AN: I decided to revisit chapter 9, and I added more detail to the character descriptions and changed some minor plot points so that the rest of the story flows more smoothly. (I mainly gave more of a solid reason as to why Jeremy and Maxwell/Porfirio were rehired). Although the changes probably won't be as drastic as they were for chapter 9, I will be fixing the others at some point. I know this chapter is about a month late, and for that I'm so sorry. This one took me forever to finish, and I've had a lot on my plate recently. Even if my updates continue to be slow, I promise that this fic will be finished. Anyway, sorry to ramble on like that. Here's the next chapter!

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza - Monday, January 10th, 1994

"N-No!" The ghost of Freddy knelt by the damaged old animatronic, horrified by the sight before him. "I didn't want anyone to die!" His voice wavered as he pleaded, "W-Wake up Porfirio, please!"

"We tried to stop him…" Reynard mourned.

"Call someone! He needs help!"

"Freddy, it's too late," Gilead stated. "It's only been about a minute, and he's already passed out from the blood loss. Even if we did call for help, he'll be dead by the time anyone comes. Besides, calling for help means Dad will lose the business for sure." He frowned, continuing to keep his gaze fixated on the accidental suicide before him. "Poor guy… I wouldn't wish that upon anyone… Not even him."

Reynard nodded slightly. "I didn't like him, but a death like that is just awful. I hate to say it, but it's worse than what any of us went through by his hand."

"He sounded like he was suffering…" Charlotte said softly.

"Who's Haruka?" inquired Bailey. "And how could it have not been him? We know it was him."

Gilead shook his head slowly, keeping his gaze downcast. All of them stood there for several uncomfortable moments, as if waiting to see if Porfirio would move or make a sound. He didn't. His blood only continued to flow from the suit, spreading across the floor in an ugly red lake at their feet.

Reynard interrupted the quiet with: "There's not much left of our suits, but we need to get back to them if we want to stick around. We've already faded a lot, so I wouldn't push it."

They examined themselves, seeing that his statement was accurate. Bailey held his hand up in front of his face, almost able to perfectly make out the wall behind it.

"Stay in the suits until Dad comes," Freddy told them. "We'll come out when he comes so we can tell him what happened."

"Another death at the restaurant…" mourned Gilead. "I can hardly barely believe it."

"I know, but he'll figure it out. He's dealt with it before…"

Despite the grave circumstances, Bailey cracked a wry smile and asked, "Hey, Gilead, don't you mean 'bearly'?"

Charlotte couldn't help but giggle. "Of all times, you pick now to make a bear pun?"

"Why not? I thought it'd lighten the mood a little," he replied sincerely. "Come on, we need to get back out there."

She nodded in response. Bailey took her hand and lead her out of the room toward their suits, the others following shortly behind them.

Once they had returned to the Dining Area, the group found James on his knees by Reynard's suit, staring in disbelief and holding the head in his hands.

"James?" Reynard called out to him.

He looked up at him, shock and relief coming over him. James raced over to them and hugged them all close to him. His arms didn't pass through their air-like bodies.

"I thought I'd lost you! You have no idea how worried I've been!" He squished them closer.

"I think we did, actually," Bailey teased.

"How are you… doing this?" Charlotte asked. "You're solid, and we're not, so…"

James let go and waved it off. "I have my ways," he said with a twinkle in his eyes. "A gift of some kind."

"Well, we're thankful for it," Freddy interjected. "We wouldn't be here without it."

"I'm happy I could help you. It's wonderful to see how you've all grown up." He frowned as he noticed how faint his friends had become. "It's worse than I thought… All of you, go back to your suits. I'll help you out."

None of them questioned him. Each of the spirits returned to their suits, doing their best to establish their bonds, only to find that their spirits weren't taking well to their bodies. James brought each of the animatronics to the stage, setting them down together to begin to work his magic.

An excited grin spread across his face as he regarded his friends. "Want to see something cool?"

