Foxy found himself somewhere dark yet again.
At first, he didn't know where he was, but then he began to recognize the look of the room. The shelves that went as high as the ceiling, lining the walls, supporting various parts. Spare endoskeletons, sitting up everywhere, waiting to be used. Boxes filled with more parts, more mechanisms and wiring that was unused. Cobwebs, sticking to the corners of the dusty room. A collection of tools, set against one wall, all of them clean and ready to be put to use. Multiple doors that led out of the room, which were all closed tight and locked.
And then Foxy saw it again. The lone table in the center of the room. A single lamp, lighting up the otherwise dark room and allowing some things to just barely be seen. A shadowy figure, bent over the table, ripping various metal things off of an endoskeleton laying down on the table. Some parts were set aside for later, while others had been thrown away and littered the stone floor...
Foxy was standing across the room from where it was. He remembered this...he had seen this same figure here last time. The figure was strange, mysterious, unknown. It wore a black cloak over itself, so Foxy could not see what it was while its back was turned, but he could see the shadow of its arms coming out of the cloak, which looked metallic themselves.
Foxy recalled last time he had been here. He had tried to approach the figure...but he had only just woken up.
This time, he felt differently. He no longer wanted to get closer to this thing, to touch it at all. He felt like this thing wasn't something he wanted to be around, like a deadly virus that he didn't want to catch. But despite this, he still felt curiosity lingering inside of him. Despite the hesitance he felt, despite his feeling of dread, he wanted to know what this thing was more than anything else right then.
So he took the next-best route, and he spoke out: "Hello?"
The shadowy figure abruptly paused at its work, its arms having been in the middle of ripping a metal piece off of the torso of the endoskeleton it was looking towards. It did not turn around to look at Foxy, but it did move slightly, and it too spoke: "So...it's you. I wouldn't have expected to see you here."
"Huh?" Foxy stuttered. The voice of this thing felt familiar, but he couldn't figure out why.
"It's you, isn't it Foxy? I feel as if I should be alarmed, and yet...you're different. You're a different Foxy, aren't you?"
"A different Foxy?"
"Nevermind, nevermind, it does not matter...but seeing you here has made me very much intrigued. How we even crossed paths is a mystery I may never solve..."
"...who are you? What are you doing?"
"Who am I is of no concern to you. But I will say that if you knew all the facts, you would remember me. And, what am I doing?" It let out a chuckle. "Simple. I am getting my greatest task done." It focused back at the table. "Now then, which parts do I need? After all, it must be perfect, it must be the right body for me. Anything less would not work..."
"Well...since I'm here...I'll just hang out." Foxy sat down on the floor, crossing his legs. "Say...how do you know who I am?"
The figure kept talking as it went back to work. "Because I've met you, Foxy. Or at least, I've met you at a certain point. We know each other quite well, in fact."
"But I don't recognize you. I've never even seen you before."
"And that is for the best. It is better that you never know who I am. At least not yet. However, since you're here...I do have an idea of why our paths have crossed."
"You...do? Why'd we meet, then?"
"It is clear that we have many things we must say to one another. There is so much to talk about, and yet, so little time...but I feel as if in this moment alone, we have all the time we could ever need. I must tell you some things of my own. Foxy...you have many things you have not yet done."
"What do you mean?"
"I need not explain it to you. Look inside yourself, and you'll know the answer. In fact, look around this room, too. That might give you a clever hint."
Foxy looked around at the darkened room. What was there to look at? Endoskeletons? Metal robot parts and mechanisms? And then he took note of the parts scattered across the floor and the parts sitting on the table.
"Wait...I don't think I have the full answer, but...does it have to do with collecting parts?" He asked.
"Ah, very astute of you. Yes, I will say that it has to do with collecting the parts. They must all be gathered for it to happen."
"For what to happen?"
The figure did not respond immediately. It was still busily messing with tons and tons of different parts at the table. But, once again, it paused work and said: "You will know when the moment approaches. There are many plans that have yet to go underway, and you will see them all in due time. In the meantime...I understand that you have many things to attend to now. Go on, attend to your rambunctious problems. We will meet again soon enough."
"Wait, I still don't understand! What plans are coming?! You're not even giving me a proper explanation!"
The thing laughed again. "Oh, Foxy...it is as I said..." It began to turn around. "...it will all happen within time..." It was turning around to meet Foxy's eyes.
Foxy dreaded this. What was it going to look like? What would he be staring back at?
It was nearly there. He could almost see the hole that would reveal a face in the cloak-
"Foxy! Foxy, Foxy, Foxy, Foxy!"
"Woah, woah, woah, hey!" Foxy exclaimed as he woke up abruptly. His curtains had been forced open, and standing there was Ballora, looking down at Foxy from his sitting position on the floor.
"Foxy, I need to talk to you about-" Ballora began seriously, but then she looked perplexed. "Uh, wait...is that a teddy bear?"
"Huh?" Foxy muttered, not getting what on earth she was talking about...but then she realized that she had seen him sitting down next to Foxy. Foxy yelled out and grabbed him, hiding him behind his back. "Oh, er, no! You just saw an illusion, that's all! No teddy bears here! Gosh, why are you even here, anyway? I'm just...so..." Foxy let out a large yawn. "...tired!"
"Yeah, what's the big idea?! We were getting some REST here, you know! How dare you interrupt everything!"
