Author's note: Sorry about the late update! I'm in the middle of moving.

What if...Ruby was Being Rhetorical

Part 4

A New Aftermath

Ruby stared at the floor as she moved toward Spring, keeping her back to the man and the kids.

Derrick kept talking to the kids. "It's alright. It's alright. Your parents are coming." His voice was shaking just barely. "Wiggy. Wiggy, look at me, sweetheart. Where's Ruby?" He was using his work-talking-to-scared-kid's voice, but he couldn't quite keep all the panic out of his tone.

Hedy suddenly started hyperventilating. "I left her..." she sobbed through hiccups. "I-I promised I was coming back. I-I'm sor-sorry Mr. Derrick. I promised Mrs. Rose I-I would stay with her b-but I didn't. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. P-please don't hate me..."

Ruby forcefully focused on Michael after lightly poking Spring's ear. She wanted him to know that she still knew he was there, even if he couldn't speak yet.

With a couple of precise yanks, the suit finally opened, although she left the arm since she was fairly sure Michael would bleed out in seconds if she didn't wait for the paramedics to be right there.

Although it was tempting. Really really tempting.

She also really wanted to punch him now that he was flesh and blood. It would probably be more satisfying than punching a ghost.

She was distracted from her thoughts by a new voice.

"Wiggy?"

"Ah shit," she muttered, loud enough that the others heard her. "Puppet, I think she finished counting down the time. Someone might want to stop her from seeing... this."

Would the timeline implode if she met her younger self? That would be a tiny bit problematic. She also still refused to look away. Maybe De- maybe he would go and take his kid somewhere else. Somewhere far away from her.

She couldn't tell who moved first behind her, but she heard Derrick speak very sternly, relief in his voice no matter how hard he tried to hide it. "Princess, stay right there, okay? Do not come in. I will be right there, Princess."

Ruby hung her head in pain as her soul twisted at the sound of her father's voice calling her that. No, not her. Not her father. This...this wasn't her father.

She noticed Spring's eyes shift to her now that Michael's head was outside of his own. His voice still seemed deactivated and he couldn't really move yet. He hadn't set off the rest of his springlocks yet, despite Michael mostly out but still attached by the arm like conjoined twins. Ruby knew it hurt to set them off on his own, but she doubted his own pain was a priority at the moment. Maybe he was worried about the noise scaring the kids again.

Ruby glanced at Scott in surprise as he suddenly appeared beside her and reached into the open back of Spring as he released the tension in the locks, slowly and one by one with expert precision. His facial expression was cold, but she did see him glance at Michael, who was going in and out of consciousness from the shock and pain. The man looked at the boy... younger man... with an unreadable expression before focusing back on Spring.

"Ruby, there you are," Puppet said, his voice getting a little distant as he stepped outside the room. He grunted as he apparently picked baby Ruby up.

"Where Wiggy?!" little Ruby demanded, knowing something was wrong. She could hear the kids crying, Hedy's voice in there. "Why Wiggy sad?!"

"Shh...Wiggy and the others got hurt, but they'll be okay. Your daddy is making sure they're okay. You can give Wiggy the biggest hug in just a little bit, alright dear?"

Ruby moved her hands away from Spring as Scott took over. They were shaking. She clenched them into fists and willed the shake away. This wasn't her time, these weren't her bots or people. She didn't belong here. In and out. That was the plan. Quick in and out, fix things for this version of everyone. Because she could and she would always try and diminish the trauma they went through.

Baby Ruby wouldn't see the traumatising scene so she'd never ask for a deal with Puppet. Everyone would keep their memories. The kids would all survive and Hedy wouldn't have survivor's guilt. Puppet wouldn't go off the deep end. The ghosts wouldn't go insane so Steve wouldn't die. The company would have nothing to cover up so Black wouldn't get bribed. Her parents wouldn't die.

Things would be fine here.

She wished her hands would stop shaking.

"They'll be fine," she whispered to Spring. "They're gonna be fine Bunny Boy. The only one who might not is Michael." She looked down at the man and muttered under her breath. "I hope he loses that arm."

"He probably will," Scott said with no emotion. "It's crushed." There was a faint crackle noise and Scott looked up sharply. He reached in through the back of Spring's head and felt around for something in the top of Spring's jaw. There was the faint click of a switch as Scott grunted from the effort.

