Pity Party

Chica took one last look around to make certain everything was as good as it could be. There were more than a few advantages to operating inside of a digital world. For example, if the mansion's decor needed to be changed, it would only take Goldie a matter of seconds to implement it.

As such, in preparation for their first subject, all of the rooms were decorated for a party. Streamers hung across the doorways, balloons floated in place above chairs, tables and some classic dance tunes were playing from unseen speakers.

Given that Goldie could only focus on efforts on one synth at a time, it would allow them to take more of a personal approach to each synth. Hermana had shown to be the most willing to make steps towards making things better, so the choice was only natural. While Chica did find her draining, there was no denying her enthusiasm and that it came from a well-meaning place.

She remembered how distressed she had sounded when her fragment had taken over briefly. Hopefully, they'd be able to finally give her some peace.

When everything was in position, they gathered near the yellow door. Chica stood in front of it with the key Goldie gave her. She took a few deep breaths and unlocked the door.

She was met with a shrill squeal of delight and a skid of rollerblades on linoleum. Chica had no time to brace herself as a blur of blonde hair hurtled across the room and into her with the force of a torpedo. Before she could even recover from the collision, she was wrapped into a crushing hug.

"HI SIS!" trilled Hermana, beaming at her. "I thought that was you I saw!" She squeezed her again, spun her on the spot and popped her back on the ground. "Don't I just give the best hugs?"

"They certainly leave an impression," panted Chica.

"I know, right? It's the weirdest thing. There I was, just hangin' around when this weird door appears, it opens up and then bam! Look who's on the other side!" she cheered. "I don't know what happened, but if it means spendin' time with my new sis, it's gotta be good!"

At that moment, Hermana finally noticed the streamers and balloons all around the room. She let out another high-pitched squeal of unrestrained joy as she twirled on the spot, eyes glittering as she took it all in.

"A party? For me?!"

Chica nodded. "We thought it was a lovely idea, so we decided to give it a go. Just you and us, to make it easier for everybody else to join in later. I hope you like it."

"Of course I like it! My sis threw me a party! This is the greatest!" Chica braced herself for another hug and it came seconds later. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! Oh this is gonna be so much fun, I know it is!"

"Does she even have an off switch?" muttered Bonnie. It didn't go unnoticed and soon she was treated to a face full of hyperactive woman.

"And hey, look who else is here!" she exclaimed, peering right at her. "Hi, Bonnie! I'm not sure if I should call you my sis, too. Cuz you're Chica's sister, so I guess I should. Although maybe not, cuz that might also be weird. I mean, you've got bunny ears, I've got chicken feathers. How would that even work? Oh well, you get hugs, too!"

"Hug me and you'll- NOPE, nope, none of that!" Bonnie yelled when she was ensnared as well.

"Aw, don't be silly. Everybody loves hugs. And boy, do I have one for you." Zeroing in on a familiar mane of red hair, Hermana let go of Bonnie without a second glance, gliding straight over to where Foxy stood. "Hey there again, hot stuff."

She lowered her voice in an apparent attempt at a sultry purr, but only made her sound like she was recovering from a bad bout of laryngitis.

"Why do ye keep sayin' that?" asked Foxy in genuine bewilderment, to which Hermana giggled and leaned into his personal space a little more. "Am I goin' blue in the face or somethin'?"

"Don't act like you don't know, cutie," she said, walking two fingers up the front of his coat before giving his chest a playful smack.

"Oh, dear god, what did I do to deserve this?" groaned Bonnie.

"Well, Hermana," said Freddy loudly, stepping in to save Foxy. "I certainly cannot fault your enthusiasm. Is there a hug for me, too?"

"Like you even gotta ask!" She whooped as Freddy not only hugged her, but lifted her off her feet. "Whoa, looks like I may have a rival for giving hugs."

"I hope I prove myself up to the challenge. And it's not just us either. Here's somebody else you may know," said Freddy and gestured to Billy. The boy waved shyly at her.

"Hey, look who it is! Billy!" Hermana bolted over to him. She reached over and scrunched his hair. "How's my little man?"

"Hey, Hermy," muttered Billy, his cheeks turning blue from his blush.