"Not now, voice." Foxy groaned, putting a hand up to his forehead. He was incredibly groggy at the moment, having been suddenly and rudely awakened without his permission at a time when he hadn't gotten as much sleep as he wished he could have. He barely managed to process everything around him, including Ballora. "So, Ballora, what do you need? Pretty out of it right now, so make it quick."
"Uh...well, I'm going to go ahead and ignore the part with the teddy bear." Ballora decided. "Doesn't matter right now, I don't think."
"Yeah, you didn't see anything, alright? Thanks."
"You're, uh, welcome. Hey, for the record, why are you sleeping in your cove? Don't you have a back room you like to sleep in?"
Foxy sighed, Ballora's words giving him an instant reminder of something he had immense distaste for. "What, did you forget?" He reached over to the trapdoor and tugged its handle, trying to get it open. The familiar sensation of resistance let him know the situation was the exact same. "See? The trapdoor into there is locked by key, and only Puppet has a key to it. The room apparently isn't finished yet, so I can't go inside until it is. Puppet was SUPPOSED to be working on it, and he might have even finished by now if he had been, but he decided to go on 'Christmas vacation' and hasn't worked on my back room a single day since he started vacation."
"Wait, he's on a vacation?"
"Yeah, he sure is. I don't see why he even needs to, other than to have a quick and easy excuse to slack off, so it annoys the heck out of me."
"Huh, never knew that. I must've been out of the loop for a while."
"No sweat. After all, I didn't even learn he was on vacation until yesterday."
"Sounds bad, but we've got more important things to cover! Foxy, I need you to listen to me VERY carefully, alright?"
"Huh?" Foxy stuttered. His attention was slipping as his grogginess was catching up to him, and he was starting to wish he had put himself in 'do not disturb' mode during sleep.
"Okay, so since you're paying attention, let me say this right now: this-" And then Ballora started to say another sentence, but right then, Foxy found himself tuning out for a second as he tried to get used to the bright lights of his room hitting his face. Once he finally was ready, he started to pay attention again, just as Ballora said: "-alright, got it? This is very important, after all."
"Very important?" Foxy repeated. "What happened this time? Did another security guard arrive? Did something catch fire? No wait, Bon-Bon blew something up again, didn't me?! You've got to be kidding! I thought I took away all of his explosives!"
"We did take them all away, okay? Bon-Bon isn't blowing anything up! The point is...Foxy, it's Christmas."
"Wait, what?"
"It's Christmas!"
Foxy took a second to process this...and then he jumped up, grinning. "Wow, it's Christmas? Awesome! Didn't even realize it was going to be here so fast. I must've slept for a long while after we deactivated last night."
"Yeah, I know, right?" Ballora added, nodding. "You slept for ages! Then again, you're a bear, and bears tend to hibernate, and-"
"Wha- Hey! I'm not a bear, alright? I'm a fox!" Foxy took him out and showed him to Ballora. "See? This is a bear!"
"Alright, alright, I know you're a fox! I was talking about him." Ballora pointed at him.
Foxy exclaimed in pleasant surprise. "Oh, you mean Mr. Wigglesworth? Ah, I get it! Sorry for the misunderstanding."
"Yes, him. Wait, sorry, you said not to bring him up. I won't bring him up again, sorry."
"Oh, it's alright. As long as it stays between us, we're all good."
She's thinking about me? For real?
"Yeah, she is! Nice of her, isn't it? Ballora, no need to worry. Mr. Wigglesworth is glad that you're thinking of him. He sounds happy."
Ballora raised an eyebrow. "Uh...okay? This is getting a bit odd. First, there's an annoying voice inside your head...and now, Mr. Wiggles-whatshisname?"
Hey, she pronounced my name wrong!
"Hey, say his name right! It's Mr. Wigg-les-worth! Got it?"
"Okay, okay, I got it!"
Ah, the balance has been restored! This ballerina isn't as bad as I thought...at least now I won't have to kill her, heh heh.
"There you go, Ballora! Great job!" Foxy congratulated the ballerina. "Mr. Wigglesworth thanks you too! He says he's not going to kill you now. Isn't that great?"
Ballora blinked. "Oh. Uh. Well...I guess I can say meeting him has been an...interesting experience. Maybe too much so."
"Yeah, he's one-of-a-kind!" Foxy said, nodding. "Now, Mr. Wigglesworth, it's time for me to put you away." Foxy opened his chest cavity (he did so by thinking hard about wanting it to open, which caused his systems to comply and do it automatically) and put Mr. Wigglesworth inside, then closed it back up. "There we go."
"So, anyways!" Ballora continued, going back into her cheery spirit. "It's Christmas day, and we've got presents under the tree we need to open!"
"Awesome, presents! That's the part I'm excited for most! We should go wake everyone else up and get them up so we can open them!"
"Of course we're going to do that! We'll grab everyone one-by-one. First...we'll get Bon-Bon first. I think I saw him taking a nap in the bounce house."
Hey, I was wondering...what about my presents? I'm getting something for Christmas, too, right? Ask Ballora for me, Foxy!
"Oh, by the way, is Mr. Wigglesworth going to get anything of his own for Christmas? Shouldn't he be getting a present, too?"
Ballora looked at Foxy incredulously. "Um...you never told me that you needed your stuffed bear's input on the Christmas list, so...I don't have the chance to ask Santa now."
