A/N: He he. Umm, yeah. Time management. Could anyone help me with that?

Well, this one was fun but hard to write, since we will be tying up some loose ends I've left around from Ch.1 up to Ch.10. I'll be explaining more personal theories and we will finally know the whole truth behind the blood seals, Jeremy's role in the murders, the Toys and such. Basically you will either like this chap or it will bore you to death.

Also, your reviews this past week... wow. Guys, I'm speechless. Thank you so much! I'm happy you're enjoying the story and I invite you to keep letting me know if you're liking it or not. Well, here it is. A key chapter in figuring out the story that gave me a few headaches. Happy reading and happy... Monday? Wow, it's late.

Chapter 13: The three seals

"…P-P-Puppet!" I finished, fear completely overtaking me as I pushed myself out of Ferny's grip, only to lose my balance and fall on the floor again.

"Umm, is he okay?" asked Marionette while I crawled away from him on my back, whimpering away in fear.

"He's not afraid of much," groaned my brother as he started to limp towards me, "but I seriously think you traumatized him when he was four."

Marionette shrugged innocently. "Not my fault. And it definitely doesn't justify that pizza slice to my face."

My back hit the corner of the room, the intense terror making me pant heavily while my sight became hazy again. Paralyzed, I stopped thinking about anything but the slender figure of my nightmares that was suddenly very real and alive.

"I think he's seriously having a panic attack." said the distant voice of Sarah. "Can you help him out Pups?"

Nodding, Marionette came out of the box completely. The tapered ends of his legs seemed to hold his tall figure in a supernatural balance; he was almost floating. "I didn't want to do this," he sighed, "but I guess it's the only way to calm him down."

Feeling like my mind was about to break down I saw how Marionette pointed at me with one of his hands, while a faint red glow appeared on his chest. When that happened all my fear started to just… disappear. My panicked panting slowed down until it stopped and I could think more or less clearly. After a few seconds I felt exactly like I shouldn't feel at that moment: calm and normal.

"What… did you do to me?" I asked flatly, looking up at the black puppet that suddenly didn't scare me anymore.

"Help you." replied Marionette, putting down his hand while the red glow disappeared. "I'm temporarily blocking your ability be afraid."

"You're messing with my mind?!" I demanded, pushing up my torso until I was sitting against the wall.

"Yes I am, to be honest. You have a bunch of stuff to catch up to and I don't think you would listen to me otherwise."

"What is he talking about?" I asked my brother, feeling how my fear against the Puppet turned into anger.

Sean let out a long sigh before leaning against a wall close to me. "First of all, it's been quite a while since the last place closed down. We're in a new restaurant; 'The new and improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza'." he mocked, imitating Freddy's heavy voice.

"We were out of it for almost ten months Brandon." added Ferny, "It's the 29th of June, of 1987."

"Ten months." I repeated, letting my head fall down. So much time…

"Okay, I'm getting tired of this!" growled Sarah suddenly. I raised my head and saw her looking up at the panel of an air vent on the ceiling with anger. There were some metallic banging and clanking noises coming from it.

"BB! Mangle!" she shouted, "Get outta there! We can all hear you!" But all she got back from the ceiling was the thin, guilty giggle of a boy. "Alright… you asked for it! I will count to three, and if you don't get down here, I will ask Mr. Mario to pull you both out of there!"

"One…" The childish giggle was replaced with the nervous mumbling of a little girl.

"Two…" The noises came back and started getting louder.

"Thr-" The panel dropped down and a fox head full of sharp teeth on top of a twisted endoskeleton swung out of it. If it weren't for Marionette blocking my fear I would've let out a little yelp at the sight.

"S-Sorry…" mumbled the shy girlish voice of Mangle as she hooked a leg to a corner of the ceiling and swung herself skillfully to the door. "Oh, hello Mr. Bonnie." she whispered, looking down at me, "I'm happy you woke up." She turned her head towards Sean and Sarah. "Hi Mr. Freddy, hi Ms. Chica, I'm sorry."

