"Chica!" Tessa waves her over, grinning ear-to-ear. As Chica approaches her closely, she takes note of Tessa's guitar decked in spontaneous colors.

"Hey Tessa, what's up?"

"Practicing for tonight's concert. Want to rock a few chords with me?" She nods towards Chica's own guitar on the side.

Chica grasps her instrument, listening to Tessa rocking a few notes. "Hey Tessa?"

"Hmm?"

"I want to apologize."

"Don't sweat it Chica-leeks, I totally get it. I would freak out too if some random robot was taking my place. But no worries, nothing but good vibes from this tiger. Once you recover, maybe we could talk to Gabe to consider reprogramming me to play the drums? I have noticed that there are a lot of songs that contain them, and I look good with a pair of sticks."

The way Tessa worded it made it impossible not to chuckle. "Yeah, of course. Also, thanks for your support the other day. The more, the merrier." She gets this feeling that Monty and Roxy were not thrilled to be around her, much less support her. She understands, giving her behavior, she just didn't think that they would hold onto a grudge this long. Then again, Monty has anger issues and Roxy's a self-egoistic snob. They're both going to need an intervention after she recovers.

Tessa seems to know what she's feeling. "Hey, Monty and Roxy will come around. They can't be that stubborn to let one incident destroy years of friendship."

"I guess you're right."

"Of course I am! Anyways, what did they say about your diagnostics?" Chica shrugs, not sure of an answer herself. She had come out of shutdown mode to see an anxious-looking Vanessa – well, Vanessa is always anxious, poor girl is too young to be dealing with excess burnout. – And Gregory, who usually sassy or sarcastic, had this look of terror like he saw a ghost.

That was two days ago. It was nearing the end of the week before she asked and the only answer she would get from her human friends was "we're working on it." That's it. They wouldn't even say it while looking at her face-to-face. She doesn't think that they know that she saw their reactions at her test.

"Let's talk about something else. How about I help you with a few pointers to wow the crowd."

"Oh, you don't have too –"

"It's the least I can do."

"Sure, but before that, you could help me with something."

"Sure Tessa." The tiger mindlessly plays with her guitar giving a nervous grin. "I've only been here a few days, and Monty's got this insane crush on me..."

No kidding.

"But I just don't like him like that. Honestly, I think he and Roxy would make a great egocentric couple..."

Chica laughs.

"Freddy, on the other hand." Tessa swoons. "He's such a gentle giant. How could he have gone this long without a leading lady? Roxy, I don't think is his type and he talks about you so much, I would think you two have something on the DL?"

Anger rises through her system, provoked that Tessa had the audacity to try to make a move on Freddy, even though they weren't together. Not by a long shot. She'd avoided asking the Why for the longest time because she didn't have an answer. Now she did. Mostly it's because she values Freddy so much as a friend, that if they did date and things went wrong, it would hurt. Because she didn't know if he felt the same about her. Either situation comes up, there goes years of friendship and the start of uncomfortable awkwardness. She couldn't risk it – ironic as she was supposed to betray a guitarist in the 80's compelled to take risks.

She answers earnestly, despite the words flowing from her mouth like bitter garbage. "No, we're just friends. Tessa, if you like Freddy, go for it. Maybe you two could go on a date. He can talk about anything as long as it's not involving breaking the rules or getting put in danger." She strums a note. "Now, let's get to those pointers, shall we?"


"Seriously Gabe, back off! They're not scheduled to perform for another ten minutes." Vanessa spats in irritation, watching Gabe boss everyone around, including the repair bots, despite her assurance that everything is running smoothly.

"Wouldn't hurt to ensure backups for the backups, I don't want any of them to do a surprise attack on my guests." He retorts with a subtle glare towards Chica.

"Funny how they're your guests when you want to take credit for everything."

"I am the CEO –!"

"Who's business wouldn't last 10 seconds if you had to run it yourself. Unless you want to trade in your Gucci's suit for tech slacks, piss off and let me do my job!" Vanessa orders.

The CEO frowns and with a roll of his eyes, he mumbled, "Carry on.", leaving Parts and Services.

"Ness, you should take it easy, your blood pressure is rising." Chica notes, seeing a critical warning pop across her viewing of the adult woman's readings. She wishes to console her friend further, if she didn't have to stay put in the Key-X machine. Freddy calms Vanessa down and motions for her to take a walk and it seems to work since she mentions she'll be back in a couple of minutes.

"Your sister's gonna end up like Chica – strapped to a hospital bed with tubes sucking blood out of her if she doesn't chillax." Monty comments.

"Easy for you to say, you don't pay bills." Gregory retorts. "And seeing how you all act humanlike, it'll be funny if humanity incorporates animatronics into society. Although, I'm already convinced that you and Roxy won't last a second."

"Hey!"

"Rude."

Chica giggles.

"But if I were a human, I would be alongside Tony Wooden before laughing at his sorry self as I take his place in the PGA tours."

"An international model – the cameras love me. I can spend hours posing for the paparazzi as I shop store to store."

"Geez, you two sure have unrealistic expectations." Tessa teases. "I don't know what I would want to do, haven't given it much thought. Chica?"

"Why bother asking her? We all know she'll open up one pizzeria after the other only to go bankrupt from eating the inventory."

"Very funny Monty. Actually, I was thinking about being a rehabilitation counselor. I can imagine you always losing and getting angry. You're going to need one considering you're always raging to compensate for something else."

"Burn!" Gregory, Tessa and Roxy shouts, laughing as Monty fumes with anger. Freddy shakes his head with a small smile. Vanessa returns to the scenery intrigued and confused. Do I even want to know? "Okay Glamband, two minus till launch." She announces, ushering them out the room to let the other contractor technicians check them over as they board the lift. She returns and asks. "Monty's even more furious than before, what did you guys do?"

