Author's Note: Dark Rebirth may or may not be going on Hiatus soon. That or I may end up not finishing this fanfic at all cos I forgot that I was an adult with too many responsibilities and other scripts to write….Sighs. Chapters may be shorter and less descriptive but I'll try to keep quality consistent at least. Try being the keyword here.

Location: Parts and Service Room

Time: 1:05am

Going closer to Freddy, Gregory gasps, staring at the damage his animatronic protector had endured in order to save him.

'This is what Monty did to him? Yikes…'

Freddy's ruined body lay on a metallic reclining table of sorts while his head hung detached from his neck, being held upright by a big, strong claw. Despite his broken state, Freddy remains shockingly chipper.

"Hello Gregory. Do you think you could help me with routine maintenance?"

"I think you need more than just routine maintenance Freddy" Gregory remarked as he continued to stare worriedly at the Bear's slashed body.

"Nonsense," Freddy reassures him, "I'm much better..Much bett…er…better."

His voice was glitching out.

"Huh? A grammar function error….perhaps I am still not at peak performance." His eyes shift towards Gregory, "Perhaps, could you just reattach my head?"

"I dunno…it looks complicated." Gregory looks at the multi-coloured wires that trailed down Freddy's head along with the buttons and sockets on Freddy's neck

"Just reconnect the wires to their correct colours and be careful. I'm not myself during repairs".

"What does –"

Before Gregory can finish, the doors suddenly close, preventing him from leaving the room anymore as he had activated the chosen repair procedure moments ago.

"In case of an emergency, the protective cylinder will protect important service personnel outside of the protective cylinder. Deactivating animatronic safety protocols now. It is recommended that no mistakes are made during the procedure." The robotic voice advises him.

Above, the claws from the ceiling descend along with two control panels of sorts which would enable Gregory to control their movements.

"This doesn't feel safe at all." Gregory fretted. He felt like an inexperienced surgeon in an operating room and what's worse is that he wasn't a trained surgeon at all, only a child with unfortunate murderous tendencies.

"Don't worry, I believe you can do this Superstar!" Freddy encouraged him warmly before going into standby mode. Gregory gulped anxiously.

"To reconnect Freddy's head, repeat the correct sequence by pressing the flashing buttons correctly." The same robotic voice announces.

"Greetings Mr Afton."

"Hello HandUnit, what is it?"

"Just to remind you that you have dinner with the family in 10 mins".

William stares at the Pink and White mechanical bear he is fixing up.

"Sure. Let me finish up a few more things and I'll go up there".

Gregory looks upwards, finally recalling the voice's identity.

'I remember now: Handunit? How odd. Why does the Pizzaplex have the same AI as the one in William's secret basement?'

"Hello HandUnit, could you tell me how to fix him?" Gregory attempts to see if this one worked like the one in his memories.

There is no response.

"HandUnit? Offer me assistance."

Still nothing.

Gregory sighs. Guess he had to do this manually as this one didn't seem to respond to him at all.

'This could take a while, a long while…'

Analysing the different parts of Freddy's head and neck, Gregory notes that the wires and the places to connect them were obviously colour coded to inform engineers or repairmen of where they were meant to be connected to. This was the first part of the procedure which was easy, but it would be the second half that would have more of a problem. Below his head, Freddy was horribly damaged and he had no idea how to fix his slashed torso. How was he going to figure out how to do the full repairs by himself?

He stares at Freddy's closed eyes and frowns worriedly, his eyebrows creasing. He knows that he has to do the unthinkable: Forcefully attempt to awaken/retrieve William's knowledge and skills of making and repairing animatronics within his own mind so that he could fully repair Freddy without making any mistakes.

'I don't like this but I don't have a choice. I know almost nothing about engineering, much less repairing an animatronic!'

Gregory takes a deep breath as he reluctantly dives into head to search for William's memories on purpose. He's never attempted to purposefully retrieve William's memories for good reason and isn't sure if it will even work the way he believes it will but he tries anyway: Ordering his brain to give him the memories and skills he needed to save his protector.

"No Henry, It doesn't work that way….It doesn't work because… We have to rewire here and here…"

He wasn't sure if it was working but, staring at the control panels now, he was feeling a familiar sensation return to his hands. He was starting to realise what buttons to press and what each button would do as it was exactly like the one at William's workshop in the basement.

Gregory presses the red button and one of the claws moves towards Freddy. This reparation process would still take a long while but at least now, he was more confident on what to do…

–

In his digital world, William searches through thousands of different files in the company database until he finds something: The Parts and Service Room Design Folder.

He opens and sieves through it until he finds what he's looking for: Documents that proved Fazbear Entertainment stole his research!

Within the folder, he found out much to his chagrin that the company had stolen unused blueprints for Circus Baby's Pizza World (another animatronic restaurant concept that HE planned but didn't come into fruition due to the unfortunate death of his daughter) and incorporated them into their own blueprints to design sections and machines within the Pizzaplex. What's more: They were planning to use more of his ideas in the near future!

'How dare they steal what isn't theirs!' William seethes internally. He pries through the documents further until he's seen it all. A nagging thought suddenly comes to the front of his mind and quickly, he searches for any sign of blueprints that were labelled as 'Afton Basement'. Nothing is there.

"What a relief". William talks to himself, "they know nothing about the basement still. Still, who dared to raid my house, steal my files and use my designs after I vanished?!"

He then shifts his focus away from the folders to see that Gregory is finally able to recall how to fully use the control panels and move the claws in the directions he desired them to move in. It also helped that the operating machine he was using was somewhat identical to the one in the basement. William smiles that his clone is embracing his knowledge.

