...Dangit, Scott Cawthon. Yes, as you all know, FNaF 2 came out much, much earlier than expected, so I'm going to address everything right now.

Yes, I'm going to do something with FNaF 2.

No, it's not going to be configured as a prequel.

Yes, I have an idea on how to explain Phone Guy's 'reappearance'.

And yes, Jeremy Fitzgerald will be there. Just not in an expected way.

I'll be working on a story for FNaF 2 a bit after Investigation concludes, so you won't have too long to wait. Speaking of, this story's only got one or two more chapters left, and a brief epilogue to link it to FNaF 2.

One last thing; a bit of shameless self-promotion here, but... Would y'all mind checking out my other story, Into the Rift? It's a multi-universe crossover story that's not exactly getting a lot of love currently, and it's kinda getting hard to keep going with it. If you're at all interested in action/sci-fi/fantasy stories, it's worth at least taking a look if you like what I've done with FNaF. It's what gets updated on a Friday when the Redding stories aren't.

Shameless self-promotion over, now on with the show!

The entire drive to the police station, my mind was working over what I had just read, trying to find some form of connection that would fit all the information I had. Golden Mile wanted the original animatronics before the court date, Faz had some information that I didn't know about the others yet, and Mike was looking into where the connection between the two companies was. Now, I was going to figure out how Matthews had found the serial numbers.

Entering the station, I waved to the desk jockey and told him I was looking for Adams. He recognized me instantly and buzzed me in. I couldn't help but smile; after the Drone Incident, I had become even more of a local hero to this area than before. One of the officers said that Adams was busy, so he said I could wait. Looking around, I didn't see any reason to not start looking into this already, and I approached one of the officers.

"Hey, question for you. Those bots that we've got for the Fazbear case… Any idea when the last time someone checked up on them was?" He just stood there and stared at me.

"I can't discuss that case with you, Mr. Redding. I'm sorry." He shook his head; apparently he wanted to tell me, but wasn't able to. I shrugged.

"Not a problem, just figured I'd ask." A moment later, the door opened and Adams waved me into his office. After the normal hugs, handshakes, and swapped insults I took a seat and got down to business.

"So, Alex. What can I do for ya?"

I explained to him about Golden Mile, Matthews, and the serial numbers, and asked if he knew who'd seen the bots last. He nodded quietly for a moment, then shook his head and rubbed his temples.

"Alex… We have a problem. A few nights ago, a fellow calling himself the new night watchman came in, and said he was here to inspect the evidence. Since those bots are so massive, we've had to keep them in the garage; there's just not enough room for them in evidence lockup. He went out there to look into it, and about half an hour later the officer on duty heard tires squealing in the driveway. He rushed to the garage, but it was a bit too late; the guy had gotten away with the animatronics. We don't think they've been reactivated," He interrupted my unspoken question, "But we currently have no idea where the bots are or who stole them. And with the case coming up soon, we'll need them back right away if we're going to get anywhere with this."

I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "You think it could have been Golden Mile?"

He shrugged. "Or Fazbear's themselves, to give Golden Mile a bad name and try to bring some heat off of their own issues. Point is, we've still got them unaccounted for… And apparently Golden Mile knows that the 'captured' ones aren't the real deal. It could be a leak from Fazbear's to them, but I honestly don't know. Either way, we need them back if this lawsuit is going anywhere."

I nodded, thinking for a moment. "Gotcha. So basically I need to track 'em down because of the lawsuit, while also dodging Golden Mile's attempts to find where my roommates are, and do it within a month so we'll have them for trial. Great."

Adams just laughed slightly. "Real glad I'm not in your shoes, old buddy. Tell you what; if we find anything about them, you'll be the first outside the station to know. Okay?"