"Living life in an alternative universe, it's probably best that you don't know." Chica responds. "How long do I have to be here?"

"You're about 45% done." Gregory states, hearing the animatronic groaning. "Could I watch the concert?"

"Cheeks, you sure? I don't want you to get upset over the fact that you can't play."

"Ness, I'm going to be upset from the intense boredom! I want to see the concert."

"Mm, okay." Vanessa types in a command. A projector streams towards the main stage, just in time for the announcer to welcome her bandmates onto the stage. And for the remaining two hours she watches, imagining herself playing the guitar and dancing alongside Freddy, humming the lyrics. She glees with excitement hearing the crowd roar over Tessa's remarkable dance skills.

The crowd is cheering louder and she refocuses her attention to listen to the repeated chat. "Encore! Encore! Encore! Encore!"

"Vanessa, they're wanting an encore." Chica hears the technician from where he stood at the door. "Does this usually happen?"

"No, I didn't think I would see the day."

"They're going to need another list, your authorization is needed – Ronny already went ahead to cue them to stall the crowd, but Freddy could only talk for so long."

"Go Vanessa," Gregory pushes her towards the exit. Chica watches the screen as seconds later, the Glamband jump into another set of songs, exclusively for tonight's audience. Never in her years she's been activated has Chica ever heard the crowd asking for an encore. Her fingers twitch, mindlessly rocking out her air guitar to please the crowd. She could hear them chanting her name, "Chica rocks! Chica rocks!"

Pathetic.

Huh? She snaps back to reality, looking around as much as she's allowed to. Who said that?

Look at them having a great time, without your inconvenience...

She squawks. Not you again.

"Chica?" Gregory talks to her through the microphone, noting the unusual coding that's taking place. "What's going on, what are you..."

Chica couldn't hear him. The next time she blinked, she's back in her greenroom. Only, rather than the usual pink and green lighting, it's covered in dust, debris and sullen shades of gray. The large window which was supposed to be a viewing of her in Rockstar Row, was caked with greasy stains behind an unbreakable prison bar. There were no doors, nowhere to escape the inner turmoil descending upon her.

They should have decommissioned you the first night. The voice taunts from an undisclosed location. You will never be good enough for these people.

Where are you? Show yourself coward! She shouts with her fists shaking. She's heard this voice before. It taunted her the night when she lost control. She swore the day she felt like she was going to malfunction, she would personally give this entity a beatdown.

Coward? You are not to talk considering that no one will think of you to be brave. You're nothing but a weakling.

Show yourself! Quit hiding!

How long does one remain hidden when its already revealed?

An endless dark hole appears on the other end of the room, slowly sucking any matter of light into the endless void. A branch of the void grips onto her ankle, forcing her back on to the ground and pulling her towards the endless darkness. Give in.

No!

Give in to the darkness. It makes them fear you. You cannot fight a losing war.

No! Leave me alone!

"Chica!" She could hear Gregory yelling her name repeatedly, desperately wanting to respond – a cry for help, as the darkness crushes her while it pulls her.

You cannot save your friends; you cannot save yourself. Darkness gives power and it's only a matter of time before it consumes you.

A wave of feeling electrocuted allowed for her to escape the void. It hisses while she scurries to the other end of the room. She feels it staring at her, despite being an endless void.

You will never win this war. You cannot stop me, I'm already victorious. For them to destroy me will be to destroy you. It slowly shrinks in size. One will never remain hidden when its already revealed...

"Chica? Chica!" Gregory's shaking her, desperately trying to wake her. He knew something was wrong the moment he noticed unauthorized coding plaguing her systems. Then Chica was unconscious and shaking. The only thing he knew was to shock her as many times as needed, hoping to start a system reboot.

"Ugh..." Chica opens her eyes, resting her purple orbs on the child shaking her. "Gregory?" Her eyes widened at what just occurred. She pushes Gregory off her and onto the floor. "Gregory! What are you doing here! My safety protocols were turned off! You could have gotten killed, what were you thinking?"

"Chica, what happened to you?" He's on his feet, trying to make sense of what happened himself.

"Something was trying to take control of me, it's so dark and cold in there..."

One will never remain hidden when it's already revealed...

"Gregory, be honest with me." Chica starts, "What did you find in my diagnosis?" He stood there, nervously twirling his thumbs, which made her push the question until he did answer.

"We found a virus. We don't know how it got there but we've – "

"You found a virus and you weren't going to tell me?" She barks. "Why?! Why would you do that!"

"It wasn't intentional! I thought we would have the resistance software figure out – "

"And?" She presses. He doesn't respond. "You haven't figured it out yet?"

"We just need more time."

"Time for what? You make me do all of these stupid tests while you kept a secret that could very well kill me? I'm your friend! Friends don't keep secrets from each other!"

"I'm sorry–"

"For Pete's sake Gregory! How am I supposed to trust you?"

"Chica please..." Gregory yelps, when she leaps off the gurney, squeezing his shoulders and pinning him against the glass.

"This was everyone's plan all along? I'm not some ditzy chicken robot who's going to let you play me like some game you could restart! THIS ISN'T A GAME! THIS IS MY LIFE!"

"Chica stop! You're hurting me, stop!"

Let me take control. I'll show them what you're truly made of...

Her eyes widened, pushing Gregory out of the cylinder and closing it, holding it shut with all her body weight. "I'm not safe to be around..."

"Chica –"

"No, please just leave me alone. I can't trust myself around anyone." She presses against the door, holding her legs and rocking herself to ease the shaking. Instead, she felt a void surrounding her with an unfamiliar feeling of loneliness.