"So, how do you feel?"

"A little better, I guess, but still got the virus. The anti-virus CD is doing better work, but it's not finished."

Foxy was conversating with Puppet today. After having woken up a bit okay, Foxy had decided to check on Puppet to see if the anti-virus CD was working correctly. Based on how Puppet acted and sounded, it seemed like it was helping him improve, but it wasn't finished. Foxy knew it wouldn't be done clearing the virus overnight; the virus was notably strong and the anti-virus CD always took a couple days to finish.

"Well, at least there's improvement." Foxy said. "This time, we can be sure that it's working. We can just give it time, and then it'll be all done and you'll be back to normal."

"Wish I didn't have to wait." Puppet replied. "Would be better if it worked faster."

Foxy shrugged. "No can do. I've heard that the company's trying to produce CDs that work faster, but it's a slow and time-consuming process trying to upgrade them. And it's not like they're guaranteed to improve the CDs, either."

"Fair enough. Still, the sooner I get back to tip-top shape, the better."

"Agreed. Now, what should we-"

Before Foxy could continue, he stopped momentarily. A sound was coming from somewhere in the room. It sounded like...giggling?

What's that noise? Foxy wondered. He would have turned around to see...had he not suddenly felt a hand slam his backside.

"Wha-?" Foxy stammered, whipping around. It was Freddy who was standing behind him.

"Tag! You're it!" Freddy exclaimed childishly, and with a grin on his face, he bolted off down the big hallway.

"Freddy, what was that about? Where are you running off to?" Foxy questioned, yelling after the bear.

"We're playing a game! You'd better find me!" Freddy called back from somewhere down the hallway. His giggles continued to sound until Foxy could not hear them anymore, meaning that Freddy was getting further and further away.

"What's up with him?" Puppet wondered.

"Looks like he's getting some rowdy ideas and wants us to find him now." Foxy explained, shaking his head. "Oh, boy. Sometimes I don't know about that bear."

"So...what are you going to do?"

"Find him, of course. If he's in a mood to play around, I might as well humor him."

Puppet groaned. "Well, you do that. I want to go back to my box and relax."

"Hey, you don't need to do that. Why not tag along? You'd feel better staying active instead of laying around miserably."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Come on, it can't hurt for you to play along too. What do you say?"

"...alright, fine. I suppose I can't avoid friendship." Puppet chuckled, albeit a little reluctantly. "Can't believe I just said that."

"Then let's go and find him. Can't be too hard, right? Only so many places he can hide."

Foxy headed off into the big hallway, with Puppet trudging along behind him.

They checked the bathrooms. Foxy checked the boys' bathroom, and Puppet (after some mild convincing and a promise not to tell) checked the girls' room. Freddy wasn't in either room. Foxy knew that Freddy wouldn't be in the bathrooms, but he had decided to check anyway to make sure.

When they were finished with that, they checked down the rest of the big hallway. Foxy peered through the windows of the doors leading to the three party rooms. Freddy wasn't in any of them. He tested Ballora's door and found that it was locked, and he could still see Ballora and Reggie inside. Ballora was dancing again, although she seemed to be purposefully looking away from the door. Reggie was standing in his usual spot, saying nothing and watching Ballora's every move as carefully as he could. Foxy nodded at this sight- everything was at it should be in Ballora's room. Since Ballora and Reggie looked undisturbed and the door was locked, he could be sure that Freddy hadn't went in there.

He and Puppet continued down the small hallway. The doors in the small hallway were still sealed up, as they usually were. When they got to the main room, they checked all over. The stage, the bounce house, Foxy's cove, and even Freddy's closet- in every location, Freddy was nowhere to be found.

Finally, they stepped up to the door to the kitchen. Foxy and Puppet nodded to each other, knowing that they were probably about to find Freddy. They had just checked every room and area in the building that they currently had access to, except for the kitchen. Freddy had to be hiding in the kitchen or break room, as there was nowhere else he could hide in the building.

They opened the kitchen door and went inside. Dinah was still in here, busy working at the oven again. The chef looked over at them.

"Mama mia, what is it now? I'm working on the pizza, if that's what you two are here to ask me about." The chef mentioned busily. "Please don't bug me about it."

"Don't worry, Dinah, we're here for a different reason. You can get back to work now." Foxy responded, nodding approvingly.

"Oh, thank you. I will be busy at the oven, so do not get concerned if I do not respond. I will be too focused into my work to talk to you, you see."

"We understand. Hop to it."

"Grazie."

They passed by Dinah as they looked around the kitchen. Freddy wasn't in here, either.

Looks like we're about to find him. Foxy thought, his eyes locking onto the door to the break room. He went over and opened the door, peering inside.

Sure enough, Freddy was in there. He was sitting at the table, a plate of cookies and a glass of milk laid out in front of him. He took a cookie and let his robotic teeth crush it into tiny pieces before the pieces were vacuumed into his throat pipe.

