Sorry everyone for that super troll ending for the last chapter. I just couldn't help myself! However, I'm sure most of you weren't fooled, and any future readers definitely won't be. :P You all knew I couldn't just end it there! Lol! Thank you all for your patience, and now, please enjoy my actual story conclusion! :D
Several Days Later. . .
Mirabelle sat on her bed, staring at the opposite wall. She was finally home, safe and sound. So, everything should be fine now, shouldn't it? Everything should be back to normal again. And while it was true that everything was back to normal, Mirabelle was far from fine.
She was still having trouble comprehending that he was just, gone. Still in disbelief that he had actually cared enough to sacrifice himself, for her. How could he have done such a thing! What was she supposed to do with herself now?
His absence had created a hole in her heart that she didn't think anything could ever fill again. Now all that was left, was a sad, empty feeling.
"I'm starting to really worry about her. All she does is sit in her room and mess with that toy watch. What if she never snaps out of this?" She could hear her father's concerned tone from down the hall.
"Just be patient, honey. She's been through a very traumatic experience. The therapist said it could take anywhere to up to three months for her to start acting normal again. She needs time to process everything she went through," her mother argued in her defense.
"But that's just it! She refuses to even talk about what happened! We had to learn most of the details from that security guard, and even she didn't know what all Mira went through," he lamented.
"She's just not ready to talk about it yet. I'm sure she will, eventually. We just need to give it time," her mother tried to assure him.
"I know, it's just – she's never, not talked to us before. What could have happened to. . ." he trailed off.
"She'll tell us when she's ready," her mother repeated sternly.
Mirabelle then heard footsteps as her parents retreated to the other side of the house. She fingered the watch in question still firmly strapped to her wrist. The only thing that she had left of him.
What was she supposed to tell them? There was no way they would ever understand, not really! Despite what Nicole had told her before, her friends were still a bit skeptical, and even Vanessa had been rather confused by her behavior.
The therapist had tried to give a logical explanation for it. Saying that in her time of need, her mind had created the illusion of a companion to help her cope with the terrifying situation she found herself in. That eventually her mind would work itself through all this, and then she'd be able to move on from these feelings.
But as Mirabelle stared down at the watch, she knew that she hadn't just, made him up! He'd been real. Their bond, had been real! No matter what anyone said or thought, no one was going to take that away from her! And despite their rocky start, he'd become one of the best friends she'd ever had.
Her finger moved to the 'Call' button on the watch, tapping it lightly. It emitted a static error tone.
"Apologies, but we are unable to connect you to the network at this time. Please try again later," the watch told her in the now, all too familiar voice.
At hearing it, Mirabelle's eyes began to burn. She clicked the button again.
"Apologies, but we are unable to connect you to the network at this time. Please try again later," it repeated.
Thick streams of tears were now running down her already raw face, but she still continued to press the button.
"Apologies, but we are unable to connect you to the network at this time. Please try again later."
Mirabelle buried her face in her knees, choking out loud sobs. Her only comfort was in knowing that, at least she'd never forget what he sounded like.
But then, after a moment, unbeknownst to Mirabelle, the watch seemed to suddenly light up on it's own. A soft connection beep sounded out from it, and then. . .
"D-do you really miss me that much?" Said a voice from the watch.
Mirabelle nearly jumped out of her skin! Her head snapping up in shock and her eyes growing wide as she stared at the device on her wrist. Was she losing her mind? Or had she actually, just heard that?
"Freddy? Is, is that, you?" she asked tentatively into it, almost fearfully.
There was a moment of hesitation that seemed to take an eternity where Mirabelle thought she might explode! But finally, he answered.
"Yes, Mira. It is me," he confessed.
"Freddy! But, but how –?! Where –? Where are you?!" she quickly demanded of him, her sorrow suddenly forgotten in her genuine surprise.
"Well, I supposed that, technically – I'm inside your Fazwatch," he explained slowly.
"What? What does that mean? Is that even possible?" she asked, cocking her head in confusion at it.
"Apparently, yes. It is possible. The Fazwatch that I gave you is a special, upgraded version – and always had a direct connection to me, remember? As such, it has a much higher storage capacity than the others, but also – I had a direct connection to it, as well," he continued.
