Author's Note: Sorry I missed Monday's update! This chapter is the longest so far to make up for it. I'll still try to post part 7 tomorrow.

Another trigger warning for Ruby's self harm.

What if...Ruby was Being Rhetorical

Part 6

Parts and Services

"I'm having a long day." He really thought robot nieces and nephews were about how weird and complicated his life was going to get.

He sensed Derrick looming over him, reading the tag over his shoulder. He tried to block the other man's view, too late.

Derrick spun on his heel.

"Derrick hold on. Hold on! Stop!"

The man halted and Scott nearly ran into him as he turned to look him right in the eye. "Is that my daughter, Scott?" He demanded an answer.

"I don't know how..."

"Two robots just told me their home is alive."

"Time travel seems like a bit of a leap."

Derrick turned back around and threw his hands up and shouted as he stalked out of the room and down the hall. "Never thought I'd be George Fucking McFly!" he said loudly and sarcastically. He walked with purpose, although he probably didn't know where to go.

"Derrick, wait dammit!" Scott followed.

Spring and Puppet didn't say anything for a moment.

Spring suddenly smacked Puppet using his remaining arm. "Why were you just dancing around it?"

Puppet looked miffed and straightened. "Me?! You were beating the stupid bush. How was I supposed to know? You knew her name before me!"

"You're telling me that new, stupid facial recognition program didn't trigger anything?!" Spring asked sarcastically.

"It doesn't even work right! I just assumed it was another bug! Why on earth would we even assume she was our Ruby. That's asinine. Insane! "

"Marionette. We. Are. Living. Robots!" Spring snapped as he pushed the older bot out the door to follow the men. "How much more insane do things need to be?!"

The floor rumbled under the bots and they took that as a sign to hurriedly follow the two humans. Puppet grabbed up the bag automatically while still arguing with Spring over just who had been avoiding the fairly obvious conclusion the most.

Derrick was still holding the bat when they caught up to them.

"Derrick, just stop!" Scott nearly begged. "We don't know where she is!"

"How did you meet her?" Puppet asked, bag slung over one thin shoulder. "Where did she come from?"

"I heard a crash in the office and found her flicking through the cameras on the tablet," he explained, thankful when Derrick paused to listen as well. "She pulled out her own really... fancy tablet and then started swearing up a storm and... oh, she was complaining about the building not giving her enough time," he realized. "She immediately started looking for you Puppet. Although I didn't know who the 'clown-faced bastard' was initially."

Spring snickered at the description and Puppet glared at him.

"I'm sure it's said with love," the rabbit said.

"Where on earth does she pick that up?" Puppet grumbled, maybe a little hurt sweet (but chaotic) little Ruby would call him that one day. Maybe a lot hurt...

"I'm with the yellow bunny," Derrick said, scanning the floor and walls for any sign of the girl. "Sounds almost endearing. But if anyone asks, I don't know about it. Rose already chewed my head off when Ruby came home singing the..." He made a face. "The Shit Song."

"Language," Puppet mumbled, more out of habit. He glanced at Spring, noticing he was still covered in blood. Hopefully the police closed the restaurant and they wouldn't run into any other children. He looked away, the sight of blood bringing up painful reminders.

"How does that one go?" Spring asked, genuinely curious and amused.

"She just sang the word 'shit' on repeat to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ..." Derrick explained. "...That's the second daycare we've been kicked out of."

"Oh, thank goodness. Wheels on the Bus was the song Wiggy and I taught her," Spring said, a little proudly.

"She probably hasn't had a chance to find a word she likes for it yet," Derrick admitted.

He looked around a little helplessly. How were they supposed to find her? This place was fairly big.

"Is there any way the... building could help?" he asked, uncertainly.

Spring looked dubious. "I don't know. If she doesn't want to be found, I don't know if the building will go against that."

Puppet thought for a moment. "Goldy can probably find her..."

Scott looked alarmed. "She can't move, Marionette." He said guiltily, confused and a little shocked the bot even suggested it. It had been six months and he was no closer to getting his hands on the materials to build Goldy a new endoskeleton. He wasn't even sure if he could even with Puppet's help. But it was frustrating as hell having the board and manager drag their feet with the order despite his threats and anger over what happened, and it wasn't like he could afford the materials on his own.

