Author notes:

Hope you all enjoy this chapter :)

Chapter 7

Night 4

Ruby settled in her chair, looking around the room suspiciously for a certain golden bear. Unknown to her, Goldy still hadn't reappeared and certainly wasn't going to appear that night. She was perfectly happy to sit in her poster and hope that Ruby didn't accidentally summon her.

"Hello, hello?" 'Steve's' voice cut through the silence in the room.

"Hey Steve. Did you know that this place is haunted by a golden ghost bear?" Ruby asked conversationally as she opened a packet of sour worms.

She was going to need a lot of sugar after all. And caffeine. A thermos of coffee sat on the desk next to her elbow.

"Hey! Hey, wow, day 4. I knew you could do it."

"Thanks but seriously? The ghost bear? Does no one know about this?" Ruby asked before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow." 'Steve' sounded nervous.

Ruby froze and stared at the phone, her breathing growing shallow as bangs were also heard in the background of the phone call.

"It's-It's been a bad night here for me."

"Steve?" Ruby murmured, dread curling up in her stomach.

"Um, I-I'm kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you," 'Steve' cleared his throat, "uh, when I did."

"Oh no." she whispered, knowing exactly what was happening…and what was about to happen.

"Uh, hey, do me a favour." More banging echoed in the background.

"No! No last requests! It makes this feel all too real." Ruby couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the phone.

"Maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits in the back room?" the banging grew louder.

Ruby's eyes grew sad.

"I'm gonna to try to hold out until someone checks. Maybe it won't be so bad."

"Steve…" the banging grew even louder.

"Uh, I-I-I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads back there." Some kind of tune or chime played suddenly.

"You know..." a deep moan sounded, "oh, no"

Suddenly there was a screech followed by ominous static.

Ruby was left to stare in horrified grief at the phone.

Knowing that people had been killed and hearing it were two different things.

Foxy stared pensively at the wall. Ruby would be listening to THAT phone call now.

"How are you going to react lass? Can ya forgive even this?" he murmured to himself.

Maybe this would be the final straw to chase her off. The idea made him sad but he knew it would probably be for the best for her.

She didn't deserve the fate of a night guard.

She didn't deserve any of this really.

Bonnie stared blankly ahead of him. Night four was when they all kicked the game into high gear. Freddy was going to be going all out and he expected them to do the same.

His eyes flicked to the camera momentarily. Still no movement. That was weird. Normally at this point the guard was frantically checking the cameras but Ruby hadn't even checked once.

Did they actually scare her off he wondered.

Chica tried not to think of what the phone call was revealing in the office. She often tried to forget. It wasn't nice to discover afterwards that the very thing that she was trying to forget had actually been immortalized on tape.

They hadn't known that he had been recording at the time, just thought that he was talking to himself.

Night guards all dealt with this situation differently after all.

Freddy felt nervous. Night four was when they all worked harder and together since they were running out of time to catch the guard. However this time they were down two…

Foxy still flat out refused to help while Goldy would probably run even if she was summoned.

Would they be able to accomplish this?

They only had two nights left…

Goldy peeked out of her poster.

"Nope." She decided and went back into hiding.

Ruby finally took a look at the cameras. EVERYONE was out (except Foxy). She sighed and set her mouth into a determined line. Now was not the time to be spacing out. She had a mission to accomplish after all.

She looked around and quickly scurried into the room across from her. She hadn't been here before. Ruby looked around at the animatronic heads and parts and gave an involuntary shiver. It was as still as a graveyard. Steeling herself she reached into her bag and pulled out a can of spray paint. She couldn't exactly fulfil 'Steve's' final request with the amount of time that had passed but she could do it in her own way.

Five minutes later she was done and turned to leave. Pausing for a moment she glanced back. On the wall of the parts and services room she had spray painted a message.

"STEVE WAS HERE."

A little cartoon phone was painted next to it.

At least he wouldn't be forgotten. She smiled slightly.

"I won't forget Steve." She murmured. "And I'm ending this nightmare. I'm bringing the 'bots I knew back."

With a determined smile she turned and headed back into the game.

