Birds of a Feather

by Cassiun

Evan Afton never had an easy life. After his short life of fearing animatronics and promptly dying to one, he realized how awful this world could be. Though, after many changes he realized that animatronics were similar to him and so he vowed to help and take care of the ones who wanted a new life. Except, nothing is bound to go as planned.

10. Chapter 10

Authors Notes

It is currently 4 AM for me here and I am excited to write this next chapter. Tbh I write almost all of my chapters stupidly late at night because that's when I feel the most alive. Even when working day time jobs, the night time calls my name.

Anyways, there's a lot going on in this chapter. This is, once again, my biggest chapter up to date with nearly 26k words (lacking a mere hundred words including the authors notes). We also have fanart for Mangle and Chara on the discord server so make sure to swing by and enjoy yourself.

Discord server invite ( discord. gg / PEpUpavMwQ) just delete all the spaces and if you can't figure that out, feel free to friend/msg me on discord as "Cassiun".

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It hadn't been extremely evident that something was out of place immediately. Foxy had always been the loud type, but it wasn't impossible to miss any noises he might've been making from the workshop. His room wasn't set up yet so Foxy chilling in the workshop and still wanting to be left alone was something that made sense. Except… the pink fox with good eyes spotted something that hadn't been there before her and Evan left the house and this was what threw them all into chaos not too long after arriving home.

Mangle picked up the note and read it. Gone fer an adventure. It said, written with poor quality handwriting but was still written with an accent. I tink I know where me Lillie went. Beware, fer me tracks arr covered fer a reason. I'll be back soon. - Foxy.

Mangle wasn't clear with what exactly had happened as she read the note twice over and then thrice over, starting to understand the weight behind these weird sentences. Chara had passed by and, seeing that Mangle wore an expression of panic, confronted her.

"What's the matter, Sis?" Chara said with genuine concern. It wasn't long after handing over the note that Chara's face became grim. She had to go tell Evan about this and she regretted that it wasn't something she could deal with herself. Evan had it rough recently and, despite the fun adventure he and Mangle had earlier that day, it was evident that he was still emotionally distressed. Chara sighed as she quickly floated through the house and into the bedroom where Evan had just finished up changing. It can't be helped. Chara thought as she opened up the door to witness Evan slipping into a thin thermal long sleeve shirt and looked towards the opening door.

"Evan," Chara said, quickly floating over and holding out the note to the man. "You might wanna see this." This took the man off guard as he read the note, realizing what exactly was happening.

"And you're certain he's not here?" Said Evan before Mangle quickly came through the door.

"He's… He's nowhere in the house." Mangle said, looking a bit panicked that her fox brother had up and left. They knew that Foxy desperately missed Lillie, asking each time he saw Evan after leaving if he had any news about the small doll animatronic and being upset when they didn't. At least, until recently. Now that Evan was thinking about it, this did feel a bit suspicious. It had been a bit before Katherine came into the house that he stopped asking about Lillie and he seemed more focused on getting able bodied. It wasn't clear at the time, but now that things started to happen, the pieces began to click. Evan sighed heavily, rubbing his face a bit.

"Well, any ideas where he went?" Asked Evan, looking at the two girls for any hope of an answer. It just so happened that, at the same time, Chara also had an epiphany. It had been strange that Foxy was so interested in someone that he had never met before, asking about a place relating to that boy. It wasn't just mild curiosity or anything, it had almost seemed obsessive. At the time, Chara dismissed it as Foxy being overly excited to see the outside world as he was getting repaired, but now it had spelled out a good place where they thought he would be and even who may be an accomplice.

"I think I have an idea." Said Chara, getting both of their attention. "You've noticed how weird Foxy has been acting recently, right?" Evan nodded a bit, realizing they were thinking on the same frequency.

"He seemed like he was always preparing to go to the outside world," Said Evan, "and I figured he was excited to take his adventure out into the world but the more I think about it, the weirder it seems."

"He kept asking me so often about Gregory in the past few days." This grabbed Evan's attention especially. It wasn't necessarily weird that Foxy was curious about a kid he could possibly entertain, but the idea that Foxy asked often in a short span of time was telling in itself.

"He also kept asking about where Gregory died and the location and… Fuck, he did it…" The realization hit Evan like a truck, Chara nodding as she saw his face light up with the same idea she had running through her head. Mangle had been sitting in the middle of the two of them, unsure what was going on.

"What's going on, guys?" Mangle asked, being quite confused at the situation at hand. Chara looked at her sister with a blank face. "Are you saying that he had been planning this for a while?"

"Mangle, was Foxy ever weird around you? Perhaps asking for information about things involving Daylight City?" Mangle shook her head.

"No, he doesn't usually ask for things from people. You know how independent he likes to be." Then Mangle got to thinking, realizing something herself. "...Except, he did ask for Katherine's number. I guess he couldn't find it off of the landline so I pointed it out for him." Both Evan and Chara looked at each other, silently communicating, before Evan pulled out his phone and started calling someone. "But I mean, even if he knew vaguely where the building was, it's not like it would be easy to find an abandoned warehouse in the midst of a bunch of similarly abandoned warehouses. He had no way of getting the address."

At the same time Mangle and Chara spoke, Evan's call went to voicemail. He didn't think it was possible for Katherine to take an animatronic, the same animatronics she detested not all too long ago, and drive somewhere shady. Except, the more he told himself it wasn't possible, the more he also found himself doubting the same words. Though, Mangle was right. How could Foxy possibly know where to go? It would take a very long time meticulously searching every abandoned warehouse in the vicinity and he doubted that Katherine would've taken him without some sort of solid plan. It's not like the address had been written down anywher- Evan stopped mid-thought, realizing that mental thought was patently incorrect and he suddenly moved past the two girls, who looked at him and surprised and followed close behind, and down into the workshop.

"I did write the address." Evan thought out loud. "I left it in my journal while I was working on Foxy. It's where I write all my notes that I need for the future, but he was turned off during that time. There's no way he would've known…" But at that point, even after looking around the workshop for his small, brown journal he realized that Foxy somehow did know, for the journal that had previously been sitting on top of the workbench where he left it the night before had disappeared. Evan cussed a bit, realizing he underestimated the pirate foxy greatly.

Without anyone in the house knowing it, Foxy hatched his plans and even found someone to take him. He really had gotten them all good, but now they knew for certain where they could find him.

-SB-

It had taken some looking around before the pair finally found it. The building had been as Evan described it and, frankly, if Foxy didn't hear Evan mumbling about the address in his book while fixing up the fox's body, this plan would have never worked. Though he felt guilty for using and deceiving his family the way he did, he had to find Lillie. He just had to know what happened to the gal. At the thought of the girl, he looked back to his temporary partner-in-crime who was coming out of the passenger side, looking around the building warily. Katherine looked towards the fox, who was holding a large duffle bag in his good hand while being dressed up in a black hoodie and baggy sweats, something that seemed like it would fit Evan a bit better than the skinnier humanfox.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Said Katherine nervously as she continued to look around for any threats, holding her taser in hand for emergencies. Foxy nodded, looking towards the building.

"Aye, lass." Said Foxy as he attempted to reassure the girl. "We oughta ship off before the others come." This grabbed the girl's attention, confused and concerned.

"Others?" Foxy started to walk into the building, wordlessly. The teenager stared at the fox moving away before cursing and locking her car. She didn't feel safe being out here, but she felt even less safe not being around the fox. As they entered the crumbling building, Foxy immediately spotted the open hatch, knowing now the path that needed to be taken. Katherine watched as they closed in on the hatch, still nervous.

"Are you sure this is safe…?" Asked the teen, getting a loud sigh out of Foxy. He turned around and looked at her with his one uncovered eye without amusement.

"Look, lass." Started Foxy, who was getting tired of hearing the girl whine. It had been like this the entire car ride and, even after explaining the full plan once again, she continued to get on his nerves. "I understand that ya don' trust the ol' cap'tin 'ere, but I can assure ye that ye be fine. Pirate's honor." Foxy raised his hand in a promising way, but didn't seem to convince the girl.

"Pirate's honor? Do they even have that? I mean, pirate's are just a bunch of thieves with little moral compass." Foxy looked even more annoyed after this comment.

"While ye be sorta correct, ye be mistaken. We pirates have this ting called a 'Pirate's Code o' Honor' which states that 'I shall be loyal ta me crew members' and ye be me crew member." This made sense to the girl, but she decided to push her luck.

"If I'm your crew, then that means you should be able to tell me more about my grandfather." Foxy nodded in response.

"Lass, I'd be willin' ta sell me soul to ya if'n we find me first mate." Katherine had heard the fox talk about his first mate a lot on the car ride here, making her curious about who his first mate actually was. As they started moving down into the ground, the teen couldn't help but think of who it could've been.

Katherine knew that she had never met this person, or thing, and there was a good possibility that they were an animatronic like Foxy was. It was strange that Evan had so many life-like animatronics simply living with him like it was nothing and the way he treated them like family was even stranger. Normally, people are happy as long as a robot can do what they were programmed for and didn't expect much else from them yet there was a man who treated these animatronics like they were equals. There obviously was a lot more going on behind the scenes, but what she couldn't really figure out. As they made it to the main room with three doors, the girl opened her mouth to ask a question.

"So, what's this 'first mate' of yours like?" Katherine asked as Foxy chose the right side door to open and move down, the pathway seeming to be a bit more used than the others. "Are they your lover or something?" Foxy said nothing for a moment but then nodded.

"She be worth more than any treasure could be ta me and while we arrn't in love, my care for 'er be more abundant than the stars in ta sky." It had sounded romantic to Katherine, who got excited to see a romance story unfold in front of her, pushing away her worries for the moment being.

"Sooo, tell me more about her." Foxy looked back at the girl, who had shiny, excited eyes with an expression of interest. It's not like the pirate minded talking about Lillie but the suddenness had been a bit jarring. The pirate captain cleared his throat as they made their way down the lit broken concrete pathway, making it further into the hall.

"Well, when I woke up, I was in Evan's basement. It seems he found me from an avid Freddy Fazbear's collector and attempted to get me working. Luckily, it doesn't take a whole lot to maintain or start me up-" Katherine thought her ears were playing a trick on her as she listened to the more deep, smooth voice that came out of Foxy. She couldn't hear even a hint of his pirate accent for a moment, stopping him in sudden realization.

"Wait wait wait." Cried the teen, stopping Foxy suddenly with a surprise and putting him on guard. "What happened to your accent?" Foxy sighed a bit, being thankful that it wasn't something super important.

"Ye scared tha lights outta me, lass!" Foxy said, switching back to his pirate accent before continuing without it. "Well, as Evan started to fix me, the program in my head started to dissipate and suddenly, it became a lot harder to continue my accent. It's not like I can't, but if I'm gonna have a monologue I might as well use my real voice. This is what I would sound like if I was still alive." The last part confused Katherine. When he was still alive? She thought but didn't have time to have him elaborate as he continued on with his story from before.

"Now, where was I? So I had woken up in the workshop in Evan's basement, finding myself alone other than my best friend's deactivated body and a small wooden doll crouched down nearby, struggling to move. Since I was just a head and some wires at the time, I was struggling to stay sane as I kept reliving the past over and over again in my mind. It was her that pulled me out of it. Though, mostly because she was an annoying brat but she grew on me." Foxy smiled warmly as he thought about Lillie's antics when he was still just a head, doing stuff like treating him as a beast she just slew and claimed it as hers or a mountain she 'struggled' to climb, eventually making it to the top and 'planting a flag' on his head. While Lillie had annoyed him quite a bit, she was his life's joy.

Katherine now had some idea how much this 'person' meant to him and, while she didn't know about their exact relationship, she found herself growing more interested in them both and, in turn, closer to Foxy.

"How long have you known each other?" Asked the curious Katherine. It had been about now they wandered into the crumbling brick area, seeing the real state of the city in one tight passageway. Foxy thought as he moved towards the room Evan and Chara mentioned.

"Hmm… I tink 'bout 4 er 5 years." Foxy said, slipping back into his pirate accent. "It took me a while before I felt like gettin' put back together. If'n I knew that shit woulda hit the fan, I woulda gotten meself together much sooner." It had been at this point that they made it to the room and it had been just as Evan depicted, but a bit brighter. Foxy walked into the room and took a look at the hole and then, on the other side of him, the place Evan had been hooked to. If it had been strong enough to hold up a grown man made out of metal parts, it should be able to hold Foxy as well. The pirate fox dropped the large bag and shuffled through it before pulling out a weird looking wire cord.

"What's that for?" Asked Katherine, who was looking over his shoulder. Foxy moved over to the steel hook poking out of the concrete before attempting to secure one end to it.

"Well, this is what Evan uses to haul heavy tings like us animatronics while we're inactive. We're going to use this…" Foxy finished securing the line to the hook before throwing the bundle down into the hole, "to get down this hole. This be where the real adventure begins." The teen looked at the fox in doubt as she looked down the hole and saw something out of the ordinary.

"Uh… There's something glowing green down there." Foxy looked at the teen with confusion before he peered into the hole and saw what looked to be several green glowing specks down at the bottom of the hole. Someone had been here before them and it seemed like it wasn't too long ago. For Foxy, it had seemed like hope. He quickly grabbed the rope and started carefully climbing his way down, looking back up to the teen briefly.

"Thar be a walkie-talkie in me bag. Grab one n', when I'm down, pull the rope back up n' tie the back at the end o' it before lowerin' it back down ta me." The girl nodded, still unsure about this entire thing, but watched the fox closely as he lowered himself into the dark abyss. Once he was no longer visible, she went into the duffle bag before pulling out a bulky walkie-talkie and waited for the Foxy to finish his descent. It wasn't before long that she heard a voice come out of the device in her hand.

"I be at the bottom, lass." Said Foxy from the radio. "Now lower down the bag n' yerself. We got work ta do."

Katherine had been slightly regretting her decision for a while but this was the first time she genuinely thought about leaving the fox behind. It took her a slap to both sides of her face to steel herself and start pulling up the heavy duty rope, knowing very well that her arms were going to be sore in the morning.

-SB-

Evan, Chara and Mangle were already in the car with a bag of supplies on their way to Daylight City. The atmosphere in the car was tense as everyone felt fooled by Foxy, blaming themselves for what had happened. It should've been obvious what was going on with the pirate fox, especially with his sudden mood change.

Chara realized she was starting to hate this drive back and forth to Daylight as everytime she had been there for it, something wasn't going to plan. On the bright side, if everything was unfolding the way the trio thought it would, Chara could finally search around at the bottom of the hole properly. The only downside to this was that it had to be forced like this with a young girl getting wrapped up into the family's issues. Chara could only hope that Katherine would be safe.

