Disclaimer: I do not own FNAF!

Now that it is known that Jeremy was trying to save them, what will the animatronics decide to do?

With that, enjoy the story!

3rd Night: 5:00 AM

Ducking behind the door, Mari observed Lala entering the Party Room while the old Chica was in there. Handing her the book, he listened as Lala asked her, "Hey, Chica. I'm going to distract Jeremy Fitzgerald. Once he doesn't look like he'll notice you, can you place the book onto the desk?"

"Huh? Oh, sure!" Chica complied happily as she accepted the book from her friend. "What's in this book, though? Whose is it?"

"It's his. We actually took a peek inside the notebook to see what was so important about it. Mari will tell you guys more later, okay?"

"Okay! I'll do my best!"

As Lala headed outside the room while grabbing a conveniently-placed blanket at the door and draping it around herself to prevent Jeremy from recognising her from her clothes, Mari eyed her as she slowly limped down the corridor before looking at Jeremy. He still hadn't realised that there was a literal rotting zombie child slowly heading towards him.

"Someone… help me…"

Upon hearing the weak cry, Jeremy placed his tablet back down onto the table and looked up, flashing his flashlight down the hallway to see the most horrifying sight which made him scream for the first time he was doing his job in this pizzeria.

Mari could understand why, considering how a huge patch of her long pink hair was gone, her hands have been reduced to bones which still had lumps of flesh clinging on to them, blood dripping down from most parts of her body, the fresh scars on her face, the Glasgow smile and worst of all, the skin around her right eye was gone, showing the muscle and bloodied eye socket. It's no wonder Jeremy would scream at the top of his lungs, especially since Lala looked so much like a child, considering that she was chronologically still only ten-years-old.

"OH MY GOD! Are you okay, Little Girl?!" Jeremy yelled in shock as he dashed towards her to attend to her. Meanwhile, Mari noticed Chica clambering out of the vent and placing the book onto the table before advancing towards the security guard.

"They… they attacked me when I tried to seek shelter in this place… I barely escaped. It's a huge wonder I'm still alive… but now… it hurts… help…"

Jeremy shook his head in disbelief. "Oh… oh my god… How did they… how did they reduce you into such a state…?"

However, he didn't notice the withered chicken animatronic slowly advancing towards him, until he heard strange wheezing and turned around to stare into her violet-coloured eyes.

"Bye-bye, Jeremy~"

"NO!" Jeremy howled into her face as he quickly scooped Lala up and rushed down the hallway past Mari. "Please bear with the pain! I'm so sorry!"

As she pretended to struggle, Lala stretched a hand forward and shook his arm. "No, don't... Put me down, Sir... save yourself... I cannot be saved even if you bring me to the hospital..."

Jeremy's green eyes widened as he shook his head in denial. "No... no! I can't let you die even though I don't know you!"

"Listen, Jeremy... protect yourself... there's a pantry room at the back of the security office... none of the animatronics can enter that place because it's not in their programming... go!"

"Huh? W-wait, how are you-?!"

Mari observed as Lala slowly transformed back into her animatronic form, replying with a smile, "I am one of them, too. How am I supposed to tell you how to protect yourself if you try to hide away from me with that Freddy head? I won't be able to scan for you. But I won't let you off again if I catch you again next time. Go, they're arriving soon."

Jeremy could only stare at her before a smile slowly spread across his face as he placed her back onto the ground and replied, "Thank you so much."

Then he quickly turned and ran back into the security office, slamming the pantry door in front of Toy Bonnie's face.

"What? Where did he disappear to...?"

Meanwhile, Mari stepped towards Lala who had stood up onto her two ballet feet. "Why did you save him? Don't you want him dead too, like the others?"

"I'm not like the others, Mari," Lala replied as she threw the tattered brown blanket off her shoulders. "During those few minutes, I managed to make a quick analysis of him."

He was confused. "... Quick analysis?"

"You know how all of us are able to form illusions of our human forms? That comes from the spiritual power that all of us have, except that mine is stronger because I come from a family of spirit mediums. I think I told you this before."

"Yes, I do remember. And what about it?"

Lala sighed. "If I was still alive, my power would have been what my sister calls clairvoyance, just like my Daddy. But unlike him who can see the past, I can see the future. The only thing which is the same is that both of us can talk with the dead... except that now I'm dead too."

Mari was slightly intrigued. "How do you know all of this?"

"Because now, I realised that I have the ability to do so as well. Except that it's still very shallow, and it will use up the spirit energy that we all have," she replied. "It's kind of ironic how I'm able to possess the abilities of a spirit medium even though I'm dead myself..."

"Then how does this all link up to you making an analysis of Jeremy?"

She took a deep breath as she started walking back to the storage room with her friend following suit. "I could see Jeremy's sincerity. I see him working hard at his desk in the morning after work, trying to find out how to save us."

Mari could feel his tensed expression slacken. "You've got to be joking, Lala. Even you are onto this right now?"

"Mari, the visions are real. It's your choice to decide if you want him to help out, or you want to kill him for a higher chance of Damno Spyros taking his place," Lala shrugged as she walked back, only to suddenly pause halfway and stand still.

Puzzled, he called out to her, "Hey, Lala, are you okay?"

"..."

"Lala?" Starting to get worried, Mari walked over towards her and placed a hand on her broken shoulder joints.

At that moment, the old Bonnie happened to pass by and saw the scene. Curious, he headed towards them.

Suddenly, she brought her hands to her head and gave an ear-piercing scream which was enough to scare both males, causing Mari to fall onto the marble tiles and Bonnie to stagger back in shock. Mari asked in concern and shock, "L-Lala?! What happened to you?!"

Lala stayed silent for a moment as she stared forward before she suddenly fell backwards. In the nick of time, Bonnie reacted quickly and grabbed her shoulders, steadying her. "Y-Yo, are you okay?! Your face looks really bad, and I don't just mean literally…"

"Mari… Bonnie…" Lala muttered softly before she turned her head in a spastic way to look at the Marionette. "Save them… Help them…"

Mari was starting to grow terrified about what was happening to his friend. "Save them? Help them? What's going on, Lala?! What did you see?!"

Lala breathed in heavily before she replied in a breathy voice, "Children… they… I see dead children… History is repeating itself again…!"

Mari and Bonnie turned towards each other in horror.

"Wait, you mean, Damno Spyros is going to…?"

She nodded quickly. "We cannot let this happen again…If I can see it happen, that means it's very close in the future… It can even be as close as… today…"

Mari looked back at Bonnie once more and told him using his commanding voice, "Help her into the storage room. She needs to calm down before she can tell us about it properly!"

4th Day: 6:30 AM

"Oh my god! Are you okay, Lala~?"

Lala smiled back at Chica, "I'm a little bit better right now. Thanks, Chica."

All of the Withered animatronics were in the storage room after news of Lala's sudden mental breakdown spread.

Bonnie shook his head in disbelief as he muttered, "It's the first time I had seen Pinky Ballerina hyperventilate like that…"

Freddy deadpanned, "If you saw a vision of a murder, will you be happily prancing around?"

"Of course not! Geez, I was just remarking…"

Suddenly, Mari sensed a presence outside the Storage Room, and looked out to see a golden bear animatronic who was then in his human form and gesturing for him to come out. Slightly confused by why Goldie would want to talk to him, Mari stepped out of the room and asked, "What is it, Goldie?"

Goldie looked around before he started talking, "Mari, what are we going to about Lala's prophecy? Lala's condition right now is too poor to go against him, and she's the one who knows the most about what will happen, so what do we do now...?"

"She definitely isn't in a very good state to get rid of him, and we need to be prepared. However, the problem is that we aren't sure when he's going to do the deed, and if we don't know time, we aren't going to go anywhere with these visions," Mari explained to him.

Goldie nodded, before he looked back up at Mari and asked, "Then... what are you going to do about Jeremy?"

"... I'm going to tell him about everything."

4th Day: 7:45 AM

Mari laid in his box, the events which happened earlier flashing in his mind time and again.

A few moments ago...

"So now we're going to let Jeremy Fitzgerald do as he pleases?! Are you kidding me?!"

"For once, I actually agree with the purple bunny," Foxy muttered as he folded his arms.

"Hey... I actually do think that we should take the chance, though~! What if Jeremy was able to really find a way to free us?" Chica asked them.

"That's true, Chica," Freddy nodded, "But I'll leave the decisions up to you guys to decide. After all, I don't have much opinion on this so long as we can be freed."

"So what do you think, Mari?" Lala asked.

Mari stayed silent for a while before he replied, "I... honestly hope that we can trust Jeremy with helping us."

Bonnie and Foxy stared at him in disbelief. "A... Are you serious?!" Bonnie screeched in shock.

"... Listen, you guys. I've weighed out the pros and cons, and I finally thought of one thing: do you guys want to continue killing the innocent just to kill a villain?"

All of them turned towards him as the realisation hit them.

"It's not worth it, don't you think so?"

His words caused them to fall silent.

As the flashback ended, Mari closed his eyes and sighed. Why did this have to be so difficult for him?

Suddenly, Mari heard footsteps walking across the room and stopping in front of his box. Startled by the sudden sound, Mari flipped open his box and sprang out of it to check who it was.

"AAH!" the figure screamed in surprise and tottered back when Mari had suddenly popped out like a jack-in-the-box.

Mari eyed the figure carefully before he sighed and asked, "What are you doing here again, Jeremy Fitzgerald?"

"Uh... well... I just wanted to know more about you guys..."

He brought his hand to his face. "Of all times, why did you decide to come back now? You should know that the workers are coming in about fifteen minutes."

Jeremy cocked his head to the side as he asked Mari, "... Wait, you aren't going to attack me?"

"I've decided that I'm going to tell you about us. You seem trustworthy."

"R-Really?"

"Yeah, but only tonight. I can't risk the rest of the workers finding out about us."

A smile grew on Jeremy's face as he threw his arms around Mari and gave him a huge bear hug. "Thank you! You don't know how much being given a chance to save you guys means to me!"

A huge rush of warmth flooded into Mari's body, stunning him. What was this feeling? For the first time in this body, he felt so... calmed, even happy. The warmth was like a light still shining in an area of darkness, lighting up the surroundings to finally reveal the beautiful, secret garden. When was the last time he had felt this type of warmth? He could not even remember what it felt like anymore, but somehow, this security guard did it.

Could it be that he was starting to feel compassion and attachment towards Jeremy Fitzgerald? But why? And how?

Suddenly, the warmth disappeared as Jeremy pulled back from him in embarrassment. "Oh, I'm sorry, I was too excited about it..."

"... It's okay," Mari replied back, feeling a slightly crooked smile grow on his face before he looked down and muttered, "I... don't really mind hugs, to be honest..."

"Really?!" Jeremy's bright smile came back on as he hugged the Marionette one more time. "Yay! I like hugs too!"

Mari was at a loss for words, but he soon regained his composure and smiled behind his mask, accepting the friendly hug from him.

"Hey, shouldn't you get going now? You should go back and rest right now," Mari pointed out as he started to release the hug on him.

"Yeah, that's true. See you tonight, Marionette! Or can I call you Mari?" Jeremy asked as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

Mari shrugged his spindly shoulders. "I don't see why not."

"Then... see you, Mari!" Jeremy waved cheerily as he sprinted out of the room, giving a whoop of delight on his way out.

Mari shook his head as a fond smile grew behind his mask as he started to fold himself up again and hide back inside the box.

"Uh... Mari? What just happened to you?!"

Suddenly hearing another different voice, Mari flipped the lid open again. "What now?! I need to sleep!"

"Holy shit, this is the first time I heard 'im speak like that," the old Bonnie remarked with a snigger as he brought a hand to where his mouth would have been.

Meanwhile, Lala stared at him with a dumbfounded expression. "Did you just... allow Jeremy Fitzgerald to hug you, and initiated a second one?!"

"What could I say? I needed him to be on our side."

There was a moment of silence before Chica suddenly bursted out guffawing. "WAHAHAHAHA! 'I needed him'?! Mari, are you in love with him or something?!"

"I'm not in love with that giant, Chica," Mari corrected. "Plus, it's not just me. We all need him on our side if he is able to find a way to free us all without having to kill anybody."

"Come on, guys. Give Mari a break," Freddy sighed. "Let's go back before anyone sees us."

As the old crew trudged back towards the storage room, Mari sighed to himself and slipped back into the box. However, as he tried to rest, Chica's outburst earlier kept coming back into his mind.

