Chapter 13:

Deviancy II

Gregory and Lily had a serious talk by the lake. Chaos ensued.

He didn't expect it, he didn't expect it at all.

Apparently, the company, so-called Fazbear Entertainment, which was in charge of running the gigantic Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex building, was no more than scumbags who could not simply take responsibility for the missing children incidents that had been taking place for a considerable amount of time since. It was forgivable when they decided not to equip Freddy with better gear which might have tremendously increased the bear's knowledge about the outside world, such as a pre-programmed dictionary since he knew nothing unless was directly taught which objects are called, or data that contained the most basic and elementary concept from everyday life since he critically lacked common sense when referring to the outside world.

But then, all chose to switch routes with a one hundred and eighty degrees turn, flipping the table so hard that even the craziest plot twist of a TV show had to bestow its regal throne. It was utterly unforgivable when they decided not to take any action regarding the missing children reports as if those reports didn't exist at all. Despite having been called out multiple times, they somehow managed to get away thanks to the corruption in nowadays justice system. Oh, how he despised politics in spite of not knowing anything about it. He would never understand how easy it was for trusted authority figures to be tempted into wrongdoings with just a heap of "green papers".

Thanks to that, the disappearances not only didn't stop happening but also welcomed an uninvited guest into the building – a literal killer lady in a rabbit costume casually dancing around the corners, hands holding a knife, ready to strike any unfortunate victims who remained stuck inside after closing hours. Talking about closing hours, how did the company think it was a fantastic idea to have only one human security guard patrolling the enormous Pizzaplex and watching tenths and hundreds of CCTV screens simultaneously? Did they have a shortage of cash so bad that they couldn't even hire another or more humans to help guard the area?

Sure, there were the STAFF bots, which were no more than a piece of junk as they had effortlessly lost to a hide and seek game with a ten-year-old boy, not to mention how many of them were in the seeker team and still they failed. They could grant the Glamrock animatronics awareness of the surroundings, yet they couldn't do the same to the bots. He thought they were easily capable of doing it since they would only need to program one of them and then copy the codes to the others through a chip or something. Wasn't that how programming worked in the first place? He might not an expert, but at least he had some common senses.

Evil company and corrupted judges asides, he still had a long day ahead. Now that Lily and her brother, Daniel, had spotted Freddy, he might have to come up with another plan for today. That was, getting the siblings to get used to the bear's appearance as the girl wouldn't stop shaking whenever she stood near the bear.

Just when he was about to join Freddy in the mood in front of the lake, a cold hand grabbed him from behind. He turned around, only to be shot at by a serious glare of Lily.

"Gregory, we need to talk.", said the menacingly stern voice of her.

"Um… Don't you want to join Freddy?", he asked, somewhat anxious upon his friend sudden changes on the face. "You guys can have some fun. I won't interrupt."

The girl said nothing, instead, her gaze grew gloomier, hand holding him tighter. This worried him. Then, having given no time to react, he was pulled to a nearby bush. Being slapped by small twigs and leaves, he squeaked with eyes closed while trying to keep his balance. After a short trip through the shrubs which felt like thorns to the skin, both emerged and found themselves in another part of the forest. He opened his eyes, causing the panic to be moments from taking over as he assumed he got separated from the gang. Fortunately, the lake was still situated nearby, and Lily was still standing in front of him.

The girl dusted the dirt off her clothes, before turning at him with that same serious look again. Both said nothing for a few moments as each side could only stare at the other.

"W… What is it?", he insisted. For some reason, this took effort.

Upon hearing that, the girl widened her eyes as if she was waiting for him to speak up.

"What do you mean what is it?!", she loudly rephrased, sounding panicked. "That's literally the mascot of Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex – the iconic lead singer of a famous animatronic band, beloved by almost every child and teenagers alike across the world, owned by one of the world's most well-known and controversial entertainment companies - the one and only… F-Freddy Fazbear! And you, Gregory, you were able to get to talk to him in person, was gifted a limited-edition Novelty Fazwatch by him, managed to sneak out a Fazcam out of Monty Golf, escape the Pizzaplex with him… Heck! You even got to climb into his stomach hatch as well! I… I mean… n-not that I'm jealous or anything…"

Then, she stopped and began hyperventilating again. A few seconds later, having regained composure, she started speaking again.

"S-Sorry… I got taken away a little bit. Let's… talk about this while walking on the shore."

