Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It is a surreal feeling to see something you know so well, so much so that you can picture every single detail of it perfectly in your head, look so different. It was akin to knowing a person and finding they've changed drastically, someone who had always had the same haircut and sense of style for dress for years and yet you go one year without seeing them and suddenly they've cut and dyed their hair and begun wearing an entirely different wardrobe. 

Cassie had only been in the Mega Pizzaplex for maybe an hour so far, and yet it was a feeling she was beginning to feel intimately familiar with. 

Currently, she found herself in the Superstar Daycare, lamenting the days gone by where she had the entire layout of the play structures memorized, as they were now useless to her with the layout having been altered so greatly. So much of it was blocked off as well, due to the damage and decay that the entire Pizzaplex had succumbed to. But even still, she was able to find her way to both generators eventually and flip them on before making her way up to the Daycare Caretaker. 

Speaking of the attendant, he, (they?) were quite odd. She remembered having lots of fun in the Daycare when she was young, and back then Sun didn't seem so odd. He was always just the slightly nervous, yet energetic and well meaning friend of everyone within his walls. 

But tonight, he was behaving even more anxiously than she could remember. Was that simply because she had been so young at the time that she wasn't recalling things fully? Or maybe it was because he was just stressed tonight over what had become of his home? Either way, she wasn't sure, but she knew for a fact that she had never met his other side before now. 

Moon, why had he grabbed her so harshly like he was a lion that had caught its prey? And why had he sounded so…menacing when he said he wanted her to take a nap. Everything about this day had just been one odd thing after another, so sadly it was getting easier to put certain oddities out of her mind to prioritize her overall goal. 

As she listened to the now half sun half moon give her his, (their?? Seriously, if she was going to spend any more time with the guy, she needed to find out what their deal was. The last thing she wanted to do was offend the one bot who hadn't to harm her at this point) calming warning. 

The second her feet were placed back on the ground and the animatronic moved to close its doors to her, she panicked, acted on impulse and shot both hands out to grab the blue wrist and the hand connected to it, dropping her flashlight in the process. She didn't even know why she had done it, perhaps because she felt scared being thrown out into more unknown situations with potentially more danger, all by herself. 

Like this was all too big for her alone, a single 11 year old girl lost and alone trying to find her friend in this huge place. Or maybe she just sensed a kindred spirit, someone else who was lonely and clearly looking forward to the idea of company. Or maybe it was just because she didn't feel comfortable being thrown back out with all these endos watching her. Or maybe she didn't even have a reason.

The attendant was clearly just as perplexed as her, patience giving way to concern as the other hand enclosed itself gently over both of hers. 

"Little girl? Are you okay?"

"Um, I…I was wondering, do you..think maybe you could come with me?"

This seemed to take the attendant back, head tilting as it's body lurched back in shock momentarily. 

"Wh-what? Oh gosh, I'm sorry little girl, I don't know if I can. We will be hosting so many children when the morning comes. I'm sure once this night is over and I have finished cleaning up and making the area safe for kids again, we will be back to operating as usual."

The girl couldn't help but frown, eyes pinching in as she clung tighter to the bot.

"What? But, you guys are closed , I mean, not just your Daycare , the whole Pizza Plex has been shut down for a while."

"Wh-what?! But-but that can't be ! Oh, surely you must be mistaken, little girl."

"Cassie. My name is Cassie. Don't you remember me? I used to come here all the time when I was little."

The marionette-like animatronic recoiled as if it had been struck, hand flying off the girl's. 

"Oh, is-is that so? Little- Cassie, I am so sorry. Things have been so… fuzzy , I-I, we , neither of us meant to forget you little star. There has just been so much going on lately, some of our older customer files have been corrupted. But I promise, now that we have been restored, we will both make sure we don't forget you ever again! Now then, you should go home for the night and return when we open!"

With an exasperated sigh, the girl rolled her eyes and pressed him again.

"Don't you get it? Take a look around! This place isn't going to be 'open' again anytime soon!"

Nervously, the bot leaned out the doors, glancing around in shock and horror as the sights were absorbed and realization struck.

"But…But this doesn't make any sense ! We were not told of any closure! None of us were! Oh, why are we closed? Is it because of what happened with that little Rulebreaker ?"

Rulebreaker? Who was he even talking about? She took a quick glance around them herself, ensuring that nothing was creeping up on them while they were distracted. She couldn't detect any signs of movement, but she still didn't want to waste any more time standing in this doorway when she should be looking for Gregory. 

