Chapter 24: The Worst that Could Happen

"You got the stuff?"

"Yeah."

A group of figures silently moved along the edges of the trodden path, sidestepping the signs that told them to turn back. A tall building stood at the crest of the hill, touting several stories in height and a fenced-off area next to it. A sign with an extension hung in front of a single glowing room, showing the owners of the building and its purpose.

"Tools and repair," one of them read quietly.

"Get the lock," another said to the body closest to the building, before turning to the others. "Remember, we're here for the red one. Boss says you can bag anyone or anything else so long as the fox is dealt with."

The remainder of the group motioned their agreement as they closed in on the doorway.

Foxy hadn't been able to sleep the entire night. Rest, yes, but no proper shut-eye. It was just before morning now, and even so, he couldn't remember the last time he felt this peaceful.

Most nights back at the pizzeria were spent trying to keep his limbs functioning, or putting too much faith in the strength of the door for comfort. But now, knowing that he was far away from anybody hunting him down, and having someone by his side, was a night and day difference.

He was sitting with his back against the wall, listening to the gentle breeze and the quiet breathing that encapsulated the room. The weight on his shoulder remained as it had been, ever since he returned to his own room for the first time in a few weeks. Scarlet let out a sigh as she repositioned her head, now holding the arm across from him.

Foxy couldn't help but smile. His arm around her back, tails intertwined, and the faint glow of the moon made her seem more at peace than he was.

'Beautiful.'

There was no denying it at this point– he found Scarlet attractive. As much as it warmed his mechanical heart, it also felt like a swarm of butterflies had taken up residence in his torso. It quickly became unclear if he was nervous, excited, or both.

She was still half-asleep, but it was fairly obvious what she wanted with her hand on his arm. Gently so as not to wake her, Foxy moved his free arm across his lap and held her. Despite the very real possibility of not returning home tomorrow, everything felt right. For him, it felt like things didn't suck for the first time in what was definitely years, if not more than a decade.

He closed his eyes, gently resting his head against hers. It felt nice to have a companion, even more so someone as close as Scarlet was to him. The special bond he had with his old friends finally had an outlet again after being locked away in the dark for so long. For the first time in longer than he could remember, Foxy felt like he was home again. Not just another place he could hide away from his problems, but with somebody he could call family.

Somewhere he was safe.

Somewhere he was loved.

Click.

His sensitive ears snapped toward the mechanical noise beneath them. He knew Horton, Penny, and Marionette had been staying up late, but this sounded too far down to be coming from the owl's office. It definitely wasn't Argos either; the lizard rarely stayed up late, if ever. That, and it was too quiet to be coming from his workshop.

Which meant that either his previous assumptions had been incorrect, or somebody was there.

'So much for feeling safe.'

Foxy silently lifted Scarlet's head off of his shoulder and laid it down on the mat they were sitting on. He got up, moving across the room on the pads of his feet so as not to make any noise, before he reached the trapdoor. The hatch had a very noisy hinge, so going any further would mean waking Scarlet.

Listening for any indicator as to what made the noise, he knelt on the trap door and put his ear against it.

There was a voice outside.

"Remember… we're here for the red one."

That was all the confirmation Foxy needed as he quickly sat up and crept back to where Scarlet was still asleep. He placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her awake, getting a soft groan in response.

"What is it," she mumbled.

"Someone's here," Foxy whispered.

The vixen's eyes were fully open now. She sat up, listening for anything in the darkness.

As if right on cue, a creak came from downstairs, signaling the front door opening.

Scarlet quickly got up and grabbed her swords, tossing one to Foxy. The vulpine slowly opened the hatch, keeping the hinges as quiet as possible. The two of them climbed down and crept down the stairs, finding Horton, Marty, and Penny in the office grabbing weapons. Penny pulling out her spear, Horton grabbing a cast iron frying pan from the piles of scrap material, and Marty finding brass knuckles from seemingly nowhere. The room was cast in the soft orange glow of a gas lantern on the table, its light flickering on the many strewn about bits of scrap.

Penny gave them a nod. They all had definitely heard the same thing.

"How many?" Scarlet whispered.

Penny held her spear, staring at the floor intensely as she listened to each muffled creak from below them. She shot up three fingers, then four, then all five before shrugging.

