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.

11. Chapter 11

Authors Notes

Crazy stuff happened in the last chapter, but while I was writing the last chapter, I got a lot of feedback.

Apparently, the quality of my first 5 chapters aren't as great as I'd like them to be. Many of you have pointed out a lot of things I seemed to overlook and I'll need to go back to fix them. At some point before I go back to school this Fall semester, I'll fix them (maybe, 0 promises).

Speaking of which, I'll be much busier in a month's time due to heading back to college so the rate of chapters will start to slow down quite a bit. Probably wouldn't normally matter but I'm trying to finish about 4 semester's worth of work in 2-3 semesters.

Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

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The Tortoise and The Hare

It had been bright and early in the Nafto household, much earlier than anyone taking a day off would sanely wake up, when Evan was jolted from his slumber. Unlike most other nights where his dreams were plagued by past memories and machinations of the horrors that the man desperately tried to ward off, he had slept quite peacefully. So peacefully that he felt a smile plastered on his face the moment he woke up but, weirdly, it wasn't the only thing plastered to his face.

Mangle is a very cuddly person, so much so that grabbing those nearby in her sleep and wrapping herself around them like she was attempting to keep hold of them for dear life wasn't unheard of. This morning wasn't any different as Mangle had held Evans' head in her arms, her chest being used as a pillow, and snuggled her chin to the top of his head. The man had woken up in the past like this plenty of times, sometimes unable to breathe, though Mangle wasn't the only one this morning clinging to him.

Chara had pressed up against Evan's side with her back while wrapping her arms around his right arm, cuddling it with the soft care of her curved body. This entire situation, along with his position in all of this, had felt a bit comical. Perhaps he wasn't heavy enough for Mangle to be a bother and being squished against the soft places on Mangle and Chara wasn't so bad for the technician either, especially with how blissful they both seemed.

Evan had zero intention of actually moving right now. It was very rare that they all had a day to just sleep in with Evan going to work almost everyday for the past few years, even rarer that they got to sleep in together. The last thing he wanted to do was to interrupt the girl's sleep after all the things they've gone through in the past few days. Though, the thought of his body touching up against theirs reminded him of how self-conscious of them he'd been after remodeling them. Never did he think that Chara would've asked for what she did.

-SB-

Evan and Trevor's business had been booming. What had once been known as the warm family owned repair shop had now turned into a bigger store with dozens of people with large orders in and out of the store everyday. At this time, there had been a few workers other than the two co-owners, but they were working on the bigger orders as they came in. With all the extra money Evan had made from this, he wanted to show his appreciation for his two animatronic family members who stuck through thick and thin with him.

Firstly, he bought a house. It had been a 2 story house, which included the basement, and a decently large lawn with a taller fence so that both Mangle and Chara could come outside anytime they wanted to without being peeped on. The basement was renovated into a workshop and while it was a bit basic to start off with, it would work for the repairs or modifications he planned on doing. Neither the puppet nor Mangle was exactly super heavy for the abnormally strong man so a pulley to lift them up was unnecessary.

At this time, Chara had kept her look that she had from the time being in the pizzeria and, while Mangle had been a lot less mangled and had been put back into working order on her two feet, but there had been places where decorational plating was missing from her body. Evan now had the money and means to help the girls change their look if they wished, so he figured it was time to offer. As they settled into the home and got comfy, Evan sprung a question on the two girls one night.

"Girls," Said Evan, pausing the movie they were watching, "what do you two think of getting a serious makeover?" Chara had been resting her head against Evan's shoulder while Mangle laid her head in Chara's lap. They both sat up straight and looked at the man, confused.

"What do you mean, Evan?" Said Chara with a questioning face.

"I mean, I promised you girls that I'd help you live your lives as humanly as possible so why not make you two look more human? If there's something you want me to do, let me know. Though, I do have a few good ideas for Mangle." The excitement jumped onto the female animatronics faces as they realized they could now choose how they could look. Mangle moved over to Evan to talk about the ideas Evan had while the puppet sank into the couch while she started to think.

She really was jealous of some women that she saw while out and about. Perhaps she was more human-looking than her sister, but she'd never be a real woman. While the thought was depressing, perhaps there was something she could do about it.

While waiting for Evan to finish work, she often saw him getting flustered over women with larger proportions. Perhaps she did like the man who saved her and her sister a good bit, she wouldn't ever catch his eyes being a walking stick the way she is but what if she didn't have to be?

A concrete thought had started brewing the puppet's mind as Mangle started to come up with solid plans for her look with Evan.

"...I want my body to be fuzzy like an actual fox." Said Mangle as Evan quickly jotted the notes down on his notepad. "I want to still be very human-like, but also still be fuzzy and cuddly and cute. I saw some suits that humans wore that reminded me of how I want to look, but I wanna be slimmer." Evan nodded his head, unsure about the furry suits or what they entailed.

"I'm not sure what those suits are, but if you want to look like that I think I can make it work." He stopped writing before looking over to Chara who was deep in thought. "Chara, do you need more time? We're in no rush, so don't feel pressured into answering right now." Chara nodded before getting up and heading to her room. Not too long after, she came back out with an electronic tablet and showed her a picture of a pretty decently busty woman in black clothes.

"I just want to be curvy." Chara said meekly, realizing how embarrassing it was to ask this. Evan blinked for a moment doing a double take.

"Uh, are you sure?" Asked Evan, who looked unsure and just as embarrassed. Mangle giggled before skipping out of the room to let the two talk. The pink fox knew all about her sister's love for the man, along with her jealousy of curvy women, so when the moment was right for it, she'd leave them some space for them to have time alone. Chara had blushed madly as she avoided her gaze from Evan.

"Y-yes, I wanted to look more like a real woman. I think it would make me sexy." She blushed even harder as the last word left her mouth, making Evan blush as well.

"Uhm, alright. I did say anything, I suppose, but I think you look pretty as you are." Chara's heart jumped and she attempted to shrink in on herself. She knew she had partially wanted to do this for Evan, but she really was jealous about how beautiful these women she saw were and the sad realization that she couldn't grow any sort of curves naturally.

"T-thanks, but… I wanna do this!" She steeled herself and looked at the man with a determined face. Evan sighed and wrote down on his notepad.

"If you change your mind or have any specifics you'd like to add, just tell me. I have a general idea of how to give you two human-like bodies either way from this knowledge floating in my head." Chara gave him a worried look.

"The knowledge you were saying might be from your father?" Evan nodded. Originally, they were scared about this knowledge when he started looking deeper into the memories. After all, memories are what make up your personality as a person so having more memories owned by a psychopathic murderer floating around in his head should have changed him.

"I think it will be fine. While he wasn't a great person and some of his memories are horribly fuzzy or just incomplete, I remember he made schematics for seamless, life-like animatronics before. It's like he was trying to create life or something…" Chara rubbed his shoulder, comforting the man.

"Do you think you will be successful with us?" Evan nodded.

"Weirdly enough, I feel like I could do this in my sleep. It'll be fine. I have everything we need to be successful in my head so all we need now is faith." Naturally, Evan would have to do some more testing to double and triple check because he wouldn't dare risk it with these two. Nothing was more important to him than Chara and Mangle.

Even if it meant dipping into this reservoir of memories that weren't all that pleasant to 'remember'.

-SB-

Both Mangle and Chara turned out well at the end after working out specific details. With the addition of Remnant, everything had been fitted quite wonderfully and the girl's love their looks. The only person who ever asked for more was Mangle.

Mangle hadn't originally requested any on her chest but after listening to Chara, she wanted a small sized chest as well. Not that Evan minded as they currently served as a wonderful pillow for the man. It had been at this moment it seemed that Mangle woke up from her own slumber.

The pink fox stretched her back a bit before looking down at Evan's head, smiling. The man could feel one of her hands move from his head to his hair, fingers going through it with ease. Mangle loved waking up to her two favorite people like this, but she could feel herself being a tad bit hungry. Hopefully Evan wakes up soo- Thought Mangle before her stomach growled, interrupting her thought process. It was then she heard, and felt, something embarrassing.

Evan was suppressing a laugh, chuckling and moving slightly on Mangle, but it was all for naught since she could feel him laughing slightly. The pink fox blushed madly as she realized she showed something embarrassing to Evan.

"You're awake?! "Mangle whispered quietly, attempting to not wake up the puppet. Evan nodded into her chest.

"What would you like to eat?" Evan whispered back, making her blush even harder.

"It'll be your head I eat if you don't forget what just happened!" Evan chuckled at this.

"You won't be the first person to bite my head. Besides, who'll make you those pancakes you love oh so very much if you bite my head off?"

"I'll make you both into pancakes if you two don't stop disturbing my sleep." Called Chara semi-loudly as she wrapped herself tighter around Evan's arm. This made both of them snicker. They all simply laid there and enjoyed each other's company and touch.

Perhaps staying together like this a bit longer wasn't such a bad thing. Though, Mangle's stomach had other ideas about this.

-SB-

For Mike, the first part of his night had been pretty usual. After Roxanne took them back to her room and they cuddled and napped for a few hours, they decided that now would be the best time to start playing their card game. After gathering everyone who wanted to play, they had everyone in the recreation room ready to play.

"So," started Michael as he began to explain the game, "the way this game works is that we all take turns being the Card Czar. When you are the Card Czar, you pull a black card which is meant to be the prompt and everyone else has to use white cards to fill the blanks. Each player can have 7 cards at a time and you draw anytime you have less than 7 cards. Any questions?" Chica's hand was the first to go up.

"Uhm," said the bird who was sitting between Trudge and Friendo, "how do we win?"

"So, the Card Czar will pick who's card they like the most and you get a point each time you win. Let's just say… 5 points to win." Chica smiled, understanding.

"Wow, ya really know ya stuff, Mike-a-like!" Said Monty, slapping him on the shoulder. The night guard looked sheepishly at him as he hid the rules card.

"I'm a master at this." Michael said, receiving an eye roll from Roxanne.

"Not when I'm done with you, Corpse." Said Roxanne, her competitive spirit fired up.

"I was the best at this before I graduated." Said Trudge, throwing in his two cents as he was eating on something. Michael started at his hand a bit closer.

"Is that… a rib?" Asked the night guard. The younger man simply chewed and nodded.

"Me and Chica Beeka here made ribs yesterday when I was teaching her how to cook." Chica nodded, looking excited.

"We made a lot of food yesterday!" Said the bird animatronic before Trudge pulled out a bag of ribs drenched in BBQ sauce.

"Want one? I also have potato salad in my other pocket." Michael shook his head, unsure how he felt about the younger man carrying around a whole ass meal in his pockets.

"I think I'll have to pass." Trudge shrugged, continuing to eat his ribs with one hand. Freddy had been on the other side of Monty, shuffling the cards for them before passing them out.

"I believe it's only fair if Michael starts off as the Card Czar to show us how it's done." Said Freddy, sliding the deck of black cards over to the man. Mike sighed as he grabbed the first one, reading it mentally before reading it out loud.

"What do old people smell like?" Michael was glad the first one was pretty tame. He heard that the cards got pretty wild, but he wasn't sure to what extent exactly.

Roxanne had snickered next to him, putting an upside down card on the table. Quietly, and with some mixed reactions, the group placed their cards on the table. Most of them looked pretty happy or like they were holding back laughter. Perhaps this was going to go better than Michael hoped.

