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No, Golden and Spring didn't know about the prototronics. If they did, they'd have mentioned it.

Chapter seven: Bill

Douglas stood before a door, shaking like mad.

Finding William "Bill" Afton hadn't been too difficult. Really, the only thing stopping Douglas from knocking on the man's door was the fear of what he was going to face in there. If the prototronics really were sentient, and if Bill was aware of that, the engineer wasn't going to be happy when he learned that Douglas had talked a little too much.

But Douglas couldn't postpone this. Not when lives were at stake because of him.

With shaking hands and legs, he walked up the few steps to the door. Afton's house wasn't very large, but it wasn't notably small, either. It looked…normal. Maybe too normal for someone who had such a large role in the creation of sentient anime-tronics.

Douglas raised his hand, hesitated, and knocked. The moment he touched the door, he felt like he'd made an irreversible mistake.

He lowered his hand, breathing out shakily.

Then the door opened, revealing a man in his late sixties, whose silver eyes sternly glared at Douglas. His jet black hair was starting to turn gray.

Douglas swallowed as he looked into those uncompromising eyes. "S-sir?" he asked. "Mr. Afton? Mr. William Afton?"

"Yeah?" Afton said, sounding annoyed. "Who are you?"

"U-uh… My-my name is Douglas Goodwin, sir. I would like to ask you some questions?"

Afton frowned, examining Douglas. "Questions?"

"A-about Freddy's Restaurant…"

Bill's eyes widened. He stepped forward, causing Douglas to step back. Despite the younger man's superior height, Afton didn't need a lot of effort to intimidate him.

"Freddy's Restaurant?" the older man said. "And what makes you think I know anything about that place?"

"Y-you created the original animatronics!" Douglas blurted out. "And you were responsible for hiding them from the company!"

A tense silence fell. Douglas felt that his gaze was fixed on Afton's silver eyes, which glared back. Douglas realized he'd made a mistake—accusing Afton of stealing the prototronics from the company was probably going to make the engineer mad.

"You don't know anything about me," Afton eventually said. "You don't know anything about Freddy's Restaurant. You have no idea what was at stake when they decided to scrap those animatronics. Do you understand me?!" He turned back to his door. "Get out of here, kid."

"Wait!" Douglas said. "The animatronics you created have been found!"

That caused Afton to stop.

"F-Freddy's…" Douglas said. "They found them. They're going to scrap them."

Afton turned to him. His eyes showed doubt.

"Y-you…" Douglas stuttered. "I need your help to stop that."

"Come in, kid," Afton finally said, voice soft. "Then you can tell me the full story."

Douglas uncertainly followed the man inside the house. Afton led him to the living room. Like the rest of the house, it wasn't too big or too small—it was average.

"Take a seat," Afton said to him with an almost venomous voice. Douglas hesitantly sat down on the couch, not letting the other man out of his sights.

Afton sat down in a chair across from him. "Now," Afton said, "what do you mean, 'they're going to scrap them'?"

"Th-the manager found out about the old animatronics. He thought they'd been scrapped, but when that turned out to be untrue, he decided to have them moved to Freddy's current location—to use them for parts."

"For the modern animatronics," Afton said. A clear hint of resentment could be heard in his voice. "Kyle Griffiths is the place's manager, right? Does he know the animatronics are sentient?"

"No."

"You obviously do."

Douglas blinked. He'd walked right into that one. Not that it mattered; at least now he knew there was no need to hide anything.

"How'd he find out where the old 'tronics are?" Afton asked.

That question was exactly what Douglas was afraid of. "U-um…someone investigated the warehouse the animatronics are stored in."

"Who?"

Douglas hesitated.

"Tell me, kid," Afton growled. "If I've got an enemy, I'd like to know it."

"It was me."

The words had left Douglas' mouth in a moment of impulsiveness. The temperature in the room dropped.

After a while of silence, Afton stood up. Douglas recognized the look in the man's silver eyes: Afton was fuming, but contained it to an extent.

"You told Kyle Griffiths about the animatronics?" Afton said.

"I-I didn't know he was going to scrap them! I didn't mean for this to happen…!"

"But it happened!" Afton shouted. "Do you know how much effort it took to hide those animatronics? Do you know how much luck we needed to let it happen unnoticed?! Do you have any idea what those 'tronics went through?"

Douglas was frozen. He had buried himself into the backrest of the couch, fearfully staring up at the older man.

Afton exhaled, hissing. "Give me one good reason not to kick you out of my house."

"I know where they are! If we can get there before Griffiths, we can move them away again…!"

Afton sighed, sitting back down. "It's not that easy…"

"It's all I've got, sir."

"Don't call me sir."

"Sorry."

"How'd you find out about their sentience?"

Douglas hesitated. Was it safe to tell him about the anime-tronics? Afton knew about the old ones' sentience, so…

"I…" Douglas finally said. "I work the nightshift…and…the current animatronics—"

"They're alive too," Afton deduced. He didn't sound surprised.

Douglas nodded. "How'd you hide them?" he said after a moment of silence. "The old animatronics?"

Bill glanced at him. "There was a fellow employee I trusted. He was in charge of moving stuff between the restaurant and the company's storages. He was also involved with…less legal things. After I'd deactivated the animatronics, I told that guy to send them to some warehouse without letting anyone know. I didn't know where he took them, just that he made sure they'd disappear from the company's sights."

"The company was dabbling in less legal things?"

"No, no. It was just that particular guy. It had nothing to do with the company, just with him—if they'd known, he'd have been fired. But those less legal things had given him enough experience to know how to hide the animatronics properly. I think he had some friends helping him, too."

"I…see." Douglas paused. "Wait… You said you deactivated the animatronics?"

"I didn't want to. My boss' orders." He sighed. "Whatever. Just get out of my house."

Douglas started. "What? But sir—"

"I told you to stop calling me sir. Now get out."

"But the animatronics—"

"I said get out."

As calm as his voice was, Douglas knew better than to risk making this man angry again. Still, this was…unbelievable. Didn't Afton care about those prototronics at all?

Douglas reluctantly stood up. Afton did the same before showing Douglas the door.

When the kid was gone, Bill went back to his living room. He didn't sit back down.

Instead, he went straight to the phone.

He dialed a number and put the phone at his ear. It took a few rings before the call was answered.

"Henry?" Bill said. "Remember that favor I asked you for a couple years ago? Yeah. I need to know where they are. There's shit on the horizon. Again."