I nodded and shook his hand. "I gotta get going; Faz wants to talk to me about them, and I've got one or two other errands to run before I get back to looking into this…" With a smile and a firm handshake, he let me out and I headed back to the car. Next stop was Faz's, to see what he knew about my roommates. Hopefully it'd be something useful, considering the massive headache this case was turning out to be…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I pulled into Faz's driveway, sighing as I looked over the vandalism that was clearly still fresh. Apparently he was still catching a lot of flak for the Incident. I felt bad for him; he was a really nice guy, and he was catching crap for something that wasn't his fault. I shrugged and headed over, knocking on his door. Hopefully after the court case settles, some of the heat will move off of him and we'll all be able to move on with our lives. A few moments later, he came to the door and waved me in, clearly looking uncomfortable. I raised an eyebrow; something didn't seem right here…

"Tea, Mr. Redding?" He offered, busying himself in the kitchen while I sat in the dining room.

"No thanks, and call me Alex." He chuckled slightly before coming back out, sitting across from me. I sat up, and looked him over. He seemed slightly… Nervous. I looked him over carefully. For as long as I'd known him, Frederick Faz was one of the calmest, kindest men I'd ever met; he truly put his heart and soul into the restaurant… Up until it had been bought out from under him. Apparently the chain hadn't been as successful as he'd thought, and he had been forced to either sell it off or close it down. He'd chosen the former under the condition that the animatronics were kept operational, and the rest is history. Even after the Drone Incident, he'd seemed to take everything as calmly and kindly as he could, even the criticism… I wondered what was going through his mind.

"Alex… My boy, I'm afraid I haven't been completely honest with you regarding… Well, regarding our mutual friends." I raised an eyebrow; I'd already known they had been built from refurbished combat drones, but he seemed to have something else in mind… What was their story?

"You see… Well, perhaps it would be better if I started from when I first opened the restaurant chain. It all started back in…"

(POV Change: Bonnie, back at Alex's house)

I lounged idly against Freddy, trying to enjoy the movie we were currently watching. Chica was back in the kitchen, and Foxy was in her charger in Alex's room, so there shouldn't be any reason for me to feel this… Uneasy. But I still did, and I know exactly why.

Alex. I was worried about him; after all, he had been trying to hide whatever it was he was talking about on the phone from us, which immediately caught my attention. He's always been very open with us about what he does, and about his cases; after all, it wasn't like we could tell anyone what was going on. But this time… I'd tried to ask him before he left if he needed any help, and he'd just brushed me off, saying "Nah, this one isn't a big problem. I'll handle it."

That was what really caught my attention and made me worry. Alex was smart, and tough enough to get out of a nasty scrape if he needed to… But he hadn't quite figured out that he wasn't the grand master of keeping secrets, especially not with an animatronic rabbit with super-hearing around. I knew he had the best for us in mind, but… The way he sounded, and the people he'd called…

It was only when I heard that he was talking with Mr. Faz, our creator, when I first got concerned; we weren't stupid, and we knew that he was taking some abuse simply because he was tied to us. But then Alex mentioned them… Golden Mile. It hadn't taken me long to figure it out; Golden Mile Entertainment had been the company that built us, but their name had brought flickers of other memory. Memories that I'd only seen once before, when we were fighting alongside him in the Incident; combat protocols, tactical overviews, active friend-or-foe systems… That had made me think.

When we 'downloaded' combat protocols to help Alex fight off the drones, I hadn't given much thought to how cleanly the files incorporated with our memory banks. But now, I can't help but remember Golden Mile as a different company; Golden Mile Robotics and Security. I lingered on that thought for a long while, trying to piece together where it fit in the entire narrative, before moving on to the next point. Someone was trying to find us… Someone with access to our serial numbers, and trying to kick our trackers back on.

I faintly remembered what had been done with those trackers, however I didn't pay it much mind. That wasn't the priority; if Alex needed to, he could probably just jam the signal, prevent them from finding us. All I knew was that the GPS program was still somewhere within my databank, but completely inactive and inaccessible.

Then there was the second call. Mike… I did feel bad for all the trouble we'd put him through during his week as our guard. Granted, we couldn't do much to stop it, but we at least were able to fight off the programming once… As painful as it was when the Golden doppelganger regained control. Alex had asked Mike to look into the court case; I'd remembered reading about it on the news. In the aftermath of the Drone Incident, there was a massive lawsuit against Fazbear Entertainment. I hadn't paid it much mind beyond that, but Alex apparently had to 'find' us before the lawsuit came around.

