Chapter 3

"And that's where Chica makes the pizza! So what do you think Elliot?" Dawn asked.

The boy looked up at Dawn smiling as he grabbed onto her hand.

The two walked out of the kitchen and went into the gaming area as the new Freddy, Bonnie and Chica started playing their next song for all the kids. As most of the children sang along with the animatronics on stage, Dawn looked around to see the three original versions sitting off to the side. Old Bonnie and Chica were playing with the few kids that weren't paying attention to the show while Freddy sat at a table with some parents, whom were grown-ups obviously reliving their childhood memories.

Through the laughing and singing, Dawn heard Foxy's cackling laugh and turned to see him in her old room in his full pirate attire, which was really just normal Foxy with a pirate hat on. Foxy noticed the two walking past the door, waving at them quickly before continuing his act. Everything seemed to be perfect until they approached the exit of the building, when Dawn noticed Elliot had lost his smile.

"What's the matter sweety?" Dawn said as she turned towards Elliot, a concerned look crossing her face.

"I don't want to go home. . ." Elliot replied in a bit of a sad tone.

Dawn smiled as she crouched down in front of Elliot on her new legs. Everything of the previously destroyed animatronic was functioning properly, finally allowing her to move the way she was intended. Her fur was clean, both of her eyes lit up and she gave the boy a gentle hug with both of her arms.

"I wish you could stay too, but if you start to miss me I want you to always remember, I promised I'd be here." She said warmly.

"Mangle. . ." Elliot said unexpectedly.

Her smile vanished as the boy said that haunting name, releasing him and leaning back.

"Mangle!" He shouted at her.

Dawn began to grow scared as the boy's voice changed and got louder while all the music in the background had stopped as well.

"Mangle, snap out of it!" Elliot yelled now in a completely different voice, the boy reaching out and shaking her.

"Stop it! Please stop!" Dawn cried out as she closed her eyes, terrified as to what was happening.

When the shaking finally stopped, Dawn sat there in silence with her eye sealed shut. She took a few moments before daring to slowly open her eyes again, only to be met with Toy Bonnie standing right in front of her.

"Mangle, you've spent two whole weeks cooped up in this stupid room. You haven't even come out to help us catch the endoskeleton! What gives!?" Bonnie said with his arms crossed.

Dawn frowned looking back down at herself, realizing the happy feelings and her functioning body was just a dream, including Elliot. . . again. As she looked back up at Bonnie he began to tap his foot, obviously displaying his annoyance.

"I-I'm sorry Bonnie, I just haven't felt in the mood. . ." Dawn said as she frowned.

"You realize they're the rules right? We have to all make some sort of effort to catch this thing!" Toy Bonnie shouted.

"Well maybe I don't feel like following the rules any more. . ." Dawn said turning her head away from Bonnie.

"What!? Mangle you have to help catch this thing! It's in our programming! Well, at least it's supposed to be anyway. If they find out, they're going to-" Toy Bonnie was saying before Dawn cut him off.

"They'll what! What are they going to do to me that is worse than this!?" Dawn said as she motioned to the rest of herself as her anger rose.

"…They'll re-program you Mangle, yo-" Toy Bonnie began before Dawn interrupted again.

"S-stop it Bonnie!" Dawn shouted.

"Stop what? Mangle you're freaking m-" Toy Bonnie said before being interrupted by Dawn once again.

"Stop calling me that!" Dawn yelled as sparks flew, causing her to wince and close her eyes again as Bonnie recoiled from being yelled at.

The room fell quiet for a full minute.

" . . . What's happened to you?" Bonnie said breaking the silence.

Dawn sat there for a moment trying to collect herself as the room suddenly became suffocating. Finally after what had felt like ages, Dawn spoke again, looking down and opening her eye just a fraction.

"I just want to see that boy again Bonnie." Dawn declared.

". . . I don't know who you're talking about Mang-. . ." Bonnie stopped himself short, not wanting to anger her again.

"Elliot, I miss Elliot." Dawn said looking up again.

Bonnie could see the sorrow in her eyes.

"Elliot? What are you. . . Wait, that kid from a few weeks ago?" Toy Bonnie questioned.

Dawn nodded her head.

"Look, not all the kids come back again. You can't let that hang over your head like this." Bonnie said, realizing what the animatronic was bothered about.

". . . But he said he would." She said looking down again with dimly lit eyes, showing that she was clearly heartbroken.

