I wanted to submit this chapter last week, but my mom's birthday happened there. And it was incredibly tough on me as I no longer have her around. Let's just say I was quite emotional when I got home from her grave.

So please bear with me if I am less active than I usually would be.

Now to the chapter.

She needed to get out of the restaurant, away from the dark cloud that had fallen over them all. So when Anna suggested a trip out of town, Chica took it without much thought.

The head waitress brought her to a smaller town about an hour from the city where the restaurant is. "I haven't been outside the big city." Jenna says as they pass the houses with bigger gardens. She's surprised by the atmosphere. "So quiet, it's almost tranquil."

"That's why I live out of the city." Anna replies, and that statement catches Jenna by surprise: "Not much of a city girl. Too much noise."

That made Jenna laugh, for if Freddy's is one thing, quiet isn't one of them. "Then you made a crappy choice in seeking employment at the restaurant. It's never quiet."

"True, but I can deal with the noise." Anna stops the car before an area that reminds Jenna about that market she and her friend went to at the start of their independence. Feels such a long time now. "I like the positive atmosphere. No shitty workers or boss." Anna moves, but halfway out of the car, she leans to Jenna with a wily smile, "Don't tell this to him. But I am glad Mike isn't the boss anymore; he didn't fill the role like Mr. Faz— sorry, Mr. Legrand does." She corrects herself, "still getting used to the name change he did."

Jenna giggles at this simple mistake; she follows the head waitress outside the car. "Was Mike really that bad at being the boss?" What may explain why their friend was so eager to return the ownership to Freddy. "Sean must've underestimated his ability to lead."

"Oh, Mike handled it well enough. Sure, he's not as bold as Mr. Legrand, but that's not really the issue." Anna corrects her thoughts, and as she hands Jenna a bag, "I kinda got a rule not to go out with my boss."

This catches her attention perhaps a bit more than it should, but Jenna has always been kinda a sucker for cute couples. So, hearing that Anna got a thing for Mikey. "Ohhhh, I didn't know you two were a couple." She sidesteps beside the other woman, the troubles back at the restaurant forgotten at the moment. "I'm surprised you were able to hide it that well."

Anna laughs bashfully, brushing some of her hair behind her back. "Well, we aren't dating. I… I hadn't the nerve to ask him, and he does not seem that interested in me."

This time, it's Jenna's time to laugh, not at her companion's hesitating but at the one Anna got the hots for. "Sweetie, one thing you need to know about Mike: he's thick as a brick wall." Anna almost chokes on her laugh at Jenna's words, but she's not done giving this hopeful romantic some advice to get that dating started. "He will only notice if you hit him with it."

"Still, he is kinda cute." Anna giggles.

And without missing a beat, "I'm more into hard exterior with a soft side kind of guy." Jenna says, eyeing the other woman when Anna leans up against a stall, having a sly smirk on her lips.

"Oooh, right, you're dating Bonnie's creator. Tough guy with a flare for the dramatic." Jenna giggles but nods in confirmation, which makes Anna lean over to her, still with that smile. "How soft is he?"

"like a fluffy bunny." They laugh at this, and in a much better mood, Jenna turns her attention to what the stalls sell. Most of it is food, which gives Jenna several ideas. "Huh, with these, I can make a killer curry."

"I thought you would like this place." Anna says and sounds quite happy with herself; Jenna gives her a quick smile before she returns to picking ingredients for this food idea. The silence between them did not last that long, though. "Aan I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Even if it may be personal?"

Blinking, Jenna turns away from the stall and over to the still smiling but now much more nervous acting head waitress. Several thoughts of what Anna may ask come to mind; the biggest one is whether she has figured out their secret. "You can ask, but I may not give you an answer." She replies slowly, for if it's about their darkest secret— well, secrets. Guess them once being feral murder machines count with them holding the souls of murdered children.

