It was the same restless night.

Ever since he and the vixen had stood out on the deck, she hadn't left Foxy's side. The two were currently sitting on the couch in the entertainment room in silence as Goldy read the binder, Jason watched outside the window, and Ava and Claire watched Kimber. He felt himself lean his head on the vixen's subconsciously, allowing himself that one piece of regularity and comfort she always offered, though, a certain someone who'd stolen the binder called his name.

"Hey, Foxy, come here real quick," The bear said from across the room, calling him over to the round table they usually played cards at.

The vulpine sighed before looking over at the vixen, "I'll be right back."

She nodded to him and leaned back into the couch, feeling tired as the urge to go to sleep crept in her mind, but she instead chose to stay up and wait for the vulpine as he spoke with the golden bear about the binder. She wasn't exactly sure what they specifically spoke about, but she did try to listen to them.

"… I don't know, we're so exhausted," He mumbled as the bear sighed.

"I know you two are, but you two need to get out of here before things get bad-"

The vulpine abruptly cut off the bear, a stern tone coming to his voice while they both stayed quiet, "It's already taken a turn for the worst, and I want to help."

"You don't understan-"

"I understand fully. You and Jason built both of us up to fight, we came here and caused this, and at the very least I'll help them through this. I don't want to leave this place either, this is the only place to fully accept us. If it means I die, I die."

"Listen for a second…"

"No, I'm sick of-"

"Stop it," Goldy told him sharply, his gaze quickly causing the simmering vulpine to hush for a moment. "You're starting to sound hysterical. Now, if you don't want to listen to what I have to say, don't, but I want you to at least read this binder as soon as possible because you don't understand the advantage they currently have." The bear slid the binder over towards him, allowing him to take it as Foxy sighed and picked it up before standing and walking out the room, presumably to theirs.

She stood up as well, following him up the stairs and left towards their room where he quickly walked in and went towards the table in the corner of the room, tossing the book down and walking towards the window, looking down at the chaos below as the northern district burned to the ground, though, not as intensely as the night before, and to their left the southern side of the eastern district…

"Foxy?"

He didn't respond as she slowly stepped into the room, the only light coming from the window as moonlight poured through, mixing with the bright orange-red from the fire in the city, just lighter than his own fur. As she came up behind him, she saw what he was staring at; down below in the streets of the southern-eastern side, rapid flashes went off in the streets, appearing eerily similar to a light show as gunshots sounded off as well, timed like Christmas lights and radio stations during December in higher-class neighborhoods. Distinct lines had formed in the streets as one section fought back the other, though, they had no way to know which side was what. A bit of guilt welled up in her chest, before it crept into her throat, blocking any words that she wanted to get out…

Her hand subconsciously wrapped around the red fox's, gripping tightly as she slowly leaned against him, feeling no surprise from him as he simply gripped onto hers as well.

"I… I caused this…"

He couldn't believe his eyes as he stared down into the chaos that was the town. Though the places like Andy's bar and Clark's shop weren't affected, he could tell it was still doing no one any favors.

"We caused this…"

He didn't argue with her as she spoke, as much as he wanted to tell her she didn't cause this, he knew she probably felt the same amount of guilt he did. Simply by coming here, they were bound to cause issues; they just didn't know about it. This was their best shot at surviving together.

'I won't give up…'

His body went from being tense with grief to anger, that he couldn't do anything with as he simply stared, letting it flow through him as his arms began to tremble ever so slightly, his head hurting from it, as he refused to allow this to happen, but it went away as quick as it came, as the vixen turned towards him and rubbing along his chest and towards his jaw, her touch feeling like a soothing coolness as she effortlessly turned his head to face her. He could see her bright yellow eyes in comparison with his now paler ones, the way her smooth white fur conformed around her face with minimal signs of damage or injury, even if there were any.

