Where It All Began

34 years ago…

Aaron Johnson looked around the restaurant with a certain sense of pride. When they'd first launched their little franchise, he'd had his doubts despite all they had going for them. He just wasn't sure that it would catch on.

But all of those doubts had been put to rest. The tables were all packed with families, eagerly chowing down on their freshly made pizza. There was a general buzz of excitement for the next show that would be starting soon. The waiters were busily moving to take the next orders, greeting customers with a smile.

After all, they were the face of Fredabear's Family Diner.

It was a relatively simple affair. A single large dining area with about twenty tables and a space cleared out in front of the stage where the purple star patterned curtains were waiting to be opened. Waiters were bustling to and from the kitchen. In essence, it looked like a regular family diner.

But the real magic lay behind those curtains. Aaron had seen them in action, had helped design and build them yet they were still an amazing sight even after their first week of opening. Sophisticated performing animatronics with state of the art artificial intelligence. You could talk to them as if they were actually people and they could walk around, interact with the guests.

This had all been part of one brilliant man's dream and Aaron could safely say that he was proud to have helped to fulfil it.

He looked to see his associate coming from the backstage door. He was smoothing back his usually pristine black hair which had become ruffled slightly from the work he'd been doing. His other hand went into his pocket from which he drew a handkerchief to wipe his slightly oily hands with a look of disgust on his face. It was replaced with a more pleasant look when he approached Aaron.

"Looking good, Mr Hawthorne?" asked Aaron.

"As can be expected, Mr Johnson," returned Sid. He returned to wiping his hands. "I have to say, this kind of hands on work is not really what I'm used to."

"Well, we have to help the technicians until they have a good handle on the technology we designed," reasoned Aaron. He grinned. "Besides, might do you some good getting your hands dirty for once."

"I prefer to keep them clean, thank you," he said snidely. "Next time if there's a fault, you can be the one to help the grease monkeys with fixing it."

"I like to think we take it turns anyway, so that's fair enough," agreed Aaron. He rubbed his hands together. "Ooh, this never fails to get me excited!"

Sid let out a snort. "You give them far too much credit, you know. Despite how sophisticated their AI might be, they're still just machines."

"Now, Sid, that's a little too dismissive a judgement, don't you think?" a Southern voice drawled. "I'd have thought you'd take a little more pride in seeing our work pay off like this."

They both whirled around to see their senior employer standing behind them. He was dressed as he always was for the stage: an impeccable black suit with a top hat. His portly belly and warm smile had a fatherly quality, while his suit with his twinkling blue eyes gave him the air of a magician about to put on the show of a lifetime.

"But of course, Mr Fitzbar," said Sid hastily, smiling in a way that seemed forced. "Why would I not feel pride seeing the fruits of our labour?"

"I've told you a hundred times that it's just Fred to you two," reminded Fred Fitzbar. "But I would never view our beloved entertainers as 'just machines'."

"Forgive me for disagreeing with you, Mr F… Fred," he corrected quickly, "but I simply don't view them the way you do. You speak of them as if they were alive."

Fred chuckled. "Aren't they, Sid? Aren't they?" He checked his watch. "Right, time for me to take centre stage. Enjoy the show, boys."

They watched as he strolled away to the stage, stopping every now and again to greet the guests. He really had the feel of a welcoming host, asking them if they were enjoying their food and having a good time. He always seemed to smile even more when greeted with an enthusiastic response from the children.

It was one Aaron found a little infectious. A glance at Sid told him he didn't feel the same way.

"Come on, Sid," he encouraged. "We all know how Fred can be when it comes to the performers."

"Yes, I know, but my point still stands," he insisted. "It's ridiculous."

"Well, one of the AIs is based off the mind of his sister, remember?" reminded Aaron. "Isn't it a little understandable that he'd feel this way towards that one at least?"

"Just because it's based off his sister doesn't mean it is his sister," countered Sid. "He should try to remember that and not be so obsessed over it."

"Here now, no need to be like that. He's just trying to preserve her memory," argued Aaron.

"More like desperately cling to the past," countered Sid.

"A rather cold way of looking at it," remarked Aaron. "But then that is like you, Sid."

A dark look passed over Sid's features at that comment. At first, Aaron thought he might have overstepped a line with that last remark. But it was replaced with a more amicable expression.

"My apologies, my friend," he said smoothly. "I didn't mean to be so insensitive. I forget myself sometimes."

"No bother," assured Aaron. "If nothing else, your blunt honesty is one of the qualities I've always admired about you. Even if it does nothing to help your charm."

Sid shrugged. "Sometimes, it's better to avoid the niceties to address the heart of the matter. The world has a tendency not to remember to be nice before delivering you into some bad news."