Bonnie should have known that a heavy atmosphere would have not lasted with Ruby around. He also should have known that Ruby would not be scared off that easily.

"Oh Bonnie. Green is so not your colour. I'll have to try something else next time." The night guard in front of him pulled a face at his appearance.

He'd been stalking down the hallway like normal and then, out of the blue, a balloon had come flying at him. It had hit square in his chest and he now had dripping lime green paint on his front.

Lime green.

"Green, I can handle. Paint I can handle. But what were you thinking with LIME green?" Bonnie yelled but it came out more like a whine.

Ruby smiled at him innocently. "I've been traumatized! My colour sense went out the window."

"Traumatized?!" Bonnie narrowed his eyes at her. "You have no idea."

He leapt at her as she dodged and found himself being hit with another balloon. This one held orange paint.

Neon orange.

He groaned. "Are you colour-blind!?"

She laughed at him. "Hey I put the paint in the balloons but even I don't know what colour's in them until it pops."

He growled and charged at her again. She ducked under his arms and spun behind him. He was nailed in the back of the head next and turned to glare at her.

She snickered at him. "Puke yellow." She provided since he couldn't see.

Suddenly Chica dived at her out of nowhere and Ruby dodged at the last second.

"So close." Ruby grinned, a little breathless.

She tossed a balloon at the chicken who was unluckily hit in the face with baby blue.

How many of those did she have?

"Come on you two! I'm not feeling any murderous intent!" she goaded and laughed when they both made a grab for her.

As she dodged though, Freddy also appeared and she barely avoided being grabbed by him. "Well looks like everyone's here."

Ruby smiled at the three of them as they growled.

"So I can bring out the big guns then right?"

She reached behind her as Bonnie felt suddenly nervous. A long gun of some sort appeared?!

"What the-" Chica started but was cut off as she and the others were pelted by paintballs.

"Paintball gun!" Ruby sang as she covered them in bright, neon pink spots of paint. "Modified of course."

She grinned evilly as they staggered to regain their balance when she paused. Freddy recovered first and pounced at her but she danced out of the way.

"It's Paint Night!" she hollered and threw a paint balloon at Freddy's face before sprinting away cackling.

Bonnie groaned as Freddy wiped the grey paint out of his eyes. The rabbit animatronic kicked a nearby dustbin and suddenly a bang echoed down the corridor.

"She hid a glitter mine in the dustbin?!" he screeched. "Great, now I'm painted and glittered."

He threw his arms up in aggravation while Chica leaned over to Freddy.

"How'd she know that he would kick the dustbin?" she whispered.

Freddy just shook his head in annoyance.

Foxy was listening to the far off yells and bangs when suddenly Ruby came barrelling into Pirate's Cove. He jumped slightly but recovered as she crouched down trying to stifle her laughter.

Looking up at him he noticed the sparkle in her eye and she grinned. "They look like they were hit by a colour blind abstract artist."

It was impossible to not smile back or chuckle at that image.

"Mind if I recharge here for a moment? Didn't get much sleep with the double shift."

He shook his head as he settled back down.

"Thanks." She pulled a thermos out of her backpack along with a bag of chips. "Running on caffeine and sugar at the moment. And a lot of adrenaline. They're pretty good when they work together."

"So what are ya doing to them tonight lass?" he asked.

"It's Paint Night so paint balloons, my paintball gun and everything related to paint. Not to mention the glitter. Gotta have the glitter." She smirked as she tore into her chips.

Another bang went off as Foxy chuckled and Ruby beamed.

"Someone found the tripwire-activated-paint-bucket."

Foxy smirked. "It exploded?"

"Yeah. It drops from its perch and 'boom' on impact." She took a gulp of coffee, always listening.

"Surprised to see that you seem to be fine lass. I thought the phone call would bother you more." He murmured after a moment of silence.

She looked at the fox for a moment before gazing up at the ceiling. "Hmmmmm. There's a reason."

"Huh?" Foxy blinked.

"There's a reason you guys are doing this." She continued to look up. "You're obviously not doing it for fun."

Foxy watched her quietly.

"So that means I can't judge without knowing what that reason is."

She glanced at Foxy who had a solemn expression on his face.