Spring and Puppet exchanged another guilty glance. Scott suddenly got the feeling that he wasn't going to like what he heard next.

"She didn't really want anyone else to know," Spring admitted sheepishly.

Derrick was starting to get impatient. They were wasting time and-

He needed answers. He looked down at the bat again. He still didn't know what to think.

He took a deep breath to centre himself. He would get his answers. Eventually. He just had to be patient. Most of his job was being patient. He was good at that.

"The hell do you mean she can float?!" Scott exclaimed. "Marionette what in the hell does that even mean!"

"She's uh...she's kinda like a ghost," Spring said, wincing.

"Are you telling me ghosts are real now?!"

"I said like a ghost..."

What on earth did Derrick miss? He only zoned out for a second! First, he didn't really get a full explanation of what happened in the room, now Scott looked like he was having yet another crisis while the two animatronics reminded Derrick distinctly of two teenage boys awkwardly standing on a porch with an officer behind them, waiting for their father to open the door so they could attempt to explain exactly how they had managed to get his car stuck up in a tree. Or something like that.

"Guys-" Scott sounded near panic now.

"The point is," Spring cut him off quickly. "That she can also…teleport."

Of course... Derrick rubbed his face.

"So she can find, um, Ruby."

It was weird saying the name and talking about a teenager instead of a toddler.

Puppet shrugged uncertainly. "She has a knack for knowing where everyone is quite a lot of the time."

"Give me strength," Scott said to himself. He wasn't religious but he felt the situation called for it. He wanted to get to the hospital to check on the kids but this felt more urgent now that the kids were safe. "Parts and Services. Now. Derrick we're going this way."

They could tell he wasn't happy, but this was really their only option now.

Spring was worried. The expression on …Ruby's…face when she'd looked at Derrick had been... it stuck with him.

"Is everyone asleep?" Spring asked softly.

He knew what was happening to the Originals (what a silly name, but they needed some way to differentiate them from the Toys). It's why he'd wanted Joseph nowhere near him.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Ruby had reacted to the name too. She'd looked angry for a moment before hiding it and solving the issue of his arm herself.

Scott nodded sharply. "Apparently, Joseph..." He clenched his hand in rage. "Joseph had to shut everyone down for a few days. He said everyone's wiring was shorting badly and he didn't know why."

Spring flinched. Shorts hurt .

Puppet snarled, making Derrick jump at the unfamiliar mechanical noise. "They wouldn't be having any problems if you stopped him!"

"I know, Mari," Scott said in regret as they headed to a door at the end of the hallway they turned into. "I know. I'm sorry. I told you, the Manager was waiting until I was gone to threaten him." He shook his head, sounding pained as Puppet scoffed, having already heard the apology a dozen times. "I'm never going on vacation again..." The guilt was thick in his voice.

"Don't make promises like that," Puppet warned him sharply, glancing at a wall.

Spring couldn't help the way his ears drooped. He might be sad about ending up in a hidden room and not working, but he was outright angry over what they'd done to the others. They were being hurt and no one could do anything. And Goldy-

He shuddered. They were monsters to hurt them like this. He didn't even know if Joseph even cared.

When they got to parts and services, he visibly hesitated. He hadn't seen them in a while and he didn't know how bad it was.

Puppet didn't pause. He'd already braced himself and walked straight inside.

...it was worse than the last time he'd been here. Joseph had been busy.

"Oh fuck," Derrick sounded shocked, having followed Spring in.

Most humans might have been surprised but not horrified like that. It was nice having someone recognize them as people, someone who wasn't necessarily used to them.

It was weird too.

Spring couldn't really dwell on it as he whimpered involuntarily, crouching to check on whoever was the closest to the door, almost falling on his face since he forgot his balance was a bit screwed up with one arm.

Freddy was sitting between the door and the others, off against a wall. He still looked in the best shape. That made sense, Spring supposed. The management was probably more hesitant to take him apart, since all the branding focused on him and Toy Freddy wasn't as popular just yet.

