I am a good person’

What happened to that one…? Wasn’t the whole point of going to join the astrals, to become a better person?

‘I am alive…’

Again, why was it down here? Was it a final thought in which Lunar thought he would die? A final self confession, that he would never live or breathe again? But it shouldn’t be here. So what was it doing down here? It shouldn't be here. Go back up, go back to where you originally came from, please-

 “We didn’t know!” Sun cried out, tears fighting “We would’ve helped him!” He continued, yes they resented Lunar for all that he did to Terra. But they would’ve helped when he had to come to that decision. They didn’t know, they didn’t know. They sounded like a parrot, saying the same words on loop, was this all they could say? “We didn’t know he was feeling this way…” Moon massaged his temples, the times Lunar seemed so distant, and how sometimes he’d go to the daycare with tear stricken cheeks, everything started to make sense. Everything is so obvious now, as if it was in broad daylight. It was in broad daylight, yet they turned a blind eye. “We’re so sorry…”

“You can stop feeling sorry for yourselves, and actually do something.” Orion said he did not care to be invited to their pity party. They should’ve been more observant, maybe this would’ve been avoided, Luz would be safe, and Lunar wouldn't have gone to join the astrals. But there was no use dwelling in the past, all they could do was take another step, and another step, into the future.

Orion of course was furious, with how the family had simply not seen how he was suffering. But yelling at the older brothers would not do anything. It would not find Luz quicker, it would not help keep Luz safe. Once he realized that they reached the end of the stairs, he turned back to the brothers. “Look, we’ve reached the end…”

They look up, realizing that Orion said it was true. They’ve reached the bottom of the ravine.

The shadows flickered, as they walked forward, “Gah-” Moon grunted, as he fell over something, it made a metallic sound. “What was that?” Sun whispered, but with the same ferocity was yelling. Moon got back up, dusting himself off. Orion looked down and examined it.. It was a chain.

What was a chain doing down here?

“It’s a chain.” Orion said simply, he observed, they were the size of his hand, and he could barely grip it, his fingers struggling to wrap around it. “Should we follow it…?” Sun asked, unsure if it would lead to answers, or doom. What was it chaining down? A beast that could kill them? A possible entrance to where the third entity is?

“Let’s follow it.” Orion said, almost automatically. Before the twins could argue, or list pros and cons, Orion was already following the chain.

They simply followed behind, not wanting to anger the protective entity.

Chapter Text

“—friends—ity!”

“—careful—” 

“—know—aren’t—”

“—talk—brother—”

“Please—”

“No— to me—best—you”

“—Friends?”

“Stop, eavesdropping.”

Chapter Text

They continued to walk in the ravine, it was surprisingly bigger down here, than what everyone initially thought. The lost beliefs showed the way. The answer came along a soft breeze, it was more of a whisper than it was normally. “Oh… It's still weird that you’re watching us…” Sun shuddered, even if it was with the best intentions, it was still creepy, and strange. “Yeah…” Moon added on, he didn’t like the idea of being watched ever since the beginning. Sure they had the youtube channel, but they had ended that a while ago… So this… This was unexpected and strange… “Kind of like a stalker.” Sun added on. “They are stalkers.” Moon confirmed.  

Orion stopped walking, and the celestial twins almost bumped into him. He looked up. “This is where the chain leads too…” he said, his voice still loud, but something uncertain to it. Sun and Moon looked up, only to be shocked at what they were seeing.

“Oh my.” Sun said, his south agape, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

the lost beliefs glowing around the large floating boulder, the size of a car. It was held down by chains that wrapped around it, and the chains bolted down to the very walls of the ravine, restricting it from moving. Along the outer layer of the boulder, cracks had formed, showing a deeper layer that slightly glowed. But not as strong or as bright as the lost beliefs.

Moon looked in shock. “Look at that…” He whispered, it was like seeing magic in the inner mind… DId magic even exist down here? Or was it another reason…? What even was it? An egg of some sort, a prison? It could be anything.  

Sun squinted, it reminded him of a boulder, but also a meteor, with the mystique it had. “Looks like a meteor…” He said “There’s something glowing faintly.” Sun observed.

Moon looked to the side, more of the lost beliefs illuminated the way but more meteor like structures, with chains of their own, So… many… each came in different sizes, some were as small as a motorcycle, but others were around the same size of the current one they were standing in front of. “There seems to be more… There’s a lot of them…” Moon grimaced, more of these meteors were waiting, in an eerie silence, like a graveyard.

