Mable: Okay, so I'm thinking of changing my schedule a little. Normally I post around 6PM my time on Wednesday, but next week I was thinking of aiming a little earlier. Maybe 4PM or 4:30PM. What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts! Enjoy!

Going Home in a Box

Chapter Ten

Natalie woke briefly when Fritz got up for work and then fell back asleep almost immediately. She barely acknowledged him kissing her on the forehead by giving him a muffled, "Love you," before drifting right back off.

The next thing she remembered was waking up to her cellphone ringing. She didn't even remember bringing it into the bedroom and knew Fritz must've and rolled over to reach for it. She briefly noticed the alarm clock reading two-forty-eight through blurry eyes and hissed before clearing her throat and answering her phone.

"Hello?" she tried to sound as awake as possible.

"Hello! I'm Kayla Stringer with Fazbear Entertainment. Am I speaking to Vanessa Smith?"

That woke her up right away. "Yes, this is she. What do you need?"

"I was just going over your paperwork and it seems that you never filled out your on-site liability packet. If you could just come by the office and fill it out today, that would be wonderful."

"Sure! No problem! Just… Give me a few minutes to get ready and I'll be there," Natalie agreed before even thinking about it. They said quick goodbyes and ended the call, and only then did she have a moment to think about it. She gave the idea of a 'liability packet' the same reaction as the alarm clock and got up to get ready.

Once she was somewhat presentable and while she made some toast to eat on the way there, she made a quick call to Fritz. He answered with a simple, "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me."

"Hey! I didn't expect you to be up so soon. How's it going, Sleepyhead?"

"Was going great until Fazbear Entertainment called and told me to come over and sign more paperwork. I shouldn't be there too long, then I'll be in."

"More paperwork? Did they say what kind?" he asked with a tinge of suspicion.

"The 'liability' package."

"Right... Kind of shocked they didn't make you sign a stack of wavers already." That suspicion was quickly replaced with an exhausted understanding. "…When you say be in, you mean coming here? To Foxy's?" She confirmed that. "Nat, you don't have to come in! You had a big night last night. Why don't you stay home today? You can swing by once we close and tell us how it went."

"Hmm… Maybe. I'll think about it," she replied. Her toast popped and she quickly pulled them out and dropped them on a plate. "Alright, food's done so I'm heading out! Don't push yourself too hard today either."

"I won't. Love you."

"Love you too," she finished before ending the call. She appreciated Fritz's concern, but she was still planning on heading after there once she was done. Whether she was going to come home and change into uniform first was undecided.

After a short drive into St. George, Natalie was back at the same office building she was hired at. She gave her name at the front and was sent up to the third floor, which was largely comprised of cubicles and offices from the looks of it. She had been on the first floor when she interviewed so this was a semi-new experience. Though with how much new technology was spouted in the Pizzaplex, she was surprised how standard this building was. No keycards or anything.

Kayla was a rather nice woman. Quick to business matters and not very chatty but gave the impression that she could've been a warm person when not on the clock. Natalie sat in her office for about fifteen minutes signing her signature on sheet after sheet of paper listing out how Fazbear Entertainment was not liable for incidents involved in her job description. She scanned through it closely and couldn't find anything too suspect hidden within.

Fritz had mentioned distinctly signing a paper that had discreetly suggested that Fazbear Entertainment had the right to clean up after any accidents and before medical attention arrived. She couldn't find that one here, but apparently if she was shot by an armed intruder, she wasn't going to be able to sue them for security failures that allowed for him to get in.

Once she was done, she shook Kayla's hand and left, intending to return to the elevator and leave the building. What she didn't expect was to find two people waiting not too far outside the door.

"You're the new hire, right?" one of the men asked. He looked to be in his thirties with short-cut dark hair and a crisp white button up shirt. He offered his hand and a smile, "Aiden Jackson. Welcome to Fazbear's!"

"Hey! I'm Vanessa," Natalie returned and shook his hand.

"And I'm Luis," the second man greeted. He was dressed like Aiden, though his hair was longer and looser, and his tanned skin wasn't as dark as his. He also seemed closer to her age. "How's it going?"

"Good so far! I just had to come in and finish some paperwork," she said. Not about to mention to them what she had seen the night before.

"Not surprised. I work in IT and these last two weeks I've been doing more work on paper than on the computer. Not what you'd expect when we've got the grand opening coming up," Aiden remarked. Before Natalie could ask when that was, she lost her chance when he continued. "You're the second Vanessa we've got working here. At first I was thinking she got transferred."