A stark contrast with his own rough red fur which proudly shown scars and marks from fight after fight, he pulled his own hand up and gently caressed the side of her face, feeling her fur move around his hardened, cut, bruised hand. He simply couldn't fathom why she'd want to fight like him, or have anything to do with him, to begin with. He was old, beaten, and tattered. He didn't have a smooth patch of fur on his body anymore. He wouldn't be able to defend her or anyone else in their future.

"Why do you stick by me, even when I've been such an idiot? I've done nothing but fuck up… I fucked up by killing Samantha, again when I attacked you at the pizzeria, then again by taking you from it…" He looked closer at her, moving his hand just down her shoulder to see the one scar she did have, the bite mark from when they had claimed each other. "I messed up when we marked each other, accidentally causing them to find us… I just don't do anything right," He finally mumbled, unable to look her in the eye as he let go and turned back towards the city, allowing the vixen to see the reflection of the fire from below in his eyes as he went emotionless.

She went to respond, but she saw a smile tug at the corners of his mouth before he continued talking. "But, you just stuck there, content. Happy… No matter what, you were just happy I was there, that we were together." He turned towards her again, this time fully, before grabbing her hands and slowly dropping down to his knees as he looked at the two white-fur-covered hands, lacing his hands around them before leaning his head against her waist. "I guess I had asked the wrong question from the beginning, it isn't why you stick by me, it's why you're happy too, and all along it hasn't been what I've done, it's simply been that I was with you, that we did it... together…"

He leaned back again, letting her see his face as he pulled both her hands together and kissed them before looking up at her.

"I've been trying to do everything on my own, and I've managed to skirt by, only surviving. I haven't succeeded at all… Every time I try, I only succeed when you're there to help. When we ran away, if you hadn't pointed out the building, I'd have kept running until I simply couldn't anymore. At the bar; you had my back the entire time, when Jason trained me; you made sure to pick me back up and pushed me to try again, then when I simply couldn't go anymore, you helped me limp away to rest."

She could tell he looked at the memories fondly, the way he spoke told her that. With the light coming in from the window, spawned from both the fire and the moon, it gave his fur a reddish glow, and the yellow in his eyes began to glow even brighter.

"I don't know about the future, but I'm sure I'd die without you there to help me, and I have a feeling it's the same for you… So I promise I'll try my best to stay alive, but I will not let you die or get captured. Our only chance at survival, and seeing our futures come true, is that we stay together."

The vulpine gave a small sigh before continuing.

"So no matter what, I will fight back, and I won't hold you back… I want to help push you, since that's what you've always done for me, and since that's the only way we'll feel true success."

His voice grew stronger suddenly as he spoke, as if determination grabbed his soul and braced it as much as possible.

"My goal right now is to fight them off this island, and then I want to hold them off with everything I have left until this place can hold their own, then I want to settle down somewhere to live comfortably, how I want to live, how you want to live. I want to have a child who would be able to live how they want to live, their own rules, so they won't have to suffer like we have. And even if it takes my life, I'll do it, and I won't quit until I see my goals become reality, because you deserve the freedom to survive!"

She lowered herself to her knees as well while he spoke, soon getting level with him as she watched him keep eye contact with her, not once letting go of her hands as he finished.

"I won't let them kill me before I finish them, because I can't let you suffer!"

He let go of her left hand, placing his right hand on her shoulder while he pressed his lips against hers and then rubbed her forehead with his own in an affectionate manner again before speaking in a less intense tone.

"I refuse to let you suffer, and I refuse to let them push us back again, to make us run. I promise you that… That and they will never gain an advantage against us when we're fighting together..."

She could feel his limbs lock in place, holding them together as she could see two lines going down his cheeks, but he didn't violently shake as if he were sobbing, he simply shed silent tears as he held her, as if he could feel his own stress melt away by simply holding her. Before she could realize it, she had tears rolling down her own face, and she couldn't tell whether they were from sadness, or happiness that he had just told her he wanted her to fight with him, and spend her life with him, but the vulpine silently pulled back his head and licked her cheeks, lapping up the tears as they stained her fur. She could sense his own underlying message as he did as if saying that this was his first act to prove he would help her no matter what, that he would be there for her to help her and not only defend her.