"I don't know, my dad wouldn't tell me, maybe he was ordered not to tell anyone, or maybe he didn't know the real reason either. But that's not important right now."

"Your father? Oh, Cassie dear, what are you doing here if we are closed? Where are your parents? Do they know you are here?"

"Well…not exactly. But, just listen, I'm here looking for my friend, Gregory. I got a message from him that he was stuck here, under Roxy Racers. He asked me to come get him out, so here I am."

The animatronic produced a humming sound, blinking at her as it pondered and processed her words. 

"I see. You are a good friend, little star. But with the state the place seems to be in, it would be much safer for you to return to your parents and call in a team of professionals, like the police! They are well versed in search and rescue missions. I'm sure they would be much better equipped for such a task."

The brunet clicked her tongue, releasing him entirely to cross her arms and give him a flat stare.

"Oh yeah? And what am I supposed to tell them? 'Hi, yes, my name is Cassie, I'm 11 years old and my friend says he's stuck in the abandoned Mega Pizza Plex, and that somehow he is under Roxy Racers and that he can't get out until someone turns off all the security in the place, do you think you could go get him out? By the way, to turn off all the security, you'll need a special Fazbear technician mask and a brain implant, I swear this isn't a prank call or anything.'?"

The bot gave a high pitched sound of distress for a second, clearly seeing her point and worrying for her safety but understanding her dilemma. Within a moment, the animatronic heaved a sigh and straightened up, leveling her with a determined stare.

"I understand. That does sound hard to believe, and if you have already come this far, then you must be set on seeing this through to the end, so I won't be able to convince you to go home."

The girl raised a brow, arms still crossed as she gave an unimpressed look, yet nodded all the same. Receiving a curt nod back, before the animatronic gently guided her out a few more steps and followed behind her, spinning around to close the doors behind him.

"Then I will just have to put off cleaning until tomorrow and go with you to find your friend! If we really are closed, then it shouldn't matter when the cleanup is done, and I think we could all use some company right now."

"Wait, so you'll really come with me?"

He gave a quick, cheerful nod, hands placing themselves on her shoulders as he eyed the endos in the area.

"Yes! My safety mode is still active, and it compels me to ensure your safety above all else! A child alone is NOT safe, especially in such a big, dark, scary place like this. It is so messy , and I don't want you to trip over anything and fall . Or worse, bump into something and cause something else to fall on you . So I will just have to go with you to make sure you find your friend, and that both of you leave safe and sound!"

All at once, it felt like all the weight left her body. She felt light, free, unshackled from any possible worries or fears. Like she could finally take a real deep breath and let her guard down for a second. So she did, and it felt amazing. Just knowing that someone who had taken such good care of her when she was young and unable to take care of herself was there with her, watching her back, it made her feel safe.

"Okay, then let's go. We should stay quiet, just in case those endos aren't actually turned off . I don't want to wake them or whatever. I've already had it up to here with being attacked for no reason." She gave an annoyed huff, muttering under her breath as she continued, "Thanks Monty ."

The creaking sound of her mechanical ally nodding filled her ears as he followed silently behind her. In a lower, hushed tone, he spoke again, sounding as if he were speaking right next to her ear. She only gave a slight flinch in response.

"Montgomery attacked you? Oh goodness, oh gosh, that is wrong . Why would he do that? Maybe he needs a reboot too. That seems to have fixed us just fine."

"You keep saying things like that, like you're more than one person, I always saw posters of two characters in the Daycare, but they always seemed…separate. I only remember Sun taking care of me in Daycare. Are you…not him?"

The girl placed the mask on and lifted her wrench, deactivating one of the child nodes while her new friend considered her query.

"I am! But in some ways, I am also Moon. And in some ways I am also not Moon. We are both inside this body, we are 2 sides of the same coin, only whole when we are together, working together, not against each other."

Cassie hummed, removing her mask and rubbing her eyes in an attempt to refocus them to the new environment around her.

"Okay, got it. Guess that's why your voice sounds similar to both, but still different. So what should I call you then? If you both are and aren't Sun and Moon, then which name should I use for you?"

A considering hum could be heard, followed quickly by a mechanical hiss, pulling all attention to the endoskeleton that just activated mere feet from them both. 