It was when the night guard started reading out the card options that the shit hit the fan and he realized the true nature of the game.

Maybe he should have researched the types of games Roxanne recommended a bit better before buying it.

-SB-

Everyone, except Baby, was at the dinner table, munching away at the large amount of eggs, bacon and french toast cooked by Evan and Chara as the phone began to ring on the counter. The man had an idea of who it could be so he excused himself to answer the phone.

"Hello?" Said Evan, answering the phone as he walked down to his workshop. He turned on the lights and headed to his desk while Baby peeped.

"Is this Mr. Nafto?" Said a familiar voice, which had belonged to Dr. Lohk.

"Yes it is. Good morning." Said Evan as he sat down at the desk.

"I called to update you on the two patients you dropped off last night. Ms. Katherine Beal had gone home last night while Mr. Gregory McGregor… well, why don't we start from the beginning of the issues, hm?" Something stuck out to the man and he couldn't help but ask.

"McGregor… the same last of that famous couple of actors that moved out here years ago?" Evan asked but half expected to not get an answer.

"Well… I can't tell you any specifics, but yes. Perhaps you should ask the boy for more information. I would rather not lose my medical license today. On that note, let's talk about Gregory." The man cleared his throat before continuing on.

"After some examinations, as long as you feed him proper nutrition and make sure he takes medication, he'll fully recover from his malnutrition. Though, there's a bigger issue present. When doing the scans on him, we discovered a tracking device surgically implanted in his leg and seeing as there's nothing saying about it on his files, I can guess it's not a legal implant so we may have to contact the authorities to open an investigation."

There had been a lot to digest in this update and, while some had been not so great news, there had been one piece of news that explained a lot. Evan wondered how Susie had found Gregory so quickly but he wouldn't have thought it was a tracking implant. This brought another unknown issue that he didn't think of before. If they had Remnant and were actively using it, was it possible that they used it on Gregory? Using Remnant on living people could potentially save their life while making them immortal but there were a lot of complications especially in the long term.

"Is there any way we could just… not do that?" Evan said, scratching his head. "I think that would bring a lot of unnecessary trouble to everyone involved." There was a bit of silence following the question before a carefully said sentence was spoken.

"We… oughta talk in person." Said Dr. Lohk hesitantly. "Visiting hours start in an hour and a half so come meet me then. I should have some time to talk to you in my office." Evan hummed in agreement.

"I may bring the girls if you don't mind."

"As long as they don't disrupt the flow of things here, then it oughta be fine. Everyone in town knows you three well anyways so there shouldn't be any problems." It had been true. In the 10 years he had been living here, Evan made a name for himself in the way of fixing things that were previously hard or seemingly impossible to fix as work around the city to make money and eventually advertise his business. Of course at this time Mangle and Chara had been with him and, while some people were very cautious of the animatronics at first, they were deemed safe, wonderful and even very life-like. It wasn't a secret that Evan lived for the two of them but the misunderstanding was that he created them.

"Alright, I'll be out there before too long. Don't work too hard, Dr. Lohk." After a hum and a farewell, they ended communication. Baby nearby heard everything on both sides and had concern for the small boy as she felt a certain connection with the young boy.

"Evan." Called the sweet voice of Wire Baby, making the man turn to look at her. Something Evan realized after having her spend time by herself down here was she could technically move by herself but it seemed like she didn't move unless she needed to. Controlling a bundle of wires as a body didn't seem to be the easiest thing ever. "Is Gregory going to be okay?" Evan nodded, rubbing his face a bit.

"Yeah, he'll be fine. Hopefully I just have to straighten some things out and pick him up along with some meds. He'll be safe here." Baby made a humming sound before speaking out again.

"What's your relationship with Michael?" She said suddenly. "Your last name doesn't sound the same as ours but you look like my father…" A violent, disgusted feeling rushed through Evan's body upon hearing the last part, making him gag. Baby's eyes widened as Evan turned back to her with disgusted eyes.

"You do know the absolutely vile things o-... your father did, right?" Baby nodded as much as she could. "Yet you're still pursuing him?" Baby gave a confused look.

"What could you mean?" Evan shook his head.

"Baby, Michael told me exactly how much you loved your father and the lengths you went through in order to see him. You don't think I'm your father or something, do you?" Baby giggled.

"No, silly! Of course father dearest is dead, but I know you aren't dumb. I mean, you can't be. You're leading all these animatronics and repairing them like you were born for this… which brings up a weird question." Evan wasn't quite catching on.

"I'm not quite understanding very well, Baby." She rolled her eyes.

"Your name is Evan, like my little brother." The pieces suddenly snapped into place as she said this, making Evan freeze up. "You don't happen to be my little brother do you?" The room became stunningly quiet as they both stared at each other. Is it that obvious? Evan thought to himself as he tried to process an answer in his mind.

Perhaps he could admit to it then and there. It would make some things a lot easier especially since she was the nicer part of the family that he remembered. Paired along with the fact he hated keeping secrets like this that would eventually bite him in his ass if or when they were found out, this idea was sounding tempting. Yet… he felt Michael's advice from yesterday echoed in his head like a foreboding sign.

Maybe it was best to lie his way out of this. Even if she was suspicious of him being related to her, it shouldn't have any real impact on his life. After realizing he needed to keep his journal locked up tightly since leaving it about was nearly disastrous, he knew there wasn't much in the house that could link him back to his father and he really doubted that any of the animatronics would say something about him without checking with him first. Evan realized it was suspicious to think this long and opened his mouth to answer before he was saved gracefully.

"Evaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" Cried Mangle as she moved quickly down the stairs and into the workshop, Chara following closely behind. Evan mentally thanked his girls for saving him from a difficult situation as he turned to them.

"Is something wrong?" Mangle nodded her head.

"I ran out of orange fabric!" Mangle whined, looking a bit downtrodden. Evan looked a bit confused.

"I bought you new ones though. Did I forget to tell you?" Mangle instantly perked up as the man pointed at a nearby drawer. She dashed over to it before rummaging through it, pulling out a spool of glittery orange fabric. Mangle gasped in surprise before running back over to Evan and hugging him tightly.

"Oh thank you! You're always saving the day." Chara smiled behind her, hugging both of them before mimicking Mangle.

"My hero!~" Said Chara with Mangle's voice, making the pink fox gasp and blush a bit.

"Hey! I don't sound like that!" She pouted, making Evan laugh.

"Alright, that's enough, girls." Said Evan as he held both of them close. "I'm going to go to the hospital here soon. Either of you want to come with me?" Mangle shook her head.

"I need to work on my costume. It won't be too long before Halloween arrives!" Said Mangle. Chara nodded.

"I'll come with you." Said Chara as she smiled at Evan. "Besides, this 'princess' here needs time away from my shenanigans for a bit." Mangle rolled her eyes.

"You're just jealous I went on a date with Evan yesterday while you were stuck with stinky Michael." Teased Mangle.

"Next time, I'll make sure to tell Michael that you want him to pat your head." Mangle's eyes narrowed.

"You wouldn't dare." Evan simply chuckled, shaking his head as he was being hung onto and sat on while they were arguing.

"Girls, leave that poor man alone." Said Evan as he patted Mangle's head, receiving a nice noise from her, and rubbing Chara's back. "You probably will make the guy sleep with a taser under his pillow. The last thing I need to hear is him blaming you two for shocking himself in his sleep." The girls snickered at the thought. Mangle pulled back from the embrace first, smiling at the two.

"Well, I got things to do. Byeeeeee." And with that, the pink fox dashed upstairs and left the two alone. Atleast, that's how they felt as they basked in each other's presence, Chara sitting on Evan's lap and staring up at him, until Baby cleared her throat right behind them.

"I don't mean to ruin your moment, but I still haven't gotten an answer to my question." Said Baby, who stared at the man impatiently. As much as Evan wanted to say this was rude, it had reminded him too much of how she acted when she was still Elizabeth. It made him feel a bit nostalgic so he opened his mouth to answer, but not before the puppet did.

"What was the question?" Chara asked, looking up at Evan. He felt his partner trying to help him out a bit, so he played along.

"Well, Baby thinks I'm her younger brother. I was trying to figure out how to convince her that I'm not related to her." Chara laughed a bit.

"Didn't Michael's little brother die from getting his head crushed in Fredbear's mouth?" Baby hadn't heard this before since she died before Evan did, so the news was shocking.

"Yeah. That's why I couldn't understand why she thinks it's me. I'm obviously still alive and too young to be him even if he somehow survived."

"Wait!" Blurted Baby, her eyes staring at Evan. "My little brother died?" Evan nodded.

"Yep. I don't know the full details, but I heard how Michael said it was his fault it happened." Baby had an unblinking look, staring more at Evan until she closed her eyes for a minute.

"I apologize, but could I be left alone for a few minutes?" Evan nodded, picking up Chara in his arms like a bride, making the puppet blush.

"Of course. We'll be leaving soon so if you need anything, ask Foxy or Mangle. They should be able to help you." Baby said nothing and the two made their way out of the basement and headed towards the master bedroom.

"I sorta feel bad for her." Said Chara who was still laying in her human's arms.

"Well, I can't let her figure out it's me just yet." Said Evan, who just made it into the bedroom and closed the doors behind them. "I wish I could tell if she was some sort of threat or not, but she obviously cherishes Gregory, but the things she did to Michael in the past were…" He didn't finish as he laid down on his back in bed, resting the puppet on his chest.

"I thought you needed to leave." Said Chara, who wasn't unhappy with the situation but still wanted the best for Evan.

"I just want to spend a few minutes alone with my puppet girl." Evan said, stroking Chara's cheek. She smiled and put a hand softly to the back of the one on her mask, staring lovingly at him.

Mangle recently had a lot of alone time with her human and she didn't mind sharing him with her sister, but it wasn't until now that she realized how much she missed their one on one sessions like this where they just held and loved each other, not caring about anything going on outside of just the two of them.

Evan did have to leave soon, but he knew there were a few minutes until he should get up. He'd make up time with Chara when he could because they never knew what life would throw at them.

Hopefully nothing. Evan thought as he held his puppet partner tightly. Neither of them believed in a god, but if Heaven was real, it would feel something like what they had going on.

-SB-

The card game was banned from being played in the pizzeria almost as fast as they began to play. After Freddy questioned his card and the point of having two male crouches 'kissing' each other, it had been obvious what type of game it was.

While most people at the table didn't care and, in fact, enjoyed a bit of dark humor, Freddy made a solid point, making all of us agree that the card game shouldn't be played here.

"We are children's entertainers." Said Freddy after giving up the game. "We should be getting influence from positive, more kid friendly sources." The Glamrock crew agreed on it and the game had been discontinued. Weirdly enough, if the game had gone on long enough, Friendo would have won. The cards in his hand were some of the best picks, though he probably didn't fully understand a single card there.

Either way, Roxanne wasn't the happiest about the game not going as well as planned, stomping behind Michael as they made their way back to her room.

"I understand why we shouldn't play it, but I still wanna play it!" Said the upset wolf.

"Well, it's a game for adults with dark humor." Michael said, shrugging it off.

"Well, I have dark humor! Why can't I play it?" The night guard sighed a bit.

"Maybe we can play with Evan at a later date." Roxanne was silent as she thought about the pros and cons about hanging around that group again. She had a lot of fun hanging out with Evan and Mangle, even though the pink fox could be a bit mouthy at times. Not only that, but she thought that Evan's relationship with the puppet and the pink fox were weird.

