Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"It's just one more job"

Those words had been said so many times they were practically soldered onto his hard drive. It was always just "one more job" than he would be free. He could live a normal life with his daughter but it was never just "one more job" when it came to Moon.

He would always say "Just one more job and then we're home free, Sun. Just one more job till we have enough." But it never just one more job.

They had been doing this for years now. It started when they first left their psychopathic father's side, they had to make their own way in the world now that 'daddy dearest' was dead. His criminal empire died with him, so Sun, Moon, and the rest of their family went their own way.

The Celestial crime family, they called themselves. They wanted to build an empire even greater than their father's, one that would reach the stars... and also cause they happened to be modeled after planets.

They wanted to build something together, but over the years, things changed, goals changed, people changed. Some got bored of the life and left, some found a better calling in life, some made their money and left but as for these unlucky two, they were still deep in the game.

Sun would never admit it out loud but he envied his sister and how easily she able to escape this life, he envied Lunar who now went by the moniker officer Cosmos, working for the police, of all people. Sun envied his cousins who was actually able to build a small but extremely successful criminal empire...

He would trade lives with either of them in a heartbeat, if he was given the option, but magic wasn't real, so he was stuck here, with his brother, currently destroying evidence.

"Hey, Sun, hand me that blow torch will ya?" Moon called from behind their car.

Sun forced himself back to reality, shaking his head to leave fantasy-land and return to the harsh reality that was his life. "Huh? Oh, um... ya."

Sun tossed Moon the small blow torch with the precise, practiced precision that one could only get by doing something like this one too many times.

"What are we doing again, Moon?"

"Destroying our license plate. The fuzz made this one, so we need a new one." Moon said nonchalantly as he caught the blowtorch and set it beside him.

"Oh... what number of license plate are we on now?" Sun asked.

Moon was quiet for a moment, trying to recount how many plates they had blown through at this point.
"Um.... do you mean how many we've gone through this month or this year?"

"Of all time."

"Oh.... I lost count after eighty-five." Moon replied, as he began to unscrew the license plate from their car.

Sun let out a dry, tired chuckled. "Eighty-five." He mumbled to himself.

"We'll probably have to either ditch the car or paint over." Moon said, unscrewing one bolt after another.

"Aw, I like this car." Sun said glancing over to their blue Cadillac.

"Well, then I guess we re-paint it. What color are you feeling? Yellow? Red? Maybe we could go back to the original black color?"
Moon said, removing the finale screw and pulling the license off the back before picking it and the blow torch up, walking towards a small work bench that held a license plate mold. He swapped out the numbers on the mold with a brand new set of numbers and then turned the knob on the blow torch till it had a steady consistent flame.

Sun watched as Moon threw on some eye protection and began to melt the license plate with the blow torch. The one colorful license plate melted into a bright orange goo and slowly conformed to the mold around in.

After a while Moon turned down the flame till it vanished into the nozzle and then pressed the lid down on the mold, steam and smoke poured from the very thin cracks in it and after a moment Moon lifted the lid and just like that they had a brand new license plate. All Moon had to do was hand the plate over to Sun and let him paint it.

"Hey, Sun, the plate's done. I just need you to paint it now.

Moon waited to hear Sun's voice or footsteps but instead he heard nothing but silence. Moon turned back and saw Sun still sitting on a crate, clearly lost in thought.

"Sun. Earth to Sundrop! HEY, SUN!"

Sun jumped back a bit and whipped his head around.
"What?!"

"The plate's done."

"Oh." Sun hopped off the crate and walked towards Moon, nervously fiddling with his hands as he got closer to the desk. It was just another crime to add to Sun's ever-growing wrap sheet. Money laundering, gun-running, counterfeiting, bootlegging, and the occasional murder. It seemed like that list would never end.

Moon spun the plate on his index finger like it was a basket ball, watching it shine in the dim light that came through their hideouts windows. Once Sun was close enough, Moon tossed him the plate which Sun fumbled with for a bit before managing to get a better grip on it. Sun walked over to the desk beside his brother and grabbed his paints.

Sun glanced over at his brother who was now kicking back probably already plotting their next caper that was sure to make them rich.

Sun wanted to ask Moon if they could maybe step back a bit, maybe take a break from all the crime stuff for a while? Maybe they could try to get an actual job like their sister Terra or their cousin Sunny?

"You gonna pick up a brush, Sun?"

Sun pulled himself out of his thoughts again and snapped his head back to the license plate in front of him.
"Oh, r-right. Sorry, just lost in thought."

"You okay, Sun?" Moon asked, placing his hand on his brother's shoulder. "It seems like you've been "lost in thought" for a bit. Are you okay?"

Sun was reluctant to admit anything to Moon cause he knew what the answer would be, but a small part of him, that stupid small part of him, had hope Moon would understand.

"Why are we still doing this?" Sun asked, setting his paints down. "We haven't had any luck with this, Moon. Maybe we can just do what Earth and Monty did and start our own business?"

That small bit of hope Sun had was dashed when he saw Moon's face contort like he had just said something offensive.
"Whoa. Sun, I know we haven't had any luck recently, but we can turn that around. I got a few ideas in mind."

"Oh, Scott, just kill me now." Sun thought to himself.
Moon was off spouting ideas again, ideas that would never work. Moon was one of the smartest people Sun knew but many of his plans often didn't work out the way they planned, it was like the universe had some kind of vendetta against them and while Sun didn't blame Moon for their plans not always working out, it did get to be a source of annoyance for him.

While Sun was in his own head Moon was continuing to spout off ideas "then we take the new poker chips that we placed in the truck, cross a couple boarders and then we're kicking back on the beaches in Hawaii, martinis in our hands, watching the sunset while Dazzle is building sandcastles on the sho... Sun, were you listening to anything I said?"

"Sorry, Moon. I-I just... I gotta start painting this license plate." Sun knew he shouldn't have gotten his hopes high, nothing good every came from that.

Moon knew Sun was frustrated with him, these jobs, this life but it was the only life they had and they had to make the best of it. Moon never wanted him or Sun to ever be in a situation where they wished dad was still around to bail them out. He wouldn't let that happen. Not again.

"Sun, I know this sucks, but I promise, it's just one more job then we're done."

Those infernal words echoed through Sun's metal skull. He felt like he was losing his mind! It was always that exact choice of words. Could Moon not say anything else?

Sun took a deep breath and forced a neutral smile, repeating Moon's words "Just one more job" before he started painting the license plate.

Moon wanted to speak, maybe say something to cheer Sun up but what could he say? They NEEDED this. They NEEDED the money. Moon would never let them want for anything.

He simply did as Sun did, force his feelings down to deal with them later. He put on a casual smile and patted Sun on the shoulder. "Okay. Good. Mark my words, brother, we'll be kings soon enough."

"Yeah, I know." Sun said quietly, not believe the words that fled his brother's mouth.

Then before Sun could even finish the first brush stroke, Molten jumped down causing the grown around them to shake and nearly made the two brothers fall over.

Molten caught his fedora as it slowly floated down and placed it back on his head.

"Molten, what the heck, man?! You scared us half to death!"
Moon exclaimed, holding tight to his stool so he and it wouldn't fall over.

"We have company." Molten said in his usual cold robotic voice.

If Sun and Moon had blood it would have ran cold just then.

Moon hopped off his stool and rushed to their guns while Sun grabbed the plate, his paints, and any extra supplies they might need and rushed to the car.

Sun tossed the supplies in the back, followed by himself, scrambling to the passenger seat while Moon loaded his tommy gun, climbed up a ladder to have a better vantage point and peeked through the window.

Several police cars swarmed the warehouse. Out of one of the cars stepped detective Taurus the bearded bull-horned star man, smoking a cigar, while he surveyed the area.

"Crap. It's cops!"

"What?! H-how? W-were we followed?!" Sun said in a panic. He couldn't go to jail, he still had to make it home to Dazzle. He couldn't let her go into the system.

Moon slid down the ladder and rushed to the car.
"No. I remember we weren't followed but someone might have spotted us and called the cops. Don't know how though? We're always careful."

"Yes, because a giant metal bear that looks like spaghetti is just SOOO common to see." Sun said his voice dripping with sarcasm. Sun swatted Moon's arm once Moon slipped into the passenger seat. "I told you we should have left Molten at home."

Moon sputtered. "M-M-Molten is good muscle! I'm the brains, he's the brawns, and your the everyman!"

"Oh, I'm the everyman. Well, this "Everyman" is about to have his brains splattered EVERYWHERE IF WE DON'T LEAVE NOW!"

"Shall I exterminate the officers?" Molten asked, holding up two oversized tommy guns.

"NO!" Sun and Moon both exclaimed.

"Nebula is out there! I am not killing our brother's girlfriend."
Moon said, frantically searching for the car keys, then it hit him. Moon smacked himself in the head and checked his pockets. As expected it was there.

Moon shoved the key in the ignition and after a few seconds of silence the car shook to life.

"In the car, Molten!" Sun yelled.

Molten sighed. "Fine." Molten bolted to the car like an Olympic runner, he threw open the back seat door and jumped in, nearly making the car tip to one-side due to how fast and strong Molten was.

Outside the warehouse, Detective Taurus plucked his cigar out of his mouth and crushed it in his palm before taking the loud speaker from officer Nebula.

Taurus cleared his throat before letting his loud booming voice carry through the speaker.
"Sun and Moon, come out with your hands up or we will use force and I'd really hate for Lunar be the one to identify your corpses."

"Go!Go!Go!Go!" Sun shouted, slapping his brother's arm a few times in a panic, signaling for him to put the pedal to the metal.

Moon stomped his foot down on the pedal and the car zoomed backwards, bursting through the large wooden blanks that were used as a makeshift back door for the warehouse.

The sudden loud noise didn't go unnoticed by the police.

Taurus, Gemini, and Nebula and the other officers jumped into their cars, flicked on the lights, and drove towards the source of the noise. Moon whipped through the back alleys, checking over his shoulder to see if the police were on their tail however he couldn't see anything due to Molten who was taking up most of the backseat.

"Um... Molten, be a lamb and duck down a bit."

Molten did as Moon asked and sunk into a pile of metal wires revealing a large swarm of police cars chasing after them.

Sun and Moon yelped. Moon violently swerved car out of their line of sight. Officer Taurus was never one to back down from a challenge. He stomped on the break stopping his car, all the other officers quick drove around Taurus to avoid a crash, overshooting the alleyway Sun and Moon drove down. Taurus then began to follow after Sun and Moon down the alleyway, determined to bring these to celestial crooks to justice.

Moon's eyes kept darting from the front window to rear view mirror. He could see Taurus' large modified police car chasing after them. "Doh! Taurus is on our tail!"

Sun stuck his head out the passenger window and saw the very determined and slightly scary face of Taurus hounding them and he seemed to be gaining on them.

Sun sunk back into the car, made the sign of the cross and put his seatbelt on, preparing for what was to most likely be his death.

"Do you wish for me to eliminate officer Taurus?" Molten asked, checking to see if his tommy guns were in proper working order.

"No!" Sun exclaimed.

"Yes!" Moon shouted.

The two paused and looked at each other, surprised by their opposite answers.

"Yes!" Moon exclaimed.

"No!" Sun shouted.

The two glared at each other angrily.

"I'm getting mixed signals." Molten said his eye darting between his friends and the rapidly gaining bull officer.

"Sun, here's trying to arrest us!"

"Moon, he's our brother's friend and boss!"

"He can make new friends." Moon said, reaching down to his pant leg to grab his gun that he kept in a holster on his leg. Moon spun the cylinder on his other arm, counting the bullets that rapidly passed from his sight. He had four bullets left so he better make them count.

Sun quickly snatched the gun from Moon and held it away from him. "Moon, we are not killing cops! Especially, cops we know!"

"Okay, okay... but what if the cop is trying to kil-"

"MOON!" Sun yelled. Moon quickly put his hands up in defense before just as quickly returning them to the wheel.
"Alright! Fine, no murder. We'll just lose him in the backstreets."

Sun, Moon, and Molten were then suddenly shunted forward by Taurus' police car. He was now right behind them.

"Crap." Moon mumbled. Taurus' police car bumper slammed against the back of their car causing them and the car to bounce. The ram horns attached to Taurus' car bumper dug into Sun and Moon's rear bumper, tearing through the metal like a soda can.

"Moon, get us out of there!" Sun exclaimed.

Moon held tight to his fedora as he quickly turned the steering wheel, taking a sharp turn down another alleyway, hoping to lose Taurus but he was still on their tail.

Moon gritted his teeth, if he still had his gun he would just fire off a couple warning shots but he knew Sun wasn't gonna give him his gun back anytime soon in fear one of those warning shots became a regular shot.

"Molt, fire off a couple warning shots but don't hit Taurus." Moon commanded.

Molten nodded, tipped his fedora and grabbed his oversized tommy guns. Molten elbowed the back window, shattering the glass with his metal wire flesh. Moon groaned and facepalmed. He had just fixed that window too.

Molten squeezed the triggers and bullets sprayed out of the muzzles. Taurus slowed to a crawl to avoid the oncoming stream of bullets but he quickly noticed how the bullets weren't aimed in his direction or even his vehicle's. They were just warning shots.

Taurus scrowled, his gaze narrowed on the Celestial animatronics and their metal bear friend. Taurus wasn't gonna let these twins escape again. He didn't care they were Cosmos' brothers, they were going down.

Taurus slowly but surely increased his speed again, drawing closer to Sun and Moon's vehicle. It became painfully aware to all three metal men that the warning shots no longer had any effect on Taurus.

"Do I eliminate him now?" Molten asked, turning to his bosses.

"NO!" Sun yelled. "Just... keep firing warning shots."

"We're just wasting ammo at that point!" Moon yelled back.

"Then drive more defensively!" Sun shouted back, his frustration increasing with every word.

"I AM DRIVING DEFENSIVELY!"

"WELL, DRIVE DEFENSIVELY-ER!"

Taurus' front bumper slammed into them again, tearing through more of Sun and Moon's car's metal. The horns were practically hooked to the car at this point.

Molten could see the rage and determination on Taurus' face. Sun peeked behind his seat and saw Taurus' angry gaze fall on him. Sun chuckled nervously and waved at Taurus. Taurus pressed his foot down on the pedal, it was pressed so hard against the floor that it threatened to break under Taurus' boot.

Taurus' car was now pressed bumper to bumper with Sun and Moon's. Moon looked ahead and saw what Taurus had planned, he was gonna ram them into a nearby stone wall.

"Lovely." Moon said, already mentally preparing their escape from prison. Sun and Molten could see the danger up ahead, if they didn't act quickly they might be reduced to scrap metal and oil stains on the wall. Molten turned his attention back to Taurus. He aimed both his tommy guns directly at Taurus' face.

Taurus glared at the metal bear, tempting him to pull the triggers and prove to him exactly what he suspected about this family, that they were nothing but criminals and psychopaths.

Sun, not wanting anyone to die, acted quickly. He spun the revolver of Moon's gun before unbuckling his seat belt, reaching his arm through the passenger side window, grabbing the roof, and hung out the window.

"Sun, what the heck are you doing?!" Moon cried.

Sun closed one eye to better his aim and with one quick pull, the bullet flew from the cylinder and landed in one of Taurus' front tires, popping it and causing Taurus to slow and lose control of his vehicle. Moon grabbed Sun's pants and pulled him back into the car, cheering his brother on.
"Sun, that was crazy! Good job, brother!"

Sun took a deep breath, he was surprised he managed to pull that off. Maybe it was the adrenaline or the fact he was the one who defeated Taurus, one of the toughest officers on the force but Sun couldn't help but laugh along with his brother. However their moment of laughter faded when Molten pointed forward and yelled "WALL!"

The two animatronic brothers' gaze shifted to the grey stone wall that was only a few feet away now. Sun and Moon screamed, preparing for impact when Molten spotted something to help them avoid impact with the wall. Nearby was a broken lamppost, useless to most, but helpful to them. Molten stretched his wirey metal arms, grabbing the lamppost.

"TURN! NOW!" Molten yelled. Moon turned the wheel so fast he was afraid it was gonna snap off. The car drifted sharply, nearly clipping itself on part of the stone wall.
Molten let go of the lamppost, the car flew through the air for a couple of seconds before landing back on the road. The car bounced a few times before it settled completely.
Sun and Moon held their chests, hyperventilating a tad bit after their multiple near death experiences.

"We have survived." Molten said in his usual stoic robotic tone.

"Thank you... for that observation... Molten."
Sun said, taking a few slow breathes.

Moon could hear the faint sounds of sirens echoing further in the distance. Moon quickly glanced over his shoulders, preparing for another chase but thankfully, the cops were going the wrong direction. Moon let out a relieved sigh and relaxed into his seat.
"You wanna head home or get donuts?"

Sun slowly turned to his brother, glaring at him with a look that said "Don't joke right now or I will finish what Taurus started." Moon put one hand up in surrender and chuckled.
"Alright, sorry. I kid, we'll go home."

Back in the alleyway, officer Taurus stumbled out of his now crashed cop car. He was lucky that Sun preferred the non-lethal approach opposed to his brother and Molten who didn't really care if someone lived or died. Taurus was still mad Cosmo's brothers had escaped justice again, but it was only a matter of time till the long arm of the law caught them.

That tip they got from that anonymous source paid off. It led them right to one of Sun and Moon's safe houses, they just expected to find evidence they were there but to find them actually there? what luck.
Taurus would have to see if Nebula could get in contact with that anonymous source again.

As Taurus examined his vehicle his rage began to boil again, not cause of his destroyed car but cause his car's bumper ram horns had been removed during the chase, meaning those celestial crooks still had them attached to the rear of their car. He huffed, reached into his glovebox and pulled out another cigar. He pulled his lighter from his pocket, flicked his wrist, and lit his cigar. He flicked his wrist again snapping the lighter shut and stuck the cigar in his mouth.

"Those Celestial freaks better count their days." Taurus thought to himself as in inhaled some of the smoke from his cigar before quickly expelling it.

The ride home was much calmer and smoother than the chase with Taurus. Sun, Moon and Molten pulled into their garage and took a few quick glances over their shoulders to make sure they weren't being tailed by anyone. They had no idea how the cops found their safehouse but they were gonna make darn well sure it didn't happen again.

Sun was the first to exit the car. Sun could practically feel the stress melt away, it was like the further he got from that blasted mafia-mobile, the better. The farther he got from that life, the better.

Sun leaned against a wall, undoing his bow tie and letting it fall off his neck. Despite being made of fabric and his throat being made of metal, he felt like he was being choked by that part of his uniform.

Why did he even need to wear that?

"NO WAY!" Moon said, excitedly. Sun's head whipped towards Moon's direction and saw Moon, with a big wide smile on his face, holding the ram horns that used to be attached to officer Taurus' police car.

"A-are those..." Sun muttered in horror. Moon however didn't share the same horrified reaction as Sun.
"Yep! Taurus' ram horns! Ha! This is going on the mantle. Molten, hang this up for me."

Sun watched as Molten took the ram horns from Moon and disappeared into the house with them. Sun just shook his head. He knew this wouldn't be good for them, Taurus already hated them and now they had unintentional stolen Taurus' most prized possession!

If they weren't deadmen walking before, they were now, but as per usually Moon didn't see the problem with it. He was smiling wide, like he had won some award. He patted Sun on the back congratulating him for a job well done.
"Rest up, my brother, we got work in the morning."

Moon disappeared into the house, tossing his fedora on a nearby coat hanger. Sun just stood there, not moving an inch. They were going out tomorrow? After the chase Taurus and the cops just gave them?
Moon wanted to go back out there?

Of course! Why not. Sun rubbed his eyelids and stumbled into the house, still quite shaken from the chase Taurus gave them.

Sun bent down to pick up his bow tie but stopped halfway when he heard the clacking of hooves against wooden steps. Bounding down the stairs was Sun's daughter Dazzle.

"Daddy!"

"Hey, sweetie!" Sun said as he scooped his daughter up in his arms, spun her around the room and then pulled her in for a hug. "Did you have fun with cousin Jack and Uncle Solar?"

Dazzle nodded rapidly. "Yeah. We had a lot of fun. We played Superheroes."

"I was Batman!" Jack exclaimed as he jumped out from behind the couch, still wearing his makeshift Batman cowl, startling Sun a bit.

"Jeez! Jack! D-don't scare me like that." Sun said, clutching his chest with one hand while the other held his daughter tight.

"Sorry, Sun." Solar said, stumbling out of the basement finally, removing his jump rope restraints as he went.

Moon and Sun couldn't help but snicker at Solar's poorly made stereotypical criminal costume, complete with a domino mask, ski cap, and black and white shirt designed like prisonwear but was clearly just a white shirt Jack and Dazzle drew on.

"Have fun, Solar?" Moon asked with a big wide teasing grin.

"Don't start." Solar replied. He pulled off the mask and saw Molten trying to find a good spot for Taurus' ram horns. Solar's eyes widened and pointed towards the horns.

"Are those..."

