Gregory hopped out of the recharge station, laughing. "Wow! You really told him off!"

Chica turned around and chuckled. "Well, I do believe Moon needed a stern talking to. Sometimes, the kindest thing you can do is be firm. And good news! Only five more hours until the front doors open!"

Gregory nodded. "Five hours. This is crazy." His smile fell away, and he glanced back toward the Daycare. "That rabbit lady appeared and turned out the lights in the Daycare. She turned on the garbage smasher, too. What if she does that again?"

"We'll stay away from the garbage compactor," Chica stated and held out her hand. Gregory took it without thinking and they walked toward the exit shutters. "Back then, was I with… did I do what she said? If she did that to me, I didn't matter to her. But that doesn't mean anything."

"'Cause she thinks you're just a bot," Gregory summed up. "But you're not! You're Chica! …and, yeah, you were under her control. Monty picked you up after that and I disconnected you from the main network and put you in Safe Mode in Parts and Service. You were better after that."

They stopped at the shutters leading into the main entrance before going to the right elevator. Chica glanced at Gregory. "Monty must have trusted you very, very much. If just anyone had called and told him someone else pushed me into the trash compactor, especially if they were in your position, he would think they were lying." She tapped his glasses and he ducked with a muffled laugh. "And these prove it, Mini-Monty!"

Gregory straightened out his glasses and tapped out of the CAMS tab. "Well, we'd been working together a while and I did help him in Parts and Service before that."

"Aw! Well, we can get Parts and Service running again soon. We'll need to get you a few badges first so you have the right permissions to use some of the equipment and open some of the doors."

The elevators stopped and the doors opened. Gregory stepped out and yelped as an orange S.T.A.F.F. bot with glasses and a safari hat grabbed him and spun the kid around to face it. "Hello. Please take this map." It released him and held out a map of the atrium. "Take a map."

Gregory snatched the map. Map Bot stated, "Enjoy." The thing straightened out and swiveled its head back and forth in its search for new victims.

The kid wrinkled his nose and stuck the map in his pocket. "Ugh, I hate that thing."

Chica clicked her beak. "Gregory, that's a strong word to use."

"It's true, though. Monty said so."

"Just because Monty says something doesn't make it true or okay." Chica threw a look at it. "But Monty might be kinda sorta right. Anyway! You have a map of the atrium! There are two security offices I know we get to easily–one by the kitchen in the first-floor basement and one by the Prize Counter on the third floor. There is one in Fazer Blast and Monty Golf, which we will definitely find Monty there. I know you have at least one Party Pass and I have a spare in my room."

"I have two," Gregory reassured her. "The one you gave me, and one I had before I got here. I had been saving it for a while. Last time, I used it to get to Monty Golf during the day. This time, I didn't need it to get to your cupcake factory."

Chica shook her head. "Nope! You don't need any special permission or extra anything to go to the cupcake factory! Though you are supposed to pay to get in."

Gregory looked at her. "I was? I didn't."

"That's because I took you in through the back," Chica said. "Going through the payment process would've been so boring. And it's not technically against the rules to allow a guest through the back if the guest is accompanied by staff, which I do work at the cupcake factory and so I am a staff member. It's not stealing if I give you the ingredients, which I gave you what you need. You just put everything together!"

"I forgot how much I miss Chica."

You said Roxy was the one always finding loopholes!

"I said Roxy was the one always bragging about finding them."

Chica went on, "But since we should go to Parts and Service first, which means we should turn it on, so we should avoid Monty Golf for now."

Gregory nodded. "I don't really want to go to El Chips. I have a bad feeling about that place. How about the kitchen? That place is right next to the power generator."

Chica bounced on her orange-toed feet. "Oh, I love that idea! Maybe we'll find a snack while we're there. Okay, let's go!"

Gregory ran his flashlight over the inert escalator as they walked down into the main atrium floor. Chica's feet clanked over the shiny, dark tile while Gregory barely made a sound in comparison. Yellow light glinted and Gregory sucked in his breath and shut off his light.

Roxy, by the party tables, froze and her head whipped toward Chica, yellow eyes glowing discs in the dark setting her muzzle and perked ears aglow. "Chica?" Roxy asked. "Did you see a light go out just now?"

Chica turned toward her, tapping Gregory so he stood straight behind her, and cocked her head. "A light? Well, usually the S.T.A.F.F. bots carry lights. But there aren't any here." Chica looked around herself. "Are you sure you saw a light?"

