Archive of Our Own ^beta

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     Nexus had been there for longer than he remembered. Was it a year? Just a month? He couldn't remember. The voice in his head had long disappeared, only showing up when there was the slimmest of chances of him somehow escaping. He as well as the voice had given up.
     The forest he had ravaged didn't look like it was coming back anytime soon. The trees that once stood tall were nothing but ashes stormed into the dirt. Destroyed by his power. So too did Nexus feel he was destroyed by his own means. He had done this to himself, his newfound insanity told him as much.
     And it didn't look like he was coming back.

     Well, until it did.
     Nexus was in the middle of a routine he had developed his first week in this hell hole of a universe. He scouted near the scorched area for any hope of anything. The voice returned, telling him that, when he leaves, he will take the whole universe for himself. Nexus had given up faith in it. Not even he was crazy enough to believe it anymore.
     Away from the darkness he scouted, toward a lake--- no river. It was a river. He never crossed the river, it marked the land he was allowed to own. The sunset SUN SUN THE BASTARD SUN KILL HIM HE DID THIS TO NEXUS was actually pretty nice. But he had seen it many times. It was much brighter than it-- BAM! Something crashed in the burnt valley of trees. For all he knew, Nexus was alone except for the voice that lived there.
     Nexus probably didn't need to be as cautious as he was when he approached the sound, but he didn't trust this universe after all this time.
     "Are you sure you can't locate him?" A voice said. It sounded nervous, like it didn't know if it should be there. It wasn't the voice that haunted him in that area. And it wasn't bouncing in his head. Someone was here... for him.
     "No, but he should be here, there's no way he could have left." A higher pitched voice said. The voices sounded strange to Nexus, he knew he had heard them before, but couldn't remember when.
     Silently, he approached. The darkening sky helped him blend into the developing shadows, the surviving trees giving him enough cover to take a look at where the voices came from. And he saw whom they came from. One of them was tall and yellow, a bit of red and orange spread around. The next one was marginally smaller, a lot of white and purple along with a hood that covered the head.
     The taller one was looking more carefully than the short one. Nexus slowly approached them. He knew them, he had seen them before. He couldn't remember when. He continued to step forward when the taller looked his way. Before the yellow one could see him, Nexus dashed across the forest.
     "I think that was him!" The first voice he had heard called after him. He could hear their footsteps following him. They could be fast, but he was faster. He hated to run, he could hear the voice beckoning him.
     You should be the one following them. Keep them for yourself. The voice tempted. Nexus was too busy running for his life to humor the voice. The voice was a bother, anyways. After a bit of running, he exited the forest. But they were still after him, just farther off.
     "There he is!" The shaky voice called again, but it sounded far off. It said something else, but was too far for Nexus to hear.
     Nexus stopped himself before the river. He took a minute to look behind him and didn't see any of the two. He was safe, for now. But he knew it wouldn't last long. He didn't know what it was like to cross the river, but the more distance he had from them, the better. He waded through the river, glad that he was waterproof, and continued to run.
     He didn't know how far he had gotten, or how long he had run, or how long ago the footsteps stopped chasing him. But his systems were overheating and it was pitch black. He was in another forest, far from what he was used to. To say Nexus was cautious would be an understatement. Though he couldn't hear the two newcomers, he was still weary of them. He felt like they were always watching him, following him like the ever steady wind.
     In another forest he found himself, he decided the small clearing around him was good enough to rest. Though he technically didn't need sleep, Nexus still felt it to be better than being up, being stressed for hours unending. For all he knew, they could have given up by now.

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     He awoke to find the sky bright with oranges and pinks. It must have been morning. He couldn't have stayed long, Nexus knew there wasn't much time to spare, yet he still found the opportunity to admire it. The peacefulness wasn't there to last as he heard murmuring far off. Quiet footsteps led by the now found light in the sky. He had to keep moving.

       He walked instead of running. Nexus didn't feel less stressed, just more cautious. The risk of him being caught was higher with them being close, he didn't think it would be the smartest thing to run once more. So it was just Nexus attempting to outwalk the other two. It had been maybe an hour of just walking. Nexus was tired of it, he couldn't hear them anymore, so he guessed he was safe.

     Until he wasn't.

     Nexus must have fallen behind, the weariness finally getting to him, because he heard the haunting footsteps of his visitors. This time, there was no time to escape.

     “Sun, I think we're close.” The high-pitched voice notified quietly. That name. That name. That name. Nexus knew it, he remembered that name. He knew who that was. THE BASTARD WHO DID THIS TO HIM. Nexus, before he scorched that part of his forest, his comfortable forest, vowed to get revenge on Sun.

     “... ran this far. I didn't think he would run.” Nexus missed the first part of what Sun said, but he didn't care. “I don't know if that's even… him anymore.” Nexus turned around to where he heard Sun. He wanted to face the bastard head on. And so he would.

     Nexus waited there for much longer than he'd admit, just plotting what he'd do to Sun. How he'd get his revenge. His insanity giving him all sorts of horrific ideas of what he'll do to Sun. He zoned into reality when he heard a branch hit a bit too hard. They were approaching. Nexus didn't have much time to prepare, maybe an agonizingly long minute or two before he would be face to face with the person who had ruined him and his life. Nexus wanted to rip Sun apart, limb by limb. He wanted to make sure Sun would never, ever, forget him.

     That's why he watched Sun and the other walk up so carefully. The two looked shocked, Nexus didn't understand why. Maybe it's because they weren't expecting to see him, but they should have. Why else would they be in the place they left him? They stood there in silence, no one moving. Nexus was fuming, he was already imaging how thrilling it would be to kill Sun, whose eyes flicked between his short companion and Nexus. The short one looked more determined than anything else.

     “Nexus, I know that last time you saw me wasn't exactly… favorable—” Sun started to speak, but Nexus wasn't hearing it.

     “Right, that one time you locked me in this hell hole!” Nexus yelled, starting to get pissed off. He forgot how long it had been since he had spoken, when he yelled until his voice box hurt. It felt unusual, maybe even weird. The short one took a step forward. Towards Nexus.

     “Nexus, listen, we aren't going to hurt you.” The short one said, holding out his hands. Nexus had forgotten his name, but he forgot when. But that didn't mean he trusted the light purple and white gremlin.

     Nexus laughed, but it sounded garbled and like his voice was crumbling. The other two didn't seem to share the same joy. Sun called for the other— whom he called Lunar— and tried to pull him back. But those short— Lunar didn't listen.

     “We are getting nowhere with this!” He complained, getting closer to Nexus. “And what are you trying to do?” Nexus asked. Sun and Lunar only looked at each other. Sun frowned, but only nodded. Oh how Nexus wanted to—

     “Nexus, we aren't playing games! We are trying to help you.” Lunar sighed, almost yelling. He wasn't getting any farther from Nexus, but Nexus would rather die than backup.

     “Really?” Nexus chuckled, it was even worse than his laugh. Pure garbled noise. “And sending me here was for my benefit.”

     “Nexus, can't you just listen to us!” Sun cried, probably fed up with the argument brewing. But Nexus wasn't distracted enough to not notice Lunar taking another step. He was less than a yard away from Nexus at this point.

     “Nexus, don't freak out,” Lunar started to warn— was he fucking floating? He definitely was, as well as holding out a hand. Sun started to yell something before everything went white.

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     Sun was absolutely terrified. After what happened with the beast, Sun had no clue if Nexus would survive this. As soon as Lunar started to purify him, Nexus let out an ear bleeding scream so loud Lunar almost fell down. That only made Sun more scared for Nexus, he didn't even know if Nexus could survive it. He really did love his ex-brother and watching this felt wrong, he couldn't even see because the blinding white light was messing up his optics, but still just being around it felt wrong.

     After a few seconds, Nexus’ body went limp and Lunar stopped floating. Nexus’ body was still there, but Sun didn't know if he was still there. Sun basically sprinted toward Nexus, kneeling beside him and shaking him awake. Lunar just stood there, neither knowing what to do.

     Then Nexus awoke.

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     All Nexus could see was Sun shaking him desperately, Sun leaning over him like he was dead. Which he probably was. Nexus, for the millionth time, tried to reach out for Sun. And he did. But barely.

     He was finally the one in control, the one actually functioning and not taking a backseat to everything this body had done. He didn't even feel like he was Nexus, the name contained a different him. Over the time he had to watch his body do horrific things to his family, he created a hatred for what he had done. What that other he had done.

     “Oh my god!” Sun yelled, alerting Lunar, when he touched Sun's arm.

     “Hey…” Nexus muttered, the first thing that came to mind. He was barely conscious, not even paying attention to what was happening.

     Sun looked down at him with his large, caring eyes. Even after all Nexus had done to him, he still cared. “He-he's alive.” Sun whispered, but it sounded more directed at himself.

     Lunar looked down at him in shock, as if he didn't expect him to survive this. Nexus didn't even think he would have either. “Should we bring him to your house? What if he's—” Lunar started to accuse Nexus.

     “I'm bringing him home, Lunar.” Sun told him stiffly, just wanting to have his brother back.

     Lunar sighed, but caved. “Fine.”

     Nexus was too exhausted still and passed out before Lunar even opened a portal.

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Nexus woke up on the couch. It was pretty comfortable and balanced out the ache he felt in every part of his body. He sat up a little, but must have groaned loud enough to wake up none other than Moon. Really, there wasn't anyone he hadn't hurt in the past.

     “So you're up.” Moon mused grumpily; it could have been that he had just woken up, but Nexus didn't guess so.

     “Yeah,” Nexus muttered, still finding it weird to talk. He wanted to give Moon the decency of eye contact, but didn't even dare to look at him, just at himself.

     Moon stared him down, maybe not used to Nexus looking so… small. Nexus definitely felt small, in the way that he just felt sorry for everything, but didn't know if anyone would ever have the insane kindness to forgive him.

     “I don't know why he insisted on bringing you back. After all you've done, I'm shocked he still has the heart to forgive you, Nexus. But I guess not even you could get Sun to hate you. I'm shocked, Nexus.” Moon hissed, using his name like an insult. And it did feel like one. ‘Nexus’ carried the feeling of everything bad he had ever done. He wanted a new name.

     “Nexus is a stupid name… Call me ‘Comet’.” Nexus— no, Comet muttered. Moon raised a (metaphorical) eyebrow, perhaps testing if Comet was being serious.

     After a couple of moments, Moon nodded. “Probably for the best, Nexus sounds like a 16 year old going through his Gacha oc naming phase.” He joked, reminding Comet of a hazy memory, barely making it through the depths of his mind.

     “So what's your judgment on ‘Comet’?” Comet tried to joke, trying to get Moon to be less on guard.

     “Sounds less emo, maybe you've grown out of your oc phase after all.” Moon joked, getting up from his chair. “I think Sun would want to talk to you, now that you're awake.”

     Moon's last comment made Comet question something; had he been out for a long time? It surely couldn't have been more than a day? Maybe just a few hours? Time really wasn't Comet's friend, especially not after he died. Just thinking about his death gave him thoughts that dissipated when Sun entered.

     He looked… anxious? Comet could understand, this was their first real conversation since he had gone coo-coo-bananas (I had to). Comet didn't really know if he was ready for it. Sun sat down in the same chair his brother had. “So…” his voice fizzled out. “Moon told me you go by Comet now?”

     “Yeah,” Comet replied, still trying to think of what he should say. “I want to put all that Nexus crap behind me.” Comet almost choked up on the last word, almost saying us.

     “That's probably a good thing.” Sun stopped before mentioning exactly what Comet had done in the past. He guessed they were both aware.

     There was a bit of silence before Comet spoke up. “So, how has the family been doing?”

     “Well, we moved dimensions, but took the house with us, that's why it looks the same,” Sun replied.

     Comet looked around. It was the same house he had barged in on a while back, but it felt different. He could still sense Dark Star Power, and it felt weaker in this dimension than the original one.

     “We've had to adapt a lot. I guess moving dimensions isn't easy.” Sun chuckled.

     Comet smiled a bit, happy that they, the people he had called family once before, were doing good. He wondered if maybe he could be a part of the family again. But he didn't think that day was very close.

     “Who moved with you guys?” Comet asked, unsure why he felt weird asking that question.

     “Me, Moon, Dazzle, Earth, Monty, and Solar,” Sun answered, checking the clock mounted on the wall. “They should be at the party place we bought.”

     Comet was a bit thrown off by the inclusion of Solar. Ever since Solar died, things had been different. Comet went crazy trying to fix him and ended up farther off track than he thought he would have gone. Then, when he met Solar again, he felt like it wasn't worth going insane for him, like Solar wasn't listening to him. Then, when he died, Solar was right there, but he ran as soon as he could.

     “H-how is the place going so far?” Comet stuttered before Sun could point out his hesitation.

     “It's… okay. The animatronics are a bit lacking, but we are making some of the money back. Speaking of that, Monty and Solar should be back soon, they're finishing repairs on one of the animatronics.” Sun informed, creating a pit in Comet's (metaphorical) stomach.

     Comet fiddled with his hands, drawing a blank on what he should probably say to Solar. “Was Moon helping out at the place?”

     “No, we took turns watching over you.”

“Does… anyone else know I'm here?” Sun hesitated, Comet's dread raised in his chest. “Well, no, but they will be back soon. It's better if they know. We can't exactly hide you somewhere.” Sun checked nervously, Comet wanted to sink into the ground.

     “When will they be back?”

     “I don't—” Just then, the door opened and silence filled the room. Comet, though he had his back to the door, knew immediately who was there. He suddenly found the wall facing him to be a great mural.

     "Hey, guys," Solar said before half-choking.

     “We're… home,” Monty spoke cautiously.

     “There's a lot to explain,” Sun spoke quickly, getting up from the chair. One question waded through the thick tension in the air: ‘Why was he here?’ Comet knew that's why there seemed to be holes burned through the back of his head.

     “It worked,” Solar said quietly, his usually deep voice rising in pitch. Comet could still identify the changes in his monotone voice.

     “Yeah, and I thought Moon was going to tell you both,” Sun said through what was probably gritted teeth.

     Solar and Monty slowly stepped into the living room, and Comet turned away from the wall he was staring down, now he was staring down the coffee table. It was an improvement, as he did not have the guts to look at either of them.

     “So, he's… fully back?” Solar hesitated, Comet hated how he spoke like Comet wasn't even there.

     “I'm back. No more Dark Star Power crap. Just me.” Comet finally spoke, looking up enough to see Solar and Monty.

     Solar looked surprised, but also happy. Monty, on the other hand, looked suspicious.

     “Didn't you, I don't know, destroy Moon's lab not too long ago?” She (Monty) exclaimed.

     “It was the Dark Star Power messing up my head.” Comet declared sternly. He knew this was his problem, on top of Dark Sun messing something up in his head that could never be turned off until someone fixed it.

     “Yeah, and that was the Dark Star Power making you do everything else!” She continued.

     “Monty, can't you tell he's different!? I never once saw Nexus apologize, and now you're denying his apology and attempt at change?” Solar snapped. Comet hadn't seen him this pissed since the day Comet first saw him. But the name ‘Nexus’ started to ignite something in him.

     “I'm just not convinced by this completely convenient excuse.” Monty crossed her arms.

     “What do you want me to do? Fix everything that's been left to me? Clean up everything a past version of me has done?!” Comet snarled.

     The room went silent, Comet knew why. He sounded just like the old him. Like one of the many rants he had made about the very people who sat in front of him. Monty gave Solar and Sun a look, Solar glared back at her, and Sun just looked at Comet.

     “I'm tired, we'll finish this later,” Monty concluded, waking off to where Comet assumed was her room.

     Solar was looking dead ahead at Comet, making Sun feel like he should be the one to go after her. “I'll just… see what she wants for dinner.”

     That left Solar and Comet together. Comet had so much he wanted to say, but didn't know how to put it into words. “How have you been?” Comet asked, not wanting to keep the comfortable silence. (It's Quiet Uptown starts playing)

     “I've been fine, working a lot.”

“Sun told me about the new place you run.”

     “N-Comet, you don't need to make small talk with me. Just talk to me normally.” Solar asked, almost slipping up.

     Comet hesitated, “I just don't know how to apologize to you, or Sun, but mostly you,” he admitted, skipping straight to what he wanted to say.

     “I wouldn't either. Were you telling the truth? You were corrupted by the Dark Star Power?”

     “Yes, at least, that's what makes the most sense right now. Lunar… purified it out of me, and now I'm fully in control of myself.” Comet hesitated, not sure if he should be this open to Solar so soon.

“When was the last time you were.. fully conscious?” Solar asked carefully.

     “When I got thrown out into space. Dark Sun did something to my head, and from then on, I felt like I was just watching.” Comet admitted. “Before then, I didn't really have an excuse.”

     Solar hesitated; Comet knew why. He was questioning how early Comet went crazy. “So you're back to normal now, right?”

     “Yes, I'm not planning on going crazy anytime soon.” Comet smiled. Solar did too. All metaphorically because Solar can't move his mouth, for all I know, and Comet doesn't have one, for all I know.

     “Well, that's great.” Sun chuckled, then the room went quiet. So many things to say, but with so few words to say them. “Do you want some food or something?”

     “Yeah, do you guys have Cereal?” Comet asked. While he didn't need to eat, he still liked to eat. Cereal was his favourite food by far. He didn't know the last time he had eaten anything, maybe before he was flown out into space.

     Solar got up and motioned for Comet to follow him into the kitchen. Comet didn't know the house well, but he had seen enough of it from his ‘visits’. Comet watched as Solar opened the cupboard and pulled out a box of cereal. It looked different from what he remembered, Comet guessed it was just a cosmetic universal difference.

     “You know how you like it, I'll leave it up to you,” Solar told Comet as he pulled out the milk from the fridge. He set the things on the counter and then went back into the living room, leaving Comet alone.

     Dark Sun never understood why animatronics ate. Since they didn't need food, he didn't see the joy of eating it. Comet had tried on several occasions to feed him something, but Dark Sun probably wasn't capable of feeling any sense of joy, hence, food wasn't for him.

     The perfect ratio of Cereal and milk was one thing that Comet hadn't forgotten. Less milk than Cereal in the bowl would typically result in the least soggy parts and not so much milk leftover. But Comet noticed immediately that he had gotten the ratio off; he guessed he was just out of practice. When he looked around for the silverware, it was then that his head cleared. Though Lunar had purified him, he still looked the same. A black mangle of wires under a dark brown cloak. But the Wither Shard was no longer there. Comet guessed he was now running off of something different. Maybe he was running off of regular Star Power now.

Comet decided against going back into the living room. He was sick of talking and attempting to reassure everyone that he was back to normal. He was himself again. But he didn't know how long it would take for them to learn that.

     It didn't even take him long to find the dining table, as the room it was in was right next to the kitchen. The table looked more decorative than used. A nice tablecloth ran across the whole thing, with a thinner one on top of it. It had two candle posts with unburnt candles. It looked fake. Just something for them to look normal.

     Comet didn't really care; he sat down at the head of the table and stared down at his bowl. Taking a bite would be easy, but for him, it seemed hard. The spoon was light, but he didn't feel like he could move his arm. How long would it take for him to go back to normal? Perhaps it would take a few months, maybe never.

     “We don't really use the dining table often,” Moon announced as he walked in. Of course, Comet would never be left alone.

     “I just wanted somewhere to eat,” Comet told him blandly, finally taking a bite. It tasted off, ever so slightly off.

     “I guess so.” Moon nodded as he sat down. He seemed to watch Comet's every move, but not in the way everyone else seemed to.

     “I'm not going to do anything except eat my cereal if you're wondering,” Comet mumbled while chewing. It was a bad habit that he still hadn't grown out of.

     Moon shrugged. “It's not the same, is it? The cereal? The brand is a bit different in this universe, and we've yet to get anyone to smuggle us some from our old dimension.”

     Comet shook his head, a bit glad someone else agreed. Moon got up and grabbed an apple. For whatever reason, Sun had bought green apples.

     “Apparently, Cereal isn't the only thing to change. All apples are green.” Moon lamented before taking a bite of the apple. Comet didn't get why Moon was trying to be so damn casual. It couldn't have been that long ago Comet had destroyed Moon's lab and all the other horrid shit he had done.

     Comet did his very best to keep the cereal down. While robots didn't puke, they still felt sick. And Comet just felt weird. None of this felt normal. He just wanted a restart, but didn't know how or if ever it would feel natural. The room was quiet except for the chewing of the two (you're welcome for that imagery).

     Then Moon spoke up. “This is the only chance I'm letting Sun give you. Try not to disappoint him. Or me.” Moon told him quietly and coldly before getting up and walking back to the kitchen. Those three sentences cemented Comet's guarantee that nothing would be perfectly normal with him and the family. The family that was no longer his.

     The rest of Comet's cereal tasted even more off, and he felt straight concrete in his stomach. There weren't any extra rooms in the house, so Comet had to hunker down on the sofa. But he couldn't sleep if he wanted to. His head was filled with thoughts, more than when he was insane.

     He was more filled with regret. Regret that he had gone as far as he did. Then, when he died, he was honestly wishing that was the end of it. Then he came back, and hell started again. Now, he was back to how he was, without the corruption of the Dark Star Power, but with all the memories locked behind their hazy feeling.

     But, by the grace of his systems, he was able to drift off.

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             “...And you're sure we can trust him?” Moon asked. He and Sun were in his room, trying to figure out what to do with Comet. All he knew of Comet was that he was a dick, and it wasn't hard to see. Literally all Comet had done was mess up the family in his insane goal of bringing back Solar (not to mention that he didn't even finish it, Eclipse had) then going batshit crazy with Dark Star Power. Moon had a hard time seeing where Sun came from. 

             “He's different now! He's back to how he was originally, not even that, he's better than he was.” Sun argued back. He knew Comet better than Moon did.

             “I don't think there ever was a time that maniac wasn't crazy,” Moon argued back, crossing his arms. Sure, he hadn’t met Comet before all his Nexus crap, but he didn’t need to.

             “You don't know him like I do. I know how he was before Solar died.” Sun repeated. This hadn't been the first time he had said that in this conversation (argument). 

             “He destroyed my lab, threatened the life of our entire family, and that's just the things he did this time . Not to mention everything else he has done.” Moon argued. 

             “He's different, Moon. I can tell he is. Give him a chance.” Sun pleaded. 

             Moon sighed, long and dry. He really didn't, but he didn't want to argue with his brother anymore. “Fine, but I'm giving him one chance. And he's helping fix my lab!” Moon added the last part quickly, Sun was too tired to disagree. 

             “See you in the morning. Good night.” Sun said finally. 

             “Good night,” Moon repeated, and Sun left. 

             That left Moon alone. But not for long. When he climbed into bed, Monty came in. 

             “Hey, you up?” She asked. 

             “Yeah, what's up?” Moon rolled over, facing Monty. 

             “I'm guessing we both don't feel too good about the whole ‘Nexus—Comet─whatever-his-name-is coming back’ thing.” She guessed, completely correct. 

             “Yeah, but Sun has hope in him, and Solar seems to believe in him. So, not much we can do about it.”

             “Not being mean or anything, but I don't know how Sun still thinks he can change. It's to the point that I feel like Sun is just convincing himself to keep up faith, not actually believing anymore.” 

             “And I wouldn't blame him,” Moon admitted. “When's Earth coming here?” (I'm too far into this to have her just be here. I totally did not forgor about her and wanted to include her in the story.  Give me a rest T-T) 

             “Tomorrow morning, like early in the morning,” Monty announced. 

             “We will probably be up for that, then.” Moon turned over in bed. “See you in the morning.”

             “Night,” Monty said before leaving, finally letting Moon have some peace.

             But sleep was a pleasure Moon didn't need. He sat at his desk and started to plan. Plan for things to go to the worst extreme with Comet. For all the trust Sun and Solar had in Comet, it was not enough to guarantee that Comet wouldn't pull anything. And Moon intended to be ready.

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Morning brought more pain, more members of Sun and Moon's family, and, unfortunately, more questions. 

Jack was having a great time chewing on a sponge that Solar had almost given up on taking away. Sun was making some, actually pretty good, pancakes. Moon was drinking coffee for no apparent reason. Terra sat on the opposite side of the table with her husband, sippping steaming tea while said husband was glaring at Comet. Sun said that Dazzle was a late sleeper, but Comet guessed that wasn't the reason. 

Today they sat at the dining table, and it was probably more painful listening to Solar struggle with Jack than silence. Eventually, Solar gave up and sat down in his seat next to Comet. 

“He likes to turn off his taste buds and eat our sponges. We are now out of sponges because he keeps smuggling them.” Solar informed, giving a glance (glare) at Jack, whom was munching away in was probably tasteless bliss. Solar gave a kick at Comet, probably getting him to explain why and how he was back, and Comet only hesitated a little bit (a full minute). 

“So, I haven't told everyone why I'm back.” Comet started to say before taking a drink of water. He was doing his best to stay hydrated so he didn't sound too crusty. “Long story short: Cosmo purified all the Dark Star Power out of me, so it's all the normal Star Power now, and basically got rid of all the crazy too. So I'm back to how I was, normal.” Comet's voice faltered. He remembered the last time he had spoken to Terra. It wasn't pleasant. 

No one spoke up, which worried Comet. There was a chance Terra wouldn't forgive him, and if she didn't, Comet knew basically no one else would. 

“So you're back to before all of… this happened?” Terra asked. She looked different from what he remembered, but he guessed that he did, too. 

“Yes, I'm not some maniac who wants to kill everyone anymore. I'm just me.” Comet assured her, but he was tired of this. He was tired of telling everyone, again and again, that he was just himself. He was just himself, but they kept wanting him to say it, making all his memories gather again. 

“Who wants pancakes?” Sun interrupted, but Comet was more glad that he stopped what would have been more redundant questions for now. Everyone bidded for theirs while Comet made sure to wait until everyone got theirs. He wasn't about to start a stupid argument over pancakes. 

There was enough for Comet to have two, but he only took one. Everyone should have felt something, but the whole table looked off. Even Jack, but that was probably because Solar took his half eaten sponge away. 

“You're not getting anymore damn sponges now.” Solar grumbled while Jack protested. 

“But I like them! They're chewy.” Was all the defense Jack gave. Truly made for a debate team. 

“How did you eat all of them already?!” Solar asked from the kitchen, causing everyone to laugh. Jack just ate his pancakes like nothing happened. Comet guessed this normalcy wouldn't last, but he still liked it. Only then he noticed he was bouncing his leg. 

“So, are you going to live here now or are you going to go somewhere else?” Terra asked. 

“I don't really know yet.” Comet admitted, not looking up from his plate. He just wanted to get it over with already. 

That seemed to satisfy them, as they all went back to eating. Monty kept giving Comet glances the entire time while Sun floated over them, eating the leftover pancake.

The rest of the meal went fine, Sun, Moon, Monty, and Solar went to their job at a new pizza plex, taking Jack and Dazzle with them. That left Comet and Terra home. Comet guessed they had to leave someone home with him, like a sitter.

“I don't have a job in this universe, so I'm usually left at my house, but they wanted me here for you.” Terra explained while they sat on the couch. Comet intended to catch up on a show he liked to watch, but he guessed talking to her was unskippable.

“What do you usually do?” Comet asked, trying to stray away from what he knew she wanted to talk about.

“Watch TV.” She responded simply. Comet nodded, but didn't hand back the remote. He had a show to binge. “Do you want to do anything, now that… you can?”

Comet shrugged. “See if there's any new episodes of my favorite show.”

“This is a different dimension, it may not be in this dimension.” Terra explained. “I learned the hard way.”

And she was right, the show Comet was trying to watch wasn't available. It seemed like it didn't even exist. Nothing could be right for Comet's sake.

“Looks like I'll have to get a new favorite show.” He sighed. He searched Nexflix (unfortunate name) for something good, but all of it looked bland.

“Do you regret what you did?” Terra asked softly, stabbing much deeper than she thought she did. Comet knew her enough to know she didn't mean it in a terrible way. Or he thought he did.

“Every second I'm alive.” Comet sighed softly, trying to keep the wall separating him and his feelings strong. He focused on the TV instead of Terra.

“Monty still hates you, I think Moon does too.” 

“I'm aware.”

“Sun's trying his best—”

“And they are too far in hating me to listen that I've changed.” Comet muttered.