"Mangle," started Sarah, "if you're really sorry why do you keep spying on us with BB…" her soft voice became a threatening growl, "…who by the way still hasn't come out yet!"

More banging followed before two glowing blue eyes looked down at us from the dark vent. "Hello?" said BB innocently, holding one of his thin arms out of the hole in the vent that the panel left.

"Balloons," sighed Marionette patiently, "please stop overhearing our meetings. Mangle, stop helping him get in the vents."

"Sorry Mr. Mario." replied the two troublemakers. Mangle hooked an arm-like thing unto BB's fingerless hand, swung his short round body out of the ceiling, and laid him on the floor with one smooth sweep… right in front of a stern-looking Ferny.

"Hi cap Foxy," whispered BB, looking up at the figure that towered over him, "we didn't hear anything, I promise! We were just curious and…"

"Curiosity be killin' cats lad." interrupted Ferny. "Go play with yer friends 'n wait fer us, alrighty?"

"Alright captain Foxy. Sorry captain Foxy." muttered BB mechanically as he and Mangle left Prize Corner through the door and closed it.

I reached my limit. "Okay," I called out angrily, "we're all alone now, and I'm sick of not knowing what's going on. Anyone kind enough to enlighten me?"

"I asked your friends to bring you to me first," replied Marionette calmly, "so I could explain everything to you like I did to them. And I mean everything."

"Alright Puppet," I huffed, resting my arm on my lap, "I'm all ears."

"First of all, like Ferny said, it's been almost ten months since you were scrapped and the building you knew was shut down. But Fazbear Entertainment could still afford a new pizzeria to get rid of the bad reputation after your murders and new animatronics to replace the five of you because, as you remember, the clients were disgusted by your smell. Many of your parts were recycled to make and repair them, so that's why you're all looking a bit… yeah."

"Fast-forward to May of this year. This place opens up and it's a success; by then most people already forgot about your murders. The new versions are really popular with toddlers and small kids. Everything goes well until the 14th of June. You see, they had this old yellow suit in a back room from the days of Fredbear's. Not Bucky, but the rabbit. You guys remember?"

"Don is too young," answered my brother, "but if I think I had my sixth birthday party there; it was a small place. I remember Freddy pretty well and two other animatronics. I didn't realize Bucky was one of them."

"And the other was Spring the bunny. But Spring, Bucky and that first Freddy were all mechanical suits. Since Bucky was locked away with you in parts and service…"

"Jack." I interrupted rudely. "He has a name, and it's Jack Schmidt."

"Sorry, I forgot." replied Marionette nonchalantly. "Since Jack was locked away, and that old Freddy model was replaced long ago, the only possible disguise for Walther to use was Spring."

"You're telling me," I questioned, "that they just let Walther walk in here, get inside that suit, and kill five more kids?"

"More or less. With his old uniform he could've pretended to be a dayshift guard. The only people who've worked with the franchise long enough to recognize him are the manager and the head guard; Erik Grant and Dave Hobbs. The 14th was a Sunday, meaning that both of them had the day off. So the only thing Walther had to do was get into the back room, put on the suit, and lure the kids somewhere he could kill them; probably one of the party rooms. But now people have had enough. The police are much more involved in their case than yours, so this place is closed down until the investigation finishes. And apparently they're also tracking down previous employees with criminal records."

"But how do you know all these things?" I questioned again. "And why can't the Toys remember their human lives?"

"Ahh… here comes my part." Marionette closed the lid of his box and sat on top of it. "As you heard Walther say when Dave encountered him, you're not his first victims. Six years ago Fredbear's Family Diner closed down after a 14 year old boy was murdered right outside of it. That boy was me."

My ears rose up in astonishment. He had been like this for six years?

"After waking up in this body Walther offered me three choices. He could break my seal in the red book, erasing my soul; he could break the seal in my body, turning me into a Shadow; or…" Marionette let out a long, sad sigh, "…I could help him."