"It's not up to them Man, er. . . sigh* They're just kids, they aren't the ones that make the decisions to come back, even if they want to." Toy Bonnie declared.

Dawn thought for a moment, realizing this really wasn't the right subject to be discussing with Toy Bonnie. She decided to change gears and bring up the next issue that needed to be discussed.

". . . Bonnie please don't call me Mangle anymore." Dawn asked trying to regain some composure.

"But. . . But that's the name the staff gave you, that's not something that you can just change at will, I already told Foxy this. . ." Bonnie said as he looked away for a moment, thinking.

Before Dawn could reply, Toy Chica stuck her head in the room.

"Assistance required." Came a very robotic voice.

"Affirmative." Toy Bonnie replied in a similar voice.

Once Chica left, Bonnie turned back to Dawn.

"I want to help, but I can't bring kids back here for you. . . It's just out of all of our hands." Bonnie said as he turned and left Kids Cove.

Dawn sat there for a moment before curling back up on the floor.

It had been approximately five weeks since Elliot walked out the doors of Freddy's, and the end of the month was approaching fast. Dawn had almost reached the point of desperation, that boy being the only thing she could ever think about now, and the thought that he might not come back kept eating away at her. Every time it crossed her mind it had made her more lethargic than usual just in the recent weeks.

Dawn pushed the upsetting thoughts out of her head like she had done the many times before, closing her eyes and restarting her sleep mode.

'He'd come back. . .'Dawn thought as she dozed off.

"Thanks for coming to Freddy Fazbear Pizza! Enjoy your evening! Alright, was that the last scheduled party?" The employee asked his fellow co-worker.

"Yep, says right here, '6pm birthday'. You said you wanted to leave early right?" He asked.

"Yeah, I was hoping to. My bank closes in a half hour." The employee replied.

"Alright, go ahead and take off. I'll take care of closing up." His co-worker said.

"Cool, thanks bro. See you Monday then." The young adult pulled his work hat off, punched out and walked through the front door.

All the animatronics heard the faint echo of the conversation. Foxy frowned, knowing Dawn had probably heard as well and was most likely experiencing some great degree of heartache. It was sad news for all of them really. Foxy and Freddy had been putting in some effort towards repairing Bonnie and Chica, making the two presentable for Elliot, but now that it looked like the boy wasn't going to be there tonight, one could only guess how long it was going to be before he would make an appearance again, if ever.

"Foxy." Came Freddy's voice.

Foxy looked up to Freddy, realizing all of his old friends were looking at him.

"You need to go talk to her Foxy." Freddy said sadly.

"Right now? Freddy the place is still open." Foxy said, not really wanting to leave the back room

"You heard the man, no more birthday parties this evening and one of them has already left. Just sneak over there and calm her down. If the guy heads back there for any reason I'll signal you, alright?" Freddy said trying to convince Foxy.

"Alright, I'll be listening." Foxy said as he walked to the door but not before being stopped by Chica grabbing his hand.

"If she needs anything, tell her we're here for her." Chica said.

Foxy stood there and blinked for a moment. It had been so long since he heard her speak, it caught the animatronic off guard.

"O-okay Chica, I will." Foxy said giving Chica's hand a light squeeze before proceeding out of the room, poking his head out of the door to make sure no one was looking before crossing the hall.

Foxy started thinking back when Dawn first showed up in the storage room. He could remember how bubbly and spontaneous she was, even after the troubles she experienced on stage, but there had always been something about her that made him smile, and that had been rare for Foxy at the time. When Mike didn't get hired back after the remodel, Foxy had a hard time coping with losing his closest friend. Dawn had played a major hand in keeping Foxy from simply shutting down and Foxy knew it.

It made him sick knowing how long he had avoided Dawn since she was relocated to Kids Cove and torn apart, but since Elliot had shown up and helped Foxy see that Dawn was still the same caring individual even after being placed in that corner, Foxy decided he needed to bring up his selfish actions to Dawn.

Foxy finally entered the game room, but just as he came in line of sight of Kids Cove he noticed a figure sitting in one of the chairs at the table inside the room. He approached Kids Cove before stopping at the entrance. There sitting at the far corner of the table was Dawn, but definitely not the same Dawn he saw before Elliot left.

She had her arms back and what looked like parts of both of her legs. Her tail and even most of her upper body cover had been put back on while the rest of the broken replacement parts were shoved in a corner.

