I Don't Own Fnaf


Mike didn't go to sleep in long sleeves, it was a weird thing to really point out, to think about or bring attention to in any situation, but it was true. He just didn't, he didn't really subscribe to normal pajamas either, though maybe the fact that he only wore his short sleeved shirts during the night time might mean those were just his version of pajamas, usually accompanied by sweatpants that were large even on his frankly ridiculously long legs, making them almost comically baggy on him.

He liked being comfortable when he slept, and long sleeves just didn't do that for him, he twisted around enough that they usually got tight in his sleep somehow, even when he knew he didn't actually move that much in his sleep, they somehow always managed it. He didn't like wearing short sleeves during the day, which made him uncomfortable for obvious enough reasons. He probably should have not liked having his arms bare in any situation really, but the night was different somehow, safe in a way that didn't really make sense nor did he care to try to make it, he just didn't when he was awake and did when he wasn't, simple enough.

Mike wasn't sure he liked that policy anymore though as he was forced to stare at his bare arms now, in his car, Mari having just managed to teleport himself in in time before Mike had rushed out of his driveway and pulling off with way to much force on the gas pedal as he shot down the night time road. But his arms were hardly the only thing that were on his mind, just the thing that was in front of his eyes that made him realize he hadn't grabbed his jacket, that he still looked posed for sleep, because he had been half way crawling into bed when the phone had rung.

He regretted picking it up now, not that waiting for the morning to have that conversation would have helped anyone or anything, but the idea of putting it off had been a nice one. But in the end, he had answered, had felt his stomach drop at what was said over the line, had hung up soon after telling the man to get to the Cove, Phone Guy only sputtering over his own words for a moment before the call disconnected, as Mike, half stomping down the stairs, barely being able to explain it to Mari enough for the puppet to understand the horror of the situation to settle in, as he pulled the phone up to his ear again to call Jeremy and Fritz as he practically bounded down the stairs.

In the time it took for him to get his keys and a pair of shoes on, he had gotten Jeremy to be sent off towards the warehouse to pick up the two from there, who needed to hear this as much as anyone else did, and Fritz to promise to be at the Cove in ten minutes.

Mike was at the Cove in two, a barely five minute drive somehow cut in half as he practically screeched into his own parking lot, Mari vanishing before he was even out of the door of his car, he didn't stop to think about the doors of the Cove, he pushed them open, knowing the puppet would have unlocked them, as he more or less stumbled in at the same time that the lights, in that familiar way, flickered and sputtered for just a second to long before becoming a constant thrumming source of light.

The place felt empty, he hadn't been here when it was just him and Mari in a long while, the puppet was being silent, just looking around as well, it felt off, not having the others here, but he was the first, of course he was, they were within walking distance of the Cove, he probably could have ran here faster than the others drove. That didn't change the pulling and cloying dread pressing itself deep into his chest. It felt like it was hard to breathe in a way, it was stupid though.

He was overreacting, he realized that, he knew that on every level that he was freaking out over nothing, but as the minutes ticked on, the feelings didn't go away. It shouldn't matter though, he shouldn't be feeling like this, it was honestly ridiculous in a way that made him almost angry with himself. Freddys, a new one, should not make him feel like this, this dread was not supposed to be there.

It was over, no matter what happened, this wouldn't be some new tragedy, it couldn't be. His father was dead, he knew that, had helped it happen, made sure of it stuck, when he stood in front of the twitching and bleeding out man, trapped in the springlock suit slowly dying, standing there in the growing pool of his own father's blood until the twitching had stopped, before walking away in a dispassionate satisfaction.

Purple Guy was dead, Freddy's had died with him.

A new Freddy's didn't mean anything, it would just be a restaurant, some stupid attempt at more money with an established bloody brand from some stockholder who was so tactless that Mike wanted nothing more to find the man and show him just how hard it was to speak without teeth.

...Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but he really would like a nice and private audience with the person who thought that would be a good decision.

Shaking his head, he realized at some point he had continued to pace about for who knew how long at this point, as he glanced around the Cove waiting or maybe hoping something had happened or changed. He was surprised when something was different, as he watched as from the back office Mari floated out, a folded up item in his arms as he floated over to Mike, handing over the idea without a word.

He wasn't sure the silence was a good thing, but he reached out and took the item anyways, unfurling it and ignored the instant feeling of his stomach dropping at what he was holding.

Mike kept a spare uniform in the back office, it was just as a precaution, he wasn't even the only one, the office had become something of a break room more than a space to work if he was being honest. There was a hat rack that pretty much exclusively was used by Jeremy, a couch and table for lunch breaks, and a whole extra file cabinet that had each other their names on the drawers for personal items they didn't want to risk while working the floor. Mike's mostly just held spare clothes in case of a kid tripping and covering him in an impressive shower of cake and ice cream.