"But none of you seem ready to talk yet so I'll hang around until you are. Besides, he seemed to like you all despite the whole 'Kill the night guard' thing." She finally looked at Foxy again.

"And so do I, so I'm sticking around." Her smile was confidant but gentle at the same time. "That's all."

"Even if you're in danger?" Foxy asked softly.

She nodded as she drank some more coffee.

"We don't have a choice lass. It's not going to go away." The defeated undertone caught her attention.

She frowned at him.

"On night six we don't have a choice and things get bad. Really bad." His eyes seemed to grow distant for a moment.

Ruby was quiet for a moment.

"Someone or something is forcing you?" she clarified.

He nodded.

She bit her lip for a moment. "Anyone ever survive night six?"

Foxy averted his eyes and shook his head.

"Well, there's a first time for everything." She stood up and wiped the crumbs off her clothing.

The pirate fox looked up in surprise.

"Don't underestimate me Foxy." She grinned. "I swore that I'd end this nightmare. I promised Steve and I don't break my promises."

As she raced out of the room Foxy stared after her. "Who's Steve?"

Bonnie (who could no longer be classified as a purple rabbit) raced after the night guard who seemed to be almost giddy with sugar. He had seen a lot of sugar highs in his life but this was one of the worst.

"ComeonBonnieyou'vegottorunfasterifyouwanttocatchmeandlookatthatprettypictureisn'tthatnice?"she babbled on at super speed while lobbing balloons over her shoulder with terrifying accuracy.

Eventually frustrated beyond belief he managed to snag a balloon out of the air and without thinking threw it back at her.

She froze in surprise as pink paint mixed into her hair and ran down the back of her neck. Bonnie froze in surprise too. She looked back at him before a laugh bubbled out of her lips.

"That's the spirit Bonnie!" she cheered and hit him in the shoulder with white paint. "Have some fun."

And then she was off again.

Bonnie stared at his hand in surprise. A smile broke over his face as a chuckle escaped his mouth.

"That felt good." He admitted. "Really good."

Eventually the night slipped away and 6 AM chimed. The 'bots dragged themselves to the stage.

"How are we going to clean up this time?" Chica wondered looking around at the multi-coloured group.

"You need a bath." Ruby's voice caused them to spin around.

She leaned against the doorframe but before they could say anything to the currently pink-haired night guard, she let out a huge yawn.

"Sugar crash." She mumbled before she stumbled over to a table and curled up on top.

Seconds later she was asleep.

"Did she just…" Bonnie's voice died away as his disbelief grew.

The others stared at her with mouths agape as well.

Foxy chuckled from the doorway. "Well, she did do a double shift."

They looked over at the paint-free fox.

"That's just not fair." Bonnie whined.

"Well I didn't try and kill her." Foxy shot a look at the others.

Ruby mumbled something in her sleep and flopped over onto her back. "I didn't use the dynamite mom."

That comment itself was a cause for concern.

"Hope she doesn't have any dynamite left." Bonnie muttered, moderately worried.

"Why are you being so difficult Foxy?" Freddy growled.

The pirate's ears fell back in annoyance.

"I'm not participating." He bit out.

Chica tried to reason with him. "Come on Foxy, please. We need your help."

The fox's eyes narrowed in anger while Bonnie stayed surprisingly quiet, glancing at the night guard occasionally.

"Lass, I told ya already. I'm not participating."

Before anyone could say anything else Ruby muttered again. "Foxy senses…tingling…"

She sat bolt upright and a fiery glare zeroed in on the animatronics.

"As role models to children you should not initiate peer pressure in any way. Do you want the children who love you to learn these behaviours at such a young impressionable age? Honestly. Basically, it boils down to: leave Foxy alone. Or I machine gun you down." She stared at them for a moment before she flopped back on the table.

She was back to sleep in seconds.

Foxy let out a laugh. "The lass just never gets boring hey?"

The others just stared at this, wondering when things got so weird in their world.

Author notes:

Thank you to Thrill-Pair-All-The-Way. (You seem to be showing up here a lot. The ideas are brilliant.)

From the next chapter on, I will be using more of the suggestions that have been given.