"Mike," Roxanne suddenly said, catching the night guard's attention, "what do you think of Evan's relationship with his two animatronics?" Michael looked back at the wolf weirdly.

"That was out of nowhere." Said Michael, before poking fun at her. "Are you jealous of them?" Roxanne huffed before swinging and narrowly missing Mike. "Wait Rox-!" Another swipe was barely missed as the wolf kept her onslaught going.

"I'll friggin' knock your head off if you keep saying that!" Said Roxanne angrily as she swiped one last time, missing again. Michael looked at her weirdly before speaking again.

"I didn't know you felt so strongly about it. Maybe you are jealous after all." It was a 10 minute mad dash across the pizzeria to the cargo dock and outside into the field where Michael ran for his life, dodging swipes, kicks and curses from Roxanne the entire way. Perhaps it was because of the fresh, crisp, cool air of the wee hours of the morning or perhaps the adrenaline finally kicked in, but Michael felt great. It had been at this point Roxanne was charging him, dead set on tackling him to the ground.

"Rox, let's talk about this!" Michael said as he dodged her barely, feeling the wind coming from her fingertips.

"Mike, die!" Shouted Roxanne as she turned around, swiping her hand quickly. The night guard tripped, falling backwards on the ground while Roxanne approached him quickly. He rolled backwards, dodging another swipe, before springing again to his feet.

"You know-" Another swipe, barely missing his face.

"Shut up!" Another swipe missing his midsection.

"But we could-" A swipe narrowly nicked his metal arm, a ringing sound filling the air.

"No! Just no!" Her swipes were scarily becoming more accurate as time went on, making Michael nervous a bit.

"Rox!" Michael said after jumping back some, distancing himself before stopping her. Roxanne stopped, looking at him while panting and sweaty.

"What the fuck do you want? I might as well let you say your last words."

"What's wrong? You've been acting weird for the past while but especially recently. You say it's nothing, but you can't hide it from me, Roxanne." The wolf simply looked at him before looking even more annoyed.

"What's it to you?" Michael had to blink twice, unsure about what he just heard.

"Wha- Rox, you're my best friend. Of course I'm gonna care about you. I care about you more than just about anything else."

"Yet you're so eager to go out on a date with a girl who you've barely known." This sentence hits Michael hard, throwing him off quite a bit.

"Wait, what?" Roxanne huffs, annoyed.

"What did you not understand? You're going on a date with some girl when you supposedly care the most about me."

"Wha-..." Michael looked at her before shaking his head, a chuckle releasing from his mouth. "Rox, I'm not going on a date." She looks at him funnily.

"You're not supposed to lie, Mike!"

"I'm not, though?"

"Then what are you doing with her later tonight?"

"We're just going out to eat… as co-workers." Roxanne physically stopped and the night guard could almost see the cogs working in her head as she processed the data.

"That's not how that works. When a person of the opposite gender asks you out to eat alone, it becomes a date."

"That's not how it works…"

"What would you know? You've never been on a date."

"And neither have you." Roxanne rolled her eyes.

"I read about it. When someone has someone special to them, they tend to spend more time with them slowly and start leaving others behind. That's what it means to be dating." This sounded weird to Michael, but it sorta made sense. If you enjoyed someone's time enough, you'd want to spend even more time with that person.

"But Roxanne, Vandana and I aren't dating."

"But you're going on a date tonight, which starts the dating process, and eventually you'll start spending more and more time with her." It eventually clicked what was going on in her head and Michael facepalmed mentally for not seeing this sooner.

"You think I'm going to leave you behind?" Mike said to Roxanne, who didn't answer. It had been obvious that this was what she was worried about. "Rox… you know I wouldn't leave you, right?"

"That's what everyone says until they start dating and then they go back on their word." The wolf looked away from Michael, sounding a bit sad. This wasn't what the night guard had intended to have happen today. He grabbed her paw, holding it in both of his own hands.

"You know that I'm coming straight here after we eat to spend time with you, right?" Roxanne still looked away, not saying anything. "And it's not a date. I barely know the girl, I just thought it would be nice to get out and interact with others from time to time." The wolf looked back towards the man.

"You mean it?" Michael nodded, sighing.

"If I knew it was going to make you react like this, I wouldn't have accepted dinner with her in the first place. In fact, I can still cancel if I call her." Roxanne turned around and put her hands on his, stopping him from moving to grab his phone.

"Wait!" The Faye shouted, both of them staring at each other. "I… you should still go." This threw Michael off as he didn't understand what was going on in her head. She didn't want him to go originally but now wants him to go?

"I thought you didn't want me to go." Said Michael, looking extra confused.

"I…" Roxanne hesitated as she didn't want him to go, but she also trusted Michael and wanted him to have fun. From the sounds of it, he hasn't experienced a lot of the fun things in life and it would be wrong of her to deny him those experiences. "I want you to go… but you must make me one promise." Michael nodded, figuring it would be something like 'get me this thing' or 'spend time with me'.

"Okay, what is it?"

"You have to take me out to eat dinner, too." A slight blush crept upon the wolf's face as she asked, looking a bit embarrassed. Michael was going to immediately agree, but never did he think Roxanne would ask for that.

"Like… a date?" Asked Mike. Roxanne blushed harder.

"J-just going out to eat or something…" Mike stared at her for a moment before smiling.

"Sure, why not?" Roxanne's face turned into a smile, beaming. She caught herself and raised her nose, flaunting her ego.

"Of course you'd want to eat with such a gorgeous wolf like me!" Michael rolled his eyes.

"Just don't get jealous when Mangle or Chara tell you about their dates. Pretty sure Evan is rich." Roxanne scoffs a bit.

"As if I have any reason to get jealous. I have all that I need here." Michael looked at her funny and she blushed as soon as she realized what she said.

"Yet you were trying to kill me for a good 20 minutes because of jealousy earlier." Roxanne swiped at Michael once again, barely hitting him. She growled at him, a smile still on her face but her looks were more predatory.

"I can still do that." Michael flipped her off and stuck out his tongue.

"Over my dead body." Roxanne ran towards him, swiping often.

"That can be arranged."

They both continued on for a while and it wasn't until they realized it was bright enough that they both needed to stay inside that they both returned. Though, neither of them will admit losing this bout.

-SB-

It took longer than expected for both of the love birds to get to the hospital, so much so that Dr. Lohk was on an early lunch at that point. They had been sitting inside of his office, which was the same size as a small bedroom, while sitting on the other side of the desk from the doctor. Dr. Lohk had been eating something like egg rolls and noodles, which wasn't exactly the healthiest thing that a doctor could eat on their long shifts, but he swore that it was simply just a cheat day.

"So, I'd like to speak with you about that implant." Said Dr. Lohk as he shut the door and locked it, not wanting anyone to intrude on their conversations. "I've been your doctor for the past almost 10 years now and I felt like I've seen it all from you being filled to the brim with metal parts instead of bones to somehow growing back your destroyed frontal lobe. Which, for your information if neither of you understand, is practically impossible for the human body to stand." He said down with a sigh, looking at the files on his desk. "I know you being something close to death and being alive has its benefits, but this is ridiculous. So, What I need to know is why you don't want to get the authorities involved. I'm sure you've got a good enough reason, but please understand my position here."

Evan nodded, understanding what the older man said. The doctor had kept many secrets from the world about his condition as well as the things that transpired at Freddy's. Perhaps even more things that he would normally allow but after being asked as a favor from lifetime best friend, Trevor, to keep this on the low down, he felt as if his hands were tied. For a good reason, too.

"Well, we had met the kid about a month ago when Michael saw him in the Pizzaplex." The doctor stopped him with his hand.

"Wait wait… Michael? You mean, like your brother?" Evan nodded. The older man sighed as he sunk into his chair and wiped his face. "Another one of you zombie-like bastards. I thought he was dead."

"So did we, but he seemed to survive through the fire by sheer will… or something like that. Thus far the only person he probably successfully killed was our father and Henry. Maybe another animatronic, but there's no confirmation about them. Besides, if you hate that there's one more of us, you may not like how this story ends" The older man shook his head.

"Okay, continue with the story." So Evan did. He explained the whole situation from the time Michael found out about the young boy to taking him home to the boy's supposed sacrifice and then eventually finding that he survived the fall. It had been a rollercoaster of emotions for everyone present, especially Evan who realized how damn lucky he was to see Gregory again.

"Sounds like you've had a lot on your plate recently." Said Dr. Lohk. "That track implant had to be used to know where the boy was at all times to lure in their prey. I can see why you wouldn't want to get an investigation going with this." The older man got up, folding his sleeves up his wrist. "If you wait or come back in just a few hours, I believe he should be ready to be discharged." Evan brightened up at the news.

"Thank you, doc!" The older man nodded his head as he rounded the corner of his desk.

"You can always thank me by fixing my TV at home sometimes." Dr. Lohk said slyly and Evan simply smiled.

"Of course. Just bring it around and I'll make sure to fix it for you. On the house." They continued to speak briefly before going their separate ways, Chara following Evan close by. They both made their way back into the vehicle as the puppet looked at Evan.

"What should we do while we wait?" Asked Chara. Evan had the idea in his head already and smiled upon his female counterpart.

"We should get a surprise for Evan. Luckily, I think I know where we can get just the thing." Chara smiled widely. She loved getting presents for children as she was the animatronic that handed out prizes to the kids back when she worked in the pizzeria long ago.

Chara knew that she wasn't the only one who would enjoy the gifts.

-SB-

Trevor had sighed as he waved farewell to a new customer. Today had been slow, but that was the good thing about today. Normally, they were packed full of people and businesses looking for someone to come help them with their issues and currently they were down their most important asset.

The older man knew Evan had it quite rough recently from nightmares to adventures dealing with pieces of what should have been forgotten Fazbear Entertainment scraps. Hearing about another person coming back to life thanks to Remnant, especially one who was such a danger to everything around them, was alarming to Trevor. Hopefully nothing bad would happen to his family.

A door behind the man opened and he stared into that direction, eyes meeting with a slightly taller blonde woman. Vandana had made her way through the workshop door, wiping her brow. It sometimes got a bit hot in the backrooms, especially when working on a heavier piece of equipment. Luckily, she usually dealt with checking or fixing the coding of devices as she had been tampering with code since a young age. The woman spotted Trevor looking at her and smiled.

"I think that's all for now, boss." Said Vandana as she made her way to her chair with her bag next to it and sat down, rummaging through said bag.

"Well, I'm glad. It's been hell without Evan here to do his job." Said Trevor, lamenting over the situation.

"We could always hire others to pick up the slack." Vandana pulled out some fabric, needle and thread before making work on it. Trevor stared at her with amusement.

"That's a nice hobby you got there." The woman looked at him, confused for a moment before smiling.

"Ah, you mean this? It's just something I picked up as a hobby. It's nothing serious." Band aids had encompassed the tips of all her fingers, proving her words to be humble.

"I would say those battle wounds you've got there have to say otherwise, missy." Trevor pointed at her hands and she looked down to see before looking back up embarrassed. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you creating?" The man peered a bit closer, something catching his eyes.

