Author's Note: Hello hello!

Yes we're late with updating everything. We know. :)

Ruby finally drops a few emotionally devastating information bombs.

What if...Ruby was Being Rhetorical

Part 8

Something of a Nearly Full Explanation

The lights went crazy in the bathroom and the building shuddered around them.

The other four looked through the doorway in alarm and Puppet had to fight against the urge to interfere. She was still a child (Ruby specifically, who followed him everywhere with a happy cry of 'Mari Mari!') and the bots hated it when any kid cried.

Derrick rocked her gently, alarmed but focused as he whispered to her. "It's okay. I've got you. I've got you, Princess..." He moved to carefully pick her up, slipping his arm under her knees as he stood, wary of the shuddering walls.

She was so small. She definitely got the height genes from Rose's side.

Scott jumped when a light shattered but got the bots to get out of Derrick's way as he carried the sobbing teen out into the hallway.

Goldy was reeling. Why... why was she feeling this? Feeling Ruby's pain and grief like a kick to the chest?

Ruby had shoved her face into Derrick's shirt so no one could see her properly. Her sobbing only intensified as he picked her up.

When was the last time that happened? That night? He carried her to the car, didn't he?

She vaguely heard Derrick ask Steve something and then they were moving. She didn't care. She just cried.

The bots very obviously hovered. They were anxiously watching the man holding the teen and Derrick had a feeling that at the slightest wrong move, they'd yank her away.

Ruby had quieted somewhat though, not full on sobbing anymore and sniffling by the time they got to the staff room.

He set her down on the couch, her hands still gripping her shirt as he sat down beside her, still wrapping his arms around her.

"Should I go get...?" Scott trailed off.

Derrick wasn't sure if bringing Rose in would be a good idea just yet. "She's probably wondering where I am," he admitted. "Can you just tell her I'm handling something and I'll come talk to her soon?"

Scott nodded. He looked at Ruby for another moment before leaving, shooting a twitchy Puppet a pointed look.

"Behave."

Puppet glared at him as he left, then went to the sink. He began rooting around in the cabinets.

Spring started pacing slowly by the door while Goldy anxiously floated, unsure if she should follow Scott or not.

Derrick looked up as Puppet nudged his shoulder, holding a cup of water out to him without a word.

Ruby happened to finally look up at this point. From the look on her face and the way she quickly wiped her face, she was about to try and dismiss what had just happened. But the words died in her throat.

"Am I being motherhenned by Puppet ?" she asked in disbelief.

Goldy frowned. "What do you mean? Puppet's terrible. He always motherhens people."

"Yeah, kids ." She paused in thought. "And the few adults he likes."

He did kind of fuss over Hedy in some ways.

"And Spring," she added. "But everyone fusses over Spring."

"I was hoping he'd cut it out by the time I was twenty-five," Spring grumbled.

Goldy chuckled. "Never."

"What do you mean 'everyone'?" Spring continued, sounding a little offended as he considered who she could be talking about. Why would anyone fuss over him? He could take care of himself.

"Drink, please," Puppet said, ignoring her weird statements and Spring's confusion.

There was a brief moment where Ruby and Puppet stared at each other before she huffed and accepted the glass.

"Whatever."

It was such a teenage thing to hear from her that it made Derrick smile a little. He'd fully expected his princess to be a rebellious teenager after all.

"Everyone," Ruby answered Spring but she seemed to be trying to keep it a bit vague now. "The bots. The staff. Hedy."

She stared down at the glass, expression suddenly carefully neutral.

She wasn't going to volunteer any more information, was she? They were going to have to be more direct in their questions.

Derrick also had the bad feeling that his darling daughter was a very good liar. So he'd need to work around that.

Spring looked bothered. He didn't like the idea of his kid being someone who fussed over him. It was supposed to be the other way around.

The Hedy that Ruby was speaking of would be twenty-one. It was a bizarre thought and he couldn't help but be curious what she might look like. Did she look like Maren as an adult? What kind of things did she like?

"How come Mari Mari doesn't mother-hen you anymore, kiddo?" Derrick asked, casually.

She'd see right through it but he already knew that.

