Left Behind

Chapter 2

The first thing Sun noticed when they were given back control of their body was that they were in their room, something considerably rare considering their counterpart avoided it like the plague nowadays, it was their first warning sign of what was to come. The next was, funnily enough, their audio receptors acknowledging that the building's fire alarm was going off. Sun rushed to the balcony that overlooked the Daycare and- they cried out as they looked over the charred remains of their home. Bright orange flames sprinkled across the room below them, easily spreading across the padded floors and licking up at the walls as the puny sprinklers did nothing to stop it. They were snapped out of their thoughts as they caught sight of the banned sign they made past the now opened gates, the crackling flames engulfing the paper, reminding them of all the treasured drawings and crafts just behind them that the children of the Daycare had gifted them and Moon what felt like ages ago. They quickly turned back to their room as they thought of how fast they would be lost to the flames.

For once in the entirety of their existence Sun truly appreciated the festering panic that was swelling inside of them, seemingly the only thing managing to push away the harsh tugs of their code as it tried to force them into cleaning the absolute mess that was their room as they yanked down the drawings and merchandise lining the walls of Moon's former hideaway. They only managed to grab half of it when they noticed the room growing warmer and they knew they would have to leave the rest.

They crawled out the tunnel as best they could with their arms full of paper and cloth, hardly making it a few steps before they turned back to panickedly search once more. Muttering in an increasingly high-pitched voice, "Where are they, where are they?!" Finally, they spotted them, two tiny plush bodies positioned together on a stack of crates near the spot Sun had awakened in. Both tucked against one another, as if their only care in the world was to stay by each other's side for as long as they could.

Sun scooped the dolls into their arms, tucking them both to their chestplate protectively with a breathy exhale of relief before they were bounding past the rails and leaping off the balcony with little more than a glimpse below them. They landed into the ball pit below without their usual flourish and resurfaced immediately, the warped plastic sticking to their casing and the backs of the outermost drawings as they tried to peel their way out.

Running in the Daycare was no easy task, the plush floor was infamous for tripping the most agile of children and the smoke clogging their internal fans made recalibrating their balance a hard enough task without the alarm grating at their overworked processor. Still, they pushed on, stumbling their way past the flame filled gates towards the pickup doors. They had just managed to grab ahold of a handle when a thunderous bang sounded from behind them. Jumping, they spun around to see one of the play structures beginning to lean towards them with a sharp metal squeal, spasming with more explosions as the heat finally reached the generators inside. They ripped the door open, yanking it off of it's hinges with the force of their tug. They took the step forward to freedom and-

Sun's panic increased tenfold as their programming walled off the exit from them. Insisting that they find the child they'd seen in the building. Gregory, however, was probably already halfway across the parking lot with Freddy hot on his heels blazing their way to safety! Certainly not in the Daycare of all places! But still, no matter how many scans they ran that proved to them that there wasn't a single soul left in the Daycare, they weren't allowed to leave.

Their hand clutched the remaining door tight enough that it splintered beneath their cushioned grip, their other hand pressing their items flat against their chest as they hyperventilated . The play structures groaned again from behind them, and they echoed it with a mechanical whine, bouncing in place anxiously as they willed their body to just. Move. The air whistled as the structure finally began to topple and fall towards them and they curled in on themself fearfully.

"RUN!" A voice Sun had never again expected to hear screamed at them from within their own mind, "Moon?!-" Their cry was cut short as their left side was pinned to the floor with a sickening crack, red tinted diagnostics filling their vision as their left arm went unresponsive, their knee joint just barely avoiding the same fate. Pain alit in their body like nothing they'd ever felt before and they tried desperately to claw their way out to no avail. They were trapped.

Their glitched wails were drowned out by the sounds of the crackling flames and the alarm still blaring above them, yet even so they managed to be heard. Tiny suction cupped feet rushing into their field of view as the owner of the appendages sent out one distressed ping after another. A pair of ratty gloves hovered over their crushed shoulder, as if unsure what to do before settling on trying to lift the remains of the structure off Sun themself. Sun looked up at their tiny hero, vision glitching and blurred at the edges. It was one of DJ's minis, one from the percussionist group if the tambourine tuck against their back was any indication. "Ta-m-my" They croaked and the musician in question was in front of them immediately, seemingly trying to reassure them with gentle pats to their faceplate and tiny sways that made the jingles of her instrument clash softly.

Sun pressed the stack of drawings and half folded clothes into the smaller's arms only to have it all shoved back to them, as if she knew exactly what they were asking of her before they said a word. "T-Tamm-y, pl-pl-ease..." They pleaded only to receive a firm shake of the head in response. Before they could try and reason with the stubborn being, however, the ground began to tremble and the room shook, the structure on top of them shifting against them with the movement sending a new jolt of pain through them until a large, gloved hand lifted it off of them, scooping them and Tammy into it's palm and lifting them until they were face to face with their giant best friend. "D...J!" they brokenly cheered, sitting up in his hold as he carried them from the rubble, cupping another hand over them as he raised a fist, smashing through anything standing in his way without hesitation before he was crawling out into the first few rays of daybreak.

Sun had always dreamed of seeing the world outside the Pizzaplex, in the past they would talk all throughout nap time with Moon about the stories the children would share with them. About the tree leaves in the bedtime stories that would change color as the months passed and the fluffy clouds that swirled and puffed like unraveled cotton balls. But the world Sunny saw now wasn't as they'd dreamed.

Their surroundings were blurred and drowned in a static, the gentle bird songs unheard under the sound of the fire consuming the Pizzaplex and sirens much too far to be of any help. The clouds were replaced by smoke that covered the sky in a blanket of gray; most notably, Moon wasn't with them... they thought back to the voice that had yelled at them from within the fire, systems falling into rest mode to combat their processors' increasing stress levels. Moon didn't answer them anymore... but were they really gone like Sun thought?