Moon threw an arm around Solar, smiling proudly.
"Yep. The ram horns from officer Taurus' police car! Courtesy of our dear brother Sun!"

Solar whipped his head in Sun's direction. He knew officer Taurus' wrath first hand so the fact Sun stole Taurus' ram horns and lived was nothing short of a miracle.
"You stole the ram horns off his police car?!"

Sun shook his head violently. "No!No!No... no. He... he tried to ram us, I shot his tires and it broke off."

"And now it's ours. I wish I could have been there to see his face when he realized it was gone." Moon laughed.

"Let's just hope he doesn't take this out on, Lunar." Sun said, nervously tugging on his bow tie.

Solar shook his head, reassuring his brother that their other brother would be fine. "Taurus hates us but would never take it out on Cosmo. He's too good a cop."

"Yeah, the little traitor is pretty good at his job." Moon said not a hint of malice in his voice. He was genuinely proud of his brother.
Lunar.. erm.. Cosmo was probably one of the better cops on force. Kind, compassionate, and understanding, always willing to see both sides of the story before making an arrest but tough, resilient, and a good sharpshooter when he needed to be.

"So, you guys ran into Taurus?" Solar asked.

"And Gemini and your girlfriend. They ambushed us at the hideout." Moon added.

"Neb was there? Was she okay? You guys didn't..."

Moon stopped his other brother before he could start spiraling. "She's fine. She was in Gemini's car. They shot right past us, it was only Taurus who chased after us."

Solar let out a relieved sigh. "That's good to hear. I'm surprised Taurus even found our hideout."

"Yeah, someone must have spotted us. We'll have to find a new hideout now. That place is definitely compromised."

While Moon and Solar talked shop, Sun just needed a break from the chaos early in the day. He set his daughter down and motioned for her to go play with her cousin. Sun watched as Molten hammered the ram horns into place.
Those ram horns weren't a trophy, they were a reminder of how close to jail or death they came today and yet no one saw it that way.

Sun brushed the non-existent dirt off his pants and went upstairs. He was halfway up the stairs when Moon looked up and asked "Hey, Sun, where you going? We were just about to break out the wine."

Sun clenched his fists. He didn't really feel like celebrating when his nerves and systems felt like they were shot on every end. He took a deep breath and forced a smile that looked genuine and peeked his head over the railing.
"Sorry, guys. There's this book I've been planning on reading and I need to make sure we still have enough ammo since we left most of it back at the hideout."

"Right. Alright, we'll celebrate without you. See ya, Sun." Moon said, walking towards the kitchen while Jack and Dazzle ran around the house. Solar wasn't as easily fooled by Sun's act as Moon was, he knew there was something Sun wasn't saying but he knew it would take a lot to get Sun to speak his mind.

Solar soon followed Moon into the kitchen while Molten continued to hammer the ram horns into the wall.

Once Sun had closed his bedroom he dropped the smile and marched over to his mirror, examining himself, making sure there wasn't any scuffs, scraps, or bulletholes he didn't know about. Once he was sure he was fine physically, he sighed and just stared at himself with tired eyes.

"Just one more job." He mumbled to himself.

"Just... one.. more job."

Chapter Text

Solar was outside, at the nearest payphone probably talking to his girlfriend Nebula, Moon was busy at his work desk, listening to the radio shows in the background. Jack, Dazzle, and Molten were being entertained by the sound of the show and the images that flashed on the little screen attached to it.

Sun had woken up an hour ago and judging from the fact they were out of coffee Moon hadn't slept a wink last night.

"Late night?" Sun asked, glancing up from his news paper.

"No night." Moon replied, sounding both jittery and excited. "I've been drawing up plans for heists, possible new hideout locations, and finally toying with adding machine guns to the car."

"Machine guns? Th.. that seems a little extreme, Moon. Don't you think?" Sun wasn't a big fan of homicide which was rich considering he was the one with the third highest kill count in the family.

Moon simply shrugged in reply. "Sometimes you need to be extreme, Sun."

"You're starting to sound like dad." Sun said, only to immediately shut his mouth when he realized what he just said. Moon lifted his head from his plans and turned to face his brother. Sun knew he messed up just by the look his brother was giving him. Moon turned his head the opposite direction and saw the kids and Molten were within hearing distance. He would love to rip into Sun and yell at him for even comparing him to that... monster but he held his tongue, for the kids' sake.

"I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that." Moon brushed it off and went right back to his plans.

Sun tried to speak but he knew if he continued to speak it would only make things worse so like usual he stayed silent while his brother plotted.
Sun leaned over taking a peek at his brother's plan, it appeared to involve breaking into some kind of vault.
It didn't look like a bank vault, it looked like it belonged to some private enterprise... wait, no. It belonged to another crime family!

"Great! Now we're robbing other criminals. This will totally end well." Sun thought to himself. As if the job they already did weren't dangerous enough. Now Moon wanted to rob other crime families? Who were they even robbing?

Sun tried to get a better look at who's vault they were robbing but Moon pulled the plans away from Sun, burying the vault blueprints under the other papers scattered across the desk.

"I-it's still a work in progress." Moon said, clearly hidden something from Sun which was also nothing new.

"Moon, I'd like to know who the heck we're robbing."

"It's no one innocent, I'll tell ya that." Moon replied, picking up the plans and carrying them away.

That gave Sun little relief. He was still concerned on who they were robbing, there were a lot of crime families running around since their dad died, trying to fill the power vacuum he left. They could be robbing anyone at this point, many of them weren't too dangerous but there were plenty who did pose a significant threat.

"Is it someone I should be worried about?" Sun asked, trying to hold back the fear in his voice. Moon shook his head and gave Sun a confident smile.
"Nah, no one to worry about. It should be a quick and easy job. In and out."

Sun was skeptical. Their plans rarely went the way they initially planned them. It was a well known fact at this point.
"And you're sure it will be quick and easy? In and out?"

Moon nodded. "In and out. I swear. Have I ever steered you wrong before?"

"Yes." Sun thought to himself. Oh, how he would love to say that to Moon's face but he held his tongue once again. Not speaking his mind or speaking out against his brother's plan.

He simply shrugged and let Moon believe he was up for whatever Moon had plan. Moon smiled proudly and went to go prepare everything for tonight's heist.

Once Moon was out of earshot Sun sighed, rubbing his eyelids before running his hands over his rays. He needed a break from his brother. He needed to go somewhere less insane. He knew exactly where to go to get his mind off things.

He walked over to his daughter, ruffling Dazzle's hair before pulling her in for a hug. "Hey, Dazzle."

Dazzle laughed as she fixing the clips in her now messy hair. "Hi, Daddy."

"Daddy's gonna head out for a bit. You stay here with uncle Moon, uncle Solar, and Molten, kay?"

Dazzle nodded. "Okay. Where are you going?"

"Daddy has to... visit some friends. Love you, Dazzle." Sun said as he quickly through on his trench coat, hat and scarf to hopefully conceal his identity. Sun stepped out of the house and briskly walked down the street.
He could see Solar a bit farther off, in a phone booth, most likely talking to his girlfriend Nebula.

"I'm just glad you're okay." Solar said relieved. His girlfriend wasn't at all injured during the chase with his brothers. Solar knew it was hard to be in a crime family, but it was even harder when you're dating a cop.

"Yeah, your brothers are... quite the slippery pair. I wasn't expecting you to give up your brothers loca-"

Solar shushed Nebula, carefully looking over his shoulder like he was expecting to see someone appear over him.
"I didn't mean to give you Sun and Moon's location. I didn't even think they'd be there that day. I tipped you guys off to the location of the warehouse cause I thought it would scare Sun and Moon into laying low a bit... but I guess all it did was encourage Moon."

"Sorry to hear that." Nebula replied in her usual quiet voice. Nebula wasn't sure if she should ask this next question but it had been on her mind for a while ever since Solar first agreed to be a criminal informant.
"If you don't mind me asking Solar... why are you working with the police if you love your brothers so much? Aren't you.. and please don't take this the wrong way... kind of going behind their back doing this?"

"I know I am." Solar sighed. "I love them... but this kind of life only ends one way."
Even though Nebula couldn't see it, she knew Solar made a finger gun and pressed it to his temple, simulating getting shot.

Solar continued. "I love them but... I don't want them to die. This family been through and lost too much as is. I rather have them in jail then dead. Best case scenario, Sun and Moon take the hint, we leave this life behind, and get real jobs. Worse case, they go to jail and I have to take in Dazzle."

"And worser case?" Nebula asked. She didn't like to think of the worser cases but in her line of work, the worser cases tended to be the most realistic ones.

Solar didn't even want to think of that but the worser case was always in the back of his mind, gnawing at him slowly
A constant worrying reminder that the life of crime him and his brothers lived would most likely end with their deaths.

"The worser case won't happen." Solar stated. "I'll stop them before that. Sun is already one foot out the door, I know it. Moon will be a little harder to convince."

"I hope you will be able to convince them." Nebula said softly. "Taurus wants your brothers' heads. Especially after they stole the ram horns off his car."

"Hey, he crashed into them. If he didn't want to lose them, then he should have been smarter." Solar joked, leaning against the glass walls of the phone booth.

Nebula chuckled. "It is kind of funny watching Taurus stomp around the station mumbling about his horns."

"I can imagine." Solar chuckled, imagining what Taurus must look like right now. "So, any chance I can see you this weekend? In a less official capacity?"

"Is this your way of asking me out on date?" Nebula asked. Solar could practically hear Nebula smirking down the line. "Yes, yes, it is."

Nebula hummed, contemplating it. "I would love to but Castor and Pullox need my help on another case. Next weekend maybe?"

"Sounds like a pla-" Solar jumped back when he heard someone banging on the glass he was leaning on. He already had one hand on his weapon but relaxed when he saw it was just Sun, waving and smiling at him.
"Jeez. Sun, you scared the daylights out of me."

"Sorry." Sun said through the glass. "I'm going to Terra's, you want anything?"

Solar shook his head and waved off his brother.
"Nah. Nah. Ju... just... bring me back a coffee or something."

"You got it." Sun said, saluting to his brother before walking off.

Through the glass Solar could just barely make out Sun saying over his shoulder "Tell Nebula I say hi."

Solar could hear Nebula's laughter echoing through the phone. "Sun says hi."

"I can tell." Nebula said through a chuckle. Nebula felt a tap on her shoulder and saw her Gemini towering over her, motioning for her to follow after Pollux and Castor.

She nodded and motioned for Gemini to leave. Gemini just rolled their eyes and walked away. Nebula took a quick look around the office make sure no could hear her then leaned forward and whispered into the phone.

"I gotta go, Sol. Love you."

"Love you too, Neb." Solar heard the click of Nebula's phone and their call ended. He set the phone back in the receiver and rested his head against the glass door behind him.

It was getting harder and harder to keep playing both sides of law. Solar knew one day he would have to make a choice between his family and the life he wanted and he feared that when that day came he may make the wrong choice.

He just wanted his son safe, he wanted his brothers safe, he wanted his girlfriend safe but nothing in this life was ever safe or sacred. He couldn't bear the thought of losing either of them. This was the best option right now.
Keep playing both sides till either Sun and Moon struck it big or got arrested at this point he'd take either one.

The bell above the small bakery door chimed, signaling someone was here.

"Just a minute." The sweet voice of the green and blue animatronic woman echoed from the kitchen. She tightened the strings on her apron and walked out into the main area of her bakery.

Her smile widened when she saw just who was in her bakery. "Sun!"

"Hey, sis." Sun said casually. Sun yelped as he was practically pulled over the counter and brought into a bone crushing hug by Terra.
"Sun! It's so good to see you!"

"Terra. Terra. T. Earth! Can't breath!" Sun pleaded.
Terra squeezed him tighter, it had been too long since she last saw her brother. "Aw, you'll be fine. We're animatronics, we don't need air."

"Then you're crushing my ribs." Sun replied, his system flashing with warnings to releash the pressure before he sustained permanent damage.

"Ooh, sorry." Terra freed her brother from her metal bending grip and fixed her large cloud pony tail. "So, what brings my favorite brother by?"

"I thought Solar was your favorite?" Sun teased.

Terra shrugged. "I can have multiple favorites. Like how Monty is my favorite husband."

"I'm your only husband." Monty said with a teasing grin as he walked out of the kitchen carrying a fresh tray of cremé filled cakes.

"That's why you're my favorite." Terra took one of the cakes from the tray and offered it to Sun. Sun at first rejected the offer but the moment that warm sweet scent hint his nose he couldn't resist. He quickly snatched the cake away from Terra and began to devour it.

Terra laughed at how quickly her brother devoured the cake. Terra knew everyone adored her and Monty's baking and Sun was once again proving that fact right.

"So, what brings you by, Sun?" Monty asked as he set up the remaining cakes in the display.

Sun through a mouth full of sweet cake said "Oh.. I was just...gosh this is delicious. I was in the neighborhood and decided to pop by and say hi."

"Oh, well we're always happy to have you stop by."
Terra said with a wide grin. She knew there was another reason Sun stopped by but she didn't want to bring it up.

"You sure it has nothing to do with Moon?" Monty asked, getting straight to the point.

Sun froze mid-bite and Terra leaned against the counter and glared at her husband. Monty simply shrugged in reply. "What? We both know Sun only comes here for two reasons, the cakes and when Moon is driving him nuts. So which is it today, Sun? Cake or crazy?"

Sun lowered his head and sighed. Was he that much of an open book? "Crazy." He mumbled. "Moon has this new scheme. He wants to rob another crime family's."

"What?!" Terra had heard Moon come up with a lot of crazy plans but to rob another crime family was just asking for trouble.

"Which crime family?" Monty questioned.
Sun didn't have an answer. "All he said was that it's no one we should worry about and that it will be a quick job. In and out."

"There's no such thing as a quick job." Monty scoffed.
"Especially with Moon. Remember, I was his partner in crime for years before I left 'the game.'"

Sun nodded. It was true, nothing was ever as easy as Moon said it was. In and out or quick and easy roughly translated to "We may get shot at... like a lot and have to hide out in Albuquerque for week."

That's just how things went with Moon. Always aiming for the stars but missing every single one and putting the family in danger as a result.

"I don't know what it's gonna take for him to stop." Sun said, taking a bite of his cake and throwing his hands up in the air in a animated way. "We have been shot at, attacked, and are wanted by nearly everyone in this city. I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"Then why don't you just tell Moon you want to quit?"

Quit? Terra made it sound so easy. He wasn't as lucky as her.

Sun let out a weak chuckle before taking another bite of his cake. "Quit isn't a word in Moon's vocabulary. I'm not like you sis. I can't leave."

"Well, I did. Monty did. We left and made something better for ourselves." Terra motioned to the quaint little bakery she and her husband ran together. It wasn't much but it was there's.

"But I'm not you, Terra. Moon let you leave cause he knew this life of crime wasn't for you. I'm not saying you were weak but we all knew this wasn't the life you wanted, and Moon let Monty leave cause... well... he knew if Monty died on his watch you'd never forgive him."

"Plus, I was bound to leave anyways, you just made my decision to leave quicker and sweeter." Monty said as he pulled Terra close and planted a quick kiss on her cheek which made Terra's lips curl into a smile.

"I'm not either of you." Sun sighed, running his powdered sugared covered hands over his exposed rays.
"I want to leave but if I do... what happens to Moon? I don't want him to die or get arrested that's why I stayed for so long, cause Moon needs a partner, someone to keep him grounded, someone to keep him safe and stop him from doing something crazy."

"And yet you're going to help him rob another crime family?" Monty said, pointing out the flaw in Sun's logic.

"I know.. I'm not exactly a good anchor. I want Moon to stop but I know he won't stop till we make it big. He's gonna keep taking bigger and bigger risks till we strike gold... or die trying... and I really rather not die trying."
Sun said, popping the last bit of cake in his mouth before licking his fingers and lips clean of the powdered sugar.

"Moon still has this whole fantasy of all of us on top. Kings and Queens of the world. He never wants us to want for anything like we had to with dad."
Sun understood why his brother was so determined to make them strike it big. He just wanted what was best for the family... but what Moon thought was best for them wasn't what Sun thought was best.
"I can't even blame him for wanting what's best for us... it's just..."

"You're idea of what's best for you is different from his?"

Sun snapped his fingers, pointed to his sister and nodded.
"Yes! I know what's best for me and what's best for me is not getting shot at. I just... I just want a quiet life for me and Dazzle... maybe start a business like you and Monty. Something with a little less... car chases."

"Well, what's something you would want to do if you did leave Moon's side?" Terra asked curiously, hopping up onto the counter, swaying her legs back and forth waiting for her brother's response.

Sun paused. He tried to think what he would do if he left Moon's side and got his wish to be free but the problem was... he didn't know. He never saw that future as a possible, just a fantasy he played around with in his head.
He just wanted a peaceful life for him and Dazzle.

Maybe he could help Monty and Terra in the bakery or working in a daycare? Maybe open a restaurant?

"I... I don't know. I never... I guess I never thought about it for too long. Everytime I do... I just.... stop myself cause I know I'll never get that far."
Sun sounded so defeated, it actually hurt Terra and Monty's heart hearing that tone of voice. Sun used to be so cheerful in the past but now that cheerfulness had faded.

"Sun, do you want us to talk to Moon?" Terra offered.

"Yeah, I'm sure he'll listen to us. I was his right hand man for years." Monty added, pointing to himself. Monty knew his past partnership with Moon and his relationship with Moon's sister would give him some leeway with Moon.

The thought was tempting. Very tempting, but Sun couldn't do it. As much as he wanted to leave he couldn't live with himself if Moon died when he could have been there to save him.

"I... I can't, guys. I really can't."

"Sun, yes you can." Terra pleaded.

"No. I can't. I won't. I won't let him die when I could be there to save him." Sun brushed the sugar off his rays and fixed his hat, getting ready to head out again, resigning himself to his fate.

"Sun, wait." Terra said, reaching out and grabbing Sun coat sleeve. Sun was tugged back in place by his sister. He turned around and watched as she hopped off the table and disappeared into the kitchen.

Monty stood by Sun, glancing over at the downtrodden celestial body themed gangster. Monty sighed and patted Sun on the back. "You're a good man, Sun. Better man than me."

Sun knew Monty was just trying to cheer him up, he wasn't a good person. Good people don't steal, kill, or run booze and guns. Sun was a good father to Dazzle, a good brother to Terra, Cosmo, and Solar but he was not a good man.

What Monty said was wrong but Sun did wonder what he meant by that last part. "How am I better than you?"

"You stuck by Moon. I didn't. You forget before Moon I had my buddy Foxy... and I abandoned him... and then I left Moon's side to be with Terra. You stayed. You didn't have to, you don't have to but you do." Monty placed his hand on Sun's shoulder. "That's how you're better than me."

Sun shook his head but the faint image of smile began to appear on his face. Monty's words actually made him feel a little better about himself, not completely but it was a start.
"Thanks, Monts. But don't sell yourself short. You stuck by Terra."

"And I plan to stay by her for the rest of my life... no matter how long or short it is." Monty said that last part quietly but not as quiet as he hoped. Sun noticed it.
Monty never said it out loud but him, Sun, and Solar shared the same fear that their lives or the lives of their loved ones would end suddenly most likely in a barrage of bullets.

Terra stepped out of the kitchen holding a small brown paperbag with her bakery's logo on it, filled with tasty sugary treats. "Something for the road."

Sun smiled and gladly took the small bag of treats from his sister. He opened the bag and saw the small sweet cakes. Sun's mouth was watering at this point.
Man, was he glad that he had a family who could cook.

"Thanks, Terra." Sun threw his arms around his sister and let her pull him into another bone crushing hug. Terra dropped Sun and straightened his fedora.
"Don't be a stranger."

Sun nodded. He would try to stop by again soon, hopefully for a better reason than needing a break from Moon. He turned to Monty and tipped his hat to him before sliding the counter door out of the way and was about to head to the exit when he remembered the other reason he came here.
He chuckled and turned around.
"Hey... um... I actually forgot. Can I get maybe a small coffee for Solar?"

"Sure but it's gonna cost ya." Monty said leaning against the counter. Terra playfully rolled her eyes and said "It's on the house."

"Terra, hun, we're running a business here. We can't just give away food willy-nilly."

"Monty, sweetheart, who's name is on the sign outside?" Terra said with a smirk.

Sun snickered hearing his sister's clapback to her husband's hesitant response. Monty chuckled but relented. He stepped closer to his wife, placing his large scale pattern hands on Terra's waist, pulling her closer.
"You're lucky you're cute."

"I'm adorable." Terra said with a wide smile. She lowered her head and gave Monty a quick kiss.

Sun was walking down the surprisingly empty street, not many people were out today, probably due to the grey overcast weather overhead. Which worked out in Sun's favor. Not too many eyes on him, meaning no one would recognize him.

Sun was mid-bite of one of the few remaining cakes when he heard a loud "WHOOP!" noise, nearly making him choke. He knew that sound anywhere. He heard it nearly every job him and his brother took.

The police.

"Hands in the air." The commanding voice echoed through the officer's bullhorn.

