Hello reader! How are you this fine day?
Hey guess what? If it's still June 20 where you're at, it's David's, my night guard OC's, birthday! If you recalled it from way back in the first chapter of Scrapbook of a Former Night Guard, super props to you! If you didn't, hey who cares? You're reading this and that makes me very happy already!
Before I go any further, I'd like to thank everyone who read Scrapbook of a Former Night Guard. Even today, months after the most recent update, I'm still getting views, likes, and follows on it. Not to mention all the wonderful messages that I've received about it. I will be continuing on it a bit further, working whenever I can spare any time, although the main storyline is already complete. Please feel free to check it out if you haven't already. Thank you all so much for reading!
Having said that, you DON'T need to read my previous fic to get a handle on what's happening here. Though doing so would of course make things easier to understand.
Below is an interpretation based on Scrapbook of a Former Night Guard. What would happen if Freddy were to discover that dead people, including one particular guard they liked, don't come back to life? He comes to Bonnie for advice. Just note that 'Night Bird' is the name they call their night guard, so you don't get confused by the term.
This is just a oneshot, and is in no way strictly canon to the previous fanfic. This is just a splinter of what could happen. In fact, I don't even own exclusive rights to the previous fanfic this is based on, anymore; if you've read it you'll understand why.
Disclaimer: I do not own FNAF, only my characterizations. Actually I don't even own the characterizatoins, it belongs to everyone who's read my work.
Truth and Hope
]] Transfer for [Simulation V3.97a] [info] complete.
]] [Simulation V 3.97a] is experimental and will cease automatically in thirty minutes to avoid complications of being stuck.
]] [[Important]] Please notify Freddy if you experience new or strange sensations or occurrences not mentioned in the info. They may be intentional changes that didn't make it to the info update, or oversights that need to be fixed.
]] Function [Simulation V 3.97a] is booting up. You may experience glitches during transition.
Everything looked the same, and yet everything seemed different. Everything even felt different, but try as he might Bonnie could never put his finger down on how or why. Bonnie watched as the backstage room, that he and Freddy were in, fizzled and glitched into itself. The info file said this harsh transformation for the surroundings was normal for now, and was slated for improvement into the next major update.
After the room seemed to have settled down, the rabbit began to feel a tingling sensation from the tips of his ears down his body to his toes. He closed his eyes and stayed as still as he could and he was then rendered into a modified self – an 'avatar'. Empty space was replaced with flesh, plating was replaced with skin and fur, and gears and framework were replaced by joints and bones.
When the sensations of changing stopped Bonnie expanded his chest, and felt soothing air enter through his nose, down his throat and into his lungs. The info file that came into his head as the simulation started told him that this was what was called 'breathing'. And along with it came the sense called 'smell'. The smell of dust and grease appropriately fit the place where repairs were made. He slowly let the air out through his mouth as he opened his eyes to see Freddy had finished rendering as well.
"Transformation doesn't hurt at all anymore." Bonnie raised a hand to touch his own chest, feeling the soft strands of fur run through his fingers. The attention Freddy had put into detail was incredible.
"Mhm," Freddy nodded in response. He looked very much like the caricatures and cartoons that the management used in advertisements, fliers, and cardboard cutouts. Self representations were the first piece of this project that the bear had prioritized, but he had earlier focused too much on himself that Bonnie's first run in the simulation ended up with the poor rabbit being mangled into the bear's proportions before he aborted the process. Such a stupid stupid oversight. "I'm sorry about the first time, by the way."
"You don't have to apologize; I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if you needed me to. Even if I knew I would get hurt." Bonnie smiled back in reassurance. His choice of words, though, would be unnerving to most who didn't know him. The rabbit was so good natured that he didn't mind pain if it was needed by one of his friends. "I'm sorry that I brought it up, but you did a great job on fixing it. And that matters more to me."
"Ah, thank you."
"I appreciate you taking so much of your own time to do this for us. We all do." Bonnie approached and laid a firm hand on Freddy's shoulder. "But maybe you should take a break some time. We've missed having you around to just talk to."
"There are more important things than that." Freddy replied tersely. What he was working on was a big project, a game changer. When this simulation environment gets off the ground, they could practice on scaring night guards, both real and contrived. They could try new things without fear of backfire. They could become more effective, and they would be able to save more watchmen from needing to be killed.
But… did it matter? Freddy's shoulders slumped and his gaze dropped to the ground. He pursed his lips and rubbed the thumb and forefinger of his right hand together, a nervous fidgeting gesture.