So, a lot. That didn't bode well, even under his goggles Horton was clearly getting worried about this, gripping the pan so tight his arm was shaking.

"So it's happening again," Marty whispered. "We should've been ready."

Foxy shot him a confused look.

"They raided the shop last time too."

In the heat of everything happening between challenging Spring Bonnie and being forced to fight Scarlet, Foxy had entirely forgotten about what happened when Marty had tried to do what he was doing now. He cursed himself for not expecting it.

Penny stepped closer to the door of the office, everyone joining until she stopped both Horton and Marionette from following behind her, motioning toward the table for them to finish their work. Horton seemed hesitant, but eventually followed her instruction, setting down the pan. Penny then motioned for Scarlet to get in front of her. The vixen took the front of the formation in a low stance, sword pointed forward. Penny moved behind her, holding her spear over her sister's shoulder. She jerked her head for Foxy to follow, who took up the rear of the line.

A part of the vulpine wanted to complain about not taking front, but besides the need for quiet, he knew the discussion would only end in an undeniable 'you must be in your best condition for the fight.'

Just below, they could already hear the muffled whispers of whoever was inside, multiple people it sounded like. Scarlet carefully checked for any sounds outside the room before opening the door to the stairway, slowly peeking her head out to check if anyone was already there. She gestured for Penny and Foxy to follow, moving into the stairwell before pausing.

No one was in the stairwell yet, but it wouldn't be long until they were. They had to keep the fight downstairs and away from Horton's work. Penny nudged Scarlet forward, Foxy following from behind as the three of them moved down the stairs silently, but quickly.

Just before they reached the open doorway, Scarlet stopped, putting up one hand, three fingers up.

Then two.

Then one.

Before she reached zero, one of the thugs began moving to the stairway, just about to turn the corner. In one swift motion, Scarlet threw herself out from the threshold, quickly shanking the larger figure through the neck and pulling it out just as fast.

Penny and Foxy followed immediately after. As the first thug's body fell to the ground with a resounding thud, the uneasy quiet was shattered. Four more figures in the room turned to the source of the noise, greeted by the sight of three armed fighters coming right for them.

Scarlet took out another one swiftly, slashing their throat and letting them fall to their knees before promptly running her blade through their head. She wasn't quick enough though, as another one grabbed her from behind, about to cave her head in with a hammer before Foxy quickly stabbed their side. Their grip on the vixen faltered, and she took the opportunity, jamming her foot into their kneecap and staggering them backward. She dropped to the floor and spun around, skewering them through the chest while Foxy kicked at the same knee from the side, breaking it entirely and making them collapse to the floor.

Penny was at the other corner of the room, fending off two more. She kept them at a distance with her spear and carefully moved their fight closer to the side door of the house, hoping to push them into open space. One of them tried to press in on her, only to be greeted by the blunt end of the hawk's spear smacking into their temple, followed by the bladed end piercing their lower neck longways, going down into their chest. She yanked the spear out, clumps of wire and metal coming out with it before she aimed the blade back at the other raider, who was trying to catch her off guard. She lunged at them, and they dodged backward towards the side door.

Penny took that as a good sign that she was finally going to get them out into the open, when she got a line of sight to the door however, she saw even more of the thugs outside. Before she could warn the rest, two more of the raiders burst in through the front door.

Scarlet and Foxy turned to the immediate threat, but were too slow, Foxy had been tackled by them both. Scarlet jumped on the back of one, putting her sword around their neck and pulling them off the vulpine, but one still remained.

Penny tried to join in, attacking them from the back, but more thugs broke in from the side door, attempting to tackle her. Which left Foxy alone, and immobilized by the raider on top of him. He kicked at them to no avail, his legs quickly being pinned down.

"I've got him restrained! Get in here and finish him off already!"

Another one rushed in from the front door, more on their way. All Foxy could see was the silhouette of their figures against the pale light pouring in from the open doorways, another figure coming to finish him off.

Then, an even larger, armored figure behind it, hatchet raised. They plunged the hatchet into the incoming raider's shoulder, following up with a hammer in the other hand, breaking their arm off entirely.

It was Liz.