He knew Jeremy had kept a spare set of clothes in there as well out of wanting to be careful. He wasn't sure about Fritz but he did know Janet put her jacket and extra items like rings or earrings in her own drawer before working in the kitchen to keep the smell of grease off them or in case of them getting lost.

Anyways, he had spares, an extra jacket was the main one though, along with another pair of pants, because frankly kids didn't even come up to his waist most of the time so the splash zone was more lower focused, the jacket was a just in case kind of thing. Now though, as he held it, he was suddenly painfully aware of the bareness of his arms, his left more accurately, and the fact that someone would be showing up within the next few minutes, contrasting painfully with the purple outfit in his hands.

He liked the jacket, he really did, he refused on principle for his father to take anything more from him, and that stubbornly and childishly included his favorite color, and the security jacket made him feel... Strong wasn't the right word, grounded, in a way that he wasn't sure how to describe the kind of feeling having a uniform that symbolizes protection meant to him.

But the idea of wearing it, now, with the conversation that was about to be held, the questions he felt burning to ask that he had only barely managed to push down long enough to organize this mess of a situation... It felt in bad taste, worse really, and was his own comfort worth weighing it on the others minds when the talk they would have was already going to be hard enough?

A hand found itself placed over his own, still covered from holding the uniform in an awkward hold, as he glanced up at the puppet who was looking back, Mari just gave him a nod, and he didn't really think to hard about it after, pulling the jacket around his shoulders, putting it on but not buttoning the front up, letting the t-shirt with some rock band he hadn't listened to in a while on the front of it. Compromise, he wasn't wearing it properly, but his arms were still covered.

It felt really weird to wear the jacket without it being put on properly, he could feel the awkwardness of the collar being half puffed up, the front fully open and pushed away from where Mike had shoved his hands, he had forgotten his gloves to, and they were a new enough addition that he didn't have a spare in the cabinet. He decided around the same time as he tensed up at the sound of a car moving around back that he wasn't sure he liked it.

In the next minute Jeremy was stumbling through the door with a confused Foxy and mildly irate Evan looking around with a huff, like the bear was expecting something to be through a wall or as to what was on fire. Mike felt his throat dry out even more as Jeremy looked over at him, worried, his eyes flickering constantly to Mari for a moment before seemingly settling on him fully.

"What's going on?" The words got tangled for a faint moment, but then it was like a switch was flipped, Jeremy couldn't see him breaking down, and refused to let Evan and Foxy see that either, it was like a cold wash of something rolling down his back, but the words came easy after a faint pause.

"Oh you know the usual disaster that is our lives coming for another round" Jeremy, being the man he was, looked startled, concerned, and then just sort of sighed, before saying.

"Right... Find another location that will try to kill us when we look into it?"

"Something like that, I only have, like, a part of the story, we're still waiting on Fritz and Phone Guy to get here. Phone Guy called me, but this wasn't something that should happen over the phone" Jeremy still looked concerned, as he casted another look to Mari who was being surprisingly silent, but then again this was a lot, and Mike couldn't blame the puppet for not wanting to speak. He didn't handle stress well, especially fazbear related stress. Mari had been incredibly quiet back when they had first found the toys and at times whenever Mike was dumb enough to get himself hurt. Mike hated it, but he didn't know what to do in the moment, instead listening as Evan walked over with Foxy at his side.

"You still know something, cut to it, what's wrong enough that all of us are meeting in the middle of the night" It wasn't that late, but he had the feeling Evan felt interrupted from something, he wished he hadn't had to crash whatever guys night the two animatronics had been getting up to, but...

"A new Freddy's is opening" The reaction was instant, a short sharp chime from Mari, an instinctive sound from his emotions played first, and with it and the silence broken, he watched in real time as Jeremy's face closed off, a look of mounting dread on it at the same time, while Evan's whole body sort of spasmed and twitched in a way that instantly grabbed Mike's attention, his suit shouldn't shake like that. Foxy though grabbed all their attention in one instant though, as in a loud, suddenly teenaged voice shouted out.

"OH those motherfuckers!" That caught everyone off guard, all eyes moving over to the fox, the words had torn from him like a snarl that he couldn't quite control in time, the pirate accent faded like it hadn't had time to inflect itself onto the words meaning Foxy really did just speak without a second thought, loudly at that, as Mike just felt himself staring for a short moment, as Foxy just let out a huff, seeing all the eyes at him, saying defensively, but not at all apologetically, "What? They are!"

"I mean, he ain't wrong" Jeremy gave Mike a look, probably for encouraging the child to keep swearing, but, well, Mike knew for a fact he said a whole lot more a whole lot more frequently than Foxy would, so it was probably fine. Even as Evan spoke up, looking unimpressed, but thankfully more aware of himself instead of being on the verge of what looked like a seizure.