"Is something wrong, Freddy?" Bonnie picked up on Freddy's discomfort immediately. The simulation still allowed for the rabbit to sense circuits as if they were still animatronics, and he saw a worried lattice of lights and signals in the bear's makeup. The rabbit recalled the very slight tenseness that he felt in the transmission he had received earlier when Freddy asked him to come backstage. Hoping to catch Freddy's eyes, Bonnie leaned forward and down to a side, his ears flopping down emphatically as he did. "Talk to me, Freddy. I'm here."
Freddy didn't reply and continued to look down, thinking. Bonnie withdrew his hand and stepped back to a respectful distance. The rabbit waited patiently for his friend, his expression neutral. He would wait as long as Freddy would need him to. After a long silence, Freddy shifted where he stood.
"I… didn't call you here to test the simulation." Freddy's voice croaked as he spoke, his words felt like cautious steps on thin ice. It would normally be unwarranted for Freddy to be intimidated or uneasy, especially since Bonnie was by far the most accepting of all of them, but the sensitivity and impact of what he needed to disclose caused him to be nervous regardless.
"You're looking for advice, Freddy?" There was something big on Freddy's mind, Bonnie realized, something the bear didn't want the others to know. Now that the rabbit thought about it, everything that happens in simulation would be secret between the participants. The secret wireless transmissions, they used during the night to coordinate against the night guard, can be sent and received on their own frequencies, but anyone can listen in on anyone else if they chose to. It was made that way, because they were supposed to trust each other not to listen in to private bands. That's what friends are supposed to do. But here, Bonnie felt whatever Freddy wanted to tell him was bigger than that principle; that the bear really truly didn't want anyone listening in.
"I want to show you something." Freddy looked up at Bonnie, before turning his head to look around the backstage room where they were in. He frowned faintly, glancing at the ceiling. This place was too small.
The floor trembled and shifted, and Bonnie moved his feet and held his arms out on reflex to balance himself. Freddy reached out and held on of his hands to steady his friend, as he willed the surroundings to take a new shape. The spot where the bear was standing seemed to sink, and linoleum and concrete gave way to grass and soil. The walls melted into the ground and the ceiling opened up into a cloudless blue sky. When everything stopped, Freddy let go of Bonnie's hand and let the rabbit take in the new surroundings.
"Freddy, this… this is amazing." Bonnie looked down on his feet, smiling broadly as he felt the blades of grass when he curled his toes on them and breathed fresh air. They were now standing on the face of a grassy knoll, where a tree stood at the crown some feet away behind the rabbit. The rest of the world was green grassland melting into the far horizon in the distance. A soft breeze came through and rustled the blades of grass and the leaves, each bending according to how it jutted out of the ground. Freddy was not one to make things half-baked, of course.
The rabbit's joy brought a small smile to Freddy out of his work being appreciated. The bear raised both of his hands above his head, looking up as he brought out a final change. A design started to spread across the sky from above them, a colorful stained glass pattern painted from Freddy's mind. Freddy lowered back his arms as the spread continued to cover the entire sky. He looked at Bonnie to see the rabbit's reaction. At first, the guitarist seemed confused at what he was looking at. And suddenly it struck him, what he was seeing was the manifestation of Freddy's knowledge. This was truth, this was what Freddy created and discovered that day when he figured out what they needed to do to bring back their beloved Night Bird – the watchman they loved.
"Is this… Freddy, is this what I think it is?"
"Yes Bonnie. It is." Freddy watched in detached amusement as Bonnie seemed to be lost in a gleeful daze admiring the patterns in the sky.
"… Grand Sum…" Bonnie recalled faintly what Freddy had called named it as he himself raised his hands trying to reach the sky. The pattern responded to his movements, its colors brightening as it showed him what each patch represented and how each fit together with everything else.
"… Everything… everything we've ever known…" The rabbit could barely hold his fascination, his calm and measured composure had been lost at this point. He turned and everywhere he looked he saw only beautiful things that reaffirmed his faith. In his daze Bonnie lost his balance and fell down, sitting on the incline of the hill before lying on his back with his arms outstretched at his sides. He was very much like a child.
Freddy walked forward uphill and sat down beside his friend. The bear wondered quietly whether he should ask Bonnie what he liked about the pattern, as they might see it differently. What Freddy liked about the pattern was that it was peerless, its measures were perfect. It was strong, rigid and exact. It represented truth, and mirrored the hidden rules beyond itself. It was unbending, unyielding, absolute and beautiful in the pure cohesiveness of its structure.
"Oh… oh Freddy it's beautiful!" Bonnie glanced at the bear. "Is this what you wanted to show me, Freddy?"
"No… There's… there's more." A slight apprehension had returned to the bear as he proceeded. Freddy cupped his hands together and materialized another concept. Bonnie sat back up and moved closer, eager to see what he was doing.