The twins realized that Orion had been strangely quiet. They both turned to the entity, only to see him reaching for the meteor. Hand outstretched, and eyes in a daze like state. Sun and Moon reached to stop him “Prion don’t touch that-” Moon shouted, but it was too late.

One Orion’s hand made contact, a flash of light completely engulfs the trio whole. Moon shuts his eyes shut tightly as the blinding light overwhelmed his senses. Once he feels the coast is clear, he opens his eyes again, but instead of being in a dark ravine, he finds himself in their old room… The one where they used to live in the daycare.

Their room was cluttered, and toys were skewed upon the floor. You could barely walk without the threat of tripping on something.

Moon muttered out. “Why are we back in the old daycare…?” It was confusing, why were they here? Did they transport doa different part of the mindspace, were those meteors like a teleporter? While Moon was wondering that, Sun was furious at Orion’s reckless behavior. “Orion, why'd you touch that?!” Sun demanded, looking at the entity, who didn’t even seem to notice it.

Instead he pointed towards someone, the twins looked in the direction as they saw a little baby blue animatronic, playing with toy blocks, and in their hands were legos, one that had been beaten and scratched up from the rowdy kids in the daycare. “There’s… There’s Lunar…” Orion said, he crouched down to the animatronics level. Observing the kid as he played, he’d never seen this version of him…

Sun’s eyes widened as he looked at him. It looked like Moon’s old body, but instead of it being small like Luz’s, it was big, like Moon’s old body. It had the glow feature on, and his body dimly shown. Though Lunar’s body curled in on itself, as he played quietly by himself. He whispered to himself, as his foot stimmed

“Lunar?”

The little bot looked up, before his eyes shrunk in fear.

Chapter Text

Lunar shot up, his arms held at his side. His eyees didn’t move from the trio, staring at them. In fear. “H-hey-” Lunar whimpered, he seemed to shrink down, fawning, making himself look as small as possible. As non-threatnhing as possible.  

Moon was the first one, realizing how his brother was scared, he took a step forward, and reach a hand out at him. He finally found Lunar, they finally found Lunar. He was safe, and he was alive. Why everything was reverted back to it’s old way? He didn’t care, he just wanted his brother, and Lunar was so close. “Lunar, we finally found you-” but suddenly lunar flinched back, before a bright figure approached.

Eclipse walked through Moon, as he stepped towards Moon. The moon model flinched, as strange sensation passing over him, as Eclipse walked through him. He back away, before Eclipse bellowed. “So this is where you’re hiding?!” Eclipse’s voice was still in the process of changing, like Sun, but more gravely, and slightly lower. It would’ve been comedic, if Lunar weren’t cowering in fear.

“Sorry, Eclipse!” Lunar whimpered, his eyes darting for a way to escape, but eventually settled back on Eclipse, unable to look away. Even though Eclipse and Lunar were the same height, Eclipse towered over the young bot. He was a glowing orange, little bright rays popped in between Sun’s regulars rays. And they were fully out, a sign of an angry Eclipse.

Eclipse had just walked through them. What was he doing in the mindspace!? They saw the broken manifestation, but this one was shiny and new, and was ready to fight. “What is Eclipse doing here…?” Sun whispered to himself. “How did he just phase through us?!” Moon exclaimed in an outrage.

Eclipse continued on, not even noticing what the celestial twins were raving about. “Lunar… What did I say about wasting my time…?” Eclipse voice got low, and everyone could see as Lunar started to tremble, but was to scared to move, or fight back. “I was waiting for you, so we could update you…” Eclipse yelled, and Lunar yelped, but he couldn’t back up any further, he backed up along the couch.

“I’m sorry! I just lost track of time-” Lunar begged and pleaded, tears starting to form in the corner of his eyes.

Eclipse seethed, before pointing an accusatory finger. “I made you be stupid and naive!” He yelled, Lunar simply shut hsi eyes, like he was pretending for it to be a nightmare, and if he ignored it, everything would be okay. “But I didn’t expect you to be this stupid! I’d think you’d have a little bit of common sense!” Moon and Sun watched in horror.

“You can’t even keep track of time!?” Eclipse lunged for Lunar, before gripping his hands around Lunar’s neck. The kid spasmed, and tried to claw at Eclipse’s hands, which only angered Eclipse more. “NOW YOU TRY AND HURT ME!?” Eclipse gripped tightened, like a snake on it’s prey. Lunar sputtered, and his voice box squeaked.

Sun moved into motion, he needed to stop this. “LET GO OF HIM!” Sun screamed, his hands lunged for Eclipse. But instead of metal meeting metal… It was metal meeting nothing… Sun’s hands phased right through the violent Eclipse. He didn't even seem to notice, continuing to choke Lunar. THe little eyes building out of hsi head. “What…?” Sun murmured, backing away… Looking up, on how truly powerless he is to stop the abuse.

