Here we go, folks. The final chapter of Animatronic Investigations and my second to last upload of 2014. I'll try to put together some form of Christmas special next week, and after that I'll see y'all again after the holidays!

Time to wrap the case, folks.

I sat in the darkened living room, waiting for Matthews to show up at my door. The others were hidden, remembering my plan and I thought I distinctly heard the occasional faint chuckle coming from them as they prepared for their role in the plan. Matthews said he would be there shortly, which surprised me; it sounded like I'd pulled the guy straight out of bed… Then again, he probably would've heard about a probable break-in at the Golden Mile factory. I winced again as I moved my injured arm, chuckling softly as I thought about how badly they got it compared to me.

Finally, the doorbell sounded. I took a quick glance out the window and sure enough, Matthews was there and looking rather nervous about being here in the first place… He was toying with something in his bag. I couldn't see what it precisely was, but I could make some assumptions… "It's open!" In he walked, looking more and more unsure of himself as he saw me. I gestured to the chair across from where I was sitting and he took it.

"Ah, Mr. Redding. I must say, you've proven to be quite a valuable asset for our interests. Barely two weeks on the case and you say you've found the missing robots? Capital work, capital. I'll see to it that your bonus is-"

"Can it." I cut him off. He looked unsure of himself for a moment, and I spoke again before he could continue to bluster. "Yes, I know where your missing robots are. But before I tell you anything about them, I've got a few questions of my own for you. Just a couple things that don't make sense to me, you understand."

He stammered for a moment, clearly put off by my attitude. Well isn't that just too bad. I looked him in the eye. "First off, regarding how fast I cleared this. Why was it so important that I wrapped the case in a month? I know the court case with Fazbear Entertainment is coming up, but you guys shouldn't be involved in that unless they want to do some senseless mudslinging and attempting to slander you." He seemed flustered by that, so I continued.

"Second, why hire some dumpy PI to track them down? Granted I have history with the robots, but I don't see why you wanted me of all people to find 'em. There are a hundred better private eyes around this city with more experience than me, why not get one of them to track down the rampaging robotics?" His face was starting to turn red at this point, so I stood and started pacing the room.

"Third, how did you know the robots that the police had weren't the originals? As far as I know, nobody's released the serial numbers, and since I doubt they'd be willing to let people unaffected by the case look at evidence for it, I've got to assume you found it through less… Legal channels." That seemed to get his attention, and he stood up sharply before starting to sputter.

"M-Mr. Redding! I find the accusations you are currently insinuating against my company highly irregular at best, and slanderous at worst!" He caught his breath, and I saw him messing with something in his bag again. "However, because I don't see any harm that could come of it, I will answer your questions. First of all, we wanted this solved prior to the court case for the exact reasons you discussed. Fazbear Entertainment would jump at any chance to slander someone else in order to protect their own investments. If it came out that the robots used as evidence were not the same as the originals, they would be very quick to point the finger back at us. Hence, we wanted them returned so we could return them to the authorities." He seemed a bit shifty at that last statement… Somehow, I doubted that. I cut him off.

"Bull. Why would it matter which robots it was? The ones the police have are the ones that I took on during the incident, so it should be pretty clear that they're the ones relevant. You're bluffing, Matthews. What's really going on?" I thought about using one of my trump cards, but held back; it was too early to start showing off what I knew from their warehouse. He mopped his forehead quickly, before speaking once again.

"Really, Mr. Redding… Very well. Those particular animatronics were of high value due to their sophisticated nature and mechanical components. We wanted to recover them; those particular models can be easily converted from entertainment machines to weapons of war, and we didn't want to run the risk of anyone unscrupulous getting a hold of them. Thus, we wanted them brought back into our control." I still didn't buy that, but it'd do for now. He continued.

"Now, as for your second question… There's a simple reason we hired you, Mr. Redding. You have experience with these animatronics in a combat situation. We had no way of knowing if they were activated for nefarious purposes or not, so we wanted to hire someone that would be able to defend themselves if the robots turned hostile. Plus…" He looked slightly embarrassed. "We wanted someone expendable. Someone who, if the worst happened, we could disavow all knowledge of."