Roxy growled and pinned her ears. "Of course I'm sure! I know I saw a light turn off here!"

"No you didn't," Chica clucked. "Roxy, you're always seeing freaky things with those new eyes of yours. This is just another side effect. You didn't see a light flashing."

Roxy growled again, but it was fainter. "But I did, though."

Chica shook her head and softened her voice. "Roxy-poo, I didn't see any lights turn out. Hey, why don't you continue your search up here and I'll start my search in the basement level?"

Roxy rubbed her eyes and blinked furiously. "I swear I… maybe I didn't. I guess it could have just been a trick. I've been seeing nothing but darkness and S.T.A.F.F. bot lights for the past hour." Roxy groaned. "I hate flashlights! Especially ones that flicker. Why did I get put on atrium duty?"

"Because you're the best of us and he's bound to come through here?"

Roxy thought for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah. I am the best. I am the best. And I will find him. That's right. I'll find him. Yeah." She whipped her tail back and forth, almost like she was wagging it. Almost. "I'll find that kid. Good luck, Chica!" She waved and received a wave in return before continuing to walk. "Hey kid, come on out! We're only trying to help," she called.

Chica hummed to herself as she walked to Salads and Sides, Gregory at her side with his flashlight off. Her humming to the beat of their latest song covered up what little noise his old tennis shoes made on the tile floor. She stopped once they were far enough away and with enough obstacles between them that he couldn't see Roxy.

Gregory looked up at her. "How did you do that?"

Chica chuckled and sighed. "Oh, it's a rather mean tactic of making someone believe something that isn't true or disbelieve something they know is true. Like how I convinced Roxy that she didn't see you turn off your light, even though she did. It's very mean and you should never do it. But…" Her voice got quiet. "–she would have hurt you if I didn't." Chica stopped in front of the door to Salads and Sides. She stomped her foot. "Oh, I could just scream! This is so wrong! Hurting people is wrong! But Roxy is my best friend. She's a good person. Bad people do bad things. And hurting you would be a bad thing. But she's not a bad person. But if I hadn't done that simply awful thing to her then she would have hurt you. Oh, I'm a terrible friend. This is all so wrong!" She buried her face in her hands and choked out noises like crying.

Gregory grimaced and then reached up and set his hand on her shoulder. "It's the rabbit lady. It's not Roxy. You're trying to help me. Thank you, Chica. I think you're a really good person."

Chica lowered her hands enough to look down at him and her crying lessened to some sniffles. "Oh, thank you, Gregory. You're s-so nice." She shut her eyes. "Oh, Gregory. I will help you. I promised I would be your guardian. But I don't want to choose between my friends."

"You don't have to. I mean, it's not like it's them or me, right? We'll help them eventually."

"…Monty sometimes says I care too much," she admitted. "But that didn't make sense to me. Now I get it. I want to help Moon, even though he tried to hurt you. I feel bad about tricking Roxy, even though she would have certainly hurt you. I care too much for everyone. Why was I built like this?"

"Monty's a fucking idiot. She doesn't care too much. She just has enough love to spread to everyone."

Gregory piped up, "Bonnie says that you don't care too much. You just have enough love to spread to everyone."

Chica started and blinked. "Bonnie… did used to say that to me. Oh, he was such a good friend. It was so unfair what happened." She looked down at Bonnie. "He is a special friend, isn't he?"

Gregory nodded. "He's my best friend. He says you're smarter than people give you credit for. He's helped me a lot. He just doesn't like being on his own."

"At least when I'm held, I can pretend I'm not completely paralyzed. I like experiencing the world with you."

"Aw! Well, I understand not liking being alone. It's no fun when you're all alone. The more the merrier! Oh, golly. We've been standing here for so long. We need to get moving. Okay, there's an elevator in here." Chica squared her shoulders.

Gregory nodded to the vent. "Actually, you having to open every door for me is going to take forever. I'll just take this vent and meet you there! It won't take long."

"That vent?" Chica threw a cautious glance at the square opening close to the floor. "That doesn't look safe."

"I've been in it before. It's fine," Gregory soothed and walked right up to it. "I'll see you there!"

"No!" Chica squawked.