Orion muttered out, “We can’t stop this-”

Lunar gasped for air. Animatronic were known for not actually breathing, but simulating it. Even if their airway was blocked off, they would feel like their choking. So Eclipse putting his hands on Linar’s neck, he must felt like he was dying. “Please-” He cried out, trying his best to bargain with a lunatic. “ECLIPSE-”

Eclipse’s face contorted into a wicked smile. THis was bringing him joy, Sun and Moon forgot how twisted, and sick Eclipse used to be. TIme apart made them forget, but Lunar never did. “Maybe I should scrap you for parts, and build someone who can actually follow orders…” Eclipse chuckled at the idea.

Lunar whispered out. “S-Sorry-” his eyes started to roll to the back of his head, “Won’t-”

Eclipse suddenly let go, Lunar’s body collapsing on the couch beneath him. “Hm.” Eclipse dusted off his hands, as if he touched something filthy. “Look why you made me do…” Eclipse sneered, as if it was Lunar’s fault. The little bot barely moved, staying down, as if he were playing dead. “Now I have to fix your neck… Or it’ll snap right off.” Eclipse observed. Lunar’s neck had hand marks that Eclipse left behind, his neck bent to the force, and almost completely collapsed. “Wouldn’t that be a shame?” Eclipse touched Lunar’s head, as if threaten him.

All Lunar could muster up was: “Sorry…” His voice was hoarse, wether it was from the screaming or being choked, they didn’t know. “I’ll go get some replacement parts… and we can fix you up here.” Eclipse said, his fingers tracing off Lunar, and heading to the exit. “Don’t go running off, or I will through you in the trash compactor.” Eclipse continued ot threaten, even though Lunar was clearly unable to fight back in the slightest. “Yes, Eclipse…” Lunar responded.

Eclipse left the room. And Lunar lies unmoving on the couch. “Lunar…?” Moon asked slowly. He wanted to help him, hold him, and lull him to sleep, everything will be okay. But his hand phased right through Lunar, unable to do much of anything. Lunar whimpered, as he silently cried.

Orion looked at the older siblings trying to comfort Lunar, each attempt futile. “We can’t help him.” Orion hummed, turning away. This was because Luz hadn't told him, whether it was because Luz didn’t remember, or didn’t trust Orion. The entity doubted this was the latter which left… “This is a memory.”

Suddenly the scene changed. “Woah-” everything went back to being dark. Everyone blinked rapidly, trying for their eyes to readjust to the dark, the little lights floating, and buzzing.

Moon looked back up at the meteor, it didn’t move, just continued to float along. As if they weren’t suddenly teleported. This meant that Orion’s conclusion was correct. It was a memory. “I guess it was a memory…” Moon looked at it, dread pooling in his stomach. “An awful one…” Sun shuddered.

“Lunar never told us about  Eclipse…”

“Strangling him?” Orion finished.

No one talked for a while.

Chapter Text

Orion thought about Lunar.

They’d never had a close connection to the actual Lunar, to the core Lunar that powered the entire inner mind. That was reserved to Luz, the inner child. They had a close connection, at least at one point they did. Before Lunar pushed everything away, and everything down, in order to become an astral.

So seeing Lunar… in the way that he did… It enraged him…

Lunar had only been a child

Lunar playing was the inner child in their prime form. That had been Luz, Luz was hurt, and Orion had not been there to help. Lunar was hurt, and Orion could not protect him.

No wonder Eclipse had been a manifestation, his anger was fire, any attempt to extinguish would only fan the flames. Lunar had been helpless to stop Eclipse from doing anything. He thought Eclipse was his big brother, the one person he was supposed to look up too.

Lunar was wrong.

Moon stared at the ground, he knew Eclipse was bad, but Lunar had said that the only thing Eclipse had done was hit him. Just a slap across the face, or maybe a punch, the details were blurred now that Moon thought about it.

But this was clearly more, Lunar had been strangled, you don’t just recover from that. Moon knew, because he had done the same thing to Sun, and after that, Sun had been much more avoidant, and less touchy around Moon. Years passed but Moon could sometimes still see how Sun would avoid touch.

But Lunar… Lunar had been a child at this point, his mentality was supposed to be child-like and naive. To be trusting, he saw Eclipse as a big brother. So of course he blamed himself, when Eclipse was in the wrong. It was only due to Sun and Moon showing them what a real family looked like, let Lunar realize what happened was wrong.