At the same time, the guilt of keeping her trip a secret from Evan was eating at her. She didn't normally keep almost any secrets from the man and the ones she did were either to protect him or weren't a secret for very long. Chara realized that she didn't tell Michael to keep the trip a secret. What if Evan had already found out? Would this be more unnecessary conflict in their lives? No, Evan was a kind and understanding guy, but it still felt wrong to her. The puppet was wrapped up in her thoughts, contemplating the situation back and forth.

Mangle's mind had been swarmed with sad thoughts and some angry ones, too. During the time Foxy had been getting out back together, Mangle spent a lot of time with him trying to map out places and things to do when he was fully built. He seemed so genuinely happy and eager to spend time with her, but was it all just a front in order to get information from her?

The idea was killing her on the inside. She had been so happy when she realized that her fox brother was alive and even more when she heard that finally he wanted to be put back together. It felt like the family was growing a bit bigger and happier when Foxy wanted to spend time with her, but to think it would've been with ulterior motives.

Mangle was seething on the inside. She was good at hiding her disdain or hatred on the inside but she knew she couldn't keep it bottled up. Trevor, who was like a father to her, told her that if she kept things bottled up that they could fester and become a much nastier and longer lasting emotion than what she felt right now. The pink foxy rarely ever got upset, much less genuinely angry, but right now she was absolutely livid.

Strangely, the calmest one of the bunch was Evan. He had been somewhat excited and terrified at the same time, but none of those emotions had to deal with Foxy. It's not like he didn't care what happened to the pirate captain, but he built Foxy with the intention for him to withstand some damage when he inevitably caused some trouble but he had something else on his mind.

They never had a chance to see what was in the bottom of the hole that fateful day and they also deemed that it was 'too dangerous' to properly set something up that could reliably get someone up and down from the hole. Even the phone lights they had were like putting droplets into an ocean, it didn't make a difference. This time, not only had he realized that Foxy took plenty of stuff Evan used from his workshop, but Evan had spares he could take. He was going to go down there and retrieve that poor boy's body. Gregory deserved at least that much.

The silence continued on until they got inside of the city limits, where the streets were starting to die down at the safe edge of town. It wasn't going to be long until they arrived to their destination, so Evan felt like they should get their story together and start figuring out what kind of plan they needed.

"Hey guys-" Evan started off, but was quickly cut off by a hand touching his leg, one that belonged to a frantic looking puppet.

"Evan, we need to talk." Chara said, grabbing the man's attention. This had been sudden, but Evan knew that the puppet wouldn't act like this without a good reason. He smiled at her and grabbed her hand in his.

"Of course, Chara. What would you like to talk about?" The puppet grabbed his hand back and looked away for a second, the car silent other than the noises the car itself made, before deciding to confess what she had done originally.

"Michael and I came out here earlier today to see if we could find Gregory's body." Chara blurted out, grabbing Evan's attention. He nearly missed the turn he needed to take in his temporary shock but kept himself together.

"Okay, could you explain a bit more, please?" Evan asked, trying to keep his attention both fully on the road and the puppet at the same time. Chara had felt nervous from Evan's sudden response.

"I wanted to help you." Chara explained as she looked towards her human. "You kept saying that Gregory was alive and I didn't want to see you suffer anymore from your guilt so I coaxed Michael into taking me down into the warehouse again for us to see if the bodies were there and…" Chara paused, unsure if she should continue but knowing very well that Evan would find out soon enough anyways.

"Chara?" Evan called, snapping the puppet out of her thoughts. She 'gulped' before continuing on.

"T-... There weren't any bodies down there, Evan." This grabbed Evan's full attention. "There weren't any signs of any animals being down there but there was a blood trail but… so much blood had spilled that the possibility of someone surviving that much blood loss was…" Evan had stayed silent, causing Chara great concern. The silence in the car was deafening as everyone stayed silent until they arrived at the warehouse.

Another car had been parked in front of the building, making the theory that Katherine drove Foxy there much more solid. They all got out of the vehicle and Evan rounded the front, beelining to Chara before pulling her into an unexpected hug. Chara was expected to get scolded or something from the silence that Evan had displayed before, but not this. She wrapped her arms around the man and pressed her mask into his shoulder, thankful that he wasn't angry.

"I apologize for being quiet, Chara, I just… wasn't sure how to respond." Evan admitted as he comforted the puppet. "I wanted to thank you, jump for joy and be terrified at the same time. I'm… not sure how I should feel about this information, but I promise you I'm not angry at you, okay?" The puppet nodded her head, still pressed against his shoulder. Evan looked over to Mangle who was standing alone, looking frustrated and deep in thought. Evan snapped his fingers, getting the pink fox's attention and motion for her to come closer. Immediately, Mangle closed the distance and hugged the two of them as well, getting an arm wrapped around herself from Evan.

Everyone here seemed to be very emotional today, but a lot has been going on recently. No matter how hard they all tried to relax and get past the events that keep happening, the constant bombardment of things happening was a lot to deal with, overwhelming them all. They all stayed in a tight hug for a moment, Mangle buried her head in Evan's free shoulder as the man rubbed Mangle's back. It wasn't until the puppet decided to pull back from Evan that he realized she was looking a bit tired. Evan smiled at her, cupping her cheek and caressing it a bit with reassurance. Mangle, too, pulled back, sniffling a bit and wiping away a few tears. Evan grabbed a hand from both Chara and Mangle, getting their attention.

"Girls," Evan started out, looking between the both of them, "I understand that we're all exhausted and overwhelmed, but we have one last thing to do today before we can all go home. When we get home, I'll get us some burgers and we can watch a nice movie and rest together, okay?" Both of the animatronics nodded, feeling a bit better than they did before. Evan smiled thinly, hoping that everything turned out okay today. He thought about Gregory, Foxy, Katherine and the possible dangers down inside the hole.

If what Chara said was true and no bodies were evident at the bottom and there was nothing like animal tracks or droppings showing animals dragged them off, there might be something incredibly sinister down there. Evan's gaze went towards the extra vehicle in front of the warehouse and he hoped that Foxy would protect that girl. He believed Gregory had been alive, but not everything was as he hoped it would be in life. In any case, he hoped that things would turn out well for at least Foxy and Katherine.

He did not want to be responsible for two children's deaths. Evan knew he wouldn't survive the guilt.

-SB-

Eventually, Katherine did make it down into the hole with the supplies. It had been a long and arduous process of lowering the heavy bag at the end of the rope down to Foxy before attempting to move herself down. The teen had felt very lucky that there were some actual harnesses in the bag so that she could lower herself safely, but it was a slow process.

As she made it to the bottom, she saw that the floor above was crumbling a bit more, pieces falling from above and coming towards her at an alarming speed. Luckily, Foxy grabbed the girl, shielding her from the debris coming from above. She had looked up at the pirate fox in gratefulness, smiling awkwardly at him.

"T-thanks." Katherine said as she moved away from the fox, realizing how close they were exactly. Foxy nodded, looking around the room briefly with a flashlight in hand. The room they were in had a different feeling to it than the one they just descended from, looking sorta like a reinforced bunker with a science lab styled spin to it. Even from afar, they could tell that this place was old and hadn't been used almost at all in decades. From the point that they stood, there was a large, dry blood pool that had a large streak of blood coming from it, bloody handprints and a trail leading away from the main spot and into a nearby door.

This sight was overwhelming for Katherine as she held her hand to her mouth, stopping a small scream as she realized the blood was real. It was evident that there was so much that there's no way someone would've survived no matter how you looked at it. Foxy patted the girl's back as she began to look sick, looking away while holding onto Foxy's side.

"There there, lass." Foxy said as he comforted the girl who held her eyes shut.

The scene was missing any sort of dead body, but it was evident that it was too much for the young girl. The pirate fox felt sorry for her as she had done a lot for him up to this point and wanted her to take a leisurous break.

"I'm goin' ta check that door real quick, okay?" Foxy said, attempting to move away from Katherine. The teen quickly grabbed the fox's arm, shaking her head violently.

"No, please." Katherine said, her eyes in horror. "I don't want to be left alone, I just can't. I'm not good with blood, I just can't do this." Katherine was breaking down, seeming like she was freaking out. Foxy put a hand to her shoulder and pulled her a bit closer.

"I won' leave ya." Said Foxy, trying to comfort the panicking girl. "It be alright, lass. Ol' cap'tin Foxy'll protect ye." The teen shivered in the pirate fox's hand, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down. Katherine did not do very well with blood or gore and while she knew she was going to possibly see a dead body today, she wasn't as prepared as she thought she was. Eventually, her breathing came back to normal and she felt a lot less light headed.

"I'm… I'm okay." Said Katherine, taking a deep breath before she turned back around and looked towards the blood leading to the door. "You don't think there's a dead body behind that door, do ya?" She looked towards Foxy, who didn't respond to her question for they both knew that losing that amount of blood was a death sentence. Though, there was only one way to be certain.

Foxy started moving towards the door, Katherine following close behind him. There had been a few bloody handprints on the door including on the knob which seemed especially coated in the now reddish brown substance. Foxy gingerly grabbed the doorknob, bracing himself for what it could be inside before quickly twisting the knob and pushing the door open.

The flashlight shined through the doorway, revealing a different scenery than expected. There had been a large pin board on the far wall with a singular light shining directly on it. As the Fox got closer, he realized what this was, seeing something disgustingly familiar.

It had been a map of Hurricane and the surrounding towns and cities with pins placed all over the map. There had been a high concentration of pins located in Hurricane itself with a note underneath that was very faded with age, but a few words seemed to stick out.

"Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria…" Foxy said, reading the note paired with a red pin on it out loud before tracing his way to a differently colored pin with a new note. "Baby's Circus… Afton Robotic Inc… wait, these arr…" A hand tugged at his arm, pulling Foxy's attention away from the board and onto Katherine, who was pointing to something nearby.

"Are those masks?" She said as Foxy's gaze followed her finger. Next to a nearby desk, sitting inside of a trophy case, were a few familiar masks. As Foxy shined the light on them, his eyes widened up in utter shock.

They were the masks of his and his friends. They were sitting in the case, collecting dust, with pages laying underneath them. The glass had been broken, seeming a bit recent, as there was glass laying on the floor and desk nearby without any dust on them. One mask was missing, the Chica mask, the one owned by Susie. Foxy gingerly reached through the case and grabbed the Foxy mask, holding it up with trembling fingers.

"I…" Said Foxy, who dropped his accent from the sheer overwhelming emotions he was facing, "I didn't think I'd ever see this again…" This grabbed Katherine's attention, unsure what the case was for.

"What are you talking about?" Said the teen, moving closer to get a better look. The pirate fox turned it to her, allowing Katherine to see it better.

"This was my mask as a kid." Foxy said, his voice hushed, his thoughts entangling him. "When my gang and I went to Freddy's for our friend's birthday party, we wore masks to show our love for our favorite animatronics. Foxy was my favorite so I wore this, even though the mask dug into the side of my face.

"Wait, whoa whoa." Said Katherine, who wasn't sure if she understood the pirate fox properly. "Are you saying you were once alive?" Foxy nodded, lost in his thoughts.

"Yeah. I was a young boy with dreams and ambitions and… flesh. I was a hotheaded and stubborn person. Hell, I still might be. Who knows how much I've really changed since I died." The last word rang out into the teen's head, taking in Foxy's story.

"Then… What happened to you? Why are you dead?"

"That same day, we met a special character. He had been an older one, but we only assumed that it was our special day. We were right, just not in the way we thought…"

-SB-

Fritz had been sitting with his friends while picking on his best friend when it had happened. They were sitting near the backroom that the characters sometimes came in and out of so they could see their favorite characters before anyone else. Except, the character that showed up this time wasn't one they recognized.

The character was a golden bunny that resembled Bonnie very much, with a chipper smile and a purple tie on. The golden bunny smiled at the kids and waved at them.

"Hey kids." Said the bunny, crouching down near them as they gathered around the entrance way to the back room. "My name is Spring Bonnie. I've been sick lately and feeling lonely, but maybe you guys could be my friends?" The boy who was best friends with Fritz jumped up and nodded, excited that his favorite character had a new version.

"I'm Jeremy!" Said the boy with the Bonnie mask on. The two girls next to him moved up, too.

"I'm Cassidy and this is Susie." Said the blonde headed girl who introduced the girl with the Chica mask on.

"I'm Gabriel. Nice to meet you." Said the young boy with the Freddy's mask on. The golden rabbit waved at them all before looking at Fritz.

"And who might you be, friend?" Said Spring Bonnie, staring at Fritz. The boy adjusted his Foxy mask before answering the bunny.

"I'm Fritz. I like Foxy." The golden bunny was smiling, clapping his hands.

"Wonderful! Wonderful! I'm glad to have such great friends. Since you're now my friends, I'd like to show you something special. Follow me, we'll have a blast!" Everyone in the small group seemed interested, believing that it was a special thing that was happening to them. One by one, they followed each other through the door to the back room until everyone had gone through.

The smile on the golden bunny somehow became sinister as the door began to shut down to be locked behind him with the hand not carrying the carving knife.

"Oh, yes." Said the deep, rumbling voice of Spring Bonnie, who changed voices immediately after getting them all back there. "We're gonna have soooo. Much. Fun."

The door shut behind him and soon the blood curdling screams rang out from the small hallway, unbeknownst to anyone outside of the door.

-SB-

"He killed all of my friends and me, stuffing us in the suit of our favorite animatronics." Said Foxy, who was finishing up his story. "None of us were the same after dying. Possessing these animatronic shells was like a prison that forced us to dance and sing for children like us who were slowly getting picked off by the same man who killed us." Katherine listened in horror as the scene played out in her head.

"That's… that's horrible!" Exclaimed the teen in absolute horror and disgust. "Who could ever do such a thing?" Foxy shrugged, no longer feeling in the mood to tell stories.

"An evil man. A serial child murderer. Even in death he kept coming back and no matter what we did, he just got away with it. He had been a night guard of the time and we saw him, covered in purple… except that everyone who worked as a night guard afterwards was seen as purple. Including your grandfather. I-I'm sorry, Kat. I don't think any of us tried to hurt Jeremy intentionally. As far as I remember, Jeremy was one of the few day shift workers who were tolerable and actually cared for a discarded animatronic like myself." Foxy hung his head low, sad from the memories of the past.