I sighed. So I was the fall guy for this whole arrangement… Well, whatever. "And my third question?"

He stammered for a moment, shifting his weight briefly. "…Mr. Redding, I believe the interview is over. Now, as to the robotics and your payment…" I cut him off by tugging a baton out and extending it.

"No more bullcrap, Matthews. Spill it." His eyes widened and he trembled, stammering for a moment before speaking again.

"…We had someone inside the police station. Not one of our own; he was fully anonymous. He told us that the serial numbers didn't match up and sent us an image with them. We checked our own records and he was right. We… Attempted to retrieve the robotics from police control to verify this, however by the time we got there, they were already gone."

So that confirms what I thought. Someone else has an interest in these robots, and I get the feeling it's not a passing hobby… "I've got a few more questions, Matthews. Don't worry, there's only one or two more and then I'll tell you exactly where your missing machines are. After all, no harm in telling me; once you know where the robots are, then you'll pay me and we'll part ways – hopefully to never see each other again." He hesitated, then nodded.

"Three more questions, and these are a bit more personal. First off… Why did you turn combat robots into children's entertainers? And before you deny it, I talked to Faz. He told me everything; the combat machines, the incident overseas, the forced decommission… Why take them and turn them from weapons to entertainment?"

He stared, wide-eyed, before finally stammering out an answer. "Money. Golden Mile had been losing money for a long time due to the incident you speak of, when the squad command drone malfunctioned. We saw the rise of animatronic entertainers, and chose to look into that business. You know quite well that children are… Shall we say, rough. We didn't want to construct second-rate machines and have them become little more than mangles of assorted machinery, so we repurposed our combat machines. They were durable enough to weather the tests."

I nodded. Made sense, after all… "Second question. When you repurposed these robots, why didn't you do a full memory wipe? Why did you just leave their drives there to corrupt and rot over time? After all, what's the point of combat protocols in a children's entertainer?"

He stared even more, jaw working but no words coming out. "Really, Mr. Redding… How did you – never mind… The reason there is quite simple as well. Golden Mile always had a plan, at least in one form or another, to eventually re-open their combat robotics division and begin selling them again. Remember, Mr. Redding; a good year or more passed between the decommission and the selling for combat purposes; we'd always intended to get the combat programming off of them, store it for later use… We never got around to it. After all, to this day we don't produce combat machines anymore."

There it was. A bold-faced lie… And one I was going to call out. "Right… Honestly, it's slightly ironic that you bring up not making war machines anymore, because that brings me to my third question." Seeing him gripping whatever was in his bag a bit tighter, I started loosening up a bit just in case I had to dive for cover. "Why are you building and selling war machines on the black market?"

Clearly, that wasn't the question he was expecting. It was slightly amusing, seeing him turn white as a sheet while he choked and stammered for an answer. Eventually he managed to regain his composure, and looked at me with what I thought was him attempting to be threatening. "You're the one that broke in, weren't you?!"

I smiled, producing the taped emergency instructions from my coat. "Interesting words from your foreman. So basically if anyone gets stuck inside after six, their two endings are being fired or becoming a bloodstain. That certainly sounds familiar, even down to the instructions on how to survive; two blast doors, angry robots, keep quiet and try not to draw attention from them. Sounds very familiar, especially for a guy who worked the night shift at Freddy Fazbear's for a week." He sputtered even more, his face turning red with anger. "And then there's the matter of this black market dealing. Is Golden Mile really that desperate that they have to turn to illegal methods just to make ends meet? After all, these are dangerous machines that you're putting in the hands of drug dealers, crime bosses, and even the occasional psychotic foreign dictator."

He stared, eyes widening as his face turned purple, sputtering and stammering as he gripped whatever was in the bag with a death grip. "This ends, NOW!" He pulled it out and I froze. This maniac just pulled a pistol on me! I stared for a moment, hands raising with a smirk on my face.