"I think someone mentioned her. She works in the gift shop, right?" Natalie asked. There was no need to get nervous yet.

"No, she works in the IT department. I think she's over in her cubicle right now," Luis said. "Let me go see if she's free. She'd love to meet you."

How quickly that nervousness kicked in after that. Natalie watched Luis start to walk off, as did Aiden, and knew she had to make a quick escape. She wasn't sure if this was the same girl from the gift shop, but she didn't want to risk it.

She looked around for a clock and the fake hissed when she saw one. "Sorry to cut this short, but I have an appointment soon and I want enough time to get home and recover before work," she excused. Aiden didn't seem bothered.

"Don't worry about it. It could take a while for him to get back," Aiden said with a knowing little smirk. One that dissolved quickly afterwards. "…But everything went okay for you down at the Pizzaplex? You started last night, right?"

"I did. It seemed to go okay, but I'm going to need to start bringing in change with me," Natalie said dismissively. "…Why? Did someone say anything?"

"Eh, Chaz talks. Not about you, but about the Pizzaplex. We've been having a lot of glitches that we've been trying to work out- Don't worry about it. It's more getting all the automated services up and running," Aiden explained. It wouldn't sounded convincing if she wasn't already aware of how lively Freddy was. Yet she kept her lips sealed on that matter. She couldn't push her luck in this building. "Hope it's a little easier tonight."

"Same. It's just one of those things you have to break into. Like jetlag," Natalie said. She then dismissed herself and began to head back towards the elevator. She thought for a moment that she was let off the hook.

Until Luis came around the corner-.

"Found her. Vanessa S. meet Vanessa A.," he introduced with a friendly smile.

All things considered; Natalie managed a pretty good poker face. Ness did not. Not only was it the same girl from the gift shop, but the moment she saw Vanessa her eyes widened like she was under a spotlight. With that sort of reaction, Natalie would've never expected that she would then proceed to play along.

"Oh, h-hey. I'm Ness. Vanessa, but everyone just calls me Ness," Ness introduced with a small smile. She held a handout a hand which Natalie shook, the tenseness as thick as a block of wood. "You just got hired on?"

"That's right. I'm working as a security guard… for the Pizzaplex," Natalie clarified, clearing her throat halfway through. There was an uncomfortable pause with Luis standing there watching them with an oblivious smile.

"I should get-."

"So, I have a-."

Natalie and Ness then proceeded to talk over their excuses to leave the conversation. That clammed up Ness quickly, but Natalie coaxed her with a simple, "Sorry. Go ahead."

"I was just, uh, saying that I'm in the middle of something and I haven't saved but it was nice to meet you and we'll see each other around," the brunette rushed out. This finally caught the interest from Luis and Ness was quick to tack on, "My computer's died twice already. I'm just waiting for it to shut off and delete everything."

"Oh geez. What do you think's causing that?" Luis asked. Ness, who had already been established as working in IT, hesitated before giving a silent shrug. "We'll let you get back to that, but I could take a look at it later if you'd like. Maybe see what I can do."

"Sure. That would be great," Ness answered. She said a quick goodbye in Natalie's direction and was on her way speed walking back into the cubicles.

"She's a little shy, but she's really a sweetheart," Luis assured. A small but adoring smile settling on his lips as he looked after her. Natalie's lips were tight as she tried to not look as suspicious as she felt.

"I understand. I have a sister who's the same way. I have to get going anyways," Natalie said. She gave Luis a friendly smile and strode past. "I'll see you around."

"Okay! Good luck tonight!" Luis returned. Thankfully, Ness went in the same direction as the elevators, so it looked like Natalie was leaving in the right direction before he turned away. Then she quickly disappeared into the cubicles.

It didn't take too long to find Ness sitting at one of the many desks. Her cubicle didn't look much different from any of the others, save that there was what looked to be a Pizzaplex calendar tacked up and showing a picture of Glamrock Chica poised with her guitar. There were two bobble heads Bonnie and Chica beside the computer. From their design, they were probably vintage merchandise from the old business.

As soon as Natalie walked up, Ness looked up at her, already half turned towards in her office chair. This led to yet another awkward silence until the blond found her words.

"I thought you worked at the gift shop," Natalie finally said, awkwardly, guiltily.