Out of the woman's bag had been a pair of gray ears. It almost looked as if they could've belonged to a bunny but he didn't get a chance to take a closer look as Vandana shut her bag quickly, hiding the fabric ears from sight. Her look became quite happy as she smiled, her eyes showing a hint of mischief, and brought a finger to her mouth to show her silence.

"It's a secret, Mr. Koch. You wouldn't want to ruin it, hm?" Perhaps the woman had her reasons that she didn't want to talk so, instead, he dove into another subject he heard down the grapevine.

"Is that so? Hm… it wouldn't have anything to do with that little date you're going on tonight?" Vandana suddenly lost her mysterious and mischievous tone and became a bright red, hands going to the sides of her face.

"How did you hear about that?!" Squeaked the woman, making Trevor chuckle.

"Oh, I have my ways. Frankly, I was just as surprised when I heard the news." The woman smiled widely as she thought about Michael. He had been physically her type from head to toe and, while he was a bit on the skinny side, he was plenty strong, manly and, most of all, very cold and mysterious sounding. It all made her heart race thinking about it.

"He's an absolute dream boat, Trevor!" She said, rolling behind the counter in her chair, arms flared out dramatically. "When I saw that black hair and purple eyes, I couldn't help but think-"

"That he was like Evan, hm?" Said Trevor, smiling at the fact that the woman had been deeply interested in Evan before knowing he already had his heart elsewhere. She looked at him playfully sour, giving him an upset face.

"I thought we weren't going to bring that up again!" Vandana said, pouting and crossing her arms. Trevor simply chuckled as he watched the grown woman throw a fit like a young girl. They had been quite close since they worked together often. It had been a similar relationship like what he had with Evan, though she was more like his grandchild. Trevor raised his hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay. My mistake. What were you going to say?" Vandana went back into her fantasy land, eyes sparkling as she spoke about the time she spent with Michael during the company dinner and her workday at the Pizzaplex. The way she explained it all to Trevor had made him happy as a father-like figure, but raised some questions.

"So, he knows this is a date, right?" The older man asked Vandana. She looked at him weirdly, as if the answer was easy to see.

"Well, obviously! What else would be the point of it? Going out and eating dinner as co-workers? That doesn't happen between a boy and a girl of our age." The older man chuckled, shaking his head.

"I remember being around that age. I think my favorite thing to do around then was to participate in all the holiday parties and things of the such." It had gotten quiet for a moment before Trevor spoke up again. "I know you're keeping it a secret, but could I know what the ears are for?" The woman smiled widely.

"Oh, it's for a special occasion that I want to go all out for. With me and my partner dressed up as well as we will be, we'll make a killing." That same mischievous smile crept back onto her face and Trevor could only shake his head with a smile.

What a joy it must be to be young.

-SB-

Within a few hours, Gregory had been released from the hospital with a few pages of documents, pills and a dietary plan to help the boy get back his body mass. Evan had been very happy that there wasn't much else to it and that the boy was finally safe and ready to go home. Gregory, Chara and Evan had been in the car at this point in time when the young boy asked for something out of the ordinary.

"I know this is sudden but…" Said Gregory, who wasn't sure how to ask this question, "but could we have spaghetti tonight?" Evan smiled at the innocent question.

"Of course, buddy." Said Evan. "Anything you want. I'm just glad you're safe." Chara looked over at her partner, who had been smiling very brightly like he used to for the first time since this incident happened and rubbed his knee in reassurance. The boy smiled at what Evan said before thinking of something else.

"Then, could you help me fix Baby's body?" This question threw both adults off immediately, not expecting something like this to be asked. Gregory realized how pressing the thing he asked was. "I mean, it doesn't have to be right now, I just care for my friend a lot. She saved my life and… uhm…" The boy began to fidget in his seat.

Normally, Evan would love to help an animatronic with a trapped soul with trying to get back together, but Michael's words echoed in his head for a bit. Perhaps it was a bit biased, and despite the actual hesitance he had for being close with his brother, he did believe the words the night guard spoke of about Baby.

"We'll see." Said Evan finally. "There's a lot that goes into that process, especially since she's different from all the animatronics I've had to deal with in the past." Gregory nodded, understanding.

As talks about tonight's dinner filled the car with noise, the boy couldn't help but think of his wiry friend at home and how she was faring. Perhaps she had been a bit mysterious and had been frightening, but she had been there for him in his time of need. It wouldn't be a stretch to say she was one of his first real friends.

He thought about this fact before I long brightly and quickly lost it afterwards. He thought about his parents and wondered what they'd think of this situation. A pang of sadness filled his heart as he watched out the window, but not without getting noticed by Chara. Evan had been lost in conversation with the puppet and trying to drive them to the store so there wasn't much of a chance he would see the face the boy made.

Maybe everything wasn't as alright as they thought it was.

-SB-

Michael realized how awful his sleep schedule truly was today. Normally he makes his way to the Pizzaplex for his normal shift and possibly covers someone else's shift for them if he could, allowing him to spend his time where he feels the happiest, but it came with a fatal flaw.

That amount of freedom he's been given means he had no set specific sleep schedule. Whenever he got tired, he'd take a power nap and be done with it within a few hours whether it was with Roxy in her room, coming home from his night shift or whenever he found a span of free time. So, normally the man wouldn't have many dreams in the short intervals he was given but that was different today.

As soon as he got home, he made sure to lay out his clothes for later and set a timer in order to ensure that he'd stay awake for the night. He knew that he wouldn't have time in between the 'meet-up' with Vanny and going in to see Roxanne tonight.

I might as well sleep while I can. Thought Mike as he pushed himself into bed. Sleep came easily for his weary soul, but this time it had been eventful.

-SB-

Michael had found himself sitting in the normal security office, scrolling through the cameras as the door opened up behind him. As he turned himself around, he realized his boss, Cooper, had shown up. It was weird that the man would show up out of nowhere as he usually sent him at least a text when he wanted something from the night guard, but recently he hadn't heard anything from him.

"Mikey, my boy!" Said Cooper who slapped the boy on the back, smile as wide as can be. "I have finally finished it! It was a lot of work finding him, but I did it." The night guard was unsure what Cooper could have been talking about, but he allowed the older man to continue on. Cooper waved towards the still opened door, ushering a small boy inside. Michael's instincts sprung into action as he looked towards the shadow-covered child and Cooper.

"What is a child doing here at this time of night, Cooper?!" Said Michael, who was on edge. The older man had no relatives as he once told them all in a drunken stupor about being all alone, but there he was with a child. Cooper's smile faltered a bit, looking at the night guard with a cheesy smile.

"Well, I figured we'd do a family reunion." The young boy took a step out of the dark corridor, revealing a familiar face. The moment he saw the tears flowing down the boy's face he knew who he was looking at. Young Evan Afton had been looking at Michael with eyes full of fear and terror while his eyes poured tears flowing like a river. The young boy's body trembled, his knees barely holding him up as he stared directly at his killer.

Michael sat up suddenly from his chair, eyes focused solely on his little brother. He opened his mouth to speak to him, his hand reaching out towards the young boy but Young Evan had quickly stepped back behind Cooper with uneven, quaking steps, hiding himself away from his older brother. The pit of Mike's heart hurt as his little brother recoiled from him, remembering what exactly he did to him. Cooper simply chuckled and grabbed Young Evan's hand, guiding him towards Michael.

"Now, now, kids." Said Cooper as he pushed the young boy against Michael, making them hug each other. "You two should learn to get along with each other." Young Evan squeaked in surprise and shock as he was pushed into the side of his older brother, wanting to get away as soon as possible.

Michael felt his younger brother touching up against his side and realized that he was alive. He was warm and living just the way he left him all those many years ago. He turned to embrace his younger brother before seeing this face Young Evan made him hesitate. He could remember the same face of fear, the one that he wore before he died inside Fredbear's jaws, the look given when someone is about to die and they stare death straight in the face.

Evan had been staring at him with wide, frightful eyes and that's when Michael knew that he shouldn't touch the boy. Instead, he looked towards Cooper who was smiling as if he had looked towards two trophies, satisfied with his previous work.

"H-how…" Michael said, his heart stuck in his throat and the pain in his chest getting more painful, "How did you get Evan here?" Cooper looked at the younger man funnily, as if the answer was obvious.

"Oh, you know, hard work!" Said the older man. "It took a lot of work to get the entire family back and I'm sure your mother would be proud if she was here." Michael was confused about this entire situation, but the things that confused him the most were swimming around in his mind.

Firstly, Michael had been frighteningly calm about the entire situation. His heart rate had been quite normal along with his mind. It wouldn't have been weird if the other version of him had come out, dyeing his vision in purple, yet here he was simply sitting upright in his office chair with Evan forcefully pressed against his right side.

The other part, and the more pressing issue, had been how Cooper had done this whatsoever. The older man didn't seem to be a crazy guy who simply stole children and brainwashed them into thinking they're someone else just to recreate his family and, on top of this, how would he have known this much? He kept saying the entire family was back, but his father and mother were gone and while he somehow felt that his mother would show up, he wasn't sure about his father. It was then that another question struck all the thoughts in his head, one that frightened him beyond belief.

"You… you said that the entire family was here, right?" Asked Michael which had been followed with Cooper nodding with a happy smile. The younger man gulped before finishing. "So, where's our sister?" Cooper looked at him funnily before laughing loudly, his voice resonating in the small security office space.

"Well," Said Cooper, who's laugh died down to a chuckle, "she's where she's always been. Where she belongs." Michael was so confused at the question until he felt something wet drip into his lap. As he looked down, the pain had been harrowing. His night guard clothes were soaked in blood and dripping down his lap into the chair. Young Evan looked at him and screamed, backing away as he saw the amount of blood his older brother had been losing. It had been at this point Baby revealed herself.

A wire-like arm jutted out from just below the man's chest cavity, ripping open the flesh encased underneath the shirt like teeth ripping through the casing of a sausage, pouring more blood out of him at an alarming level. Michael ripped his shirt open before another arm appeared out of the hole in his abdomen and pushed against his sides. A large, wiry head started to peek out as Michael screamed in agony from the pain, having no choice but to watch this thing pull itself outside of him. Before he knew it, the head had mostly been pulled out and the room became mostly silent minus the labored pants from Michael.

The wiry animatronic face smiled at him, showing its spindly metallic rows of teeth embedded into its head before opening its mouth to speak.

"Dearest brother." The head sing-song spoke to him in a soothing girl's voice. It had not been soothing to him, but a nightmare of the past as he remembered who it was that owned that voice.

"I'm back, Michael."

-SB-

Michael had gained consciousness at the toilet, throwing up the food he had earlier and anything else that happened to be in his stomach. Even after emptying his stomach, he retched while grabbing the side of the bowl strongly, unable to keep himself up normally. It had only been once his body calmed down and realized there wasn't something inside of it that didn't need to be there he slumped against the wall of the bathroom. It had been a very long time since he had a dream like that, but to think it was with Evan surprised him.

Michael frequently had nightmares about his father and sometimes the scooping room itself or Ennard, but Baby and Evan showing up in his dream at the same time they way they did felt off like it was some sort of message his subconscious was trying to tell him.

His run in with Baby the day before had been jarring to say the least as he thought he rid her from his life forever. It apparently hadn't been that simple nor efficient as both he or Henry thought it was especially if Elizabeth, or Baby, had been telling the truth. At this point, he wasn't sure what to call her because, even as a kid, Elizabeth had been quite a brat and a father's girl but she loved her brothers even though she couldn't get along with them. Baby had been different.