“It's not easy, Nexus.” Terra admitted softly.

But that name, the name lead by fault and error. By insanity and hatred. Comet actually flinched when she called him that.

“Comet. Call me Comet. I'm tired of that name.” Comet whispered, still feeling the weight of his shoulders.

“Right, sorry.” Terra apologized. Honestly, Comet was too focused on not getting emotional. It was probably the worst thing about being purified, he actually felt things. Cosmo must have undone what the Dark Star Power had done so many months ago. He actually felt things now.

“How about Hamilton?” Comet asked. Terra nodded and he put it on. For the most part, they watched in silence. Comet too afraid to speak up and Terra enjoying the musical. Comet used to love musicals, so did Solar, but Comet grew to hate them and the memories they brought up. Now, Comet was trying everything he used to hate and love again, just to get back to where he was. Just to see who he was.

“There's a good therapist's office near here.” Terra suggested, and Comet could understand why.

“I don't want to be a burden on the family. More than I already am.”

“Trust me, you aren't. If anything, it would be better for you to get some.” 

 “Sure, maybe when we get settled.” Comet decided after a few minutes. 

“I could get you set up tomorrow, while I have the free time.” Terra offered.

“Sounds nice, would get me out of the house.” Comet agreed, going back to watching the musical.

They sat in silence until intermission. But it wasn't awkward, it was a bit comfortable. 

“Do you want some popcorn or something?” Terra asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, maybe some water?” Comet added. He paused the musical and followed Terra to the kitchen. She grabbed a packet of popcorn from the cupboard while Comet struggled to find the cups.

When Terra started to pop the popcorn, all hell unleashed. Again, he was back to his death, the pain in his body and mind. How Dark Sun betrayed him, how Solar, Sun, and Moon ran from him. When he just appeared back on earth with little recollection of what happened. 

And the pain of Lunar's purification frying all the Dark Star Power out of him, causing him to lose consciousness because he physically couldn't handle it. Him waking up a bit then fully alive while people looked down on him like he had personally offended him, because he probably did but just existing. 

“Comet!” Terra yelled over the microwave. She crouched down on the floor— how the hell did he end up on the floor? The popping stopped and his head cleared. He was on the cold floor, artificial butter filling his senses. Being cold was much better than being hot, at least he had that for him. 

“Oh my god, Comet, are you okay?” Terra asked, grabbing him by the shoulders. Comet just put his hands over his ears, trying to get his head to quiet down. All the memories of his terrible actions flashed by and it felt like he wasn't going to escape himself. It had been a minute or two before he noticed the microwave wasn't on anymore and Terra was looking down at him with knitted brows. 

Comet's his entire body was shaking more than he thought, tears had pushed themselves out of his eyes and Terra was holding him by the shoulders. Everything was quiet, but it was so loud. 

“Comet, are you okay?” Terra asked shakily. 

Comet wanted to push away, to get up and get over it. He hated the feeling of people feeling bad for him. He hated pity and how she probably saw him as small now. But he couldn't get himself to move. But he was too stubborn. 

“I'm fine.” Comet croaked, not convincing Terra at all. Comet push her away, but Terra wasn’t taking that. 

“Comet, talk to me for once!” Terra pleaded, holding him tighter. Comet didn’t want to talk, he just wanted to move on from it, just go on with his life, and he couldn’t see why everyone was so focused on the past. 

“Everything’s fine! I’m fine!” Comet dismissed, trying to get away from her, lest she gets him to say what she wanted him to say.

“I’m trying to help you, but it feels like you’re just pushing me away. Again.” Terra’s determined yet worried stare bore through Comet like a bullet. And her hands kept him in place.

Comet gritted his teeth, he would rather do anything than talk about his ‘feelings’, but he knew Terra better than to give up on someone, he knew her all too well. And her mention of him pushing her away again? He pushed it to the back of his mind, but it crawled back. This is just how you acted before you ruined everything. His head told him, and that thought broke him. 

His hands started to shake again, and his eyes stung with tears. He didn’t want to cry in front of Terra, no way in hell, but he could manage it for now. When she left, he would deal with it.

“I’m sorry. I don’t even know where that came from.” Comet said quickly and quietly. “I just…” He trailed off.

“That’s fine. I just don’t want you shutting me away again.” Terra consoled. Comet was about to get up, but Terra wrapped her arms around him. He immediately froze up, wondering if she was planning to stab him or suffocate him. But when she didn’t squeeze him tighter or pull out a knife, he realized what she was really doing. She was hugging him. The surprise of her willingly hugging him caused him to sit like a pole. Why in hell would she ever think about hugging him. All of it was too much to think, and he simply (but awkwardly) put his arms around her. And she didn't pull away. 

Was this… forgiveness? (CACKLING BECAUSE SPOTIFY LITERALLY PLAYED ‘It’s Quiet Uptown’ AS I WROTE THAT SENTENCE. I. CAN’T. LMAO. Liam/author proceeds to lock out for the next half hour.) Comet couldn’t understand. Forgiving him? He couldn’t even imagine it. Sure, he had hoped and wished for it, but never truly though he would just… be forgiven by her. 

Maybe he could be fully accepted back into the family.

Comet and Terra went back to watching Hamilton (which provided Liam with the inspiration for that previous scene. Twice.) The only part Comet struggled on was the part about Philip, his death, and how his parents grieved. It stabbed right through him, piercing deeper than it should have. It was just a few songs, but it crushed Comet’s mental walls. If Terra noticed Comet crying, she said nothing about it.

Chapter Text

(Takes place same day as the last chapter) 

Solar and the rest of the family got home late, and Moon was a bit hesitant to open the door. Solar guessed it was because Moon thought Comet had Killed Terra or some crap. But everything was fine, dare he say calm. Comet and Terra were watching some sort of show, anime he guessed because of the Japanese sounding audio. 

Most of the family had work to do, so they all went to their rooms, leaving Solar and Comet in the living room. Mainly because Comet really didn't have a room and Solar didn't feel like going to his.

“Have I lost my excitement? No one really seems interested in me.” Comet joked, not sounding too bothered.

“I think they just have things to do. Work never really stays at work.” Solar sighed. He still had a bit of work to do here, but it could wait.

“Good, I’d rather have that than lose my flair.” Comet chuckled, and Solar laughed. Sure, it wasn't the funniest thing, but Solar was in a good mood for once.

They went quiet and Comet went back to his search for something to watch and Solar sat in the comfortable silence. He remembered the first time he had seen Comet, before he was called that. How hard he had tried to get him to stop and come back home, to reconcile what they had, and feeling pissed and sad and everything else that none of it worked. Solar just gave up faith in him. 

Then he died, and Solar had to pull himself together while the rest of the family were basically drowning. In a way, he felt like he had failed with getting Comet back. Then Comet just came back out of nowhere. But, with the anger he still had, he actively helped create the thing that sent Comet away. It made Solar mad at himself, now. Sure, he knew Comet had been too off the tracks to help, but justtrying to help him would have been better than what he chose. 

Now, on the other side of the couch, sat Comet. Comet was fine, he was himself again, but Solar didn't know if it was possible to get back to normal. How they used to be before all this crap happened. But for once, Solar felt like everything would be okay with the two of them. Comet could be a part of the family again. 

Yet, still, Solar couldn't help but remember everything that Comet had done to the family, especially to Sun. How he had basically torn apart the family just to give up on his goal, consumed by his wanting of power. Sure, they had moved on, mostly both times. But Solar had to admit, having Comet around kept reminding him of Comet's honestly cruel past choices. Solar had forgiven him, he didn't want to keep a grudge. But forgetting was a steeper challenge. 

“So what do you want to watch?” Comet asked, snapping Solar out of his thoughts.. 

“I don't really care.” Solar said casually.

Comet muttered something about Solar being indecisive still, but he didn't pick up on it, as he was busy getting a good look at Comet. He was still buried under a dark cloak, his faceplate cloaked in shaddow, vein-looking lines along with dark patches scarred the metal. Solar guessed he kept his old body from his days as Nexus, though he was a bit shocked there was any piece of it still being able to function. (I'm struggling to not go too far into the deep headcanon zone, but I have literally nothing to go off of). There was a stark difference to the, very clearly, robotic look of the rest of the family. 

After a couple minutes, Solar was getting probably too curious. “Have you thought about getting a new body? One to reflect more with you?” Solar asked. He had no clue where the family would scrape the money up from. Probably more money laundering and hoping they wouldn't get caught. 

“Yeah, I just don't know what I'd have on a new one.” Comet shrugged

Solar nodded. He knew Comet probably still was trying to get settled in. (Not like Liam is indecisive as hell with what he wants to do T-T)

Comet put on a random anime that sounded familiar to something they had watched together before. Something about reincarnation into what felt like a lazily disguised DND campaign. Solar didn't remember, it had been a year since he had even looked at the title card. 

“We've watched this one before.” Solar noted. 

“I guess I forgot somehow.” Comet said quietly. 

They watched in silence, other than the random comments and jokes about the quality of the anime. It reminded Solar of the old days. But wasn't exactly how he used to be, he looked like a bit of a husk, but that could be fixed later. For what Solar knew: he had his friend back. 

“... Solar, did you hear what I said?” Comet asked, causing Solar to snap back into reality. 

“No, sorry.”

“Oh, I just asked how you've been doing. Haven't seen much of you, something must have happened in all this time besides work.”

“I've been working on minor projects. I was dating Nebula, but we broke up when me and the family moved here. We moved dimensions, but she was the astral of her own dimension, and she didn't want to try long-distance.” Solar huffed, starting to rant a little bit, not noticing Comet's shoulders drop a bit. 

“Oh, uh, sorry that happened.” Comet said quickly. “Nothing's really happened to me that hasn't been aired out by now.”

Solar chuckled, “Yeah, from what I heard, that dimension was pretty boring.”

“Way worse than you can imagine.” Comet spread his hands out, probably trying to make it comical. “Nothing but trees forever, great for a peaceful walk, not for living there.”

“Makes sense.”

“What kind of projects have you been working on?”

“Fixing up the animatronics for the pizza place.”

“What's wrong with them?” Comet asked, pausing the show. 

“They aren't really… up to date. They're ancient. I would be able to fix them probably within a week, but there's the issue with money.” Solar groaned. 

“Probably the worst part about stuff like that, having no money for supplies.” Comet sighed. 

Solar and Comet continued on watching. Solar was only half paying attention, as he was thinking more than just mindlessly watching. What would he do for Comet’s new body? He knew he was giving Comet a new one, there was no possible way he was going to let Comet keep the shadowy cloak that he currently had. He stuck out like a sore thumb and kept the lasting impact of what he had tried to do to the family he was now trying to redeem himself to. 

They watched a few more episodes before Solar decided to head off to bed. Jack must have been in his room because there were small pieces of sponge scattered around the floor. Jack, for how scrawny he has, somehow dragged the barbell across the room, almost making Solar trip. 

“I'm gonna have to get rid of this sometime.” He muttered to himself. He paused, remembering how a similar situation happened to him. He turned around, but nothing was there. He could hear the TV slightly, Comet must still be awake, out there, not in Solar's room. Still, he stared blankly at the wall, where Comet was once. Solar sighed and crawled into bed. He knew Comet was different, but the memories still stood their place like a stain.

Chapter Text

Sleep brought nothing but shit for Comet. Really, he couldn't catch a break. He opened his eyes and froze. He had been here before. This was Dark Sun's hell hole. 

“Well, if it isn't Nexus.” The bastard mused. 

“It's ‘Comet’ now.” Comet hissed. He tried to be the bigger man and flip off Dark Sun, but noticed he looked just as he had when he did the bulk of his misdeeds (aka his V2 model). 

“Well, I guess even you're not too stubborn to change.”

Comet glared at him. A long time ago, Dark Sun was the first to know of his name change, now he was the last. Comet wished he had to never speak to him, but he was never a lucky person. 

     “What do you want from me?” Comet grumbled. 

     “Can I not see how you're doing?” Dark Sun asked, walking up to him. He circled around Comet like he was some sort of rare discovery. But Dark Sun had seen him before, he was just being a dick for the sake of it, and Comet knew he was.

“No, I'd prefer if you didn't, actually.” Comet hissed. 

“So what's your goal now? Destroy this universe? Get your revenge for them trapped you?”

“No,” Comet grumbled, flinching for no reason evident to him. 

“So what? You're just going to settle down?” Dark Sun stared him over then laughed. But it wasn't as if Comet told a joke, it was cold and cruel. “Don't tell me you're trying to redeem yourself!” 

When Comet didn't reply, Dark Sun laughed again. 

“What a downfall. I guess it happens to the ‘best’ of us.”

“Was your only purpose for me just to make fun of me, you can leave.”

“Of course you'd think that.” Dark Sun scoffed. Comet was just sick of him at this point. “I just saw you were on my radar again, and now I know where the family went. At least I can be left alone now.”

“Don't act like you only want to be left alone, you're starting shit half the time.”

“Maybe I am, but I'm just doing the best for everyone.”

Now Comet laughed. “Really? So the best for me was just to let me crumble from the inside with Dark Star Power and then let Sun kill me. How great of you.”

“You never really were the smartest,” Dark Sun sighed like he actually cared. 

Comet got tired of his shit and tried to punch him, but let out a blast of light. What in the actual fuck? Even Dark Sun looked a bit surprised, but he recovered quickly. 

“I just want to say, you're still the same. Angry and wanting revenge. You'll never get the family to care about you.” Dark Sun commented before leaving. 

Comet fell to his knees, unable to do anything. He felt like he had just been stabbed. Like he was blowing up again and again. 

Comet awoke to Solar leaning over him. After his dream (nightmare) last night, he felt more tired than he had the night previous. Solar said something about being up that Comet only half understood. Really, Comet was too tired to care and rolled over, promptly going back to sleep. 

He woke up again to Solar, who looked a bit annoyed. 

“What the hell?” Comet grumbled. 

“It's time for you to wake up.” Solar said, like it was obvious. It probably was, Comet was too tired for this. 

“Why?” 

Solar attempted to stutter out something, but just blinked at Comet. “Because it is. Why are you being so difficult?”

It was too early for this. Comet still felt as tired as he had when he tried to go to sleep tonight.

“Why do I need to get up so damn early?” Comet grumbled, giving up faith that he could go back to sleep.

“It's your therapy session today.” Solar said with barely any enthusiasm to match his jazz hands.

“Already? Didn't Terra book it like yesterday?”

“We pulled some strings, made some bribes, don't worry.” Solar announced casually, like he said the sky was blue. “Me and Jack are supposed to drop you off, except I have like no clue where he went. Jack!” 

It was almost like calling for Jack summoned him out of nowhere, because it basically did. The ball of energy practically appeared in the living room. 

“Hello, father.” Jack greeted, bouncing like he had chugged an energy drink.

“Hello, Jack.” Solar said tiredly. 

“What time are we dropping off mother?” Jack asked, not a thought behind those eyes.

“Jack, you don't have a mother.” Solar told him, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Isn't he?” Jack asked, probably dead seriously, pointing at Comet.

Comet found it hilarious and started laughing while Solar tried to explain that, no, in fact, Comet was not the gremlin's mother. 

“But why? I want a mother.” Jack protested. Comet wished he could go through life, head empty, like Jack does.

“Yeah, and you're not getting one.” Solar finally said, despite Jack's protests. 

“Fine,” Jack sighed. Except it was basically impossible for him to sound like he was disappointed in any way.

“You are a headache and a half,” Solar grumbled, to Jack's seemingly delight.

“So when is he becoming mother?” Jack asked again, making Solar sigh. 

Comet took the opportunity to leave that conversation and got some cereal from the pantry. Solar continued to debate why Jack wasn't getting a mother while Jack's argument went something like ‘but why?’. He was left with peace to eat his cereal finally. 

He was trying to figure out what the hell his ‘dream’ meant. If it was actually Dark Sun or not, or what the hell Comet pulled at the end of it. Shooting the light felt oh so familiar, like he had done it a million times. It felt like shooting Dark Star Power, but Comet knew it wasn't. Dark Star Power was more corrupt, more electrical. 

Comet realized why it felt so familiar. 

But, of course, he wasn't allowed time to even think. 

Solar came and sat down a few minutes later. He reported to have made basically no progress with Jack and gave up. Jack took it as a win and watched Bill Nye the science guy on the TV. 

“We're leaving in like ten minutes. I already know the nightmare will be a pain to get in the car.” Solar told him. (Wait, do they even have cars? How the hell do they get around?? Help.) “We have an illusion disk for you, so you’ll just appear human and not freak out the people there.”

Comet nodded. They chatted a bit more about what they'd do after. Solar was still trying to get Jack out of the sponges and into eating regular food, as well as trying to get him out of biting kids. From how much Solar sighed during the conversation, Comet guessed it wasn't going the best. 

“Alright, Jack, it's time to go.” Solar told him after a while. 

“No!” The gremlin responded. Yeah, Comet knew this was going to be a struggle. After all, this wasn't the first time he'd had to rangle Jack. 

“Jack,” Solar started, his dad-voice coming out. Jack told him, again, he didn't want to go. Solar sighed, long and hard. “Jack, we have to drop off Comet then we can go to the park. You can finish the episode when we get back.”

“Fine,” Jack sighed, giving up. 

They got into the car and Solar drove them to the office. Jack was stuck in the backseat of the Honda Civic (Solar 100% owns a Honda Civic, let me have this), yapping about the Bill Nye episode he watched like half of. He definitely had literally no clue what any of the ‘cool science things’ meant, but still felt the need to talk about them. 

Sadly, Comet would have rather listened to that for 45 minutes instead of his therapy session. On top of that, he felt really weird about getting therapy, nonetheless talking about his feelings and crap. Past him would have laughed in Comet's face. But he was different. Right? 

“Alright, we're here.” Solar announced, getting out of the car. The building looked like a regular, modern style building. A borning, tan outside with windows that you couldn't actually see through. Solar managed to get Jack in without a minor disaster. 

Comet got checked in and they waited a bit in the waiting room. Quite the fitting name. Jack insisted on looking and/or touching every single ‘decoration’ while Solar continued to try to stop him from breaking anything. Luckily for him, Comet got dragged back before Solar completely lost his mind. 

The therapist that led him down the hallway introduced themself as Dr. Liam Alinza (I am too damn tired to make an OC for this. Suffer. I use he/they, but Dr. Alinza will use they/them so I don't lose my mind.) Comet followed them to their office-room-thing. 

The room looked comfortable, mutted green walls that were basically unable to be seen behind the many framed pictures. There was a window, half covered, yet still pouring some natural light into the room on the opposite wall of the door. On one of the other walls sat two bookshelves lined with textbooks, small figurines, and the occasional Pokemon card in some clear cases. God, this person was a nerd. 

Comet was told to sit on the sofa, which was on the same wall with the window. He really didn't care, he just wanted to get it over with. Sure, he wanted to be back in the family. Hell, he couldn't count how many times he wished he was. But actually doing things to fix himself was a pain in the ass. 

Dr. Alinza sat in a rolling chair across from him, the only thing really separating them was a low coffee table, the same dark wood as the bookshelves. They kept a laptop in their lap, it was, of course, cluttered with stickers. Their dark brown hair sat like a disaster of their head, grown out and basically swallowing their head. Their appearance contrasted immensely with their deep voice, though. 

“Comet, what brings you to therapy?” They asked, almost sputtering on his name. Comet wondered if the bribe they were given included his name-change. Probably did. 

“My, er… family wanted me to go.” Comet answered. He was already so great at this.

“Why do you hesitate to say ‘family’?” Dr. Alinza asked, catching onto it immediately. Really, Comet should have known there was like nothing he could hide from a damn therapist. He fucking hated therapists. 

“I don't know if I can call them family anymore.” Comet answered simply, maybe sounding like he was already tired of this, he didn't care. 

“Have they done something to you to cause you to be unsure of their relationship to you?” 

Comet frowned a bit, he was already starting to hate therapy. “It's more that I did something to them.” He said, Dark Sun's voice creeping into his head: you're still the same. Angry and wanting revenge. You'll never get the family to care about you. It was basically haunting his thoughts whenever he had time to actually think. 

Dr. Alinza nodded and typed something. Yeah, Comet hated this. He probably would have cut it short if he wasn't doing it for the chance to be accepted again. 

“Tell me a bit about the family. What are they like?” They asked, seemingly loving asking questions. 

“They're mostly nice, at least, to each other. I think all but three of them hate me. Sun's happy, at least, he thoroughly convinces himself and everyone he is. His brother, Moon, is probably the opposite, doesn't really care, but deep down cares a lot. Solar is basically their brother at this point. He fixes a lot, has a child named Jack, but he will deny that Jack is his child until he can't speak. Sun also has a child, I think he adopted her. There's a lot of brothers. Terra is Sun and Moon's sister, she acts like a parent half the time. That's not even all of them.” Comet explained. It would probably take him the rest of the session to just list everyone in the family. 

“Sounds like a big family.” Dr. Alinza noted, really adding something to the conversation. Definitely worth the original cost and bribe. “You mentioned only three of them don't hate you. Who are they?”

“Sun, Earth, Solar, and Jack.” Honestly, Comet didn't even know if Jack counted. He didn't hate anyone, right? Comet didn't really believe the goblin could. Jack just enjoyed inflicting physical harm onto people. 

“Why would, say, Moon hate you?”

“He didn't like me from the beginning. The second he met me, he already hated me. I tried to maybe get him to not despise me, but gave up and focused on… other stuff.” Comet said, getting the sinking feeling therapy would only get worse, because he'd have to talk about everything that put him into the slightly foggy memories he so desperately wanted to get rid of. 

“Why do you think he dislikes you?” They asked, really just nailing the fact that Comet would end up hating this into him. 

“I don't know, I'm different from him? Probably because of all the shit I did. I don't really care.” Comet said, brushing the question off when, in fact, he cared because he wanted to have a family again. 

“Have you talked to him about this?” They asked, probably already calculating how much money they'll make off of this. Or how much work it would be. Probably both. 

“No, he's always ‘too busy’ to hold a five minute conversation with me.” Comet complained, maybe giving a little. Just a bit.

“Why do you think he does this?”

Comet knew the answer, all the shit he did when he first went insane, then more recently because Comet had targeted Moon. And probably because Comet wrecked Moon's lab. “He has his reasons, most of them being good.”

“You've mentioned you have done things to the family in the past. Would you say that has an effect on Moon's view of you?” They asked. Comet guessed they were just trying to get Comet to say it or some crap. Obviously it did.

“Yeah, that's mostly why he hates me.”

They typed more, filling the silence. It felt like an interrogation, being asked like fifty questions off the bat. That's probably why he never really got therapy.

“Why do you think you need therapy? Outside of other people's thoughts.” Dr. Alinza asked, looking up from their laptop.

Now Comet had to actually fish up an answer. Of course, he was getting this because the family wanted him to. But outside of that, he didn't really want to give a reason why.

Of course, Dr. Alinza wasn't going to let the question go unanswered. 

“I guess I just want to change from what they've seen me as.” Comet said, opening up a bit. But they weren't taking that answer.

“Why, for you, do you want therapy?” They asked again, starting to get under his skin.

Comet did have a reason to do this for himself, but he kept it buried down in him. “I've done a lot to mess the family up. I don't want to fall down that path again.” He finally admitted.

Dr. Alinza nodded and typed something. Comet was getting used to the clicking of the keys, wasn't much else he could do. 

“You've mentioned your past actions a lot. Is that something you regret?” Dr. Alinza asked, typing something on their laptop before Comet even answered.

“Yeah, I don't really like to talk about my past.” Comet told them, knowing that would do the opposite of deterring the therapist. 

“Well, therapy is for your betterment. We don't have to discuss it all right now.” Dr. Alinza told him, looking up from their laptop. "Though, I feel getting into it would be the best thing for you."

The session felt like it had been going on forever, and it probably had been. Just thinking about having to be dragged to another one felt painful. Comet's internal clock still was a bit messed up. He had given up hope about fixing it long ago. Time wasn't ever Comet's friend. 

“It says that you'll start off going bi-weekly, decreasing or increasing when needed. But I'm expecting to have it lowered to once a week after a while.” They added, raising a bit of suspicion in Comet. 

Of course the family would have expected Comet to need some extra level of help. It felt unreasonable, like they wanted him to just fail. Like they expected two sessions a week wouldn't have been enough to ‘fix’ Comet. 

“You'll be back here Thursday,” Dr. Alinza started to say, but Comet cut them off unintentionally. 

“Wait, what's today?” He asked, just now realizing he had no clue what today was, or the date. 

“Today's Monday, so you'll be back in about three days. During those three days, I'll give you a bit of homework, easy homework. I want you to have a conversation with Moon, at least once.” They announced, probably underestimating how difficult it would be to even get Moon to say anything to him. (I'm too tired to actually write more therapy) 

But since this probably meant the session was over, Comet agreed. Dr. Alinza walked him out and back into the lobby, taking the time to confirm that Comet, in fact, had no questions. It took a shocking amount of times to convince them. Solar was in the waiting room, sitting next to a pouting Jack. 

“What's his problem?” Comet asked, still feeling Dr. Alinza's gaze over him. He was really hoping they'd just leave and not try to evaluate Comet outside of their session time. 

“He bit a child, so we left the playground, and so none of us will get Panda Express.” Solar sighed, probably having a long day already. 

“But it pushed me!” Jack argued, probably referring to a child. 

“This is not up for argument, and we don't call children ‘it’.” Solar scolded, in a more controlled, stern tone than Comet had seen of some human parents. 

“We'll sort this out later, come on, Jack.” Comet told the two, still hyper-aware of Dr. Alinza still lingering. He really couldn't catch a break. They all went out to the car, Jack still being demoted to the back seat, and headed off. 

“We have to stop by the Pizzaplex. I have a few repairs I had to get done, and Sun wants to show you it. Moon and Monty are already on a bit of thin ice with him.” Solar told him. (This ages when I wrote this so much. I'm not changing it, I find it funny) 

“What did they do?” Comet asked, not really that surprised they did something to make Sun mad. 

“Money laundering,” Solar said casually. “Sun really wanted us to be crime free in this universe. But shit's expensive so Monty and Moon had the idea to launder money through DoorDash.”

“DoorDash? Who the hell thinks of laundering money through a food delivery app?”

“Them. They were also dumb enough to get caught. I wish they didn't, because they'd owe me my Supernatural collectors edition box set.” Solar lamented, his monotone voice not changing.  

Comet raised an eyebrow, amused. “Wouldn't they have to launder more money to buy that?”

“Yep, but Sun caught them because Moon can't spell.” Solar sighed. 

“I'm not shocked,” Comet replied. 

They pulled up to the pizzaplex, though it was a lot smaller than the one Comet was used to. Since there was only one other car in the parking lot, Comet guessed the place was closed. The three walked in, and Comet was immediately flashed with colorful and quite bright light. 

Solar mentioned something about never being able to fix the lights when Sun noticed them. 

“Hey!” Sun greeted, walking over. They met up near the start of the valley tables. Moon was across the building, fiddling with one of the animatronics on stage. The room was shockingly big, but it was probably an illusion of how the lights were placed, making the room look bigger. 

“It looks good,” Comet said, still gazing around the massive room. Before he could say something about the obnoxious lighting, some off-brand Sun looking gremlin looked out of one of the doors. “Who's that?” he asked, motioning toward the short animatronic. 

“Right, you haven't met them.” Sun said to himself. “Nova! Come here!” He called to the mini—but still off brand— Sun, who was already approaching even before they were told to. 

“Who is this?” They beamed, having enough energy to match Jack. And even that felt impossible. “I haven't seen you before.”

“Same question I have,” Comet muttered before clearing his throat. “I'm Comet,” he said, not having enough energy for this. 

“That's Nova. They're this dimension's Sun and Moon. And a blast.” Solar added, motioning to them. “How about you bring out Frost?”

Before Comet could ask who the hell Frost was, before Nova turned into a rip-off Moon. They looked more creepy than ‘adorable’, like clowns. Frost, or at least who Comet assumed was Frost, looked him over. 

“I haven't seen you around here.” They said, sounding like a version of Moon who had smoked 40 cigarettes. 

“Probably because I haven't been here before.” Comet replied, a bit snarkily. Frost didn't seem to care, in anything, they were more interested. 