He looked up at the robot. "I can't picture him ever stopping."

Puppet glanced away, a little uncomfortable under the man's gaze. He didn't like being put on the spot. He was never a performer, so the attention of adults was not something he was used to nor preferred.

They could all tell that she contemplated lying. And she paused long enough that Scott walked into the tense silence, freezing as he wondered what he'd missed.

Eventually though, Ruby's shoulders dropped and she moved away from Derrick, pressing into the opposite corner of the couch.

"Shit changes," she muttered.

"Language," Puppet said automatically and she scowled at him.

"You swear the most out of all the bots."

"We start swearing?" Spring asked innocently.

No one was fooled.

Ruby tapped on her knee and sighed. "I end up back in time and what was the first thing I went to do?" She asked suddenly, looking mostly at Scott.

He frowned, thinking back to the office. Her casual comment of him looking more like a Steve.

...like she'd never seen him before.

Her panic when she realised the date and where they were. Her rush to find Puppet because she needed to find Hedy-

Oh.

Scott's face drained of colour.

"You went to stop Michael," he whispered.

She went to stop Michael because she knew what he was going to do. Taking her out of the equation...

"He did it," Derrick realised, feeling sick. "He killed…the kids." He felt like he needed to say it outright, or else they were going to dance around the words.

Spring stumbled back, nearly falling against the wall.

Goldy reached out to steady him with shaking hands as he slid down to sit on the floor, his head bowed as he trembled, his hand reaching up to grip his left ear.

"I...I didn't stop him?" he asked with a sob.

"You were in shock," Ruby defended immediately. "And you stopped him from doing it again. Later. He got away with it that day."

Derrick looked furious at that. Goldy was trying to comfort Spring despite her own horror.

"What do you mean he stopped Michael later?" Puppet asked, tone carefully even.

"Springlocks make squish. Mickey boy bled out."

It was more than a little disturbing that the girl spoke about it so casually.

"I...killed him?" Spring whispered, pained. But he wasn't as shocked. He hadn't been sure if he would have been willing to do that. He hadn't been able to today. He had been a coward. But if Michael had actually...

There was a weird sort of comfort knowing he would have done what he needed to when given a second chance, especially if he failed Wiggy and her friends the first time.

Oh no. The kids. Wiggy . Michael was going to make him watch .

He couldn't help letting out another pained sob at the agonizing thought.

Puppet was very still as he shifted closer, but let Goldy do the comforting. It was hard to tell what he was thinking.

"No..." he said softly before Ruby could answer Spring. But the volume was just to cover up the stress. " No . They...they're okay . You mentioned Hedy. In the present tense. Which is it?"

Ruby didn't look away as she answered Puppet.

"Hedy got away."

The relief (and guilt for the other kids) was audible as it rushed through the room.

"You found her. She was traumatised and hurt, but alive. I apparently had a close call with Mickey boy though."

That casual statement made Derrick's blood run cold. His daughter almost-

"Ran from the bastard, right into you," she continued, still talking to Puppet. "Also pretty traumatised. There was a lot of blood." She sipped at the water, only now looking away. "I begged you to make a deal with me."

Derrick looked at her, suddenly confused. He looked at Scott for an answer, but the man looked just as clueless, his eyes locked on Puppet. He was also hugging himself in comfort, rubbing his face at the news of what nearly happened.

He looked guilty, and Derrick could imagine why. He was also probably relieved Hedy got away, but devastated the other kids apparently hadn't and the conflicting feelings were at war.

The three animatronics had all gotten very very still.

Puppet looked frozen. "What?" he asked eventually. "H-how did you–"

Ruby shrugged. "Honestly don't know. I've always apparently just... known. I'm pretty good at them by now. Deals can be fun."

"Fun?!" Goldy's voice went up in pitch.

Ruby just nodded. "Makes the games more challenging most of the time."

She was making no sense.

"But anyways, I asked for a deal." She paused and couldn't look at them for a moment. "I asked to forget. And for everyone to forget me as well."

Puppet went still.

"I don't remember this place. And I didn't know Hedy until she became the new mechanic."

It was very quiet. There was a lot to unpack.