"Ah-HA! I knew you were in here!" Foxy proclaimed, rushing in there. Puppet followed him inside.

"Woah! Oh, hey guys." Freddy replied, nonchalantly eyeing them before turning his attention back to the cookies.

"Huh. I thought you'd be more surprised to see us." Puppet commented. "You seem pretty calm."

"Yeah, of course. Why shouldn't I be?"

"Because we were trying to find you, because you wanted us to?" Foxy reminded him. "But if you wanted to do that, why are you sitting out here in plain sight, eating chocolate-chip cookies?"

Freddy facepalmed. "D'oh, I completely forgot. I saw these cookies and got distracted before I knew what was happening." Freddy stared at both of them, and suddenly, he took on an expression of indignation. "Hey, wait a minute! Why are you guys both trying to find me at the same time? Two seekers versus one hider isn't a fair game."

"I mean, you caught us off guard, didn't you? And you just told us to go and find you." Puppet countered. "You didn't specify that only one of us could seek you out."

"Well, now I am going to specify that! Foxy, this time you're going to have to find me and Puppet both."

"What? Really?" Foxy sputtered. "Come on, can't we just-"

"No protesting! Here, take a cookie and quiet down while Puppet and I hide. Count to ten!"

Freddy grabbed a cookie and put it into Foxy's hand, then ran out of the room. Puppet glanced at Foxy, shrugged, and then followed Freddy out of the room.

Foxy sighed. Guess he was going to keep playing anyway. He turned to the wall and slowly counted to ten.

Man, I've had to deal with the others wanting to play hide-and-seek more times than I expected. He thought. First it was Puppet, and then Ballora forced me to do it, and now Freddy? What is with everyone and their obsession with playing hide and seek? I feel like we play that game more than any other game. At this rate, Baby and Bon-Bon are going to force me to play it with them, too...

Foxy thought all this, and was so immersed in his own thoughts that he forgot he was counting. In fact, he had reached twenty before he realized that he had finished and was meant to go and find them. Breaking out of his thoughts, he left the break room and the kitchen to go and find them.

It didn't take him very long to spot them. When he came into the main room, he realized that the stand near his cove had something black poking out from under the counter, and he knew what the black thing was. He headed near the stand, but instead of going right there at once, he feigned ignorance for a moment. He looked all around the room in every which way, feigning confusion over the whereabouts of his friends. After a few seconds, Foxy headed right over to the counter and poked the black thing.

"Ouch!" Puppet said, turning around. "Uh oh."

"No! Dang it, Puppet, you led him right to us!" Freddy exclaimed, suddenly coming out from the other side of the counter. He ran into Foxy's room in an attempt to escape, but Foxy followed him inside, managed to corner the bear, and then tagged him. "Aw, man, I lost."

"That was a little too easy. Did you guys really have to hide in the exact same spot?" Foxy questioned.

"I thought it would be secure!" Freddy whined.

"And Puppet, I've got to admit, you're not that good at hiding. Your head was poking out from the stand's counter and I could see you from across the main room. You really should've stayed out of sight."

"I'm sluggish when it comes to this, okay? I'm not that great at hiding!" Puppet protested.

"Well, then you'd better start improving, because now it's Freddy's turn to seek us out. Puppet, we both need to hide."

"Alright, alright. I'll keep playing, and this time I'll try to hide better."

Freddy nodded enthusiastically and turned to the wall, beginning the count. Without delaying, Foxy rushed off into the main room and towards the small hallway. Puppet followed behind him, slightly struggling to keep up. The marionette kept protesting for Foxy to slow his pace, but Foxy made no effort to do so. If he wanted a secure hiding space, he would need to take advantage of the time Freddy was giving him to hide.

Foxy made it to the big hallway and went into the party room furthest from Ballora's door. He made sure to close the door behind him before he got on all fours and crawled underneath the table in the room. Then, he laid there and waited.

He could hear Puppet yelling for Foxy, asking where he had gone. Foxy knew Puppet would be found quickly if he continued to make all that noise. He didn't hear Freddy at all, but he knew that it had to have been ten seconds by now. The bear was probably out searching for Foxy and Puppet right then.

Minutes later, Foxy heard the resulting cry of celebration as Freddy found Puppet wandering the big hallway. The fox rolled his eyes. Of course Puppet's efforts to hide better ended up not amounting to anything. Puppet was pretty sluggish when it came to hiding, as well as indecisive.

Then the two of them went looking for Foxy, and Foxy made sure to stay absolutely silent as he waited for them to either find him or give up.

"Foxy? Where are you?" Freddy called, looking up and down the big hallway for any signs of the fox. "Puppet, didn't you see where Foxy went?"

