Three Men, Three Dreams.

One Man dreamed of Joy, a solution to the cold, dead heart the American People had been struck with after the Vietnam War. People were scared, disgusted, and filled with hatred, and he wanted to help them Brighten the world, just like he did with his Daughter. He carried with him knowledge of Joy, his skills in writing joyous stories simply magnificent, second hand to his Mechanical skills in basic animatronics.

The Second Man dreamed of the top dollar, of victory, but also of a sense of Normalcy, his large family being one bundle of Chaos. He knew People well, and his imagination was simply Magnificent. Though, he wasn't quite nice, but it all came down to Control.

And the Third Man was one of Machines, and he dreamed of Freedom. His life was a cage, only occupied by the little trinkets he made while studying, day in, day out. When he finally found freedom, he found Loss as well, those who called him Blood deeming him worthless and simply vanishing without a trace. But even so, he didn't let that stop him from moving Forward.

And it was that drive that led him to run head first into the Man with Joy, quite literally. The Man With Joy was reading over his notes, his plans to give his life some purpose, and the Man With Freedom reading his own Journal, his own plans laid bare. The two collided, and their notes were mixed. As they rose, the two discovered each other's intelligence, their designs, their shared Dreams. Three hours later, a few bottles of beer, and a friendship were formed.

A few days after that, the two met The Man Of Control, who discovered their little scheme when trying to buy a building to use as a Test. A little Diner, named Ghost's Cove. The Man Of Control realized these two Dreamers couldn't even break a Twenty even, so he joined, not so subtly so he could do something else with his life other than sewing up costumes for theme parks thousands of miles away.

They made something Magical, the machines moving, singing, speaking, a perfect emulation of a Living Organism in cold steel. A Wolf, a Cat, and a Crow, they formed from their Dreams, even as their hands blistered and bled. But that blood… It made something Special.

They placed their Hearts, their Souls, their very Being into them.

And one day, they began to move.

Thoughtless Steel and Wires began to move without Power, their eyes flickering without true recollection. The Man Of Control named it, "The Joy Of Creation", the mere act of Bleeding and Sweating and Suffering for their Dreams giving inanimate Steel L i f e. It wasn't perfect, of course. They lacked a SOUL, after all, but it was the Answer to their Dreams, and on That Day, they came true.

Of course, this was a Monumental discovery. Technology and cold steel given Life, the Impossibilities of a Machine moving without Power. If He told anyone about it, the Dreamers would have gained fame, money, and go down in history.

So the Man Of Control hid it. He hid the discovery, hid the fact that he continued to study it on his own. He never really… explained it to anyone. And no one ever found out what exactly he was planning. All that's known is that one day, around 1977, something horrible happened, and a new aspect was discovered.

t.

What is Remnant, you may ask? If you asked the Man Of Control, he'd tell you it was a chemical amalgamation of Physical Memory, a culmination of the Self. Remnant was formed in the presence of Human Emotion, normally in Death, and could affect Organic Matter, but the important part here is when it's introduced to Metal.

The Man Of Control's first experiment that I know of involved a dog he had hit, and a prototype toy, designed after Spring Bonnie. That's the focal point of this story, Roxy.

When one bleeds into something, puts their very Will into it, and at a point, if you breathe enough life into something, It'll eventually breathe on its own.

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"And… that's why." Nixus looked away, eye distant. Roxy just sat back, CPU processing his words. Even Bonnie looked amazed and yet lost. "My Uncle… he led to that discovery, his Hyper Obsession with creating your Ancestral Animatronics breathed life, but unlike then, he wasn't Breathing into a being with an Artificial Intelligence so advanced that it counts as Alive."

He waved a hand. "So, when I gave you my eye, it did more than just give you some extra RAM. Stored in it was my Remnant, my Agony, and, well…" He waved to the blood bags. "It had some side effects I wasn't privy to knowing about."

Roxy looked to her own arm.

She is Him, and He is She. Then, her thoughts kicked up dust. "Wait, what about Chica?"