"Puppet!" Goldy suddenly snapped at the lanky bot.

He threw his hands up, looking panicked. "N-no. I didn't. I wouldn't." He looked at Ruby frantically. "Little one, I-I wouldn't ..." he cut off and winced as he realised his slip.

Scott raised his hand.

"We'll explain in a minute!" Goldy said, still upset with Puppet.

She didn't know Ruby personally, but she saw how much the little girl meant the other bots, to Puppet especially. The little girl gave Goldy hope that her brother was healing from what happened to Charlotte. And he would just throw it away ?! She wanted to strangle him. She couldn't consider the reasons just yet, although Ruby had mentioned them.

Spring was quiet, though. He caught what Ruby said, that she ran into Puppet immediately after...Michael.

Ruby didn't defend Puppet often, or at all really, but she felt like she needed to now.

"To be fair, I was a sobbing mess and covered in blood. Could you say no to that?"

She held Goldy's gaze until the bear looked away.

"Right," Ruby nodded. She eyed Puppet warily. It was weird how he was treating her. She didn't know how to deal with it. "All that happened. The worst came next."

"That wasn't the worst part?" Scott demanded in shock.

Ruby winced. "Hmm. No. You see, Mickey went and hid the bodies." She paused. How to put this... "Inside the Originals he'd shut down entirely beforehand."

Scott rushed for the trash bin to throw up.

"Fucking hell..." Derrick whispered, looking pale himself.

Goldy was staring at the teen with wide, horrified eyes. She started trembling.

"And then-"

"There's more?!" Scott sounded like he couldn't take much more and Ruby grimaced.

"Yeah... so the kids didn't really... move on. So they came back as ghosts. Very angry ones."

She stopped as she tried to think of the nicest way to put what had happened next. Was there a nice way?

Probably not. She took a deep breath before just dropping the bomb.

"They possessed the Originals plus Goldy and decided all night guards were evil because Michael was wearing his uniform and they went and killed a lot of them. Until Steve put a deal in place that evened the playing field somewhat and gave the guards a fighting chance."

There was a long beat of silence.

"... I think they need a break," Derrick suggested tactfully. It looked like Scott and the three animatronics had hit their limit for the moment. There were a lot of things his daughter just said that didn't make much sense to him.

Scott tried to say something, but his stomach rebelled and he hurled into the trash can again.

The bots looked like they wanted to do the same.

"Ghosts aren't..." Scott tried, then he glanced at Goldy.

Goldy was making a faint scratching noise that Ruby had really only heard from Mangle.

Hedy said it was from a broken fan on their computers.

She briefly wondered if it was the equivalent of hyperventilating or just their processors overheating from the stress and confusion.

"A break would be a good idea," Derrick said, a little sterner now. He gave Ruby a meaningful look, warning her to wait before she added anything.

"No. No, no, I need answers ," Puppet said, his voice strained as he gripped his arms and swayed.

"You look like you're about to fall over," Derrick said to the bot.

"I..." Puppet tried to figure out what to say. He suddenly ran out of the room, past Spring, taking a left down the hallway.

"Where is he going?" Derrick asked.

"To wake up the Originals," Spring said with certainty, his voice a little distant. "To make sure they're okay. A-and to remind himself the kids are at the hospital, not..." he trailed off, sounding sick as he glanced at Goldy who was hugging herself.

Ruby did look a bit guilty as she watched them, but also like she didn't really regret it. To be fair, was there a good way to deliver that news? Derrick himself was the type who believed ripping the bandaid off was usually the best option.

This was some bandaid though...

He did notice that Ruby perked up at the mention of the Originals but she didn't follow Puppet.

Derrick couldn't help scanning her for injuries again. Goldy had said she was bleeding but he hadn't seen a wound. Maybe she had confused the blood the teen had on her hands with her bleeding?

He wasn't able to check her over. She was his Ruby but she wasn't a toddler. He was going to have to do things differently. It was a weird thought. He wasn't ready for a teenager. Probably.

He wasn't ready for everything she just dropped on them either, but who's counting?

Derrick handed her the water that she had set down, half finished.