"No, I didn't. He ran ahead of me, and by the time I caught up, he just disappeared somewhere." Puppet answered. "He could be anywhere right now."

"Hmm, well...we'd better look for clues, then. Let's ask that Australian guy in Ballora's room and see if he knows anything."

"Uh, Freddy, I'm pretty sure that guy's British."

"Same thing, same thing."

Freddy went over to the door to Ballora's room and tried to open the door. It was locked. He peered through the window. He didn't see Ballora inside, but Reggie was in there. For once, he wasn't standing at that spot Freddy always saw him standing at. He was sitting at one of the red seats, looking down at the floor.

"Hey! Reggie!" Freddy called.

The man perked up and turned around to look at the door. When he saw Freddy in the window, he stood up and came over.

"I'm here. What is it?" Reggie asked.

"I need to ask you something. Can you open the door?"

"Oh, uh...I'm afraid not. Ballora asked me not to let anyone in today."

"What? Really? Fine, I guess I'll ask you through the door, then. Have you seen Foxy anywhere? Including in Ballora's room?"

"Not at all. The door's been locked all day long, so Foxy wouldn't have been able to get in here, either."

"Dang it. Well, guess I'll look elsewhere. See you later."

"Bye, then."

Freddy went away from the door. "He's not in there, so he's got to be somewhere over here."

"But where?" Puppet wondered.

Freddy concentrated and thought about it. "Good question. If I were Foxy, what would be the first place that I'd try to hide in?" He paused, then snapped his fingers. "I've got the answer. He went into our imagination."

Puppet raised an eyebrow. "So...he was never here to begin with, is what you're saying."

"Yeah."

"...no."

"Okay, guess that is a stupid thought. Man." Freddy sighed. "You know, all this thinking is getting my systems ready to process more food. I wish I had some chicken."

"We could go to the kitchen if you want."

"Good idea! Lunch break."

They headed off down the big hallway and into the small hallway, the objective they were previously focused on fading from their minds.

Back in the party room, Foxy had to stifle laughter.

Wooooow. He thought, amused at this. Did they seriously just give up on finding me so they could grab some food? You've got to be kidding me. There's no way they'd just forget about me like that. That's too ridiculous.

He crawled out from underneath the table. No, it seems like they actually did it. Dang. Guess I'd better go find them and remind them of what we were supposed to be doing, then.

He left the room and took some time to walk all the way through the pizzeria to get to the kitchen, thinking about what he would say when he found them. When he got the kitchen, he found the door already open. He let himself in.

There were Freddy and Puppet, loitering around. Puppet was just relaxing against the wall, while Freddy was devouring some chicken in his hands. Dinah was still busy at the oven, but he did glance at the animatronics once in a while, silently and maybe even curiously observing their actions.

"Guys! Hey!" Foxy called, getting the others' attention. "Why'd you just give up on finding me like that? Come on, you could've kept looking."

"Oh hey, the figment of our imagination is here. Hello, fictional being!" Puppet replied, his grin making it clear that he was joking.

Foxy gave Puppet an incredulous look. "You know I'm real, Puppet. Watch." Foxy patted Puppet's shoulder to verify his existence. "See? Imaginary friends can't make contact with you."

"Alright, I give. I was just joking around because of what Freddy said earlier."

"Figured as much. Speaking of him...Freddy, you could've went for chicken after you either found me or gave up. Quitting in the middle of the game is just dumb."

"Hey, I was hungry. I went for food first." Freddy replied, shrugging. "It's what I do."

"But hey, if you gave up on finding me...then that means that I won!" Foxy smirked. "Ha! I'm the victor!"

"Winner of what? Sorry, forgot what we were doing."

"Hide and seek, Freddy."

"What's that? I only know connect four."

Foxy facepalmed. Freddy's memory was being dumb again. Until they could replace it, there was only way to jog it. Foxy went over to Freddy and gave him a good slap across the face.

"Ouch!" Freddy cried. "What was that for? Oh, wait..." Freddy paused. "I remember now. We were playing hide and seek!"

"There you go." Foxy replied. "Sorry for the slap, but until we get your memory banks repaired, that's all I can do to get you up to speed. Wish you didn't forget, because we played it several times over, even though one of those games was super easy because you and Puppet hid in the same spot."

"Well, it would've just been me, and I might not have been found if Puppet hadn't stuck his head out like that."

"Hey, the whole game was me being dragged everywhere. I hid there because I'm sluggish and needed a quick place to hide." Puppet argued. "And I didn't even get to do that in that last round, because you outpaced me and disappeared into thin air! Come to think of it, it was almost like you were a figment of my imagination and when I forgot about you, you faded away."

"Like the Riddler, or something?" Freddy asked.

"Maybe, or maybe he just crafted a secret potion like one of those other heroes or villains do. Or maybe he really isn't real."