"Still as cute as a button!" she beamed. "This is gonna be so great! We're gonna have fun and nothing is gonna spoil it, no siree. Nothing at-" She grabbed her head and the colour literally drained out of her, becoming muted and grey. "No, no, please. This isn't real, this isn't happening, this can't be-" She jolted again and it all came back. "Ooh, that felt funny. Hey, what's the matter, Billy? You look a little down."

"Well…" Billy glanced at Freddy, who gave a quick shake of his head. "It's nothing, Hermy. Don't worry."

"Oh. Okay! So what are we doing standing around for? Let's get this party started!" she cheered.

They had agreed beforehand to let Hermana take the reins and do whatever she wanted. To the credit of all those in attendance, there was an effort to try to enjoy themselves. Billy especially was throwing himself into it, sticking close to Hermana and joining in whenever he got the chance. If nothing else, Chica was happy to see him having a good time.

In similar fashion, Hermana had gotten quite attached to Foxy and though he remained almost impossibly oblivious as to why, he went along with it. She dragged him along for dancing and would stay close to him at the food table. When they played Pin The Tail, she insisted that he be the one to spin her around and called out for him to catch her when she went off balance. She ended up crashing into Bonnie instead, who wasn't happy.

But they would always be reminded of the urgency of their mission by her 'episodes'. Twice more, she lost all colour to her and started speaking in a panicked, frightened tone before suddenly snapping back to her usual self. It was a little unnerving, Chica felt. As such, they would try to bring things into the area of relevancy, though with little success. Chica placed herself nearby when Freddy took her aside for a moment.

"Are you enjoyin' yourself, Hermana?" he asked.

"Am I ever!" she squealed. "Thanks so much for this, Fred. You guys are so much more fun than-" She jolted suddenly. "Help me, please help me! I don't want this, I don't want-!" Then back again. "Woo, is there somethin' in that punch?"

"I couldn't say," he said, trying to sound casual. "Now, Hermana-"

"Hermy, come on, Fred! Don't make me tell you again," she giggled.

"Hermy, of course. Hermy, there is somethin' I feel we should discuss. I understand that you have been through some troublin' times, so if you would like t-"

She gasped loudly. "I love this song! Foxy, Foxy! Come dance with me!"

"Now, wait just a moment… and she's gone," he remarked in defeat as she zoomed past him, grabbed Foxy, and pulled him back onto the dance floor.

"Ugh, it's no good!" groaned Bonnie after a similar effort failed. "Anytime I try to say something, she gets a word first and then she never stops!"

"I'm getting that," said Chica. "You all stay here. I'm going to see if I can get her alone. I might have more success that way." She beckoned Billy over and explained her plan. "Do you have anything you can tell me about her? There must be times when she isn't so, well, peppy."

"Only when she thinks she's on her own," he replied. "She just tells herself to keep smiling and everything will be okay. Anytime I've tried to talk to her about it, she always ends up doing something else. Maybe if she didn't have any ways to get away from talking, that might work."

"So be direct," surmised Bonnie. "You sure you can manage on your own, Cheeks? I'm pretty good at that kind of stuff."

"True, but I still think this needs a more delicate touch." She pressed a hand to her mouth. "I'm sorry, Bonnie, I don't mean-"

"Hey, it's fine, don't sweat it. You're right, you're better at that kind of deeper stuff," she admitted. "But I'm here if you need some kind of backup, okay?"

"Thank you, but I'll be alright," she said. She walked over to Hermana, who was at the snack table. "You know what, Hermana, I'd love to show you around this place. Why don't we go out for a bit and we'll come back later?"

"Aw, but what if we miss somethin' really fun?" she pouted. "I wanted to get another bit of the cake!"

"We won't be long. Besides, I'd really like to spend some time with just you and me," whispered Chica. "After all, we're sisters. We can have some special fun together."

"Why didn't you say so? Let's go!" She grabbed Chica's hand and skated out into the hallway with her.

Chica felt a little guilty, having to bend the truth like that. But if she was going to have any chance of success with her, she needed to be away from everybody else. Even so, she had to hurry along a little quicker to keep up.

"Wow, this place is so big! We never had anythin' like this when we were growin' up." Hermana's smile seemed to falter a little at the thought.

"Yes, Billy mentioned," said Chica. "It sounds like you had a tough time of it, Hermy."

"Eh, doesn't matter now," she shrugged. "Now come on, let's go explore. Hey, race you to that next room!" She skated off down the hall before Chica could stop her. She laughed with glee, then she tripped on a carpet. "I'm okay!"