Wait, what?! Aw, that sucks! I was really hoping to get some free stuff this year!
"Don't worry, Mr. Wigglesworth, I can share my Christmas gifts with you!"
Huh, well...I guess that's better than nothing.
"I mean, if your stuffed bear really wants gifts, then maybe next year it can happen." Ballora offered.
"Maybe, maybe." Foxy agreed. "Now, let's go and grab everyone."
Foxy followed Ballora out of his room and his thoughts swirled with curiosity over what gifts he might've gotten...
Foxy and Ballora entered the bouncy house to find Bon-Bon on the floor in the far corner of the room, on his back and deactivated.
"Here he is." Foxy pointed out, and he and Ballora went over to Bon-Bon. "Looks like he fell asleep in the corner. Hold on, I'll wake him up. Bon-Bon, hey! Rise and shine!"
Bon-Bon moved a little, his eyelids slightly coming open. Foxy recognized this as the hand puppet transitioning into stand-by mode, which was a middle ground between being asleep and being awake. It was progress, but they needed him fully awake.
The hand-puppet was also muttering softly, saying: "Heh, take that, Puppet. Now you're going to go boom..." He giggled in his sleep.
Foxy winced in concern. "Yeesh, what is he dreaming about right now? Whatever it is, it doesn't sound good."
Ballora shook her head. "Oh, dear...how are we going to wake him up now?"
Foxy looked down at the ground they were standing on and had a fun idea. "I have an idea, actually. We need to jump at the same time while being next to him. Follow my lead. One...two...THREE!"
Both Foxy and Ballora jumped up and down at the same time, shouting: "Bon-Bon, wake up!"
Since they were in a bounce house, the floor shook considerably, and Bon-Bon finally woke up, exclaiming in surprise as he fully activated, his eyelids coming open as he scrambled to get upright.
"Aaagh!" He yelped, and then he noticed who was there. "Oh, it's just you guys. What are you guys doing in here?"
"We're here to inform you that Christmas day has come!" Ballora shouted joyfully. "Isn't this great?"
"Yeah, it's finally here! Woo-hoo!" Foxy cheered.
Bon-Bon looked confused and tired. "Wait, what? It's already Christmas time?"
"Yep!" Ballora confirmed.
"Oh. Then why'd you guys wake me up from my nap?"
"Because we need to gather under the tree and open our presents! We need to get everyone else up before we do that, though, so we came to you first, since you were close in proximity."
"Alright, alright, we can do that." Bon-Bon yawned. "...augh, what time is it? It feels so early..."
"Don't worry about the time, Bon-Bon!" Foxy assured the hand-puppet. "It's Christmas, and it's time we enjoy it! Now, the next person we should get should be the closest too us as is possible. Hmm...well, we could try Freddy. His closet is just across the way from here."
"Then let's go!" Ballora cheered, and she was already going out of the bounce house. Foxy followed her, Bon-Bon slowly trailing behind them, as they went out of the bounce house and across the main room. Ballora passed the stand surrounded the closet by going through the side gate. Then, she opened the closet door and leaned inside. "Freddy! Freddy, are you here?"
"I don't understand why you guys had to come and wake me up first..." Bon-Bon moaned, rubbing his eyes. "I'm not used to getting up this early..."
Foxy nodded sympathetically. "You were hoping to sleep for longer, I'm betting?"
"Yeah, much, much longer."
"I get you. She woke me up earlier than I would've liked, too. I'm stressed by this, but Ballora seems really excited, so it'd probably be for the best if we didn't make her angry at us again." Foxy looked back at Ballora, who was coming out of the closet. "Ballora, where's Freddy?"
"He's not in his closet right now, and the ladder to his upstairs room isn't there either." She reported. "I found a note on his teddy bear. Apparently, he's busy with other stuff for the time being."
Foxy sighed. "Of course he's still not available. What the heck could he be doing that's more important then spending time with us? Well, once he comes back, we'll know. We can all bombard him with questions about it like there's no tomorrow."
"Yes, we'll definitely have to get him to answer for leaving us for so long." Ballora replied. "In the meantime, I'm just hoping the presents he got won't go bad."
"Wait, what do you mean? How do presents 'go bad'?"
Ballora shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I think Santa gave him a lot of chicken for his gift this year. I took a whiff of his presents and they smelled just like chicken, so I have a feeling that that's what he got."
"Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Besides chicken, I'm not sure what else he'd want to get for himself. Anyway, let's go to Dinah next, since he's nearby."
They left the area around the closet and went towards the kitchen. The doors happened to be nearby the closet, so it didn't take them very long before they got there, opened the doors, and entered. Dinah was busy at the oven, as he usually was, but he exclaimed in welcome as they entered.
"Hello again, animatronics!" He greeted flamboyantly. "What a surprise to see you at this early hour! Well, it is early for you, not for me, since it is only around...11 PM, I think. I've been sleeping through the day, you know, and working at night to make the pizza you animatronics so badly want."
"Good work. Keep on it, alright?" Foxy instructed the chef. "And you should make some food for Christmas, too, since today is Christmas."
"Wait, it's Christmas already? Goodness, how the time flies! I was not prepared at all!"
"Yes, it's Christmas day!" Ballora repeated cheerily. "I'm just going around and waking up all my slowpoke friends. None of them were ready to wake up and celebrate Christmas at all! Good to see that you're already awake, though."