"Give them a break," he said for the third time, making sure Ruby heard him. "I need to go make sure someone is securing the scene. They're probably wondering where I am." He stood up, keeping an eye on her. "I will be right back. Don't go anywhere ."

He also needed to decide whether to tell Rose what the hell was going on or just take her and Ruby- toddler Ruby-home before coming back to handle this.

How exactly was he supposed to handle this?

"Scott, do you need anything? Is there anything I can do right now?"

"Just..." Scott had his head still half in the trash can. The man sounded miserable. "Just make sure...make sure Michael is being watched... He's...he's always been good at sneaking away."

"He isn't going anywhere," Derrick promised. He looked at the remaining two robots.

Goldy hugged herself tighter, pulling at the edges of her suit absently. She felt so sick.

Michael, in some version of the world, put the children inside them. Her and the Originals. She didn't want to think about it.

Using her made sense in some sick way. She had space inside her. She was somewhat hollow. But the Originals. They wouldn't...

They wouldn't fit like that unless Michael forced-

Spring jolted in alarm as Goldy violently wretched, pitching forward a bit. Nothing came up of course.

That would have been weird.

"Goldy?!"

Goldy "breathed" hard in panic, grabbing on to Spring for some semblance of stability. What was that!? She never felt anything like that before. It felt like she still had an endoskeleton and all the wires in her middle section just twisted and scratched against each other. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. Then everything inside suddenly heaved like those wires wanted to escape. And she made that noise.

"Can you get nauseous?" Derrick asked sympathetically, deciding not to leave just yet.

Goldy shook her head. The motion made it worse and she groaned. It sounded more like a sob as she curled a little into Spring and he tried to hold his sister, looking sick himself as he caught up to what Goldy might have realized.

Something in Ruby's expression softened as she looked at Goldy. She put down the water (again, would she just drink it?) and stood up. She moved past Derrick to squirm between Goldy and Spring, to their surprise. So far Ruby had been keeping her distance aside from helping Spring with getting Michael out and disconnecting his arm.

"Alright," she muttered. "Lemme tell you guys about the chocolate bomb incident."

They were clearly bewildered as she started talking but Derrick and Scott could see what she was doing. The bots needed a distraction.

"So, I pitch up at work with my regular supplies and decide I'm gonna piss Hedy off by wasting as much chocolate as possible that night. Everything was going great. Until Bonnie and Foxy came up with the trojan horse plot."

They were surprised at how easily she spoke about them. They got back to work despite everything?

"So Bonnie takes one of the chocolate bombs and puts it inside his suit. The plan was to sneak up on Hedy to set it off right behind her. Instead the dumbass set it off accidentally. Chocolate spurted out of every joint. It was hilarious, and Hedy was livid cause she was the one who had to scrape out all the chocolate and Bonnie wouldn't sit still and whined the entire time."

Everyone was listening now and Goldy's spasmed heaving had stopped.

"But then Mangle swung down from the ceiling like a fucking spider ninja and set off a chocolate bomb right above our favourite mechanic. It was fantastic, although Mangle got into so much shit for rearranging her parts again. Hedy still holds a grudge."

Goldy let out a weak snicker.

"That's brilliant..." Spring said in delight.

Goldy looked at him and couldn't help roll her eyes as she recovered. "You must be so proud. They have to get that pranking stuff from you."

Spring looked aghast. "Me?!" He smiled a little too. His expression turned a little more hopeful as he looked back down at Ruby between them. "So... the others get back to work, Hedy takes over for Joseph one day, the Toys don't get their own place, and Mangle...she's okay?"

Ruby sighed, squishing further between them. How was that even remotely comfortable?

"The Toys and Puppet got sent to storage," she admitted. "This location closed down but a new one opened where the Originals worked. They were alone for a long time although Goldy was there too, unknown to most people. The Toys were brought in after I was already the night guard and things were... rocky. Hedy came with them. She, uh, she hadn't been anywhere close to the franchise since everything."

A small, amused smile grew on her lips though.

"Oh but they fucking hated me," she chuckled. "Especially Puppet. Those were some fun days for me."

"What did I say about giving them a break?" Derrick asked, exasperated.