Every nerve Sun had was shot. He quickly raised his arms like the officer commanded. He and Moon had spent so long staying out of the police's sights and now all that was ruined cause he just wanted some fresh air.
All their hard work, all those jobs, all the late nights planning escape routes in case the police ever spotted them...

Wasted in an instant.

What would happen to Dazzle? What would happen to Jack and Solar? What would happen to him, Moon, and Molten?

Sun's mind ran through every possible worse case scenario.

"Close your eyes and turn around." The officer ordered.

Sun did just that. He shut his eyes and slowly turned to where the officer's voice was coming from.

"Now.. do a little dance." The officer said, sounding like he was holding back a chuckle now.

"What?" Sun's eyes immediately flew open and all his fears melted away, now replaced with annoyance and maybe a little anger for the small blue cop in the cop car.

"Aw, you suck, Cosmo."

Cosmo laughed hysterically, banging his head against his bullborn. "You should have seen the look on your face."

Sun flipped off Cosmo as he walked towards his police car. Cosmo snickered and crawled over to his passenger seat, opening the passenger side door for Sun. "Want a lift?"

Sun rolled his eyes. He supposed a ride would make up for scaring him half to death.

Sun hopped into the passenger seat, still holding tight to the bag of treats and Solar's coffee.

Cosmo's eyes widened when he spotted the cakes and coffee from Terra's bakery. "Ooh, Terra's baking. Give it here."

Sun was about to protest but before he could Cosmo snatched the coffee from Sun and starting chugging it. After a couple seconds Cosmo pulled the plastic cup away from his lips and shook his head.

"Ugh. This tastes awful."

Sun pulled the cup away from Cosmo and glared at him.
"That's cause it's for Solar, not you. You know Solar likes his coffee bitter."

Cosmo shook his head and put the car in drive.
"Coffee is not supposed to be that bitter."

"Well, that's how Solar drinks it." Sun replied.

"Him and Eclipse have the same taste." Cosmo said still trying to get the bitter taste out of his mouth.

The car ride with Sun and Cosmo was quiet, just the two brothers sitting side by side, watching as more clouds rolled in, and water droplets began to fall.

"How's Moon and Solar?" Cosmo asked finally breaking the silence.

"You sure I should tell you? You won't report us to Taurus if I tell you, will you?" Sun said half-jokingly. He knew Cosmo would never rat them out Taurus but having a brother who was a cop did add another layer of stress to Sun's life. Cosmo may have been a criminal for years before joining the force but now that he was on the force he was technically 'the enemy'.

Cosmo shook his head and laughed. "Man, if I wanted to arrest you both I'd do it myself, not have Taurus arrest you guys. We're family."

"Oh, that's good... I think." Sun said unsure how to respond. Sun cleared his throat trying to change the topic of the conversation. "So... how's things at the department?"

Cosmo let out a prolonged sigh. "Sucky. Taurus has been on one since you two stole his ram horns."

"We didn't steal them. He crashed into us and they got stuck in our bumper. Not our fault he did a stupid thing."
Sun wasn't sure if Taurus was telling people that to spare his ego or if he genuinely thought Sun and Moon stole his ram horns... okay, maybe they did but that wasn't his intention.

"Well, ever since then he's been doing nothing but trying to track you both down. He asked me and Nebula if we know anything about your whereabouts."

Sun felt a lump form in his throat when he heard that. His eyes darted towards Cosmo.
"A.. and what did you tell him?"

"That I know Jacksquat where you guys are." Cosmo replied, much to Sun's relief.
"You guys don't tell me where your hideouts are or where the new house is. So long as you don't, I don't need to tell Taurus anything."

Sun leaned back in his seat, relieved to hear that. He took off his fedora and ran his hand over his rays.
"That's good. That's good to hear."

"I heard he raided one of your safehouses. How'd he even find it? You and Moon have always been so careful. Always taking the backstreets, only moving at night, always keeping an ear out for radio chatter. How'd he find you?"

Sun wished he had an answer. He didn't know. He actually thought for one brief moment that maybe Cosmo did rat them out to Taurus but judging from how Cosmo was talking he didn't reveal anything to Taurus.

"I don't know. Moon thinks someone might have saw us but I don't know. We were always so careful."

Cosmo shrugged. "Meh. Maybe it was just bad luck."

"Or our luck is finally running out." Sun mumbled, his voice laced with fear.

Cosmo took note of the fearful undertones in his brother's voice. "You feeling alright, Sun?"

"Am I this much of an open book?" Sun thought to himself.
He brushed it off and just used the excuse his brother was a cop and knew how to read people. "Just... tired is all."

"You want me to drive you home?" Cosmo offered. Sun sat up quick as a jackrabbit and exclaimed "Nope! No. I.. no. Not now. Just keep driving."

That was all Cosmo needed to know what was up.
"It's about Moon, isn't it?"

Sun reclined back in his seat and just stared up at roof of his brother's police car. He was quiet for a moment, almost hesitant before finally responding. "Y-yeah. It's about Moon... again."

Cosmo nodded and began to drive slower so Sun would feel comfortable enough to open up to him.
"You wanna talk about it?"

Sun had already vented to Terra and Monty, he wasn't sure if he should talk his brother's ear off too but seeing his brother make the effort to listen made Sun feel like he could. "It's... I don't know how much longer I can do this, Loons. I love Moon but this is getting ridiculous. We nearly got killed by Taurus yesterday. The whole time the car was heading towards that wall all I could think is what would happen Dazzle? I... I'm tired, Lunar. I want out."

"Out?" Cosmo asked, making sure he knew what Sun meant.

"Out of the 'game' like you, Terra, and Monty. I'm done, Lunar. I want out. I can't keep doing these jobs, they only lead to nothing but stress and headaches. I want out but I can't leave Moon's side." Sun rested his head against the window and watched as the raindrops fell.

"Then why don't you just leave? Moon has Solar and Molten. He'll be fine if you leave."

Sun wished it was that simple. Maybe it was his loyalty or maybe it was some strange sense of guilt he had but Sun couldn't just leave Moon's side.
"It's not that simple, Loons. If it was I would have left by now."

"It was pretty easy for me. Yeah, you guys were mad that I went and joined the police academy but you understood I didn't want to be the bad guy anymore. I'm sure Moon will understand if you want to leave too."
Cosmo didn't understand why Sun thought it was impossible for him to leave, if Terra and him could leave and stay in Moon's good graces, why couldn't Sun?

Sun knew he had to be careful how he spoke here as to not offend his brother but also needed Cosmo to understand where he was coming from and their situations were different. "Because, Lunar, no offense but... you weren't... you weren't cut out for this life. Same as Terra. I'm not trying to discredit you both but... you both weren't cut out for this."

"And you are?" Cosmo replied, eyeing his brother up and down, seeing the clear signs of stress on his face. It was clear Sun wasn't cut out for this life either. So, why did he choose to stick around?

"I know I'm not, but if I leave what happens to Moon?"

"He has Molten. They'll be fine." Cosmo replied, still not seeing the full picture that Sun was trying to paint for him.

"That's not what I mean." Sun paused, he hated thinking about him. It always hurt when he did but he was the main reason he stuck by Moon's side for so long. To make sure he wouldn't loose Moon like how he lost Nexus.
"I already lost one brother cause I couldn't keep him safe... I'm not losing another."

Cosmo fell silent. It was starting to make sense why Sun stayed in the criminal life.

Sun continued on. "I failed to keep Nexus safe. I failed to protect him from our father. I failed to see the warning signs he was getting worse. I won't fail Moon. If I stay, I can keep Moon grounded, keep him from escalating, keep him from turning into a monster."

"You're his anchor." Cosmo said now finally seeing the full picture.

Sun nodded. "If I leave, what does Moon turn into? As long as I stay by his side, he won't escalate."
Sun paused, thinking back to the blueprints he saw for adding machine guns to the car and the plans to break into another crime family's vault.
"Well... mostly keep him from escalating."

"So, what you just stay by Moon's side until you either strike it big or die trying? Sun, I hate to be that guy, cause I love this family... but if there comes a point where you have to think about yourself for a change and what you want out of life. I don't want you to stay stuck with Moon for the rest of your life." Cosmo knew Sun was fiercely loyal, almost to a fault.
He now understood why Sun stayed by Moon's side but he also knew Sun longed for a life free of crimes, just a normal simple life for him and his daughter.
"I get what Moon is trying to do, he wants us to never have to worry about anything but he needs to stop and take a look around him. He's hurting you."

"Moon has tunnel vision, Lunar. Especially when it comes to a goal he wants to achieve. Once he has his sights set on something it takes a miracle to pry him away from it."
Sun fiddled with the red scarf around his neck, wiping the remaining sugar from his treats off his hands.
"And I am not that miracle."

Cosmo wished he could help Sun in someway but the only idea he could think of was to either arrest Moon or give him a few too many close calls with the law.
"You know... if you want... I could... maybe....tip off some friends of mine. Maybe give Moon a scare? Is he planning anything?"

Sun was a bit taken back by Cosmo' suggestion. Scaring Moon straight might work... the idea, much Terra and Monty's offer was tempting. Very, very tempting, but could he do it?

Sun almost went along with it but just as he opened his mouth, he snapped it shut again. He shook his head.
"No. I can't do it, Loons. As much as I want to leave... I'm not going behind his back."

Cosmo wished that Sun was maybe just a little more callous. He hated seeing Sun martyr himself just for his brother's sake. "Just... let me know if you change your mind, kay? I'm always here."

"I know. Thanks, Lunar." Sun said with a smile.

"Cosmo." Cosmo corrected him. "It's officer Cosmo."

"Well, to the cops you're Cosmo, to me you'll always be little Lunar." Sun said, patting Cosmo on his head, squishing Cosmo's police hat. Cosmo rolled his eyes and swatted Sun's hand away. "Screw you." Cosmo said jokingly.

"Love you too, Cosmo." Sun leaned back in his seat. Despite still being stuck in the same situation he felt a little better after talking with his sister and brother, like someone was actually listening to him for a change.
Things were starting to look up, even the rain had stopped and the clouds started to disappear.

Sun felt a smile tugging on his lips.

"Hey, isn't that your girlfriend?" Cosmo said, pointing to someone ahead of them.

Sun blinked a few times in confusion. He didn't have a girlfriend. He looked ahead and saw who Cosmo was referring to. Just a few feet ahead of them was the colorfully dressed purple haired animatronic woman Roisebell. She was helping her friends carry some crates into their place of business.

"Haha. Very funny." Sun said sarcastically.

After a moment of silence Sun motioned for Cosmo to pull to the side. "Pull over."

"What?" Cosmo said with a smug smile.

"P-p.. just pull over." Sun stammered. Cosmo chuckled and pulled the car up to the side walk. He put the car in park and watched as his brother unbuckled himself rather quickly and exited the vehicle. Sun took a quick glance at himself in the mirror attached the car, making sure he didn't have any sugar or frosting on his face at all.

Sun straightened his jacket and cleared his throat. He glanced over at Cosmo and saw Cosmo giving him this dumb smirk.

Sun rolled his eyes and tossed Cosmo the last of the remaining cakes he had. "Thanks, Cosmo."

Cosmo caught the cakes and immediately began to devoured them like a wild animal. Dear gosh, Terra and Monty's baking was the best.

Sun briskly walked over to Rosiebell and her friends.

Rosiebell spotted out of the corner of her eye Sundrop.
"Well, hi there, Sun." Rosiebell's cheerful greeting echoed through Sun's non-existent ears. Sun couldn't help but smile hearing Rosiebell's sweet voice however that smile faded when he heard the voice of Rosiebell's co-worker Gomer.

"Hey, it's Sundrop Celestial, one of the Celestial boys from the Celestial crime family! how you been?!"

Sun frantically tried to shush the aging gator. Gomer laughed and walked past Sun. "Relax, there's no one around to here. You're safe, kid."

Sun let out a relieved sigh and stood there for a moment watching them all work. "Hey, guys. H-hey, Roise. What'cha guys doing?"

"What does it look like we're doing, lugging heavy crates." Chica, Roisebell's feathered co-worker replied.

"Oh.. oh, yeah. Haha." Sun chuckled nervously. His gaze completely ignoring Gomer and Chica, only focused on the clown themed animatronic. When Roisebell went to pick up a much heavier looking crate Sun stepped in to carry it for her. "Here let me."

"No, Sun, you don't have to do that."

"Oh, it's no big...deal." sun grunted, nearly dropping the crate but Roisebell helped him catch it and helped him carry it over to the growing pile of crates. Both Sun and Roisebell both couldn't help but notice how their fingers gently brushed up against the others as they carried the crate.

Sun sat the crate down and stretched, cracking his back after the hefty crate he helped carry. "Jeez, Roise, what's in there?"

"Um... could either be booze, silverware, or plates." Roisebell said, watching Sun roll his shoulders.

"That's some heavy silverware." Sun chuckled nervously. Sun watched as Roisebell merrily skipped back to the truck. Sun followed after her, helping her and her friends move the crates. Sun could hear the whispers of Gomer and Chica, probably discussing Sun's rather obvious crush on the clown animatronic. He just pretended not to hear them but it was a little hard to when Chica was doing impressions of him and Roisebell, pretending to make the other swoon.

Sun shook his head then whipped his head back when he heard Gomer's input which was a thinly veiled innuendo. Sun was about to walk back over and slap Gomer upside the head but Chica already did that for him.

He nodded to Chica as a silent for of thanks before returning to assist Roisebell with the remaining crates.

Sun had already moved a few crates when he realized two of Roisebell's friends and co-workers Freddy and Roxie weren't here. "Hey, where's..."

Before Sun could even finish his sentence he heard the sound of a metal door opening and closing. Out of the back of the bar stepped a defeated looking Freddy and Roxie. Sun watched as Roisebell, Gomer, and Chica's attitude soured and their smiles flipped into frowns.

Roisebell set down her crate and walked over to Freddy and Roxie. Very little hope in her eyes. She folded her hands together almost as if she was begging.
"Please tell me there's good news."

Freddy took off his hat solemnly and shook his head.
Roisebell stomped the ground and grumbled under her breath. She looked distressed, they all did.

"I... is something going on?"

They all turned to face Sun. Did he not know? They all thought he was aware of their situation.
"You haven't heard?" Roxie asked, surprised.

"We're broke." Gomer's shrill voice echoed through Sun's audio receptors. He shook his head in disbelief.

"What?! How?! You guys do great! You're always packed when me and Moon stop by."

"Sun, that's on the weekends." Rosiebell replied.

"We're always booming on weekends but as of late..."

"We're floundering right now." Roxie admitted.

"Freddy and Roxie went in to try and convince our business partners to give us more time but it looks like we're up for sale now." Roisebell lowered her head, her purple pink tails following her face. Sun watched as the animatronics around Roisebell all shared a look of defeat or despair. Chica kicked and dented a trash can. Roxie went to console Chica while Freddy and Gomer discussed possible alternative revenue for the business.

Sun had been friends with Roisebell and her friends for a while now, so to see them at risk of losing their livelihood made him want to do something to help them, but what?
He wasn't rich, all the money he did have went into caring for Dazzle or the house. So where would he get the money to help them?

Ah, no. He was actually considering agreeing with Moon's stupid robbery plan. Ugh.

"D-don't panic yet. I'm sure something will happen. You guys will either find another way to make money or maybe something will come through. Keep your chins up."

Sun said trying to reassure Roisebell and her friends.

Roisebell lifted her head and gave a small smile back. She had just a little bit of hope left. "Yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe something will come through in the end."

Chica shook her head. She knew money wasn't just gonna fall out of the sky for them. They weren't that lucky.
"We need miracle."

"Let's rob a bank!" Gomer suggested excitedly, practically bouncing from the thought.

"Let's call that plan B." Freddy replied.

"More like plan J." Chica added.

"Doh, y'all never let me have any fun." Gomer whined.

"Gomer, your idea of fun would land us in jail." Roxie said, knowing the elder gator wasn't the most... sane of the bunch.

Roisebell snickered at her friend's banter. That little smile of hers made the decision for Sun easier.
"What if I..."

Sun bite his lip. No, he wasn't gonna do it. He wouldn't do. He couldn't...

Sun tapped Roisebell on the shoulder and motioned for her to follow him. Once Sun was sure Roisebell's friends couldn't hear them. He leaned next to her and whispered
"What if I found a way to get you the money?"

"What?!" Roisebell exclaimed. Sun shushed her. Roisebell's friends all turned their heads towards the whispering two. Roisebell held up a finger, silently asking her friends to give her a minute. They all nodded and gave them their privacy but they were very curious what the two were talking about.

Sun continued. "What if... me and Moon found a way to get you guys the money you needed? N-no promises we could get it but if we could... would you use it?"

Roisebell was unsure how to respond, she knew Sun was a very generous friend but to offer to get them the money to keep the business afloat was awfully generous... but she wasn't sure, knowing Sun and Moon that money would likely not be clean.

"I.. I don't know, Sun. I.. it wouldn't get tracked back to us, would it?"

Sun shook his head. "No, not if me and Moom are careful.. but this is just a... 'a maybe' I can't promise anything but if Moon and I could somehow get the money, would you take it?"

Roisebell was silent, nervously nibbling on her purple lip.
She knew it was wrong and she didn't even know how much money they needed to keep the bar afloat... but the offer was tempting, extremely so.

Roisebell nodded. "I would." Then she sputtered and corrected. "We. We would."

Sun smiled. "Good. J-just wanted to know."

Roisebell smiled back at Sun. She never really noticed it before but Sun's smile was actually quite reassuring. It made her feel like everything might work out.

"Ahem."

Roisebell and Sun pulled themselves out of the trace they had each other in and turned their heads towards Roisebell's friends who were watching them with shared smug smirks.

Roisebell cleared her throat and fixed her hair ties quickly.
"Well, I gotta get back to work. See ya, Sun."

Roisebell waved by to Sun as she went to rejoin her friends. Sun waved back to Roise. He knew what he had to do now. He turned around and walked quickly down the street, going back the way he came.

He couldn't believe what he was doing. Was he really that weak for a girl in clown makeup?

Yes. Yes, he was.

Moon was sitting on the couch next Solar just admiring the ram horns proudly hanging on their wall.
"What do ya think?" Moon said with a proud smile.

Solar tilted his head a little to the right and hummed in an unsure manner. "I think it's crooked."

"What? I.. it's not crooked." Moon tilted his head just to be sure... darn it, it was!

Moon sighed. "Shit."

The front door flung open and there in the doorway stood a determined Sundrop. "Moon... when we pulling this heist?"

Moon nearly dropped his cup. Did he hear that right? Sun actually wanted to be a part of this heist?
Moon didn't know what caused this change in Sun but he wasn't complaining. He smiled wide and laughed in an almost victorious manner.

Solar just stared in disbelief. Sun wanted to rob another crime family? "Great. Sun is turning into another Moon." Solar thought to himself. He sipped his drink and prepared for the very long night ahead of them.

Moon hopped off the couch, ran to his brother, and pulled him in for a hug. "Oh, brother, you're gonna love this!"

Chapter Text

Sun, Moon, Molten, and Solar surrounded the dining room table, plans scattered across the table. A giant white top-down sketch of the building they would be breaking into.
Figurines of Sun, Moon, Solar, and Molten were placed at different points of the sketch.

Moon used a ruler to point at the different locations of the map. He swatted the ruler against his palm, creating a large smacking noise that echoed through the room.

"Alright, here's the plan. I'm only gonna say this once so listen up."

Moon pointed to the figurines of Solar and Molten.
"Solar and Molten will arrive before us at exactly nine pm right before the guard shift change. Solar will wait in the car while Molten sneaks out of the car and enters through a vent on the side of the wall."

Moon used the ruler to push the figurine of Molten further into the building. He grabbed a blue marker and drew a quick circle around where the vent would be.

"Got that, Molten?"

Molten nodded.

Moon then turned to his brother. "Sun, you and me will arrive at one pm. Solar will distract the guards while you and me sneak in, using Molten as a makeshift ladder and using the vents to get around the building."

Moon pushed the figurines of himself and Sun towards the figurine of Molten, then did the same with the figurine of Solar but stopped when the figurine of Solar was halfway to the vent.
"You, me, and Molten will use the vents to travel through the building till we reach the vault. Once at the vault you and me will hop out while Molten hides out in the vents to take the money, deal with any surprise guards, or make a quick escape if needed."

Moon picked up the figurine of him and Sun and placed them at the front of the vault, then placed a small toy minecart full of fake gold coins, jewels, and gold bars and wheeled it in front of them.

Sun finally spoke up "Um... Moon, out of curiosity, how much money are we stealing from the vault?"

Moon tapped the ruler against his chin, humming, calculating how much money they could get away with stealing. "If we work fast... maybe... five hundred thousand."

"Shit, Moon." Solar said with a chuckle.

"F.. five hundred thousand?" Sun's eyes widened. Five hundred thousand dollars split between the four of them was still a lot of money, plus they would still have enough to play around with later. Who knows maybe this could be the final score? The last job they ever do?