So much that happened to Foxy or his friends had been horrible, one thing happening after another. When the toys had taken over their lives, he had it the least rough seeing as Mangle didn't require spare parts from the already broken down Foxy. His friends all had things taken from them, Bonnie getting the worst of them all. Even afterwards when the next location had opened up with just the 5 of them, it had closed down just a few years later leaving the 5 of them to rot and collect dust.

Katherine saw Foxy's sad face as she realized that what happened to her grandfather was, indeed, a mistake. Perhaps she didn't understand everything else, but what she did know was that the animatronics back then had been suffering for so long that they became desperate. She may not have completely forgiven them, but the teen felt that she could finally understand the animatronics she had been despising all her life a bit better and her trust with Foxy grew.

Foxy was putting back the mask of Bonnie, his best friend Jeremy's, mask back into the case before seeing that the paper underneath the mask had been in a better condition than everything else in here. Perhaps the case was meant to preserve everything in here, including the papers underneath. He grabbed the one under his mask and took a gander at it, realizing something was wrong here. It had his personal information written here. Foxy quickly grabbed all the papers neatly along with the masks before securing them in his bag.

"Arright, lass." Foxy said, moving with a new purpose. "Let us ship off into the briny depths once again." Katherine nodded, still unsure how to feel about the sudden wave of information she had just learned, as they headed out of the door and looked around towards the other doors. There was no indication of where to go next so Foxy chose the next closest door to where they were standing. As expected, the door was unlocked and easy to open, swinging wide open with ease. What wasn't expected was a tall, evil looking robot with glowing green eyes standing on the opposite side of the door. In an instant, Foxy went from standing on guard to being on his back from getting tackled by the same large robot. In an instant, the scuffle started and Katherine could only watch in horror.

The assailant threw a punch at Foxy, who moved his head in time, making a solid impact with the concrete floor near his head. Sparks flew as the attacker's hand scraped on the ground before pulling back to try again. Foxy raised his claw, hooking the same hand on the attacker, holding them in a stand still until Foxy decided he had enough of being on his back. The pirate fox slowly shifted before throwing the attacker off of himself, rolling a bit away from Foxy. They both got up quickly, facing off with each other, hands in the air as if they were both about to start boxing with each other. The flashlight that rolled out of Foxy's hand during the scuffle had been picked up suddenly by Katherine, who shone the light on the assailant.

The attacker had been a scrappy looking animatronic, made with several different mismatched pieces of assorted colors. There was definitely a skirt made out of some sort of flannel-esque material, hanging around where the animatronic's knees should be. It had red, wiry hair with a few places that had seemed either burnt or completely missing. Most parts of this animatronic looked like they came straight from a rusted, abandoned junkyard except for the animatronics eyes. They glowed brightly with an emerald green color, staring directly at the girl shining a flashlight on her.

Katherine made a small squeak noise as she realized the attacker had been staring at her and she backed up, hoping to make a bit more space in case it decided it wanted to lunge at her, too. Foxy moved in the way of the attacker's view, growling loudly.

"Yer gonna hav' a bad time if'n ye tink yer gonna get 'er before ye kill me!" Roared the pirate fox, who was brandishing his hook towards the enemy animatronic. They were both staring each other down, neither backing down even an inch. Before either could spring at the other once again, a small voice called out and a young boy appeared, running towards the other animatronic.

"Baby!" The young boy cried out, limped past Foxy and in front of the green-eyed animatronic. He leaned against a nearby pillar, looking as if the movement was painful. "Baby, stop! Lillie says she knows who these guys are!" The green-eyed animatronic, Baby, had looked down at the young boy in worry.

"Oh, dear child." Said a lulling female voice, one that came from the same animatronic in front of the young boy. "What if you get hurt?" Baby grabbed the young boy, picking him off the ground. "You can't walk properly, it would be better if you leave everything to me." The young struggled in her arms a bit.

"But Baby! Lillie knows that animatronic there!" The young boy finally escaped her grasp and landed on his good foot before looking from Foxy to his pocket. "Lillie, you know them, right?" A familiar small thing jumped out of the boy's khaki pocket and started to sprint towards Foxy. It wasn't hard to see who it was and the fox pirate eyes started to gleam, smiling in a way that he rarely had. It had been Lillie, but a bit more polished up. She seemed to have something strapped to her neck, reminding him of the choker that Roxanne Wolf would wear on the commercials he's seen.

As she got a bit closer, Foxy crouched down to scoop her up and hold her close to his face. The small doll hugged his face tightly, making an almost purr-like noise from herself. Foxy was so happy that he swore he could cry. He finally found his first mate and she was completely okay. Katherine, who moved a bit closer to get a better view, simply watched and smiled as she enjoyed the heartfelt scene that went down. Foxy pulled her away from his face to look down at her, the flashlight in Katherine's hands shining nearby.

"I missed ye, me first mate." Foxy said with a grumbling in his voice and a smile a mile wide.

"I miss you, too, captain, oh my captain." A Ballora-like voice said coming from his hands. He realized that it was Lillie speaking, who was staring at him with her signature mischievous looking smile. Foxy had been winded, unable to say anything at all to his small friend. He gathered himself quickly, attempting to spit out words.

"Y-ye can talk?!" Foxy said incredulously. Lillie giggled in his hands.

"Now I can, thanks to that boy over there." She pointed her small appendage towards the boy, who was sitting on the ground, rubbing his ankle while Baby had been over him. Foxy moved up slowly and Baby looked like she was ready to defend, but the boy shook his head, motioning for her to wait a moment. Foxy got down on his knee, placing Lillie briefly on the ground before bowing his head deeply, making half of the people in the room suddenly surprised.

"I can't tank ye enuff for all ye done." Said Foxy, who was bowing his head towards the child. "Tis lass means more than ta world ta me n' ta fact that I can 'ear 'er talk now is all tanks ta ye." The boy scratched the back of his neck, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Oh don't worry about it." Said the boy. "I did it because there were parts that Baby just happened to have and she was so hard to understand without a voice that it was a project that needed to be done." Foxy raised his head and looked at the small boy.

"If'n ye don' mind me askin', what be yer name, lad?" The boy smiled, knowing that question was going to come.

"Gregory. My name is Gregory. I've heard a lot about you, Foxy. Your friend wouldn't ever keep quiet about you." Foxy looked at the boy intensely, realizing who this was.

"Your Gregory?" Foxy repeated, dumbfounded. Foxy had never seen the boy and, while he had heard descriptions of him, he didn't really get a good look at the boy until now. Gregory looked just as Evan described him, except the color of the shirt was a different color. Perhaps he found something to wear down here to change because wearing the same clothes for almost a month didn't sound healthy to the pirate fox.

"Yeah, and you're a friend of Evan, right?" The fox nodded, making the young boy light up. "Where is he?" Gregory's voice sounded eager and a bit hurried, like he wanted to leave quickly. It made sense since he had been down in the hole with a possibility of no way to escape but now.

"He didn't come wit us." Said Foxy, making the young boy lose his shine, but the fox quickly followed up. "There's a good chance they may be on their way 'ere right now, though. I left a note fer them n' even then, my crew mate o'er 'ere could ship us on outta 'ere in a jiffy." Foxy pointed his thumb towards Katherine who nodded, glad that everything turned out okay. Baby tapped on the boy's shoulder, getting his attention.

"Gregory, we should hide." Said Baby, sending Foxy and Katherine into confusion. The boy nodded and Baby picked him up before Foxy could stop them.

"Whoa whoa…" Said Foxy, stopping the pairing in their tracks with Lillie in his hand. He got up and let her on his shoulder while still staring at Baby and Gregory. "Hide? Why arr ye hidin'? We can get ye home now, Gregory." The boy looked towards the hole and shook his head.

"No, my leg is broken." Said Gregory, sounding disappointed. "And I can't leave Baby here. There's a ladder over there towards the hole, but neither of us can get up it." Foxy looked back and forth between the hole to the boy and his animatronic friend.

"I'm sure we can figure som'ting out, lad." The boy shook his head again furiously.

"We don't have time, Foxy." Gregory said with a bit of panic. The fox and his teen companion both looked at each other confused, but even Lillie wasn't looking so chipper anymore. Instead, she looked a bit scared. Katherine stepped forward a bit and talked to the young boy in a hushed tone.

"What's going on, Gregory?" She said, looking concerned.

"That woman won't die." Baby said, both Foxy and Katherine's head snapped to look at Baby. "The one that came down here with Evan originally fell to her death and eventually got up again before I snapped her neck. Yet she keeps getting up again." Katherine shook her head, thinking that the two of them were playing jokes.

"Look, this isn't the time to play jokes." Katherine said, starting between the two of them. "I need to get home before I get in trouble." Yet no one moved. The teen tapped on Foxy's free shoulder, moving to look at his face. "Foxy? We need to go." But Foxy didn't move as he was caught in thought. He finally spoke, turning his head towards the teen.

"Lass, I don' tink it's a joke." Foxy said firmly, surprising Katherine. Foxy had, thus far, been the most level headed animatronic she had ever met, albeit a bit silly, but she felt it was weird that he would make a joke like this out of nowhere.

"What do you mean?" Katherine said, exasperated. "There's just a walking corpse around here?" She rolled her eyes, expecting someone to catch onto the joke, but no one was laughing. Foxy simply stared at the girl, showing he was serious, and the teen dropped the joke. "Okay, say there was a corpse around here walking around, where is it? It's not like they just 'up and disappear' unless you're gonna tell me it's a damn wizard now." It had been at this point that everyone heard a large thump on the other side of the room. Another thump sounded, like someone slamming something heavy against a metal surface could be heard and Katherine shined her light in the direction, their gazes settling in on a door.

As another thump came in, the door could be seen getting rattled on its hinges with a temporary movement causing the door to slightly bend for a very brief moment. Another thump after another hit the door, getting louder and louder until it finally stopped. A faint rattle could be heard from the door as the doorknob turned and the door opened, revealing the source of all the noise and the very thing that Katherine asked for.

A figure had stood in the door, a large and bloodied metal pipe in hand, with eyes that seemed to glow in the light. There had been a few obvious signs that this figure wasn't okay, but the one that stood out the most was its neck. The neck had been shaped weirdly, almost having an angle to it like it was broken badly, something was slightly poking from the side of the neck on the corner of the angle. The right side of the face, opposite side from the snapped neck, was covered up by a Chica mask. It was the same one that had gone missing from the trophy case back in the room Foxy and Katherine originally went to. There had been blood splatters on the mask with a few lines dripping from the top down.

"Gregory~!" Said a two, toned and raspy voice originating from the figure. "Oh, Gregory, I missed you sooooooo much!" It staggered closer, revealing a lot of missing teeth in its smile. Baby looked like she was ready to fight the thing stumbling towards them before it stopped halfway, its eyes suddenly trained on Katherine. The teen could feel the blood drain from her face as it smiled at her, turning it's body towards the young girl. "Ooh, you look so sweet. I will take my time tasting you thoroughly." Foxy moved in front of Katherine, blocking its sight of her.

"Get out of here, Susie." Baby called out, attempting to look menacing. The large animatronic girl had seemed quite tired and not in a good state as she seemed to struggle to even keep herself on her feet.

"Oh, poor Baby." Susie mocked, starting to move a bit closer. "Just let go of the boy. I want him. I need him. I w̵a̷n̸t̴ t̴o̸ ̷f̸e̴e̸l̸ ḧ̸͍̍i̶͍̽̾s̵̙͝ ̴̪̣̃f̵̲̠̂͝l̴̟̖̈́͠e̴̛̮̗s̷͈̏̀h̷̳̪́̀ ̸̡̲̎b̵̧̧̀̉e̸̦̜͌t̷̜͍̍̈w̸̫͝ȅ̶̗̚e̸͍̚ň̵̹ ̵̤̿̍m̵̼͎̏y̸̳͘̚ ̴̗͚̆t̶͕͋e̴̺̽ȅ̵͉̰́t̴͙́h̵̯̽!" The two-toned voice seemed to join the tones together, creating something that sounded straight from a horror movie. It was at this particular moment that everything went to shit. Susie ran towards Baby, swinging the metal pipe and hitting the animatronic on her head as she protected Gregory with her body. The swing was so powerful, you could practically see a dent where the pipe had landed. Foxy moved in towards the attacker, only for him to narrowly dodge the pipe being struck across his own head, feeling the power from the wind it gave off. Susie cackled as she swung the pipe around madly, making it hard for anyone to close in on her. The woman cackled, her two-toned voice echoing off the farther walls. They were at a standstill until Susie decided to change targets.

In an instant, the woman lunged forward, hitting Foxy across the head making his vision swim. She then dashed past Foxy towards Katherine but not before Lillie launched herself onto the woman's face from Foxy's shoulder, impairing her sight. This did very little to actually help as she grabbed the small doll and threw it, luckily hitting Foxy's face and landing safely into Foxy's arms, before continuing onwards towards the scared teen. Katherine pulled out her taser, making Susie stop for a second before she started to swing at the young girl.

The pipe whizzed through the air, nearly hitting the teen across her chest. Katherine realized that getting hit by the pipe would spell certain death for her, so she started backing up as quickly as she could, barely dodging the pipe as she stumbled towards the wall. It was when she hit the wall, with no other place to go, that Katherine knew she was fucked. Foxy finally recovered from the hit, his eyes being able to see what was going on as Lillie was screaming in his arms.

"Foxy!" Lillie yelled, pounding on the fox's fuzzy body with her tiny fists. "Your friend is going to die! Throw me!" Foxy's head snapped towards where he left his companion, seeing her backed up against the wall with Susie quickly closing in on her. The pirate fox didn't like the idea of throwing his first mate into certain danger, but he wouldn't make it in time to save Katherine, so he did as his first mate said: He threw her towards the psycho corpse with all his might.

In an instant, Lillie smacked up against Susie's head, knocking her mask onto her face haphazardly which impaired her vision. With a war cry, the small doll pulled at the woman's hair and bit onto the exposed flesh, causing shrieks of pain. Katherine saw an opening and leaped forward and struck her taser into Susie's gut, receiving guttural pain noises as the woman's muscles convulsed from the immense overload of pain and electricity. She collapsed on the floor, twitching wildly as drool came out of her mouth. Lillie had jumped from her face to the teen's jeans, clinging on to try and climb up before getting helped out, being lifted into the young girl's hand. She held out her finger towards the doll, smiling while breathing heavily.

"Thank you." Katherine huffed out, getting a high five on her finger from Lillie. Baby started moving towards the door, motioning for them to follow.

