After Golden Freddy had vanished with Afton in tow, the entire room was sucked into this strange sense of confusion and curiosity. Most of the animatronics didn't know how to properly react to the situation, most of them seemed indifferent with how things were, and the rest looked ready for the night shift there and then. Clearly it was obvious who here still had vengeance fueled fires to quell.

Or maybe it was just the thrill of being able to let loose on a man who had little way to defend himself.

Regardless, the overall consensus was that this was a fine way to end up, so the animatronics all started breaking off into their own groups as they explored the rest of this massive building. However, since the drop of the news, Baby hadn't moved an inch.

Lefty and Molten shared a look and moved over next to their friend, checking her over to make sure she hadn't suddenly crashed. But they couldn't make out anything that was really wrong.

Internally, Baby was wanting to end it all, collapse onto the ground and burst into tears, hunt down Cassidy and rip her apart, or a mix of all three. Because this was just her worst nightmare come true. Stuck somewhere with a bunch of people she despises. A bunch of walking piles of soon-to-be-scrap that would constantly grate at her nerves till she eventually snapped.

When she felt a nudge jostle her, she shook her head rapidly and blinked, slowly turning her head towards the other two still there with her.

"Are you okay, Babydoll?" Molten asked in concern. "You just kinda… shut down on us there."

"Were you upset you couldn't rip Afton apart?" Lefty asked, their eyelids drooping a bit. "Because I'll be honest and say I kinda am too. So close, yet Cass… Golden Freddy has to go and make it difficult because she's too spiteful for her own good."

"I'm more upset over the fact she basically implied we were denied a proper afterlife because she had to rope us into her 'Torture Afton' scheme", the wire amalgam spat bitterly.

Baby was still silent, mulling over what to say without potentially setting herself off. But she couldn't come up with anything, so she just slumped and collapsed onto her original chair.

"Of course", she mumbled. "Of course I end up going from one hell to another. Might as well have gone down a layer if this is how I'm going to be living my life…"

The other two shared a look, then looked back at her. "Baby, what are you talking about?" Lefty said sternly.

"What I'm saying is that I didn't think I was gonna be sucked into an elaborate revenge scheme because one idiot has it out for another." The clawed animatronic groaned. "I was thinking I could just move on peacefully so I had a reason to go to my new home, but now I'm stuck here with all of these… Maronic buffoons…" She was trying so hard not to swear, but the frustration was making it more and more difficult.

Lefty squinted their eyes at her. "Well, look at it this way… You get to take your anger out on Afton, and leave him a bloody and mangled corpse after each night shift."

"But I don't want that", Baby elaborated, looking at the black bear with a tired glint in her eyes. "I don't want to just be someone else's plaything or tool just to get back at someone I don't even hold all that much hatred for. Sure, I'm willing to kill Afton once and that's it, but that's only if he stays dead. Clearly that's not the case here, so now I'm just going to be stuck going in circles…"

Molten's ears drooped and he looked at Lefty in understanding. "Baby's got a point, Left. This'll get old really fast, and even if we take part in the night shift, we might not get the chance to actually land the killing blow. There's, what, over 50 other robots here. Someone will get him during the night shift long before we could ever gat a chance to."

The usually poignant black bear was at a loss for words, really mulling over what they were all stuck in at this point. And the more they thought, the more they didn't like it. "I hate how right you are…" Lefty hissed. 'But still, even if that's the case, I'm willing to find some way to make lemonade out of lemons. If we're stuck here, we better make the most of it."

Baby simply gave a displeased grunt and crossed her arms, making Lefty sigh. "Look, if you want to sit around and mope, fine. I'm going to see what else is there." The black bear walked off without saying another word, leaving Molten there in a fuss.

The wire amalgam watched Lefty leave until they disappeared through one of the many doors out of the room, and thus turned his full attention to the dower Baby. She didn't look angry, but looked more… distant. That made something chill in Molten's wires.

"Babydoll, are you okay?" He asked, leaning down a bit. "I know what Lefty said probably upset you, but I know they-"

"I'm fine, Molten", Baby said sharply, cutting off her friend. "I'm just… thinking of a lot right now. With everything kinda just being dumped on me… I think… I think I need some alone time." She stood up and wordlessly left the wire amalgam, making him deflate in worry and concern. But Baby didn't look back as she left the room from a different door than Lefty and started heading down a random direction how's one of the many hallways.