"Oh yes, I am indeed awake so I could work on the pizza. But if I had known that it was Christmas, I would have been out there opening my presents already."
"We can bring the presents to you, in case you need to stay here and keep working on the pizza." Foxy suggested.
"That-a might work! I am trying to find time in my schedule to come out and celebrate Christmas at the tree with the rest of you, but in case I cannot find the time, then yes, it would be good for you to bring me my presents. I must say, it is very gracious of you to be so willing to bring me the presents I got. Thank you very much."
"Anytime! Now, we've got another guy we need to talk to. Let me get him up." Foxy walked over to the garbage chute, opened up the hatch, and yelled down into it: "Garbage! Wake up!"
"Oh, I guess that's one way to wake him up." Ballora said.
Down inside the chute, Foxy could hear Garbage yawning as he came awake. "...ah, somebody's calling? Who- oh, it's just you guys again." Foxy noted that Garbage's tone always seemed to become disappointed whenever he found out the animatronics were visiting. "What do you guys want from me this time? I haven't seen any elves, if that's what you're wondering."
"No, we don't need to know that this time. We're here to inform you that it's Christmas!"
"Wait, is it? Let me check my mental calendar...no, no, it's too early for Christmas. Give me five more minutes to sleep..."
"Garbage, Christmas can't wait for five more minutes! It's starting now!"
"Well, okay, but why are you asking me? What do you want me to do about it?" Garbage asked exasperatedly. "Unless you're actually going to toss me a present, I don't think you need to talk to me right now."
The animatronics exchanged looks.
"Did anyone plan to give Garbage any presents?" Foxy asked.
"I mean, yeah, but...I don't know what would be appropriate." Ballora replied, shrugging.
"Me neither. He did ask me if he could call his family as a Christmas gift, but...no, no, I can't do that."
"Why don't we just throw him some chicken, like we always do?" Bon-Bon suggested. "It's easy and it's enough."
"I can tell that you guys are only going to give me chicken." Garbage's voice floated from down inside the chute. The animatronics tensed up, ready to deny it, but Garbage continued. "I know, I know, you guys are going to deny it. It's alright, I'm used to being thrown only chicken. And being treated like garbage." Garbage, despite his sour tone, let out a dry chuckle. "Heh. My name is Garbage and I'm being treated like garbage. How ironic. Well, anyway, I can tell that you guys don't have anything else you need me for. If it's alright, I'm going to head back to sleep. Wake me up if you feel like giving me a better present."
"Then why don't we throw a rock down there for you instead?" Ballora taunted a little irritably. "Surely that's edible!"
"Nah, just go with the chicken. I mean, a new car would be nice, but that isn't happening."
"Nope, no cars for you." Foxy denied. "Bye." Foxy closed up the chute, leaving Garbage down there by himself.
Hmm. You know...maybe Garbage could get something more than chicken... He thought for a moment. Eh...I'll think about it later.
"That clears up everyone over on this side of the building." Ballora concluded, nodding. "Let's go and get everybody else we haven't gotten yet."
Foxy and Bon-Bon followed Ballora out of the kitchen, leaving Dinah to continue his pizza-related work.
"So, who else do we need to get?" Ballora wondered as she and the others walked through the small hallway. "Can somebody jog my memory?"
"Have you told Reggie about this yet?" Foxy asked.
"Well, of course I have! I woke him up as soon as I awoke myself. I think he's still awake and ready in my room. We can go get him after we've grabbed everyone else."
Poor Reggie. He must've missed some valuable sleep time as well. Foxy thought, feeling a bit bad that Reggie had been forced to live his life at the pizzeria while constantly under Ballora's tyranny. And, at the same time, Foxy felt glad that he was in a better situation than Reggie in terms of how often he had to deal with Ballora. At worst, Foxy only had to deal with Ballora once per day, but Reggie had to deal with Ballora for hours on end. Foxy couldn't imagine what it'd be like to spend that much time around her, but he could only assume that it wasn't the greatest spot to be in.
"Then...how about Puppet?" Foxy tried.
"Oh, yeah, Puppet!" Ballora remembered. "He's the only other person we can go to! Come on, let's go!"
Foxy had to quicken his pace right then, as Ballora was going down the hallways even faster now. Bon-Bon stayed behind them, keeping up as best as the hand-puppet could...
It wasn't long before they arrived at the auditorium. Ballora was already heading straight towards Puppet's box, but Foxy noticed the vent grate in the room, and something came to mind.
"Hey, wait a second!" Foxy interrupted. "Ballora, didn't you say that Puppet is the only other person we could go to?"
"Well...yes, I did." Ballora replied.
"But that's not true!" Foxy countered, and he headed over to the auditorium's stage and pointed at the trapdoor. "Baby's around, too! Can't we go and get h-"
"NOPE!" Ballora suddenly shouted, rushing over to Foxy and pushing him out of the way so she could block the trapdoor. "Sorry, we are not getting Baby! That's not a good idea!"
Foxy raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised that Ballora was so intent on stopping Baby, who she got along with very well, from joining them. "What? Why not? You get along with Baby better than you do with the rest of us. Wouldn't you want to bring her along?"
"Well, I would, but...there's a thing you should know about Baby." Ballora said. "She's not really a morning person. And by not really, I mean that she can be a bit...grouchy in the mornings."
"Okay, but you're her best friend, aren't you? You should go and wake her up. I'm sure she won't be as grouchy if she sees a friendly face."
