Just wanted to give everyone the heads up: Major fluff alert for this chapter! So, you can't say I didn't warn you. ;)

Feeling extremely confused and distressed at this girl having an emotional breakdown in front of him, Freddy's first instinct was to try and do something to help.

"W-what? No! It's okay. It's okay. You are safe now," he attempted to tell her, but it didn't seem like she was really listening.

He knelt down next to her and gently placed a hand on her back in a comforting gesture. However, as soon as she felt his touch, she gasped and immediately recoiled, sitting up and scooting away from him. She stared at him with big, wary eyes, keeping her arms up in front of her.

When he saw this, he backed off a bit, realizing that he couldn't force her to not be afraid of him.

"Mirabelle, I – I am sorry. I did not mean to make you so scared. It was not my intention to harm you. I simply – wanted to make sure that the others did not catch you," he tried to assure her.

She didn't respond. She just continued to fix him with a terrified gaze, occasionally huffing when her breath would hitch.

He hummed with a bit of frustration at her lack of reaction, feeling unsure of what else he was supposed to do. Although, speaking of the others, his mind started to wander, going over everything he had seen that evening. He couldn't fathom why they were suddenly acting in this violent and crazy manner.

"I do not," he began again after a moment, causing her to flinch in surprise. "I do not understand what is happening to my friends. They have never tried attacking a guest before. It does not make sense to me," he lamented, more to himself than to her. He could tell she was listening now, though.

"I am not sure why, but they seem, insistent on hunting you down," he informed her. Not that it wasn't obvious at this point.

The girl lowered her eyes and shivered at the declaration, and Freddy felt his throat tighten in sympathy.

"I – I know, you told me that you did not want my help earlier, but. . ." he trailed, flashing her a mournful look. "But, I still want to help you," he confessed. "It would – it would make me sad – to see you hurt," he expressed to her.

"But, why?" she finally asked in a small voice. His ears perked at the sound and he cocked his head at her.

"Huh?" he questioned, not hearing clearly.

She took a deep breath and cleared her throat before trying again.

"It seems, literally everything in this place, has it out for me. So, why aren't you after me too?" she wondered, swiping at her face with her sleeves.

"I am, not really sure. Whatever has overridden my friend's programming does not seem to have affected me," he offered. "I'd like to think, that this would be the case, regardless of my current network connection," he added in a slightly sly undertone.

He watched as the girl's expression shifted. She fixed him with a small frown, her eyes searching, as though she were studying him.

"But, that still doesn't explain why you're so insistent on helping. Why do you care if something happens to me? You don't know me, and there are tons of other people who constantly visit here everyday. It's not like my life matters all that much in the grand scheme of things," she reasoned darkly, glaring down at the ground in front of her.

"It is – my nature," he told her simply. She just eyed him skeptically. "But, I am sensing that you are looking for a more specific explanation," he noted. "I –" he paused, searching for the right words. He'd never actually expressed something this complex before.

"I have, never spoken to anyone like you, before," he tried, but she just cocked her head in confusion, so he opted to elaborate. "When other adults address me, they talk to me as though I were, inanimate. Nothing more than a complex tool. However, despite what you said earlier, you spoke to me as though I were someone, not something. And I – enjoyed, the interaction," he confessed, but that just seemed to startle and confound her more.

"But, don't the kids. . ." she trailed with an indicating gesture.

"Yes, children treat me as though I were their friend. But it is, not the same. Not when they also in turn, treat their dolls and plushes in a similar manner," he pointed out. "Yet with you, I felt a – connection," he told her, for lack of a better word.

Mirabelle opened her mouth as though she wanted to comment, except that no words came out. Freddy decided that meant it would be alright for him to continue.

"I suppose you could even say it is, selfishness, on my part. I do not want this new experience to go away," he admitted with a smirk.

Once he had finished, he glanced up to see Mirabelle staring at him, looking absolutely flabbergasted! He could only hope that meant he'd been successful in getting his message across.

. . .

Mirabelle sat in stunned silence for several minutes, her brain attempting to process everything she'd just heard. How was it possible that he was capable of this? It seemed way too complex to be a simple conversational algorithm, like she had assumed earlier. He sounded like he really felt the emotions he'd been expressing. Was it – ? Could it be possible that –? He was a true, AI?

Had she seriously insulted and mocked the only real AI that she'd ever heard of? Because if that was the case then, she had to be the most horrible person on the planet!

However, still not quite wanting to believe that she could actually be such a sucky human being, she decided to question all this before completely jumping on the bandwagon.

"Okay. . ." she trailed, sniffing hard. "So say, hypothetically speaking, I believe you're more aware in there than I thought. How exactly do you plan on helping me?" she asked, testing the waters.

"Were you able to obtain a security badge from the Daycare?" he asked.