Gregory yelped and clapped his hands over his ears as something like a knife stabbed into them. The light from a security S.T.A.F.F. bot nearby and Gregory's flashlight flickered and stopped moving as the bot ceased its roaming and twitched in place for a few seconds. The neon light near them flashed ominously before returning to a steady glow. His gator glasses glitched. Gregory blinked the blurriness from his eyes and snatched Bonnie and his flashlight from the ground. His ears still rang.

Chica put her hands to her beak. "I'm sorry!" she whispered, near inaudible from their current distance apart.

Gregory waited for his ears to stop ringing before he asked, "What was that?"

"I-I accidentally yelled." She continued to whisper something. He caught the word "sorry" in the mix, but other than that, he didn't have much luck. It wasn't like he could lip-read her beak.

Against his better judgment, Gregory stepped closer to her. "Can you repeat that?"

She nodded. "I accidentally yelled. I have a special voice box that activates if I get too loud or sing. It messes with technology and hurts people's ears–including my friends. And humans. I'm not allowed to sing on stage because of it."

He bit back a sigh. "Can you like… control it or something?"

"If I don't yell or sing it doesn't happen." She shrugged. "I'm sorry, Gregory."

"Well, we need to be quiet, anyway. Roxy probably heard that," Gregory pointed out.

"Oh! Right! Come with me." She opened the door to Salads and Sides for him. "As much as I trust you, I don't trust that vent not to have anything scary or dangerous in it."

Gregory reluctantly nodded. A memory of that stupid spider crawled back into his mind. "Yeah, guess you're right about that."

"Besides! I know my way around the kitchen." Chica hummed merrily through the long, empty room as they walked. Gregory walked by the currently stagnant conveyor belt. A single shirt lay haphazardly on the end, spilling over the edge.

She stopped in front of a sheet of metal with a jagged line in the middle. Then, the metal split and opened like the maw of a beast with a double row of wide, flat teeth to expose a huge metal elevator. "This is big enough for all sorts of big supply carts!"

Gregory's gaze flicked from her to the metal elevator. He stepped inside the cracked and rusted interior and pressed the glowing green button on the side. One Freddy-head-shaped button glowed green on either end of the elevator. As soon as he pressed it, the double rows of inches thick metal rose up and sunk down to meet in the middle. The elevator jolted and sank. Music warbled half-heartedly above them.

Chica clucked, "The speaker in this elevator has been broken for months!"

He put down the knee-jerk reaction of sarcastically prompting her to sing instead and asked, "How often do you come down here?"

"Every night!" she chirped. "For the past few months especially."

The doors opened to a hallway stretched out on either side. Red and blue containers with their lids popped off and stacked cardboard boxes pressed up against the wall opposite the elevators. He leaned out and saw around the right corner there were sets of conveyor belts multiple stories high stacked up on ladders. He stepped out and looked down the left, where his flashlight was eaten by the void. "B1-MAIN-COR-S2" labeled the wall across from them. An out-of-place Freddy "never stop smiling" poster was pinned on the cement wall. In the far-right corner was another charging station.

Chica took a left. "The kitchen's really close!"

"The security station, you mean," Gregory corrected.

"Huh? Oh! Right! Yes!" The chicken laughed. "The security office by the kitchen!" They walked past the cardboard boxes and a few short shelves and took an immediate right. Gregory waved his flashlight over the wooden pallets. Right, right. They needed to go through the double doors at the end and take a left, and then they'd be in the power distribution room.

Chica opened one of the double doors for him into the vast room of boxes, crates, crate-sized boxes, wooden pallets, and forklifts. He ignored that and took a left. The door to the power distribution room was closed. So, they walked through the hall beside it, shelving units rising up to make the already cramped area smaller. It was a wonder those big machines got anywhere. The room ended and a set of metal stairs split off from the hallway and led up to a shut door. The hallway split further beside the stairs until reaching a double set of doors labeled "EXIT TO DOCKS". That was the kitchen.

Gregory walked up the metal stairs. Chica hesitated a moment before clanking after him. She opened this door for him, too, as it was just out of his security level.

He stopped before the metal doorway leading into the security office. The first time he'd been here, he set off an alarm that caused Chica to try and bash down the door. The second time, the rabbit lady caught him.

Gregory walked into the small security office, most of it taken up by maroon cabinets and a giant computer monitor system on the opposite wall. Most of the monitors were blue save for the giant one showing the kitchen below, but one had a picture of Helpy in a chef hat tossing a pizza. The second security door stood blocked by a tower of boxes.

