Night Five:

What very little information that Jack managed to get out of Shadow Bonnie only seemed to complicate matters. Shadow Bonnie only recalled being crushed by the suit in front of a small child and Michael, the Purple Man, running in and getting the child out of there.

Okay, so Spring-erg-Purple Man whisked the kid away from the gory scene. Why'd he do that? He obviously doesn't like kids…did he kill that kid right afterwards? Maybe that kid was the Puppet…or maybe even Golden Freddy.

Jack shook his head. He was giving himself a migraine trying to sort this puzzle out when he didn't have enough pieces yet. He still had to find Bonnie, the actual Bonnie, and help him and his friends.

"Listen," said Jack, "thanks for telling me this, I promise I'll try to put the info you gave me to good use and get all of this figured out, but I need you to tell me if you know where any of the others are hiding. Bonnie, more specifically."

He held the old guitar out to Shadow Bonnie and the gloomy, grinning figure paused for a moment before mumbling, "I've seen Bonnie once or twice. He never speaks to me, of course, none of them speak to me…but the last time I saw him, he was just sitting by the exit."

Shit, that's where the Puppet's leading Springtrap, thought Jack, I'll have to go and see it, tell it to lead Purple Man somewhere else, at least until I can talk to Bonnie. That's risky, though: leading him between rooms closer to the office gives him room to burst in. Guess it's a risk we're just gonna have to take…

"Play music."

Jack's thoughts were interrupted by Shadow Bonnie. The night guard looked up at the ebony form.

"What?"

"Play music," repeated Show Bonnie, gesturing towards the guitar that Jack still clutched in his hand. "Bonnie always loved to sing. The others started getting sick of the songs, but Bonnie never really did. I think the kid inside wanted to be a singer…don't know for sure, but that was always my thought…."

Jack instinctively drew the guitar close and nodded. "So…if I play, Bonnie will talk to me?"

"May talk to you," Shadow Bonnie emphasized. "I can make no promises…except for one: I promise you that if Michael finds you, he'll rip you to shreds. Something changed him…I don't remember what, but he changed…the guy I knew isn't in there anymore. He was…corrupted or something. There's nothing left but rage."

But why? wondered Jack. He was no criminal psychologist, but even he knew that most people, even serial killers, didn't just wake up one morning and decide to lose their marbles. Unless Michael had always been crazy and Shadow-Bonnie simply hadn't realized it, there must have been something that happened, something that made him turn into a purple-clad killer. And perhaps if Jack managed to uncover what the inciting incident was he could, somehow, use it against Springtrap. This whole 'save the children's souls' operation would run much more smoothly if he could somehow reverse engineer Springtrap's murderous insanity and shut it down once and for all.

"One more thing: there's a Freddy around here that looks like me, like a shadow. Don't trust him. Don't follow him."

"A…Shadow Freddy?" said Jack with surprise. First normal Freddy, then Golden Freddy, Toy Freddy…how many freaking Freddys did the Fazbear Company need?

Enough to sell toys. Lots of different toys. Yeah, that was probably it.

"If that's what you wish to call him," said Shadow Bonnie with a hint of amusement coming to his tone. "That one…for some reason he sympathizes with Michael. I'm not sure why, but I think the spirit in him is some sort of friend or accomplice. He led the animatronics right to him, right to his trap. Don't trust him. He'll lead you straight to Springtrap."

"Don't trust Shadow Freddy, got it….anything else?"

"That's all I know…"

"More than enough," said Jack with a nod. "I don't suppose you wanna come with? I might need your help."

Shadow Bonnie chuckled darkly. "No, Night-Guard, that would be a bad idea. The children do not trust me, after all, and they'd be even less willing to speak with you if I accompanied you. If you need me I'll be here, but I don't think I'll be very useful."

"You've been plenty useful," Jack assured the spirit. "Don't sell yourself short. I'll be back if I need help."

"Right…" muttered Shadow Bonnie gloomily.

Jack gave the grinning ghost a confident smile as he declared, "I'll help them. Don't worry. I'll help them all, and you too. Thanks for the info."

With that, Jack scurried out of the backroom, leaving Shadow-Bonnie to brood alone. Balloon Boy seemed quite relieved that the night-guard emerged from the room unharmed and with a resolute flare in his eyes.

"BB, c'mon," he said to the phantom. "We've gotta go talk to the Puppet. What time is it?"

Balloon Boy held up two translucent fingers.

"Two. 'Kay, four hours left to get as much done as possible. Let's hurry…quietly, though, quietly."

The silent phantom nodded and the duo skittered back to the office. They moved as quickly and cautiously as they could, keeping an eye out for a roaming Springtrap, but the robotic bunny didn't accost them during their trek back to the office. They arrived safe and sound.

"Pupp…erg, The Puppet…"

"Shhh!"

