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And there is dripping water somewhere. The constant rhythm echoes through the dark room where Sun is standing. At least, he assumes it is a room. Sun looks around as if searching for something. His hazy mind could not determine the object he desired to find. He does hope it is the exit for the dripping water is slowly driving him insane.
Then, there is a figure in the distance. Before he can see the figure's face, his body is running to the figure. Heavy force pushes against his lower body and creates a sloshing sound with every movement. Seems like he is in a shallow body of water. It only reaches up to his knees.
It took him a while before he was close enough to recognize his brother. Sun forces his body to run faster to reach his brother's back. His lanky hand reaches out to his brother and his voice screams out his name.
Moon. Moon. Moon.
Suddenly, his brother twitches. Then he turns to face Sun. And Sun's body froze.
"Hey, Sun."
Dark empty eyes leaking oils across cracking faceplates. It snaps its head to the side with an awful creak. Grinning it says in a raspy croak, "Hi brother. Remember me?"
Sun wanted to scream, run, anything really to get out of here. Yet, he cannot. Like a boy under the gaze of Medusa, he is frozen in place. All the while, the figure moves closer and closer to him.
Moon grins wider.
"Nice to see you again. Did you miss me?" Moon laughs and laughs. The sound is painful to Sun's ear. "Of course you don't. I mean, didn’t you killed me?"
No. No. No. No. No.
Moon is alive. His brother is alive. He is not dead. He is-
"Yes, yes. Technically speaking, I am alive. But, I'm not exactly the same, right?" Sun can feel his body trembling as the figure slowly caresses his face. "He is kinder, nicer, everything you have ever wished I was."
Moon looks him in the face. Dark abyss leaking of onyx liquid dripping down the silver faceplate.
“Way better version of me? Is he still even me? No, he is not.” Moon cackles, dark and raspy. “Bet you’re glad that you killed me, right?”
A bright light suddenly covers the entire room; it forces Sun to cover his eyes. When his eyes adjusted to the intense brightness, his brother had long disappeared. That is when Sun notices the substance around him is never black.
It is crimson.
The sound of fans whirring got louder and louder the longer he stared at the red liquid. Anxiety through the roof and his system crashing. Then it all stops.
It all stopped when Sun saw his reflection.
Except it reflects Eclipse.
Then, Sun woke up.
Those who thought that animatronics are not able to dream are idiots. Those who decided to give animatronics to dream are even bigger idiots.
Sun drags his hand over his faceplates.
The memory of the nightmare may have lost its vividness throughout the day, but the uneasiness still lingers. The raspy voice, the dripping oil, and the sloshing of blood. Then, there were his brother’s taunts.
( “My memories got reset because of you.” )
( “Bet you’re glad you killed me, right?” )
Jolts of anxiety flow through his wires. Sun is glad that he had accepted Earth’s help a while back to get rid of the hallucination. He doubts that he will be close to being functional if he had to hear Bloodmoon’s and Moon’s taunting throughout the day. Plus, his brother will force him to rest for the whole day.
And he calls Sun a worrywart.
“Hey, Sun! Are you done closing yet?”
Sun snaps his head to the tower’s balcony. His brother’s head peeks out from behind the curtains. “I want to talk with you about something.”
“Yeah, I just need to place this barrel. I’ll be up there in a minute!”
Five minutes later, Sun is sitting in front of his pacing brother. Moon always starts walking in a circle when he is explaining some complex concepts or plans to Sun. At first, Sun had found the habit distracting. But, he forced himself to adapt and accept it when he found that pacing helped Moon in explaining.
“So, you told me yesterday that your counterpart is in a comatose condition, right?” Sun nods, and the little excitement Moon shows in his tone encourages hope to grow in him. “Well, according to the story that Eclipse told you, which then you told me, their Sun became like that because they pulled out Eclipse.” Sun nods again.
Moon stops pacing, taps his feet twice, then continues again.
“In a way, their condition was similar to me when Killcode got pulled out of me. Eclipse’s code was too integrated with Sun to the point they might have shared some code. Then, their Moon decided to pull Eclipse away along with some code or lines that Sun might have needed to function properly. It resulted in Sun’s AI missing a part of itself.”
Sun tilts his head, lost in the explanation.
“Separating their Eclipse and Sun was like pulling a sticker off a paper. Their Eclipse is the sticker, their Sun is the paper, and their Moon is the one pulling it off. Sadly, my counterpart pulled the sticker off too quickly and damaged the paper.”
That, Sun can understand.
“Is there a way to fix him? I mean, the other me?”
Moon scoffs, “Yes. Obviously. They just need your self-repair software and their Sun will be good to go. Well, his memory will be resetted but, it’s better than being in a coma.”
“It’s that simple.”
“Yes.”
Sun stares at Moon in a little disbelief. He knows that he should trust his brother's words especially if it involves fixing animatronics and such, but he still found it a little unbelievable.
Eclipse spoke with hopelessness hanging in every word. He told Sun of how the brothers were stuck in the situation for the last few years. Their Moon desperate attempts to fix their brother in the dark secluded room. If their Moon could not fix his counterpart after all these years, how did his Moon find a solution in less than a day?
Then again, Eclipse mentioned that the other Moon was flawed.
“Okay… I should tell Eclipse the next time I visit.”
Moon nods, still standing in front of Sun. Slowly, his brother began to rock his body on the heel of his feet; from past observations, Sun knew that his brother had more things to say. Sun tilts his head to the side, prompting his brother to speak.
“Well,” Moon looks straight into his eyes, “I don’t want you to tell Eclipse about my plan.”
A creeping thought tells Sun that his brother is acting selfish. Yet, Sun pushes the thoughts down and forces himself to ask, “Why?”
“Well, my plan requires that Eclipse or the other me gain access to your code, which means getting into your head. Honestly speaking from our past experiences, I do not trust the other me, or even Eclipse, to do that.”
Sun blinks. That is a valid reason. From Moon’s perspective, the two brothers already have a bad track record of damaging their Sun. If Sun were to be in his brother’s shoes, he would have said the same thing; both he and his brother are not willing to risk the other's well-being just to help an ally.
“Then, why don’t you do it yourself?” Sun taps his ray twice.
“What?”
“I mean, couldn’t you just access my code, find the self-repairing program, copy them to a flash drive, and give that flash drive to them? Will it work?”
Moon raises his pointer, then looks, taps his chin, and points the pointer back at him again. “That will actually work.” Moon turns on his heel toward his room, “I think I have a throwaway flash drive somewhere in my room.”
Sun drops his shoulder and buries himself into the couch. His eyes fall on the yellow door next to Moon’s tunnel.
It is getting late. The daycare will open up early tomorrow. He needs to recharge and get some sleep tonight. Yet, the idea of sleep is not as tempting as it was before last night's nightmare.
(Crimson liquid, reflections of Eclipse, Moon’s empty sockets)
( “My memories got reset because of you.” )
( “I mean, didn’t you kill me?” )
( “Bet you’re glad that you killed me, right?” )
With reluctance, he walks over to his room whilst wishing himself sweet dreams.