Spring let out a quiet sob. "Thank you..." he whispered as quietly as possible, closing his eyes for a moment as he cried softly with no tears the way animatronics did. "Th-thank you." He was talking to both of them.

Scott wordlessly rubbed the base of one of Spring's ears comfortingly before getting back to work, letting out the tension in the rabbit's face and neck first.

Spring lifted his head, straining to see the rest of the room while slumped over as Michael lay behind him, spilling out like some bug pried out of a shed shell, their arms occupying the same agonizing space for the moment.

Ruby absently noticed that it was the same arm as Hedy's that Michael broke. She would not put it past Spring to have done that on purpose, even during that split second decision. The bots thought very fast, even if they had only a moment of clarity in a sea of panic.

"Puppet?" they heard another voice over baby Ruby's continued questions. "What's going on?"

Ruby's eyes widened. "Oh shit. The baby Barbies."

She scrambled up and spun around, sprinting past the group without looking at them.

"No no no no Toby," she said, moving around Puppet and stopping the bot in his tracks. "You are not going in there."

He looked completely confused as he stared at her. "Um, ma'am?"

Ruby's expression dropped into a scowl. "I can't believe you just ma'amed me. I'm sixteen. I'm not a ma'am!"

As she spoke, she turned the bewildered rabbit and started shooing him back down the hallway. "Puppet's got it. You need to go and... round up the others. Especially BB. Where is he? He's probably up to no good don't you think?"

Toby immediately scowled. "What did he do now?"

Thank goodness for the baby Barbie's short attention span.

"Right, you better go check that out."

She watched him stomp off on his BB mission and sighed in relief.

"Toby?"

Ruby turned slightly to look at Puppet.

"Toy Bonnie. Toby. Don't look at me, it wasn't my idea." That cleared up exactly nothing but Ruby was too stressed out to care.

Her gaze flicked to the little girl in Puppet's arms. It was bizarre to see herself as a toddler. Was she really that small back then? Huh.

Ruby, little Ruby, stared at her. A moment later, she scowled distrustfully.

The irony startled Ruby enough that she snorted out a laugh.

Puppet had gotten quiet, his eyes flicking between both Rubys, although it was doubtful he actually figured it out. It was probably too weird of an idea for him to get through himself. He was probably thinking of a dozen other more logical explanations.

"Let's find your mother, dearest," Puppet suggested, refusing to put the toddler down for fear she'd run past him to the room. He held her expertly as she started to squirm.

She smacked his arm. "No! See Wiggy! Why she hurt?!"

Ruby cocked her head as she thought. Comforting kids was her specialty. But even she knew that she was an exception to that rule usually. Especially when it came to strangers. So what would have been a surefire way to keep her calm back then?

Ruby briefly closed her eyes before bracing herself.

"You know your dad doesn't like it when you try and follow him to work."

Little Ruby froze and pouted.

"And he's working right now," Ruby continued. She remembered trying to tag along on her dad's work days multiple times. She'd been halfway to a crime scene once before they found her. "You know he'll take good care of Wiggy right?"

Her mini version reluctantly nodded.

"And since he's busy, that means?" she trailed off expectantly.

Baby Ruby let out a heavy but defeated sigh. "Stay wit mommy."

"Yup," she popped the 'p'. "Your dad will take care of everything. He always does."

Damn but it hurt to say that. But it worked. Her baby version had stopped squirming and was pouting instead.

Puppet looked confused but grateful. He didn't outwardly question how she knew to say that.

"Come on then," he said softly, glancing back at the door in pain. He did not want to leave Hedy and the other children behind again, but he would be no help to the others at the moment. He had to make sure Ruby was safe. That was where he could be useful.

"We got them," Ruby promised as she moved past again to return to the room. She still couldn't make herself look at the group right now, not knowing who was there with the kids.

So she made a beeline to Steve and Spring again. Michael was still pretty much out of it.

Ruby still had the urge to punch him to be honest.

"How you holding up Spring?" she asked softly.

She tapped absently at the floor. It was a better coping method than scratching at her arms but she felt the building perk up and forcefully stopped the movement. She didn't need the building being overly helpful right now.

"Are they okay? Is Wiggy okay?" Spring whispered frantically, not even caring about himself.

"They'll be okay, Springy," Scott murmured gently to the rabbit. "Wiggy's tough, kiddo."

