I am very happy to see that a lot of you are excited about this story. it's nice knowing that even after a year of waiting, you are still interested in following this series. now, like Facing the Past, there will be parts of where we follow others, except this time it won't be flashes from the past but the future instead.

enjoy the story!

When sure she's asleep, he heads out to get the stuff they desperately needed to stay alive. Before leaving he blocks the entrance to the room she sleeps inside, and carefully leaves the abandoned factory they have called home all summer. When out from the area, he starts running, not slowing down for a second, leaving her behind was risky and he has no wish in leaving her without protection more than needed. His sprinting only got to a sudden halt when he found what he was looking for; and after have ensured the alarm wouldn't activate, he unlocks the back door and sneaks inside the closed mall. Scanning the ceilings for camera's he freezes up a second when spotting one, currently filming him. Fortunately, that one is quickly taken care off and he swiftly grabs the stuff they need. He leaves the mall with two large bags filled with food in hand, along with a knapsack filled with clothing, hygiene and possible things he could sell in order to get money for transport. As carefully as he left, he checks the area several times before he even dared to approach the room. When sure the coast was clear, he trots inside, put down the two bags and knapsack. Out from the knapsack, he pulls out a jacket he thought would be for her. This jacket he lies over her, for even though if she wouldn't like it, it would at least make the colder nights bearable.

With his priority ensured, he starts to attend his own health, removing his own jacket, a large wound can be seen and it is horrible. An infection has started to go in but he can't risk going to a hospital, so cleaning it with the alcohol he stole and replaces the bandage with a new one has to do. He only needs to stay alive long enough to ensure her safety anyway. He stops midway in cleaning his wound, sensing they are no longer alone. Turning around he spots the newcomer, and although it's a white one, he does not trust anything, let it be alive or dead. Swiftly he grabs his weapon in form of a pipe with a thin rope having salt rocks attached wrapped around the metal, and strike out after the intruder.

The intruder proves to be the stronger kind as his attack only startled it from feeling pain again and is aware enough to dodge his second attack,

Appearing again, now in a safer distance 'you need help' the intruder tells him in a matter of fact.

He glares at this spirit and had to resist the urge coming with the remark that this spirit said the obvious. Yes, he and his young companion really need help, but after what happened last time, he just does not trust people to keep them safe. Spirits are very close to being in the same category as they can tell their hunter their location in a matter of seconds. "No one can help." He whispers to this- for once friendly spirit. "Last person we sought help from almost killed us." They were lucky he has a high pain resistance and needs way more beating to stay down. But if their former guardian finds them again, then there is a great chance she will finish the job. "The hunter will use them against us, it won't stop." He has never seen anything like that before, so how to fight that monster... he has no idea and that... that scares him.

'I and my friends can offer you protection. If you help us with a wish of ours.' This white spirit replies.

Light spirits usually do not consider making a bargain and with this one doing it makes him wary. "What is it you want?" he asks it suspiciously.

The spirit smiles. 'A second chance'

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About seven in the morning, one of the owners of Freddy's walks inside the restaurant, removing his fleece jacket, but he did not remove the black cap. All he did, is correcting it properly over his blond hair before going over to the office. Turning on the computer and while checking the schedule the third owner made yesterday before going on his small and much-needed vacation.

Jeremy's green eyes scan the notes quickly and see a few of them needs updating. He takes a seat and after have thrown a few salted peanuts into his mouth, the blond starts writing, only stopping for a moment of the sound of a door getting open. He glances up but the moment he sees who it is, he returns back to work. "Have you checked on our stock lately?" He calls out to the soon to be filled dining hall.

"I will check after I have eaten." Mike replies in a drowsy tone.

Jeremy can't help but smirk at this, it is clear the young man just has woken up.

"How late did you go to bed?"

He only gets the reply after Mike has grabbed a few buns with butter on and takes a seat at the office table. "It wasn't really that late, about ten maybe." Mike takes a bite of his breakfast, musing mostly to himself after have swallowed. "I had another dream, like one of those Marion gave me."

The catches Jeremy's attention, he has only tried going through one of these ghost visions once, when Marion (at least he thinks it was that puppet) forced him to realize that there was more to the animatronics than he first thought and one step closer to who Spring really was... just thinking about his brother makes his chest feels like someone is trying to tear out his heart. But back to the matter at hand. "What was it about?" He looks up from the computer screen when Mike starts to chuckle.

"It was about a fight on a ship inside an insane wild but epic storm."

"Sounds like something Foxy could come up with."