Ballora winced. "Erm...that doesn't sound like a good idea, but...oh, fine. I'll give it a try, but I can't guarantee that she'll cooperate." She opened the trapdoor, stepped into the passage, and closed it up, muttering: "Oh, dear..." as she went inside.
"So...what's been up with you?" Bon-Bon asked Foxy as soon as Ballora had left. "Has Puppet finished your room yet?"
"Nope, not even close." Foxy answered begrudgingly. "He's been going on winter break, so he hasn't been working on it for a while. I've been sleeping in my cove recently. Not that you'd know, seeing as you jumped ship and left me by myself after I lost my room."
"And you've still been sleeping with Mr. Wigglesworth, haven't you?"
"Shush about that, okay? It's not something I want everyone else to know."
"Baby?" They heard Ballora's voice from the vent grate, which looked into the vents where Baby lived. "Baby, wake up! It's Christmas, Baby! It's-"
"RRRRAAAAAAGGGGGGHHH!"
A loud, angry scream rang out from inside the vents, causing Foxy to wince from the sheer noise.
"WHAT are you DOING here?!" Baby's upset voice yelled.
"Baby, calm down!" Ballora assured Baby. "I was just trying to-"
"Who cares?! I'm trying to sleep here! GET OUT!"
"Oh gosh, okay, I'm leaving! I'm sorry! Just put the bat away, alright?!"
"I'll put it away once you LEAVE!"
"Okay, I'm going, I'm going!"
The talking stopped, but other noises were sounding from inside the vents. A minute later, the trapdoor opened and Ballora came back out, quickly shutting the trapdoor behind her and holding it closed for a few seconds.
"Ballora, are you okay?" Foxy asked in concern. "What the heck happened while you were in there?!"
Ballora looked at the vent grate in fear. "That...that was something else. That...was something worse."
"You look pretty terrified. Let me guess: she wasn't wearing makeup?"
"Worse than that! Her faceplates were wide open, so..."
"Oh. OH. Yeah, that sounds pretty bad."
"And she was yelling at me, and she tried to hit me with a bat she had on her...my goodness, I'm just happy I got out of there. I'm not going to go into too much more detail, but let me say that it was an entirely different ball game in there..."
"Basically, Baby isn't coming out. Is that right?"
"Yep, that's right. I told you guys she wouldn't want to wake up."
"So then it's Puppet's turn. We were planning to get him, right? Let's go and grab him."
Everyone was, of course, in agreement, so nobody hesitated to head right over to Puppet's box, climb up on top of it, and descend down the hole and the ladder to Puppet's room, which was below.
After a short bout of climbing (in which Ballora complained about how long the climb was), they arrived in Puppet's tv room, and then walked into the central room of the building.
"So, one of us is going to need to wake him up." Foxy said, stopping in the middle of the room. "Bon-Bon, do you want to do the honors?"
"I can do it, but...how much fun I have with it, and how effective the wake-up call is, can depend." Bon-Bon replied, grinning in a mischievous way. "Have you got any explosives? I could easily wake him up with those!"
Foxy gave Bon-Bon a look. "Bon-Bon, do you really expect us to let you have explosives after what happened last time you got ahold of them?"
"Oh, come on! I asked for explosives for Christmas, right? What about that?"
"I don't think Santa will be very keen to give us weapons after his...last visit here." Ballora reasoned. "Besides, I don't think he gives out weapons as presents, anyway. Not his type of thing."
"Aw, man. Fine, I'll wake him up, but it won't be as fun. Hmph."
"So, as for where Puppet is..." Foxy began, and he paused to consider it. "...I think I may know."
And Foxy led them over to Puppet's computer room, and as he expected, Puppet was there. He had deactivated, and was laying motionlessly on the couch.
"Alright, it's over here." Foxy said. "Bon-Bon, you can wake him up now."
"Hold on, let me grab something." Bon-Bon responded, holding up his hand, and he wandered away. A minute later, he came back, toting a plunger in his hands. "I grabbed this plunger from Puppet's table in the center room. I'll do it with this."
Oh no. Foxy thought, already somewhat against this method of waking up Puppet, but Bon-Bon had already went into the computer room. The hand-puppet climbed up onto the couch and on top of Puppet himself. Puppet was still deactivated and did not respond to this.
Then, Bon-Bon raised the plunger and used the front of it to smack Puppet right in the face, as he screamed: "Wake up, Puppet!"
"Augh!" Puppet yelled as he activated suddenly, pushing Bon-Bon off of him and standing up. "What's the meaning of...wait. Did you wake me up with my plunger? Gross!"
Bon-Bon chuckled slyly as he walked back over to where Foxy and Ballora were standing, looking immensely proud of himself. "Heh heh..." He giggled as he placed the plunger down on a table in the small hall next to the computer room.
Puppet then let out a yawn from his voice box. "My systems are telling me the time right now. What are you guys doing here so early? We're not supposed to be up for another hour..."
"It's Christmas, alright? That's why!" Ballora answered.
"Yeah, apparently it's Christmas now, according to Ballora." Foxy repeated.
Puppet looked perplexed. "What? Already? But I thought we had a couple more weeks! And now I've been woken up early without even knowing I was going to be woken up like this. I didn't even get to do my morning stretches yet."
"Sorry, but Ballora says we have to go open our presents by the tree. We should get over there now."