"That doesn't mean that a woman likes it when you say to her that her makeup does nothing to hide her natural unattractiveness," he remarked.

Sid glared at him. "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"No, I don't think so," he chortled.

They stopped their conversation when they heard Fred tapping the microphone. Children rushed out of their seats and hurried to the front of the stage. They knew what was coming.

"Ah good, it's working. Now you know we didn't scrimp the budget on the sound system." That got a few chuckles. "Well, a fine hello to each and every one of you. I certainly hope that you're all having a good time." There were some enthusiastic nods from the kids. "Well, that's grand. Because I think it's high time you all met some wonderful friends of mine. How does that sound?" A chorus of yeses came from the crowd. "Very well then. Come on out, you two!"

A spotlight shone on the curtain behind him which slid aside to reveal what lay behind it. There was a faint mechanical whirring as a pair of stocky animatronic figures clomped forward to join Fred at the front of the stage.

"Heya kids!" greeted the first one happily. "It's me, your old pal Fredabear!"

Aaron smiled as the children cheered. The face of Fredabear's Family Diner was a golden animatronic bear carrying a microphone. She wore a black bowtie and a matching top hat, which she swept off her head and waved to everyone. Even though they weren't real, her blue eyes seemed to shine from the cheers that greeted her.

"And don't forget about me!" added the other. "Spring Bonnie's here to boogie on down!"

Her partner in crime was one that Aaron had a more reserved smile for. Like Fredabear, his synthetic fur was golden and his expression was fixed in a permanent smile which Aaron found just a tiny bit unnerving. A traditional string guitar hung around his neck. It wasn't real but like Fredabear's microphone, it was there for stage value.

A slightly less enthusiastic applause welcomed his arrival and Aaron could understand why. While Fredabear had consistently performed with very few hitches and garnered a well-deserved reputation from the guests, Spring Bonnie was… different. Enough that his and Sid's presence was required now at the restaurant to keep an eye on him.

"Fingers crossed for him this time, eh?" he murmured to Sid.

"You always say that, but it still has yet to deliver any good luck," he replied. "Still, I suppose we should be grateful he hasn't hurt any of the little brats yet."

"As fond of children as always then," noted Aaron.

Sid didn't reply. He continued to watch the two animatronics intently while they interacted on stage with Fred.

"And how are you doing today?" he was asking the golden bear.

"Just swell as always, Fred," replied Fredabear brightly. "Ready to spread some cheer at our little diner."

"That's good to hear, Freda," he said warmly. "You been looking forward to performing for all these fine girls and boys?"

"I sure have!" put in Spring Bonnie, practically stepping in front of him. "I am ready and raring to go!"

"Now, hold on there, Spring," chuckled Fred as he managed to get back to centre stage. "You might want to simmer down there a little."

"Why should I? It's time for our show, so get off the stage already, you old coot!" he ordered rudely.

There were some giggles from kids and a few murmurs from parents. Sid and Aaron exchanged a look. But they were rolling with it on stage.

"Springy! That was very rude!" scolded Fredabear. "You should always show respect to your elders, especially if they're like Fred!"

Spring Bonnie froze for a moment, his eyes locked on Fredabear. He should have responded immediately and Aaron thought this might be one of his glitches. But then his ears drooped and his body slackened.

"You're right, Freddie. That wasn't very nice at all," he agreed. "I'm sorry, Fred."

"That's quite alright, Spring," he assured. "I understand you're very eager to get your show underway, so I won't keep you for very long. But I just want to tell all you children to stay safe and not be too rough with each other around my friends."

"We don't want you kids getting hurt," added Fredabear. "But don't worry, Fred. We'll make sure they're okay."

"I'm sure you will. And you make sure that Spring doesn't get into any trouble too," he told her with a laugh.

A few of the other kids laughed too, but Spring Bonnie's reaction was less than humorous.

"Hey!" He stomped his foot down angrily. "That's not funny! I can do whatever I want, you wrinkly fart!"

Only a few of the kids laughed this time and a few parents gasped sharply, their murmurs a little louder. Even Fred was momentarily unnerved, but he swiftly recovered.

"Spring, I apologise if the nature of that joke offended you, but that was a little uncalled for." He smelled under his pits. "Surely I don't smell as bad as that, do I?" The kids giggled a little at that.

"Certainly not, Fred. Springy's just being a big meanie, isn't he kids?" Most of them nodded yes to Fredabear. "I think poor Fred deserves another apology, Springy."

Yet again, Spring Bonnie froze for a while. This one was a little longer than the previous one. Only his eyes appeared to move, from the kids, to Fred, to Fredabear. Sid gave Aaron another look and it looked like they would have to intervene. But like flicking a switch, Spring Bonnie became contrite again.

