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Carmine knew something was off when he came back to find Moon missing. He wasn’t completely sure what could be off, but he couldn’t shake off the sense of uncertainty.
He searched through the halls of the bunker, finding no one but Dazzle and Dahlia.
Dazzle had simply given a “No” when asked if she knew where Moon was. Then, she stalked off somewhere else.
Dahlia, on the other hand, offered to search for him with Carmine.
“It’ll be much easier to find him with both of us,” Dahlia said with the same uplifting tone he always did. “Maybe even with three if we can find Cossy.”
“I have a bad feeling about Cossy,” Carmine said. “I wouldn’t trust him with much.”
Dahlia tilted their head. They didn’t get it, but Carmine knew that they would follow through, “If you’re sure. Where have you searched? It’ll be easier if we-”
The sound of shouting echoed through the bunker, causing Carmine to flinch.
Dahlia could barely get out a, “What was that?” before Carmine was racing in the direction of the sound.
He stopped to find Cossy.
“Oh, hey,” Cossy said, sounding out of breath.
Carmine grabbed Cossy’s shoulders, “What did you do?”
Cossy pushed their hands off him, “What are you talking about?”
“There was screaming,” Carmine said. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do shit!” Cossy said. “You come in here and start accusing me of so much shit! What gives you the idea that I’m the bad guy here?”
“I don’t think he meant to accuse you,” Dahlia said, having caught up to Carmine. “We were just worried because of the screaming. It wasn’t you, was it?”
“It was, actually,” Cossy said. “Dropped something on myself while moving it. Hurt like hell.”
“Mind telling us where you dropped this item?” Carmine asked.
“Why do you want to know…?”
“Moon is missing,” Carmine said, his voice getting deathly serious. “I know you dislike him. Tell me where he is, or I will make you.”
“Fucking hell,” Cossy said. “You’re really threatening me? How many times do I have to say, I didn’t do-”
Another scream cut through the air, muffled just like the other one but much closer.
Carmine threw Cossy away as he hurried towards the door, “Moon? Moon!”
“Don’t you dare open that!” Cossy said, his crossbow pointed directly at Carmine. “It’s not going to end well for anyone!”
“What did you do?!” Carmine asked, feeling dangerously close to actually hurting the animatronic in front of them.
“What needed to be done!” Cossy yelled, “Moon and Sun are the reason I watched my loved ones die. They killed Earth, they killed Eclipse, they all need to go!”
Dahlia stepped forward, “They’re helping you with a cure!”
“Lies!” Cossy hissed, “All lies! Moon has never done shit if it didn’t help him, why should this one be any different?”
“Cossy, please, think about this,” Dahlia said, inching closer. “If you don’t let us in, the chances of a cure will be lowered.”
“Are you threatening me?” Cossy shrieked. “You’re just like them. You’re all the same, every last one of you! You all want to see your siblings suffer. You don’t even-”
Cossy let out a yelp of pain as Dahlia shoved him down. Carmine took that as the opening to enter the room now that the crossbow was gone.
“Solar!” Moon yelped, stumbling backwards but with his hands outstretched in an attempt to placate Solar.
“Please, don’t you remember me? You’re family! I don’t even know if you’re my Solar, but you don’t deserve this!”
“Moon!” a voice shouted, causing Moon to turn to the sound.
Carmine barreled into Solar, sending both of them tumbling.
Solar was still snarling as Carmine held him at a distance with scythes.
What the fuck, Moon thought, staring wide-eyed at Carmine’s weapon. There were so many feelings happening at once.
He wanted a scythe, having one in his wrist like Carmine, but that was his family member, or at least a version of Solar.
“Get out, Moon!” Carmine said. “This isn’t Solar!”
Moon hesitated, looking between the open door. Whatever happened to Solar, he didn't want it to happen to Carmine.
“I’ll be fine. Go!”
Moon hurtled out of the room.
“Let me go!” Cossy yelled, trying to get out of the hold Dahlia had on him.
“So you can hurt me the moment you do?” Dahlia asked, “I think not.”
Cossy started shouting a multitude of obscenities when another voice joined.
“What are you doing to Cosmos?” Moon asked, stepping out of the room.
Cossy started laughing hysterically, “I’m not him! God, I still can’t believe how stupid you are! Hah!”
Dahlia smashed Cossy’s head against the floor, causing the crazed laughter to suddenly stop.
“D-did you…?” Moon asked, clearly scared.
“No,” Dahlia said. “He’s alive. What did he do?”
“Cosmos… Cossy?” Moon asked, his hand fiddling with the bells and ribbon around his hands. “Whoever… they locked me up in an enclosed room with… someone who looked like Solar.”
Dahlia shook their head, clearly displeased, “Some people can not look past what they know.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Moon asked.
“He’ll live,” Dahlia said. “For now. Not sure what’ll happen once Sun gets his hands on him.”
“...What?”
“Moon!” Carmine said, stepping out of the room, he was covered in oil.
“Carmine?” Moon asked, turning to him. He flinched back, seeing the black substance, “Did you?”
“No,” Carmine said, “though I thought about it. But I think he is still in that thing. I didn’t want to kill him if there was a chance that there was something alive in that body.”
“Okay,” Moon said.
“Are you okay?” Carmine asked.
Moon sighed, “I- no. My brother, but not my brother, tried to kill me with a creature that also looks like someone from my family. I don’t know what’s happening.”
“Cossy used Moon’s memory loss against him,” Dahlia said. “Took advantage of the trust his lack of memory gave and destroyed it.”
Carmine’s hands clenched. “Let’s… wait. Sun should be the final decider for what we do with him.”
“Don’t kill him!” Moon said, “He watched his family die. He wanted to kill me because of what his Moon did.”
“His Moon,” Carmine said. “You are not his. You’ve come here to cure the infection, not make it worse.”
Dahlia nodded, lifting up Cossy’s unconscious body, “His hatred, however justified, was misguided.”
“But-”
“No,” Carmine said firmly. “No buts. We’re waiting for Sun to return. Then what to do with him? We’ll see if we can keep him alive.”