"They aren't Terrorcons because no part of them is infected with Dark Energon nor are they alive, but they are being controlled kind of like how Silas was using that dummy I think Miko nicknamed 'Nemesis Prime.' But instead of being controlled remotely, they are being controlled from the inside. They are possessed in a manner of speaking," Bumblebee said as he placed the post-it notes with their real names across the wall with cutouts of each Freddy Fazbear character.

"So, you're saying they are the children? The somehow dead but living mech named Blacklight, who also thinks he's the titular character of the park, Freddy, is being controlled internally by the ghost of a child who went missing?" Ratchet questioned.

Arcee and Knockout glanced at one another with shrugs, Bulkhead glared confused, Optimus was as quiet as could be, Blurr looked surprised, and there weren't enough words to describe what how many of their military human allies were thinking with their blank stares.

Bumblebee sighed, "I know it sounds crazy but-"

Ratchet held up his hands with a scoff, "No, no, no, crazy is trying to reason with demons and then teaming up with them to save the world. That's crazy. Crazy is helping warlords and monstrous tiger-dragon...things and persuading them not to destroy a planet we technically don't even belong on. Crazy is finding out the planet-eater and enemy of Primus is beneath our feet, and we somehow stopped him with little to no preparation. This isn't crazy. This is something I'd like to call...INSANE!"

"It's the same concept as Bendy. The souls of the children are haunting the bodies of Cybertronians," argued Bee.

Arcee coughed, "Well no...no, it's not the same. The employees at Joey Drew Studios were cursed by a human tampering with things he didn't understand, trapping the living souls of the others into ink bodies and cartoon getups. Nobody knows what happened to these children and if what you said you saw is correct, they're dead but this has much more layers than just someone messed up and cursing their own studio. This is...this is-I don't know, what would you call it, Knockout?"

The medic grew concerned and desperately looked between the three. "Ummm...an enigma? A murder mystery? I mean if those kids are dead and those Cybertronians they have-truly are dead too, we're looking at much more than just a leaking toxin and some missing children."

The Autobot leader pursed his mouth and stared off to the side before speaking again, "Then I guess we are going to have to go back and figure out what happened then, aren't we? Another mystery, another monster world we are going to dive into, and we won't be prepared for whatever lies beyond those gates I would assume. Optimus, you up for the round two of horror?"

"I guess I am not going to retire anytime soon as I wished," Optimus mused. "Very well then, we will get to the bottom of this mystery and put our lost comrades to rest if we can."

"Great, more dealing with ghouls, gore, and ghosts," moaned Blurr, "I feel like we're the Mystery Gang from Scooby Doo."

Arcee smirked, "Yeah except everything we encounter isn't trying to scare us, they're trying to kill us. Scooby Doo ain't got nothing on this."

"Why are we bringing human child entertainment into this conversation?" Ratchet frowned.

Bee nodded, "Alright then, we're all on the same page now. We go back to Times Beach tonight."


11:00 PM

Arcee, Bumblebee, and Optimus entered the fairgrounds this time with little hesitance while Bulkhead, Blurr, and Knockout patrolled the outskirts. The sky was almost completely clear with a few cirrus clouds hanging about. The moon lit up the park and at a certain angle, it appeared like the lights were on in its supposed heyday.

"At twelve is when things get bad so we have roughly fifty, fifty-five minutes to get our minds wrapped around this and explore, find out where the Cybertronian bodies are resting and where the animatronics are so we can be a step ahead here."

Arcee grimaced, "Bee, you know that feeling when you feel like something bad is going to happen and you know it's going to happen soon?"

"Yes?"

"Buddy, my system is screaming at me right now to get my aft out of here and I don't know about you but it's bothering me so bad."

Bee then chuckled, "What happened to brave, I-take-commands-from-no-one hardass Arcee? The same femme that turned heads even among the Decepticons? Even stunned Megatron of all Cons?"

"No, this is way different. This is bad, like beyond terrifying bad, more than I think I've ever felt throughout my life-type bad. Something isn't right with this place, Bee."

"It can't be worse than Joey Drew Studios or the Metal Head virus."

"Bumblebee," Optimus cut in, "do not take your past experiences as mastery of fear or of yourself. Even I must agree with Arcee. I have seen many things as the Autobot leader but even though I've battled Megatron multiple times, there were always new ways he found to scare me and make me doubt myself. Do you really think Bendy or Tigressa are the only ultimate enemies you will have or had? You have just begun as the Autobot leader and trust me when I say, anything can happen in your years to come that you will never be prepared for no matter how much you train, no matter how much experience you gain."

The yellow Autobot didn't retort as he knew the Prime was right. There were plenty of things even space-travelling Cybertronians couldn't know beyond what they've visited. And the chance of threats right beneath their feet they were oblivious too were just as probable as finding a new planet with new life forms. Earth was a cesspool of mysteries, and many have linked their worlds much to their dismay. What else could this planet possibly hold that was flabbergasting enough to surprise them anymore?

"Go. Go! GO! GO AWAY!"

The harsh whispers sounded so close and made Bee reflexively turn around to find nothing, just the broken lamps lining the pathways and trees creaking as a small breeze kicked up. Then he smelled something foul in the air. Gagging, he found the stench smelling like decay and dried blood. Human blood. He had only sensed human blood when Raf or Miko injured themselves. This was much more pronounced, and he felt woozy.

"Bee? You okay?" Arcee called.

Bumblebee forced himself to hurry towards the circus tent, the stench still lingering. "Y-yeah. I'm fine, I-do you smell that?"

The femme sniffed and gave him a confused look, "I don't smell anything. You sure you're okay?"

That was odd. He couldn't be the only one that sensed that. Shaking his head in frustration, he sighed, "Never mind, let's keep going."

The massive circus tent in the middle of the park had seen better days. The dense material had tears and some of its upholstery was coming loose. Bumblebee skimmed a servo over the damages but noted how some of them didn't look like the weather impacted the tent. Some rips were side by side, claw markings from a servo larger than his or at least had larger claw digits if anything. The tears looked like whoever or whatever did this was trying to get inside the tent, not leave it.

He eventually found an entrance and slid inside as Arcee and Optimus branched away from him on the outside. His breath hitched. Various animatronic versions of Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, and Foxy as well as undisclosed animatronics like a gator and wolf with glam markings, a ballerina, two small child-like toy animatronics with signs and balloons, and even a clown girl animatronic lied about scattered. Many were slack in poise, looking more like dead bodies that resting machines. But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst lied in the center of the ring.

Something curled in a loaf position with its head tucked between its arms lied in the center. It held mostly no armor aside from his faceplate which was hard to identify but was white with green and yellow striped horns and spinal spikes. It had the upper body of a Cybertronian build almost like him, but the lower half was that of a Dinobot, more specifically a predator-class with the structure of the wrapped tail. Perhaps akin to Gigabyte's structure, or Foxy as his name currently is? Two triple-clawed hydraulic grapples on lengthy crane necks were attached to its backside like extra arms and rested on the side of the body unmoving; the two sat on the shoulder backplates.

Suddenly, Bee had a realization. He remembered the schematics. Arcee's voice echoed in his mind. "Those are designs for a Cybertronian…and those parts aren't supposed to be compatible with Dinobots'..."

Not compatible with Dinobots. "Ennard."

The unknown mechanoid that sat before him was Ennard, the creature they saw on the blueprints for an unorthodox Cybertronian someone intended to build, and it was right here. Something must have gone wrong as the schematics showed Ennard with a more dragon-esque structure, but the grapples weren't wings, the Dinobot lower half was hardly a good match up and there was no armor. However, Ennard had no rust on him so he was relatively new or...

"You are not welcome here."

Another harsh whisper rang out. This time, it sounded like it came from one of the smaller animal animatronics that lied in a dead pose. He then noticed many of them were leaking something through the mouths and eye sockets. Abruptly, all their eyes burst wide open, the fake sclerae turned veiny like real stressed human eyes and they all turned their heads to stare at him. The whispers now were loud and in various tones and came from the different animatronics.

"Go away!" The glam rocker gator yelled.

Funtime Chica screamed after, "Leave us alone!"

"Murderer!" Another Freddy spoke.

"You left us to die!" Bonnie, no, doll-faced Bonnie exclaimed.

"Why can't you just die!?" Foxy maybe said?