"I didn't mean to be mean, everyone. I just don't like the idea of being called names when I can't hear them," he said sadly.

"That's okay, Springy. I wouldn't like that either. But you should still say that you're sorry," said Fredabear firmly.

"I'm sorry again, Fred and to you kids," he added.

"Once again, quite alright. I think I've taken up enough of your time anyway." He tipped his hat to the audience. "Well children, I do hope you enjoy the show. I leave you all my friend's capable paws."

The children waved goodbye as he walked off stage, allowing the two animatronics more space to perform.

"Alright then, I think we've waited long enough. You ready to play, Springy?" she asked.

"As long as you're ready to sing, Freddie!" he returned eagerly.

"Well it's time to start the show!" she declared, preparing her microphone. "Hit it, Springy!"

"You got it!" He held his guitar up. "One, two, three, four!"

They started playing their little numbers. Sometimes, their mouths didn't move quite in time with the words but they were catchy little numbers that the kids could dance to. The only other thing was again to do with Spring Bonnie. Even though Fredabear was supposed to be the lead singer, there were quite a few times he was singing just as loud, if not louder, than she was.

At first, Aaron thought it might be a problem with his audio feeds and vocal relays but he always quietened down when he and Sid were about to start forward to see if there was anything wrong. It was like he was doing it deliberately…

When they finished a few of their songs, it was time for them to interact with the audience. This was what really made them stand out as incredible.

"Right, I think our voices have been exercised enough," announced Fredabear. "Time to stretch the old legs." She stepped down off the stage and a few eager kids clamoured to her. "Hey everyone! Nice to see you all up close."

"Wait for me!" Spring Bonnie practically leaped off the stage, making the kids back away a little. "Come on, don't run away from me, kids! You know I'll catch you easy because rabbits are quick." His eyes seemed to flash. "No kids would get away from me."

There was something about the way he said that that made Aaron's spine shiver.

"Wow, would you look at this guy? He's almost as tall as me!" Fredabear knelt down so she was eye to eye with a young boy wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt. "What's your name?"

"Will," he answered.

"Nice to meet you, Will. I like your T-shirt, especially since I hear they like pizza too," she remarked. "How old are you then?"

"Nine and a half!" he announced proudly.

"Well, no wonder you're so big," she said and held out an arm. "Wanna see if you can be even bigger?"

He eagerly sat on her arm and whooped with joy when she lifted him onto her shoulders. A few others clamoured for the same treatment. She hefted up one more with ease and carried them around the length of the restaurant, being very careful with them.

Once again though, Spring Bonnie appeared to be proving quite the opposite, particularly now Fredabear had walked away from the stage.

"Aw come on, little princess," he was urging a little girl. "There's no need to be scared of me. It's your old bunny buddy Bonnie!"

The girl in question wasn't comforted by that fact. Most of the kids were giving both her and Spring Bonnie a wide berth. It looked like he'd singled her out but the reactions of the others hadn't escaped him.

"Hey guys and girls, she's not scared! She's just a little shy. Don't hide in your rabbit holes from me," he urged with what he thought was gentle coaxing. But his voice sounded shaky. "Are you scared of me, little princess?"

The girl dared to look from behind her hands. Her head jerked in an unmistakable nod. For the third time, Spring Bonnie froze to look at her. When he spoke again, his voice was far from friendly.

"Good. You should be." The girl started to cry and he tried to sound cheery again. "Hey, hey! I was only kidding! Just a joke! Don't cry!" But she continued to, something that didn't improve his behaviour. "Come on, don't do that! How about I take you on stage and play you a little song?"

But the girl was furiously shaking her head. This didn't seem to deter Spring Bonnie, who roughly took hold of her arm to drag her on stage which only made her crying worse. Now, Sid and Aaron started forward toward him, trying to get by the kids in their way.

"Come on sweetie! Don't cry now!" Spring sounded like he was barely controlling his voice. "Please, don't cry or you'll make me sad. And you wouldn't like to see me when I'm sad…"

"Let her go!" The girl's mother had now come over, trying to pull her back. "Let go of my daughter!"

"Don't get in my way, lady!" warned Spring. "If you do, I'll- hey, what are you doing?!"

Aaron and Sid now had a hold of him, the latter unlatching the hatch at the back of his head. When he spoke next, Spring sounded scared. He tried to struggle against them but they managed to prevent him, though with great difficulty.

"No, no, please!" he begged. "Not again, no! I'm sorry, I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to make her cry, really I didn't! I'll try to do better, I promise! Don't tuuuuuuurrrrrn…"

His mechanical body went limp the instant Sid found his emergency shut off switch. His guitar dangled as lifelessly as his limbs did.