"Either name is fine! As I said, we are both. I am Sun, I am Moon, he is me, and I am him. Both are correct. You can use whichever name you like! We are but one body with two inside. But if you'd like to be specific, since we are merged now instead of simply swapping control depending on the light levels, you could use Eclipse . That seems fitting, don't you think?"

The girl hummed, flashlight trained on the metal man who was frozen in place simply from her stare alone.

"Okay, got it, Eclipse then. I guess if your name is interchangeable, then you probably don't care what pronouns are used either, like he or they? Since you're a guy, but you're also two guys?"

Eclipse hummed again, ushering the girl through the shutters and into the now defunct store as he eyed the endo following them cautiously, giggling in a way that was awfully Sun like as he followed her inside.

"Pronouns are so silly! We do not even really have genders, we are not biological at all! But our voices are male, and our frames are built to more resemble the male build. So he is good! But 'they' is also correct like you said! Since we are multiple people yet one as well! You can use whatever you like Cassie, the children in the Daycare always use 'he' because it is easier for them, there is less confusion that way."

The girl nodded, moving over to plug her wrench into the panel, only for Eclipse to reach a hand out to stop her.

"I have a feeling that activating that panel will only alert more endos, maybe we should leave it be."

"But I need to get that plush down so I can deactivate it."

Glancing up at the plush in the Moon statues hand, Eclipse cheerfully leapt up onto the podium they used to stand on. 

"Allow me! There you go Cassie." He said, pulling the plush from the hand and hopping down to place it within her reach, causing the girl to flash him a grateful smile. 

"Thanks."

The two continued on through the winding hallways, deactivating both parent and child nodes alike, making their way into the Daycare Theater so Cassie could isolate the anomalies on the cameras, comforting and steadying hands holding her shoulders the whole time to reassure her. Once she was done, he guided the girl into his room, allowing her to search it to her heart's content and only tilting his head when she donned her mask to deactivate the Wet Floor Sign bot.

When he asked her why she did so, she shrugged.

"I dunno, I think…I feel like I have to. Whenever I'm near one with the mask on, all I can hear is kids screaming and crying. But when I shut them off, it goes silent, like I'm freeing them or something."

He did not ask again after that. Choosing to nod and follow the girl back out into the main area of the cinema, tilting his head in concern and confusion when she said that she felt like they were supposed to go into the giant endos mouth to get to the Catwalks. He had to remind himself that the child was not crazy, that she was simply seeing things differently through that mask, so that he did not fret over her health and attempt again to send her home.

Instead he chose to lift her and help her up onto the crate she was attempting to climb, following swiftly after and holding tightly to her as he followed her inside. When she began screaming that she was stuck and it was a dead end, he tilted his head in worry, hands reaching out immediately to comfort the child and keep her still so as not to allow her to cut herself on the sharp metal of the vents around them in her panic.

"Cassie, oh, dear little star, you are okay! Look! We are only inside the vent! See? There is nothing to fear here!" He said slowly, and soothingly.

All of a sudden, she removed her mask and looked around, sighing deeply before she steeled herself and crawled on. Eventually they made it to the Catwalks barely left hanging above Monty Golf. He made sure to urge her away from any slippery slopes that were unguarded by handrails, catching her wrist more than a few times when she walked too confidently on the mangled and wet platforms, dutifully acting out his role as her babysitter.

Once all nodes and Wet Floor bots were deactivated, he lifted her carefully into his arms and stepped into the Gator themed ride once more, holding her in his lap for the short duration of the ride. He followed obediently, unquestioningly, up until the little girl's Roxy-Talky went off and she began conversing with him . He couldn't help but tense up, his fingers curling in her sweater at the memory flooding his banks.

Once she got off the device, she spun around and out her hands on her hips, eyeing him warily.

"Uh, you okay? What's up? Why did you get all tense all of a sudden?"

"That was him, that was the Rulebreaker's voice. Was he your friend ? You should pick better friends, little star."

"Yeah, well, I didn't pick him, he was just the only one who picked me . And why do you keep calling him that? What rule did he even break?"

She began searching around with her mask, collecting things that were both real and not, before making her way toward the stairs to turn off another caution bot. 

"He turned off the lights in the Daycare! He was warned, lights stay on in the Daycare, that's the only rule! And he turned them all off! "

"How'd he do that? I didn't see any light switches in the Daycare."

If he could have frowned, he would have. That was a very good question. Perhaps there was a switch back behind the desk that they were not allowed behind and he hit it when he was hiding back there? 

"I…I don't know. I know he stole a Security Badge."