Until now, Gregory remained firm, as still as a statue while obliviously blinking at every word exclaimed by the girl. At first, he assumed she would jump excitedly around Freddy since how many times he had listened to her admiring the bear's singing talent and adorableness like any children would do whenever they talked about their biggest idol. Oh, and how dead wrong he was. When the two accidentally came across each other out of nowhere, things didn't go out as he had thought: Freddy wouldn't stop twirling his fingers, and Lily wouldn't stop trembling her hands. He never had a chance to fully see her face at that moment as to how dangerously awkward it was back then – it was quiet, utterly quiet.

"Sure…"

With that, both diverted their route towards the white sandy bank beside the crystal-clear water. Just before, their footsteps produced the crunchy noises of the dried leaves. Now, those crispy sounds were no more, instead, silenced crumps were created here and there whenever their shoes squeezed the soft, yellow powder beneath. The air felt like there was water floating within it, increasing the moisture as well as the coolness like a morning breeze. They walked in whispers so that both could listen to the whispering of the dying waves as they slowly venture their way towards the shore. For a short moment, there was peace, for mother nature was caring and thoughtful, for father sky was calm and protective. For a short moment, tranquillity.

"I just… can't get used to it yet.", the girl finally spoke up. "Not that you are younger than me, we are only just a year apart. I mean talking to Freddy that is. It just feels… I don't know. Weird? I have no idea how to even describe the feeling. Extreme awkwardness, I guess?"

"Yeah, I get that.", he replied. "I mean, who would have thought of meeting you in the middle of the woods? If I were you, I would have freaked out as well."

The girl giggled, soon her face turned serious again. "For real, though, how exactly are you going to handle Freddy from now on? I have surfed the Internet just this morning, there wasn't any article mentioning his disappearance. Although, I suspect that the media would explode upon hearing the news sooner or later. Maybe, it is being broadcasted right now, as we speak. You guys are lucky to be in a forest, the police might be looking for you two."

"Well, since I managed to steal one of their vans, Freddy can hide in there while I am driving,", he said. "It still has a lot of fuel left, so I don't have to worry about it running out of gas for a while. But then, since Freddy was put on reduced power, I have to regularly charge him using the van's battery every now and then, which, sadly, consumes fuel. And I don't even know what to do next when the van runs out of gas."

"There's a gas station nearby. You can… O-Oh, right, you are just a boy, and you don't have any money. I nearly forgot about that. Sorry."

Gregory couldn't help but give the girl a defeated smile. "Right now, I just want to find a mechanic or somebody who knows how about robots so that I can get his battery fixed, or maybe replace it for good. After that…"

But he stopped and started pondering. What happened after getting the bear's annoying battery problem done? Find a shelter and start a new life? Continue the adventure around the country to show Freddy more about the outside world? Come across people who were trustworthy and willing enough to take care of him while having to pay electric bills to recharge an animatronic bear? Sounds like the best possible outcome he and the bear could have, although he would prefer being nomads moving from place to place, which meant he could teach his friend more about human society and other aspects of everyday life of a human person. But then…

"I miss my friends. I want to help them; I want to free them from that confining chamber."

No longer trapped in the Pizzaplex, no longer bounded by the repetitiveness of everyday life in the orphanage, he was free, released from his own dreadful prison, he was welcomed by the outside world, was nurtured under the loving arms of mother nature. With fewer things to worry about, he felt rested, relaxed. He was happy. But then… Would Freddy be happy? Would someone happily enjoy their everlasting freedom when their friends were still imprisoned in that hellfire internment? For friendship was something more precious than that of jewels and gemstones, how one would cope with eternal solitary, let alone the fact that there were so many undiscovered sinister fragments of the world that none knew of?

Would they continue to fight for freedom, or succumbed to the overwhelming emotional breakdown before even getting the chance to redeem?

"After that… what?"

The boy was pulled out of his thought, he stared at the lake, lost in reflection. "I… I don't know. I don't really know. I haven't thought about it yet. Finding a mechanic is already hard enough, convincing them to help would be even harder. I don't even know when the opportunity comes, but I will definitely not let it pass, despite how risky it would turn out to be."

"I wish I could help. But neither of my family members and relatives is a mechanic nor knows how to fix an animatronic bear.", the girl dryly laughed. "Things would have been much better if Freddy didn't have his power reduced, right? I mean, if that was true, then you guys wouldn't be so rough right now."

"Hehe. Yeah."

The two continued walking for another moment as they playfully skipped over the dead branches lying on the white sand.

