Disclaimer: Saying I own Five Nights at Freddy's is like saying that Leonardo Dicaprio owns an Oscar. *Prepares to get attacked by rapid Leo Dicaprio fangirls*

The second we got to the night guard's office, Fritz and I got right to work. I closed both doors and Fritz picked up the phone.

"Hello, police?! We're in trouble-there's a crazy guy with an ax…!" Behind me, Ian set Hope down gently on the floor. She didn't look so good-she was still in one piece, but just barely. She had a lot of slashes in her face and body.

"It…it hurts." She whined a little, grabbing her left wing.

"Hope, hang on!" Ian begged.

"Is that really your plan?" Jeremy scoffed from outside. "You're just going to stay holed up in there all night?"

"Why not?" I shot back. "I have experience."

"Yeah, hiding from them!" Jeremy shouted. "Open your eyes, Mike! Look at what you're protecting! How many times have you almost died here?! And what about all the people who weren't lucky enough to escape with their lives, huh?! Haven't you wondered how many people have ended up dead because of those things?! They might have been children once, but that was a long time ago! They have to be destroyed!" I started to open my mouth to argue, but stopped myself.

As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point. Before I could stop myself, I flashed back to my tenth birthday, the day of the Bite. Then I remembered my very first near-death experience-when Freddy/Tricia had grabbed me on my third night. Whether they had meant to or not, they had almost killed me at least twice. Not to mention-one of them was the reason I had gotten broken in the first place. Seeing Ian…Foxy biting Fritz on my birthday-and then having my dad punish me for it afterwards…all those years I'd spent as a damaged shell because of him-because of what he did to my sister…to me…

I was suddenly drawn out of my thoughts by the sound of children crying. I turned around…and my eyes widened.

I swear, I couldn't see Foxy and Chica at all. Ian's and Hope's souls were superimposed over their animatronics, hugging each other as they cried in fear.

"Ian, I'm scared!" Hope cried.

"I know. Me too!" They resumed crying, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Fritz looking at them, her mouth wide open in shock as she looked at me.

"Mike-is this how you always see them?!"

"Not like this." I answered, realizing that it was Fritz's first time seeing what they really were. I couldn't help but notice that Hope's soul, her true self, had the same injuries as Chica. And Ian-I remembered one of the first times I had seen his soul, when he broke down crying on his knees because he missed his friends.

They don't want this. They NEVER wanted to be this way, or to hurt anyone.

"You're wrong, Jeremy." I said before I could stop myself. The kids and Fritz looked at me in surprise, and I turned around to glare at the door. "And I'm not letting you in." I narrowed my eyes even though I knew he couldn't see me.

"You're not going to hurt them again." There was a thud at the door, which meant that Jeremy had hit it with his ax.

"OPEN THAT GODDAMN DOOR!"

"Mike…" Ian said behind me, "Do what he says. Open the door."

"What?!" I said at the same time as the girls. Ian stood up, letting go of Hope. His soul was still visible, and he had a determined look on his face, wiping away tears that weren't there.

"He's not going to just let you go now that you know the truth! He'll kill you, like he did to me and my friends! And I might not be able to stop him-but at least I can buy you some time to escape!" My heart stopped as I realized what he was going to do.

"Ian, no."

"Ian!" Hope gave him a pleading look, and Ian looked back down at her sadly.

"Hope, once I run out, you get Mike and Fritz to safety. Okay?" Hope nodded.

"Aye-aye, captain."

"Mike, Fritz…" He looked between us, looking like he wanted to cry again, but also determined, like he was trying to hold his tears in.

"I'm sorry. For everything!" At 'everything' he ran over and pressed the door switch with his good hand, letting the metal door slide up.

"Ian no, NO!"

It was too late. With a cry that was a weird combination of Foxy's screech and a very human child scream, he attacked Jeremy, trying to bite him.
"IAN!" I started to run to help him, only to be grabbed and pulled back. Hope held my arm in her left wing and Fritz's in her right.

"Come on, come on!" She hurried along as best as she could, pulling us towards the exit with her. She was nowhere near as fast as Ian (though that was probably due to all the damage she'd taken), but she did the best she could, and got us away from Jeremy.

"There!" she said, pointing at the door.

"Hold on!" Fritz said. "What about you?!"