Before the one pinning Foxy down could even turn to see what happened, she had already swung the hammer again. Their head caved in as they got knocked off. Another came up behind her, hitting her hatchet out of her hands with a weapon of their own. The vulpine quickly grabbed his own sword and dashed to the armless raider behind Liz, stabbing them through their back before they got up. He landed on top of the intruder, panting as he yanked the sword back out.

"Come on, get up."

Foxy gripped Liz' outstretched hand, catching his breath as she pulled him to his feet.

"How many are left?"

Foxy just nodded over to Penny, who was finishing up with impaling the last of the two who tackled her earlier. The hawk turned to the two of them, watching Scarlet finally take down the thug she had a chokehold on before answering. "Not sure, but I'd venture to say they'll have reinforcements coming soon. Check the other rooms to make sure we're clear."

Scarlet and Foxy then nodded before going back up the narrow staircase. Liz stood in the threshold of the open front door, staring into the night for any more unwanted individuals. Her focus was quickly interrupted by the sound of footsteps behind her.

Argos emerged from the workshop, wielding what looked like a sledgehammer with some sharpened metal edges welded to it.

"I thought I told you to stay put," she told him off with a light scoff. "I guess men really are terrible at following instructions."

A similar exhale of amusement escaped the shorter of the two. "Some of us are, but I came to tell you that you missed one."

Liz' eyes snapped to him as she turned around. "What?"

Argos wiped a bit of coolant off of his weapon with his forearm. "Not a problem now, but try not to trip on your way down."

Before Liz could ask him any further questions, a loud metallic clang came from outside, followed by a commotion upstairs. Not even a second later, Horton yelled out, his voice reaching a new height of grainy distortion. "They're climbing the fucking shack!"

"Help from inside, Penny and I will handle them out here!" Liz shouted.

Argos nodded, thundering up the stairs while Penny and Liz both charged out the front doors.

As soon as he'd made it to Horton's office, he had to duck out of the way as a body came flying towards him, crashing into the wall. For good measure, Argos slammed his hammer down into their chest. Across the room, Horton was visibly shaking, holding a freshly dented frying pan. Beside him, Marionette was already standing up, having just finished off another one of the enemies, their body splayed out across the floor.

The scenic window to Horton's office had been completely broken, presumably where the stragglers who had somehow scaled the building broke in from. The sounds of fighting upstairs didn't make it anymore comforting.

"More were coming in from the attic," Marty quickly explained. "Foxy and Scarlet went to take care of them."

Despite the intent to help, Argos had a feeling the two of them would be able to handle it. What concerned him was the bucket on the floor, its contents of what looked like fuzzy specs of sparking metal spilled everywhere.

"Did they damage the upgrade?"

"Shit, shit, shit! Yes! They ruined the entire batch of coordinate units!"

Before Argos had the chance to respond, everyone's attention was grabbed by the sudden crash of Foxy tackling the last of the thugs in the attic down the stairway, landing right at the office. His sword was lodged through the enemy's chest, but that didn't matter anymore as they had landed against the steps so horribly that their neck broke entirely, the head rolling freely down with a series of progressively more distant thuds.

Panting, Foxy looked up at the three of them in the office. "Hey."

Scarlet shouted out from the attic. "Did you get him?!"

"Yeah, I got him!" He yelled back, turning to Argos. "Is that all of them?"

"Liz was taking care of the rest outside."

He didn't have to say anymore, Foxy already nodded and moved to the bottom floor. His help wasn't much needed though; when he made it out the front door, he was greeted with the aftermath of the fight. The ground was covered in a dozen or so bodies, with Liz in the center of it, her hatchet and hammer both shattered across the dirt. Losing her weapons wasn't much of a bother though, as she was still finishing off the last of the enemies, holding them by their head as she slammed their face into the rocky ground over and over, their face becoming progressively more grotesque with every bash. With the last hit, it didn't even look like a head anymore.

Off to the right, Penny was wiping her forehead while trying to wedge her spear out of two bodies at once, a number of dead enemies around her with more than a few holes right through their chests.

Liz glanced at the vulpine, still catching her breath. "All good inside?"

"Yeah, I see you two finished off the last of them?"

