"You want my honest opinion? Fine. That plan is terrible, and it won't work."

"Doubting my capabilities again? It may sound outlandish, but I assure you that it would work. All you need to do is assemble an appropriate amount of garbage, build it into a body, and allow me to inhabit it. By possessing the trash, I can control it and use it as a working body."

"But how the heck would that work? I wouldn't help you, but let's go into hypothetical and say that I do. If I just put the trash into a big pile, that'd just be a bigger pile of trash."

"Exactly. Even as a pile of trash, I could conceivably use my 'abilities' to possess the trash, sucking it all together to create a working body."

"That makes no sense."

"You would understand if you saw it. Why not give it a try?"

"Absolutely not. Besides, why are you even trying to use trash? Weren't you going on about trying to get a proper animatronic body to use?"

"Of course, and that is still a goal of mine- but you are determined not to cooperate and find a body for me, so I have thought about using...other methods. You act as if I'm not meant to try such things. What, do you take me for a lazy fool that's content to sit inside your mind until the end of time?"

"No, I don't, but guess what? I don't care. Whether or not you like it, you being stuck in my head is better than you having free reign to harm me and my friends...and who knows who else. And that's another thing: how would I transfer you to the body? If you're stuck inside me, as a part of me, then how would detach yourself from me?"

"Simple. You open up your suit and find where my part is located, then remove it. Unless you would rather demolish your entire body instead? I am not opposed to doing that method of removal."

"Demolish my body? Yeah, no. And as for your part, why not tell me where it is? I'd love to remove it and place it in the nearest incinerator."

"True, you could. But I am trapped inside you, and the only way to remove me is to open the area where I am. Who knows what will happen? I'm not just going to sit there lifelessly and let myself be destroyed. I could easily escape. And you don't want that, do you?"

"..."

"And as for where I am located...do you really think I'd tell you when you're in my way? No. Try and disassemble yourself to find me if you want, but you make the risk of accidentally freeing me if you do. In fact, now that I think about it, that seems wonderful. Come now, play a game of hide and seek with me. But one wrong move, and I'll be free!"

"Yeah, I see where this is going. Then you know what? It is the best course of action to keep you in here. If I try to disassemble myself to find you, that's a risk of you escaping. And even if I did find you, you could still escape. There's no guarantee that I could just toss you away. Hmm...alright then, you're staying inside me. No freedom for you."

"That's too bad, Foxy. And here I thought I might find myself freedom...but don't think this is the end. I don't care if you hate me, or despise me, or fear me, or choose to thwart me- I will never stop. One day, I will escape. And you and your mindless friends will regret trying to stop me."

"Alright, time for you to be quiet now."

Foxy focused, and he made the voice disappear back into the corners of his mind. Good, it was gone again.

He had started the day intending to relax, but just as he had woken up and opened his curtains, the voice had started to speak to him again, going on about a plan or something. Why did the voice even tell him its plans? Wouldn't that make it easy for Foxy to stop it? Then again, the voice did seem to like to play mind games and manipulation.

But now that he had it shut up, he was ready to go back to a normal day. But at that moment, he heard sounds by the doorway and looked over. Quick footsteps sounded, and then Freddy came running into the room, heading right over to Foxy and his cove.

"Foxy! Hey!" He called.

"Oh, hey Freddy. What's up?" Foxy greeted, eager to talk to someone other than the voice. "How's your day going?"

"Pretty good! I was actually just coming to tell you that I made some amazing renovations to my room earlier that I want you to see."

"Really? Well, that sounds cool. Let's go and see it."

Foxy headed for the door.

"Wait! Hold on!" Freddy called, stopping Foxy before he could head off. "Before we do, I want to get the others first. I want everybody to see it."

Foxy shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose it would be nicer if we could get the rest of the gang. Must be eager to hang out with everyone again after just waking up from hibernation, huh?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then sure, let's go grab everyone else. Who should we go and get?"

"Puppet and Ballora." Freddy replied. "I can't find Bon-Bon, and Baby seems too busy, but I think Puppet and Ballora are around. I want them to see my handiwork, too. We can all be happy together, you know? Sort of like a happy surprise."

"Yeah, I get it. Let's go."

"Alright! Follow me."