Anna nods, accepting that. Though she only asks after Jenna has paid and they leave the stall, "Is the restaurant in trouble again?" Jenna is a bit confused about that question. Fortunately, the head waitress elaborates, "When Mr. Legrand introduced Mr. Arn as a second owner, I got the sense he didn't like doing it."

"He didn't." Jenna can say that much, neither of them wanted George around. But it's the only way to keep that asshole from financially ruining them by revealing the truth. "But we didn't have a choice."

"Can you tell me why?" Jenna shakes her head; Anna expresses disappointment but also respects her wish to keep that from her. "Okay, I get it's between you and the rest of the management. But is the restaurant in trouble?"

"No, everything is fine." Financial anyway, Jenna can't say the same about their mental state. George really threw a bomb at them… "The restaurant won't close down."

"Oh good," Anna sights in relief "I really like that place." Her smile fades and suddenly becomes quite somber. "What about the management? Are you doing alright?"

She knows it's best to lie and say they are doing fine, but… they are not. Jenna and her friends are not okay. She isn't sure what to do with the fact that she, Bonnie, Foxy, and Freddy have killed people. "No…" she replies to the woman beside her quietly. "we're not…"

"Do you want to talk about it?" Anna asks with so much compassion that it's touching. "We're not exactly friends, but I still care about you guys."

Jenna wants to talk to Anna about it, but how can she do so without revealing the ugly truth? "I'm not sure I can…" she admits, not even sure how to deal with the knowledge about what they have done. "How does one move forward, knowing they have done something terrible?"

Anna's face softened, and she got a look of pity and understanding. "You're talking about what happened at the former locations." Jenna can only let out a small sigh, no idea how to talk about it, and still avoid the elephant in the room. To her surprise, "I know what happened. The disappeared children, those they found at the Toys location. The many employee incidents… it's the reason why you and the others make such a big deal about safety. Am I right?" Jenna nods slowly, baffled that Anna has been tracking their tattered history. The head waitress smiles, though it's sad and sympathetic. "I guess Mr. Arn is a reminder about what happened. Was he planning to sue? Unless you allowed him to be part of the management?"

"Something like that." Jenna says, and can't help but feel a bit weirded out by how close this employee came to the actual truth. Curiosity gets the better of her, "How do you know about all of this?"

"People talk; I like to listen." Anna says like it's not a big deal. "The animatronics talk too; they can have quite the interesting conversations. Considering they are robots and shouldn't think about the well-being of others or pulling each other's leg— Golden hare Spring likes to do that a lot." She remarks with a small laugh, "Especially on Jeremy. I'm honestly surprised he hasn't tried to shut Spring down."

It sounds like they weren't as careful as they thought, but Jenna isn't as troubled as she perhaps should be. Anna is a great worker, one of the reasons why Freddy promoted her as the head waitress, but now Jenna is wondering if they can trust Anna more than just being a worker. "He's more bark than bite." She replies to Anna's statement, making the other woman laugh in agreement.

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After everyone has gone home. Freddy calls for a meeting between the animatronics and the people they trust. "Things haven't been at their best lately." Freddy states. And adds in case they get the wrong idea: "It's not the service I am talking about."

"Yeah, I figured as much." Bonnie remarks from his spot, his arms crossed and ears down.

Turning away from the rabbit, Freddy continues, "I know that these new facts are hard to come to terms with, that we all have hurt people." The Toys exchange troubled glances among one another. They are unaware of what the Gang did, but they do remember the people they hurt during their time in the limelight at their former home. "We have become much more aware, more in control with our more… darker urges, but I don't think our own self-control is enough." Freddy inhales, though he does not need air; it is simply a thing he learned from watching their patrons. By exhaling, he voices this idea: "I think we may need to get a safety measure installed into our systems. Something that will keep us from hurting people." and to make it clear that he's not telling them to just accept this proportion. "I'm more than open to hear your thoughts about this idea."