Mirabelle nodded and pulled it out to show him.

"Yeah, except it was in a locked, metal cabinet. As soon as I broke it open, all the lights went out and the Daycare attendant went nuts and tried to pummel me to death," she told him.

He moved closer so he could take the badge from her to examine it.

"Strange. He does not normally act that way," Freddy commented as he peered at the plastic square.

"Well, to his credit, he did try and warn me," she casually mentioned.

"It sounds like the cabinet you spoke of had an attached alarm. That is what caused the area to go into lockdown and why the lights went out. But, you said he attacked you? Then, how are you not injured? And, how did you manage to break out? It seems you caused significant damage," he wondered.

Mirabelle considered on how she should reply, before ultimately deciding to answer his question with another question.

"When you scanned me before, did you scan all of me?" she wondered.

"No, it was simply a facial scan. Why. . .?" he asked, trailing off when she pushed herself to her feet.

"Well, you're probably going to find out eventually anyway," she muttered, pulling off her gloves and unzipping the front of her hoodie.

She dropped the jacket to the ground, revealing her maroon tank-top underneath –

– as well as the gleaming pewter of her metallic arms.

They were both connected at each shoulder, the actual seam hidden beneath the cotton of her shirt.

She watched the animatronic bear's eyes go wide with shock.

"What –?" he tried to ask, but she stopped him.

"Oh, but there's more," she continued, and began unzipping her pants.

"Wait! What are you –!" he tried to protest, but she just scoffed at him.

"Relax! I've got underwear on," she reasoned, as if that was enough justification.

The cargo pants fell around her ankles, showing off a matching pair of bionic legs. Of course this just created more confusion.

"H-how? How did. . .?" he seemed too stunned to finish.

"Eh, don't feel too bad. I was actually born this way. A lot of people don't realize how common it is for kids to be born with missing limbs. Me not having all four is a bit of an anomaly though," she explained, redressing herself. "It's just lucky for me that my dad is a neurosurgeon. One of the best in the country. That's how my parents were able to afford these prosthetics for me. I haven't had these ones for very long, only since I finally stopped growing. They're supposedly super state of the art, almost like real –"

She stopped short when she realized Freddy had taken one of her arms in his hands, preventing her from fully replacing the discarded hoodie. He was peering at it very closely. Clearly studying it, as he tested the way her elbow and fingers moved. She wiggled them around for him.

"Incredible! The movement is so fluid, almost like it's actually alive," he commented.

"Well, that's kind of the idea. Since, you know, I'm alive and all," she reminded him.

He fixed her with a longing gaze before releasing her arm and glancing away, and Mirabelle was struck with that same guilty sensation. Time to bite the bullet.

"Freddy, I – I'm sorry, about – before. I mean, if you really do have the ability to feel, then. . ." she trailed with a sigh. "I'm honestly surprised you came for me after, you know, what I said," she confessed in a disheartening tone.

He simply smiled at her.

"Apology accepted. You are, only human, after all," he pointed out.

Mirabelle levied him with a skeptical eye.

"What, like you've never made a mistake?" she questioned dubiously.

"No, I have. It was a mistake to let you go into the Daycare alone, regardless of your reasoning," he stated simply.

"I –" she tried to come up with an argument, but then realized that she had none. "That's a fair point," she yielded. Suddenly feeling very tired, she turned and plopped herself down on the painfully orange couch currently scooted up against the wall, leaning her head back.

"Well, the important thing is, you were successful in getting a badge," he said, taking a seat next to her. She bounced a bit from his weight and turned to blink up at him.

"So, with this, you should have access to the main atrium," he explained, handing it back to her. "From there, I believe I have identified two possible exit points. The main loading dock, located under the food court on the first floor. Or, there is the fire escape in the third floor Prize Counter. Either door will probably require a higher level of security than that, but you can –"

He stopped short when he realized that the girl had gone limp against him, her eyes closed and breathing shallow. He'd seen this happen to the visiting children before, after a long day of play at the Pizzaplex. Their parents would normally have to carry them out the door to leave.

"Mirabelle?" he questioned with concern.

The sudden sound of her name immediately snapped her awake. She sat up straight and gasped before wildly rubbing at her face, trying to hide the reddening she could feel happening. She couldn't believe she had just nodded off like that!

"S-sorry!" she stammered. "Guess I didn't get enough of a recharge cycle either. Um, you were saying something about possible exits?" she quickly asked, trying to play it off.

But Freddy wasn't buying it. He still had her fixed with a worried look.

"Mirabelle, if you are tired, perhaps you should take some time to rest," he suggested.

"No! Uh, I mean, that's okay. I'll be fine. Besides, wouldn't that be too risky? We should really keep moving," she insisted, and made a move to get to her feet.