"Well, maybe it was an accident. Maybe he needed the badge for something and taking it turned the lights off. If that's the case, I doubt he knew it would happen."

"That…is definitely a possibility."

As the girl collected another item from behind the stairs and made her way toward the bakery, she hummed.

"Well then that's probably what happened. He can be a jerk sometimes, but I swear he's not cruel unless you give him a reason to be."

"I suppose you would know him best. He wasn't in our system. I have nothing to work with other than that one night."

"Even if he did do it on purpose, that's not a reason to leave him trapped under this place to starve to death all by himself in the dark, is it?"

No, it was not, no child should be alone and scared and in danger. No child should be dying, especially of starvation in a place where food was plentiful. Cassie was right, whatever differences he had with the boy did not matter, if the child's life was in danger, he would gladly risk himself to save the kid, rulebreaker or not. 

So he gave another resolute nod and followed the child through bakery, door and onto the conveyor belt, hiding the girl behind himself when the cupcake began flaring up its eye lights at them, only for them to get swatted off the belt by its whisk, prompting Eclipse to angle himself under the girl to absorb more of the impact from the fall. 

She was quick to ask if he was OK, something he gave a thumbs up for and returned the question to her about, receiving the same sign back from her before they made their way further in and saw Chica repeatedly being shocked harshly in an attempt to charge her. 

Eclipse couldn't stop the whince that he produced at the sight, instinctively ushering the girl behind him once he saw Chica finally succeed at pulling herself from the charging station.

"It must have been a very long time since we last saw each other. Glamrock Chia looks very different from when we saw her last. Oh my, what on Earth could have happened to her to cause all that damage?"

The girl snorted, slapping the back of her hand to his casing gently.

"What are you talking about? You're looking pretty worse for wear yourself, you know? I mean, you do know youre missing a foot, right?"

The girl then maneuvered around him, following after the chicken themed animatronic only to get yanked back and out of the mangled fowl's line of possible sight when she came staggering out from behind the fence. The pair watched as she paced off a bit, taking note of the acid on the ground that may have scared the girl off, but did nothing to deter the Daycare Attendant from scoping the area out. 

Once they snuck their way past the roaming fowl with help from the cameras and intercoms, the two headed toward the doors at the side of the bakery, two paths, two doors, two of them giving each other a look. The bot skipped off silently into the boys bathroom, quickly locating a hole in the wall with which they could pass into the actual bakery. As soon as he did, he padded back the way he came, eyeing Chica cautiously as he slipped back to the girl's side.

"Cassie! I have found a hole in the wall we can slip through, quickly, we should go before she comes looking over here." 

He pleaded softly, glancing behind him as if expecting Chica to burst through the door any moment. As he shifted his gaze back to the girl, he found her still staring at the arcade machine before her, as if in awe of it for some reason. 

"Cassie? Oh, little star, can't you hear me? We should go , now! Oh, why wont you go ? "

"This machine. It's still working, and it doesn't look damaged at all, why is that?"

"Hm? I-I don't know. We saw Chica was able to recharge, so that means there is still power. But then, why did our lights not come on? Why did we need the generators? It's so odd. But we do not have time for this, little star, we need to go now before she finds us! I am not a fighter. I can't hurt her. We can wonder about the game later."

His hand quickly found hers, attempting to gently lead her away from the machine and toward the gap in the wall in the boys bathroom, but she quickly jerked her arm from his grip, stepping forward and pressing the start button, her other hand placing her flashlight down softly and reaching for the joystick.

"No! I mean, this game feels important , like I have to play it. This is the 2nd game I've seen that still works. All the other arcade cabinets in this place have been destroyed or don't power on. With everything else weird happening here, it can't be a coincidence that this one is still working."

Eclipse gave a disgruntled groan that sounded almost as raspy as Moon's voice had earlier in the Daycare. Glancing fearfully toward the door, he wanted to tell her that no game was worth risking her life, to try again to usher her away from the cabinet or maybe even scoop her up in his arms and move her away by force. But he had already learned not to question her feelings earlier with those poor little Caution bots. 

"Ohhhh, okay Cassie, if you say so friend. I will stand by the door and watch for any signs of movement. Please, play quickly, if I see her coming this way, I will be forced to take drastic action to keep you safe."

She nodded absent-mindedly in response, fingers clicking away at the buttons almost rhythmically, cartoonish gun sounds chiming out from the machine as she did so. Eclipse heaved a sigh and about faced to watch the door, fingers threading together in an anxious fidget of worry. 