"Look at me!" Hope said. "I'm not going to last much longer anyway! Please, just…" She cut off mid-sentence.

"Hope?" Chica's eyes went dull. Her arm fell off (nearly taking mine with it). As Fritz and I watched, she slowly fell to pieces.

"Oh my God…" Fritz said.

"No…" I got down on my knees, picking up her head. "No, no, no, no…"

My eyes filled with tears. They were gone. Those poor kids, who had been killed once already and had to go through this nightmarish existence for so long, the kids I'd tried so hard to save, risked my life coming back night after night for…

"She's not going to answer you, Mike." I froze. Jeremy walked over, his ax in his hands, and a few scratches on him.

"Where's…?!" Fritz started.

"The fox?" Jeremy asked. "He put up a better fight than the first time. But it ultimately wasn't enough." He gripped his ax a little tighter as he looked down at me.

"You know he was right though, don't you Mike? I can't just let you leave. You know too much-both of you." His right hand went to his pocket, and he pulled out a gun. Fritz pulled me to my feet.

"Come on, let's get out of here! The police should be here soon, we'll…"

"It's no use." I said. "He'd kill us before we even got out the door." Jeremy just narrowed his eyes at me as he put his ax down.

"You want to know what the worst part of all this is, Mike? I really didn't want it to have to come to this. All I wanted was to clean up my mess, get on with my life, and not have to shed any more blood, but you just couldn't leave well enough ALONE!" He cocked his gun, pointing it at me.

"Mike!" Fritz pulled on my sleeve.

"You go."

"What?!"

"One of us should get out alive." I told her. "Make sure that everyone finds out the truth about what happened here." I looked right at Jeremy.

"Just let her go. She's been through enough already." Jeremy glared at me, looking from me to Fritz before seeming to come to a decision.

"Fine." He smirked. "No one will believe you, anyway."

"Mike…" Fritz looked at me.

"GO." For once in her life, my sister didn't argue a second time. She ran to the exit, and Jeremy smirked at me.

"Y'know, it's amazing just how noble you are. Gotta say, I'm impressed. Not enough to let you go, though." He raised his gun, his smile fading. "Any last words?"

I balled my hands into fists for the second time that night and gritted my teeth.

"Yeah, but they're not for you!" I turned to the side, my voice softening as I said "Melody? I know you're listening, and I know you're not going to help me, so I won't waste my breath asking you to. While I can't forgive what you made Ian and the others do…what you turned them into-I understand why you did it." A lump formed in my throat, but I forced myself to go on.

"Because in spite of everything, you're still just a little girl. And you're just as much a victim of this as them-maybe even more. You've been through so much, suffered so much pain, loneliness and misery because of some very selfish adults, and I wanted to help you just as much as I wanted to help them!"

By now I was openly crying. It wasn't a pretty sight, but I didn't cared how I looked at the moment. I sniffed.

"So I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry that you had to endure all of that-and I'm sorry that I couldn't save you!" Jeremy lowered his gun a little.

"Wow-you really love those little brats that much?" I didn't answer him. Jeremy's smirk returned as he put his gun away.

"Alright Mike, I'll tell you what. There's one suit left. I'll see to it that you join them." Like Hope before him, he grabbed my arm and pulled me along, though much more roughly. I didn't even try to fight back. Why should I? A person I'd trusted and relied on had lied to me and turned out to be a cold-blooded murderer, Ian and his friends were gone for good…I'd come so far only to fail so miserably…there was nothing left to hope for.

After a little while we reached a closet, which Jeremy opened to reveal another animatronic…and quite a pitiful-looking one at that. It was a rabbit like Bonnie, except a sickly yellowish-green. One of its ears was broken, and it had more scratches and damage to it than Foxy had.

"Say hello to your new body."

A/N: Hands up everyone who wants to kill Jeremy themselves now? Don't worry-he gets his in the very next chapter, I can promise you that. Just have patience. Oh man-I've been itching to write the finale for a good while now-I promise you, it's gonna be epic! But until then, leave me plenty of reviews! Reviews make me write faster!

PS. For that guest reviewer who asked-Melody was an accident. Jeremy was trying to kidnap her to prove a point, but when she kept struggling to get away, he lost his temper and...well...you can probably guess the rest...