AN: Hey guys! Good gosh, you'd think that summer vacation would make it easier to update frequently. But no, it's seemingly easier during the school year, probably due to structure and routine. That being said, I'm sorry this took so long. I was visiting family in Quebec for the past week, so I didn't have a lot of time to write. I didn't forget about you guys! How could I? You're all awesome! Anyway, please enjoy this chapter!

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza - Friday, December 10th, 1993

Mike came in for work that evening through the front entrance, as he usually did. He always made sure to come early to ensure he was in his office before midnight, to prevent falling victim to the obvious safety risks.

"Have a seat," Freddy said from across the room as Mike entered.

The young man screamed "Holy crap!" Looking to his right revealed that all the animatronics were gathered in the Dining Room, seemingly waiting for him. "Um… W-What's going on?" Mike stuttered, heart pounding. He had no idea why all of them were waiting for him, but he could only conclude that whatever reason it was couldn't be good.

"You're not in trouble, Mikey," Chica soothed. "We just, um…"

She was interrupted when Fritz came in. "Hey, how are ya, kid?" He laughed warmly. "Missed me? I just got back from my boxing tournament!" Seeing the animatronics over Mike's shoulder, he said, "Ooh, uh... Mike? Ya might wanna consider runnin'... Like, right now. Those... things, they're dangerous, ya know?"

"W-We're not things!" Chica protested.

"Chica, enough." Freddy said firmly, shooting her a warning glare. Turning his attention back to the guards, he added, "As I said before, have a seat. Both of you."

Mike looked to Fritz for approval. His eyes widened when he saw a bandage with a black bruise surrounding it on his coworker's left cheek. Fritz smiled, revealing a missing canine tooth on the right side of his mouth. His expression highlighted the swelling that had formed around the injuries. Noticing the concern, Fritz chuckled and said, "I'm fine, kid. It's all part of the game. Ya win some, ya lose some." He turned back to the animatronics and lead him to join them.

Freddy observed that having Fritz there complicated the situation. They'd only agreed to tell Mike, not the entire night staff. He mentally weighed how great the impact would be of informing two guards rather than just one. Then again, it certainly made keeping their secret contained much more difficult.

"What's the trouble, Fazbear?" Fritz asked.

"Trouble? Well, I wouldn't call it that..." Freddy replied.

"We just... have something we needed to tell you. It's a secret we've kept for many years. We figured it would be best to just tell you," Marionette explained. "Besides, it seems as though Mike was starting to figure it out as it is."

Mike raised an eyebrow. "A secret...? Me figuring it out? What are you talking about?"

Fritz shrugged, appearing to be just as clueless as his coworker.

Foxy sighed. "It's a long story..."

"We're willin' to listen," Fritz said.

Freddy held a hand out to his group, signalling his decision to take the lead. "I'm sure you've both heard of the Missing Children Incident, right?"

Both of the night guards nodded.

"And you're aware that not even one of them were ever found?"

"Yes..." Mike mumbled.

Fritz furrowed his brow and frowned slightly. "Yeah. Thomas had me and the rest of the staff lookin' everywhere when it happened. Pretty bad first day on the job if ya ask me. What about it?"

Freddy sighed. "There's no good way to put this, but..."

"We are those children," Chica blurted out.

Mike's eyes widened. He shook his head quickly; he couldn't have possibly heard her right. Going on the side of caution, he assumed he misunderstood. "... Huh?"

"What the hell are ya goin' on about?" Fritz tightened his hand into a fist, yet didn't show any intent to swing it at any one. "They were never found, assumed to be dead!"

"We are, Fritz..." Chica continued, her voice filled with sorrow. She hung her head low and refused to meet his eyes. Bonnie took his cue to hug her.

Freddy frowned, his voice broken as he tried to speak. "Do you remember Thomas' sons? How they wouldn't stop talking to the guards?"

"Yeah… They were pretty excited about havin' a new guard to play with." He smiled warmly at the memory, but the fondness quickly faded away as he also recalled the eventual fate the child had faced. "I miss those kids… I didn't know them for long, but they seemed like nice boys"

"B-But I'm right here! I-It's me, F-Freddy Fazbear..." He met Fritz's eyes. "I-I'm still here..." Freddy hid his face as he began to lose control of his emotions.

"We're all here," Marionette added. "All five of us. Well six, actually."

"But... how?" he asked. "What is this, some sort of horror story? Ghosts aren't real... Are they?"