Foxy followed Freddy out of the room. He was content to play along with Freddy today, and was also kind of interested in what Freddy might have added to his room. More chicken, probably, but maybe something else too. Besides, this was a million times better than talking to the voice, which would not stop tormenting him. It was getting more and more vocal every day, probably due to its patience wearing thin.

But hey, he had pushed it away for now, and he was about to go do something better with his friends. He could just forget about the voice for a little while and have some fun.

So he followed Freddy willingly, heading behind him to wherever they were going to go first.

Their first stop was Ballora's room. Peering through the window, Foxy could see Ballora and Reggie inside, doing their own thing. Ballora was enthralled in conversation with Reggie, although it seemed to be a mostly one-sided conversation since Ballora was doing most of the talking while Reggie would listen and occasionally move his mouth a little to signify small remarks or responses.

Looks like she's deep in conversation with Reggie. She probably won't mind if we come in at this time. Foxy thought, opening the doors to let himself and Freddy in.

"Hey, Ballora! We're here to see you." Foxy called as he came in, Freddy trailing behind him.

Ballora broke out of her conversation and looked in their direction. "Oh! Well, uh, hello again, guys." She smiled for a second, but then gazed at Freddy. "Freddy's here too, huh? This must be something important or serious if you're both here to talk to me about it."

Foxy just shrugged. "Eh, serious might be the wrong word. We're just here because Freddy wanted to get you to see something. Oh, and, by the way...don't worry about there being any more mistletoe. We got rid of it, so no more of those 'incidents' should be able to happen."

Ballora shuddered a little. "Thank goodness for that. I don't think I could take it if I had to deal with another accident like that one with the mistletoe."

"We had mistletoe hanging around?" Freddy asked curiously. "What happened to it? What's this incident about?"

"No, no, don't ask. We really don't need to talk about that day..."

"Yeah, it's better that you don't know. It was really weird." Foxy said, grimacing a little. "Neither me nor Ballora want to talk about it."

"Aw, okay." Freddy accepted, albeit a little disappointedly.

"Anyways, on to something much more cheerful! Notice anything different about my room?" Ballora asked cheerily, cracking a grin. She pointed down at the stage they were standing on. "See all the presents on my stage? I've put more of them on it! Take a look."

"Wait a second." Foxy stuttered, examining one of them. It was for Ballora. Then he picked up another one, and it was...also for Ballora. And another, and another, and another, and another...there wasn't a single present that wasn't for Ballora- besides the pile of presents near Reggie that were labeled as his instead. Other than that, though, every present was marked as Ballora.

Some of them had small messages written on the side, like Ballora only, Property of Ballora, and Keep out of this present, reserved for Ballora. One present even had an overly aggressive message attached to it, where Ballora had wrote that she would get back at anyone who opened that one specific present. Freddy was pointed out the most, but the others were roped into the note's promises, too.

"All of these presents are either for you or Reggie!" Foxy exclaimed. "All of them. Not a single one is for anybody else. And what's with that threatening note on this one?"

"Wait, you mean that one?" Ballora asked, pointing at the present that had the note on it, and when Foxy nodded, she looked a little ashamed. "Oh, uh...sorry about that, guys. I was feeling overly emotional when I wrote that."

"Yeesh, what a note, though. I think I even spot a few profanities in it- dang, that's far. Ballora, you don't say things like that to your mother, do you?"

Ballora raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? We don't have mothers. We're animatronics."

Foxy facepalmed. "Right, right, duh. What was I thinking? Though, while we might not have mothers...I feel like we have a father. Not a biological one, but a guy who created us, you know? Somebody had to have manufactured us." Foxy quickly checked his databanks for information. "Hmm...yeah, my data is telling me that the person who made us was male, and that his name is...Afton."

It was deadly silent in the room for a few seconds after Foxy muttered that name.

"That's...familiar." Ballora whispered.

"Yeah." Freddy agreed. "I swore I remember that from somewhere, but...I can't think of where."

"Well, they're just the person who made us. Let's not get worried about it, okay?" Foxy reasoned. He didn't want to stress out about their unknown creator, even if the mysterious individual's name was something that made Foxy feel a little concerned. Better to block it out, he thought. "We really need to get back to the point. Sorry for the distractions. Ballora, Freddy had something he wants to ask you."

