{okay disclaimer: this has some minor spoilers for the new into the pit book, but it's minor since my au sorta reimagines the pit stories because I just be like that. This takes place after said reimagining which I might write out in its entirety at some point. As with the other stories, I got ideas Man

End of note}

(This takes places after my au's rewrite of the first into the pit story, where instead of oswald fighting the rabbit to get his dad back, the rabbit gave him back willingly after a few weeks. Leaving Oswald really confused)

A year later

Oswald had found himself looking at the ballpit again.

It was summer, and he was now a rising seventh grader going through summer similar to how he did last year. Not much has changed, other than his dad getting a promotion and having slightly more spending money so oswald had a slightly bigger pizza and soda budget. As much as a part of him wanted to avoid Jeff's pizza for the rest of his life, it was the only pizza place available, and it had good cheese pizza. So here he was, reading over his book of old fantasy myths. His new friend Gabriella had introduced him to the wonderful world of old folk tales and myths, and he had to admit it had him hooked. But there was one story that stuck out to him.

The legend of the changeling. Creatures that would take the place of loved ones, usually babies, and feed off the love the humans would give them before running off to rejoin their forest relatives. Oswald thought back to that monstrous rabbit that had terrorized him a year ago... Well terrorized is a bit of an exaggeration, he had to admit, looking back, that while he was impersonating his dad for those few weeks, he hadn't done anything to terrible. It even did the chores and cooked, he even suspected it was filling in for his father at work. And then there was when it left. It willingly went back into the pit and have him his real father back, it even hugged him. Oswald didn't know what to think... but the curiosity was eating away at him.

He wanted to know what it was doing now. Steeling his resolve he put his book back into his backpack, hoisted it over his shoulder, and when Jeff wasn't looking he dashed towards the ball pit. Taking his shoes off, he climbed in, once again letting the dirty plastic balls encase him before diving down under the sea of plastic. He did his old trick of counting to one hundred, the back of his mind wondering what he would find, would the past pizzeria still even be there? Would the portal even work anymore? He steeled his nerves and once he reached the end of his counting, shot up out of the pit.

He was greeted with the familiar yet strange pizzeria. But something was different. It wasn't alive and filled with patrons, kids and grownups walking and playing as they passed the time. Instead it was empty, the only lights on were the few emergency lights. The power was out. Oswald pulled himself out from the pit, and seeing as nobody was here, he took out his phone and turned on the flashlight. The place felt lonely without patrons filling the booths, the games sat there sadly, dust starting to form on the well worn buttons, waiting for the day someone would play them again. Oswald felt bad, this place had been an escape from his boring summer last year, and to see it now in ruin made him miss the old times. He made his way past the dining room and paused when he noticed a newspaper hung up on the wall. "That wasn't here before" he mumbled while shining his light over to read it. 'Culprit behind missing children's incident arrested! William Afton charged with the kidnapping and murders of five children-' Oswald looked over the names, going pale when he saw two very familiar names and faces.

Chris and Mike. They put black and white pictures of them in the article along side the other three victims. The friends he had made in the past had been killed. A part of oswald hoped maybe they were alive, living as grown ups somewhere out of state. But his hopes were dashed by this sheet of paper.

But something still felt off, he had done research on Freddy's after his experience, and he doesn't remember reading about a culprit ever being arrested... he held up his phone and took a picture of the article, maybe he'd be able to fact check once he was back home and had internet. It was after the camera click that he heard it. The subtle sound of a chair being knocked into. He turned around and nearly jumped back when he saw it.