"I don't. I was just- I was doing a favor for… for Mr. Wight," Ness answered.

"It's not what you think," Natalie continued. She knew Ness knew who she was, so there was no point in lying or playing dumb. "I know this looks bad, but I'm not here to sabotage the Pizzaplex or anything. I'm just- It's a long story."

"I didn't think that. I'm… not really sure what I though. You just kinda surprised me," Ness admitted with a little smile. She kept her voice low too. "But what are you doing here? Is this about that guy wearing the Foxy mask?"

"That's most of it. For starters: that wasn't us. We don't know who that was, but the police have already been snooping around asking about him. That's why I'm here, to try and find out what's really going on," Natalie explained. She sent a quick glance around to make sure there was no one by to hear. "We think maybe we were set up."

"I know! That did sound weird! When I heard about the footage and that it happened right after you were here, I thought: "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark". And you know what it smelled like? It smelled fishy," Ness agreed quietly. She wrung her hands in her lap and kept her perked voice hushed. "Sooo, you're going to try and catch them in the act?"

"That's half of the plan. The other half, if this is a setup, is to maybe get someone confessing to it on tape… I know, it sounds crazy, but this whole thing is crazy. You should've seen some of the stuff I saw last night," Natalie mumbled. Ness looked up at her with curious eyes and the blond quickly underplayed it with, "I had a bot that kept falling down the stairs."

"Oh, they can do that. If their pathfinding's off, yes," the brunette agreed. She fell back into silence.

After a few seconds of nothing, Natalie asked, "Can you keep this between us? I don't want you to have to put your job on the line-."

"I will." Ness didn't even hesitate, and Natalie arched a brow questioningly. "Things… around here aren't perfect. There's a lot of things they're hiding and I just… can't help them with that. I don't want this job that bad. I'd quit, but I can't."

"Thank you," she replied with a relieved smile and almost an exhale of relief. "I promise, nobody's going to know that you know. If they find me out, I won't throw you under the bus. I owe you big time."

"How much?" Ness asked. She got a playful little grin. "Enough to get a Foxy shirt? Or a stuffie?"

"I think that can be arranged."

As assuring as it all seemed, by time Natalie got into the car she began to feel uneasy again. She didn't think Ness was going to tell. From her motions and comments about Freddy's, she didn't seem to hold that much loyalty to them. It was more the fear that someone else heard. Or that someone would see her on camera and ask Ness, in which case she seemed meek enough to crack under the pressure of questioning.

She tried to shake the thoughts as she drove back into Hurricane and straight to Foxy's. Nobody would care if she came in without her uniform once, especially since the 'uniform' was a pretty loose concept to begin with.

She walked in to find a moderately busy day. Foxy was standing in the dining room surrounded by a small crowd of kids while Marionette was on his stage in the arcade. She couldn't see where Fritz was, but she could see Mike fiddling with the trash can beside the kitchen and Louise standing in the kitchen doorway.

"You're looking a lot better than I was expecting," a voice spoke up from her side. Natalie looked over to see Charlie's box opening a few inches and her peeking out. "…Wait, that came out wrong. I'm sorry."

"No, I get it. You didn't think I'd be conscious," Natalie said. The Security Puppet got a crooked, little half-smile. "Believe me when I say it took a lot of sleep to get to this point."

"But you're feeling alright?" Charlie asked. The blond nodded. "Good! That's great."

"Thanks. Did you see where Fritz went off to?" she asked, pointing towards the hallway. Charlie slid an arm out to point in the same direction.

"Office. We just got a call, and he went in there to take it. Don't worry, I don't think it was about Freddy's or anything," she explained. Natalie nodded and was about to dismiss herself by walking off when the younger woman continued. "Speaking of Freddy's- about how it went last night, Fritz didn't say anything…?"

"I haven't told him yet. Don't worry, as soon as we hit closing, I'm going to tell everyone at once. It's going to be a lot to unpack," Natalie confessed with a sigh. "We might be looking at another haywire."

"…Foxy or Fritz's?"

"…Maybe Freddy Fazbear's."

At that comment, Charlie's eyes widened as though her brows were raising with nothing more than a tiny jingle and an, "Oh."

"Yeah, it's one of those situations… Again." Another sigh and she continued off, giving Charlie a brief wave.

The puppet returned one in a small, silent wishing of good luck before opening her box all the way to welcome some patrons who were about to enter through the front door. To stall them until Jeremy, who was over with the Minireenas, could come over and help them if they needed assistance.