"Five hundred thousand." Moon repeated. "Of course, this is just a drop in the bucket but it's a start. This should keep us afloat for a while then we'll have to find some other big score to pull off."

Sun frowned. He shouldn't have gotten his hopes up. Of course this wasn't the final score. He fooled himself with the "One last job" belief once again.
Oh, well. As long as Roisebell and her friends got the money that's all he cared about.

Moon then moved the figurines of him, Molten, Sun, and Solar to the small car toy representing their vehicles.
"Then we grab all the money we can, hoof it back to the cars, drive home, and live in the lap of luxury for the next three months till the money runs out."

Moon smirked and sat on table, twirling the ruler in his hand. "Any questions?"

"Just one." Solar asked.

"Shoot." Moon said pointing the ruler towards his goggle wearing brother.

"Who are we robbing?" Solar asked. "You've told us about this vault, told us about the plan, but you haven't told us who we're robbing."

Solar had a point. In Sun's attempt to help Roisebell he completely forgot that he still had no idea which crime family they were robbing. That was kind of an important detail. All Moon told him was that it was quote "No one innocent" but that really didn't narrow it down.
"Yeah, who are we robbing?"

Moon fell silent. His blue fingers nervously skittered across the ruler in his hand. "Um... well, it's complicated."

Complicated is the word Moon usually used when he didn't want to reveal something or the situation was far more messy then he cared to admit.

"Moon, seriously, who are we robbing?" Sun asked again.

"Yeah, I'm not robbing a serial killer." Solar said, leaning against the table.

"She's not a serial killer." Moon replied, only to cover his mouth when he thought he revealed just a little too much information.

So the crime boss they were robbing was a woman?
That narrowed it down a bit but it still didn't tell them who they were robbing just that it was a woman and that she wasn't a serial killer. Sun did find it odd that Moon didn't even want to reveal the crime boss' gender, like that itself would reveal the identity of who they were robbing.
Sun was starting to get more suspicious of who they were robbing.

"It's a she?" Solar asked, curiously, tilting his head curiously.

Moon nodded nervously. "Yeah. You know.. crime is gender neutral." He laughed nervously. He could not let them find out who they were robbing, he knew if they did, he would never be forgiven.

Solar's eyes narrowed on Moon. Moon wasn't telling them something, something that they should know but Moon was keeping it from them.
This was starting to sound bad.
Solar was half-tempted to call up Nebula and have a police car just make a couple rounds around the building to scare Moon out of the plan.
Little did Solar know Sun had a similar train of thought, he was tempted to call up Cosmo and have him circle the block of this building a few times to scare Moon straight but Sun knew he wasn't just doing this for himself anymore, he was doing this to help Roisebell and her friends, so against his better judgment he would just go along with the plan, didn't matter who they were robbing just as long as he got the money.

"Who know what... I don't care. Let's just get this money." Sun said sounding cold almost calculated but in reality he was more shut off, pushing down every emotion and part of him that screamed that this was a bad idea.

The tone in Sun's voice surprised Moon but worried Solar. Moon saw it as his brother finally trusting him and his judgment but Solar saw this as confirmation that this had gone too far that now Sun was falling into this same trap as Moon. The thought to call Nebula was growing stronger.

"Alright, gentlemen, let's get this show on the road." Moon said excitedly, tossing the ruler onto the table, knocking over two of the figurines.

"I have a question." Molten said.

"Go ahead, Molten." Moon replied.

"What does the goblin represent?" Molten asked.

"What?" Moon, Sun, and Solar's eyes fell back to the table and saw two large random goblin toys now on the table.

"What th-"

"HI!" Jack exclaimed as he hopped out for his hiding spot under the table, wearing a plastic knight helmet.

"DOH! SON OF..." Moon jumped back and held his chest, taking a deep breath to calm his racing mechanical heart. "Jeez..."

"Hi, Jack." Solar replied much more calmer than Moon did.

"Can I use the table now?" Jack asked, bouncing excitedly in place.

"Yeah, sure, Jack." Solar grabbed their plans and Moon's figurines, freeing the table for Jack.

"Yeah! Goblin time!" As Jack began to play with his goblin and knight toys, Moon, Sun, Molten, and Solar walked towards the living room.

Once Moon was sure his heart wasn't gonna burst out of his chest, he smoothed out his turtleneck, turned to his crew and said "So, gentlemen, you know what to do. In a few hours, we strike."

"That sounds like a bad idea." Nebula's voice echoed through the phone.

"I know." Solar replied, nervously tugging on the phone cord. "I don't like the idea of robbing some random crime family either but Moon seems set on the idea and the worst part is so does Sun."

Nebula was surprised to hear that. "Sun? Your brother Sun? Sundrop Celestial wants to go along with one of Moon's plans... willing?"

"I'm just as surprised as you." Solar sighed, leaning against the glass wall and rubbing his temples. He could feel a tension headache coming on or whatever the robotic equivalent to a tension headache was.

"This is exactly what I was afraid would happen. I can't have Sun losing himself to this life. I'm not gonna let that happen. This won't be another Nexus situation."

"So that's why you called me. You want me to arrest Sun and Moon?" Nebula asked, fully willing to do it if Solar asked but wanting to be sure this is what Solar wanted.

Solar fell silent. The line was quiet for a moment before Solar spoke up and replied in an unsure tone "I... I don't know. I rather have them in jail than dead but... I don't know. I'll call you tonight and give you the location if I change my mind."

"So, you're going along with this?"

"Someone has to keep them in check." Solar replied, curling the phone cord around his finger.

"You know they're not kids, Solar. You shouldn't have to keep tabs on them." Nebula knew Solar loved his family deeply, they gave him something he desperately needed but that's why it hurt so much to see them risking their necks night after night chasing a goal that seemed too far out of reach.

"I know... they're adults. They're gonna make their own stupid decisions... just the decision they make may also result in their deaths. I don't want that. I don't want Earth and Lunar to lose another brother. I don't want Monty to lose his best friend. I don't want Dazzle to be an orphan again... I.. I don't want any of that." Solar's words sounded desperate almost defeated. He knew he couldn't control what his brother's did and that scared him half to death.

"And I don't wanna lose you, Sol." Nebula finally said, her voice still quiet but with a weight to it.

Solar froze right then and there. He had been so focused on his own fears he never took the time to ask Nebula if she feared the same would happen to him.
"You think I'm gonna die?"

"It's hard not to think that, Solar." Nebula admitted. "You run around almost every night with your brothers, committing crimes, getting chased by the police, my friends, and shot at by them. Did you really think I wouldn't fear that you might wind up dead with them?"

"No. I-I.. I guess didn't realize that." Solar stuttered. "Sorry, Neb."

A quiet sigh echoed through the phone line.
"Just don't get yourself killed tonight, Solar. You still owe me a date tomorrow night."

And with that the call ended. Solar slammed the phone back into its receiver, covered his face and groaned.
When did this life get so complicated?
It used to be easy but now he had to fear for his brother's lives, fear that Sun would become like Moon or another Nexus and now he had to live with the fact he was making his girlfriend worried sick that he would end up on a slab next to his brothers.

"When did life get so complicated." He groaned. Then a knock echoed through booth causing the glass to shake and Solar to jump back in fear. It was Moon.

Solar held his chest and shook his head. "You almost gave me a heart attack, man!"

"Sorry," Moon replied, his reply was slightly muffled due to the glass but Solar still heard it. "Just checking on you. Sun and Molten are getting the car packed. We leave in another two hours. You up for this?"

Solar could say no. He could stay home, call the cops, and let the situation work itself out... but he knew he couldn't. He couldn't sit ideally by while his brothers maybe died out there or became the worse version of themselves.
He already lost one brother, he rather not lose anymore.

So, he nodded. "Yeah, I'll be there in a minute."

Moon gave him a thumbs up right back and walked back towards the house. Solar let out a deep sigh before letting himself out of the phone booth, mentally preparing himself for whatever happened tonight.

Night had fallen on the city. Moon watched through his binoculars as the afternoon guards began to walk towards their vehicles, readying for the shift change.

They had to act fast. Moon with two fingers motioned for Molten to move quickly. Molten hopped out of the car and darted towards the vent. He stealthily hopped behind a large pile of crates that thankfully hid most of him. Molten unraveled his wirey metal fingers and stuck them between the grates of the vent cover. With one quick tug the vent cover was removed, Molten quickly slipped into the vent and placed the vent cover back in its spot before the guards even entered their vehicles.

From the car Sun, Solar, and Moon watched as the old guards' vehicles pulled away, replaced by the new guards shiny black cars. One was human, one was animatronic, both holding tommy guns with a revolver with a pistol at their hips just in case.

The guards took their place at the backdoor and garage, preventing anyone from entering... or so they thought.

"Why didn't we just rush in with Molten?" Sun asked wondering why they themselves didn't use the opportunity with Molten.

"Cause, Sun, it's best to wait a few hours for the guards to be tired and off their game. Once they are, Solar will distract them and Molten can sneak us in. Plus, it gives Molten the opportunity to scope the place out and get rid of any guards inside." Moon explained.

"Oh, yeah, send me to distract the tired guys with guns." Solar chuckled, only finding his own joke half amusing. He thought it was a little unfair that he had to deal with the guys with guns. He told his girlfriend he'd be careful and that he wouldn't die tonight and now he had to deal with armed gangsters.

"Wait. 'Get rid of any guards?'" Sun asked confused and worried. "What do you mean by get rid of any guards?"

"I mean get rid of them. Like..." Moon slide his finger across his neck, simulating someone getting their throat slit open. Sun's eyelids flew up when he heard that.
"You told him to kill the guards?! B-but they're innocent. They're just doing their jobs."

Moon just stared at Sun. "Sun, those are criminals. They work for a crime boss. They've killed people before."

"SO HAVE WE!" Sun snapped back.

"Yes, but we're different." Moon replied returning his eyes to the binoculars.

"How so?" Solar asked.

Moon pulled his eyes away from the binoculars and rocked his head back and forth, trying to figure out how exactly they were different from the gangsters in front of them.

"Well..." Moon fell silent. He couldn't actually think of anything that separated them from the criminals in front of him. He tossed his binoculars aside, grab the wheel and put the pedal to the metal, driving away, only to loop around the building and parked across the street. The garage still in view.

Solar shook his head, trying to stop his spinning from the quick move Moon just pulled off that was clearly an attempt to mask the fact he had no defense... then Solar spotted it. Up ahead, just a few feet away, near a flicking streetlamp was a blue police box. A direct line to the cops.

The idea to call Nebula and the cops wiggled it's way back into Solar's mind. He could call them and get this whole thing called off or more likely get his brothers arrested.
He didn't want it to come to that... but the idea was there.

It was tempting. He could leave this life behind, run away with his son and Nebula, live a normal life, not have to worry about Sun, Moon, or getting shot at anymore... but could he really betray his brothers like that?

Sure, he hated watching his brothers continue down this dark path but was he willing to risk them rotting behind bars and Sun maybe never seeing Dazzle again, just to keep them out of trouble?

Solar placed his hands on his lap and just stared at the police box, physically close but mentally so far.

A few hours passed, it was currently twelve-fifty-nine am. Sun was asleep in the backseat and Solar was resting his head on the dashboard, his rays pushed flat against it.
The moment Moon's watch flicked to one am. He crawled to the backseat and shook Sun a few times.

"Sun. Sun, it's time. Let's go."

Sun mumbled something quietly and tried to swat Moon away like a fly. "Not now, dad. I wanna sleep."

Moon shook Sun once more finally startling him awake.

"Huh?! Wha-what?"

Moon tapped his watch. "It's 1am, Sun. Time to strike. Let's go get rich."

Sun sat up and watched as Moon grabbed his revolver, loaded it with bullets and spun the revolver, listing to it click into place before coming to a stop.

Moon holstered his gun and then grabbed Sun's, loading it and handing it to him. Sun stared at the silver gun in his brother's large hand and pushed it back, shaking his head, saying "I'm not killing anyone, Moon."

Moon switched his sights from his brother to the gaurds guarding the door and then back to Sun.
"Sun, there might be more armed guards in there. If Molten even misses one of them, we need to be prepared."
Moon used his large blue thumb to pull the hammer of Sun's revolver back before flipping it in his hand and offering the gun to Sun again.

Sun shook his head, pushed the gun against Moon's chest and said with a now more stern tone in his voice.
"No, Moon. I'm not shooting anyone."

Moon stared down at the gun in his hand and rolled his eyes. He flipped the cylinder out and shook all the bullets out, dropping them to the car floor. "Fine." Moon grunted.

"Just... don't get shot." Moon said sounded defeated. Sun knew Moon was just trying to keep him safe but while Sun may be willing to go along with this crazy scheme he wasn't willing to take anyone's life, especially someone just trying to do their job.

Moon leaned over, grabbed a satchel bag, and then tapped Solar on the shoulder, Solar lifted his head glancing away from the police box finally.

"Solar, you know what to do."

Solar glanced back over at the police box off in the distance, then back to Moon and nodded.
"Yeah. I do."

"Good, let's role." Moon hopped out of the car shortly followed by Solar and Sun. Moon and Sun darted across the street while Solar followed slowly behind them, taking a quick glance at the police box now farther behind them.
Moon peeked around the corner of the wall, seeing one of the guards yawn.

Moon reached into the satchel bag and handed Solar a empty beer bottle, a beat-up coat, and some dirty colored make up. Solar threw on the coat, grabbed the empty bottle sort of wishing it wasn't empty so he could drink away his conflicted feelings, Moon began to apply the dirty make up to Solar's face, smudging it making it appear like had stumble on falling a few times. Moon wiped his make up covered hands on Solar's coat to make it appear dirty as well.

Moon patted Solar on the back and gently pushed him towards the guards direction. "Now go out there and act like a drunken hobo."

Solar rolled his eyes. This was definitely going down in his book as the stupidest thing he had ever done. But it was for the family after all.
Solar pulled down his goggles, pretended to take a swig of the bottle and stumbled towards the guards.

The two guards had beem awake for a few hours now, all they wanted was to be home and in bed but their boss called them and she wasn't exactly an easy woman to say no to. She either threatened you with blackmail or batted those pretty eyes of hers at you and you were puddy in her hands that's how she had so many cops on her payroll.

The two just wanted a normal night of peace and quiet and instead they were met with a drunken robot staggering towards them.

"Ooooh, whad da ya do with drunken sailor? What da ya do with drunken sailor? Ooh... I renember the vest. Haha."
Solar sang in his convincingly drunken tone, stumbling and staggering against the wall, nearly knocking over some trash cans in the process.

The one human guard groaned. He just wanted a quiet night and now he had to deal with this. "Wwhhhy?"

The animatronic guard sighed. "Just lucky, I guess."

Solar stumbled towards the guards keeping up the drunk act. "H-hey, y-you fellas wouldn't happen ta..ta have a twenty I could borrow? I... I need a refill."
He shook his clearly empty bottle of booze.

The animatronic guard pushed Solar back a bit, clearly annoyed by the presence of the drunken robot.
"I don't have any money, man. Go home."

"Ahh, coome ooon. T-the bar guy won't let me back in without... paying."

The human guard rubbed his face and joined his robotic partner, turning his back to the garage and the vent above it where Molten was hiding.
"Look, dude, we aren't gonna give you any money. You're clearly drunk, I have to pick up my kids from school at three pm, and it's my night to make dinner so can you hurry up and stumble into someone else's alleyway?"

While Solar continued to argue and barter with the guards Sun and Moon rushed over to the vent, making sure their steps were slowly and quiet to avoid being spotted.
Molten peeked between the metal bars of the vent and saw his bosses. Molten carefully removed the grate and stretched his wirey arm out to Sun and Moon to give them a lift. Moon stepped into Molten's palm and let Molten pull him up, once Moon was in the vent with Molten, Molten reached out and held his palm out for Sun. Sun hopped into Molten's palm, during Sun brief travel up his foot accidentally kick the lid of a trash can, causing it to fall landing on the ground a crash.

The two guards whipped their heads around and spotted the trench coat wearing Sun themed robot getting lifted up long metal wires.

"What the?!" The human guard exclaimed. Sun threw his hands up his hands in surrender as the guards raised their guns.

Solar thinking quickly smashed the bottle over the human guard's head causing him making his drop his gun. Solar quickly grabbed the human guard and pressed the broken bottle against the man's throat just as the animatronic guard switched targets, now aiming his gun at Solar and the guard he was using as a human shield.

"Drop the gun and your friend's neck stays in one piece."

The animatronic guard fiddled with the trigger, weighing his options.

Solar could see the guard's expression shift to a more stern and serious one. He either didn't buy Solar's bluff or worse didn't care.

Just before the robotic guard could fire Molten dropped Sun and stretched his arm, grabbing the animatronic guard by the head and crushing it.
The robot guard's body dropped the floor, lifeless, his optics hanging from his crushed skull.

The human guard gasped in shock and fear watching his robotic cohort fall to the cold hard ground lifeless.
Solar slammed the human guard facefirst against the brick wall behind them, knocking him out cold and breaking his nose in the process.

Solar sighed and stared at the broken bottle in his hand. Man, he wished this thing was full, he could really use a drink right now.

Molten pulled his oil covered hand back and offered it to Sun for him to take it. Sun just stared in horror for a moment.

Moon squirmed his way past Molten and held his hand out to Sun. "Sun, let's move."

Sun hesitated for a minute wondering if he was really gonna do this after he had witness such a brutal murder... Sun ultimately decided he already had a one-way ticket to Hell, why get off the train now?

Sun reluctantly took his brother's hand and let him pull him into the vent.

As Sun squirmed past Molten and traveled deeper into the vent with him, Moon shouted to Solar. "Hey, Solar, keep an eye on that guy. If he wakes knock him out again and if he fights back... you know what to do." Moon said his voice laced with the implication of murder.

Solar look to the broken, bloody nose of the man now laying in the trash. He turned his gaze back to his brother and gave him a very reluctant nod. "I know what to do."

Moon nodded back and then began to crawl backwards, following his brother and Molten deeper into the building.
Solar sighed and let himself slide down the brick wall behind them. Solar lifted his goggles and wiped the dirt colored makeup off his face. He stared at unconscious guard laying in the trash next to him who's eyes seem fixed on him despite being unconscious.

"What are you looking at?" Solar grumbled. He gently pushed the unconscious man's face away from him and lowered his head, wondering why he let himself get dragged along into these situations. Sure, he loved his brothers but as callous as it sounded love had its limits and Solar was inching closer to his.

Inside the vents Molten, Moon, and Sun crawled, with every move they made a thump sound was made.
Normally that would alert the guards that someone was here but Molten had taken care of all the guards hours ago, Sun could tell when the stench of death hit his nose.
Sun peeked through the vent grate above the room and saw out of the corner of his eye a single shoe, the only thing that remained of an unfortunate guard.

Sun shook his head. He knew he was doing this to help Roisebell and her friends but was it really worth his immortal soul? Well, it was too late to turn back now... literally they took so many twists and turns that he was afraid he'd get lost if he turned back now.

"How much farther, Moon?" Sun's voice reverbed and echoed off the metal around them.

Moon slid a piece of paper out from between his overall straps and unfolded it, it was a small version of the vent blue prints. Moon tapped the circled area ahead of them.
"Just a few more feet, Sun. It's right in front of us."

"You said that fifteen minutes ago." Sun said through a tired sigh.

"And I was right fifteen minutes ago..." Moon replied.
"We just got a little turned around is all." Moon mumbled to himself.
"Trust me, brother, all this will soon be worth it." Moon added.

"It better be." Sun said quietly.

After another couple minutes Sun, Moon, and Molten were right above the vault.
Moon stood up the best he could in the small vent and kicked the vent grate a few times till it broke off and fell to the floor below. He turned back to look at his crew with a big wide smile. "You ready to be rich?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Sun replied as he jumped to the floor below, followed by an excited Moon, and slithering Molten.

Sun landed on all fours before bouncing right back up to his feet, Moon landed with much more precision and Molten landed on the ground with a thud, looking like a pile of wet spaghetti, once Molten straightened himself out and fixed his brown fedora he turned his attention to the large bronze colored vault door in front of them.

Moon rubbed his hands together and let his smile curl into a wide grin. "This is it boys. What are you gonna buy with your share?"

"I want a new hat." Molten replied tugging on the brown fedora on his head that was attached by another metal wire.

"Ah, Molten, simple as always." Moon chuckled as he marched towards the vault door and went straight to electronic keypad of the vault. "What about you, brother? What are you gonna do with your share?"

Sun was unsure if he should tell his brother about what he would use share for, he may be a friend of Roisebell too but Sun wasn't sure how Moon would react if he told him that he planned to give all his share to Roisebell.

"Umm... ya know... stuff."

Moon chuckled at his brother's response.
"Ah, keeping it a secret, I see? I get it. I get it."