"I've been trying to mimic Chica. You know, trying to remember things like she does so I can try to do it for the rest of us." Freddy said. The chicken had this incredible affinity for remembering things. The others had difficulty with faces as it is, but the bear would be damned if he was going to leave that unchanged.
"This was one of the first things I tried to memorize – Mousy." Freddy opened his hands to reveal a small grey mouse; its fur, whiskers and even the tiny spots of black on its pink tail were rendered from what the bear could remember. It rubbed its paws over its face twice before moving to the edge of Freddy's palm, which he turned over so that it was now on the back of his hand. It turned to look at the bear, and then turned again to face Bonnie before balancing back on its hind legs in a hunched position to resume grooming.
"Uh, may I?" Bonnie raised his right hand furtively as he asked for permission to touch the mouse.
"Yes, go ahead." Freddy watched as Bonnie gently rubbed Mousy's back. The mouse moved out from under the rabbit's finger and clung to it. It clambered up onto the purple-blue hand and Bonnie gasped in surprise as it did. The mouse ran up the rabbit's arm and onto the rabbit's shoulders, causing Bonnie to erupt in a giggling fit from its paws touching skin. It continued moving up to the nape of his neck before descending down the other arm to his open palm. Bonnie closed his hand around the mouse gently, and it poked its head through the gap between his thumb and forefinger.
Freddy didn't have to wait long for them to be accustomed. Mousy was not particularly shy unless it comes to humans. He continued. "I've been feeding her things from the kitchen: cheese, uneaten crusts, sometimes even a spare pepperoni slice. She comes back to me every night for more, and that's how I got to observe her for a long time; enough to remember what she looked like."
"You're good friends with her, then." Bonnie surmised. "But… I don't understand what you're trying to show me."
"She died… from a mousetrap."
"Hey, it's okay Freddy. Friends always come back. That's what Grand Sum says, doesn't it?" Bonnie motioned upward to the sky. "And someone as lovely as her, she should come back in a day or two."
"She died four months ago." Freddy said grimly.
"Then we should continue waiting."
"I know, Bonnie. I know what the pattern says about what should happen to her, especially since there aren't any other mice that come to me and replace her." Freddy exhaled. He wanted to dismiss everything and pretend all this ever happened, but knew he should tell them. They had a right to know the truth. He was scared to tell them, and Bonnie would be the most levelheaded to talk to so he decided to tell him first. "But… I'm worried about what she says about the pattern."
"What if I- What if I was wrong, Bonnie? What if things- What if people that get killed can't come back?" Freddy's words caught in his throat. He remembered the night guard they all loved, the night guard he smothered. "What if Night Bird doesn't come back? What if he can't come back?"
"I keep telling myself I was right, but… But I can't deny it at this point. The evidence can't be ignored, it shouldn't." Freddy suddenly felt the weight of his responsibility, of the consequences of his actions and how it affected the others. The bear looked away and pulled his legs close to himself, his face adopting a deeply pained expression as simulated tears began to stream down his face. Everything they've done – all of their work and effort – amounted to nothing in the end. "How do I- How do I tell Chica? What do I tell Foxy?"
"How… do I tell Foxy he's… he's not coming back?" Freddy's voice cracked and he whimpered. He took off his top hat and held it in both of his hands. He held it close in front of his legs and stared as if it held an answer that would make everything better.
"Are you afraid he'll hurt you again?" Bonnie ventured.
"No, you know I don't care about that." Freddy snapped. Foxy never did anything that wasn't justified somewhat. Foxy was a good friend. Freddy was not, he was selfish. "But if he does, I'm afraid that I would deserve it. I'm afraid that I deserved it the first time."
From his periphery, Freddy saw Bonnie scoot closer to him. The rabbit pulled him into a sideways hug with his head on the other's chest, and Freddy sobbed. His body trembled. "What do I do, Bonnie?"
"You tell them the truth, just like you did for me." The rabbit whispered, patting Freddy on the back as he did. The bear simply shook his head, burying his face deeper into Bonnie's chest. He could never bring himself to do it, not to those two. It was already difficult to open up to Bonnie. But… it was his responsibility. One should always own up to one's actions, right? Freddy wanted to shrink and disappear right there. Anything so he wouldn't have to tell them the truth. He stayed there, crying and hiccupping for what seemed like a very long time before he would speak again.
"How are- are you so calm about this?" Freddy asked the rabbit between uneven breaths. Why hadn't Bonnie broken down in tears as well?
"Because it doesn't matter."
"What do you mean it doesn't matter?" How could it not matter? Night Bird being able to come back was central to everything they do. It was why they scared night guards away, and killed others when they wouldn't run. Bonnie wasn't making sense.
"Because I remember the stories he used to tell us." Bonnie leaned to a side to look down on Freddy. "Don't you? Sometimes the stories end up with us almost losing, where there's nothing we can do to make things work."