This whole place was like a twisted maze, which she assumed was sorta accurate. From her memory, the establishments Fazbear Entertainment managed or were related to the company never had the most… understandable floor plans.

To this day she was trying to figure out how Fazbear Frights was even supposed to work with customers walking around, especially when Springtrap was there.

Shaking her head, the clawed animatronic continued down the hall, peeking into rooms that already had doors slightly ajar. The rooms were empty of any robots, but they were just the same party room copy-pasted over again and again. Blinking at the fifth one she passed, Baby looked back the way she came, then forward again.

The hallway seemed to just stretch on forever, which made a pit settle in her non-existent stomach. She blinked and continued to look down both ends of the hallway, wondering if this infinite corridor was just because one the more ghostly residents of this godforsaken place was just trying to spite her.

Shaking her head and letting out a sigh, she continued back down in her original direction, hoping to find some sort of place she can claim as her own. But as the hallway seemed to just stretch on and on forever, she started to get more frustrated. And as a black blob could occasionally be seen out of the corner of her vision.

She stopped again, letting out a sigh and closed her eyes.

"You know, you're not as fun as I thought."

Opening her eyes to give who spoke a bored look, she had the face of a shadow Toy Bonnie right in her face. The clawed animatronic blinked, not showing any emotion as the shadow backed away.

"What, have nothing to say?" The shadow spat, crossing his arms. "I thought my prank was fun, but you didn't even seem to care!"

"Because if I did I'd give you a reason to keep doing it", Baby said boredly. "And after seeing you dance around like a sick rodent, I knew it was you RWQ."

The shadow looked momentarily hurt before recovering. "Whatever, I'm still going to be trying to prank you, no matter how hard I have to try."

"I don't think you will, RWQ." The shadow looked scared in that moment as he turned around and saw the horrific face of Nightmare Bonnie, his torn blue fabric and decrepit appearance chilling the room with his mere presence, right behind him. "Because I know for a fact Golden will hate that you're abusing your power like this. Weren't you supposed to be helping her with training Afton, anyway?"

The shadow shrunk a bit under the nightmare rabbit's gaze, looked at Baby with one last glare, then vanished. Bonnie sighed and shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose and Baby's view returned to normal. She looked down both ends of the hallway and saw they had turned back to normal.

"Thanks for that", She said, looking back at her saviour with a bored look. "Although I have to ask why he ran off after you showed up."

"Us nightmares have ties to Afton's youngest, so Golden gives him, and in turn us, special billing." A brief pause. "I'm Nightmare Bonnie, by the way. But you can call me Bon for simplicity's sake."

"I'm pretty sure all the Bonnie's have that nickname, but sure." The roller skater turned and went to continue on her way, but she paused. "Why'd you help me anyway?"

"One, because RWQ was abusing his power. And two, because I overhead you back when we were all waking up."

That caught Baby's attention. "You heard my jab at Golden?"

"I must say, as much as I respect her, 'golden piss stain' was a masterful insult", he chuckled in a low tone. "I'd be careful with Lefty, by the way. They… They still have a bit of The Puppet in them, so they might be on your side fully."

"Oh, but how can I know you're on my side too?" Baby held up her claw threatenly.

Bonnie was unfazed. "Because I'm like you. Angry we were denied a proper afterlife, and not wanting to be a pawn in someone else's game."

Baby lowered her claw, and tilted her head a bit. "Okay…" She suddenly sighed and slumped. "You do not know how nice it is to meet someone else that doesn't make me want to rip their face off."

Bonnie chuckled as the duo started walking down the hallway. "I understand that. As much as I enjoy the… others' company, being trapped in a building with them for the rest of my life makes me wish I could head to the boiler and let myself melt."

Baby barked out a laugh. "That's extreme, but I like the bluntness."

"I'm glad you do." The nightmare stopped suddenly, his ears perking up. He tried to suppress a groan, but it did somewhat escape from his jaws. "Freddy's little pests are loose again, I need to go help him." He looked at the clawed animatronic apologetically. "I apologise I need to leave so suddenly, Baby."

"No, no I get it", she said with a dismissive hand wave. "You still have others to look out for, it's fine. We can always chat later, go help your friend."

"'Friend' is a generous way of putting it…" The rabbit grumbled. He turned and stared heading back the way they came, but paused when Baby shouted.