"Quickly." Commanded Baby, Gregory in her arms. "We must leave now before she recovers. She could get up any moment!" Baby began to move slowly towards the door, struggling a bit. Foxy grabbed the large animatronic, helping her through the door. The large animatronic nodded to the fox in thanks, finally sitting beyond the door and allowing Gregory to sit with her.

"Thank you." Said Baby, who looked extremely tired. "We're at our limits here. I could leave and get stuff for Gregory before, but since that woman woke up it's been impossible. Even after attacking her and subduing her, she somehow finds her way between us and the way out every time." Foxy patted the robot's shoulder before looking back towards Katherine, who had been picking up the bag of supplies left by the door and started walking towards them.

A hand grasped her ankle, making the teen scream out catching everyone's attention across the room. Susie had a firm grasp on Katherine's leg, attempting to pull herself up or the teen down. Katherine was kicking the woman with the same leg, not seeming to make much progress with it, before screaming to Foxy.

"Foxy, help me!" Katherine cried out desperately before getting pulled down by Susie who had a big murderous smile on her face. Foxy started sprinting towards them before Susie grabbed ahold of her pipe again and swung it at the fox, making him jump back a bit. Katherine scrambled to get up only to get kicked in the side, sending her flying towards the wall away from where they needed to go. The woman managed to get herself up, her eyes trained on something. At first, Foxy thought that he was the target, but her eyes were focused a bit lower like it was something behind him. It was then he realized Gregory was behind him. Baby had been struggling to move and the boy had been attempting to help her out.

"Greeeegoryyyyy~!" Sing-spoke Susie from her two voices. "DON'T YOU DARE RUN FROM ME GREGORY!" She pulled her arm back to throw the pipe and Foxy reacted quickly, diving for the door, hoping to pull the door closed or, at the least, shield the young boy with his body. In an instant, the pipe was launched, flying through the air and hitting Foxy in the shoulder before going through and pinning him to the wall. It seemed to hit some sort of emergency panel as a large metal door slammed down in the entrance from above, separating the injured animatronics and boy from the teen and the doll. Red lights and an alarm blared around in the room, almost taunting the psycho. Susie's smile dropped, turning into one of rage as she pounded at the door furiously.

"I'll kill you! Come back here so I can tear your head from your shoulders and eat your heart in front of your own face!" She continued to scream as Katherine recovered, leaning up against the wall. She knew something was broken but what it was she couldn't tell. She hurt all over and now she was alone. Well, unless you count Lillie also silently panicking on her lap while trying to help the teen up as someone. It wasn't before long that Susie stopped trying to get through the door, screaming loudly in a fit of rage before turning around with eyes glowing, staring directly at the wounded teen.

Katherine attempted to get up, but felt an unbearable pain in her side that made her scream out in pain. She attempted to lay on her side and crawl away, hoping to make some distance between her and the psychopath, but Susie had been making her way towards her at frightening speeds. The pain was dulling the teen's senses, her heartbeat pounding in her ears along with the cry of the alarm drowning out any other noise. Katherine felt as if she was going to die and her breathing became irregular, panicking as the woman came closer. Susie didn't get much farther, though, as a familiar mess of strings and musical noises came flying at the psychopath, wrapping her in black fabric strings and making her thrash around.

Katherine had to admit it. Never in her life did she think she'd be happy to see the puppet as she did now. Evan had come sliding down the rope, his feet stopping him before he hit the bottom, before hopping off and running towards the wounded girl. He cursed a bit silently as he saw her.

"Mr. Nafto," Katherine said, smiling weakly. "You're not gonna sue me for possibly stealing your animatronic, are you?" Evan scoffed at the joke, shaking his head and crouching down next to her as he examined her.

"Thankfully, no." Evan said as looked her over. "It would be more believable if you told me he stole you. Perhaps I'll have to punish that idiot pirate for getting someone outside involved with our family's matters. On a more important subject, where are you hurt?" Lillie jumped up, getting Evan's attention, and pointed towards the teen's side.

"I heard something crack when we flew." Said Lillie, making Evan do a double take. It was obviously the small doll talking, but hearing her have a voice was new. He smiled and rubbed her head with his finger, who gladly took the affection.

"Good to see you, Lillie. We were tearing apart all of Hurricane City looking for you." The small doll giggled as Evan moved his hand to check the teen's pain out.

"Well, I jumped into that boy's pocket when that ugly tattooed man kidnapped Gregory and I figured it would be a fun adventure. Never did I think I'd be away from home this long." It was then that Evan pressed against the girl's ribs, which had felt a bit weird, inciting a yelp of pain from the teen. The technician had looked at that grimly.

"Well, good news is that you're probably not dying, bad news is that your ribs are broken, probably badly bruised, and getting you out of here won't be an easy feat…" Evan looked around, watching as Chara and Susie brawled it out before Katherine spoke up.

"Are you… not going to help the puppet?" Katherine asked, thinking it was weird that he'd act so calmly. The technician shook his head.

"Chara asked me to leave this to her. For her, it's personal. When people make children suffer, it really sets her off. It's been a long time since I've seen her this bloodthirsty." At this point, the puppet had been making the woman slam into walls and pillars but missing the puppet each time. Susie had been panicking, thrashing around while trying to escape the trap of strings, attempting to choke her and tie her up until she saw it. The same taser Katherine had used on her earlier. She fell over, attempting to make the puppet think she was becoming subdued before grabbing the taser and turning it on.

The reaction was immediate. In an instant, Chara pulled all of her strings back and threw herself away from the woman, who quickly got up. Susie started to run, except not towards anyone, but to the emergency locked door Foxy's group went through. She jumped up, pulling the grate off the vent before jumping all the way up and disappearing into said vent, metallic thumps disappearing as the moments passed. Chara screamed angrily, static filling her voice. Evan got up with a sigh and moved over to Chara, who was angrily pouting while still releasing bits of static in her rage. The man put a hand to her back and rubbed it, looking at her sadly.

"You'll get her next time." Evan said, attempting to calm the puppet. "She can't have gotten too far and I'm certain she's still chasing down Gregory." Chara nodded before she took a moment to try and breathe, attempting to calm herself down.

"Look after Katherine." The puppet said with a still angry sounding voice. "Just let me know when you're ready." The man nodded and headed back over to the girl. At the same time, Mangle had made her way down, taking significantly much more time than Evan had taken getting down since it was something she did not have a lot of practice in. Mangle came over as Evan crouched down near the teen.

"So, where did Gregory go?" Asked Evan, who waved at the pink fox. Katherine looked a bit puzzled.

"How did you know he was here?" Asked the young girl as she struggled to move her body in a position that was more comfortable for her.

"Well, we could hear everything from at the top right before Susie set off whatever alarm went off down here. I'm guessing it has something to do with that door. It didn't take a lot of brainstorming to tell that she was still alive and so was Gregory." Katherine shook her head, making a sour face.

"No, she's not alive." This grabbed Evan's attention and confused him.

"What do you mean she's not alive?"

"There's an animatronic that's been protecting Gregory, named Baby I think, but apparently she had fallen to her death down here and even afterwards once she got up, Baby snapped her neck very badly yet she still moves. She genuinely looks like some sort of zombie from a movie and she's inhumanely strong." To Evan, it sounded a lot like what went on in him and his brother's bodies but in order for that to happen, she'd need Remnant in her body at the time of death. He had a hard time feeling it in her body specifically with the short time he had been around her, especially when everyone else around her was filled with it, but if that was the case, where did she get it from? Evan shook his head, realizing he wasn't going to get answers just sitting here.

"Well, that's a pain." Evan said, sighing heavily. Katherine looked at him weirdly.

"Wait, you know what's going on with her?" The teen asked, looking for an answer. "Is she some sort of robot?"

"That would be better if she was. The solution would be simply to shove something like a taser into her and hold it there for a while." The girl shook her head.

"I did that and she recovered super quickly." This confirmed the man's suspicions, but only raised even more questions. This isn't the time for this. Evan thought to himself as he looked around. Gregory wasn't here and he could be in danger. The only issue is that the room had 5 doors other than the one locked down and he had no idea which way to go. It was at this point that a familiar voice had called out from near the bag Katherine had with her and he made his way over to find a walkie-talkie on top of it. Evan picked it up as he heard a familiar pirate voice come through the radio.

"Katty, can ye 'ear me?" Said Foxy, sounding not only a bit panicked, but something between tired and stressed. Maybe Evan wouldn't have to check every door. He picked up the radio and put it close to his mouth, ready to respond.

-SB-

Foxy had experienced more pain in his long life than most people could fathom. Being brutally murdered at a young age and stuck inside of a robot that had broken apart, and stayed thoroughly broken for a long time, before having his body pulled apart and having soul be kept awake by the presence of your killer wasn't exactly what anyone could call a painless life. Every break or short circuit inside his old body had been excruciatingly painful like he was getting burned by the fire of a thousand suns over and over again.

He had a lot of experience with pain, but after being deactivated for at least a decade followed by half a decade living in a harm free environment, he could say that his pain tolerance wasn't nearly as high as it once was. His new flesh didn't quite help either as he felt everything like he did back when he was alive. That's why when the metal pole, that had been skewered through his shoulder, hit the electrically powered panel near the door, he realized how soft he truly had gotten.

The currents of electricity traveled up the pipe and into his body immediately, shocking the pirate with a blindly powerful amount of electricity. Foxy could feel the currents ripping through his body, shocking everything it could access. His muscles locked up and his mouth stayed open, letting out a silent scream. In the same time it took for the electricity to enter his body, it had also left as the feed had been cut short from a safety mechanism. The pirate fox slumped against the wall, twitching uncontrollably, struggling to move at all. Perhaps Foxy would've been bleeding, too, except the electricity had mostly cauterized the wound in his shoulder. Gregory propped himself against the wall as he moved towards Foxy, concern evident in his face.

"Foxy," Said Gregory as he finally got to the animatronic, dropping to the ground next to him. The fox had still been conscious, but the pain had been a lot making his consciousness almost slip. Foxy looked down towards his shoulder, grabbing the metal pipe and taking a pull at it. It had been firmly stuck into the wall, but he did feel some give. With some lousy movement, he pushed his body forward, taking the pipe out of the wall. Gregory looked at the wounded fox in worry.

"Stop, you're going to hurt yourself!" Said Gregory, putting his hands on Foxy's arm. The pirate captain simply chuckled and smiled, glad that the boy was grateful and kind. He had been glad that he jumped in front of the pole because, otherwise, it would have skewered the boy instead. Foxy simply shook his head, lifting his head.

"Look, lad, we both know that crazy wench be on 'er way 'ere now n' if'n we don' move out quickly, we might not survive tis time." Gregory stared at the foxy before lowering his head in defeat. There was simply no way to outrun the woman since she had access to the vents, but maybe if both Foxy and Baby fought her, they could stand a chance. The boy hated how useless he felt in this situation. Between being too weak and having a twisted ankle, he knew there wasn't much he could do but support them. He felt a hand on his head suddenly, looking up at the fox.

"Don' waver, lad." Said Foxy, smiling a bit at the boy, trying to feign not being in pain. "If'n ye let yer thoughts win, ye already lost before ta battle started." With that Foxy moved his hand to the pipe, grabbed it firmly before ripping it out of his shoulder, pain shooting through his entire right side. Foxy cried out in pain a bit, groaning with his mouth shut. The wound started to bleed some, but wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. After a few tests, the fox realized he lost a decent amount of strength in his right arm but he could still move it around.

"No pain, no gain." Said Foxy, smiling as he patted the boy's back. He looked back at Baby who had been leaning back against the wall, looking absolutely given out. This side of things looked quite rough and he thought back to the young girl outside of the door. He felt back for leaving Katherine all on her own, even if it wasn't exactly his fault that things ended up the way they did. He led her here on a selfish whim and it was possible that she may have died for it. Foxy grabbed his radio that he kept strapped to himself by his belt before calling through it.

"Katty," Said Foxy, waiting a moment before continuing, "can ye 'ear me?" For a moment, nothing responded back and the fox was led to think the worst until an unexpected voice called out from the other side.

"Well, if it isn't our rogue, scheming pirate captain." Said Evan through the radio with a hint of amusement in his voice. Foxy smiled as he realized that his saving grace had come. Gregory's eyes lit up hearing Evan's voice come through the

"Ah, Evan. Glad ta 'ere from ye. E'eryting alright o'er there?"

"Luckily, we got here in time to stop your partner in crime from getting hurt. It seems like Susie has climbed into a vent so I'd watch yourselves out there." Gregory moved closer to Foxy, getting his face close to the radio.

"Evan!" Gregory said in happiness.

"Gregory!" A smile could be heard from the other side as Evan answered back. "I'm glad to hear you're safe."

"I twisted my ankle on the fall down here, but otherwise I'm okay."

"You're lucky that's all you had happen to you."

"Well, Baby promised she'd help me and I didn't want to see you get hurt because of me." Evan wondered who this 'Baby' person was, but as long as Gregory was okay it didn't matter at the moment.

"Hey, buddy. Your door seems to be locked. Any idea of how to get around to you?"

"The door on the opposite side will lead to a big room with these windowed testing rooms of some sort. Going past it usually is locked by some switch panel, but if we go farther on there's a bridge that leads over some sort of water way that meets up both sides. If we can get over there and make it to the other part of the lab farther on or come back around to the room you're in, we should be able to get out." Evan nodded, understanding.

"Are you guys going to be okay?" Said Evan, concerned since the boy was already injured. Gregory looked around at the state of the three of them. They weren't in any shape to go anywhere and if Susie showed back up, it would be a struggle to fend her off. Gregory opened his mouth until he remembered Foxy's words from before, realizing he shouldn't discount his friends so easily.

"I… We'll be okay. I think." Said Gregory, still uncertain but deciding to commit to a plan. "We'll meet you at the other side." With that confirmation, they ended their comms but no one moved yet. Gregory slid himself over towards Baby, shaking her a bit.

"Baby, we need to get moving. We're going to meet up with my friends on the other side." Baby picked up her head from the slumped position she was resting in before looking at the young boy.

"Are those the friends you were talking to me about?" Baby said softly. Gregory nodded happily.

"They came down here to get me!" Gregory said excitedly, Baby looked indifferently towards the boy before speaking.

"I wonder if I'll find a place to call home someday." Said Baby, looking away from the boy. Gregory looked at her for a moment before responding.

"Maybe we can take you home. You can be our family." Said Gregory, who brightened up at the idea. "Maybe we can fix you up as well." Baby looked at the boy with a simple, thin smile as she patted his head. Before the female animatronic could answer, Foxy spoke up, finally on his feet.

