It had only recently hit six A.M. and the Toy animatronic trio returned to their stage. The bear, rabbit and bird watched as the security guard almost leisurely left the Pizzeria. He left so casually, stress free and not dead that in each of the three animatronics was some level of shame in their failure. Shame that was quickly replaced by curiosity as the black and white Puppet walked past them to the Prize Corner, not giving them even a glance, and almost seeming relaxed, if a bit tired, compared to the previous morning.

Once the Marionette was out of sight, Toy Freddy turned to the blue rabbit, "Bonnie, go grab Mangle."

That shook the two other Toys out of their expected routine, both of them turning to the bear, as Bonnie spoke of his confusion, "Uh, why?"

Freddy turned away, keeping an eye on the Prize Corner, "I feel we should have a meeting. We have some time before the morning workers get in here."

Chica squinted a bit before voicing her thoughts, "Is it alright to hold a meeting when BB got blasted into a wall and moved out for repairs?"

The bear sighed, "As regrettable as it is to leave Balloon Boy out, the topic of this meeting, I feel, is too important to wait. So, if you would, Bonnie."

"Ooookay?" Bonnie said before hopping off the stage, "Should I grab Marionette on the way?"

Freddy shook his head, "No, I think it's best we hold off on including them for now. Besides, they looked a little tired, and grumpy gus-es are not conducive to quality meeting outcomes."

Toy Bonnie's eyes became half lidded in mild exasperation, but did as he was told, jogging over to Kids' Cove, though slowed down just slightly to glance into the Prize Corner. The giant present had its lid on tight, and with no sign of movement, no sight of mask or fabric of the Marionette, he made his way over to the pile of static and metal.

It still stung the rabbit how the employees left the Mangle to their fate. He supposed he understood the theory of it, children got handsy and basically tore the animatronic apart, but he felt like they could have done something. Shaking the thoughts away, he addressed his friend, "Hey, Mangle, Freddy's called a meeting."

Their heads rose with interest, as a garbled, but still understandable voice spoke from underneath the static, "Th-this early? W-wel-ell, if Freddy says so." They spoke, voice box hitching every now and then.

The oddly shaped animatronic did as they usually did and moved more along the walls and ceiling than the floor, moving their way out of Kid's Cove and towards the stage,, closely followed by Bonnie. He still glanced at the Prize Corner while passing, an uneasy feeling creeping its way through his systems in regards to leaving Marionette out of the meeting, but he shook his head and followed the three legged fox.

Once the four were gathered at the stage, Chica spoke up, "So, Freds, what's got your top hat in a twist?"

Toy Freddy folded his arms behind him as he addressed the gathered animatronics, "Thank you Mangle, for joining us. I wanted to speak to you all on a certain change I'm sure we've all seen the past two nights."

Mangle decided to interject, a bit of excitement upon their tone, "Oo-o-ooh, is this about Marionette? I saw them night past last, and they gave me just the most smo-oldering glare!"

This brought Freddy up short, prompting Bonnie to step in, "And that doesn't bother you?" He asked, befuddled.

They gently waved one of their less obtrusive hands and shook their head, "Oh, definitely not. Marionette is a d-d-dear, and if they didn't want help getting the guard, or getting the guard at all, then who am I-I to argue with them?"

Chica tilted her head, a small frown on her face, "Well, it's kinda our job to eliminate any and all threats here. He's purple, the oldies say purple is bad, so we gotta take him out."

"And that is precisely what we need to talk about," Freddy said, pointing to Chica for a moment, "It is our duty to protect this Pizzeria from all threats, and purple adults are ones we can only watch, but purple guards are threats we can deal with. So, when Marionette walked past me that night, carrying their music box towards the guard's office, I thought something was odd."

"O-oh!" Mangle exclaimed, "That's the night Marionette glared at me!"

Chica let out a hum, "Then the following morning the music box got crushed."

"That's another thing. I didn't see or hear anything. What about you three?" Freddy asked.

After a moment of silence Toy Bonnie let out a small cough, "Weeell. I may have seen Old Freddy sneak by, kind of around morning."

"And then Marionette got up and drop kicked BB." Chica said, in a resigned voice.

Freddy tapped his foot in thought, "The only thing that doesn't make too much sense with that, is I don't know how any of the Old Band would have known about what Marionette did. But, that's not all. Just this last night, I saw Marionette sitting in the guard's office, glaring at any of us that got near."

A small whistle left Bonnie, "So my eyes weren't failing me! I slipped into the office once, didn't see the guard, just that empty Freddy head that's there sometimes, ya know how it is, and I thought I saw something when I left the office, but I didn't bother to take a second glance. Guess that was Marionette in there."

"But… why?" Chica asked, her confusion plain about her tone, "Marionette is almost a classic in their own right, so they'd know everything, maybe even more than the Old Band at that. Why would they just sit there and protect a purple guard?"

Mangle interjected slightly, "Really, th-the only thing that confuses me is, if Marionette knows something, why wouldn't they tell us?

Freddy rubbed his chin, "That's what's got my circuits running in circles too."