'Has she been putting herself back together? How the heck did she do that?' Foxy thought briefly before finally speaking up.

"Dawn, are you alright?" He asked softly.

Dawn flinched before bringing her head up with a big smile, her eyes flickering while she shook just so slightly.

"Y-you made it! I-I knew y-you'd come back!" Dawn said through her very forced smile as her voice wavered.

"Dawn, please-" Foxy started, but was cut off.

"I-I missed you too Elliot! What's that? Really? Awwe y-you're j-just the sw-sweetest . . . Th- the swee-. . ." Dawn couldn't hold herself together any longer as her ears dropped down, strained smile whipped away and her eyes dimmed as she looked at Foxy completely heartbroken before lowering her head back down to the table lying on her arms. Foxy's heart ached watching her talk to the boy that wasn't there as he finally entered the room and pulled up a chair next to Dawn.

The two sat there for a few minutes before Foxy eventually spoke up.

"Dawn, I'm sorry." Foxy said quietly.

Dawn's ears twitched when hearing the old animatronic talk.

"I. . . I'm sorry Elliot isn't here. We all wanted him to come back. That seemed to be what made you happy. Really he made us all happy Dawn, he's one of the good ones for sure, I have a hard time believing he won't be back again." Foxy said looking down at the table.

Dawn thought for a moment, knowing Foxy was probably right but kept her head buried in her arms.

"Th-thanks for coming Foxy. " She said quietly.

Dawn sat still, waiting for Foxy to slink away like he usually did, but he didn't leave. Foxy simply sat there as he frowned and began twiddling with his hook. Dawn raised her head slightly and turned towards Foxy, suddenly noticing the troubled look on his face.

"Foxy?" Dawn asked confused.

"I'm not worth your time Dawn. I've been selfish, a coward, and I let you suffer it alone because of it. When they moved you out here and let all those children take you apart, I couldn't bring myself to see what horrible things they decide to do to you every day. . . These stupid staff kept trying to make you more like me to become my replacement. You're better than that. If they just knew a hint of the potential that was being wasted, you wouldn't be here right now. I abandoned you here Dawn, I left you here when you needed me, even though I can't bear to hear myself say something so awful, and I don't want it to be true; it is. I know if it were me where you are now, you'd have been out here every night spending time here with me, I know it. And I've left you here. When you needed someone, I wasn't there. . ." Foxy stopped for a moment, beginning to get a bit choked up with finally dumping what had been on his mind for years now before he continued quietly.

"I'm sorry about Elliot, I hope he comes back." Foxy finished, defeated by himself as he went to get up.

"Foxy, please don't!" Dawn said as she grabbed Foxy's arm.

Foxy looked back to see Dawn shaking again; a sad, desperate expression laid across her face. As Foxy turned his chair around, Dawn pulled herself even closer and grabbed hold, hugging him as tight as she could.

"Please d-don't say things like that Foxy." Dawn said with her eyes locked shut as she clung onto him.

Foxy sat there stunned for a good minute, trying to figure out why Dawn was even wanting to be in the same room with him. Didn't he just point out all the reasons she should hate him right now?

"I… I don't w-want you to ever talk l-like that again Foxy." Dawn spoke into Foxy's shoulder. "I've looked up to you since w-we met, and hearing you s-say those horrible things about y-yourself…" Dawn went quiet as she began to lose control of her voice, the emotions she was experience began to overwhelm her.

"That means the world to me Dawn, but you are so much better than I could ever hope to be, you can't let me hold you back." Foxy said closing his eyes and lowering his head over Dawns.

"I love you so much Foxy."

Foxy's eyes snapped open. Did she just say love? Was that even a thing they could do? Foxy looked down to ask her what she meant, but noticed Dawn had finally stopped shaking but still wouldn't let go. Foxy decided he'd talk to Freddy about what she meant, but for now he just smiled and lowered his head again.

"I'll stay right here with you Dawn, as long as you need. I won't leave you again... I promise."

Wow that took me WAAAY too long! I am so sorry to those of you who have been patiently waiting for the next chapter, I'm relieved to finally put this up as a reward.

I have acquired the editing assistance from the generous Alpha Wolf, so kudos to him for keeping my spelling in check (see what I did there? lol)

I do want to add though, I have decided to put my other story on hold until I finish this one just to help me get chapters out quicker. I do plan on continuing my other story, but I just need to take it one step at a time.

Any way, I hope you all enjoy the new addition, there will be more to come.