"Sure," Freddy said.

James stepped back then sat cross-legged in front of them. He closed his eyes and focused, letting his body relax. By the time he stood, a subtle purple glow had enveloped his body. He drifted over to them, floating as a spirit would. He stopped at Bailey first, kneeling and reaching through the Bonnie suit to reach the spirit inside, as if there was no physical restraint.

The group watched him in awe, stunned.

"Dude, that's sick! How are you doing that?" Bailey enthused. "Tell me how to do it!"

"It's a secret to everybody," he said with a smile. "Here, tie this to yourself." He passed him an iridescent purple string, one he'd materialized from thin air. "Your leg is probably best, since it'll give you more mobility."

"What is this?" he asked, taking hold of the ghostly string, one that reminded him of yarn.

"It's a tether. A string of life, if you will. It's not the strongest, but it'll get the job done." James continued to fasten the piece to the costume for him and continued. "It's kind of neat when you put it that way, isn't it? I guess I really am the 'Master of Puppets,'" he joked.

Bailey snickered at the Metallica joke and tied the string to his ankle, as he was told to. "True."

He moved on to Freddy next, repeating the same procedure.

"So, if this is a temporary thing, how do you tie a soul to something permanently?" Freddy asked him.

"It's similar, but not quite. With this string tying your soul to the suit, you can come and go as you please without having to worry about fading, but you're restricted to the length of it. The shorter the string, the stronger the bond. When I originally did this for you, the strings were as short as I could make them, since younger spirits tend to be more delicate… and because souls should really be in their bodies. You don't really see spirits wandering around, do you?" James laughed and continued. "Anyway, with the state of your suits and because your souls have matured, I can use longer strings. That way, none of you will have to be confined to a mangled mess like that. Besides, stronger ties are much harder to break, so it's a win-win situation. Now, it's not a permanent solution, but it'll do."

"I see…" Freddy said. "Can you leave your suit?"

James gave him a mysterious smile. "I can, yes, but I don't really do it all that often. You see, with these… abilities, I don't really have to follow the rules." He chuckled and added, "If I did, I wouldn't be able to help you right now."

"That's true. Hey, could you create a longer string for me? There's something I need to do."

He regarded him with curiosity. "That depends on what you need. How far do you need to go?"

"To the Safe Room," Freddy answered carefully.

James paused. "Freddy, what's in there?"

"Something happened," the young man answered hurriedly. "I'll explain, I promise. Just finish tying the strings."

James sighed and finished his work quickly, fastening the souls to their suits one by one. As requested, he made Freddy's string longer than the others. Once James had completed his task, he sat in front of Freddy and asked, "What's in the Safe Room?"

Freddy looked to his friends, all of whom remained silent, leaving him to deal with it by himself. "T-There's someone in there… Someone died," he admitted.

James visibly tensed. "That monster got someone else?" He furrowed his brow. "Who was it this time?"

"Actually, he caught himself," Bailey interjected. "Spring Bonnie got him. You know, him."

"Wait, it's Porfirio? He's dead?"

Freddy nodded.

James let out a relieved sigh. "Finally."

"Finally?" Charlotte asked with disgust. "James, how could you be so cold? He may have been an awful person, but he's dead. If anything, I'd at least expect you to feel some sympathy for him. You've faced death more times than any of us have."

"That doesn't mean I pity him. He used costumes of friendly children's characters to lead us off to carry out his dark deeds. He got what he deserved." He stood and began to pace. "It's about time, really."

"Dad could lose the restaurant over this," Freddy warned. "Don't take this lightly. We need your help."

"I'm not helping him." He turned away from them, his voice wavering when he spoke again. "H-He's done too much, he's killed us a-and tried to have Anthony join us. So, sorry if I don't feel like giving him a second chance."

"Thank God, someone gets it," Bailey said, relieved. "I thought I was the only one who was still mad at him. Just because he's dead doesn't mean I forgive him for what he's done."