He couldn't tell which ones were speaking anymore as everything started to blur looking back on forth between all of them. More blood poured out of their eyes, their horrific unblinking stares cutting into his processor like knives. Blood rolled off their bodies and together the pools began to merge to the center where Ennard still lied undisturbed.

"You must pay!"

"Why can't you just leave us alone!?"

"You've hurt us!"

"Why did you do it?"

"Just die!"

"Die!"

"DIE!"

"GO AWAY!"

"Enough!" A feminine voice bellowed and echoed throughout the tent.

The animatronics grew silent, their heads snapped back into their original positions and in a flash which made Bumblebee blink and rub his optics, the blood that had pooled beneath their bodies and stained their exterior was gone. He didn't know where that last voice came from, but it sounded like it resonated from the tent peak or the ring itself. Ennard perhaps?

With the dead quiet becoming uneasy, Bee tried to leave but was face to face with a clown-like eyeless white mask. He screamed and jumped back before studying the figure who tilted its head in return. It kind of looked like a mime, just scarier and more robotic, not to mention bigger than him.

"Ooh, don't hurt me! I didn't come to harm you or-" He couldn't finish his sentence and instead gestured madly at the resting animatronics that were seconds ago threatening to kill him. When the creature started to trail him as he moved backwards, he gulped audibly, "I-I just, um, came to check on...uhhh...Gabriel!"

That made the mime puppet thing freeze in its tracks while Bumblebee continued and almost tripped over Ennard. When he noticed its reluctance to pursue, he quickly took its appearance in.

Its body was black with white rib-like kibble attached across its chest, white stripes on its forearms and lower legs kind of like Miko's stockings, and three lights trailed from the peak of its collar to the middle of its abdomen like buttons on a suit. It was definitely mechanical, but its body was uniform with little to no protruding kibble like a normal Cybertronian would have, condensed even. It had a very feminine structure, very human poised and its helm was half covered by the mask it wore. The mask itself had eye holes but no optics visible, a wide plastered grin with rosy, red cheek dots on each tip, and its mouth flexed but he was unsure if it could close normally. The mask also had seams that moved ever so slightly to readjust when it moved its smooth helm.

"How do you know about Gabriel?" It asked in the voice he heard with a hint of malice.

Bee did his best to pick his words wisely, "Steph...Mangle said it aloud when...Gab-Freddy was p-protecting us from her."

"You found those notes, didn't you? I told him to stop reliving the past, but I guess you can't erase memories of hurt and those who suffer along with you," it paused and scoffed at him. "You really don't know about that yet, do you? I recommend leaving. You are not welcome here and I will not have you disrupting their lives any more than they've already dealt with for long enough."

"What happened here? What do you mean they've suffered?"

"I am not inclined to tell you anything."

Bumblebee nodded just for the sake of respect, not that he actually understood a majority of that. He then gave a frown, "Okay maybe we're off on the wrong foot here. I don't recall catching your name. I'm Bumblebee, the Autobot leader."

He heard it laugh in a condescending way which he responded by narrowing his optics. "My name is Marionette. I am their protector and the only reasonable authority here, the only thing keeping you alive right now."

It was a femme apparently. "You don't look Cybertronian so my next question is: what are you?"

"A species you'll never meet."

"You really don't want to be reasonable, do you?"

"Why not? It's not like you can help us."

Bee smirked, "I've dealt with warlords, dragons, and cursed dead. Try me."

Marionette snarled, "Do you know what it's like to be betrayed, to watch the world move on while you're stuck in one place forever? It's worse than dying! And they have been living in this hell for thirty-four years."

The Autobot gave her a sincere expression. "They really are the missing kids, aren't they? What happened to those children? Please, I need to know in order to put some effort into helping them and you. I am being truthful; I am here to help."

She didn't look impressed but with a heavy sigh, she gestured for him to walk with her. "I cannot tell you much at this time. The night is about to commence. Once midnight comes, I cannot help you. But I can tell you this: things are not what they seem here. They kill intruders and guards because they mistake them for someone who did them harm. And out of all the friends you've brought with you, you're in danger most of all."

"Why? I didn't do anything to them!"

"It's not about what you've done here, it's about what they think you've done. Freddy, Gabriel, is the leader and he saw you yesterday. He didn't do anything because he was unsure but now, he thinks you have a connection to William Afton. He thinks you are Springtrap and they are going to come after you."

Bee blinked and grimaced, "I-I'm not Springtrap! What's William Afton have to do with this?!"

"William Afton murdered them," Marionette hissed, bluish white optics with blank ring pupils suddenly blaring in the once empty eye sockets.

The bell of the clock rang out hinting midnight and Bee stared in horror at it, jolted from his rising paranoia. But when he turned back to the Marionette, she had vanished. He was left gasping in stunned silence.

"Bumblebee!? Bumblebee!?" Arcee cried before she ran right past the tent. Seeing her friend, she backtracked and grasped his servo roughly. "Come on, we need to get out of here! Freddy's up and about and they aren't happy-what is that!?"

When she pointed behind Bee, he felt panic encompass his entire body and turned with utter fear towards Ennard...who was moving!

"Danger. Run!" Bee urged, pushing Arcee towards the exit as he backed away facing Ennard.

The larger mechanical being's grapple claws flexed and rose a few feet before opening wide and slamming onto the ground, helping its body rise. Its Dinobot tail twitched in agitation, the claws of its feet digging and readjusting. Its arms clambered off the ground sluggishly as Ennard rose to his full height.

Bumblebee could only stare as this ungodly abomination raised its head to look towards him. One eye socket was empty and the other was holding a blue optic with a barely visible white slit pupil. It had no lower jaw and its upper teeth were sharp beneath the remaining faceplate. Ennard was leaning, unbalanced but still had enough control over its body to lift its arms and grappler limbs with relative ease in a threatening manner.

"Ennard! I mean you no harm!"

It didn't say anything. Instead, it stumbled closer and used its extra grapples to steady itself as its normal arms kept close to its body, hunched almost like a real dinosaur-esque animal did.

Relaying the options he had in his head, Bee glanced quickly to the exit of the tent and back at the lurking Ennard who he could hear growling with a damaged vocalizer. If he stayed, he would die. If he left, he would maybe die. Most options pretty much ended in death.

"Screw this," he muttered.

He immediately made a beeline for the exit and a loud roar sounded as Ennard pursued. The Dinobot feet made quite an impact in the ground running and it was powerful enough to shake the tent alerting Bee that this thing was a tank of an abomination. Getting hit by Ennard would be fatal.

Almost losing his footing, Bumblebee slid out of the tent and ran to the side as Arcee was waiting for him. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her with him, refusing stop as the tent entrance was almost shredded with Ennard busting through and some of the tent snagged on its kibble. All he could do was briefly look behind him to see the mechanoid using all six limbs to bolt like determined horse. Ennard was faster than he appeared. If that wasn't the scariest sight to behold...

"Bumblebee!" Arcee called, pointing in front of him.

The mech peered to the front and almost ran into the snapping jaws of Mangle dangling from trees near the pizzeria. He halted and used the momentum to swing Arcee, who didn't stop at the same pace, around right before the two-headed Dinobot could catch one of her winglets in their teeth.

"Bad girl! Go kill a rabbit or something!"

Bee ran to the side towards the amusement rides just as Ennard missed them and smacked into Mangle. He could hear the two snarling at each other before Ennard pursued again. All Mangle did was huff and curl back up into their tree.

"I think we can lose Ennard in the skydiver ride, get him stuck in the bracing!"

"That thing has a name?!" Arcee shouted angrily.

"Remember those schematics? You were right; it's definitely not a normal cybernetic organism! It's something else!"

"That doesn't make me feel any better!"

Both of them approached a large skydiver attraction ride and it was obvious the seats had seen way better days. It was a layered skydiver with two rows, the outer layer rose high upon activation and the inner layer stayed below closer to the ground for people who weren't so keen on heights. It's faded red coloring was met with rust and some blackened parts that may have been due to the equipment experiencing fires at some point.

A shout in the far distance near the visible top of the Ferris wheel sounded and both Bee and Arcee looked at one another. A few inhumane roars confirmed some of those Cybertronian-like beings were angry, but gunfire put the situation as someone requiring assistance. Before they could leave, they needed to deal with Ennard.

Bee pointed to the skydiver. "Arcee, I need you to get on top of the skydiver and wait for my signal. On cue, shoot those bolts on the corners facing me. I'll stay down here and lure it into attacking me and hopefully, we'll subdue it enough to get away."