"I saw movement not too far off from here," Penny answered. "It seems these were just stragglers, not the reinforcements."

"So there's still more coming. Great," Foxy sighed.

"We should regroup and plan first, we have a minute or two until they get here."

Liz and Foxy both nodded in agreement, all of them heading to the office.

With the adrenaline coming down, everyone had surrounded the work table in Horton's office. The gas lamp had begun to dim in brightness, but Foxy could still make out the words on the sheet that Scarlet rolled out.

"Repairing, On-board Colony of Microbots… Your nanobot project," Foxy said, remembering everything he had heard about it before.

A short breath escaped Marionette as the puppet stared at the blueprint and all of the equipment littered around. "Déjà vu."

"It was just about done," Horton explained. "But they damaged the first batch, I have no idea if I can remake those in time for the fight, let alone with enough time for you to acclimate."

"There's still the rest though," the vulpine gestured to the rest of the buckets. "We can just use them, right?"

Horton rubbed the bridge of his nose. "No. The nanobots are all too small to each have their own directives. The damaged batch was the set of bots that wouldn't function, but would direct the rest of the bots to act. Without those, you could fill yourself with sand and get the same result."

Foxy pursed his lips as he stared at a small container with what looked like a small puddle of black ink inside it.

"How fast do you think you can make them?"

Horton sighed, unable to give a clear answer.

"I don't know. Best case scenario at this point would be to have enough ready for some minor effect by early tomorrow morning. Worst case would be you go fight without any ROCOM at all."

"At least the name's easy to remember," Scarlet huffed. "Let's say there isn't enough ready in time. What are we going to expect?"

Horton's tired, defeated gaze only served to heighten her onsetting anxiety.

"The purpose of ROCOM is to keep the body functioning despite injuries, and repair it later when given resources. Without them, Foxy wouldn't be capable of healing any wounds regardless of how little they might be. Not only that, but any injury he'd get in the fight might as well be catastrophic if not debilitating."

"But he'll have a chance, right?" Scarlet asked.

The owl sank further into his chair. "You fought Ennard, correct?"

"That… thing? Yeah, I did."

"I have no proof of my claim," Horton turned to the vixen. "But I'm certain Spring Bonnie made him from ROCOM."

The crowd around him stayed quiet, silently asking him to elaborate.

"When they raided our shop the first time, they stole my original schematics. I can only wonder what Spring Bonnie has done with them since. From what I've seen, he doesn't exactly seem capable of healing like they were meant to do. But, given he created Ennard, I can only assume he's assimilated some form of ROCOM, perhaps to alter physical form rather than repair it."

He turned to Foxy, grimacing. "Whatever he's capable of with that, I don't know if you can fight that without any enhancements of your own. Win, maybe, but survive? No."

"I'm not going to let that happen."

All eyes turned to Marty as he approached the canister. He stared at the puddle, then at Horton. "You can make ROCOM accept a new host, yes?"

The owl glanced at his notes, then his blueprints, then back at the puppet. "They're only directives and executables, I can make them do whatever I want."

Marty gestured to himself. "Then how much do you need?"

Horton hesitated to answer, contemplating the implications. "An arm will suffice."

Before anybody could question what the Marionette was doing, he gripped one of his slender arms over the open container. He took a deep breath before pulling on the limb and twisting it until it separated from the rest of his body. The arm quickly glazed over like melted glass, before breaking into a powdery mist that fell into the container like fine sand.

Marionette was clearly in pain, but resolved to only show it with slow breaths and closed eyes. After taking a few moments to collect his composure in the tense silence, he finally turned back to Horton.

"Get him ready. I'm… going to go lay down now."

In an instant, Foxy put together the reason why Marionette struggled with movement, why he seemed to flatten out while sitting on the couch, and how he just seemed to disappear when no one was looking. He was made entirely of ROCOM.

His gaze followed the puppet as he silently left the office for the stairway, until he finally left without a sound. All Foxy could wonder was how he ended up like that.

Horton quickly got back to work, taking a solution in a small, black bottle from the shelf behind him. He dumped the remainder of the bottle's contents into the inky black mixture, stirring it with a glass rod. It seemed to shimmer an even darker shade, something Foxy thought impossible given the void in front of his very eyes.