What do you mean a new freddy's is opening?" Before Mike could explain it, a voice came from behind them all, as they all turned to see a stunned looking Fritz, who had paused in the doorway just long enough for Janet to tap him to get him moving again, his voice coming out half choked.

"A new Freddy's is opening? What the hell?"

"Welcome to the freak out club, we're waiting on one more for admission before we all devolve into a collective panic attack" Mike's dry words apparently didn't help anything as Fritz just power walked over, words spilling out as the two moved to join the group proper.

"C-can they do that? Who can do that? Don't you own, like, everything?" Mike grimaced.

"No, I own a lot of the trademarks for characters and copyrights, but Fazbear Entertainment still own's the rights to freddy fazbears's likeness and the company brand, they were stubborn as hell about it actually, it was the agreement I had to make to get a hold of Freddy, the original one, before, well... I knew it wouldn't be necessary" That had been when he was trying his best to save them all, not knowing that four of the five trapped souls at Freddy's would be moving on after Purple Guy was handled.

It was silent of a moment after, that reminder hitting the animatronics present harder than the others, Mike as well felt that particular failure burn like a hot coal in his chest, he couldn't save everyone, that was just not possible nor realistic, but it still hurt like hell when he remembered the people he failed. Fritz was the one that spoke up next.

"So, they have a legal right to open up their doors again, they can even have a Freddy on stage" The words were filled with dread, Mike could only imagine just how many freddy's, versions of the same bear, the man was thinking about in his head, flashing through all on their own stages. That's what Mike was thinking about at least, as he gritted his teeth, but still said as normally as he could.

"Maybe, we don't know yet though, Phone Guy called me, he didn't explain much though, I just told him to meet us all here and he'll explain everything he can. From what I got though, Manager Guy from the last location called him and asked if he was looking to help out" There was some traded glanced at that, mostly between the animatronics, between Foxy and Evan, Mari was at Mike's side, but he still hadn't said anything, Mike was growing more and more worried about him, but he didn't have time to think about that at the moment as it was, almost like the universe was trying to keep things moving, the sound of a hesitant knock on the door.

Given there wasn't really many people that could be, Mike walked over, pulling the door open and waving Phone Guy inside, who just looked as anxious as Mike was feeling as he stumbled on in, looking around and gulping's audibly at the sight of the collect of animatronics if he had to put a guess to it. Mike remembered how the man had freaked out last time he had seen Mari. This time didn't seem to much better really, his eyes locking on the puppet, only to move with dread towards Evan with a similar level of distrusting fear.

Mike didn't give him a chance to rush off like last time though, moving in a way that if the man turned he'd run right into all two hundred pounds of Mike, Phone Guy wasn't short or anything, but average wasn't much on Mike, as he walked behind the man keeping him from being able to just stand there, asking things as he did so.

"I caught them up with as much as you told me before I decided it was better to get this all out all at once" Phone Guy did not seem at all appreciative of that, Mike normally would have felt bad, he was developing some empathy for the man in recent months, but right now this was more important to get ahead of and have everyone aware as soon as possible about anything that could be happening. This was above having a potential freak out. If Mike was suppose to be the one in control right now, then he had to at least trust that everyone else could keep themselves together to share information.

"O-Oh, um, right, well... Do you remember Sheldon?" Mike just blinked, having no idea who that was, while Fritz spoke up.

"The last day manager, yeah, we... didn't get on great" Oh, they were talking about Manager Guy. Mike had honestly not cared enough to remember the man's name the first time around he had meet him, so there was no chance he would have remembered it now. Scott let out an awkward cough, like he was hoping someone else would ask a question so he didn't have to figure out how to explain it himself, even as he managed to angle his body in a way to cut his line of sight off from half the room. The half that the ghosts were standing. Mike pretended that didn't annoy him a little, focusing on the words that finally spilled again from the man's lips.

"Right, well, I mean, that's not too unsurprising, he got roped back in and he never... Anyway, I think the same thing happened, he didn't manage to get out of his contract like I did, not that I can blame him, heh..." he trailed off, probably thinking about how he got out of Freddy's the last time, a faint but clear green tint taking to his face, not that Mike could blame him there, he knew all too well just how awful being stuffed in a suit was. Phone Guy seemed to snap out of it soon after at least.

"So, I guess they got him back? I, uh, didn't get a good talk with him, but I was told they were opening a new location, somewhere on the outskirts of the town, and, well, uh, they asked me if I would be interested in helping? It was weird though, they didn't ask if I wanted my old position back or if I could take any n-night shifts" They better not, Mike would quite possibly throw a tantrum if more haunted machines showed up at this point, they had to be running out of rocks to find them under at this point.