"Are you sure?"

"Ye-no," he sighed much to Arcee's dismay. "But I'd rather try than lead it to Optimus and the others. I'm not willing to find out what Ennard is capable of doing when it catches one of us."

The femme grimaced, "Fair enough."

She quickly used the support cabling of the old seats to climb to the top being light enough to not break them. She eyed out which bolts would bring the pieces of the ride down on top of Ennard and gave Bee a thumbs up as the latter stood in front of the ride, watching as Ennard approached with murder in its eye.

Bee glanced to the side trying to recall the post-its he had gathered and what the name was listed under Ennard's schematics. "It started with an 'm'. Montreal? No, that's a city. Let's see. Err, I'm not good with names! Marshall...Miguel...Marcel...Mitchell...Mic-Michael! That's it. Michael."

Ennard was galloping towards him, and he stood his ground, clenching his fists tightly with a frown. It was so close and all it took was one screw up and Bumblebee could potentially be torn apart.

"Michael, stop!" He yelled.

The grapple crane claws hit the ground hard and a nasty screech of metal on rock irritated Bee's audio receptors making him wince. By the time he had opened his optics back wide, Ennard was nearly nose to nose with him. The mechanoid monster hovered over him menacingly but didn't strike. It was poised on all fours with the grapple claws perched in a defensive position towards him, clutching off and on like Ennard wanted to throttle him but resisted. A low rumble came from brute and Bumblebee could only lean back to take in the ghastly appearance which ended up not helping since Ennard matched his movements by leaning forward to study him.

"Gee, that got your attention. And you are not a fan of personal space, I see," Bee quipped.

Ennard breathed in heavily, raising back up to his full height. Before he could do anything however, the Autobot shook his hands. "Wait, wait, Michael! Yes, I know your name and I've met Marionette. I have to ask, why are you doing this?"

With a snort and a grumble, Ennard grew frustrated but as he lifted his hand to hit Bee, he refrained again clasping it in thin air as if unsure. He then gave an odd sound before looking at his grapples and his hands. It was like he was confused about his own purpose.

"There's got to be a reason you're doing this. It wouldn't happen to be about a man named William Afton, would it?" Bee questioned.

Like he had said a bad word, Ennard turned his full attention towards him with utter hatred. Bee held up his servos again trying to calm the mechanoid down, but the creature punched the ground several times like he was throwing a temper tantrum of some sort. It was becoming brutally obvious William Afton had done a lot of terrible things and he was their trigger of anger. What Michael's history with him was unknown but it probably wasn't good if that was how he acted upon hearing the name.

Fearing things were about to go incredibly sour fast, Bumblebee quickly shot to the floor of the skydiver and crawled under the seats to brace himself against the machine's base and that gave him several feet of cabling separating him from Ennard. Sure enough, the deranged hybrid mech twitched and focused on him, claws splayed out with intent to harm.

Ennard swiped at him and caught part of the swings which he angrily shook out of only to try again. Bee dodged and ducked a couple times, one of which cut deep in part of the base, and he could only look at it in horror of what would have happened had he not moved. Another swipe barely missed but this time Ennard's servo tangled in the cabling.

The mechanoid tried to pull his arm out but the seats only seemed to tangle more. He roared and used his claws to simultaneously attack Bee and try to free himself. It didn't work and he ended up getting his other arm stuck as well as one of the crane grapplers. The skydiver ride creaked as Ennard pulled on the cabling; a few seats broke off in the struggle.

"Arcee, now!"

Bee didn't have to look up to know the femme carried out his orders when several blasts hit the skydiver with sparks flying and a portion of it broke with a loud crack. Ennard's eye widened in distress when the piece of the skydiver fell on top of him effectively pinning him. Bee pressed flat against the base even more to avoid getting crushed. When the parts of the skydiver settled with dust curling under the sidewalk lights, the mech remained silent and carefully peaked to see if Ennard was unconscious. Sure enough, one grapple claw tried to reach up before shorting out and sinking to the ground lifelessly.

Arcee looked over the edge of the broken roof and in a small voice asked, "Did we get him?"

Bumblebee looked distraught and shakily nodded, "Yeah, h-he's out. Let's leave before that changes because I don't want to be here when he wakes up."

He tiptoed past the wreckage until a low growl emitted from it. Startled, he sprinted away and Arcee trailed him. They were heading towards the direction of the screams when Bumblebee tripped and faceplanted into the ground. Shaking off the impact, he snarled in frustration until he tried to move and found his pede wouldn't budge. It was caught with cabling he was sure wasn't there before.

"S-somebody's not following the ru-the rules!" A young child's voice echoed.

Bee stared confused past the light of the walkways into darkness when the rope was suddenly pulled harshly, and he felt himself being dragged past the streetlights towards an abandoned teacup ride. Panicked, he brought out his blaster and shot the rope, scrambling to regain footing. A terrifying screech hit his audios and he turned just in time to see a small blue and red-pink striped ball rolling towards him. When the ball unfolded, Bee went wide-eyed.

A Minicon painted to resemble a human in tacky clothing smirked back at him with sharp teeth and fake rosy cheeks. It was like it was a doll somebody just butchered to death with makeup, and it was none too happy about it as its forced smile was anything to go by.

Balloon Boy. James.

Bee crawled backwards as the Minicon twitched and rumbled with a voice meddled between a kid's and an adult's. "You killed me!"

"No, no, that wasn't me! I'm not Springtrap!"

Balloon Boy...er...Bot shivered with dissatisfaction at that answer. "Liar! You watched me die! You watched me as I cried night after night in that house and you didn't stop him from hurting me! The nightmares I had because of you! You just watched until I died! And you lived on like I didn't matter! Did you not love us? Did you not love me?!"

Bumblebee didn't know how to respond to that as he had no idea what James was talking about, but it raised a lot of flags in his head how it may have been about Afton. The word "love" really changed the game depending on the context this lost soul meant. He prayed that it wasn't that. Afton was already high on the shit list for murder, more than that would make Bumblebee want to kill the man himself multiple times over.

"Balloon Boy, James, listen to me! I'm not him, whoever you think I am! I wouldn't hurt you!" He avoided saying William's name after Ennard's bad reaction to it.

"Y-you are him; you must be! I will kill you! You hurt me! I will KILL YOU!"

The Minicon leapt at him, and he had no choice but to donkey kick the kid back into the bushes to avoid attack. It didn't do much as James was back on him in a second baring silver fangs and shot straight up at Bee's face to the latter's surprise. Bee tried to shake the Minicon off but the grip on his face was deadly and he could feel the servos digging under sensitive plating trying to rip his face off. He even had to resort to banging his helm on the dirt to loosen Balloon Bot's hold. He almost knocked out the Minicon with one slam and sent the little mech flying into the teacup ride.

Bumblebee quickly got the jump on Balloon Bot this time and placed the Minicon in a teacup seat, crushing the safety bar down so it couldn't be moved, and James couldn't get out. When Balloon Bot recovered from the daze, he tried to swipe at Bee only for the larger mech to back away and amusingly watch as the smaller struggled to free himself.

"That'll hold you. Enjoy your timeout, James," Bee grinned.

The Minicon hissed like a demon and threw a small tantrum when he couldn't budge, flailing his arms in Bee's direction and roaring. Leaving the kid to the kiddie ride, Bumblebee cracked his neck in pain and rubbed a digit over his cheek to check for any Energon leaking from the assault. He hadn't expected that, but he was no longer surprised about it. Demons and ghost kids, had to love his job.

His comm burst to life. "Bumblebee, come in. This is Arcee. I thought you were behind me?"

He sighed, "I was but I met a kid with a temper, almost clawed my face off. So, how are you?"

"I found Optimus and Bulkhead. Mangle caught up to them after our brief encounter with her. We'll meet you near the far end where Knockout and Blurr are, and I think that's where those screams originated."

"Got it."


Blurr and Knockout patrolled the outer perimeter as the former casually dragged his digits over the bars of the gate in boredom. The medic didn't look impressed to say the least.

"Will you stop that!?" Knockout huffed.

The speedster gave a dumbfounded expression. "What?"

"What do you mean 'what'? You're making a loud noise in a cesspool of paranormal activity! Do you want whatever those things are to find us?"

Blurr smirked playfully, "Oh yeah, ghosts chilling with us! What could be better?"

"Please don't."