Mike laughs again, this time in a sadder tone. "...Yeah." He glances to the cove where Daniel's once robot body is. "I wonder if it had been Daniel who gave me that vision or it's just my own imagination."

Saving on the updated notes on the computer. "Didn't you just say it felt like one of the visions?" After all, Mike has gotten a sort of sixth sense when it comes to these visions giving by the deceased.

Mike turns back to the blond with a small frown on his face. "Yes, and from how it felt I am very certain it was a ghost vision, but..." He drops his head with a sigh. "Part of me wonders if I am really just imagining that my friends have found a way to communicate with me..."

"So you fear you are fooling yourself to believe your dreams are coming from your friends." Jeremy muses in a soft statement, he must admit that he too wishes for a sign their family and friends still are hanging around the restaurant. It will be a sort of a bittersweet knowledge, but one he is more than happy to accept. Knowing Martin is still nearby is sort of a soothing thought, gives all the sensation of someone's hand on his shoulder, phantom words of teasing- all of it would've been from Martin reaching out to him.

"I can't deny that I too hope they are still around." He tells the younger man before he gets up from the chair, reminding his fellow co-worker. "But whatever they are here or not, we still have a restaurant to run."

Smiling Mike gets up from his chair as well, following the blond out to the dining hall. "Of course." and heads to the storage room to see if there is something they need to order.

Jeremy heads over to the game room, halting only for a second when he notices that Goldie once again has glitched out since the golden bear's eyes are open. Yet Jeremy just can't shake off the weirdness in that the glitched animatronics gets expression as if struggling or out of sadness and determination. He walks over to the two gold colored animatronics, reaches out to turn them into their entertaining mode. Spring starts spewing out lines Jeremy gave Rena in his thought what Martin would've said during the performance. He stares at the hare but even when Spring looks at him, he sees no sign of a soul in those empty ice blue eyes.

Jeremy still remembers how he once told Spring not to be like his brother, back then Spring couldn't because Martin's soul dictated his every move and thought. Now Spring is purely himself: a mindless robot, not a single thought from Martin, so in a twisted sense of irony: he got his wish. "A wish I now truly wants to be undone." He muses up to the robot before turning over to Goldie. He reaches over to the mainframe to put him into performance mode, but just as he is about to open up the hidden hatch. Goldie's eyes move and look straight at him.

The blond freezes, returning the gaze with the golden bear and realize that Goldie's eyes aren't empty, there is a special glow in them- there is life! "Holy shit." He gasps at this realization.

The golden bear's eyes twitch once to Jeremy's hovering hand over the mainframe, Jeremy drops it and Goldie smiles. That is the last straw and Jeremy starts yelling through the whole restaurant. "Mike! Mike get your ass over here right fucking now!"

Sensing this is serious, Mike drops what he is doing and runs into the game room, trotting over to Jeremy who is staring with eyes wide of shock at Goldie. "What is it?"

Jeremy turns to him. "Goldie is back."

Takes him a moment to get his voice under control again. "...What?" Mike gasps and trots over to the golden bear and jumps when Goldie turns slowly his head over to him, giving him that well-known smile of his, one neither Rena nor Thomas could program the robot to copy. So seeing this and the life in those red eyes again, it blows Mike away.

"Goldie." He smiles back, having a very hard time of not crying from the joy that one of them has returned.

"It's been long." Goldie greets back in his deep voice. Turning to Jeremy there asks maybe a bit too eager. "What about the others?"

Goldie eyes the robot beside him, frowning slightly. "The so-called glitching is them trying to return. But," turning back to the two humans. "they do not have the strength nor knowledge to possess them properly. Even with all my powers, I have trouble staying in this body. I did try to show the others how to do it but it's hard to teach someone with no ability to form new memories, they will stop trying eventually."

"So they will stop trying coming back?" Mike asks, not sure how to feel that his friends might soon give up and accept that there is no coming back.

Goldie nods, but this is not why he chose to put his grown powers to the test and re-possess his old body. "If you truly want them back, I have heard of someone who might be able to help."

Both men straighten up from this, full attention on the animatronic. "Who Goldie?" Mike asks, with Jeremy asking. "Have you been eavesdropping from the other side?"

Goldie chuckles softly. "You will be surprised how chatty 'the other side' is. There is a rumor going around there are two Mediums— it's a person able to see the other side and manipulate it to a certain degree." He quickly explains the two humans. They nod they got it and Goldie continues what he has heard from the other and more aware spirits. "According to rumors, one of them is stronger than most and is currently roaming around the area. I think Marion was that kind of Medium too."

Mike blinks hearing this. "There are more like Marion out there?" He asks and tries not, but cannot stop hoping that there is a chance for his friends to come back.

