A/N: It's a real shitshow going on with Coronavirus right now, isn't it? I hope you guys stay safe and healthy, wherever you are.

But on to happier news. The Rockstars are coming back, and while it might not have been possible for Melody to restore them to their full glory, she's certainly done her best. It helps that the Rockstars don't have any real programming apart from mechanisms to play music and sing with.

I was considering doing a Jamming with the Rockstars chapter with Melody instead of the Rockstars, but it's been way too long since I've looked up good songs (FNAF or otherwise) and I don't really have any ideas for such a chapter at the moment. As a result, I've decided to opt for the OTHER main chapter type featuring the Rockstars.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, we're back to One Night at Mike's! Let's see how Melody handles a REAL Freddy Fazbear's experience.

TurquoiseTriangle – Thank you very much for your kind and detailed review! Hopefully some of your questions regarding the Bite of 83 and FNAF4 will be addressed in later chapters. And making the Nightmares into actual demons is probably the biggest deviation from game canon in this fic aside from making Mike Schmidt and Michael Afton different characters, but I think it works well overall. I'm so happy you're enjoying this fic and I hope you continue to do so for a long time to come.

Shadowranger – Yeah, I'm not really gonna be incorporating Fazbear Frights into this fic. I'm honestly not fully convinced they're canon to the game universe to begin with, and I vaguely remember someone saying they're not.

Rockstar Ballora – The Nightmares absolutely can and do love each other as family. This is one of their most defining traits, and makes them more redeemable and noble than William Afton can ever be. Regarding Baby, you'll just have to wait and see…

Guest – You can't honk Gabe's nose, sorry.

Fake Slim Shady – Not sure about Phone Guy, at the moment. It will probably be a fake recording if he is implemented though.

Chapter 99 – One Night at Mike's 3

It took about three days for Mike to fully recover from whatever illness had been afflicting him. Charlie had offered to try and use her powers to see if she could heal him or at the very least speed up his recovery, but Mike had adamantly refused. "If I can deal with it by myself, I will," he insisted. "I want to have the occasional problem hit me just to keep my on my toes."

None of the ghosts had been exactly pleased, but they could recognize when their father was dead set on a decision, and didn't challenge him. Mike had also told Melody about his flu, and refused to allow her anywhere near him until he was certain he had recovered. In the end, it had taken a full week before Mike was finally comfortable with letting Melody deliver the animatronics, and even then Melody would only be able to deliver the animatronics at night when her work was done.

But it was a moment that the kids had long been waiting for, and they were positively shaking with excitement as they saw Melody's car advance up the driveway with a large Eisensteel truck following closely behind, glinting under the night sky.

"Did Melody really do it?" Susie asked eagerly. "Did she really manage to fix all the Rockstars after William made such a huge mess?"

"I gave Melody the plans to the Rockstars when I gave her the parts," Mike replied. "This is meant to be a secret project so only a few people both of us trust have been working on it with her. Fortunately we gave her a lot of time, so I think we'll at the very least get something close to what we originally had." He snorted. "It's not like there's a lot of complicated programming in these animatronics to begin with."

"Thank God for that…" Gabe muttered. After the horrific experiences they had been through being enslaved in the bodies of the animatronics of old, none of them wanted to allow even the slightest possibility of losing control ever again.

The truck stopped in front of Mike's front door, and Melody got out of the truck. "Hey, Mike!" she called out cheerfully, waving her hand at him. The ghosts wondered why Melody hadn't greeted them as well, but the answer became abundantly clear a few seconds later as the back of the truck opened and they could hear the voices of other men in the back. The children managed to camouflage themselves just in time before the men could see them, and for the next few seconds Melody and Mike helped bring the Rockstar animatronics into the house.

"Aren't these like those Freddy Fazbear animatronics?" one of the workers stared at the animatronic ponderously. "Where'd your even get your hands on something like this?"

