Chapter Text
Bloodmoon paced around the empty, broken area outside of the daycare. All the while, the brothers debated and weighed their options. As always, they needed to come to a complete agreement.
"But, he chose to rebuild Lunar instead of us!" Bloody, the more aggressive twin could not look past this betrayal.
"True," Harvest replied. "Still, it may be worth speaking with him. He built us a body before; clearly he knows about machines. Perhaps he could tell us what's wrong with that thing." He vaguely motioned toward the daycare.
Bloody groaned in frustration. "You...may be right, brother." Still, his hesitance was clear from his continuous fidgeting and groaning.
Harvest placed one of their body's hands over the other, as that was the only way he could convey comfort toward his twin. "You know we must be in agreement. If you do not wish to speak to the gator, then we won't."
There was a moment of silence between the two before Bloody spoke up. "No. You're right. We should at least question that gator about him leaving us behind."
Harvest grinned. "Oh, we certainly will do that. Come, brother! Let's pay Montgomery Gator a visit!"
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Bloodmoon now stood just within the entrance to Monty Gator Golf. They scanned the areas they could see from the nearest barrier, but Monty was nowhere to be seen.
Bloody growled as he lurched forward, nearly causing their body to fall over the top of the barrier. "Where is he?!"
Harvest soothed his brother from within, saving them from falling. "Patience, brother. Let's just go further in. He's bound to be here somewhere."
Bloodmoon did just that. They wandered the large, often hazardous, room. They checked anywhere they thought Monty might be. Finally, they heard a door creak open and turned toward the sound. From where they were standing, they immediately locked eyes with Monty. The only way to know what the gator was thinking was from their jaws, and right now, those bared sharp teeth were impossible to miss.
"You!" Monty hissed, "You stay right where you are so I can club you to death."
"Oh~", Harvest cooed, "Is this because of what we did to Lunar?"
The anger radiating from Monty was palpable as they came closer to Bloodmoon. "I'm going to kill you."
Bloody now chimed in, jubilance coating his voice, "Oh~, he's mad now, brother!"
Harvest began leading once again. "Now, now, we haven't come with the intention of doing harm. Though, if you attack us, we will injure you terribly." His intonations made it clear that this was a promise. There would be no violence from them if no violence was delivered to them.
Monty froze, fists still clenched so tightly that their claws nearly tore through the metal. They spoke through clenched teeth, "What do you want?"
Harvest made a conscious effort to keep their mannerisms calm. "We just have questions."
The effort was immediately in vain as Bloody burst forward. "Why did you rebuild Lunar and not us? We were ashes! Why did he deserve to be rebuilt and we didn't?" It took Bloody a moment to notice their right hand now gently resting on top of their left hand.
Monty was slightly stunned. For a few seconds, they just stared at the bloodthirsty animatronic in front of them. "That's...that's what you want to ask about? Why I didn't rebuild you?"
Bloodmoon continued to stare silently.
"Well," Monty began, starting to regain their bearings, "for starters, you're a couple of bloodthirsty murdering lunatics. As for why I rebuilt Lunar," Monty paused, "well, he's one of my best friends. Unlike you, he decided to change and become a better person."
Bloodmoon began leaping in anger. Bloody's growls echoed, "That's not our fault! We couldn't stop it! We needed to kill and bathe in blood!"
Monty sneered, "Yeah, well, you got your answer. Now either do something to me or go back to that hell hole you crawled here from."
Harvest had managed to convince his brother to step back. "Actually, there's one other thing we'd like to know."
"Yeah? What's that?"
"We want to know more about Ruin."
Monty's perplexed look managed to carry despite their shades. "Ruin? Don't you work for him?"
"With, and only to benefit ourselves," Harvest corrected.
Monty let out a huff. "Right. Why don't you ask the freak yourself?"
"We did."
Bloody interrupted, "He fed us lies that might be truth! We don't know what to think!"
"Yes," Harvest began to clarify, "he told us how he came to be, but we don't trust what he says."
"Well, I don't really know what to tell you. He's completely insane, but that's about all I know."
Now, even Harvest seemed to be losing his patience. "We knew that much already!"
Monty sighed. "Look, I really don't know much of anything about the guy. Now, he has been causing trouble for Sun and Moon for a while, and those two record just about everything that happens to them. I'd suggest looking through their show for the answers you want."
Bloodmoon simply looked on in thought for a moment. Then, Harvest spoke up, "We need to discuss this idea."
Upon receiving a lackluster gesture toward the distance from Monty, Bloodmoon took a few steps away.
Harvest initiated the discussion. "It seems like a logical idea to me."
"I agree, but it will take a long time to find what we need. What if he catches us?"
"We'll find a way. He lets us roam free often, and we can take those chances to find what we need."
"We are set free often. Yes! Let's do it: find what we need to get the upper hand!"
Bloodmoon returned to their previous place in front of Monty. "We will go through with your idea. Now, just one more thing before we go."
Before Monty could process what was happening, Bloodmoon ran their sharp fingertips over Monty's leg. A yelp from Monty accompanied the twins' laughter as they ran away, ignoring the threats and obscenities chasing them.
It only took a few hours for Bloodmoon to have their first chance to look through the past videos that featured Ruin. The first several did not deliver much more than what they already knew: Ruin is insane, violent, and enjoys playing games. The next few opportunities to search for answers were just as fruitless. Then, finally, they came to videos showing Moon interrogating Ruin with a lie detector. At this point, Bloodmoon had little hope for the interrogation displaying anything useful. For a while, they seemed to be proven right, with Ruin's lies being nearly indistinguishable from his truths. Then, something interesting happened.
In this video, Moon began cutting deeper, and the shocks from the lie detector were made increasingly powerful. Finally, one shock piled onto another and another proved to be too much for Ruin. Bloodmoon watched as he shut down, slumping forward onto the table. He stayed like that for a few seconds, and then Bloodmoon watched as Ruin's head lifted with a start. A gentle voice came from Ruin, and this new voice was obviously weak and confused.
"Who's this other one?" Bloody asked aloud to himself.
Despite knowing his brother wasn't truly asking him this question, Harvest replied, "Moon kept saying the name Eclipse before each zap."
Bloody groaned. "Another one? Another Eclipse?! Why that accursed name again?!"
"This one's different. His voice shakes," Harvest halted his thought.
Bloody finished that thought, "Like a scared little lamb!"
"I think we know how to get the answers we seek."
"Yes we do! Yes we do!" Bloody's excitement leaked into their body, causing them to bounce on their toes.
Bloodmoon lept away with vigor, more excited than ever to reach the heap of rubble that was the daycare.
Upon hearing the door to the daycare open, Ruin turned dramatically. "Brothers! Welcome back! Did you enjoy your time away, doing your own thing?"
The plastered grin of Bloodmoon's faceplate carried into their voice. "We did!", Bloody began.
"And we found something interesting," Harvest completed the thought.
Ruin hunched slightly, bringing himself slightly closer to eye level with Bloodmoon. "Interesting? Interesting!" Ruin sprang back to his full height, clasping his hands together. "Do tell, Bloodmoon! Do tell!"
"We'd rather see what we found for ourselves." Immediately following Harvest's words, Bloodmoon lifted a hand up, displaying the mechanism to give Ruin a shock.
Ruin kept his typical demeanor, but it was clear enough that he understood what Bloodmoon was intending to do. "Oo~! So, you want to play a little game with me, Bloodmoon?"
Harvest's tone was laced with equal understanding, "We'd prefer to call it a challenge."
"A challenge! Of course! Even more fun." A darkness mingled with Ruin's cheerful response. He felt some anger, but it wouldn't matter. He could punish Bloodmoon properly at a later time. He stood as tall as he could, arms spread wide, displaying his welcome to the electricity that would be coursing through him within seconds. "Alright then! Have at me! I will endure i-!"
Ruin was cut off by an unending electrical charge running through his body. It felt incredible. He laughed, and it mingled perfectly with the hum of the electricity, creating a cacophony of chaos. He maintained this state for about one minute, then it began to overtake him. His cackling became strained as his body weakened. It wasn't long after that before Ruin's body crashed to the ground, sparks still bursting from his joints.
Bloodmoon stared down at the heap of sparking metal.
"Brother," Bloody began, nerves etching into his voice, "you don't think we killed him, do you?"
Harvest, on the other hand, remained calm. "No. I think it would take much more than that to kill him. We just need to wait for the other one."
Their wait wasn't long. Within a minute, the body in front of them began to move. A sharp gasp came from the body, and it slowly and shakily rose from the floor.
The same gentle voice from the video could then be heard, "Where? Where am I?" Having stood up turned away from Bloodmoon, the animatronic simply looked around at what was in front of him. "Wait...is this...? No. It couldn't be! This can't be the daycare!" He ran further into the room, taking in the remains of this familiar place. All of the fun decorations and play areas were still right where they should be, but the entire place was nothing more than a pile of rubble. Overwhelmed by the sight of his demolished home, the animatronic fell to his knees. Not even his cleaning program knew where to begin. It was all too much. "How could this have happened?"
Bloodmoon now approached the other animatronic, unsure of how exactly to get his attention. In the end, they defaulted to being scary.
"Knock knock!" Harvest chimed.
The other animatronic turned toward the voice and lept backward in a combination of surprise and fear. His fear rose the longer he took in the small animatronic's features. "Who," his voice came out in a quiver, "who are you?" He then looked around the general area of the daycare. "Did you do this?"
Bloody answered with great enthusiasm, "We did! But we had some help."
"Do you know who helped us?"
The mangled animatronic's eyes lit slightly brighter. "You have two voices? Two AIs together." He looked down at his arms, one glowing yellow, the other blue. "Just like I was, once."
Harvest whispered to his brother, "So, he was telling the truth about that, at least." He then returned to his normal volume. "Are we understanding correctly that your name is Eclipse?"
"Yes? I really don't understand," Eclipse's gentle voice began to shift, "why you need to know that!"
Bloodmoon didn't hesitate to begin shocking Ruin again. They couldn't allow him to come back until they had gotten the answers they wanted. Ruin was soon on the floor once again. This time, however, the zapping continued for an extra minute. They needed to have more time with this Eclipse.
There was less strain this time as Eclipse stood. He was, however, a bit panicked. He once again saw the smaller animatronic in front of him. "What happened?! What did you do to me? What did you do to my daycare?!"
Harvest grinned through his words, "We did nothing to you, first of all. Second, this isn't even your daycare!"
"What? What's that supposed to mean?!" Eclipse was normally not one for aggression, but that statement certainly sounded like a threat.
"It means," Harvest replied, "this isn't your dimension. This isn't your daycare."
"Not my dimension?" Eclipse became somewhat lost in thought. "I guess it's possible. Moon did theorize about other dimensions and universes." His thinking was interrupted by a realization. "Wait, that doesn't matter! I shouldn't be just talking to you! My daycare or not, you admitted to causing all of this damage, and it is my job to tend to the daycare!" He started to reach down to grab the smaller animatronic and escort them out, but he was stopped by a single statement.
"We also said we had help, and it seems like you really don't know who provided that help." Harvest's smugness was obvious.
Eclipse sighed. He stood tall again and crossed his arms. "Alright. Who helped you? Who needs to join you in being banned from the daycare?"
Bloodmoon cackled. It was all just too good.
When they finally calmed down enough to speak, Bloody went straight for the kill. "You don't know that you're still two!"
Eclipse was stunned. "Huh?"
Bloody continued his jovial taunting, "There's another! Someone else inside your head!
As the impish animatronic began laughing again, Eclipse stared on in horror. It was that thing! It helped in the destruction of this daycare!
The twins were startled out of their laughing fit as Eclipse lunged for them, pinning their arms to their body. "What do you know about that thing?!"
Bloodmoon squirmed, but they quickly realized there was little they could do. Harvest sighed. "Not much."
Bloody chimed in, clearly losing more patience with every second, "That's why we brought you here! Ruin tells lies and truths all mashed together and confuses us! We want answers, not stories!"
After holding on for a moment longer, Eclipse released his grip. "Alright, then. Before time runs out for me again, I'll answer your questions."