Natalie stole a glance over at Foxy standing in the middle of the dining room only to notice he was looking at her. Caught on the spot, he quickly raised a hook in greeting and she smiled and waved back. He quickly looked back to the children as she turned forward once more, crossing the rest of the dining room and coming up on whatever was happening outside the kitchen door.

It looked like Mike was scrubbing a sludgy mess of dissolved cake and melted ice cream off of the trashcan and the wall behind the trash can, and where it was oozing between them. Natalie wrinkled her nose a little.

"What happened?" she dared to ask.

"Oh, hey. Didn't think you were coming in so soon," Mike greeted, briefly glancing to her as he pulled another paper towel off. "And this? This is the reason we don't let people bus their own tables."

"Poor kid really wanted to help out. Totally missed the trash. Splat! Right into the wall," Louise tsked with a shake of her head. She then held up her hands. "I'd do it, but my nails are wet."

"Funny how your nails are usually wet during service," Mike said under his breath.

"Because my paint chips whenever I help Mom with the dishes, and I can't walk around like that. People might talk," she said in a faux-pouting tone. Making sure to add a little wink towards Natalie. Though she was probably being honest.

"Let me go check in with Fritz and then I can help," Natalie offered.

"Thanks, but this is almost done. Don't worry about it," he assured. It really was a one-person job, and it wasn't going to be much of one after a few more wipes.

Natalie continued on into the office where she found Fritz with his back to her leaning over the desk. He had the phone in one hand and was writing something down with the other. She shut the door behind her and waited for him to finish.

"We can have both. One of them might have to step away depending on how busy it gets, but Foxy and Mari would both be happy to visit the birthday boy… No, no extra charge, but you'll probably want a sheet cake with that many kids… Sure!"

It sounded like he was getting the details for a party and if his wording was any indication, probably one on the larger scale. That would probably raise everyone's spirits after Natalie was forced to bring them down. The call didn't last too much longer and as soon as he finished up, while he was still writing down the details and before he could turn around, she slipped in to hug him from behind.

He must've been expecting someone else because he jumped at first, but then reached back to hook an arm around her.

"So, you decided to stop in early? That can't be a bad sign," he lightly joked. "How'd it go?"

"I met some of my new co-workers. They were pretty nice!... Including Ness, who was there and recognized me."

"…You mean the gift shop girl?" Fritz asked incredulously.

"The IT girl who was temping in the gift shop," Natalie clarified. He was silently letting that sink in, so she was quick to add on, "But she said she wasn't going to tell anyone and for some reason I believe her. She doesn't seem very happy working there and I explained the whole situation with the possibility of us being blackmailed. I don't know, I just don't think she's going to be a problem."

"I'll take your word for it. Chances are Fazbear Entertainment's still making enemies with its employees," Fritz agreed. He turned to Natalie and put an arm around her. "How was last night?"

There were still a few hours until service was over, and she could tell the others what she had seen and she didn't want to leave him in suspense for that long, so she went ahead and told him everything up front. Then stayed with him in the office when he needed a minute to sit down and mull it over. The reaction was about what she expected- maybe a little tamer than what she was worried about.

Eventually they got back out and returned to work, in Fritz's case, or joined in on work, in Natalie's case. The rest of the day went relatively quickly and thankfully nobody prodded her for answers on what she had seen. In fact. Mike and Marionette's silence especially surprised her. Foxy's made sense- he had a way of shutting down all outside influences to submerge himself in the Captain Foxy character- but Mike wasn't nearly so coy, and Marionette had moments free.

It wasn't until the front doors were locked and the curtains were drawn that everyone suddenly stopped what they were doing and migrated into the center of the room. It was like Natalie turned around and suddenly they were all front and center- save Louise and Carlton who were cleaning off a table nearby. She sat down at the table closest to the stage and the others followed suit.

Mike and Marionette sat across from her while Charlie was at the end beside her. Jeremy sat at the other end with his chair scooted back enough to hold two Minireenas in his lap while Foxy sat on the stage. Fritz, naturally, sat at her side with a look that gave away how much he already knew.

Jeremy broke the semi-silence. "So, what did you see?" he asked.

"Where do I even begin?" Natalie answered, leaning back in her seat.

"Begin at the beginning, go on til ya reach the end, then stop," Foxy clarified. She almost sent him a look at that but didn't know which she would send.