"NightBon!" She called. "That's what I'll be calling you."

NightBon looked over his shoulder, his lavender eyes locking with Baby's vibrant blue ones for a moment. Shouldn't they be green? He shook his head and looked back at Baby fully. "That is perfect, Scrap. Yes, you may call me that." He continued his leave, and Baby began to feel something weird inside of her.

Shaking her head to shut that feeling down, she turned and continued along her way, hoping she could find her own space away from all the annoyances soon. But, whenever she did find it… Molten and NightBon were definitely allowed into it.

~X~

Baby was still searching for her perfect corner away from all the chaos, which was starting to ramp up as everyone started to get more comfortable with the new arrangements. She was losing her patients as the massive place suddenly felt smaller, as she was running more into a variety of the others.

And each instance made her want to rip their heads off.

But, because it was only the first day, she let it all slide. Balloon Boy and JJ tipping her? Letting it slide. Trash suddenly jumping in her face? Letting it slide. Mangle screeching up a storm with their phantom and nightmare counterparts? Letting it slide. Classic Chica's cupcake biting her?

…Okay, maybe she had a right to get snippy with the chicken after that.

But otherwise she was just letting it all slide off her like it was nothing. Yep, she was totally okay.

Although she was slowly being drained because of how excessive it was getting. Almost everywhere she went, there was something happening that was right out of the kind of stuff Ruby, Star or McGee had to deal with on a daily basis. It was getting insane, and she needed to get away from it all.

She was so sucked into her busy thoughts it didn't even register to her that she entered a storage room until she bumped into one of the boxes. She grunted and rolled back a bit, shaking her head to recover from the slight shock, then looked around the new space.

Various props were strewn about, and there were plenty of table cloths and chairs, pillows, all of it. With her curiosity peaked, Baby started rolling around the room, taking in everything it had to offer. It was silent, and she couldn't hear anything outside the room. There were no vents anywhere, meaning any of the vent crawlers couldn't get in so easily.

The more she looked, the more perfect it seemed. Then, as she peeked around one of the shelves, she saw it. A perfect corner, large and empty, with barren walls on each side. Blinking, she rolled over and started to look the corner over, a plan formulating for her own personal space. Her mechanical heart started beating faster as she got more excited, the plan slowly getting brighter in her head.

So when Molten slid up next to her silently, she let out a blood curdling scream and fell to the ground.

"Ah, Baby, I'm sorry!" The wire amalgam said in a panic. He rushed over and helped the shaken animatronic to her feet, although he still supported her when her legs nearly gave out again. "I thought you heard me coming!"

"I didn't", she spat, wrecking herself out of her friend's grasp. She then took a deep breath to calm down. "But it's okay, it's fine. Just don't sneak up on me like that."

"Noted, sorry…" The wire bear looked down in shame, then back into her eyes. "What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were just wanting to take a walk?"

"I wanted to find my own space", Baby explained. "So I went to find… something. Had a run in with RWQ, Nightmare Bonnie came in and helped, and I found this place…"

"I heard about that with RWQ", Molten said. "Nightmare Bon ended up snitching to Shadow Freddy, and boy was that glorious to watch."

"Shame I missed it…" The clawed animatronic looked back at the corner, getting lost in thought again.

Molten noticed her thoughtful look, and took in the space she was eyeing up. "You have an idea, Babydoll?"

She nodded. "I think this is a perfect place to set up…"

The wire bear looked over into some of the open boxes, and found some nails, wall hooks, tacks, all that. With a head tilt, he grabbed a hammer that was lying around and faced his friend. "You need some help?"

Baby faced him, and her blue eyes became this much softer shade than filled Molten with a warm and fuzzy feeling. "That'd be great, Molten, thanks."

And so the two got to work, taking everything they could from the boxes to set up their special little corner. Molten was on hammer duty, since he could climb up high and nail in the hooks and ropes that'd be holding up the top blanket and cloth. Baby, meanwhile, was on ground duty and was the main overseer of the project. She had found some extension cords, so she brought those over as well as some stage lights and other appliances.

She layed a bunch of blankets, pillows and other soft materials on the floor, and tried changing them into makeshift couch/bed combos. When that was done, she moved to get the electrical situation set up, plugging the extension cords and power bar into a nearby outlet, and fed them under the now tent-like roof Molten had set up.