“Why do you look like that?” They asked, catching Comet off guard. 

“Well,” Comet thought for a second. “Why do you sound like that?“ he countered. 

The two looked at each other, in what could be considered as respect. But Sun decided to stop what would have either resulted in a ‘debate’ or Comet and Frost just staring at each other, seeing who would back out first. 

“How about we show you around a bit more?” Sun suggested, stopping whatever the hell was going on with Comet and Frost. Except, Molten of all assholes really wanted to give his thoughts on Comet. 

“You,” the animatronic hissed from the prize counter. Though, with his 8-bit (derogatory) sounding voice, it was pretty hard to get any tone in there. 

“You,” Comet repeated. He was really gonna have to update the list of people who hated him, because he (big shocker) forgot about Molten. But then again, who actually gave a damn about Molten except, like, half the family. His point still stood. 

“Why are you here?” Molten asked, giving a damn good attempt at a glare. But with only one eye, it looked pretty bad. Though Comet could say that about the rest of his body. Of all people, his beef with Molten was probably the least resolved. 

“I guess you would need someone to spell it out for you—” Comet started to say before Sun cut him off. And it sucked because he had many great ways of insulting the group of wires. 

“How about we show you the other animatronics?” Sun offered, giving him a look. It was a look that Comet knew pretty well, ‘I will kick your ass if you don't listen to me.’ it seemed to say. Frost looked like they wanted to see the rest of it, same with Solar, but Comet reluctantly agreed. Not before giving Molten a good glare. He would deal with it later. 

Sun led him to the front stage, where four animatronics stood. They were looking at Comet intently, probably also wondering who he was and why he was here. It seemed to be a great theme today. They seemed to be a standard group of animatronics, except they looked… great. Great as in probably were the cheapest in the entire dimension. 

“Who is this little guy?” The Chica of the group asked, already making Comet think he would not enjoy this interaction. 

“First of all, I'm not short.” Comet started, putting his palms out. He really couldn't catch a break here.

“Lick,” The Freddy of the group added, making Comet that much more uncomfortable. 

“Freddy, we don't know him, don't already try to lick him.” Chica scolded. Freddy gave a weak attempt at a rebuttal, but gave up. “Who are you, anyway?”

“I'm Comet.” He said, using his amazing introduction skills. Chica paused, probably expecting him to say literally anything else about himself. 

Then she realized that Comet had literally nothing else to say, and introduced the rest of the group. Nothing really stood out about them, except for the fact that they definitely should not ever be around children for their own reasons. Especially Freddy and the Montgomery of the group. Why the hell they were allowed to be in the same room as children, Comet didn't try to understand. 

Freddy gave his wonderful wisdom of ‘lick’ (and got reprimanded by Chica) once more before Solar decided to cut the pleasure of the meeting short. Sun showed Comet the employees only hallway and its great (horrendous) lighting. Moon was in the manager's office, which Comet (definitely not for that reason) decided to skip in the tour. Nova decided to join them for the last part of it and was set on talking to Comet every three seconds. 

“So how's your day?” Nova asked, trying for the third time to initiate small talk. 

“It's okay, I guess.” Comet replied. There was only three of them walking over to Solar's lab, as Sun decided to stay back with Moon. 

“We've heard a bit about you before we met you. Very nice to put a face to the name.” They announced, making Comet a bit curious about what exactly had been mentioned about him. 

“Alright you two,” Solar interrupted when the three got into the lab, but then got interrupted by Jack almost immediately. 

“Hello, father and mother, and Nova.” Jack greeteed, looking up from his Foxy plushie. 

Solar attempted to remind Jack that he, in fact, doesn't have a mother, but gave up and sighed. Comet laughed again, and Nova just looked confused at Comet. 

“You never mentioned you're a mother, or—” Nova started to say.

“No,” Solar sighed. “we're not— Jack's just— he's not Jack's mom, how about that.” He finally sighed.

Nova seemed to take that answer, but gave Solar and Comet a glance. Comet was too busy trying to contain his laughter to really pay attention to it. The lab was nice, a bit narrow, but it seemed to be enough for Solar. 

There wasn't much but tools scattered everywhere, though there seemed to be attempts to organize them. At least Comet wasn't the first one to drop something. Nova dropped a screwdriver, which sounded like lightning going straight into Comet's ears.

“Nova, how about you go back into the party room?” Solar suggested (told them).

They agreed and left (after directions from Solar), leaving just Comet and Solar. 

“So what do you think?” Solar asked, probably to fill the silence. 

“It's pretty nice.” Comet said, almost dropping a wrench. Hey, at least he didn't actually drop something. 

“It's smaller than what I'm used to working with, but it's nice, it gets the job done.” Solar shrugged.

“Do you have any more projects you're working on?” Comet asked, sneakily putting the wrench back where he figured it sat.

“Not now, just helping out with anything they need.” Solar answered, not noticing Comet almost dropping something else even though Solar was looking at him. 

“Is it usually difficult?” Comet asked, deciding to stand a solid step away from any work area.

“Just chaotic, I usually just stay in here until hours are over.” 

Comet said something about not ever liking kids and looked around a bit more. Solar repeated a negative opinion about crotch goblins before Comet remembered something. 

“Do you remember when you mentioned something about me getting a new body?” Comet asked, stopping his look around the lab.

“Yeah, do you have something in mind?” Solar asked.

“A few things.” He replied.

(And there's this MAGICAL thing Liam will do to y'all. He's not saying shit about the body, except for one joke he needed to add.)

“I could make the hat.” Solar offered, pointing to the top of the head. They had made a decent (five year-old level) sketch of what they (yes, they, just you wait) would make for Comet.

“I've made a lot of clothes, I can make it. I've made one before.” Comet suggested. 

“I wasn't thinking of sewing one. I'm good at knitting.” Solar said before Comet chuckled. (I swear he said he knits before)

“You knit” Comet asked, dare he say he was teasing Solar.

“Yes, I knit. What's wrong with knitting?” Solar asked defensively. 

“Maybe I could get a grandma to help you make it.”

“I'm not— knitting is not only for old people!” Solar argued, only making Comet laugh a bit.

“Sure, keep telling yourself that.” Comet chuckled.

“Whatever, let's just finish this.” Solar grumbled.

Chapter Text

Comet was so exhausted from the entire day he had, but he found a bit of difficulty in sleeping. He had noticed a bit of trouble sleeping, but thought it was because he wasn't really tired. Eventually, he was able to get to sleep

Comet woke up from his sleep in— wait, where the fuck was he? He turned around and was greeted by the fucking Eiffel Tower. Why the fuck was he in Paris? How the fuck did he get to Paris? And what blue bastard was in front of the Eiffel Tower?

Since it was the one question he could answer he walked up to the disconfigured blueberry. And oh god he would learn to regret it. He walked up to it and saw it was none other than Blue. (I HC Nexus had the same dream as Sun that one time purely because it makes this funny and/or meta) Comet had met the cabbage-brained thing before in a weird dream. Comet guessed this was another batshit insane dream.

“Hello, star husband.” Blue bluttered, already making Comet cringe.

"Never call me that.” Comet started, but Blue didn't care.

“It's so great that we're in the city of love, Paris.” Blue said, getting closer to him. This was the one time Comet would back away from someone. It was not worth getting touched by it.

“And why would that be?” Comet sighed, realizing he was not gonna be able to get out of this.

“You silly omelette au fromage! We are here for our anniversary!” Blue said cheerfully.

“Well, shoot, I'm not in love with you anymore! Shucks!” Comet announced, exaggerating a dramatic performance.

“What?!” Blue yelled, fucking melting with the Eiffel Tower?? What the hell was Comet whitenessing? He wouldn't get an answer because Blue turned into a massive Jack. Comet had no clue if this could even get worse.

“Hello, mom.” Jack greeted Comet. It would have been normal, except Jack was the size of the Eiffel Tower. Comet made sure to note to never be tired again before going to sleep. Insomnia would fear him.

“Hello, Jack, how's it going?” Comet asked, not wanting to correct the like mile tall child.

“Sponges, in your shoes.” Jack mused, inching close to Comet. What the fuck was this thing on? Iron?

“Jack, what did I say about sponges?” A new voice scolded. From the dirt—what the hell was even going on? Fucking Solar sprouted from the ground like a flower. And he was the same height as a flower. This was priceless. Except for the fast that Comet was questioning if he was drugged, because there was no way in hell he'd have such a weird ass dream normally

“Oh,” Jack grumbled, dipping his head.

“No more sponges!” Solar repeated.

“But there's sponges on his feet!”

“I don't have feet,” Comet interrupted, probably for the worst. Why the hell didn't he just shut up and hope he somehow could escape this nightmare. (Not really a nightmare, but a weird ass dream, you know.)

Jack stared to approach him before Solar shot him with a… a fucking staple gun. Comet couldn't even describe what the hell he was whitenessing. He didn't even want to. (But this dude named Liam is holding him at gunpoint)

Finally, after like five damn staples, Solar and Jack just… melted. Comet expected the torture to be over, but why would it be? He walked over to where the Eiffel Tower used to be. The base, unlike his mental health, seemed to be undamaged.

“Well, if it isn't Comet.” Dark Sun of all bastards mused. Could Comet get a five second break?

“You motherfucker,” Comet muttered, a bit too annoyed to be cordial.

“Hello, Comet.” Dark Sun greeted him. Though his face looked eternally disappointed in everything, his voice carrying the same tone, though he sounded more self righteous than usual. Probably because he took the small liberty to remember Comet's name.

“Why are you here, again?” Comet asked, a few seconds away from trying to hit him, again.

“Our last meeting left off on a bad note, I'm sure there's more to say.” The bastard told him.

“What do you want?” Comet asked, cutting to the chase. He had to deal with enough already, he was sick of Emo Sun trying to contact him while he slept.

“It's always something wanted with you. I guess that's why you were so annoying to work with.” Dark Sun sighed.

Comet raised an eyebrow at him, just wanting Dark Sun to say what he wanted to already. “What do you want?” Comet grumbled again.

“I want to know how you managed to use positive star power, even here. I'm pretty sure you don't just gain magic here.” He finally said.

“Oh, I'll be glad to show you how I did that.” Comet told him before hitting him with a nice and kind blast of Star Power. In all honesty, he had literally no clue what he was doing.

Sadly, Dark Sun was prepared and already had a shield pulled up. It was, in fact, sad. Comet really wanted to hit him. But it probably wouldn't injure him in real life.

Dark Sun muttered something to himself, Comet could only catch a little of it. “... had a bit of Star Power in you before. There's still no reason you should have any.”

“What the hell are you mumbling about?” Comet asked (demanded).

“Nothing important to you.” Depressed Sun said, brushing some invisible lint off his shoulder. Comet would really have to buy this man a lint roller. “Well, I'd say this meeting went fine. Except I wish nothing more than to never have to see you again.”

Then, finally, he disappeared and Comet woke up.

No one woke him up in the morning. Comet guessed that meant no one was home. He would be able to have some him-time for once. Though, again, Dark Sun's dumbass, monotone voice rang in Comet's head. He guessed the him-time wouldn't be peaceful.

He wanted to know why he had Star Power. After his escapade with Dark Star Power, he wasn't too happy to ever have to touch any sort of magic. But, of course, he wouldn't ever be able to have a quiet life.

That didn't mean he wouldn't try to figure out how to use the Star Power. Or, maybe, somehow get it all out of him. And that's why he slipped out of the back door onto the back porch. He hadn't been back there since… really, he couldn't remember. He hadn't even really been at this house much. He guessed he probably hadn't ever been into the back yard.

The yard was huge, but it fit the large-scale house. There was a lot of grass and small weeds, and a few small trees creating the smallest bit of shade. . Comet guessed there really wasn't anyone who came out here to tend to it. Maybe he could. But maybe after everything smoothed over. Right now he had something to figure out.

Using Dark Star Power wasn't hard for him in the past, it came to him like breathing. He didn't need to breathe, yet felt like he needed to, and got used to doing it. And when he was thrown out into space without any air, it felt plain weird. (Not that the lack of oxygen was to blame for him doing all of that crap, he only had himself to blame.) Now, he would have to figure out how to use regular Star Power, and it was basically a whole different thing compared to Dark Star Power.

Yet Comet would figure it out. He had enough time. And any damage probably wouldn't be noticed. Right?

But figuring out how to channel the Star Power was actually the hard part. It was very different from just… summoning the electricity out of him, or like pulling water out of his veins. It had been so long since he had really used it, he had forgotten what it felt like to use it, mainly because he had given up using his powers while he was trapped in that their dimension. In his dreams he used it like Dark Star Power, rage exiting his veins.

But now, he was more at peace than anything. Now, he had no clue what he was doing. He just started to breathe, focusing on literally any bit of the Star Power. Then he just let it out of his hand, which was his first mistake. He opened his eyes and… oh shit. Sitting, more appropriately laying, in front of him was the tree he was standing near. In half. The end of it fucking smoking.

Oh yeah, Comet was so fucked. If not from some random astral coming down to kick his ass (this dimension’s version of Taurus), then literally anyone in the family who actually touched grass (not a lot, but still). Comet's internal clock would forever be screwed up, but he guessed he was frantically glancing around for a solid five minutes. Then, he guessed he wasn't going to be blasted by some random purple and blue bastard, so he decided to actually look around the massive back yard. (After spending about a half hour looking for a shovel to literally bury the evidence just to realize no one in that household owned a shovel, he gave up on trying to get rid of the tree, of course.)

He noticed there was a small sized lake he somehow hadn't noticed (because of course they had a fucking lake in their backyard). It reminded him of the house he used to live in, in the middle of a small island where you couldn't have anything peaceful without the waves being in the background. Though that house was nothing more than a catalyst of bad memories, he still missed it.

He hadn't physically been in that house since he was flung out into space, and even then, there wasn't much of a goodbye given. Comet had been back to that house a few times, but it was more in his head. An area in between a nightmare and thought, where he had even less control over himself. It brought out the worst of him. It was the only place his mind retreated to while he was in super hell (wouldn't recommend), probably because he had grown to hate it so much. (They don't tell us shit about super hell, I have to make some stuff up, bare with me.) 

Comet sighed, pushing all of those thoughts aside. He sat down at the edge of the lake. Since it was still bright as hell outside, he could see his reflection in the water. A damaged faceplate looked back at him, eyes that had lost their glow, scratched and burn marks scattered across it. Comet would have taken off his cloak, but having to see this—this thing that didn't feel like him—even now, he didn't wish for the family to see it.

Solar and him had already made the plans for his new body, but he was wishing he could already be in it. While it wouldn't be perfect, he would finally be able to look at himself in the mirror. Comet decided he really needed to stop looking at stuff so negatively and decided to go inside. It was also hotter than hell outside. But, yeah, not being negative was definitely his top reason.

He went back inside and, luckily for him, the house was still empty. So, naturally, he decided to watch TV. More specifically, a show he hadn't finished. In this dimension, the show had already finished. And where he had left off last time he had seen it (before you already know when), he was about halfway through the second season, and it was at season 8. But, since it was a bit of a teen's show (what the fuck do I label The Dragon Prince??? For teens? I just want to make a reference to a show I like and I'm sitting here trying to find the age rating of a show T-T. I won't spoil it, but you should watch it), Comet would have rather died than watch it around the family.

And, as you should have guessed, that's what he did for literally the entire day. As well as eating an unholy amount of Cereal and raging (complaining) at every end of a season. And the worst part is that the family came home before he could finish the second to last episode of the season, leaving him on a cliffhanger. Though they got home later than they usually did, Comet still wished they came back later so he could finish the show. But, he had to live with it. Sun came over and sat on one of the chairs next to Comet.

Sun made a bit of small talk, asked Comet how his day was (okay), updating him on a bit if what happened at the pizzaplex (nothing important), and asking Comet if he did anything important today (Comet had to lie on that one). Sun asked about the plans for Comet's new body, not really the most important things to talk about, but it was still nice having an actual conversation with someone.

And Sun did the inevitable, “Do you regret the whole going crazy and trying to kill us all thing?" He asked, probably because the previous conversation had been going on enough and was basically dead.

"Most of it." Comet answered, he definitely should have added a bit more elaboration, but didn't think to.

"...Most?" Sun asked, making Comet realize he really should have elaborated.

"Bloodmoon was obnoxious as hell, someone was bound to kill him." Comet added

"Didn't Puppet kill him?" Sun asked.

"Yes, my point still stands…” Comet drifted off, another addition looming over them. "And I'm not Moon." He added quietly.

"I know,"

They sat in silence. For once, there wasn't any tension in the mentioning of Comet's past actions. For once, there didn't seem to be any hurt. For once, there was something close to peace.

"Goodnight, Comet.” Sun said, getting up. Comet caught the hint of a smile thrown at him.

“Goodnight, Sun.” Comet repeated and Sun walked off, going upstairs.

Front the corner of Comet's eye, he could see Moon upstairs, looking down at him. Before Sun got upstairs, he stepped back into his room. Whatever his problem was, Comet would figure it out tomorrow.

And that’s basically how the next day went. He finished The Dragon Prince, raged it it’s ending (sat there questioning if that’s actually how it ended) and searching Nexflix for anything to watch. Eventually he found another show to enjoy. ‘The Good Doctor’ (yes, I’m just labeling shows I’ve hyperfixtated on), while he wasn’t into anything medical, it looked slightly entertaining. Sure, the episodes were longer than they needed to be (seriously, why the hell were they 45 minutes?). But the drama was enough entertainment. 45 minute long episodes really steal your day. Comet was only able to the 14th episode (I did math for that) before the family got home.

Solar sat on one of the chairs near Comet. Well, more accurately plopped down like he had just ran a mile in 100° heat. Apparently, he had a pretty damn busy day. “Kids were a nightmare today.” Solar sighed, flattering himself on the sofa. Jack was seemingly a bit less energetic, which meant it must have really been a day. Who knew Wendsdays (????????) were that bad?

“If you didn’t get much progress done on the body, I could come with you guys Friday.” Comet suggested, pausing his show. And it sucked, it was an episode he found himself resonating with a bit. (Author giggle gaggles in a trans fem Nexus consesour from time to time) And he couldn’t really catch up on it tomorrow, it was his ‘big day’. He had his second therapy session, and he was going to come with them anyways.

“We could finish it by tomorrow. I made some progress on it today.” Solar told him, tiredly waving his hand.

“Sounds like pain.” Comet sighed.

“Kids are a pain.” Solar repeated.

“Hello, father” Jack greeted, popping up from behind Solar. 

“Hi, Jack.” Solar sighed, looking like he wanted to fall asleep right there.

Chapter Text

Comet woke up, (as New Moon, I, the author, refuse to deadname him) sitting in his lab, still trying to figure out ways to bring Solar back. He had been struggling with it for a month, only to result in the same thing. He had to permanently kill someone to bring back Solar, that was the only way. It wasn’t something he wanted, he didn’t want to hurt anyone. But Solar didn’t deserve to be dead. He was still trying to figure out what other options he might have had, exhaustion creeping up on him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed someone just… appear. He could only see the red of their clothes for a second. 

“I would say I’m sorry for this, but I’m not. You have to end this way for my plan to work.” The person said… Comet knew that voice. Before he could ask Dark Sun what he was doing here, he felt a pain in his arm and was knocked out. 

He had been too busy, at the time, to ever really wonder what happened, guessing it was some exhaustion-induced hallucination. But he wasn’t the same after that day. After that day, he snapped. Some new-found mania creeping up on him. He always guessed it as just little sleep mixed with desperation, forgetting that happened after he left his family. 

Why had Comet returned there? Why that forgotten memory? His brain probably had an answer for him, but he woke up before he was given that answer.

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

“Hello, mother” Jack greeted, popping up from beside the couch, nearly making Comet jump out of his skin. Gods, Comet could not catch a break.

 “Hello, Jack.” Comet sighed, sitting up. It was way too early in the morning for this.

 “Jack, you didn’t need to wake him up yet. I told you to wake Sun.” Solar sighed. “I’ll just get him up,” he grumbled, walking up the stairs.

 It was barely even day out yet, which made sense why Sun and seemingly Moon were home. They probably hadn’t gone to work yet. Moon was in the kitchen, drinking coffee while looking at his phone. Since he had literally nothing better to do with his life, he walked into the kitchen.

 “Hey,” Moon greeted, not looking up from his phone.

 “Hey,” Comet repeated, grabbing the cereal out of the pantry.

“You’re coming to the pizzaria today, right?” Moon asked, briefly looking up at Comet.

“Yeah,” Comet nodded, grabbing a bowl from a cupboard. 

Moon was still leaning on one of the counters, either not caring about or ignoring Comet, who was just making his cereal. “Sun’s caught onto you, if that’s a shock to say.” he finally said.

“What do you mean?” Comet asked, fishing a spoon out of a drawer.

“You haven’t done a terrible job moving in. Which is a bit surprising. Sun has convinced us there’s actually something worth saving in you.”

“By ‘us’, I’m pretty sure you mean ‘you’.” Comet guessed, knowing Moon was probably the one person who still hadn’t wanted him around. Not to mention Molten, but who actually liked that pile of wires? (Probably the entire family, but that's beside the point) 

“Maybe,” Moon shrugged, probably deciding not to actually give anything to the conversation. So great for trying to make the conversation any less awkward. “Sun wanted to know if you were tired of the couch. Since Cosmo has moved out, the basement’s open, if that’s any improvement.”

“Sounds good,” he shrugged.

Comet sat down at the table, hoping for a bit of peace, before Sun sat down across from him. Comet really wished he could catch a break. It was way too early to be having meaningful conversations.

“Why are you up so early?” Sun asked.

“Jack,” Comet sighed, taking a bite of cereal.

“Right,” Sun nodded, probably deciding to cut the small talk off there. “You’re coming in after your therapy session, right?”

“Yeah, we’re doing what we did last time, but me and Solar are probably staying later.” Comet told him. 

“We’re planning to clean out the basement for you, if you want. There’s not too much down there, and you’d have time to get it to how you want.” Sun offered. Comet was sure they hadn’t kept any of his old stuff from the old house. He’d survive, he didn’t really miss anything he didn’t take, which was nothing.

Sun told him that they had to go, leaving Comet in peace to finish his cereal. He had about an hour to burn before they had to leave, so, naturally Comet got to finish his episode of The Good Doctor. Besides raging at the girl’s parents a bit (I won’t spoil it, but I recommend watching that episode alone, even if you don’t want to watch the entire series), it was a good time waster. Sadly, they had to actually leave after a while.

“You look so excited for your second therapy session.” Solar joked as he got in the car. Jack was, once more, banished to the backseat to do whatever he did in the backseat. Comet didn't know, since he hadn't been banished to the backseat before. 

“Thanks for the sarcasm.” Comet sighed. The drive to the therapist office was probably going to be the most peaceful part of the day. No therapist thinking way too deep on something small, no snot goblins (children) bothering him somehow, no having to deal with building stuff. Just some vintage rock from the radio (courtesy of Comet) and good old (ugly) suburban architecture. 

Really, the car ride gave him time to think about his dream. Why the hell was his head just now remembering that? Really, what was there to remember? Sure, Dark Sun randomly showing up one day wasn’t typical. But, what was he supposed to get out of that? By the time he connected the dots, he was already there.

“Do you want us to walk you in or do you have it?” Solar asked, parking the car.

“I think I can do it.” Comet told him, getting out of the car. “See you soon.” 

Comet walked in and checked himself in, sitting in the lobby. Based on the clock, he was a bit early. He watched Solar pull out of the parking lot before hearing his name called by the receptionist. He walked down the hallway, stepping into Dr. Alinza’s office. It looked the same as last time, except for some cookies in a store container. Dr. Alinza seemed to be in the middle of putting them on a tray.

“You caught me.” They joked, motioning for him to sit down. They gave up on trying to fill the tray and just put it down, grabbing their laptop off the coffee table. “I don’t have time to bake, but counted this as a work expense. Clients have to actually eat them for them to be counted as that, so eat however many you want. Robots don’t really get full, though, I guess.” they mused, looking up at him through their hair.

Comet blinked at them, questioning if he just heard them wrong. They shouldn’t have been able to see through the illusion disk. Unless…

“I know more than you think.” Dr. Alinza shrugged, leaning back in their chair. “But this isn’t about me. How was your homework?”

“I didn’t really talk to Moon.” Comet stuttered, still trying to figure out what they meant. And the fact they brushed it off so fast was starting to get him curious. 

“ ‘didn’t really’? Did you say anything to him?” They asked, typing something.

“I spoke to him this morning.” he said, deciding to eat one of the cookies. “It was more small talk than anything.” 

“Well, it’s not the end of the world. You have plenty of time to speak to him. Do you have anything coming up this weekend?” Dr. Alinza asked, still typing something. And god they were fast, probably making a solid amount of errors. (Laughs in I have to have my friend beta read these because I constantly make typoes)

Comet hesitated, not knowing exactly how much they knew. They had to be enough to see through the illusion disk, meaning they weren’t human, at least. “I’m getting a new body later today, after this session.” he told them, watching their reaction carefully. 

Dr. Alinza nodded, looking up at him briefly, Comet could catch the hint of a knowing smirk. They knew, how they knew, Comet wasn’t fully sure yet. God, he wished he could catch a break and have an actually peaceful therapy session. “That would be nice to see on Monday. And I’m giving you the same assignment. Maybe the extra time would help.” They suggested, looking up at him. Their face the same blank, a little warm, yet controlled expression. Dr. Alinza cleared their throat, glancing down at their laptop. “Have you done anything interesting the past two days?”

“Not really, I mainly watched a couple shows.” He told them, deciding to just move on from that. He would figure it out, and he was sure they weren’t going to give anything else. 

“Then, if you don’t have any more to share, we should get along with the session.” Dr. Alinza told him, giving him a couple seconds in case he wanted to speak up. When he didn’t, they moved on, gaining their professional expression again. “You've mentioned a bit of difficult things from your past. If you feel ready, I’d like to hear more about that. If you want more time, we could try the next session. There's no rush, especially if it's hard to share.” They told him, looking up from their laptop.

“I guess I’m ready.” Comet sighed, not really knowing what else he could say. Really, he didn’t fully trust Dr. Alinza, especially after the crap they pulled earlier. But, in full honesty, he didn’t fully trust anyone. On the other hand, with what he guessed they knew, talking about this was a lot easier. “I started as Moon’s replacement after Sun killed him. I basically tried to be everything Moon was, but better. Most of that fueled by Sun’s almost constant comparison between him and me. I looked and sounded just like him, I guess that's probably the reason why.”

“Is there a reason, do you think, that Sun might have compared the two of you, aside from the fact you two looked and acted the same?” Dr. Alinza asked, typing on their laptop. Comet guessed the reason they typed so fast was to keep up with people’s talking.

“I guess we were both his brothers. Fuck if I know.” Comet shrugged.

“What exactly would Sun compare between the two of you?”

Comet sighed, not having the best memory of all of that. Really, his memory was shit. “How smart I was, how nice, just really anything. My interests, just anything that was the same or different between me and Moon.” Dr. Alinza seemed to be out of questions, so Comet continued.

“I believe I’ve talked about Solar.” Comet sighed, starting to get to probably the most difficult part of his past. When Dr. Alinza nodded, he kept going. “This bastard named Ruin basically made a machine to destroy every Creator. And how he did that was by just… atomizing the dimensions they were from. Killing everyone from those dimensions. Solar…” he sighed, “Solar was from one of those dimensions. I had to watch him slowly die, there wasn’t anything I could do.”

He looked up at Dr. Alinza, a lump forming in his stomach. They looked back at him with the smallest bit of shock on their face, but quickly became professional again, clearing their throat quietly. “I don’t need to guess that event was incredibly hard on you.”

Comet nodded, finding it a bit weird to talk to someone about it. Especially because he hadn’t when it was all going on. Wow, talking to people was hard, he guessed that’s why he stopped when Terra had tried to help him all that time ago. And another reason. “I was trying everyday to bring him back, but couldn’t find anything. It seemed that he was permanently dead, and there wasn’t anything I could do." He started to lose focus a bit, feeling like he got a front row seat back to that time.