"Ah, so now it makes sense. You were sent to get rid of me, weren't you? Your bosses knew that I was too clever, too close to what they were doing. But here, let me start from the beginning, and stop me if I'm wrong." I took a breath and met his stare with one of my own.

"You were re-engaging your combat robotics and selling them on the black market, but after a few technicians died in construction because of that 'patrol mode' the robots had, you changed the protocol and had everyone just leave the building after six. Your original programmer had either died or left the company, am I right?"

He nodded, still staring at me with rage in his eyes. "Yes. He left after programming the originals, saying that he wanted no hand in 'creating machines of death and destruction' anymore. Weak, if you ask me… So yes, we had no way of changing the programming; our newest ones tried, but they weren't able to remove the patrol mode for some reason."

The pieces were coming together now. "So that's why you wanted the old robots back… Because you didn't have any way of changing the new ones, so you wanted to directly copy what was done before. If it wasn't so insane, I'd say you were smart. Anyway… So you changed the protocol, and sent some dumpy PI out to track down the robots. Your bosses had no idea, but you chose me because of my history with dealing with them. When your bosses found out, they decided they didn't want me anywhere close to this, especially after finding out about my track record. So, they wanted you to fire me, get me off the case." I was shooting blanks here, but he nodded.

"Exactly. You're a well known name, Mr. Redding; the executives didn't want you involved in case you accidentally wrecked the machines you were trying to bring in. But they didn't want to turn you away so quickly; after all, for all they knew you'd keep on them afterwards. So, the general hope was to leave things as they were and hope that if the robots were reactivated they'd overwhelm and kill you. And if you found them de-activated, we'd get them back and have the problem solved. Although I'm about to solve the problem myself, right now…"

Something didn't make sense. From what he said, his bosses didn't tell him anything about directly getting rid of me. "So explain one last thing to me. If all that's the case… Then why do you have a gun pulled on me? I found your robots. Why are you threatening me?" He stared for a moment, before starting to laugh a bit.

"You mean you can't figure it out? It's quite simple, Mr. Redding. You know too much. You broke into the factory, found out what we're truly up to, and now you must be dealt with in a much more permanent matter. In a way, I suppose you should consider yourself lucky; if they had gotten you, then your death would have been agonizingly painful. Just one bullet from me, and everything will be solved… Unless you decide to make things difficult. Now, no more questions. Where are the robots?"

Slowly, everything fell into place. Matthews wasn't working in the company's interests right now; if they found out what he was doing, they'd be screwed… Luckily, my pocket recorder had been ticking the entire time. Now, just to make sure I'd be alive to use it… Hopefully this works. "You want to know where they are, Matthews? I could tell you, but it'd be easier to show you." I snapped my fingers.

He looked confused for a long moment, before the sound of several pairs of heavy feet came echoing down the dark hall. His eyes widened, and his head turned towards the noise…

Just in time to see the silhouette of Freddy's head begin to flash and glow, his familiar Toreador March jingling through the air as the four animatronics slowly approached him. He screamed, turning with his gun to take aim –

And I dove into him, tackling him down. The robots followed quickly, with Bonnie quickly disarming him and Chica tying his hands behind his back. Foxy kicked him down onto a chair, and I grinned down at him as Freddy crouched to his level. "You didn't follow the rules, Matthews… Rule breakers have to be punished!" I barely suppressed a malicious laugh; I was pretty sure he just wet himself from that.

After a long second, I stepped in. "Easy there, Freddy. Now, Matthews… As you can see, I found the original Fazbear band in a very unlikely place; as my new roommates. This seems to put you in an awkward spot, because they'd rather me not get killed; they can't exactly get jobs for themselves, after all. So… I could send them back with you, but I get this feeling you won't survive the experience." I stepped back, looking around. "The second option is to kill you so you don't spread the secret, however I'm not terribly keen about getting blood on my hands. You're a puppet, Matthews; a stupid one. And I'm not keen on killing the messenger."