A faint smile grew across Marionette's lips. "As real as we are."

"Wow, uh..." Fritz blinked, regarding the group as if he were questioning whether they were actually sitting before him at that moment or not. After a few moments, he decided to ask, "There were five kids who went missin' so, who are all of ya?"

"I'm Freddy," Freddy announced.

"I'm Charlotte," Chica said.

" And I'm James," Marionette added.

Fritz nodded slowly, mulling over the strange news.

Mike mustered up the courage to speak after his long silence. "Wait, so who are Bonnie and Foxy?"

Foxy looked as if he wanted to speak, and attempted to do so, but only some static sounds were heard as he twitched a little. Meanwhile, Bonnie pouted, crossing his arms and kicking at the air.

"Bonnie, who are ya, kid?"

He stood up suddenly and began to yell. "It's just Bonnie, okay? Bonnie the Bunny!" He let out a frustrated grunt. "I can't believe you two are gullible enough to believe this crap! Don't you see? We're sentient! Do you even know what that means?"

Mike studied his face carefully. "Uh..."

He sighed. "It means that what you see," he said, gesturing to himself sharply from head to toe, "is what you get. I'm an animatronic; just a robot. We all are. We can perceive our surroundings with a high degree of effectiveness, but we aren't alive. Drill that into your brain, idiot."

"Hey, watch it." Fritz warned.

Chica's eyes widened in horror as she listened to her boyfriend. "B-Bailey, how could you say-"

"I'm Bonnie!" he spat. "Bailey's dead, alright!?" His voice grew bitter. "All of them are." He leaped off of his perch and stomped off to Backstage, slamming the door behind him.

She watched him go and began to cry tearlessly after he left. Freddy put an arm around her to comfort her; however, his efforts had no visible impact.

Fritz frowned. "What did he mean by that?"

"I-I don't know!" Chica said, her voice wavering.

"It's going to be alright..." Freddy soothed. He looked up at Fritz. "I don't exactly know what's gotten into him, but he refuses to talk or think about his life before we came here."

"W-We're telling the truth, I-I swear!"

Much to just about everyone's disbelief, Mike walked over to Chica and hugged her. He didn't even appear to hesitate. "I believe you... I'm so sorry you've had to go through all of this… I-It must've been hard."

She sat there, stunned for a moment, before she returned the gesture. Chica held onto him tightly, but was mindful to not crush the young man by accident. Considering the strength of the animatronic bodies, a little force went a long way. "Thank you, Mike..."

Freddy glanced up at Fritz with a sullen look. It'd been many years since he'd spoken to any of the staff members other than Mike, and now that he was, he began to remember just how much he missed it. He tried to read Fritz's expression, but struggled to do so. He appeared blank, possibly deep in thought.

"Fritz?"

"Hm? Oh, sorry Freddy. It's a lot to take in. I just... I had no idea." He frowned. "Why didn't you say somethin'? If I'd known..."

"We didn't think you believe us, and we thought it'd be too dangerous to tell the staff." Freddy explained.

"Dangerous?"

"We thought we'd be scrapped. Or locked in the back room, like when they released that new lineup." He shook his head slowly. "It just sounds like it's just a glitch, doesn't it?"

Fritz ignored his last comment. "I really doubt that would happen. Freddy, your dad's really missed ya, so I'm sure he would be overjoyed to know that you're still here."

"I know, but-"

"You should tell him. Anyway, what happened to your brother? Is he in the Foxy suit, or...?"

"No, um, that's where his friend Reynard ended up. You see, Gilead was... put in the back."

Fritz's jaw dropped. "No..."

Freddy's held his head in his hands. "He can't move..." he choked. "The spring locks were too dangerous, so they took out his endoskeleton, a-and left him in the back, with the old Bonnie suit!"

"Give me a minute…" Fritz mumbled, absently stroking his chin as he brainstormed. "I'd be able to get into that room for ya. But, if I do, we'd have nowhere to put him."

Freddy shot his head up. "I don't care! I just want to see him… I-It's been years…"

Fritz stood and came to Freddy's side with a pained smile. It was unclear if it was the physical pain of his injury or emotional distress that caused the strain. "We'll get him out, kid. I don't have access to the safe room, but I know Anthony does. After all, he made all those recordings about it and its procedures however many years ago. I'll talk to him about it. Promise."

"Thank you, Fritz..."