I sighed, leaning against Freddy a bit more, considering my next action. If Alex hadn't said anything about his case, then normally it meant that he didn't want to discuss it. And we'd offered to help him, too… But this case didn't seem right. Call it a hunch, but I felt like Alex could use a hand on this one…

"Freddy?" The bear looked down at me. In spite of my worry, I couldn't help but smile; he had that fatherly expression in his eyes, the same one that Mr. Faz had when he created us. "Um… I need to tell you something…"

Slowly, I explained what I'd heard, and told him about the feeling I'd gotten and the memories I'd had when Alex mentioned Golden Mile and the GPS units. He nodded slowly, taking it all in, before turning the TV off. "Bonnie… I think I should tell you a bit more about us, and our true nature. You see, how we're programmed now isn't always how we've been."

My eyes widened and I stared up at him, jaw servos working for a moment as I tried to process what to say to this. "You… Know something about us? About before we… Awoke?" With a gentle sigh, he nodded.

"I'm sorry I kept it from you, Bon-Bon… But Mr. Faz only explained it to me when I asked him, a bit after the Incident. You see, I had the same feelings as you did, but much more vivid. Active memories, remembering things as if I'd actually been there and done them. It was like…" He sighed. "Like when we were being controlled. I could remember what I'd done, but it was as if I wasn't the one doing it, like I was just along for the ride. Except…" He got a faraway look in his eyes, gazing over to the blank TV screen.

I gently nudged him, looking up at him with concern. "Freddy?"

After a long moment, he spoke again. "Except it wasn't innocent night guards we were killing. It was… Bad men. Evil men, people that wanted nothing more than to hurt innocent people. We were all sent in to… To stop them. To kill them, so they wouldn't be able to kill others." He sighed. "We were good at it. Very good… But after a while, we were… Retired. Mr. Faz said that's why our memories of that time are so fuzzy; some of the files were corrupted from how long we were offline."

"But we got put back online. Not as killers, but as healers, as entertainers. We were reprogrammed as the Fazbear band, as we are now. The memories of that time were suppressed by our limitation programming, but after we gained full sentience they were accessible again."

I nodded, eyes widening. "So that's why I can only kind of access the memories… Because the files are too broken and corrupted to view. And only certain things can trigger them popping up again, right?"

He smiled. "You always were a smart one, Bonnie. That's right; and that's also why we were so quick to pick up on how to use weapons and fight when the Drone Incident happened. After all, the old reflexes are still part of us; our endoskeletons were built for durability and combat, and the programs are still there to bring them back online."

I nodded slowly, before tilting my head. "But, I don't understand… Why were we brought offline? And why do we still have the combat reflexes? And for that matter… Why does Golden Mile want us back?" I held my head, sighing as I adjusted the mask. "I'm confused, Freddy…"

He smiled, gently rubbing my back. "It's okay, Bon-Bon. Alex is looking into it, and I'm sure he'll tell us if he finds anything we need to know. In the meantime…" His face changed to a stern frown. "I think I'll need to have a chat with Alex, make sure he's not hearing anything that'll make him nervous… Either for our welfare or against us."

(POV Change: Alex, leaving Mr. Faz's house)

I shook Mr. Faz's hand once more, a smile plastered on my face. It felt as fake as anything, but it was all I could manage. So Freddy and the others used to be combat zone robotics… And after the war was over, they were decommissioned and put into deep storage, before Golden Mile reconfigured their AI for entertainment and sold them to Fazbear Entertainment as performers. I'd kind of suspected it when I found out about their history, but Faz had dropped another bomb on me after that one.

Apparently, Golden Freddy's endoskeleton had been a field commander unit. Its entire job was to view the entire battlefield and command the other machines in active combat, weigh tactical options, and the like. Furthermore, the reason the entire project was scrapped was because the machines went haywire. Their AI seemed to 'snap' shortly after seeing civilians gunned down by insurgents, causing them to go on a complete killing spree. Unable to discern between a hostile, a friendly, and a civilian, they managed to kill dozens on all sides before being remotely shut down. Golden Mile took a massive amount of heat for the incident, and was forced to decommission the robots.