"Let's see... I suppose I could start with the earth-shattering shocker halfway through the night, but instead I'm going to take you on a journey. The same journey I experienced just a few hours ago. I call it: Fazbear's After Dark," she said, gesturing her hands as though unveiling it. "I got in a little before eleven and there were two guys waiting for me, including Chaz the smelly elevator guy."

"But he didn't recognize you," Mike finished for her.

"He almost did, but he didn't. Didn't stop him from flirting with me though," Natalie said with a roll of her eyes. Fritz got a twitch of an amused smile. "So, they leave after a little while. I get my uniform on, I settle in, I do some rounds, then I suddenly get an alert on the computer that there's an alarm going off in the daycare. Now this daycare is HUGE. There's like a massive playground area in the center and then there's some stuff around it. The lights were on, everything was on. I walk down the length of the playground and there's a cleaning robot laying at the bottom of the stairs."

"So, they do have staff bots," Charlie said, voice somewhere between awe and disappointment. Like she both wanted to press for details and wince. She went for the former. "What do they look like? And how do you think they work?"

"Considering it got off track and fell down the stairs, not great. This one was about as tall as a human, with a grey… robot looking body. They roll around on little wheels, but they have normal arms and a head. No mouth."

Foxy could've added his own description but couldn't do so without blowing his cover. He wasn't even tempted to, instead listening closely.

"Did it look like it ran on a battery, or could you see any charging port?" Charlie asked. Though then caught herself. "Sorry, I'm having trouble swallowing that Freddy's has actual robots."

"Our in-house technician. Already trying to figure out how they tick," Marionette said with pride and adoration barely covering his anxiousness. This only succeeded in giving Charlie an embarrassed smile.

"Yeah, well, you know. That's my job."

"I'd tell you more, but I didn't get that good of a look. Surprisingly enough since I had to haul the thing back up on its feet. It gets weirder from this point on," Natalie promised. "So, I get it back up and it starts cleaning again, and I start heading back to the lobby. I was staying in an office right beside that locker room under the café. I start walking back down towards the lobby, I get to the little gate and I look over…" Natalie gestured off to the left. "There's the sun."

"The sun?" Marionette asked. "The broken sun?"

"The sun that doesn't exist anymore, according to Wight, but they're still selling merchandise of it?" Mike asked sardonically.

"That sun. He looks nothing like the toys or posters, and he doesn't look broken. I'm going to get back to him, because there's someone else I want to get into first," Natalie explained. "Thoroughly creeped out by the sun- which was just hanging out in the slide by the way- I head out to the lobby and suddenly this arm thrusts through some doors at me!" She threw her arm out. Rose pressed her hands to her cheeks in surprise. Foxy leaned forward with anticipation.

"…It was a bot handing out maps." This received a few less than enthused looks- save Jeremy's relief and Fritz's returning smile. "This thing scared the heck out of me. Then scared me again when it almost fell down some stairs on its way out."

She folded her fingers on the table and braced herself. This was when the story was going to take a turn and she braced herself for the seriousness of it.

"I get back to the office, I do some rounds, I make some coffee, the nights goes on… Until I spotted Freddy on the camera," she said. She caught a curse slip under Mike's breath; he already knew where this was going. "So, I go out into the atrium to see what he's doing and he's… I'm just going to say it: Freddy's alive."

Marionette made a noise somewhere between a gasp and yelp, sounding like his voice and a cracking twang like his music box spontaneously broke. From his lack of a pained reaction afterwards, it must've just been a noise. Mike would've checked in on him but was too busy dragging his hand down his mouth and staring at Natalie with the growing dread that he had known this was going to happen.

"Are you sure?" Jeremy asked in equal surprise. Blue eyes wide behind his glasses, his Minireenas looking less surprised in his lap.

"I'm positive. I had a full conversation with him. He's alive and totally aware of his surroundings," Natalie insisted. She watched as the puppet across from her looked more horrified with every word. "Back to what I was saying about the sun-."

"Oh, please no," Marionette blurted out, not even trying to hide his feelings. "He's alive too?"

"Yes." The Puppet covered his face with his hands. "Or that's the impression I got. He waved at me, gave a slightly creepy hello, and then hung out in the slide while I walked off."

"He's, uh… sounding pretty good for someone who was just scrapped," Charlie volunteered, the awkwardness of the situation not lost on her. Mike had hooked an arm around Marionette's lower back while trying and failing to get his hands off his face with the other. Charlie just reached and put a hand on the other puppet's shoulder to try and comfort him through her support.

