The clock had chimed the next night when Ryan got back in the bedroom.
He had told his success to Nightmare Fredbear, despite him already knowing it. And even so, he listened thoroughly. He felt a flooding happiness, he could barely believe Ryan solved everything, even after how messed things were thanks to Nightmare's tricks. It seemed like only the truest, kindest words spoken by a gentle soul could win against the lies that came out of a merciless monster. Light always triumphed over darkness.
Ryan came to a short silence as he sat on the bed, Plushtrap always by his side. "So… what now?" he asked carefully. "Will everything be like this forever? Can… can something go wrong now?"
He asked it with such hope. If something went wrong, his heart would break into a million pieces. Nightmare Fredbear looked down as he searched for the answer. "They will not believe anything from Nightmare, from now on." he finally said. "But that does not mean our problems are solved. You must be careful now. The animatronics trust you, albeit not fully yet. You will have to show them that you truly care about them." He looked at the kid with a soft expression. "You don't want anything to happen to them."
Ryan slightly shook his head as he muttered, "I'd never want to." Nightmare Fredbear nodded approvingly. "Then, you must show it. If you are constantly with them, trying to help them on anything you can, they will see you as a true friend. If you show them friendship, they will show you respect and protection in exchange." Ryan smiled gently, and Plushtrap gave a content, quiet trill. They both wanted the Nightmares to be as friendly as they could. It would be great. Nothing would ever go wrong. Nightmare wouldn't dare to go against five angry animatronics, would he?
"Would you want to get started?"
The kid mused about the question. If he wanted the Nightmares to be the best friends anyone could ever wish for, he'd have to get started soon. He couldn't lose too much time. He nodded reliantly. "There is one thing I've always wanted to solve." The golden bear blinked before asking, "What is it?" He had a slight idea of what it could be, but decided to be fully sure by listening. "Bonnie and Chica are always fighting. But if I want to solve that, I'll need to know why they hate each other so much first."
Ending said Nightmares' rivalry was necessary. Each fight they had would distance them from the calmness required to befriend them. Getting them to stop fighting could be a great way to start. Ryan just hoped he didn't take too much time on it.
"I had a feeling you would want to stop that." Nightmare Fredbear said calmly. "It all started when this place was being created. Before you came here, we already existed. This dream started creating itself while you were unconscious." The kid listened thoroughly. Even Plushtrap was paying attention, and he wasn't one to listen to stories that didn't involve him. "The dream told the animatronics where they had to be, and what they had to do. However, both Bonnie and Chica were given the same location and purpose, while the other two had their own places and strategies. They were created to behave the same way, and that corrupted them."
"I see…" Ryan murmured in realization. It had always been that way, those two never had any kind of respect towards one another. All they had ever seen on each other was hate and contempt. "Do you think there's a way to stop their rivalry?"
Nightmare Fredbear stood thoughtful. "I'm afraid I cannot help you with that. If you want to help them, it is your responsibility to figure it out. Reasoning is a choice, and that is all I can tell you."
At least it was something. Reasoning had worked so far, but Ryan didn't know what exactly to tell them; he'd have to think of something else as well. Reasoning alone wasn't likely to work. He was dealing with a rivalry that lasted for too much time, and thus it had grown stronger. He knew that Nightmare Bonnie and Nightmare Chica still could tolerate each other, though. He remembered how they exchanged saddened looks the first time he tried to talk to them. He could use that as an advantage.
"I'll see what I can do." the kid finally said. "But I need to think about it for a bit."
"Take your time on this, Ryan." the bear told him calmly. "But do not wait too much. Hate only grows stronger."
Ryan nodded in understanding.
Later on, he and Plushtrap stayed at the plushie's hallway. The boy had sat against the wall, the plush toy next to him, as he pondered about the situation. He had to think of something that'd work with the bickering animatronics. And he had to think thoroughly. Any mistake could be irreparable. It was very delicate, and Ryan was fully aware he couldn't just jump into action without having more than one thing planned out. He sighed. "I hope this works. I wouldn't want things to mess up again." Plushtrap chirped in agreement. The kid closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. All that was left of the terrible storm was a peaceful drizzle, a great way to help the smart thoughts come out.
But the silence was briefly interrupted by something… rather unusual.
"Hello."
Ryan's eyes flew open at the deep voice that sounded way too close to him. He looked around him with alarmed eyes, but there was nothing. Plushtrap did the same, but none of them caught glimpse of anything or anyone, only the four doorways and the lonely chair. "Y-you heard that as well, right?" the boy feared he was going crazy for having heard another kid's voice, but when Plushtrap nodded hurriedly, he realized someone did talk there. Ryan stood up and cautiously observed the dark end of the hall. He doubted it had been any of the Nightmares. None of them could talk, and much less have such a childish voice. What was the source of the noise then?
As the kid tried to find something among the darkness, the bunny had the strange feeling of being observed. He quavered softly, looking over his shoulders.
He gave a piping, brief caw as it jumped back, causing Ryan to turn around immediately as the plushie dashed by his side, momentarily hiding behind him, shaken by the scare he had been given. The boy looked at him with a confused look – that turned into a wide-eyed expression when he looked at front.
Words flew away from him as he stared speechless at what stood before them, staring at them almost innocently.