"I am too." Foxy shot back. "Here, if I wasn't real, then I wouldn't be able to give you this cookie." Foxy took a cookie from inside his storage tank and put it into Puppet's hand.

Puppet froze up, pretending to be flabbergasted. "Oh my god! I've been infected by the imagination powers!"

Foxy laughed. "That's right! Beware the imaginary monster! By the way, you're still infected in a different kind of a way. That virus hasn't left you just yet."

The marionette nodded sadly. "Wish I wasn't. If only getting another virus would destroy both virus, like two negatives putting out a positive. Too bad logic works in a different way."

"You do look different through. I think you got a haircut." Freddy pointed out, although his slight grin make it clear that he was fibbing.

"What? Really?" Puppet felt the back of his head. "I don't have any hair. I can't get any unless I put on a wig, and that would be a ridiculous method."

"You sure?"

"Pretty sure. Just felt it."

"But you can't see all of the back of your head. And what if the hair feels just like the back of your head?"

"Well...guess you've got a point. I don't really have hair, though, do I?"

"Nope! However, you do know that you can't see the back of your head. What useful information! What would you guys do without me?"

"Er...no offense, but there's a lot of things on that list." Foxy admit honestly. "And we've already been doing all of them, because you've been away for a long, long while."

"Aw. You're right." Freddy moaned. "Sorry I've been away so long. I just get busy with personal dealings and can't find time to hang with you guys until way later."

"And by personal dealings, you mean hibernation?"

"Exactly. That's personal, isn't it?"

"Not saying it isn't, but it doesn't seem like you've been doing a whole lot except sleeping."

"Well, yeah. I just sleep the Christmas season away. Easy."

"Hmm." Foxy wasn't against Freddy sleeping entirely. Foxy slept a lot himself, and while he never slept nearly as long as Freddy, he did take more frequent naps. As he considered this, another odd question came to mind, and he decided to ask the others about it. "Hey, random question. If somebody's all by themselves and nobody's around, do they really even exist?"

"...maybe not?" Puppet answered.

"Yeah, same answer as Puppet." Freddy added.

"Mmm. So, to add on to that question, I've got another one. If an animatronic toots in the middle of the forest, and nobody's around to hear it, did they really toot?"

"...no, because that's physically impossible." Foxy answered accurately. "Robots can't toot."

"Wait, we can't? Oh...actually, yeah, we can't. Man, being a machine can be weird but cool."

"Yeah. Also, I've got my own thing to add." Freddy chimed in. "Listen to this. What if we're not normal animatronics? What if we're possessed by some kind of powerful force, like a soul? What if we've got souls trapped inside ourselves and that's why we're so unique? Crazy idea, right?"

"Uh..." Foxy stuttered. He had something he wanted to say about that.

"Woah, woah, wait! I got another idea!" Puppet called, interrupting Foxy.

But I was about to...actually, nevermind. Probably not a big deal for me to say it. Foxy thought, deciding to shrug it off and continue.

"So, what if...we're not real, because we're actually fictional?" Puppet suggested. "We're just husks being played by several people, and in reality, we're all puppets."

"Like puppets?! Does that mean we're all like you, Puppet?" Freddy exclaimed.

"Yeah! All of us!"

"Woah!" Foxy shouted. "Sounds insane. Too bad that there's absolutely no way that that idea is true."

"Actually, yeah...now that I consider it, it sounds dumb." Freddy agreed.

"Got a point. Maybe it's a little too outlandish to be real." Puppet accepted. "Would make for a good story idea, though. Somebody should write a book about it. But the idea itself is too out there to be real. Guess the virus might be making me delusional, huh?"

"Might be." Foxy admit. "You should probably go lay down in your box and let the anti-virus finish up. Freddy, you can just do whatever. I'm going to go relax in my cove for a while."

"Alright. See you later, then." Puppet said, waving goodbye and leaving the kitchen. Foxy exited too.

In less than a minute, he had walked back to his cove. He was about to sit down and relax, but he saw something peculiar. Freddy was walking into the room, his eyes not looking away from Foxy.

Foxy raised an eyebrow. "Um, hi, Freddy. Did you need something?"

"Only to say goodnight, friend."

Foxy didn't respond. He's doing it again...what's up with him?

Then, Freddy seemed to focus again. He waved at Foxy. "Night, Foxy! See you around!" He turned and left.

Foxy looked after the bear as he left. Strange. In the span of a second, Freddy was back to his usual self, almost like nothing had ever been wrong in the first place. What was up with him and the strange utterings of 'friend'?

Foxy knew he'd have to investigate some other time, or even just leave it alone incase the bear forgot about it again. Until then, he decided to take it easy. He grabbed Mr. Wigglesworth from inside his suit and set him down next to Foxy, then began to talk to him. It would make for a good way to pass the time...