However, Freddy simply placed a large hand over her abdomen, preventing her from rising.

"It will be alright as long as we do not take too much time. Also, I will keep watch. You will be safe with me," he reassured her.

"Freddy, you really don't have to. . ." she tried telling him, but then trailed as she watched his countenance fall. He sighed.

"I can tell that you still do not fully trust me, but what I am saying is the truth. I will protect you, I promise," he emphasized, leaning in closer to her so that when she looked up, all she could see were those giant, blue optics.

Mirabelle was suddenly getting the uncanny sensation that he was staring straight into her soul. Not feeling like she could take much more of this, she caved, wrenching her gaze away from his.

"Alright, alright! I guess I could use a twenty minute nap, but that's all!" She scooted down on the couch, tucking her head up next to him. "Wake me up in twenty minutes," she repeated, wanting to make sure he was going to follow through. "Any more and I'll get super groggy, which will be worse," she warned.

"Very well," he acknowledged.

Although, now that she was actually lying down and trying to sleep, she found that she was having trouble. This whole situation now seemed very awkward. Not to mention, the blaring, florescent lights weren't helping, but there was no way she had any interest in turning them off! She groaned, throwing an arm over her eyes. This had been easier when it was on accident.

However, a second later, and it felt like her arm suddenly moved on it's own. She peeked up to find Freddy place his hand over her, hovering just above her face, blocking the light.

"Thanks," she mumbled, before finally managing to drift off into a fitful doze.

. . .

After he thought she was asleep, based on the vital readings he was picking up from her, he shifted his hand so that he was able to see her face. Freddy had a whole host of different sensations arcing through his processor that he couldn't quite identify as he watched her resting. All he knew for sure, was that he was happy she was alright and grateful that she was finally trusting him.

Except, despite her being unconscious, she didn't appear to be getting a particularly restful sleep. Her heart rate was still high and her breathing irregular. Freddy frowned in concern. He couldn't claim to be an expert on human sleep patterns, but he realized that in order to be effective, she needed to be more at ease than this.

While debating on what he could do to help, he was suddenly struck with the inclination to, well, give her a pat. The children all seemed to love doing that to him as a sign of affection, so would it really hurt anything to try? And yet, he didn't want to risk waking her up before she'd gotten her full rest cycle. So, he very gently lowered his hand onto her head, cradling it.

He was actually a bit surprised when, at feeling the hand on her, she seemed to push into it before letting out a small grunt and decompressing. He found this to be an interesting reaction. Way different from when he'd tried to touch her earlier. Did that mean, she liked this? If that was the case, would she relax even more if he continued?

Freddy drew his hand over her, stroking her hair, and she practically melted into it with a contented sigh. Guess that was a yes.

He grinned in spite of himself. This was definitely new for him. He'd never had this type of interaction before, and he silently admitted, that it wasn't wholly unpleasant.

. . .

"Mirabelle."

The sensation of her back being rubbed and once again hearing her name called slowly roused her from sleep. She was a bit disoriented at first, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes.

"Ugh, what time is it?" she moaned out.

"It is approximately 1:37 am," she heard a robotic voice answer her.

She glanced up and tried not to flinch as she peered into Freddy's smiling face, all her memories rushing back to her.

"Great," she blew out a sigh, Freddy still seemingly staring at her expectantly. "You know, you can just call me 'Mira', if you'd like. That's what my friends call me," she offered groggily.

"Huh, Mira," he repeated. "Alright."

"So, what's the plan?" she wondered.

"Trying to locate a possible exit point," he reminded her.

"Oh, that's right. You said something about a fire escape on the third floor? Let's try there first," she decided, rising to her feet. She yawned and stretched, lifting her arms over her head.

"Before we go," she turned back to see him holding his arm out to offer her something. "I'd like you to take this."

She plucked the device out of his hand and peered down at it. It looked like a plastic, toy watch for kids.

"It is a novelty Freddy Fazwatch, patent pending," he explained like an ad. She glanced up at him dubiously. "If we get separated, you can use it to communicate with me," he offered.

"So, novelty as in 'new and fancy', or novelty as in 'cheap and hokey'?" she wondered.

"It is a brand new product," he argued, sounding a bit offended at her implication. "Only staff members have one at this time, but this one is special. Besides having a map layout of the entire complex and a constantly updating full schedule of events, it links directly to my communicator, so you can contact me," he reasoned.

"Okay, I was just checking," she pushed back defensively, strapping it around her wrist.

A perfect fit.

"Alright. You ready to go now?" she wondered.

"Yes. Why don't you let me lead. I can show you the way as well as keep an eye out for any obstacles," he suggested.

She had no problem with that, and so, stepped aside to allow him to exit first.

Thanks everyone for reading, I appreciate it! Until the next time! Bye Bye!