"I'm not mad, I'm just… upset. If I wanted to, I could rip what remains of his soul from his body and let it fade into what feels like non-existence. All I know is that it's probably the single most painful feeling you could experience. If I was mad, I'd have done that already. But I haven't. I just don't want to see him; I don't want to help him."

Bailey laughed uncomfortably. "Y-Yeah… Wow, that's pretty bad." He looked away, hugged his knees to his chest.

"What's gotten into you two?" Gilead scolded. "You're better than this. James, you're normally generous and helpful. And Bailey, you're normally light-hearted, not vengeful."

"Don't tell me you actually want a disgusting excuse for a person like him among us, do you?" Bailey replied. "Come on, Fazbear, we both know that's not cool. M-Maybe the whole 'soul ripping' is a little much, but he's still an awful person, if you can still call him one after all he's done. I think I have every right to feel at least a little vengeful. He killed us."

"I know you're angry, we all are, but don't stoop to his level."

"He's right," Freddy added, nodding to his brother. "We need to be better than our enemies, not just as wicked as they are. Besides, we need to work toward forgiveness, not resentment."

"Forgiveness. Yeah, right." Bailey rolled his eyes.

Gilead ignored his remark. "James, please? Use your talents for good, not evil," he urged him.

"No." He hung his head with a sigh, his anger vanishing, only to be replaced by bitter sorrow. "I know, I'm the bad guy now. Sorry. Even fifteen years isn't enough time to recover from your own death." He stepped off the stage and said, "I'll be in my box if you need me." He mumbled flatly, "That's where I always am."

"James, don't go! I know this is hard, but we'll get through it together!" Charlotte called after him. James ignored her, dragging himself from the room. Giving up, she let her eyes drift to Charles the Cupcake. "That's exactly what I didn't want to have happen. I hate how he feels like he needs to hide from us."

Freddy shook his head slowly. "He shouldn't be isolating himself like that… We'll only get better if we learn to accept our new lives, and we'll only be able to do that if we work together."

"And be the Fazbear family, as we should have been these past few years. We're all Fazbears here, every single one of us," Gilead said with a thin smile.

"We can deal with James later," Reynard piped in after his lengthy silence. "Right now, we've got to figure out how we'll break the news to your dad."

Freddy got to his feet. "Let me handle it."

"You're telling him what happened in '87, right?" his brother clarified.

"No… What happened in '87 stays in '87."

Mr. Fazbear and Anthony came into work that morning as usual. Not paying attention to where he was going, Mr. Fazbear slipped, falling flat on his back. He groaned, sat up, and glanced down at what he had slipped on. He gasped as he saw the pool of black oil below him. Looking a little farther ahead, he noticed there was more of it splattered across the tiling. Among the mess, there were shoe prints leading down the hall.

"Are you okay?" Anthony shouted, coming to his side. "I'd help you up if I could!"

"I'm fine." He got to his feet, rubbing at his sore back. Mr. Fazbear wiped the oil off of his hands, regathered his keys and lunch, then proceeded to his office, with Anthony following behind him. About to take his place at his desk to work, he jumped as he saw that someone was already seated in his chair.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry!" Freddy stood slowly as to not alarm him any further. "Dad, are you alright?"

Mr. Fazbear's eyes widened in shock as he recognized the spirit before him. "Freddy…? Is that you?"

He smiled. "Hey. Sorry to scare you like that."

"Freddy, uh, what are you doing here?" Anthony asked him.

"I thought you were supposed to be in that Freddy Fazbear animatronic…" his father mumbled. "But here you are, all grown up."

He grinned. "I'm glad you still recognize me. As for the suit, uh, I am. Normally, at least. It's complicated, but I'm not going away anytime soon." Freddy glanced at his father's pant leg, frowning. "I see you've found the oil…"

"That I have," he replied grimly. "Where did all of that come from?"

"H-He came back… I don't understand, he b-brought an axe and..." Freddy began anxiously.