On the table sat a Freddy head with a security hat. Yes! Gregory pressed its nose and the head opened painfully slowly until the card was completely revealed. Gregory snatched it. The card reader snapped shut. He winced as an alarm screamed.

"Hold on while I disable it." Chica stopped moving and stared at the wall of boxes opposite of her, unblinking. After half a minute of the squealing elapsed, it ended.

The time was one-thirty am.

Something inside Chica beeped and she blinked and looked down at Gregory again. "There we go! All quiet. I normally like going down here for snacks, so the others will probably assume I'm here. But we should probably get going just in case."

Gregory called as they left the room, "Wait, Chica. Before we leave."

Chica stopped and turned to him. "Hmm?"

"I'd like to check out the power diverter room."

"Oh, sure!" Chica hummed to herself as they walked down the stairs. Unlike Freddy, her voice was higher pitched and electric, obviously mechanical.

"Do you like to sing?" he prompted.

"Sure do!" Chica chirped. "I used to be a backup singer."

"Why don't you anymore?"

Chica's eyelids fell a little. "Oh, well… ever since I got this new voice box, they made me stop. It was supposed to help me sing, but any time I do… you saw what happens."

Gregory's eyebrows furrowed. "And they haven't replaced it with your old one, yet?"

"No. I guess they haven't had the time to! They must be really busy." Chica nodded. "Some of the engineers like to tell me if I behave, they'll rush my procedure. But others say that they don't know when I'll have my procedure. I think the former are just trying to get me to do what they want. But since that's pretty easy, I don't really mind. No one pays me much mind. I miss singing with Freddy–on stage and after hours."

"It sounds like these upgrades they're giving you are really messing with you guys," Gregory said. "Monty has to be really careful doing a lot of stuff because of his claws since he might accidentally break something or hurt someone. You can't sing, anymore."

"And harsh or flashing lights drive Roxy nuts," Chica concluded. "Freddy runs out of battery so much faster nowadays, even though his battery module is supposed to make some of his systems more efficient."

The boy wrinkled his nose. "These 'upgrades' don't sound much like upgrades to me. Did they 'upgrade' the Daycare Attendant, too?"

Chica shrugged. "I don't know. They've always been so reclusive. If they have, they never told us."

They walked into the electronics room with the power generator. Gregory ran up to it and held up his cupcake light. He clicked it twice and raised his eyebrows. The "FAZER BLAST", "ROXY RACEWAY", and "WEST ARCADE" labels all glowed under the light. "Huh," he huffed. "Fazer Blast is where I found that weird room. We found Freddy in the West Arcade. So, there's something hiding in Roxy Raceway?"

Chica looked over at the glowing buttons. "Oooh! I didn't know there were UV signs around the Pizzaplex!"

"Me, neither," Gregory admitted. "Then I was playing with this keychain and accidentally shined it on your door. It showed a symbol with a rabbit head and its ears crossed out. And more symbols on the other green room doors. There are other places in the Pizzaplex with these clues that she left behind probably for herself. There's a room above Fazer Blast and we don't know who it belongs to or why it's there. And we met Freddy in the West Arcade. She ambushed me there. That's probably why those two are marked. So, there's definitely something hidden at the Racetrack."

Chica prompted, "Does that mean we should avoid the Racetrack?"

Gregory snorted. "As if! We should definitely investigate once we get the time. Okay, so, the Prize Counter should be pretty easy. In and out, simple as that!"

"Yep! Simple as that!"

"Oh, right." Gregory stared down at the shutters leading to El Chips that refused to open past a couple of feet. "You can't, uh… get through here, can you?"

Chica shook her head. "Nope, sorry. Hmm…" She put a finger to her beak. "How about this: I'll guide you on your glasses and in the meantime, I'll find another way!"

He bit back a sigh. Oh, this was going to be the same as last time. "Okay. See you soon?"

"See you soon!"

Gregory ducked under the shutters into the beaver-themed Mexican restaurant. He raided the kitchen and found the only thing not completely sealed away was a single can of lime-flavored Monty Fizzy-Faz. Eh, well, he had something in his stomach to distract from his hunger a little. That and he had a cupcake earlier. Still, he'd need something more than candy soon.