"I didn't know what to do..." Spring stammered.

Even under the panic, she could tell this wasn't the Spring she was used to. This was still the old Spring, the one who remembered his whole life and knew who he was. There was a thread of confidence even in the midst of his sobbing. What really stood out was the anger underneath it all. Her Spring rarely put any energy into being angry. He found it exhausting and too hard to deal with.

"I-I woke up and Michael was putting me on, even though I told him to stop. I told him, but he didn't listen. I-I had to let him. I-I didn't want to hurt him, Scott...I didn't know he would.. . " He trailed off with a sob. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do. Why did he...?"

Ruby cut a glance at Michael before looking back. "It's not your fault Spring. You cared about him. All of you did. And he was banking on that. He's a twisted manipulator who made a decision he can't come back from. No one could expect you to hurt or kill your brother."

She knew Steve was looking at her strangely. While they might all be hyper-focused on the kids and the problem at hand, they'd still notice it. She knew too much. She knew about the bots and their relationships with other people. She knew they were alive and cared enough to be comforting Spring despite everything.

Ruby knew she was being suspicious as all hell but she couldn't make herself stop. She was the night guard. She took care of the bots.

Even now, in a time that wasn't her own, they were still her bots.

Spring was looking at her. He was staying completely still, some part of him still not wanting to hurt Michael any more by digging his locks in deeper.

"Who..." He was staring at her with recognition, but like with Puppet, the idea was probably way too strange to consider.

"She said her name was Ruby," Steve interrupted Spring's thoughts, glancing at Ruby sharply.

Oh right. She forgot he knew little-her... And she introduced herself, probably too excited about meeting him properly. Oops.

"But..." Spring's eyes widened and flicked to the door where he had heard little Ruby's voice then back at her. " Ruby?"

"I don't think I can get you untangled," Scott said, studying the twisting mess of flesh stuff inside Spring's arm that used to be Michael's arm, as if this was completely normal and he didn't just drop something very difficult to process on the rabbit. He was definitely watching Ruby's reaction, though. "We might have to get Joseph to disconnect your arm, Spring. They'll probably have to cut Michael out of it at the hospital."

"I don't want Joseph to touch me," Spring said automatically, still staring at Ruby like he had two thought processes running at the same time.

Ruby hadn't been able to hide her grimace as that slip-up came back to haunt her. Dammit, she had been excited about meeting Steve and it just tumbled out. She'd been hoping he hadn't noticed it...

She met Spring's gaze, knowing that her lips were twisted in a familiar to him expression. Bonnie called it her 'I've been caught but don't want to admit it' look and it dated way back to when she was little still.

"I can do it," she said abruptly. "I don't like doing it, but I can do it."

Might as well go all in for now. Hedy had given her 'emergency bot first aid' lessons. One of which did include disconnecting limbs if needed. Also something some random teenager shouldn't know.

"Don't ask questions just yet," she grumbled, low enough that only they heard her. "Questions, later. I got taught how to do this. Just roll with it."

She didn't really give them much time to process anything she said as she squirmed over Spring's shoulder instead of just going around.

Push that. Pull this. Twist this just right without losing a finger-

Spring yelped at the sudden disconnect and Ruby watched his entire arm come loose.

"Imma be sick," she muttered queasily.

The fastest way to get Ruby to throw up nowadays, or to freak out, was something wrong happening with the bots' bodies. So while she didn't panic at the sight of Spring's arm coming loose, she did develop an unpleasant twist in her stomach that wasn't helped by the smell of blood still in the air.

It did not help that Spring's arm was much heavier than it should be and it was wet.

Michael choked on a scream, waking up for a moment as the arm dropped, yanking on broken bones as Spring's body stopped supporting it. The arm was heavy on its own and Michael had no choice but to follow it, curled up on the floor awkwardly.

"Lay down," Scott told the young man sternly as he guided the arm into some position where it was less likely to literally rip the limb off. He grabbed a dirty rag from the floor and stuffed it in Michael's mouth. "Bite."

Michael was breathing rapidly as he did as he was told and he screamed into the rag in pain as Scott moved him, Spring's ears pining back as he refused to look behind him.

"What were you thinking, Michael..." Scott whispered, the mask dropping for a moment. He sounded like he wanted to cry. "I don't understand."