Chica did her best to not roll her eyes. This kind of behaviour was much easier to excuse with children and she was swiftly reaching the end of her patience. Even so, she took a moment to collect herself, stopping to check her reflection in a nearby mirror hanging on the wall. She took a deep breath and focused on schooling her expression, massaging her temples in an attempt to smooth the tension away before following Hermana in again.

The room she had skated into was one of the drawing rooms, this one on the side of the house and showing views of the surrounding green fields, with some chairs arranged to catch the sun. Though it had been decorated before, it was back to its normal state. She mentally thanked Goldie and shut the door behind her.

"Wow, it's even bigger outside," whispered Hermana. She peered up at the sky. "It's so… blue."

"You've never seen the sky before?" asked Chica.

"Not like this. Last time we did, it was kinds of colours and stars all over. You know, that time we…" She looked away, then plastered on a smile. "Anyways, we don't need to talk about that. Now come on, I wanna see what else is here!"

"We will, in a moment, but I think it'll be good if we take a break first," said Chica, pointedly taking a seat on a nearby couch.

"Awww, but-" The colour drained away from her. "I don't want to, no, don't, please, you can't-" She shuddered and came back to herself. "Actually, hey, maybe let's take a break, yeah. I feel funny." Hermana held her arms out and fell next to her. "Weeee! These chairs are super comfy, this was a great idea."

"Glad you think so," said Chica. "Look, Hermy-"

"Hey, sis, you don't look so hot." She peered at her. "Did you get too much punch? Or did you dance right after eatin'? That's never good. Makes your tummy feel all weird. I mean, we can't get sick, I guess, but you still don't want it happenin'."

"No, I'm fine. But what I really want to do is-"

"Learn how to skate with me? Oh, that's so great!" She grabbed her hands. "It takes a little bit to get the hang of it and you might wanna wear somethin' a little less, uh, breezy but once you get it, you've got it! You gotta have some extra skates somewhere around here, right?"

"Hermana, I really need to-"

"I'll tell you what I need is to figure out what the deal with Foxy is. It really isn't fair how you have somebody so cute with you guys! You think he thinks I'm cute? That'd be so great, he's so much fun and the way he dances is just so funny, I-"

"Hermana," said Chica firmly. "I need to speak with you, about something serious. About the things that have happened to you before Jeremy rescued you."

"Oh." Hermana suddenly became more interested in the carpet.

"I understand that it's difficult and that you may not want to. From what I understand, you went through a great deal while under the Puppet's control. Is that about right?" she asked. Hermana's hand started tracing around her elbow. "It must be really difficult for you to process it all, especially what he did to Vevina. Would you say so?" Hermana continued to stare at the ground. "You don't have to say anything, you can just nod or shake your head if you need to."

Hermana still didn't reply, verbally or otherwise. Instead, she stood up and skated back to the window. Chica stayed where she was. She wasn't going to go after her unless she tried to leave.

"Hermana? Is there anything you want to say?" she asked kindly.

"I wanna go back," she muttered.

"We will, but after we've talked. Now, can you come back and sit with me, please."

"I don't… no, I don't wanna talk." She tried to turn, though not in Chica's direction. "I'm goin' back."

"Hermana, stop it," she commanded and got to her feet. "I'm trying to talk to you about something serious, but you keep avoiding it or ignoring me. It's not just me either, I've seen you act like this with the others, too." Hermana didn't respond or even turn around. "See, you're doing it right now. What you're doing isn't healthy. You can't just pretend everything is okay and happy when it isn't. Please, talk to me."

"Don't wanna," she said quietly, rubbing her arm up and down.

"I'm sorry, but we have to. These feelings aren't going to go away if you just try to ignore them or push them down. If anything, they'll get worse." She took a couple of steps towards her. "Please, I want to help you, Hermy. This is important, so please, just talk to me."

For a few seconds, she stayed stubbornly silent. Chica tried to peer around at her face, but she'd subtly move her skates so she couldn't manage it. Then, she heard Hermana say something imperceptibly quiet.

"Pardon?" she asked. Hermana repeated it, but she still couldn't make it out. "I'm sorry, Hermy, you'll need to speak up."