“Was that the only way you coped with his death? Trying to get him back? Or was there other ways or maybe family you talked to?” Dr. Alinza asked. Comet didn't get why they were so fixated on his past. It was more than a year ago, he was well past that

“I just poured myself into my work, I didn't really let myself think about it past hoping he'd return somehow.” Comet shrugged, already tired of trying to unpack what he had actively put himself through. 

“Would you say that there was a deeper reason behind you pushing away your grief? Maybe you thought Sun didn't consider you to be good enough, or maybe you blamed yourself for Solar's death?” 

“I guess it was everything to do with him dying. I couldn't stop him from dying, I couldn't figure out a good way to get him back. And, eventually, I couldn't even get him back.” Comet sighed, not liking how easily they were getting under his skin. Really, them being able to read Comet so easily annoyed him. 

“How did you try to get him back?” Dr. Alinza asked, giving Comet the ‘grace’ of eye contact instead of looking at their laptop. 

 Comet shrugged, just wanting to get his story over with. “As I said, I didn't exactly get him back. The only way I had was that I had to fully kill someone, erase them from ever existing, to replace Solar. The only person no one cared about was this— these people named Bloodmoon.

“There used to be two of them, but the first one died, leaving the second alone. All they did was kill people, no one would miss them if they were gone. They were also working with Ruin. Why? I have no clue.” Comet told them, his feelings of Bloodmoon seemingly not changing in the, like, year since that all happened. “But, the only good way to get rid of them was to kill them with Star Power. I… came across some and saw my opportunity.”

“So you had access to Star Power?” Dr. Alinza asked, intrigued and clearly knowing more than they led on. 

“Not for that long, but, yeah.” Comet shrugged, deciding telling them how he got the Star Power wasn't relevant. “But, somehow, Ruin and Bloodmoon got a hold of E- Terra, someone who was my sister. There wasn't a good chance of getting her out. And at that point, I had isolated myself so much I didn't even care about family. And…” Comet sighed, remembering one of his biggest regrets. “I told myself how perfect the situation was, I could get rid of both Ruin and Bloodmoon.” He sighed again. “I called Terra ‘collateral damage’ like a dumbass and shot them all with the Star Power. All three survived, not for real long, since someone named Puppet came in and dealt with Bloodmoon and sent me into a random part of space”

“I can tell you regret what you called Terra.” They ventured, not wrong. Comet nodded, the shame creeping back to him. “It's perfectly normal to regret something like that. Especially when you weren't thinking clearly.”

Comet sighed, realizing he hadn't even apologized for that. Realizing he hadn't really apologized to anyone. He realized his biggest issue then, he had just hoped they would forgive him, not actively trying to make them forgive him. 

“Our session is mostly over for today. I'd like to give you a different assignment.” Dr. Alinza told him. “You mentioned you started your life as a replacement Moon. And that your Sun had compared your and Moon's interests.”

“Yeah,” Comet nodded, already seeing where they were going with this. 

“While I would still like for you to talk to Moon. I want you to explore something you had an interest in, before all of this.” They told him. Comet started to get up before Dr. Alinza started to speak again. “I have my work phone number on this. If you feel like you need to talk to me, for any reason, feel free to call me. Just not late at night. I need sleep.” They joked, handing him a business card. 

Comet took it and was finally able to walk out. If anything, Dr. Alinza was now more able to live rent free in his head. The question of what they were lingered longer than it should. They weren't human, that was for sure. Were they even from this dimension? Were they just a human rebuilt or was it the opposite? Comet had no clue. But he would figure it out one day. He was determined to figure them out. especially if he'd be forced to keep going to them. 

Solar was in the waiting room with Jack. Solar was holding a tissue box over his head, most likely scolding Jack in some way. When Comet got closer, he could hear a bit of the quiet reprimanding. “...don't want to have to remove more tissues from your stomach. I better not catch you eating these again.”

“What the hell did I miss?” Comet asked, looking between the sulking Jack and Solar, who was still holding the box of tissues. 

“Jack ate an entire fucking box of tissues.” Solar complained, sounding halfway between bewildered and frustrated. 

“So I missed a lot.” Comet nodded. 

“They tasted bad.” Jack complained, sighing. 

“I left him alone--” Solar sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “--for five goddamn minutes to get something from the car. And he ate the entire fucking box.”

“How about we go before we get more weird looks.” Comet suggested, following the two out. The main reason he wanted to get out was because Dr. Alinza had seemingly followed him out and was talking to the person at the front desk. 

“Can you not act up for like a day?” Solar asked Jack as they got into the car. 

“But I was hungry.” Jack argued. 

“I don't--” Solar sighed, long and hard. “You don't get hungry.”

“I'm hungry.” Comet piped up, smirking at Solar. He wasn't really hungry, but it was worth getting Solar annoyed. 

“You two are impossible.” Solar sighed, probably intentionally not asking what he wanted to eat. 

“McDonald's!” Jack added, the goober grinning at Comet. 

“Yeah, I want a damn happy meal.” Comet told Solar, dead serious. 

“I'm not getting you guys McDonald's.” Solar sighed. 

“Why not?” Comet asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Because--” Solar just sighed. “Fine, but we're getting it on the way home.” Jack and Comet attempted to protest, but Solar wasn't hearing it. 

After a while, they finally got to the pizzaplex. Sun, Moon and Monty had Solar close it up, since he and Comet were going to stay late. Comet and Solar got to work basically immediately in his lab, while Nova and Jack did whatever the hell they did in the main room. The body was mostly done, but it needed to be rigged. (I'll be so real, I have no fucking clue what the hell goes into building robots and I'm too locked in to gamble texting my friend who builds robots. So, basically, the body is built but they have to wire it. Look: I'm buying time. You saw this was a part 1, it's a part 1 for a reason) 

After a couple hours, it was finally done. It was honestly a basic moon-model, but with actually interesting clothes. A leather jacket with one of those ironic T-shirts ‘Rizz ‘em with the ‘tism’. Black cargo pants and steel-toe work boots. Sure, it was the epitome of emo, but it looked good, and it suited him (not that he was emo). (Denial is a river in Egypt) 

“I can transfer myself to it.” Comet offered, leaning on the work table near him. They were both tired as hell, but Comet could still manage it. 

“No, I can do it.” Solar told him, fiddling with the body. 

“I've done it before.” Comet insisted. It wasn't like he didn't trust Solar. But, he just… thought it would be better if he did it himself. 

“It'll be faster if I do it.” Solar assured him. 

After a few moments, Comet agreed. He could trust Solar. And if he couldn't, well, there was nothing he could do. After a few moments, Comet blacked out. 

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

And there Comet was, supposed to be stuck in the vastness of his mind, just an empty vastness on all sides, until Solar woke him up. But, no, he couldn't be there in peace. He was sent to the house he used to live in with Sun and the family, before they moved. He walked in the open door, noticing he was in his new body because his arm resembled his new one. The house looked the same from the outside, and it was also the same on the inside. Well, except for the visitor at the bar.

  "Hello, ‘Comet’." The past him greeted in the form of how Comet looked when he was Nexus. Of course he was here, after all, there had to be something with him to torment himself with. He didn't know why there was someone else there, probably his consciousness fucking with him, his self-doubt and mistakes manifesting to mess with him. Especially because he used Comet’s name like an insult, and probably considered it to be one.

  "Why the hell are you here?" Comet asked, standing in the doorway of the room. 

  "You have to deal with the consequences of your actions soon enough. I'm not even really here, just in your head." Nexus taunted, pouring a glass of wine.

  "I have dealt with them." Comet argued, crossing his arms. 

  "Really? Is that because Moon still doesn't wike you? Come on, you're better than that. Hell, you're better than this trying-to-be-better bullshit." Nexus told him, taking a sip of wine. 

  "No. I'm better than you."

  "We're the same fucking person. We both chose to do all of that. We both chose to do it again. Sure, we weren't thinking straight. But we still did all of that." Nexus poured wine into another wine glass. "You can't be better than yourself."

  "I can be better than who I was. I'm not like that anymore."

  Nexus slid the drink over to the empty seat next to him. "And what made you want all this bullshit? The chance of you hawing a famiwy agaiwn?"

  Comet glared at him, reluctantly walking over and sitting down next to Nexus. After a few seconds, he took a sip of wine. He was gonna need it. "Cheap ass wine." He cursed.

  "You didn't answer the question."

  "Why would I need to? I don't need to prove shit to you." Comet muttered, frowning (glaring) down at his wine. 

  "So you admit there was a reason." Nexus accused, refilling his wine glass. 

  "What choice did I have? They were going to leave me to rot there, was I just supposed to let them leave me there?" Comet argued, not seeing why his consciousness was such an asshole. 

  “And they would have left you to rot if you didn't want to go with them.” Nexus told him. “How does that make you feel? Knowing the people you so desperately want to call family would have left you to die all by yourself?”

Comet glared at him. “I know what you're doing, trying to create doubt about the people who care about me.”

“If it didn't work, I wouldn't have said anything about it.” Nexus told him, looking him dead in the eye. 

And, fuck, it did create doubt in Comet's head. Those people had been the people to send him away in the first place. “What choice did they have?” Comet asked, more to himself. Well, not to his consciousness. You know what he means. 

“What are you trying to justify? Either you admit to yourself that you were wrong and a piece of shit for consistently going after your ‘family’ that tried to help you several times. That family had a right to lock you up because you did and, hell, deep down, still do deserve to be gone.” Nexus took a sip of wine, slamming it back down a bit. “Or was it that they were wrong to assume that you didn't have it in you to change? Either way, someone was in the wrong.”

“You think I don't know I was in the wrong?” Comet started to argue. 

“Don't give me that self loathing bullshit. Name one time you genuinely sat down and apologized for exactly what you've done.” He said, sighing. It wasn't that he was sad, more that he sounded fucking disappointed, something he had no right to do. 

“You don't know how hard it is to--” Comet started to argue before Nexus stood up. 

“I don't?” He asked, transforming to look like Comet. God, it was weird to see. But Comet knew it was exactly how he looked. 

The same leather jacket and shitty meme T-shirt, black cargo pants. Combat boots and fingerless gloves. The same moon-model faceplate with a white hat Solar knitted for him. Yeah, seeing himself was weird as hell. No, it wasn't him. It was just his head. He wasn't that person anymore. 

“I'm pretty sure we're the same person. If anything, I'm your deepest fears and thoughts personified.” Nexus taunted, leaning a bit over Comet, who was too busy trying to stop from crying, yelling, or throwing up. Or all three. 

“Can I have one fucking moment to myself?” Comet yelled, not giving a fuck anymore. And… the him of his mind wasn't there anymore. Just a single thought remained from that version of him. 

You failed to deal with yourself. 

God, Comet didn't think he was still that edgy. But, really, the struggle within was now just trying not to cry. That was the one thing he didn't miss having. The Dark Star Power had basically just left him as a hollow being, just crazing more and revenge. Now, he didn't have that shit in him. Now, he had to deal with his emotions. Now, he had to deal with himself. 

“Solar! Get me the fuck out of here! Please tell me you did not kill me!” Comet called up to the roof, getting up from the seat. Really, he had literally no fucking clue if Solar actually heard him. But he felt like he needed to say something. But, that wasn't the Solar that had heard him. 

“Hey,” he heard Solar call from the front door. When Comet turned around… 

Holy shit. 

How? 

Why? 

Why was his head doing this to him? 

How was he here? 

The Solar he knew best greeted him. It was the Solar he knew before he had died. The person he had tried so hard to bring back… was right there. Looking at him, a bit confused and worried. His face didn't change, but Comet could see it in his eyes. He had the same orange and black faceplate (author literally hates the old Solar model and is going off the thumbnails out of spite), same clothes. While it was a slight difference in the way they stood, Comet could still tell them apart. This was the old Solar, his Solar. 

“Hey, are you alright?” Solar asked, waving a hand. Comet couldn't even get himself to move. He was just frozen, tears brimming his eyes. He couldn't help it. This was Solar. Right there. Not even a foot from him. 

“Solar?” Comet asked, not believing his eyes. No, it couldn't have been Solar. That Solar was dead, the real one was alive. 

“Hey,” Solar waved his hand in front of Comet's eyes. “Are you feeling okay?” Comet couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't help himself but to give Solar a hug. “Get off me!” Solar yelped before grumbling a ‘whatever’.

Solar usually didn't let people touch him, ever, but put his arms around Comet. Probably because Comet had started crying. He couldn't help it. Solar was right there. It was all Comet needed. If Solar could have just been there, none of this would have happened. Comet buried his face in Solar's shoulder. Sure, it was pure fucking metal, but it was more comforting than anything Comet could have had. 

“I was at the store for like five minutes, are you alright?” Solar asked, still holding him. 

“I'm fine, I just…” Comet croaked, “need a hug.” Comet wouldn't have said that to anyone else, not even the Solar in real life. But this was his Solar. The Solar he trusted more than himself. 

Solar just patted him on the back, letting him get it out. Besides Terra, it had been so long since he had cried in front of someone. And he had done that only two other times. When Solar had died and when he broke down in front of Sun. Those times were also probably the only times he had been hugged. 

But nothing could last forever. 

Comet could feel his consciousness start to be pulled away. He grabbed on to Solar harder. Comet didn't care if he had to die to be with Solar. This was the Solar he knew and missed. The one in the real world was ever so slightly off. This was his Solar. 

“Solar?!" He tried to yell, to plead to stay, but none of it worked. He still had to face reality. 

Chapter Text

("To my wonderful readers: 

Sorry about that last cliff-hanger.

Well, no, not really. HAHAHAHA.

But seriously, I love you guys" -Rick Riordan, The House of Hades.)

“Ow!” The real Solar yelped, stumbling back, and reaching for his nose. 

For some reason, Comet's hand was hurting along with his head. And, shit, Comet's head hurt like hell . Why did everything have to hurt? He also was on the floor. He would have cared if he wasn't so dizzy, feeling like he had just had the worst dream ever. He most definitely had, but, again, his head hurt too much to really think deep about it. 

Comet was back in Solar's lab. He felt like he had just been in his old house, but he guessed that was just his dream. And, god, his dream felt like it had just gutted him. It was worse than when Dark Sun terrorized him. It actually felt like he had been there and… 

He looked up at Solar, who was rubbing his nose. “Are you alright?” He asked, holding out a hand for Comet. 

Comet accepted his hand, noticing his own shaking a bit. Solar did most of the work helping him up, both of them noticed that. “Thanks,” Comet said, leaning on one of the work tables. It felt weird being in this body after being so used to his old one. But, Comet had done this before, so he wasn't too worried. At least about that. 

“Were you, like, fighting something or some shit?” Solar asked, still rubbing his nose. 

“No,” Comet told him, not really knowing how truthful that was. “Why do you ask?”

“You woke up, yelled something I couldn't hear, and punched me.” Solar explained, making Comet wince. 

“Sorry about that.” He winced, rubbing the back of his neck. So that was why his hand hurt. Apparently, hitting metal hurts. A lot. “How long did it take to transfer me?”

“About a minute or two.” Solar shrugged.

Comet tried to take a step, but ended up tripping. Luckily, Solar grabbed him before he hit the ground. Solar helped him stand back up, leaning on the table again. “I forgot it takes a bit getting used to.” Comet chuckled, trying to play off how awkward he felt. God, it felt awkward as hell after what went on in his head. 

“Right,” Solar nodded, he looked like he was about to say something else, but there was a knock on the door. 

“How's it going in there?” Nova asked through the door. 

“Good,” Comet replied, guessing Nova probably couldn't hear him. “You can come in, you know.” 

They walked (ran) in and practically started foaming at the mouth. “You look so cool!” They announced, literally bouncing up and down. Now more than ever Comet was wondering how in hell they had so much energy. 

“Yeah,” Comet nodded, knowing he was going to need a solid nap after this. But he knew he probably wouldn't because he'd have to clean the basement out of Cosmo's crap. Just what he wanted to do after today! 

“Alright, Nova. I think Comet's ready to go home.” Solar told them carefully, not so subtly trying to get them out. 

“Well, have a nice time at home! The rest of the family has something–!” They started to say before Solar cleared his throat. Comet was a bit interested in what they had to say, but Solar and Nova were seemingly having a silent conversation. 

Solar, eventually, motioned for Comet to leave. Since Comet wasn't (was) stubborn, he insisted on walking himself, though his pace was much slower than usual ( imagine a baby giraffe ). Jack wasn't that hard to find, since he was playing in the arcade (very loudly). 

“So how about that McDonald's?” Comet asked when they got over to the arcade, making Solar sigh. Yes, he still wanted it. Especially after what happened in his head, he really needed a damn happy meal. 

“Fine.” Solar agreed before Jack could add anything. Solar was able to bribe Jack into not being the usual chaos that he was by telling him he wouldn't be getting any McDonald's. Luckily, Jack managed to be good and Solar had to buy them food. 

Comet and Jack both got chicken nuggets ( objectively the best happy meal option ), though Comet didn't care for the toy much. Jack managed to lose his toy within five minutes. How you could lose a plastic object in a car, Comet couldn't tell you. Solar kept checking the time on his phone at basically every red light for seemingly no reason. 

Well, Comet would get the reason when they got to the house. 

Solar checked his phone probably fifty times before they got out of the car. Jack seemed to have more energy than usual, as well, which was hard to do since he had enough energy to match the sun. Solar also was intentionally letting Comet in the door first. Comet wanted to ask what was going on with him, but stopped when he saw what was in the house. 

Sun, Moon, Dazzle, Terra, Monty, hell even Molten were in the living room. All but Moon and Monty were wearing party hats, though Sun was trying to get Moon to wear one. ( Don't ask me how party hats fit on their faceplates, enjoy the moment T-T) Terra was the one to notice Comet walking in first, and immediately rushed up to him and squeezed him into a hug. She probably noticed him tensing up a bit and let him go. 

“Hey,” Comet greeted, a bit confused about what was going on, especially because literally everyone was looking at him. 

“You look so great!” She told him, looking a lot more excited than he did. Solar and Jack followed in, Solar giving Jack a party hat, and proceeding to struggle to keep Jack from breaking it. 

Sun had apparently given up on making Moon wear a party hat and came over, looking equally as excited as Terra. “This suits you.” He said, leading Comet over to the living room. Comet guessed the seemingly party was for him, and he sure as hell wasn't used to it. 

They had a few board games on the coffee table, along with a few snacks. Molten and Monty both looked like they were forced to be there, and probably were forced to be there, but Comet didn't really give them much mind. Dazzle looked a bit confused who Comet was, probably because when they had really met, he still went by ‘Moon’. God, that felt like a century ago. 

Sun suggested they play Uno, which they all agreed to. It was a mildly enjoyable game, and one Comet had gotten pretty good at while in super-hell (yes, you can get good at Uno of all games, somehow). While Sun, Moon, Monty, and Solar were all going after each other, Comet stayed quiet and didn't get into any of the rivalry. Since he was in between Solar and Terra, he was able to go pretty much without any +2’s or skips. 

Which is how he won 3 of the 5 games they played. After the third time Comet won, Sun decided to ban Comet from playing Uno with them. The only reason Sun didn't start cursing (loudly) was because Dazzle and Jack were watching them (and laughing at Sun and Solar). But Comet had fun nonetheless. After the round ended (and Comet got his third win), they decided to quit. Sun also decided to make a rule that the winner had to clean up the game. 

Terra got up and went into the kitchen while Comet was stuck trying to get the cards into the box ( I fucking hate having to clean up Uno in specific, iykyk how obnoxious it is ). She came back with a cake, and not one of those crappy grocery store cakes. Sure, it was basic, just white frosting, but it looked like there was effort put into it. 

“So, I may have told a few people.” Solar told Comet, a knowing look on his face. Comet probably would have been just fine if there wasn't any celebration or anything about this, but having the family with him made him feel a lot better. 

“And I made a cake for you!” Terra added, sitting down next to him ( I accidentally implied Monty was sitting near Comet, but I don't hate that ). Comet didn't know if it was intentional for her to say ‘for you', but Comet liked to think it was. “I don't know what flavor you like, so I just made a vanilla one.”

What Comet didn't even notice at first was a light blue comet on the top. It carried the same look of effort and care put into it. Sun cut them all a piece and, not shockingly, it tasted amazing. Really, it could have been store bought cake mix for all Comet cared, but the clear effort is what counted. And Comet guessed Terra cared too much to not make it from scratch. 

“There's one more thing.” Moon said, getting up from his seat. Sun and Terra did the same, but were a lot worse at hiding their excitement, or that Moon really didn't care that much. Comet got up and followed the three. They went over to where the basement was, giving Comet an idea what it was about. 

Comet was the first one to go down the stairs, and nearly tripped down them. It was basically another floor (actually, it probably was). There was a main room with a pool table and split off into three other rooms. One was Molten’s, one was Jack’s. And one was his. Of course, it was bare, as Cosmos probably took all his stuff with him or they had moved it all out. But just having somewhere that was his in the house made him feel like he was finally accepted. 

Like he was a part of the family again. 

“It's not a lot right now, but since you're staying with us, we can eventually get it to how you want.” Sun offered when he got into Comet’s now room, breaking Comet's train of thought. 

“I like it.” Comet told them, looking around the room. 

“All of us helped to clear out all of Cosmo's things while you and Solar were at the Pizzeria.” Terra added, moving to stand next to him. 

“I'm gonna go put Dazzle to bed.” Sun announced, probably just as a way to excuse himself, and went up the stairs. Moon stayed for another minute, watching Comet, before following his brother, leaving Comet and Terra in the basement. 

“How's therapy going?” Terra asked, sitting on his bed. 

“It's okay, I guess.” Comet shrugged, sitting next to her. He guessed it was going to be a long conversation. If he was being honest: therapy was a pain in the ass, the therapist more than therapy itself.

“I heard that therapist was great, what’s their name?” 

“Dr. Alinza, and they’re okay, I guess.” Comet replied, really not wanting to get into it.

“You’ll get used to them, it always takes a while for people to get settled in, and longer to not dislike their therapists.” Terra assured him, giving him a smile. Comet guessed he’d eventually settle into everything, but right now he just wanted time to adapt.

“I probably will, I’ve only had two sessions with them so far.” 

Silence followed, neither of them knowing what to say. “Well, me and Monty are probably going home.” She told him, getting up.

“I’ll see you soon then.” Comet told her, giving her a smile. When she left, he finally let himself take a breath. He’d had a long day, and, though he enjoyed the party, it just made him even more exhausted. Really, he just needed a few minutes to himself to understand what his head was trying to tell him, a few minutes to process what the past him was trying to tell him, a few minutes to understand why the old Solar was there.

And for some reason, that wasn’t the thing fucking him up the most. No, it was what the past version of him said. ‘And they would have left you to rot if you didn't want to go with them. How does that make you feel? Knowing the people you so desperately want to call family would have left you to die all by yourself? ’ Even when he tried not to, it replayed in his mind over and over. Playing a shitty card game with the people who hated him not even a few months ago. With the exception of Monty, who still hated him, most likely. 

The worst part is that the version of him wasn’t wrong. At all. Even though he had done nothing but deserve that treatment, just knowing that the people he almost called family would have– no, probably did– gave up on him for a while haunted him. Sure, he didn’t look the same, act the same, or even use the same name, he still felt like there was nothing he could do to separate himself from who he was. He felt like he was just an imposter in the calm family, especially since not even all of them trusted him.

Not even to mention how seeing the old Solar was fucking him up. God, who thought that seeing his old friend, someone he fought for with all his life, would mentally fuck him up. It felt exactly like seeing him again, seeing him in real life. Sure, Solar was there, but he was different. Probably from all the trauma Comet had added to. It wasn’t that Comet liked the old Solar more because that Solar hadn’t seen the bits of what Comet was capable of. But when that Solar was around, everything was just fine , hell, it was even good . Sure, things still went on, but having Solar and Sun with him evened it all out. 

And losing Solar was like losing a part of himself that he could never fully get back. It would take probably a year to be even close to what they had, and every day trying to get back to that felt like a century. Not even including how much Comet had hurt Solar. When they had met after Solar had come back, Comet didn’t even care, didn’t care about Solar or how much that fact hurt him. And trying to make up for that filled Comet with nothing more than anger and self-loathing.

Hell, Comet couldn’t even have a fully happy day. He finally felt like he was a part of the family. He had his own room, for fuck’s sake. But he still couldn’t move past his dream. No matter how hard he tried, it stood over him. As a reminder that, no, he couldn’t deal with himself. And on the first night of him having his own room, he fell asleep crying.

Solar was tired, in general, and Monty and Molten were not helping.

“Have you considered that, you know, he’s trying?” Solar asked, wondering if the two even tried at all to not hate him. Of course, they were talking about Comet. 

“I still don’t get how Nexus- or Comet- of all people can go from wanting to kill and/or torture all of us to wanting to play Uno or some shit.” Monty argued, crossing his arms. They had been going back and forth since Sun, Moon, Terra, and Comet had gone into the basement.

“Because he’s changed. Cosmo got all the shit out of him, and he’s back to how he was.”

“Solar, I know you were friends a while ago, but that–” Monty started to say before Solar cut him off.

“This has nothing to do with us being friends a year ago. It has everything to do with him changing.” Solar argued, not getting how dense Monty was being. Deep down, he knew he wasn’t being fully truthful. He had missed the Moon he knew, and all that care had burned away to hate when he was Nexus. But now that person was back and, sure, he was different, but it was still the same person he had missed, and all that care for the person he knew had returned.

“I don’t trust him because I have no reason to.” Monty argued, still not changing his mind.

“He is still an asshole, even if he looks different.” Molten added, still standing near the wall, as he had done basically the entire time, even before Solar, Comet, and Jack had gotten there.

“Not you too.” Solar sighed, knowing there was no way he was winning considering he was trying to convince the two most stubborn people.

Before Molten could add something, Sun came upstairs. “Where’s Dazzle?” He asked, walking over to the three of them.

“She went to bed because she was tired.” Solar answered, the tension in the room probably noticed by Sun. Sun went up to his room, a few minutes later, Moon did the same, not saying much except for ‘I’m going to bed’. Solar and Monty were still arguing by the time Terra came up. She and Monty went home and Molten went wherever the hell he went at night. Solar still believed he was right, but decided to just let it go and went to bed. 

He knew Comet wasn’t the same as he was, but that was the reason Solar still cared about him. He had changed from the soulless asshole he was into someone who cared again. Sure, it would have been great to have the person he did a year ago, but he didn’t care that much. Compared to how he was when he was Nexus, Comet was a much better person now, and better off with the change he had. But, still, Solar missed the old person he knew.

Chapter Text

Comet was glad that he had time to exist for a while. The family was all at the Pizzaplex, like usual. But, of course, everything was different with his new body. And with whatever went on in his head the day before. Every time he figured he had actually gotten past it, it creeped up on him. 

And that was before he remembered the dream he had gotten that night. He had so much going on that day he hadn't even considered it. Comet knew he wasn't ever going to figure out Dark Sun, but why Dark Sun had shown up so long before everything had truly gone downhill Comet couldn't figure out. And of course he knew he wouldn't, since not even Dark Sun showing up to begin with made sense. 

 Comet spent most of the morning trying to figure it out, but just gave up in favor of watching some TV. Like normal, the family came home, he talked to Solar and Sun a little bit before Sun went to do whatever he did with Dazzle while Comet and Solar watched ‘Supernatural’ ( peak show ). 

Comet expected the next day to be more of the same. But, of course, it wasn't. 

He went upstairs and, at least, attempted to do what he usually did in the morning. But he found Moon in the kitchen, on his phone like usual. Comet was sure it was way past when they usually left for the Pizzaplex, but just played it off.

“Morning,” Comet greeted when he got into the kitchen.

“Good morning.” Moon repeated, looking up from his phone. “Sun wanted to know if you wanted to come with me to the store. It doesn’t open for about another half hour ( plot convince tbh ), so you can go if you want.” He offered, his tone indicating Sun had probably forced him to drag Comet alone.

“Yeah, sure.” Comet nodded, remembering he had finished off the cereal the day before. Moon went upstairs and did whatever the hell he did with his life while Comet sat down on the couch and continued to watch The Dragon Prince ( I’m not over that hyperfixtation yet ). After literally one episode, Moon came back downstairs and they headed off to the store.

