In a darkened building some distance from Fazbear's Fright, there was a worn-looking box in the corner of a room, decorated as a present. Music played steadily from an unseen source as footsteps echoed faintly along the floor until they came to a halt by the box.
"Time to wake up." A quiet voice murmured, barely audible as a golden animatronic hand lightly rested on the top of the box.
Something stirred within the box.
"He's come back." A lighter colored golden animatronic hand rested on the box next to the other. "I need your help."
Both golden colored animatronic bears lifted their heads to look at one another. Similar yet different, their bow ties and hats were a contrast between the black of one and the purple of the other. Both looked back down almost in unison.
Three souls would speak to one another for the first time in years.
The music soon stopped playing, and in the silence that followed, the box was slowly opened by long limbs tipped with curved, almost claw-like fingers.
"He actually came back, did he? I thought you two told me he was gone for good." A new voice asked of the two bear animatronics, as a mask peered out of the box.
"I waited for decades to make certain he didn't." The animatronic with the purple top hat said, one hand clenching at its side. "But he's...like us, and not."
"I haven't told the others." The animatronic with the black hat top admitted, even if it sounded a little evasive. "They are...happy, or as much as one can be like...this." The bear animatronic wiggled its fingers at the other two.
"Are you going to tell them, or should I?" The rest of the box's occupant fluidly moved up and out of the box, revealing it to be a long limbed marionette as it floated eerily above the floor.
"I'll...find a way to break it to them, but only if absolutely necessary. If the three of us can take care of things...then we can discuss what comes after." The animatronic settled on the ground with a grunt, as the animatronic with the purple top hat reached out to keep the other upright.
"Don't push yourself, Michael. And don't worry about telling the others. They already know, don't they? You went with them?" At the tip of Michael's animatronic golden animatronic body, white light flared briefly in the darkness of the other animatronic bear's eyes, as a hand reached up to briefly touch the purple top hat. "I can't get out of this place on my own like the rest of you. I'm...tied more closely to this...animatronic body."
"You're the only one whose soul works a little bit...differently, Cassidy. But that just means that you can do what none of the rest of us can." The black top hat tilted a little. "Are you...are you ready, then? Will it even work? What you talked about last week?"
"I am...but I need to move fast, before it is too late. There's only a little window of time to make certain it works. It was a chance...but it seems to have paid off, even if this wasn't how I pictured things going..." To the marionette levitating nearby, the animatronic in the purple top spoke. "Can you leave the premises at all, Charlotte? For even a short amount of time?"
"Charlie, please. But yes, I should be able to. This puppet's body doesn't seem to have been reprogrammed like the others." Pinpricks of light appeared in the marionette's eyes as it looked at its companions, before focusing on the soul of Cassidy. "What do you have in mind?"