"What?" Anthony exclaimed. "What happened?"

He wrapped his arms around himself. "He hacked us apart… M-My body's been reduced to a pile of scrap metal… I c-can't lose my body, n-not again..."

"Freddy, you're going to be fine," his father assured him. "We'll… we'll sort this out. Do you know who did all of this?"

"P-Porfirio... "

Mr. Fazbear shook his head slowly. "First Mr. Howard, now… this."

"I-I'm sorry… I didn't know what to do!" Freddy wailed. "I-I wanted to stop him, b-but I just couldn't!"

He sighed wearily. "I'm just glad you're still here. I don't think I could stand to lose you again. I-It's just some fabric and metal; it can be replaced…" Less confidently, he muttered, "I'll pay for it, somehow…"

"But it'll cost too much," he argued.

"Either I have to foot the bill for it, or close the restaurant," Mr. Fazbear countered. "Without you all, there isn't a whole lot else to attract the customers. We sell pizza, sure, but the parents bring their kids to see you, my boy. I can't promise anything, but we at least need to try to repair your suits if we're going to have any hope of staying in business."

"W-We'll have enough money, won't we?"

Mr. Fazbear hesitated. "I… I don't know." He cleared his throat. "We'll sort out the finances later. Where did Mr. Violet go after all of this?"

Freddy shifted uncomfortably. "He's… still here, i-in the Safe Room."

"He is?" Anthony glanced over his shoulder, as if assuming Porfirio would be waiting behind him. "That's, uh, odd. I mean, h-he didn't stick around after he… y-you know, left me to die." He tightened his grip on his crutches, looking away from Freddy. "I can't imagine why he'd want to stay…"

Mr. Fazbear furrowed his brow and headed to the door. "I'm going to have a word with him about this." He sighed. "I don't know what happened; Mr. Violet used to be one of my most reliable staff members."

"You don't need to be so formal, Thomas." Anthony and Freddy followed him out of the office toward the Safe Room. "We're your friends. Uh, I'm sure Porfirio would say the same thing."

Freddy looked away, attempting to conceal his feelings.

"That's true, I suppose," Mr. Fazbear said bleakly.

"W-we need to go to the Safe Room," Freddy piped in.

Mr. Fazbear nodded and quietly led the way. While they were heading down the hall, Anthony uneasily started, "U-Uh, Freddy?"

"Huh? Oh..." He soon realized he was a few inches from the floor, bringing himself back down to walk normally. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine, really." His tone of voice said otherwise.

Freddy gave him a small smile. "It's creepy, I know. There's not much I can do about the whole 'being dead' thing, but I can at least remember to keep my feet on the ground."

"Yeah, I-I guess…" Anthony muttered.

They arrived at the Safe Room, holding out for Freddy's cue to enter the room. The spirit led the way without a word, a dark cloud hanging over him. He stood near the door and waited.

"What on earth would he want in here?" Mr. Fazbear mumbled, stepping into the Safe Room, not daring to look around.

"Fritz and I already got Gilead out of here. There's not a lot of anything left. Nothing he'd be interested in, anyway."

Freddy remained silent, stepping aside to reveal the mess behind him. At the source of the lake of blood sat the old, broken animatronic rabbit suit: Spring Bonnie. The head of the lifeless animatronic hung forward, exposing the back of the victim's neck. A messy black ponytail, now caked in blood, dangled out from under the mask. A small portion of a lavender dress shirt collar could be seen poking out of the suit, seemingly the only piece of it that wasn't dyed red in the accident. Between the hair and the shirt, they didn't need to remove the mask to know that it was Porfirio inside the suit.

"No, no, no… No, this can't be." Mr. Fazbear cautiously approached the suit. He crouched in front of Porfirio's body, slowly bringing his hand forward and attempting to lift the head up, only for it to remain stiffly in place. He sighed quietly. "He really is gone…".