This reaction was what Natalie expected, but Marionette wasn't the one she had in mind when she imagined it. It was Foxy- but stealing a look at him showed that he was just staring blankly. Either he was in shock or just wasn't surprised.

"How old did they sound?" Marionette finally blurted out. The puppet sounded just on the edge of a total meltdown. "Did they sound young? Were they aware that they were animatronics? Were they scared of you-?!"

"Easy, Marion. Yer gonna have a blowout over there," Foxy finally spoke. He got up from the stage and walked over behind his brother, putting his hand on his head. "Yer as bad as I am," he mumbled, petting him.

Marionette finally dropped his hands on the table to reveal a truly distraught expression aimed down at it. Natalie leaned forward on the table and lowered her voice.

"I can't be sure, but they didn't sound like children to me, and neither acted like they were afraid of me. Heck, the moment Freddy saw me he ran up to say hi, started having a whole conversation. I'm not sure what kind of sign that is, but it could be a lot worse," she assured him. He raised his head to look at her, Foxy moving his hand to his other shoulder.

"And his voice?" Marionette desperately asked.

"Kind of sounded deep and gruff, but not in a creepy way. The sun sort of sounded like Ennard."

"So, he was the creepy one," Fritz joked, struggling to lighten the mood.

"He had white zombie eyes. He was the creepy one," Natalie clarified.

"Really? Ennard? I sort of thought from the posters that he was going to have, I don't know, a little kid's voice. Like remember how Tyke sounded from the old Freddy cartoon?" Jeremy asked, looking to Marionette who nodded. "Like that."

"We're gettin' off topic. What about Freddy?" Foxy said, cutting straight to the point. "Ya said he was talkin' to ya. He say anything 'bout that bloke wearin' me face?"

His voice lowered at the end in what Natalie assumed was faltering bravado. She sympathized, knowing he was probably going through the same thing as his brother but holding a firm face since he couldn't.

"Well… First off, he scanned my face and was able to see my employee profile," she began.

"Facial recognition," Marionette murmured.

"He has it too," Mike explained for him, and the puppet nodded. "Scary to think they're taking that much information off of their employees."

"Tell me about it. Anyways, he said he came looking because he heard me walking around. Apparently, the animatronics aren't supposed to leave their rooms after hours, and I think the only reason he did was because he was looking for that guy. I know that was it, because he started poking around the daycare when I told him an alarm went off in there, and he asked about Foxy's."

Foxy's head snapped up at that. "He did what?" he asked sharply.

"Specifically, he asked if we- not we, but Pirate's Cove- had a Foxy animatronic. I think he must've gotten confused with the mask and thought it was another animatronic."

Immediately, Mike turned in his chair and snapped his head around to stare daggers into Foxy. Foxy's ears pulled back. "What the bloody 'ell er you lookin' at?"

"The Foxy animatronic in Pirate's Cove," Mike said suspiciously.

"Whatever ye be thinkin', ye best be thinkin' elsewise," Foxy hissed, narrowing his eyes. His hand slightly tightening and twitching on Marionette's shoulder. Before it could escalate past that point, Fritz spoke up.

"Natalie's got a point though. Back when Jeremy and I were working at Freddy's, they used to give us Freddy masks so the animatronics would think we were animatronics. Freddy could be programmed the same way," he explained.

Charlie looked to Marionette and asked doubtfully, "Did that work?"

"Not on all of us, but it did work on some of us," Marionette explained. His eyes briefly darting down to the metal hand on his shoulder.

"Well, I'm going back tonight. Chances are Freddy's going to be walking around again, so I'll ask him when I see him… But only if he comes to me. I don't want to push my luck with the other ones until I know they're safe," Natalie said. She furrowed her brows in thought. "The way all the employees talk about the place makes me think they're hiding something, so I'm going to keep my guard up and assume the others aren't as friendly as Freddy."

"I wouldn't trust Freddy just yet…" Fritz hesitantly added, rubbing at his tight neck muscles. "It's a good sign that he didn't try to hurt you, don't get me wrong, but it's a little too soon to let our guard down."

Natalie understood his point and mostly agreed, but only responded with a small, "I don't know…"

"I do," Mike butted in. "We've seen animatronics and people who've played nice and innocent before suddenly pulling the rug out from under us. Acting friendly is the least they can do, so don't get comfortable."