The entire car ride there was probably the most awkward silence Comet had to deal with so far. Moon was one of those people who either didn’t listen to music, or turned it off when other people were in his car. The only thing to give Comet the slight hand of mercy was the ac, which was on a relatively low setting, but still filled the deafening silence between them.

“What kind of music do you usually listen to?” Comet finally asked, breaking the dreadful silence, though the effort it took felt like he was rolling a boulder up a mountain.

“Rock and metal,” Moon replied, probably not giving any substance to his answer because he still disliked Comet. Which wasn’t unexpected, as Comet had only been there about a week (and he would know how stubborn Moons could be, as after all he used to be one).

“What kind?” Comet asked, feeling like he was too far deep into a conversation to just give up now. Though giving up on trying to talk to Moon was tempting. All Comet knew was that he wasn’t going to get anywhere if he was just quiet.

“Industrial,” He shrugged. Comet could tell he was holding back a remark about the type of music Comet listened to. And he wouldn’t be wrong about Comet listening to ‘emo music’. In his defense, Set It Off and Lines of Loyalty were some actually good bands.

Since Moon was giving staler responses than the bread on the counter at the house (Comet attempted to make toast this morning, did not work out well), he really didn’t know what else to add. He didn’t know how far the grocery store was from the house, and it could have been that the silence was making it feel longer, but it felt like they had already driven for an hour. But, luckily for Comet, it was only a bit longer before they got to the store. Comet was given the duty to carry the reusable bags (easy job), while Moon got the cart.

Because they were shopping together, Moon had to actually communicate (which must have been so hard for him). Comet was the one to grab the stuff while Moon (once more) got the easy job of moving the cart around and knowing where things were in the isles. Eventually, they got to a bit of a road block.

“Next we need.. Mangoes?” Moon told Comet, sounding a bit confused at the end.

“Since when did any of you eat mangoes?” Comet asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m guessing it says ‘mangoes’. I can’t read Sun’s handwriting half the time.” He huffed, showing Comet the list. Comet squinted, trying to read the literal scribbles that he guessed Sun wrote.

“It just says ‘mangoes’. Does he mean frozen or fresh?” Comet asked, looking back at Moon.

“Probably fresh.” Moon shrugged, pushing the cart along to the produce section. Why he didn’t consider to just call Sun made Comet a bit curious, but he was too busy having to help Moon pick out the best monagoes to really give much thought to it. After a bit more of trying to read what was basically hieroglyphics (Sun’s terrible handwriting), they eventually got it all and checked out. 

Of course, the car ride back was just as awkward was it was the way there. Except Comet was all out of anything he could say. And he guessed Moon was too, since he said nothing for majority of the car ride.

“How’s your new room?” Moon finally asked, magically ebing able to say more than a word at a time in the car. It was probably the AC being turned up that gave Moon the ability to actually speak.

“It’s nice.” Comet shrugged, catching the stale-replies illness.

“Sun has asked me at least five times since Thursday if there’s anything he could add to it, and if he should ask you now or until you’ve settled in more.” He remarked, his seemingly consistent frown (at least around Comet) lightening up a bit.

"Everything's fine with it, I don’t really need anything else.” Comet answered, awkwardly looking forward at the road. 

Moon simply nodded, being silent a while longer until he spoke up again. “Sun also wanted to know if you wanted to go to Terra and Monty’s house tomorrow.”

Comet grimaced a bit, knowing that Monty had probably said something about Comet. But it would be nice to spend some time with Terra. “Sure,” He shrugged, Moon nodded again, this time not saying anything else.

When they got home, they unpacked everything, and refrigerated anything that needed to be. Moon floated around the kitchen mostly, mainly just watching Comet attempt to reorganize the fridge to make everything fit (which only added the stress that came with trying to cram everything in the fridge). After they (he) was done, Moon went up to his room to resume doing whatever the hell he did and Comet reumed watching TV. A few hours later, the rest of the family came home. Sun took care of Dazzle while Comet and Solar continued to watch ‘Supernatural’. 

(POV swap for fun ig)

“So how’d it go?” Moon heard Sun ask when he got into Moon’s room. He had been watching a movie (Kpop Deamon Hunters, haven't watched it, but Soda Pop is cursing my headpsace) that had just came out when Sun walked in.

“How’d what go?” Moon asked, pausing the movie.

“Shopping with Comet.” Sun clarified, raising an eyebrow.

“I was fine, he can read your handwriting a lot better than I can.” Moon shrugged, not really wanting to talk about Comet. After all, Sun had been doing his best to annoy Moon at every chance until he finally agreed to take Comet along. “We got you fresh mangoes, by the way.”

“That’s all? Just very particular about mango selection?”

“I didn’t know I was supposed to figure out everything about him while grocery shopping.”

“That’s like the entire reason I wanted him to go with you! So you two could actually talk for once!” Sun sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I swear we agreed that you’d actually give him a chance.”

“I am,” Moon argued, too tired to really make any good points.

“What it sounds like is you are the only person here who is refusing to acknowledge Comet is attempting to change.”

“He hurt all of us, twice , you more than any of us. I know you are also the most forgiving of him, but I don’t want to risk him deciding this isn’t enough and going batshit crazy again.” Moon sighed. He knew there was no way he was winning with Sun, but that wasn’t going to stop him from arguing his point.

“Yeah, you might be right about me being more forgiving. But if I can forgive N- Comet for all he’s done, then there’s no reason you and Molten have to constantly remind him that you both hate him still.” Sun argued, catching himself before he accidentally deadnamed Comet.

“Is it because you only associate him with this new name and face?’ Moon questioned, not realizing he had probably hit too close. "Like this is a new, fresh slate that just gained consciousness?"

“Well maybe because that’s the new him. Not some withershard obsessed monster.” Sun retorted, crossing his arms. “Are you not able to forgive him because you don’t see past who he was ?’ 

Moon paused a moment, frowning a bit more. “I am not going to forgive him just because he changed his name and got a new body.” He repeated, sighing.

“Then you need to look closer.” Sun told him, looking a bit sorry for a moment about being rude, but just left Moon’s room. Moon sighed waiting a bit before following Sun out of his room. Before crossing over to the other side of the hallway ( idk what to call it, man ), he heard Solar and Comet talking away downstairs. 

“-passenger supposed to do?” Comet argued, though Moon guessed it wasn’t actually over anything serious.

“Enjoy the ride. The driver is the one actually doing things, and if they can’t focus, then there’s higher risk of an accident.” Solar argued back, giving Moon an idea of what it was about.

“Then the driver and passenger either ride in silence, or they compromise.” Comet retorted, crossing his arms. “And it matters even more of who the car belongs to.”

“No, if the driver’s the one in the drivers seat, they have control over the music.”

“What if the passenger owns the car?”

“Then they can drive themself.”

“You are impossible.” Comet huffed, crossing his arms.

“This you?” Solar chuckled, showing the other something on his phone. ( you guys know about the 31 atlas comet???? )

“What is that?” 

“Apparently NASA discovered a new comet somewhere in space.” Solar mused, smirking over at Comet.

“I’M NOT AN ACTUAL COMET.” He protested, but Solar wasn’t hearing it. 

"Sure, but I can see the resemblance pretty well." Solar mused.

"That's like a ball of ice!" 

"I'm pretty sure there's also metal in comets."

The two kept going on, clearly not letting the other win, and both not noticing Moon. He sighed, leaning against the railing of the walkway. He wondered if it was harder for him to let Comet get redeemed in his eyes because he didn’t know Comet before he went crazy, unlike everyone else. After all, the only reason he was there was because when Comet left, Moon was expelled and Monty found him. For that, Moon had the smallest amount of gratitude, but everything Comet had done after he left erased that completely.

But watching him and Solar playfully argue made Moon curious if Sun was right, Comet had actually changed. Or if this was how he was before all of that had happened. For that reason, he decided to just go back into his room, resuming his movie. But, in the back of his mind, he decided to actually give Comet a chance.

Chapter Text

Comet found himself in the livingroom of the house he used to live in, and the house he had imagined being in when he was stuck in his head Thursday. Like Thursday, he wasn’t alone. Of course it was Dark Sun who was standing near the bar.

“God fucking dammit.” Comet muttered, not having the energy for this. After he had spend yesterday trying to deal with Moon, he really didn’t want this bastard to mess with him again.

“Someone’s back to cursing up a storm constantly.” Dark Sun mused, his knowing, obnoxious smirk planted on his face. If Comet could do anything, he’d probably start by whipping the smirk off of his face.

“Do you have a life or is your only hobby making me get a terrible night’s sleep?” Comet questioned, crossing his arms, his patience already wearing thin. He thought he could have escaped Dark Sun since he moved to his new body.

“You look quite different from last time we met.” Dark Sun mused, stepping closer to walk a circle around Comet. He knew Dark Sun enough to know that he didn’t have anything planned, really. All he ever really did was wait for people to do most of the work for him while he takes all the credit for his ‘master plan’.

“Maybe because I have other priorities than bothering people when they’re trying to sleep.”

Dark Sun, like usual, ignored his comment in favor of a script he probably already had planned out. “I guess familial life is so important to you, you haven’t managed to mess it up so far.”

“What do you want? And don’t give me some bullshit excuse." Comet demanded, staring down Dark Sun, who had stopped in front of him, looking him dead in the eye.

“I want to remind you that you’ll never escape your past. You’ll always be clinging onto some part of you. And when someone you care about dies again , you’ll just come crawling back.” Dark Sun shrugged, Comet knew there was no way that was the entire thing. He always had some logical reason for everything he did. He always had a plan to get what he wanted.

“Well, it might sound crazy to you, since you haven’t changed at all, but I’m not the same person I was a year ago. Maybe it might take a while for you to figure out how to change or get a life, but even people like me can change, so there’s a bit of hope for you.”

“I don’t want to change.” Dark Sun chuckled, continuing to circle Comet like a shark. “I’m quite happy in my station in life, unlike you.”

Comet laughed, not believing Dark Sun had actually said that with his full chest. “Really? And apparently you get just so excited to bother me every couple of days.” 

Dark Sun scoffed, looking somehow amused. “No, I just want to make sure you remember you can’t work past what you’ve done.” He shrugged. The next moment, Comet woke up in his bed, looking over at the alarm clock on the nightstand to see it was about 5:30 in the morning. Great, not only did Dark Sun ruin his peaceful sleep, but he made Comet wake up incredibly early. 

Comet just huffed, getting up and out of his room. The sunrise was blasting light into the main room of the basement like a flash grenade through the clear doors that led outside. But strangely enough, it was peaceful. Comet went outside, leaning against the house as he watched the sun rise. It brought him back to before all of this happened, where the first breath he’d give in the morning was to curse Sun. Now, he just thought about if something was going to happen that day. 

He knew he wasn’t the same person he was at that point. But, it was more of a job to convenience everyone else of that fact. And it seemed like it was going to be a pain. Molten avoided him at every opportunity, same with Moon. He didn’t even see Monty that often, though he guessed Terra might be putting a bit of effort into trying to get Monty off Comet’s back.  He didn’t even really care what Dark Sun thought, since he had only ever appeared when Comet was asleep. 

The sun had mostly risen by now, and Comet decided to go up stairs.

Of course, everyone was getting ready for the morning. Comet mainly waited on the couch for Sun, since he guessed that was who was going to take him to Terra and Monty’s house. Mainly because Solar seemed to not know about it and Moon probably didn’t want to have to be in a car with Comet for a second day in a row. 

After a while, Moon, Solar, Molten, and Jack left for the Pizzaplex while Sun and Dazzle went with Comet to Terra and Monty’s house. Comet hadn’t exactly made himself familiar with Dazzle, since he had basically lost all of his talent when it came to taking care of children after all that time. He still interacted with her on occasions, but it wasn’t anything really deep or anything.

“I’ll pick you up after I take Dazzle to school.” Sun told him, pulling up in front of Terra and Monty’s house. Comet agreed and got out of the car, walking up to the house. He heard Sun drive off, but it was a couple moments before he got the courage to knock on the door. And, of course, Monty was the one to open the door. 

“Hey,” Monty said as he opened the door, clearly not excited to see Comet there. 

“Hey,” Comet repeated, his awkward voice matching his face. Monty led him into the house and to what he guessed was some sort of livingroom. It was basically outside, overlooking the pool that was probably just there for show, as Comet didn’t think either of them were into swimming. 

“Terra’s gonna be here in a minute, she’s at her bakery right now.” Monty told him, sitting down on one of the seats with his arms crossed. Comet sat on the other one across from him. Comet hadn’t exactly spoken to Monty that much since he came back, and them in the past being friends to now being bitter to each other wasn’t exactly what Comet was used to. 

“She has a bakery?” Comet asked, not remembering if she had mentioned that to him or not.

“Yeah, she wanted to start baking more and thought it was a good idea.” He shrugged, probably only acting nice because Terra could pop in any minute. And Terra did show up when they didn’t expect it. Comet was about to torture the both of them with more stale small talk remark before they heard Terra walk in and announce herself with an ‘I’m home!’. 

“Hey, Comet!” She said, wrapping him in a hug. Comet hugged her back, feeling a bit awkward since he could feel Monty's gaze burning through him. Terra pulled back after a couple of seconds, her usual warm smile on her face, either ignoring or not aware of Monty watching him like a hawk. “How are you doing?” She asked, sitting down beside her husband. 

“Good,” He replied, feeling still a bit awkward. 

“That’s good to hear.” Tera told him, not noticing Monty’s gaze stuck on Comet still. 

“How’s your bakery?” Comet asked, remembering Monty had mentioned it, and realizing he didn’t actually know what to talk to her about. 

“It’s going great!” Terra smiled, though it wasn’t enough to thaw her husband. “I love baking and Monty helped out a fair share.” She added, nudging Monty probably so he’d actually add to the conversation. Unluckily for Terra and luckily for Comet, he didn’t open his mouth. After a couple of moments, she continued to speak. “Is therapy still going good? I know you haven’t had a session since last time I asked, but we didn’t really say much about it.” She asked, though it sounded more like she was trying to tell Monty something.

“Yeah, it’s pretty good.” Comet told her, smiling awkwardly, really not wanting to even think of therapy right now. Monty scoffed, but Comet ignored it. “Dr. Alinza is kinda.. weird, but I guess that’s just how it is.”

“What do you mean weird?”

“Uh,” He stuttered, doing his best not to break eye contact. “I don’t know, they just act weird.” He shrugged, about to add that they could see through this illusion disk  before Terra butted in, not before giving a look to Monty, who huffed something Comet couldn’t hear.

“Well, you probably just need to get used to them.” She suggested. “We don’t exactly hang around humans that often, so it’s probably just that.” 

“I guess,” Comet shrugged, just deciding to give up the topic. 

There was a bit of silence before Terra spoke up again. “I think I heard my phone ring, I’ll be back.” She told them, getting up and moving over to where the front door was, leaving Monty and Comet alone. Monty kept giving Comet the same annoyed look, but didn’t bother to give small talk this time. Either Monty had run out of things to say, or they were both feeling awkward. Finally, Comet spoke up.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Comet asked finally, tired of the quiet tension.

“What do you mean?”

Comet narrowed his eyes, not having the energy for this. “You’ve been giving me this dirty look for the entire time Terra was in here.”

“And?” Monty asked, ticking off Comet a bit. Though ‘a bit’ was a huge understatement. 

“Are you not even going to try?” Comet asked, though he could feel himself getting frustrated. Sure, it was basically a blessing that anyone had managed to forgive him for what he’d done, and Comet did see it as something he didn’t deserve, having Monty be the one glaring exception (except for Molten, but he never really cared for that pile of wires anyways) still stung.

“I don’t know if I should even waste my time on that.” Monty shrugged, clearly not going to be swayed by anything Comet was going to say. 

“Maybe because I’m not the same person who I was.” He huffed, crossing his arms. 

“Yeah, sure.”

“Are you even listening to what I’m saying?” Comet questioned, not even noticing he was starting to raise his voice a bit. Though he didn’t have any Dark Star power in him, he was still out of control of his emotions most of the time, which was actually pretty fitting for himself for his entire existence. 

“I am, but you’re just proving my point.” He shrugged, motioning to Comet, who wanted to add something, 

“So you aren’t seeing that I’m trying to convince you that I'm not going to cause anything?” Comet asked, frowning. “You know, it’s crazy how you and Molten can just disregard anything you all did, or anyone else, in favor of making me look worse.”

Monty scoffed, clearly not even considering what he said. “Sure people may not have treated you well, but I’m pretty sure you still did everything with that Dark Star Power bullshit.”

“And you ripping into my head before that?” Comet questioned. 

Monty was about to say something, at least before Terra came back in.

“Sun said he was going to pick you up early, since there’s some issue going on with Nova and Moon is too busy with the main floor to help out Solar.” She told them when she came back into the room. 

Comet nodded, then asked, “When will he be here?”

“A couple of minutes.” She guessed.

“What’s the issue?” Monty asked, beating Comet to the question. 

“I don’t know, I can barely speak Sun when he’s talking fast.” She chuckled. Comet tried to figure out exactly what was going wrong with Nova, but Terra wasn’t really given much from Sun, just that something needed to be repaired, which meant it was either a small thing or something that would take several hours to fix. Sun got there not long after, and Comet said bye to the both. Terra, of course, gave him a hug goodbye while Comet managed to get a ‘bye’ out of Monty. 

“So what’s wrong with Nova?” Comet asked when he got into the car. 

“I don’t know, their arm just isn't working and Solar needs another pair of hands to repair or potentially replace it.” Sun explained, glancing over at him. 

Comet just nodded, remembering Terra mentioning that Sun had said Moon was busy. They got there pretty soon after while it was crowded as hell. Comet could see why Moon would be having problems. Comet managed to swim through the sea of people and make it into the Parts-and-Services. He noticed Nova sitting on the main work table while Solar was trying both to listen to what they were rambling about and getting all the things he needed. 

“Hope I wasn’t interrupting something.” Solar said when he noticed Comet in the doorway, motioning for him to come in. 

“Don't worry about it.” Comet shrugged, walking in. 

“Hi Comet!” Nova greeted, smiling at him from the table.

“Nova, we're gonna have to turn you off for this.” Solar told them, dragging their focus back onto him.

“Oh alright,” They huffed, glancing back at Comet. “See you later then.” They told him before Solar turned them off. 

“Sun didn't give me much detail, what's up with their arm?” Comet asked.

“Their right arm jammed up for some reason. It's a pain to do shit like this, and Moon is trying to manage the floor.” Solar told him, already screwing off their arm. 

Comet agreed, helping Solar with the screws. They managed to get the arm off pretty quickly, since there were two people doing it. Solar went to do another diagnostic test on Nova’s shoulder while Comet was left to just stand there awkwardly. Comet spent his time messing around with Nova’s arm, eventually finding some weird stuff coated onto their joints. Comet instinctively tried to scratch it off with his fingers, before remembering he hadn’t had claws the entire time he had his new body. In embarrassment Comet was glad Solar couldn’t see, since he was still doing the diagnostic, he scraped some of it off with a nearby screwdriver. 

“Crayon,” He muttered to himself.

“What?” Solar asked, turning around and looking at Comet. 

“Crayon,” He repeated, holding up the screwdriver for the other to see. Solar took off one of his gloves and walked over, taking the screwdriver and pinching the crayon between his fingers. 

“How did crayon get into them?” Solar asked, about as confused as Comet was.

“Kids, I guess.” Comet shrugged, going back to scraping the rest of it off with another screwdriver. Somehow, literally no one had noticed the small bit of crayon jammed between Nova’s shoulder joints. Though it wasn’t even really that much, it was a pin to clean out, since it was in a pain of an angle and in such a small space. After about a few hours, and checking, as well as cleaning, several of Nova’s joints, they were sure they got all of it out. It was a while before closing, but was too late for Comet to go back to Terra and Monty’s house, even if he wanted to see Monty again (and he really didn’t). So, he decided to stay at the Pizzaplex and talk to Nova when they powered back on while Solar tracked down Sun to tell him they fixed Nova.

“Crayon? Oh those silly children must have done that.” Nova huffed, despite that, they kicked their legs while still sitting on the work table.

“Yeah, children are nightmares.” Comet agreed, not wanting to even remember how it was when he was working at the Daycare. Sure, he missed taking care of the kinds, but he also didn’t miss taking care of the annoying kids. 

“Isn’t Jack your kid?” Nova asked innocently.

Comet sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “No, that’s Solar’s kid. Even though Jack himself denies it.” 

“But I thought you and Solar were…” They trailed off, though their suggestion was clearly heard by Comet, whose face lit up pink.

“No, we’re not dating!” He said quickly, holding out his hands in protest.

“Who?” Solar asked when he walked in, clearly a bit confused. Comet stood up straight, forcing his systems to clear the blush on his face. 

“We were just talking about y-” Nova started to say before Comet cut them off in a bit of a panic.

“Doesn’t matter. How about you go back out to the kids?” He said, though his slightly panicked tone made it clear it wasn’t a question as much as a commandment.

“Well, I’ll see you both later then!” They sighed, hopping off the work table and (literally) skipping out the door, saying something to Frost about cluelessness that Comet didn’t pick up on. Comet was trying to do everything in his power to not think about Solar and dating in the same sentence, especially because it reminded him of what he hadn’t yet told Solar.

Solar waited a couple seconds before saying anything, clearly debating if he should ask about it, but ended up deciding against it. “Sun’s busy on the floor, so he had me carry along his message.” He stared, already making Comet a bit curious on what it was about. “And he doesn’t want your answer yet, but he wants to know if you wanted to start working at the Pizzaplex with us.” Solar asked, making Comet pause. 

Was this it? Was this the push he needed? Another way to mix himself into the family- his family?  Sure, he knew how much more responsibility it would be, and so many less mistakes he could make, but this was his shot. 

“Sun doesn’t want you to make a decision yet, since we’re going to all talk about it tonight, but he wanted you to think about it in advance.” Solar finished, noticing Comet clearly thinking it over. 

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Comet agreed. Solar mentioned something about helping Moon with something and left, leaving Comet alone to consider, really, everything. He sighed, sitting on one of the other work counters, mindlessly messing with one of the random pieces of metal scraps. 

There were few things he didn’t want to confront in his life, and most of those he was, or was being, forced to face. But exactly how he felt about Solar? No, that was hidden deep in his grave when he had died. It had been dug up again when he saw OldSolar, but even that he had hid away. Last time he had gotten himself so close to Solar, he had gone crazy. While he didn’t fear being friends with Solar, Comet was afraid of getting anywhere closer. And absolutely terrified about what he actually felt about Solar. Especially concerning what happened in his head Thursday- the Incident in his head. There was no way in hell he could tell Solar both about his feelings and about the Incident. 

And yet, all of it combined into one thing. He felt more than friendship for Solar, he always had deep down. And deep down it had been for years. Especially when he had Dark Star Power and no morals. Now that he had the capacity to feel again, it was all returning to him in a way it was harder to cover up. Mainly because he had forgotten how to cover it up as he had before. 

And now that offer? That offer that would only make him so much closer to everything and everyone that reminded him of all he wanted to keep down? That one and only ticket he had to normalcy? It was a double edged sword. Sure, there weren’t any actual consequences of not taking it, but he’d just be rotting away and gaining anything. It would take that much longer to finally fit in. And if he took it? Hell.

Not exactly hell, but it sure felt like it. Everyday while in the lab, where he would probably be most of the time, everything that had happened here would be there, ripe for remembering. Yes, he would be near Solar… but he’d be near Solar. And that would make it even harder to hide the secret.

Comet huffed a sigh, knowing he was going to get nowhere with just thinking. He put down the scrap metal and got up from the table. He went out of the lab, walking to the main floor, when Frost walked up to him. Comet wanted to walk away, but Frost made it seem like there was no way in hell that was happening. 

“Nova told me about what you and they were talking about.” They started, already making Comet will with a large sense of dread. 

“What about it?”

“You have feelings for Solar.” They said blankly, their familiar, cigarette smoker’s rasp not helping the not even ounce of sugar coating they gave it. 

“I don’t have feelings for him except that I care about him.” Comet corrected, making sure his systems didn’t let his face heat up. 

“Denial isn’t always a good thing.” They hummed, and Comet wasn’t going to stand for it. He already had one (they/them using) bastard doing their life’s work to figure him out, Comet didn’t need another. 

“I don’t need you to be my therapist.” He huffed, crossing his arms, deep down trying his best not to scream. Frost didn’t seem to react, just watched him carefully.

“You should ask him about it, his answer might surprise you.” They shrugged, walking off and going to talk to one of the children. Not even a few seconds later, the same child walked up to Comet.

“Who are you?” He asked, an excitedly childish tone to his voice. 

“I just work here, sorry kid.” Comet told him, a bit awkwardly.

“You look just like Frostie but older and cooler!” The kid cheered, jumping up and down in excitement.

Comet looked down at his clothes, and he could hardly call them cool. A leather jacket over a plain, white shirt and cargo pants. Still, the kid had a level of excitement that Comet could only ever dream to feel in his life. He bent down conspiratorially and whispered something to the kid. “Don’t tell anyone else, but I’m a secret time traveler. And if you tell anyone, I won’t be able to time travel anymore.” He told the kid, whose smile somehow widened, and the kid ran off, leaving Comet standing there. A small smile on his own face. 

He noticed the kid immediately tell all his friends, pointing at Comet, who just went back into the lab. Where he basically hid until closing finally rolled around. Solar came back into the lab to, basically, collect him. 

( Later, at the house )

“So, have you considered the offer?” Sun asked, being the first one to speak on it. All of the family was in the livingroom, except Jack and Dazzle, who were causing some sort of chaos in the house. 

“Yeah,” Comet answered, a bit hesitant for no reason. “I’ll be glad to help out at the Pizzaplex.” He smiled, which made the rest also smile. They explained basically all that they had to do, and how Comet’s therapy schedule would play into it. They all eventually got it sorted out as, on the days Comet had therapy, Solar would keep driving him, but they’d be the ones closing. 

After they all talked about the plan for Comet to start helping out, Sun went to put Dazzle to bed while Moon just went to his room, lingering a bit longer. Solar and Comet did their usual few episodes a night of Supernatural ( fucking love that show ) before Solar also went to bed. At least, not before he asked Comet something.

“What were you and Nova talking about earlier?” He asked, turning off the TV.

“Nothing much.” Comet shrugged. Solar clearly wanted another, much better answer, but didn’t push the topic and said his goodnight. When Comet was going to his room in the basement, he was caught by someone else. Molten.

“Wow, I forgot you live here and not in some box on the streets.” Comet huffed, narrowing his eyes at the tangle of wires, who was standing right in his way. 

“I’m not going to talk to you if you’re going to be like this.” Molten told him, glaring right back down at Comet.

“You’re one to talk.”

“I want to solve our issues, and you don’t.” Molten sighed, sounding as disappointed as a low quality, 8-bit voice would allow him.

“You know, I’ve had a lot to deal with and a lot of people who just really want to pry some deep reasoning or whatever out of me. How about, you take your bullshit and-” Comet started to grumble, before he saw Jack walk out of his room.

“Can you two shut up?” The smaller animatronic whined. Comet gave a quick glare at Molten before shoving past him and walking to his room, shutting and locking the door behind him like a child. 

He plopped down on his bed, and stared up at the roof. He was doing everything to not think about his emotions, his feelings , just anything. But it was basically impossible with the therapy session the next day weighing on his shoulders. That and how exhausted he was, it wasn’t a surprise he knocked out quickly. 

Chapter Text

Comet was happy to actually sleep for once. And it felt nice, especially considering how tired he was. No Dark Sun making his life about 10x more difficult. No Jack randomly waking up in the night and making it Comet’s problem (hadn’t happened yet, but Comet knew it was inevitable). Sure, he had gotten a peaceful night before. But after all he had dealt with the past couple of days, he was exhausted.

Comet, course, hadn’t been woken up on time. Or at least according to Solar. Which explained his peace.

“Jack, I told you to wake him up when you woke up.” Solar sighed heavily, complaining loud enough for Comet to hear through his door. And that was why he was up when Solar walked in.

“I woke up before you guys, and I didn’t think he needed to be up that early!” Jack protested, following Solar into Comet’s room. Comet sat up in bed as Solar attempted to quiet down Jack, who was still complaining about how unfair it was.

