Cotton candy clouds. Huh. I must be dreaming.

Bonnie stood up and brushed tufts of cloud off his black hoodie. It featured a pattern of cherry blossoms. He'd had it since he was eleven, and the pattern was cracked and worn. It still hung low on him, giving him the look of what Freddy called 'sweater paws', and Mangle called 'fashionably baggy'. He looked down, trying to spot land. He found it weird that he had this recurring dream. He wasn't completely sure if Maegan was real, or just a figment of his imagination, but hey, anything could happen!

Maybe she's a ghost from the afterlife, Bonnie debated. Or maybe it's my subconscious. Or maybe-

"AH!"

Bonnie felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun around. "Oh, it's just you."

Maegan raised an eyebrow. "Getting bored of me already?"

"No, not like that, I just mean...never mind." Bonnie looked around. " What is this place?" He asked.

Maegan shrugged. "It's whatever I want it to be. I can change it, if you'd prefer something different."

Bonnie was about to protest, when the landscape suddenly changed. Fire shot out of the ground, the sky turned black, and he could hear roars and screaming from the distance.

Maegan cackled. "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"

Suddenly, Bonnie was falling. He looked down and gasped when he saw sharp, sharp spikes waiting to pierce him. He squeezed his eyes shut.

Then he was back on the cotton clouds. He sat up abruptly. What…?

"I brought you back." Maegan was in front of him now. She reached out a hand and Bonnie took it gratefully.

"I think I prefer this, actually." He mumbled.

Maegan smiled. " Yay. Now, I have something important to tell you. It's about...Ruby. And the rest of you too, I guess."

Suddenly, Maegan froze in place. She didn't move. She didn't breathe. Completely still.

Bonnie leaned over and waved a hand over her face. She didn't blink. "Hell-ooo? Earth to Maegan. Earth to- AAH!"

The world around him, shades of lavender and powder blue and baby pink, seemed to...glitch for a moment there. And for a split second, it almost looked like Maegan's whole appearance had changed. Fluffy black hair and golden brown eyes. And then, like it had never happened, the world was back to normal.

A sheep with wings flew in the distance.

Well, as normal as this world could get.

"Maegan reappeared. "I wanted to- hey, you okay?"

Bonnie shook his head in shock. "Did you do that? You like, froze for thirty seconds there, and then the world seemed to glitch, and you had black hair?" Bonnie's voice rose higher at the end, so it was asked like a question.

Maegan cursed inwardly. Crap. If the dreamscape is wearing off, I must not be as powerful since he- no. I still have power. And this is important. Just pretend like nothing happened, and it will all go according to plan. They needed my help, and Bonnie was the easiest mind to enter.

Maegan put a smile on her face. "Weird. I didn't do anything. I must have just fallen asleep for a second there, it happens sometimes. Now, back to what I have to tell you!"

The world suddenly glitched again. Bonnie caught a glimpse of...darkness. Just a really dark room. "It happened again! Are you doing this? Are you trying to freak me out?" Bonnie accused.

Maegan shook her head wildly. "No! I swear! I think you're waking up! Here, tell Ruby this: 2007! Go! Hurry!"

The world glitched black several more times, and then Bonnie woke up confused.

"Hey, sleepyhead! Wake up, Freddy's going through the plan!" Chica bounced up and down, energetic as always.

Bonnie rolled over in his bed, tired. "For what…?" He asked groggily, snuggling in closer to the pillows.

Chica rolled her eyes and ripped the bright blue and cyan blankets off the bed. Bonnie yowled in protest and clung closer to the plain white sheets.

"For killing the night guard? Ruby's going to be away for four more days, and the new night guard starts tomorrow. We need a plan!"

"Oh." Bonnie paused. "Right."

He'd never admit this, but Ruby being there had made him...a lot less inclined to murder humans. Like before he'd just seen it as defending their pizzeria and their secret, and sometimes an outlet for rage. Just toys. Playthings. But Ruby had changed that. Ruby had gotten him to see that humans had hearts and souls and passions, just like they did. After all, Bonnie was once a living breathing human. Did being trapped in purgatory make him any less?

Bonnie didn't know. But he got up anyway and joined the team standing at the table. He picked up a notepad and quickly scribbled in 2007. There.

"Okay. So this time, it's another girl. Her name is Amanda Wilson, and she's twenty-two. She has dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, average height, and blue glasses. Not super out-of-the-ordinary. I'm sure we can get rid of her easily." Freddy said, pacing back and forth. "Got any ideas?"

They glanced at each other. "Um." Nobody seemed to have any ideas. Which was unusual. Everyone was usually bursting with long, intricate, complex plans that often involved swords and backflips and all kinds of crazy stuff. They did that to keep it fresh and new and exciting.

But this meeting would be different.

Chica stood up. "Do you think," She asked tentatively. "Maybe this time we don't...kill her?"

Everyone stared at her in disbelief. They were literally built to play music and murder humans! And they were just going to...let her go free? As if!

Bonnie knew that's what he should be thinking. But for some reason, he found himself...agreeing with Chica's statement?!

No! This was Bonnie he was talking about! The one with the highest kill count! The ruthless one who always opted for violence against words! The one with anger management issues! Plus, they needed a good source of Remnant, scrap animatronics weren't exactly the best-tasting or most reliable food source.

No! He had to disagree.

And yet…

Bonnie stood up. "I think it's a fair point. I mean, the scrap animatronics are still here. And they've usually gone through plenty of agony to sustain us."

Everyone gaped at him.

"Really?! I thought you'd be the leading party against me!" Chica gasped.

Bonnie ran a hand through his fluffy blue hair. "I don't know. I just- ugh. I don't know what my opinions are on this. On one hand, she's a living person with hopes and dreams and such. And on the other hand, we need to kill something, or else we'll just get more desperate. And then we'd be a threat to all humans, like Ruby and the customers. And on the other hand-"

"You have three hands?" Mangle asked.

Bonnie rolled his eyes. "Whatever! The point is, there's no good option. We're basically cursed to kill something or die. And I don't want to die for a second time, because who knows where we'll go. Heaven? Hell? Nothingness? Is there even an afterlife?"

Foxy shrugged. "I don't know, matey. Didn't we have this conversation when we were nine? Remember?"

Bonnie laughed. They had, in fact, had this conversation. All the time, it seemed like. Bonnie sometimes questioned why that evil man had chosen them to kill that fateful day. Was it just random bad luck? Probably.

Freddy shrugged. "So, what do we do? The way I'm seeing it, it's either kill or be killed."

"Plus the threat of being unstable and killing a child." Mangle added.

It seemed as if the answer was obvious. Kill Amanda. But for the five animatronics sitting there, no, the five ghosts, they'd killed probably hundreds of people over their eight years. They wanted a new way of life, not just to play music/kill humans/repeat.

Ruby had brought that new way to them. And for the first time in a while, they'd felt that freedom. But now that she was gone for a week, these questions were riding up in them again. And the biggest one was still there.

Is there a better way?

And for the five ghosts sitting there, they didn't have an answer.