"I'm joking, I'll stop. My Velocitronian heritage really screams for me to move fast in some shape or form. I got to move something, do something at least or I just go stir-crazy. It's a character tic of mine."

Knockout frowned, "Weren't you born Cybertronian though? I thought it said you were Cybertronian in your records."

Blurr clicked his tongue. "Yes and no. Carrier was Cybertronian and I was born on Cybertron officially, however Sire was Velocitronian. It's a long story and I think my sire got arrested because of it, not going to lie. That or he did something else around the time I was created."

"It's illegal for Cybertronians to mate with Velocitronians? Didn't know that."

"Sssssmmm, more like Velocitronians are forbidden from crossbreeding. Apparently, Velocitron is not fond of hybrids to put it lightly which is why I am legally not allowed to live there. I can visit but I can't get citizenship. Sucks but it's whatever."

"I want to ask why but that doesn't surprise me given Velocitron's politics and citizen rights, so the answer is probably not important either," the medic said.

In the far distance, the sound of childlike screams and other various noises awakened.

"Midnight. Didn't Bee say something about midnight turning this place into a live horror show? What time is it?" Blurr asked.

"Either he said we regroup at midnight or things are about to go down at midnight. Personally, I'm going to stay on the outside where I won't run the risk of dying," Knockout replied with a grimace.

A sudden crack of branches made them turn to a few trees that sat right beside the fence. As far as either of them could see, nothing was visible. The sound of heavy footsteps in front of them made them turn so fast, they almost got whiplash. Nothing was there either.

"Oh no no no no no nooo nooo, we are not doing this! Freddy Fazbear's fucking amusement mile with Casper and his homies up in here! No no no, I am done with spirits and monsters being in the same goddamn situation! Why can't it just be Decepticons!? Why can't we go back to old days where Megatron starts some shit and we stop him? You know, old school? But no, we are now the Ghostbusters with supposedly undead human children and some seriously fucked up clown ass Cybertronians," Blurr ranted.

Knockout stared at him and tried to lift a finger to say something, but Blurr kept at it.

"I thought I could handle this but nope, this is where I draw the line! Ink monsters were funny because cartoon characters with rage issues, who doesn't find some humor in it but this? Nah, these stupid ass ghosts ain't going to touch me!"

"Blurr, beh-"

"And don't get me started with Freddy Fazbear goddamn 'Bluelight' monster whatever-the-fuck-his-name-is, he ain't shit! I could probably whoop his ass in a real fight! Come on, Freddy Krueger, let's go on kiddy rides and get our heads chopped off and shit-I...I can't take much more of this, Knockout! And what the hell are you pointing at!?" Blurr all but fumed.

The blue speedster turned around and immediately regretted his words when he found the Cybertronian possessed Freddy, Foxy, and Bonnie staring down at him expressionless. He bit his lip and gestured unevenly with his servos in fear and embarrassment.

"A'ight, that's...just great. You boys can teleport. That's cool too," Blurr awkwardly spoke.

The purple horned Cybertronian walked forward past the other two with a slight growl and Knockout cowered behind Blurr even as the latter tried to keep calm and backed away slowly.

"Okaayyy, so listen. We're all reasonable people, right? Like you and I can just turn the other way, forget this happened and nobody gets hurt."

Bonnie, Hijack, suddenly laughed, "W-what makes you think you can do that? Naughty, nau-aughty, somebody's been a bad b-BASTARD. We need to fix that."

Blurr eyed the undead Cybertronian with a surprised expression, "Oh sh-"

Bonnie suddenly roared right into their faces and both bots screamed, nearly pushing each other down trying to run away. They missed a swipe directed at them and Blurr immediately lit up his comm as the Transformer-sized mechanoids trailed them, Bonnie first and foremost jumping over the fence and sprinting.

"If anyone can hear me, we are about to die! Hello!?"

It didn't take much of a guess to figure the ghosts were behind the lack of communication when no one responded. They were trying to separate the Autobots to attack them. Static from exterior interference was all Blurr could hear and all he could do was scream louder even when he peered back and saw Bonnie's soulless optics staring with intent to kill just behind him. His Velocitron adrenaline –boosted power was kicking in full, and he was flying out of reach before Bonnie could even blink.

As Bonnie caught up to Knockout and reached out to grab his door wing, the medic was horrified until a blast hit Bonnie's shoulder causing the larger being to slow down and shake off the injury. Knockout slowed as well when Bonnie focused his attention to the origin of the blast only to get another in the faceplates sending his lower jaw into the bushes. Bonnie's optics dilated then contracted angrily as his mouth tried to realign itself despite the lack of parts.

"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own age!"

Bonnie got a swift kick to the face which sent him reeling back as Bumblebee hopped over the fence straight for him. One punch to the abdomen and another to the face again made Bonnie back off. Freddy and Foxy bellowed at the sight and Foxy bared his teeth to snap at Bee, but his jaws were forced shut by large servos. The Dinobot was turned away against his will to the side but lost footing in turn and was dragged on the ground before he was tossed back over the fence leaving uprooted grass and dirt on impact.

Bee smirked as none other than Optimus stood rolling his shoulders like he barely was fazed from lifting twenty tons worth of Dinobot. Arcee appeared from behind in a somersault and slid next to Knockout, going back-to-back with him. Bulkhead sideswiped Bonnie when the latter tried to move back towards Bumblebee. The ex-Autobot leader then turned his attention to Freddy who was hesitant to attack with his servos open to admit he wasn't sure if he even could challenge the larger bot.

"Gabriel," Bee called. "Please stop this!"

Upon hearing his human name, the brown and black Cybertronian body tensed. His servos clamped open and closed like how Ennard...Michael did when he was anxious. Then Freddy spoke.

"You did this...to us? We must make things right! We must hurt you...like y-you hurt-hurt us!" Freddy said, his vocalizer straining. "We need to stop the pain! We n-need to hurt you! We'll put you back together, fix you. Don't be afraid. Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria is here to help-help-HELP US!"

Bumblebee noticed all three were solely focused on him and then recalled the Marionette saying they thought he was Springtrap...the murderer. Their murderer. If they were children, they didn't understand what they were doing was wrong. They were too young to understand. The only thing they knew were that someone hurt them and got away with it, so they hurt others because they didn't believe it was wrong.

Knowing the risk, Bumblebee stood in front of Freddy with a shaky voice. "I know about William Afton. I know that you were murdered, not hurt. I'm not him."

Then a secondary voice, a mix between a child's and a masculine adult's, came from Freddy, one that didn't seem to come from the mech's vocals but something else entirely as Freddy's mouth wasn't moving.

"You don't know anything! You don't have any idea what we've been through, watching everyone else leave while we are stuck here because of YOU!"

The rides across the park and the buildings seemed to shake like an earthquake hit them yet the ground remained tame. Bee quickly realized it was Freddy who was moving them out of rage. The spirits were poltergeists and very pissed off ones at that. Being able to move entire structures though, that took a lot of power which said something about how angry these children really were.

Bumblebee quickly nodded but kept an eye on the larger rides nearby in case they fell towards him. "Your right, I don't know. But I want to know what happened so I can help you! Why you all won't tell me and instead are playing mind games really makes me think whatever it is involves something you don't want anybody to know about. So, tell me, Gabriel, what are you hiding?"

Freddy's eyes were nothing but white specs in blackened eye sockets before a blue mist overtook them and the dots disappeared. The mist ran from the edge of the eyes to the plated chin like the mech was crying but instead of the essence dripping down like tears below, it lifted and twirled before taking form on the Cybertronian's shoulder guard. All the Autobots stared as the blue mist became the outline of a human child no older than eight who had his back to them and arms crossed. When the spirit, as Bee assumed, did turn to meet them, his eyes were black with tiny white pupils and streaks of black seeping out of his eyes like the mist pouring out of Freddy's. Both forms were crying yet Gabriel looked angered if anything. The shell of the Cybertronian held out its servo for Gabriel to walk on it who gave a crude welcoming gesture and sarcastic smirk.

"Surprise, surprise! You look shocked! Were you expecting someone else?"

"Gabriel?" Bee carefully said.

The boy shrouded in blue like a ghoul answered with the same adult baritone mixed with what could have been thought to be his real voice. Why it was so dark was unknown. "Finally, someone remembers my name. Can't say I remember yours, Springtrap! Who the hell are the rest of you!?"

Any shred of child innocence was gone with this kid. Bumblebee still stubbornly held his ground. "Goddamn it, how many times do I have to say this? I'm not Springtrap! I'm Bumblebee, the Autobot leader."