Jack had to tighten his jaw to keep himself from laughing out loud. Plushtrap was still resting cozily at the Puppet's side, tangled up in its strings, and the possessed marionette was staring intently at the screen in front of it, rebooting the systems without even looking and keeping its empty eyes on Springtrap.

"Having fun?" Jack chuckled. The Marionette scoffed.

"This is…stressful. But also a tad invigorating."

"Now you know how I've been feeling. Except it's been less 'invigorating' and more 'scary as shit'."

"Language," the Puppet scolded, and Balloon Boy smiled impishly, wagging his finger up at the night guard."

"Kids restaurant. Right. Almost forgot," sighed Jack, strolling to the Puppet's side and glancing over its shoulder. He huffed in frustration when he saw that Springtrap was standing right by the exit, glowering up at the camera.

"Great. He's pissed."

"Easily distracted, however," said the Puppet confidently, flicking to another camera and tapping the 'Play Audio' icon.

"Hi!"

The pre-recorded voice echoed from the other room. The Puppet flicked back to the exit, but Springtrap was already moving towards the noise.

"Good job," said Jack, "You got the hang of it."

"And only in a few hours."

"Hey, don't be too arrogant, The Puppet," Jack snorted. "I had to learn all this without a hint or a friend."

The Puppet turned to him and the guard cringed when he sensed the disapproval from the Marionette, not unlike the disapproval that the Puppet emanated when he neglected to put 'The' in front of its name except there was more vitriol in this aura than was normal. The Puppet's ire died down swiftly, however, and Jack decided to change the subject before he somehow managed to offend the possessed puppet once more.

"Listen," said Jack, "Bonnie's near the exit. I need to get there, so I need you to lure the Purple Man away from the exit…"

"I thought the point of this was to keep him on the other side of the building…"

"The point of this is to keep him away long enough for me to talk to the others," Jack said. "You know where that decrepit Freddy body is?"

The Puppet nodded.

"Lead him there."

"That's very close, and you won't even be able to get to the exit if I lead him there," the Puppet pointed out. "You need to go through that hall to get to the exit."

"I'll hide behind the Freddy. Then you can lead him through the hallway and into the Arcade. Then just lead him between those two points. Be careful, though: I think there's a vent in the Arcade. He'll be able to get right to 'ya if you don't seal that."

"Comforting."

"Sorry. Only way. I don't suppose BB could act a distraction? Make sure he doesn't find me and rip my guts out…"

"Purple Man doesn't even acknowledge the phantoms. Never looks their way, I'm not even sure he can see them. I'll do my best to make sure he doesn't look your way."

"Comforting."

"It should be: I think I'm better at this night-guard duty than most of your predecessors."

"Yeah, well, how many of my predecessors ended up dead?"

The Puppet was silent.

"Oh, yeah, I feel amazingly confident now."

"You're not going to…?"

"I'm gonna do it, don't worry. I just expect a major pat on the back once I'm done. Keep him by the exit for now. I'll send BB over when I'm hidden and ready to go."

The Puppet stared at the night guard for a moment before nodding. Jack scurried out of the room, closely pursued by the phantom form of Balloon Boy.

"What a strange man…" muttered the Puppet. It glanced down at the worn plushie at its side and curiously inquired, "Don't you agree, Plushtrap?"

Plushtrap, naturally, said nothing.

"And his insanity is contagious," sighed the Marionette. "Wonderful."

I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry! I'm sorry I missed last week's update guys! You were all really awesome and left reviews and…agh! I feel like a bad author!

I feel even worse for giving you this news: don't worry, this fic is not going to die, but work is piling up and updating every Friday isn't feasible any more. From now on, instead of weekly updates, the updates will be bi-weekly. If I miss the designated Friday, I'll post on Saturday. Look at my profile: I'll say on Thursday if I'll be able to update tomorrow or if the update will be late.

I'm sorry, guys! I hate stopping regular updates like this, but it's not summer anymore. Until the end of December, I'm not gonna have a ton of time to write.

With that said, a special thanks to…

KuraiFriend

Fallen-Ryu

Darkmegatron13

Unknown(Guest): Are you implying I'm not popular? WAAH! Ha, just kidding : ) I'm gonna MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE! DOOOO IIIIT! (For those of you who don't get it, you haven't been on the Internet enough)

Jasmine

Secret (Guest)

Fabro de Verbis

Little Kunai (I'll assume you weren't talking about the story itself ;) )

XXPay4XtraShippingsXX: Thanks a bunch!

RuetheFox

You guys are amazing and I'm so sorry I didn't update as fast as your awesome reviews made me want to. Please review this chapter if you can, and thanks to everyone for reading, favoriting, following, and keeping up with this story! We're up to forty reviews! I'm so happy right now!

Thanks again!