"Instead, they, well... Asked if they could get in touch with a few other animatronic based establishments around, you know, places like that bounce palace Richard runs" Mike had kind of forgotten the owner of that disaster of a place's name, but it told him what he needed to know, as he just grimaced, while Phone Guy explained it, "I think they're looking to see if there are any people around the state that would be willing to sell their animatronics to them. Sheldon asked after you, didn't seem all that excited about it but... Well, I said I didn't know you, but he still asked if I could reach out, said Fritz was working here and it might help the introductions"

Mike didn't like that at all, Fritz looked down right sick at the idea that someone had apparently been keeping track of where he was, Mike shot his eyes over to the animatronics, they didn't look pleased, he just managed a sigh, asking after a moment.

"Alright, what else did they say or was that it? I mean, animatronics don't just grow on trees, and I got a lot of fazbear's property during the divorce, so they probably don't have a lot of options so it makes sense they'd reach out, but if there's a chance they know..." Phone Guy grimaced, but didn't seem to have an answer, saying instead.

"I- I don't know, I know Sheldon was incredibly reluctant about all of this, he mentioned a few shareholders for fazbear entertainment were just trying to break even with what little they had less, but they didn't really tell him anything... I- Honestly? I think they aren't the biggest issue" Mike wasn't sure just how the hell they weren't the biggest issue, but Jeremy spoke up for the first time in a few minutes, seemingly realizing the problem himself.

"It's the reputation of the place, the last freddy's shut down because no one wanted to even step inside the place, we nearly went bankrupt in the first two months because for a while no one was sure if we were just a Freddy's with a new coat of paint or not. It took a lot of effort and a few favors to get past that, and even then... I think it's mostly more like some are just waiting for us to make a mistake and lynch us. But if another freddy's opens and if anything goes wrong... That might be it for businesses with animatronics in Hurricane as a whole. We'd probably be run out of town just on the association of our businesses"

Mike frowned, but he knew just how true those words were, back then... It felt like they were doing well, any business was more business than they had before their doors opened, and they made enough to at least keep things running, but after the following months? After Mike had convinced Janet's mother to help out with her connections? After working and talking and putting up advertisements over every square inch of space they were allowed? After the boom that was the summer? Mike knew there had been a very real chance that they might have had to close their doors if business hadn't picked up as it had.

They had been incredibly lucky, knowing the right people, having the right time in opening, the fact that no one barely even went to the last freddy's for the memories to be fresh enough to truly tear their business down before it could even start. But a new Freddy's meant old memories, and if something went wrong, and if it was Freddy's so it was only a matter of time until something did, then the Cove would be the next in line to suffer for it.

That... wasn't ideal... Right. If only-

"We could trash the place to keep it from opening" Well, Mike wouldn't say he hadn't at least considered that, but he was surprised that someone else voiced the thought that he was very much planning on keeping to himself, as he glanced up to shoot a incredulous look at Foxy who had at some point crossed his arms across his chest and was gripping at his own arm with his hand a bit to hard, Mike could hear groaning metal from where he was standing, though it was hard to tell if that was from the fox or from his brother, who was standing worryingly still.

"Well, I'm not going to say I'm against it, but I'd rather not have to figure out how to post bail for a robot" Foxy didn't seem pleased, and Mike really should have said something more serious, or said it less drily, but he needed to cope with his own internal... everything right now, there were so many things that were running through his mind that it was hard to focus on what words were being said.

The others were talking, Foxy had made some comment back, but Mike had focused his thoughts on the task at hand, the conversation rolling around him, discussions, more questions, Phone Guy didn't have much more to offer, that had been about it because of how late it was. Mike couldn't blame the man, he had probably been overwhelmed, and given it was creeping up at midnight, it really was too late to have these conversations, but Mike knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep anyways.

It was another long moment, the conversations had died down mostly, Foxy seemingly more upset than anything, clearly not liking his ideas being shot down without much thought, but to be honest, his ideas weren't thought through, they were just the normal angst that teens had of someone threatening them and so they puff up like a blowfish to seem more in control than they actually were. Mike could recognize that easily, he did it a lot when he had been a teen.

He finally spoke up, hating the way the words twisted and formed on his tongue even as they left him and hit the air.

"We can't do anything, not really... If we do something like try to tank their rep to get them shut down as fast as possible before they can do something incredibly stupid, which I bet they'll be doing on their own, it'll just be hurting us as well. If they get off the ground then it'd be like a ticking time bomb though" Evan spoke up, his voice deceptively calm, but Mike could hear the faint trembles of anger in his tone. He had probably kept quiet this long to not give away just how angry he was about all this.

"So what? Damned if we do and damned if we don't?" Mike gritted his teeth, hating the way it felt like that was all they could do at this exact moment, but finally said with more confidence than he really felt, like he always did when everyone needed a direction.

