Authors notes:

Hope you enjoy this chapter. :)

Chapter 4

Personal Thoughts

There were mixed reactions to night two. The 'bots thought it was an utter disaster while Ruby believed it to be a smashing success. The cleaning crew was just confused naturally.

(Unfortunately one of the cleaning crew came across an unexploded glitter bomb and well…it was exploded now. So the cleaning crew had to clean a cleaning crew member after that.)

Eventually they trudged out of the building muttering about crazy night guards.

This left the 'bots to themselves while the other staff members got the place ready for the day.

Of course their thoughts inevitably turned to the night guard.

Bonnie glared at the wall.

She was annoying.

But those glitter bombs were awesome. And how did she make a flour bag explode?

But she was the night guard, which meant he had to stuff her in a suit.

Except now he didn't really want to do that as much anymore. He hadn't played a good prank in ages… Watching her run around like that had made him feel nostalgic for the time before this whole mess began.

…And those glitter bombs were awesome.

Internally he screamed in frustration.

No, she was ANNOYING. She just waltzed in here and threw everything into utter chaos. She was violent and crazy and he needed to do his job before something bad happened. After all, something bad always happened when there was a night guard around. The animatronics knew that from experience.

He continued to glare at the wall, unknowingly scaring the living daylights out of the employees walking through the room.

Jerry was terrified. Why was Bonnie glaring at the wall like it had insulted him in the worst possible way? Jerry shivered. He enjoyed his job at the pizzeria but the animatronics scared him just like they scared all the other employees. Anyone who was not a kid was treated to some nasty glares quite often. The whole staff knew about the whole self-aware thing the robots had going on but they were too scared to attempt any form of communication.

As a result there were almost two separate entities working at Freddy's. The humans and the 'bots. They didn't talk to each other and no one made any attempt to change that.

He shivered again. He didn't know how Ruby did her job.

Thinking of the young night guard, he wondered how her second night had gone. The cleaning crew had mentioned that they had seen her leave (which was weird, why did she hang around so long?) and then started muttering about glitter and flour for some reason.

He didn't know when she would be coming around during the day again but he had to admit, he was curious about her. She seemed to be rather determined to hang around.

He sighed as he glanced cautiously at the rabbit animatronic.

Well, whatever had happened that night, the animatronics didn't seem to like it.

Chica actually looked like she was…pouting?

Chica was pouting.

She couldn't believe that the night guard had used her dear kitchen against her like that.

She loved that kitchen, it was her favourite room in the building. And now Ruby had used that against her.

"Hmph." She huffed in annoyance.

Ruby had run off there early in the night and somehow rigged a flour bag to blow all over the chicken. So when Chica had gone to fiddle around with the pots and pans again she had gotten a face full of white flour.

Not pleasant. After that Chica had tried to catch her again but it was kind of hard to sneak up on a person when you just about glowed in the dark. Her normal yellow colouring made stealth hard but the white flour?

Made it impossible.

On Freddy's other side Bonnie was trying to glare a hole in the opposite wall it seemed and Chica didn't blame him. This guard was getting under her feathers as well which was quite the achievement. While she wasn't as patient as Freddy (who had a saint's patience) she was far more stable in the temper department than Bonnie and Foxy.

Her pout dissolved into a silent sigh. It looked like Ruby wasn't about to give up anytime soon. That was a problem because if they didn't catch her by night five…

She shuddered. She didn't want to go through that again. It was awful.

Henry glared at the animatronics hatefully. WHY were they STILL around?! It was ridiculous. They were obviously DANGEROUS. How many night guards had mysteriously disappeared after all? Maybe when this girl disappeared it would raise a fuss and they'd be FORCED to get rid of the wastes of space.

He grinned maliciously at the thought.

Maybe there was an advantage to having this arrogant girl around. Although he still didn't think that she was going to last long.

Either way, he was going to be happy.

He shot another glare at the stage area and then towards Pirate's Cove. He hoped the mangy fox was the first to go.

Freddy could almost feel the annoyance radiating off the animatronics on either side of him. He sighed in irritation. The night guard had flipped their lives over and across the room in a total of two nights. It didn't really give him hope for a quick solution.

She was completely unpredictable.

She went from a definite aggressive approach with her bat and words to an almost playful approach with races and pranks. What was next?

