Corona's Note:

Thanks to the reviewer who was concerned about our well-beings. I saw the news about the earthquake in California. Hopes for everyone who was affected. I wasn't. I'm in a different state. Didn't even feel it. The West coast might have fallen into the sea if the quake was strong enough for me to feel. And, dear Lord, we'd all be dead if Arctic could feel it lol. The planet would have to crack open. I haven't checked; have there been tsunamis? Not to distract from any of that, but I'm really curious if anyone can guess what state I'm from. I don't think I've written anything to reveal that; just curious if anyone picked something up in my writing style. However, I'm sure most readers can't really tell when Arctic and I are switching during the story so that may be a useless wondering.

Arctic's Note:

Hey! As Corona said, thanks for the questions on if we're okay. I'm in South Africa so I'd be very concerned if I did feel that. Anyone who was affected, hope you're alright.

Important little note here. I'm going on holiday from Friday the 12th for a week so next Monday's chapter will be late since I don't have internet there. I'll post it as soon as I'm home which will be the following Friday and then the schedule will be back to normal again.

Chapter 85

Hide and Seek

The night was...interesting. And chaotic. Ruby flat out disappeared as the game started. She wasn't on the cameras (Ruby gave Hedy the main tablet to even out the playing field a little after Hedy left hers with Freddy in the main room since it wasn't as sturdy), she wasn't allowed in the vents but she was absolutely nowhere to be found. Foxy immediately focused on hunting Jeremy down. Bonnie tripped up the man anytime their paths crossed as well. Those two were definitely still mad about earlier.

"Bonnie!" Jeremy hissed as he frantically wiped paint out of his eyes while Bonnie gave him a two fingered salute and darted down the other hallway before Jeremy could retaliate.

A robot that big shouldn't be able to move that fast.

Goldy randomly popped in and hit everyone with her bedazzler, staying pretty much neutral.

Chi and Teddy initially tried to help out Hedy but gave up when she strangely disappeared as well. Somehow. Then they were watching each other's backs

"Oi! Mangle! Get back here you little pink wench!" Foxy shouted, distracted from Jeremy for just a moment when Mangle managed to shoot him in the butt and drenched his head in finely dusted neon pink glitter. He raced after her, popping off a couple of paintball shots as a trail of glitter followed him like smoke.

Freddy and the others in the main room actually looked up and stared as the pair streaked by the door.

Toby shuddered. He had long figured out Mangle was much braver than him.

In the hallway, Mangle made a mocking face over her shoulder at Foxy and Foxy's lucky timing landed a splat of dark green right on her nose. She yelped and blindly turned a corner at top speed.

Foxy had her. That turn went into a dead end. He followed, ready to tag her...and immediately slipped on a conveniently placed paint spill.

He screamed (like a girl, though if anyone said so, he'd deny it) and went down with a crash, sliding quite a distance with his momentum.

He heard Hedy laughing just as Mangle (who was more rainbow than pink and white at the moment) leaped over him, using the wall as a springboard. Foxy twisted around just in time to see Mangle pushing Hedy away down the hall.

The mechanic and her chair didn't seem to have survived so far unscathed either. Her wheels were leaving a distinctive trail of paint. However, her suspiciously impeccable timing meant she was lasting far longer than anyone expected.

They disappeared and a moment later the two clearly ran into Ruby. There was an explosion, then Hedy shouting.

Puppet turned the corner, having heard the previous crash, saw Foxy, shot him on the cheek below his eyepatch, then left as fast as he could before the fox got up.

Elsewhere in the building, Amelia decided to help Jeremy out, especially when her husband needed her to be lookout as he rooted around cabinets or ducked into Fazbear Fright's vents as he looked for his firearm. The poor woman was the most colorful out of all of them currently, and she had a sneaking, irritating suspicion that Ruby was to blame. Especially after Amelia complained to Jeremy that paintballs to the face were dangerous and they should be wearing safety goggles, at least. Paintballs bruise (she had fifty to prove it)! She was dripping so much paint and glue and glitter that she was leaving a trail and her clothes stuck to her skin.

Jeremy was trying to figure out how to word that he needed to ditch her before she led the others straight to him. It was a daunting task, one that risked him ending up on the couch for a month. Maybe he shouldn't use the word "ditch" if he wanted to stay in her good graces.