Gregory crept straight to where he knew the vent to the security office lay. He shrugged on his jacket so it wouldn't drag across the floor and he waited for Roxy to pass by him.

"I can help," she offered, her voice sweet and calm and an absolute lie. Well, maybe not an absolute lie. Maybe they truly did want to help him, but whatever the rabbit lady did to them made them… not.

Just as he got close to the arcade cabinets where the vent was, Roxy yelled, "I found him!"

Gregory ran the rest of the way, squeezing between two arcade cabinets and flinging himself into the vent. Roxy snarled and scraped her emerald claws into the vent lining glinting in the light of her lavender eyes and flashed her teeth, but by that point, he was already out of her reach–but just barely. She snarled at him one last time before rearing back and retreating.

He… had a bad feeling he knew where she was going to go.

That and she'd definitely alerted someone. Hopefully that someone was Chica. However, as Chica hadn't been put into Safe Mode, that alert might just take her out of her helpfulness and put her on the attack. The only other option–as Freddy definitely wasn't one–was Monty. The thought of going up against the alligator animatronic made his heart twist for way more than one reason.

Music sang steadily louder behind him and little metal feet landed and clinked on the vent behind him.

Time to move.

Gregory sped up his crawling. Though it was once difficult on three limbs as his fourth held Bonnie and the flashlight, he'd gotten used to it over the night. He still slipped at the end and scrambled for a foothold, throwing himself off balance and staggering once he hit the ground before finally falling onto his shoulder. But he didn't break anything or land flat on his face.

Improvement!

He pulled himself to his feet, brushed himself off, and readjusted his glasses. Gregory pulled off his jacket and tied it over his shoulders again. He took a long, deep breath and wandered the rectangular hall surrounding the security office. Shelving units, containers, arcade cabinets, a desk with a computer, tables, and some other tech cluttered the space. Security cameras nestled in the corners. A door led through the northern and south end of the room.

"Gregory?"

I know, I know. Unable to stall any longer, he walked through one of the metal doors into the security office. He glanced around at the computer monitors still glowing with screen savers and their corresponding keyboards. Flatscreen TVs making a grid filled with static bunched up on the wall above the double set of computers with two chairs and the Freddy head device between them. Another lonely computer desk pressed up against the wall opposite the filing cabinets and exorbitant amount of shelving units.

"Hey, Chica? I found the security badge. I think it'll set off an alarm if I pick it up, though."

Beep! [An alarm? That makes sense. Well, if it does, I'll turn it off. Just pick it up whenever you're ready.]

Gregory shuffled his feet. "…okay." He set Bonnie down beside the security badge holder. He pressed its nose. It opened achingly slow until it reached its apex. Gregory snatched the badge. It fell down with a harsh snap. An alarm blared and the doors snapped open. "Chica! I-I just picked up the badge, I didn't do anything else!"

Beep! [It's going to be okay, Gregory. I'll turn the alarm off, but it will take a little bit, okay?]

"O-okay." Gregory winced at his voice crack. He tapped his glasses and went to the CAMs tab. Roxy stalked into the room from the arcade on the south side. From the north side–likely the Prize Counter–Monty shoved the door open. Gregory flipped between two of the cameras showing both of his doors. Roxy got near his left door. He darted to it and slammed it shut. Roxy lunged at the door just as it closed. She growled and pounded on the security door. The door power slowly trickled down. Aside from the noise of her fists against the metal, he couldn't even tell she was battering the door. What was this thing made out of? And could he get a helmet made of it?

Roxy spat and stalked off, lashing her tail. Gregory opened that door. He barely had enough time to run to the other and close it before Monty attacked, throwing his entire weight into the door shoulder-first and then tearing his claws over the metal. He switched between pounding on the door and scoring at it with his claws before giving up and walking down the hall, allowing Gregory to open the door.

He flicked between cams and listened to the doors.

Monty rumbled, "Don't be scared."

Gregory winced. He spotted Roxy approaching the opposite door again and closed it. He darted between the doors, keeping them closed only as long as necessary. Finally, the alarm stopped wailing and the doors closed on their own.

He let out a heavy, relieved breath.

Beep! He tapped his glasses to switch tabs. [There we go! All done! I'll meet you at the Prize Counter.]

"Okay. See you there."

Monty prowled into the Prize Counter's back room. Roxy passed him, walking further into Gregory's destination. He rolled his eyes. Of course his life couldn't be that easy. Why would it be?