She plugged in and positioned a portable AC and heater, both just in aces it got too hot or cold respectively. She then plugged in and lined the interior edge of the roof with Christmas light, the red, orange and white complimenting her own colour scheme.

Finally, with Molten's help, they hung a stage light from a sturdy cable from the middle of the roof, giving them a makeshift chandelier. Stepping back, the duo looked over their handy work, and smiled at how perfect it was. All that was left was setting up the last of the cloth to be walls and a curtain door, so they did that quickly but thoroughly. When it was all done, Baby slumped onto one of her pillow-pile couches.

"That was a lot more work than I expected…" She said in exhaustion. "But…" She looked around the space. "It was so worth it."

Molten went over to the second couch and curled up on it like a dog would. "Yeah… This is awesome, Babydoll! Now we've got a corner all to ourselves…"

Baby nodded, leaning back as she propped a foot up on a table she brought in. She sighed, a rare smile gracing her lips as she finally felt relaxed.

"Hey, Baby?" Molten asked. The other robot hummed in acknowledgment. "Should… Should we get Lefty and bring them here?"

Baby was quiet for a moment, mulling over the idea. While she did want to let her friend know about this place… She remembered when NightBon had told her. 'Still have a bit of The Puppet in them, so they might not fully be on your side'. It rang in her head, making her start to question the black bear. They never really interacted much in Henry's trap, so… Could they be considered friends?

"I don't know, Molten…" Baby said with a sigh. "When I ran into NightBon earlier…" She noticed the wire amalgam's questioning look. "Nightmare Bonnie." He nodded and she continued. "He told me that Lefty would still have a bit of Charlie inside of her, so she might start to side with Golden a lot more as time goes on. Or just not agree with us more often than not."

Molten visibly deflated, but his eye took on a bit of a dimmer light. "Mmmmmm… I kinda thought that with how… dismissive she was with you earlier…"

Baby sighed and nodded sadly. But then, she thought of something. Glancing at Molten, she sat up properly. "Molten, could you actually go and get NightBon for me?"

The wire amalgam lifted his head and gave her a questioning look. "How come?"

"Because… I want to get to know him better. Especially because he was really kind to me after scaring off RWQ."

Molten gave her a long look, and then he twisted his face plates into a smirk. The action made Baby's internals heat up a bit, and she didn't know why. "Alright, I'll go and snag Bon for ya'. But it might take me a bit, people are already talking about how he sticks to the shadows more than the actual shadows." The wire bear slipped out of the room, leaving Baby to stew.

Why did Molten's smirk make her feel so weird? She sighed and shook her head, choking it up to her just being stressed and finally being able to relax in her own space. Realising there wasn't a whole lot to do, she pulled out her phone and started scrolling through all the available options. There was plenty this little device could do, form text, to call, to whatever.

She paused when her finger hovered over the 'Create Portal' app, and she bit her non-existent lip. Could she even open a portal to the others here, or even get a chance to? With a place filled with ghosts that can just go through walls whenever they wanted, she wouldn't be able to open a portal in private.

All she could hope was that this little corner of hers was secluded enough that no one would bother checking this place out.

Which made her get an idea. She put her phone away and left her tend, and looked through all the boxes. If she didn't find anything that would help her, she put it up like a wall, trying to not make it look suspicious. After some searching, she found some paints, markers, and construction paper. She got to work on a table she pulled out, and did up some signs that told anyone that this was her place and to go away.

When she was done with the signs, she put the things she used away and finished up the wall of boxes. She smiled at her work, then headed inside the wall to set up her signs. As she adjusted the final one, she spotted Molten leading NightBon in.

"I must say…" The rabbit said with sophisticated intrigue. "This is quite the little place you have set up here, Baby. You and Molten did a wonderful job."

"Thank you", she said with a proud look. "We did a good job, but I wanted to just make sure it was perfect."

The wire bear looked back at the wall of boxes, then at the sign nearest to him. "Well, I can certainly say this is effective. I feel like I'm trespassing even though this is my place too."

"Good", Baby said as she finished adjusting the final sign. "That means it is effective."

NightBon hummed, walking more into the little cosy corner and peered into the tent. "This… This is very intricate for what you had access to…" He pulled back out and looked at the other two with his arms crossed. "How'd you end up doing all of this?"

"Lots of nails and hooks", Molten explained. "But Baby was the one spearheading everything. She knew exactly what to do."