Baby had done anything and everything to achieve her goal and her one true goal was to reunite with their father who had been long dead. Of course, neither of them knew it at that time. He had been missing without a single trace, gone like the wind, and Baby had been stuck down there desperate as anything. He wanted to take them out of there himself, but he knew that it wasn't possible. For Baby, perhaps, but the rest? Most of them had been uncontrollably aggressive. They weren't talkative or understanding like Baby had been, but, in the end, it all was for naught.

Michael dragged a finger across his midsection, tracing the places his body had been stitched up. The thought of Baby bursting out of his chest had been vivid in his mind, making him feel sick again. He wasn't sure if he'd feel alright to go out with Vanny tonight, but he'd cross the road when it came time. He checked his watch and saw it hadn't been much past 4. At least he got some sleep, but he didn't feel much better than he did at the end of last night. He thought about calling Vanny until his watch lit up. He answered it immediately, figuring out who it was.

"Where are you?" Said Roxanne, looking through the small screen provided on the watch. Michael simply sighed as he thought up an answer.

"Home." Said Michael shortly.

"Is that the wallpaper in your living room or, god forbid, your bedroom? It looks like something that would belong in a bathroom."

"That's because I am in the bathroom.

"What? Why are you calling me in the bathroom? You're not-" Michael quickly got up and looked at her through the watch.

"No, no… no. I just… I'm feeling a bit sick is all."

"Did you eat something bad? I told you to check the box for the expiration date, idiot."

"I-I did, but it's not because of me eating anything bad." There was silence on the other end and Michael sat there, eyes facing the roof as he felt his dizzy spell starting to slowly get better bit by bit.

"What's going on, Mike?" Said Roxanne finally, her tone changed.

"Just sick." Said Michael shortly, making the wolf huff in annoyance.

"Wow, why didn't I think of that? It's not like someone already told me or anything. It's not like you tell me anything anyways…" The sarcasm had practically been dripping from the speakers of his watch and the night guard rolled his eyes.

"I had a dream about my dead siblings." Michael responded bluntly, allowing the silence to resonate for a moment before continuing on. "Watching my little brother look at me with eyes that said he was going to die if he got around me and my sister had… been very dead. She was someone, something, else. It had been a graphic scene in my head and I've been throwing up since I woke up some odd minutes ago." The silence had been deafening after he quieted down, not even hearing static from the other end. It didn't last very long as Roxanne finally found her voice and spoke to him.

"Mike, look at the screen." Roxanne commanded and he did, albeit a bit slow. Roxanne had been looking at him with a slightly worried face and sighed once she saw him look at her. "Why don't you come to the Pizzaplex for a bit? We can watch some movies and play a few games or whatever else you want. I mean, I can't seem to take my eyes off of you without you getting yourself into some sort of panic and… you shouldn't beat yourself up like that. You aren't saying anything, but I know you feel what happened with Evan was your fault."

Michael looked at the wolf through the screen for a few moments before sighing himself. He had freaked out more than he had in a while, at least since Cooper brought Fazbear Entertainments, along with his families, past up from the grave and dumped a 'full' Freddy suit at his feet. He felt a bit silly that he let Baby bring this side of him out again, especially in front of his friends.

"Also, don't you dare feel stupid for freaking out." Roxanne said as if she read his mind. "Things happen, you shouldn't feel like you aren't allowed to feel awful about things that happen." Michael smiled, chuckling. Roxy knew him well and he had been glad to have such a great friend like her in his life. He pushed himself up, still feeling a bit woozy.

"Well, gimme a bit to prepare some things and I'll head over there for an hour or something. I still have dinner in a few hours with Vandana so I'll need to get ready for that."

"You'd rather spend time with her instead of me…" Grumbled Roxanne, throwing Michael off.

"What? Didn't you want me to go just earlier?"

"Yes, no, I mean… Grr!" She ended the call, leaving Michael quite confused. No matter how much he tried, there were times he didn't understand the wolf. Maybe he oughta bring her something to eat.

He was for certain a burger from her favorite place would cheer her up a bit.

-SB-

Gregory made his way down the basement workshop, as he, Evan and Chara arrived home, to see Wire Baby. Foxy and Lillie had been sitting in front of the TV, watching their normal show like they had been while Baby was sitting in a chair near Bonnie, kinda staring off into space.

"Baby!" Said Gregory as he rushed over to the animatronic, whose eyes snapped onto the young boy before smiling. The boy grabbed armfuls of wires, hugging them to his body. A bundle of wires, shaped like some sort of appendage, brushed against his hair, patting his head.

"Oh, my child." Said Baby with a soft tone as she caressed the boy's head. "Welcome back. Did they do anything weird to you? They didn't see it, did they?" Gregory shook his head.

"They removed the tracker that Susie shoved into my body and that's it." Baby smiled softly at this.

"Good, good. Tell me about your trip." The boy happily sat down on the floor near the chair as he spoke to the animatronic about everything that happened between the time they left each other yesterday and now. Foxy and Lillie realized the mood between the two and how close they were, feeling that it was a bit weird. It was a relationship like what Evan and Chara had or what Foxy and Lillie had, but almost one of a very close sister and brother, something Foxy had only felt once with Bonnie.

Lillie had previously spoken about how close the two had gotten in their time stuck down in the abandoned lab-like place as they both found they had some sort of connection. Before she knew it, they both treated each other like family. Perhaps it was something they found out about each other when she went to explore the building by herself, Lillie being the smallest, most agile of the 3, so she wasn't always cooped up with them. While it had been weird, Lillie vaguely did remember how miserable Baby used to be very long ago.

Foxy and Lillie had also discussed, with Evan, about the living situation. With there being two new people in the house, along with Foxy getting fully fixed up and mobile, Evan wanted the pirate fox and his first mate to take the room next to what is known as Chara's room for themselves. Of course while they both appreciated the thought, Foxy only had one thought.

I don't want to leave my best friend behind. The pirate captain thought as he glanced sadly over to Bonnie. Maybe he'd never wake up, but I know that if our roles were reversed that he'd wait for me. Lillie looked up from her spot on the table to look at her captain, whose eyes were filled with sadness. She reached over and rubbed his chest, getting his attention, before smiling at him with reassurance. Foxy reminded himself that he wasn't alone as he reached down and rubbed the doll's small head. He remembered that he did have something he had to tell Gregory about and turned around to get the boy's attention.

"Gregory, lad, lend me yer ear fer a moment." Called out Foxy, interrupting the boy from his story. Gregory looked at the pirate fox with a smile before giving him his full attention.

"Yes, Foxy?" Said Gregory, staring intently towards the captain.

"Me n' Evan had been talkin' n' we want ye to have ta room next ta Chara. Ye n' Baby can sleep there if'n ye want." The young boy thought for a moment before seeming to understand.

"Chara's room is the one at the end of the hallway, right? The one with Evan?" Foxy was confused for a brief moment until he understood and burst out into laughter, banging on the table next to him.

"Gah, I always ferget that they sleep together now." Foxy wiped a tear from his eye as Lillie continued to laugh at the joke, believing it to be funnier than Foxy. Gregory looked at them funny for a moment.

"If they sleep together, are they married?" Foxy smiled softly at the youthful innocence in front of him and sighed softly.

"I don' tink that be ta right tink, but ye oughta go ask 'im yerself. Perhaps he can also explain to ya where ta find yer new room." Gregory nodded and looked at Baby.

"I'll be back soon!" Before running off, Baby smiled behind him as she waved. Perhaps living here would be interesting after all. At the same time, Foxy was chuckling as he thought about all the questions Evan and Chara would be bombarded with. He sank back into a comfortable position, going back to watching the show in front of him with Lillie.

He could only imagine what Evan and Chara's face looked like and that thought alone kept a mischievous smile plastered on his face.

-SB-

After spending time with Roxanne, who had been quite clingy during the small time they spent together, and getting home to get dressed, Michael was prepared for dinner and waiting in line. He wore a nice, dark purple button up shirt along with a pair of jean dress pants all held together with a nice black belt. He tapped the floor with his nice black shoes he had from a previous night guard job as he waited for Vandana to get there.

They previously messaged each other and decided to come back to the same restaurant they ate at before during the company dinner. Luckily, the owners had previously offered for any of them to come back and they'd be treated like VIPs. It had been quite nice of them and Michael wondered when would he ever be able to take advantage of the offer, but never did he think he was going to go out to eat.

The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a date. It had been a bit nerve wracking not knowing how Vanny felt about it, but he tried to not sweat the small details. Besides, it couldn't have been a date, right? I mean, who in their right mind would want to go on a date with a guy who looked like a corpse? Michael shook his head and chuckled as he remembered his interaction with Roxanne basically asking him out on a date earlier. Perhaps there was one wolf that was mentally unstable enough. He thought to himself.

Finally, it had been his turn to be checked into a table. It wasn't like the line was very long or even anyone at all in front of him, but he doubted they expected the guy in the front to be standing there his entire shift doing absolutely nothing. Eventually the guy they saw during the party who let them in had appeared, smiling as he saw Michael.

"Ah, I figured it was you who was coming." Said the man as he checked his books just in case. "I saw that pretty lady you were speaking with last time come in and I knew it would be you who would walk through our door and, what do you know, it so happens you did." Michael scratched the back of his neck, unsure what to say.

"Yeah… she wanted to have dinner here so what can I say?" Responded Mike nervously. The other man chuckled.

"You're one lucky man to have caught a beautiful girlfriend like that." Michael raised his hands in defense.

"Ah, no no. We're not like that." The man simply raised his eyebrow in skepticism.

"Is that so? That's not how it seems to me and definitely not how it seems to her." He winked as he smiled, unconvinced by the night guard's argument. "Come on in, we'll get you situated." The man waved Michael to follow him and so he did. They moved their way out onto the restaurant floor and he scanned to see if he could find Vandana. Weirdly enough, there weren't exactly a lot of people here.

"We're a bit vacant normally due to scheduled VIP's coming in from time to time. Luckily, we had a VIP leave not all that long ago and, on top of that, they booked in advance for a few more hours. They announced they couldn't come about a week ago so the only people you see here are those who made quick reservations." Michael nodded in understanding. Eventually, they reached the door that led to the atrium outside and he could see a girl sitting out at a candle lit table alone.

"Make sure to woo her plenty. You've got this, just make sure to take deep breaths and if you get nervous, the restroom isn't too far away." Michael looked at the helpful man weirdly as he gave the night guard a big thumbs up and a smile, leaving him alone at the door. Michael sighed and shook his head, feeling a weird feeling in his stomach as he pushed the glass door open and moved towards the only table he could readily see.

The sky, along with the natural scenery surrounding him had been just as amazing as he remembered it to be. He briefly came out here with Roxanne during the joint company dinner sightseeing, but left it to give Evan and his partner some space when he saw them walk out. Now getting a chance to see it a bit closer and slowly, he really enjoyed the view and the full moon that casted light out onto the atrium had made the marble floor and white rocks glow with a mystic tone.

It wasn't long before he realized the only table out here had indeed been the one he saw earlier and he mentally facepalmed as he started to recognize the woman sitting with her back turned towards him. As he moved closer, she noticed him and turned around, showing off her beauty underneath the night sky.