"So sorry about that, madam," Aaron said quickly. "Just a slight fault with the mechanicals. On behalf of Fredabear's Family Diner, consider your meal complimentary of the house. That includes dessert for the little one, eh?"

The mother was hugging her daughter who was starting to calm down, but she still gazed in abject terror at Spring Bonnie. Together, he and Sid hauled him away backstage. Before they went behind the curtains, Aaron glimpsed Fredabear watching them carry away her partner.

"Yet again," grumbled Sid. "Why is it that, no matter how much we run diagnostics on this one, it never seems to work properly?"

"Well, Spring has always been a little erratic since we first brought him online," noted Aaron. "We'll run an extra one on him tonight and maybe he'll do better tomorrow."

"I very much doubt Mr Fitzbar will want it working tomorrow," dismissed Sid. "We've given it a week and it hasn't got any better, in fact I think it's gotten worse. That's the third time it's roughly handled a kid like that. We've been lucky the parents haven't pressed any charges against us."

Aaron sighed. "You might be right. It'll be a shame though, just keeping him turned off if we have to."

"Oh good lord, Aaron, it's a machine. It won't know any better. You sound like Mr Fitzbar." He glared at Spring Bonnie. "It would be a lot better if we had some way to properly control these things, get them to do what the programmer actually wants. It doesn't do well to just let a machine wander and do what it likes."

"You know that's not what Fred wants," reminded Aaron. "He wants the AI to behave with as few restraints as possible."

"What Mr Fitzbar wants might not be what's for the best. Look at this one if you want an example. You'd think that given whose brain he's based off of, he might be a little more professional," remarked Sid and walked out.

Aaron stayed a while longer, checking over Spring Bonnie again. Sid had his views and Aaron wasn't going to try and change them. But he'd seen how they'd behaved when they first activated these two. If nothing else, Fred was right in thinking that these were far more than just machines. Still, he made a mental note to tell the security supervisor to make sure Spring was kept deactivated until further notice.

He opened the access port to his AI processor, which glowed dimly with faint life. Even though his body was deactivated, Aaron couldn't help but wonder if Spring was somehow still aware and could hear them. Like a person in a coma was meant to be able to hear the people around them.

"Sorry, lad," murmured Aaron. "I wish we could find out what's making you go off the beat and track like this."

"Poor Springy." Aaron jumped when he heard Fredabear and saw her standing close by. "Oh, I'm sorry, Aaron. I didn't mean to frighten you."

"Ah, don't fret, lass," he assured. "I just wasn't expecting you, that's all."

"I told the kids I wanted to check on my bandmate. Will Springy be okay?" she asked. "Are you… going to turn him back on for the next show?"

Aaron was taken aback at how scared she sounded. It was almost like a child asking about the wellbeing of a friend. Then again, strictly speaking she was only about two weeks old.

"I'm not sure he will, Fredabear," he replied. "He's not been behaving himself like you have. We'll run some tests on him before we close up for tonight, but… I'm afraid it looks like you might be performing alone if we don't sort him out. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I understand." Her eyes lingered on Spring. "He gets mad over weird things and he's not always nice to the kids. Is there anything you can do?"

"We will try, I promise. But maybe that's just the way he is and there's nothing we can do to change that," said Aaron.

"Oh." She fell silent for a minute while Aaron made some final checks. "That won't happen to me, will it?"

"What won't?"

"Being turned off forever. It… it won't happen to me, will it?" Yet again, she sounded scared. "I don't want to be turned off. Please?"

Aaron stared in amazement at just how… well, human that sounded. How could Sid even think these were just machines?

"Of course it won't, lass," he assured her. "Like I said, you behave yourself and you're very nice with the kids. They all love you. Plus, it's your name above the place! We can't get rid of our star."

"I guess that would be silly." He could hear the smile in her voice. "Thank you, Aaron. I'm sorry about Springy. I try to make him be nice, but he never seems to listen to me."

"He never seems to listen to anyone," said Aaron, closing up his access port and hatch. "Just like you, he seems to have a mind of his own. And I'm not sure it's a good'un."

Hey, that's where this chapter went! Since Scott just released the fourth installment, I thought I'd let you all see that I've been working on.

Now, I will also use this chapter to make an announcement. There won't be updates for a while because I'm going on holiday tomorrow and won't be back till August 6th. This is just to let you all know I have been working on it. I will be doing chapter plans while I'm away, but I won't be bringing my laptop so no working on anything while I'm there.

Also, a note for my anonymous readers. As you've seen, I do reply to every review I get in the updates for new chapters. However, this is only when there is a new chapter. If you ask me a question in the reviews at the end of a story, when I'm not updating it anymore, unless you sign into a proper account, I literally cannot answer your questions. Just a little common sense, please.

See you all when I get back. Be strong, be swift, be just.