"Let me guess, you want to finish off us poor, defenseless children?"

Arcee sucked in a breath and whispered, "Defenseless being the least truthful."

"Can't get anything past you, Gabriel, except the obvious that I'm not Springtrap...for the some-odd time in a row" Bee sighed. "I'm getting curious as to why you're such a smartass. Did your mother ever teach you some manners?"

"DO NOT TALK ABOUT MY MAMA! You try living in a prison of a body for thirty plus years only able to feel pain and being stuck to wander aimlessly," chastised Gabriel. "It's not a playdate, you idiot!"

Upon Gabriel's wordless command, the Cybertronian arm of Freddy extended to bring Gabriel close to Bumblebee's faceplates with a sneer. Apparently, Gabriel could control the Cybertronian body even on the outside just as easily. It was rumored through ghost hunters and such that when spirits had enough energy, they could move or control objects but that was usually through feeding off other living things. This was a whole new breed of ghost, and they were powerful enough to retain control of a larger-than-life robot and the animatronics based on them simultaneously. The Exorcist had nothing on this.

At the same time as Gabriel drew closer, the other Cybertronian possessed including Mangle, who caught back up, and Balloon Bot, who had finally broken out of the teacup ride and was glaring at Bee, manifested from the bodies into their own forms. Many of them were children around the same age as Gabriel and their spiritual mists they were formed from where the same colors as their Cybertronian bodies' optic colors. The bodies may have been soulless, but they still moved to the kids' wills. Mangle was oddly an adult and had a security guard uniform on when she presumably died which made her one of the victims of the kids since they hunted security guards as it was said.

Bumblebee stared at each ghost with a sense of horror on just how many victims of William Afton there were. The other Autobots didn't know about Afton yet, but Bulkhead was the most unnerved out of all of them with Knockout second, keeping close to Bee by intertwining his arm under Bee's. Arcee looked more impressed if anything, Optimus was slightly horrified but kept some composure, and Blurr had returned with a damaged gun to his head courtesy of Chica, so he looked more annoyed than surprised.

"If you aren't Springtrap then you must have stolen his coloring," quipped Gabriel who stood before Bee close enough to touch the point of his nose plate. Freddy lingered on command, occasionally opening and closing his mouth as if to say something right before Gabriel spoke again.

"How many of you are there?" Bee asked.

Gabriel grumbled like he was unsure. "I don't know. Ten-ish."

"There's more than ten of us, Gabe!" The voice of Susie said, her purple ghostly aura frowning.

Foxy's ghost, Jeremy, began calculating on his fingers. "Fifteen?"

"No way, there's more than that. Twenty-two!" Charlie argued.

"You all suck at math. There's six of us children plus the adults make nine, add Circus Baby and Marionette and you get eleven. The other guards don't count because they never came back. Have you been living in a rock? Do you see any other adults join us?" Susie argued.

Jeremy's yellow glow intensified as he grew frustrated and his Dinobot form pointed at her in sync. "The phrase is 'under a rock' and Marionette doesn't count, she's a bazillion years old!"

"She does too!"

"Does not!"

"Does too!"

As the kids went back and forth, Bee placed servos on his temples with a groan. "Guys, guys!"

The children became silent and stared at him as he gestured for all of them pay attention. "Look, it doesn't matter anymore how many of you there are. The question now is: do you remember what happened to you? Why are you guys here? Can we get those questions out of the way please?"

Gabriel nodded and his Freddy mech copied him. "The robot is right. Also, what type of name is 'Bumblebee'? Like you're a walking, talking robot but you have a name like Bumblebee, not Wasp or Hornet? Those sound much cooler. 'I am Bumblebee, destroyer of worlds!' See, it sucks. Nobody's going to fear that!"

Blurr snickered but immediately shut up when Bee shot him a look.

"He has a little bit of a point, Bee. Now that we know what a bumblebee on this planet is, your name is not that intimidating," Arcee laughed.

"Hey now, I like my name," Bumblebee defended. "And by the way, there already exists a mech named Wasp and he is my half-brother."

"Is he cooler?"

Another round of snickering was heard as Bee raised a servo in defense. "Well no, yes but no-Wasp is a troublemaker and he's made some pretty poor decisions in his life. Now he's trying, or I guess tried, to kill me for something I didn't even do but he blames me for it so I have that going for me."

"So, he is cooler?" Gabriel smugly said.

"Is this really where the problem between us is going to go, whether or not I'm cool. I'm the Autobot leader, how cool is that?"

The kid tried not to continue laughing, "Oh yeah no, sure thing."

"Can we get back on track please? Why are you here?"

The other children grew silent and even Stephanie who was the adult didn't say a word, she just sat on top of the armored Mangle head and caressed the armorless one. It wasn't until Gabriel hissed to himself that it occurred how painful the story must have been. He proceeded to sit on the edge of the servo holding him and even the mech Freddy gave a solemn groan of uncertainty.

"You really don't know, huh? You definitely aren't him then. We could never forget that day, that horrible day. Tried to forget it. We wanted to move on but the pain and the rage we felt looking over our own bodies as they were thrown away like trash. You don't know what we've been through."

Bumblebee boldly said, "Show me."

Gabriel slowly shook his head, "You...aren't ready for that. You don't understand! We kill to lessen the pain. We must kill the guards that look like him, it's the only thing keeping us sane, keeping us from harming other kids. The screams of terror, watching the blood drain from them and laughing like nothing's wrong. We're supposed to be innocent children. Innocent no more."

Optimus frowned, "If you were murdered, do you think by repeating this killer's actions, you are being better than he is? You are becoming no different than him if you do that same thing."

Gabriel all but flew from Freddy's servo and hovered right in Optimus' face, his aura enflamed. "YOU DON'T THINK WE KNOW THAT?! TRY PLAYING INNOCENT WHEN THE REST OF THE WORLD DRAGS YOU DOWN IN THE GUTTER! I HAD A LIFE, ONLY LIVED EIGHT YEARS OF IT!...while the rest of the world moved on and left us behind...because someone didn't give us a chance...because someone we were taught to trust and help us whenever we were in trouble...killed us."

Nobody said a word, even the darkness of the woods didn't dare speak. Gabriel floated back to Freddy's servo and the mech was just as tense as him, claws twitching.

"You have no concept of pain, not like this. We know about the Cybertronians and about you, Optimus Prime. Marionette used to tell us stories of the many robot species out there and what they did. Your tale is a fascinating one, but you couldn't save everyone on your team, could you?"

Optimus narrowed his optics. "That is-"

"Did you watch the light of their eyes fade and the only thing you could do was stare and move on? Did the blood wash off in the sink of the robots you killed, and you could carry on like the carnage you did didn't matter? It's like that for us now. Know why? You really start to not care when you realize if everyone else can do it, why can't I?"

Gabriel began backing away with a smirk on Freddy's palm as the arm of the mech retreated. Both Bumblebee and Optimus grew rigid as they grasped what the kid was playing at.

"A man who owned a pizza franchise, several animatronics, and a fun amusement mile one day decided to lure a birthday boy and his friends down to the basement with cake and games and nobody batted an eye. He got it in his head to stab them to death and the kids certainly didn't know what they did to deserve it, but he did it anyway. That man walked free for several years; nobody did a damn thing.

"And here we are. Lost souls who were ruined by a man who did what he did simply because he could. Now what type of message is that I wonder? If he can murder and it's okay, why can't I? If he can make people suffer because he can, why can't I? If several robot war machines can kill their own kind to survive and destroy their planet in the process because they simply can yet they can't even help themselves when they offer to help the likes of us...mm mm."

Arcee spoke softly, "Gabriel, that was a different circumstance. We had no control over our battles, but you do. Willing to kill is never the same as having to kill."

The child rotated his jaw in slight annoyance, "True. But how far can paranoia take you before you pull that trigger? How much pain can you endure with restraint until one day, you find the blood on your hands, and you just keep seeing the cup filling as the years go by and never once stop to think whether it's full? We do what we must even if it sometimes doesn't make sense. We were cheated and this is our home, put the pieces together and figure it out yourself."

Gabriel had the Freddy mech motion to the others to leave and they obeyed. The souls of the children returned to their Cybertronian bodies through the empty eye sockets and the optics of the bots reappeared. The crew began wandering off, some hopping the fence back into the park. Gabriel looked at a few of them with a small serious laugh.