Spring forced himself to check on the others. It wasn't the first time in his life he wished he could actually cry, this time in anger.

Chica's arms were missing, wires just hanging out and crimped haphazardly.

The hell was Joseph thinking? Scott just mentioned something about Joseph being threatened. That was news to him. Spring had just assumed Joseph was just not fighting, doing what he was told like a coward. If he was being threatened, that changed things, but still!

It didn't change that his friends were probably all in pain when they were awake. Bonnie's whole face was missing!

It made his frustration with the Toys worse too. They could be sweet, but they'd been really nasty towards the older group. Puppet could only do so much to try and make them understand. They'd got it into their heads that they were always meant as replacements. They were young. Ideas tended to stick with them when they were young, good or bad. It took Spring a little less than 9 months to deconstruct the idea that babies weren't delivered by storks (the time wasn't a coincidence). The alternative seemed so messy he just hadn't believed it was real for a while.

Goldy was towards the back of the room and Spring couldn't tell if she was awake or not. It was still disturbing to see his sister like this... It felt wrong.

"Goldy, wake up," Puppet said, shaking her as Scott crouched beside them.

The bots weren't exactly light sleepers, especially if they didn't set an internal alarm for when they needed to wake up. Probably a side effect of being used to people doing stuff around them while they voluntarily shut down on stage to rest.

Puppet tried again, but there was no response, which meant someone had shut her down from the outside .

Scott frowned. That was... odd. Goldy shut herself down all day, but she always woke up when he came to check on her-before the Management "accidentally" changed the locks and "forgot" to give him a copy to Parts and Services. Not even Joseph had a copy, the Manager needing to unlock it for him every day, saying she'll get approval for a key copy "soon."

But Joseph wasn't working on Goldy. He shouldn't be. There was no reason for her to be shut down like this. Who did it?

Puppet didn't say anything, just pulling Goldy away from the wall so he could get to her computer to boot her up.

Derrick stayed a short distance away, giving them space to work. He was still anxious though. He couldn't get his mind off of what had just happened. Besides Ruby possibly (somehow) being his daughter, the expression on her face just before she bolted...

His attention was drawn back when the golden bear spoke.

"Hmm. Puppet? Spring!? WHAT HAPPENED?!"

Right. The rabbit was still covered in blood.

"Um..." Spring hadn't thought this far ahead.

Goldy was staring in panic. Blood was a trigger for her...

Scott screamed in startled shock as the bear scrambled up and moved toward Spring, grabbing him and checking him frantically. The poor man was not expecting her to move on her own, even with Spring and Puppet's "explanation."

"Spring. Spring. Who's hurt?! What happened ? WHERE IS YOUR ARM?!" Goldy stammered, floating two feet off the ground like a day-old balloon and so focused on the blood she didn't even notice the men.

Spring looked down briefly. Some of the blood was the kids...but the most that was coating his entire right side and shoulder was Michael's.

"Goldy. Goldy, you need to calm down," Puppet soothed, standing up to come beside them.

He didn't need Goldy's panic to trigger Spring's. The rabbit was still shaken from everything and probably only functioning because of their current mystery.

Scott covered his face and turned away to lean against the wall. "You kids are going to kill me one day," he muttered, hand over his hammering heart.

"Do we really have time for this?" Derrick asked, voice sounding strained.

He was handling the floating bear like a champ though.

"Goldy!" Puppet said a bit louder. "Do you know Ruby?"

The random question grabbed her focus at least. "The little girl that calls you Mari Mari?" she asked, still holding tight to Spring's remaining arm as she checked him over.

"Um, the building... we think it did something," Spring said awkwardly, letting Goldy fuss.

He really didn't want to go over what had just happened. He really really didn't want to have to think about it properly yet.

"We..um...Do you think you can find her?" Puppet asked, trying to keep his voice even.

Goldy looked alarmed. "Is she missing?!" She glanced at the blood, making some kind of horrified connection. "Where's Wiggy?!"

Spring stiffened and looked away in guilt, trembling slightly.

"She's okay," Puppet said quickly, noticing. "She's okay. We just need to find...Ruby." He glanced at Derrick anxiously.