"Impossible, you called them, right?" Freddy quieted down as he listened to Bonnie. The bear didn't like the word at all. Impossible meant he failed in all his attempts to scare the watchman away. Impossible meant they had to kill another night guard. It left a bitter taste in his mouth to hear it. The bear didn't look up as the rabbit continued. "But then, something always happens that makes things work. Do you remember what Night Bird called them?"
"No!" Freddy said indignantly. If there was one flaw in the rabbit, it was that he was too idealistic and would believe in ridiculous things even without evidence. "Bonnie, the stories aren't real. They're just… stories. The real world doesn't work like that; you don't get wishes granted just for asking."
Bonnie stayed silent, continuing to stroke Freddy's back. He waited for the bear to calm down before he pressed again softly, "What did he call them?"
"Miracles." Freddy weakly yielded an answer, before shaking his head. "They're not real, Bonnie. There's no evidence."
"Tell me, Freddy, do you remember who I was? Do you remember back when I was bad?"
Freddy nodded. Bonnie used to be quite nasty and spiteful. The rabbit used to be so proud of himself and used look down in disgust on Chica who didn't garner as much attention. He would jeer at her and push her around. And he would get in fights with Foxy when the latter tried to call him out on it. A far cry from the kind rabbit he was now.
"Did you ever think I could become who I am now, if Night Bird didn't come?" Bonnie spoke.
Freddy shook his head. He didn't know exactly how their beloved night guard did it, but he managed to turn Bonnie into such a good person.
"Would you say it would have been impossible before he came?"
Bonnie's words hung in the air as Freddy processed what his friend was trying to say. Before he could even try to provide a counterpoint, the rabbit contined.
"Did you ever think Foxy would become as great as he is before Night Bird came to us? That you could work to become as smart as you are now if it wasn't for him inspiring you?" Scenes flooded through Freddy's mind, scenes of the discontent past where they were simply robot entertainers, and scenes of the happier times when they were treated as friends. The visions were strong enough to manifest onto a spinning cylindrical display around Bonnie and himself, on its walls were painted moving joyful scenes. The bear looked up to see the rabbit smiling down at him. "Did you ever think that we would see Chica happy?"
Freddy was silent. He stared at Bonnie, and shook his head. Words refused to come out of his mouth.
"But Night Bird did that. He caused all of those impossible things to happen." Bonnie held him tighter. At that, Freddy gave in and hugged the rabbit back. Bonnie felt so warm and comforting. His tears started anew. "There's so much evidence, Freddy. So much that we have taken them for granted."
"You were right, Freddy, the stories lied. But not because they had miracles in them." Freddy heard a squeak. He looked up to see Mousy on Bonnie's shoulder. "They lied because they didn't have enough."
The rabbit patted him twice over the shoulder. Freddy let go of Bonnie and the other did as well. Bonnie raised a hand and let the mouse walk onto his palm. He held her gently, covered in both hands, and when he opened them Mousy had become a small butterfly. Her wings sowed a glowing pattern of colors that changed constantly. Bonnie held her out and softly blew to encourage her. She flew and fluttered into the color patterned sky. And when Mousy touched the sky, she shared her colors – what she represented – with the current totality.
The pattern moved. It reformed and washed over itself as Freddy waited anxiously to see if it would tear and rip as he feared it might. He waited, and waited, but it never stopped moving. New truths were formed, and old ones were made stronger. The pattern had become more beautiful than Freddy thought it could ever be, yet another seemingly impossible thing coming true.
The changing colors refused to stay still even as it became stable. The pattern expanded and contracted.
It breathed, like it was given life.
Bonnie reached down to pick up Freddy's discarded hat to hand it back to the bear. As the timer ticked down and the simulation began to wane, the rabbit spoke.
"When you said he can't come back, you meant to say it was impossible." The voice was Bonnie's, yet the hopeful words he spoke could only have belonged to their beloved night guard. "But all I heard was that I get to see another miracle."
Do you believe in miracles?
Plot twist: nothing happens and they go on about their lives with a renewed conviction.
Did you like it? I hope you did. I have it in my head that Bonnie would be the consoler of the group, and he'd be the one to try and help the others cope if they run into problems. Also in my head is that Freddy would indeed go ahead and try doing things like simulations down the line. He's one for self-improvement, after all.
Again, this is just an interpretation of the main story. If you think they'll break if they found out what they did, then that idea just as valid as this one. Go ahead and write it down, but tell me so I can enjoy what you wrote as well!
As always, if you liked this fic, I'd appreciate a review. If you didn't but would like to point out where I could improve, I'd appreciate your thoughts on the matter as well.