"No, we just need to find a way around it. We need to think on this, but we have an open invite to see what they're up to, just because I'd rather jump off a bridge than trade any of you to that place doesn't mean they know that. I can pull what I did at the bounce palace here, see if I can get anything out of them"

"That'd be dangerous, they know your face, and you didn't exactly leave freddy's on good terms" Mike grimaced, but slowly nodded, the man had a point...

"Fine, we'll try to come up with something else, in the meantime Scott" The man suddenly straightened up at the sound of his name as Mike leveled his focus on the twitchy man, "Keep an eye out, you have connections right? See if they tried to reach out to anyone before they resorted to you, see if they told anyone anything they didn't tell you, and if not see if you can get more information about what they want you to do for them. Even if there aren't any more killer bots around for them to find, that doesn't change the fact that their health standards are so low that it'd probably lower our safety rating by sheer proximity"

Surprisingly, given the man wasn't exactly on his payroll, Phone Guy nodded right away, seemingly unsure of what else to do with himself right after while Mike was busy trying to feel like he was making the right choices.

He was being paranoid, he knew that, he knew it down to his core he was blowing this out of proportions, it could get bad if Freddy's did something dumb or just was so bad people stopped thinking about the Cove somehow, but they had been a staple in the town for nearly a year now. Business was at a high somehow, they had never had anything beyond a mild complaint from people the town already knew not to listen to. Hurricane wasn't a massive town, big for sure, but the few bad eggs were still known and talked about and dismissed out of hand, Mike had been one of them, so he knew.

But... Just the idea that a Freddy's was still around made something in his blood boil, the idea that after everything someone would still try to revive it... It was safer to be paranoid, to feel uncertain, than to think too hard about that rising anger, that feeling of legacy being spat on again when he had done everything in his power to rip it from the bloody pit the monster in his life had soaked it in.

If he had to choose between the two negative emotions that would lead to how he thought about all of this, he'd always choose the one that wasn't the anger. He couldn't trust himself otherwise, and he couldn't have that right now. So with that, he let out a long low breath, before saying.

"Right, well, it's late and we're open tomorrow, so unless we want to see how many of us can cram ourselves onto the couch in the office, we should probably all head to somewhere with actual beds" Mike didn't actually think that was a bad idea, just grabbing Mari and pulling him into the office and just hold onto the puppet until he wasn't thinking so hard it hurt his head. It wasn't their couch, but it would work without having to actually deal with getting back into the car this late at night.

It seemed however that wasn't the right thing to say as right after Foxy stomped away in a huff, Evan followed right after him, while Mari vanished in an instant as Mike was left standing there unsure what to do. His eyes flickering between the stage where the animatronic's were heading and the place where Mari just occupied... Before gritting his teeth, as he gave a nod to the three men still present, all giving each other uncertain looks, as he moved after towards the stage.

Mari vanishing meant he didn't want to talk at that moment, he wouldn't have gone to the car. Not with how he was acting at least, that was someone who needed space to not think about what was happening, he was probably home face first in a bed filled with plush toys. He could trust his boyfriend to be able to take care of himself and to let him know if he needed to talk about this right away.

He wanted to say the same for Foxy, but the kid had offered several plans built on the idea that destruction of private property wasn't really that bad of a crime. And while he definitely trusted his brother, he also saw the way Evan had been standing, he knew this news wasn't easy on the three, and he had no idea who was taking it worse, so he just had to focus on what he could do right in this moment.

The sounds of almost angry whispering shouts were coming from behind the thick curtain as he moved around and got himself to the steps as he pushed the curtain away enough to get himself onto the stage properly. The first thing he noticed was the pacing of the fox as he practically was speed walking around the perimeter of the stage, on the other side so he wasn't about to barrel into Mike just yet, while Evan just stood in the middle, arms crossed, displeased as he seemingly out of stubbornness wasn't rotating himself around to keep track of the fox when he passed into the bear's blind spot.

The two turned to look at him though, as he entered onto the stage, as he took a deep breath before moving with confidence in situations like this that never really existed as much as he wanted it to, as he was the one to break the sudden silence.

"I figured I'd check to see how you two are doing, and if you'd be returning to the warehouse" Foxy let out a metallic kind of snarl at the question, Mike didn't feel particularly threatened, though it had been a while since he heard that sound from the animatronic as the fox stomped over under Mike had to tilt his head up to stare up at the fox, he didn't move though... Though he could admit it was a bit intimidating from a purely analytical viewing of the situation.

"I be staying here until the threat to my ship is gone!" Mike admittedly gulped at the harshness to the words being so sharp it distorted the fox's voice, coating them with a layer of static that hurt the ear more than a little bit with how close he was and how loud the fox was. Mike noted the way Evan had turned and was watching, a tension in his form that showed he had no idea what was about to happen next. It admittedly made Mike a bit more worried about the fox's state of mind, but he didn't back down, staring up at Foxy, and said simply.