"Alright, are we safe to operate?"

"We've got a minute, maybe less until more of them come," Penny answered.

"Then keep them out of this room," Horton said, waving the Devils out, Argos following. He turned back to Foxy, pulling a stool out from the table. "Sit down, this is going to hurt."

The vulpine sighed. "I had a feeling it would."

The owl began grabbing a cluster of tools from the table, mixing the buckets of ROCOM into one fine batch before promptly organizing everything. Picking up a series of small tubes, and a large scalpel, Horton turned to Foxy.

"Show me your arms."

The vulpine did just that, noting just how terrifying Horton was with his goggles on and a knife in his hand.

Grabbing Foxy's wrists, Horton turned them both palms up, quickly making deep cuts on each wrist, sliding a tube into the incisions. The fox winced at the pain, focusing on his breathing to take his mind off it. Another incision on his neck, another tube. Two more for his legs, and he was done.

"That wasn't so bad."

"That wasn't the part that hurts."

"What?"

Horton held the ends of all the tubes in his hand, stirring the bucket of liquid-like nanobots. They almost seemed to spring to life, jetting out in naturally organized formations like some kind of ferrofluid.

"This is."

He plunged the tubes into the bucket, and the nanobots came rushing through the tubes into Foxy's body.

All at once, it felt like he was drowning from the inside out, the bots flooding through his insides. It filled every gap between his parts, every nook and cranny. The sensation grew worse as the individual bots began to clasp onto others, getting slightly larger with each formation. The sensation of running water through his insides was soon replaced by something akin to sand, or small ants. He grit his teeth, tensing up over and over with each unsettling feeling that ran through him.

"Just hang on, they'll be scattering through your body so they can recognize you as their host, once they're done you won't even feel them there."

Foxy glanced up at Horton. Through the tensed pains in his body, he managed to make a strained grin. "Come on, give me more credit than that. This? This is nothing."

Perhaps he was trying to convince himself more than Horton, but either way, being able to say that somehow made the pain more tolerable.

In the same instant, the sounds of fighting came from outside the shack. The reinforcements Penny warned about had finally arrived. Foxy's immediate instinct was to get up and help, but not only was he currently being injected, but he could barely move.

With the ROCOM flooding Foxy's internals -constantly shifting and reforming- the ability to move his limbs became more and more restrictive. It felt like concrete drying inside him, as if his faux skin would tear against the nanobots if he tried too hard to move himself. The sound of the fighting grew closer, inside the building now. He could hear the unfamiliar screams of each thug being killed by one of his friends, but the shouts of those remaining were still there.

The ROCOM was getting thicker now, the comparison to concrete he made in his head earlier only felt more accurate now. The movement of the bots inside him had slowed down too, but it felt no less alien to him. How much longer until he could move? The struggling drew even closer now, up a room. Horton nervously grabbed his skillet again, stepping closer to the doorway. Foxy wanted to say something to make him go hide, but he couldn't move his jaw now.

A large figure came tumbling out the doorway from the stairs, Penny spearing them through the neck before turning to Horton. She quickly grabbed him, moving him back and out of the way. Looks like she had his protection in mind, which put Foxy at some ease.

That ease was short lived however, as more people tumbled into the office. Scarlet, Liz, and Argos all fighting with their own combatant. Foxy wanted to help– he had to, but he just couldn't move. It felt like his insides were turning to stone, all while he watched as Argos was pinned to the floor by his opponent.

Liz threw her opponent aside and dived in to help Argos, landing a choke hold and pulling them back. It gave Argos the chance to finish them off with a sledgehammer to the gut. Scarlet had managed to impale her enemy, but the charge it took to do so left her tackling them back out of the room.

That left Foxy, unable to move. He watched as the enemy Liz had thrown aside slowly began to stand up. They eyed him, noting his slight shaking as he fought against his own immobility.

Foxy felt the sensation of the ROCOM inside slowly begin to fade, as if they had all begun to dissipate, being absorbed into his robotic parts. He jerked his leg, his movement barely returning to him as the thug strode towards him.

He could feel his body clearing up faster now, his arms were starting to rise again. But not fast enough, the thug would only need to simply snap the vulpine's neck, and Foxy would be finished. They were a split second away from grabbing the fox before he watched as Liz shoulder checked them, sending them tumbling to the floor. She visibly recoiled at her own attack, her pauldron had been shattered from earlier; some of the shrapnel now digging into her arm.

As the last bit of ROCOM settled into Foxy's body, his mobility returned. Every urge to move, every mental command to fight back, all shot through him at once. He jumped out of the chair, yanking the tubes out of his arms in one fluid motion. Before the thug could get back up, he tackled them back to the ground, pinning them on their chest as the fox grabbed at their head. It wasn't without resistance; every time Foxy reached at them, they kicked back at him, arms flailing backwards to grab him by the muzzle. With enough force, he managed to get one hand under their jaw and the other over their head. Foxy pulled, and a resounding snap rang out as their neck severed, their outstretched arms falling limp on the floor.

Liz stood above him, holding onto her damaged shoulder.

Foxy glanced up at her, trying to gauge her expression. He knew Liz had been bitter towards him ever since learning of his involvement with Lana's death. She had never gone any further than tolerating him afterwards, but her expression now… was approval.

"Not bad, fox."

"Thanks."

The only sounds remaining were of everyone catching their breath, and Scarlet running up the stairs. She burst through the doorway, immediately scanning the room before her eyes landed on Foxy. He was kneeling over the last of the thugs' dead bodies, catching his breath. The relief she felt upon seeing it wasn't his neck that snapped was enough to calm her down instantly.

Liz was busy with Argos checking her shoulder, gauging the damage from the shrapnel before deciding it wasn't anything serious. Penny was still standing defensively in front of Horton, who was the first to break the silence.

"Was that all of them?"

Scarlet glanced around. "I don't see any more of them. What was that, like, two dozen?"

"More," Argos bluntly answered.

"Fantastic. Foxy, you're okay too then?"

Foxy stood up, his head slightly woozy from the pain earlier. Aside from that though, he felt better than ever.

"I… think the ROCOM worked?"

"Well, you're not on the floor being shocked to death, so I think it did." Horton tossed his goggles onto the table before rubbing his head. "I am about to fall asleep standing up, so if you all could go back to your rooms, then I'd appreciate it."

Argos noted the growing light entering the room from the shattered window. "Horton, it's morning."

"Damn."

Foxy looked at Argos.

"I'm gonna need a sword."

"What happened to yours?"

"...Long story."

Scarlet chuckled. "Yeah, sure. Argos, can you adjust the handle of one of my swords for him?"

He nodded. "Shouldn't take longer than half an hour."

"Then let's get started. The fight starts soon."

The three of them rushed down to Argos' studio, Liz following, which left Penny alone with Horton.

"Suppose I shouldn't sleep until we see him off," Horton remarked with a yawn. "Penny?"

"Yes?"

"You can let me go now."

Her cheeks flushed, realizing she had been holding him behind her this entire time. "R-right, sorry about that."

"It's fine. I truly appreciate your help here tonight."

She clenched a fist at her side briefly. She knew how blind he was when it came to romantic cues, so she'd have to be as blunt as possible.

"Hey, Horton?"

"Yes?"

Her heart raced, it felt like each beat was shaking her entire body. She couldn't chicken out now, after nearly losing him.

She couldn't waste another chance.

"May I… stay here? With you?"

He didn't look up at her, but he did seem to ponder it. Her pulse felt as if it was going to skyrocket while she waited for him to respond.

"Just to watch over you, after this raid, I just… I'm worried about you," She blurted.

She could see him run his hand through the plumage atop his head, before he finally looked at her. She could see it in his eyes; he could barely show it any other way, but he was happy.

Incredibly tired, but still happy.

"Of course you may."

'That wasn't so bad,' she thought. Maybe she didn't say what she really wanted to, but it was more progress than she'd made in years.

That was enough to make her smile.

A/N:

CH: We're on track to break 100,000 words by our last chapter (for Arc 1 of 2), which is really exciting. I'll have a question for you all that I'd greatly appreciate your feedback on, but that comes later. For now, the wait until the final chapter will be short. Hold on tight.

SC: Fate will be decided in the next chapter. I hope you all have enjoyed everything thus far!