"I'm happy to help. I'll have him come in tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow's Saturday. You don't work that day."

Fritz shrugged. "I'm not leaving a human bein' in the 'safe room' longer than necessary."

Freddy's expression brightened a little with the hope that he would be reunited with his family once again, and at the acknowledgement of being human.

He was still afraid to talk to his father, out of fear that reopening the emotional wounds would be too painful for him. How could someone, who'd already coped with the death of his entire family, be expected to accept that something worse had happened to his children? Freddy knew it would be easier for him to never know what really happened. He'd let him just accept whatever conclusion he had already come to. On the other hand, Freddy missed him desperately and he could only guess that Gilead did too. It broke his heart to watch Thomas walk past him every day and not be able to say a word to him. He'd seen the tears fall down his face before the work day had started; the ones he thought no one could see. All he wanted to do was hug his father and tell him he loved him. But it couldn't be. He chose to ignore the heartache; it was all he could do. Freddy would at least be reunited with his brother, and that would have to be enough. He focused on the joy that anticipation brought instead.

Fritz left to ice his face. If he could bring down the swelling, it'd help him heal faster. As a seasoned boxer, swelling was a common nuisance he was used to dealing with. He didn't get badly injured often, but when he did he always followed the care instructions given by his doctor to the best of his abilities.

He pressed the ice to his face and paced back and forth in the kitchen, taking a moment to reflect on the new information. At least his security job was rendered nearly pointless, which was a pleasant change of pace compared to the apparent danger he and Mike previously faced. Fritz wasn't even sure if he could be considered a security guard when he didn't have anything left to guard. Unless the animatronics started misbehaving. Maybe then he'd have something to do. Freddy would have been around 15 by now, so maybe he would need to prevent him from causing some typical mischief teenagers were famous for getting into. On top of that, maybe he would actually need to protect the place if some thug tried to break in.

He smiled to himself, ignoring the sting of pain in his cheek. The new safety would have to make Mike more comfortable. Fritz could only hope that, once he let his guard down a little, he could get to know Mike a little better.

While the others were busy, Chica slipped away from Mike and headed to Backstage to check up on Bonnie. She could only hope he had enough time to calm down by the time she arrived . When she came into the room, she found him sitting in the corner with his head down, against his knees that he'd pulled up to his chest. His ears had drooped down and hung limply against his legs.

"Bonnie...?"

He raised his head as if it had been cumbersome to do so, his eyes tired and troubled. "What do you want, Chica?" he uttered half-heartedly.

She came over and sat beside him, putting her arms around him and hoping her presence would help. Chica hated to see him, or any of her friends for that matter, hurting. "Are you alright?"

He grumbled a few swear words that she was almost shocked that he even knew. He was only 8 when he had died, so she had no idea where he had even heard them in the first place.

She frowned. "You can always talk to me. You know that, right?"

Bonnie sighed. "Yeah, I know. You're my girlfriend, after all. Just..." He hesitated, "leave me alone, alright? You don't get it. No one does."

"What are you talking about? I'm not going anywhere... Why wouldn't I understand?"

He remained silent, only staring at the grimy floor in response. She moved one of her arms and took his hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. He met her eyes, revealing the troubled emotions he felt. "You already know."

"Talk to me... Please, Bonbon. I care about you, and I don't want to see you like this."

Bonnie held her hand tightly in his. "I know you're convinced we were alive and all, b-"

"We were! You don't remember...?"

"Remember what?"

"All the times we came here as kids... When you and Freddy would play together at recess. When we played the arcade machines together. When we'd all go to the park together. That time when we put mud in Gilead's shoes because you and Freddy thought it would be funny." Chica choked back a sob. "Why don't you remember...?"

His expression softened. "I'm sorry, I just... don't. All I know is my existence at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. I'm Bonnie the Bunny. I play guitar on stage in the Fazbear Band. I'm an animatronic rabbit, and that's all there is."

"A-And I'm Chica the Chicken. I sing backup vocals in the Fazbear Band at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. But I'm also Charlotte Vann. I died alongside one of my best friends and his brother in 1987." She began to break down into tears. "B-Bailey Olsen, please... Y-You're still here, as Bonnie... I know it's you! Y-You just don't remember anymore..." She brought her other arm back around him, embracing him tightly and hiding her face in his shoulder.

"I..." He held her close and spoke quietly. "I believe you. I just wish I could remember..."