Ruby winced.

Goldy and Spring looked upset, but they weren't panicking. They shared a pained look.

"We're okay..." Goldy assured. She took a deep fake breath.

Spring was a trooper as he asked, "Why would Puppet hate you?"

"They didn't remember each other," Goldy said, realizing it before him. "If they made a deal to forget, for everyone to forget, then...If Puppet and the Toys...were sent away before Ruby ever came back, then it would be like they never met."

"Oh...right..." Spring said softly. "That fucking sucks..." That was an understatement, but he was trying not to cry again.

"Spring!" Scott snapped, distracted enough to not ask what they were talking about. Deals?

Spring jumped and looked between Ruby and Derrick for a moment as Goldy snickered. "Who said that? Not me." The joke over, he winced. "Sorry. I keep switching between seeing you as one kid and two people. It's confusing. I promise I don't swear in front of...uh...little Ruby, Mr. Derrick."

Derrick looked pained. "You wouldn't be saying anything she hasn't already heard," he sighed. "My coworkers love her, but are dumbasses who swear constantly."

Ruby snickered. "Don't worry Spring. Every bot can and does swear. Except Mangle. She's the only one who hasn't broken that programming. Me, on the other hand. I swear like a sailor and everyone hates it. Once again, except Mangle. I did teach her to swear in sign though." A scowl took up residence on her face. "And I'm sixteen. I'm not a kid. Not that kid." She rubbed her face with a sigh. "I'm a different person to that kid. You guys need to understand that."

Spring looked like he wanted to argue, but Goldy interrupted.

"How long were Puppet and the Toys gone?" she asked seriously. It was a bad idea to distract them from pressing the issue about Ruby with something they knew would hurt but she had to know. How long did she go without seeing her brother and little siblings?

Ruby sighed. "Still stubborn Goldy," she murmured. "I think somewhere around fifteen years."

You could hear a pin drop in the silence.

"And uh, they didn't fare very well. As in, they all kinda... started killing people because they believed all adults were evil now... Puppet went off the deep end. Like 'bungee jumped off the edge and the cord snapped' kind of deep end."

Goldy sniffled, overwhelmed again, but she was getting more practice fighting back the sobs.

Spring's ears dropped and sagged in sadness.

"They're new," Goldy cried. "They're just...They're not even two years old. They haven't been here for a month . They're learning . Th-they don't even know how to be people yet and they...they killed people?" Her voice cracked miserably in grief. "And we..." she put a hand over her chest as if to scratch it, like she wished to tear something out of her. "The children ..." she sounded ill again.

"Puppet went insane?" Spring asked, softly. It hurt that he didn't sound surprised. Just depressed.

Goldy whimpered. "He..."

Spring hugged her. "We know he's been fragile," he murmured to Goldy. "I don't think he would have recovered from..." His eyes flicked to the blood that was starting to dry. "This."

"Why didn't I stop any of this?" Scott said in anger. He wasn't angry with any of them. There was guilt and shame coloring his tone. "I wouldn't...I won't let that fucking bitch just send the Toys away . Or Puppet!" He snarled.

Ruby fiddled with her fingers. "Um, well, hmm. From what I understand, there was a lot of threatening going on from the company. You did your best but could only mitigate the damage. You set up a deal to give everyone a fighting chance. But, um, no one lasted past night five until me..."

There were two things they got from that.

One, Scott died. Scott was killed by one of the kids possessing the Originals.

Two, they'd tried to kill Ruby too.

"...and I didn't have anything to say about this?" Derrick asked, oddly calm. But he was internally fuming. The hell happened to his department? Was nothing done about people just dying or going missing? Even if they wouldn't have taken the idea of ghosts seriously, something would have been done right? He would have done something!

Ruby got very quiet suddenly and wouldn't look at him.

Derrick tensed but did his best to stay calm.

Scott leaned on the wall beside the animatronics, even though they looked at him in terror and fear and shied away.

Goldy was seconds from busting into much louder cries.

"Well, none of that is happening now," Scott said firmly. He smirked wryly. "Only over my dead body."