She couldn't hide the smile that crept up her face as she buried her face into the left side of his neck, holding him tightly as he placed his nose on the top side of her head, comfortably nuzzling her as he smelled her own intoxicating aroma. They sat in their embrace for an unknowing amount of time, barely moving as neither wanted the moment to end, their only time for themselves they'd have in a while with how things were going.

The two vulpines laid quietly together on the bed, attempting in vain to get any sleep as the gunshots continued to ring out from the city below. Neither understood how they could continue fighting for so long, but at the end of the day, they did. Comfortingly holding the vixen's waist, he sighed, pressing his snout into her back gingerly, careful to not annoy her.

"I guess you don't regret tossing him that rifle, huh," Mangle asked him as he mentally slapped himself for moving since he knew she was trying to sleep as well.

"I don't regret tossing it, no, but I do wish they would stop for the night."

Another gunshot sounded off in the distance, and the sound of Kimber crying could be heard from the other room as the vixen mindlessly shook her head.

"Something tells me Claire's about to go give them hell."

Foxy chuckled as he moved up a bit, placing his maw just over her shoulder as she squeezed his hand.

"Yeah, if she goes then Jason goes, and we know all hell would break loose, then."

He heard her giggle before looking up at the ceiling for a second, eventually flipping all the way over to face him. The vulpine curiously watched as she scooted to eye level with him before pushing him onto his back and kissing him with a small smile, pulling back to snuggle up under his chin and giggling some more.

"Sorry if that was a bit odd, just, it's been a minute before we've been able to properly relax."

"We were able to relax not even two days ago," he deadpanned.

She pushed herself up to looked at him with a fake serious face that she couldn't hide her smile under, shoving his shoulder lightly before speaking. "And you know that's too long for me."

He smiled at the vixen's antics for a second, wrapping his arms around her to pull her back down off her arms, which she quickly did, opting for the warmth of his chest fur instead of the chilly night air. The couple enjoyed what little sleep they could get, waiting tiredly for the sun to come up or the fighting to stop. Though, of course, the latter wasn't feasible. Not when it has to do with a firefight.

When the sun finally rose up, they both got dressed, Foxy in his usual coat and pants, but the vixen took a new approach; she had a fitted pair of gray pants that he assumed she bought while out with some of her friends, same with a fitted shirt of the same color which she tucked in, allowing him a view of her figure as she threw on a pair of knee-high black boots and a cropped, black leather jacket. As he looked closer, he could see the end of the sheath to the buck knife coming just down from underneath the jacket. He had a hard time understanding how she managed to get it concealed inside the jacket with it's length, and the angle of her chest going just further up, but he realized it was probably not better to question it considering other stuff she's managed to do.

She pulled something out of the chest pocket of the jacket, however, that kind of struck him oddly. It was a handkerchief, it's color was a mix of red from her bowtie and a bit like his own crimson fur, and she struggled to tie it around her neck.

"That's new," He said more so to himself than the vixen, but she still looked over at him and smiled a bit before looking down at it.

"I saw it in a store while I was out with Ava, and it reminded me of you. Kind of how they always show pirates with bandannas, you know?" She giggled a bit as she looked down at it, soon looking over at him again. "Would you mind helping me tie it on? Never really tried to put it on before."

"Sure, I don't see why not." He walked over and got behind her, holding the two ends in either hand before tying the two pieces together until it was taught. He looked at her for a few seconds, wishing they could just climb right back into bed, before turning around and walking towards the table with the binder. He opened it up and skimmed through the first pages which explained everything about the experiment like he read before, soon finding the section about the recaller, and then finishing up with a section that explained the different buildings on the island that record the experiment, including bases that housed the operatives and such.

'Johnathon, you sneaky, beautiful, bastard.'