He picked up Bonnie and, watching the camera, walked to the door to the Prize Counter. He waited until Monty's back was turned before slinking out. Again, he immediately found a disproportionate amount of the stuff back here happened to be older models of Freddy. Distracted by one of the plushies that had fallen out of a box, he nudged a Toy Freddy plushie on a shelf. He bit back a gasp and immediately made a grab for it.

It tumbled across the ground, hardly making a noise. Gregory sent a look at Monty, who still stalked down the aisle with his back turned to the boy. Gregory let out a short breath and walked through the doorless archway out to the Prize Counter. The Moon plushie let out a sad squeak as he stepped on its face.

Monty turned his head back. "Huh? Rox… ha! Party time!"

Gregory bolted. Monty ran around the aisle rather than bother trying to turn around and flew out the archway after him.

Cursing Moon for somehow trying to get him killed without even physically being there, he ran between two islands of ATMs flanked by Freddy trash cans and ran around a giant circular display of huge toys glowing with neon strips. Monty clipped past one of the islands. He took a sudden turn at the end of that one as Gregory tried to circle around the second massive circle and lose him. The toy display exploded as his tail whipped into it.

Gregory, wheezing, ran around the first display and slowed down as he stopped hearing thundering footsteps. He looked back, but the Fire Escape was blocked off by rolling shutters. Well, around the Prize Counter corner, there was an observatory of sorts blocked by party shutters he could cut through to get to the Fire Escape, probably. They headed in that direction, after all… and it was his only other option left.

As Gregory walked toward it, Monty lurched out from behind the circular display with a cackle. "Where're you goin'?"

Gregory couldn't even scream before Monty's massive paws were around him and he was ripped up into the air. Monty's tail lashed, knocking over more plushies from the display on his left and the red rope creating a neat line for people to take on his right.

The boy dropped Bonnie and his flashlight and grabbed Monty by the snout. "Wait, wait! Please don't eat me! You know me!"

But there was no recognition in those lavender eyes of his, just cold glee. The hunter had caught his prey.

Monty's eyes, already mostly hidden beneath his glasses, vanished entirely behind his jaws as he bared teeth longer than Gregory's hand.

Then, Chica shrieked, "Drop him!"

Gregory yelped and clapped his hands over his ears as knives stabbed into them. Monty roared and released Gregory. The animatronic gator doubled forward, hands over his head where his ear holes would be. The neon lights around them and Gregory's flashlight flickered sporadically. His own gator glasses glitched. Gregory blinked the blurriness from his eyes and snatched Bonnie and his flashlight from the ground.

Chica called, her voice much quieter and softer but still audible. "Quickly, Gregory!"

He looked up to see Chica at the entrance to the star place and ran to meet her. He looked back at Monty, who growled and slowly removed his hands from his ears. The lights stopped flickering. Gregory's ears had since stopped ringing, mercifully.

Chica ushered him along, one finger to her beak to signal for silence. She stopped and pointed to the kiddie cart inside the star room. Gregory climbed inside without hesitation. Roxy ran inside, ears pricked. "Chica! What happened?"

Chica said, "One of the bots went haywire. I put it down, though. I think I saw the kid running toward the… uh… fire escape…?"

Roxy cackled, "Fire escape! Got it! Thanks, Chica!" Roxy spun around and rushed into the hall. Chica waved for him to climb out and Gregory obeyed.

Chica chuckled. "Do you want to go through the arcade?"

Gregory nodded. "Thanks, Chica. That was so cool! But uh… a little warning would've been nice."

"I'm sorry." Chica started walking. "I panicked. I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"Nah. I'm fine, now." Gregory turned off his flashlight as they passed through the hallway Roxy ran into. Thankfully, they only needed to cross it to get to a set of shutters into a winding hall. It emptied into the opposite side of the arcade from El Chips. Well… at least they were away from Monty and Roxy.

Then, as they skirted around security bots and arcade cabinets alike, a headache crept up on Gregory.

"Oh no."

"Hmm?" Chica glanced down at him.

"I-it's the rabbit lady!" Gregory whipped his flashlight around and searched his surroundings. "She's here somewhere!"

Chica's back straightened and her head swiveled around. "…I don't see anyone."

"You might not. Monty couldn't see her." He gritted his teeth as his headache worsened.