“Morning bro bro.” Comet greeted halfawake, rubbing his eyes. Since he was barely even half-conscious and self-awareness hadn’t yet woken up in him. Which was why he was thoroughly confused why Solar was staring him dead in the soul. “Hey?” He asked, blinking at Solar, Jack as well was confused. Then it hit him what he had said. “SHIT! DID NOT MEAN IT LIKE THAT!” Comet tried to explain, slightly panicking as he tried to explain how he was barely even awake.

“I’m gonna go have some more coffee.” Solar nodded, not even trying to go into that one. And Comet didn’t blame him. 

After Comet had gotten up and, once more explained how much of a reflex it was, especially when he was just waking up, and Solar just laughing, they went off to therapy. Since Comet was technically still, very much, late, he rushed in. He, apparently, was interrupting some conversation between Dr. Alinza and the receptionist of the clinic. 

Dr. Alinza was leaned over her desk, in their regular black sweater and dress pants, and Comet noticed them wearing matching pins, blue and yellow pins respectively, but didn’t really care that much. They were so deep into conversation, neither of them noticed him walking up. 

“No. Liam, you have to be serious.” She told them, using a different name than what he thought their first name was . (So, author is stupid and, as you should definitely know, indecisive, and he originally thought of the bit of them just having his first and last name. But for uh 1̵̙͈͙̉2̸̧͇̥̭̟̦̠̬̖͍͇̒̇̑͜2̸̱͍̬͓̘̟̖̜̙͈̮͊͑͗̐̈́̚͝5̴͈̅̆͂̄̆̚2̴̮̳̯̗͕͇̱͌̇̇͌̃̉̽̎̽́̊͝5̷̳̝̫̹̮̳͓̿̀̎͊͗̚, we act like their first name has always been ‘Lien Alinza’) 

“Whyy? It’s no fun when I have to be serious the whole time.” They sighed, tilting their head with a smirk. “Maybe you should be less serious, Rose. Your name is so dumb and you act so serious.”

“Sure, Lien.” The receptionist, Rose, added.

Comet cleared his throat, no longer wishing he had to ever witness whatever this was. Dr. Alinza turned around, and when they noticed Comet standing there awkwardly, cleared their throat and stood up straight. “Uh, give u- me a second.” They told him, blinking awkwardly. 

Comet turned around gladly, not wanting to even be in the same room as the two of them anymore. Dr. Alinza cleared their throat again and Comet turned back around. He didn’t notice Rose there anymore, and guessed she was probably going to get something. Dr. Alinza was now wearing a green pin and led him down the hallway to their office. 

“So, how was your weekend? Did you do the homework?” They asked, walking into their room and sitting down in their chair. Comet did the same, seated across the coffee table from them. 

“I spoke to Moon, relatively a lot, and watched a show I hadn’t seen in a while.” Comet shrugged, clearly ignoring the former of the two questions. 

“Sounds like you had a nice weekend.” They smiled, opening their laptop. There was no way, Comet was sure, they could have possibly been more wrong.

Which was why he simply winced, which told them everything they needed to know so far. This was going to be their whole session. Yay, Comet was so excited (he really wasn’t). 

“I'm guessing that doesn't mean it was good.”

“Well, my weekend was okay, I guess, but Thursday is a whole different case.” Comet told them, figuring it wouldn't do him any good to hide it from them. They were probably the one person Comet was sure he could tell.

“You got your new body Thursday, right?” They clarified, getting a nod from Comet. “How about you walk me through what happened after our session.”

“I went to the Pizzaplex with Solar, who transferred me over to this body.” Comet started, realizing how difficult it was to actually say it. For how easy it was to think about the Incident, it was 100% harder to tell to someone else. “But while my consciousness was in between, I had some sort of dream thing.” The sound of Dr. Alinza's keyboard clicking quietly was the only other sound in the room. Comet hesitated another second before continuing. “I was in my old house, where I lived with Sun and everyone before all of that. The past me, Nexus, was there and just kind of terrorized me.”

“How would you say this past version of you in your head ‘terrorized’ you?” Dr. Alinza asked, probably thinking this was the only thing that happened. No, it wasn’t even looped into the Incident in Comet’s head. 

“He made me confront some of the stuff I still don’t want to.” He sighed, and he knew they weren’t just going to take that as an answer. “I guess I didn’t have a good reason to be back in the family. At least for myself, since the only reason, I guess, I went with them, was because they were just going to leave me there in that other dimension. What else was I supposed to do? I went with Dark Sun so long ago because I was floating out in the middle of space with nothing left to lose. What else was I supposed to do? For how much I used to mention to Sun how little choices he made, I’ve honestly made even less for myself.” Comet found himself ranting, not noticing Dr. Alinza stop typing. How he felt about, really, all of that had been bottled up for so long, he couldn’t stop it when it came out. When he was done, he just sighed, knowing how much Dr. Alinza would just love to unpack all of it. 

“Would you say making choices is hard for you? Especially considering your past of bad decisions?” They asked calmly, completely unmatched to how riled up Comet was. (tfp ch. 19) 

“I guess, especially since I haven’t actually made any choices without anyone hoping I do what they want me to do.” Comet sighed. 

“Would you say that it’s other people’s faults or yours that you feel so pressured?" They asked, though their tone carried no malice. For how much Dr. Alinza annoyed him, he had to admit they did help figure out his problems, not that it still didn’t annoy him, because it 100% did. 

“I guess both?”

“If you had to choose, or let’s say who is at more of a fault.”

Comet thought for a moment, partially annoyed that they wouldn’t just take his damn answer. “If I’ll be honest, I’d say it’s other people. For my entire life, I’ve had to step up and be an older brother to a family missing the version before me, having to be the one taking care of them and their enemies when I had barely formed my idea of the world. I’ve always had to be the one to fix things, to prove I can be the good and stable older brother.”

“Do you think that idea of yourself contributed to why you were so determined to bring back Solar?” They asked, a knowing look on their face.

Comet furrowed his brows, not liking how close that question hit. “Probably,” He shrugged.

They nodded, taking a second to type something before continuing. “Back to when you said than past you, Nexus, made you confront the things you don’t want to. What are those things?”

Comet hesitated, a bit from trying to figure out what he considered something he didn’t want to confront and debating if he should mention the other thing on his mind. The thing not even his past self wanted to admit. Why he felt he saw Solar. “How much, or even if I have changed. Why I want to change. How I still didn’t have a choice, even if I didn’t want to. All of that shit.” He huffed, knowing how much of a pain having to talk through all of that was going to be. 

“I think that’s a good list to go down. Do you think you have changed from who you were?”

“I hope I have, especially since who I was is probably the worst person to exist.” He sighed, “A lot of the family now accepts me, I even now work at the Pizzaplex with them, but I can’t truly know how much I’ve changed.” 

“From how you described yourself in the past, you used to disregard, or even at times hate, your family. I can tell you stand in the opposite of that, and even base your own value on what they think of you. In at least those terms, you have changed a lot.” Dr. Alinza suggested, making Comet actually consider what they said. 

They weren’t wrong, at all, to say Comet judged how much he mattered based on how much they all liked him, but in his defense, that was all he really had to go off of. The only person to not be a part of the family was sitting right in front of him, picking apart everything he said and typing god knows what into some sort of document. 

They continued, “Self worth seems to have followed you everywhere you’ve gone, even though it had been less in front of you at some points.” Comet nodded, so they kept talking, “I think that leads into why you want to change.” Dr. Alinza motioned to Comet, clearly wanting him to explain himself on that one.

“I don’t have any reason to change. Outside of not wanting to be a shitty person, I don’t have a reason.” Comet admitted, too caught up on that one to put it nicely. “Sure, it’s nice to have people who care about me, but I didn’t even actually have any options.” He explained, not noticing he was starting to use his hands to help him explain himself. “I’m not mad at them for helping me get out of what I was in, but… I don’t know what else I wanted out of it. He told me straight to my face that if I didn’t go with them, they would have left me to rot, and he isn’t even wrong.”

“Do you think the fact that you didn’t have that choice changes what you feel about that?”

Silence, then, “Yes, but it shouldn’t, it was for the better.”

“You’re allowed to feel certain ways about things out of your control. You can not like something and know it’s for a good purpose.” Dr. Alinza assured him, which only made Comet frown.

“What Sun did for me was a good thing, it is why I’m here right now, and I definitely don’t hate him for it, and I know I would have never agreed if he had asked me first but… I guess I would have just liked to make a good choice in my life for once.” Comet admitted, only feeling even worse about himself as he spoke. 

“I have something to propose, even if you’re not up to it.” They started to suggest, making Comet already not excited for whatever they were going to say. “I think you and Sun have some issues you guys need to work out, and I think having a session with the two of you would be good for that. I’m not saying you need to, or that you have to, but think about it and if it’s something you want to do, I can set it up” Dr. Alinza offered, actually making Comet have to think about what he wanted to do.

While he didn’t think that was a huge issue and that there wasn’t really anything else he had with Sun, since that was one of the maybe three people he had no issues with. But he knew having to keep conflicting with himself over what it took to save him was going to eat him alive. And he knew from experience having something sit with him for that long was anything but good. Which was why he had to return to the Incident. 

“I’ll ask him about it.” Comet agreed, which really meant he’d think it over later then debate if he should actually tell Sun, since he knew Sun would accept it no matter what. After a solid almost minute of hesitation, the silence filled with the soft clicking of Dr. Alinza’s keyboard, Comet spoke finally up. “That’s not all that happened,” The Incident needed to be spoken about. Or, really, the rest of the Incident. 

“Did he say anything else to you?” Dr. Alinza asked, looking up at him for a second. He could hear a single key pressed without them looking at their laptop. Probably starting another paragraph. 

Comet grimaced, knowing he shouldn’t have said anything. And staring down at the carpet wasn’t giving him any help. “I… I saw Solar after he left. The old version of Solar. Before… Before he died. How he used to be, slightly different, but different enough.” Comet rambled, finding his voice barely working to be at a whisper. The haunting chill of his past making the room feel so much colder, that or there was another reason he started to shake a bit.

Dr. Alinza looked up at him in shock, clearly not expecting him to say that. They blinked at him, probably trying to figure out if he was messing with them or not. And god he wished he was. Because that would have meant he wouldn’t have had to deal with how much it fucked him up. Especially because it wouldn’t have dug up his darkest secret. 

“He was just standing there… just like everything was normal. I know it was him… He changed when he came back. It wasn’t even a minute before he was gone again.” Comet told them, covering his face with his hands, already feeling like he was going to cry. It felt so stupid, something he was sure he had gotten over now all coming back to him over one thing he imagined. 

“You feel like it resets all the progress you made?” They asked, noticing just how much Comet’s guard was dropping. And he couldn’t help it, especially since they were right, it felt so much like a stab in the chest. His mind’s way of reminding him he never truly got past it. And how it felt so close… 

“I don’t even know why he had to be there. Not anyone else. And why he didn’t do anything. He was just there. Right there. And he went away. Again. While I was trying to hold onto him.” Comet croaked, shaking like a leaf. Saying all of that reopened so many deep scars would have been an understatement. “I don’t even know why I am being like this. Solar is back. He’s alive.”

“But it’s not the exact same person you missed?” Dr. Alinza guessed, probably seeing exactly how weak Comet felt. 

“No, especially after all the shit I put him through.” Comet breathed, feeling his breathing getting sporadic. “When he came back, he was probably so happy to see Moon, thinking it was me. And when he actually saw me again, I wasn’t even close to the person I was.” He chuckled dryly, feeling like he gave the carpet a thousand-yard stare.

“Comet, breathe slowly.” They told him, counting off how slowly he needed to breathe. But it wasn't actually helping. He felt like his lungs were constricting. Hell, he didn’t even actually have lungs. Comet guessed that was how Moon felt when so long ago Comet had-

“Comet.” Dr. Alinza cut through his thoughts. He looked up at him, hardly able to move with how much the ice of his thoughts froze him. “Back when I was studying mathematics, I made my money with illegal cock fights. With a combination of skill and luck, I won every time. Badly scratched it, but won.” They informed him with their regular straight face and monotone voice, completely seriously, the pure confusion Comet felt paused every other thought in his head. (shout out to r/Jokes [u/Nice_one_too] because I couldn’t think of a funny joke for this)

“...What?” He asked, so caught off guard he literally couldn’t think.

“That’s better, anyways-”

“You used to what?!” He questioned, not expecting the one thing he learned about them.

“I didn’t actually do that, it’s just a way of trying to get people out of panic attacks. You were having one, by the way.” They added, barely helping his confusion.

“I was having a panic attack?” Comet asked, rubbing the tears that had formed out of his eyes.

“Yeah, they’re not really like the ones you see in movies, more internal thoughts than what you’d think of as panic. And it’s more efficient to make a joke than to do anything else.” Dr. Alinza explained like it was a normal, everyday thing to make cock jokes while someone had a panic attack. Actually it might have actually been a normal thing for them. Comet didn’t know which was worse. 

“How often do you use that joke?” Comet asked, a bit of horror now in his voice.

“More often than either of us would like. But it works well.” They shrugged, continuing like nothing was abnormal. “How often would you say you’ve had something like that?” 

Comet shrugged, trying to remember anytime he actually had experienced that in the like two weeks he had been there. “At least once, maybe twice.” He guessed. 

“How did I not figure that out yet?” They huffed to themself, presumably scrolling up their doc.

“Because I didn’t think to tell you.” He shrugged.

“Yeah, because that’s not an important thing to tell your therapist that you’ve had a panic attack before. Thanks.” They sighed, pinching the bridge of their nose, muttering something that Comet could only pick up a few words of, ‘Hoc asinus stultissmus irrumator, nōndicis mihi deodammatum bovem stercum…’ They cleared their throat before they went back to English from what Comet could only guess was Latin. “Anyways, now that I have that information, I will add onto your diagnosis some more fun stuff.” (I know Latin and refuse to let it go to waste)

“Diagnosed with what?” Comet asked, a bit concerned, especially since they made it sound like it was a long list of what he was going to be diagnosed with.

“I can’t tell you that because it will ruin all the fun, and it’s against company policy.” They shrugged before clearing their throat. “How about we get back to what we were talking about. You seem to, obviously, still care a lot about Solar and still are affected by his death. What, would you say, you weren’t affected by it or didn’t care about it a while ago?” They asked, not wasting their time.

“I just stopped caring, I turned off my emotions, I guess that’s why I was sure I got over it. When I got purified, I guess they all started coming back. Including…” Comet couldn’t say it.

“Including what?” Dr. Alinza asked, raising an eyebrow, probably sensing another interesting part of Comet’s nightmare.

Comet sighed hard, tilting his head up, questioning why he did this to himself, before answering. “I guess I have ‘feelings’ for Solar. But there’s no way in hell he feels the same.” Comet sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, wishing he could leave already.

“Holy shit,” Dr. Alinza blurted out before catching themself and clearing their throat. “Well, that makes this all so much more fun.”

“There is absolutely no way he might even feel anything for me after all this time. Hell, he might not even have liked me like that in the first place. I can’t even move on from something in my head, I don’t even know if I could deal with him rejecting me, especially since we live in the same house.” Comet ranted, feeling better about telling someone at least. NovaFrost didn’t count, since they had already suspected it before Comet was dumb enough to give it away. 

“You could always ask someone else to check for you.” They suggested, probably so that Comet wouldn’t be so stressed out about it. But there was literally nothing that could help.

“Then I’d have to tell someone else, who would have to ask him, which would just make it all so awkward. And if he doesn’t actually feel the same way, then it’s all even worse.” Comet sighed, remembering why he never even thought of trying to date Solar. Most of the headache was trying to figure out if Solar even liked him in that way. If Solar loved him more than just family. 

“Are you planning on just keeping it a secret then?” They asked.

Comet sighed, knowing he was going to give them an answer that they weren't going to like. “Yeah, at least until I can figure out if he likes me back.” He shrugged. 

“That’s not a thing to be ashamed of.” They assured him, giving him a slight, soft smile. “Things take time, especially with all you’re having everything you’re having go on. I think taking time is the best thing for your situation.”

“Yeah,” Comet agreed awkwardly, not wanting to tell them that what he meant by ‘taking time’ meant he wasn’t ever going to tell Solar, at least if he could help it. 

“Well, we’re running out of time today, but you still get homework.” Dr. Alinza chuckled. “Ask Sun if he’s open to the-basically- family therapy session.”

“I will,” He told them, knowing he’d probably only do that and not the other thing. 

Dr. Alina got up, making it clear the session was over. Comet also got up and left, a sense of dread and Dr. Alinza following him down the hallway to the lobby. He felt like it had been forever since he had been in the lobby, late for his session, earlier in the morning. The receptionist wasn't there when he got there, neither was Jack and Solar, but he noticed Solar’s car out front. Comet said his goodbye and left, walking out to the car. 

“Hey,” Solar greeted when Comet got into the car.

“Were you late?” Jack asked, not missing a beat.

“Not that much,” Comet shrugged.

“Told you.” Jack smirked over to Solar, who rolled his eyes.

“That does not mean you get lobby privileges again.” Solar told him, giving him a stern look. “Remember when you had to be told several times to stop eating the tissues, and you managed to eat half a box while I wasn’t looking?” He recalled, giving a fair reason for why Jack was banned from the lobby. 

“But they tasted good.” Jack sighed, sitting back against the backseat.

Solar sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I am not having his conversation again.” He sighed, pulling out of the parking lot. Comet stayed quiet, not knowing if he was just feeling awkward, or he didn’t fit into the conversation. After a bit, Solar spoke up again, “So, how did it go?”

“I went good, for therapy I guess. It’s boring, lot’s of questions.” Comet huffed, wishing he could stop feeling so awkward. Solar just nodded, continuing driving. 

“What’s for lunch?” Jack asked not even a minute later.

“Jack, we already had lunch.” Solar sighed, making it clear just how much of a ‘fun’ day he’d had with Jack already. And that didn’t mean Comet would be any lighter on him at all.  

“But I’m still hungry.” Jack protested.

“I’m also hungry.” Comet added, grinning over at Solar.

“Are we really doing this again?” Solar sighed.

“Therapy gets me hungry, a lot of talking, uses a lot of energy.” Comet explained, clearly just trying to annoy Solar, and it was working.

“This is why I don’t drive with you two.” Solar sighed, pulling into a Del Taco (because the author is hungry at 2am).

“Why?” Both Comet and Jack asked at the same time before grinning over at each other. Solar gave up on trying to protest and ordered some food. Not without the, very not helpful, help from the other two in the car.

It wasn’t that much longer before they got to the Pizzaplex. Jack and Solar went into the lab while Comet went to go find Sun. Solar told him Sun was usually being a floor manager, but Moon was going that, so Comet had to figure out where Sun’s office was. After a solid 5 minutes of figuring it out, Comet found Sun, who was playing on his phone (naturally).

“Hey, Comet, how was therapy?” Sun asked when Comet got in there. 

“Uh, pretty good. But, about therapy, my therapist has a question for you.” Comet told him, feeling a bit awkward about asking.

“What is it?” Sun asked, putting his phone down on his desk. 

“They wanted to know if you wanted to do some family therapy kind of thing with you and me.” Comet told him, doing his best to not let Sun get the impression that it was some big thing.

“Yeah, sure, that sounds great.” Sun smiled, though he didn’t sound fully confident. Probably because he needed a therapist more than Comet did. Before Comet could say something, Jack came into the office, 

“Hi, Nova was trying to find you.” Jack informed Comet, who just wished it was anyone but Nova.

“I’ll talk to them in a minute.” Comet told him nicely before turning back to Sun. “Thursday is the next session I have, but you can do it any point after that.”

“Thursday is okay,” Sun told him, sounding way more enthusiastic than Comet thought he would. Especially since Sun avoided therapy like the plague. 

“Alright,” Comet confirmed, saying bye to Sun before leaving and was met with Nova. “Hey, you wanted to talk to me?” Comet asked, looking down at them.

“When are you going to tell him?” Nova asked, smiling widely, though that was how their smile always was. Still, they seemed to have more energy than normal

“Tell who what?” He asked, hoping they weren’t talking about him and Solar.

“Oh, silly, tell Solar you lo-” Nova started to say before Comet quickly made sure they didn’t finish their sentence. Turns out they were talking about Solar.

“Not yet, I need to make sure I won’t be embarrassingly rejected and stuff.” Comet told them quietly, trying to make sure Sun didn’t hear him. Though he might have heard Nova, which was pretty much a death sentence if Sun found out.

“You two are so clueless, you’re made for each other.” Nova chuckled, swaying side to side. 

Comet covered his face in embarrassment, not wanting to deal with this anymore. “Nova, how about we make a few rules. 1. No one learns about this, 2. We don’t talk about this, 3. Make sure Solar doesn’t find out.” He suggested, knowing for a fact that it wasn’t going to work. But it was worth a shot. 

“You two are just so clueless,” They hummed, literally skipping away. Comet just wanted to go home already. Which is why he immediately headed for and hid in the lab for the rest of the time, though Jack was there for ‘entertainment’. Comet sat on one of the work counters with Jack, who was playing with his Foxy plushie. 

“Do you think you’ll like working with us?” Jack asked, looking over at Comet.

“Yeah, it will probably be tiring, though,” Comet shrugged, fiddling with the zipper on his jacket. He was wanting some peace and quiet, especially because today had been enough for him, but Jack was the one person he was willing to talk to. 

“You can hangout with me in the arcade.” Jack offered, which made Comet smile slightly.

“As long as you help me rig the games.” He chuckled, ruffling the child’s hat. Jack laughed and, to Comet’s concern, started to list off exactly how to win every game in the simplest way. He was still informing Comet of his discoveries when Solar came in to tell them it was time to close. 

Jack ran off, probably to the kitchen in search of some sort of (edible) food, leaving Solar and Comet to clean and lock up. Solar took the job of sweeping while Comet was banished to the bathrooms. After a small struggle with finding the right key on the keychain, he managed to get out the supplies and started off with the worst part, the toilets. He was halfway through plunging one of the more horrid ones when he heard a voice behind him. 

“Such fulfillment you’re getting, aren’t you?” A monotone, soulless, bastard voice mused. Comet groaned, recognizing the voice of Dark Sun behind him. 

“Why won’t you just leave me alone?” Comet huffed, turning around to face the sun-model animatronic. He still held the plunger in his hand, debating if Dark Sun would be mad if nasty toilet water got on his suit. 

“I just find it interesting how much you're stooping down from what you had.” He shrugged, crossing his arms like his interest was killed merely by the fact that Comet wasn’t choosing to be evil anymore. 

“I find it interesting how you keep bothering someone you only kept around to use as an object.” Comet returned, giving the sun a glare. He was too tired to deal with Dark Sun, though he never felt like he did have the energy to deal with him. Especially since Comet blamed him the most for his death. 

Dark Sun smirked, as if amused by what Comet said. “How long did it take you to figure out I only needed you so that Sun could kill you? I’m sure it took a brain small as yours quite some time.”

“Not that long, it was too good to be true, especially since you let me do whatever I wanted to whoever. But it seemed worth it.” Comet rolled his eyes, turning back around to finish with the torturous toilet. 

“And now look at you, you’re willing to do anything for people’s approval.” Dark Sun chuckled, giving Comet a smug grin. “Though, you’ve always been like that. Self esteem so low, reckless, wanting either happiness or death. Really, you remind me of how you were before we made our deal. Determined enough to disregard everything to get your goal. So determined to help out people who are really just using you to get what they want.” He chuckled, hitting too deep into Comet for his liking. Which was why he snapped. 

Comet turned back around, clearly pissed off completely, glaring daggers at Dark Sun. “You know, I haven’t done shit to you, and yet you are constantly bothering and agitating me. You complain so much about me when you are the issue. It’s been months- actually, almost a year since we last worked together, and yet you still are on about me not changing.” Comet almost yelled, his grip tightening on the plunger, a faint light blue glow emitting from his hands that only Dark Sun managed to notice. “You may need to realize I have changed, and I’m tired of everyone telling me I haven’t. And especially since you haven’t changed at all.”

Dark Sun chuckled, not even caring about what Comet said. “You’re still so easy to irritate, still can’t control your powers. It’s more pathetic than anything, so much potential thrown away.” He sighed, acting like he had any right to be disappointed about how Comet turned out.

“I’ll show you wasted potential.” Comet hissed, clenching his fist, not even noticing the light growing brighter. Before either of them could do anything, he heard Solar in the doorway.

“I heard yelli-” He paused, noticing Comet and Dark Sun giving each other looks. 

“I’d love to continue this ‘wonderful’ conversation, but I have a feeling I'm no longer welcome.” Dark Sun smirked, vanishing before Comet could even blink. 

“That mother-” Comet almost cursed, pausing for a second when he noticed the glow coming from his hands. “-fucker…” He finished, having too many thoughts to process while he stared down at his hands, stopping glowing. He knew what it was. In the short time he had it so long ago, he never forgot how it flowed, smoothly unlike the lightning of its opposite.  How it functioned so similar to its opposite, which he was so familiar with.

“How do you have Star Power?” Solar asked Comet before he could himself. 

“Was anything from my old body transferred over to this one?” Comet asked, not even remembering himself if they planned for him to keep anything from his old body.

“Uh, no.” Solar stuttered, though Comet was too on edge to notice the panic embedded in his voice. Too on edge to realize there was something he was hiding something.  “Maybe just a chip or something, I don’t remember. Did you know that you had it before?” Solar asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Sort of, but it was like right before I got the new body.” Comet explained, already feeling himself freak out. Not only had Dark Sun showed up, but he had discovered the Star Power had followed him at the same time Solar learned he had Star Power to begin with. God, he could not catch a break. “I didn’t think to tell you guys because I didn’t think I’d have it for much longer.” 

“So no one knows, except me.” Solar guessed, only to be cut off by Jack, who neither of them noticed was in the room.

“And me!” He added, a knowing smile on the gremlin’s face.

“Jack, when did you get in here?” Solar asked, more surprised than anything. 

“Right after you got in here.” Jack answered simply, still holding his Foxy plush. 

Comet just looked at Jack blankly, just wishing he could leave already. Out of everyone in the family, Jack was the worst and also best at keeping secrets. It really depended how much trouble he’d get in if he told the secret and how much it mattered to him. Today really wouldn’t let him go. 

“I will have to tell everyone, won’t I?” Comet asked Solar, who just grimaced.

“Yeah, probably because we’re going to end up being here later than expected, since I’m guessing you haven't managed to clean the bathrooms yet.” Solar guessed, seeing how Comet was still in the doorway of a stall in about the middle of the row. 

“Yeah,”

“Great,” Solar sighed, “How about we help finish these and we go home?” 

“I don’t want to clean them.” Jack protested, frowning up at his dad.

“Then you’ll have to sweep the floor out there. And sweep it well, or I’ll ground you.” Solar told him, giving him a stern look.

The gremlin sighed a weak ‘fine’ before leaving the bathroom. Comet guessed he chose the better option of finishing the job Solar had probably half done instead of cleaning the miserable bathrooms. It didn’t take that much longer for them to clean out the rest of the bathrooms. Solar mopped while Comet continued to struggle with the clogged toilet. They continued the same system in the other bathroom, and managed to lose Jack at some point. Comet went to look in the kitchen, while Solar checked the lab.

Unfortunately for Comet, he found Gomer in the kitchen instead of Jack.

“How you be doing there Comet?” Gomer asked, cooking something on the stove.

“Uh, good.” Comet shrugged, walking over to him. “What are you cooking?” 

“Some grilled cheese, want some?” Gomer asked, flipping the sandwich. 

“No thanks,” Comet shivered, not wanting to ingest anything Gomer was cooking. While Comet never really had the time to speak to the Old Rocks, he still heard about Gomer being… a specimen. 

“Suit yerself then.” He shrugged, going back to cooking.

“Have you seen Jack?” Comet asked, half-regretting the fact he didn’t take the opportunity that he had to leave while he could.

“I think I saw ‘em backstage with the others.” Gomer shrugged.

“Thanks,” Comet nodded, getting out of the kitchen as fast as he could. When he went back to the main floor, he saw Jack and Solar talking. He could hear Jack talking, but not what he was talking about. 

“Hey, Comet.” Solar greeted when Comet walked over.

“Can we finally go home?” Comet asked, wishing he had the energy to chuckle. 