"But – that still doesn't explain how you're, inside it," Mirabelle argued.
"I, wasn't sure if it was going to work, but – right before the tunnel collapsed and destroyed my physical frame, I ran an upload signal to transfer all my mental data onto the Fazwatch. I've been running diagnostics ever sense, and it – appears that I am all here," he told her in a casual tone.
Mirabelle almost couldn't believe what she was hearing! How could he be sounding so – blasé about all this?!
"You mean to tell me that you've been here with me this whole time, and you just now finally decided to let me know about it?!" she almost yelled at him.
"Mira – I. . ." he paused for a moment. "I just wasn't sure if it was the right thing. I thought that maybe, after everything you had to go through, that it would be better if you could just – forget. Like your therapist said. Then you'd be able to recover and be happy again," he offered.
"You've been listening in when – Ugh! Great. . ." Mirabelle lamented, leaning her forehead into her palm, her face flushing in embarrassment.
Freddy continued after a minute when he didn't hear anything from her.
"But – you haven't been happy at all, and it sounds like it might be – because of me," he seemed to realize sadly.
"Of course it's because of you – you big, dumb oaf! Do you have any idea how much I've missed you?! How hard it's been thinking you were gone forever and I'd never get to see you again! Never get to talk to you again! Yet you've been here this whole time, just letting me think that you were dead, when you –"
She couldn't continue at that point, breaking down into another fit of uncontrollable crying coming from so many conflicting emotions. Unbridled joy at the knowledge that he was still alive, immense relief that she hadn't lost him after all, and angry at the idea that he'd just been hiding this whole time! But of course, she knew that she wasn't going to be able to stay mad at him.
"Mirabelle! Oh, I am so sorry! Please, please don't cry! It's been so heartbreaking, having to listen to how sad you've been. I thought – I thought letting you know I was still here would make you happy! I am sorry for upsetting you again," he lamented, calling out desperately to her, as comforting words were the only thing he could offer at the moment.
"I –" she sniffed hard, trying to get control of herself. "I am happy, you idiot! I've never, been more happy in my life! How could you possibly think I could ever be happy without you! I could never, ever forget you!" she lectured him, with mock-harshness to her tone.
"Mirabelle, I – I have missed you too! I wish I could give you a hug right now," he told her.
"You know," she began, swiping at her eyes and rising from her bed. "I think there might be something we can do about that."
. . .
A loud banging at her front door caused Vanessa to jump violently, almost launching the soda she had clutched in her hand across the room. Blowing out an exasperated sigh and placing a palm over her now ramming heart, she crossed the floor of her small home to reach the door. She pulled it open and was surprised to find a very energized young lady hopping around on her landing wearing a rather maniacal grin. She was about to demand an explanation, but the girl began practically shouting at her before she had a chance.
"Officer Vanessa! You're never going to believe it!" Mirabelle yelled.
"Mira? What the heck? How – how do you know where I live?" she had to wonder.
"We looked up your employee file in the system, but that's not important. Wait until you hear –" Mirabelle was rambling off excitedly, until Vanessa finally put up a hand to stop the avalanche of words.
"Looked up my file? How – wait – what do you mean 'we'? You and your friends hacked the Pizzaplex system?" she guessed.
But Mirabelle enthusiastically shook her head that she was incorrect.
"No, me and Freddy! Vanessa, he's still here! He's still alive!" she explained with the biggest grin.
The security officer stared at the girl with a very skeptical look. Then blew out a weary sigh as she took a guess at what must be going on.
"Mira, look. I know you and Freddy ended up getting pretty close during your whole ordeal at the Pizzaplex, but you and I both know that he didn't survive that cave in. I told you, even after the recovery teams managed to dig up his body, he was too badly damaged. We couldn't get what was left of him to reboot and all of his data had been destroyed. So, we ended up having to melt him down along with all the other corrupted machinery we found down there," she explained.
