Karmas bitter but so am I (S.A.M.S.)

Chapter 15 - "....when are you coming home?"

(Narrators POV)

The days are...pretty fuzzy now. Eclipse is reminded of his first downfall and struggle for survival the longer he sits in this god-awful silence. It feels like a purgatory, but he knows he's, somehow, still alive.

Some part of him wishes he wasn't.

Some part of him wishes that the intense pain and pressure in his chest would just become too much for his systems, and let him go. Facing the others after everything that's happened feels...impossible. A wall too high for his weakened limbs to scale.

But he knows he'll look like a coward, disappearing after a fight like that without returning or offering any explanation. Would he even make it back to talk with the others? Is he going to be remembered as he truly is- the defensive, self-centered animatronic that pushes everyone away just enough for him to walk off and never return?

Then again, he had planned to return. He originally only wanted to be gone a few hours. He needed time to think. Needed time to reflect and maybe beat himself over the head for harming Blood Moon in the way that he did. He wouldn't have been able to navigate a conversation without fumbling over his emotions and further escalating the situation. He knew that.

But The Star didn't, he supposes.

It didn't know that he planned to apologize.

It only knew that he used its power to hurt someone Eclipse considered family, and then promptly decided that he was no longer worthy if he was going to use its influence in that way.

He didn't mean to.

But that excuse sounds childish and crude, even to his own egotistic mind. It would mean nothing in a heartfelt apology.

The door across the expansive room he sits in creaks open, promptly closing behind the lengthy figure that enters. He narrows his eyes tiredly, not quite conscious enough for a full reaction, much less an offhand remark about their entrance.

For a moment, all is still. It stays beside the door, stiff and lax all at the same time, one hand still resting upon the rusted metal surface of the entryway. Eclipse waits. He doesn't say anything. What is there to say, really?

Finally, piercing red eyes turn in his direction, hand falling away from the door in a lazy, careless manner.

"...when are you going to let me go?" Eclipse asks quietly after a bit of simply staring back into the eyes that follow his every move. He doesn't have to speak very loudly- the room is large, and echoes almost as well as the atrium. He knows raising his voice any louder would...anger it.

"Not keeping you here." It replies, tone full of disdain as it steps further into the room, movements stiff and sluggish. Eclipse tenses as it gets closer.

"You're not letting me out, either." He bites back, pressing himself up against the wall as it kneels before him, staring vacantly into his eyes for a moment before turning its attention to the cable currently shoved in Eclipse's chest.

"Get up and leave. Be my guest."

Eclipse's expression turns sour at its undeniable sarcasm, eyes narrowing apprehensively. He moves to shove its hand away as it leans closer, claws reaching out to the cable with careful precision. Through the darkness, he can see its gaze sharpen, those wretched black dots coming to life in its eyes, focused in on him. He pulls his hand away, letting it do what it pleases with him.

Trying to stop it would be pointless, anyways. A waste of energy, if anything.

Faded stars adorn torn sleeves, hiding the rust and peeling paint of its paneling beneath. The sharpened edge of it's remaining faceplate glitters hauntingly in the half-light, the mechanisms on the exposed side running quietly despite their obvious wear.