Vandana had been, more likely than not, the most beautiful human woman he'd ever seen. Michael watched a lot of TV including dramas and other things in his spare time but never, even on fashion shows or beauty contests, had he ever seen someone who had radiated this aura of beauty like she did. Her hair flowed like a wave of gold and her lips had been dyed in a deep reddish purple, looking almost like a perfectly ripened apple. Her eyes shined like glittering, priceless emeralds, dazzling like the stars in the sky. Vanny had been absolutely beautiful and his eyes had held gaze with hers, entranced with her beauty.

"Mike!" The woman said as she got up, her dress swaying as she moved towards him. He was stunned in his spot as she hugged him, he hugged her back finally as he regained his composure. "I'm glad you made it. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about trying to eat dinner by myself if you didn't…" Michael shook his head.

"I wouldn't do that." Said Michael with a smile now on his face. "It took me too much effort to put a name in your phone, so now I'm obligated to be here." This made her giggle, still clinging her hand on his arm. He felt the weird feeling inside his chest grow. Maybe these were the butterflies Chica had been telling him about when she discussed her 'dates' with Trudge.

"Come sit down!" Vanny said, ushering him over to the table. "They should be out soon with menus and entrees." She pulled him along by the hand, before getting over to her seat and attempting to sit down and scoot in, but failing. Michael grabbed the back of her chair and softly pushed her in, making the girl blush. "Ooh.. Thank you! You're such a gentleman!"

Michael sat in his own seat around the time the waiter, who had been the same guy up front who talked to the night guard before. He smiled at them as he gave them their menus. They had both ordered drinks quickly along with two orders for appetizers, which had been crab cake bites. With a nod, and a thumbs up towards Mike while walking away, they were both left alone together once again. Vanny had been smiling, a slight blush on her face.

"I'm so glad we got a chance to come back here!" Said exclaimed as she carefully sipped from her drink. "Our company comes here decently often, but I've always wanted someone to take me here." Michael nodded, picking up what she was putting down.

"Well, I never thought my first date was going to be this nice, frankly." Mike said bluntly, receiving a gasp from the woman across from him.

"This is your first date?" She said in utter confusion. "No, you're lying to me." The night guard shook his head.

"I've never even been interested in a woman before, much less gone on a date." Vanny had been absolutely shocked by this information, but instead of taking this as bad news, she felt honored, smiling widely as she realized she was his first, but something bugged her by the way he worded it.

"Interested in women? So, were you gay or…" Michael quickly raised his hands, shaking them and his head.

"No no, nothing like that." Vanny giggled in response.

"Don't worry, I was just teasing ya. I can't believe someone hasn't taken even the slightest interest in you."

"Me? I'm surprised you can even stand how I look. I mean, who wants a purple looking corpse sitting across from them at the dinner table?" The woman shook her head fervently, disagreeing with the night guard.

"No, you're nothing like that. I think I'm lucky. I mean, I get to be your first ever date, it's at a place as memorable as this and my date is a stud. How much luckier could I get?" Michael scoffed at the sudden praise, rolling his eyes a bit.

"As if. I don't understand your view on this. If anything, I'm the lucky one here." Vanny seemed to get worked up about this topic, pushing herself up onto her feet and looking down at him with a bit of annoyance.

"Mike, you're a devilishly handsome guy with an absolutely god-given voice. You have these beautiful purple eyes that shine like amethyst and your smile is just so amazing. I don't understand your low self-confidence but I will not stand for it." It had gotten a bit quiet in the atrium as they stared at each other, Michael being reminded of exactly how beautiful the girl was before she also had a realization.

Her body and mouth moved before she thought of the consequences of what she said, making her blush like crazy, her face effectively turning into a tomato. She slowly sat down, sinking into her chair with her hands over her face. Michael chuckled as he realized that she was right. It was good to have some confidence as well.

"I-I'm sorry…" Said Vandana through her fingers. She had been embarrassed about her outburst, but she didn't feel like she was wrong. How could such a guy go so long without any sort of relationship, especially with how beautiful of a man he was? Though it was rude the way Vanny had pushed it upon him. While stewing in her own mind, Michael said something out of the blue.

"I think you're beautiful, too." The night guard said, catching her attention and making her blush even more. "All I was saying is that I was lucky to be able to spend time here with you. I mean, mmh… Sorry, I'm not great with words." The woman sat up straight and shook her head, smiling brightly.

"No, no, it's okay! I think you've said everything perfectly and from the heart. Thank you, Michael." The man nodded as he saw her emerald green eyes smile towards him and he felt this weird feeling pop up in his chest again. They were silent for a moment until Michael spoke up.

"Uh, by the way. You said something weird earlier."

"Oh? What was it?"

"You told me you wouldn't 'stand' for it as you proceeded to stand. Sounds like you broke your word as soon as you made it." Michael smiled as he made his poor attempt at a joke and Vandana finally got it after a minute, smiling slightly as well and rolling her eyes.

"Woooooow." She said, staring at him with her head resting on her hand. "We've got a jokester here. I gotta hand it to ya, that wasn't too terrible." Michael smiled again.

"I tried to hand something to someone once. They were so excited they took it all." Michael said that as he pointed at his metal hand, making the girl snort before quickly putting her hands to her face. They both stared at each other for a moment before laughing out loud, sharing this moment together.

Michael had to admit it, he was having fun. This is what he needed: a break from the insanity that had been forced back upon him recently. Perhaps he should hang out with this girl more often, but he didn't want to jump the gun. She was a friend of his but he had a weird feeling about this for some reason and perhaps it had to do with the unknown feeling he had in his chest. It had felt familiar, like he felt it once before but watered down. It hadn't hurt nor was it necessarily a good feeling so he'd see how it went and move while he could.

It wasn't before long that the waiter brought out their food and they ordered before going back into conversations, talking about experiences in their own workplaces, stories about Evan Nafto, stories about Roxanne and all things in between. It had become quite evident to Michael that the girl had strong feelings for Evan once before and Vanny understood how close Michael and Roxanne had been. They really seemed to talk about what was most important to them even throughout the main course, laughing at the night guard's shitty attempts at jokes and even having a bit of friendly banter. He thought her preference for rabbits and bunnies had been a bit weird, but maybe it was a personal bias. What really threw Michael off was when Vanny asked a question he couldn't really discuss and certainly, hopefully, something she couldn't relate with him about.

"So, I never hear you talk about your family." The woman said as she thought about the surprise dessert that the waiter had recommended. "Do you… have anyone important to you?" Michael opened his mouth and paused, realizing he really didn't know how to properly answer this question without ruining the mood.

"Mmh… I don't know…" He finally said, still thinking of how to answer the question. Vanny picked up that the conversation wasn't something he normally talked about and figured something bad happened. Maybe his parents divorced or he wasn't on good terms with them? She thought as she watched the night guard deep in thought.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. If you don't want to talk about it, then we don't have to." Michael snapped out of it and shook his head.

"Ah, no. It's fine. I just don't want to bring down the mood of the date."

"Don't worry about it. How bad could it be? I mean, not that I'm saying your life was easy but they're your parents. You still gotta love 'em." He felt a pang in his chest where he felt weird earlier, but still couldn't understand it.

"Uhm… Well, everyone in my family, other than me, is dead."

"...Oh…"

"Yeah, it's… Uhm… It's alright because I have friends that act like family now. Well, not that I would know what that would be like."

"Well, would you care to talk about them? Perhaps you had some good memories about your parents?" Michael's mind wandered to the moment he was fighting his father inside the springlock suit, attempting to keep him there and burn his soul out of it. There really had been no moment he had fond memories of his father and he barely remembered his mother. Michael quickly shook his head.

"I… I can't." Vanny's smile faltered a bit but picked up soon after, trying to be encouraging.

"That's okay! Maybe your siblings then?" Michael had thought about his brother and sister a lot recently and thought maybe it would be okay to share a bit about them.

"Uhh… I don't exactly have good memories about my little brother. It's not that we never did things together, but I had… I used to hate him." This sounded weird to the woman, but it was interesting. As far as she knew from talking to the Glamrock crew, he rarely talked about his past but did speak a bit about a relative in his life: his little brother.

"Oh? Why did you hate him?"

"He… He was all that my father ever loved. He loved Evan more than anything else in the entire universe. More than my mother, more than my sister and more than me. I hated that fact as a child as I wanted his attention." This had been a half-lie as he did want his father's attention when he was much younger, but he realized what kind of person that man was and, instead, wanted him to suffer.

"I understand. So what happened to him?" Michael took a deep breath before continuing on, his eyes strangely landing on the woman's green ones.

"I… I made his life miserable from scaring him to death to borderline torturing him. There wasn't much more to do but to push it a step farther and…" He hesitated, now feeling quite uncomfortable. Normally he had been okay talking about Evan since it had been a long time ago, but with the recent events, especially the nightmare he had earlier, he started to not feel so well talking about him. "I'm sorry." Vanny shook her head.

"I-it's okay. Perhaps your little sister?" Michael instinctively shook his head violently. There was no way he would talk about her. "That's… okay. Maybe another time." The night guard sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry, this has been a really touchy subject for me as of late."

"No, no! It's okay. We all have things that are dark in our past. Just take your time and, if you wanna talk about it, I'll be right here for you, okay?" Mike nodded.

"Why not talk about your family?" The man suggested, trying to put the conversation back on track. She nodded, smiling as she obviously enjoyed her family. At this exact time, the waiter brought in their dessert, sitting it down in front of them. It had been ice cream with a lot of styling done to it. There were 4 large scoops sitting in each bowl, covered in chocolate and caramel drizzle, each scoop a different color. It had been a nice and simple end to their dinner date and, while Michael had been hesitant to call it that beforehand, he felt good about it now. The night guard looked down at the pink, strawberry looking scoop that sat on top before a thought invaded his mind.

"I can do something special, did you know that?" Baby said as her voice resonated around him. "I can make ice cream, although I only did it once."

Michael had been thrown back into reality, his chest filling with this weird feeling again. What was going on? The man thought to himself he found himself staring not at the ice cream, but into the eyes of a worried looking Vandana. Her eyes had gleamed in the moonlight, glowing almost. They reminded him so much of-

"Mike?" Vanny's words pulled him out of his thoughts as he looked at her properly this time. "Are you okay? You're starting to worry me." The man nodded, wiping his face with a nearby napkin.

"Yeah, I'm-... Yeah. Everything's fine." She nodded at his words but didn't look very convinced. "Perhaps you should talk about your family."

"Okay… well, I suppose these ice cream scoops-" Michael's mind had another thought, one that pushed directly into his head.

Michael looked at Baby through the glass once, seeing what had remained of his sister. Her red dress donned on her pale, white skin shone off the light and her massive glowing green eyes radiated a sort of sentience behind them, staring into his own.

"...- and our business was booming for a while during the summer thanks to a new contraption we had." Said Vanny, not realizing that Michael had spaced out but came back in only to hear the last handful of words from whatever she had been saying.

"What?" Michael said both to her and his thoughts, making Vanny look at him weirdly.

"What do you mean, 'What'?"