Sun watched as Moon typed in the code to the vault. Sun was a little confused, he didn't remember Moon saying he stole or figured out the code to the vault. Sun halfly expected Moon to order Molten to rip the vault door of its hinges but instead Moon just typed in a code.
Sun wanted to ask Moon how he even knew this code but the question died in his throat when the vault door popped open and Molten pushed it aside, revealing walls of gold bars, coins, and large stacks of dollar bills.

Sun's jaw dropped and Moon cackled victoriously. He grabbed a cart and rolled it towards stack of bills.
"Grab what you can guys!"

Sun stood there in disbelief, still shocked by the sight of all that money and that they actually pulled off a successful heist for what felt like the first time in a long time. He rushed over, grabbed his own cart and rode it into the vault.

Outside Solar stared into the night sky, wondering what his brothers and Molten were doing in there right now. He wondered if they had made it to the vault or if they were currently dealing with a guard or two that Molten missed.

Solar hated this! He hated not knowing if his brothers were okay! They lived in an era where they had these new fangled television, new ways to watch media, and even new ways to entertain oneself but yet no one had figured out a way to keep communication with someone unless there was a payphone nearby. Gosh, this world was weird.

Solar rubbed his face and sighed. He lifted his goggles and stared at the unconscious man next to him. Solar hated hurting people, he wasn't like his worser half Eclipse, he was more like Sun.
Yes, while Solar could hurt someone and look the other way it didn't mean he enjoyed it. He only did it to keep himself or his family safe.

But right now, he wondered if they were safe?
If any of them were safe doing this anymore?
Sun was actually up to commit a crime instead of protesting against it like usual. Something had to cause this shift in Sun.
Solar wasn't sure if it was some third-party causing this shift in Sun or if Sun had finally embraced their criminal roots, either way Solar didn't like it.

He knew close by was a police box, a way out, an exit for all of them. Well, more like himself.
He knew one call could end all this but he also knew that if he made that call Sun and Moon might wind up rotting in jail for a while... but honestly, that sounded better than them rotting in a coffin.

Solar turned to the unconscious guard and jokingly asked him "What would you do if you were in my shoes?"

After a few seconds of silence and arguing with himself mentally Solar made his choice. Solar stood up and briskly ran across the street careful to avoid the few oncoming cars.
Solar ran straight to the large blue police box, despite his brisk movements he felt like he was stuck in concrete. He was about to ruin his brothers' lives but he would also save them in the process.

Solar threw the door to the police box open and picked up the phone, the phone automatically connected to the police station. Solar closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"911 what's your emergency?"

"Get me officer Nebula."

Sun and Moon had loaded maybe close to eight hundred grand onto each of their carts. Sun didn't know how much Roisebell and her friends needed to keep the business afloat but he was sure this was more than enough.

"We really did." Sun said with a big smile plastered on his face. He was still in disbelief by how well this heist went, despite the dead and unconscious guys outside this was actually going far better than Sun could ever hope.
He looked to his brother who was currently counting the stack of bills on his cart. Sun never thought he would do this but for the first time in a long time he looked at his brother with a look of admiration.

Moon caught that look and smiled. He made his brother proud and that might be worth more to him than all the money in this vault right now.
"Alright, let's pack it up boys. Let's get out of here before it gets any later."

Sun nodded. He was just about to start wheeling his cart away when he heard something that spooked him. He was a sudden clink noise. Sun turned in the direction where the noise came from and saw a simple wrench on the ground. Sun let out relieved sigh and walked over to the wrench.

Moon had his gun already draw aimed where the noise came from. He followed far behind Sun while Molten stayed by the cash.

"What is it?" Moon asked, his finger nervously resting on the trigger.
Sun snickered and picked up the wrench. He turned back to Moon and waved it in front of him.
"It's just a wrench."

Suddenly Sun was sent to the floor by a sudden strike to the head with another wrench.

"Sun!" Moon cried out. Before Moon could fire off a shot he heard Molten scream in pain as he was tazed. Moon turned around just in time to see Molten fall to the ground unconscious and see just who knocked out Molten.
Moon was hoping not to see that face, either face to be honest. He heard the firmilar sound of twin pistols clicking their hammers into place.

Moon turned around and saw just who he feared to see. He raised his hands in surrender, flicking his wrist, pushing the cylinder of his gun out sending the bullets dropping to the floor. "Look, I.. I can explain." Moon stammered.

Moon however met a similar fate to Molten getting tazed and sent to the floor by the woman behind him.

"Are you sure about this, Solar?" Nebula asked, her voice quiet but with an edge to it. She knew this was a tough choice to make that could have irreversible consequences.

Solar nodded. "I'm sure. Get here as soon as you ca-"

Solar heard the door behind him open and when he turned around his eyes widened in surprise.
"This is who we're robbing?!" Solar thought to himself.

"Look, I di-" Before Solar could explain himself he was punched in the face and then tazed in the neck by his attacker. Solar slumped against the police box wall and fell to the floor.

Nebula's voice echoed fearfully through the phone line.
"Solar?! Solar?! Sol?! Talk me! What's happening?"

A female voice echoed down the line warning Nebula.
"No cops or your boyfriend dies."

Nebula froze in fear. She didn't know what to do, she could tell just by the woman down the line's voice that she meant business and even talking to Nebula right now was an act of generosity.

"No cops." Nebula repeated back.

The line went dead, leaving Nebula with nothing but fear for what could be happening to her boyfriend and his family.

Sun hissed as the burlap shack was removed from his head, it took his eyes a second to adjust to the harsh lighting but once they did he turned to his right and saw Solar clearly still in pain from the shock and Molten who was stuck on what looked like one of those giant magnets they lifted cars with, to Sun's left he saw his brother Moon meeting his gaze with an apologetic one.

Sun looked around the room, the only source of light in the room was the small overhead lamp above them. He tried to see if he could spot their captor but it was too dark around them.
"Look, please just let us go. I... we didn't know it was your vault! We thought it was empty, we swear! Look, whatever you want we'll give it to you! Please just let us go! I got a daughter eight years old, she can't grow up without a father!"

Moon rolled his eyes "Jeez, Sun, why not give her our home address and your social security number while you're at it."

"Well, excuse me for not WANTING MY DAUGHTER TO GROW UP WITHOUT A FATHER, MOONDROP!"
Sun yelled, his fury with Moon growing the longer they were tied up. He should have never gone along with this stupid plan even if it was to help a friend.

"Oh, my gosh, I almost forgot how screechy your voice was, Sun." The female voice echoed through the darkness.
Sun froze. He knew that voice.

He looked at Moon with a rage he had never felt before. He had been angry at Moon before but this was unlike any other. "Moon... tell me that isn't who I think it is."

"Oh, it is." The female voice said with a smug tone to her voice.

All the lights filled on, revealing just who Sun feared to see. Wearing a black dress with a tux jacket thrown over it, her spiked bracelets shining in the light, her fishnet stockings on full display as she crossed her legs.

Yep. It was Clipsey.

"Hey-ya, boys."

Sun whipped his head back to his brother and yelled "You had us rob our cousin?!"

"Hey, Cuz." Solar said, making his best attempt to wave at his more successful cousin.

"Don't 'Hey, Cuz' me. All of you got a lot of explaining to do." Clipsey said, flicking a knife in her hand.

"Look, Clipsey, I had no idea it was your vault, none of us did." Sun tried to explain.

Clipsey nodded and signaled for Sun to stop talking.
"I believe you, Sun. Well, most of you. I don't buy that Moon didn't know. After all..."
Clipsey stood up and walked towards Moon, her large black heels clicking against the floor as she made her way towards her cousin.
"He knew the code to my vault. That takes intention. That implies you wanted to rob me."
Clipsey pressed the knife against Moon's neck. Moon's gaze shifted from Clipsey's angry eyes to the knife pressed to his neck that was definitely sharp enough to cut steal.

"O-okay, Cuz, look I'll admit I did know the code to your vault and I did know it was yours..."

Clipsey grabbed Moon by the throat, the knife now held at her side. "You try to steal from your cousin?"

"That's low, Moon, even for you." A new voice called out. Standing close by was the blue tux wearing Moonie, their other cousin.

"Hey, Moonie." Moon called out. "How's Sunny?"

"She's good. Her and Roxas just got back from a trip to Paris." Moonie replied.

"Oh, Paris is lovely this time of year."

Clipsey smacked Moon upside the head, hard. "Focus, Moondrop. Small talk ain't gonna save you now."

"Look, Clipsey, we just needed the money. We're kind of on hard times right now." Moon said trying to defend his actions.

"So, instead of... oh, I don't know, asking for a loan, you rob your family." Clipsey's gaze narrowed, she tapped the knife against her thigh, contemplating whether or not to stab Moon right now.

"Look, Clips, we just... we just needed a win. I saw opportunity and took it. I-I'm not saying that's an excuse or even a good one but.. we need the money."

Clipsey sighed and began to circle Moon like a predator about to pounce on its prey.
"You know, Moon, some people are cut out for this life like me, Moonie, and Eclipse and others... like you, Solar, and Sun.. well, aren't."

Moon took a little offense to watch his cousin just said about him and his crime family.
"We've done this for years, Clipsey. You act like we're rookies or something. May I remind you, we started committing crimes long before you, Moonie, and Sunny did."

"Well, that was a pretty rookie move robbing family like that." Clipsey snapped back. "I know the saying "No honor among thieves" exists but dang, Moon, I didn't expect you to be so dishonorable."

Moon knew he had no defense, even for a criminal, robbing family was a pretty shitty thing to do.
"Okay, I'll admit that was pretty dirty of me."

"Pretty dirty of all of you, actually." Clipsey said, now circling her other cousins, the knife in her hand now on display, shining in the light.
"I mean I expect this kind of dirty move from Sven Ivanoff, not you Sun."

Sun lowered his head in shame. He knew it was a bad idea to go along with Moon's plan but he wanted to help his friend.
"I... I didn't want to do it. I was just... just trying to help a friend."

Clipsey hummed as he nodded. "That sounds more like you, Sun. A good boy." She patted Sun on the shoulder before moving over to Solar. Her knife now pressed to Solar's neck.
"And you, Solar, you're usually a smart guy and yet I find you helping them rob me. Your cousin. Did you find none of this a little strange? I bet he didn't even tell you who you were robbing."

Solar glared at Moon before nodding to Clipsey's question.
"I... I thought he was just trying to protect us, not hide the fact we were robbing our family." He said through gritted teeth.

"It's not like we robbed Terra or something." Moon snapped back.

"No, you just decided to rob one of this city's biggest crime bosses." Clipsey sneered.

"Medium size crime boss." Moon corrected. "You're not the biggest. Yes, you're decently sized but you're not the big-"

Clipsey pressed her knife harder against Solar's neck causing him to tense up. "Moon, shut up!" Solar said through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Moon said in a panic. "Look, Clipsey, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have robbed you. I... I saw an opportunity, we haven't had any luck in the last few months, we were bleeding through our savings so I... I made an executive decision."

"And you chose to rob us?" Moonie said still in disbelief that Moon would pull such a stupid move like that. He was usually the smart one.

"I know. I know. It was dumb but..."

"But nothing." Clipsey replied. "You not only robbed me, you broke one of my guard's nose and then killed the other."

Sun had completely forgotten about the murder that Molten committed early. A simple sorry wasn't gonna fix that.

"You're lucky you didn't crush his personality chip otherwise I'd do the same to you." Clipsey threatened, her knife now moving from Solar back to Moon.
"Now cause you all robbed me I had to beat the crap out of ya and scare the shit out Solar's girlfriend."

Solar then remembered before he was taken he was on call with Nebula, she was probably worried sick. He turned to Clipsey. "Did you say anything to her?"

Clipsey tapped the knife against her chin and nodded.
"Yeah... I think my exact words to her were..."No cops or your boyfriend dies."

Solar glared at Clipsey and tried to break from his restraints. "You bitch!"

"Watch your tongue, Solar, before I cut your voicebox out."
Clipsey warned. She returned her gaze to Moon who looked confused. "Why were you on with Nebula?"

Before Solar could think of an excuse Clipsey snapped her fingers bringing Moon's attention back to herself.
"Hey, focus, cheeseboy. You're still in the hotseat."

Moon pulled his eyes off Solar and brought them back to Clipsey.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't take you all and dump you in acid?"

Sun, Solar, and Moon all tensed up. What could they say to her to get her to spare them. "Clipsey, please, I got a kid. So does Solar."

"My animatronic guard has kids, you know, the one Molten crushed the head off." Clipsey said her rage now turning to Molten.

Okay, playing the child card wasn't gonna work here.

"Clipsey, please, this was my fault not theirs. Take me, not them." Moon pleaded. Moon may be crazy enough to rob his family but he wasn't crazy enough to drag his family down with him. He cared about his brothers too much for that.
"Please, Clipsey, let them go."

Clipsey stared into Moon's eyes trying judge whether or not he meant his words. Usually she would believe Moon's words especially when it came to his family but after robbing her, she put nothing past Moondrop. While he did care for his family Clipsey also knew Moon was incredibly selfish. Afterall he did keep dragging Sun along with him even though it was plain as day that Sun wanted out.

After a few more moments contemplation and a quick glance from her sister Clipsey relented and pulled the knife away from Moon's neck, raising it in the air before swinging down with a quick strike, cutting the ropes that held Moon back. Moon had his eyes closed just in case that strike made contact with him, he rather not see his death coming but much to his relief, it was a freeing strike not a fatal one.

Clipsey then cut Sun and Solar's ropes before pulling a small remote out of her pocket and deactivating the magnet that held Molten in place. Molten stumbled free and straightened his hat.

"Get out." Clipsey ordered, stabbing her knife into a nearby crate. "And I better not see anyone of you again for a good long while."

Moon nodded, grabbed his and Sun's fedoras before bolting out towards the door. Sun, Solar, and Molten followed close behind Moon.

"Thank you for not killing us!" Sun yelled over his shoulder.

"You're welcome." Clipsey replied in an unenthusiastic tone.

"See you guys at Thanksgiving." Moonie yelled over her shoulder.

Moon and everyone had just made it to the exit, Moon had his palm on the doorknob when Clipsey yelled "Wait!"

They all froze, panicking that Clipsey may have changed their mind about sparing them. Molten morphed his hand into a makeshift spear just in case Clipsey tried something.

Clipsey grabbed Moon's gun, their keys and took at least five hundreds from a stack of cash nearby. She walked over and slammed it all against Moon's chest.
"Something for your troubles." She said with a smirk.

Moon holstered his gun, handed Sun his fedora, took the keys and the money before tipping his hat to Clipsey and leaving the room. Sun was the last to leave as he heard Clipsey say to him as he walked away
"If I were in your shoes, I'd consider a career change."

Sun chuckled weakly. "Yeah... I'm contemplating it."

Once outside Moon quickly flipped through the bills as they walked to the car. "Hey, at least we got some money out of it, right, guys?" Moon chuckled as he nervously showed off the bills only to be met by the harsh gazes of Sun and Solar.

"Let's just go home." Sun said marching towards their car that Clipsey was generous enough to take with her when she kidnapped them.

Moon chuckled nervously before pocketing the money.
He knew he was in for it... and honestly, he couldn't blame them for being mad at him. He was mad at himself.

Chapter Text

The car finally pulled up to the house, it was now four am in the morning. Solar put the car in park and turned to glare at his brother. In the back seat sat Molten and Sun. Sun had been glaring at Moon through the rear view mirror the whole car ride home and Molten just sat there nervously waiting to see who would be the first to have an outburst.

Moon opened his mouth, about to speak when Solar slammed his fists on the dash.
"Clipsey, Moon?! You had us rob Clipsey! A.k.a the Eclipsed woman a.k.a the Mistress a.k.a. THE REASON OUR TOWN'S LAKE IS LITTERED WITH BODIES! You had us rob Clipsey?!"

Moon was shrunk into his seat before quietly muttering.
"I.. it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"A GOOD IDEA?!" Sun yelled.

"I didn't think she'd be in town. I heard through the grapevine she was away on business, I thought she wouldn't miss a couple grand since she makes so much so I saw opportunity for us and I took it." Moon admitted, nervously playing with the money in his hand.

"Well, you heard wrong!" Sun yelled. Sun held his head in his hands, he couldn't believe he talked himself into pulling off this heist, he wanted to help his friend and instead he nearly got killed by his cousin.

"I know, I'm sorry..." Moon replied. He tried to speak only to be yelled at by Solar. "Sorry?! Sorry doesn't begin to cut it, Moon. You nearly got us killed, Nebula is probably worried sick about me, and we are probably never allowed back in any of Clipsey's territory every again!"

Solar was so furious with Moon that the black rays that usually hid behind his faceplate began to emerge, taking their place next to his normal orange ones.
"Do you have anything to say to yourself, Moon?!"

The words died in Moon's throat. What could he say? How could he make any of this better?
Not only did he almost get his brothers killed but he betrayed the family by trying to rob their cousin, how do you make any of that go away with a simple apology?

"Give me that!" Solar snatched the money Clipsey gave them out of Moon's hand. Solar quickly counted the cash before taking four hundred and offer a single hundred back to Moon. "I'm taking this for me and Nebula. I got apology to her. Ooh, she's probably worried sick about me."

Sun snatched the single hundred away from Solar before Moon could grab it.
"Nope. This is mine. I deserve this after the stupid stunt you had us pull!" Sun unbuckled his seat belt and hopped out of the car, followed shortly by Solar.

"Guys, wait..." Moon stopped himself before he could leave his seat. He rested his head against his fists and shook his head. He couldn't do anything to fix this.
Nothing he could say or do would be able to fix the stupid stunt he just pulled, Sun and Solar had every right to be mad at him, and truth be told, he was mad at himself.

"What was I thinking?!" Moon groaned. "That was such a dumb idea."

Molten reached over and tapped Moon on the shoulder. Moon peeked over his shoulder to face his large bear friend. "I thought it was a good idea."

Moon appreciated his friend's attempt to make him feel better but Moon knew Molten's words didn't really mean much. He had his own motives for saying that.
"Molten, you think every idea I have is a good one, plus you just want an excuse to crack someone's skull."

"True. I do like the feeling of someone's skull shattering in my hand like glass." Molten said in a rather sinister tone, clenching his metal fist imagining the feeling of someone's head in it.

Moon just stared at Molten for a moment before unbuckling himself and leaving the car. His eyes still fixed on the metal bear who seemed to be enjoying that thought a little too much.

It was 11am when Sun woke up. He was still tired from the late night he had last night but he had to get ready for the day and whatever new chaos Moon decided to bring them, plus Sun had to unfortunately give Rosiebell the news that he failed to get her the money.
Sun had never wanted to quit so badly before. Sure, he and Moon had there bad days and bad jobs but yesterday's was the worst!
Moon had made them do some pretty bad things but last night was the worst!

Robbing their cousin?! Sun knew Moon was willing to stoop low but he didn't think he'd stoop that low! That seemed like a move their dad would have pulled.

The thought of that made Sun shiver. Moon was starting to go down that same dark road their father traveled and if that was the case, Sun had to get out of this life before Moon dragged him along into the darkness.

Sun stumbled into the living room, spotting Moon who was sitting on the couch trying to avoid Sun's gaze and Solar who was tinkering away at something at the kitchen table.
"Morning." Sun greeted his brothers.

"Hey." Solar didn't even lift his head. He was too focused on the project in front him. He had to keep his mind off things otherwise he might strangle Moon for last night's stunt.

Sun looked around searching for his daughter, who came barreling out of the kitchen. "Daddy!" Dazzle exclaimed.

Sun's mood immediately lifted when he saw the smiling face of his daughter. "Hey, sweetie."

Sun scooped Dazzle up in his arms and spun her around the room. Dazzle's laugh echoed through Sun's audio receptors. It was amazing how a simple laugh could make Sun's spirits lift after such a terrible night.

"You slept for a long time. You missed breakfast." Dazzle pointed out.

Sun shrugged and placed Dazzle back on the hardwood floor. "Yeah, daddy had a... rough night last night."
Sun said sparing Dazzle all the details.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Dazzle asked, looking up at her father. "I hate when I have nightmares."

Moon glanced over at Sun wondering what he would tell Dazzle. Moon's gaze was met with Sun who judging by the look he gave him was still pretty mad about last night. Sun returned his sight to his daughter, putting on a smile and ruffling her hair. "Yeah, it was just a really bad nightmare."

"Oh, I'm sorry you had a nightmare." Dazzle hugged her dad's legs tight. Sun smiled and bent down a bit to put his arms around his daughter. "Thanks, Dazzle. Y-you go play with cousin Jack."

Dazzle let go of her father and nodded. "Okay." And off she went, her hooves clicking against the hardwood as she ran off to find Jack.

Sun watched his daughter run off with excitement, he had almost completely forgotten he was angry at Moon... only to be reminded when he heard Moon spoke up and said
"I'm sorry."

"No, you're not." Sun said turning to face his shame filled brother. "If you were sorry, you wouldn't have done it. If you were sorry, you would have never dragged us along on this suicidal caper. If you were truly actually sorry, you would stop now."

"Sun, we can't stop now. We need the money." Moon stood up, still shameful but now trying to plead his case.