"I'd rather not answer that, if that's all right with you," Mike replied, keeping his tone polite but assertive. The man shrugged and continued to transport Rockstar Foxy into the house with another person.

"That's it, isn't it?" Charlie asked Mike telepathically. "All the Rockstars and Lefty?"

"Sounds about right. Why don't you guys go in and see how the Rockstars are looking compared to before? I need to check up on a few things before I join you." Mike suggested.

"Sounds good, dad!" Jeremy affirmed, and the ghosts flew inside the house to check out the restored Rockstars.

Once Mike was sure they were gone, a certain orange-haired ghost girl in particular, Mike turned back to Melody. "All right," he said in a much quieter voice. "Remember that one project we talked about, back in Korea?"

"I remember…" Melody nodded her head. "Do you have the plans?"

"I do," Mike confirmed as the Eisensteel truck drove away and out of Mike's premises. Once the truck was gone and the gates were once again closed shut, Mike took Melody over to his garage workshop, making sure that the ghosts hadn't left the house.

"Unlike the other animatronics, which I mostly left unchanged from the original designs, I had to completely recreate the blueprints for the new Circus Baby that I want you to make from the ground up," Mike explained, drawing up a set of blueprints that he had spent days personally designing. "The original ones…they had way too many safety issues for me to ever accept."

"This is for Liz, right?" Melody wondered. "She's the only one without a real animatronic for herself, except for maybe borrowing Lefty from Charlie."

"Baby's her favorite animatronic," Mike agreed. "And she has always been. She deserves to have one for herself just like the rest of them."

Melody scanned over the blueprints. She immediately noted that the design that Mike intended was incredibly simplistic, with musical features and bare-bones functioning capability similar to those of the other Rockstars. Most of the details were on the external structure, which Mike had tried to imitate the original Circus Baby as closely as possible. "Do you know what kind of voice Baby has?" she finally asked. "I've never heard her talk so I don't know what to do there."

Mike frowned. "I'll…see if I can get a recording somewhere," he said after a few seconds of thought. Inwardly, he was already planning on recording Liz's voice in her Scrap Baby form, but he had absolutely no intention of revealing that particular aspect of Liz's nature to anyone unless it was with her permission, not even to Melody.

If Melody suspected a deeper meaning behind Mike's words, she didn't openly show it. "All right," she said with a shrug as she took the plans from Mike's hand and put them in her handbag. "It's a good thing you've got the money to pay for this, Mike," Melody added wryly. "With all the crap that's been happening at Eisensteel right now, there's no way they'd use company resources and time for just a side project."

"The joys of secretly being rich," Mike replied, his tone equally dry. The two friends chuckled and they left the workshop behind and made their way back to Mike's house. As they approached the front door, they could hear excited voices echoing in the depths of the house…voices that definitely didn't belong to children, ghostly or otherwise.

"Hey, guys!" Rockstar Chica cheerfully greeted Mike and Melody as they joined the children-possessed animatronics in the living room. She waved at them, then stared at her own hand. "Wow…" she mumbled. "It feels really weird possessing a physical body again after so long."

"No kidding," Rockstar Bonnie agreed as he marveled at his limbs and the guitar he was holding. "I'm gonna have to make sure I don't push something too hard." He suddenly looked over at Fritz, and even through the metal face Melody could swear she could see a smirk on his face. "Remember when Rockstar Foxy literally punched a hole in his laptop?"

"Hey!" the animatronic fox protested as everyone in the room, both human and animatronic, fought to hold back snickers with varying degrees of success. "I'd like to see you try and get through Night 6 on FNAF 2!"

"We all have," Rockstar Freddy pointed out dryly, "at one point or another."

"What should we do now?" Cassidy's voice echoed out of Rockstar Golden Freddy's mouth. "I feel like we should do something with Melody since she delivered the animatronics here for us. Heck, I can't remember the last time we hung out with her!"