The pit rabbit was standing on the other side of the room. It was just looking at him, with its usual blank stair. But Oswald felt something different from before, it was subtle, but the rabbit almost looked surprised. Oswald decided to make the first move, since if he remembered correctly this creature wasn't much for conversation. The boy raised his free hand and gave a small wave. "Uh.. hey." The rabbit tilted his head, Oswald was more surprised he actually got a response than anything else. "Uh, hope you don't mind if I visited again. It's uh... be a while huh?" He gave an awkward laugh and took a tentative step forward. The rabbit stayed in place. Oswald didn't know what else to say, so he just looked around. "This place has seen better days... what happened?" Now Oswald really wasn't expecting an answer. So when the rabbit looked to the side and then the other like it was looking for something oswald just had this feeling it was going to communicate. So Oswald decided to meet him halfway, he walked over to one of the tables and sat down, the rabbit got what he was doing and soon follows suit, sitting across from the boy. "Okay, since you seem willing to talk this time... I've got a few questions for you" oswald says while taking a few items out of his backpack; a notebook that he's been using as a journal, detailing his encounter with the rabbit creature, and the mythology book he rented from the library. The rabbit looked at both items as Oswald continued to talk, "What I want to know is... what are you, and what is this place? I know the ballpit is some sort of time traveling portal but why? Is that your doing?" The rabbit had that blank look on his face again and Oswald sighed. "Okay, one at a time. What are you?" This got an response out of the rabbit, it tilted his head a bit before starting to make a gesture, but putting its paws down as if unsure how to explain. Oswald took this as his que to open the mythology book. "Are you a changeling? Because I looked it up and you did something really similar to those creatures" oswald turned to the page on changelings and turned the book so the rabbit could read it, it scanned through the passage before nodding several times, then making a 'sort of' motion with a hand. Oswald turned the book back to him. "So you're like a changeling? I'm going to go out on a limb and say you don't exactly have a forest to run off to or you'd be there now." The rabbit nodded. "Okay, So what about this then?" He gestured around him. "Did you set this up?" The rabbit nodded. Oswald paused then asked. "So... you set up a portal to the past?" He got that 'sort of' motion again. "What does that mean?" Oswald waited as the rabbit tried to think of a motion, before making a frustrated huff and holding up a finger signaling oswald to wait there. He did, and watched as the rabbit got up and walked over to the ball pit, picked up three different colored balls, and sat back at the table. He sat a blue ball in between the two, pointed at it, then at oswald. "That Ball is me?"

The rabbit shook its head.

"It's a person?"

Shake no.

"It's... my time?"

A nod. He then put a red ball down a small distance away. He pointed at it, then gestured to the room.

"That one is the building?"

Shake no.

"Wait it's this time period!"

He nodded eagerly, then he held a yellow ball placed it next to the red ball, made a motion like he was pulling them apart, then lightly rolled the yellow ball above the red one.

"You uh... split time?"

Sort of motion.

"Ripped time apart?"

A shake no. Oswald paused to think, trying to figure out what he was told. Then when he recalled a science fiction novel he read it chucked.

"It's a pocket of time! You made a copy of the past and that's what this is?" The rabbit nodded eagerly, oswald was a little hyped to have figured it out. Then the full weight of what was just revealed settled in, and Oswald briefly froze. "You make a time pocket?? How- why??" The rabbit slowly made A motion with its hand, using a finger it traced a circle shape, then an infinity symbol.

"To.. loop..? You were looping this time?"

A nod. Oswald paused to think, he quickly jot down notes on what was just said in his notebook as he paused to think. Why would he want a pocket of time just to loop it? And why this time in particular? How did the loop usually end? When did it start? Was this loop different from his own time and that's why things felt slightly off?? The rabbit sat quietly as he wrote and thought, just watching. Oswald finally put his pencil down and sighed. "Maybe I should move onto another question for now... why do you look like an animatronic anyway? You're definitely not a robot." Oswald asked, the rabbit hesitated, then looked over towards the stage. The animatronic characters from before still stood in their places, but they were still and lifeless. Oswald looked back as the rabbit did, he then raided both hands and made a heart shape, pointed at the animatronics, then to himself.

"...you wanted the kids to love you." Oswald understood. In hindsight it made sense, maybe he looped the pizzeria in its heyday to get the love from kids easily. But that brought up another question Oswald had to ask.

"If you wanted the kids to love you... why'd you let the loop continue to... Well this?" The boy gestured around him. The rabbit was silent, looking to the side. He then rose a hand and made the infinity symbol over, and over, and over, and over. He looked almost melancholy as he did, then he suddenly dropped his hand with a sigh.

"You're... you're tired of the same loop?" Oswald got a slow nod in response. Both were quiet after that, what else was there to say? This revelation already answered why he was so focused on Oswald in the past. He was an outlier, and being stuck in a self imposed loop something new must have been really tempting. He closed his mythology book and sighed. "Guess that's all I wanted to ask" the rabbit looked at him, expecting something. But Oswald had nothing more to say... well except. "Uh... do you have a name? I'm assuming you know who I am by now... but it's Oswald if you didn't know" the rabbit slowly raised its hands to sigh, hesitated, then looked around to try and find something before reaching for the mythology book and flipping through it. Oswald sighed, thinking this was going to take a while, he doodled In the corner of his notebook while waiting for the rabbit to find what it was looking for, it was another one of his robot doodles, he had improved in the year he had been away and now was able to make the robots slightly more detailed than his usual cartoony style. After what felt like a while the rabbit lightly poked Oswald's arm. The boy looked up and saw he had found the page he wanted. The rabbit raised both hands, both held up one finger.

"Uh.. two words?"

A nod, he raised the second hand a little higher.

"Second word?"

Another nod. He angled the book up so Oswald could see the page and pointed to a word. 'Wraith' another fantasy creature, it was not friendly if the ghostly doodle was anything to go by.