"Hey, Gregory,", said Lily, "there is something I want to tell you."

"What is it?", he asked.

"Earlier, back when we were talking about how Fazbear Entertainment not taking their responsibility in handling the missing children incidents and how it was told that they bribed the juries to get away, I caught a glimpse of Freddy's face. He was… sad.", mused the girl, sounding worried. "I have… never seen him being like that before. I know that he is supposed to be happy and playful. And since he can show actual feelings towards others, he can express negative feelings as well. But… It's just that, seeing him being down is… uh, not very him at all. You know what I mean?"

He felt he ought to be surprised upon hearing such unexpected information, yet, he didn't. At first, he didn't pay attention to the details. Now that the girl had mentioned it, he couldn't help but take another moment to consider it again.

When he first met Freddy, the bear was naïve and curious, often probing him with numerous questions about the outside world, of what it looked like and how vast it was. There were times he had difficulty explaining to the bear what to do and not to do, what was right and what was wrong. Still, in the end, remained the innocent face. But then, as time passed, came the gradual changes. For the first time ever, when the bear was able to have both of his legs trampled the lush green grass below, have his first-ever sight of the rising fireball in the sky, to make first contact with insects and animals alike, and to wondrously gaze upon the night sky… things were changing at a slow and steady pace.

Asides from the usual curiosity and overprotectiveness, there was also the negativeness: grief and panic – emotions that were often experienced by humans and animals alike. But this was Freddy he was talking about. What would happen when a robot underwent what wasn't healthy for its programming from time to time? Should he be worried about it, for emotions was something not to juggle and make fun of? Or should he let it be, for emotions was the key to fully experience life and feel what it feels like to live?

He nodded. "Y-Yeah. Although I didn't notice it back then, I understand what you mean."

The girl carefully scanned his eyes for a few seconds, making him divert his gaze to the left uncomfortably. Then, her eyes widened a bit.

"I guess this isn't the first time it has happened?"

"Y-Yes…", he stuttered, fingers scratching the head.

"…What happened?"

Gregory remained silent for a short while.

"Well, we had a quarrel just this morning."

"O-Oh… I did not expect that. H-How come?"

The wondered whether he should tell the girl about it or not, for the reason behind such disagreement was a little hard for a person to comprehend, let alone how uneasy he felt when talking about it. Then again, what could go wrong if he did tell it?

"It's Freddy, he said he wanted to… uh, help his friends escape the Mega Pizzaplex."

There was silence.

"What!?"

Suddenly, Lily grabbed him by the hand, and once again, he was pulled away. Later, they stopped at a fallen tree trunk, and all sat down. The air was tense, and Gregory felt like he was moments from a heart attack. He turned to look at the girl, who was giving him a dead stare. Ultimately, she sighed and decided to speak up.

I shouldn't have said that…

"Tell me everything again, start from the beginning."

Some things were only real if Lily believed in them, and of course, if it came with a folder that contained all of the pieces of evidence, for insanity could only be sanity if she did it right and kept all her intellect intact. In truth, it was her secret key to virtually infinite genius creativity. It came at a cost, though. Once she opened that door, the door to the ultimate truth, she must be ready for the cruel and wicked aspect of the world, the world that was thought to be peaceful and harmonic. That had always been the way, believing in science and respecting the invisible and abstract concept of the mechanism which made the world run. Believe in being a hero, in a warrior for love and peace,… and interesting new doors would open for her. In the end, what had she got to lose other than the standard cookie-cutter version of sanity?

Well, it seemed that the method didn't seem to work with the idea of robot rights and their artificial awareness. Laughably, to be precise, her method of understanding ceased to make sense whenever the subject was heavily affected or related to the branch of philosophy. Philosophy was fun and interesting at first, or so they had said. It was until one finally realized what its knowledge consisted of that their brain started melting down bit by bit. The purpose of philosophy, from the ancients onwards, was to expand the mind with questions that science could not answer. Thus, the time had come to retire some of the classic questions of philosophy because they had provable answers.

She wondered: What conclusion could a machine infer after a basic lesson of the two ways of viewing the world – that was, materialism and idealism? Would it decide to side with one and reject another, or perhaps, came up with a viewpoint of its own?