The animatronics looked at each other sheepishly, some of them rubbing the back of their heads in bemusement. "Uh…crap," Liz mumbled out of Lefty's mouth. "We, uh…we really didn't think of anything, did we?"

"I mean, the first thing I would have thought of was doing a little music performance for Melody," the Security Puppet answered. "But there's no way we could have prepared some songs for her without the animatronics actually here. That and the fact that we just didn't come up with the idea period."

"I know what you guys can do," Mike spoke up. All eyes turned to him as he continued, a smirk growing on his face. "Why don't we introduce Melody to our little game that we've been playing? Yes, THAT one…" he winked. "You know what I'm talking about."

The animatronics' eyes lit up at the suggestion, and mischievous grins stretched across their animatronic faces. "Oh, wow…" Rockstar Freddy marveled. "Damn, dad…that's a crazy idea. And it sounds awesome!"

"Ooh, this could be really fun!" Rockstar Chica agreed eagerly. "I want to see what it's like to play against someone who doesn't have your skill!"

"What are you guys talking about?" Melody wondered aloud, her tone a paradoxical blend of curiosity and wariness.

"Remember how I used to be a night guard in Freddy's decades ago, and got hunted by old versions of these same animatronics?" Mike asked.

"Yeah…OH," Melody's eyes widened in understanding, and she shook her head in disbelief. "Wow…you actually recreate that as a game of all things? I have no idea what to think about this."

"You should play with us!" Rockstar Bonnie suggested. "I know it's a little morbid, but it's actually really fun for all of us!"

"Come on…" Rockstar Foxy coaxed. "You know you want to at least try it."

Melody sighed and threw her hands up in the air. "Fuck it, you're right," she admitted with a hint of a smile on her face. "I do want to play this at least a little."

The animatronics cheered at her acquiescence. "Yes!" Rockstar Golden Freddy exclaimed. "This is gonna be so much fun!"

"I'm gonna be the one to get her first!" Rockstar Chica declared.

"Heck no, it's definitely gonna be me," Rockstar Foxy countered.

"If she isn't good enough to keep the music box wound up, it's definitely gonna be me," the Security Puppet pointed out.

As the animatronics debated and argued, Mike looked out the window, out into the darkness outside. "We've got a dark, spooky night outside with a trickle of moonlight to make everything just a tad bit creepier." His mouth broke into a grin of his own. "Let's see how good your survival instincts are, Melody."

A few minutes later…

"God, this is actually really creepy…" Melody muttered as she looked through the tablet at the various rooms of the house. The lights had all been shut off with only the moonlight and the faint illumination from the cameras giving any sort of visibility, and the Rockstar animatronics she could see in the cameras looked lifeless and menacing in comparison to the joyful children she had known and grown to care for. Mike had briefly explained the basics of how the different Rockstars moved and attacked, before descending into the basement to leave Melody to the mercy of the Rockstars.

"All right…" she shifted the camera over to the music box and started winding it up. "I think I have an idea of what to do here?" She frowned as she checked the basement, where the music box was already beginning to wind down. Melody couldn't see even a trace of Mike in the basement; the man had hidden himself in the shadows incredibly well, almost tricking her into believing that it was truly deserted. As she clicked on the music box control to wind the box up, she could already hear the sound of heavy footsteps marching above her. "Dammit, already?" she mumbled as she switched the camera to looking at the second floor hallway. Rockstar Bonnie was already out in the farther end of the camera, glaring up into the machine and at the woman controlling it with a baleful glare.

Melody shuddered at how utterly menacing the animatronic looked, especially when she had previously seen that very same animatronic appear so playful and cheerful minutes earlier. She suddenly cursed as she realized that she had forgotten about the OTHER animatronic that she needed to keep track off. She flipped the camera over to the bathroom, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Rockstar Foxy was still completely hidden behind the curtain. "Okay, some mercy…" she mumbled. Mike had told her that he was going to play this game under "Night 2 conditions", which was supposedly meant to be interpreted as "not all that difficult, but not brainlessly easy."