"SCOTT!" Goldy cracked out a tearful gasp in horror, smacking his leg as Spring clenched both sets of teeth together to fight his shocked laugh.

" Ow ," Scott complained, rubbing his shin as he hopped on one foot.

Ruby didn't even give a snicker at the joke despite already showing a very morbid sense of humour. She didn't look up as she answered him, tone suddenly devoid of emotion.

"I was ten when my parents died in a car accident." She was tense enough that her nails were digging into her legs through her jeans. "Accident ," she scoffed. "Fucking sabotage."

Scott and the bots froze.

Derrick was quiet. He crouched down in front of Goldy, Spring, and Ruby; trying to get Ruby to look at him. She'd squirmed around until she was unconsciously half-hiding behind Goldy. His voice shook a little when he spoke again.

"I figured it was something like that..." he said gently, somehow not freaking out, even after learning he was dead to her, in such a horrifically literal sense. "I was hoping it was just me, Princess."

He swallowed and his voice cracked as he touched her shoe. "Your…your mom too?" He dearly hoped she would deny it.

Scott didn't dare have any reaction. They hadn't been friends for long but he saw how much Derrick loved his wife and daughter. The younger man had to be hurting at the confirmation about something he apparently already suspected, but devastated to learn Rose didn't survive him.

They had left their daughter alone .

Scott didn't know how he would react to something like that. He was already reeling from the realization that both him and the detective were ghosts to this girl, in the metaphoric sense.

He was still processing the idea of his own death.

One of the bots…

He failed to take care of them so many times and then finally abandoned them to the world. How the hell was he supposed to react? He was surprised he wasn't freaking out as much. Derrick didn't seem to be freaking out as much. Maybe they were just both numb to the idea, their minds not able to comprehend it.

No wonder Ruby had had that reaction to him. A girl meeting someone she'd only heard about from others. As far as she remembered, this was the first time she had met him.

Ruby still wasn't looking at Derrick.

"I watched you both bleed out," she said softly. Her voice was too calm, too blank. They didn't know how she was managing to keep this calm without completely disassociating.

She'd been without parents for six years then.

Goldy and Spring both were hit with the desperate urge to hug her. But despite having slotted herself between them, they weren't sure how she'd react to it.

Derrick gently reached forward to touch the side of her head, trying to lift her gaze to him without forcing her.

"I would like you to see your mommy," he said softly, pleading almost. The use of "mommy" to a teenager didn't even sound strange. He was used to referring to Rose that way to his toddler, after all. "You need it, Princess." He was heartbroken to see his baby girl in so much pain. It didn't matter what she said about not being the same person. He understood that. But this was still his daughter.

"I want your permission first, but I'll explain everything to her so you don't have to go through it twice." He paused. "I need you tell me everything. What happened. How it was sabotage. But not right now. Understand?"

A very complicated series of emotions crossed Ruby's face, all too quickly to really decipher. Finally though, she muttered a curt "Fine."

It was probably the best he'd get in all honesty. It was hard to imagine what she was going through.

She'd lost her parents, had seen them bleed out in front of her. And now they were living and breathing and she somehow had to deal with this.

It was a wonder that she was so calm as is.

He had to wonder though, what about her godfather? She hadn't mentioned anything about Alistair.

There were so many things he still needed to ask about.

But he needed to keep his own boundaries. They would discuss this later. There were more pressing issues. He had been missing for too long. His Captain was going to chew him out for going AWOL while going from off duty to on duty at the scene of a crime. He needed to figure out an excuse that didn't make him look incompetent. He glanced at his watch, a little shocked it had only been about ten minutes since he burst into that room and all the chaos happened. That didn't feel right at all . The paramedics might still be getting the kids in the ambulances at this point! He looked at the clock on the wall in confusion.

There were so many things to do and he couldn't shake the nervous worry that Ruby would pull a disappearing act before he got all his answers.

Hopefully, she'd still be there when he got back.

He reached forward and leaned between the two bots to gently take Ruby's head in his hands. He kissed his daughter on the forehead. "Please don't run off," he pleaded.

She didn't say anything, still didn't look at him. But she gave the smallest nod in answer.

That would have to be enough for now..