"Yeah, we should start as soon as possible!" Ballora agreed.
Puppet shrugged. "Well, if it's really Christmas, and it's really time to do this present-opening stuff, then it's fine. I mean, you're the expert, I guess, so you'd know."
"I'm a bit confused too, I'll admit." Foxy added. "It still kind of feels too early for Christmas, but then again, I'm still figuring out what Christmas is, so maybe it really is today and I just didn't know."
"Yes, exactly. That's what I thought." Ballora said, squinting at Foxy for a brief moment. "Alright, then, follow me! We need to get to the Christmas tree in the main room!"
She headed away, heading for the tv room where the exit ladder was. Everyone else followed her without another word.
"You know...is it just me, or are we missing some people?" Puppet voiced out loud as he, Foxy, and the others walked down the big hallway. "I don't remember our group being this small."
"Oh, well, the others are a different story." Ballora answered as she began to explain. "Freddy's still away, and we can't count on him to come back in time, so he's not here. Baby's...er, still waking up. She doesn't want to get up, so we can't get her to join us, either. Trust me, trying to get Baby up on some mornings is like trying to attack twenty hornet's nests without protective gear. That is to say, it's an incredibly bad idea. Reggie's already awake, but I've decided to get him here later. Dinah's awake too, and he's busy making the pizza right now, but he might be able to join us later on. Garbage...is awake, I think? He might still be asleep and dreaming about new cars or whatever else."
"That, or he's scheming to try and find ways to get out of the chute." Foxy joined. "One of the two options."
"Probably, yeah, but that hardly matters. Point is, since we need to keep him down inside the chute, he won't be joining us. I think that's everyone, then...well, besides us, of course. Let's keep going."
"We're here!" Ballora cheered excitedly. She and everyone else had gotten to the main room. The nicely-decorated Christmas tree was already there as it usually was, and the wrapped presents were all around the tree, waiting to be opened. "Now we can get started."
"Before we do, I also need to ask: what exactly do we do on Christmas day?" Puppet asked. "You've mentioned it a bit before, but you've never went into detail."
"Yeah, what are we meant to do?" Foxy questioned. "Fight each other? Burn stuff down?"
"Do we have to fight over who gets the better presents?" Bon-Bon demanded, looking intrigued. "That'd be cool!"
"No, no, no! You've got it all wrong!" Ballora rebuffed, giving Foxy and Bon-Bon very disapproving looks. "Christmas is the complete opposite of that! We don't fight, we don't kill, we don't burn, we don't try to cut each others' throats or break each others' arms. What we actually do is give gifts to each other and open them, one after another! As you can see, the presents are all ready to be opened."
"Oh, alright." Foxy accepted. He looked down at the presents for a second. It was then that he noticed that there were fewer presents there then he would've expected, and the only ones there were the ones Santa had delivered days earlier. "Well, fewer presents then I would've expected, but it's cool." He reached for a blue one sitting at his feet. "Let's open this one first-"
"Hey, hey, no! Don't open them yet!" Ballora chastised, grabbing the present out of Foxy's hands and setting it back by the tree. "It's not time for that yet!"
"Wait, what? But I thought you said we were supposed to open our presents."
"On Christmas day, yes, but not today! Didn't you hear what I said earlier?"
"No, I didn't. What did you say?"
"This is only a drill."
...
...
...
...
"WHAT?!" Foxy exclaimed, his attitude taking a complete turnaround. "A drill?!"
"Yeah, didn't you hear me earlier?" Ballora asked a bit confusedly. "I said-"
(Flashback)
"Okay, so since you're paying attention to me, let me say this right now." Ballora instructed to Foxy, who seemed to barely be listening to her. "This is a drill, got that? This is only a drill. The actual day isn't for another couple of weeks yet. We're only doing this so we can prepare for it when it comes for real. Alright, got that? This is very important, after all."
"Very important?!" Foxy repeated, and then he began to talk to Ballora, while not having heard most of what had just been said.
(Flashback End)
"And that's what I told you!" Ballora finished. "I thought you were listening, but you weren't! If you paid attention, you could have understood more."
She stood there, waiting for a response, but it didn't come. Foxy, Puppet, and Bon-Bon were all frozen to the spot, the disbelief over the situation temporarily making their robotic systems come to a complete stop.
"W-wait." Bon-Bon muttered, his voice shaking with frustration. "Are you seriously telling us...that you woke us early and made us run around the pizzeria...for nothing?"
"It wasn't for nothing!" Ballora countered. "I wanted to make sure you guys were ready for Christmas day, so that when it happens, you'll know what to do! That's important, right?"
"But, it's...not even Christmas." Puppet stuttered. "Are...are we even close to Christmas day?"
"Huh? No, it's only the twelfth of December. We've still got about two weeks before Christmas Day."
"And you woke us all up...for a drill?" Foxy groaned tiredly. "I wish I could've heard this earlier. I was all groggy and still waking up when you told me, so I didn't hear you, but you should've at least been able to tell that I wasn't paying attention at that moment! You didn't even tell Puppet and Bon-Bon that this was a drill, either, you just acted like it was really Christmas and fooled them into believing it!"
"So...I got hit in the face by a plunger and woken up early...for no reason at all?" Puppet pondered, looking drained.
"Hey, as I said, it wasn't for no reason! Now that we've done a drill of Christmas and how it works, I'm sure you guys will be prepared! That's all that counts here."