The sound of footsteps interrupted her thoughts, but Melody forced herself to ignore them. She had heard Mike talk about his struggle for survival against the animatronics of the past, and had even bought FNAF1 and FNAF2 once they had come out so that she could satisfy her curiosity to discover what Mike had faced. And from those memories, she knew immediately that the best chance she had for her survival was to focus the camera only on Rockstar Foxy and the Security Puppet, just as Mike had done so long ago.

"All right," Melody mused as she flipped the tablet back over to the Security Puppet's music box. Since it was only Night 2 conditions, the timer hadn't wound down too substantially despite the long interval since the last time she had checked, and Melody had little trouble bringing the bar back up to full.

"Shit!" Melody suddenly remembered the third major animatronic that constantly needed monitoring. She threw down the tablet and looked up at Lefty, who had lifted his head up and was staring emotionlessly at her. She grabbed the flashlight and flashed it in the black bear's face until his head slumped back downward, neutralizing him as a threat for the time being.

More footsteps echoed above, and Melody nervously checked the second floor hallway, where Rockstar Chica had joined Rockstar Bonnie in the hallway, the animatronic chicken standing much closer to the camera with a focused look towards the stairs. "Wait, what the hell am I doing?" Melody muttered as she switched the focus of her attention back to Rockstar Foxy. To her dismay, the animatronic had peeled the shower curtain open and was glaring up at the camera with his mouth open in a wordless snarl, though he had made no other moves to actually depart from the bathtub yet. "Dammit…" the woman mumbled. "I can't get sidetracked like that. Gotta stick to the plan!"

She moved the camera over to the basement, clicking on the music box to wind it back up. Relaxing a little when she didn't hear any other footsteps, she lowered the tablet…

…only to stare right into the face of Rockstar Golden Freddy, sitting on the floor directly in front of her with his black eyes staring right into her very soul.

"Oh my GOD!" Melody shrieked, dropping the tablet in shock. Fumbling, she tried to grab the Fuckstick (a name that she still hadn't and probably wouldn't ever get over), but she was too slow.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Just as she finally managed to get a handle on it, the Rockstar animatronic let out a metallic, unholy howl as the animatronic's head detached from its body. Rockstar Golden Freddy's head rushed towards Melody, seeming to grow even larger as his scream grew louder and louder. Then, right as the head was about to collide with the terrified woman, both it and his body vanished, signaling the end of the jumpscare and the game.

"Gotcha!" Cassidy's voice echoed around her with a giggle as the lights came back on and Rockstar Golden Freddy appeared again, this time sitting comfortably on the couch next to Lefty. The rest of the animatronics began to file into the room while footsteps from the basement signaled Mike's arrival.

"Huh," Mike commented with a raised eyebrow once they were all in the living room. "I thought you'd last longer than that, Mel."

Melody shook her head. "I forgot about Rockstar Golden Freddy," she admitted. "I didn't think any of the other animatronics would attack me until later on in the night, so he completely took me by surprise when he showed up randomly in the room." She sighed with exasperation and disappointment. "Doesn't help that I completely butterfingered the Fuckstick when he did show up."

"Maybe we should have set this to Night 1 conditions instead?" the Security Puppet suggested.

"Heck no!" Melody retorted. "I had the right plan going on and everything. I just got blindsided by that one thing I didn't think of. I'll get it this time!"

"All right, all right," Mike raised his hands up in a placatory gesture, before turning back to the animatronics. "Let's get back into position, everyone. Melody says she's gonna win, let's see if she's got the skill to back it up!"