"Moon, how much money do we have stashed around here right now." Sun asked.

Moon fell silent.

"How much, Moon?" Sun asked more stern this time.

Moon ran the calculations through his head for a moment.
"Maybe... eight.. nine grand by last count."

"Then we're fine!" Sun exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. He was so frustrated with Moon right now. He wanted nothing but to slap the faceplate off Moon right now but held back cause the kids were still in the house and didn't need to see their uncles turn to violence.

"We don't need to keep committing all these crimes! We're fine!"

"But the money will run out eventually." Moon shot back.

Sun groaned and ran his hands over his rays in a futile attempt to calm himself.
"Oh, my gosh! It's always eventually with you!"
Sun began to speak in a mocking impression of Moon's voice "We'll "eventually" run out of money! We'll "eventually" stop committing crimes, Sun. We'll "eventually" be able to take a that vacation, Sun. Eventually! Eventually! Eventually!"

Moon tried to cut into the conversation, saying
"Look, I know it's taking some time, Sun..."

"It's not just "taking some time" it's never ending! I can't keep doing this same song and dance, Moon! I'm tired, I'm stressed and we came a little too close to death last night."

"Clipsey wasn't gonna kill us. We're family. Family doesn't kill family." Moon's rebuttal was quickly killed by Solar who added
"Family also doesn't rob family, Moon... and you did."

Moon knew Solar had a point, he turned back and just shooed Solar off like a bug.
"Yeah, yeah, just focus on your... whatever you're building."

"Don't need to tell me twice." Solar said, pulling his goggles back down, trying his hardest to ignore his brothers' argument.

Moon turned back to Sun who stood there arms crossed, glaring at him with an intense anger Moon had never seen before. It was almost unnerving.

"Sun, I know I messed up... I know... I can't undo what I did."

"Then stop. Stop all this crime family crap! We almost died last night, Moon! And the night before that! And two nights before that! I can't keep going through all these life or death scenarios, Moon. I can't... Please, Moon, let's just... quit while we're ahead."

"S-Sun, we're not ahead. The nine grand can only last so long." Moon rebuked.

"Then we'll get regular jobs like Terra or cousin Sunny!" Sun shouted. How was this even an argument anymore? The options were clear as day.

Leave the crime life behind or die!

"Sun, that's not gonna sustain us. We can't live paycheck to paycheck."

"You and Solar are smart, we'll figure it out!" Sun snapped back.

"Sun, we can't!" Moon yelled.

"Why not, Moon?! Give me one good reason why we can't? One good reason why we can't leave all this stuff behind. Tell me, Moon. What's the reason?"
Sun was so done with Moon and this argument, if Moon couldn't give him a good reason why they couldn't quit the criminal life he was walking straight out the front door.

Moon knew he had no good excuse or reason they couldn't. The only thing that kept them bounded to this life was Moon's own fears. He tried to speak but the words got lost in his throat.

After a moment Moon finally spoke up.
"We... we just can't, Sun. We need this."

Sun shook his head and scoffed.
"Why am I not freaking surprised? What else did I expect? Why did I expect anything different from you?!"
Sun said as he marched towards the front door.

"Hey, I rather not spend my Sunday getting yelled at by my brother when the situation is far more complicated than you understa-"

Sun spun around when he heard Moon say what day it was.
"Wait?! What day is it?"

Moon was confused for a brief moment.
"Sunday..."

"Crap!" Sun exclaimed, grabbing his trench coat, fedora, and scarf. "I'm late!"

"Late? Late for what?" Moon asked confused then it dawned on Moon. "Oh... visitation day."

"I gotta go." Sun muttered through his scarf. He threw the door open and ran out it. Moon shouted as Sun ran down the street. "We'll talk about this later! J.. just don't tell him about any of this! I don't want to hear his snarky-ass replies!"

Sun was too far in the distance to hear. Moon sighed and slowly pushed the door close.
Moon didn't know why he didn't tell Sun why he felt like they had to stay in this life, then again Moon was never all that comfortable talking about his feelings.
It was an unfortunate trait he picked up from their late father.

Solar picked up the project he was tinkering with and walked towards the garage.

"Where are you going?" Moon asked, glancing over his shoulder.

Solar stopped in his tracks, lifted his goggles, and turned to face his brother. "Oh, you don't want me here right now. I got my own things I want to say to you but I'm not gonna say it with the kids around. We'll talk later when Sun's home, I've calmed down, and you've hopefully reconsidered your life choices."
Solar threw his goggles back down and walked into the garage, leaving Moon alone with his thoughts.

Moon had no idea what he was doing wrong.
He was trying to help and support the family.
He didn't want them to have to want for anything ever but it seemed like the more he tried to help the family, the worse things got.

Moon just walked over to the couch and threw himself on it. Moon let out a prolonged groan.
"What am I doing wrong?"

Sun hopped out of the taxi and walked to the guarded gate that surrounded the mental health facility.

Golden mind sanctuary was the name of the facility.
Sun was the only Celestial sibling who still came by. Terra had only visited twice and one of those times their sibling called for her specifically. Cosmos stopped visiting long ago cause it made him look bad in the department and raised too many questions. Solar refused to visit at all despite constantly being called for, and Moon... well... it's better if Moon and him aren't in the same room.

Sun gave a fake name like he usually did, Sundrop Celestial couldn't been seen around here without alerting the cops so today Sun was known as "Anatole." He entered the facility. Despite the rough outside, the inside was quite nice. The nurses and doctors were pleasant and always tried to help the patients.

Sun's footsteps echoed down the corridors as he passed by patient room after patient room. He kept traveling further down the corridors till he came to where they kept their more violent patients. Sun glanced at the security guards and tilted his head, signaling for them to open the door. One of the guards nodded and used their keycard to open the doors, once the dark blue doors were unlocked Sun pushed past them and walked into the more dangerous side of the facility.

Sun read the numbers of every patients' door till he came to that all too firmilar door.

"May... may I?" Sun asked. The two guards guarding the room shared a confused glance before returning their gaze to Sun. "You sure about that? He's feeling a little... stabby."

Sun nodded. "Yeah, he won't hurt me... hopefully."

The guards eyed the trench coat wearing animatronic, despite the large tan coat they could tell under it was a very skinny robot who could be easily snapped like a twig if they tried. They simply shrugged and mumbled "Your funeral" under their breaths.

Once the door was unlocked one of the guards yelled into the room "Hey, Nex! You got a guest! Don't stab this one in the eye!"

Sun gulped when he heard that part about the eye. It seems like Nexus hadn't lost his skills with a blade despite being in this place for so long.

The guards carefully opened the door, allowing Sun to slip into his brother's room.

As the large steel door shut behind Sun he took a quick look around his brothers room to see if he had made any changes to it since the last time he was here.
Many rough sketches were stuck to the white patted walls, pictures Nexus drew of himself.
One was of Nexus laughing, standing over the bloody corpse of their father Sven Ivanoff.
Another was of Nexus wearing a crown, sitting on a throne, sipping from a chalice while three cops that resembled officer Taurus, Gemini, and Nebula bowed to him.
And lastly a slightly torn sketch of Nexus and the family before it all went down hill.

Sun's eyes were pulled away from the sketches when he heard the noise of someone clearing their throat. Sun jumped back a bit and watched as his brother chuckled.

"Hey, Bro-bro." Nexus said with a wide, unhinged, toothy grin.

"H.. hey, Nexus." Sun said with a weak smile, holding his chest. Jeez, Sun wasn't sure if Nexus was that scary or if the stress of criminal life was starting to give him heart problems... maybe both.
"H-how are things going?"

"Meh. Same old, same old. Boring food, boring patients, boring guards. I did stab a guy with a spork so.. that was cool, I guess." Nexus said with a sinister chuckle. Nexus began to walk around his already small cell made even smaller by the fact Sun was now standing in it.

"So, what brings you by, brother?" Nexus asked, his voice was slightly raspy. It wasn't always like that, it was just the voice Nexus put on to intimidate the guards and to differentiate himself from Moon.

"Just visiting." Sun said. Sun was about to sit down on Nexus' bed when Nexus turned around. "Stay off my bed." He said in a warning tone.

Sun nodded, lifting himself off Nexus' bed. Sun rubbed the back of his head nervously and continued to walk around Nexus' small cell. Sun pointed to the drawings on the wall, trying to make conversation with Nexus.
"I... umm... I like the drawings. Th-these new?"

Nexus turned to face the wall where he kept his drawings hung. Sun noticed how Nexus seemed to smile in an oddly proud way.
"Yeah, a few of these are new." He replied. "Drew these during free time. You should have seen the looks the guards were giving me when I drew these." Nexus laughed.
"Good times."

It always made Sun happy to see his brother happy. Even though Nexus and him weren't on the best of terms, he was still his brother. "Make any new friends?"

Nexus laughed at Sun's question. "Friends? Sun, this isn't a daycare, it's a freaking insane asylum. Does it look like I want to make friends here?" Nexus began to struggle in his straightjacket, trying to free his arms from their restraints but after a few seconds of trying he eventually gave up.

Sun hated calling this place an insane asylum. It wasn't, it was a place for the mentally ill to get better. Calling this place an insane asylum meant Sun thought Nexus was crazy, which he didn't. He just thought he needed some help.
"I-it's not an insane asylum, Nexus. We talked about this, it's a mental health facility."

"Meh, potatoe, patatoe." Nexus replied, sulking around his room. "So, what's going on outside?"

Sun wasn't sure if he should tell Nexus about last night's near death experience or the stupid idea he went along with.
"Umm... not much. I visited Terra and Monty, they're good, business is good. I saw Cosmo, he's good."

"Ah, the traitor is doing good? Good for him."

"Lunar isn't a traitor." Sun said, his voice stern. "He just... wanted something different out of life. Same as Earth. They both weren't cut out for the criminal life, Terra was always the kindest of us and Cosmo always felt wrong committing any crime so him becoming a cop wasn't that much of a surprise."

"So, he left the family and joined the fuzz. Ha. Sun, that's the definition of the word "traitor."

"Well, you don't have much room to talk either, Nexus."
Sun said, pointing out Nexus' hypocrisy. He knew that was a little harsh to say but it was true.

"Oh, I know I'm a hypocrite," Nexus replied. "The difference between me and Lunar though is that I can at least admit it."

Nexus and Sun both fell silent. The silence hung heavy in the air for a moment before Nexus spoke up, his voice less raspy and chaotic, much more soft almost pleading.
"How's... Solar? He ask about me at all?"

Sun knew Nexus wouldn't like the answer. It was the same answer he always gave.
"N.. no, Nexus, he hasn't asked about you at all."

Nexus' neutral face fell into a angry frown. He rolled his eyes and sat down on his hard mattress.
"Of course. Why would he ask about me? It's not like I was his brother, best friend, and partner in crime for close to a decade. No, why would he?"

"H...he does miss you, Nexus. He's just hurting still."

"After five years, Sun? Get real." Nexus sneered.
Nexus knew Solar hated him, he just wished he had the guts to at least say it to his face.

"How's the cop he's seeing?"

"Nebula's fine." Sun replied. "She's probably gonna be a little mad at him after last night but they'll work through it."

"Why would she be mad at him? What happened last night?" Nexus asked, curiously. Nebula and Solar practically clung to each other and rarely felt any negative emotions towards the other so something serious must have went down for her to be mad at him.

Sun realizing his mistake tried backpedal.
"Um... you know, typically relationship bumps in the road. Nothing major."

"No. You're lying." Nexus stood up, marching slowly towards Sun. His tall figure and shadow overcasting Sun. "Something did happen, didn't it?"

"Well... just.. something didn't go to plan... is all and..."
Sun tried to back away but ended up bumping into the door behind him. Nowhere else to go.

"Sun, I don't like being lied to. You know that. Now, tell me, what happened last night?" Nexus demanded.

Sun glanced over and saw his way out. A rope that was connected to a bell that was meant to be used by the patients to ask for food, meds, or amenities... or in this case a visitor who desperately needed a way out.

Sun tried to stealthily reach over and grab the rope but Nexus slammed his elbow against the rope, preventing Sun from grabbing it. "Sun..." Nexus' voice was cold and callous. "What happened last night?"

Sun swallowed the non-existent spit in his mouth, sighed, and began to explain what happened last night.

"Moon said he had an idea... he found some vault with a ton of money in it, turns out it was another crime family's vault."

Nexus chuckled in disbelief. "Moon wanted to rob another crime family? Which was it?"

"Someone we knew. Someone close to us, let's just say." Sun said, hinting at who it was but not revealing exactly who it was yet.

"Ah, building suspense for the reveal, I see. I get it. I get it." Nexus said, wandering back over to his bed once he was sure Sun wouldn't try to make a break for it.
Sun hugged his arms and walked further into Nexus' cell.

"I didn't want to do it at first."

"As per usual." Nexus remarked. He knew Sun tried to avoid committing crimes whenever he could.
He used to fake sick or being busy in the past to avoid committing crimes but with combination of Moon risking his life and Sun wanting to keep Moon from going too far, Sun a lot of the time now had no choice but to go along with Moon's stupid plans and commit crimes.

"But I had to cause... Rosiebell and the gang are losing the bar."

"Wait? They're losing the bar?" Nexus asked, genuinely surprised. "I thought The NovaFrost was doing well?"

Sun shrugged, still unsure how Rosiebell and her friends' business was failing. "That's what I thought too but apparently the investors are pulling out or something like that and... I thought I could help."

Nexus chuckled. "Oh, I see. You wanted to be her knight in shining armor and save her business."

"W-what? N-no. I... Rosiebell is my friend. I just wanted to help her." Sun sputtered.

"Oh, please, Sun. We all know about your little crush on Rosiebell. You've been eyeing that clown since before I got thrown in here." Nexus laughed. "Never knew you had a thing for girls in clown makeup but I guess we all have our types."

Sun waved off Nexus' remark and continued the story.
"I wanted to help Rosiebell and her friends, so I agreed to help Moon rob the vault. When we got there all was going good until we got caught by the person who owns the vault..." Sun closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was still mad and in disbelief that Moon would stoop to something that low.
"Turns out... the vault belongs to Clipsey."

Nexus burst out laughing, rocking back and forth on his bed hysterically. "Oh, you gotta be joking me. He robbed Clipsey?! Clipsey! Our actual successful cousin Clipsey? The same chick who has a quarter of the police force in her pocket? That Clipsey?"

Sun reluctantly nodded. "The very same."

Nexus just laughed and shook his head. "And you all call me crazy."

"Oh, believe me, I'm calling him that now. I mean I knew Moon was willing to do some bad things but... this?! This was too far."

"Feels like something dad would have done." Nexus said, casually, crossing his legs and leaning back on his bed.

"Yes!" Sun exclaimed, pointing to Nexus. "That's exactly what I told him! But he just gave me that look. You know the one. That look that says "Don't compare me to that monster."

"Little hard not to when he's taking a page out of dad's playbook." Nexus added.

"I know, right?!" Sun groaned and sat down next to Nexus.

Nexus was honestly surprised Sun sat so close to him. If Nexus wanted to he could choke Sun out with his legs or rip out the wires on the back of his head with his teeth but he didn't. It was honestly kind of nice to have someone close to him again... willing this time and not cause it was their job.

"I love Moon, I do, he's my brother... but I can't keep doing this, Nexus. I can't keep playing the part of the moral anchor especially when he's starting to not listen to me. I can't just... stand idly by and watch him get worse."

"Then just call the cops on him." Nexus said casually.

Sun actually laughed at Nexus' reply.
"Oh, yeah, call the cops on Moon. No, I'm not gonna do that. He's my brother. Family doesn't rat out family."

"You did it to me." Nexus glared at Sun.

Sun knew Nexus still felt like the whole family had betrayed him but the situation was far more complicated than just a simple act of betrayal. "I... we didn't call the cops on you, Nexus. We called a mental health facility cause you had a full on breakdown after you caved our dad's brains in with a sledgehammer."

"And I still never got a thank you." Nexus joked, trying to hold back the anger and pain in his voice.

Sun just shook his head and continued the conversation, not wanting it to derail into another conversation about how the family 'betrayed' Nexus and left him to rot in here.
"Point is... I can't betray Moon. Yes, I want out but I'm not gonna send Moon up the river just cause I want to live a normal life. It wouldn't be fair to him."

"And it's fair to you that he keeps dragging you into these hairbrain schemes of his?" Nexus sat up quickly and began to stomp around his room, occasionally struggling with the arms of his straightjacket.

"He drags you and Solar into some cockamamie get-rich-quick-scheme, not caring about his safety, or yours, and doesn't care what happens to Dazzle or Solar's son if anything bad ever happens to any of you. Does that sound fair, Sunny?"

Sun fell silent. He looked at the white cushioned walls of Nexus' cell. He saw a couple more drawings Nexus had hanging up. A doodle of the facility burning down, a sketch of himself back in his old mafia outfit, and a sketch of what appeared to be the most of the family with devil horns and an evil smile, most prominently Moon who looked like the actual devil.

Sun found it ironic. Sun used to defend Moon and say he was nothing like their father but now... staring at this doodle of Moon hanging on the wall, Sun couldn't agree more with Nexus' sentiment. "No... it's not fair."

"See? Maybe you aren't as lost as I thought." Nexus chuckled. "Moon is only gonna get worse, Sun. Take it from me, I didn't start out like this."

Nexus' words hung in the air. Sun knew Nexus had a point. Nexus wasn't always a psychopath, he used to be so nice, but after years of being their father's enforcer, he broke. Nexus gave into his darkest urges.
He fled into insanity cause it was an exit from the disaster that was his reality. Nexus got worse over the years and it seemed like Moon was going down a similar path, not exactly like Nexus' path but still one Sun would prefer he not travel down.

"He's just...gonna... get... worse." Nexus said, slowly making sure Sun soaked up everything he was saying to him. "And he's gonna drag you and Solar down with him. Now, I see you and Solar's life ending in two ways..."

Nexus revealed his now freed hands which caused Sun to jump back in fear. How did Nexus break the restraints of his jacket? He did it so silently Sun didn't even notice. He must have done this at least a couple times before if he was able to do it that quietly.

"Now, pay attention, Sun. You and Solar's lives can only end two ways." Nexus said, showing two long purple clawed fingers. "Way one... Moon drags you and Solar into another heist which either gets interrupted by some other crime family or the cops... either way there's a shoot out and Moon, Solar, and you end up dead. Leaving Dazzle and Jack without their parents, Lunar and Earth down three brothers, and Nebula loses her boy-toy. Earth falls into a depression, Lunar throws himself into work to ignore the pain, and Dazzle... well... poor Dazzle... she'll have to grow up knowing her dad would still be alive if he wasn't such a pansy ass bitch who couldn't put his foot down."

Sun stayed silent as Nexus painted a picture of a dark future where he and his brothers died, leaving Dazzle heartbroken and Terra and Cosmo left to pick up the pieces.

"Or way two..." Nexus continued. "Way two... you three keep going down this dark path Moon forces you on. You get worse, Solar gets worse, Moon gets worse. You all get worse. You become the worst version of yourselves. Maybe Solar breaks Nebula's heart or maybe Moon orders him to kill her cause she could become a problem, who knows? But point is... you all start doing things you swore you never do. Moon starts taking more pages out of dad's playbook, Solar becomes cold and distant like Eclipse, and you start killing innocents and abandon Dazzle..."

Sun jumped up at Nexus' comment about him abandoning Dazzle. "I would neve-"

Nexus held up his hand and motioned for his brother to sit down. "Let me finish..."

Sun slowly sat back down, boiling with rage at Nexus' hypothetical future for him and his daughter.

"Maybe if you, Solar, and Moon did become the worst versions of yourselves you would become successful. Who knows maybe you would finally be rid of officer Taurus? Maybe you'd own Clipsey's territory? Maybe you'd all run this whole city like dad used to? But... it's all gonna come to an end some day. Now, picture this... it's years down the line, Dazzle has lived with auntie Earth and Uncle Monty for years now since you're too busy with the 'family' to take care of her. Solar and Nebula have long since broken up, maybe he killed her to keep her quiet, who knows. You and Solar get called into Moon's large office overlooking the whole city. He says there's something you all need to discuss. You ask what? And he replies that there's been some changes in business lately and he needs to downsize. Then before either of you can react..."

Nexus made fingers guns, aimed at the empty spot next to Sun and pretended to fire.
"Bang! He shoots Solar in the chest."

Nexus moved his fingers towards Sun now and pretended to fire. "Then... Bang! He shoots you in the chest before you can reach your gun. You lay there on the floor... bleeding... trying to work through the pain and grab your gun to retaliate... then you hear another gun shot... then another. You turn... Solar's dead. You begin to crawl frantically towards your gun but before you can grab it and aim it at Moon, he kicks the gun out of your hand. You lay there, staring into the barrel of a gun while someone you once called "brother" stares down at you, not like a sibling would, but like a harsh employer firing that one employee that annoyed them or held them back for so long... and then... BANG!"