"I won't," she said with more sureness.

"Good," Mike said. He turned his attention back to Marionette who was looking less than comfortable about all of this. He gave him an affirming, "We'll figure this out."

The Puppet folded his hands together on the table and nodded meekly. It wasn't entirely convincing, but it was more than enough for someone who knew how hard this was for him.

What followed next was an uncomfortable silence until Fritz eventually took the initiative to break it.

"In lighter news," he announced in a less than dire tone. "We've got a huge party booked on Tuesday. I got the call earlier; we're looking at a whole class of kids and Mom asked that birthday boy could meet Foxy and Marionette. I think we can pull this off, but we should probably get some kind of gameplan."

Normally Foxy would pounce on a big party. Especially since his newfound "good publicity" policy, but instead he was still stuck in the last topic. Still thinking about some two-bit Freddy Fazbear in an overinflated pizza mall. Wondering why it had still been looking for him after all this time, what it wanted with him after it had practically let him walk from the building.

Marionette wasn't faring much better. He went along with talking over preparations for the party, but it was clear that his heart wasn't into it.

Jeremy was the one to give both him and Foxy an out. "We can go over the rest of the details later, we've got time. Practically a week of it," he suggested. Nobody felt like arguing with that.

Marionette went to speak, music box giving a tight click despite himself, and he sighed before making a second attempt. "I need to restock the Prize Corner… If you will excuse me."

Then before he could get a response, he turned and lifted out of his chair. Turning away from Mike, slipping past Charlie, and then hovering between the tables like he was following his track back to the corner. His arms limp at his sides, his head angled downward to stare at the carpet, and the silent defeat ringing louder than any uncomfortable noise his music box could've made.

Mike dropped his own head for a second before getting up and striding after him. Charlie quickly followed suit while the others started to slowly return to work. Including Louise and Carlton, who had stopped in their cleaning to listen to Natalie's retelling and the aftermath. Foxy wasn't one of them, instead pulling Mike's chair closer to Jeremy and dropping into it.

The moment he did, Forget-Me-Not, who was hiding under the table, climbed up into his lap and hugged herself onto his chest. He pulled his coat around her and held her close, her looking up at him with adoration and concern. It brought a warm, fuzziness back to his chest, but it was hard to feel good when he was secretly feeling so rotten.

Mike didn't initially see Marionette when he stepped into the Prize Corner, but he heard him. It didn't take long to track him down, leaning to look behind the counter itself and finding the puppet kneeling on the floor with his hands in a box of plastic wrapped trinkets. He was tearing open a bad of plastic mini figurines when Mike crouched down behind him. He didn't turn to face him, instead just setting the bag down in his lap.

Mike took that as a go-ahead and scooted closer to put his arms around Marionette. The puppet let out a tiny whimper at the touch and leaned back into his grip.

"I'm sorry I made such a scene," he quietly said.

"Hey. Don't say that," Mike firmly then gently answered. "That wasn't even a scene, it was just a reaction."

"He's right. I've seen a lot worse from a lot less," Charlie agreed. She came around the other side of the counter and sat on the floor in front of the other puppet. "You've got every right to be upset. We all do. This is… This changes everything. There's others like us and we don't know why they're there or how they got there. This is a huge deal."

Mike felt Marionette tense up and then for a split second felt that other sensation. That feeling of upset projected from touch alone. It was brief and fleeting, much more than some of the other times he had felt it, but it was definitely there. That alone gave a preview of his thoughts even before he was able to voice them.

"That's what worries me the most. Not just that Fazbear Entertainment is in the possession of more haunted animatronics, but that we don't know where they came from. Are they new, which would mean there's been recent deaths and consequential possessions, or are they old and we never saw them before? Or are they old friends we thought moved on who were forced back? If they're not new, they would've had to have been remodeled and altered…" Marionette began to tick and the thought and shivered at a mental image of the old Toys being taken apart. "Concept unification all over again…"

"They could be new," Mike offered. Though what he meant was that they were probably new.

"That's not any better! The place hasn't even opened, and people would've already died!" the puppet lamented. He covered his face to try and fight back the frustrated tears that wanted to come out. Charlie patted his leg.

"Well… We know they probably weren't killed by a night guard or anything like that if they were so friendly with Natalie," she pointed out. When she noticed him start to respond, she pounced on that point. "Look at it this way: they're walking around on their own and they're not afraid of people. That suggests that they're not being treated too badly, hopefully."