"Wraith?"

The rabbit nodded then put the book down, he then raised one finger on his first hand.

"First word"

A nod, then he made a seeing motion with both hands.

"Sew?"

Shake no

"Knit?"

No

"Stitch?"

A nod yes.

"Your name is Stitchwraith?"

The rabbit eagerly nodded. Oswald wrote the name down at the top of the page, it's not a name he'd expect the rabbit to have, but it also fit relatively well. Both sat in silence once more, and Oswald closed his journal. "So uh... Stitchwraith, I've Uh... got nothing else to talk about so..." he glanced over at the ballpit. "I should probably leave you be then" he says while packing his books and standing up. To his surprise Stitchwraith didn't immediately follow after him. Instead it watched as he walked towards the ballpit, it only got up and followed at a distance once Oswald was halfway there. The boy looked back at the rabbit, it looked like it was going to let him leave, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the rabbit looked sad...

'No Oswald don't you dare' his mind scolded him, 'he may look harmless now but that thing could snap you in half like a twig.' Even with his mind raising the alarm, he still found himself slowly asking. "Can... can you imitate more than just people?" The rabbit slowly nodded.

"So... you could make people think you're say... a dog?" The rabbit nodded again. 'Oswald don't you dare' his mind pleated, but the boy just had this feeling, if he didn't keep an eye on the rabbit someone else would find it.

And they wouldn't be as civilized as he was being with it. So Oswald turned around to face the rabbit, and after a long moment of hesitation, he spoke. "If you promise not to try and impersonate any of my friends or family... and you behave... I'll..." he took a breath. "I'll let you stay at my place. I... have been asking my parents about getting a dog for a while" dear god he was going to regret this. The rabbit was still for a moment, then Oswald swears he saw its eyes dilate like a cats and go big. He quickly walked up to oswald and nodded eagerly. Holding its hand together thankfully.

Yah oswald already regrets this, but no going back now. He nervously smiled and reached out to lightly pat its arm and- dear god he forgot this thing was warm and not metallic- and gave him a nervous smile. "Let's go then, Stitch."

So Oswald was now counting to one hundred under the ballpit with the rabbit close nearby, his mind was practically screaming at him about how bad an idea this would be, what if his parents said no? What if he's not the only one who can see past the rabbits disguises? Oh god this was a mistake. But soon enough his counting was done and he was back in the nasty, taped off ballpit of Jeff's pizza. The rabbit was next to him, just looking at him with an expression oswald would almost call goofy, it's eyes were big and ears were held high. If this thing wasn't a flesh robot thing that towered over him he'd probably call him cute. Oswald pulled himself out of the pit with the rabbit close on his heels, he was almost at the door when Jeff called out,

"Hey kid, next time don't bring your dog inside, I don't mind personally but some people don't like to dine in with pets." Oswald looked back and gave a nervous smile, "sure thing." And swung open the door.

He got the text from his dad that he'd be there soon, so he stood at the street edge with Stitchwraith next to him, it looked at him with its usual grin, but this time it felt genuine. Finally his dad pulled up and rolled down the window, it looked over to where the rabbit was and asked. "Well now who's your new friend?"

"Uh, So you know how I was asking for a dog? Well I uh... found... this guy here and I couldn't find any lost dog fliers that looked like him so... c-can we keep him?" Oswald did his best to look genuine, he hated lying to his dad like this but he wouldn't believe him if he told the truth. Because 'hey Dad I found this changeling rabbit in a ballpit that brought me to the past but it's not dangerous so can I keep it?' Didn't sound as plausible as asking for a dog.

Oswald's Dad looked at the 'dog' and hummed. "Well I don't know.. will Jinx get along with him?"

"I-I'll make sure they get used to each other! Promise!" Oswald smiled and silently begged for his dad to agree. After a long moment, his dad nodded. "Well you have been doing well in school, I say you've earned this! Put him in the back, we can stop by the pet store tomorrow." His father grinned and Oswald smiled in relief. "Thank you Dad." He declared while opening the back door, looking up at Stitchwraith he awkwardly smiled and says "uh, in boy" thankfully the rabbit didn't take much convincing before climbing into the back seat, oswald bucked himself into the front and his dad stared making his way home.

"So? Got any names for the big guy?" His father asked, oswald couldn't tell exactly what dog Stitchwraith was pretending to be, but he guessed it had to be one of the bigger breeds, probably a safe play since he was naturally on the larger side. "Uh... Stitch." Oswald answered, his dad gave a nod of approval.

"Good name, I think your mother will love him."

"Y-yah, I hope so," he said while looking back at the rabbit, it was bouncing slightly, looking genuinely excited.

Oh this was certainly a bad idea.

But it was a bad idea Oswald with willing to live with.