Chapter Text
Sun gets awoken by his internal clock, set to 6 am. Which was weird, cause he would have sworn Monty was opening today. But whatever. He could help too. Sun let out his signature morning scream as he stretched (toned down since Jack and Dazzle entered the house), and sat up. He blinked his optics open to see the walls of his room-
…
Why is he on the daycare balcony?
Sun shook his head, maybe he was hallucinating again? But the enitre room? That doesn't make sense.. So a different dimension? But how did he get here?
Sun looked around. Everything was the same from before the daycare got rebuilt again. The door to his room that he hardly used, the tunnel to Moon's room. The little latter to the daycare. He was even laying on that couch they got when they first moved in.
It probably was a different dimension, one that was progressing much slower than their own. Or, previous one.
But that once again raised the question of why and how he was here. He was in the place of where the other Sun should be, unless this one actually used their room.
Sun climbed the latter to overlook the daycare. It wasn't open yet judging by the lack of children, but it wouldn't be long before it opened.
Sun turned back to look at the door to the other Sun's room. If his internal clock matched that of this dimension's, Sun should already be up and about preparing for the day.
He stayed there for more minutes than necessary and eventually, against his better judgement, knocked on the door to this Sun's room. It was silent, so he knocked again. Silence again. He decided to try one last time only to nearly jump out of his casing at the sound of a familiar voice.
"Sun? What are you doing?" Moon was there poking his head out of the tunnel, looking at Sun like he told him the sky was orange. Sun stood there dumbly and weighed his options. He could tell this Moon he was from a different dimension and didn't know how he got here. Or he could just call his own Moon. Which now that he thought of it, he should have done that much earlier.
"Oh, uh," he said smartly, "Nothing. It doesn't matter. I'm just gonna go, you know, set up..?" Sun threw in a nervous laugh for good luck. Or maybe it was genuine, the look this Moon was giving him certainly made him nervous. He looked like he was going to say something so Sun quickly jumped off the balcony as any sane animatronic would do to avoid questioning and leave before he could bother them.
Sun pulled up is contacts, seeing Moon at the top, he was about to click on it before he realized something. These weren't his contacts. His entire family outside Moon was missing. And was that Circus Baby? He couldn't even remember that last time he spoke to her.
Something was definitely wrong but he decided to call Moon anyway. It ringed as he waited for it to be picked up. There was a crash of the balls in the ball pit just as the call got cancelled. Out came this dimensions Moon looking him over intently.
"Sun. What's going on," he rushed out, staying at a distance, but close enough to grab him if needed. He did actually look ready to restrain him, and Sun didn't want to know what that meant. His next words froze Sun in his spot. "Why did you just call me? You know I'm right up there."
He sounded hesitant. Almost nervous. If Sun didn't know better, scared. But, what did he mean Sun called him. No. He called his brother. Not this Moon. Simply being in a different dimension doesn't change the contacts of the visitor. He's been in too many dimensions to not have known that. But then that would mean…
Sun immediately pulled up his calendar, searching for the date.
It was August of 2022.
He is in the past.
In his old body.
Talking to the old Moon.
Does that mean.. it was all a dream? It can't have been. Too much happened. There's no way he processer could make so much of that up. It felt too real to be a dream. He felt every injury, every hurt feeling, every hug, every burst of magic energy, every agonizing second of using Star power. It's not possible. It's just not-
"Sun?" Moon's voice pulled him out of his thoughts, realizing he was staring at the ground instead of answering him. He looked back at the other- his Moon. The one from his past. Current? God. What was he gonna do. "This is Sun, right?"
Great. Not only does he have to restart his whole life. He's been thrown in the middle of the heat of when Eclipse appeared. Absolutely great.
"It-Its me, Moon. I promise. I just.." Sun resisted the urge to look around as if answers would suddenly appear. "I think.. Eclipse maybe took over last night? I don't know. I'm just feeling that confusion whenever he gives me back control.."
Any worry that might have been there vanished instantly, replaced with an anger specifically reserved for Eclipse. "What? Are you sure? What did he do? I should check your systems. Make sure he didn't do anything."
Sun frantically waved his hands in front of him, "Oh, no no no. He didn't do anything to my systems I'm sure." Moon looked skeptical still but Sun cut him off before he had the chance of speaking again, "Plus! The daycare's about to open, I need to quickly set up for the little ones! I'll let you check my systems after work, okay?" Sun's signature smile filled his face, hopefully being reassuring enough to Moon.