Spring let out another sob, processing in bits and pieces what Michael had tried to use him for.

Michael cracked open one eye and glared at the man, still weak. But there was so much venom in that gaze that it stunned Scott for a moment.

Ruby was still pretty much draped over Spring's shoulder and she pet at his ears at the sob.

"Something broke in him when he killed Timmy," she murmured just loud enough for them to hear. "And instead of trying to fix it, he wanted to break it more." She shook her head and sighed before dropping back in front of Spring. She didn't doubt that the kids were watching since Michael had made a lot of noise. So she made sure to keep her voice too low for them to hear.

"He made a choice," she murmured. "The wrong one. But this time he meant to. "

He traumatized Goldy with Timmy's death. And he was going to traumatize Spring next. Ruby wondered if he'd been planning on going down a list or something. He was sick enough to probably want to do something like that.

Ruby could feel Derrick look their way and instinctively turned her face away. At least he seemed more interested in clocking whatever state Michael was in at the moment. But he definitely saw her.

She really hoped the building was messing with his perspective.

"Spring?"

Spring's head shot up.

Hedy watched carefully, looking unsure. She looked past Spring, Steve, and Ruby at Michael in fear. She understood what had happened. She knew it wasn't Spring that hurt her. There were still big tear streaks on her face and she was spattered with blood as she cradled her arm in the makeshift sling Ruby had made her. She looked so torn, desperate to hug Spring. No one blamed her for not wanting to come any closer to Michael. She kept glancing back to check on Ginny and Benji even though Derrick was there.

"Spring's gonna be okay," Ruby murmured. "You can hug him later, okay Hedy? When you're both feeling better."

Hedy normally wouldn't accept that, but it was probably Michael's presence that led to her nodding her head in acceptance.

Ruby did her very best not to look at anyone but the kids.

There was noise outside. The sound of voices and demands for answers.

Police officers, two in normal uniforms and two in riot gear appeared by the door.

"Where're the EMTs?" Derrick said in a tone that implied he wanted to be harsher but was careful not to frighten the children. "We don't need the SWAT team."

"Here!" someone else shouted as the medical techs shoved past the officers who got quickly out of the way.

The room was quickly far too crowded and there was a shocking blur of activity as the kids who could stand were gently moved outside, Derrick and the officers guiding the kids to frantic parents being kept down the hall against their will.

They could faintly hear the kids' names being called in fear.

"Mamá!" Felix cried out and Ruby caught a glimpse of him in the doorway, ripping away from Derrick to run towards his mother, who was out of sight.

The EMTs focused on getting Ginny and Benji on stretchers, calling for three more ambulances, while another gently carried Cheryl out as another had out a flashlight, presumably looking for the missing digit.

Derrick was trying to coax Hedy to come with him. "It's okay, Wiggy. Your Dad is just outside."

With all the activity, Ruby took a moment to let herself sag. If she tipped off the building on how much Derrick's presence was affecting her, it might do something dumb like throw him out. She was fine. She could hold it together until it was time to leave. The kids were safe now. She could start moving onto the next thing as soon as she was sure that Spring would be fine.

And then one of the officers finally spotted the teenager further in the room. It was understandable that he mistook her for another victim, but it still irritated Ruby when his hand fell on her shoulder.

"Miss, I need you to-"

"Hands off," she shrugged hard enough that he lost his grip. "I'm fine. Not injured. Not traumatized." By this anyway. "I'm only helping Steve with the bot."

"Scott."

"Steve."

Steve gave up and shook his head.

The officer looked at Michael and frowned, pointedly not looking at his arm. He glanced at Spring but looked more confused by the robot than dismissive. "Can one of you tell me what happened?" He gestured for another EMT that was suddenly free to come over. It wasn't a good sign when an EMT looked startled by an injury. She immediately started prepping a tourniquet while Scott moved out of her way.

He spoke carefully. "One of the animatronics informed me that it found six children in this room severely injured with this man."

It was a very suspicious way of explaining. "Do you know this man?"

"Yes."

"And do you know what his name is?" the officer prompted, clearly irritated with Steve/Scott.

"Michael Afton."

"What there anyone who interceded?" He glanced at Ruby pointedly.

"Am I being detained or arrested?"

"I'm just trying to get more information, sir. We need to understand what happened."