"Let's get out o' 'ere first, Gregory." Said Foxy as he slowly started to move, only stopping to hold his hook out to Baby. The fox smiled cheesily. "As much as I'd like ta offer ye a hand, all I got right now be me hook."

As Baby takes the offer, Gregory can't help but think of Evan outside the emergency door and the undead psycho that killed his parents. Evan and his group could handle their own but the boy wished he could say the same for their side.

-SB-

It hadn't taken more than five minutes until Evan, Katherine, Chara and Mangle made it to the main section of this underground facility before seeing why Gregory called it a lab in the first place. The lights had been turned on dimly, glowing a greenish blue hue onto the grayish white walls. The hallway they first passed through had held many small rooms, something that looked close to cells in a psych ward. It was after the hallway that Evan started to understand the true nature of this place.

In the middle of a large room surrounded by walls with glass on each side was a surgery table with another table nearby full of not just medical tools, but mechanical tools as well. It was a strange sight seeing such a thing in the middle of a large and completely empty room but, for some reason, Evan had been drawn to it. His eyes hyper focused on the surgery table, feeling something almost triggering in his mind. He gets sucked into a mental scene of him on it, hooked up with a bunch of tubes stuck into his body, feeling hot Remnant flow into his body like how he had been in ARI. His father's whispers fill his ear, polluting Evan's mind with irrational thoughts of perfection. It wasn't until Chara put a hand on his shoulder that he woke up from his own thoughts, jumping as he felt her touch. The puppet's face was full of worry and, past her mask, he could see the other two girls looking at him the same way.

"Evan," Chara said, hand still on his shoulder, "are you okay?" Evan looked back towards the room briefly before looking at Chara and nodding, his mind still gripped on the contents of the room.

"Yeah…" Evan said slowly, nodding while avoiding eye contact. "Yeah I just got… lost in my thoughts."

"Well, the door up ahead is locked so Mangle and I are going to go look for a switch mentioned on the wall. Maybe take a rest here with Katherine?" Evan nodded, sounding like a good idea.

"Yeah, we'll… we'll stay right here." Chara nodded in understanding, rubbing her human's shoulder a bit before floating off with Mangle towards a series of lined up doors. Katherine moved over to the wall next to Evan and looked at him a bit. The man went back to staring towards the contents of the large room intensely but his eyes were unfocused. The girl remembered that she hadn't properly thanked the man yet for saving her, realizing this is probably the best one on one time she'd get with him for the night.

"Uhm…" Started Katherine, who seemed a bit nervous, "Thanks for saving me today. I know it was a dumb idea to come down here." Teh technician nodded, eyes unwavering. "I had my reasons for wanting to help out Foxy but I can assure you that I can… explain everything…" She watched as Evan didn't even move a muscle as he stared into the room, eyes fixated on the operation table. It had been a bit awkward to begin with and now it was kind of creeping the teen out. She reached out her hand towards the man, attempting to get his attention.

In a flash, Evan grabbed her hand with his, squeezing a bit too hard, and sending spikes of pain down the girl's arm. Katherine cried out in pain, grabbing Evan's hand with her other hand. The hazy look in Evan's eyes faded quickly and he realized what he was doing before promptly letting go of the girl. She backed away a few steps before cursing and looking at the man with a pissed off face.

"What the fuck?" Katherine cried out as she held her hurting hand with tears at the corner of her eyes. "What the hell was that for?!" The teen thought that maybe the older man had been angry about the situation or simply was just being hateful until she saw the look in his eyes.

Evan held fear and confusion in his eyes, like someone was attacking a small child. He looked at her hand to her face, stuttering out nonsense. The man had looked like a small child who was in serious trouble about to be beaten and he was backing himself up, his eyes a bit more purple than they normally were. The teen had seen it in her younger cousin when he was adopted, the fear being materialized in their eyes, and she knew what she needed to do.

With swift movement, she bound up to the man, ignoring the pain in her ribs screaming at her to stop the sudden movement. She grabbed Evan's hands and looked him in the eyes, the frantic glowing purple eyes that had looked back into hers.

"Mr. Nafto," Katherine said calmly, lowering her voice, "it's okay. It's not your fault. It's okay." His fingers quivered in her hands as he shivered violently like a kicked puppy but noticeable signs were showing as he started to calm down. The purple in his eyes were not so serious and his eyes were less so scared and more confused as if he couldn't figure out where he was and who he was with. Evan's heavy breathing was starting to calm down, becoming more paced. He blinked a few times before realizing that Katherine was holding his hands and what actually happened.

"S… Sorry?" Evan said, confused and weary sounding. The teen knew the man was back with him and smiled before opening up her arms.

"There you are. Would a hug make you feel better?" The man simply stared at her for a moment before putting a hand up to his face and leaning up to the glass, resting the back of his hand on it. Evan took a slow, shaky breath in before letting it all out along with the weight he had been carrying on his mind. They sat there for a few moments in silence as the teen watched the older man recover for a moment before the technician spoke up.

"I feel like a fool…" Evan said quietly, but still in ear range of the young girl. She leaned against the glass, straightening out her body to keep less stress on her ribs.

"Shit happens." Katherine said as she looked at Evan, who was now moving to look at her.

"To think a kid would be comforting me…" Evan said, a weary tone in his voice. The girl frowned at him, crossing her arms.

"I'm practically an adult!" She said, sticking her nose up at him. "My birthday's soon, too, so I'm not much younger than you… probably!" Evan chuckled at the argument the girl made.

"Well, I'll have to take you by the pizzaplex at some point, then…" They were dropped back into silence, nothing but distant noises echoing through the halls. Finally, curiosity got the best of Katherine and she opened her mouth to ask a question.

"So… What was that?" Evan looked at her blankly, making her rethink the question. "I mean, you don't have to answer if you don't want to but I always feel better when I talk my problems out." The man continued to stare before he sighed, rubbing his face.

"My father tortured me growing up." Evan said blunting, grabbing the attention of the girl. "I don't want to go into detail, but the pain I experienced in my living life had been enough to wish I was dead for a very long time. This place reminds me of that strikingly well." Katherine wasn't sure exactly how old Evan had been, but he couldn't have been any older than his later twenties but she knew that his pain he experienced wasn't exaggerated. The eyes he had were those of a long term abuse victim and she had seen a lot of them from her family's work. The girl simply nodded in understanding.

"I hope you never have to experience that ever again." Katherine said, looking at him seriously but with a soft tone. "You've been quite a kind and cheery person so I hope you never change that." Evan smiled a bit at the comment.

"Thanks, you aren't so bad yourself… minus the whole breaking and entering or the stealing of my pirate fox." The girl smiled widely, rolling her eyes.

"I didn't mean any trouble by it and I was forced to!" Katherine said, trying to reason with him.

"This time or last time?" Evan countered her argument, making the girl pout as she realized she was caught red-handed. Evan moved over and patted her head. "Don't worry, I don't plan on holding anything against you. Just make sure you don't do it again." Suddenly, an alarm called out from the door and the red light turned green, signaling it was now unlocked. It had been a relief that the two girls had found the switch to unlock everything so they moved towards the door. Though, it seemed Evan wasn't finished with what he was saying.

"Oh, and I don't say that because I'm threatening you." Evan explained after turning back around to Katherine. "The girls get extremely protective over me and the house so as long as you want to keep your body parts and your sanity, you should probably knock first." Katherine wanted to ask so many questions, but Mangle and Chara had just met up with them, staunching the flow of conversation.

Though, she understood what he meant. The idea of Chara climbing on the roof the way she did was more terrifying than anything else she's ever experienced in her entire life. There was no amount of money in this world that could make the girl go back into the house uninvited ever again.

-SB-

Foxy was told they were halfway to their rendezvous point but he had been very worried. Gregory was on Baby's shoulders this time, apparently this had been a bit better for the larger animatronic while Baby herself had gotten a bit of rest from earlier so she seemed in a better overall situation. They weren't the ones worrying the pirate captain.

The hallways were eerily quiet, quiet to the point that the group could hear their own steps echo off the walls two times over, making it seem as if there was another group far behind or in front of them. Every now and then, there had been a clicking noise, which Foxy had realized was Baby, that came out in random intervals. It seems like some sort of device in her body was working as every time this clicking had happened, her eyes glowed a bit brighter briefly. The entire walk was messy, but the room they came into was even worse.

It looked as if the room had been hit by a tornado. The lights had been dimmer in parts of the rooms in comparison to others due to the fact that they were simply destroyed, a few of the lights were sparking wildly. Papers were askew about and desks were turned over. The room had been a practically identical match to the one Evan and his group had been in, not that this group would know much about it, except there was something different about the middle of the room.

There had been some semblance of what used to be an operation table, except it was practically torn in half. A missing chunk of the operation table had been lodged into the roof very forcefully, only half of it sticking out. The long glass windows surrounding the large room were cracked badly in most places, but were shattered completely in one particular spot. The hole had been next to the door and the keypad that locked the door had been shredded completely, a deep claw marks strayed from it showing the prowess of whatever was trapped in there. Whatever was trapped was hopefully no longer here but Foxy had a feeling they wouldn't be seeing it.

There had been claw marks all around and, in some like the desks laying down nearby, there was a thin layer of dust which was surprising seeing as this entire place hadn't been too terribly dusty until they came upon this room. Perhaps the fox would've explored the surroundings a bit better had the situation been less pressing, the psychopath corpse could have been anywhere now.

As if on queue, everyone stopped in their tracks as they heard booming movement from the metal vents above, slowly getting louder as the movement came from an adjacent room to theirs and Foxy motioned for them to start moving towards the door. Foxy had enough of running from the woman and, while he wasn't in any shape to take her one-on-one, he'd buy them the time they needed then scram. After all, nobody had ever been faster than Foxy in the many years he was alive and, with his new modifications, he simply was in his prime.

"Gregory~" Said Susie and she dropped out of a vent next to the pirate fox, spotting him immediately with a face of disdain. "You're not Gregory. Where is he?!" Foxy stared at the woman before chuckling and putting up his hands in a boxing pose.

"Yer gonna hafta get through me if'n ya want ta e'er see 'im, ya wee bilge rat." Foxy spit at the woman for good measure, hitting her shoe. Susie's face turned into one of pure rage, screaming a two-toned screech before leaping towards the fox. The woman swiped at Foxy aggressively, missing by an inch as he felt the wind flow through his fur. She quickly followed up with another punch, upper cutting the pirate but not before he could retaliate.

Foxy jabbed his hook into her side sinking it deeper as he stumbled, reeling from the punch to the jaw. She cried out in a bit of pain but it only made her seem more determined. Foxy bit at the girl, barely missing and receiving another punch to the face before she pushed back hard from Foxy, ripping the hook out of her side through her stomach. She was bleeding profusely, but her face didn't seem to care. It was like her life goal was the fuck over the pirate fox with everything she had even if it meant destroying her body in the process.

Foxy took this separation as a chance, kicking the woman hard square in her stomach and sending her flying into the wall. He charged at her, brandishing his hook before swiping it down into her shoulder making the woman cry out in pain. The fox raised his other arm and threw a punch that was a bit weak in nature due to not having full usage of it, but it did what he wanted it to do. He grabbed the front of her ripped shirt and, with two firm grips on the woman, started to slam her back into the wall over and over again sinking his hook further and further into her shoulder.

Susie started to kick and growl, struggling to fight back as Foxy overpowered her. Finally, he had been done with the woman, before throwing her through the glass of the large room and ripping his hook out of her in the process. Even sustaining as much damage as she had at this time, Susie wasn't ready to give up and got back on her feet slowly. The fox sighed as he watched her attempt to crawl through the window.

"Ye look a bit more befittin' ta be a rat than a killer, lass." Foxy picked up a desk before smashing it into her face, knocking her back on the floor, unmoving. "Now, would ye stay down fer yer ol' cap'tin?" Foxy dropped the desk before slumping against the nearby wall. He was unsure why the woman was so persistent nor why she didn't die but it had been the first time seeing in person. Evan had told him about it at some point in the past about himself and his brother, but to see it with his own eyes was another thing.

Foxy picked himself off the ground and checked the woman's body, seeing it already moving. He cursed as he realized that he wasn't going to be able to get a breather. With a grunt, Foxy started jogging himself out of the room towards the door he saw Baby and Gregory going through.

Foxy did all he could to buy time. He hoped it was enough.

-SB-

Carrying Katherine on his back piggyback style in hopes to make up time, Evan made his way out of the door to what seemed to be the place Evan had been talking about to begin with. With Chara and Mangle not too far behind him, he stood the girl back on her feet before taking a look around the room. It had been just as Gregory had described it. It had been a wide concrete path coming from a few different directions leading to a different building altogether. It seemed to be something like a lab, but the walls were cracked on the outside looking as if it aged a lot more than the facility they were in. Peering off the side of the path was pure darkness with the faint sound of rushing water. These paths were like bridges with absolutely no railing to ensure safety. This would be the potentially worst place to have to fight a psychopath at, especially with the number of wounded people they had.

As Chara and Mangle caught up, they, too, seemed to drink in the scenery. A lot of questions had come to mind between the three of them since being down here. Who made this place? What was the significance of all the medical equipment in a place that looked more like a prison or a psych ward than a hospital? Why did certain sections of this place look so new when this place had obviously been abandoned for so long? The thing that bothered Evan the most was how uncannily similar this place seemed to the place he was held under ARI, giving him horrible flashbacks.

The door on the adjacent path had opened up, revealing a tired Baby holding up Gregory on her shoulders closely followed by an equally tired Foxy. They all met at the midpoint of the bridges which made a wide, round platform for all of them to meet up on. Evan looked towards Gregory and desperately wanted to greet the boy finally, but there had been another thing that came from the same pathway.

Susie had been persistent and, despite her shredded and profusely bleeding body, she moved with only a limp like there wasn't much else wrong with her. Her eyes were hyper focused on the boy, her mouth muttering words that couldn't be heard but seemed to say only one thing. As she got closer, it became obvious what she was saying.

"Gregory. Gregory. Gregory! GREGORY!" She chanted, quickly ramping up the volume along with her pace as she now galloped to meet up with the group. Foxy cried out towards Evan.