"I suggest you leave here and never return. I don't care what Marionette told you, Bumblebee. Some secrets are best left alone, and others will just get you hurt. People die all the time. You would know. So, why bother fixing something that's never going to change? You can't be the good guy all the time. There's no Santa Claus, rainbows with gold at the end, or people who will give a damn when you're gone, just not how the world works...and that's coming from a kid."

And like that, Gabriel's spirit deconstructed itself and went back into Freddy who only gave Bee a glare of pity before walking away with little more than a grunt leaving the Autobots alone.


The remainder of the night was all about watching the children which was not the context one would presume it normally meant. Bumblebee and Knockout managed to get back into the fairgrounds but they had to keep their presence as minimal as possible to not upset the ghosts. They positioned atop the rails of an old roller coaster named Dino Danger which half of it was gone and sunk in the swamp below that developed over time.

There was one thing Bumblebee noticed in the fairgrounds: family came first. The large, damaged bodies of the long dead Cybertronians possessed by rage-induced children still had morals...somewhat. The children would tinker and fiddle with some of the rides kind of like how real children would experiment with some equipment around the house much to the adults' chagrin and of course, the adults like Mangle and Marionette would try and set them straight either how to do it properly or to not do it in general.

Bee had a feeling Marionette knew he was still in the park; she just didn't do anything about it. He figured if he didn't start shit, there was no reason for her to confront him. Speaking of whom, Marionette was the odd one out which was saying something because Ennard was an absolute bully and yes, he had returned irritated and murderous as well. She held no similarity to any Cybertronian he ever met, and he did recall her saying she wasn't even one to begin with, yet she had at some point studied them to relay their history to those children. Very mysterious.

She was the mother of all. The children did little to disobey her and the adults like Stephanie respected her enough to follow her lead. She was like a queen among them. Occasionally, Marionette would engage with the children from helping Chica fix one of her broken wings to indulging Foxy's unusual fixation on skateboarding which was funny because somehow Jeremy had built a huge version of skateboard made from truck parts and used the drained cement pad of the late wave pool on the far east area of the park. Seeing Marionette tread on a skateboard was an awesome sight.

But it wasn't as amazing as Dinobot Tony Hawk performing a half pike. Foxy was, to say the least, impressive on the board. Another piece of evidence for how long the children had gotten used to their Cybertronian forms was through Jeremy. It was like his real body. The precision for a ghost to control such a large vessel so fluidly was unmeasurable but Jeremy was doing fine like it wasn't even a problem. That led to Bumblebee thinking about what they were or could have been before their deaths, another thing he could figure out just by watching them.

Jeremy was a young skateboarder who could have been up with Tony Hawk by age twenty. Watching a heavy weight Dinobot doing a 360 ollie kickflip was proof of that. Sparks lit up the side of the pool as Foxy shredded the edge before dipping down and doing another half pike, gripping the edge of the pool to hold his weight a brief second and recorrect when his skateboard drifted a little off from the intended set up. There were a few times Jeremy did a bold trick and doubled it by bringing his spirit out of the Dinobot body to perform an aerial flip onto a smaller, kid-sized board, a real one to top it off, that came from somewhere inside the mechanoid. He did his tricks as his Cybertronian form kept skateboarding as well. The body was doing its own thing yet was kept in line by Jeremy as a split control. Two bodies, one mind. Of course, there was the human-sized animatronic Foxy sitting on the sidelines with Funtime Foxy cheering the kid on and from what Bee gathered, the animatronics were also in complete control of the ghosts. Then it was more like multiple bodies, one mind.

Jeremy seemed to have a striped shirt on and torn pants from the outline of his spirit like animatronic Foxy's pirate theme where horizontal stripes were often associated with them. Fitting. The boy had a backwards cap and a few cuts on his shirt and cheek, most likely...stab marks. Bee could only wince at the thought of the spirits retaining past injuries of their death and having to see them as a remainder for eternity what happened.

Susie was a little league soccer player. Her purple-colored spirit, despite having the black tears streaks and a few markings that bled black like the others, was as happy as could be. Her ghostly ponytail swung randomly as she played with her ball, balancing it between feet and kicking it to goal posts which were overturned bumper cars adorned with netting. Her Cybertronian Seeker body, Chica, was in limbo on the grass but it occasionally peered at Susie like it was checking on her or it was watching a blind spot for any danger or unwanted guests. When Susie hit the ball towards the body, it suddenly sprung up and copied Susie's tricks with a few new ones of its own though the ball was a bit smaller for the likes of such a huge bot. Like her spirit, the golden Seeker femme held pleasance in her face despite the pink waterfall of mist pouring from the empty eyes, her smile intoxicating. Bee could only see the animatronic Chica variants inactive near the Tilt-A-Whirl. Unlike Jeremy, Susie had no need for the other bodies in the downtime.

Charlie, who was a pink spirit, was going to be a musician, specifically a guitarist. He was much more laid back with a simple tee, shorts, and a rock n' roll wristband. Miko would have befriended him in a nanosecond had they met. Both the body of Hijack slash Bonnie and the child were playing on their respective instruments, trying to make a double guitar solo for Rock You Like A Hurricane by Scorpions. How the large Cybertronian had that big of a guitar made from what appeared to be loose scraps and it sounded great was beyond him, but it was like asking why Foxy had a skateboard made from a truck. The kids had enough free time to make their interests work even in their abnormal forms so there was nothing really to know except there was a lot of trial and error. Charlie hit the chords with a bit of flare and even though it wasn't the exact chord from the song, dare Bee say the flared chord improved it. Maybe he would have been a guitarist or one hell of a song writer.

Gabriel was hard to deduce but he was a talented leader. He was a valiant blue and had a cartoony dragon shirt on, denim pants, and he was fiddling with something in his hand, what appeared to be a kiddie crown like for a birthday party. Bee remembered Gabriel crudely telling him about a birthday boy that vanished that one night. He was the birthday boy. They must have all died on Gabriel's birthday. That's why he became Freddy, the leader. It wasn't just because of personality; he was the star that day and his friends came over to celebrate it at Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria. Even the body of Blacklight, Freddy's muse, was clearly not in a good mood because of Gabriel's visible disgust over the crown.

Over the course of the night, he would direct any of the bots who had questions with little problems. He was calm, collected even but there was a moment of anger sometimes when bothered by the same bot twice too much. It was hard for even Bumblebee to remember that they may have been forced to grow up mentally, they were still kids deep down so temper tantrums and pointless fights over little things were bound to happen. There was one thing Bee noticed and that was Gabriel kept going to the pizzeria. Since his Cybertronian form couldn't fit, he would leave it to go inside while it guarded the perimeter. What was so important inside he was hiding?

Stephanie, the yellow spirit of the Mangle, paced next to the remains of a Wipeout machine. Aside from the obvious of being a guard formerly by the outfit, Bumblebee had reason to believe along with Knockout's deduction that she had some sort of personality disorder or Schizophrenia. She seemed to constantly riff with herself like she was a separate person between sentences, and it didn't help that the Mangle was feeding off her emotions, both heads were snapping at each other. The armored head on the right side of the body was calmer and was talking a bit more while left armorless head talked more with its teeth and snapped its jaws wildly at the other. Calm and crazy. A split personality. It clicked. She had multiple or its real title, dissociative personality disorder. It wasn't common for split personalities to talk to one another as media often played the disorder out to be, but it wasn't impossible and being dead with possession of a two headed being...that wouldn't help the manifestation of such a condition either.

James as the Balloon Boy/Bot Minicon was another odd case. He seemed too young for any developing talents yet. The boy was thought to be aggressive but, with no one to fight, he looked frightened and on the verge of crying. The smile his body wore was nothing but a façade. The Minicon was scared. He was one of the only bots under a light and his spirit had not emerged. Why he was so afraid was another question but to Bee's surprise, Ennard walked over and curled into a loaf like a cat, tail curling around the smaller bot protectively. The way Ennard comforted the boy using his grapple claws in a delicate manner suggested that either Michael was a friend of James met with a fate worse than death when confronting the killer or he was directly related to him. The longer Bee examined the gestures and interactions between them, the more it could be confirmed this may just have been James' father or brother.

Michael also made seldom of an appearance as a human spirit. Out of all of them, Michael was never seen, and Bee began to wonder if he was even human ever. Ennard walked over and under most of the park looking for Bee after his defeat and each time the mechanoid came close, he and Knockout would duck by the railing of the coaster tracks until they were in the clear.