Nixus flushed. "Oh, shiiiiiiit…."

"And Monty?"

Nixus slumped to the floor. "I legally don't have enough blood for this."

"Freddy?"

"I mean, he was already more Human than most people, so I guess having blood won't change much."

"Nixus…"

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It took a few days for everything to settle in. Monty, unfortunately, didn't remember a damn thing, though it did make ripping out all the infected parts a lot easier. Burrows wasn't happy, as Nixus's phone made quite obvious with the almost 200 angry messages he'd gotten, but Nixus would sooner nail himself to a wall of nitroglycerin than actually pick up the phone.

Today, Nixus was burning time to find any recording of Bonnie's voice, so he could either Remake it using his own, or replicate it with Lewis, who'd probably go insane at the chance to voice Bonnie. Unfortunately, his co-worker called in sick, apparently his eye was injured and he was Not going to try driving with it.

Oddly enough, Janet didn't look mad about it, despite raising Hell when Maria tried getting a day off to take care of her dog. So here he was, ass deep in old scrap and trash, searching through the Basement for a single record tape.

And, would you believe it!

He didn't find shit. So now he was here, in the Employee Showers, trying his damndest to get the smell of Rot and Agony out of his skin and clothes. After that, he stepped out into the deafening silence of the after-hours Pizzaplex, not a soul in sight. It was unnerving.

Though, it was still fairly peaceful. A lack of people suffocating him, the Animatronics being in their Greenrooms to relax, it was like being alone in a theme park. It didn't feel fun, but it was… comfy?

Nixus couldn't care to explain it.

Though, there was something… weird, in the air. His eye was itching, so he let it roam, Phase 3 activating and switching over to the Remnant Vision. The place was still full of White Remnant, the lingering feelings of Joy, Excitement, and Freedom filling the air. But… there were pips of Black Remnant, in the corner of his eye. Nixus's brow furrowed.

"That shouldn't be here…"

He followed the pips, the darkness floating around him like bugs, following his own faint trail of Agony. The pips led to a wall, but seemingly went through. So, he switched over to Phase 2. In an instant, the AR realm was pulled forth into view, revealing both the interesting realities that were formed by the carefully placed Sound Illusion Disks, and also Mangle's cartoon form, happily bouncing around him.

And more importantly, the wall disappeared. Behind it was a hallway and a door, the black pips filling it like a fog.

"Hm, that's not good." He growled, saving the location onto his phone. "Mangle, if I'm not back in 20 minutes, ping everyone we can trust." The cartoon fox nodded as he delved into the depths.

He came back out not even 2 minutes later. "False alarm, it's just Maria being weird with Fanfiction, a STAFF Bot dressed up like Tom Hanks, and a 32 Ounce bucket of butter." He groaned. "Goes to show ya', Remnant can form from fucking anything… Joy, Sadness, Hate, and… eugh, Lust."

Mangle's expression of disgust mirrored his as she tapped into his Eye's recording function. "It's 3 in the afternoon…"

Nixus chuckled under his breath. "Yeah…" His gaze fell.

"... Are you still thinking about what you told Roxy?"

Nixus frowned. "Yeah."

"Hey, at least she took it well." Mangle pointed out, waving a paw. "She went silent for 20 minutes, silently went offline, and hasn't talked to us in 3 days."

"It's… a fair reaction."

"Yeah, remember when I realized I was technically alive in your PC and broke 30 power stations across Utah in my freak out?" Mangle giggled.

Nixus smirked. "They're still shut down to this day…" His smirk faded once more when his gaze caught a Security Camera, staring at the atrium. His brow sank.

"Hey, Mangle."

"OwU?"

"Do you ever feel like you're missing something obvious?"

"Sometimes."

He didn't notice the Yellow Bear watching him in the distance, holding tight onto a Mangle inspired mask.

"I'm getting that feeling, right about now, and it's making me feel Sick."

Nixus's eyes sharpened.

Tomorrow Is Another Day.