He mentally sighed.

The shreds of peace they managed to maintain in this nightmare had been completely ripped from them after she arrived.

Bonnie let out some kind of near-inaudible growl while Chica continued to pout. Both of them were completely wrapped up in their own thoughts. As a result the employees present in the room were skirting around the stage nervously.

He almost rolled his eyes.

Those two could be so oblivious sometimes.

Night three was next; Bonnie was a short-tempered mess, Chica was distracted by the kitchen fiasco, Foxy seemed more disinterested than ever before and Goldy seemed almost wary of the guard.

What did she have in store for him he wondered?

The manager nervously peeked out of his office. It didn't look like the rather scary teenager he had hired was in the building so he hesitantly stepped out.

Of course he was thrilled that she hadn't quit after the first night but he was rather concerned about the fact that the cleaning crew had come to complain about glitter all over the place.

On top of that the kitchen had been covered in flour.

No one complained to the night guard however. She gave off the sort of feeling that deterred such idiocy.

Hopefully she wasn't going to be paying them any surprise visits today. He still hadn't quite recovered from her last appearance.

Foxy relaxed in his cove. The night had been really interesting. He hadn't had such a good laugh in ages. He chuckled remembering Bonnie's sparkly state again.

After a moment his mirth faded away and he stared in front of him thoughtfully.

Getting attached to the night guard was NOT a good idea.

…But seriously, how could anyone help it? She was so vibrant with life. Her unpredictable nature threw spice into the animatronics' rather dull lives.

It was…fun.

That wasn't something they had often anymore.

Even if the others wouldn't admit it, he could see the changes that two nights alone had made.

Bonnie had been bordering on apathy the week before while Chica struggled with depression. Now the rabbit was much more active than he had been before (even if it was because of irritation) and so was Chica. Goldy was more involved instead of only popping in for a few minutes after the night, now watching Ruby with a cautious curiosity instead. Freddy had also been pulled out of his aloof attitude and straight into the drama.

Even Foxy had been near yanked out of his detached state of mind. He found that he didn't really want to stuff her in a suit (well he never really wanted to do it to any of the night guards but there wasn't really a choice) but he also didn't want to avoid contact with her. Normally he didn't interact with the night guards at all besides the violence, it prevented feeling any more guilt in the end if he found out he liked them. However he'd already interacted with her, spoken to her even.

Just why was she having such a profound effect on all of the animatronics?

Later that day, during a lull in the customer traffic the animatronics gathered in the parts and services room to talk to Goldy without being overheard.

"So?" Bonnie asked grumpily, still sulking. "How'd she react to the phone call?"

"She took it well. I think she really is crazy." Goldy muttered. "She wants the game to be more interesting.

Bonnie spluttered as the others just stared at the golden suit.

"Hey! I am PLENTY interesting! Heck I'm the most interesting thing in the entire world! I'm just that awesome." The rabbit argued.

And Bonnie's attention was effectively distracted from their goal again.

Everyone rolled their eyes and turned back to Goldy.

"Anything else?" Freddy asked as Foxy's hand twitched as he held in his urge to hit Bonnie over the head.

"Well…she saw the newspapers…" they all twitched at that.

Why those articles kept showing up on the walls was beyond them.

"And?" Chica asked hesitantly.

"The usual. Shock, anger, disgust." Goldy shrugged, but she was still frowning.

"Something bothering ya?" Foxy spoke up for the first time.

Goldy bit her lip. "Well, then there was the unusual. "You know, profanity, defending of the animatronics…"

There was a moment of silence before "WHAT?!" filled the air.

Goldy shrugged uncomfortably again. "Yeah…she was offended they called you guys reanimated carcasses…"

"Well so were we." Foxy muttered darkly to himself.

The others were still staring in shock.

"Why?" Freddy wondered.

"She called you guys her…" Goldy bit her lip again unsure. "Childhood heroes."

An unsettling silence filled the room.

"Childhood…heroes?" Bonnie whispered eventually, breaking the heavy silence.

"I don't get it." Chica sounded upset.

Not only was their target an old customer, it seemed that she still held that same affection for them that she had as a child.

Even when they were trying to kill her.

It didn't make sense.

And it just made them feel even worse than before.