"Alright. Evan?" He tossed that to the bear, who seemed hesitant for a long moment, as the two took a long glance at each other, before finally saying carefully.

"I'll be staying as well" Mike just nodded, taking a moment, hesitating for it and not meaning to, as he glanced back to the fox, saying seriously, and as comforting as he could manage.

"It'll be fine, I'll make sure of it" The fox didn't seem wholly convinced, but the anger in his one visible eye seemed to lessen just enough that he just let out a grunt before marching past him off the stage, the sound of the back office door being opened and shut telling the two brothers where the fox had gone. The silence continued on for a long moment before Evan broke it.

"I'll keep an eye on him" Mike just held in the frown that wanted to pull onto his face with how steady the bear sounded, like it was just obvious. It made him happy in a way, knowing that the fox would have someone who would be able to help, because as much as Mike didn't like to admit it, he and Foxy weren't really all that close, the fox was always more a tag along because of how close he and Evan were. Mike made thoughts and plans about getting closer to the fox but life always seemed to get in the way or he found himself busy with other things.

And when life wasn't busy he'd usually come up with something else to do, usually involving Mari... The two kind of got caught up in each other's presence, Mike wasn't fully blind to that, but it did make him feel bad now, he just... It had been so long since he could just be happy so easily and consistently that he ended up just not wanting to do anything more than what gave him that feeling. Mike was very proud to say he's never gone into the the deep end of substances, barely drank long enough in his teen years to get flashbacks and end up puking most of what he put down back up, but he was pretty sure the feelings were comparable with how he chased after it like a starved man.

Now though, with his words seemingly not helping the fox at all, completely falling on deaf ears, made him get struck with the sudden fact he could barely recall the last time the two had a one on one conversation with anyone else involved to have that talk happen in the first place. It made him feel more than a little guilty and poor over it, no matter how mature at times the fox could act.

The idea that Evan just took that onto himself as his own responsibility when the bear no doubt was thinking many of the same things Mike himself was didn't make him feel better either. Given, if not most of all of them weren't at all helpful or pleasant.

"I know buddy, how are you doing though?" The bear was silent for a long moment, and for a second he wondered if the bear was going to pull a puppet move and just go silent completely, but finally he just spoke up.

"I don't... I'll be fine" Mike didn't like how the bear hesitated on the words, as he asked carefully, but with more prodding in his tone still than he meant.

"That doesn't really reassure me bud. What's on your mind?" The bear seemed to find a footing in what he wanted to say, as he spoke much more quickly this time, saying almost casually, but not quite landing the tone right, making the words come out a bit stilted but with a conviction to them.

"It's nothing, I hardly have the same stake in it all as much as Foxy and Marionette do, I'll be fine" Mike found himself heavily frowning at that point, unsure just how any animatronic would be able to not have the same stakes when it came to the hell mouth that was the old Freddy's. He couldn't help but ask about it.

"Why do you think that?" His words came out with the confusion and curiosity at its forefront, as Evan finally looked away, his eyes dimming somehow as he stared off to the side, a tension echoing through his body as he spoke.

"I'm not a victim of Freddy's" The unsaid words of just who exactly he was a victim of wasn't unsaid enough to not make it feel like a metal pole had once more been stabbed through Mike's chest, this one a bit closer to his heart, as he pressed down on the sudden burning wave of guilt. Evan's tragedy had been no one's fault other than Mike's own, no matter how much he liked to kid himself into not thinking about it all the time like he used to.

Falling into that guilt spiral wouldn't help anything though, even as he could watch in real time as Evan grimaced to himself, seemingly realizing and moving to say something to try and lessen the impact of the hit that had already landed, as Mike just spoke up before the teen could get the words out.

"Just because you didn't die because of their mistreatment of safety doesn't mean it all didn't affect you any. It's alright if you need to talk about it" The bear paused from what he was going to say, before just huffing, saying back quickly, his tone shifting into something more snappy.

"How could it have affected me? I wasn't even there, the first animatronic and I never even sat foot in a Freddy's until they all were already shut down for good" Mike just frowned, concerned, but unsure what to say to that, as he took a second trying to figure it out and finally ending up saying what he hoped wouldn't be a mistake.

"You had to watch, it's alright to not be alright after that. If you want to-" Evan suddenly moved, his heavy feet moving until he was in front of Mike now, his eyes flickering before voiding out into darkness, as pits of light floated in their place. Mike had to give his brother credit. He was a lot more intimidating than Foxy.

"Stop asking if I want to talk about it! I don't! I don't have anything I need to say, I'll handle Foxy, you... Just go Michael" Mike just stood there for a moment, the eyes didn't change, he could see the way the suit before him shook. Evan was mad, no, furious. Mike had no idea what button he had just pressed, but he knew now wasn't the time to ask, even as he felt the burning need to do so anyways, to try and help.