“I’m not tired.” Jack announced, which didn’t surprise both Comet and Solar. 

They locked up and went out to the car, finally having an end to the miserable day. Comet was glad for a minute that nothing was going on the next day, then remembered he had to start working with the family at the Pizzaplex. Great. For how exhausted Comet was, he wasn’t excited for his first full day. After a while of the car’s radio filling the silence, Solar spoke up.

“So when are you going to tell them?” He asked, glancing at Comet, who was looking out the window. When he noticed Comet’s hesitation, he added, “About the Star Power and Dark Sun?”

“I don’t know, definitely not tonight.” Comet sighed, not wanting to do anything but sleep and relax when he got home. 

“You need to tell them all eventually, before something happens and they find out anyways.” Solar told him, though Comet was sure he was a good enough person to not just tell them all without Comet wanting him to, but with Comet’s luck, something or someone else would force it out of him.  

“I’ll tell them tomorrow night.” Comet promised, knowing Solar would hold him accountable. They rode the rest of the car ride in silence. Comet was too busy just trying to exist in peace without something in his head reminding him he couldn’t have peace until everything he was holding onto was settled. Comet went straight to his room when they got home, too tired to watch tv with Solar. He sat on his bed and put on some music in an attempt to distract himself. 

He logged into his old Spotify account, still remembering his password, since he used to keep the same password for everything ‘N3wM00n!’. To say he was jumpscared by his old playlist names would be an understatement, but it gave him a nice sense of nostalgia. He clicked on an unnamed playlist, though he remembered exactly what it was about when the first song played. My Immortal by Evanescence (If you’d like, you can pull up that song, since I didn’t write the scene along with the song, but it is very good). 

“Hey, Comet.” Solar said when he opened Comet’s door, who quickly (and not really sneakily) wiped away the tears in his eyes and paused the song. 

“Hey,” Comet repeated, watching Solar walk in and stand near the bed. 

“Are you doing alright?” Solar asked, giving him a look that made it clear he was getting concerned.

“Yeah, or as fine as I could be doing.” Comet shrugged, putting his phone down on the bed. Solar sat on the bed next to him, clearly not just taking that for an answer. 

“You’ve been acting a bit off today, even before you-know-who showed up.” Solar told him.

“I’ve just been tired.” He sighed.

“What did you talk about in therapy?” Solar asked, probably not realizing how much a truthful explanation would have taken out of Comet. Mainly because having to explain all of Thursday would have been too much for Comet to handle with how tired he was. He had already mentally prepared to tell Dr. Alinza about the Incident, but he was too exhausted to ready himself to tell Solar about it. 

“Not really much interesting, just trying to get an idea of my problems.” Comet chuckled, clearly lying through his teeth. 

“I’m not trying to force you to tell me anything you don’t want to, I’m just checking in on you.” Solar assured him, giving him a soft smile. 

“Yeah,” Comet nodded, returning a smile that didn’t quite reach his tired eyes. 

“Goodnight,” Solar said, getting up from the bed.

“Night,” Comet repeated as he watched Solar walk out, He was about to go to bed, before he saw the door open again.

Molten, this time, was the one to enter.

“Not tonight,” Comet huffed, just wanting to go to bed already.

“If we won’t talk, we won’t talk out our issues with each other.” Molten told him, raising an eyebrow.

“Tomorrow,” Comet told him, motioning for Molten to go. Molten muttered something that Comet could pick up and left, finally leaving Comet alone. He half-expected Jack to come in as well, but luckily for him, he was left alone and fell asleep not long after.

Chapter Text

Comet awoke to Jack standing over him, holding a plate of waffles. He shifted away from Jack, his half-awake brain barely processing anything at this point.

“Goodmorning, mother.” Jack smiled, holding out the waffles to Comet. 

Comet was too tired to protest, and the waffles looked pretty good, so Comet just took them with a “Thank you.” He watched Jack sit on the bed next to him, kicking his legs like he already had his energy for today. “Did you bring a fork?” Comet asked, looking over at the gremlin.

“That’s what I forgot!” Jack said to himself, quickly running up to the kitchen, grabbing him a fork, and running back down. “Here,” He smiled, offering the fork to Comet like it was some lost treasure. 

“Thanks, Jack.” Comet smiled, taking the fork and taking a bite of the waffles. Jack sat next to him again, going back to kicking his feet off the edge of the bed. 

“Are you excited for today?” The gremlin asked, smiling over to him. 

“I’m excited to win a bunch of arcade games.” Comet smiled, when, in reality, he was dreading the entire day ahead of him. Mostly having to tell everyone he had Star Power to begin with, and that he still had it. Comet knew that was going to be anything but easy. But Jack just gave him a smile, probably able to tell Comet was a bit stressed out. 

“Hey, you two,” Solar said from the doorway, half-stepped into the room. “we’re leaving in a couple of minutes.” He told them before leaving. Jack followed his father, taking Comet’s empty plate, which he probably gave to Solar instead of carrying it. 

Comet sighed, getting up from his bed, though he wished he could have just stayed there all day. He walked up the stairs into the kitchen, where Solar was attempting to talk to Jack. 

“-cannot just stay in the lab all day, because me and Comet have maintenance we need to do.” Solar was telling Jack, who was doing his best to protest the entire time.

“But why?” Jack complained, which just made Solar sigh. 

“Because you need to talk to other kids.” Solar answered, putting his hands on his hips. 

“But they’re weird! And smell bad! And look weird!” Jack protested, though Solar clearly wasn’t hearing it. “I don’t like them!”

“Well, you don’t have a choice.” Solar told him, crossing his arms. “Me and Comet are going to be busy most of the day, so you'll have to hangout with other kids. All day.” 

The two kept going back and forth while Comet attempted to go to any other part of the house. Moon was watching TV in the living room, Comet knew for a fact he wouldn’t have the energy to deal with him. He didn’t have anything better to do with his life and went into the kitchen to get some water, doing his best to act like he wasn't in the room. While he definitely should have left while he could, he was called over by Jack to help him out.

“Tell father that I can stay in the lab.” Jack told him, making Comet wish he hadn’t even went into there.

“Jack, I can still tell you what to do.” Solar sighed, looking exhausted already, and it was still early in the morning. “I think Comet would prefer to have an easy day and not you causing chaos the entire time.”

Both of them looked over at Comet, who looked like he did not want to be there anymore. “I think one of the cats got into my room.” He told them before walking as fast as he could out of the kitchen and into the living room. 

Luckily for him, it wasn’t much more time before they had to leave. Like usual, Comet rode with Solar and Jack. And even more lucky for him, Jack had given up on being forced to hangout with the other kids. For what would probably end up being the only that day, it was actually peaceful. Though that peace was short lived when they finally got to the Pizzaplex. 

Jack was banished to the arcade while Comet and Solar went to the lab. 

“It’s a great day for you to start, because today is maintenance day.” Solar announced, adding jazz hands for extra effect. “And you’ll never guess why I call it that.”

“Because it’s maintenance checks all day?” Comet guessed, raising an eyebrow, deciding to humor him. 

“Yeah, I don’t know how you could have figured it out.” Solar chuckled, grabbing a list from one of the drawers near Comet. “Do you want to track down everyone or do the checks?” He asked, really giving Comet the best options ever.

“I’ll take finding everyone.” Comet chuckled, taking the list from Solar.

Chica

Freddy

Gomer

NovaFrost

Roxanne

He was pretty sure it would be a lot less of a pain just to find five people. Especially since they had a while before people started to show up. Chica was easy to find, since she was backstage with basically all the animatronics but Gomer. Where Gomer was at any time was a challenge itself, but that was for him to deal with later. While walking to the lab, Chica just had to mention the one thing Comet did not want to talk about. 

“Nova told us about you and Solar.” She told Comet, making him already wish he had stayed home. 

“What do you mean?” He asked, trying to play it off. 

“How you and Solar like each other but won’t admit it.” Chica shrugged casually.

“What?” Comet choked, thinking he didn’t hear her right, though the red on his face told a whole other story. “Me and Solar are just friends, great friends, just like everyone else in the family.” Comet added, the panic in his voice clear. 

“So they were right,” She mused, grinning over at him. “You two are such a cute couple, though.”

“Have fun with maintenance!” Comet told her, noticing they were not at the lab. Comet walked off before she could say anything else. 

People and way too many kids had already shown up by the time he got back onto the main floor. Which meant that all the animatronics would be spread out. That dread was only confirmed when no one was backstage. “Great,” Comet huffed to himself, leaving backstage. Freddy wasn’t too hard to find, since he was talking to a child near the lab. Comet was about to head off with Freddy, before the child said something. 

“You’re the timetraveler Frostie!” He cheered, which made Comet turn around. It was the same kid as Sunday, great. Before he had the heart to walk off, his Daycare Attendant code kicked in again. 

“Yes, but you have to keep it a secret.” Comet whispered, looking around to make sure no one was there. Partly to keep up the appearance of it being a secret, partly because he did not want anyone he knew seeing it. 

“Where’s Freddy going?” The child asked.

“Uh,” Comet stuttered before thinking of an answer. “He has to go to the doctor or a check-up.” 

“Is he okay?”

“Yes, but even we need check-ups sometimes. He should be back out in a few moments.” Comet assured the child, who just stared up at him with big, innocent eyes. Comet attempted to walk away, but was interrupted by who he guessed was the child’s father. 

“You’re one of those animatronics, right?” The child’s father asked.

“Yeah, but I have something I need to-”

“He’s been talking about this ‘timetraveler’ character and wants a picture.” The man told Comet, who wished he had just walked away when he had the chance. 

“Sure,” Comet answered, cursing every line of his code. The kid basically ran the maybe two feet over to him and grabbed onto his sleeve. The dad got a picture and Comet ran off as fast as he could. Because he was just so lucky, Solar was outside the lab, smirking at him. 

“Not a word.” Comet huffed, grabbing the list of who he had to collect out of his pocket.

“Seems like you’re pretty good with children.” Solar chuckled, which just made Comet question why he decided to show up today. 

“You know, we used to work in the same Daycare.” Comet retorted, crossing his arms. 

“Feels like a century ago.” Solar smiled, though how much they had changed- how much everything had changed- hung in the air. Comet went back to trying to find everyone while Solar did the maintenance check on Freddy. And the next person was just up Comet’s alley: Gomer. He huffed a sigh and went back onto the main floor. 

In summary, somehow, Gomer was nowhere to be found. Even the other animatronics had no clue where he was. The arcade? No, just Jack who was hogging one of the arcade machines (Comet had to force him to play literally any of the other games). The employee’s only hallway? No, actually,  no one was in there. The last place Comet checked, the kitchen, is where he finally found Gomer, who was harassing Monty.

“Grandson, won’t you just make me a pizza?” Gomer was asking Monty, who was trying to make food for, who Comet guessed, was a paying customer. (I’m losing all motivation for ts, I need to get this damn chapter over with already, I say, before pulling an entire rest of the chapter out of my ass)

“I’m not making you a pizza, and don’t call me that.” Monty told him, not even glancing over.

“Hey, Gomer, maintenance checks are today.” Comet interrupted, clearing his throat. 

“Well, I can’ do ‘em right if I be starvin’.” Gomer complained, not moving at all. 

“Don’t make me drag you into the lab.” Comet huffed, crossing his arms. Gomer attempted to make a protest, but Comet took a step over, apparently intimidating Gomer enough because he gave up.

“Fine, alright, I’ll do ‘dem checks.” Gomer huffed, walking out of the kitchen himself. Comet followed him out, though he could have sworn he heard Monty mutter an exasperated ‘Thank you’. Comet felt like the escort to the lab was less out of principal (with a bit of spite) and more as an actual escort, since he was sure Gomer would somehow pull something. Luckily for him, the lab was pretty close to the kitchen. Unluckily for him, Gomer was intent on giving Comet a story for the ‘long journey’. 

Comet wasn’t even paying attention, mainly because the dread following him around decided it wanted to make sure Comet was completely aware of it. How in hell was he going to tell everyone he had Star Power? An answer really didn’t want to pass by Comet, probably because there was no good way to word it. Having to sit everyone down like it was some very important event just to reveal he was lying to them the entire time and how much he sucks as a person- well, probably not exactly that. But close enough. 

Gomer was led to the lab and Comet continued his mission. Frost was hovering near the lab, and looked like they had something they wanted to say to Comet. Great, because Comet just needed someone to lay into him when he was already feeling like shit.

“When are you going to tell him?” They asked, looking at him intently.

“Tell who what? You know, I’m getting really tired of people constantly telling me I need to spill all my secrets right now.” Comet ranted, getting cut off by Frost before he could continue. 

“You need to tell Solar how you feel about him.” The moon animatronic clarified, really sounding like an old smoker giving some eternal wisdom from their early life. 

“I will eventually, but that stuff takes time.” He huffed, narrowing his eyes. “You and Nova came easy, you two live in the same body and only have each other. It’s different for me and Solar. He was dating Nebula not that long ago, so he might not be over her at this point. And there’s still the chance that-”

“You need to tell him anyways.” Frost interrupted, giving him a serious look. “You never know what he really feels. And it’s better to not keep it a secret forever.”

“I’ve had enough talks about secrets this week, you know. I’m really sick and tired of it.” Comet huffed, too frustrated to even think about what Frost was saying. The secret of the Incident with Dr. Alinza, the secret of him having Star Power with Solar and Jack, the secret of him liking Solar with probably the entire Pizzaplex at this point, as well as Dr. Alinza. God, he was tired of secrets. 

“Maybe because that means you just need to confe-” They were about to repeat when Solar opened the lab door, practically banishing Gomer from the room. 

“Hey,” Solar greeted, really coming in at the worst time. Frost looked like they wanted to say something, but Comet had already waved Solar goodbye and was looking around for Roxanne.  

(A POV break from Comet)

“What were you two talking about?” Solar asked, starting the maintenance check on Frost. It felt like it was the hundredth time he had done it that day, so it didn’t take much focus. He was starting to feel like Comet had been acting weird, ever since Thursday when he got his new body, and especially since Comet didn’t want to talk about it. He had tried to get anything out of Comet the night before, but had gotten nowhere. Solar knew it wasn’t just Dark Sun showing up and the whole Star Power incident, but he didn’t want to force it out of Comet, especially because how much Solar cared-

“Nothing much, just waiting for you to be ready.” They shrugged, but Solar wasn’t taking that answer. He needed an actual answer. 

“Talking about what?” He asked again, feeling like this was the one person he could get an answer out of. 

“Something he apparently doesn’t want you to know about this time.” Frost shrugged again, really not helping how stressed out Solar was getting. 

“I know he’s been keeping secrets, but he isn’t telling me and I’m getting worried.” Solar admitted, a bit of his desperation coming out. The last thing he wanted was for Comet to push everyone away and… Solar couldn’t have that. 

“Ask him about it.” Frost told him, though that didn’t help at all. 

“Ask him about what?” He asked, feeling like he was going in circles. 

Frost just shrugged and repeated, “Ask him about what he hasn’t told you yet.”

Solar wanted to push the topic, but just gave up and ran the check. Perfectly functioning, like everyone else was. Though Solar felt like he was the one with the messed up systems. Was he reading too far into Comet? Was Comet just hiding some small thing from Solar? Or was it just the stress of therapy or having to tell everyone about the Star Power? Solar didn’t know, and it kept running in the background of his head. 

Comet came in with Roxanne. Solar tried to get Comet to stay until he was done, but Comet said he had promised to play games with Jack. Solar just smiled and nodded, trying to act like it wasn’t killing him on the inside. 

“What’s up with you two?” Roxanne asked when Solar walked back from the door to the table. 

“What do you mean?” Solar asked, wondering why she made it sound like it was about them being together or something- which Solar didn’t even want to think about right now. He had enough on his plate. 

“Some of us think you two are having a breakup or something like that.” She shrugged, probably knowing exactly what she was doing, and it worked on Solar without him even noticing.

“What, no, we’re not dating. I mean, it would be nice- but we’re not. Comet’s just.. Having a bit of a hard time right now. But he’s fine, we’re fine.” Solar told her, feeling like his face was starting to burn. He dipped his head over the monitor, trying just to focus on the test. 

It took maybe a few minutes to do the test and Roxanne left, leaving Solar alone to think. He knew it was none of his business how Comet was doing or what he was hiding, but he couldn’t help but want to be. He had gotten Comet back not even that long ago, and the thought of losing him again somehow, Solar had to admit, lived rent free in his head. 

Solar sighed, looking at the clock. There was still a bit before closing. A bit of time to talk to Comet. 

(Back to Comet)

Comet should have enjoyed the arcade games way more than he actually did. Really, it was all the stress piling up. The stress that wasn’t going away. How would the family react? Would he have to start all over with them? How in hell was he going to tell Monty and Terra? God, could it have been any more complicated? 

He took a break from playing games with Jack to take a break (hide) in the break room. Or wherever he felt was close enough to a break room. Which probably was a bad idea, a quiet place just for him to think. Comet knew it would probably just make him even more stressed and anxious, but he didn’t care. 

He slumped on the floor, against one of the walls, messing with the end of his hat. Solar had knitted it for him not even a week ago. For someone who always said how he wasn’t good with knitting, the hat was basically perfect. The light blue didn’t match much of the rest of his outfit, but he didn’t care. All the time Solar put into it showed. 

Sure, Comet wasn’t that used to having people care about him anymore, but it left a thought in his head. Could Solar actually manage to love him? The thought felt so foreign to him. Really, there was no way, after all this time, that Solar could have possibly felt like that. He had cut off mid-thought when Solar came into the break room. Comet stood up, though it was pretty clear he was sitting on the floor instead of one of the chairs. 

“Hey, Comet, are you doing okay?” Solar asked, walking over to stand in front of him. Just what Comet needed, literally no way out of this.

“I’m fine,” Comet answered, clearly not wanting to have this conversation. 

“You’ve been acting kinda weird, are you sure you’re okay?” Solar asked. 

“I just have a lot going on right now.” Comet admitted, fidgeting with the end of his jacket. 

“Do you want to talk to me about it?” Solar asked, motioning to the table near them. He clearly meant that it was going to be a long conversation, and that he wanted to help Comet. Comet wanted to decline, as he had the previous night, but the worry in Solar’s face was too hard to see. 

“Alright,” Comet sighed after a minute. He sat down at the table with Solar taking the chair in front of him. He knew how much he needed to tell Solar- to tell everyone- but he couldn’t say all of it. He knew how much he wanted- no, needed to tell Solar about the Incident, but another part of his head said that it would kill his chance with Solar. So he decided he wouldn’t tell Solar. 

He took another minute to finally speak up. “Remember when I first came into this body?” Comet smiled, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. All the pressure was keeping it down.

“Yeah, you punched me in the nose.” Solar chuckled, probably trying to lighten the mood because he could tell it wasn’t going to be an easy talk. 

“Well, it’s because the maybe minute I was out, I had a whole dream, nightmare, whatever-you-want-to-call-it.”  Comet sighed, taking a moment to breathe. This was the one time he didn’t want a random panic attack sneaking up on him. Really, this one dream he had in his head was the thing haunting him. It was completely pathetic. “I saw the past me in there, you know, Nexus.” He sighed, though he nearly spat out the name. The longer he was living as a redeemed person, the more bitter he was about that time. 

Solar frowned and looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t, and let Comet continue. “He basically made he have to consider everything I don’t want to, and things I just want to put behind me.”

“Like what?” Solar asked.

“Why I decided to change, if I even have changed that much, everything I’ve done to all of you,” Comet listed, already regretting deciding to tell Solar. “What would have happened and where I would have been if I didn’t go with Sun.” He added, feeling like that one could have had its own full, grueling conversation. He decided to save that one for Dr. Alinza. 

Comet continued, feeling like he just needed to get it all out at this point. Well, as much as he was willing to tell Solar. “Having to deal with all of that shit, at once, it’s a lot harder than it should be. Clearly I have changed, I’m not some Dark Star Power asshole that hates my family, but I’m still questioning if I have changed. If I actually am the still same heartless asshole just with a new body and a room. If I actually can move past everything and just exist like a normal person. 

“Not to mention how my head doesn’t shut up about ‘what if I just stayed there?’. I already know what would have happened. I would have been left to rot there. And I wouldn’t even blame any of you, because I’d probably deserve it. Hell, I feel like I still do deserve it. I just feel like I’m stuck in this loop that just goes back and forth of me being confident, happy and secure, to whatever the hell this is.” Comet ranted, motioning to himself with shaky hands. God, he didn’t even notice his hands were shaking. And Solar definitely noticed it. 

Solar took a few moments to really soak in what Comet said while Comet was internally freaking out since he said several things he would have rather kept to himself. Like his self-esteem issues, it would have been great to keep that under the covers, not anymore though. 

“Comet, you clearly have changed.” Solar assured him, giving him a warm smile. And wow his smile was the best thing Comet had ever seen- “You don’t even use the same name anymore, or act the same at all. If anything, you act more like you were when you were New Moon.” He added, speaking Comet’s old name lightly. Comet knew he wasn’t using it out of malice, if anything it was the opposite, but that name raked up too many bad memories. 

“Nothing I can do about my thoughts. And I tried telling my therapist everything, and I thought it helped, but it feels like it didn’t. They just connected everything that makes it feel like all of those thoughts were just bound to happen and I’m just messed up anyways.” Comet huffed, feeling like he was spilling too much, but he couldn’t help it. He just needed someone to talk to who wouldn’t make it a whole test. “All of it, every time I try to figure it out, just gets worse. It makes me feel worse and just look at everything worse.” ‘But that wasn’t even the worst part’ his head was screaming. He wanted to say it, he wished he could, but he had no clue how Solar would even react. 

“Are you saying you want to quit therapy?” Solar asked, really not helping out as much as Comet needed him to. 

“No, but I just want someone I can talk to who won’t ask me fifty questions about everything I say. I just want to say what’s going on with me without someone reacting badly or hating me for it. Sure, they don’t do the last two, but how many questions they ask just makes it feel like they don’t even care. They just want to solve me and get it over with.” He sighed, putting his head in his hands. He felt his breathing starting to get worse. This time he knew he was starting to have a panic attack, again at the worst moment possible. 

Solar reached over and put his hand on Comet’s shoulder. It cleared all of the thoughts clouding Comet’s head. Comet took a deep breath and uncovered his face, feeling like he could continue. 

“And then the thing with Dark Sun. That didn’t help. At all.” Comet said, feeling too drained to really feel anything about it anymore. “I don’t know if you finding out at the same time as me that I still had Star Power was better or worse than if only I knew.” Comet sighed, not even knowing why he was still talking at this point. He felt like he needed to shut up already, but Solar’s hand remaining on his shoulder brought the warmth Comet so desperately needed. 

“I think it’s better that I know, because I can help you. Maybe not with using it, but helping out talk through it.” Solar smiled, his warmth carrying over to Comet, who managed a small smile. “And it’s one less person you have to break the secret to.”

“I guess,” Comet shrugged, a bit of sadness creeping in when he felt Solar retract his hand. 

“Do you have anything else you want to tell me?” Solar asked. Two things Comet wanted to tell most felt impossible to utter. Comet just shook his head, barely managing to keep making every contact with Solar, who just continued speaking. “I’m glad you told me all of that, Comet. I was starting to get really worried about you.” He added, making Comet look down at the table.

“It’s not even easy to admit to myself. And I’m still not used to ‘talking about my feelings’ or whatever anymore.” Comet frowned, remembering why he lost that habit. Though he wasn’t sure if he even had that ability to begin with. 

“It’s alright,” Solar assured him, putting his hand on Comet’s shoulder. “You still have time to learn.” He added with a smile. Comet was about to melt. 

“I’m tired of being in here.” Comet told him, not really knowing what to say to Solar’s comment. He got up from his chair, reluctantly getting Solar’s hand off him. Before they left the room, Comet wrapped him in a hug, just wanting to feel close to him. Just wanting the warmth that came with it. 

Solar hugged him back with only a moment of hesitation that was more likely shock. Comet didn’t care that it wasn’t the Solar he knew before all of everything had happened. This was the Solar that he cared about, that he loved, that was there for him. 

The hug lasted a moment longer than it probably should have. Comet excused himself to go back to Jack and awkwardly left. He didn’t hear Solar behind him, but didn’t pay much mind to it. He was just wishing he could get past the whole thing, especially since he was about five seconds from fully breaking down in Solar’s arms. 

It wasn’t that long before closing. Comet was stuck on bathroom duty with Solar. Since there weren’t any interruptions, they got it done pretty fast. Thought that meant Comet would have to talk to the family sooner. Comet rode home with Jack, who was reaping the benefits of all the tickets Comet helped him win, and Solar, who was clearly thinking the entire ride as well as glancing over at Comet several times. Comet simply stared out the window, wanting to think about anything but what was waiting for him at the house. 

And home came faster than he thought. Solar, apparently, told everyone already that Comet had something he wanted to tell them. So, in the livingroom, Sun and Moon were already sat on the sofas with Solar and Jack (though they were busy with Jack’s sponge) by the time Comet finally stood up awkwardly in front of them. Molten stood behind the couch, his single glowing eye looking right through Comet. 

“So, I have something I need to tell you guys.” Comet told him, feeling already awkward. “I have Star Power, though I don’t know how or why, but I do, and I kinda found out last night because, while I was cleaning the bathrooms, Dark Sun showed up and I almost hit him with some.” Comet told them quickly, though from Sun and Moon’s shocked faces, he guessed they understood it. 

"That's great,” Sun said to himself, blinking at Comet while Moon just stared at him.

“And you tell us that Dark Sun showed up now?” He asked, staring dead into Comet’s soul.

“Yeah, probably not the best idea, but it’s not exactly something easy to say.” Comet explained. Molten stayed quiet, just looked at Comet with a bit of surprise. There would have been silence for a few moments, except Solar was currently trying to wrestle a sponge from Jack. 

“Is that all?” Moon asked, which made Solar take a glance at Comet. Though it lasted a second, Comet knew exactly what the look meant. ‘Are you going to tell them about the whole Nexus-thing?’ 

“Yeah, just that to terrorize me with.” Comet sighed.

“Why did he show up after like months?” Sun asked the both of them.

“I don’t know.” Comet huffed, deciding to reveal something he hadn’t even told Solar yet. “Well, he also has been showing up in my head, like three times already. I don’t know why, but he kept trying to remind me of ‘something I can’t get rid of’. I’m guessing somehow he knew I have Star Power.” He told them, though it was a half-lie. But he was too tired to try to explain the full truth.

All five people looked at him in shock, since Comet hadn’t mentioned it at all. Jack only waited a moment longer before continuing to petition Solar to give his sponge back.

“Again, you’re telling that to us now?” Moon asked, clearly debating how to react.

“I thought I could handle it myself, but now it’s developed into something more than just in my head.” Comet huffed. 

Comet continued to explain himself to both Sun and Moon for a few more minutes before they finally gave up on it. Comet went to his room to get some silence, though he was followed by Molten. 

“We are talking tonight.” The pile of wires told him when Comet got into his room. 

Comet resisted the temptation to sigh and just sat down on his bed. Luckily for him, Molten stayed standing up. “What do you want to talk about?” He huffed, just wanting to get over it.

“Why you still seem to hate me after all this time.”

“Don’t act like you don’t also hate me.” Comet grumbled, crossing his arms.

“That can be changed.” Molten added, holding out his hand.

“I’m not holding your goddamn hand for this conversation.” Comet huffed, just narrowing his eyes.

“No, I would prefer if you didn’t actually.” Molten chuckled, though it sounded like low quality earbuds attempting to process a song that dared to have a good beat. “But I do take money.”

“I’m not paying for your approval."  Comet rolled his eyes, wishing Molten would stop being so goddamn annoying. Comet was not in the mood for this, though he never was.

“Fine, but if you’re willing to stop being an asshole, then I am willing to stop.” 

Comet debated how worth it the offer was, since he did like insulting Molten at every opportunity, but reluctantly agreed. “Fine, now get out of my room.” He told the sad excuse of an animatronic. Molten finally left, closing the door after him. 

Comet just stared at the wall across from him for a moment, just trying to think. But all he did was just stare. No thoughts. No ideas. No nothing. Just silence that he couldn’t remember how long it lasted. It wasn’t much longer before he decided to go to bed. 