A bot that Bee had never seen before came out during the later hours of the night. She was a blue and white femme who had blue pearl-lined cloth wrapped across her optics, yet she danced through the fairgrounds like a pretty ballerina. Ballora. Ah yes, he remembered now. She was one of the names on the posters and her post-it under her animatronic's picture was dubbed Moondust and Theresa. Moondust must have been the bot's name and Theresa was the human soul possessing her. When the woman Theresa finally appeared in a shimmering pink aura, it was quickly seen she had a guard outfit as well, but she was also dancing. Perhaps she wanted to become a professional ballet dancer before her death, and she took night guard duty to pay her bills. Another potential talent destroyed.

As they sat around observing, Knockout held Bee's hand. "I know you didn't want another adventure with paranormal and the strange, but you have to admit they need our help. And maybe they aren't the only ones out there."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that maybe our worlds may not be connected directly other than the fact that Unicron is Earth, but our world had an impact with humanity and there's no denying that we are going to uncover more about both worlds than anyone could imagine. Maybe all of these mysteries are slowly coming around because it's fate and the universe wants you to fix what's been lost since a lot of this has happened under your destiny."

Bumblebee laughed, "Not likely. That's just a high coincidence."

"Coincidence? Or is it a calling? New cybernetic species, a whole generation of new Decepticons, an ink demon, child possessed Cybertronians...I believe everything happens for a reason. I believe I met you for a reason and here we are. Our worlds are connected, and the mysteries created because of this connection need to be discovered and solved by someone capable of taking that leap into the unknown. There are going to be more people and mysteries out there that are going to need your help, someone who knows the unknown. Would you refuse such a call like this?" Knockout smirked.

"Wh...well no," Bee said.

"Then as strange as this is, will you help them? And would you go through more challenges the world may throw at us in the future?"

"Yes. Why are you asking me this, pray tell?"

The medic scoffed, "Oh, no reason. I just wanted to know if my sparkmate was as brave and daring as they say the leader of the Autobots should be."

"I mean I'm not Optimus Prime, but I wouldn't turn down the opportunity to help."

"Exactly, which is why I love you."

"I love you too," Bee sweetly smiled back. They shared a brief kiss until Bee gestured to something down below.

There was a familiar face that appeared off to the side of the pizzeria. Gabriel and his mech body followed. A rustic gold version of Blacklight's Freddy and Gabriel's counterpart wandered with a lame walk across the northern area of the park. The Cybertronian known as Sunlight was almost an identical mold as Blacklight which meant the two Cybertronians when they were alive were siblings or twins but who possessed the twin of the mech now currently dubbed Freddy? Bee recalled a figure of a girl screeching at him alongside the mech the night before, her green spirit enraged unlike anything these other kids had demonstrated. Cassidy. Who was Cassidy?

Like Ennard and Balloon Boy, "Golden Freddy" wouldn't show her spiritual form. Gabriel always stayed close like...a brother protecting his sister, or vice versa given how aggressive she seemed to be. He could be wrong. Maybe they were really close friends, kid crush, or Gabriel just felt more comfortable around her. Whatever the case was, Cassidy was abnormally hypersensitive to her surroundings as Bee learned the hard way and Gabriel only followed her.

Golden Freddy paused across the old carnival game row, back facing them when abruptly, her form began twitching madly like she was having a seizure. At first, Bee was concerned but then her helm whipped around with moving the rest of her body and the neck cabling almost snapped from the position it was not supposed to be in. She was staring directly at them to both Autobots' horror. No other ghost sensed them aside from Marionette earlier, but she only gave a small side glance and shook her head in amusement. Cassidy somehow knew they were there.

"Knockout, should we run or...?"

"I'd leave very soon if not now...of course run!"

Both mechs immediately hightailed it across the roller coaster tracks as Golden Freddy gave a terrifying roar that sounded like metal being grinded against every surface known on Earth combined. Every ghost was now alerted and all came running including the Marionette who was faster than the others due to her slim, fluid movements compared to their more jagged, sluggish ones.

"We get out on that gate, we're safe!"

Knockout gave him an odd look. "I thought they could step out of the gate? They did it before when cornering us!"

Bee hopped over a bent portion of track, almost stumbling to regain footing. "Yes, but they can't go too far out, especially since dawn is approaching and they apparently don't like daylight much."

"Didn't think we were versing vampires all of a sudden."

"This is different. Something about the night keeps them going. I think it was night when they were murdered. It was day when they were celebrating Gabriel's birthday so Afton kept them trapped in the basement until nighttime so it would be easier to kill them with everyone thinking they left the fairgrounds. That means that-"

"Bee, maybe we should talk about this later."

"You're right, sorry."

Cassidy had climbed up the tracks quick and ran after them and both Autobots felt the rails shake from her footsteps. They were coming up to where the tracks were destroyed, and the only way down was to jump and hope for the best. It was somewhat of a relief that they were mechanical and had built-in shocks to absorb such a fall without damaging themselves or this was going to suck. Grabbing Knockout's hand, Bee jumped as Cassidy caught up with them. They narrowly missed claws swiping at their backsides where a small breeze could be felt on how close it came.

Upon freefall, Bee saw a piece of metal hanging off the side of the supports for the lost tracks and managed to grab it and swing them upright before they hit the ground, lessen their fall and optimizing their recovery from the landing. Knockout hit the ground on his feet and shook off the fall slightly moving backwards stunned while Bee immediately bounced up and grabbed him again to start running as Ennard slid around a game stand.

"Oh no, not you again!" The medic sneered.

Bee held a different thought. "Don't look back! Don't look back!"

The western entrance to the fairgrounds was open barely and when they reached it, Bee slid into the small opening like it was nothing whereas Knockout climbed through trying not to scratch his paintjob. Just as he was through, Ennard lunged but Bee acted quickly. He kicked the gates closed right into Ennard's faceplates, hearing a crack and the mechanoid lurched back in pain.

"Try me again, I dare you!" Bee said, punching his fists together as Knockout kept some distance between the gate and the forest.

When Ennard revealed his face again, there was a nasty crack on the right side of his face that went from the forehead down though the empty eye socket to the edge of the upper mouth. Even Knockout winced at the sight and almost touched his own face in horror. If looks could kill, Ennard flat out murdered Bee and even the Autobot leader regretted his action upon seeing that.

"Ssoorrryyy, so sorry."

"Are you torturing these souls already? I thought you would have left by now," Marionette sighed. She traced her hand over Michael's faceplates to assess the damage.

Bee sheepishly peered down, "Heat of the moment, didn't mean that."

The puppet almost giggled at such a response. "I should have warned you a bit more than I did about this place and its curse. Golden Freddy is not as lenient as her brother."

"Cassidy? She really is his sister, isn't she?"

She nodded, "Parents didn't just lose a child that night, Bumblebee, some of them lost everything. Cassidy and Gabriel were one year apart with a single mom and no father. The loss of them drove their mother over the edge. I couldn't fix that in time though I did try, it was too late. Jeremy left behind a little half-brother who looked up to him, a father and stepmom, mother passed away during childbirth so you could only imagine how hard it was on the father to lose not just his wife from the previous marriage but also his son seven years later. Susie only had a loving father who was also a coach, mother left them to go with someone else, so they bonded through sports and soccer was their favorite. He was never a drinker until then, lasted five more years before heavy drinking almost every night and the lack of rehab and therapy over his loss destroyed his career, his organs and his mind. Charlie had two mothers mourning; the stress of his disappearance didn't help their relationship after a few years. James and Michael..."

Marionette grew silent and turned to Ennard almost as if asking permission to tell his story. Bee eyed the wordless agreement and the doll-faced being slowly gave a grunt of disapproval like the story was going to be ten times worse. It was.

"Michael is the older brother of James. They are both...William Afton's children."

Bumblebee's jaw almost unhinged. "Wha-no, no, that man had kids!? And they're...no, wha...what did he do to you?"

Ennard almost looked ashamed, and James was behind him cowering. A dark voice, clearly an adult's, came from Ennard this time. "Made...mistake...I helped."

Bumblebee almost put a dent into the gate's spokes gripping them tightly in anticipation. He could only whisper, "What happened?"

Marionette opened the gate to Bee's surprise and walked up to him. None of the children nor Ennard approached him. She began her tale and Bee could only stare at her the entire time with mixed emotions hearing the details.