"Three years before your murders, Walther killed two more kids in the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza we knew. He bound one soul to Spring and the other to Bucky. But this time, he didn't follow the recipe he used with us. He wanted to… experiment." Marionette whispered that last word with hate and disgust. "He screwed up; the kids could not control the suits at all. So, he… got rid of them."

"He erased them?" I asked, horrified.

"No, he wiped off the seals in their bodies. Now all that's left of the two poor souls is darkness and pain; Shadows."

"And you helped him do that." I growled.

"Please, let me finish. A few months after that Walther became even more aggressive than before. He would often sneak into the building through the vents at night to yell at me about avenging his little brother that was killed in a shootout with the police. That's when he mentioned the names Brandon and Sean Williams for the first time."

A shiver went through my spine at the sound of our names. I remembered the day we woke up as animatronics for the first time, and how Walther said them briefly.

"Walther is a psychopath," continued Marionette, "but not an idiot. Erik and Dave knew that he killed the first three kids, including me, and Walther knew that they knew. He needed someone else to take the blame, at least until your case was closed. So he came up with a plan where I'd have to help him. Brandon, you and your friends were not random victims like me and the other seven. Walther was planning to kill you for months before he did. He entered the building at night through the vents and looked at all the payment records in the manager's office. He found out that the four of you were regular clients and that you always went to Freddy's for your birthday. Now, isolating the four of you so he could kill you with no witnesses was the next step. That's where your cousin Jeremy and I come into play."

He paused for a moment, letting me take it all in. "So that newscast was right; Jeremy truly was Walther's accomplice." I whispered with a broken voice.

"You could say so, but that doesn't mean he wanted to hurt you. Actually the whole plan depended on him wanting to give you a nice birthday surprise. Having seen in the records that Jeremy always gave you discounts Walther guessed that maybe you and him were close. A few days before your murders Walther went up to Jeremy pretending to be an uncle of yours. He bought four tickets for a private party with Bucky for you and your friends and asked Jeremy to keep it as a surprise for you."

"But the MC said I could bring four people with me, not three. I invited Jack because of that."

Marionette shrugged. "I guess that was just a casual mistake."

"So Jack died that night because some idiot wrote five instead of four on a piece of paper." I said bitterly.

"Maybe. In any case, Walther snuck in again through the vents to avoid the cameras and guards, hid himself in the closet of the private party room, attacked the man that was going to use the suit and used it instead…"

"…and killed us." I said flatly. "What did you do?"

"Well, to make sure Jeremy didn't give Walther's description to the police, he had to forget that description. I made him forget almost everything from that day."

"How the hell did you do that?" I demanded angrily.

"Using the same thing that Walther used to paralyze your bodies before and after your murders." Marionette got up and walked to the middle of the room. He unbuttoned his chest, letting us see the hollow inside. On the black fabric, glowing weakly, was his seal. Like Walther's it had something like a star on a corner of the triangle, but on the lower right corner instead of the left.

"This is the second special seal, the mind seal." said Marionette slowly. "To live on this world you need a body, a mind, and a soul. Our blood seals in the red book keep our minds and souls intact and the seals in these bodies bind our minds and souls to them. But three special seals are needed to make all the other ones work and to keep us in this world: one for the body, one for the mind, and one for the soul. If you have one of these special seals you can do certain things to the mind, soul or body of someone. Walther gave himself the body seal; that's how he paralyzed your bodies and gave you intense physical pain. He gave me the mind seal and made me use it to make Jeremy forget his appearance. Right now I'm using it to block your fear of me and to make the Toys forget their past lives."

"HOW CAN YOU DO SUCH A THING!" I cried out, clenching my only fist. "YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN WALTHER!"