Chica rolled her eyes, "Let's just ask them if it's that big of a deal."

"No!" Freddy said firmly, with a frown, "We need to approach this carefully. Especially considering what they did to Balloon Boy."

"I really doubt Marionette would manage to throw you across the Pizzeria, Freddy!" Chica said in annoyance, leaning into Freddy's space.

After that the main three slowly devolved into mild mannered squabbling on what to do with the information they now had. Mangle rolled their eyes, and deigned the meeting to have run its course, deciding to slowly stalk away than stay listening to the three bicker. So stalk they did, towards and into the Prize Corner, their movement somehow going unnoticed by the bickering band.

They crept to the Puppet Box and gently rapt upon its top, mostly certain they didn't need to knock any harder to get the Marionette's attention. "O-oh, Marionette dear, we have a question or two for you, if you don't mind." They announced.

It took a moment longer than they expected, so long they were tempted to knock again, but before they could, the box's lid lifted and fell to the side, allowing the striped arms of the Puppet to sluggishly lift the Marionette from the box's depths, allowing them to glare slightly at Mangle, just over the rim of the box. Mangle didn't take offense to the glare, considering the night they had, they knew the Marionette could use some rest.

"What is it Mangle?" The Marionette asked in their firm, but light voice.

"Well, dear, we were just wondering about your behavior the past few nights. If you're will-willing to answer."

The Marionette glanced away for a moment, seeming uncomfortable with the preliminary question already, but let out a static laden sigh, and lifted themselves to lean on the edge of their box, "Fine. I probably should tell someone anyway."

Mangle nodded happily, "So, why were you with the night guard tonight-ight? I wouldn't think you'd let one off the hook like that."

It took a moment for Marionette to answer as if they didn't have the words. They simply stared at the ground before speaking, their firmness wavered, replaced by a whisper, "I don't see him covered in purple anymore."

Mangle flinched back, eyes wide, mouth gaping. They quickly slammed their jaws shut and glanced toward nothing in particular, almost searching for a response themself, "When and how? Everybody else still sees the night guard as pur-purple."

Marionette let out a prolonged burst of static and grabbed their head in apparent distress, "I don't know! I was just so tired two nights ago and wasn't thinking straight. I brought my music box to him, he wound it, and he just… didn't look purple anymore, didn't seem dangerous anymore. I don't know if it was the being tired or what, I just think he's… safe."

There was silence in the Prize Corner for a moment, oddly the only sound being the Marionette's static, punctuated with an occasional note from their internal music box, at least until Mangle broke the silence, "And this night? I assume h-he lacked purple again?"

"Yes." Marionette responded quietly, "I mostly wanted to double check, to see if the purple would return, and it didn't. He isn't purple. He isn't a threat. I… I don't want him to die." Their words, especially those at the end, held such worry to Mangle's ears, held such sadness at the possibility.

Mangle let out a small chuckle, "You got attached pretty fast, huh?"

Marionette's head shot up, letting loose even more white noise, as they visibly tensed, "What do you mean?" They asked, their voice intentionally flat compared to their expression.

"W-well, you're making it seem that you'd be really sad if one of the others killed him." Mangle hummed in compilation, "If you care about him that much, why didn't you co-come and tell everyone? If everyone k-knows, then he's not in danger! And you don't have to w-worry about being sad!"

They shook their head, sighing a burst of static, yet oddly relaxing from their moment of tensing, "How would I go about telling them? We've been doing this for so long, nobody else has just stopped being purple before."

"You have me convinced, d-dear. Why would the rest be any different?" Mangle asked, tilting their head.

Marionette raised their face, expression tired, "I could maybe convince the rest of the Toys. But the Old Band… They've been doing this for so long. I've been doing this for so long. They'd sooner think the music box scrambled my circuits before they let somebody go without a fight. They'd just hunt him even harder if I said anything."

That brought Mangle up short for a moment, "Well, Old F-Freddy did come by the Prize Corner in between the night shift and day shift, after you asked the guard to wind your box. Apparently." Mangle said, with a bit of hesitance.

"Oh, that bastard." Marionette groused, before taking a 'breath' and sighing, "Mangle, why exactly did you come to ask me all this?"

Mangle glanced between their two heads and Marionette before coughing, as much an animatronic could cough at least, "Freddy c-called a meeting about all this. I walked away to talk to you when the three of them started to argue among t-themselves."

Marionette simply started at Mangle, before groaning and slamming their head into the side of their present box. "I miss Mike already."

"He's the night g-guard, I assume?" Mangle asked.

Marionette did not move from their face planted position as they spoke, "Yeah. He's the night guard. And apparently my only vestige of sanity." When Mangle didn't say anything immediately, Marionette decided to continue, "He was pretty nice tonight.."

Mangle let out a static-y chuckle, "A-aw, don't worry, he'll b-be back next night shift as always! Hmm, maybe I'll pop in and say hi! See if I can get to see him all, not purple-like."

Marionette simply let out a prolonged groan that their music box joined in with. Mangle did not seem to notice their distress, which the Marionette couldn't decide if they were thankful for, or annoyed by.