Thankfully, it seemed his worries were unfounded. As she didn't bother coming their way the entire time the youth played her game. Seemingly far too preoccupied with her precious piles of trash. 

At some point, after he got the children out and cleaned up his Daycare, he should really have a chat with her about that particular habit, it could not be good for her, especially if they really were closed and no techs would be coming in to service them anytime soon.

He didn't know how long passed before the girl finished her game, letting out a sound of surprise as the cabinet played victory fanfare and popped open a port on the side. He could hear her give a "Huh." of confusion and surprise as she reached in and grabbed something from the open port, pocketing it before making her way over to his side.

"Okay, we can go now. You said you found a path for us?"

As he nodded and opened the door to point the girl toward the boys room, he noticed a blur of motion out of the corner of his eyes. 

Chica had spotted the girl as she stepped out of the room…

Two things happened simultaneously in that instant, Chica began beeping and booking some very not nice things at the child, while he scooped said child into his arms and booked it to the restroom like one would with a child about to have an accident. Only the accident that would occur if he didn't get her there soon was a LOT more final than not making it to the potty. 

He could feel Chica's pounding footsteps closing in on them, her broken body creaking even more than his own dilapidated husk of a form. He just barely got the girl into the slot in the wall before he spun around and hefted a shattered piece of concrete slab, rebar and all, placing it inside the hole to block the girl as he spoke.

"I am going to lead her away a bit to give you time. Don't worry, I will find a way around and be right behind you. Go Cassie."

Without waiting to hear her response, Eclipse dipped into a stall to hide, waiting for Chica to round the corner into the room and pad inside a few paces, before he threw open the door and charged out like a rocket. The chicken gave out confused beeps before immediately giving chase. Thank goodness for that.

While Eclipse was running around with Chica thundering after him, Cassie made her way around the bakery deactivating node after node and collecting items as she went. She didn't bother worrying about the Daycare Attendant, she didn't think Chica would hurt him, if she was after her then she would likely give up on him after realizing that he didn't have her with him. 

Besides, he had told her to keep going and not worry, and she trusted that he would find his way to her through this maze that the Pizzaplex had become. So she pressed on, not waiting for him and making her way into what appeared to be a void of technology. She could not tell how long she wandered those purple and pink halls, and honestly she was beginning to have some issues with Helpi and the "help" he was providing.

Seriously, locking her in the mask like that? How was THAT supposed to help anyone? But whatever, again, there were bigger fish to fry. So she shrugged it off and proceeded to make her way to the salon where she encountered…Roxy. 

Poor, poor Roxy. Her idol, hee friend, her favorite. She didn't deserve this, any of this. Why did they leave the animatronic to rot like this when they closed up? Why didn't they at least turn them off so that Roxy didn't have to suffer and be self conscious like this? She really needed to talk to her dad about this, maybe he didn't even know, maybe if she told him he could get somebody to come out and help them!

But first things first, Gregory needed someone to help him. So when Roxy threw herself through the doors and after Gregory, Cassie shot to her feet like a bullet and whipped out her Roxy-Talky to warn him. Screaming with complete disregard for her own safety as she fretted for her friend. That was what led Eclipse back to her side.

"Cassie! Oh my stars, are you okay?! Why are you screaming?? You sound like something horrible happened!"

"Eclipse! We have no time to talk, Roxy is after Gregory, come on! We have to shut off those nodes!" 

As the child rushed off, Eclipse followed behind at a slightly slower pace, his bewildered state unknown to the youth he was aiding. 

What in the stars was going on?? First Monty attacked Cassie. Noe Roxy was hunting Gregory?  

Even when he banned the boy from his Daycare, he never did it because he wanted any harm to come to him. He did it to keep him safe! Really! With Moon out of control and acting so…aggressive as he was, it was the only way to keep the child alive since he wouldn't listen to his rules of keeping the lights on.

Why had everything been turned upside down this way? Nothing was making any sense anymore! Best to put pondering it on hold, lest he blow his processors with nobody around to repair them. 

Pressing on, the two continued with business as usual, not stopping for anything, even when Cassie panicked about not being able to remove her mask again, she kept pushing forward without any hesitation. At this point, brave might as well be her middle name. 

But this wasn't the bravest thing she would do, no, that came when she followed Chica into the bathroom and approached her collapsed form, a concerned celestial themed bot following closely at her heels. He watched in awe and pride as the girl took a deep breath and moved aside the gunk from the robot's mouth, inserting what looked like a voice box inside until it clicked and lit up.

