SHOUT OUTS: frozem1 (thanks :D), AVFireBlade9472 (okay, as FREAKING AWESOME as that would be, no, Zoe is not a robot), Transformers' BABY for following and favouriting the story, and tmntwolf-lover5 for favouriting the story!

Chapter 9

Vincent grimaced as he made his way towards his room. Blood was soaking through the sleeve on his right arm, and he did his best to cover it with his other hand. He couldn't have Zoe coming by and questioning him about it. That girl was way too curious.

At least the pain kept his mind off the nightmare he had that night.

He turned a corner and accidentally hit his forehead on something. He heard a strangled yelp and stumbled backwards, trying to see what he bumped into. He was sure there wasn't a wall there, but the thing definitely felt harder than someone's skull.

He growled. "What the f-" Vincent stopped and backed away when he saw a pair of gleaming blue eyes. He looked the person up and down, taking in their brown waistcoat and the black top hat on their head. "W-why are y-you-"

"Sorry! Sorry!" Freddy apologized frantically, rubbing his metal head. "Sorry, I didn't see you, I was just going for a walk, and I-" His voice trailed off when he saw Vincent's arm. The restaurant owner had taken his hand off his arm and put it to his head instead, exposing the blood-soaked uniform. Freddy tilted his head. "Um, what's-"

"Nothing!" Vincent blurted. "Um, I-I have to- to go, uh, bye..." He ran around the robot and dashed down the hallway, pushing open the door to his room and locked it behind him. He took a deep breath, and accidentally dropped the key when he heard his toaster in the corner of the room pop. He whirled around and gave a small shriek. Tonnie and Mangle stood there, laughing at the noise it had made.

"Let's do that again!" Tonnie said eagerly, pushing the button down again.

Vincent opened the door and ran out, not caring if anyone saw his bleeding arm. He burst into the Parts and Service room, startling Zoe and Fritz, who were working out some kind of programming thing. He glared at Zoe. "You have some explaining to do."

xXx

Fritz bit down on a doughnut. He and Zoe sat next to each other in front of the control panel, him tapping seemingly random keys on his keyboard, Zoe kind of half listening to what he was saying.

"So, if their current programming takes up that much data, then we would still have a lot more data to make some upgrades," he said, his words slightly muffled from the food in his mouth. "Not that they need them anytime soon, but it's still a possibility-"

The door suddenly swung open and Fritz and Zoe both startled as it banged against the wall. She whipped her head around to see Vincent standing in the doorway, blood leaking from his arm. The look on his face was an equal mix between fear and rage. His blue eyes were narrowed at Zoe. "You have some explaining to do," he snarled.

Zoe normally wasn't scared of her boss, but this was definitely an exception. With the blood and the angry glare, he looked kind of like he killed someone. Fritz adjusted his chair so he was hiding behind Zoe. She could feel him trembling in his seat.

Zoe laughed nervously. "What do you mean?" she asked Vincent. She had no idea what he was talking about.

He growled. "I went to go into my room, and I found two of those- those freaky little things that you created. Did you make them go in there?"

Zoe shook her head. "No. Why would I?"

"Because you seem to be quite obsessed with the fact that I have secrets that you maybe don't know about. And even if I do, it is not your business, it is mine. So leave me alone, already!" He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Fritz sighed in relief. "Gosh, I'm so glad he wasn't mad at me."

Zoe raised an eyebrow. "Why would he be mad at you?"

He shrugged. "He could get mad over literally anything and everything. On a bad day, if you so much as breath too loud, he could snap and lower your pay rate, or fire you."

Zoe rolled her eyes. "That sounds highly exaggerated."

He shrugged. "Kinda accurate though. But he doesn't usually go into a blind rage like this. He's normally really calm, but angry at the same time, and it's really creepy. Then he just kinda explodes. It's fucking scary. I wonder what you did to make him so mad."

Zoe stared at the door. "I don't know."

xXx

Freddy had just decided to go for a walk and explore his new home to get his mind off the nightmare when he'd run into the guy in purple. He had no idea what he did to make the purple guy so scared. Was the man scared of robots or something? Maybe he was jumpy because he'd had a nightmare last night, too.

Nightmare...

A wire sparked in Freddy's mechanical brain. That purple guy was the person from Freddy's nightmare. He remembered the flash of purple he'd seen right before everything went black, and the man running towards the golden bunny suit.

Could some dreams be linked somehow? Like, some people have the same dream, but from different perspectives? It had happened with him, Chica, Foxy, Bonnie, and Goldie, but he just assumed that maybe it was just a glitch in their programming. He didn't think it could've stretched all the way to a real person's mind.

But maybe he'd been wrong.

xXx

Chica opened the oven and whisked a large cheese pizza out the opening. She set it gently on the counter and surveyed hers and Tia's work. Two cheese pizzas, two pepperoni, one Hawaiian, and one ham and sausage pizza sat on the counter top, arranged in a neat line.

It was pretty early in the morning for lunch, but after Chica's nightmare, she thought pizza would be good for her. Especially after those voices had started talking to her. Then she and Tia got carried away with the pizza making, and they ended up making enough food to feed everyone in the pizzeria. Neither girl had ever been taught how to make pizza. They just kind of brought out whatever ingredients their programming told them to use, and just kind of let it happen.

Tia dashed to the doors and pushed them open. "ANYBODY WANT PIZZA?" she shouted, her voice reverberating through the restaurant.

A couple seconds later, Fritz tumbled through the doors and scrambled to his feet. "Somebody say pizza?"

Chica picked up a paper plate and held it out to him. "Just be careful, it's still a bit hot."

Fritz grinned and started piling pizza onto his plate as Zoe, Mike, and Jeremy filed into the room. Zoe smiled. "Wow, it smells great, girls."

Tia held out three plates. "Well, it tastes even better. Eat up!"

Eventually, everyone ended up in the kitchen, not bothering to go sit in the dining room. Tonnie and Mangle were grinning ear to ear, chattering about toasters. Mari, Goldie, BB, and Springtrap came in, listening intently to a story Foxy was telling them. Bonnie and Teddy were among the last to get there. They both ran in laughing and yelling for no reason.

Freddy was the very last one to arrive. He looked shocked and slightly confused, as though he'd seen a ghost or something. Chica walked over to him, holding a plate of food. "Hey Freddy. Want some pizza?" she offered.

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Chica? Do you know who that guy from our nightmare was?"

The robotic girl was taken aback by this question. She was trying to forget about that, not talk about it. "No, I don't. Freddy, can't we just forget about this?"

He took a deep breath. "I just- Well, I think the guy from the dream is that guy in purple-"

"Yo mean, Mr. Graves?"

"Yeah. He's really nervous around us, not to mention that he looks just like the guy from our dream."

Chica blinked. The plate of pizza fell from her hands, and she turned around. "Foxy? Bonnie? Goldie? We have to talk to you about something."