"Jesus Christ... I…"

After listening to Gregory's extra-detailed explanation, starting again from the very beginning, she was completely speechless. Not really though, for she could still utter some basic words and half-finished sentences which managed to wholly convey their literal meaning. Asides from having a tied tongue, she was glad that her heart didn't skip any beat, else she would have been uncontrollably performing hyperventilation by now. She was also glad that her brain didn't experience any migraine, else she would have been lying on a hospital bed by now. She couldn't get the idea of how the boy could keep his mind sane after hearing such an unprecedented statement made by an animal animatronic, not to mention, it came from the well-known mascot of an entertainment company!

Who would have thought?

"Oh my gosh. Gregory, I didn't know that he would… Holy…"

They were real - the feelings, the sensations, the emotions. As artificial as they might sound, they weren't fake like a painted smile on a bland shell of an animatronic. Despite being told that mere emotions were the result of complex and careful coding, what if the bots had already grasped the concept of feelings, only for them to be unable of conveying them, simply because they lack the features to do so? Just then, she realized how horribly wrong she was. How awfully mistaken she was to think that such machines would never be able to truly express their feelings from the bottom of their "heart", that such machines would never be able to fully understand what it felt like to live, that such machine would never be able to have affection towards each other…

She was wrong, dead wrong.

Her brother was right, this was so fucked up.

"I can't believe that Elon guy was right…", she thought out loud, forgetting the fact that the boy was still sitting next to her.

"Elon? Who's that?", the boy raised a brow.

She jumped, not knowing what she had done. Seconds later, she realized the situation. "O-Oh… Elon, you know, the man who sent a Tesla into space."

"Oh... What about him?"

"Well, he warned people about the uncontrollable rise of artificial intelligence and that they would soon take over us or something like that."

"W-Wait. H-Hold up…", stumbled the boy. "You mean Freddy is going to revolt and turn against us?!"

"O-Of course not! Don't get me wrong. I don't think he would become rebellious like the ones portrayed in movies and science fiction. It's just that… after listening to you, I have a feeling that Freddy would eventually break free from his 'safety measures' so that he can freely do whatever he wants. It's already hard to predict what he is going to do next, let alone predicting without any foundations or a line of codes to calculate. That's like… the equivalent of guessing a stranger what they are going to buy in a supermarket, and we don't even know if they are going to the supermarket or not. Can't you see? It's completely random since there are so many possibilities!"

The boy stared at her, he seemed to be lost in oblivion. Perhaps, she overreacted again. Ugh, not again. Whenever the word 'Freddy' was mentioned, her mind went back to spinning crazily, her brain continued melting nonstop as if the name was not meant to be spelt out nor talked about. It felt like having a headache - the kind that stopped all other traffic in the brain, as suddenly all had met with red lights – the one that told her it was time to rest someplace quiet, to ride out the storm within her brain, for in time pain did ebb. A headache could be just that, or a sign of something else, like a warning not to probe further in the subject about the deviancy and consciousness of a mere machine.

"S-Sorry again…", she apologized, somewhat embarrassed. "I usually speak nonsense when things got out of hands."

"I-It's okay. I get what you are trying to say.", replied the boy.

She weakly chuckled. "No. No, you're not. And you will never be able to."

As the two gave each other a weak smile, both returned their gaze at the lake in front. The lake view was her salve because of the memories it kept, that sense of love so safe in rocky peaks. It calm her soul as if that body of water was as much within her as out there in the cradle of mountains. She wondered if she would ever notice water had she been born in the oceans with fins for limbs. She supposed then it would have been her air and she would have moved within it more easily than a bird in the sky. As it was, she loved diving within those bland and formless arms and feeling the freedom it gave, transparent and blue, soft and strong.

"You know, Freddy is really good at fishing when it comes to using a spear.", said the boy. "I mean, yesterday, I taught him how to fish using a wooden spear I crafted, he was really excited. You should have seen how he created a gigantic splash that wetted both of us. He struck the water so fast that I couldn't even see the movement at all! I think some of the water even evaporated!"

Did he literally craft a spear from a tree branch? Her mind pondered, but it didn't care much anyway after knowing the boy could drive a van and recharge an animatronic bear.

"Really? Sounds fun! But sorry, I don't want to get all my clothes dotted with muds.", she playfully joked. "What else did you teach him?"

"Well, since his power was limited and at that time, we hadn't known the van battery could still be used to charge him, he had to go in rest mode to preserve power. We didn't learn anything that entire afternoon. I got bored, so I decided to have a short walk in the forest. That was when I met you."