Eventually Foxy got a jumpscare in on Jeremy and by extension Amelia, screech and all. He hadn't used that scream in a while. Unlike Jeremy, the woman hadn't been expecting it and kicked his knee in before she realized. She immediately apologized and Foxy begrudgingly waved her off, still giving Jeremy a toothy grin as the man got his breath back. He seemed to decide that that was enough of a revenge for him. He simply warned the man not to upset Ruby like that again (while Jeremy was still hyperventilating). He didn't catch him to put him out of the game though. He may have got his revenge but the building clearly hadn't.

After he started focusing on the others he quickly took Chi out of the game, as well as Teddy a minute later. Chi pouted but Teddy sighed and wasn't very surprised he was one of the first. They really didn't stand a chance when Foxy was taking it seriously. He also got Bonnie eventually but the rabbit decided to stick around and join his team. He wanted to see if they could actually find Ruby this time. Mangle was a challenge for the two. Foxy was still the faster of the foxes in a straight up race but Mangle was more agile as she was smaller and lighter. He enjoyed the extra challenge though since the others went down so easily.

Ruby was missing again but that was pretty normal for a game of hide and seek. She was really good at this when she was hiding or seeking. At some point Foxy was chasing down Puppet, gradually gaining on him. It was fun having the two fastest bots besides him playing. Goldy didn't count.

It brought back fond memories of the time just after he'd been built. Puppet was often around back then and played with them a lot, minus the paintball guns of course. He helped teach them how to move, what life was like, and not to mess with electrical outlets. Chica especially had needed that lesson after someone thought it would be funny to tell the young animatronic that you're supposed to stick endo-fingers in electrical outlets.

Foxy never liked Michael. Learning he was the murderer was surprising and at the same time not with how he treated them.

Puppet was fast and even more agile than Mangle, plus he was ruthlessly tricky, even catching Foxy and Bonnie on the other side of the office doors once (twice). It was also disturbing to remember Puppet was the most flexible of them and light enough to crawl along the ceiling much like Mangle used to. Ruby would have freaked out and killed the "demon clown" if she had run into him. Afterwards, Puppet realized how lucky he was they didn't cross paths.

Puppet didn't like running but he also didn't like losing and the ceiling was only good for hiding and traveling if no one looked up. Foxy finally snagged him by the back of his suit purely out of luck during a chase when Puppet turned on a dime to avoid crashing into Bonnie who had gone around to cut him off.

Puppet huffed as Foxy dropped him back on his feet with a grin. He brushed himself off. "I think I might be too old for this."

That startled a laugh out of Foxy. Challenges and games always cut right through to his competitive and fun loving side.

"Don't let Goldy hear that, she might kill you. She's barely younger than you." he pointed out.

It was weird, talking to Puppet without hostility but Foxy was enjoying himself too much to really think about it.

"Next, the mechanic and Mangle." he absently rolled a shoulder that was aching from something not moving quite right. He was used to the aches that came from lack of maintenance but it felt like that slip chasing Mangle did knock something out of place. "The building seems keen on taking care of Jeremy itself."

They'd been hearing periodic explosions and the man yelping all throughout the game and it wasn't Ruby this time.

Bonnie suddenly went sprinting past them. "Ruby threw her experimental paint bomb in the vents! Paint flood!" he yelled over his shoulder.

That got Foxy moving.

Puppet ran like his life depended on it. He had avoided the mess up to this point...aaaand his luck ran out...

He eventually got up from laying face down after being bowled over by an impossible wave of paint and looked down at himself with an annoyed grunt. Now he resembled a multicolored wet dog as his suit sagged a bit and set on his wooden bones.

"Great," he sighed with little malice as he went back to the main room, trying to flick paint off his mask. Since no one was watching he actually took it off and tried to fling paint off the white plastic since there wasn't something clean to wipe it down with. Hedy always kept rags in her bag. He'd take one of those.

Hedy and Mangle we're doing ridiculously well and it finally occurred to Foxy and Bonnie why Mangle had teamed up with the supposedly doomed mechanic, and it wasn't just loyalty.