Even though she had to be worried for her own safety, even though she was clearly grossed out having to touch her, Cassie still went ahead and gave Chica her voice back. Undoing the damage as best she could, even if it wouldn't undo the trauma or completely remove any ill feelings from the bot, she did what she could when nobody was expecting her to do anything.

Eclipse couldn't help but feel proud.

That is, until she went even further than that, asking him to carry the garbage coated chicken back to the recharge station in her bakery. 

"B-But that would require leaving you alone again! And if we recharge her, there is no guarantee she will not return to hunt you again."

"Yeah, but the last place I'd want to die is a bathroom , and I'm sure she feels the same. Besides, she totally could have attacked and killed me when she shot up and said she smelled Pizza there, but she didn't. So maybe she was never trying to hurt me to begin with."

"That…could be true. Ohhh, I hope you are right about this little star, I will move as quickly as I can, but she is bound to be much heavier than you are, and I only have one foot, which makes running much more difficult. Oh, I wish I had access to my cable here, flying would be so much faster! Please, be careful while I'm gone, and if you are going to continue forward, try to leave some kind of trail for me to follow to reach you when I'm done."

For once, Cassie smiled nodding gratefully in agreement before pivoting on her heel and racing off. Leaving Eclipse to huff as he pulled Chica into his thin arms. He was right, she was much heavier than Cassie. 

Some memory in his banks pricked at the edges of his processor, reminding him that he had once (as Moon) had to drag Freddy Fazbear himself into Parts and Service, and he was even bigger and heavier than Chica! But that was when he was in top form! Prime condition, no damage sustained to his limbs or casing. Still, when children were counting on him, he could think of no excuses that would justify his failure.

So on he went, staggering from the weight on what was essentially a pegleg, conjuring to mind that this state may not be the best for young ones to see him in, but perhaps the older ones would appreciate it, think it was cool , think he was cool. Maybe he could tell them he was playing pirate! 

Oh, right, Foxy . Perhaps best not to say anything like that after all. 

He didn't want to step on the toes of the departed after all. That would be nothing but rude, and Eclipse was a good animatronic! He would have no rudeness inside his Daycare's walls, even from himself!

By the time he got Chica to the recharge station and dumped her inside, (something he felt bad about but honestly he was worried about the integrity of his arms, and he didn't want to risk Snapping those off if he needed them later to help Cassie) he put his hands on his hips and waited patiently for the chicken to siphon enough energy to come back online. Foot tapping impatiently until her eyes snapped to his.

"We need to talk." He growled out, staring her down as she tilted her head and squared at him. "It can't wait, and I'm afraid I won't take no for an answer."

___________

She fried Monty, she couldn't believe she fried Monty . Does that make her a murderer? She hadn't meant to, she was just trying to open the door, really he did it to himself, he forced her hand by attacking her! It was an accident in self defense, but in the end did that even matter? 

"Ohh, wow, lots of water. We better be careful around this stuff, little star. We don't know what bacteria is in it that could make you sick, and with so many of our parts exposed, touching this stuff would be a bad idea for us too."

Spinning around, heart pounding, breath hitching, she saw Sun, er, Eclipse, hopping gracefully from platform to platform in that elegant and effortless way he always did, or at least usually did, hard to be graceful and effortless when you're so broken down that every movement causes something to grind and click.

She waited until he was at the door with her before crying out and latching onto his pants.

"I-I killed Monty! I didn't mean to! I swear! Does that make me a bad person?"

Nigh instantly, he was overwhelmed, hands and arms flying up immediately to wrap around the girl and pull her closer before he even knew he was doing it. 

Killed Monty? They were animatronics, they couldn't die , what a silly thought! But if it had her this upset, then…

Swiveling his head all the way back on its joint, he got a view behind him of something sparking slightly in the water. It was hard to tell just what it was, since his field of vision was upside-down, but he could definitely make out the remnants of an unmistakable red Mohawk. 

Ah, so Monty had been foolishly traversing the water when Cassie turned the power on and it gave him more of a shock than his systems could handle. That made sense, no wonder she thought she killed him.

"Oh, Cassie, no no no! Of course not! The fact that you are worried about it, about him and you feel sorry proves that you are not a bad person. A bad person would not have hesitated or felt bad at all!"