If Goldy didn't know, then this was another way to test the theory, he supposed. If Goldy could even find her.

The bear looked both anxious and confused and they felt guilty over adding to her stress. She'd already been through enough.

She took an unnecessary breath though to calm down and focused.

It was silent for a moment before Goldy frowned in confusion.

"That... doesn't make sense," she said slowly. "There's... two? In the main room and then... in the vents?"

She looked up at them in confusion. "What's going on guys?"

Spring tapped his fingers on his leg anxiously. "Um, we might have met... a teenage version of her?" his voice went up in pitch as he realised just how insane this was. "She kind of... stopped a disaster and-" he cut off, shaking.

Scott reached out to touch his arm in concern.

Goldy squinted at them. "Time travel?" she asked dubiously.

"You said you could sense two," Puppet pointed out defensively. "I gave her to her mother in the main room. So the... teenager must be in the vents."

Goldy put her hands on her hips, glancing at Spring in clear worry. "Why would she be in the vents?"

"Pretty sure she's hiding. She looked kind of freaked when she ran," Spring said.

"When she saw me," Derrick said, dread making him feel sick. "She saw me and ran." Why? Why had she run like that?

Goldy's frown deepened. "Why is she so clear though?" She asked in confusion.

"Clear?" Spring cocked his head.

"Yeah, and spiky."

"None of that makes sense," Puppet deadpanned.

"Spiky?" Scott muttered.

Goldy jumped, looking at Scott in surprise, then Derrick, like she just noticed they were there. "Scott! I... I..uh..." She backed away, almost hiding behind Spring.

Scott shook his head. "We...we can talk about... you..." he gestured at her uncertainly. "Later. What do you mean 'spiky'?"

Goldy took a moment, looking at him anxiously before answering. "Just...she feels spiky. I don't know how else to explain it. She's just..." Goldy stiffened in shock, flinching and looking around wildly. "What the?!"

"Goldy?"

"She-" Goldy struggled to explain, exasperated. She could still tell where "Ruby" was, but that "clarity" had got shockingly blank. One moment she could feel a swirl of emotions she couldn't really sort immediately, and the next- "There was...a bunch of stuff, then...nothing. But I can still tell where she is somehow. How..."

They all looked very concerned.

"Is she okay?" Spring asked worriedly while Derrick looked alarmed. "Could you go find her?"

Goldy fidgeted with her fingers nervously. "I don't want to scare her," she mumbled, gesturing at herself.

Scott's heart just broke at the insecurity in her voice.

Derrick finally spoke up. "Can you tell us which vent she's in?"

Goldy looked at him nervously, unsure how to talk to the man who was practically a stranger.

"She's my...daughter..." Derrick said, choking on the words a little. "O-or... she was. Will be?" He shook his head, unsure how to talk about the teen and his baby separately.

"I-I know who you are, Mr. Stone," Goldy said shyly and a bit ashamed to admit she watched them.

It didn't bother Derrick at the moment. "I need to...to make sure she's okay. She..." He wasn't sure if he was ready to outright say it. "She was scared of me."

Spring flinched. He didn't think it was that simple.

"My daughter...no matter how old she is o-or if she gets involved in...magic or whatever this is," Derrick said, his tone earnest. "She should never be afraid of me." His voice cracked. Was she afraid of him? Had he done something? The startling idea made him feel physically ill. No, he...he'd kill himself before he hurt his baby girl. He needed answers .

"You could never hurt her," Goldy said firmly, the sureness slipping through her anxiety. She saw how much that little girl was loved. It made her upset when Joseph wasn't that affectionate with Hedy. It was hard not to draw comparisons when she was so angry with him. "I can't believe she would be afraid of you."

"She couldn't look at him," Spring whispered. "I agree. But there's something else."

The father's desperation seemed to be the push Goldy needed though.

"I'll go find her," She said. "I-I'll just see which vent she's in so one of you can go."

She couldn't imagine anyone would be fine with a... a ghost bear popping out of nowhere.

Taking another unnecessary breath, Goldy teleported into the vents without warning. At least she made it into the vents this time instead of into the wall. That hadn't been a fun time...