"I-I mean, I didn't understand about the contraption. Tell me more about that." Michael attempted to save the conversation, attempting to snap out of whatever was going on with him. Maybe it was this talk about family, but thinking about his little sister, or the monster that posed as her, polluted his mind but that wasn't the only thing. Michael looked towards Vanny's dress and thought it looked strange. It had been a nice red dress, perfectly matching her skin tone that became a nice, pearlescent white underneath the light of the full moon. The man was unsure why he didn't realize this beforehand but he also thought his obsessive look towards the woman's green eyes had been weird, too. They reminded him so much of-

"Michael!" Called out Vanny, snapping the man once again out of his thoughts as he stared intensely at the woman. Her face was full of worry and something else as she looked at him. "What's going on, Mike? You've been spacing out this entire time and looking at me like you've seen a ghost." Michael really had no idea what was going on. His chest felt tight all of a sudden and he realized what was doing. His head had been full of things about Baby suddenly when he hadn't been thinking about it the entire time. He was enjoying himself to the fullest and there wasn't anything wrong with her, so what was going on with him?

"I don't know. I might just be stressed and tired. Some stuff of my sister's was found recently so I've had her in my mind the past few days." Vanny's look turned into a softer worried look as she reached out and grabbed his hand.

"I don't know what's plaguing your thoughts right now, but you can talk about it if it's bothering you. I'm here to listen and help." The gave a soft, sweet smile towards the night guard as he took a deep breath. He nodded, thinking that talking about it would be a good idea, but he needed to figure out how he was going to word it.

"Sure. Just… give me a few minutes. Talk about your contraption again and I'll talk after you." She nodded and the man was desperate to focus on anything but what was going on in his head.

"So, in our ice cream truck we made these special ice cream sandwiches with fresh ice cream. We'd use a scooper to shave the top layer of the ice cream off." Michael reacted to the word scooper as he chest felt even tighter but pressed on to focus on her story, hoping to distract himself. Vanny arched her arm and curved her hand, making it look like some sort of robotic scooper… almost like the one in ARI.

"So, the scooper" She said as she continued with her story, "looked a lot like this. Of course, it didn't just go one speed. Sometimes, we had it strike the ice cream, grabbing many different flavors quickly." She quickly showed the scooper lash out, making Michael put his hand to his chest. "I wouldn't even want to know what would happen if it hit someone."

"It would only hurt for just a moment." Said Michael unconsciously and immediately, grabbing the woman's attention. She looked at him weirdly before she saw his face. His eyes were heavily unfocused, almost fogged over, while his face had been pouring sweat. It was weird because while it wasn't cold outside, it was cool enough to give even a man in a thick suit jacket a chill. His hand was gripping strongly over the middle of his abdomen as he breathed heavily. There was something wrong with him and she wasn't sure what.

Inside Michael's head, he was reliving the scene before it all happened. He couldn't hear anything other than his own heartbeat and what Baby, or what was now known as Ennard, had said to him.

Michael was standing in front of a gigantic metal claw, posed back and aimed towards him. In front of him on the floor had been the shells of all the larger animatronics in the building, emptied out and laying there lifelessly. His heartbeat pounded as he stared what looked like death directly in its 'eyes', making him sweat profusely as he wasn't sure what more to do. He couldn't run and he certainly couldn't hide. Either he'd take them all home with him or die trying, not that any other choice would've kept him alive to begin with. A soft, soothing voice, one that belonged to his sister, his beloved sister, called out to him. She had been speaking before and he realized this was her last words to him before his demise.

"...but if we looked like you, then we could hide. If we looked like you, we'd have somewhere to go. The scooper only hurts for a moment." As she said her last words to him, Ennard pulled the lever, signaling the red lights and a siren. Michael tried to fight back, moving as much as he could, but he couldn't. He couldn't move at all.

Baby, in the end, hadn't lied to him. The scooper did just hurt for a moment. Even after scooping out his organs and killing him, when they eventually abandoned his body, he felt nothing. Yet, in a way, she lied. His body remembered the pain of the scooper, it remembered the way it tore through his flesh and through his organs. He remembered the way it killed him in nearly an instant. He remembered how they s-s-s-co-op-ed-d him out like delicious, wonderful icecrea-

In an instant, Michael's chest roared in pain before he threw up all over the floor. He vomited his guts up in front of Vanny, who could only watch in horror as his body convulsed violently like he was possessed by a demon and it was trying to get out. It didn't take long for him to release everything he just ate all over the ground and his eyes to turn purple, drowning out the scream from Vandana as she snapped out of her trance, moving to help him.

There wasn't much he knew that happened until he woke up in her car driving towards some place that Michael couldn't figure out immediately but, after a bit of looking around, he realized that they were close to his home. He attempted to move, but his body seemed to fail him.

"Don't you move, mister." Said Vandana who saw him move a bit as she was driving. "I don't know what's going on with you, but if you really don't want to go to the hospital, you need to at least get home and get some rest." Michael understood partially what happened, but not the full story. The thing that bothered him the most is what set him off in the first place. It wasn't like there were many people to talk to, but at least he knew the source of his issues.

Baby had been alive and his body, and his mind, really didn't like that fact. Perhaps there was something he could do about it. Maybe he should try talking to Evan or Chara about this. They'd probably understand all about freak outs since it seemed that Evan had them on numerous occasions and a pretty frequent basis. Though they may just tell him to talk it out with Baby and he wasn't sure if he could handle that. He sighed a bit, tasting the bile still in his mouth and made a face of disgust as he felt gross wet spots on his pants, mainly his knees and legs.

Before anything, he should probably take a shower. Anything else could wait until afterwards.

-SB-

Roxanne could help but have her mind on the night guard as she attempted to work on one of the carts in her raceway. She was thinking about the possibility of another woman out there with her night guard before shaking her head. What's wrong with me? Thought Roxy as she shook her head. She decided to get back to focusing on the cart as she was laying underneath it, working on something that kept making a loud noise. It's not like she was a professional on this, but if she didn't do it, who would? Yet as she tried her hardest to focus, she couldn't help but think of the date Michael had been on.

How could anyone like that corpse? She thought to herself angrily. Besides, what does he see in her anyways? I'm the best around, he oughta be looking at me. Perhaps they were out there eating at some nice restaurant, having a blast and doing it all without- Something broke while she worked unfocused and angrily making Roxanne suddenly become covered in oil, some dripping into her mouth. This broke her immediately out of thought, spitting the oil out of her mouth and pulling herself from underneath the car.

"Ew- Fuck!" Roxanne said as she continued to spit onto the ground and threw her wrench in anger, it bouncing off the hard surface of the floor a few times. Of course everything had to go to shit when Mike wasn't here. Thought Roxanne, seething. She was done with working on the cart because, if she did anymore tonight, she would break something for certain. This pang in her heart grew deep as she thought about how everything today had felt shit other than the bits of time she spent with her nightguard.

The wolf made her way back towards her room, hoping that no one saw her. She knew that everyone in the building cared about her, but she didn't need nor wanted someone to bug her when all she wanted was to be cleaned. Stomping her feet down the hallway, mind full of anger, she didn't process that the stairs started a bit earlier than they did and she proceeded to trip and fall against them, hitting her head against the stairs.

Roxanne held her head in pain as she felt her head pound, a lump swelling up on her forehead. She knew this was going to only make her headache worse and she cursed like a sailor inside of her own head as she laid on the ground, holding her head. How could this get any worse? The wolf thought to herself, jinxing the situation immediately.

"Roxanne?!" Yelled Chica from above, who sounded quite worried. "Are you okay? That looked like it hurt." Roxanne groaned as she heard two pairs of steps making their way down the steps towards her. She couldn't take this embarrassment and got up, head pounding in pain even more.

"Nnh, go away…" Mumbled the wolf as she staggered, pushing herself up. Chica and Trudge made their way to her and tried to help her, but Roxanne simply batted their hands away.

"Roxanne, I saw you fall down. Are you okay? We can get you some ice if you wan-" Roxanne pushed Chica back, looking at her with eyes full of rage.

"I don't want your help! You're so annoying!" Roxanne pushes past them, quickly, but carefully, making her way up the stairs. Chica looked hurt, staring up at the back of the wolf.

"But we just wanted to help you…" Said Chica, looking sad. Roxanne looked back as she made her way up to the top of the stairs.

"I don't want your pity! Fuck off for once in your life, Chica!" The wolf stomped off in the direction of Rockstar Row, shortly moving out of their sight. Chica didn't look like she took that well as now her best friend had just told her off in a really mean way. She knew that Roxanne could always be mean but this was pushing it. The bird felt a tear roll down her cheek and Trudge patted her back making her look at him and hug the young man.

Roxanne had eventually made her way to her room, locking herself in before sitting down and looking at herself in the mirror. She looked downright awful and felt even worse. Her day had been utter shit and almost nothing went the way she wanted it to. It had been a lot like this recently and, for some reason, she felt like it was only going to get worse. She felt like Michael was going to up and disappear. At first she thought it was crazy, but after seeing how close he had been getting with Vandana paired with how many secrets he was hiding from her and the way he had been slowly spending more time with others instead of her, she wasn't laughing anymore.

Tears welled up into the wolf's eyes and she forced them away. She couldn't cry now, there was still time later tonight that the night guard was going to spend with her and she was going to force him to make her feel better no matter the cost. Perhaps it had sounded a bit harmful and she didn't want to harm the man again, but she knew he could deal with a bit of rough play. She sighed as she thought about showering before the man came back during the night. Perhaps she oughta listen to Mike.

He was hers, after all. No one was going to change that all of a sudden and he promised he wouldn't disappear. He promised.

-SB-

Vandana had been sitting inside of Michael's small two bedroom house, waiting for him to finish cleaning himself up. Frankly, he needed it since he was absolutely covered in his own vomit so it wasn't something she was annoyed about. What she was truly annoyed about was how south their date went.

It was perfectly fine, to a point, until it simply wasn't anymore and that's something she was confused about. Vanny had seen people freak out before but never had it been so sudden and so severe. The only thing she could have related it to was PTSD that her relative had coming out of a car wreck, making anything that had reminded her deeply about the experience draw up some severe reactions. The issue is, all they had talked about was family and ice cream. Was either of them so bad to him that he'd react like that? Perhaps family as he didn't want to speak much about them. Maybe he saw them all die? Vanny thought to herself as she shifted herself to another spot on the bed.

It was then Michael came out of his bathroom dressed in a simple white tee and black sweatpants, spotting the woman who was on his bed. The night guard looked absolutely exhausted, like the energy had been sucked from his body. There had been obvious bags under his eyes that weren't there originally, bringing up a question in Vanny's mind but pushing it away for the moment.

"Hey, do you feel any better?" Said the woman, making the man nod in response.

"I apologize for ruining our date." Michael said, sounding very emotionally sunken. The woman shook her head.

"It happens but… what happened back there? Was it something I said?"

"It's… hard to talk about. I don't think I've ever discussed this much in depth with anyone other than Rox." Michael moved to flop on the other side of the bed, laying down and staring up at the dark roof while his mind stayed blank.

"Was it… about family?" Silence had filled the space between them for a moment until Michael finally responded.

"I'm sorry, Vanny. I can't say. I know you've helped me out so much today and I feel a bit like an asshole telling you that, but I just can't." The woman stared back at him before nodding.