Goldy had opted out of the game because it wasn't fair. She could teleport, obviously, but she also knew where everyone was if she concentrated.

Hedy couldn't teleport but her miraculous timing for being at the right place at the right time was too uncanny.

Foxy and Bonnie only found them thanks to the paint.

While there was paint everywhere, having exploded out of the entire vent system, Hedy had been unlucky enough to be underneath one of the vents when it happened. So she was in a similar situation to Puppet which Mangle found absolutely hilarious if the fact that she was rolling around on the ground and pointing at Hedy was any indication.

Foxy used that to his advantage and Mangle just barely dodged his swipe as their chase started up again, leaving Hedy and Bonnie behind for the moment.

Bonnie couldn't follow because he was holding himself up with the wall while he laughed at the multicoloured mechanic. She'd never seen him laugh like that. Not around her at least. Still, all she could do was manage an annoyed half-glare at him while she tried to get paint out of her ears and wait for the right moment to slip away without him noticing.

On the other side of the building Amelia and Jeremy were just recovering from the flood of paint which had hit them full on.

"Wow, the paint ninja needs to tone down that one a little." they heard Ruby mutter to herself. The teen was covered from head to toe in paint, even worse than Puppet. She jumped to her feet when she saw the other dazed humans. "But the paint ninja took down her foes with her. Not a total loss."

Why was she talking about herself in the third person?

"Paint ninja away!" throwing a smoke bomb at the floor they legitimately had no idea where she went since she couldn't go in the vents. And she was a moving paint target. How did she do that?

"Why did I agree to this?" Amelia asked, genuinely confused.

"Coming here or this game?" asked Jeremy scratching his head as he tried to figure out where Ruby went.

"Yes."

Jeremy chuckled. "You didn't have to come you know."

Amelia was quiet. "Jeremy..." she said after a minute.

Jeremy handed her a rag he stole from Hedy's bag. "Hmm?"

"How would you feel if Mercedes did this?"

Jeremy looked startled. "I don't follow..."

"If Mercedes..." Amelia looked pained. "If Mercedes was Ruby and did what Ruby did."

There was a flash of horror behind Jeremy's eyes. Then sadness. "They're very different people, my love."

"They're both children," Amelia stressed. "They're both daughters."

Jeremy forgot their insane game of hide and seek for a moment and actually seemed to think. "I would cry. I wouldn't be able to handle my baby girl going through what Ruby has."

"And yet you let Derek's daughter...!" Amelia was upset now.

Jeremy took her paint soaked shoulders and looked her in the eye, even as she tried to look away. "Amelia."

Amelia glared at the floor.

"Amelia, look at me, sweetheart, please. Ruby is Ruby. She's strange. She takes risks. Her lack of concern for her own safety has kept me up at night when I'm not here, but I'd never tell her that because she doesn't like people admitting they care about her. I figured that out in a week of being here. But..." he took a breath. "She's clever. She loves who she chooses to love very deeply. She's one of the wisest teenagers I've ever met if only because of the pain she's gone through. She doesn't need people telling her to stay away from danger, she needs people who trust her and can tell her when she's gone too far. She doesn't need you telling her she shouldn't be here because it's too dangerous. It insults her decision-making capabilities. She knew that it was dangerous and made the choice to come anyway."

"It's insanity, Jeremy. Literal insanity," Amelia said.

"I know. I know you don't understand. I don't really either. But can we please talk about this later?" Jeremy said. He grimaced. "I really need to find that gun."

Amelia stared for a few seconds. "I'm not letting this go."

"You're a mother and you see what you think is a child in crisis. Of course not."

"You're a father. I'd expect you not to let this go," Amelia retorted, not pleased with Jeremy calling her straight out like that. But it was true. However, she honestly had no idea how to handle Ruby or if she even could...or should.

Jeremy sighed.

Foxy did catch Mangle in the end. It was purely due to them both slipping on the paint covering the floor and momentum but he'd take it. Mangle was tricky to catch. With Bonnie's help he cornered and caught Hedy too because wheelchair plus sticky paint didn't mix very well. With it just down to Ruby Foxy checked the time with a chuckle.

"Twenty to six. No way are we finding the lass this time around. Maybe next time." he shook his head as Goldy popped into view.