"Do somethin' 'bout 'er, please!" Foxy whined out as he collapsed on the wide platform. "She doesn' e'er stay down!" Evan understood and sprinted over to the woman, with Chara quickly on his heels. They stood in front of the woman's path, who continued to charge regardless of who stood in her way. With a quick kick in the face from Evan, she was sent flying back a few feet. Susie was quick to recover, getting on her feet with daggers glaring at both Evan and Chara. Chara went to launch herself at the psycho, but Evan grabbed her hand, stopping her. Evan realized he could feel faint amounts of Remnant coming from her upper body, but where exactly he couldn't quite tell.

"Why do you care so much about Gregory?" Evan asked, a fierce look in his eyes. The woman spat blood to the side, obviously not unaffected from the kick to the face.

"Look at what he did to me!" Susie screamed as she took off her mask to show her hideously ruined face. "I'm some monster that should have been dead and because of that little demon, I landed on my face and now it's ruined!" Chara stifled a laugh, getting the woman's and Evan's attention.

"That's what this is all about?" Chara said, trying to hide a laugh which slowly turned into anger as she spoke. "You decided you wanted to kill a kid for ruining your face after you already used him as some sort of tool for your psychotic plans and killed his parents? Your face now matches your insides, bitch." Chara spat out the last word, making Susie angry.

"And so what?" Rebutted Susie, who put the Chica mask back on. "I was beautiful before! I had worked so hard on stealing that face and now it's goooone!" She whined, her undervoice crying as she spoke. "I was so lucky when Carver put this face on me. He told me he found some new medicine that would attach this face like it was mine. Once I'm done killing you all, I am going to take my sweet time using that boy for bait to get a new face before eating him alive." Chara could no longer handle it anymore as she threw herself towards the psycho but the woman was one step ahead.

Susie pulled out the taser, shocking the puppet against her hand as she curved herself to avoid the now dangerous woman, sending powerful electric shocks up her arm and stunning her. Chara landed onto the path behind the woman, unmoving, causing Evan panic and to be enraged. He sprinted forward, kicking the taser out of her hand and into the void before throwing a punch. Susie narrowly dodged it before grabbing the same arm and throwing him over her shoulder, landing next to the puppet. She sprinted towards the group, eyes trained on Gregory.

Mangle had looked around, realizing she needed to be the one to fight her but she was a bit scared. The vicious version of her no longer was a thing as she threw away that personality years ago, but she'd do anything to fight against the people who hurt the ones she loved. Mangle stepped up only to be pushed back by Baby, who was stepping up.

"No!" Gregory cried as he reached out towards her. Baby grabbed the woman, who had hit Baby incredibly hard on impact, before throwing her to the side of the path near the edge. Susie grabbed onto Baby's hand, throwing them both into an unbalance before the animatronic stumbled forward, fully pushing both of them off the platform and directly into the void. Gregory cried out again as they both fell, a large boom following several seconds later. Tears flowed out of the young boy's eyes as he realized the person who saved him from a cruel fate had met their demise to save him. He would've started weeping but stopped when he saw something silver hanging on where they both fell from.

"Someone, I think something is there where Baby fell!" Called Gregory, getting everyone's attention. Mangle moved over there as the only rested and able bodied person there at the moment with Evan holding Chara close behind. At the end there was a wire magnetized to the metal exterior bar of the platform. A voice called out from below, one too familiar not to notice.

"I could use some help if you're not too busy staring at my insides." Said Baby, making everyone there smile. Mangle helped pull her up and, to their surprise, she was only parts and wires. Her eyes and mouth were still there but, other than that, she was a pile of wires. Baby sighed loudly as Gregory hugged the pile of wires. "The things I do for you, boy. If it were old me, I would've killed you instead." Gregory simply giggled as he held the large mound of wires to his body. Evan moved up with a tired Chara in his arms, her body pressed against his.

"So, how did you survive that?" Asked Evan, who had never met this Baby animatronic before today. He had been grateful for it saving Gregory, but he had felt something off about it.

"My kind are mainly made of wires so the exoskeleton we don is our shell to hold it all in." Baby explained with her mouth somewhere in the wires. "While it's great to have a body, it's not too difficult to shed it and move around with just my wires. As for staying on the bridge, I use a lot of high power magnets to keep some parts of my body together. Figured it was this or have to deal with her possibly getting to Gregory." It had been a relief that everyone survived this outcome, but Evan had a sneaking suspicion that they would see Susie again despite her fall. If her body wasn't completely obliterated or burned in a raging fire, she could always come back after recuperating.

Evan moved to sit down by Gregory, laying the puppet lay against him while sitting in his lap. She had been quite limp as she was a bit more susceptible to shocks like that than most other animatronics, even after being remodeled by Evan. He wrapped his arm around Gregory, pulling him into a side hug, which the boy had gladly received, before starting to talk.

"I'm glad you're alive, buddy…" Evan said as he hugged the boy, who nodded. "Don't you scare me like that ever again, you hear me?"

"But me and Baby had a plan and I knew it was better than watching us both get cut up." Said Gregory as he recounted what happened on that fateful day.

-SB-

Back when Gregory had been beaten and left bloodied in the chair he was in, he talked to this unknown voice that wanted to help him and, in his desperation, he decided to accept its help.

"Okay, what do you want me to do?" The voice was quite happy with this, giving off a few clicks before whispering into the boy's ear.

"The floor in this place wasn't always a floor." Said this mysterious voice from somewhere nearby. "In fact, it was sealed quite poorly as the supports for it are quite weak. Simply lead the woman into the cell room and I'll do the rest." Gregory saw a fault in this plan.

"But what about me? Won't I die, too, if I get caught up in it?"

"If you can't help but get caught up in it, I'll save you. Just take your courage and make the plan work. I'll do all the difficult things for you." The boy hesitated before nodding, realizing what they needed to do. It wasn't long after that both him and Susie were falling into the hole with no sight of the bottom.

Gregory was falling and realized that this, soon, might've been his last moments. He thought about his parents he was avenging and Evan who, for a short time, made him feel the security he always wanted to have back. He wished that Evan would forgive him for leaving so quickly and to see his parents again soon as he rapidly approached the ground. It was then that wiry arms grabbed him mid air, saving him from his utter demise. With a sickening crunch, he heard Susie's body hit the floor hard, killing her on impact. Gregory felt pain in his ankle as wires moved around him, lowering him softly to the ground. They crawled off of him and into the darkness, making metallic clicks as it climbed into something barely out of sight.

Gregory had been afraid as it stepped out of the darkness, towering over him with its glowing green eyes looking down upon him. The thing lowered itself to him before holding out its hand.

"You're not hurt anywhere, are you?" Said a familiar voice. The boy suddenly realized it was the same voice that helped him out before, a soothing girl's voice calling out from this large robotic figure. He hesitated, looking up at her from his position sitting on his ass on the floor.

"What-... W-who are you?" Asked Gregory. The faceplates moved a bit as the thing seemed to smile.

"You may call me Baby." It said, still holding out its hand to Gregory. "It's the name my father gave me."

From there, they realized that they couldn't get back up the way they fell. While there was a ladder there, it needed to be released from the wall using a switch and even then it would be difficult for Baby to carry Gregory up the ladder with his wounded ankle. Not even a week after, right after Baby had gone to the surface to get food and things for the boy to survive while he rested to cure his wound, Susie came back to life and blocked the exit that Baby came from, slowly whittling down Baby's body as she used it to protect the boy. He had also used this time to secure a voice box to Lillie so that he had someone other than Baby to talk to.

-SB-

It had been a miracle that Foxy decided to come down here when he did because food had run out just the day before and, with no way to leave, things would have gotten extremely desperate quickly. The chances of a heavily wounded animatronic, a wounded boy and a small doll fighting their way past an undying psychopath unscathed was impossible. They were lucky that they made it as long as they did.

"How did you guys know we were still down here?" Ask Gregory. Chara heard the story, too, and felt extremely guilty. She had been telling Evan that he was dead and preventing him from running down here and if they had come sooner, maybe Gregory wouldn't have suffered so much. Evan grabbed Chara's hand suddenly, making her look up at him. He was smiling down at her softly, staring into her eyes. Evan always seemed to know what was going on in her mind, especially when something was bothering her.

"It's a long story, buddy." Evan answered without looking away from his partner. "Let's rest for a moment and then we can get out of here, 'kay?" The boy nodded, still hugging the mass of wires known as Baby.

It had been a nice end to this adventure. There had still been a lot here that bothered the technician a lot, but it would have to wait for another day. A day that everyone isn't either injured or extremely tired. Mangle came to sit behind Evan, hugging his back to her chest and the group sat there in silence, resting, for the day wasn't over.

It was far from over.

-SB-

As much as he didn't want to make Katherine drive the other vehicle in the dark, there was no way that everyone was going to fit in Evan's car. It took longer than normal to get back to Hurricane on the account of Evan leading the way for Katherine, going a bit slower so that the teen could keep up. In the car with her was Foxy in the front seat with her, Lillie sleeping in his lap, while Wire Baby, which is a name Gregory lovingly gave the animatronic pile of wires, and Gregory sat in the backseat. It had been a quiet ride home for the most part until Gregory opened his mouth to speak.

"Uhm… Foxy… and Katty." Said the young boy meekly. This got both of their attention with the fox looking back towards the boy in the back seat. "Thank you for coming to save us." They both smiled and Foxy patted the boy's knee.

"I'm glad ta have ye in me crew, lad." Said Foxy, looking at the boy. "Yer one courageous lil ting." The boy pouted at being called little.

"I'm not a kid, Foxy!" This made everyone laugh while Lillie snored away on her captain's lap.

In the other car, Evan had started a call with Michael. The sun had gone down already, but it was going to be a few hours before Michael had to be working. The phone soon picked up, a female voice answering the phone.

"What could you possibly need now, Evan?" Sighed Roxanne, sounding more annoyed than usual. Evan chuckled a bit at hearing the rude wolf talk to him.

"I'm glad to hear from you, too, Roxanne." Said the technician, who put the phone on speaker. "I'd like to talk to Michael if you don't mind." A scoff could be heard very audibly from the other side.

"And why should I?" Roxanne said, not wanting anyone to her time with him from her. Evan paused for a moment before speaking.

"Well, It's pretty important. You remember that boy we went to rescue almost a month ago?"

"Gregory? What about him? Isn't he dead?"

"Well, we went back down there to check today after something pressing came up and he was alive down there." It was silent on the other side for a brief moment before the wolf sighed.

"Fine. Just this once." With that, the phone had fumbled around some, seeming to switch hands.

"Hello?" Said Michael, sounding a bit concerned. "I apologize for my wolf. She forgot her manners along with everything else today." A small scuffle could momentarily be heard on the other side as Mike and Roxy fought. "Fuck… anyways, what's going on? Something important happened by the sounds of it."

"Well, let me give you a quick rundown. We can go into details later on, but I'm driving to the hospital currently." This alerted Michael and he stood up a bit straighter, listening a bit more intensely.

"Everything okay?" The worry had been evident in the night guards voice as he asked that.

"Yeah, I think so. Just a couple of broken ribs on Katty and Gregory has a twisted ankle. I don't even know how I'm going to explain this to Katty's mom…" The young boy's name hooked Michael's attention.

"Did you say… Gregory?" Michael asked, confused.

"Ah, yeah. So the short of it is that while we were gone today, after you and my lovely puppet came back from your secret date," Chara shot Evan eyes of annoyance and a light slap on the arm, "Foxy had somehow coaxed a girl who came over here a couple of times to drive him down to the same warehouse and, after raiding my equipment from the workshop, lowered themselves down into the hole where they found our missing girl doll, Lillie, Gregory and this animatronic named Baby." This name stuck out to Michael, who stopped Evan quickly.

"Wait whoa whoa… Did you say Baby?" Michael said, sounding in a panic. "Like, Circus Baby." Evan found it weird that he was panicking about the name, but Michael had been through a lot regarding animatronics.

"Not sure, I suppose I can always ask." Evan picked up the radio that was sitting next to the phone before putting it up to his mouth.

"This is the Puppeteer to the Crazy Train, do you copy, Crazy Train? Over." Chara giggling at the name as you could hear Foxy sigh through the radio, not fond of his own name. It had been given as part of his punishment for running out the way he did along with a cold shoulder Evan had never seen Mangle give anyone ever.

"Aye, this be Crazy Train." Said a tired sounding fox. "What can a poor pirate do fer ye? O'er."

"I need to know if the animatronic Baby riding with you would happen to be called Circus Baby. Over." In the car with Foxy, everyone heard the question. Baby's wires coiled up a bit, disliking the name she had.

"Yes…" Said Baby quietly. "Yes, that's my model's name. I no longer go by it anymore so I'd appreciate it if you never call me that ever again." Foxy nodded before responding. Evan hadn't waited very long for a response, the radio in his off hand giving out the answer he needed.

"The lass said yes but preferred if'n ye didn' call 'er that. Seems like she don' like ta name." Michael could hear the answer through the phone, his heart dropping in his chest. The night guard swore he burned everything to a crisp but now 2 out of the 4 animatronics that he intended to get rid of with that fire had popped back into his life. The hopes he had of getting rid of his father started to crumble away. Except, he saw his father's soul leave the springtrap suit. Michael decided to steel himself and hopefully get a few more answers on how they all survived later on.

"Okay. Would you mind if I come to visit you before work starts?" Said Michael. "I'm currently helping decorate the pizzplex, but I should be finished in the next hour or two."

"Sounds good. I need to drop by the hospital and leave Katherine and Gregory there to get checked up. I'll message you when we leave." With that, the phone call ended. He set the phone down and Chara grabbed his hands, fingers entwined with each other. The puppet scooted over to rest her head on the man's arm.

"Do you remember anything about Baby, Chara?" The puppet shook her head.

"I remember a bit about her from the fake pizzeria, but that's it. She had no grudge against me, but seemed to want to kill something else down there." They really never discussed what happened in the fake pizzeria other than the possibility that Michael was alive and the hopeful certainty that William was dead. It had been Chara's biggest fuck up in her life. She thought she was completely free of her programming, but after getting lured and stuck inside of Lefty, she realized that there had been bits of programming left that she couldn't control. In the end, she nearly died after sticking her nose too far into something that she shouldn't have.

"There were others?" Evan asked, realizing she had said 'someone else'. Chara nodded.

"There was one other, minus me and William, as far as I saw. It was something like Baby, but also a Freddy. It didn't feel like just one entity, though. It felt like multiple consciousnesses mixed inside that one pile of scrap. They were all extremely hateful, so I kept away from it as much as I could." Mangle put a hand on Evan's shoulder.

"Evaaaan." Whined Mangle. "I'm hungry." Chara scoffed playfully.

"You glutton, we don't even need to eat." Said Chara, but Mangle whined more.