"Maybe, but you can never tell. Fazbear Entertainment treated their animatronics just as badly as their employees. In some cases, worse," Marionette murmured. That sorrow making way for a bitter tone.

"I'll be the first person to back you up on that, but she's got a point. We've seen animatronics kept in terrible condition- Glenn's animatronics- and we've seen Fazbear Entertainment treating their own stars like garbage. So, to have them walking around casually and chatting up the employees instead of trying to kill them is a huge improvement. I'm not saying there's not shady stuff going on, but at least they seem to be doing alright."

"Wasn't one of them recently scrapped?" Marionette asked unenthused.

"Yeah, and suddenly it's repaired and climbing up kiddie tubes," Mike answered. "I didn't say Wight wasn't a boldfaced liar, I just said he's not Glenn."

"I don't know, Mike. They replaced all their workers with robots, so animatronic repairs at warp-speed might not be too far out there," Charlie added sarcastically.

The puppet hummed. He couldn't muster up a curtesy chuckle or anything of the sort, so this had to do. It wasn't entirely assuring to Mike and Charlie, who were now actively working together to try and pull him out of this, to limited success.

"I know what you're saying, and I know it's true, but I just… can't convince myself," Marionette confessed, "that this is anything more than a waking nightmare."

It wasn't working, though Mike wasn't surprised. Even he knew that everything he was saying was coated in an optimistic sheen just to give the illusion that this wasn't a disaster. Marionette had taken every word out of his mouth and spoken them himself, and now here he was trying to pretend that he didn't agree with them. He already didn't trust Wight, and this only validated the suspicion that he was hiding something.

Funny, normally he would've been so eager to pounce on a new mystery to unravel, but it was hard to get in the mood when their livelihood was in danger and everyone was struggling to deal with it.

Yet in a very unfunny twist, the same tactics would apply.

"I'm going to find us a way in," Mike said. Nothing but complete seriousness and determination in his voice. Marionette's head spun around to face him. "I'm not getting a job with them, I'm just going to find a way to get us in there without compromising Natalie's," he quickly defended, knowing exactly what that reaction was for. Then after a moment, he began to carefully push his head to turn it back around. "And don't do that. You might break something."

"Sorry, I guess I just assumed…" Marionette trailed off and thought about it for a long moment. "…I think you're right. If we're going to get any answers, we have to go in and get them ourselves…"

"Just like old times," Mike sighed and rubbed the puppet's arm.

"Are you guys sure that's a good idea?" Charlie asked as she looked between them, and they looked back. "I know my track record's not great… and I'm not going to lie to you, I've thought about it too. I'm just a little worried about getting caught. We'd be playing it close because you know they're going to be looking for the vandal."

"Foxy," Marionette lamented. Mike arched a brow.

"Did he say something?"

"He didn't have to," the puppet tiredly muttered.

"Ooookay, well if Foxy got in then obviously we could too. I just don't want us to push our luck," Charlie offered. All things considered; she was being perfectly reasonable.

"Don't worry, we're not going to do anything without having a clear, foolproof plan first. No running in and hoping things work out; we're going to have everything planned ten steps in advance. It's not how we usually do it, but I'm not even going to pretend that we haven't had too many close calls. This time there's no margin for error," Mike assured. It was clear by his tone that he meant it too.

This seemed to assuage Charlie's concerns enough for her to nod. He then turned to Marionette and squeezed him closer. "How're you feeling about this?"

"I feel… I don't know how I feel, but I know I don't feel as bad as I did," the puppet answered. It didn't sound that convincing, but then he leaned back against Mike, resting his head against his. That was a slightly more positive sign.

"Should I give you two a moment alone?" Charlie asked with a playful little smirk. Mike flashed her a flat look.

"Nah, it's fine. You can stay and watch," he countered.

This was finally what managed to get a smile out of Marionette again. With a little chiming, he reached to put his arms around them both and pulled them into a tight hug. Charlie didn't need any further encouragement to join in on the embrace and Mike wasn't planning on going anywhere anytime soon. Even in this uncertain time, they made Marionette feel safe. Or at least loved enough to counter the creeping fear.

The fear that it was all going to happen again and the knowledge that there was no way to stop it.

He was going to go through all of the horrors of Freddy's again.

…

But he wouldn't have to go through it alone.