The tremors running through the small body attached to his front were enough to cause him significant concern for the girl's mental wellbeing. Even if she was strong enough to physically make it through this, was going to end up scarred for life? The poor thing was still so young , she shouldn't have to worry about hers or anyone else's mortality at this point in her life. 

Heating her carefully into his arms against the good half of his chest, he carried the girl off to the side where there was more light so he could get a proper look at her. And thankfully, aside from her leggings and shoes being soaked, she seemed fine, although obviously shaken. Still, it comforted him to know she wasn't injured at the very least. 

"You know, I bet if an experienced technician looked him over, they'd be able to fix Monty right up!"

"R-Really? So he's not dead? I didn't kill him?"

"Really! In fact, I could go fish him out of the water if you want, that way he won't rust before someone is able to take a look at him!"

"But, didn't you say we should stay away from the water? Something about me not getting sick and your parts being exposed?"

With a chuckle, he waved the girl off cheerfully. 

"Oh, no worries friend, I more so meant my legs and chest, if one of my arms gets a bit wet, no harm done! Besides, I'm sure there is something around here I can use to fish him out of that nasty water, that way we won't risk getting shocked."

The girl took a heavy breath in through her nose, sniffling in an attempt to clear her airways as she nodded. 

"Yeah…Okay, then let's do that. I'll look for a long pipe or something."

"Excellent! I'll help you! Just be sure you don't touch anything yourself, if you find something that looks like it will work, then let me know and I'll grab it, okay? I don't want you getting hurt after all. Oh, and preferably something that wont draw a charge much, like rubber or rope."

"Got it. So, I'm looking for something long like a pipe, but not metal."

The pair spent a while scrounging around the area, searching for anything that might work, before they found the staff bots up the stairs just so happened to have rope, something Cassie grumpily questioned the odds of while Eclipse told her not to look a gift horse in the mouth, which she pouted about but accepted.

Due to his many years of arts and crafts and tying shoelaces with the children in his care, Eclipse was quite well versed in using his hands for all manner of activities, making his nimble fingers very dexterous and good at knot tying. So he speedily tied the rope into a lasso and used it to hook through the gator's mouth, before tugging bit by bit to pull the bot back onto dry land. 

At which point, Cassie insisted on looking him over to see if she could do anything for him before they moved on. Something Eclipse noted while she inspected him, was that she seemed to be looking for something in particular, perhaps a port like he himself had, with which to reboot the Gator, but alas, no such port seemed to be present on Monty, much to her grief. 

She asked if they could try turning him back on, but Eclipse only made an unsure humming noise, as if he didn't know if that was the wisest idea. He had heard tales of Monty being aggressive with the staff bots before, but never children. So if he was being aggressive with Cassie, then he wasn't sure it was safe for anyone to be around Monty anymore. In all likelihood, even if the company reopened, they would most likely scrap Monty altogether just to be safe.

But he didn't want to tell her that. Not after she was so worried for him and worked so hard to save him…

Seeming to sense his hesitancy, Cassie put her hands on her hips.

"Come on, help me out here, you said I didn't kill him, so prove it. Turn him on. I wanna see it for myself before we leave."

"I'm not sure that's the best idea, little one. The water and shock may not have permanently taken him out of play, but it might have messed with his systems in some way. It could be dangerous to turn him on now before he's been tuned up."

With a snort and roll of her eyes, the girl quipped back.

"Yeah, well, he's already tried to kill me, how much more dangerous could he be? Besides, that water and shock couldn't have done him any favors, it probably made him weaker, so we should be able to outrun him if he is okay and still angry. But who knows? Maybe he'll be nice if he boots up, that shock could have 'fried the evil' or whatever out of him, like I saw in that one movie."

The Daycare Caretaker didn't know what movie she was talking about, but he doubted it would work like that. Regardless, he sighed and bent down to restart the smaller bot. Once he did his part, he ushered the girl up the stairs to watch from a safer distance. When a minute passed and neither noticed anything, the girl heaved a heavy sigh and begrudgingly said they should move on. 

Eclipse nodded as he placed a somber yet hopefully comforting metal hand on her shoulder. 

__________

Their jobs didn't get any easier, sadly. As now they had to both lead and evade Roxy through the Raceway. Thankfully, Cassie seemed to have gotten used to operating the camera stations and intercoms to lead Roxanne around so she could smash through the flimsy wooden doors blocking their path. Doors which Eclipse felt confident he could smash through if he weren't so opposed to causing messes and damage.