The room suddenly dropped in temperature noticeably and Goldy disappeared with a squeak as she felt the sudden, unwelcome presence. The other animatronics shivered as the not so subtle reminder told them why they were doing this in the first place. Shoulders and heads drooped as Foxy stormed away in anger.

He hated being told what to do.

He hated being forced to listen even more.

Ruby stared at her computer fighting the urge to punch it.

"Punching my laptop is not going to solve anything." She muttered as she slouched into her seat.

The internet was supposed to give all the magical answers to any question. And yet…

"WHY is there nothing on the most famous AND infamous pizzeria in the entire CITY!" she complained as she face-planted into her keyboard.

A moment passed before "Ow…"

She sat up slowly, rubbing the key indents in her face. Glancing at the screen again she sighed. She HAD seen those newspaper articles. She knew she had (despite most people's declarations that she was crazy she maintained that she was perfectly sane). Now the internet was claiming that they didn't exist.

"You're not going to fool me." She muttered to the screen. "Something is going on there. And I'm starting to get the bad feeling that whatever it was, it was covered up."

Massaging her temples she leaned back again before letting her arms fall limply to her sides.

"Now, if the 'bots would actually TALK to me I wouldn't have this problem." She grumbled under her breath. "You know, instead of trying to kill me."

Ruby started tapping random keys in her annoyance.

"I keep getting distracted too. They're fun to play with. Bonnie is hilarious, and the race with Foxy…" her frown melted into a smile.

Even with them trying to kill her, they still made her smile. She glanced at the clock. There was still an hour left to go before she had to be at work. All her 'weapons' were packed already and she had the brilliant idea to find out something before leaving, but the internet wasn't exactly co-operating.

She pouted up at the ceiling.

Then her sulking was interrupted.

A sudden, childish yell from downstairs told her that Ricky had snuck out of his room for an almost-midnight snack again, only to mess something in the kitchen.

Again.

"Wonder what it was this time." She snickered at the thought of the eight year old's panicked face. "It was milk last time."

She listened to see if anyone was woken up by the noise but the house was still silent.

"Better go do the 'good big sister' thing." She sighed, getting up and heading out of her room.

Downstairs the brown-haired boy was panicking exactly like she had predicted.

"Ricky." Ruby complained. "What ARE you doing up. It's eleven."

She knew exactly what he was doing. He did it at least three times a week.

The eight year old looked up with eyes swimming in tears and hope. "I got thirsty."

"That's what the bathroom taps are for squirt." She rolled her eyes as she got two rags from the sink.

It was only orange juice this time at least.

The child frowned. "I'm not a squirt." He whined as she handed him the rag.

Ruby chuckled and ruffled his hair. "As long as you're shorter than me you're a squirt."

He pouted up at her.

"Well, it's not like I have far to go. You're really short sis." He snickered.

Ruby stiffened and turned narrowed eyes on him. "Watch what you say kid. Or do you want me to hang you out of the second story window again?"

He paled slightly. Height was always a touchy subject for the shorter-than-average teen.

"Sorry sorry. Geez, you're scary sometimes Ruby." He moaned.

They were quiet as they cleaned for a moment.

"And you're not allowed to do that again." He reminded her.

She huffed in annoyance. "I don't get what the problem is. The pool's right under that window."

"That's not the point." Ricky whined making her laugh again.

"Fine I won't do that again." She conceded. "But you learnt your lesson about playing with fire didn't you?"

"Yeah." He muttered. "Also learnt that you're crazy."
"I think the word you're looking for is harsh." She sniffed as she washed the rags.

"Nope. The psychologist said crazy." He answered cheerfully as he lifted a glass of orange juice (poured by Ruby this time).

She stuck her tongue out at him and chased him up the stairs and back to bed.

Checking the clock and seeing that is was half past eleven, she decided to gather her things and leave anyway. After all, being early never hurt.

Well, never hurt her. She couldn't say the same for the animatronics. Looking at her arsenal she grinned sadistically. This would give her some time to…prepare… the building.

"Time to up the game guys. Can't let things get boring after all." She murmured as she locked the door behind her and started walking to Freddy's.

Author notes:

Next up, Night 3 on Sunday. By the way, I'm open to suggestions regarding 'weapons' for Ruby to use. She's going to need enough to get her to night 5 and beyond after all :P