Freddy looked confused. "Wait, I do?" He perked up a few seconds later. "Oh, I do! Sorry, the conversation we just had kind of made my mind wander. Let me get back to the actual reason why Foxy and I were here. Ballora, would you like to come and see the new version of my room? I went and added a whole bunch of new things, and I want you to see it."

Ballora hesitated. "Do I have a choice in this matter? I'm spending time with Reggie right now. I don't know if I'm available to do this."

Freddy shrugged. "Can't you and him reschedule or work something else out?"

"No! Reggie time is always set in stone! If he's meant to spend time with me now, then that's how it'll be!"

From where he stood nearby, Foxy saw Reggie's discomfort grow a little. His expression looked a little pained.

"We need to spend time with each other! It's mandatory!" Ballora went on strictly. "Right, Reggie?"

"Um, um..." Reggie stammered unsurely. "...I guess so. If it's with you. It's not as if I have much else to do, to be frank. I'm still waiting to get a job here."

Foxy sighed. "Reggie, can I level with you for a moment? You're going to be waiting for a while. To get a job, we need to find a suit, and we're as close to finding a suit right now as we are to solving every problem in the world- basically, nowhere near achieving the goal. Sorry, but these things take time. And in this case, they take a very, very big amount of time."

Reggie sighed as hard as Foxy did. "Just as I expected. So since that's the case, can't I come, too? Can't I join in?"

Freddy shook his head. "Sorry, but, no can do. My new room renovations are pretty special and pretty remarkable- in a very specific way. I can't just go inviting everyone to see it. As of right now, it's friends and animatronics only."

"Really? Oh, come now." Reggie protested. "I've been here for a decently long time. Can't you consider me a fellow animatronic and allow me to come see it, too?"

Foxy snorted. "You make it sound like becoming an animatronic is as simple as one, two, three. It's not an easy process. The way to becoming one is done in very explicit ways: either being created to be one, or...well, the other process is a bit unsafe, so it's safe to say that you really don't understand how this whole process works."

Ballora looked a little cross. "What do you mean, he doesn't understand? What is there to understand?"

"I'd rather not get into it here, since it's not exactly a desirable thing to discuss. Point is, there a thing about becoming an animatronic that he just doesn't get. Now, we're going to have to leave him behind, unfortunately, since Freddy won't budge, so let's get going. Reggie, sorry that we can't include you, but Ballora will be back to be with you again once we're done. It should only take around ten to twenty minutes, so you won't have to wait for very long."

"Bye, Reggie! See you another time!" Freddy called.

"I'll be back soon, Reggie!" Ballora added, smiling warmly. "Just be patient!"

While they both headed for the door, Foxy leaned in and whispered to Reggie: "I'll see what I can do, alright? I'll try to find out if I can get you involved soon. If not, I apologize, but I'll see if there's a possibility."

"Oh, uh...okay, then. Thank you, I suppose." Reggie replied. "Buh-bye, all three of you."

"Bye! We'll come visit again another time."

Foxy followed his friends out of Ballora's room and back into the main hallway.

"So next up is Puppet, right?" Foxy questioned Freddy.

"Yeah, of course. Let's go and grab him." Freddy answered. "He'll be at his box, right?"

"Without a doubt." Ballora commented dryly. "He'll probably be sleeping on his dumb futon sofa again or whatever."

"He does love that futon." Foxy admit. "Or maybe he's taking another shower. In that case, we should be careful not to walk in on him too abruptly."

Freddy gave them another curious look. "Puppet has a futon sofa? For real? I've got to see this. Let's go."

They were down inside Puppet's box in a matter of minutes. They descended down the ladder and were in the tv room now.

"Won't Puppet get angry at us for entering his box without his permission again?" Ballora asked anxiously.

Foxy waved her down. "It'll be fine. He chastises us all the time about it, but he never gets too angry. He's still our friend. Besides, he only really gets seriously angry at unannounced home invasions if Bon-Bon's doing it. Speaking of, has anyone seen him lately?"

"I haven't." Ballora replied.

"Me neither." Freddy joined.

"Hmm. Wonder where he is now, then." Foxy muttered, unsure of how to feel. Bon-Bon tended to wreak havoc every now and then when left unsupervised, which was a bit of a cause for alarm. All Foxy could really do, though, was hope that Bon-Bon wasn't doing anything he shouldn't be doing, because Bon-Bon's disappearances to who-knew-where were entirely out of Foxy's control. After all, he was only friends with the bunny hand-puppet; he didn't micromanage him.