Moon sighed heavily and pointed at him, "After work," before using the cable to get back up to the balcony.
Sun sighed just as heavily in relief. This was going to be torture, he could already tell. But for now, he had a daycare to open.
He quickly rushed around cleaning up anything left on the floor, putting out basic art supplies for free play, and made sure he could access his internal daycare system.
Once all that was done he unlocked the doors to the daycare and welcomed the first few children. They had a system where the parents scan the child's Faz ID with a staff bot and Sun would instantly have the information and the child would be put into the daycare system. He was eternally grateful for that system for as long as he could remember, even if sign out had to be done manually.
Only 21 children arrived, and Sun was dumbfounded. After working so long with Terra and Cosmos he forgotten what it was like to take care of less than 40 children at once.
This day should be pretty easy all things considered.
It was not easy. Within an hour he made a child cry because he didn't remember what they were talking about the previous day. He nearly skipped over snack before a child reminded him by saying he was excited to eat the snack he brought. A child spilled juice all over themselves. And nap time was as much of a nightmare as he remembered it being.
He was so glad the day was over. He just had to clean up some and then he could have his existential crisis in peace.
Sun turned around to begin his cleaning process only to be met with the face of one particular Moondrop animatronic.
He flinched back, barley keeping himself from screaming. "Moon." He settled for glaring at him in a way that could be written off as playful since it was coming from Sun. As Moon did nothing other than nod his head, Sun asked "What do you need?"
"I'm checking your systems," he nodded again and that's when Sun realized he was motioning to the security desk with his head. He awkwardly moved to one of the office chairs behind the desk, sitting down as he waited for Moon to do a system scan.
It was over quickly, and Moon found nothing out of the ordinary so he retreated to his room, leaving Sun free to clean the daycare. Honestly, Sun was happy nothing was wrong with his systems. He was worried that would be the case seeing as he supposedly created a whole fake life in his head.
Sun finished his cleaned and found himself back on the balcony, laying on the same couch he woke on that morning. Thinking about everything and nothing at all. He's come to the conclusion that whatever he experienced was a possible future that he could prevent.
But how could he do that? Maybe he should write this down, help him keep track of it all better. He begun to write in a blank document in his head before realizing it was probably possible for both Moon and Eclipse to access it.
Fuck.
So he found a notebook. Don't ask him how. It's not the best quality. A used notebook with folded corners, half used pages covered in math, and found in a trashcan. But it didn't have much gunk on it, and many of the pages were still blank. It was useable, but not something that anyone would think would have future saving plans in.
…
God. He sounds insane.
Sun took the notebook back to the balcony and decided to enter his room for the first time in who knows how long.
The room was perfectly pristine. Not a single speck of dust in sight. It hardly looks lived in at all, but he supposes that part is completely true. There was a big yellow theme when he designed the room. Yellow walls, yellow sheets, he even found a yellow bean bag. He's pretty sure Cosmos still has that yellow one, he gave it to him when he first expressed an interest in those things. He should check- … never mind…
But the room wasn't an assault of yellow. There were other colors in the mix, mainly pinks and blues. It was a very colorful and bright room, but not too overwhelming. One of the walls was covered in strictly drawings from the kids. He smiled at the wall before sitting himself at the makeshift desk he put next to the bean bag. He grabbed a pen from the pencil holder and wrote in big words at the top of a blank page in the notebook.
"General Plans for Less Misery"
Planning. Not his strong suit, but here he goes.
He's really bad at this he's realized. He hasn't written a single word past the heading.
Moon was always the planner between the two of them. He preferred to know everything and make a careful plan before doing anything. Meanwhile, Sun did everything spontaneously. He wasn't terrible at following plans, he was just bad at making them before jumping head first into something.
He doesn't even know what he could put that wouldn't backfire horribly. And many of the things that require sooner than later action are missing some of the people that made it possible.
But there is one thing he knows he can't mess up.
"Don't execute anything until Cosmos Lunar is alive and in Moon's head."