Anthony looked down at the blood near his feet, squeezing the hand grips of his crutches tightly as he tried to cope. He hardly spoke above a whisper. "Oh God, P-Porfirio…"

"W-We tried to stop him b-but he wouldn't listen." Freddy came to his father's side, attempting to hug him as he saw his conflicted emotions. He couldn't be sure of exactly what he was feeling, but whatever it was wasn't good.

"W-Why...?" he choked out. "A-And of all places, why here? T-The last thing we needed was the p-police getting involved…" Mr. Fazbear was only able to hold it together for a moment longer before tears began to fall. "I-I've lost everything! M-My wife, my kids… Now the restaurant, too..."

"No, you haven't!" Freddy exclaimed. "Y-You still have us! Dad, we're not leaving! We'll fix the suits and we'll be open again before you know it!"

He shook his head. "If the authorities d-don't close us down, bankruptcy will." Mr. Fazbear wept.

"I'll fix the animatronics, I-I-I'll clean out the suit…" Anthony glanced at the body and gagged slightly, turning his face away. "I'll work as long as you need me to. I-I won't let you down, Thomas."

"We've covered up murder before," Freddy reminded him. "W-We can cover up an accident as well."

"That's n-no accident, my boy…"

"It was, honest!" Freddy insisted. "He said he didn't want to die!"

Mr. Fazbear shook his head slowly. "No one p-puts an entire suit on by accident. C-Clearly, he wanted to end his life." He wiped his tears, stood, and backed away from the mess. "E-Either way, the future of Fazbear Entertainment rests on h-how well we can cover this up and how quickly we can reopen."

"I'll see if Fritz is willing to help us with the animatronics," Anthony added. "Uh, as for the body…"

"W-We'll deal with it later."

He scrunched his nose. "That's going to be awful. Don't you remember that terrible smell?"

A dark expression came over him. "I do, b-but we don't have much of a choice. No animatronics, no business. I feel bad for leaving Porfirio's body in that state, but we have other things that need to be dealt with. I'll mop up the mess on the floor for now."

"I guess that'll have to be good enough." Anthony, no longer able to maintain his composure in front of Porfirio's body, hobbled out of the room. Freddy and his father joined him in the hall. Mr. Fazbear shut the door behind them, locking it for good measure.

"What're we going to do?" Freddy asked.

"We'll take this one step at a time," Thomas explained, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "Anthony, could you call Mike and Fritz for me? Tell them what's happened and see if they're willing to help out. I hate to say this, but I'm afraid I can't afford to pay them if they're not working, n-not right now. I know it's not security work, but it's the best I've got to offer at the moment."

"O-Of course," Anthony agreed.

Knowing what state his employee was in, Thomas said, "Take your time to collect yourself. Those two won't be up for a while."

He nodded and excused himself, going to the kitchen to fetch himself a glass of water and some pizza.

"Is there anything I can do to help, Dad?"

"Just… try to keep everyone's spirits up. You could also search Backstage for spare parts," his father told him.

"I'll do my best." Although Freddy didn't have a physical body, he attempted to hug his father, resting his head on his father's shoulder. "It's going to be okay… We'll be fine, all of us will be."

Mr. Fazbear held him, doing his best to not let his arms pass through his son's back. "I hope you're right…"

Anthony secluded himself to the Security Office for several hours as he attempted to recover from seeing the gruesome scene in the Safe Room. He recalled every good memory he had with Porfirio over the years, remembering their frequent visits to the local pub, the times he'd invite Anthony over for horror movie marathons, and even the most mundane days spent together at work. He wept as the pain of it had sunk in: he'd lost one of his best friends, and Anthony missed him immensely.

No amount of time would help him understand why Porfirio made an attempt on his life, or what he'd done to make him want to in the first place, but he knew that the old friend that he cared so much about was still there somewhere. Although a monster had taken his place as of late, he genuinely missed his friendship with Porfirio. Losing him from his life was enough to help him realize that. Anthony knew he'd made the right decision to keep his distance from him, yet he couldn't help but feel as if he'd made a mistake. Now that Porfirio was gone, he suddenly regretted his recent lack of contact, even though it had been in his best interest. He knew he still had Fritz, Jeremy, Thomas, and now Mike as friends, but no one could replace his best friend.