A few minutes later… (Night 2 conditions, 5 AM)

Melody smiled as she wound the music box back up to full. "Okay, this isn't so hard," she commented. She felt a metal hand pull down the tablet, revealing Rockstar Bonnie glaring menacingly at her as the lights began to flicker frenziedly around him. But by now, Melody had learned to automatically flip up the Fuckstick every time she lowered the tablet, and she was ready for the metal bunny this time. She held out the craftwork in front of her, staring fearlessly at Rockstar Bonnie until the lights faded away and the animatronic departed from the living room.

Unfortunately, she had waited too long since last checking on Lefty, and the black bear was now fidgeting agitatedly on the couch, poised to attack as he let out garbled mechanical growls. Melody repeatedly flashed her flashlight into the bear's eyes until Lefty went still and slumped forward, deactivated as a threat for the time being. "Too easy," she said with a smirk.

Her joy wouldn't last for long, however. As she flipped up the tablet to wind up the music box, she suddenly realized that she had forgotten one other major animatronic. Nervously, Melody changed the camera to the bathroom…

…and realized that Rockstar Foxy was gone.

"Oh, FUCK!" Melody cursed. She almost forgot to flip up the Fuckstick, but remembered just in time to throw it up in front of Rockstar Golden Freddy, who had tried to take advantage of Melody's panic to surprise her. "Fuck off, I've got bigger shit to deal with!" the woman snarled, barely noticing as the animatronic vanished in front of her eyes. Footsteps were racing down the staircase, much more rapidly than any of the other animatronics. Following where they were headed with her ears, Melody swung to her left and flashed the light into the doorway, where Rockstar Foxy was waiting with his right arm raised high into the sky, his mouth bared open in a soundless roar. Remembering Mike's instructions, Melody flashed the light repeatedly into the animatronic's eyes just as she had done with Lefty. Rockstar Foxy stopped in his tracks, his eyes twitching with annoyance, before finally turning around and retreating to the bathroom.

"Phew…" Melody sighed in relief. And as the animatronic vanished into the darkness, an alarm suddenly began to ring from a phone situated on a nightstand nearby. 6 AM had been reached, and Melody had triumphed over the animatronics after only one failure. "Hah!" she cheered. "I did it! Told you guys I knew what I was doing!"

"You sure did, Melody. Good job!" Lefty praised as the lights flickered on again. The animatronics and Mike walked into the living room again, this time looking at Melody with approval rather than being amused at her failure.

"Not a bad showing at all, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people who would have done much worse than you," Mike commented. "The only thing I can say is that you could have probably stopped Rockstar Foxy from attacking you at all if you'd been more careful with checking on him, but otherwise…yeah, what Liz said. Good job!"

Melody smiled. "Thanks, Mike. I think I'm ready for a harder challenge."

"Harder, you say?" Rockstar Bonnie raised an eyebrow, a smirk in his tone. "Like, say, Night 6 conditions?"

"No," Mike immediately cut him off before Melody could even ask what that entailed. "No. No. No. No. No. We are NOT doing that to poor Melody when it's her first time. No. Bad Rockstar Bonnie."

"Aww…" Rockstar Bonnie groaned. "Would've been funny."

"Still!" Rockstar Chica interjected. "Melody said she wanted a challenge; we should give one to her! Otherwise we'll all just end up boring ourselves."

"Yeah, let's kick things up a notch!" Rockstar Freddy agreed.

"I didn't say we shouldn't accelerate things a bit, just not to Night 6 levels," Mike pointed out. He thought for a moment, then smiled. "You know what? Let's make this as hard as we can without actually reaching bullshit levels. Let's crank this up to Night 5."

The animatronics' eyes lit up with delight, a sight that Melody was not happy to see in the slightest. "Oh God," she groaned. "What did I just get myself into?"

Rockstar Golden Freddy giggled. "You'll see, Melody," the golden bear winked as he began to fade away, while the other animatronics started to leave the living room. "You'll see…"

Melody smacked her forehead with her palm. "Oh, God, what did I get myself into…"

A few minutes later…(Night 5 conditions, 1 AM)

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Melody ranted as she flipped up the Fuckstick to ward off Rockstar Chica, who had already tried to attack once before and had now come back for a second attempt. "This is even worse than Night 5 in the games!"