It seemed like his help wasn't much in fashion at the moment though, as he just took a moment, waiting to see if his brother would say anything else, before just nodding silently, turning away first and walking to the exit of the stage.

He... He couldn't help but pause though, as he stood there, at the edge, looking down at the first step down, before turning back, Evan hadn't moved, but he was looking away now, as Mike... Said one last thing.

"I'm sorry, just... I'm here for you, both of you, if you need me" The bear didn't say anything, but that might have been for the best, as Mike let out a low long breath before moving to leave, Fritz and Jeremy were already gone, and he had to get home to have a hopefully nicer resolution of a conversation with Mari.

Mike already felt stretched out to the point of being pulled apart.


Fritz felt numb, he hadn't gone far, only just out of the Cove doors, Jeremy was with him, standing off to the side, probably waiting on the verdict if he would be needing to drive the animatronics back. Fritz just couldn't bring himself to get in the car just yet, right now he was still mostly in shock, but the second he had to actually do something, like drive, then everything would rush in, and that wasn't something he wanted to deal with just yet.

It was happening again.

He could remember the first time he got called back to Freddy's, after the disaster that ended in '87, the first call of that damned contract, of being dragged back in, working on fixing the animatronics, the sheer number of near death experiences that came with it, the stress, the nights he couldn't sleep because the fear of something outside his doors being so great he could barely lay down.

It was happening again, and Fritz wasn't sure he could take it if they decided to call him next.

"It's different this time" Fritz blinked, his mind coming back into focus instead of just drifting through the horror of what was happening as he looked over at Jeremy, who was anxiously tapping one of his feet, looking around a bit too much to be as reassuring as the man wanted to be, as Fritz just took a deep breath, not wanting to make his problem's Jeremy's, as he said with a faint hint of worry.

"I don't know if I ever got out of the contract they have on me, if they call me... I don't think I get to say no"

"You can"

"Yeah? I don't think that's going to hold up if they use it to ruin me"

"You know too much, I mean, they never did anything to Mike right? They still have his contract as well, and they'd get way more out of him than you"

"Mike also threatened to burn the whole operation to the ground, himself included, he wasn't exactly the... easiest person to persuade back then, I doubt they want to risk getting on his bad side after he basically took everything but the nails from their last location" Nothing to say about just how stubborn the man still was, just it wasn't about every little thing anymore, in a very weird way, Mike had relaxed a tremendous amount compared to the man Fritz first met. A very good thing given what he only sort of suspected about the headspace Mike had been in at the time.

"Did he?" Jeremy seemed startled in that not quite surprised way he got at times, as Fritz managed to grin a little, at the time it had been insane and shocking and more than a little concerning, but time had aged the experience into one of the many things that Mike just kind of did.

"Oh yeah, I think it's how we meet actually? Or, at least it made our first real conversation about what was happening take place. He leveraged something and ripped management a new one, got my name out of it somehow, and then he decided to make everything my problem as well, you know everything from there" Jeremy nodded, clearly thinking about that as well with a bit of surprise, but then again, for the empath of the group, Fritz was actually pretty sure he was the one that saw the man at his... Lowest? That didn't feel right, at his most stressed the most consistently? That sounded better at least.

From the start something had put the man off the giant, that had gone away over time, after actually getting to know him outside of being half emotionally blackmailed half actually threatened into doing things. Then the whole thing with Bonnie, just seeing how intense Mike was during that whole thing, the confidence and anger mixing itself together to the point of nearly lashing out. It was... well, intense for a lack of a better word. Mike reminded Fritz a lot of a bull, or maybe a bulldozer, just ramming through everything in front of him until he got to the end result he wanted, that never really changed about him, the man just got a lot less aggressive about it over time.

Fritz wasn't really looking forward to whatever salt and scorching the earth method Mike was probably going to end up pulling out of nowhere when everything eventually went to hell for everyone involved. To Fritz it was mostly just a matter of time if he was being honest, the idea that things would just magically work out didn't so much as register in his mind as get laughed out of it when he thought about something in his life going that well when it involved the hell that was Freddy's.

"Do you... Think maybe they don't want Mike to know about the new place? Given the last time and everything?" Fritz frowned at that thought, thinking it over, before slowly nodding, that would actually be kind of reasonable, given they had both his and Jeremy's information on file if they bothered to go looking, which wouldn't be harder than tracking down Scott after everything the man had done to get separated from the company in the first place.

Then again, Scott knew way more than he ever actually made a point in claiming, he kept his ear to the ground almost religiously from what Fritz knew of the man, it wouldn't be surprising they went to him first to try and get something out of him. But the idea they wouldn't bother Fritz as well was... well, it was a nice thought.

"If I'm lucky. But when has that ever happened?" Jeremy didn't seem to have a point for that, as he just sighed, looking away for a moment, before saying in a sudden and deceptively serious voice.