It still took her a moment to reorient herself. This was all relatively new to her and she was getting used to it. At least their vents were big.

She really only meant to peek around the corner and figure out where the closest vent entrance was but she was startled to find equally startled green eyes staring back at her. Goldy meeped and almost scrambled back the way she'd come, but her eyes caught on something bright red. There was browning blood over the teenager's hands which made her even more concerned over what had happened with Spring.

But there was fresh blood dripping from her wrist.

"You're bleeding!"

The girl blinked rapidly like she was refocusing on the present. She looked down at where her nails had ripped deep scratches into her skin.

"Ah shit," she muttered, wincing. "Wait, I didn't know you went ghost mode yet, Goldy?"

Goldy's thoughts ground to a halt, too many things to process suddenly. She focused on the blood.

She felt sick and she could feel a panic attack coming. She...she couldn't handle blood or fresh injuries very well.

"We...y-you need help," she stammered. "Too much blood..." Fingernails should never be able to do that much damage.

The teen blinked at her before looking down at the blood. She quickly covered it with her other hand. She'd pushed up her sleeve to get at the skin in the first place and was just hopeful the blood was all Goldy had seen.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said hurriedly. She'd seen Goldy have a panic attack only a couple of times but she recognised the signs.

She fished out a roll of bandage that she'd shoved into her jacket pocket earlier when raiding the first aid box and quickly wrapped the scratches up, pulling her sleeve down over it. She couldn't do much about the blood on her hands though. Shit, she hadn't known that her favourite ghost bear had the same issue with blood that she did!

... oh she was going to strangle Ginny. Ghost Ginny. Ugh her ghost brat from the future and not the little girl from this past.

Great, her head was still spinning from her own panic attack.

"I'm fine Goldy," she repeated. "It's not that bad."

"NOT THAT BAD!?"

Ruby winced as the bear's voice echoed through the vents.

"It isn't!" she defended. "It's just a scratch."

"Y-you..." Goldy was struggling to speak and she squeezed her eyes shut and put her head against the floor of the vent.

It really sucked, but somehow not being able to breathe seemed to make panic attacks worse because they couldn't focus on their breath to calm down. "I'm okay. I'm okay..." she mumbled after a minute before looking up, feeling better with the girl's injury bandaged, even with the blood. She still wanted the girl to get looked at by someone else!

"Who...who are you?" she asked hesitantly. She just needed to ask, for her own sake and sanity. No matter what she was just told and could...sense. She really didn't have the hang of this...weird building ghost thing yet, if she was being honest. She wasn't sure if she could really trust her "senses."

Ruby scrunched up her face a little. She was good at blocking all the ghost stuff, but Goldy had to be new to it all. She could feel all the bear's jumbled feelings haphazardly being tossed around her 'don't touch me' bubble. She couldn't tell what it was exactly but she knew it was a lot.

And it all spiked when she asked that question.

The teen let out a frustrated sigh. "Lemme guess, Puppet and Spring recruited you?" she mumbled petulantly. "You should already know then, shouldn't you?"

She knew her tone was rude and confrontational. She felt bad about it when Goldy flinched though. Dammit, all the bots were used to dealing with her and her moods by now. Even the Toys didn't get upset when she snapped at them during a bad moment. Goldy was still so young here though. Puppet and Spring too.

She could see it in Goldy's complete uncertainty. In Puppet's adorable attempt to be intimidating. In Spring's confidence.

They were going through a rough spot right now but they hadn't been through hell yet. They didn't have to go through hell though. She could stop that.

And to do that, she was going to have to be honest, wasn't she?

The teen let out a more tired sigh now, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them as she looked away. She didn't like these vents. They were too big. They felt exposed.

"Ruby," she murmured. "My name is Ruby Stone. I'm sixteen."

Goldy stared for a moment. Then she nodded slowly. "You…you finally let someone cut your hair?" she asked suddenly, sounding in disbelief. "Hopefully it didn't take fifteen years." She did her best to sound casual but the strangeness did still affect her.

The little girl who would grow up to be this person hated her hair cuts. She had overheard Rose complaining about it to her husband.