Nothing really happened the next day, as what seemed to be his fate (def not the author being exhausted and a tad burnt out). There wasn’t anything for him to do in the lab, so he played games with Jack for most of the day. Comet still felt the weight of the upcoming therapy session on his back, and knew how much ‘fun’ it was going to be, but he pushed it to the back of his mind in favor of having fun for once. Actual fun. 

He did the same while watching Supernatural later that night with Solar. He didn’t think about therapy coming up or what he felt about Solar, just watched and playfully argued about the show with Solar. Though falling asleep that night was anything but easy. 

Chapter Text

When Comet had first asked Sun if he was open to doing a therapy session with him, to say Sun was questioning why he agreed would be an understatement. He didn’t regret it completely, since he was glad to see someone he still considered a brother after all this time to be making progress. But therapy in general had been a pretty alien concept. 

Sun had to admit a lot of his hesitation came from him not really knowing what to expect from Comet’s therapist. Sure, Comet had given him a general description of them, ‘Low-key weird, can read into people well, has something going on that Comet couldn’t figure out, and could tell Comet was an animatronic’. Great description that really helped Sun not be anxious at all for the session. 

Since Sun hadn’t actually been to the therapy clinic, Comet had to give him directions in between telling him what he should expect. Sun was lucky he actually managed to get there on time. Sun got out of the car and followed behind Comet, who walked in the building and straight up to the receptionist desk. Sun hovered near him, looking around the lobby. 

“Comet, nice to see you.” Someone said as they walked out of the hallway near Sun. He guessed it was Dr. Alinza, though it wasn’t that hard to figure out. “You must be Sun, I’m Doctor Lien Alinza. It’s nice to meet you.” They added, turning to Sun with a hand stretched out. 

“Nice to meet you too.” Sun smiled awkwardly, shaking their hand. 

“We only have so much time, how about we get the session started?” They suggested, motioning for the two to follow them down the hallway, to where Sun guessed was their office. 

The office looked cozy, paintings of landscapes and bookshelves covering the muted green walls. It seemed like every surface of the office had some sort of clutter on it. The bookshelves covered in books and other random decorations. The desk on the other side of the room cluttered with papers and pens. It was about one more addition away from triggering Sun’s DayCare Attendant code. Sun sat down on the sofa while Comet sat down on a chair beside the coffee table. Dr. Alinza sat in a chair across from Sun, glancing between him and Comet before typing something on their laptop. 

“Since this was the one time I was able to fit something like this in, we’re gonna have to go a bit quick with it. So, sorry about not easing you into it.” Dr. Alinza told them. Sun took a glance at Comet, who was just looking at the therapist. “So, Sun, how would you say you view Comet?”

“Uh,” Sun stuttered, not expecting to have to answer the first question. “I see him as my brother, still.”

“Can you get any more specific?” They asked, not even glancing at Comet. “Act like he’s not in here and I’ve never met him. How would you describe him?” 

Sun resisted the urge to look over at Comet, though he could feel his brother’s eyes on him. “Different from how he was in a lot of ways. He’s nice, cares about people, and is trying to get past everything, which is probably harder for him.” He shrugged, noticing how Dr. Alinza was just looking down at their laptop. 

“Comet, same question.” Dr. Alinza told him, Sun looked over at him. “Act like he’s not here, how would you describe him?” They asked, making Comet look a bit confused. 

“I already did that, though.” He told them, just blinking at them. Sun noticed how he was anxiously bouncing his leg, though he couldn’t blame his brother for being so stressed about the whole thing.

“Yes, but it doesn’t hurt to do it again.” They shrugged.

Comet grimaced for a moment, probably trying to figure out what to say. Sun couldn’t help but look at him, wanting to know his answer. Comet finally spoke, “He’s way more accepting and stubborn than he probably should be.” He smiled, clearly not against making lighthearted jabs at Sun. Or, at least Sun hoped they were lighthearted. “But that’s what makes him so nice and caring.” He added, still not looking at Sun. 

Dr. Alinza nodded, taking a glance at the both of them. “Well, I’m not surprised you both said nice things about each other, but that’s not why you two are here.” They chuckled, leaning back in their chair. “Comet, what would you say Sun’s biggest shortcoming or fault is?”

Comet hesitated, looking at Dr. Alinza dead in the soul. If this was how they regularly acted, Sun was glad he didn’t have them as a therapist. “I guess it would be how much he used to compare me to Old Moon.” Comet winced, though Sun was glad that was the worst thing he had done to Comet. Don’t get him wrong, Sun had always felt like shit for that, but at least it wasn’t… other things Sun had done to him. 

“Yeah, I’ve heard about that,” Dr. Alinza nodded before looking at Sun. “How about you, what is Comet’s biggest shortcoming or fault?” They asked, probably just wanting one thing. Unfortunately for Sun, there was a pretty tall list of the things Comet had done in the past.

“Uh,” Sun stuttered, feeling like the room was starting to get a bit hot. How in hell was he supposed to choose one? Not like he hated Comet or anything for all of that, really he didn’t blame Comet for that anymore, but the pure number of things Comet had done was still burnt into Sun’s head. 

Comet looked like he wanted to die, while Dr. Alinza let a smirk smirk onto their face. Sun didn’t doubt they knew exactly what they were doing. Sun now understood why Comet complained so much about them. 

“Uh, I guess that period in his life when he was determined to get withershards and tried to kidnap me several times.” Sun finally admitted, grimacing. Comet just made deep eye contact with one of the bookshelves, clearly not wanting to have this conversation. 

“Yeah, pretty bad.” Dr. Alinza nodded, not helping at all. “How about the inverse of that question? Sun, what do you think was the worst thing you’ve done to Comet?’ They asked, ignoring the shadow of dread surrounding Comet and looking dead at Sun.

The one question he really didn’t want to ask, they had. Sun didn’t know if already having an answer to that was a good or bad thing. “I think when I killed him.” Sun admitted quietly, still not over that trauma after all that time. It was a year ago, though Sun still had nightmares about it every now and again. Those nightmares had only gotten more frequent when Comet came back to life.

Dr. Alinza just nodded, though their face showed they were holding off either a comment or joke. Though their tone didn’t show the slight struggle on their face. “Comet, how about you?” They asked, seemingly zoning Comet back in.

“I think everything I did when I had Dark Star Power.” He admitted, really looking like he was not enjoying this conversation. The sight was starting to break Sun, who finally spoke up about it. 

He moved over to the side of the sofa near Comet, putting his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Comet, it’s alright. We’re going to work past all this together.” Sun assured him, not really knowing what else to say to him. Comet jumped slightly, probably not expecting the gesture, but smiled grimly at Sun. 

“I know, it’s just not really easy to talk about all of that.” Comet admitted sheepishly, making eye contact for a second before looking down at the coffee table. Sun pulled back from him and leaned back down on the sofa. Dr. Alinza waited a moment before continuing. 

“Based on those answers and how ashamed you both look, I’m guessing you hate yourselves-” They started to say before Sun cut them off.

“What?” He asked, blinking at them.

“What?” They repeated, looking back at them. 

“This is why I don’t bring people here.” Comet huffed, stopping the two from repeating ‘what?’ again. 

“Anyways,” Dr. Alinza cleared their throat, glancing down at their laptop. “I have the impression the problems with you two didn’t just start with Solar dying, would I be right?”

“I don’t know, there might have been some that I didn’t notice.” Sun shrugged, but Comet had a whole other answer.

“I think it really started when you and Terra started seeing me as the old brother.” Comet told them, crossing his arms. Sun was a bit caught off guard, but ended up seeing where he was coming from.

“Yeah, we really shouldn’t have done that. But can you at least see where we were coming from?” Sun asked, completely disregarding Dr. Alinza when they attempted to ask a question before he spoke up.

“Sure, but it still hurt and wasn’t easy. Especially when I was supposed to fill Moon’s shoes.” Comet responded, not trying to make it an argument, but clearly not going to let it be pushed aside. 

“I know how bad it was, but there was so much going on and Eclipse-”

“So you two clearly still have some problems.” Dr. Alinza summed up, stopping whatever that was before it managed to escalate. “Which is great for here. Comet, can you describe what role Sun played in your past insanity?” 

“I guess I blamed him for holding me back.” Comet shrugged, still looking like he wasn’t happy to be having the conversation. “Though, I guess he did, but it was definitely for the best. Even though I didn’t listen.” Sun didn’t know how to feel about that comment, so he didn’t say anything.

“Do you blame Sun for you eventually turning to Dark Star Power?” They asked, making Sun grimace.

“No,” Comet answered simply, “Maybe a little bit, but I mainly blame Ruin and myself.” Sun wanted to assure Comet it wasn’t actually his fault, but couldn’t get himself to. Sun also had the impression Dr. Alinza was definitely not a family therapist, but also kept that to himself. (Author hates writing conversations with three people, man)

“What part, would you say, Sun played into it?” Dr. Alinza asked, though Sun also wanted the answer.

“The basically constant comparisons between me and Moon,” Comet shrugged.

“I wasn’t meaning to hurt you with those.” Sun explained, hoping Comet didn’t have a grudge against him for that.

“I know, but at that point, I didn’t really think about what you meant by it.” Comet explained, “It was just how much was piling up that those even started to hurt.” Sun just nodded, not wanting to continue that conversation.

“So, Sun, about your part in his death, can you describe it?” They asked, making both Comet and Sun grimace. Great, they wanted to talk about that trauma. Wonderful, Sun was just overjoyed to talk about that part of his past with Comet.

“I had to choose to either kill him or Moon.” Sun admitted quietly, not able to even look at Comet anymore. Sun could tell Dr. Alinza knew they had hit the still raw part of Sun’s trauma, and didn’t look like they were going to ease off it, either.

“Can you go through a bit of your thought process, if you remember it?” Dr. Alinza asked, making Sun want to laugh.

Of course Sun remembered. He remembered every second of that hellish minute. How Dark Sun made him choose between his two brothers. Dark Sun even smiled after Sun made the hardest choice of his life. The only reason Sun managed to make it, was because he knew Comet, at the time, would only hurt more of his family. Sun remembered all of it like it was yesterday, especially since it haunted so many of his dreams.

“Dark Sun made me choose between killing him and Moon. I only chose him because I knew he would have caused more harm.” Sun sighed, staring down at the coffee table. “I didn’t want to choose, but I had no choice. I still love both you, Comet, and Moon.

Comet looked over at him, a bit surprised for a moment, then sat up straighter. He looked like he wanted to cry. Dr. Alinza noticed it as well, but said nothing. Sun wanted to give him a hug, but Dr. Alinza was already asking him about what he had said. 

“Besides you loving them, what was the hardest part of that choice?” They asked, though they were still looking over at Comet, who was staring the bookcase on the wall down like it owed him money. 

“Having to choose one of my brothers to murder.” Sun breathed, feeling like this was all doing nothing for his trauma. He didn’t blame Comet for disliking therapy anymore. “None of it was good, at all.”

“I can understand why that would be so difficult, you seem to have cared about him all throughout that time. Would I be wrong to assume you never stopped caring about him?”

“I didn’t stop loving him, I always knew there was good in him.” Sun told them without hesitation. “It wasn’t always easy, but I knew the real him was still in there.” Sun added, giving a smile to Comet, who returned it. Sun had always known his brother was hiding in there all along. He couldn’t even express his relief when Comet ended up fine after he was purified. 

“Dr. Alinza,” Comet spoke up, his regular neutral expression back on his face. Sun missed when he would smile so often. Seeing him smile lifted Sun’s spirit a lot, but watching it go away saddened him a bit. “I’d like to have a more… regular therapy session after this.” He said, and Sun could guess what it was about. He probably wanted advice from them about what happened with Dark Sun.

“We can do that, I’ll try to wrap this up.” The therapist agreed, a bit of concern in their eyes. They took a moment before continuing. “So, Sun, would you say you two had any problems before this? They can be small, but anything does count.” 

Sun hesitated a moment, trying to think of a good answer. The most problem he had with Comet was with how Sun had treated Comet, everything else he felt had been forgiven. “No, not really.” 

Dr. Alinza asked Comet the same question, who agreed that there was nothing bad between them, but that it was nice to talk about the ‘rough parts’. Sun agreed, which made Dr. Alinza give them both an exasperated look. 

“Well, Sun, I’d say this went well. I’d like to ask you to step out into the lobby so me and Comet can talk. Unless you have something to add.” They suggested, putting their laptop on the coffee table and standing up.

“Yeah, I think this was good too.” Sun added, saying bye to Comet before walking out of the office and into the lobby. 

It was empty except for someone at the front desk, some random person that was probably playing solitaire on the monitor. There was someone else in the lobby that Sun sat as far away from, managing to avoid a conversation, mainly because he was not excited to be looked at like someone who needed a therapist. After a couple of minutes, he gave up and decided to call Moon until Comet got out.

“So, what’d you want to talk to me about?” Dr. Alinza asked Comet, making him grimace slightly. “You were a bit quiet earlier, so I’m guessing it isn’t great.”

“I have Star Power, and I don’t know why, and I don’t know what to do about it.” Comet told them quickly, not even stopping to let any of it sink in. Comet had been sitting with it the entire session, mainly because of the fact he just had Star Power, not anything about Dark Sun. 

“Oh, shit.” Dr. Alinza blurted out, unconsciously putting their hand on their pocket. Though they caught themself fast and cleared their throat. “Well, that’s fun.” They corrected, clearing their throat again. “How about you explain how you found out?”

“I was cleaning the bathrooms at the Pizzaplex and Dark Sun showed up. He knows how to get to me, and did.” Comet sighed, knowing this was going to take a while. “He just pissed me off, and I was so used to hitting people with whatever form of Star Power I’ve had, that I didn’t even realize it when he pointed it out.”

Dr. Alinza took a second to just blank stare at him, looking half-way between absolutely bewildered and annoyed to hell. “And so you waited like an hour to tell me that?” They breathed, looking him dead in the eyes with an expression that was making Comet sweat a bit. 

“Well, we had the thing with Sun and I just thought that was more important!” Comet explained, putting out his palms. Yeah, it probably was a big deal, he could have waited until a good time. 

They just looked back at him, looking like they were five seconds from strangling him, before finally taking a deep breath, which included them muttering ‘Caput tuum in anō habes’. “You know what, that’s fine, we have bigger things to get to.” Dr. Alinza sighed, picking their laptop up from the coffee table. “How much do you know about Star Power? We'll start there.”

“How much do you know?” Comet returned, never really giving up on his mission of trying to figure them out. 

“Probably more than you.” They answered simply, their hand hovering close to their pocket again. “Now answer the question.”

“I know a bit about how it functions, but I know a lot more about Dark Star Power, for obvious reasons.” Comet huffed, not feeling like he had to explain himself. “I researched it a bit a while ago, but I didn’t go that deep into it, just learned how to use it and where to get it.”

Dr. Alinza sighed, looking again like they wanted to slap some sense into him. “It functions a bit like its dark equivalent, though with some differences. It’s more regulated, which doesn’t help with you somehow having it. It also tends to have its own ability depending on the person.” They explained. Comet let them go on until they caught themself, even though he knew most of what they were saying. He wasn’t that stupid. 

“How do you know all of that?” He asked, which made them give him another exasperated look.

“I’m not answering all your questions when we have more important things to handle.” They answered, intentionally deflecting the question. “Do you know what your ability is?”

“No,”

Another sigh, then, “Describe what you typically used Dark Star Power for.”

Comet really didn’t want to, but he wasn’t dumb enough to throw away his chance of a bit of understanding about what he was cursed with. “I used it to go through people’s heads, speak to them in their heads, torture, things like that.” He explained, figuring out what his ability probably was before they said anything. Dr. Alinza could probably notice his expression filling with dread. 

“Which would explain what went on in your head, rouge Star Power trying to hang onto your systems.” Dr. Alinza added, not making his dread any better. 

Comet knew exactly what he had, it didn’t take much thought either. 

Why the Incident had happened.

Why it was much easier to fish through people’s heads for information. 

Because his ability was some fucked up form of telepathy. 

His life could not get worse if it physically tried to. 

“I can guess you aren’t really enjoying that, are you?” Dr. Alinza asked, leaning forward, watching Comet give the floor a thousand yard stare with a slightly smug grin.

“No, I’m not.” He sighed, finally looking back at them. “The one ability I didn’t want. The one damn ability that carried from my past. How great.” Comet ranted, feeling just generally upset and frustrated. 

“I can see why you wanted to talk to me about that then.” They nodded, leaning back in their seat. 

“I’m not going to get hunted by some astral, right?” Comet remarked, wishing he could just leave already. 

“Probably not, I’m not sure if there are astrals in this dimension.” Dr. Alinza shrugged.

Comet wanted to ask them if they knew that because they used Star Power or something like that, but he was too tired to. “How much time until I’m released?” He huffed.

“A few minutes, but you can leave early.” They shrugged. Comet did not hesitate to get out of his seat. But before he left, they added something. “Take it easy this weekend.” They told him, probably trying to be funny, though Comet didn’t have the energy to respond.

“Easier said than done.” He responded, walking out and into the hallway. 

Sun was in the lobby waiting for Comet, playing on his phone.

“Hey,” He greeted when he saw Comet.

“Hey,” Comet returned.

“You ready for the Pizzaplex?” Sun remarked, walking out to the car. Comet followed behind him with a sigh. 

“If you’re asking if I’m ready to deal with children, the answer is no.” He replied with a small smile. He waited a moment before continuing. “You know how I told you guys I have Star Power?” Comet asked, glancing over at Sun, who was getting into the car.

“Yeah, what about it?” Sun asked, looking over at Comet before pulling out of the parking lot. 

Comet was not, in fact, ready for the Pizzaplex. He immediately went for the lab to talk to Solar, mainly because Sun wasn’t feeling too great about Comet’s ability. He noticed Sun tell Moon, who was on the ground floor, and Comet didn’t miss how he froze for a second, definitely remembering how Comet dug literally and painfully dug through his memories in search of Withershards. Comet just grimaced guiltily and walked into the lab. 

Solar was talking to Nova, who was urging him to just ‘tell the truth, and everything would be alright’. “Oh, hey, Comet.” Solar greeted when he saw Comet walk in. Comet noticed Chica and Freddy in there as well, which didn’t help his confusion.

“Hey, what’s going on in there?” Comet asked, noticing the four animatronics looking him dead in the soul. Solar seemed to be the only one embarrassed. 

“Nothing much, just talking about kids and stuff. It’s pretty busy today, you know.” Solar told him before anyone else could say something. Chica elbowed him in the side, muttering something to him while glancing at Comet. Comet didn’t know what they were possibly talking about, but could only guess it was about this ‘truth’ Solar hadn’t told someone. 

“... to say it eventually!” He heard Chica whisper to Solar, who just grimaced. They kept going back and forth.

“I’m just gonna come back later-” Comet started to say, before he was cut off by Chica.

“No, stay, Solar has something he needs to tell you!” She hummed, pushing Solar, who looked completely mortified, up toward Comet, who was confused as hell. 

“Uh, Comet,” Solar cleared his throat, looking half-terrified to say it, his face red from what Comet guessed was embarrassment. “Do you want to go out sometime?” Solar asked quickly, itching the back of his neck awkwardly.

Comet blinked for a second, trying to figure out what he was saying. When he realized what Solar meant, his face started to heat up. “Like a date?” Comet asked, making Solar look ever more embarrassed and… flustered?

“You don’t have to, but if you want to I’d be up for that.” Solar told him quickly, looking like he was about to die.

Comet stood there in shock, not believing what Solar was saying. There was so way in hell Solar felt anything romantic about Comet, right? He half-expected Solar to start laughing like it was a joke, but Solar just stood there, watching him closely, the silence heavy. “I’d love yo- to go out with you” Comet answered, feeling like his fans were going to die. Wow, leather jackets were quite warm, and so was the lab. 

“Kiss already!” Chica cheered, making the two look mortified with embarrassment.

“Respectfully, not yet.” Solar told him, and Comet agreed.

“Yeah, not right now. Maybe one day, but not now.” He stuttered, feeling like he was about to start sweating. Did animatronics swear? Comet didn’t know, but he was sure he was about to. 

“I told you how clueless they are.” Nova chuckled, skipping past them and out of the lab. Chica and Freddy followed, all laughing about it. 

“So you are my mom.” Jack said from somewhere in the room.

“Jack?!” Solar called, looking like he wanted to die.

“Right here.” Jack answered, moving from behind one of the work tables. “But I knew you were my mother, Comet” He added, smiling up at Comet, still holding his Foxy plushie. 

Comet didn’t even try to argue, just sighed a “Yeah, I guess.” Solar wasn’t helping, since he had started laughing as soon as Jack had said his comment, putting his hand on Comet's shoulder. 

Comet didn’t know if Jack was in on the entire, what Comet guessed, setup, but it wouldn’t have been a bad bet. And apparently the news had spread, because Sun came in a few moments later.

“CONGRATULATIONS!” Sun exclaimed as soon as he got in, clapping excitedly. 

Moon followed behind with a “Took them long enough.”

“Was I the only person who didn’t know he had a crush on me?” Comet asked the two, who just nodded.

“Yeah, basically. Went the same way for Solar. You two are so obvious, but we didn’t spoil anything.” Sun grinned, fist-bumping his brother. 

“I think even Terra knew,” Moon added, which just rubbed salt into Comet’s wounded pride. 

“I think you’re just exaggerating at this point.” Solar huffed, crossing his arms. 

“No, we told Terra a while ago.” Monty added from behind Moon, adding some acid in with the salt. 

“I think I’m aware of how many people knew except us, thank you.” Comet sighed, feeling his face burn with embarrassment. Solar put his hand on Comet’s shoulder, giving him a small, amused smile.

“And now I’m going to puke.” Moon announced, walking away and making fake puking noises. Monty followed behind him, adding to Moon’s show. Sun sniped a picture for ‘blackmail purposes’. Solar chased after him pretty fast. Jack was still smug about his ‘prediction’ while Comet just wanted to go home. Mainly so that he could watch Supernatural with Solar. 

They all helped out with closing, and even Molten managed to give Comet a ‘congratulations’, which did surprise him a bit. Later that night, Comet and Solar watched their regular few episodes of Supernatural. They sat in the same spots, but it felt… different. A good, comfortable different.

Before Comet went to sleep, he knew he had to try something. He sat on the bed of his room, trying to focus. It was late in the night, way after midnight. Everyone was asleep, or at least quiet enough to not disturb anyone. He needed to figure out how to get in his head again. Because this time he felt like he was ready. He didn’t know how long it took to work, only that it did.

“Well, look at that.” Nexus remarked, sitting back at the bar. Comet was back in the house he was a week ago, but he felt more in control, not taken by surprise this time. 

“I don’t care what you have to say to me, I know how you work.” Comet huffed, walking over to the bar.

“Because you have everything you want?” Nexus remarked, raising an eyebrow. “You finally are with Solar, you understand your powers, but it doesn’t feel like enough, so you come crawling back.”

“I’m getting rid of you. I have suffered enough because of the things I’ve done. I deserve to be happy now.” 

“You deserve to be happy?” Nexus laughed- literally laughed, “You don’t deserve anything. The only thing you deserve is to be dismantled and thrown into the trash where you belong. Your ‘power just reflects that’. You will only be able to do bad with it. You won’t ever be enough for anyone.”

Comet didn’t think about anything he said, just seeing that Nexus as something in his head. “I have someone that loves me, I have a family that cares about me. That’s enough for me.”

“And yet some of that family remembers how they used to fear you more than they remember than they care about you now.” Nexus crossed his arms. 

“I don’t care about that.” Comet decided, though he really didn’t care about that. “I care about them, and I am never doing it again.”

He blinked and there Solar was right in front of his eyes. But it wasn’t the old one Comet hung onto like an idiot, but the one he had now, the one he loves. “Let’s be real, Moon, you didn’t have to do any of this. Hell, you could probably still come back.” He begged, and it sounded just like him, his hoarse, almost pleading voice. But it couldn’t have been him. Comet turned away, not even able to look him in the eye. 

He heard his old laugh, then Nexus chuckled, “Oh, that’s cute. That’s very cute. No, I’m not going back”

“Why not?! Did they hurt your feelings too bad?!” Solar huffed. 

The old conversation rang so familiarly in Comet’s head, he finished what he had said so long ago before his head did.  “Why would I come back?” Comet whispered, looking down at the floor. Why this conversation? Why that from so long ago?

“So you remember?” Solar hissed, stepping in front of Comet. “You remembered it this whole time and did nothing about it.”

“You’re not the real Solar.” Comet said blankly, not daring to look up. He thought he was ready to confront his head finally, but it was always Solar who stayed in there. Who Comet couldn’t get over. 

“Am I?” He asked, not moving from where he was standing, but Comet could feel his eyes boring down on him. “Or are you not as strong as you thought?”

“You’re not my Solar, you’re just in my head. So how about you finally get out of it?” Comet hissed, and right before him, that Solar disappeared, leaving him alone in the house. He hesitated a moment, not sure if someone else would appear, but no one did. He walked down the halls, moving with a hand on the wall, remembering the happy, probably not more simple, times. The times before all of this. 

They were behind him now, but so were those bad days. Sun’s old room was empty. Comet’s old room was empty. There was no wine bottle or glass at the bar. He was the only one there, finally in control of his own head for once. It felt freeing, like a heavy weight off his back. He looked out the clear glass door. Outside was what a headscape usually looked like. A gray, endless void somehow as dark as it was light. 

He opened the door and stepped outside. Then he woke up. 

Comet sat up on his bed and leaned against the wall. The clock read 2:53 AM. Great, just the amount of sleep he needed. But he wasn’t too bothered by it. He was shocked he actually managed to get through all of it. Maybe it was because of his power, maybe he finally had the assurance he needed. Whatever it was, it felt much better to finally be over it. For once, when Comet laid down, he wasn’t haunted by his memories, he wasn’t chased by his dreams. There wasn’t Dark Sun in his head, there wasn’t any of the past him. The only Solar that was in there was the Solar he had now

The Solar he loved

Chapter Text

It had been a month since that day. Fall decorations welcomed by the orange leaves. All of nature's beauty ripped down in favor of a new beginning. Comet was on a walk with Solar, hand in hand, while Jack ran through every leaf pile he could manage. It was peaceful, Comet’s closest loved ones next to him. It made braving the Holiday at the end of the month easier. Many houses and businesses were decorated for Halloween, reminding Comet how it was only in a month. How time had flown by. 

Everything had calmed down. Comet had given up on using his power, and hadn’t tried to go back into his headspace since then. Comet and Solar were starting to officially date. It felt like rekindling their friendship before everything, but it was now better. Sun and Moon continued to help Comet move past his old life. Comet would never be able to repay them for all they had done for him. Comet never really did figure out Dr. Alinza, but he couldn’t have been bothered to. Their mystery didn’t bother Comer anymore, since he had figured out all that he wanted. His sessions were reduced to once a week on Wednesdays, especially since they learned Comet had dealt with his inner demons (literally).

Comet and Monty got to the point where they tolerated each other, but weren’t at all close to how they used to be. It was a bit sad, since Comet was hoping that they would move past it, but unfortunately they were both too stubborn for that. Terra visited often, clearly happy to see Comet back in the family. Comet hadn’t heard much from Cosmo, though Comet guessed it was because he was busy with his astral duties. Cosmo was the one person Comet hadn’t apologized to, and it probably would be the hardest one. Even though Comet hadn’t done anything personally to Cosmo, they still used to be close. And the last time anyone had really heard anything from Cosmo was when he had purified Comet so long ago. 

Comet wanted to see him to apologize, but also to get advice. It sounded absolutely stupid, since Cosmo was basically the little brother of the family, but no one else really knew a thing about Star Power. Comet was glad he hadn’t had the misfortune to meet Taurus again, since he was still annoyed with the astral, but was happy to remember Taurus wasn’t the astral of the dimension they were in now. But that was all behind him. 

Solar, Comet, and Jack walked over to the park. They made Jack play with the other kids while they watched from afar, talking about random things that didn’t really matter. All that did matter was that they had each other, that neither of them were alone. Comet felt safe and calm, nothing but Solar’s wonderful voice and the sound of the wind passing by Comet.

And all that he knew was at peace. 

October 31st

See you again soon

-The burntout author, aka Liam