Marionette's pinpoint eyes fired up with anger as they looked down at me. "Don't you ever dare to compare me with that monster again." he growled, slowly and menacingly. "That bastard cut open my throat, laughed while my tears streamed down my face, and turned me into this." He pointed a quivering finger at his own face. "I hate him as much as you do, maybe even more, and I'm ashamed of having helped him. So I'm telling you all of this to help you."

He let out a long sigh, his eyes dimming back while he calmed down. "You know," he chuckled sadly, "I was my first victim. Walther forced me to make myself forget my name. My. Own. Name." Marionette walked back to his box, opened it, and looked into it. "The only thing I have left to remember my past," he bent over and grabbed something that was in his box, "is this music box."

He raised the little thing so we could see it and wound it. A soft and melancholic tune echoed through the room. He let it unwind, and after a minute or two a cheery short melody replaced the last one.

"Do you remember how you felt right after waking up inside of Bonnie?" he asked while he put the music box back in its place. "Calm and logical, just like your friends. So much in fact that you thought something was off. You can thank me for that Pizza Boy, though I know you won't."

"You still haven't answered my question." I said coldly. "Why can't the Toys know the truth?"

"You can barely handle it. Your brother told me that right after I fully released your emotions you tried to get yourself erased by jumping out of a window. These are kids between five and six. Do you really think they're able to handle the fact that they are the souls of dead children trapped inside animatronic characters? As much as you dislike it, for their own good, you'll have to be Bonnie the animatronic in front of them. Keep Brandon Williams the human to yourself and your friends. Alright?"

I was about to shout 'no' when I felt the heavy hand of my brother in my shoulder. I looked up at his pleading blue eyes. "Please Don," he whispered, "it's annoying, but it really is the best thing for everyone."

"Alright Puppet." I muttered reluctantly, looking at the tall figure again. "Let's finish so I can get away from you and see Jack."

"Thank you." said Marionette with relief as he buttoned up his chest. "Now, there must be three special seals. But I have no idea who Walther gave the soul seal to. Taking out your batteries to check each of your bodies is dangerous, would take a lot of time and it would make the Toys suspicious. But I really believe that whoever has that third special seal could do some truly spectacular, and dangerous, stuff. Just think about it: having control over a soul itself."

"What would happen if a special seal is broken?" I asked.

"Depends on the seal. I think the ones in the red book are key; that's why Walther always carries the thing with him. I guess that breaking the mind seal, my seal, would destroy our minds. Breaking the soul seal would erase our souls. But breaking the body seal, Walther's seal, would break the bond between our minds and souls and these bodies. Since the special seals keep us in this world, we would just… leave. Pass away and be free."

"Pass away." I repeated, leaving behind a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Hug Mom and Dad again, and leave everything else behind. But it was better than staying here just to corrupt with evil.

"Brandon, are you okay?" asked Ferny, coming close to me and holding out his hook.

"Kinda. It's just… dying. It sounds so weird." I grabbed his hook and got myself on my feet with his help.

"Well, we died already." he said flatly as I leaned on his shoulder. "We just haven't moved on. But we have the tapes for our families."

"You found them?"

"Umm… no; we can't just look for them. How could we explain them to the Toys? But they must be here somewhere, and we figured out a way to look for them without having to reveal anything: hide and seek."

I looked at him, completely puzzled.

"Let me explain. We tell the five Toys to hide, saying that it's a game of hide and seek. We spread around the pizzeria and while they think we're just looking for them, we try to find the box with the tapes and more blank cassettes to record new messages."

"So we can say goodbye to our families before figuring a way to break Walther's seal inside the red book." I completed. Ferny nodded and helped me walk to the door.

"Hey, Puppet." I called out while my brother opened the door for us. "Can you please, umm, unblock my mind? I'll try not to have a panic attack this time."

Marionette let out a light chuckle. "I already did. Congratulations Pizza Boy, you're braver than I thought."

"Umm… thanks." I mumbled awkwardly with a nod, taking a step into the game area and hoping that the bad feeling I had about Jack's state was wrong.