Mike had not been joking when he had warned that this would be much harder than the conditions for Night 2, though Melody would absolutely disagree with him that they hadn't hit bullshit levels. Barely a second after the game had started, Rockstar Bonnie and Chica were both already making their moves, with two of them already climbing down the stairs after only a few minutes. Rockstar Golden Freddy had been even more aggressive, appearing in the living room twice before Rockstar Bonnie or Chica could even get one attack in. Lefty was stirring up from his slumber much more frequently this time around, and the music box was winding down MUCH faster than Melody remembered it doing beforehand.

"At least Rockstar Foxy and Lefty aren't as much of an asshole as FNAF2 Foxy was," Melody muttered, cringing at the many, MANY times she had been jumpscared by the Withered version of Fritz's animatronic, sometimes when she had sworn that she had flashed her light into that irritating fox's face a hundred times…

The sound of footsteps interrupted her mental rant and she snapped her focus back to her surroundings. Melody whipped up the tablet and groaned when she realized that, thanks to the time wasted on her inner ramblings, the music box had already wound down to a quarter of its remaining time. She was able to wind it up to a little past halfway when Rockstar Bonnie forced the tablet down with his blue hand, forcing her to use the Fuckstick to ward him off.

"God, this is so chaotic!" Melody exclaimed as she shined her flashlight to deactivate a stirring Lefty. She lifted up the tablet to wind up the Security Puppet's music, determined this time to wind it up all the way to maximum capacity no matter what. To her surprise, she was able to do so without any interruptions, but her sense of victory was short-lived as she suddenly heard footsteps race above her, much faster than Rockstar Bonnie or Chica could manage.

"Aww, shit!" Melody groaned as she realized that she had forgotten about Rockstar Foxy. Deciding not to even bother with checking the bathroom she knew would be empty, she carefully traced the sound of the racing footsteps with her ears and shined her flashlight into the right doorway this time, stopping the pirate animatronic in his tracks. Melody sighed with relief when she heard Rockstar Foxy leave, though she wasn't remotely happy with the fact that she had been careless enough to let him attack her to begin with. "Anybody else?" she snarked aloud to a silent house as she returned to her business with the tablet.

And she would soon regret those words, for more footsteps echoed above her, but this time they were accompanied by a deep, rumbling laugh that she had never heard before. Having already been familiarized with the attack patterns of the other animatronics, Melody could only conclude with a feeling of dread that Rockstar Freddy was on the move. Resisting the urge to follow his movements, Melody checked the camera in the bathroom where, to her relief, Rockstar Foxy had completely covered himself behind the shower curtain once again. She wound up the music box to full and put away the tablet, warding off a surprise strike from Rockstar Golden Freddy as she did so.

The minutes slowly passed by, Melody repeated her pattern of fighting off the more aggressive animatronics and keeping the others dormant. The strategy that she had developed served her well for the in-game equivalent of two more hours, allowing her to endure the Rockstars' assaults despite the increased aggressiveness and frequency driving their attacks.

Then, at about halfway between 3 AM and 4 AM, Melody heard the footsteps and deep laughter of Rockstar Freddy again, only this time they were much closer. Close enough to be right outside the left doorway.