It was a new Nightmare animatronic.
Or at least it looked like so, judging by the sharp teeth forming a wide grin on its face. It wasn't any large, downright terrifying animatronic like the rest were, though. It was merely an all-too-colorful small humanoid barely the size of Ryan. It was shiny, and not a single tear or gash wandered across its rounded body. The only truly terrifying things about it were those skeletal, razor-sharp fingers, and the permanent grin etched on its face.
Where did it come from? What was it? Ryan couldn't find better questions, and the answers were nonexistent. He had never seen that animatronic before. Why was it there? He was at a complete loss of words, and one could say the same about Plushtrap, who only looked with curious eyes at the new humanoid animatronic who didn't move its red eyes with glowing pupils away from them. It looked at them as if they were aliens of some kind.
Plushtrap tilted its head very lightly when it realized that the so curious animatronic was standing on the X. The bunny narrowed his eyes; new or not, that thing was in his zone, and without permission. He couldn't do anything against Nightmare Foxy since he was large and dangerous, but Plushtrap didn't fear the robotic kid so much. Plus, there wasn't such a huge size difference between them. He would defend his little zone.
The plushie uttered a warning caw, but the humanoid only tilted its head. Plushtrap gave a little growl before launching another warning, louder, but there was still no movement coming from the robotic kid. Ryan still couldn't bring himself to say anything. He couldn't understand anything. He hadn't seen that thing anywhere, it made no sense for it to suddenly be there.
It took him a few seconds to realize something.
Plushtrap, growing tired from the lack of attention he was getting, kept cawing and barking at the humanoid to move, but it just looked at him with a confused expression. Did it not understand the angered plushie? The Nightmares were supposed to understand each other, but the colorful newcomer was an exception to that. It had no idea what Plushtrap was trying to tell it, otherwise it would've moved, or answered somehow.
"Quit it." Ryan hushed Plushtrap, who did as told unwillingly. He didn't want any unwanted guest on his 'territory'. "He doesn't understand you." Much to his surprise, the grinning humanoid shook his head. Blue eyes widened a bit. "But… you understand me?" He nodded.
It was great that he could understand human speech. The Nightmares could as well, but they didn't know the significance of many words, thus making it somewhat difficult to communicate with them.
The only downside was that he couldn't speak many words.
"So what are you doing here?" Ryan asked, but only got an innocent head tilt from the humanoid. His immensely limited vocabulary wouldn't let him answer that question, and he didn't know how to communicate through signs and noises like Plushtrap. It wasn't like the question had an answer anyways.
It was confusing. Ryan was sure that was the one who spoke earlier, so why wasn't he speaking anymore? He needed some help.
"Alright, we have to tell this to Fredbear. Maybe he knows something."
"It makes no sense."
Everyone was reunited at the salon. The Nightmares watched with cautious eyes their new member. He was just so different from them, he must've felt like a weirdo among all those vicious-looking animatronics. So shiny, so small, so un-broken. He almost seemed like he didn't really belong there.
He was currently walking around the salon, observing the place. There was no doubt he just 'came' there, as he seemed really curious about his surroundings. All the while, Plushtrap kept a death glare on him. The plush bunny felt ridiculous – even that poor excuse for a Nightmare animatronic was far deadlier than him! Plushtrap felt not only ridiculous, but completely useless for a moment. Why was he so… non-menacing? He wanted to be like a true Nightmare, but his situation had no remediation. If three small bears and a nightmarish kid could be scary and be more armed than him, there was just no hope for him. He would stay as Plushtrap the Useless-Small-Non-Nightmare-Animatronic forever, it seemed.
"And he just appeared there?" Nightmare Fredbear asked, receiving a nod from Ryan. "It's weird, I've never seen something like this before." The bear watched the humanoid walk around. "Some things tend to lack answers." The kid looked up at him in wonder. "If you have never seen this animatronic before, it has no reasons to be among us. It is possible that this will forever remain a mystery."
Ryan wasn't precisely content with that, but it was the truth. At least the newcomer wasn't hostile, and that was good. He just hoped no one else would come. The last thing he needed was more animatronics to deal with, friendly or not. "Well, then I guess we have one more family member now." he sighed.
The Nightmares were unsure as to whether treat that humanoid as one of them or not. Plushtrap wanted them not to; at least he would no longer be the only one who was rejected by the group. The animatronics just didn't think it was right to call a colorful kid with rosy cheeks and an infantile propeller hat a Nightmare. It was weird more than anything.
A/N
Well, as I promised, here's the longer chapter ^^ The hype has cured me, hallelujah! I adore the new Nightmares from the Hallo update, even BB. I can barely wait to bring Mango and Nightmarionne :P (yes, I typed Mango on purpose)
Luna Best Pony – I'll discontinue this story when pigs fly. As much as I don't like giving out spoilers, I have to say... maybe ;)
Devon – I'm always open to ideas, and I always appreciate anything you guys suggest. You've got very sweet ideas :)
Mia – correct genders indeed/Nightmare is our little jerk, love won't work on him/To be honest, I don't believe in the Bite of '83 theory, so this is happening in 1987/ Annoying Orange? Eh, I never liked it that much/Well, there you go, the first newbie ;) The Jack-o's won't appear tho.