Once he had regained his composure, he called Fritz as he was asked to.

"Hello?" the man on the other end mumbled tiredly.

"Hello, hello," he greeted with little emotion. "Wait, uh, Mike? Is that you? I thought I'd called Fritz, but..."

"No, you've got the right number. I stayed over at his house," Mike explained.

"Oh, uh, that's nice." A weak grin managed to creep across his face for the first time that day, unlike usual. "Did you two have fun?" he inquired with a knowing edge to his voice.

"Uh, yeah, of course we-" He cut himself off as he realized what Anthony was implying. "No no no no no! W-We didn't, I mean, we had fun, b-but it wasn't that kind of fun!" he insisted, panicked. "I-I stayed on the couch, by myself! I swear!"

He let out a strained chuckle. "I'm joking, Mike. I wouldn't actually ask you about… y-you know, um… that." He cleared his throat uncomfortably, embarrassed and wishing he hadn't brought the topic up to begin with. Although he couldn't pass up the opportunity to crack a good joke, he knew he'd never been great with conversations about sex. It didn't matter if it was a light-hearted innuendo or a serious discussion; Anthony was never able to have a conversation about it without his weakness becoming painfully obvious. "L-Let's change the subject, okay?"

Mike sighed in relief. "Oh thank gosh! You had me worried there! I mean, I've never actually had-"

"Too much information. Joke's over. I-I don't want to know about your, uh, sex life." He cleared his throat again. "I don't know why I even brought that up," he rambled. "Anyway, uh, that's not why I called. Could you get Fritz for me? It's best that I talk to both of you together."

"Uh, sure, one sec. I'll get him and we can talk on speakerphone."

Anthony heard him set the phone down. Shortly after, he heard the receiver being hung back up followed by, "Fritz speakin'."

"Hello, hello."

"Hey, how are ya?"

"Uh, not great, actually," Anthony replied flatly.

Fritz frowned. "Anthony, what's wrong?"

"It's just the two of you there, right?" Anthony clarified in a monotone voice.

"Yeah. I dropped the kids off this mornin'. What's botherin' ya?"

Anthony felt himself begin to choke up as he prepared to break the news. "T-There's been an accident…"

"W-What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"Porfirio c-came in last night and h-he... smashed up all of the animatronics. Uh, I-I don't know why, but he put on the Spring Bonnie suit, a-and…"

"No, ya don't mean…"

"T-The suit snapped shut. N-Not a lot could have been done for him..."

Fritz went quiet.

Mike blurted out,"T-That's awful!"

Anthony was reduced to the same state he had been in before he had made the phone call. He couldn't talk between his sobs. He held the receiver away from himself. A few minutes later, he managed to regain control of his breathing, bringing the phone back to his ear.

On the other end, over the sound of quiet tears, he heard Fritz say, "Mikey, i-it's not your fault… Ya didn't do anythin' wrong. We didn't do anythin' wrong."

Fritz didn't get an answer from him.

"Sorry to interrupt but, uh, Thomas has some things he'd like me to tell you," Anthony said.

"What is it?" Fritz asked softly.

He cleared his throat before relaying the information from their boss. Neither Mike or Fritz interrupted him.

Once Anthony had finished speaking, Fritz said, "I'll see what I can do. Ya know them better than I do, but I'll try to help."

"You did a great job with repairing Gilead and Reynard, so I'm sure you'll be able to do something."

"I'll do my best. If ya can, tell Thomas I'll be in tomorrow mornin'."

"Okay. I-I won't keep you. Just call if you need anything," Anthony told him.

"Sure thing."

"Uh, see you tomorrow, then. Have a good afternoon, if you can." With that, Anthony hung up.