"Oh, shit!" Melody exclaimed as she instinctively flashed her light out the left doorway, where Rockstar Freddy was waiting, hiding just behind the wall. The animatronic was glaring at her with unmistakable hostility, his eyes black save for white pinpricks that glowed faintly in their centers. The animatronic's eyes narrowed and he retreated, though Melody had the feeling that it was merely waiting in the shadows of the hallway instead of fully resetting like Rockstar Bonnie or Chica. Melody flipped up the tablet and checked on Rockstar Foxy's status again before moving back over to the basement and the music box, which had ticked down to about halfway. As she wound it back up, she saw a yellow hand force the tablet down, and she had to quickly flip up the Fuckstick to ward off yet another attack from Rockstar Chica, who had easily been the most troublesome attacker alongside Rockstar Bonnie thus far. Once the metal chicken was gone, Melody immediately opened up the tablet to check on Rockstar Foxy and the Security Puppet…

…only for the device to be shoved down yet again, only this time by a brown hand. "Oh, no, no, no!" she pleaded as she stared into the menacing visage of Rockstar Freddy, barely having enough time to flip the Fuckstick quickly enough to be considered a pass. Melody held her breath as the lights flickered around frenziedly around her, only letting it out when the animatronic turned around and departed from the living room. Melody grumbled something under her breath as she checked Lefty, who thankfully hadn't risen from his deactivated state.

"Great, now I have to deal with Rockstar Freddy too…" Melody muttered. She had a sinking feeling that Rockstar Freddy would prove to be a much more dangerous animatronic than his peers. For unlike Rockstar Bonnie and Chica, Rockstar Freddy never left the hallway outside of the living room, sometimes moving from one entryway to the other but always lurking close by in the shadows. And just as Melody feared, he was even more relentless in his attacks than Rockstar Bonnie or Rockstar Chica. It seemed that almost every 2 or 3 times she flipped up the tablet, he would pull it down and force her to spend several valuable seconds deflecting his assaults with the Fuckstick, time that she couldn't afford to lose against Rockstar Foxy and the Security Puppet. By the time 5 AM rolled around, Rockstar Foxy had already stepped out of the shower curtain, ready to rush towards the living room again, and Melody could only bring up the music box to maybe half of its maximum capacity at most.

"I'm so close. Only one quote-unquote hour left…" Melody mumbled as she fended off another attack by Rockstar Bonnie, an almost welcome change after Rockstar Freddy's many attacks. Part of her still marveled at the fact that the actual life and death situation that Mike had faced in the 1993 pizzeria had been easy compared to what she was now going through, but she brushed the thought aside as she neutralized Lefty for what seemed like the millionth time in a row. As she checked on the music box, she heard rapid footsteps running above her and cursed.

"Oh for fuck's sake, NOT AGAIN!" To make matters worse, Rockstar Freddy had chosen this moment to make another attack, forcing Melody to use the Fuckstick and waste valuable seconds, Rockstar Foxy's footsteps getting closer even as Rockstar Freddy glared down at her with the lights flickering around them. The moment he left, Melody immediately flashed her light down the left hallway, only just managing to catch Rockstar Foxy mere seconds before he would have charged into the living room and ended her game. Melody wasn't sure whether Rockstar Foxy couldn't attack while another animatronic was or if she had merely gotten lucky with the timing, but either way she wasn't going to complain.

Unfortunately, Rockstar Foxy took much longer to fend off compared to last time, requiring a full fifteen flashes with the flashlight in rapid succession before he finally retreated from the living room. With very little time left, Melody opened the tablet to check on the music box again, but was almost immediately stopped by Rockstar Bonnie making another attack.

"Can you please just LEAVE ME ALONE?" Melody ranted as she shoved the Fuckstick in front of Rockstar Bonnie's face. Once the bunny animatronic was gone, Melody lifted up the tablet to buy herself a little more time with the music box…

…and by doing so, making the fatal mistake that would cost her the game.

Melody had been so preoccupied with warding off Rockstar Freddy, Rockstar Bonnie, and Rockstar Foxy, and so worried about keeping the Security Puppet appeased with her music, that she had forgotten about Lefty. The black bear had awakened once more during the others' assaults, at first merely lifting his head up to stare at Melody and later twitching and growling metallically on the sofa, but she had been so distracted by the other threats that she hadn't noticed. And the moment she lifted the tablet up, the black bear struck.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Lefty screamed as he charged forward, shoved the tablet aside and roared in front of Melody's face. The woman shrieked and dropped the Fuckstick she had been carrying in preparation for another defense, completely taken by surprise by Lefty's attack. It was only after Lefty finally stopped shouting in her face and the lights started to come back on, did Melody gather her thoughts enough to realize what had happened.

