AN: oop im back at this finally lmao. yeah, i kinda got hardcore back into my ocs and then fallout! luckily, i do have a lot of content written for this and the pizza sim fic so its just a case of editing, filling it out and then threading it together so im going to try to at least finish this and that fic. im also banking on SB to jumpstart things a bit!

also the only reason this chapter is so short is because it was the best place to cut it

Charlie was lost. Though that implies she knew where she was going and since she had lost her "uncle" in the woods, nearly a year ago, she hadn't really known where she was going. She had been pursuing William since the attraction but she had never quite got the jump on him like she did before. He rarely fought back, preferring to keep distance between them. But when he did, it was brutal. Her cracked mask and nearly torn off arm was a testament to that.

But it had been a while since she had found him and she had admitted she had lost him for good. But she knew where he was probably heading and she decided she was heading there too. To Hurricane, to home.

She wanted to see her father too. She'd probably go home even if she wasn't pursuing her killer. She missed her father so terribly much she could swear that she could feel her mechanics tighten. So she was heading home to the best of her ability.

That wasn't exactly easy when you were a nearly six foot tall damaged marionette robot with the soul of a little girl.

She had tried to navigate with road signs, following the roads to Hurricane. But dodging from prying eyes and only moving at night wasn't keeping her straight. And she was exhausted and losing hope of getting back before William did.

She sighed deeply as she got settled under a rock outcropping for the day. Off to the side, just out of sight, she could hear cars rushing by. She had been following the highway, hoping it would lead to another town where she could get her bearings. However in the day it was just too dangerous to.

It was the blue hour, just before sunrise. It was best she got settled down now.

Her consciousness was just starting to drift when she startled awake. Out in the dark, something was moving. She snapped to attention, looking for a familiar long-eared silhouette. She didn't see anything.

Then, there was something, bulky and large, trudging out behind another rock formation. It was obviously an animatronic from how it moved, its movements robotic and heavy as it marched closer. She couldn't quite discern all the details except it was a black bear. She nearly called out to it, to ask it what it wanted, before she decided against it. This was weird, a new animatronic out here in the middle of the desert and just happened to be where she was? No, there was something else happening. She pressed herself against the rock, willing herself to blend in.

It walked closer, sweeping its head back and forth. About eight feet away, it went rigid, one eye glowing. If she could breathe, she'd be holding her breath. Its head moved, looking right at her then it intoned, "Target frequency detected."

It had found her! With a frustrated hiss, she took off into the desert.

The bear didn't bother pursuit, instead it just stared. Then, it began to emit a melody, a soft chiming lullaby. Immediately she came to a sudden, violent stop, nearly tumbling head over heels into the dirt. Whatever that melody was, it compelled her to turn around...and walk...right on...over.

Her systems wanted to go up and rescue it.

But it wasn't a child, it was a dangerous animatronic.

But it...needed...rescuing.

Out of her control, her body began to drift forward. She internally cried and tried to fight it. But like most animatronics, she was helpless to fight her prime directive. All the while, the bear stared.

Internally, she fought desperately. Externally, she drifted forward up to the bear, her body staring back expectantly. The bear's one eye lit up yellow and it murmured, "Target located and lured. Initiating Encapsulate directive."

Wait—!

The bear's top half fell back like a marionette with its strings cut (an apt metaphor, she distantly thought), revealing vice-like mechanisms inside. She tried to bolt but the continued lullaby kept her body slack.

A claw shot out, clamping onto her waist and she finally found her voice, "Don't!"

The bear was indifferent to her pleas and it winched her in, taking care to flip her around so she'd face out. More claws shot out from its arms, carefully threading her inside itself. It wasn't rough or quick about the process but it was efficient. Whoever made this knew what they were doing and who they were capturing, which terrified her. She shrieked and screamed at it as it utterly trapped her.

It took minutes but felt like hours until it snapped back into place and the mask shut over her own, leaving her in darkness with no fanfare. She screeched, "Let me go, LET ME GO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"

"Encapsulate directive accomplished. Initiating Transport directive."

"WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME?!"

It didn't answer right away, rather lumbering off into the desert, the same way she was going. Then it droned, "Playing audio file HRY3812."

"Charlotte," her father's voice played.

"...Daddy?" she whimpered.

"I know you must be very very scared. I, ah, wanted to go about this another way. Short of me and Mike trying to find you manually, I couldn't think of a way. We're going to fix this though," he paused with a sigh and she could imagine him taking off his glasses and rubbing his face in that way she remembered from her childhood, "Anyway, this is Lefty and I built him for you. He's a little scary but he's durable and element-proof. He can take a beating and come out swinging," he chuckled.

"Which means he won't hurt you but he will protect you. He's part of my plan, to bring you back home," he began to get choked up, "I want to see you so badly, I never thought I would again until we met in Heaven above. I guess that really didn't happen for a lot of us. But I'm going to fix this. Daddy's going to make this right. All you need to do is sit tight."

He sniffled and after a pause, continued, "You don't need to be awake for this journey. Ask Lefty to play a lullaby and he'll play your song for you. Sweetie...I love you. I'll see you soon."

As the file cut off, she murmured, "Love you too, Daddy…"

She looked out Lefty's eyes. It wouldn't be a dull journey but it would be a long one. And true rest, not the fitful slumbers that came with always being ready to run? That sounded amazing.

"Lefty," she asked, "Could you sing me a lullaby?"

"Certainly," he droned and the soft melody of My Grandfather's Clock began to fill the air.

Once an annoyance, it was now a relief as she let it lull her off to dreamless sleep.