#but i completely understand that the VAs and the writers can't put everyone everywhere

[itsahotminuteinbetween]

WHAT AND WHO NOW????!!??!

*coughs to cover up maniacal laughter*

okay so basically you know how Eclipse dies the second time in cannon when Sun blasts him to another dimension and he gets disintegrated at Solar's place? Yeah, well that doesn't happen here. Sun happens to take pity on him and lets him go. And remember how Solar Flare was a prominent figure in Eclipse's head while he was going a bit stir-crazy up in space with the star? Well, prominent exposure to the star leads to some fun issues with Solar Flare's AI that Eclipse doesn't have time to look into until he's out on the streets looking for somewhere to crash for the night after being kicked out of the plex. He hides behind some dumpster and does a quick check in his mental space because he can't hear Solar Flare...only to discover that the AI is dormant.

Essentially, the star's energy, as we know in cannon, was corroding Eclipse's body and mental state from the inside out. Lucky for Eclipse, because Solar Flare was considered an outsider to the body (as a result of Eclipse inhabiting it for a longer period of time than Solar Flare himself), Solar Flare was the one who bore the brunt of the damage, keeping Eclipse's AI mostly unharmed. Unluckily for Solar Flare, his AI faced irreparable damage, and, as a result, went into a sort of comatose-like state to prevent further damage. Though Eclipse tried, he was unable to coax Solar Flare out, which essentially meant he had a not-quite-dead roommate dorming with him in their head. And, because Solar Flare's AI was newly-developed and considered secondary to both Fazbear Entertainment and KillCode, no copies of the code or schematics were made, making it nearly impossible to repair or recode.

This revelation is absolutely earth-shattering to Eclipse. He shouldn't really care, he tries to tell himself-it's not like he had enjoyed Solar Flare's company: the AI had made it much more difficult to carry out any of his work and planning. Still, Solar Flare had stuck by him (even though it wasn't really out of his own volition), attempted to comfort him within his last moments, and took most of the hits for him. He'd seen parts of Eclipse that nobody else had, and now he was gone because of Eclipse's foolishness and poor planning.

So, Eclipse opens up his dentistry to make enough money to buy resources to build Solar Flare from scratch. It's the least he can do, he reasons, and it's not like he has any other life purpose anymore. He works long hours during the day and then hunches over his desk creating new schematics at night. His low battery level and poor mental state sometimes impact him severely, to a point where he experiences hallucinations of the character sharing his mind and soul...