"Maybe you should talk to someone about it. Even if it's not a professional, it would help. Perhaps someone like Roxanne? You two seem quite close." Michael scoffed at the thought of going to a therapist about his father killing children, him killing his little brother and his little sister absolutely eviscerating his insides to use him as a skin suit. They have him locked up in an instant. Even trying to tell Rox…

"I can't. I want to take this to the grave with me. I promised Roxanne I would tell her one day but… ideally if I could just die and this information would be lost, society would be so much better off." This confused the woman as she didn't understand what exactly he was talking about.

"I- I don't understand. Did you… kill somebody or something?" Michael didn't respond for a moment, making Vanny's heart skip in fear, but eventually he did respond.

"My little brother died during his own birthday party. Well, technically not. He survived a bit afterwards, but effectively his life ended on his birthday." This came out of nowhere and the woman had been quite confused still, but was interested that he was revealing things.

"I'm sorry. How did he die?" Michael refused to look at the woman, staring up blankly at the roof above him.

"I killed him." The words rang out for a moment before the woman blinked, looking at him again.

"What?" Vanny said, the words still bouncing around in her mind. "What do you mean?"

"I shoved his head inside an animatronic mouth and killed him. I killed him in cold blood when he was only 6 years old. You're friends with a cold-blooded murderer, Vandana." The woman stared at him in shock as she listened to his confession, many emotions going through her at once along with many thoughts.

The room had been silent for a while and, while Michael had no real idea why he was telling her this, he felt like it would be okay if she knew this much. Though, nothing felt right to the night guard at this point in time. It was hard to describe, but it was painful. Nothing like the pain he felt when he thought of things about Baby, but more subtle like he was drowning. Vanny simply stared at the man with wide eyes as she tried to think about this rationally.

"Do… Do you regret it?" The woman asked the first thing that came to mind.

"Every fucking day." This had been the most emotion she heard from the man since he freaked out in the restaurant earlier. She could feel that he meant it and made her feel a bit better.

"I understand. I don't because I've never… you know… but I sympathize with you. I don't think you're a bad person, though, Michael. Things happen, we grow and learn." Things were quiet for a bit before she spoke up once again. "You know, I could stay here with you tonight if you want. For, uh, support." Michael was unsure how to feel about her offer, but he was unsure how to feel about anything at the moment.

"Okay." Is all Michael said as he rolled over, facing away from the woman. She smiled thinly, realizing that this was as good as it was going to get. She could at least be there for Michael in his time of need, but she'd need to go home and get clothing.

"I'll be right back. I just need to drop by and get some stuff." The night guard did not answer so she took it as a yes. "I'll be quick." She made her way out of his front door and, soon, he heard her car take off. It had been an experience today, but that's all he could say. He was used to being so emotionally walled off, but the double entendre of old scars getting ripped up the past few days made him weak. Baby coming back from the grave and everything coming back up about Evan had made the things he came to terms with come back up to bite him once again.

The only thing that Michael had been feeling right now was something akin to guilt and anxiety. He had thought he moved past his purpose of cleaning up after his father and, while he did keep an eye out for things like copycat killers or something that he missed or was hiding, but he felt that he finally found a place he belonged. For a moment, he regretted surviving the fire for a moment, but it only lasted that long. Perhaps all he needed was some sleep and to see Roxanne tomorrow.

As the man yawned, feeling himself drift off into sleep, he thought he was forgetting something. He'd find out sooner or later, but nothing was going to get done feeling as dead as he was. Though, considering how truly dead he was, he felt a lot more than he should have. He felt awful in his heart and hoped that the sleep would even slightly fix that as he finally drifted off into dreamland.

His dreams were haunted by Evan, Elizabeth and Baby. Michael never understood the degree that nightmares disturbed Evan sometimes, but now he fully understood. He got a lesson firsthand and he wasn't going to walk away from it unscathed.

-SB-

Evan and Chara had been getting ready for bed as they discussed the day. It had been quite an interesting and eventful day as they finally got Gregory home and eventually, after many embarrassing questions they both suspect were fueled by a mischievous pirate fox, getting the young boy his own room across from Mangle's room where he moved Baby to. It had been interesting how close they both were to each other. It was as if they were each other's guiding lights and treated one another comfortably to a familial degree. It was cute, yet neither Evan nor Chara could get what Michael had said about Baby out of their head.

"Do you think what Michael said was right?" Asked Chara as she watched the man brush his teeth before spitting the toothpaste out and washing his mouth out.

"I don't know." Said Evan as he pulled out some floss. "I don't want to believe that Gregory is being manipulated by her and, while she does not make me feel completely comfortable, I can't exactly kick out Gregory's savior. At the same time, Michael knew this version of Elizabeth better than I did, so I want to take his warning with a pinch of salt."

"I suppose if Gregory is happy, then it's fine for now." The man nodded as he began to floss between his teeth and Chara smiled at him, floating over to hug him from behind. She knew that Evan was happy that the boy had been home and safe now. They clicked the moment they met and it had been like seeing something like an innocent, young version of him. She could only imagine how he would've grown up if he was in a different environment.

"You know, I'm so proud of you." Said Chara as she rubbed up the man's chest after he finished flossing. "You've taken care of us all and now we're all such a big, happy family and… I'm sorry for telling you that Gregory was dead. I should've believed in you and helped you check on him, but all I did was hinder you." Evan turned around and wrapped his arms around his partner, looking directly in her big, beautiful blue eyes.

"You did what you had to, Chara. I wasn't going with a plan nor was I in my right mind. I'm sorta glad it happened the way it did because I'm unsure how it would have turned out if it was just me, you and Mangle going." He cupped her cheek, tracing his thumb against her face gently. "You did what you thought was right to help me and I'm lucky to have such a wonderful woman in my life like you." She blushed, trilling a bit from her internal music box. They took a bit to stare into each other's eyes before they moved to the bed, sliding in and holding onto each other. They planned on going to sleep early tonight since they both were going to head into Evan's job in the morning, but it didn't mean that they couldn't sneak a bit of alone time in.

As they basked in each other's touch and warmth, slowly did they fall asleep together. No nightmares would plague either of them this night as they both fell asleep with a smile on their faces.

-SB-

In the room nearby, Gregory had been playing on a tablet they had around the house as he munched on the basket of chocolate and candy goods Evan and Chara got him as a gift earlier that day. It wasn't weird that Evan had different kinds of electronics just lying around as he spoiled his girls as much and often as he could with the newest things. For some reason, it wasn't connected to the wifi, but that didn't matter to the boy. Within a few minutes, he hacked into the wifi and freed up some permissions on the device it previously didn't have. The boy was good with this kind of thing, hacking into everything from smart watches to entire security databases in one go. Baby, who had been laying in a pile on a chair next to his bed, stared over at him.

"What are you doing?" She asked softly, getting a nonchalant response in return.

"Just checking some stuff. If we're going to live good lives, we need to make sure you have everything you need."

"But, what if they figure you out, Gregory? I don't want them to take you away from me." He sat down the tablet and grabbed Baby off the chair and hoisted her into his bed.

"They won't figure me out. They didn't today or anytime before either. Though, it was thanks to you, my friend." Baby giggled a bit.

"I told you to call me sis." Gregory rolled his eyes, smiling.

"Yes, sis."

"That's a whole lot better." They were quiet for a moment as they simply enjoyed each other's company before the animatronic opened her mouth again. "We'll get everything that was taken away from us soon enough, Greg." The young boy nodded, his eyes filled with determination.

"Are you sure you don't want anything yourself, Sis?" She slightly shook her head, green eyes peering up at the boy.

"No. After all, I found something much better."

-SB-

Dr. Lohk had been packing up for the night, his long shift ended 2 hours ago yet he was still here. I oughta get more sleep… The doctor thought to himself as he continued to clean off his desk until his eyes landed on a manilla folder that he stored away earlier that day. He picked it up and opened it, but already knew what was held inside.

It had been Gregory's medical records. It seemed this boy had a lot going on with his body in general between the time he was young to the time he was brought here, though it seemed like this wasn't his first time coming here. After the ruination of Daylight city, he had been taken here with some medical complications along with one that showed his blood type changed. While it wasn't unheard of, the way it was done was a very rare case and he'd been given some medicine to help alleviate any sort of strains that it would have on his body, but this wasn't the only weird thing.

The boy had gotten an x-ray on his ankle after not being able to quite tell what was wrong with it, but it seemed to be fine. No broken bones, no cracks or dislocations, nothing. It had been as if there wasn't a problem there to begin with, but the boy still said it hurted. The weirdest part was how much the x-ray machine glitched as they used it, giving them some very odd looking x-ray captures. Perhaps the machine just needed repair work. Everything had been used a million times in the hospital so it wasn't unusual for something to break down.

As Dr. Lohk looked a bit closer at the x-ray, his eyes started seeing almost distinct shapes in it. It's almost as if his bones are- The man shook his head, ridding him of his crazy thought path. Perhaps he spent too much time thinking about Evan's unique body today that he started seeing things he normally wouldn't see. The old man put the files into his satchel bag before finishing up his cleaning. Hopefully everything will be fine for Evan and his household. They've gone through quite enough.

That and I'd have to actually deal with them by myself. The doctor thought to himself, sighing out loud. That thought alone was enough to make him wish he was in bed asleep already.

-SB-

It had been dark in this part of the pizzeria as two men walked towards an unseen destination. One owned a cane while the other led the way.

"You sure it's back here?" Said the man with the cane, slowly following the other man. He sounded quite old, voice seeming to belong to a 50 year chain smoker.

"Oh, that it is, alright!" Said a cheery voice, slurring his words a bit. He also sounded older, but not quite as old as the man behind him. "He broke down much before we opened this place up, but we created a place for him to be in case we could figure out how to fix him." Their footsteps echoed off the walls until they met a door. Moving inside, it seemed to be some sort of backroom dealing with the bowling alley. It wasn't much further until the subject they spoke of was in eyesight.

There he stood at 6 and more feet in the air, towering over the men walking up to it. His light blue ears stuck much further up in the air, looking like he was listening to everything despite being inactive and his reddish pink eyes stared forward, unmoving. The red suit had stuck out like a thumb as a ray of light shone on it from the room over. It seemed from the outside nothing was wrong with it, but both men knew there was some reason he wasn't activating.

"I don't know what to do with him, but maybe you can figure it out?" Said the younger man, receiving a low chuckle from the older smoker.

"Consider it done. This has been my specialty for the past 50 or so years. You're in good hands as always, friend."

The older man clapped the younger man's shoulder as he moved up to look directly up at the face of his old favorite. While he wasn't made of the same parts as the older version, he wondered if the original had still been around. He was sure he was going to find out soon enough.

He was absolutely certain of it.

---

Authors Notes

Honestly, this chapter was a bit hard to write. It's a bit weird to me not having a big focus on Evan, Chara or Mangle for most of the fic, but I really did enjoy how this turned out. God, I can't wait for the next few chapters.

On another note, trying to make Michael seem somewhat doable for a date was awful. As PLR said once, "Michael fits dating the same way peanut butter compliments toothpaste." I feel like I did a pretty good job, though I don't think Michael would say his date turned out too well.

By the way, my titles for my chapters mean a lot. Usually they'll tell you what's going on but you won't understand it til after you read it. Of course this one takes a bit of reviewing to understand though it has a couple different meanings, but all my chapter titles are pretty important.

Also, if you're wondering how Michael hasn't figured out that Evan is his brother it's because he's completely in denial. Shit happens when you're telling yourself that their death was your fault for the past 50 or so years. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll catch y'all in the next one!