He looked like he was about to pass out at this point, so I gave him a smile. "The third option is simple. Pay me for my work, and then disappear. Don't go back to Golden Mile, and don't spread word about this; after all, we've worked hard to be left alone, and we would rather it not be ruined… So, what do you say?"

It took him all of one more toothy grin from Foxy to make the decision. Within three minutes, he'd signed the check and ran out the doorway. Freddy looked over to me. "You think we'll have any trouble with him again, Alex?"

I chuckled and shook my head, shutting the door.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Epilogue: Two Months Later.

It had been a busy few months after the crew and I put a scare into Matthews. During that time, the check cleared – including a few thousand extra, in an attempt from Golden Mile to shut me up about their less than legal activities. I ignored it, and submitted everything I had to Adams. They were on Golden Mile within three days, and had made several arrests already in addition to shutting down the unsold combat machines. They'd even begun tracking down the ones that were already sold, trying to round them up and deal with them.

Sadly, despite all this commotion, the four stolen robots never showed up again. Without that key piece of evidence, the lawsuit against Fazbear Entertainment fell through in the criminal courts. However, people had started taking them to civil court and suing for damages. Most charges went through without a problem, with a handful being settled out of court. All in all, Fazbear Entertainment had gotten a severe beating in the courts despite none of the executives facing jail time.

We'd heard a few faint words about potential locations for the missing robots, with blame shifting between Fazbear Entertainment, Golden Mile, and even a few independent collectors for who had taken them, but the matter was largely dropped after the court case ended. Not that I cared; as long as they stayed powered down, they could be in a museum for all I cared.

My investigations had come together quite well, and gave me around a week of free time to hang out with the crew, even inviting Faz, Adams and Mike over for a party to celebrate when the verdict against Golden Mile came out: Guilty as charged.

By now, the dust had settled and, as tends to happen, everything had dropped out of the news media. Always something new going on, after all… I stepped outside, grabbed the mail and newspaper, and came back in.

Freddy and Bonnie were snuggling on the couch again, the TV on and occupying their attention. Foxy was in the charger; we'd had another all-night snuggle last night, so she needed her batteries topped up. And judging by the scent of breakfast, Chica was hard at work in the kitchen once more. I sat down at the table, setting the junk mail aside, and looked over the newspaper.

Nothing much springing out… Tax deficit, people angry at politicians, controversial family pizzeria reopening in new location… Wait, what?!

I stared at the ad. Sure enough, there it was.

Fazbear Pizzeria Reopening Despite Storm of Controversy!

The highly controversial family restaurant chain, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, has announced today that after a change in executive management they would be reopening their doors in spite of a storm of controversy surrounding the failed lawsuit against them last month.

"We understand that we don't have the greatest history," says Frederick Mitchell, new CEO of Fazbear Entertainment, "However we're not going to let that stop us. There's a new management in, and we're going to be hard at work improving the facility. We have all-new animatronics with facial recognition software installed in order to prevent future incidents; they can spot a child predator from a mile off! We're also introducing a brand new free-roaming mode, which means the animatronic characters can now directly interact with guests! We've also rendered the new animatronics child-safe; there is no danger of any future incidents like those of the restaurant's dark past."

Despite the reassurance, many people are skeptical of the potential in a new branch of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, with many saying that it's too little, too late. Whether or not this new management and change in location and animatronic entertainers will quell naysayers remains to be seen.

The All-New Freddy Fazbear's Pizza opens in January of 2015.

I shouted for the others to get in here, staring at the paper for a long moment before showing them as they came in. Chica screeched in shock, Bonnie's eyes bulged, Foxy shook her head, and Freddy just took his hat off. "Alex, you know what this means…"

I nodded, sighing and rubbing my forehead.

"Looks like I'm in for a second five nights at Freddy's…"

Did y'all like the little touches in here? I added two specific ones. Cookies to whoever figures them out!

Read and review, everyone! I'll see y'all in Fa-La-La-Fazbear. And yes, that's a working title. See ya then!