"I knoooow but I'm still hungry." Evan chuckled at their interaction.

"We'll be stopping by somewhere before heading to the hospital. I'll drop you girls off with Foxy and Baby after we get food. I need you two to keep an eye on Foxy and Baby. While I'm sure Foxy won't go anywhere now that Lillie is back with him, Michael probably intends to see us and Baby once I finish up at the hospital." The girls nodded to him in affirmation, neither of them letting go of him, not that he minded.

Today was a sketchy day for all of them, full of ups and downs, and while they've been through worse Evan was certain that they were worried about him. He felt that he was too weak. He realized that if Baby wasn't there that he would've lost Gregory both times more than likely. Evan knew something needed to happen or he was going to lose everyone he cared about one day. He gripped the steering wheel tighter and held onto Chara's hand a bit more firmly.

Like hell he'd let anyone hurt his family. Over his dead body.

-SB-

After getting food and dropping the animatronics off at home, Evan, Gregory and Katherine went to the hospital. It had taken some time before both Gregory and Katherine were taken in, along with some questions, but he was able to answer them all. Soon after, he called Katherine's mother to let her know of what happened tonight saying that she fell and landed on something hard while helping him on a job. Weirdly enough, she seemed to be mostly okay about it especially when Evan said that he'd foot the bill personally. Everything went smoothly until a doctor came up to him.

"Evan, long time no see." Said the male doctor. He had been an older man in his later 60's with no hair to be found on his head. He had a small mustache and squinty brown eyes held into his light brown skinned head. The man had been a bit shorter than Evan, but only by a few inches, and wore a white coat along with what looked like scrubs underneath it. The technician recognized the man immediately, smiling as he saw him.

"Dr. Lohk," said Evan, who shook the older man's hand, "What a pleasure to see you. Didn't know you were back in town or I would've asked to see you specifically." Dr. Lohk nodded his head, looking down at his clipboard.

"I should've known the complicated issue was you. Nobody else would be willing to come in and take responsibility for two children that aren't even theirs. So, care to explain what exactly had been going on here?" Dr. Lohk had been the one person Evan requested to see every time something went on with his body. Being full of metal parts and partially being dead and immortal makes you choose your doctors carefully and he was one that was recommended to Evan by Trevor himself, saying he was an old pal who worked part time at Freddy's Family Diner when it was originally open.

Evan carefully explained his relationship with Katherine easily but Gregory had been a bit harder to explain. In the end, he told him that the kids parents were dead and he seemed to have run from the Daylight City Orphanage to here in order to see the new pizzeria and that's when Evan had found him. The boy had taken the man in stride and was distrusting of all other adults, so he decided to be responsible for him at least for the moment being. Dr. Lohk understood the situation, not mentioning the gaps in the story. Evan was certain he knew that something else had been going on here, but didn't mention anything about it.

"Well, we're going to hold the boy overnight at the least." Said the doctor, looking from the clipboard to Evan. "Mostly because of the marks that seem like abuse and his body changes due to long periods of starvation. I'll make sure to keep you updated when something changes but as long as we can help him heal and we see nothing else wrong with him, he should be able to leave in the next two days at the earliest." Evan smiled at the news.

"Thanks, Dr. Lohk. I knew I could count on you. Just charge my card if the kid wants food. I'm certain you guys have it on record." The older man nodded.

"Yes yes." The doctor started to shoo the man away. "Anyways, you look awful. Go home, take a shower and go to bed before I make you a patient, too." Evan chuckled, knowing very well that the old man would do it.

"Fine, fine. I'll be on my way. Update me!" Evan ran off as the older doctor looked at the man. Once the technician was out of sight, the look on the doctor's face became concerned as he looked down at the name of his younger patient.

Maybe it would be best to not let anyone know that he knew the kid's parents. Nothing good would come from bringing up those old memories.

-SB-

It had been a bit after 10 when Michael received a text from Evan along with the address to his home. Roxanne didn't like that the man was leaving but, after some heavy promises and a bit of tail petting, he was able to slip out without much issue. The place hadn't been too far away from the pizzaplex so he was at the front door before he knew it. The first thing he saw were the Halloween decorations laying in the yard and on the front porch. The entire reminder of Fazbear's Fright was also reminding him of how he wasn't able to kill half of the people he meant to kill in the fake pizzeria. Though, he would say it was a lively and fateful recreation.

Michael moved next to the skeleton wearing the same guard uniform that he had been wearing in the horror attraction years ago before knocking at the door. Soon, the door was answered by a pretty pink fox whose smile left as soon as she saw Michael.

"Oh. I heard you were coming." Said Mangle who didn't look too happy about him being here.

"Uh, good to see you, too, I guess." Said the night guard who was let in. Evan had been in the kitchen eating his burger while Chara sat next to him, watching him with a smile. Michael walked into the kitchen, which grabbed both of their attention, and kinda looked at Evan eating his burger weirdly. "Uh… hello." Evan waved while finishing off his bite.

"Hey, you're here. Do you live in the pizzaplex or something?" Evan said, joking with the night guard. "You always seem to be there." The older man shook his head.

"No, I just had some work to do there and I have no other place to go in my off time." Said Michael who waved at the puppet, receiving a middle finger from her in response. "Besides, playing games or spending time with Rox and the crew has always felt better than doing stuff alone at home." Evan put down his burger, getting up from the table.

"Anyways, let me show you the way. She's, uh, down in the basement with Foxy right now." Evan, followed closely by Chara and Mangle, led Michael down into the workshop which was strangely quiet.

When they arrived, they could see Foxy resting his head on his arms at the table while sitting down in a chair, obviously snoozing off while watching TV, with Lillie resting against arm. Evan hadn't worked on Foxy yet, but he said that he planned on passing out immediately before going down into the basement with Lillie and Baby. At the far corner, next to Bonnie, had been a pile of wires with a face in it. It would've looked weird for anyone else but, to Michael, he had seen it plenty enough times, felt it enough times, to truly understand who it was. Michael's mind had been racing on the way here and even in the kitchen, but now his head was empty other than one thought.

How? How are you alive?

"Hello, Michael." Said Baby, acting as normal as she could. The man simply stared daggers at Wire Baby, purple glow filling his eyes. He was dead silent and unmoving. If it wasn't for his faint breath, they would've thought Michael died on the spot. Evan looked at the night guard oddly before attempting to put a hand on his shoulder.

"Michael…?" Evan said before Mike took a step forward, his hands balled in rage.

"How… How did you make it out of there?" Michael said, voice full of rage. The only person at an angle to see his face was Wire Baby who simply looked indifferent about his reaction.

"Me? Oh, the place that was built for you had been built upon something else so when I watched both you and our father fighting tooth and nail in the middle of the burning building, I was trying to escape and there it was. A small enough hole to slip into some sort of basement. Of course, I don't know how anyone else could have survived… including you." Something caught Evan's attention, but he had no time to react as Michael slammed his hand down on the table Foxy was resting on, jolting both him and Lillie awake immediately.

"Don't you fucking lie to me, Elizabeth!" Screamed Michael, who only moved forward more, his body still as ever while his voice shook. Michael seemed to have opened his mouth again, but nothing came out.

"Regarding our past, I can understand why you wouldn't believe me." Baby said, being more nonchalant about the entire situation. "Perhaps we can sit down and talk about it?"

"...Talk?" Michael said, voice trembling significantly. "Talk? YOU SCOOPED MY FUCKING ORGANS OUT AND USED ME LIKE A FUCKING SUIT." Michael stepped closer, screaming his head off. "YOU RIPPED MY BONES OUT AND USED ME LIKE A FUCKING SUIT EVEN THOUGH I WAS GOING TO TAKE YOU OUT OF THERE MYSELF." He grabbed a fistful of Baby, bringing her eyes underneath him. "EVEN AFTERWARDS, YOU THREW ME AWAY LIKE TRASH, LEAVING ME TO ROT EVEN AFTER I DIED." His voice suddenly dropped, his body now quivering like he was in a snowstorm without any cover. "And you knew. You knew who I was. You said it, I felt it. Yet y-you s-s-sco-o-pped-d me-e-e-" Michael's voice turned broken and dark as he shook more, no longer able to hold back.

He threw down Wire Baby and slammed his foot down on her before Evan or anyone else could intervene. Everyone went into a frenzy to hold back Mike who had seemed to be on a crusade to kill Baby immediately, thrashing in everyone's arms as they pulled him off of Baby's face. Foxy grabbed a chair while Evan grabbed rope from their expedition earlier and quickly the night guard was tied up into the chair. While it seemed the man had been calming down, he still thrashed somewhat in the chair, making Evan hold him down. Mangle came over to see what damage had been done to Baby.

"Are you okay, Baby?" Said Mangle, who helped her back in the chair she was in. One of her eyes had a slight crack in it.

"Well, I'm gonna be seeing double from one eye for a while now…" Said Baby with an annoyed tone. "Though, I guess I do deserve it." She whispered the last bit, only Mangle hearing it. Back with Evan and Michael, Michael had finally settled down fully.

"You with us, buddy?" Said Evan, who was waving a hand in front of Michael's face. The night guard groaned softly before slumping into the chair.

"Hey…" Said Michael, who looked quite tired suddenly. "Could you untie me so we can talk? Alone preferably." Chara looked like she was going to say something, but Evan smiled a bit nodding at the idea.

"As long as you promise not to go off on Wire Baby again." Michael couldn't hold back a laugh at the name before agreeing.

"Sure, just get me out of here." Evan untied him and quickly made his way behind Michael up the stairs and out the front door. Michael sat down on the front stairs, looking up at the sky. It was very quiet out for a weekend and nobody was driving by, weirdly enough. Evan sat next to the night guard quietly, allowing the man to order his thoughts before he spoke.

"So, you found her with Gregory?" Said Michael after a few minutes of silence. Evan nodded.

"Yeah. I never got around to finishing the story about what happened down there either, but apparently Baby had been lurking down there for a while and helped Gregory try to kill the woman." Michael shook his head.

"Sounds like her." Said Michael, sounding annoyed about the information. "Elizabeth has always been the kind of person to kill to achieve her goals." This sounded weird to the technician, but he wanted to give the man a chance.

"What kind of goal? I mean, it was good what she did. She ended up saving Gregory's life and getting rid of a mass killer at the same time."

"That's not the kind of person she is, Evan. You should know." This caught Evan off guard.

"What do you mean 'I should know'?" Said Evan, not understanding. Michael shook his head before wiping his face.

"No, not you, Evan. Sorry, I hear your name and remember my brother so sometimes I feel like I'm talking to my brother." This made the technician's heart leap as he thought he had been found out for a moment.

"Did… did you normally talk like this with him?" Evan asked nervously, knowing the answer to his question. Michael shook his head.

"We didn't ever truly talk. I talked down to him, bullied him, made his life a living nightmare. Never did we sit down and get to know each other but when I talk to you, it's like I'm talking to someone I'm close with." Silence had surrounded them both for a few moments until the night guard cleared his throat. "Sorry if that's weird." Evan quickly corrected him.

"No no, I just… was thinking the same honestly. I… I remember only blips of my childhood but the people I remember the most were my family. Of course no one treated me particularly well except my father but… It wasn't a healthy relationship." Michael understood.

"Mine was the same. Not mentioning Evan, my father was a demon and my sister wanted to be loved by him. She was always jealous of her younger brother who had his full love and attention more than anyone else in the world. Even my mother couldn't have competed if she was alive." Michael moved to look at Evan, seriousness worn on his face. "That is the kind of person Elizabeth was and that's the kind of person Baby is. She was terrible in life and only became worse in death." There had been so much information at once and, while some stuff he thought he heard earlier from Michael, getting a sudden confirmation that Baby was his sister was jarring to him.

"Wait… Baby is… Lizzy?" Evan realized he slipped, Michael looking at him in surprise. "I mean, I heard William talking about her when I was trapped down there for so long, so that's what I knew her by but… are you sure?" Michael nodded.

"Yes, she even recognized me in the end. I think at first before she sc-co-" Michael stopped himself, coughing a bit. "Sorry, that word seems to be very sensitive right now, especially since she's alive. She used my body to find our father, who had been dead and reanimated at this point in time. Even after telling her so, she refused to believe me. So what I am saying is…" Michael fully turned to Evan. "Please, please, watch out for her. She may seem like she changed especially since she saved Gregory, but she had been, and probably always will be, a little William Afton." Evan understood what Michael had been saying.

Elizabeth could always be mean around the edges, especially when she didn't get what she wanted. To Evan, though, she was like a ray of sunshine. She had always come to play with him and cheered him up when he was crying. More than anything else, she made Evan feel loved. It wasn't the creepy, overwhelming love that William tried to fill his heart with but the warm, smooth and comforting love that came with family, the same love he tried to show all the animatronics in his home. Though, Evan listened intently to Michael for he had seen more than anyone else 'alive'.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind." Michael nodded, moving his body back into a comfortable position before speaking up again.

"So what else happened down there?" Evan decided to begin at the start and tell it all the way through, leaving in even the part where he started freaking out and what Foxy's group had seen on the other side, while Michael sat there and listened, his expression ever changing.

"As far as I see it, there's three concerning parts to this story." Michael said, holding up his fingers. "First off, your freakouts. I have them, too, but yours seem to be purely from trauma my father has afflicted on you. The thing I wasn't expecting was for you to get the purple eyes as well."

"Well, it's not just me. It's Mangle, too." Said Evan, making Michael's concern grow.

"That's… concerning all on its own. I suggest having someone talk you down from it if you can. Perhaps you and Mangle can be buddies since you both have the same issue, but it works well for me." Evan chuckled at the last part.

"Does Roxy talk you down normally?" Evan said, a smile on his face and in his voice.

"Mmyeap, but I don't like that look on your face." Evan laughed at that before Michael started again on the issues. "The second issue is that woman. While I can't be sure seeing as I've seen things filled with Remnant fall apart from less, I'd say she's still alive. Promise me you'll keep me posted if you see her. There's a good chance that she may come to the Pizzaplex again or somewhere filled with children. If we can catch her, I know where to bring her." Evan nodded, but Michael continued. "Though, I think it's weird that she just… changed faces the way she did. I know that Carver had been cutting faces for her, but you would see some sort of stitching or something…"

"Perhaps Carver gave her Remnant knowing that it would eventually help put the face on like it was real."

"The issue is that Carver would need to know where to get it and, as far as I know, you can only get it from specific places and they're all locked down or impossible to get to now." Evan shook his head.