Surely he can't mess that up. How hard is it to do nothing for a week or two. It shouldn't be much longer before Eclipse introduces Lunar into the equation. As long as he doesn't do anything too out of the ordinary for past him, it'll all be fine. Even if just the smallest indication he knows means Eclipse will drop all production instantly and Sun will never see his younger brother ever again-.
It'll be fine.
It's not like he can read his thoughts or anything.
…
Wait. Can Eclipse read his thoughts? He mentioned at one point or another something about absorbing Sun's bad thoughts, if that was even true to begin with. Does that mean he sees all his thoughts? Or would it be feeling related? Seeing the thoughts that bring him negative emotions? He really hopes that isn't the case.
"Befriend or kill Eclipse. Whichever comes first."
He has an odd feeling he'll have to do the latter. He's tried the former more times than he could count and has been rejected every single time. Sure, the Eclipse from his future was much more civil to them, but he still hated them. Although, there's a chance. And it might be good to bring back some of his naive whimsy from his past self. He's lost that part of him with all that has happened to them.
Now what can he put? Two things is nowhere near enough. What about Dazzle? She's in the wall right now isn't she? But how would they get to her? And would taking her away from the portals side effects early cause issues for her later on? He doesn't want that.
"Save Dazzle when it is safe to do so."
She in his plans but nothing too specific yet. He would need Moon's help with her, he knows more about portal output.
Speaking of Moon. How is he going to deal with him? He's an asshole right now. Telling him to stop being a dick isn't going to get them anywhere. Well, except maybe the whacking stick against his faceplate. But that's something he wants to avoid. He'll definitely set stricter boundaries, it’s not something he really needs to write down though.
What was even happening at this time in his life? All he remembers before they got Lunar was pain, suffering, and fighting.
Wasn't Lunar created to keep Moon contained from fighting back against Eclipse? Why wouldn't he kill him then?
It was something that always bothered him. Eclipse always complained about how much he hated them and threatening them constantly, but when he had the chance, he left him alive, just with Lunar holding him down. He's grateful obviously, but what let him to that decision? Eclipse knows just as much as Moon, and anything he doesn't could be found out from Monty. The only thing he didn't know from Moon was where the Star was…
THE STAR!
How could he possibly forget about the Star!? The root of most of their problems. No, that was a lie, the Killcode was the root of most of their problems, but nothing could realistically be done about that at the moment. Killcode needed to gain their own conscious before he could be safely removed.
"Let Killcode gain their own consciousness before doing anything"
"Chuck the Star in a different dimension. (TOP PRIORITY)"
Getting rid of the Star early would fix so many of their problems. The astrals would be much less likely to come looking for them, already eliminating half of their issues with the Star. Granted, Monty has already used the Star several times for stupid reasons from what he remembers, but it's small enough that Earth should be staying very low on their priority list.
And without the Star, Eclipse can't get it, try to take over the world, scew their friends perception of them, kill Lunar, and much more he could possibly do.
Even so, he should still worry about the possiblity of one of the astrals deciding to drop down for an impromptu visit. It's not even a guarantee Gemini is the one to visit them this time. He knows they only really were the ones to come because they were closest at the time. There's no way to know who's going to show at any given time. Moon was going to freak when he heard about this. So Sun had to be the rational one in this situation. But he can warn him somehow.
"Tell Moon about the astrals without him knowing it was me."
He has no idea how he's going to do that, but he'll figure it out, he's sure. And he has plenty of time. If they get rid of the Star soon, there will be hardly any activity that would be needed to investigate. In the future Sun saw, they didn't appear for over a year from now. Which means it would be several years at least before they would have to deal with an astral.
Probably. Assuming everything goes according to plan.
Which it never does.
But oh well. It'll come to it when it comes to it. He needed to focus on getting rid of the Star. Throwing it into a different dimension to destroy it is a simple enough solution that Sun could realistically come up with it. Although Moon might be suspicious that he's suggesting that out of no where, especially with what he said earlier about Eclipse.
But maybe he could bring up the Star through Eclipse? Usually they only talk about Eclipse when the Star is already a topic of conversation or when he takes over. And neither of those are reliable.
Or. He can do the stupidest thing he's done in his life.
Well, for the second time at least, he's done this once before.
What if… and this is a shot in a black hole, he pretends to be Eclipse pretending to be Sun?
It makes no sense, he knows, but if he plays it right…
Time to practice his acting skills.