"Mari, are you in love with him or something?!"

He shook his head to drive that thought away. It couldn't be... right?

4th Day: 11:00 PM

"We... we failed..."

Chica was sobbing madly as she sat in a corner, Freddy had a huge frown on his face as he bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes, Lala was looking at the tiled floor with a sorrowful look in her eyes, and both Bonnie and Foxy were standing and leaning against the walls, staring at the floor as well.

"We couldn't stop him... he did it during the day, just like what he did to us..." Bonnie muttered in a cracking voice. "It's just too risky to stop him..."

Lala shook her head. "I'm sorry... I couldn't do anything even though I could foresee it..."

"It's not your fault, Lala," Freddy replied softly. "None of us could do anything."

Silently, Foxy stepped over to Chica and placed an arm around her shoulders. Still weeping, Chica threw her arms around him and cried even harder than before.

Mari watched from outside the storage room, a pained expression behind his clown mask. It wasn't just them. None of them, including the Toy Animatronics could do anything even though they had suspected and saw the entire scene. The five kids were murdered and again, no one knows who the culprit was, except that the Spring Bonnie suit was used again to conceal the murderer's identity.

Suddenly, he heard a loud sound in the room and turned towards the source, startled. Slightly concerned, he crept towards it. Was there a break-in?

His silent feet stepped onto the marble flooring as he peeked his head out from behind a wall, staring into the dark area. As his eyes adapted to the lighting, his eyes widened as he saw a shadowy figure of someone grabbing something before slipping away. Someone was tampering with the crime scene and evidence!

Shocked, Mari quickly turned and fled towards the storage room once again, slamming the metal door open.

"Freddy, I need your help. He's back-where's Freddy?!"

"He's at the Office," Bonnie replied. "What's up?"

Mari shook his head in despair as he quickly threw himself towards the Security Office. "Darn it... Freddy!"

Both Freddy and Foxy were the only ones who could counter with the killer, but Foxy wasn't really willing to do anything for some reason, so Freddy ended up being the one who would be going against him.

"Freddy! FREDDY! GET OUT NOW!" Mari screamed down the hallway as he flew down the corridor.

Almost immediately, Freddy dashed out of the office with a panicky look on his face. "He's here?! At this time?!"

"Yes! Follow me! Hurry up!"

Freddy ran, his mechanical footsteps thumping against the ground loudly. As he turned down towards the party room in front of the show stage, he paused when he saw the purple-suited man in front of him.

He gritted his teeth in anger as he clenched his fists. "... Damno Spyros..."

"He he he... hello again! How do you enjoy your life here so far?" he asked with a sadistic grin on his face.

"Does it look like I'm enjoying it, you bastard?" Freddy growled as his blue eyes began flashing red.

Damno shrugged as he replied smugly, "Well, aren't you gonna come and get me, little one?"

Roaring, Freddy charged at him and raised his fist, the hard metal about to come down onto Damno's head, which will be crushed if he didn't evade it. However, Mari was shocked when Freddy suddenly stood still halfway, his fist still frozen in mid air. As his eyes lost its light and he went crashing onto the floor, the masked puppet turned to Damno and his white pupils widened.

Damno had a taser in his hands. He had come prepared, and they never knew.

Smiling, he moved past Mari and headed towards the storage room. Quickly, Mari grabbed Damno's wrist in a futile attempt to prevent him from doing anything sinister. "What do you think you're about to do, Damno Spyros?"

"You're so weak, Marionette," he replied in a singsong voice as he simply used a flick of his wrist to throw Mari aside, causing him to slam into a wall and sliding down towards the ground in a daze. As he slowly began to blackout, his hazy vision was enough for him to watch Damno enter the Storage Room.

He could barely hear the shouts coming from inside, followed by the sounds of electric shocks and screaming. Then there was silence. As Mari slowly began to lose consciousness, he could feel the oily tears welling up in his eyes, yet his mask was too thick on him to even show them. He could not even shoe his feelings if he wanted to.

A choked sob erupted from his throat. What did he mean that time when he said he would assist them in their revenge and protect them? He had already failed to keep his friends safe!

Darkness enveloped him once again, but it wasn't as calming as how it should be, instead giving him more nightmares to corrode his mind away.