"You see what I'm getting at?" Nexus asked, placing his hands behind his back and waiting for Sun's response.

Sun, unfortunately, did. While he didn't believe their future would take that dark a turn, Nexus had a point. Moon would only get worse, take more risks, do more morally bankrupt things to get ahead and would drag Solar and Sun down with him. Sun... couldn't... Sun wouldn't let it get that far.

"I... I wouldn't let it get that bad."

"Oh, but you would." Nexus replied. Nexus held up another finger. "You see there's this one other future I see... but you'll never see that future... and you wanna know why? Cause you can't grow a spine, Sun. You can't. You care too much. I can see it in your eyes. You don't want Moon to become another me... but the problem is, Sun, he already has. You just stick around cause you feel bad for abandoning me and want to see if you can save him like how you couldn't save me.... did I miss anything?"

Sun was at a lose for words at this point. Nexus hit the nail right on the head. This all tied back to Nexus, their father, and how Sun failed to save Nexus. Sun blamed himself for not seeing the signs of Nexus' suffering back when they were working for dad. Sun should have seen the signs... but he didn't.
He blamed himself for Nexus' breakdown and subsequently all the murders and attempted murders Nexus committed.
Sun stuck by Moon cause he thought if he was just there for him maybe he could prevent him from becoming like Nexus but it seems Sun being around Moon just gave Moon the confidence to get worse.

Nexus was actually impressed that he managed to render his brother speechless. Guess all those psychological books Earth gifted him actually did come in handy for something.
Nexus stepped towards Sun, placing his hand on Sun's shoulder which made Sun jump back a bit.
"Consider this the only warning I will give you, Sun... either ditch or kill Moon... or make peace with the fact you'll probably wind up dead next to him at some point in the next five years."
Nexus patted Sun's shoulder and turned away from him.
"Now, get lost. I don't wanna see your face."

"B-but I still have twenty minutes of visitation time."

"I said... get lost." Nexus said, through gritted teeth.

Sun didn't argue with Nexus. He just stood up and walked to the door. As Sun walked he could hear Nexus fiddling with his straightjacket again, most likely fixing the arms so the doctors and guards wouldn't know he could move his arms.

Sun waited a moment before ringing the bell, signaling for the guards to let him out. While Sun waited for the guards and glanced over his shoulder towards his brother who seemed to just deflate.
Sun wondered if Nexus wanted him to stay or if this was just Nexus being Nexus. It was so hard to tell sometimes.

As the doors to the cell opened and Sun walked out he was left wondering how did Nexus, the psychopathic sibling, who had nearly no remorse for any of his murders, was the sane one in this situation?

How did Nexus cut through all the fog and see the situation as it truly was?

Sun's footsteps echoed down the hallway, questioning what to do next? He certainly wasn't going home just yet, he needed a break from Moon and all the drama at home.
He would just stay out a bit longer and then visit Rosiebell at The NovaFrost and break the unfortunate news to her.

The guards watched as Sun disappeared around a corner before leaning into Nexus' cell, saying "He still had twenty minutes. What did you say to him to make him leave so quickly?"

"Just the truth." Nexus replied simply.

The guards didn't buy that, despite the fact it was true. "Whatever you say, Nexus. You know, you should be nicer to your visitors. Maybe if you were, you'd have more of them."

"Yeah, whatever happened to that nice white haired lady who gave us treats." The other guard asked.

"Oh, get bent, both of you!" Nexus sneered.

The two guards rolled their eyes. "Suit yourself." They said as they slowly closed the door to his cell. Nexus heard the locks of his cell click into place, leaving him trapped back in this small cell he called home.

Nexus walked towards his wall of sketches and looked at all the drawings he made. Sketches of his most violent acts, Sketches of him before he was locked up, and lastly resting on the floor was a heavily details sketch of him, Sun, and Solar from before Nexus got thrown in here.
Nexus stared at the sketch for a moment before he stomped on it, crushing it beneath his golden elf-like shoes.

Nexus removed his foot from the sketch and walked towards his bed. As he fell onto the stiff mattress, all he could think of was his brothers' life on the outside.

"Traitors. All of them."
He mumbled quietly, still lost in his own delusions.

Chapter Text

Night had fallen over the family home.

Solar carefully followed his fingers in the mirror, making sure he was tying his tie correctly. He took a step back and examined himself in the mirror. He didn't look half-bad. Hopefully, him going all out on this date with Nebula would make up for him scaring the crap out of her when Clipsey kidnapped him.

Solar noticed out of the corner of his eye that he had a pretty bad discoloration on his neck from where Clipsey tazed him. He ran his orange and red fingers over the burned area, trying to wipe away what was hopefully ash but much to his chagrin it wasn't ash. It was a burn mark.
Solar swore under his breath and began to search for some silver paint to cover up the mark but unfortunately, they had none.

Solar stared at the reflection of the burn mark and popped up his tux jacket collar, hoping that would be enough to hide the mark. He quickly ran his hand over his rays and took a deep breath.

He turned to walk out of his bedroom but jumped back, nearly crashing into his vanity mirror when his son Jack, seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
"Jeez, Jack! You scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry, dad." Jack replied, in his usual chaotic sounding voice. "I got you these." In Jack's hand was a bouquet of what Jack thought were flowers but in reality was a bouquet of some flowers, weeds, a couple dandelions, and a stick.

Solar took the odd bouquet from his son, glancing between the bouquet and his child. "Um... what are these?"

"Flowers. For your date with Nebula, duh." Jack shook his head at his dad's silly question. How could he not know what flowers were?

Solar stared at the odd bouquet for a moment before setting it aside saying "Thanks, Jack."

Jack smiled proudly before rushing off to do something probably destructive elsewhere. Solar looked at the messy bouquet once again and took the few actual flowers out of it. He would add these to the actual bouquet he'll buy for Nebula. Solar stuck the actual living flowers into his tux pocket and was about to leave his room but when he turned he saw his brother Moon standing in the middle of the doorway, eyes full of regret. "Hey..."

"Hey? What do you want?" Solar asked, looking over Moon's shoulder, clearly wanting to just leave his room and get to his date with Nebula.

"I just wanna talk."

"I don't got time to talk, Moon. I got a date with Nebula to get to." Solar glanced down at his non-existent watch while he tried to push back Moon. Moon gently pushed Solar back. Solar knew he wasn't getting out of this room unless he heard Moon out at least a little.

"Go on..." Solar said, reluctantly.

Moon hated to do this but he couldn't let Solar walk out of the house like he let Sun. Moon took a deep breath before speaking "Look, you know I only do any of this stuff cause I don't want us to ever have to want for anything ever."

"I know, Moon. I get it." Solar said, making another futile attempt to push past Moon only to be stopped again by him.

"No, you don't." Moon replied. "I don't think any of you ever have. I.. I won't lie and say I don't enjoy the thrills and the idea of being a crime boss but I could give this all up..."

"Then why don't you?" Solar questioned.

Moon fell silent.

Solar waited for Moon to reply but it seems like the words got lost in Moon's head. Why couldn't he just tell them? Maybe it was cause he didn't want them to see him as a failure.

Solar was done waiting. He pushed past Moon with much more force this time nearly knocking Moon over backwards.

"Solar, wait!" Moon chased after him.

"No!" Solar whipped around, poking at his brother's chest.
"I'm not gonna sit here and wait for some... excuse that may never come. I see why Sun is already one foot out the door!"

"O..one foot out the door?" What are you talking about?" Moon asked, missing the obvious signs of Sun wanting out of this life.

"Oh, my gosh. How are you this freaking oblivious? You know Sun keeps asking how much longer we got to do this for? You think Sun wants this life?!" Solar exclaimed, stomping his foot on the ground, making a nearby potted plant shake.

"I know Sun doesn't want this life!" Moon snapped back. "I know none of you want this but this is what we have to do."

"No. We don't. It's what you want to do."

Moon swatted Solar's hand away. "Oh, you think this is just some ego trip?"

"Kind of!" Solar admitted. "You just literally told me you enjoy the thrill and the idea of being a criminal."

"Yeah, I enjoy it, doesn't mean I want you all to have to keep doing this forever!"

"Then why do you keep dragging us along into near-death experiences, huh? If you don't want us to keep going then why... keep... going?" Solar said, now demanding answers.

Moon took a step back to calm his anger which he knew was reaching a certain point where he would do or say something stupid.
"Solar... I do this cause I care for my family."

"Well, you got a pretty funny way of showing you care." Solar said, pushing past Moon once again.

"Solar..." Moon was about to take a step towards Solar but he stopped himself. He knew if he couldn't explain it the right way then it wasn't worth chasing after Solar just to give him the same song and dance he always did.

"What?" Solar asked, much more annoyed this time.

"I... I do love you and Sun. You guys are my brothers. I don't do any of this to hurt us."

Solar let out a tired sigh. "I know, Moon. I know."

Solar opened the door, letting the cool night air hit his face.

"Good luck on your date." Moon said as Solar stepped out.
Solar let out a weak chuckle. He needed more than luck to smooth things over with Nebula, he needed a freaking miracle.

Solar rushed into the diner, searching for his date. The dimly lit restaurant made it hard to see but eventually he spotted her. He could recognized that lovely purple hair and those striking purple and white eyes anywhere. Solar quickly brushed his tux, making sure there wasn't a speck of dust on it.

Solar froze in place as he finally caught glimpse of Nebula's dress. Wow, she looked beautiful. Either she had forgiven him already or more likely she wanted to make it clear what he would lose if he did something that stupid again.

Nebula wore a dark blue dress that ended halfway to her calf. The long sleeves of the dress shined in dim candlelight. The whole dress seemed to shine thanks to the silk like fabric.
Her dress was backless showing off her skin as dark the night sky above them.

"Well, don't you look lovely." Solar said, finally making his way to their table. He held out the bouquet of blue and purple flowers but pulled them back when he saw Nebula's face. It was a mix of disappointment, anger, and tiredness.

Yep, Solar was in for it.

"I'm still in the doghouse, aren't I?"
Solar asked, already knowing the answer.

"Big time." Nebula replied, sipping her wine which had arrived earlier.

Solar hissed. He knew he was in hot water with Nebula. He couldn't blame her for being mad, she had every right to be. One moment she's on the phone with Solar then the next she hears his screams fill the phone line and an ominous voice telling "No cops or your boyfriend dies."

Solar slipped into his seat in front of Nebula and set the bouquet on the table. Nebula eyed the bouquet for a moment noticing some yellow and red flowers in the mix of purple and blue. She pulled the mismatched flowers out of the bouquet and examined them. She recognized these flowers from around Sun and Moon's house.
She snickered. "Jack helped with the bouquet I see."

Solar lifted his head, happy to hear Nebula's little laugh.
"Yeah... let's just say this wasn't the first bouquet I had for tonight."

"What he put in it this time?"

"A lot of weeds, some dandelions, and a stick." Solar replied, remembering the mess of a bouquet his son gave him to give Nebula.

Nebula laughed and shook her head.
"He means well."

Solar nodded. "I know he does. I know."

As the night went on Nebula and Solar's dinner date was for the most part calm and quiet despite the tension still hanging in the air. Nebula finished her meal, setting her fork down, folding her hands and sitting in a more serious posture.
"Okay, now tell me what happened last night..."

Solar swallowed hard when he heard that. He set his fork down and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"I.. I already told you what happened when I got home."

Nebula shook her head "But that wasn't the full story... was it?"

Solar lowered his head, shamefully. "No... it wasn't."

"You told me bits and pieces... but I want the full story." Nebula said in a gentle voice that hid a demanding edge to it. She deserved to know what kind of mess her boyfriend got himself im.

Solar picked up his wineglass and took a big sip of his wine, needing the extra courage that came from the alcoholic drink. He set down his glass and began to tell her the whole story.
"Okay, so, as you know Moon found some other crime family's vault and thought it would be a great idea to rob them. He just left out the fact that the vault belonged to our cousin Clipsey."

Nebula's starry eyes widened in a mix of horror and shock.
"Clipsey? Your cousin who is the reason we've had to arrest a fifth of our police force cause they were in her pocket? The reason our town lake is now floating with corpses?"

Solar nodded, taking a sip of his wine. "The very same."

Nebula held her head in her hands, blowing some hair out of her face. "Is your brother crazy?"

"Honestly? Probably." Solar replied, just as mad and tired as Nebula was.

Nebula sighed and rubbed her face.
"So, let me get this straight... your brother... thought it would be a good idea to rob your very homicidal cousin?"

Solar nodded and simply replied. "Yep."

"And you went along with it?" Nebula asked, now pointing a finger at her boyfriend. Solar's face fell again as he replied once again with a simple "Yep."

All Nebula could do is shake her head and stare at Solar in a way she never had before. Solar could see all the frustration, sadness, and fear in Nebula's eyes.
"Solar... what were you thinking?"

"I don't know. I.. I didn't know it was Clipsey."

"That doesn't make it any better. Frankly, you're lucky it was Clipsey. She's family, she spared you all cause you're family. If you all weren't family... well... we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?" Nebula crossed her arms, leaned back in her chair and just stared at Solar, waiting for him to response.

Nebula had a point, Clipsey spared Sun, Moon, Molten and his life cause they were family. If they had been some random criminals off the street, Solar would be at the bottom of a lake with his feet encased in concrete. He wouldn't be alive to have Jack shake him awake early in the morning and tell him about all the fun games he had planned for him and cousin Dazzle or be able to hold Nebula close ever again. He was lucky to be standing here right now.

"No... we wouldn't." Solar admitted.

Nebula held her head low. She didn't know what to think or what to do. She loved each of the Celestials, especially Solar but she couldn't do this anymore.
She couldn't stand idly by watch her boyfriend and his family continue to risk their lives all in some suicidal attempt to become big shots.

"Solar... I can't keep doing this. I can't keep worrying about you or your brothers or what happens to Jack and Dazzle if any of you die..."

Solar just sat there silently listening to Nebula pour out what must be years of stress and fears she had been holding back.

"... I mean if you die what happens to Jack and Dazzle? Do Terra and Monty take them in? Do your cousins? What happens to Terra and Cosmo? They just have to live with the fact their brothers are dead? What happens to Monty? He has to lose his best friend if Moon dies. If you die... what happens to me?" Nebula finally asked. She held her head in her hands, her shiny almost starry hair covering her hands and face. "I knew this was a bad idea."

"Nebula, no. You talking about this isn't a bad idea." Solar tried to reach out and comfort Nebula but she lifted her head before motioning between them.
"Not this conversation. Us, Solar. You and me."

Solar froze. His whole system felt like it just went into reboot mode. "W... what?"

"Solar... I love you, I do... but I can't keep doing this. I can't keep worrying about this, about you, about the family. I can't." With every word Nebula said Solar felt his heart shatter more and more. He could hear the aching pain in Nebula's voice.
"I knew it was a bad idea to get involved with an informant. I knew it was a bad idea, but I just had to go and do just that."

"Nebula, can we talk about this before we do anything rash?" Solar said, trying to steer the conversation away from the inevitable breakup that was coming.

Nebula's eyes narrowed in a tired rage.
"Rash? This is rash?! Me not wanting my boyfriend or his brothers to die is rash? Me not wanting to worry every five minutes is rash? Solar, I love you but I can't."

"Nebula, look I know this is bad but I'm fine. I can leave anytime I want. I called you last night cause I want out." Solar said, trying to salvage this.

As Nebula stared at Solar with an increasingly tired anger she noticed something in the dim candlelight. She reached over to Solar's collar and pushed his popped collar down revealing the burn mark left by Clipsey's tazer.
Solar sighed and lowered his head. Yep. It was over.

"Does it hurt?" Nebula asked.

"No, not anymore." Solar took Nebula's hand off his neck and leaned back in his seat.

Nebula pulled her hand back and just stared at Solar.
He knew he was completely in the wrong.
He had no way to defend himself. He was literally wearing proof of why Nebula dating him was a bad idea on his neck.

"Solar... I do love you... but I'm done worrying. That mark on your neck it's just more proof to what I already knew."

"And what's that?" Solar asked almost fearfully.

"That in the list of what matters most to you.... I'll always come last."

Solar could have sworn he actually felt his heart shatter when he heard Nebula say that.
"No, that's not true, Nebula."

"Solar, it is." Nebula replied in a steer voice. "I understand coming last, they're your family, I'm not family. Jack should come first always, that I understand, he's your son... but you doing this shows that even he's not even your top priority, if he was you wouldn't be doing any of this. I say this, not as your girlfriend, not as a cop, but as a concerned friend... put your son first... cause you helping your brothers pull off dangerous heists just show you don't."

Solar was at a loss for words. He ran everything Nebula said through his mind. Despite saying he cared for Jack and Nebula he didn't really show it, did he?
He loved Jack, he was his son, his pride and joy.
He loved Nebula, she was amazing, he felt a connection with Nebula he had never felt with anyone before, they understood each other on a level no one else could.

But despite all that he didn't love them enough to stop any of this. He knew the risks of helping Sun, Moon, and Molten but he still helped them, not thinking about how this would effect others if he died while on the job.

If he really cared, he would have pulled out of this life a lot sooner.

"Nebula, I'm... I'm sorry." Solar said in a quiet voice full of realization.

Nebula reached over to Solar's hand and squeezed it softly.
"I know you are, Solar... but until you decide that Jack and I actually matter... I can't stick around."

Nebula pulled her hand away, stood up and grabbed her purse. "When you decided to put your son and me first give me a call. He deserves a normal life and I deserve not to have to worry that I'm gonna get a call that you died in some shootout." And with that Nebula walked away, leaving Solar in the dim lighting with nothing but his thoughts and regrets. The clicking of her heels grew fainter and fainter until that clicking was completely drowned out by the sound of jazz music, rushing waiters, and the small talk of the other patrons of the restaurant.

Solar put his head back, running his whole life through his head, wondering if he had been that blind to not realize he wasn't putting his son and Nebula first.
The horrific slow dawning realization hit him like a load of bricks. If this was the end of their relationship, Solar wouldn't blame Nebula. She deserved someone who she wouldn't have to worry about every five seconds.

Solar sat there a moment longer before throwing the money on the table and walking away.

Solar walked through the cold wet streets of town. It had rained while he and Nebula were in the restaurant and now the roads and sidewalks were soaked with rain puddles.
Solar couldn't believe how blind he was to the pain he caused Nebula and Jack.
Had he ever asked Jack how he felt about his job?
He never did, did he?

If there was a world's worst dad award, Solar would definitely be in the running for it.

In the span of an hour Solar had lost his girlfriend and realized that he never put her or his son first. How could this night get any worse?

Solar was then soaked as a taxi cab came speeding by, kicking up a large puddle, drenching Solar and his neatly pressed tux in rain water.
Solar sighed, his rays sinking into his head in defeat.

Solar wanted to be mad at someone, it would be so easy to blame Nebula or Sun or Moon... but he was smart enough to know it wasn't Nebula's fault, and while it was partially Moon's fault, it was mostly his own.

Solar continued his walk home, it was nearly three in the morning by the time Solar got home. Sun's trench coat and scarf were hanging on the door meaning he was home, and judging from the rain droplet stains on the coat he was out just as late as Solar.
Solar was just about to untie his tie when he saw the kitchen light flick on. He assumed it was Molten but he heard that all too firmilar chaotic voice asking "Where are all the sponges?"

"Jack?" Solar stepped closer to the kitchen, undoing his tie as he walked.

Jack popped out from around the corner and waved to his father. "Oh, hi, dad."

"Hey, buddy... what are you doing up so late?" Solar knelt down to his son's height.

"I got hungry and wanted a midnight snack." Jack said, holding up the plastic wrapped sponges.

Solar chuckled and took the sponges from his son.
"How bout I make you some actual food instead?"

"We got popcorn?" Jack asked. Solar stood up, walking towards the cabinets. "I think so."

"Popcorn!" Jack exclaimed. Solar chuckled at his son's happy reaction and went straight to the stove to make the popcorn.

"So, how'd the date with Nebula go?"

Solar stopped in his tracks when Jack said that.

"Dad?" Jack asked, wondering what made his dad freeze up like that. Jack tapped his dad's pant leg. "You okay?"

Solar snapped back to reality, chuckled nervously, and rubbed the back of his neck.
"It...um... it was... it was eye-opening."

Jack tilted his head curiously wondering what his dad meant by that before Jack could question it further Solar spoke up and asked "Hey, Jack, can I ask you something?"

"Sure." Jack replied.

"You know what your dad does for a living right?" Solar asked curiously. He never flat out told Jack that he and his uncles were criminals but it was more of an open family secret. If ya knew, ya knew.

"I do." Jack nodded.

"You know what I do is dangerous a lot of the time, right?" Solar asked.

Jack nodded again. "Oh, like super dangerous."

"Does... does that ever upset you?" Solar asked, just as the first few popcorn kernels began to pop on the stove.

"What do ya mean?" Jack asked tilting his head, unsure of how to respond to his father's question.

Solar tried phrasing it a different way.
"I mean do you ever worry that I'll get hurt?"

"Oh, all the time." Jack replied casually.