'Ah well, I can find out more later. Right now I have to figure out how to capture and possess my Vessel. Once I do, I plan to pay them a visit and give them a very painful lesson…and also probably just kill them too. That's the most important part…'

—

Gregory looks at his handiwork, having finally gotten the wires connected to their proper locations and managing to get the claws to repair some parts of Freddy. He couldn't fix all of them of course but it was good enough. It was lucky that there were some metal Freddy Fazbear arm casings in stock within the area and so, the claws had taken them from somewhere (?) and applied them to Freddy's arms, chucking off the old ones to a corner.

'A shame there weren't any paints available to cover up the chest cavity scratches….'

"Good job," HandUnit announces that he's finished the repair, "Now use the testing console to run diagnostics and complete the procedure".

One of the claws from above descend downwards and show him some kind of Square Panel with four buttons. Gregory also recognizes this from the secret basement in the Afton Home.

He gets to pressing the buttons as outside, Mike and Henry had finished their little discussion and were observing Gregory do the repairs in silence. The operating system delivered to him a control panel of sorts with four buttons. A few of the buttons blinked twice or three times. Gregory understood immediately what he had to do and copied the patterns presented, pressed the correct sequences in tandem. Rinse and repeat.

"Look at him," Mike watches the boy move his fingers nimbly and expertly, "It's as if he's in his own little world".

"William was always like this." Henry points out. "Always so determined and focused that he blocked out everything else while trying to finish or repair an animatronic. You're telling me you never saw this side of him?"

"No. He'd never let me, Evan or Elizabeth near him as he made his machines. In the end, All of us learned the hard way why we should never be near them." Mike runs a hand through his hair and laughs.

"Excellent! Freddy is all patched up and ready for the big show." HandUnit announces as the doors ahead open, "You may now exit the protective cylinder."

Gregory exits the cylinder with Freddy and sees that Mike and Henry had returned at some point and had been observing him from outside.

"Good work Gregory." Henry compliments him, "The way you put Freddy back together was very professional".

"Umm Yeah." Gregory smiles at the praise from Henry and looks at his hands, "It sort of felt like I've done it before…."

Mike is silent but Gregory sees that he's struggling to let out a snarky remark. Whatever he and Henry discussed, it probably didn't settle well with Mike.

"And what about you Freddy?" Henry continues his question, "How are you feeling?

"I feel much better thanks to Gregory."

Said boy was now gazing around at everything that was outside the Parts and Service room, noticing presently that there were a bunch of blueprints, tools and fancy equipment on tables and shelves that he had no knowledge of how to use.

"Hey Freddy, there's a lot of tech stuff in here." Gregory points out, "Is there anything I could use here to defend myself against the other animatronics?"

"Bright lights in the eyes cause us to briefly malfunction. I suppose a Faz Cam or a Fazer Blaster could work." Freddy suggests.

"Okay but what about a gun? Like with bullets? Or maybe weak spots I could hit with my knife?" Gregory asks that last question a bit too excitedly.

Mike's glare has the temperature of a glacier. Gregory felt like he made an ill-timed joke.

"Hahah I'm joking, I'm joking." he swiftly assures everyone, "Where do I get them?"

"You can win a Fazerblaster in Fazer Blast and Fazcams are often confiscated in Monty Golf but you will need another party pass to open one of these attractions." Freddy informs him, "Chica normally gives them out for Birthdays. Let's go to her room in Rockstar Row. We may find one there".

Gregory nods and climbs up the stairs alongside Freddy. Upon doing so, he sees blueprints for the different Glam Rock animatronics that were hung up upon the walls. Gregory's eyes (and by extension his brain) light up with a brilliant idea.

"Woah check out these pictures Freddy. Chica has some kind of special voice box, Roxy has new eyes and Monty has better claws. We have to get these. Maybe we could upgrade you."

"Gregory, these parts belong to my friends." He tells the boy with a cautioning tone. "I would never do anything to hurt them."

"What?! But all they've done all night is try to hurt me!" Gregory lashed out unexpectedly, "And one of them hurt you too! If you ask me, they get what they deserve!"

For a moment, the two ghosts hear a hint of William in his voice and feel a chill run down their non-existent spines. Even Freddy felt like there was little of the child he had come to know in those resentful words and it frightened him.

"There must be a good explanation. They are not capable of hurting guests. None of us are. It goes against our programming." Freddy argues adamantly.

"He's right." Mike backs up Freddy's words, "I felt some kind of…corruption in their systems earlier while I possessed Monty to try to save the both of you. I think it may be causing them to act off tonight."

"Tell that to Monty who scarred your chest!" Gregory flares up, feeling more anger rise within him for no reason. He feels like he has to get away from them now before he says anything horrible or reckless. "Anyway, I'm going myself".

"Where?" Freddy asks.

"To get the Dance Pass and the Fazer Blaster you mentioned." Gregory's voice abruptly goes from aggression to an icy coldness as he runs ahead of them, "I'll come back here after I get them".

"Wait, don't you need me? Are you sure?"

"You need to recharge, remember?" Gregory reminds the bear.

Freddy examines his battery levels which are still less than 10%. "You are right."

"Go charge up." Gregory emotionelssly orders him as he walks away, "Don't worry. If I need you, I'll give you a call".

"Wait, do you need me to help…..?" Henry's voice trails off. Too late. The boy had already entered Roxanne's door and left all of them behind.

"So… Gregory is different from my Father, eh? You think that's still a child that needs love and support?" Mike repeats Freddy's words venomously back to him while also directing them at a now extremely uneasy Henry.

Chapter 19 End

Chapter 20 Title: A Challenge