"Oh, right. That explains why I only saw you and not Freddy. I mean, If I were Freddy, I wouldn't even think to let you roam mindlessly in the woods by yourself. So… What happened when the night came?"

"I was setting a campfire when Freddy woke up from rest mode. So I decided to pull a prank on him. It… didn't go well… But hey, at least the sky was starry that night!"

"A-Ah…", she mused while feeling both curious and nervous about the outcome of the prank done by the boy. "So, you taught him about space?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, since there was a lot of things to tell, we spent hours talking about it: the Big Bang theory, the galaxies, the Milky Way, the constellations, the stars and planets, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the entire Solar System, red dwarfs, brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, red giants, supergiants, hypergiants, supernova explosion, neutron stars, black holes, wormholes, dark matter -"

"Woah, Woah, Woah!", she exclaimed, interrupting the boy. "Big Bang theory? Neutron stars? Black holes? Even dark matter!? Don't you think it's too much for a beginner like him? I mean, he has yet to know about the outside world, let alone the infinite space above. And you just slapped him with a bunch of complicated concepts. And wormholes, too?! That's still hypothetical, though, their existence hasn't been confirmed yet. But still, did you learn all of this by yourself? You even know more than I do!"

"Uh… There's a computer in the orphanage's library, I used to always go there whenever I have the time. Thanks to that, I could learn more quickly and didn't have to look for thick and huge books on the shelves.", said the boy. "And yes, I agree that it might have been a bit too early to teach him things that are still incomprehensible to some people. But you have got to see his priceless reactions! He gaped so wide that I told him to close it because I was worried that his jaw might even fall off!"

The two dissolved into laughter. Ah, yes, her first laugh after experiencing the extreme awkwardness. Laughter – it was a signal of feeling safe, of feeling comfortable enough to indulge in high emotions and feel how they bring real health, it was her greatest treasure of the day, for this was when her inner smile grew so wide that it became an auditory firework. Her laughter was always a kind laughter, it was a song to a bird and came in happy moments. It was the sound of her soul, something that arrived when the smile of her eyes overflew into the air. Gregory's laughter was like ripples in a still pond after a stone has been thrown in. It radiated outwards through the packed hall of tree trunks who had up until that moment been quite silent. Now they too began to titter and soon the ripples of laughter became great waves of hilarity.

They went on talking about Freddy's amusing and adorable reaction whenever the bear learnt a mind-blowing fact. It made her want to say something to make the bear 'drop' his jaw as well. That was, only when she was able to control herself. After a while, they returned to walk on the shore. It was then an idea popped up from her head.

"Care for a picture?"

"Sure, why not?"

Upon hearing that, all stopped to form a stance for a shot, they kept their heads close together as Lily raised her camera high enough to fit the two heads in the frame. Her face grew a wide beam, along with a two-finger salute. Gregory did the same. Just when she was about to press the button, a voice spoke up out of nowhere.

"Gregory? Gregory, are you there?"

Out of the blue, she startled in reflex, hurriedly backing away from the source of the sound, which, unexpectedly came from the boy. To be more precise – his Fazwatch.

"Um… Yes, I'm here.", the boy spoke into his Fazwatch as he raised it near his mouth. "What is it?"

"Oh, what a relief! I could not find you anywhere. Where are you and Lily right now?"

Before the boy could reply, there was another voice.

"Woah, Freddy, are you a giant walkie-talkie or something? I can even hear the little dude's voice somewhere near your chest! Where's the microphone? I want to talk, too!"

Oh, yeah, that was definitely her brother.

"I have switched the sound from my inner receiver system to the speaker so that you can hear the conversation as well.", said the voice of the bear. "You only need to speak normally, and the other side will be able to receive what you are saying, loud and clear."

"Neat! Hey, Lily, are you there?", the man called out. "Freddy and I have had a little chit chat and have decided to go to the campground where we haven't visited yet. I'm pretty sure no one is staying there so I have a plan on my mind at the moment. You don't want to miss your chance. Well, you know what I mean."

Lily was too shocked to even grasp what the heck had just happened. Luckily, the boy had come to save the day.

"Uh… Lily and I have been walking on the shore by the lake. We are coming back to you guys now."

"Alright, please be careful.", replied the bear before disconnecting.

And just that, silence once again acted as an acquaintance. The boy turned to look at her, giving her the "sure, I will let you borrow it later" gaze.

But first, a picture of the two children needed to be taken first.

"Knowledge – the brother of enlightenment – a key for self-discovery."