Chica took him by the hand and sped up her walk. "Then we'll just hurry." She leaned down so she was closer and murmured, "And if I ask you 'what rabbit', cover your ears."

Gregory grimaced and nodded. He squinted and searched his surroundings. Where was she? She had to be close by and getting closer.

Finally, they arrived at the shutters to El Chips. They opened. Chica ba-gawked, went rigid, and then slumped forward. Standing straight in front of them, a rod with a barbed black box in one hand, was the rabbit lady. She giggled and cocked her head. "You don't really think you can use these bots against me, do you, Gregory?"

Gregory slipped from Chica's grasp and took a step back.

"Over here!" Roxy yelled behind him.

He bristled but didn't dare break eye contact with the rabbit lady.

She cooed, "Did you still want that picture with Monty?"

"Picture with Monty?" he repeated hoarsely.

The ground shuddered as Roxy charged. The rabbit lady lunged at him. Gregory dodged and scrambled back. Weirdly, Roxy didn't change course with the boy. She smacked the rabbit lady back with a scream. "He's mine! I found him first!" When she turned to Gregory, he flashed his flashlight in her eyes. She flinched and a snarl tore out of her voice box so hard it crackled and spat.

She doesn't like flashing lights. He clicked the power button on his flashlight a few times. Roxy's snarl cut off and she froze. The light in her lavender eyes went out completely and reverted back to their original gold. The wolf relaxed, her claws–once raised to grab him, fell to her side, and she stood up straight, ears slack and dull eyes staring straight ahead like one of those creepy endos.

He darted past the rabbit already starting to wake herself up again and ducked under the second set of shudders into El Chips. Chica's eye lights flickered back to life. "G-Gregory? Roxy, what are you–what?!"

He caught a glimpse of the rabbit lady scrambling to her feet before the shudders closed completely. Gregory ducked under the second set of shutters. His headache eased and he started to get a grip on his senses again as he ran. Guilt squirmed inside of him thinking about how he just left Chica. But there was no way he was going up against that rabbit lady. Besides, Roxy was her friend, and she could see her, apparently. Maybe Roxy didn't like her. Or maybe Roxy's ultra-competitive nature overrode any "loyalty" she had toward the rabbit, if she had any in the first place. They didn't seem to want to give him over to her, after all. That's if he didn't just somehow kill Roxy by flashing a light in her eyes.

Bonnie?

"I'm here."

That was her. The rabbit lady. Roxy accidentally helped us.

"She what now?"

She could see the rabbit lady and just knocked her over because she wanted to get to me first. He slowed to a walk as he got past the shudders to the Prize Counter and looked back.

"…yeah, I could see that. She's competitive. But the seeing her thing… Monty couldn't see her. Then again…"

She has special eyes. Gregory could recall all those upgrades. Monty's claws, Chica's voice box, Freddy's battery, and Roxy's eyes. And the symbol the rabbit lady drew over Roxy's door… the eye with the warning sign. So, Chica's voice box works on her, too.

"Where is Chica?"

Gregory grimaced. …in the arcade. I ran. Do you think she's okay?

"If Roxy attacked the rabbit, the rabbit likely isn't sticking around to hurt Chica. I don't think you need to worry about Chica. You should still check on her."

He sighed and tapped his glasses to open the chat log. "Chica? Do you come in? Are you there?"

Beep! [Gregory! Oh, thank goodness you're okay!]

He grinned. "You're okay? She didn't get you?"

Beep! [I'm fine. I don't know what happened. One moment I was with you, and then I was given a controlled shock. The next moment, I'm next to Roxy and she's furious about losing you. She checked on me to make sure I was okay.]

Beep! [I asked her if she'd seen the rabbit–though I was very careful to be vague–and she said that a white rabbit just tried to steal you from her a moment ago.]

Beep! [Be careful; Roxy doesn't know where she is, now. Keep moving and I'll find you.]

"Okay. Be careful yourself, Chica." Gregory started to move off but hesitated and walked toward the stairs closer to El Chips. The entrance faced the restaurant but was opposite it so nothing that jumped out of the shudders could run after him. "I-I… I'm sorry for leaving you."

Beep! [If you hadn't, I would have been very sad.]

Beep! [She doesn't want me, Gregory. She wants you.]

Gregory climbed down the stairs, head down. Yeah, well, still doesn't change the fact I just ran while you were vulnerable.