"I had… Previous knowledge", she said simply, heading inside the tent. "But that's beside the point. C'mon, you two probably just want to relax and talk before the night shift hits."

The other two nodded, and while Molten bolted inside like a happy mutt and laid on the other couch again, Bonnie walked in and took a seat on the couch next to Baby.

"I must say, based on the signs, I am flattered you trust me enough already to let me into your special corner", Bonnie said gratefully.

"It was the least I could do after you saved me from RWQ", Baby said with a shrug. "Plus, you were the only other person I could stomach being around besides Molten and… Lefty."

The rabbit hummed, and Molten looked over sadly. "Still unsure about the black bear?" Bonnie leaned forward a bit.

"Just… What you said made me really think about them, and I'm starting to just… Worry."

"She was very rude and dismissive of Baby earlier after Golden's announcement", Molten said.

Bonnie nodded in understanding. "I see… Honestly, I will say I saw Lefty seemingly making small talk with The Puppet earlier not long since our first meeting, Baby. And the black bear seemed to understand… whatever they were talking about. But whatever it is, it's definitely in favour of Golden."

"How can you be so sure?" Molten asked, not in suspicion but curiosity.

"Well, one thing that is very well known is that Golden, The Puppet and Circus Baby all hate Afton with a burning passion, so there's been… rules, so to say, set in place in regards to him going near them. But that also means the three of them are close now, and I wouldn't be surprised if Lefty's original programming has warped to basically The Puppet's lackey."

Molten whined and covered his face with his hands. "Great, so we lost a friend to three of the biggest jerks here, great…"

Scrapy was bristling at the information. "Are they that bad already?"

"Molten is overreacting with that", Bonnie said, his ears twitching a bit. "They aren't awful, but a sort of… Hierarchy has been established already because of them. Golden gives those she trust most special treatment, which is the other original murder victims and Afton's children."

"Even Micheal?" Baby asked.

Bonnie nodded. "Because he strived to correct things where even Henry failed. And since the younger brother forgave him, Golden decided to let him in. Micheal has taken the form of that wire abomination the Funtimes used to escape the underground, by the way."

"Ennard…" Baby mumbled. "So…" She raised her voice and looked Bonnie dead in the eye. "So what, they just get to be above us?"

"Not in the entire sense. Golden will just prioritise them over the rest of us. She made this place as safe as possible for us, according to Shadow Freddy." Bonnie leaded back against the couch's back cushions, a cool expression on his face. "But even still, I hate that this is how things are. There's too much uncertainty with the night shift, and I fear it'll be as stressful as I believe it to be. For us in particular."

"I don't want to keep crawling through vents like vermin…" Molten groaned. "This… This is gonna suck, isn't it?"

Bonnie nodded sadly. "Which is why I'm so much more grateful you decided to include me with this, Baby. There's not many like me who think this way."

"Who else is there?" Scrapy asked, her eye twitching a bit.

"Aside from us, I was only able to find out Endo-02 and Funtime Foxy were in our same boat. Everyone else I talked to was indifferent or fine with things."

The clawed animatronic groaned and buried her face in her hand. "Why? Why were we all forced into this awful torture scheme with zero say?"

"Because Golden assumed everyone would want a piece at Afton", Bonnie said with a shrug. "But here we are, and a few of us would like things to be better."

Baby was silent, wondering if this was her life now. Wondering if she was stuck with this. Even with Molten and NightBon, she wasn't sure if she could deal with all of this. Especially since she had yet to know if she could go back home…

God she was not ready for the night shift…

~X~

And chapter 3 is here! This was a really nice one, because we get to meet another key player in all of this: Nightmare Bonnie. He'll be playing an integral role in the story, mainly with his relationship with Molten and especially Scrap Baby. I have big plans with him, trust me…

NOw, I wanna say the main inspirations for this fic. First is Your Eternity by MaroonGhost, a story where all the animatronics up to UCN are in the UCN building living together. It's the main inspo for the overall setup of this new place.

Meanwhile, characterization is more based on j-gems' The Interviewed series, especially with Nightmare Bonnie. I love the writing and dialogue of that series, so much so how some of the characters are depicted in it, I can't imagine them any other way. So yeah.

About this chapter itself, I am really happy with how the dialogue came out. It was so blunt, I loved it.

Hopefully you all had fun!

Up next: It's time for the first night shift, but already it's just too much for Baby…

~Caleb~