"You're right, we should have changed our names as well" That came out of left field enough that Fritz snorted before nearly devolving into a full on laugh as he shot Jeremy a look, as the man just seemed pleased with himself, as he continued, still serious sounding, "What do you think I should have switched to? Jeremy Gerald?" That got a much uglier snort out of Fritz as he tried his best to keep himself from letting out an almost hysterical laugh, as he managed to say back.

"If it works, I'd have to switch my first name, I don't think it gets more common than Smith"

"Isn't Fritz short, for like, Frederick or something like that?" He was pretty sure that was actually true, but his name wasn't meant to be short for anything, so Fritz just let out an overexaggerated huff, saying before he could really think through what line they were going down.

"Think I can pull off being a Fred?" Jeremy was speaking before he meant too either.

"Freddie then to keep with the theme" The air went suddenly quiet, the joke hanging in the void between them, like they just somehow trampled their way back into actual seriousness, as Fritz just glanced away for a moment, before finally saying.

"Right, well, I'm never going to be able to unthink that now" He had been trying to go for a more joking tone, but it fell flat on his tone, his mind to busy thinking about himself as a Freddy, which quickly made him think about all the empty freddys he had seen... filled. Jeremy looked away, seemingly a bit abashed about how the two somehow managed to loop themselves back to this, as Fritz finally sighed, saying, "Let's put a hold on the name changes until we get out of this"

"Sounds like a good idea... You can go on, I see Mike's wandering over, I need to ask him if I need to go around back to load up the animatronics" Fritz just gave an uncomfortable nod, moving away for a moment, before having to pause, as he glanced back, having to ask.

"Are you alright by the way?" The man tensed for a moment, before finally just sighing, as he glanced back to Fritz, but not really making eye contact with him, as he said awkwardly.

"Not really but I don't think any of us are about this" Fritz couldn't really deny that, so the only thing he could do was repeat the same words back to Jeremy.

"It's different this time. We'll be alright" He wasn't sure just how much he believed himself, but Jeremy seemed to get a little lighter from hearing it, and that's what mattered at the moment to the older man, as the two gave a nod to each other, as Fritz got into his own car, sitting there for a long moment with a sigh, before heading on home. He probably wouldn't be getting any sleep.

Thankfully he already had a project there that would be able to take his thoughts off the moment for a little while.


Everything is awful, and I am here for it! Time for the drama to return! Fourteen more chapters everyone! So much to do and so little amount of chapters to do it in. I think we're about to get to the point where every chapter is going to be at least eight to nine thousand words, which is fun I suppose, though I have no idea if I've outlined the next dozen or so chapters right to know if it's to much or too little space to shove everything in. Thankfully I'm about thirteen chapters ahead, at time to writing this, meaning I'm writing this in my timeline with chapter 73 just been posted. So I'm ahead of the curve here, so I have, like, three? Four? Months of back log to be able to figure out this last stretch before I'm panic rushing, and if I manage that without any writing buffering, unlike this chapter which took me way to long to write... I might actually be done writing this story by the time that this chapter is released...

That's so weird to think about.

Anyways, on to the actual chapter, a lot of stuff to be seen here, Mari is just gone for the time being, poor puppet can't deal right now, but we get to see that next chapter. While for the rest of the main cast, Scott is on the verge of a mental break even if it's not obvious on an outside POV. He's not doing well but is trying his best. I think it's quite nice to know after all this time, his character arc is far enough along that even though he probably would have been better off shutting down, disconnecting his phone, and just ghosting everyone while the fallout happened without him involved, his first course of action was to give a frantic and admittedly poorly timed call to Mike to let him know what was happening immediately. Love me some character progression.

While for Mike himself... He's not taking it well either, but he's in the position, in his own mind at least, that he can't be anything but in control of himself to be able to do something about the situation. He takes a lot of responsibility onto his shoulders without really understanding at times that there are plenty of people around him now that can shoulder the burden. He's gotten better about it for sure. If he hadn't, then he'd probably try to stubborn himself through helping Bonnie and Ennard a lot more directly instead of being able to trust the others are able to handle it. But this is a bit more... heavy, and hits a bit to close to just about all his trauma responses so... He's not handling it the best, and neither are the animatronics, Foxy is going through it, and Goldie is right behind him, though both having surprisingly different issues over the matter, neither of which Mike knows how to address at the moment, making this awkward and tense.

While for Fritz and Jeremy... They're doing their best, but clearly this isn't a happy time for them either for other reasons. Btw, Fritz can actually be short for Fredrick, I already knew that, but setting up the joke made me really get that Michael Afton in the canon really said fuck it, Freddy Smith, when he went to work at Fnaf 2. He really is just that bad at coming up with names, and that's hilarious to me. Anyways, See ya!