"I'm sorry. I know it's hard, but eventually you're going to have to face the fact that he's gone," Vanessa paused to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder and leaned down closer to her. "Just know that I believe that he really did care about you. I mean, he sacrificed himself to save all of us. We can always be grateful for that," she offered with a small smile.
Meanwhile, Mirabelle was glaring in response, waiting for her to finish. She lobbed an exaggerated eye roll at her.
"That's what I'm trying to tell you! His data wasn't destroyed! Just – relocated," she explained in exasperation.
"Relocated? Relocated where?" Vanessa felt herself wondering.
"Here!" Mirabelle announced, raising her left arm and pointing at the Fazwatch.
Vanessa had only a moment to flash her a very dubious look, before the watch suddenly blinked to life.
"Hello Officer Vanessa. It is good to see you again, or hear you – as the case may be," Freddy chimed in from the watch's speaker.
Mirabelle wished she could have taken a picture, because the look on Vanessa's face was absolutely priceless!
"Huh?! How. . .?!" she trailed in disbelief, but Mirabelle simply smiled at her.
"Why don't you let me in and I'll explain everything," she suggested.
It didn't take long for Mirabelle to go over the whole story as she sat with Vanessa on her couch. The older woman still appeared as though she was having trouble taking it all in though.
"Okay, so, let me get this straight. Freddy wirelessly downloaded himself onto your Fazwatch right before he was crushed, and has just been – what? Hanging out on there for the past week?" she clarified.
Mirabelle nodded.
"That's what he told me, anyway," she added.
"But if he's been here this whole time, why didn't he say anything sooner?" she wondered.
"What a great question!" Mirabelle emphasized sarcastically, casting a glance down at her wrist and waiting.
The light on the watch flickered for a moment.
"Alright, Mira. You have made your point. I apologize, Officer Vanessa. I had been trying to decide what would be the right thing to do," Freddy told her.
"Well, either way, I guess I'm glad to hear that you've been able to keep yourself around, Freddy, but – I mean – now what? Why did you guys decide to come to me?" she wondered.
Mirabelle hesitated as she tried to find the right way to word her request.
"Um, w-well, you said you'd still be working at the Pizzaplex, right? And didn't you say they were working on making a new Glamrock Freddy?" she began hinting.
Although it didn't take long before Vanessa began to pick up on what she was putting down, and she immediately began to recoil at the idea.
"Oh no! If you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting. . ." she trailed.
"But, don't you want Freddy back at the Pizzaplex? I mean, our Freddy?" Mirabelle gestured at the watch. "I just, I thought that maybe we could find a way to re-upload him back into the new body, and then –" She didn't get to finish before Vanessa cut her off again.
"I'm just a security guard, Mira. They aren't going to let me into Parts and Service to mess with the new model. And even if I went in after hours, the complex is riddled with cameras. I'll get fired for sure! I was lucky enough that they let me keep my job at all after everything that happened, but I'm still on probation. If they think I'm doing anything suspicious, they'll not only fire me, but they could slap me with a fat lawsuit and even. . ." she trailed off her ranting lecture as she watched Mirabelle's expression fall.
She let out another deep sigh.
"I'm sorry, kiddo. Of course I'd love to have the old Freddy back, but after what happened last week, only the engineers are allowed in parts and service now," she added apologetically.
"Yeah, I get it," Mirabelle acknowledged with a sad nod.
"It is alright, Officer Vanessa. We understand," Freddy told her. "But, don't feel too bad, Mira. I promise I am not going anywhere. Just, be sure to keep the watch charged," he assured her, and she glanced down at the glowing display on her wrist. "And besides, maybe someday when you're older, you could even build me a body yourself," he encouraged.
Mirabelle huffed in response with a small smile.
"Yeah, maybe. . ." she trailed.
"Oh, that's right. I had forgotten about that," Vanessa mentioned.
Mirabelle lifted her gaze to see the blonde suddenly deep in thought.
"What is it?" she asked her.
"Well, I was just thinking. I'm not allowed in Parts and Service, and it's not like there's any way we could get you in there. Unless. . ." she trailed, flashing Mirabelle a mischievous grin.
Mirabelle simply cocked her head at her curiously, wondering at what she could be plotting.