I drove home, thinking over what this meant. So Golden Mile definitely had some reason to recover their 'missing' bots; if this story ever broke, then they'd be put under… Permanently. Golden Freddy had been able to command a drone army because he had been programmed that way. My best guess was that news reel footage had re-awakened his military AI, and he'd put his 'Joy of Creation' in effect shortly afterwards. Of course, that brought a simple question… Did the others still have anything of that military programming? And if so… What would happen if it was reactivated?

It made sense, really. That was how they were able to seamlessly work together with me when we were fighting off the drones, and why they were so resilient when I fought them back at the old pizzeria. They were meant to take that kind of beating… Wearily, I pulled into the driveway, mind reeling from everything that Faz had revealed.

With all this in mind, I decided to get in touch with Matthews again tomorrow, just to try and see how much he knew about the animatronics background as combat machines, and find out why exactly Golden Mile was only taking an interest now…

I walked in, hung up my coat and hat, and started heading for the kitchen.

"Alex? Could you come in here, please? Need to have a chat with you." It was Freddy. I sighed, rubbing my forehead before heading over. He was sitting in the living room – by himself, I noticed – and was looking me over with a small frown visible.

"Evening, Freddy. What's up?" I said, taking a seat across from him. He didn't look too pleased, but I wasn't interested in playing games tonight; I just wanted him to get to the point. He sighed and leaned forward.

"Bonnie says you've got an interesting client for your most recent case… A certain robotics firm." I sighed and rubbed my forehead again. Great, so Bonnie had heard me on the phone…

"Might want to tell Bonnie that it's not polite to eavesdrop." He looked me square in the eye, an expression of concern and irritation on his face.

"Alex, cut the crap. I know you talked to Mr. Faz today… Heard all about our past, huh? Might interest you to know that I wasn't even fully aware of the story until after the whole drone mess died down – and that was only because I straight-up asked about it. Look," He said, taking a more relaxed position, "I just want to make sure there's no bad blood between us. You've done right by all of us, Alex; you're the best friend an old bear could have. I don't want us to fall out over something that happened a long time ago."

I stared for a long moment. Freddy was seriously worried that I was going to hold them accountable for what they used to do, and why they were shut down? I smirked… Then chuckled… Then started to flat-out laugh. Freddy's brows furrowed again, and he raised his voice. "Alex, this isn't the time for laughing! I'm trying to make sure we don't get split over this!"

I stopped laughing a moment later, before looking at him with a smile. "Freddy, you guys saved my life more than once that night. It'd be kind of stupid of me to shut you out just because of something you guys don't even remember, y'know?"

Freddy looked away for a moment, before sighing. "Alex… That's where you're wrong."

My eyes widened and I leaned forward, waiting for him to continue. "We do remember… Just not completely. Our files were never wiped, but over time they became corrupted. Only certain key phrases, such as our creator, can bring them back. They're… Like flashbacks."

I shook my head slowly, before coming over and resting a hand on Freddy's shoulder. "Freddy, I don't know what happened that day, and I honestly don't care. It's over, and you are who you are now. I just need to find out why Golden Mile's so interested in you four again."

He smiled up at me. "Alex… You're a good friend. Thank you." With that, he stood, tipped his hat, and headed back to the charging room. I sat down on the couch for a long moment, mind reeling from everything that had been revealed to me over the day.

So Golden Mile used to be a military robotics contractor, and the Fazbear crew used to be an active combat team… And according to Freddy, they still had flashbacks from it. That seemed to explain why Golden Freddy was so easy to snap… But something still didn't add up for why Golden Mile wanted them back. If it was just about the court case, they had all the documentation from when the conversion happened so that should clear them up…

I sighed. I didn't want to do this, but if I was going to find out what their game was, I guess I didn't have a choice.

Time to head for Golden Mile themselves, and do some snooping.

Looks like Alex is out to get some direct answers about this mess, huh? Read and review, folks!