"I lost sight of her again after she recovered from the paint tsunami. No idea where she is so can't even give you clues." she told them.

"Next time," Hedy groaned, having just been caught and resigned to another sticky fate somewhere down the line. She grimaced. The paint was starting to dry… "At least all the ghosts didn't escape either." She had run into two very confused and orange colored ghost children while the others had run to hide in the generator or lights. Felix was still currently trying to figure out why he was unable to phase through the paint, or why it stung a bit. She even heard Michael let out a few startled screams. The jackass was still licking his sore wounds and had probably holed up in the vents somewhere. What an epic mistake. She imagined him getting a straight-in-the-face tsunami of pain(t) and beamed. She smiled, still pleased with the night as a whole. It was the best welcome back she could have asked for, even if she wasn't pleased with her drenching and it was definitely enjoyed by Ruby more than her. But everyone was happy and it was more than she could have asked for.

She wondered if Jeremy had found his gun yet. She found it a couple times in different places. The building was moving it around so she supposed her brother wasn't getting it back until the building was done with him. She hoped Amelia ditched him eventually, for her own sanity.

Precisely as the chimes went off, signaling the end of the shift, Ruby dropped down from the ceiling in front of them. She was absolutely drenched in paint from her hair to her shoes. She seemed very pleased though.

"I don't even want to know where you were." Foxy chuckled.

"The paint ninja would never reveal her secrets." Ruby crossed her arms, radiating smugness.

"Is that a hole in the ceiling?" Bonnie asked making them all look up.

Ruby shrugged, unwrapping the paint stained scarf from her head. The lower half of her face was relatively free of paint and she looked pretty ridiculous. "It's one of my hidey holes."

"I was right. I didn't want to know." Foxy groaned. "How do you do that?"

She just grinned at them again. The bots could easily have reached up and pulled her from the small space, if they'd figured out she was there.

Hedy looked behind Ruby and suddenly cracked up, her usual mild restraint when laughing gone.

Jeremy had turned the corner, Amelia following close behind and somehow he looked the worst of everyone.

Ruby glanced back at them with a wicked smirk. Yes, she definitely had something to do with their states as well. Maybe she'd ease up on the hostility towards Amelia after getting that out of her system.

Then again, she could hold onto grudges for a very long time...

"Did you find your gun?" she asked sweetly.

Jeremy barely looked like a human anymore. His hair stuck up in spikes, he was as multi-colored as Hedy but there was at least five layers of glitter covering him from head to toe. He left a trail as he walked, limping a bit from paintball bruises. There was even paint in his nose and mouth, evident by his occasional noise blowing. He was also covered in flour and caramel from some of Ruby's old food night bombs the building led him into.

Amelia had much less going on. Mostly paint, though she was sneezing from the flour. She had a mildly haunted expression though.

Jeremy held up something with his fingers, hand and object dripping in sticky caramel.

"Yes..." he said in a defeated voice. He glared at the ceiling.

That was all it took to send Ruby over the edge and she was soon rolling around on the floor laughing. Bonnie and Foxy were leaning against the walls while they laughed. They'd never seen anyone that bad off from the traps before.

Foxy patted the wall, still snickering. "Nice work." he muttered.

The building gave a slight shudder and Hedy just got waves of smugness from it.

"And I won the game." Ruby added. "I wasn't caught. You owe me a trip to the shooting range."

Jeremy grunted, a flash of panic behind his eyes.

"You did agree," Hedy said. "It was your idea in the first place."

"Don't remind me."

Ruby's grin was absolutely wicked.

"I almost feel sorry for him." Bonnie muttered to Foxy.

"Maybe a little." Foxy agreed.

When everyone got to the main room Hedy went through her bag looking for cleaning rags as Toby muttered under his breath about how glad he was that he skipped this game.

Mangle grinned and she, Teddy, and Chi promptly started chasing him around the room with hands outstretched to smear the colorful mess on him as he frantically screamed and scrambled away.

"Alright who took all my rags?" Hedy scolded while Puppet conveniently took that moment to escape to the bathroom as Chica glared at Bonnie for getting too close with his paint smeared fur.

Ruby simply stretched out on a table, smearing it with paint and sighed in bliss.

It had been a good night.