Moon still remembered how scared Moon was… Lunar had come to Moon seeking refuge, and Lunar didn't know whether Moon would kill him, or abandon him. He just was scared enough of Eclipse to accept any fate given to him.

Why hadn't Moon seen the signs?

Sun looked down at his hands, while he had been locked up in the Mindspace, Eclipse had been strangling Lunar with his bare hands. And he got enjoyment out of it. He smiled, he laughed. While Lunar begged for Eclipse to release him, Eclipse just laughed.

Then blaming the kid for his violent behavior, while Lunar had just accepted it.

He really was just a kid back then, one that wasn’t able to fight back.

How had this affected him later in life? Did Lunar lose some of its initial child-like wonder? Did Lunar lose some of his active imagination, because Eclipse had taught him that it was a liability rather than something to be praised?

And Eclipse had been a manifestation, but one that barely affected Lunar anymore, because Eclipse was rotting. But their manifestations had been fresh, they were still intact. Had they been more traumatizing than Eclipse? Were they more fearsome than a literal monster that had choked him?

Sun wanted to leave.

Orion was the one to break the silence

“We need to move forward." Orion said, as he was the one who took the first step into the graveyard of meteorites. Did these meteors contain other memories, ones that were worse, and revealed more of an ugly truth, one that they had been blinded by sweet words, and lies given by their brother to make them feel better?

And did Luz lay beyond the graveyard?

Chapter Text

 Sun, Moon and Orion jerked in shock.

Where were they?!

They didn't even touch the meteorite this time, and now they were stuck in another memory. They all hoped that it wouldn’t be as violent as the last one. Orion looked for Lunar, who soon came dancing along the corridor.

“Time to go to my secret hidey place” Lunar hummed to himself, before stopping along the hallway they were standing by. He stared at the carpet below, like he was analyzing the confetti themed carpet. He finally took a step. “Hop, hop, hop…” He whispered to himself, taking huge leaps, each one seemed calculated and purposeful, before reaching a closet.

Lunar went inside the closet, slowly closing the door, so as to not make a ‘creak’ sound, during this time Moon, Sun and Orion were able to quickly step inside. The closet was quite small, and it was hard for all three of them to be inside. THere were cleaning supplies, mops, and buckets lining the walls. But it was a perfect fit for Lunar. Who locked the door and it ‘clicked’ shut. Lunar then pulled out some coloring supplies from underneath a bleach bottle, before laying on his belly and doodling on some spare paper that was on a shelf.

“La, la, la…” he hummed to himself, as he kicked his feet, and doodled a picture. Sun and Moon leaned over Lunar, to see Lunar drawing himself, before drawing what seemed to be a bigger stick figure, and another slightly smaller stick figure…

Above the words, he wrote ‘family’ and he colored grass and a sun that was smiling down upon the figures in his picture. Lunar stared at the drawing, as if wishing for what was on paper to come to life. Lunar flinched, before backing up against the wall. Clutching the paper, and it crinkling in the where his fists tightened.

Moon and Sun were unsure what sparked this reaction, before they heard thudding footsteps in the hallway. “LUNAR?!” Eclipse screamed. Lunar flinched, he hid behind the paper, as if it would protect him. “where are you!?” Eclipse ran rampant throughout the hallway. Like a wild beast, with no sense of direction. “LUNAR!?” He continued to scream. “I SWEAR YOU BETTER NOT BE HIDING!” Suddenly it went deathly silent “Hmm… Must not be here.” Eclipse’s footsteps softened as they got further and further away.

But then they came stomping back, ten fold, before banging started on the door. The only thing keeping Lunar safe from Eclipse’s rage. Lunar shook violently,crying silently to himself. “I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE!” Eclipse continued to bang, thankfully the door was made of metal. “LUNAR!” Eclipse screamed violently, like a mad man. Lunar whimpered into the corner of the closet, pushing himself against the wall, as if begging to be consumed by the small room, and to leave no trace.

This continued for another five minutes before they were transported out of the memory

They weren’t sure if Lunar had been found by Eclipse or not.

Chapter Text

Into a another memory the trio were sent into

This was starting to become a nuisance, they didn’t want to see any more. The twins didn’t want to go poking and prodding around their younger brother’s brain. They didn’t want to see mistakes that they had caused cascade all down upon Lunar. They didn’t want to see Lunar’s secrets.

But this time, they were in the old daycare movie theater, and a faint smell of popcorn was in the air. But they looked down, and there lay Lunar. He was lying on the ground with pillows covering him, like a blanket. Why was he sleeping here…? Was he taking a nap…?