Solar let go of the pan and knelt back down to Jack's height.
"Jack, why didn't you tell me?" Solar asked, eyes and heart full of regret.

Jack simply shrugged. "Your job just always seemed important. You see how excited uncle Moon gets when you guys have a new job planned."

Solar hung his head in shame. He really was the world's worst father. "Jack, you should have told me you were scared. I would have stopped."

"You would have?" Jack didn't mean to hurt Solar with that question but the fact he even had to ask that made Solar's heart ache more.

Solar nodded, fighting back the coolant tears bubbling up behind his mechanical eyelids. "Jack, of course I would have. You're my son....you come first, always."

If those words weren't true before, they were now.
Solar made a mental promise to himself, the next heist Sun and Moon would plan would be their last.
He would take Dazzle away for the day, maybe drop her off at Terra and Monty's, then he would call up Nebula and end all this madness.

"No more." Solar thought to himself. "They don't come last anymore."

"Hey, dad?" Jack called out, pulling his dad out of his thoughts again. "Yeah, Jack?"

Jack pointed upwards. "The popcorn's burning."

Solar's head darted upwards and a thick cloud of grey smoke began to emerge from the puffed up lid.
"Oh, shit!"

Solar turned off the stove, lifted the lid and began to fan away the surprisingly thick smoke while Jack laughed at his father's antics.

Chapter Text

Sun walked through the cold streets of town.
He had been walking for what felt like hours. He didn't want to go home, not with all these conflicting thoughts in his mind. What Nexus said really struck a cord with Sun, he staying by Moon's side gave Moon permission to get worse when Sun was trying to prevent that.

Sun didn't know what to do, he couldn't just step away, stepping away now wouldn't make Moon better, he would just start going off on his own and probably get himself killed, at least with Sun by his side maybe Sun could prevent that?

Sun didn't know anymore. Night was starting to fall and he just didn't want to go home yet. Maybe he could visit Terra and Monty? No, they probably just closed up shop and were settling in for the night. He didn't want to disturb them.
Maybe he could hang out with Cosmo? No, if Cosmo had an unexpected police guest, which he often had, it would be currents for Sun, and Cosmo career.

Sun really needed more friends than just Rosiebell and his family. Sun continued to walk through the cold night air. He threw his scarf over his shoulder again, trying to warm up his face. He could feel his internal components fighting to stay warm. He could feel his internal heater finally kick in, much to his relief.

Sun's eyes glanced at the scenery around him. Watching the few cars on the road past by, watching people duck into homes or alleyways, and seeing all the bright shining neon lights of the buildings around him. Sun's eyes fell on a certain billboard. He paused and just stared at it for a moment.

The billboard was of Sun's cousin Sunny with her husband Roxas. Roxas had a tendency to rope Sunny into his favorite ads, not that Sunny mind, she quite enjoyed getting to play model with her husband.
It was an ad for some perfume and cologne. Sunny looked so happy.
Sun envied her, not cause Sunny was partially famous, but cause she actually got to live a normal life. On top of being a model with her husband, Sunny also ran her own daycare. Sun wished that was his life, he didn't even care if he was a daycare attendant, he just wanted a job where he didn't get shot at every five seconds.

Sun felt something wet and cold hit his eye. He rubbed his eyelid and held out his hand. Little droplets of water began to fall on Sun's hand. It was raining. Sun ran through the streets looking for a place to duck for cover. Sun darted under an awning and took a breath.

Well, at least he wasn't soaked, that's the only good thing that came out of today.

Nexus' morbid predictions still ran through Sun's mind. While he knew that things wouldn't get as dark as Nexus predicted, Sun did believe Nexus' prediction of death was the most likely outcome at this rate.

Nexus was right, Sun should have grown a spine sooner, if he had and left Moon's side maybe Moon wouldn't be getting worse... or maybe he still would, Sun just wouldn't be around to see it.

Sun just stood there under the awning, watching the rain fall harder. Wondering what he was gonna do next?

That's when Sun heard it. Music. He looked down the street and a bit further Sun saw Rosiebell and her friends' bar The NovaFrost, music echoed from the bar.
Something about the music seem to draw Sun to the bar almost like he was under some siren's spell.
Whoever was singing was quite good. As Sun got closer he started to recognize the voice of the singer.

The rain was all but forgotten by Sun now.
He was just trying to make it to the bar.

Sun stood there at the front door of the bar, in the large front window was a handmade sign asking for donations to keep the bar a float and judging from the not even halfway filled meter, they weren't exactly pulling in a crowd.

It hit Sun like a ton of bricks, he had to tell Rosiebell he failed to get the money!

Oh, why did he tell her about the money?!
Why did he make the promise to get the money?!
Why did he go and get her hopes up?!

Curse this dumb crush!

Sun should just walk away, go home, probably never show his face to Rosiebell ever again and hope things worked themselves out but he was pulled out of his train of thought by the sound of metal knuckles gently tapping on the glass.

Chica stood at the front window, motioning for Sun to enter the bar. Sun shook his head trying to refuse but Chica rarely took no for an answer. She walked over to the front door and held it open for Sun.

"You wanna come in or you wanna stay out there getting soaked?"

Sun was about to refuse but then a taxi cab drove by, kicking up a large puddle and splashing the entire back of Sun's trench coat with rain water.

Sun nodded. "I think I'll come in."

"Chica chuckled. "Good choice."

Sun entered the much warmer bar and took off his scarf and trench coat, setting the soaked clothes on a nearby coat rack. Sun's eyes surveyed the decently sized bar area but just like he expected, the bar was practically empty, only eight people were in the bar, not counting himself and the workers of course.

Sun made his way to the bar counter where Freddy was bartending. "Hey, Fred."

"What'll it be, Sunny?" Freddy asked.

Sun reached into his pocket and pulled out the hundred he took from Moon last night and slammed it on the counter.
"Whatever is strong enough to make me forget today."

Freddy nodded and went to grab a bottle of their strongest booze. "One of those days, huh?"

Sun nodded, tugging on his rays. "You have no idea."

Freddy poured Sun a pint and handed him the large glass cup filled with amber colored alcohol. Sun gladly took the drink from Freddy and gave it a quick sip, letting the strong alcohol coat his metal throat. "Thanks, Fred."

Freddy nodded and walked off to serve another patron signaling for a refill.

Sun looked around the bar trying to spot the others. Freddy was refilling another animatronic's drink, Chica was dipping in and out of the kitchen bring snacks to the few patrons in the bar, Roxie was probably in the kitchen making food, and Gomer was, thankfully, nowhere to be found.

Despite the calm cheerful looking atmosphere of the bar, Sun knew Freddy, Chica, Roxie, and even Gomer were worrying about the bar. If the NovaFrost shut down, what happens to them? It wasn't just about saving their income, it was about saving their home.

Sun looked towards the front door, hoping that maybe just a few more costumers would come through the door and hopefully give Rosiebell and her friends at least a little bit of a boost in money. That donation box was looking awfully low. He wished they had succeeded in that heist or that he didn't get Rosie hopes up.
This was all his fault. How was he gonna break it to her that he fai-

Sun's gaze eventually fell on the clown girl he was just thinking about. Rosiebell was on stage, her colorful dress was gone replaced by a black version of her uniform, her hair was out of their usual pink tails, her long purple hair was on full display. Her voice echoed through the microphone, her usual sweet voice was now sultry, quite pleasing to everyone's ears.

Sun had seen and heard Rosiebell sing before but even now he was still enamored by her. This girl had Sun's heart wrapped around her finger and she didn't even know it.
Sun sat there watching Rosiebell sing on stage, wondering how could he break her heart by telling her he failed.
He took another sip of his drink, hoping he would soon be drunk enough to forget all the stressers on his plate.

Eventually, Rosiebell's song ended. The few patrons in the bar all clapped and cheered for Rosiebell. Rosiebell did a little curtsy and scanned the crowd, watching at least two patrons drop at least a couple ones into the donation box.
Rosiebell's smile fell when she saw that but her smile returned when she spotted the favorite guest of all.

"Sun!" She said, cheerfully. She hopped off stage and walked towards Sun.

Sun's smile picked up as Rosiebell got closer however his smile fell into a look of fear when he remembered he still had to tell Rosiebell about the money.

Sun was about to speak when suddenly Rosiebell through her arms around him and hugged him. Sun felt like his brain circuits just misfired there.
Rosiebell pulled away with an excited cheerful look on her face. "Sooo.... did you get it?"

"M-m huh?" Sun babbled, still trying to process what just happened.

Rosiebell chuckled. "You know...." Rosiebell leaned closer to Sun causing Sun's cheeks to warm up a bit. He could feel his cpu kicking in to cool himself. "The money." Rosiebell whispered.

Sun's blush faded and his smile dropped. He froze, unable to talk or even think of what to say next.

Rosiebell waved her hand in front of Sun's face.
"Sun? You okay? Sun?"

Sun snapped out of the trance he was seemingly in and tried to stammer out a response.
"N-no. I.. I mean ya. I'm fine... just... c-can we talk for a minute?"

Rosiebell nodded and sat down in the seat right next to Sun.

"Y-you were amazing up there." Sun stammered out.

Rosiebell tucked some of her hair behind her ear and chuckled. "Aw, you always say that, Sunny. You're my biggest fan."

"Well, it's true. You're always amazing."

Sun looked away from Rosiebell for a moment and saw Freddy giving Sun a knowing look. The look that just said "Smooth, Sun. Smooth."

Sun glared at Freddy, darting his eyes in the opposite direction, silently asking him to leave him and Rosie alone.
Freddy rolled his eyes and walked off to go pour someone else another drink.

"So, did you get the money?" Rosiebell asked again, making sure to be quiet so no one would hear them.
Sun's fingers nervously danced across his pint glass.
He looked at the hopeful face of Rosiebell. The glint of hope in her eyes was too much. He couldn't destroy that spark of hope but he had to. He couldn't lie to her and say he did.

Sun had to force the words out, it felt like someone was force feeding him glass shards.
"N-no, Rosiebell. I... I didn't get the money. We failed. I'm sorry."

Sun's heart shattered when he saw that spark of hope in Rosiebell's eyes fizzle out. Rosiebell's smile fell.
"Oh..." is all Rosiebell could say.

She turned in her seat and just stared down at the counter.

"I'm so sorry, Rosie." His voice cracked slightly as he spoke. Sun hated watching that spark of light die in Rosiebell's eyes. He shouldn't have gotten her hopes up.

Rosiebell signaled for Freddy to come over, once Freddy got back to the counter Rosiebell pointed to the strongest stuff on the top shelf. Freddy nodded, grabbed the bottle, and grabbed a pint glass for Rosiebell.

Rosiebell reached over and took both the bottle and the glass away from Freddy. She pried the bottle cap off with her teeth, spat the cap out, and poured the orange liquid into the large glass, till it was filled to the very top.

Freddy then walked away, leaving Sun and Rosiebell to their drinks. It seems like Rosiebell had a lot on her mind and Freddy wasn't getting in the middle of that.

Rosiebell set down the bottle, through her glass back and chugged down most of the liquid, leaving only a quarter of it left in the glass.

Sun was both impressed and saddened by Rosiebell's actions. It was clear Rosiebell had really hung all their hopes on that money even though she knew she shouldn't.

Rosiebell held her head in her hands and shook her head.
"It's my fault. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up."

"No, Rosiebell, this is my fault. I shouldn't have told you about the money. I shouldn't have gotten your hopes up. This is all my fault."

Rosiebell shook her head, placing a hand on Sun's shoulder.
"No, Sun, you tried. Th-that's all that matters. I appreciate the help. Thank you for trying anyways."

"Still. I shouldn't have told you about the money. I knew the plan was stupid. I knew the plan would go south, but I wanted to help you guys. I'm sorry."

Rosiebell took the bottle, grabbed another glass, and poured Sun another drink.
"Here. If you wanna be sad and drink your feelings away, let's at least do it together."

Sun appreciated the odd suggestion. He took the glass from Rosiebell and chugged his new drink, similarly to how Rosiebell did.

At least two hours past, Sun and Rosiebell were at the bar counter still. Rosiebell's finger circled the rim of her glass.
"I mean... I told Mr. Nova and Mr. Frost I would take good care of the bar for them. I told them I could handle the responsibilities... and now I'm losing the bar."

"Well, I-I mean... they're the owners, so t..technically they're losing the bar, not y-you." Sun managed to say through his slightly slurred speech.

Rosiebell chuckled at Sun's drunken words.
"Yeah, guess you have a point. But still... I tried so hard to run this place well... and now we're losing the bar. Thank you for trying anyway, Sun. You're a good friend."

Sun shook his head. "N-no. G-good friends don't let their o-other friends down."

Rosiebell sighed. "Sun, please don't blame yourself."

"Oh, I'm gonna... I'm gonna." Sun sipped his glass, only to realize it was empty. He motioned for Freddy to refill his glass but Rosiebell took the glass and set it back down.
"I think you've had enough, tiger."

Sun nodded. "Yeah... yeah..."

Sun glanced over to Rosiebell's friends, Freddy, Roxie, Chica, and Gomer were doing different things. Roxie was on stage just singing for fun, Freddy was cleaning tables, and Gomer and Chica were counting the small amount of money in the donation box. It was barely enough to restock half the booze and food they sold tonight.

"Wh-what happens to them?" Sun asked, still a bit tipsy but still coherent enough to ask important questions.

Rosiebell glanced towards her friends. She tried to put up a brave smile but it quickly fell.
"I don't know. I'll be fine. I got something else I can fall back on, but them? I don't know. I'm sure Fred could get a job as a cleaner maybe... but Chica? Roxie? Gomer? I... I don't know what happens to them."

"Gomer might wind up in jail." Sun replied. Normally Sun wouldn't say this but the alcohol had made him a bit tipsy and made him say things he wouldn't normally say out loud.

Rosiebell laughed at the unfortunately true statement.
"Yeah... yeah, he will."

Rosiebell took her and Sun's glasses and set them aside. She rested her head on her arms wondering what would become of her friends if The NovaFrost shut down.

Sun's tired eyes fell back onto Rosiebell.
Despite his hopes that the alcohol would make him lose this feeling of guilt, it did the opposite. He felt even worse.
He still wanted to help Rosiebell but how?
There's no way he could pull together all the money they needed in such a sort amount of time.
What could he do? Even if he dipped into his own personal savings it wouldn't make up half of what Rosie and her friends needed.

"I'm so so sorry, Rosie."

"Sun, it's fine. You've apologized like fifteen times already."
Rosiebell said, now concerned for her tipsy friend.

"But if I hadn't made that stupid pr-promise. Y-you wouldn't be disappointed. I-I-I ne-never wanted to make you upset."
Sun slurred out.

Rosiebell chuckled and pat Sun on the back.
"You didn't make me upset, Sun. It's just the circumstance. You tried and that's all I could ever ask for."

"I-I wish I could do mo-more."

"You've done enough, Sun." Rosiebell pulled Sun in for a hug which Sun quickly accepted, wrapping his arms around her.

All of Rosiebell's friends snuck a glance at the two. It was so painfully obvious that Sun had a thing for Rosiebell and they suspected Rosiebell may hold some feelings towards Sun but neither of them said anything.
It was both very cute and very frustrating to watch.

"If one of them doesn't make a move soon..." Chica threatened.

Gomer was about to open his mouth, probably to yell something along the lines of "Just kiss her already!" But Freddy put his hand over Gomer's mouth before he could utter a single syllable.

Sun stayed hugging Rosiebell for a few more moments before she pulled away and took their empty glasses and empty bottle of booze.
"I'm gonna get back to work. Thanks for stopping by and trying anyways, Sun. I mean it."

Sun watched as Rosiebell walked off to return to her job. Sun just sat there, wishing there was more he could say or do to help Rosiebell and her friends but there was nothing.

Sun was now stuck with the guilt of failing Rosiebell, he was still stuck in the criminal life with Moon, and the morbid idea of him dying in some shootout or by the hand of his own brother was still stuck in his head thanks to Nexus. Sun needed a miracle to help himself and to help Rosiebell but miracles didn't come for people like him. That's just how the world worked.

Sun carefully removed himself from his stool and staggered towards the front door. Sun took one last look at Rosiebell and her friends, seeing them put on a brave face and act like everything was fine but probably within the next week both Rosiebell and the NovaFrost crew would be gone.

Sun took his scarf and his coat, threw them back on and stepped back out into the cold night. The warm and cozy atmosphere of the bar had been replaced with a dreary overcast sky. Sun staggered down the street, his mind still filled with racing thoughts of failure and fear.

He wished, he hoped, he prayed to anyone who would listen for a solution to his plight

Suddenly, Sun was pushed to the floor by some random passerby.

"Hey! Watch where yo-you're going." Sun said, shaking his fist at the rude man in the black trench coat.
The man in the black coat didn't even turn around, he simply said over his shoulder "You better answer that."

Sun was confused to say the least. How drunk was he? He knew he was little tipsy but he didn't think he was that drunk? Sun used a nearby phone booth to pick himself back up and dusted off his coat. Just then the payphone inside began to ring.

Sun jumped back a bit in surprise. Sun was a little confused right now. First some jerk knocks him over then tells him to "answer that" and like clockwork the payphone starts ringing. That totally wasn't freaky at all.

A part of Sun wanted to just turn and walk away but maybe it was the alcohol talking or Sun's morbid curiosity, but instead of walking away Sun stepped into the phone booth. Sun picked up the ringing phone and placed it to his ear.

"H-hello?" Sun managed to stammer out.

"Hello, Sundrop." The creepy yet eloquent voice said through the phone.

"Who is this?" Sun questioned.

"Oh, you don't know me," The voice replied, "but I know you. I know you, your family, and your little plight, and I'm here to help you."

Sun shook his head, trying to process what he was hearing.
'H-help me? What do I need help with?"

"You need a big score, right? One that can save that clown girl's business and make Moon satisfied enough to stop committing crimes. I can get you that score."

Sun didn't know how to respond. He had so many thoughts rushing through his head right now.
Who was this guy?
How did he know who Sun was?
How did he know about Sun's brother?
How did he know about Rosiebell and her business?
But most importantly, and the question Sun asked was "What's the score?"

The voice chuckled, clearly happy to hear Sun ask that.
"Okay, listen carefully cause I'm only gonna say this once. There should be some paper and a pen for you to write this all down in there."

Sun looked around the phonebooth and spotted a notepad and a pen taped to one of the walls of the phonebooth, like it was waiting there for him.

Sun pulled the notepad and pen off the wall, flipped it open and clicked the pen.

"You got the notepad?" The voice questioned.

Sun nodded.

"I'm gonna assume you have it cause I can't see you in there."

Sun facepalmed remembering the fact he was on the phone with someone and that they couldn't see him nod.
"Yes. Yes, I have the stuff."

"Okay, good. Now listen very carefully, Sundrop, there's a shipping container arriving tomorrow morning, in that shipping container holds something very precious and very expensive. I won't say what it is but let's just say it should be enough to make you a very rich animatronic, Mr. Celestial. All you and your brothers need to do is steal it from its owner."

"You want us to rob a shipping container?" Sun had done some crazy jobs before but he had never stolen cargo before.

"No, you idiot. You're not robbing from the shipping container right away. You're robbing the person who owns what's in the shipping container. The address is, and I'm gonna say this slow cause I know you're a little drunk at the moment, 4567 St.Monica street. Very large old victorian looking manor on the left. Can't miss it. What's in that shipping container is going directly to that house. If you can get in that house and steal that thing, you'll be rolling in it. Who knows... maybe Moon will finally come to see things your way after this." The voice said, in an almost knowing tone.

Sun had written everything down to the best of his drunken abilities. "Alright, I got it."

"Your writing probably looks like crap right now, doesn't it?"
The voice asked.

Sun eyed his writing for a moment. It wasn't too bad, still legible. "I mean... it's readable."

Sun could hear the mysterious voice chuckle once again down the line. "Yeah, I figured. You did drink an awful lot."

"Yeah, I di- wait a minute. How do you know I had to much to drink?"

Before Sun could get his answer the line went dead. The only noise coming out of the phone was the automatic voice saying "Your call has ended. If you'd like to make another please deposit twenty-five cents."
All Sun could do now was hang up the phone and question what the heck just happened.

Sun was confused beyond belief. Who was that guy? How'd he know Sun was drunk? How'd he know about Rosiebell and Moon?

Sun glanced down at the notepad, reading all the info the man gave him. Sun flipped the notepad shut, stuffed it in his coat pocket and walked out of the phonebooth to head home.

Sun arrived home, fiddling with the lock a few seconds before entering his house. It was around two am now everyone should be asleep. Solar should still be out with Nebula on their date, who knows when he'd get home. Sun took off his scarf and damp coat and set it on the coat rack. Sun stumbled up the stairs towards his bedroom, just wanting to get to sleep and forget all the stress this weekend had given him.
The strange man's voice still rang through Sun's head, the promise of a way out of this life sounded very enticing to Sun. Sun may have just found the miracle they all had been waiting for.