"I'm uncertain, but maybe we can talk to Carver before he gets shipped out to go to prison?" Michael nodded his head.

"If he's still there. Though, I'm most concerned about the last issue." Michael pointed at the last finger he had standing up. "Whatever that was that broke out of the lab did not seem to be human. There's a good possibility that it could've been an animatronic, but there's no proof about that so I'm hoping that it happened a long time ago and has dropped somewhere to die." Evan quickly nodded in agreement.

"Perhaps Foxy, Baby or Gregory saw something in there that we didn't see. He didn't finish explaining everything as he's trying to recover from the wound he got from Susie." A beep happened from Michael's watch as he checked it, sighing a bit heavily.

"Sorry to cut it short, but my shift will start soon enough and I forgot the card game I was supposed to bring at home so…" He stood up, Evan following suit, before holding out his hand. "Call me if you need anything and, uh…" Michael scratched the back of his head, "sorry for the freakout earlier. Normally they don't get that bad."

"It's okay. I feel like that'd be calm in comparison to what I'd do if I was scooped out for my own sister to live in my skin." Michael shook his head.

"It's creepy when you say it like that."

"It's creepy in general, Michael." Michael chuckled a bit before moving towards his car.

"Anyways, take care and goodnight." Like that, they parted and Evan continued to sit on the stairs, looking out at the stars. Even being in a residential area, the stars came out quite well. It wasn't long before he felt another presence floating beside him and leaning against him. Evan wrapped his arm around the puppet, who nested her head into his shoulder. They both basked in each other's warmth, gazing at the stars. Chara entwined her hand with his and kissed it back of his, making the man smile.

Evan had so much to worry about but he could forget about the problems for tonight. He had lots of time to think about it tomorrow and those who loved him dearly who'd be willing to help him. He knew he wasn't alone.

-SB-

Mangle smacked Foxy across the face, hard, her eyes filled with rage. It had been very rare that Mangle ever felt angry, much less taking out her negative feelings physically, but what the pirate fox had done to her was extremely inexcusable and made her feel unnecessary and used.

"You dare hang out with me just for information?" Mangle said, her voice raised loudly. "You dare use me when I am concerned and excited for you? You finally get your body back and we get to hang out for the first time in years and what do you do? You use me to fulfill your own cheap, personal goals. You disgust me, Foxy. I thought we were family." Foxy had moved closer, trying to take her hand but missed as she pulled it back from him, crossing her arms.

"Lass, you know that wasn't my overall goal." Foxy said, his accent dropped. The pirate fox couldn't think properly as what she said had matched up quite truly. He was as selfish as she said he was, but he couldn't help himself. "You know I wanted to spend time with you, too, but I was worried. Lillie means the world to me and there would be nothing I wouldn't do for her." The small doll blushed at the nearby table, watching the scene unfold. She stayed out of it for the simple reason of not knowing what she'd do even if she did butt in.

"Oh, so she means so much to you that you have to be underhanded with your family?"

"Mangle, my dear sister, if Evan were in peril somewhere and you had to do the same thing, what would you do?" This only made the pink fox angrier.

"This and that are two different things. I understand you wanted to save her but YOU. LIED." She stuck her finger out, pushing his nose in with both words. "You lied to Evan, you lied to Chara and you lied to me. You could have just come out and told us what you were thinking but nooo!" She threw her arms up. "You had to be the solo captain foxy we always knew you to be. You haven't changed one bit and even now you aren't relying on us." Chara moved between the two of them, realizing that the arguing wasn't getting anywhere.

"Okay, okay. Let's calm down for a minute and just talk." Chara turned to Mangle. "Mangle, I understand how you feel. I may not be as pissed as you are but you also have to look at it like this. If Foxy hadn't gone there today, would we have Gregory, Lillie or our new friend Baby here? His rashness saved us time when we were all too afraid to peel the band-aid off for Evan and help him the way we should've done. He saved a lot of lives today simply by being the idiot that he is." Mangle nodded at this fact, looking a bit meek. Chara simply petted her head and smiled before moving to turn towards Foxy, eyes full of rage.

"And you." She pointed towards Foxy, who had realized he was out the pot and straight into the fire. "You could've said something. I was looking for some sort of excuse to check on the same thing haunting Evan's dreams for weeks now and it had only gotten worse to this point because we left it unchecked. While that's besides the point and I don't blame you for our shortcomings, I blame you for the lying you've done and the underhanded tactics of abusing all of our kindness and feelings to fuel your selfish desires. If we hadn't been down there, Katherine would've died because of you! Not only that, but there was a good possibility that none of you guys would have made it out of that place. Worst of all, you made your sister cry and yet you still are trying to save face by arguing with her?" Chara made a disgusted noise, turning away from the pirate captain. "I'm disgusted. I don't want to see you 'til you get your shit together and apologize properly to your sister." With that, Chara floated quickly upstairs, leaving the two foxes together with each other.

Foxy had felt incredibly bad when he viewed it from their side of things. Perhaps truly if he just asked for help instead of acting alone, it would've gone smoother. The pirate fox opened his mouth before closing it, realizing he didn't feel the proper words coming up and thought for a moment before opening his mouth again.

"Mangle, I-... I'm sorry, sister." Said Foxy, dropping his head in shame. "I thought it would be best if I could come in and save Lillie like a superhero and be back before anyone truly missed me, but I didn't take into account your guy's feelings. I will reflect on my actions and think about doing rash things a bit more before doing them in the future, okay? I truly apologize." Mangle looked at Foxy before speaking.

"...Don't you know how much worse you could've been hurt?" Mangle said, throwing Foxy off heavily. "Don't you realize that we could have never seen you ever again? You just walk out one day and leave a note on the counter like it's okay, but it isn't. I would miss you so much if I lost you again, Foxy, that I would stay up every night crying as I thought about how I could never see you again." Foxy came in with a hug as tears dripped down the pink fox's cheeks. "...Don't you ever leave us again like that or I'll have to wait until Evan puts you back together so I can rip you apart…" He chuckled at that last comment for a second until he realized it wasn't a joke.

Perhaps the pirate fox would think twice before doing anything this rash ever again.

-SB-

Michael had made it to work with an extra 20 minutes to spare feeling extremely tired. It wasn't often he reverted to his old self nor was it almost ever that violent since he's been working in the Pizzaplex. Perhaps he could talk Roxanne into postponing the game for later or another night, but he made a promise to her to spend time with only her tonight so he'd do just that. Upon thinking about the wolf, she was spotted up ahead looking like she was waiting for the night guard. It had become increasingly obvious as Michael got closer.

"You're late." Said Roxanne, looking at him annoyed. Michael checked his watch and it was 19 minutes until his shift was supposed to start.

"Uhh… I think I'm actually early." Said Michael strangely, getting a huff out of the wolf.

"No, you told me you'd be back in just a minute."

"...So? I came back."

"It was longer than a minute, Mike." The night guard mentally facepalmed as he realized she actually expected him back in a literal minute.

"Rox, it's just a saying."

"Michael, you are the one who said it. How are you going to back out of it now?" Michael sighed for a moment before continuing.

"Look, wolfie. I had something important to do and then I went home to grab the card set you wanted to play last night." He showed her the box, but Roxanne was determined.

"You went to go see that technician girl, didn't you?" Said Roxanne, throwing off Michael quite a bit. What she said had been completely out of left field.

"Wha-, no." Michael said, rubbing his face in weariness. "You know I went by Evan's house."

"Only for Evan?" Michael nodded.

"Yes, I went there to check something out."

"Was it that technician lady?" Michael started getting tired of Roxanne bringing up the girl, so he decided to be blunt.

"Evan had met my sister." MIchael said, straight faced as he could. Roxanne was shocked, multiple emotions cycling through her face all too quick to see.

"Isn't your sister dead?" Said Roxanne with a confused look.

"Yes, but he found something that belonged to my sister. Something that I thought I got rid of but returned." Michael had looked away, his eyes became unfocused as he thought about Baby again. He really hoped that Evan was right about her because as much as he didn't like his sister, she was supposed to be family. If he had a choice, he would want his sister to live and get by without her father, but it never seemed like a choice. Roxanne saw the expression on Michael's face, thinking he was freaking out, and grabbed his arm.

"Mike." She called out to him, shaking him roughly out of his thoughts. "Are you freaking out? Did what happened earlier freak you out?"

"No, I mean… Yes, but I'm okay now-" Suddenly Roxanne pulled him towards Rockstar Row quickly. "Wait, I need to patrol first."

"No, no you don't. Every time I pull my eyes away from you, you're getting hurt so you're following me." Michael sighed at this, knowing that she meant well for him but it had been sudden.

At least he'd get some rest. Perhaps Roxanne will fall asleep on him again and allow him to make up for the rest the puppet stole earlier that day.

-SB-

Mangle crawled into bed next to Evan, who was going to be sleeping in the middle tonight, hugging herself into him tightly. Evan didn't mind that they all shared a bed, but the sleeping arrangements always changed around when they did. As long as they're happy, I'm happy. Thought the technician as Chara also climbed into bed, resting her body on his free side. He wrapped his arms, one each, around both of the girls before Chara set the light out with her string, plunging them into darkness.

The warmth from their bodies mingling together had been comforting for them all as the day they had was an extremely tiring one so they all needed some reprieve from the dark, cold outside world. Evan had been thankful for both of them as they were his shining lights in this cruel, bleak place. The house was fine, so was the city. He enjoyed the people who surrounded him and he enjoyed what he did for work, but he knew that his outlook on life would've been drastically different if it wasn't for these two.

He kissed them both on the head, receiving small noises from each as he did so, before resting his head back down and closing his eyes. Perhaps tomorrow was going to be a good day. Gregory had finally been found and was now safe. They'd have to clean up his room and put better security on the windows to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again but, strangely, he felt he had no reason to fret about that.

Baby had been here with them and she seemed pretty attached to Gregory. To think she was the Lizzy Evan used to know, it felt impossible yet it made sense. She had the same speech, though a bit more robotic and mature in nature, along with the same cold and calculative speeches she used to give to Michael when they were both alive. While Evan may have not fought back versus the abusive, young Michael, Lizzy did on his behalf. There had been times Lizzy went as far to do things to get Michael punished by father, which probably fueled his hatred for Evan quite a bit, and yet Michael had seemed regretful for his actions in the past wishing he could make up for it if possible. Evan was scared to say anything about being his younger brother, but their relationship now was good.

On a separate note, Evan never heard why Katherine took Foxy out on a dangerous expedition in the first place. Just from an idea alone, he figured that maybe he promised to tell her about her father in some way. From the way the break-in story sounded, she loved her grandfather very dearly along with his obsession with animatronics. Evan hadn't been around when Mangle was created, so there was a large possibility that he didn't know who it was but curiosity made him want to know a bit more.

After sorting out his thoughts, Evan realized that he should get some sleep lest he wanted to be tired in the morning. He'd wake up early and make a big breakfast for the girls and hopefully be able to pick up Gregory. Perhaps tomorrow was the day off everyone needed.

Evan hoped things would calm down for a while, knowing very well it wouldn't happen. There was too much going on and not enough problems answered. Though, it wouldn't stop him from trying to enjoy his life with his girls.

Maybe it will be peaceful for at least tomorrow.

-SB-

Footsteps and a beam of light protruded the quiet and dark place, not quite drowned out by the rushing of water nearby. The man had tracked the signal all the way there and, while he had hoped that the specimen was alive, he couldn't exactly be pleased with the outcome.

Soon, showing up in the beam's vision, there had been the bloodied and mangled corpse of the person they came to find. Her body was flattened a bit from what seemed to be a fall, but all of this was under calculations. The man sighed, knowing that his hands were going to be full with this one but he didn't fear too much for his plans had already been moving quite smoothly.

He could deal with one rough patch if he must. All for the sake of the future.

-SB-

At her home, Vandana had been working furiously on an idea she had all day. She knew it was probably best to get some sleep or even freshen up for tomorrows' date, but the thought of not working on her project ate at her mind so even when she stopped, she soon came back to it with a vengeance.

Her fingers were covered in bandages from all the mishaps with the needle. Vandana was nowhere as good as she wanted to be with this, but this sudden project gave her joy for some reason as the more she worked on it, the better she felt. It was so amazing working on something other than just work or schooling for the first time in a very long time that it had felt almost freeing.

The woman held up her handiwork towards the kitchen light, thinking that her stitching was getting a lot better the more she worked on it. She set it down, scratching the side of her head where a cut had shown up. Perhaps she banged her head when playing hide and go seek tag with the Glamrock crew. It made sense it would've happened then since they all played a bit rough and hard to get to the point that she couldn't feel anything but soreness when she left this morning.

Perhaps it needed something. The cream color didn't fit well alone and so she had an idea. Perhaps adding some extra color to it would make it look better. The woman left the table to find something to fit the costume. Maybe she would have it done by Halloween but she'd have to try.

Perhaps the bunny ears could use some jazzing up, too.

-SB-

Wire Baby couldn't get something out of her head. A lot had gone on in the past 24 hours to the point that she felt lucky she was still functioning, not just because of Susie but Michael really had issues he still hadn't worked out quite yet. Well, it was none of her problem what her older brother thought of her but she did realize something was weird. Baby opened her mouth, calling out to Foxy once again that night, who had been watching TV instead of resting like he said he would.

"Foxy." Called out Baby, receiving a deep sigh from the pirate captain as he turned to look at her.

"What could ye possibly want tis time, lass?" Whined Foxy. "It be too late in ta night fer this."

"Yes, I apologize, but there's something I can't quite wrap my head around. Who is Evan exactly?"

"He be a good lad, Evan be. Why don' ye ask fer yerself? I'm sure when wakes up, he can answer all yer questions." The female animatronic hummed a bit, liking that idea. Perhaps she would have to bother the technician tomorrow once it becomes a reasonable time. It was weird that Michael had been alive in front of her again when he should have died in the trap of his own making.

It was also weird that a man named Evan who looked a lot like her father had been walking around with animatronics. Perhaps she was getting old, but something felt weird in her wires and her hunch told her to keep pressing forward.

Maybe her father wasn't too long gone after all.

---

Authors Notes

I want to tell you that this chapter took a long time to write because I just wasn't satisfied with a lot of scenes in it so I kept rewriting and rewriting. It was worth it in the end because I feel like I did everything I needed to for this chapter and it's much more enjoyable to read.

On another note, I did art for Chara which can be found on my discord server. Link will be above, just make sure to follow the directions above as links get auto-deleted from the editor as soon as you create it.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see yall in the next one!