They all walked through the central room and over to the computer room where the futon sofa was, expecting Puppet to be there, and were not disappointed to find Puppet deactivated on his futon.

"Here he is. Looks like he's still asleep." Foxy said to the others. "We need to wake him up, but we should do it gently. If we wake him up too quickly and wildly, he'll get upset at us, okay?"

"I have an idea! This is a very gentle idea, no need to worry." Freddy assured them. He stepped forward, getting near Puppet. His chest cavity opened, and then... "Puppet, wake up!" Freddy whipped out his French horn and played an extremely loud noise with it, causing the box to be full of the loud noise. Foxy and Ballora both covered their ears until Freddy was done playing the noise.

"Yeesh, what a sound." Ballora grumbled in annoyance once Freddy finished.

"Ugh...what's going on?" Puppet mumbled groggily, slowly activating. His eyes widened when he was fully awake as he started at them. "Huh?"

"Hello, Puppet. Sorry to bother you. We didn't mean to wake you up like that, but Freddy got a bit too careless." Foxy informed the marionette apologetically.

Puppet groaned in irritation. Foxy expected him to start yelling, but he was silent for a moment. "You know, normally, I'd be really furious that you guys barged into my home and woke me up like that...but I'm too sick and too tired to start raising my voice against you guys." Puppet shook his head. "Why are you guys even waking me up? The virus is so tough that the anti-virus hasn't been able to eliminate it yet, so I'm still infected and I'm trying to rest- but even when that's the case, you guys still feel like you can invade my home and bother me? Just...why?"

"Huh. So you're still infected with the virus?" Foxy stuttered. "The anti-virus program should've cleared it out by now. What happened?"

"The virus is more persistent than expected. My system status reports are telling me that it might take a while before it's entirely gone." Puppet explained.

"And my French horn didn't make you feel any better? Like, not even a little bit?" Freddy asked dejectedly.

Puppet narrowed his eyes. "Of course not, why would you think that? I feel the same as ever."

"Well, that's a bummer." Ballora sighed. "I guess there's never an easy way out to situations like this. We'll just have to let the anti-virus do the work."

Puppet sat up and got to his feet, looking a bit tired but also understanding. "So, anyway...what do you guys need this time? Just get to the point and tell me."

"Oh, yeah. We're here because I made some exciting new renovations to my room! I want you to come and see them with everyone else." Freddy clarified, smiling in excitement.

"Gee, sounds absolutely amazing!" Puppet complimented brightly, then frowned again. "So why do you need me to go and see that, again?"

"Because I want you to share in the happiness! We're all friends, right? The four of us have been pals since we first got here." Freddy reminded him. "Friends spend time with each other, right? So today, I want you guys to take a look at my newly renovated house!"

"Besides, don't you want to judge it? He did end up renovating it." Foxy pointed out.

Puppet flinched. "Wait a minute, that's right! Freddy went and renovated something without my permission." Puppet got serious within seconds. "In that case, I have to go and see this. I need to judge for myself whether or not these renovations are okay."

"Wait...I needed your permission?" Freddy stammered. "Oh no! Please don't get mad at me!"

"I won't get mad at you; at least not yet. Let's go and see these renovations first. Then we can see how you stand."

Freddy nodded. "Okay! I promise you won't be disappointed. Come on, let's go!"

"Phew. All this walking is making me hungry." Freddy muttered as they went through the big hallway, heading towards the main room.

"Well if you're so hungry, then just eat chicken. That's your go-to, isn't it?" Ballora said dryly.

"Oh, that's right! Chicken! Dunno how I didn't think of that before."

"Nevermind. Hey, just a question...how important is this, really?" Ballora wondered. "I mean, apparently it's so important that it requires all of us to go, but how exactly important is this?"

Foxy shrugged. "Dunno. I mean, we're doing this because we're all friends and we appreciate each other...so I guess this is kind of important. However, Freddy, I have just one rule: your walls had better not be covered in chicken again. I told you, you don't frame chicken, you put it in the fridge. It'll just go bad and stink up your room if you frame it up like that."

Freddy didn't even seem to be listening. "We're almost there. Let's keep going."