"Aww, you've got to be fucking kidding me!" Melody threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "I completely forgot about Lefty!"

"Yep!" Liz's voice giggled out of Lefty's mouth. "And you were doing so well too. But I gotcha!"

"I could see the frustration on your face every time I attacked you," Rockstar Freddy commented with a smirk as he and the other Rockstars entered the living room. "But I will say you were definitely ready for Freddy."

"I almost got you a few times too," Rockstar Foxy grinned. "You only just got the flashlight on me in time."

"All of this is so hard to keep track of," Melody grumbled. "Mike's night shift must have been a vacation compared to this!"

"It was definitely easier compared to all the things we came up with for this game, I'll give you that," Mike admitted as he climbed up the stairs to the living room, the Security Puppet floating close behind. "Though at least we're a little less bullshit than Withered Foxy in FNAF2."

"I was so close!" Melody groaned. "It was past 5 AM! I was so close to beating Night 5 conditions on my first try!"

"Unfortunately, in a game like this, close doesn't cut it," the Security Puppet said as she shook her head. The smile on her mouth then widened. "But let's not forget, you nearly beat Night 5 conditions on your first try, when you've never done anything like this before in real life. There are a lot of people who would have done much, MUCH worse than you on earlier nights."

"Absolutely," Mike agreed. "As someone who's done this both in real life and in the games, you've made a damn good showing with your performances so far."

Melody looked up at them, the fire of determination burning in her eyes. "I want to give this another go," she insisted. "If I can't beat this in my first go, then I'm gonna make damn sure that I do it on my second."

Mike grinned. "That's what I like to hear, Melody," he declared. The Rockstars looked equally as excited, all rooting for Melody to win while wanting to be the one to defeat her at the same time.

It was ironically Lefty who would vocalize their thoughts. "Even if you don't beat us this second time," the black bear asserted, "I can say without a shadow of a doubt that you're a better night guard than most people could ever hope to be."

/

A/N: And there you have it, folks! Another entry into One Night at Mike's, this time with someone else besides Mike playing the role as the Night Guard. Melody has had more exposure to in-universe FNAF than most, with Mike's stories and the FNAF1/FNAF2 games to go off of. But as anyone with wisdom can tell you, hearing about something or watching it from a computer screen doesn't mean you'll do as well at it in real life…

You may be wondering why Night 5 conditions seemed so intense in this chapter when Mike seemed to take it all in stride in an earlier part. But keep in mind that Mike was the one who designed the game in the first place. He was the one who came up with the Rockstars' mechanics for One Night at Mike's, and naturally he would already have a strategy to counter them. He's also done this plenty of times both in the games and in real life, so he's well-adjusted and isn't hindered by stress significantly. By contrast, Melody didn't immediately have a solid strategy formed in her mind yet and she hasn't acclimated to the stressful environment of being hunted by animatronics, so naturally things would be more hectic and intense for her.

Just to clarify, Lefty (being possessed by Liz) did indeed take over Scrap Baby's place for the game with Melody, but otherwise serving the exact same role. NOBODY outside of the family knows about Liz's Scrap Baby form. Though she doesn't have major guilt and self-loathing issues about her past anymore, Liz still doesn't want anyone to know about her past as Elizabeth Afton. As far as everyone else knows, Liz was one of William Afton's victims alongside the rest of the ghost kids, and she has no interest whatsoever in changing that perception.

I think I'll do a Jamming with the Rockstars chapter soon, so if you have any songs to suggest please let me know. It's been a long while since I've done this, and I've pretty much forgotten your suggestions by now. They can be FNAF-related or not, I don't have much of a preference.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed!