Chapter 4

Scott locked his office door in the long hallway to the right of the Game Room as he packed up to head home, fumbling his keys as he grumbled incoherently after another slow night. Scott had crunched the numbers for the month and the buildings income failed to break even once again.

It'd been a rough year financially and it began to wear on Scott. Freddy's really hadn't changed much since the remodel years ago; the Game room still had the same arcades that were "cutting edge" for their time but had quickly become yesteryears technology. The pizza recipe hadn't been altered much, not that it needed to be, Scott had come up with it years and years ago and its simplicity is what made it last so long, but it wasn't only about the pizza at Freddy's, or the games, it was the entertainment. While he was thoroughly pleased with his purchase of the new animatronics, they weren't meant to be on stage on their own this long, but there was nothing he could do about it fanatically.

Scott had the intensions to reintroduce the original animatronics once all the new models had time to sink in with the customer base. He had planned to bring Foxy back first and pair him up with the 'Mangle'as the employees now referred to her, seeing he was in an easily repairable condition compared to the three other older animatronics, though it was not to be. Scott was beside himself when he came to work the morning after to find his brand new animatronic was moved into that room and left for children to break and tear apart. The employee that made the out of line decision was quickly let go, but the damage had already been done leaving Scott in need to spend money he didn't have to repair the damages. Since then Scott had been working feverishly to come up with ideas to drawn in more customers and more revenue so he could finally go on with his original plans, but it was getting to the point where he just wouldn't have the funds to do anything other than keep the place open.

As he started walking down the hall like he had a thousand times before, Scott glanced at the old pictures that hung from the walls of the hallway. The first one was the grand opening of the old Freddy's Pizza with him standing out front with a pair of scissors with a huge smile on his face, remembering how proud he was of the little building he got his start from. Scott kept walking, slowing down as he passed the next memory that hung from the wall. It was a picture of him and Mike trying to smile with full mouths for the camera as they shared a pizza on the ten year anniversary of Freddy's Pizza. Scott cared for Mike like a brother; they'd been good friends since high school so when Mike came to him looking for a job, the decision was an easy one. Scott picked up the pace again only to be drawn into the last hung photo on the wall.

Scott stood for a short while, looking at the framed photo. It was a picture taken just the night after Mike was hired with him and Mike posing with the four animatronics on stage. Mike had his arms around Foxy and Bonnie laughing while Scott stood by Freddy and Chica with a top hat on similar to the bear animatronics hat. Just looking at it you wouldn't think much of it other than two employees posing with the animatronics, but Scott knew there was more to it than just that. Scott knew the animatronics, the old ones at least with the exception of the new Bonnie animatronic, were conscious. It was one thing when Mike just told him about his mechanical employees, but it was a wonder to behold when Freddy walked off stage and shook Scotts hand. Scott never looked at his business the same from that point on, everything he did was with his newly discovered employees' best interest in mind.

Now though Mike wasn't here to help him, he was out of any sort of spending money, unable to afford anything but bills and paychecks for the few employees left, even being forced to lay off the night watchman and rig a fake endoskeleton for the animatronics to chase if just to keep all of them moving. All of the originals animatronics needed to be repaired before he could try and bring back the company from its unfortunate situation, and to top it all off his kick starter animatronic was in a hundred pieces from the poor decision of a careless worker.

Scott stared at the photo for a few moments, longing to go back before finally blinking and bringing his hand up to rub his tired eyes. 'Maybe next week will be better.' Scott thought as he finally opened the swinging door into the game room glancing at the main stage with the new trio in their sleep modes as he walked by.

Making his way to rear exit though Scott caught a glimpse of movement in Kids Cove. He quickly stopped to take a look, noticing a figure sitting at the table and the 'Mangle' gone. Scotts brow furrowed as he began to walk towards what he thought was some sort of robber, but quickly stopped as his eyes adjusted to the lighting.

'… Foxy?' Scott muttered under his breath.

It was strange enough to see one of the original animatronics out before closing since that was against the 'rules' Scott had to lay out for them after the remodel, but what confused Scott even further were the arms that were wrapped around him. The white hands, the pink/faded red accents, Scott recognized the design, but shifted to the right to confirm his assumption. That was the 'Mangle'; still missing a few panels and parts of her legs, but she was there, and she was with Foxy. Scott's heart skipped a beat; was she like the other animatronics? Scott had found out not all of the animatronics were made the same, new Bonnie being an example as he was the only other one to have a personality like his predecessors. On top of that, she was more than half way put back together, were the animatronics fixing here

Scott had so many questions; he almost walked in there to find out for himself until he overheard Foxy.

"- I won't leave you again... I promise."

Scott stopped himself, something had happened and he just missed it. As curious as he was, now definitely wasn't his time to go barging in there. Tomorrow was Saturday and Freddys always closed early on weekends so Scott decided to finally confront this 'new' animatronic and finally introduce himself tomorrow.

Making sure to be as quiet as possible, Scott managed to sneak his way back to the exit by the stage, looking over his shoulder one last time with the smallest smirk on his face before silently shutting the door behind him.

Freddy sat near the door of the supply room listening for any movement with Bonnie and Chica. He was slightly concerned that Foxy hadn't come back yet and worried something may have gone wrong. Freddy found himself trying to decide if he should get up and see if Foxy needed help.

"Fred you alright?" Bonnie asked noticing the bear deep in thought.

"What? Oh yea, I'm fine Bonnie. I'm just wondering what's taking Foxy so long." Freddy stated as he rested his head on his hand.

Freddy's ear twitched as he heard the last employee foot tapping get louder before getting up speaking bitterly under his breath.

"That's it, I'm outta here. Scott can close this dump up himself, bastard thinks I'm going to stay late on a Friday night, I should've left with John earlier." The man said as he grabbed his jacket and walked out, not bothering to even turn off the open sign.

Freddy sat there and shook his head frowning as he heard the man leave. The employees at Freddy's had gotten bitter towards their employer since the company had fallen under hard times and all of the blame had gone straight to Scott. Freddy nor Bonnie, Chica or Foxy ever felt that any of what had happened was linked to the poor man's decisions, they could understand the tough times weren't his fault, but that alone didn't defeat the fact things weren't looking the best.

Freddy so lost in his thoughts didn't hear the door jingle open a few minutes later until a voice called out.

"Hey, are you guys still open?" Came a slightly unsure voice.

Freddy sat up. This wasn't the first time a customer had wandered his way into the building just after closing. While there wasn't much the animatronics could do till Scott had to come and show the unaware customers out, Freddy still had to be on his toes if they decided to go in anyway.

"Dad can I go yet!?" Came an immediately recognizable voice.

"Elliot?" Freddy said surprised, grabbing the attention of Bonnie and Chica.

"I think they're closed buddy, we might get in trouble if we're caught walking around." The man explained to the boy.

"But I want you to see her, she's really nice! Pleeeease dad!" Elliot pleaded.

Freddy smiled hearing the boy, it was obviously Elliot.

"What is it Freddy?" Bonnie asked.

"I think Elliot's here!" Freddy exclaimed excitedly while still trying to remain quiet.

Before either Bonnie or Chica could reply, they all heard the man speak up again.

"Alright, alright, let's go give 'her' a visit. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we wandered around for a bit. Lead the way." The man said chuckling.

"Okay!" The boy chirped as he took off running, rounding the corner before the man had even taken a step.

Freddy listened to Elliot blast past the storage room and down the hall, a relived smile crossing his face as he thought briefly of how happy Dawn was going to be to see him. It was short lived though as the man started walking down the hall. Freddy thought franticly of what he needed to do. Was this the person Elliot was talking about when they first met? Was this his dad? Freddy didn't know wither or not to signal Foxy until he heard the man start humming as we walked.

Freddy sat and listened for a moment. He'd heard that tune from years and years ago, but from where?

The man walked down the hallway casually, glancing at all the party rooms. He walked to the end of the hallway before stopping right next to the storage room and turned around, looking down the main hall to the front doors where they came in.

"You've really outdone yourself Scott." the man said with a smirk.

Freddy was completely perplexed. This man seemed to know Scott and he was humming a tune that was painfully familiar, finally turning around to ask Bonnie or Chica if they recognized the little tune. Who was this guy?

"Did you two hear that humming?" Freddy asked in a whisper.

"Yea, I thought it was Foxy coming back, he use to always hum that tune, why?" Bonnie asked confused.

Freddy looked blankly at Bonnie. He felt kind of silly realizing it was Foxy's little whim he came up with, but he never recalled him using it on stage, only at night when Mike was working, so how could this guy know it so well.

Freddy's eyes widened.

Mike turned and looked towards the game room where Elliot had run off to, spotting the new animatronics on stage. Mike wished it was his old family standing there on stage. . .

"I hope you are all alright…" Mike said with a heavy sigh.

Just as he turned to find Elliot, Mike heard a quiet thud behind him. Pivoting on his heels and whipping out his old flashlight, Mike turned around quickly to see where the foreign noise came from.

Inside the Storage room Bonnie hurried over to Freddy who had slipped off the box he was sitting on.

"Freddy!" Bonnie whispered panicked.

Freddy shook his head coming back to his senses, but quickly looked up to Bonnie shooshing him silently.

Bonnie stopped, relived that Freddy was alright but was now confused that Freddy was gesturing him to be quite. He almost spoke up to ask what Freddy was on about until he pointed back to the door with light shining between the door and the wall.

"I-is anyone in there?" Came Mike's shaky voice as he scooted towards the door.

Bonnie jumped, obviously not expecting to hear a voice that didn't belong to any of the other animatronics at this hour, but something else struck him with those four words echoing in his head. . .

"H-hello?" Came Mike's voice.

Bonnie didn't jump this time, he only though even harder as to where he heard that voice from until he looked back down at Freddy.

"I think it's Mike." Freddy said almost completely silent.

Bonnie stood there shocked. That was it. That was where he knew that voice. Even though Mike was never frightened being around any of them, he could remember a time before any of them knew each other, standing behind the wall of the left door to the office, he could remember that wavering voice. . .

Mike stood outside the door listening for any movement. He finally let out a sigh, figuring his imagination was getting the better of him and put his flashlight away as he began to turn around.

"Mike?!"

Mike flinched, whipping his head back to the door.

"No Fred, I realize it might not be him! Just, let me do something here- Mike is that you?!

"B-bonnie!?"

"It is him! Freddy get up!"

Mike was unsure what to do while a lot of moving around was going on behind the door. He braced himself as the door swung open.

Dawn sat in her chair next to Foxy. The poor old animatronic had just opened himself up, something she never imagined he would ever do, but here he was almost as broken as she was. Dawns ears twitched as she heard someone running thorough the game room. Dawn turned her head just in time to see Elliot blast into Kids Cove.

"Foxy!" The boy cried out happily.

Foxy jumped, turning his head to see Elliot standing there.

"Elliot!? What are you doing here!?" Foxy asked as he began to smile.

Dawn sat still behind Foxy completely shocked that Elliot was here, overwhelmingly ecstatic. She wanted to say something, but she couldn't form the words.

"Where's Dawn Foxy?" Elliot asked with excitement.

"Oh! She's right here lad!" Foxy said.

Foxy moved off to the side, Dawns hands falling to her lap while she looked at Elliot and he looked back at her. Dawn was still shocked stiff the boy was here in front of her, she had just came to terms with herself that he wasn't going to be here then he comes running into Kids Cove out of nowhere. She didn't know what to say even though she had been rehearsing since he left. Dawn quickly noticed Elliots smile faded as he looked at on to her.

". . . Foxy, is that her?" Elliot asked quietly as he scooted towards Foxy

Dawn frowned hearing Elliot hearing him say that. This had been something she had worried about when she started fixing herself as she now started to resemble the shape of the other animatronics, radically different then she was when she met Elliot and now he didn't recognize her. It was like a nightmare come true.

"W-wha-? Elliot, it's me, Dawn. I-I've been trying to fix myself. . ." Dawn said unsure how else to convince him.

Elliot walked next to Foxy, looking up at him. Foxy simply smiled and nodded his head. Elliot looked back at Dawn, an amazed expression crossing his face. Without any more hesitation Elliot lunged for Dawn, wrapping his arms around her almost knocking her off her chair. Dawn looked down at the boy hugging her. Even in the month he was gone she could tell he'd gotten bigger since he was at Freddys lasr. She wrapped her arms around Elliot and finally held him close just like she had dreamt weeks ago.

Foxy looked on at the two hugging and smiled, noticing his time to leave as he got up only to have Dawn reach out and grab is arm again. Foxy looked back down at Dawn noticing the smile on her face as she motioned for him to come over. Foxy looked down at Elliot then beack to Dawn with an easy smile, walking back and bringing each arm around the two.

Another chapter down. This was kind of a weird one for me, but I think it turned out alright and I hope you lot like it, cant wait to get moving on the next chapter haha. Per usual Foxy and Mangle's Love (he just changed his name) did the editing for this one, although I did change some stuff around (shhhh, don't say anything lol)

Anyway I hope you all enjoy, happy Valentines day and I'll see you in the next chapter :]

Wooo! Made it to the 10k mark!