"Here we are!" Freddy announced as they got to his closet. He opened the door and let them all peek into the room. "This is what I wanted to show you! I put up a new painting in here."

On the wall near the tv was a painting, depicting a strange pattern of red, green, and purple. It almost looked like something out of a fantasy world.

"Oh, well...that's nice, I guess. Did you paint it yourself?" Ballora asked.

"Funnily enough, I did. I woke up for two hours a day to work on it. I was working on it the past few weeks and only just finished it yesterday. I wanted to show you guys the finished product." Freddy replied, grinning proudly.

Foxy went near it. For some reason, his smell sensors were detecting something odd coming from the painting. He smelled it, and..."

"Wait a second, this smell..." He muttered. "Freddy...did you have tomatoes in here?"

"Yeah. I grabbed some before I went into hibernation. They're not half-bad." Freddy confirmed calmly.

Foxy groaned a little. "And...how many did you grab?"

"The entire stock that we had left, pretty much. Why do you ask?"

Foxy groaned even harder. Now he knew what had happened to the tomatoes they had stored in the building. "Freddy...you know that Dinah is going to be extremely unhappy, right? Those tomatoes could've been used for a pizza, but you wasted them. Dinah won't be pleased when he hears that you used them up."

Freddy looked a bit apprehensive. "Um...well, that's neither here nor there. He'll be mad, but I'll deal with him later. Right now, all that matters is that you guys got to see my new painting. Oh, and, one more thing." Freddy looked at the ladder. "While we're here, I might as well show you all what I did upstairs. Nothing much up there- just some minor changes. Come and take a look."

Freddy started to climb the ladder. The others, a little curious themselves, decided to go along with it and see just what minor changes Freddy had made. Foxy was betting that it was nothing more than more framed chicken and maybe a crown.

But when he got to the top of the ladder, he didn't arrive in a steel room with chicken on the walls and a giant throne.

"Wait...what?" Foxy stuttered.

The room had completely changed. The floors were made of a nice, light-colored type of wood, and the ceiling was too. The wall material had been replaced with grey-colored bricks instead. Small lights in the ceiling above illuminated the room with a warm glow. On the right wall was a large bookshelf, so long and wide that it took up the entire wall's space. On the wall ahead was a comfy-looking red couch, big enough for a few people to comfortably sit down. To the left was a small hallway into another room, with a door nearby.

"Welcome, everyone. This is my new home." Freddy revealed, smiling. "Surprise! I know I said minor changes, but I actually re-did the whole thing! Turns out that a metal floor and no furniture but a throne doesn't make for a very comfortable living space- so I changed it all. Like what you see?"

"Yeah, this is actually a pretty nice improvement. Nice one." Foxy commended Freddy. This room was much better than Freddy's old one, in Foxy's opinion. He and the others walked throughout the small area, taking a look around. Foxy went down the small hallway and went into a small room. It had a firepit in the middle, where a campfire was burning brightly in the center of the room. A small seating area circled around the fire, making it easier for people to sit around it.

"Here's my fireplace. I put it in the center of this room." Freddy showed off. "While I was hibernating, I put this here so I could stay warmer. It's been especially chilly as of late, so this really helped me get comfortable while I hibernated through the winter season."

"Huh, this fire's pretty warm. Not a bad addition." Foxy said, drawing near the fire. He put his hands there to warm them and noticed that the fire was as real as a fire could be: nice and hot. "Feels pretty real. Is this a real fire, Freddy?"

Freddy shook his head. "Nope. It's another artificial one from Fazbear Entertainment. This one's the new version, so I got it ordered in. They made the holographic projection look more realistic, so it's almost like a real fire. Don't get close, though: it's pretty hot, and if get too close to it, it can and will burn you- or at the very least, it'll blacken your metal suit and heat you up way too much. However, as long as you're careful, it's great. It can really warm you up."

"Hmm." Puppet muttered brightly.

"Ah..." Ballora sighed as she sat down by the fire. Everyone else did, too, and for a moment, everyone simply enjoyed the fire's comforting warmth.

"So what else is there?" Foxy asked Freddy. "Have we seen everything?"

"One more thing, actually. Over here." Freddy got up and walked over to the hallway, getting to the door Foxy had seen earlier. He opened the door up and went inside, gesturing the others to follow him. They all trooped in together to take a look at the second room.

This room was slightly darker than the previous one, although it still had light brightening up the place. A red rug with a large black trim had been put into the center of the room. Nearby was a wooden table with a chair near it, and set on the table was a single plate with utensils set out and ready. Foxy noticed from the way the utensils looked that they hadn't been used very often. On the other side of the room was a canopy double bed with red sheets, red blankets, and red curtains around the frame. Lastly, and much to Foxy's disappointment, there were four frames on the wall that had pieces of chicken stuck to them.

"This is my room! A home right next to home." Freddy introduced them cheerily. "I sleep here, or take some really secluded alone time if I need to. I keep it nice and dark to make the atmosphere just right."

"And...you put chicken on the walls again, I see. Great." Foxy muttered.

"Of course I did! I decided to put way less of them this time so I could keep most of the wall space, but I still wanted framed chicken. That way, I can admire chicken whenever I feel like it."

"And you've got a double bed. But why? You're the only one who sleeps in here." Ballora noted confusedly.

"It's in case we have a sleepover together, so someone can share the bed. Also, I like to have the extra space to spread out."

Foxy walked over and felt it. "Feels really comfy. Must've dropped a bit of money on this one." Foxy said. "How'd you get the money, anyway?"

"I had it stored up from the old place, remember? We used to raid the cash registers and safes and take all the money inside, then split it between everyone. And since the employees were hardly ever around, nobody even tried to stop us. Oh, and it did help that we made a killing selling Fazbear merchandise to people."

"So...about the bed." Puppet cut in. "Why don't you invite Bon-Bon back, since you have a double bed now? Take him back in so you can convince him to stop getting in my face, y'know?"

Freddy hesitated. "Um...I...well...to be honest, I don't really want to. I do miss having Bon-Bon be my best friend, for sure, but I've realized lately that I'm actually okay being on my own. I have all this space to myself now, so I'm not too into the idea of having to share it with someone else."

"Yeah, must be nice to have this whole room just for you. I kind of want something like that, too." Foxy admit. "Hey, Puppet, can't you do something similar for me? I'd really like to have seven rooms with lots of space, please."

"No! No changes!" Puppet denied sternly. "I already told you before, Foxy, your room is close to completion. I finished the floorplan a long time ago, and most of what the design articulated is already built, so it's too late to make any last-minute changes. To tell the truth, if it weren't for the fact that I'm still waiting for the virus to clear out, I might've already finished it by now."

"Come on, isn't there a single opportunity to add an extra room or anything? I'd appreciate even a single extra room."

"...fine. I'll see what I can do- but no promises. If you don't get an extra room, then that's that. I'd better not hear any complaints if things don't work out the way you keep hoping."

"Imagine if we did have free reign to add what we wanted, though. We could turn a room into a house, then turn that into a mansion." Ballora suggested. "That sounds pretty good, actually."

Foxy laughed a little. "I wish, Ballora. I wish. That would be nice to have."

"While I don't disagree that it would be very nice, I'm afraid that I work under the property limitations of this entire building and the space around it." Puppet explained seriously. "I didn't have much space to begin with, so I had to work with what I had. Renovating and building isn't magic; I can't just make extra space appear out of thin air. We could only expand it really far if we extended the property, which would cost a lot of money to do."

"But you can do something, can't you? I know our building has limitations in how far we can extend it, but even with that, we make do. After all, look at what Freddy did to his upstairs room! He had limited space and he still turned it into something impressive."

"Yeah, that's exactly it. I worked with what I had and still managed to make it spacious." Freddy agreed. "Don't tell me you don't know that, Puppet. You made the inside of your box way more extravagant and detailed than we could've imagined."

"It was like that the whole time. The space was already built- I just redesigned it and changed it into a living space instead." Puppet clarified. "And I'm not saying that we can't make great things out of what we have, because I agree with that. I just don't think we have the space needed to give everyone massive rooms."

"Puppet's right. He didn't actually build the area that's inside his box." Foxy explained to Freddy. "We found out some time ago that the room used to belong to the manager. It was his office. However, the room was abandoned and the manager's office was moved to another location entirely, so Puppet was able to change up the space and make it his home."

"What? Really?" Freddy exclaimed, looking unimpressed. "That's just dumb. This whole time, Puppet made us think he was responsible for everything he did to the inside of the box. But that was all just a big fib, wasn't it? I see how it is."

"It's not like that, Freddy, I-" Puppet started, but Freddy wasn't paying him any attention at the moment. "Ugh, nevermind. It doesn't matter anyway."

"Speaking of rooms...Freddy, I'm confused on why you decided to add a huge bookshelf." Ballora said perplexedly. "I didn't take you as the kind of guy who liked to read."

"Eh, I guess you're right, but I still like to sit down and grab a good book." Freddy replied. "If it'll make me smarter, then I'm all for it."

"Your selection of books is odd, to say the least." Foxy commented as he examined the bookshelf. "One part of it entirely dedicated to Harry Potter, and all it has is all seven books duplicated over and over. And here's another section with a bunch of copies of Twilight. And this entire section is all just how to books. How to eat, how to read, how to draw, how to find friends, and on and on..."

"Er...I know it might seem a little much, but sometimes, it's good to have reassurance from knowledgeable sources." Freddy said. "I mean, sometimes I forget, even."

"Really? You forget things like that sometimes?" Puppet asked incredulously.

"Occasionally, yeah. I've been trying my best to remember, so it hasn't been happening very often, but it can happen if I'm not careful."

"Hey, here's an interesting one. It's in French, it seems." Ballora examined, looking at the bookshelf herself. "Comment parler français, it says, which translates to 'How to speak French.'"

"Woah. I didn't know you were able to speak French, Ballora." Freddy replied, a little awed.

"Well, I can. The information on how to do so has been in my databanks ever since I was first created. No idea who implemented it, but I like it, and it does come in handy sometimes. For example...C'est un plaisir de vous rencontrer. That means: 'It is a pleasure to meet you.'"

"Amazing! I wish I could speak another language. I don't know how."

Foxy shrugged. "Me neither. I think we internal translators, but I can't remember how to activate them."

"Back to your house, Freddy...it's not bad, but I feel like it's missing something that would bring the whole thing together." Ballora noted. She spread out her arms. "Something with some notability, something that can leave a great impression, something that can add a bit more...pizzazz."

"It's fine the way it is, honestly. I dunno what else to add right now." Freddy admit. "I mean, what's your idea of making it look better?"

"Well, I think it needs more color! The stone walls are much too plain. We could add some red, some pink, some purple..."

"What? No way! I don't want those colors on my walls. Regular grey bricks are fine."

"I agree. The last thing we need is for another room in this place to have wallpaper that's as colorfully messy as your room's wallpaper, Ballora." Foxy agreed. He liked the way Ballora's room was for the most part, but the wallpaper was still a bit of an eyesore to look at, what with all the different stripe colors making it look so strange. He didn't need another room in the building taking on such a wacky appearance.

"It's not messy, it's cool!" Ballora exclaimed pridefully. "Those colors make for a very nice-looking room! No questions asked!"

"This is my room, not yours, Ballora. And I just so happen to like it this way." Freddy declared. "It's simple yet cozy, and not too over-the-top. It's much more sophisticated then splashing the walls with so many colors at once."

"Says the guy with a million 'how to' books on his bookshelf!"

"How is that not sophisticated? That shows that I'm trying to learn new things! After all, if you want to improve yourself, the best way is to start with the basics."

"Alright, alright, I guess you might have a point there."

"The basics? No kidding. Look at the titles he's got here." Foxy pointed out, scanning the books that were a part of the 'how to' area of the bookshelf. "'How to construct a bookshelf, for dummies.'"

"Oh, that one? Hey, Freddy, didn't we see you reading that one before?" Ballora said. "I swear I was passing by where you were once and I saw that you had that book in your hands."

"Huh? Uh...that one's not mine! I don't own it." Freddy mumbled quickly. "I was saving it. For a friend."

"Which friend are you talking about?" Ballora questioned suspiciously. "We've got a limited number of people in the building, you know. There's only me, Foxy, Puppet, Baby, Bon-Bon, Reggie, Dinah, and even Garbage. Who's the book going to?"

"Um...uh...to Chica! Yeah! I was planning to give it to her before she got moved to a different location, but since it's too late for that, I was going to mail the book to her instead."

Foxy shrugged. "To be honest, I don't entirely disbelieve that. But that doesn't matter too much, anyway. Whether or not he plans to keep the book isn't our business. Still, these books...'How to cook anything and everything that's made of chicken?' What the heck is this one?"

"To cook chickens of different sizes, of course! Chickens don't come in one size, you know."

"'How to hide a body?' Freddy, did you get this one on the dark web or something?"

"Of course not!" Freddy exclaimed. "I was searching online, and apparently this one was found in a yard sale, so I bought it to expand my 'how to' collection! I mean, when would I hide a body? And where would I even get a body to begin with?"

"Fair enough...wait a minute, I just found another area on the shelf with one type of book. They're all...chicken related."

"Huh?" Puppet and Ballora stuttered.

"Yeah, I'm not kidding, look. 'How to cook chicken', 'Rotisserie chicken', 'The many types of chicken', 'Chickens for dummies', 'Why Chickens are cool', 'Why Chickens are our friends', 'Why you should make eating chicken a priority', 'Chicken in the pot'...it's just book after book of chicken-related weirdness. Not to say that it's totally unexpected for Freddy to have stuff like this in his room, but...Freddy, do you really need this many chicken books?"

"Of course. I like those books very much." Freddy stated proudly. "That last one's my all-time favorite. I've been reading it recently, and I'm over halfway through."

"...yeah, I think I've seen enough now. I hope you don't mind if I go back to my room now."

"Aw, what? You're done with the tour?"

"Yep, Foxy and I both. I guess you could say that I'm chickening out, heh." Ballora joked.

Foxy chuckled. "Good one, Ballora. Now, let's go."

Foxy, Ballora, and Puppet began to go down the ladder.

"Wait! I don't get it!" Freddy called, scrambling down after them. "Let me at least say bye before you guys leave!"

"It's fine, Freddy. It's only a small joke. You don't have to get it."

They reached the bottom of the ladder and got together in the main room, preparing to go their separate ways for the day- or, more rather, the night.

"By the way, Puppet, before you go. I'm going to ask again: when are you going to finish my back room?" Foxy asked. He was getting more and more impatient as time passed. Surely building and renovating a room didn't take this long, right?

"When I'm no longer infected with a virus, Foxy." Puppet retorted. "Once it's gone, I'll get back to work. Promise."

"Fine, fine, but you'd better stay true to that promise, alright?"

"I will."

"Until then, be patient, alright? I'm sure it won't be much longer until Puppet's finally done." Ballora assured Foxy in a friendly manner. "I bet it'll look great once it's all finished."

"Alright then, I see your point. I'll continue to wait." Foxy agreed. "And you'd better be right, too. Puppet, the room's going to look great when you're done, right?"

"I'll do my best." Puppet replied.

"I guess that's the best I can hope for, then. Let's all go back to our rooms now. See you guys later."

"See you." Ballora said as she went down the big hallway.

"Later, than." Puppet joined as he followed Ballora.

Foxy turned to go to his room.

"Wait, Foxy! One more thing!" Freddy called from behind him. Foxy turned, curious as to what Freddy wanted. There was...an odd look on the bear's face. Some sort of grin. The bear put a hand on Foxy's shoulder. "Goodbye for now, friend."

"Uh..." Foxy stammered in confusion.

"Goodnight! See you tomorrow!" Freddy added, smiling. He turned and went back to his closet.

What was that about? Foxy wondered in his mind. Freddy's never been that creepy with his goodbyes before. What's his deal, all of the sudden?

Foxy let this recede to the corner of his mind as he went on his way, going back into his room and into his cove. He needed to have a word with a particular being in his mind that had bothered him earlier. And, right on cue, the voice appeared in his thoughts.

"Finally, they're all gone. Now, can't we continue? I'm not against going over all the reasons why my plan would give us many benefits."

I already told you, I'm not working with you anymore. You've proved that you can't be trusted. And I need my body, too, so that's going to be like that. And also, no, you're not escaping, so forget about the trash body idea. Can't assemble a trash body if you can't do it yourself and if I won't cooperate.

"If you're so sure, then. Feel that way if you wish...I shall be here for as long as I have to, then. And when you finally change your mind...I'll be waiting for your answer."

Which will be never! Shut up!

He pushed the voice out of his mind again. With the area now completely silent and quiet, Foxy could take another nap in peace.

He closed his curtains and deactivated once again...