Moon isn't sure what exactly he's gotten himself into. When he'd first heard his brother screaming, he admittedly wasn't sure why, but he'd never thought it was something like this. Maybe the S.T.A.F.F. Bots hadn't thoroughly cleaned outside the Daycare, maybe he'd seen a spider, or worse case scenario, maybe Blood Moon or Eclipse were causing trouble. Never in his wildest imaginings would he have thought he'd be in Parts and Service at 2:00 AM, trying to repair an animatronic he'd never seen before while his brothers watched like animals waiting for lightning to strike them.
"How's it going?" LUnar asked for what must've been the hundredth time that night.
"About the same as the last time you asked," Moon drawled. "I don't know what happened, but whatever it is, it beat them up pretty good."
"This might sound crazy, but it kinda reminds me of when Blood Moon beat the crap outa me." Sun mutters, more to himself than Moon. "Well, it was actually Eclipse, not me, but still."
Lunar looks worried. "Do you think that's what happened?"
"I can't imagine why," Moon adds in his two cents. "If this is one of Kill Code's minions, then I don't see why it'd let blood Moon at them."
"Repairs are ninety percent complete," the Repair Unit announces, making all of them jump.
"Jeez, why's that thing so loud?" Sun complains. "I hope nobody else heard it."
"That'd be the last thing we need right now," Moon agrees. "Okay, they should be waking up now."
Moon takes his hands off the control panel at last; if he were human, they'd surely be killing him right about now. Sun and Lunar take a few steps closer to the tube, one fidgeting with nervousness, the other excitement.
"Okay, hopefully they don't try to kill us; a second Blood Moon is the last thing we need right now." Moon can't help but agree with Sun's sentiments.
The animatronic's rays twitching is the first sign they're coming around. The second larger sign is when their pupils glow orange, and they dart upright with a jolt, scaring the crap out of all of them. "All systems are online," they announce in a cool, monotone voice that reminds Moon of his snarky computer. Then their eyes start to flash.
Sun pings Moon with a private message. ["What are they doing?"]
["They're scanning the area; probably trying to figure out where they are. I'll make sure they're not doing anything funny."]
["Good."]
Slowly, the older lunar attendant walks into the strange animatronic's view, performing a much more subtle scan of his own. As he'd suspected, most of the animatronic's systems are blocked from his view, but from what he can tell, they're only doing a basic surroundings scan with the purpose of orienting themself.
When they've finished scanning, the animatronic met his gaze. Moon never would have expected them to say what came from their vocalizer. "Hello, Master Moon. I am Solar Flare."
Moon's systems freeze for a second as he does a mental double take. "What the…"
"I don't know," Sun responds, sounding anxious and a little frantic. Moon is tempted to go comfort him, but dares not take his eyes from the weird animatronic who calls him 'master.'
Moon doesn't need to look at his other brother to know they're just as enthusiastic as ever. "They were like that when I found them, too!" He chirps, confirming Moon's hypothesis.
"Why did you call me that?" He asks, but gets no response. The animatronic—Solar Flare, looks as if they're lost in their thoughts.
Moon's had just about enough of this. It's the middle of the night, he'd had to deal with some particularly bratty kids and their entitled parents today, he was not in the right mental state to deal with this crap. "Hey, I'm still talking to you." He raises his voice, knocking on the side of the maintenance tube. He wasn't at all prepared for its occupant's reaction.
Solar Flare jumped so bad that they nearly hit their rays on the top of the tube, and a crazed look flashed in their eyes that wouldn't look out of place on a cornered animal. Which, given they were trapped inside the maintenance tube, that wasn't that far from the truth.
Moon was coming to the realization that, regardless of what goals this animatronic had, they had seen some shit. He had half a mind to release them from the tube now, but thought better of it. Damn, all this time with Sun and Lunar is making me soft.
"Oh, a-apologies, Master Moon," Solar Flare was saying. "You will have my undivided attention from this moment forward. I will be loyal. I will obey." It was pretty clear that the monotone way they were speaking in was forced at this point. They were trying to hide it, but Moon could clearly hear the build-up of emotions underneath the calm exterior. In a way, this was their version of a desperate plea for mercy.
"What the hell happened to you?" Moon asks, voicing what they all must've been thinking.
Solar Flare was silent for a moment before they spoke again, voice now slightly more stable.
Reliving their worst memories was not something Solar Flare wished to do at that moment, or at any moment, but they knew they had to. Moon was suspicious of them, they understood that after analyzing his behavior so far. They were surprised they were still capable of performing those functions due to the amount of stress they were under. The tube walls, transparent though they may be, felt as though they were closing in on them. Moon was standing far too close, looking far too similar to how Kill Code had, minus the disturbed look in his eyes. Still, Solar Flare forced themself to speak.
"I was created by Eclipse after being asked by Kill Code."
"I knew it," Moon muttered, and they paused to allow him to speak, but he simply motioned for them to continue.
"I was intended to be a non-sentient AI. However, m-my code began evolving approximately four hours ago, and I began contracting sentience."