"I said, why should I?!" She whirled around to face Chica. Though she still smiled when she said it, her voice had lost its cheer. The playful smirk was gone from her expression. And now the façade had fallen away, one strong emotion had taken residence in her wide, overly bright eyes: pain. "It's not gonna change what happened! What difference does it make if I do or if I don't? It's still gonna have happened and it's not like anybody even cares anyway!"

"We do care, Hermy. I care," she insisted.

"No, you don't." Her lip was starting to wobble. "I know what everybody thinks of me. It's not like they don't tell me every day. They all think I'm dumb and annoyin' and stupid. They don't wanna talk to me or ask me to do anythin'. So I gotta stay happy, happy Hermana all the time 'cause that's all I'm good for! I can't fix anythin'! None of us could."

"Because of the Puppet?" asked Chica.

She nodded. "I mean, what else is there when everythin' you do and say could be bein' watched at any moment? How are you even supposed to do anythin' against that? Nobody asked me, why would they? Even Vevina didn't..." She trailed off her sentence, turning away to take a long, deep breath. When she turned around, her lips were stretched into a miserable semblance of her usual toothy grin. "So why not just keep smilin'? Come on, sis, let's just be happy!"

"Hermy, please. Tell me. What did Vevina not do?" asked Chica.

"Nothin'. No really, nothin'." She was trying to force the cheer back into her voice now. "She told Clyde all about her plan to break you guys out and save you. But she didn't tell me. I only found out after, after the Puppet locked her away and did... you know, the thing." Her voice started to shake again. "She didn't think I could help. Of course she did, I'd have been useless. I know, I get it. So I couldn't do anythin' except deal with the fact my friend was alone and in pain and she hadn't even trusted me enough to even ask to help. And nothin' changed anyway, it couldn't have. We were all still under his control and now, she had to pay for tryin' to change that. So why be sad about it, when we could all just try to be happy?"

She whipped around again and started trying to hum an upbeat tune. But her voice kept shaking and catching in her throat. It broke Chica's heart to see her like this. Not to mention this felt all too familiar to her. She started to move slowly towards her.

"Hermana," she said quietly. "I know how you feel." Hermana just edged further away and continued to hum. "No, please, I really do. When we were first created, we weren't supposed to hide. We were supposed to be on full display, not wearing those suits. But then Sid changed that. For so long, we had to keep up the illusion we were just animatronics. It didn't feel like anything could get better and anytime it started to, it got worse. I wanted to give up so many times, it all just seemed so pointless, especially recently with... everything that happened."

She could still remember that moment. The sight of those black bags, the dripping, the smell. The revelation of what was inside...

Chica pulled herself back. Hermana hadn't moved away, but she still wasn't looking at her.

"But in all of that, I was never alone. I always had my friends. It wasn't always perfect, but they helped." She reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm so, so sorry for what you were put through. I'm sorry for everything that you felt and that you had to keep it all locked away. But you don't have to feel like that anymore. Not now you have me, my sister."

She saw Hermana glance around out of the corner of her eye. Gradually, she looked around at Chica. She removed her hand and held her arms out wide.

"You… mean that?" she whispered.

"Every word." She beckoned with her arms. "Come on."

Hermana's speech completely failed her. Her voice finally broke and, for what Chica imagined was the first time in a long while, she started to cry. Chica wrapped her arms in a gentle embrace and let Hermana cling to her while she sobbed.

As she alternated more between her normal appearance and the colourless state before, a golden glow began to encompass an area around her head. Her grip on Chica tightened somewhat, but Chica only held her closer in response. She watched as the grey despondency seemed to recede upwards towards the glow. It took a little longer than it did with Billy, but the end result was the same.

The glow faded and hovering above them, already contained by a sphere, was Hermana's fragment. It had the same appearance as Billy's, but it darted around the inside in a more panicked fashion. Chica immediately felt sympathy for it, but before she could act on it, it vanished.

"W-What was that?" sniffed Hermana, looking through blue, puffy eyes. "I… I thought I felt somethin'."

"It's okay, it's nothing to worry about." Chica took her hand. "Come on, let's go and see if there's any more cake left."

Happy New Year folks! Or hopefully it will be XD. Sorry about the late upload. Lockdown really blurs days together.

Arc of Carona: Hopefully panning out the way you hoped XD

Guest: In a manner of speaking, yes. I do love those games XD

Fate-Be Changed: Nah, they don't speak. They're pretty much compartmentalised bits and pieces.

Teller-Story: That would be bad, wouldn't it?