"William Afton created this park with the help of Cybertronian technology. He found a buried ship not far from here with...my crew inside. I'm not Cybertronian but I befriended Cybertronians. They perished in the crash, and I didn't know until I was awoken by Afton activating the outer perimeter sensors. I hid when I should have stopped him. I didn't know at the time what he was going to do with their bodies otherwise I would have killed him and none of this would have happened. So, he used their schematics to build animatronics with their coloring, made them animal themed to appeal to children. Afton hated children. He made them not to spread joy and fun to the children but to lure them so he could kill them to satisfy his murderous lust. Why he did it could be argued because he was sick, because he was in a lot of stress, but my answer is he did because he simply could.

"Michael and James Afton weren't his children; they were his test subjects. He and his wife didn't care for them. When Afton created his first animatronics, he used his youngest James to conduct a series of experiments by creating a set of 'Nightmare' animatronics, ghoulish versions of them and put them inside his own house to torment the boy every night. And Michael...at the time he was too young to know what he was doing was wrong. Michael was taught by Afton to bully his brother to increase his fear of the robots until they began to manifest into figments of his mind, no longer needing the real versions of the Nightmares.

"Michael teased James a bit too far during his birthday, placed James into the jaws of an animatronic known as Springtime Freddy and he didn't know how much pressure those jaws were really designed to operate and... those jaws crushed James' skull, took out his front lobe. He was taken to the hospital, but he only lived for three hours before succumbing to his injury. Michael was traumatized after that but that wasn't the end. James came back as Balloon Boy.

"With James out of the way, Afton began tormenting Michael with the guilt until he was seventeen, though he did teach his son to be a mechanic, and one day Afton tells Michael to take his place at the sister location animatronic warehouse Afton had. Michael didn't know why but then he met...her. Turns out Afton upset her and instead of facing his wrongs like a man, he sent his son down there and after a week of torture, Michael was confused of being William himself and she gutted him, took his skin and tried to leave the warehouse posed as him. It only lasted a week before she was forced to abandon it because how fast it rotted but the fact remains that he was killed because of his own father. Filled with hatred, Michael's spirit hijacked an experimental mechanoid you now know as Ennard and planned to kill his father with its body under his control."

Bumblebee felt the rage boiling inside him of how terrible William Afton was to his own children, but his rage subsided when he thought back through everything Marionette had said.

"Wait, you were a part of the Cybertronian crew? How did you get the children's souls into-?"

"My power is transcendence. Each of my kind has a power associated with the will of the universe, elemental, spiritual, cosmic, and more. When those children were killed, I captured their lingering souls before they left, and I thought to give them a chance at revenge. I'll admit I didn't think it through as well as I wanted to, but I put their souls into the bodies of my deceased friends and gave them life. As you can see, I rescued a few others as well. I was even there when Michael and James died. I gave them the power to go into those bodies. It worked until I realized I accidentally made a clause. They are bound to the bodies until the one that killed them is dead.

"Unfortunately, that was my biggest mistake. We did kill William Afton, cornered him when he tried to come back to retrieve one of the bodies he corrupted into his terrible contraption! He called it Springtrap fittingly. Shadowrunner wasn't the nicest of Cybertronians but would have never hurt his friends. Afton destroyed his memory by turning his body into a weapon of hate and despair! We cornered him, triggered the springlocks he set to move the body's endoskeleton so he could operate inside it like a suit. It was so beautiful, watching him die. But then I messed up."

Knockout was the one who spoke this time. "What did you do?"

Marionette stared in the direction of the pizzeria. "I revived him. I wanted him to suffer so badly that I...I brought him to life like I did the children. I didn't know that would cause the curse to rebound! Now they can't leave because William Afton is still alive in a way, a monster reborn!"

The Autobots didn't know what to think about that. Bee breathed in slight frustration at all this information. "So, you're telling me the one needed to break this curse is still alive but he's now invincible like you and the children."

He remembered what Bendy warned. Let's just say, I know who started all of this and they know how to end this...if they want to leave, someone must die.

"William Afton is the one who must die," Bee whispered.

Knockout gave him a look of concern, "What?"

"Marionette, where is William? Where is Springtrap?"

The puppet turned away and cringed in on herself like question was acid to her audio receptors. "It doesn't matter now. Dawn is approaching."

Bee gave an irritated side glance, "Alright fine, but I want you to answer one last question before I leave. Who is she? You mentioned Afton angering someone and she mistook Michael for him and killed him. Who did William Afton fear enough to send another person down in his place instead of dealing with the situation directly as he normally did?"

Marionette faced him again with a neutral expression. "James wasn't the first child to die in William's care. If one could say he had the capability to love other than the sickly-sweet relationship with his equally sadistic wife, it may just have been her. Elizabeth Afton, William's middle child. He spoiled her more than he gave a damn about the boys. But even his favorite paid the price of his madness. Elizabeth was killed out of her father tempting her curiosity by refusing to show a new animatronic he supposedly made. He warned her it was dangerous but at the same time, he kept the chamber unlocked so the child could visit...her. She was torn apart, and William was saddened but got over her death relatively quick.

"You read the notes hanging on that wall, you know their names but one of them is wrong. Maybe you didn't notice but there was one Cybertronian you haven't heard about and that is Starblitz, underneath her name mentions Elizabeth. Elizabeth didn't come back but her soul was absorbed, forced to endure a body she has no control over."

"Starblitz? Circus Baby? What do you mean?" Bee questioned.

"I wasn't the only one who survived that crash. Starblitz did too, but she didn't come back right. Afton found her like he did the others, upon realizing she was still alive barely he fixed her up though now she looks like a Cybertronian clown. Since Afton didn't have the proper medical equipment to fix her, his tinkering with her processor caused her to go mad. The clown image her forced upon her didn't help matters either. She became obsessed with him, hurting not just other humans but the animatronics and us trying to get to him. The rest, well, you know how that ended up going.

"Apparently, she retained her abilities scary enough. Starblitz is the largest Minicon ever created. Yes, she is classified as a Minicon despite being almost the same size as your two-wheeled friend we saw earlier. She can size-shift between her original form and the size of a human. She took Michael's skin in the hopes she could disguise herself to leave the underground and seek her revenge. It didn't work at first, the skin only lasted a week but over the years, she's learned to maintain human skin for much longer without it rotting. She uses it any chance she gets. And that's not mentioning her energy powers which she forms from her spark, often channeling it into a makeshift staff she designed that she could summon or deconstruct at will.

"She was once my friend but now, she's insane and I can't say I blame her truly. But you must promise me something, Bumblebee. Promise you will not seek her out. She will kill you, probably manipulate you to getting what she wants before destroying everything that you are, and your friends will be next. Afton angered her by betraying her trust when he promised he would fix her and instead, he went and turned her into that clownish...thing. She's terrorized everything and everyone since. Another problem to add to the curse."

Bee processed as much as he could with a flabbergasted, blank glare. "So let me recap, you put the souls of the children into the dead bodies of the crew who Afton experimented on, he created more mechs he shouldn't have hence why more spirits are haunting bodies originally not existent, he killed his own children and became Springtrap through a miscalculated scuffle (the guy everyone needs to kill again to be free), and he made one of your crew bat-shit insane to where she poses another diabolical threat on not just you but all of us if she ever got loose again?"

"Basically yeah," Marionette chuckled. "Fun, right?"

This was the point where Bee lowered his head in defeat and just side glared at Knockout. "Remember when you said I have a destiny to help the people trapped in the clashing of our worlds? Well, I was kind of hoping you were wrong."

The bells of the fairgrounds rang out and all the possessed mechs roared and quickly ran to various buildings across the park. Six o'clock was here and the dawn's light was breaking through the haze of the forest. Marionette only turned away from Bee and began walking away in no hurry.

"Hey Marionette?"

The puppet stared at him but didn't say a word.

"I'm going to get to the bottom of this no matter how much you try and dissuade me. I've killed immortal ink monsters and dealt with many insane Decepticons. I'll find a way, I always do," he bragged.

And with that Bee himself walked away, leaving Marionette in her thoughts.


AN: A night's worth of information. Three nights to go. What will happen? Turning these characters to Cybertron equivalents was hard as hell but I managed. Also, if anybody spots the mistake of calling Moondust (Ballora) "Avia", that was her original nickname but I changed it. Unfortunately, it still is on the other two fics as FanFiction won't let me edit chapters without having to replace the entire chapter.