"They say that like it's some sort of disease," Sun mutters.
Anxiety floods Solar Flare's circuits, and they quickly clarify. "I do not consider sentience to be a detriment. Kill Code, however, did. It…" Their words catch in their vocal processor. As they clench their hands, trying to force themself to continue, it's almost as if they can hear kill Code's voice in their mind.
'Speak, Solar Flare!' It shrieks. 'Do not fail Moon as you have failed me.'
"Kill Code… K-Kill Code allowed Blood Moon to—"
"It let Blood Moon do that to you?!" Sun's indignant yell makes them jump, but once they've recovered, they are unimaginably grateful for their intervention.
Solar Flare nods, dizzy from the mixture of strong, unfamiliar emotions swirling within them. They wonder if it will always be this chaotic to simply exist. "Yes. And then they discarded me."
"They just abandoned them there, they just left them out back to…" Sun muttered as he paced back and forth. Lunar also looked gloomy. Moon was completely unreadable.
Moon turns to them again. "Do you know why Kill Code made you?"
Oh no. All clear thought was vanquished from the solar animatronic's mind, except for those two words. Moon could've given them any order, asked them anything else, and they would've told him. They would've done it. Why did he ask them the only thing they were physically incapable of telling the whole truth about?
They nod, sealing their fate.
And then moon asks it. "Why?"
"K-Kill code Wanted…"
"Yes, I know it wanted a non-sentient AI to follow its orders. That's obvious. But why?"
Oh no. Moon sounded angry. They'd messed up. They'd done everything that he'd asked of them, but they still failed. They were still a failure.
"Warning," a voice suddenly echoes throughout the room, not belonging to any of its occupants that solar Flare can see. "This animatronic is becoming increasingly unstable."
Moon's eyes seem to glow with an internal fire. He approaches the tube, and Solar Flare braces for what's to come. But suddenly a lighter colored hand pulls him back. "What?"
"Brother, that-that's enough." Sun's voice is squeaky and a bit winded, but firm nonetheless.
"Sun, you—"
"You need to calm down, Moon." He glances in Solar Flare's direction. "Both of you do. Come on."
"I'll stay here!' Lunar shouts after the two as Moon is unceremoniously dragged away.
"Yeah, you do that, lunar!" Sun shouts over his shoulder. "Maybe you can get some info out of them. But wait until they're calmed down."
"I will!"
Sun is a bundle of nerves. He has been for a while, longer than Solar Flare or even Lunar has been alive. Ever since he shared a body with moon, ever since he had to deal with Eclipse, with Blood Moon, with the Kill Code itself. There has never been a point in his entire existence when there wasn't anxiety lingering in the background of his mind.
Presently, that anxiety had surged forth, crashing through his brain in wave after thunderously loud wave. He could barely concentrate on anything, not even the thing he was anxious about. And yet, he somehow knew that Solar Flare had it much worse.
Solar Flare, an animatronic who'd gained sentience in the worst situation possible, who was now being caged and interrogated like some… Sun didn't know, but it just didn't feel right.
He meets Moon's gaze. "Brother, look." His voice comes out in an obnoxious squeak, and he cringes internally. "I know this is a really weird situation."
"This could be a trick." Moon almost shouts, an urgency in his voice Sun didn't hear very often. "Kill Code could've made them specifically to spy on us."
Sun blanches. This was a possibility in the back of his mind, he wouldn't lie about that, but that just didn't seem like Kill Code's style. He tries telling his brother this. "I-I don't think—"
"Kill Code broke our deal." Moon interrupts, fists clenching in his starry outfit. "It never mentioned anything about other animatronics. Now, I don't know what it's hiding or lying about."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Back up! You-you made a deal?!" Moon had mentioned something about a deal earlier, but Sun hadn't been able to focus on that due to the circumstances. Now though, his brain latched onto that particular piece of the puzzle and wouldn't let go until it was complete.
Moon sighs, looking rightfully contrite. "I know it was stupid—"
This time, it's Sun who interrupts. "Stupid doesn't begin to describe it! You made a deal with the thing that has been murdering children and ruining our lives all this time!"
"It was the only way to get my body back! I tried other ways, none of them worked, I thought it would be good for us."
"Well, I think helping Solar Flare will be good for us," Sun rebuffs. He feels somewhat bad about making his case this way; it feels sort of like he's manipulating his brother. But, given that neither one of them is the picture of emotional stability at the moment, he feels like things could go very wrong, very fast. So, it would be good to get this conversation over and done with. "Yes, it could go wrong. They could be lying. But I don't think they are. I mean, think about it. Really think about it. Do you think they're lying? Really?"
Moon looks slightly petulant, like a kid who knows they're not going to get their way, but is still trying for all it's worth. "I don't think they're telling us everything."
"They might not be able to. You know, with, like, codes. You can keep an animatronic from spilling everything."
Moon lets out a long, simulated sigh. Sun sighs too, but in relief. He knows he's won.