9.1-Not so Abandoned

The days following the memory incident were spent somber and silent as a harsh reality set in. With no children to care for - with nothing immediate to distract him - Sun struggled to recover from the aftermath of the trauma. His voice box continued to malfunction when he attempted to speak, which only added to his distress. Moon, on the other hand, became so focused on attempting to tend to his brother that he also put off entering a sleep cycle. Even as his systems began to warn him that he was at risk of memory. He pushed his limits. Until the night came where he had no choice but to sleep so that all of his recently obtained memory could be properly stored. He would only need an hour. Two hours as most, considering how long he had put off allowing his software to do what it needed to do.

The house was secure. Sun would be safe. Or so he had assumed. Once a deep sleep cycle had been started then it could not be stopped partway through. His body and his sensory systems were completely shut down. Ergo he could not be roused when humanity came lurking. When he awoke, he awoke to the sight of a heavily distressed Sun hunkered down in a corner of the room. A bright light shined in from the open threshold of the neighboring room - the kitchen. In the moments that it took for his sensory systems to fully restart, Moon admittedly found himself more confused than he was frightened. The two had made it a rule to never turn the lights on in the house if it was dark outside. Then his life detection system became active, and he immediately understood why Sun was so visibly distressed.

The house was not abandoned. Moon had been wrong. Now there was a person moving about the well lit room just a few feet away from where they lay hidden. Immediately Moon made sure to dim the light that his body emitted, not wanting to risk being discovered. As it were, the animatronics were trapped. Their best possible exit resided up a flight of stairs and above the second floor in the attic. The windows on the first floor were too small for them to flee through - and it was unclear if they were still locked. They could fit through the front door; not as easily as through the attic window, but still. Their only exits were blocked by the human roaming about in the next room. Sun and Moon hunkered down upon opposite sides of the doorway, keeping their bodies well within the protective cover of the dark.

If they were lucky, then the human would go upstairs and give them a chance to flee. Or leave the house so that they could rush upstairs to the attic. They just needed an opening. Any opening to get out of the house without being spotted. If only they could be so lucky. The human in the next room did not leave the house. Nor did they venture up the stairs. Within a few minutes of waking, Moon was left paralyzed in anticipation of the coming chaos as the human frame crossed the threshold to enter the room. The light switch was on Sun's side of the doorway. The woman's head turned and she flipped the light on. Then she froze upon spotting Sun. Moon did not give her the chance to react. They could not afford to let her escape. They could not afford to let her alert others of their whereabouts.

Moon grabbed her. He gripped her by the shoulder and thrust his hand against her back and he shoved her to the ground. Hard. Hard enough that he distinctly felt something in her smaller body give way under the force of his might. Medical alerts began to flag in his system as he became aware of the damage that he had done. A completely dislocated shoulder. The pressure he applied to her chest prevented her from breathing as he held her against the floor. Still, he did not let up. He maintained the level of his grip and he refused to allow his limbs to budge. In his frantic mind, he saw no means of avoiding what he was about to do. Having been discovered, the witness had to be eliminated. For his safety and for Sun's safety. He had to become the monster once more.

"Sun, go." Moon spoke sternly, instructing his brother to get out of the building. He did not want Sun to witness what he was about to do. What he did not expect was for his brother to try and stop him. Sun rushed forward, gripping him by the arm and attempting to pull his hand off of the woman's back.

"MoOn, doOn't!" Sun stammered out, his voice box malfunction still present but not as heavy as before. The nighttime attendant was admittedly startled by the confrontation. Realistically he should have expected it. Realistically he knew that Sun would never approve of him doing what he fully intended to do. In the chaos of the moment, he had somehow rationalized that they would understand. That they would somehow accept the notion that it was either her or them, and that no matter what Moon would pick the option which kept Sun safe. He was a fool to expect his brother to do such a thing. He was cruel to believe, even for an instant, that Sun should be expected to accept such a concept. Still, he could not let go of his fears. They had been seen. They were now in danger. If the woman was not silenced, then they were as good as decommissioned.

"Sun, I have too! She's seen us!" Moon blurted out in turn, ignoring his sensors as he was made aware of the fact that he was actively suffocating the woman that lay pinned beneath his frame. Still, his brother did not relent. Sun continued to try and pry him off of the woman before irreversible damage was done.

"DoOn't!..." Sun repeated, still struggling to speak. His expression was desperate. He pleaded with Moon in the only way he could. The absolute terror and worry that reflected in his eyes - it was more than Moon could dare try and power through. He relented, yanking his hands off of the now unconscious woman before lethal damage was done. There followed a moment of near complete silence. The only sound being that of the woman's chest heaving abruptly as her body realized that it could finally gasp for air. Moon remained silent as he stared at his brother, who began to administer emergency medical care. The woman's dislocated shoulder was forced back into its socket, but thankfully the jolt of pain did not prove enough to rouse her from her suffocation induced slumber.

The nocturnal animatronic wanted to take his brother and leave. He wanted to tell them that the woman would be fine and that they still had time to put distance between themselves and the property if they left immediately - but he could tell by the expression on Sun's face that that was not an option. The harsh reality of it all was that Sun was still heavily bound by the basis of his creation. Still a slave to the instincts that had been programmed into him. A lone, injured woman lay before him and Sun would not resist his protocols further. Moon remained silent and watched as his twin carefully lifted the woman from the floor to carry her upstairs. He followed, all the while attempting to create some sort of plan. What were they to do now that they had been spotted? What fate was to befall them now?

He did not know, and that uncertainty terrified him. Sun brought the woman to the room with the largest bed and carefully laid her down upon the musty blankets. What awaited them now was an uneasy waiting game. They spent their night in silence, uncertain of what would transpire once the woman woke. Tense and afraid. For themselves and for each other.