Ruby wanted her hair to grow really long like her mommy.

A complicated expression crossed this Ruby's face.

"There was... an incident. Most of it got burned off," she admitted. "I kinda like it though."

She'd forgotten that she didn't like haircuts. After everything, it had just come down to Ruby being as difficult as possible and no one really wanting to get close to her with anything sharp.

"It did in fact take fifteen years," she added.

Goldy let out a startled laugh. She fidgeted at her next question. "You...um...you seem really familiar. With us I mean. I guess that means you hang around a lot? We don't really expect kids to visit for more than a few years at most. You get...got along with Wiggy so well. I'm assuming that had something to do with it, right?" She was avoiding mentioning the others looking for her, especially with how Spring described Ruby's reaction to Mr. Stone. And the fact Goldy found her tearing up her own wrists...

So maybe it was a little cowardly but she was willing to let her curiosity distract her. Just for another minute.

Another very complicated expression crossed the teen's face.

"Hmm. About that..." Ruby clasped her hands as she tried to think of how to explain this. "I was a regular visitor until I was ten. Then I wasn't." Was there even a kind way of explaining this? She honestly didn't know. She wasn't a 'kind' person. "Okay, I spend a lot of time at the pizzeria. I work there. I'm the night guard."

Goldy was beyond confused at that. Had Scott taken her on as an apprentice or something? Some part-time thing maybe?

"I do know all the bots fairly well by now," Ruby continued. She seemed to be choosing her words very carefully.

How did she explain any of this? Should she explain it at all? How much could she get away with lying?

Puppet was still a baby, he might not be great at catching lies like that yet. Michael got away with a lot after all.

Fuck she just compared herself to Michael, she needed to get it together.

"Stuff... happened," Ruby finished lamely.

She didn't want to traumatise the sweet golden bear anymore.

Goldy looked unimpressed and Ruby was afraid she was going to keep pressing. Okay, maybe the bots weren't so naive she could just be vague and hope they felt too bad about upsetting her to just not ask.

Thankfully, Goldy let it go for now.

Unfortunately, she didn't pick a very pleasant topic change. "Why is...why is Spring covered in blood, Ruby?" she asked. There was a note of sterness in her tone. She didn't want Ruby to wave away that answer. But she was still afraid of what Ruby would say.

So she didn't know what happened...

Did Puppet and Spring not tell her? Was it really a good time to explain what Michael had attempted?

It was a lot easier than trying to explain time travel and all that though. She hoped she didn't break the poor bear though.

"Michael tried to kill some kids using Spring in suit mode. He snapped the spring locks in his arm to incapacitate the slimy bastard until the cops got there."

Was that too blunt? She still couldn't tell sometimes.

"The kids are okay," she added after a moment of thinking about Hedy's empathy lessons. "Most of the blood was Michael's. The kids are at the hospital." She looked down at her hands. Oh, she had more of the kids' blood on her than Spring did.

And there was the nausea again and it wasn't going to be denied this time.

Ruby smacked the side of the vent almost frantically.

"Bucket!"

The bucket was shot straight at them from down the vent but Ruby just cared about the fact that the building got it to her in time. There went breakfast and lunch. She really needed to wash her hands.

Goldy was very very quiet as Ruby puked her guts out.

"THAT PIECE OF SHIT!" Goldy shouted in rage, her voice cracking with a sob.

She hit the wall in anger and grief and probably a lot of betrayal. "He...he apologized to my face! I can't believe he..." She forcibly calmed down or tried to. She sobbed. "They're okay. Wiggy is okay," she whispered shakily to herself, probably reminding herself what she had been told, by Puppet and then by Ruby just now.

"Yeah, he's a piece of work," Ruby muttered, gingerly pushing the bucket away from her and wiping her mouth. "He's probably going to lose his arm though. And definitely going to prison. He was caught red-handed."

She eyed her bloody hands and bit back a hysterical giggle at the last second.

"I really really need to wash my hands," she muttered. "Where's the nearest bathroom? I don't know this place."

Goldy sniffled, trying to get her crying handled.

She nodded. "We're close."