"And now, you even know one of my secrets, too. This sucks." Foxy sighed, remembering that Ballora now knew about Mr. Wigglesworth.
"Huh? What secret?"
"The thing from earlier?"
"You mean Mr. Wigglesworth?" Bon-Bon asked.
"Oh, so you know about it too?" Ballora inquired, smiling. "I was hoping it wouldn't just be me."
"Yeah, I found out about it recently. I've known for quite a bit."
"Bon-Bon, shush! I don't want Puppet to know!" Foxy ushered Bon-Bon, trying not to let anyone else know about his new thing.
"Foxy, there's no need to keep quiet about it. I'm pretty sure everyone else already knows."
"What?! Puppet doesn't know, though?"
"Ah, he wasn't told yet!" Ballora exclaimed. "Puppet, do you know about Mr. Wigglesworth?"
Puppet looked bemused. "Mr. Wigglesworth? What's that?"
"It's actually a who, Puppet! Looks like you didn't know after all!"
"Ballora." Foxy said.
"What, Foxy? I was just telling Puppet that...that...oh, wait a minute. I was supposed to keep it a secret. Oh."
Foxy, the cat's out of the bag. Just tell them about me already.
"Well, I guess it's too late to hide it now. So much for keeping secrets." Foxy sighed. He then opened his chest cavity, and took out Mr. Wigglesworth, holding the stuffed bear up so everyone could see him. "Here's Mr. Wigglesworth. He's my new stuffed teddy bear."
"Hmm...I think I vaguely remember something like that, actually." Puppet said. "I actually stopped by Foxy's cove some time ago to say hi to him, but he wasn't there. I looked behind the curtains and I saw that stuffed bear you were holding sitting there by himself. That was Mr. Wigglesworth, huh?"
"Wait, you went into my room without permission?! You didn't touch him, did you?! Mr. Wigglesworth, did he touch you at all?"
Mmm-hmm, he did touch me! He came over, patted me on the head condescendingly like I was a baby, and then smiled at me! Why'd he treat me like toddler?!
"Really, Puppet?! You touched him?"
"I don't remember touching him at all." Puppet defended. "Didn't care enough to try."
"I'm not so sure about that. He's telling me a different story!"
"Well, then, er...he's a liar. And a cheater. And you shouldn't trust a single word he says."
"So, um, enough of the arguing." Ballora interjected, waving Foxy and Puppet down. "Can we get back to the drill?"
Foxy shook his head. "Ballora, do you really think we'd want to continue this drill now that we know it's not even Christmas? I don't know about everyone else, but I don't want to participate anymore. I say we all go back to our rooms, get back to charging mode, and wake up at a more reasonable hour. 12 AM sounds good to me."
"Yeah, I'm going to have to side with Foxy here." Puppet agreed. "I'm ready to go back to my box and get more sleep."
"What? Come on, why not stay?!" Ballora whined dejectedly. "We've got to keep practicing for the big day! This is an important exercise! We can't disappoint Santa and give him more reasons to dislike us!"
"Ballora, quit pestering us. If you keep going with this, I might have to light the tree on fire."
"EXCUSE ME!?"
"Woah, woah, I'm kidding, I'm only kidding! I wouldn't do that!"
"Actually, since we're all here and all that, and we're already up, it would be better to get it over with..." Puppet wondered, suddenly changing his mind. "...and since you're so aggressive over the tree, I doubt you'd let us go back to bed at this rate...fine, I'll do the rest of the drill. What's next?"
"But we could go back to bed, and...oh, forget it. If Puppet's doing it, I guess I'll have to do it too."
"Ah, good. Glad you guys could finally come to your senses." Ballora answered, putting her hands on her hips and grinning. "Now we can properly finish the drill."
"Well, I say we take the tree down!" Bon-Bon yelled, and, quick as a wink, he climbed up the Christmas tree until he was at the very top and began balancing on the golden top hat tree topper.
"No, stop messing with the tree! You're going to shake off the decorations and ruin the look!"
"I don't care about that."
"Well, I do! Get off of it!"
"Nope."
Ballora groaned, looking irked. "You know, I know I got mad at Foxy for bringing up the idea of lighting the tree on fire, but I'm starting to consider lighting it on fire now, so I can get you off of it!"
Bon-Bon shrugged acceptingly. "Alright, then I'll just jump off the tree. Then it'll be ruined."
"...hmm, you've actually got a point there."
"Wait, but he should still jump off the tree!" Puppet demanded, and he held out his arms. "Here, jump into my arms, Bon-Bon! I promise I'll catch you!"
Foxy and Ballora exchanged looks at each other, and then at Puppet.
"That's probably the biggest lie I've heard all day long." Ballora stated truthfully, already aware that Puppet was trying to trick Bon-Bon.
Bon-Bon wasn't fooled, either. "I don't need to be caught. I'll just go down the easy way." He climbed down the tree and landed back down onto the ground. "See? Easy."
"Besides, Puppet, we all know you were going to let him fall through your hands and hit the floor." Foxy added. "That's what you were planning to do, isn't it?"
"No, of course not! I'm a faithful guy! I stick to my promises!" Puppet claimed, but Foxy could see the grin twitching on Puppet's face and wasn't fooled by this.
