We left Parts and Service and started through the Pizzaplex again, but I couldn't get that kid off my mind. Why didn't he want to get found and taken to his parents? Why would he destory the other animatronics to "upgrade" Freddy? And the one racking my brain the most at this point, why did he leave so suddenly? He clearly cared about Freddy, so why deactivate him and make a break for the exit? When the whole incident was reported it stated that someone saw a kid running out of the building, so he'd clearly made it out safe. What was really going on here?

"Elijah, are you feeling okay?" Freddy asked, making me jump. "You are not normally this quiet."

"No, I suppose I'm not, am I? I'm still confused why Gregory would just deactivate you and leave after going to all the effort to take everyone else's parts." It was then I could have kicked myself if I wasn't already scared of the floor falling out under me. Freddy would know what had happened before he was deactivated! Even if he couldn't make the conclusion himself, maybe I could! So I inquired about what had happened in the past hour before Gregory had deactivated him. He mentioned getting some new eyes, getting chased by the daycare attendant, and a message from the night guard asking Gregory to come to the stage. He explained that Vanessa knew he was working with Gregory, and that all she wanted to do was get him back to his parents, but Gregory was hiding from her.

I tried to think about it reasonably, put myself in Gregory's shoes. I'm a little kid trapped in a megamall full of animatronics overnight, and for some reason I really don't want to go back to my parents. The connotations of that was a whole other can of worms I didn't want to think about. I'm trapped here overnight, and I've destroyed the animatronics that are trying to get me to the night guard. Suddenly I get a message from the night guard asking me to come to the stage. I must be in trouble. I need to get out of here before she punishes me. Leaving with Freddy would get me caught, but I love Freddy! If I left him here he would eventually have to tell the night guard where I went, and I can't let that happen. I already decommissioned everyone else, what's one more? No! I bit back at myself, stopping the thought short. He's just a kid. A scared little kid. Curb your bitterness and think, Elijah! If I was a scared little kid, I'd shut down Freddy and run for it. I'd miss him, but I wouldn't get caught and I wouldn't get in trouble. That was why he left. So he wouldn't get in trouble.

"If I were Chica, where would I be?" Freddy asked to the air.

Dead. I thought, but I bit my tongue. "She really liked pizza," I offered. "What about the kitchens?"

"That's a great idea!" Freddy exclaimed. "Way to go, superstar!"

I chuckled. Mom and Dad would always call me their "little superstar", because they knew how much I loved when Freddy said it. It felt good to be called that again, even if I didn't do much to earn the title.

The kitchens of the Pizzaplex were absolutely trashed. Conveyor belts hung limp from the ceiling, trash littered the floor in piles, stovetops were burned out, and the whole place made you feel like you were being watched. And the smell!

"Elijah, I am detecting potentially dangerous levels of toxic gas in this area," Freddy said, looking around. "It is not safe for you to be here."

"I'm fine," I insisted. "If safety was my chief concern I would have just stayed home tonight and built a pencil sharpener or something. And besides, Mom never gave me her asthma which means I'm basically immune to noxious gas."

"That is not how that works," Freddy said, aghast.

"It's a joke, buddy," I said. "If I start feeling wonky we'll leave and come back later. We could head to daycare, see Eclipse. Did I tell you I got him fixed? It was nice to see him again. Nice to see both of you again."

"It is nice to see you too," Freddy said. "It is a good feeling, seeing the ones you grew up with."

I chuckled. "We really did grow up together, didn't we? You, me, and Jamie Hall."

"I remember Jamie. You and him used to go everywhere together. Where is he now?"

"On tour," I said. "He and I used to be in a band together, you know? I played the bass, he was the drummer, we had a couple other friends with guitars and a piano. I took a break to focus on getting through tech school, and they replaced me with one of the guitar guys. They said I was always welcome back in the band, although I don't know if that promise still holds up now that they're touring the country. If Jamie wasn't on the road I would have brought him with me tonight, he would have loved to see you and the band."

I waited for Freddy's response, but it didn't come. He was stood still, looking at a pile of garbage in the corner. "There she is," he said, starting for the pile.

"There's who, Freddy?" I asked, running to catch up with him.

"Chica."

The trash heap in front of us looked just like that. A trash heap. "Are you sure?" I asked. "It just looks like a-" BAM!

The sound of screeching metal pierced my ears as something rose from the trash heap. I stepped back as the twisted, deformed version of Chica rose up to stand. Her beak was completely missing, a melted web of yellow plastic where it should have been. Her eyes lolled around in their sockets, somehow having been popped out. I suspected Gregory.