Goldie tries to move the rest of his body but eventually gives up, he hasn't enough strength or knowledge for a full body possession. "According to the ghost rumors, yes." Eyeing the two humans. "If you wish I can seek them out and hear if they perhaps can do the same thing Marion did to us in the start. Might be tricky though, what we are asking isn't exactly normal and I am very sure these two are dealing with a lot of demanding spirits."

Jeremy has a strong feeling what Goldie is asking of them, if these two people have been dealing with the spirit world from day one, having to listen to every single spirit moaning at them for whatever unfinished business they have. Yes, he can see that Goldie's request might be ignored. "See what you can do, Calem." He tells Goldie, adding both to him but also to himself and Mike. "If they say no, then we have to accept this is how it is." No matter how much he wants the others to return.

Goldie nods and with: "I will return when I manage to get a hold on them." And the bear slowly slumps over, the life in the eyes is gone once again. The two men hesitated for about three seconds but when sure Goldie has left the robot, Jeremy activates the golden bear into the entertaining mode, turning to Mike there remarks dryly. "Well, not exactly how I planned my day, but I take it."

Jeremy smirks as response and the two heads over to the locker rooms, returning just as the cooks and waitress's starts to arrive for work.

Like most other days at work, Jeremy and Mike will keep an watch for all their patrons safety in their duty as security.

Past midday, Rena and Thomas arrive to work, Jeremy and Mike quietly discussed if the two should know of what happed this morning. They comes to the agreement that they will tell Rena, but will wait with Thomas since Jeremy did not want to give Martin's son false hopes of his father's return. With the last guests dropping out and the cleaning crew washing up for today, Mike drags Rena outside and tells her about Goldie's unexspected return and what the golden bear had told them.

Rena reaction is as expected, she's shocked but also excited that there is a way for her brother to come back, yet will try and not get her hopes up too much. And then there are the souls of the said animatronics trying to repossess the robots. "Well, now we know what is causing the strange glitching." Rena says, and that gives her one less thing to worry about the animatronics. "Which means I don't have to work my butt off trying to figure out what malfunction is causing it."

Mike nods, also glad they have gotten the answer for what they have been calling glitching. "It does make sense why Bonnie is the one glitching out the most; he has always been a stubborn bastard."

Rena giggles at his mocking remark to one of his friends, the smile drops slightly as her eyes lands on Freddy. The brown bear looks like it has been trying to look at them before slumping over, has Sean been trying to possess Freddy just now? It breaks her heart knowing that her brother is trying but cannot come back on his own. "These two people Goldie spoke about," Mike eyes her questioning and she expands her question. "what's so special about them?"

"Goldie said they are... they're like Marion."

Rena blinks, fortunately, Mike explains to her what made Marion different from the others. "He has been the one who trapped the souls inside the animatronics in the first place. His powers where what kept the others inside the robots so when he left the world, the souls got released from their vessels."

"But it's clear they don't want to leave their vessels." Rena argues, gesturing to the three on the scene with Freddy have gone through the so called glitching. "They want to stay, so why didn't Marion allows them?"

Mike sigh, "Well... that's the sad thing about Marion... he couldn't feel any emotions. Only a cold logic existed inside him. And he was set on getting free, nothing else mattered."

"Not even us?"

Eyeing her, sadness but also accepted that was just how Marion was, it' not like the puppet asked for it. "Not even us."

Rena narrows her eyes, she knew something bad was with that puppet. "What a heartless bastard."

"Don't blame it on him." Mike argues softly, he will admit a lot of what Marion has done is unacceptable, and he hates repeating some of Vincent's words but... unfortunately, it suits the puppet. "He died in a very young age, his morality already twisted, and with his emotions removed... well, you'll end up with a being with very little respect or sympathy for others." All Marion ever wanted to be free from the prison his family forced him into, so it's no wonder why Marion had refused to return like the others as the puppet is the only animatronic there never showed any sign of glitching.

Rena nods slowly, still not liking this but she can at least understand a bit why Marion haven't tried to let the animatronics come back, it's not like he could care for what they want.

"We better see if the others need any help." Mike suggests, snapping Rena out from her thoughts. She nods and the two heads inside the restaurant, helping the other employees in cleaning the building and doing their best not telling the very annoyed Thomas why the robots keep snapping out from their standby mode.

*claps Thomas on the shoulder* I feel your pain, not knowing what causing the problem in a computer is a pain in the neck

Thomas: *frowns*

oh, sorry wrong choice of words.

Thomas: *waves and leaves*

agree, see you next week folks!