"Puppet, everybody knows what you'd do." Ballora told Puppet. "You were going to act like you'd catch Bon-Bon, pretend to get distracted by something on the ground, and 'accidentally' fail to catch him. See, this is exactly why we need to practice for Christmas day! It'd be a disaster if an incident like this happened on a special holiday meant for friendship and fun!"
"But we would just open gifts, play with what we got, and then go on with our days, right?"
"There's so much more to it than that." Ballora blushed a little. "We also give thanks to each other for the gifts we got. Oh, and...I wasn't planning to tell you guys this yet, but...on Christmas day, I was going to do some extra stuff. Make some cookies and milk, maybe some eggnog too, and then we could have a party. Maybe marathon some Christmas movies or do some caroling by ourselves. Something to make the holiday extra special, you know?"
"Yeah, I figured we'd give thanks and do other things." Puppet inferred. "But I do remember that we got to eat a lot of food on Thanksgiving. Can we do that on Christmas, too?"
"Of course! That was one of the things I was thinking about, actually. We could have a nice Christmas dinner before we have a party and do whatever else."
"Awesome!" Foxy agreed, liking the sound of more food to test his taste receptors with. "Where's the food at?"
"Yeah, where?" Puppet chimed in.
"Woah, it's too early! I haven't made any food yet. This is only a drill, remember?"
"Yep, and just like that, this sucks."
"You know what, though? Here, I'll do it. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Ballora. Thanks, Puppet, Thanks, Bon-Bon. Thanks for being here and hanging out with me. There, I did it. I'm going back to bed now."
"Me too. I want to get some more rest before we actually go along with our normal days and all that." Bon-Bon voiced, nodding along with Foxy's choice.
"What? Aw, man!" Ballora sighed. "I guess I can't you stop you guys, though. The drill's over, then. Everyone go back to bed."
"Alright."
"Got it."
"Sounds like a plan."
Everyone split off, heading their separate ways. Foxy walked across the main room, went back into his own room, and got back inside of his cove, clutching Mr. Wigglesworth in his hands.
Foxy took a seat down on the wooden floor. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was good enough for Foxy. He looked at Mr. Wigglesworth, wanting to say some things to him.
Mr. Wigglesworth, I've got some things I need to tell you before we go back to sleep.
Fine by me. What did you want to talk about?
I'm just making sure of things. You're not going to tell anyone else what I've been telling you recently, right?
Can't talk to anyone besides you, anyway, so...sure thing.
Good. Also-
"Don't forget about Christmas." Ballora whispered from nearby, and Foxy looked and saw that she was peeking through the doorway of Foxy's room.
"Hey! I'm trying to go back to deactivation here! Leave me be!" Foxy shooed her away. She left at once.
Okay, back to what we were talking about. Mr. Wigglesworth, I also want to inform you on things. You know what I mean, right?
Right, we've went over this before.
Yes, we have. We're going to take action and get the plan done soon, so we'll both need to know what to do.
"Hey, you can't just make plans like this and not include me! What about my plans?"
No, voice, we're not doing any of your plans. I've already told you, you're just trying to-
"Don't forget to not go into your room, Foxy." Puppet whispered, leaning through the doorway of the room as well.
"Alright, I get the message!" Foxy yelled irritably. "I can't go in there, it's not done, yada yada, I understand! Buzz off!" Puppet left the room too.
Well, enough about the plans. Foxy thought. Ready, Mr. Wigglesworth? It's time we went back to sleep. We can have some awesome dreams and continue our talks later on.
Right, let's get some rest. We need plenty of it-
"Don't forget to cover up Mr. Wigglesworth." Bon-Bon said, peeking into the room from the same doorway.
"Say what?" Foxy stuttered.
"Cover him up with a blanket. You want him to be warm, don't you?"
"Oh. Thanks for reminding me, I guess."
"Bye." Bon-Bon left too.
Well, at least he's being helpful. Foxy thought. Can't say the same for the others. Anyways, let's get some rest.
Foxy placed Mr. Wigglesworth on the floor next to him. Foxy then opened his chest cavity, reaching in and pulling out a small blanket (which he had found in the break room) and put it over the stuffed bear, covering him up. It wasn't much, but it did the job.
Foxy then adjusted himself slightly, prepared himself, and then instructed his systems to turn himself off. He could feel himself deactivating once more...
"Come on, Foxy, it's not good for you to hesitate."
It was the room again, from the same exact dream, with the same exact shadow figure working at the table. It was talking to Foxy with it's back turned as usual, but it wasn't ripping parts off right then. It was more focused on Foxy than anything else.
"Huh?" Foxy stuttered.
"You heard me, Foxy. Get them when the opportunity is right. Get each and every one of them."
"I mean, yes, yes, I can do stuff like that...except, I don't understand what you mean. What's 'them'?"
"I cannot tell you that. You'll understand if you search among other aspects. Now then...I was just giving you one more reminder. You should go back to your regular dreams now. Oh...and, one more thing...he still wants to come back, you know."
"He? Can I even get an answer on that?"
"You're catching on, aren't you? No, I will not answer. But I think you might know who I mean. I am just telling you...he still has the desire of returning. He will not stop until he gets what he wants. That's all. Now, I must get back to work. Sweet dreams, Foxy."
And as the figure began to raise another endo part, Foxy could feel the room getting darker and darker. He was returning back to the normal dreams, like how it usually was, and he closed his eyes as he went into his proper dreamland...