"I do not want to talk to you until you lock him up, please." Steve's voice was starting to shake. "I need to make sure my niece is okay before anything else. So, am I being detained or arrested?"

Ruby eyed the officer out of the corner of her eye before interrupting.

"I saw him leading some kids away while wearing the rabbit suit," she lied. Well, she technically did. Just years ago. "I thought it was weird and told the security bot. Puppet. The one who looks a little like a clown. He was a lot more concerned and asked Steve to get help. By the time we got here, the kids were hurt but something had gone wrong with the suit. Spring was in here for maintenance, after all." She wondered if it worried Steve and Spring that she was lying so easily and well. "The spring locks don't like getting wet. I'm guessing he got blood in them and," she clapped her hands. "One squashed arm. We just called the police after that. I know first aid so I helped the kids. Luckily there's a box in just about every room here," she gestured at the box.

The police officer was nodding along and writing in his notebook. Ruby was too used to lying to cops by now. A side-effect of growing up around them while doing borderline illegal things.

"Are you alright?" he asked sympathetically.

"I might need a trashcan soon, but I'm fine otherwise. Just not sleeping for a while."

The truth, but not for the reasons he'd think. The nausea was from disconnecting Spring's arm and the nightmares would be from hearing her dad's voice again. Hello Flashbacks to Nightmare. How nice of you to drop in.

The officer was satisfied with her story, though. He still eyed Steve suspiciously and Ruby wondered if it was because she was a teenager that he didn't have the same distrust. Or if she really did just act and lie around members of the force too much.

...to be honest, Jeremy was probably the only cop who saw through her now.

She did wonder if the building was the reason he didn't ask her name.

"I need you folks to move out of the way," one of the EMTs said as they got ready to lift Michael to his feet after checking he was able to walk and making sure they had the arm(s) immobilized as much as possible, one of them supporting the weight of the yellow suit.

Spring shifted out of the way, well aware they might forget he was even there if he didn't say anything.

"Make sure there is an officer on him at all times!" Derrick said, coming back into the room and towards them. He pointed at the officer. "Officer. You go with him in the ambulance. I want to know the second he's out of surgery."

The officer nodded and handed Derrick his notepad after quickly writing his badge number down.

Ruby had gone completely still, expression blank. She was facing Spring at the moment and kept her gaze on the floor. She hadn't noticed him come this close.

The lights flickered above them and Ruby squashed down on the flood of emotions that bubbled to the surface. She also clamped down on the urge to look around for Nightmare. The last time she'd been this close... was the coma.

She might actually throw up at this rate.

"Are you okay Scott?" Derrick asked as the officer left.

Scott nodded numbly. "How's Wiggy?"

"Joseph has her. He's taking her to the hospital to set her arm. She was throwing a fit." He glanced down at Spring who was still on the floor, trying to look as small as possible. "She wanted to make sure you knew where she was going."

Spring looked absolutely shocked at an adult he didn't know speaking to him like a person. He nodded gratefully. "Will...will the others be okay?" he whispered.

Derrick was honest. "It's too early to know for Benji and Ginny. They need surgery but they're all a bunch of tough kids. It sounded like they should be able to reattach the little girl's finger."

"Cheryl," Scott supplied. He blinked. "He...he cut off her finger?" He looked like he wanted to throw up.

Derrick nodded sympathetically. "Do you need a trash can?"

Scott waved him off.

Spring eyed Ruby though. Going from her colour change, she might end up needing the trash can.

The teenager was looking twitchy now and her gaze was skittering around the room like she was looking for an exit out of the conversation. She was also doing her very best to never look at Derrick.

Ruby had about reached her limit. She needed to leave, maybe have a minor panic attack in the vents, definitely throw up and then find the manager's office to get some blackmail material. She turned her head and eyed the door. He was busy talking to Scott and Spring. She could slip out now.

And then stay far far away from this particular officer.

She was almost clear, using years of practice to move smoothly out of Derrick's eyeline. Her movements were relaxed to not tip him off...

"Hold on a minute," he said, catching her arm firmly but careful not to hurt her. Everything in Ruby regretted her instinctual reaction to look up as she met his eyes.

It was flight or fight in that moment and for once in her life Ruby chose "flight". She ripped her arm away and bolted out of the room.

"Stop!"

She didn't even care when Scott stopped the officer from following or what he could have said. She just ran.