"The Northern Survey Station is the main operations point for the northern side of the island, it houses the main portion of equipment and utilities, and distributes them out among the smaller compounds to use in operations regarding the experiment…"

"That's no good to me," He mumbled, "Entire place was destroyed…"

He skimmed past until he found the eastern district, considering the Northern District was now ash, and the other two were simply too out of reach for him at the moment, it was time to do some work in their own backyard and gain some ground themselves, then they'd at least have the breathing room to get a decent night's sleep. Reading essentially the same thing as for the Northern Survey Station, until he reached the different compounds around the area.

"The Eastern Barracks houses the majority of FazEnt's androids for the Eastern District, but the actual chain-of-command in the area is split. They house platoons in several houses across the district instead of a singular place, but they usually mass together somewhat. The most notable being the current command post, set up on the hill…"

He quickly read the rest of the description which labeled where the command post was on the hill, and what the house looked like, but also several other scouting posts that housed single platoons, usually under the guise of a residential building. The command post on the hill was just a house above theirs, meaning he and Mangle would be able to take out the head of the snake early on for the Eastern District.

"Okay, so, you said you wanted to help, right?"

His question caught the vixen off guard, who was currently sitting down beside him messing with the fur on her hand.

"I mean, yeah-"

"Good, let's do some hunting," He chuckled, quickly standing up before walking to the side of the bed where he placed his ASR and ammunition, the vixen quickly losing track of what was going on as he continued moving.

"What do you mean?" She saw him pull out a box of ammunition and a couple of magazines which he promptly started loading.

"I mean, we're about to go attack a place."

"Just like that?"

"I didn't hear you complaining yesterday." He grinned as she was quickly hushed and then glared at him, walking over to his nightstand and picking up the holster to the handgun and the few spare magazines he already had loaded. "Wait a second-"

"You don't expect me to walk in there unarmed, do you?"

"But you don't know how to use it!"

"I can learn," She told him, strapping the holster around her waist as she watched him shut his maw, a vixenly grin on her face as she silenced her mate.

"Alright, fine, just don't shoot me, now," He mumbled while shaking his head, his hands quickly moving as he loaded the magazines. Granted he had limited time training, he still had the muscle memory down as he quickly popped round after round into the mag and set it down, soon having four twenty-round magazines with one already loaded, giving him a total of one-hundred rounds for the time being. In all honesty, he had more magazines, he just didn't want to deal with placing it in his coat without any straps or pouches.

He quickly slung the ASR around his neck and fastened up his coat, covering the weapon, before switching to his wrist-blade and taking it out to replace it, which he swiftly did.

'Thanks, Ava. I owe you one.'

He held the other blade, contemplating what to do with it before he looked over at the vixen, then back at the blade. It was dulled down from use, and it had some chips in it, so he didn't want to make her use it, but he also didn't want her using such a small blade. He looked into his drawer, finding some of his spare blades Jason and Ava had given to him, which he picked on of up, soon taking off the blade from the two, and mounting the dulled blade on the handle with the fresh cartridge, and placing the new blade on the handle with the spent cartridge. She wouldn't be able to use the firing function anyway, so he figured it would be better for her. There was also a sheath that was given to him that gave him the ability to have a spare blade, but he never carried it since he barely shot them, so he decided to hand her that as well.

She thanked him before fastening it around her waist, careful to not let it be too obvious, but in a good position to draw it from, also practicing her draw for a bit as he checked the location of the command post. It was about five minutes up the hill, just a bit towards the south. In all, it would only be about a ten-minute walk for them. He quickly put away the binder and made sure he was ready once more, eventually getting the vixen and walking out the room towards the front door before leaving.

Outside was still chaotic as they walked, though, they couldn't see it. The majority of it was simply what they heard as gunshots sounded out from down the hill in the town. They were both silent as they walked, however, neither wanting to say anything in case they could be heard coming.

Though, both of them eventually made it to the building, opting to instead go further up the hill so Foxy could get a vantage point to view the place from before they attacked it. From their spot, he could see that the windows were shut with blinds covering them, the doors seemed rather secure, and he couldn't see any cameras or sentries.

'They probably rely on not being found… Then this shouldn't be too difficult, but I better keep my wits...'