Silence, everyone is staring at Freddy or each other to see if someone will voice their thoughts. "I don't like this idea." Foxy breaks the silence, his eyes shifting at the many thoughts going through his mind. He doesn't see Freddy, and the others are looking at him. "I don't want to be programmed again, forced to do something I wouldn't do."

"The plan is to make it keep us only from hurting—"

"But what if this program stops us from playfully shoving someone?" Foxy interrupts Freddy; he has an intense look in his eyes, something that takes several off guard, more so of the fear shining out from them. "What if it tries to mellow out our personalities? Change it to a friendlier persona? That's what Bonnie's former program did— what the kiddos program did." The Toys shifts uncomfortably around at the reminder, but also being put in a sudden spotlight. Foxy does not notice this, like when he's doing the show, he is super focused on the brown bear; nothing but Freddy's following words matter. "A program won't know the difference. It won't know when we're out to actually hurt someone or simply have some good fun. There's nothing like a true AI! What we have," Foxy gestures at himself. "It's not programming; it's our human souls! We are not robots; we are people! We have emotions— which is messy and unpredictable. We do not think logically; we act based on our feelings. No program can copy that."

Freddy's face stays stoic, though he gets subtle signs that what Foxy said did make an impact on him. "Foxy got a point." Freddy turns around, facing Scott, but does allow the man to put his two cents into this heavy subject. Scott eyes each of the animatronics. "Your former programs were what made you snap in the end. That's why I asked Kate to remove it, to free you."

"but we can still lash out." Spring speaks up with a surprisingly calm expression; his dropped ears show his true emotions about the entire thing. "I mean, I did break Mike's arm."

"I think everyone would after what you went through." Jeremy remarks.

"Maybe, but I do wish I could've gotten a chance to get away from people before losing my mind." Spring retorts, still calmly at his brother. "Mike got lucky. I could easily have killed him."

"Spring got a point." Chica says and turns to Freddy, who is listening to all their opinions quietly. "We may be free, but if pushed comes to shove, we are still as deadly as…" her face drops, fiddling with her wings "as back when we were less aware."

He let out a small sigh, thinking he shouldn't stay quiet about this. "I would rather risk getting hurt than know you are willing to torment yourselves for other's safety." Mike says. He does not want his friends to relive such imprisonment again. "Everyone can snap, everyone can be dangerous."

"Except we are much stronger than most other people," Bonnie points out.

"What if you install a program that keeps you calm for a short while? Allowing you to leave the area where it's safer to go through a meltdown?" Everyone turns to Soren; all, especially the older ones, are staring as he said that in a strangely familiar, matter-of-fact tone. Noticing the stares, Soren's eyes go to each of them, frowning in confusion. "What?"

"You let the Rouge come out," Hope whispers to him.

Soren looks at her, somewhat confused, but turns away from the others, musing, "Not even sure one can make such a program..."

The others quickly pretend that the awkward moment didn't happen, but now that he thinks about it. "Soren may be onto something." Freddy thinks it may solve their main issue without hindering them in the long run: "It will keep us from hurting people and not force a personality change."

"Maybe, but there's still the issue of this program recognizing when it's time to activate and not to bother." Jeremy points out, with his animatronic brother adding, "I don't think neither Rena nor my son knows enough about their field to do such a complicated safety program."

"I will speak with Rena; she should be able to give us an idea of what it may involve." Freddy says she won't be able to create such a program, but so far, she's the only one who has a fraction of an idea of what kind of program will keep them hurting people without imprisoning their minds once again.

Okay, so Anna got a crush on Mike, but like everyone in Freddy's and several of you readers can see clearly as day, Mike is an idiot, so of course he's not taking notice. I swear, I was not planning on making him into a dumb-dumb, but now, I can't change it without messing with his character, and besides, it is rather fun.

Second, the talk of putting a restraint program into the bots, something they have dealt with before, *points at all the former locations* it did not end well.

I won't submit anything this close to Christmas; I have a lot of things to deal with, and I am not in the right state of mind to focus on writing anything new.