But the twins could hear faint whimpering, as they cried. THeir eyes squeezed tight, as their hands gripped onto the pillow. His fists would be white, with how tight he gripped onto the pillow, as if it was a life line.

Before Moon and Sun could approach him, Lunar screamed as he shot up in bed. His breathing was erratic, his hand on his chest. Lunar’s little robotic eyes couldn’t even form, it was sporadic and continued to clutch out. Tears continued to fall down his cheeks, unable to breathe, or do anything.

Why was no one here to comfort him?

Finally after ten minutes of watching the grueling scene, as his breathing finally evened out, out. Lunar whimpered, and he was shaking. Lunar wiped the tears away from his face, but they continued to stream down his face. “You shouldn’t be crying.” Lunar finally said to himself, he gripped onto the corner of his hoodie. “It’s your fault you’re here.” Lunar whispered.

What did he mean by that…?

Was this… Was this when they had kicked him out of the house?

Lunar had an apartment but he ended up choosing one that was in a different state… So instead he stayed at the daycare…?

No…

He deserved it, Cosmos hurt Terra

He was a danger to the kids, he could’ve hurt them.

“You need to be better.” Lunar said, struggling to stand up, he almost lost his balance when he got up. But he managed to regain balance. But eyebags seemed to be forming under his eye bags. “I’m so tired…” Lunar confessed, his eyes looked dead-like

Before his face switched, to an eerie smile. Like a clutch of the switch, before walking out of the movie theater, presumably to start another shift running the daycare

Moon’s stomach dropped.

“Lunar…?” Moon reached his hand out

But the memory faded out.

Chapter Text

“—patty cake—”

“—lemonade—ice”

“—missy—baby—teen—”

“bored—miss—where—”

“—soon—worry—okay”

“—Luz—think—run—”

“—HHHHHHHH—”

“—AAAAAA—”

“—STOP—EN—”

“—TICKLE MONSTER—”

Chapter Text

Moon and Sun watched as they saw Cosmos crawling on his stomach, he dragged himself towards a figure that shone bright like the sun. He was wounded and littered over his body, injuries that looked similar to the scars that were on Cosmos’s body were back home. They now bled the astral gold. His astral shine was more of a dim glow.

They didn’t know how they got here, another memory, but it was frightening to see. The emptiness of space stood behind the space, there were no stars, it was pure black… while the shining figure was the only thing providing light.

He was reaching for the sun-like figure. “PLEASE-” He screamed, “THere has to be a different way, please don’t do this!” He begged the figure, Sun and Moon did not know this person Cosmos begged for, but clearly important to him. “We still need you!” Cosmos stopped coughing, gold blood falling from his lips. “I need you.” He continued, abc to his mission to the figure. Clearly not wanting to give up, believing there was still a chance.

The figure slowly approached him, they stride with pride, but still as gracefully as walking on clouds. “I will always be here…” The figure whispered, cradling Cosmos’s face, in which he absolutely melted to the touch. But the second they stepped back, Cosmos went back to screaming. His voice became more desperate, like a wild animal stuck in a trap.

“PLEASE!” Cosmos screeched. The scene was getting painful to witness, Sun’s non-existent gut twisted as he watched his brother plead for something clearly that he could not fight. The figure looked at the pathetic hybrid astral one last time, before facing the void, and jumping. “PLEASE! COME BACK!” Cosmos screamed louder, gathering the strength to stand up. His lower chest region was bleeding profusely. He ran after the sun-like entity. But was stopped

Strong hands grabbed the astral, it was Turaus, the bull astral was also clearly torn up, injuries on his biceps, and along his calf, but he strode like his animal, and he didn’t look back. Not even when Lunar started to kick and scream, like a child. “NO! NO!” Lunar hissed, he was far too weak to fight back. “LET ME GO!” He continued to bang his fists onto the wiser astrals back.

Taurus simply responded “We must leave, Cosmos” . His voice was far too calm, like he’d done this thousands of times before, which he most likely did…. “BUT THEY’RE ABOUT TO KILL THEMSELVES!” Cosmos' had long been crazed desperation. “PLEASE!”

Eyes cold, but perhaps a flicker of something deep inside, but he did not turn back. Not even spared the distressed soldier a look. Sun and Moon felt It was clear that they had lost whatever battle this was, and Cosmos just lost someone important to him. “In war, there are sacrifices." was all Turaus said.

Before a supernova formed, rays of colors and light formed from the battle they were fleeing from. The void being consumed by the light, and a rainbow of colors forming, it was a dazzling sight.

And Lunar screamed.