"Chica?" I asked timidly.

Her head whipped around to face me, not hesitating even a moment before charging at me. "Woah woah woAH WOAH WOAH!" On instinct I jumped back at her, slamming into her with my shoulder and sending her to the floor. She was very much alive, but that was not my Chica.

"Freddy!" I coughed, scrambling to my feet and away from the monstrous chicken. "Freddy we gotta knock her out! Get her to Parts and Service while she's rebooting!"

"I cannot hurt my friends!" he said. It is prohibited in my programming! I am sorry!"

"Damn safety precautions!" Chica was back up again, I jumped behind Freddy. "Of course when it's convenient for Monty they don't work, but the second we have some real danger? Fazbear, you've done it again!"

"I am truly sorry!" Freddy said as I rammed another shoulder into Chica.

"Not you, buddy! Fazbear Entertainment!" My shoulder was starting to hurt. I was going to have to clock her. "Hey find me a chair, would you?"

Every time Chica started back up I kicked her down to the floor. There was an emergency shutoff switch in her left eye cavity, but there is no way I was going to try and shove my hand into a malfunctioning animatronic's face. I could hear Freddy's footsteps getting closer, I kicked Chica down one last time and leapt up onto a counter while she struggled to get up.

"Why did you need a chair?" Freddy asked, returning with a metal folding chair.

"Because I left my taser at home," I answered, taking the chair from him. I leapt from the counter, aiming my blow at the top of her head. "Sorry, Chica!"

I swung as hard as I could and heard the clang! of the back of a steel chair hitting animatronic metal as Chica crumpled to the floor. As soon as she was down I dropped to the floor, reaching into her eye cavity and hitting the emergency shutoff switch.

"Got… got it off!" I said, sitting up. The kitchen spun a little bit around me. "I, I can't believe that -cough- that worked!"

"Elijah!" Freddy sounded alarmed. "You are taking in too much gas! You need to leave immediately!"

"Okay buddy, okay," I stood up. The room was definitely spinning now. "You get Chica, and we'll get her down to parts and service. And I… I'll uh… let's go."

. . .

We got down to Parts and Service, and I was still a little loopy from the gas. Either it was really dangerous gas, or I had forgotten about lunch, possibly breakfast again, and was really feeling the effects. Freddy loaded Chica into the repair chair and I booted up the computer. "Simple operation," I told myself. "Just reset, slap in an extra voicebox and some eyes, reboot. Easy, Elijah, easy."

I stepped into the maintenance chamber. "W-w-w-welcome, Mickey Schmidt!" the hand unit said. "Please select a mode."

"Manual Part Replacement," I said.

"Mode Selected: Manual Part Replacement. Proceed."

I dug into my pocket for some of those spare parts, finding a pair of eyes and a spare beak. I fit the beak into place pretty quickly and got it tested and functional, but the area around it was still shattered. Digging around in some cabinets around the room I found a bucket labeled, "Band-aid". It was filled with industrial grade plastic putty, usually only used as a temporary patch until we could ship in a new part, hence the nickname on the bucket. It wasn't my favorite idea, but it was what was on hand. I made sure to coat the missing areas thoroughly, smoothing them out to the best of my ability without a sander. It was a rough job, but it would work.

I got Chica's eyes in relatively easily, and entered in the reboot command on the hand unit. "Reboot in progress," it announced. After a few minutes of loading, a small screen popped up saying "Restore Power?". I held my breath, Freddy had been roughed up a bit, but Chica was nearly crushed and I'd attacked her with a steel chair. I pressed "Restore" and stepped back from the door as the repair chair began to angle upwards.

The lights behind her eyes flickered on, and just like Freddy, she performed a routine direction check before looking at me. "Elijah?"

"The one and only," I chuckled. "How's it going, Chica?"

"The building is closed," she said, "why are you here?"

"To find our friends," Freddy spoke up.

"Freddy!" Chica rushed to him, hugging him. "Freddy, you're okay! Did you ever find that poor little boy?"

"Gregory is safe," he said. "I am glad you are okay, you scared me for a minute there."

"I think it's time we rendezvous with Eclipse, get you guys all together," I said. Three down, two to go, I thought. I checked my watch. 7:00. We've got to get moving.

Author's Note: Got a bit off schedule and ended up with a shorter chapter than I wanted, but sometimes a little filler is necessary. And yes, the steel chair was necessary as well. Big plans for next chapter though, so stay tuned!