By the time they got to the door to the office, after dodging a seemingly empty Go cart trying to run them down, Eclipse was feeling hopeful that they were close to finding the boy, so that he could guide both children out. But of course that meant they were still no where near done, since the boy was nowhere in sight. So he waited patiently for the girl to charge the conduits so they could go inside and look for the boy there.

Leaning against the wall of the building until she finished and pulled her Faz-Wrench out of the socket. That was when a gray blur of motion shot at the girl and caught her by her tiny wrist. It was Roxanne, who promptly screeched in her face to give her back her eyes. What was she talking about? Why did she think Cassie would have her eyes? And speaking of Cassie…

"CASSIE!" 

Rushing to intercept the two parties as the girl frantically creamed to be let go and tugged on her wrist, Eclipse bent low and scooped the child up into his arms, pulling her tight and small against his chest as he dove into the office, eyes trained over his shoulder on the wolf as he curled in on the child more. He was determined to ensure that if she dove to attack with her claws, that he would be the one taking the damage, not his little star. 

He was already pretty beaten up anyways, if Roxanne tore the last of his shell from his back, it was no skin off his bones. Well, okay, in a way maybe it literally was , but it wasn't going to hurt him, so…Eh, c'est la vie. 

But much to all parties shock, Roxanne, instead of following them in, took a step back. Allowing the door to swing shut between them. Softly, muffled through the door, they could make out her voice saying the word error . Hm, seemed they were all experiencing errors tonight. Either way, he was happy to be able to put the girl down to inspect her wrist for damage, worried that Roxy may have grabbed her hard enough to bruise.

But Cassie had other issues on mind, instead ripping out her radio to contact her friend and try to find him again. But it was clear that event had shaken her, as she was finally considering getting help, and not just from him, but from the police that she had previously turned down. This time, it was the boy who shot the suggestion down, saying that they wouldn't be able to help and claiming there was no time. Liar, liar, pants on fire. The police were far better equipped to handle this than a single scared little girl.

But they ended up not phoning anyone and instead just continued to be led like puppets on a string, following his voice and Helpi's instructions as they clutched each other's hands tightly for support. They ended up finding themselves in a room surrounded by plushes of Circus Baby as they giggled at them and disappeared around the pair. Poor Cassie thought she was going insane, but once again chose not to think about it any further until she was walking out of here hand in hand with her friend. 

Helpi had told them they needed to deactivate security nodes in Bonnie Bowl and Fazer Blast before they could reach her friend, so they made their way quickly to Bonnie's bowling alley. A place that, even though he had never personally been super close with the rabbit, made his… well, not his heart, but whatever it was inside him that felt feelings, feel tight and heavy. He had heard that something bad had befallen the poor bunny, but he never knew what.

All he knew was that whatever had happened, it had been enough to take Bonnie out of the band and replace him with Montgomery. Whether Bonnie had done something wrong or if something bad had happened to him, he didn't know. But either way, there was an oppressive and somber air that clung to the walls of the bowling alley like mold on bread.

Cassie however seemed to be immune to the atmosphere around her, or at least unaware of it. Continuing on as she always had for her quest. It was both quite admirable and a bit disheartening to see her so focused and driven to the point of not being phased by anything around her. Well, luckily for her, Eclipse could and would pay attention for the both of them. That was when his auditory receptors picked up a faint music box sound from somewhere around them. 

It was calming, a tad eerie, and coming from further into the alley. It was a familiar sound, something he could recall hearing and interacting with both as Sun and as Moon. Just as they passed a camera station, it clicked, and his hand shot out to grab the girl's shoulder immediately. 

"Cassie, stop. Do you hear that?"

"Huh? What, the music? Yeah, why? Is that not normal for this place?"

"It's not… not normal. Oh my, it looks like nearly all of them are here. Oh, I hope they are still friendly."

"They? They who?"

Hashing the girl and pointing her toward the camera station, he watched as she narrowed her eyes but did as he asked, he knew she saw them when she gasped. 

"What are those things? They look like the DJ."

"Those are Prototypes, my dear. Wind up mini Music Men! Oh they used to be such fun little visitors to my Daycare when they did their vent patrols. Sometimes Sun would have tea parties with them. Moon usually just ignored them unless someone he was chasing dove into a vent, then he'd tell these guys about them. Oh, now that I think about it, they might not be friendly. Probably best to avoid them if we can, try using one of those audio lures of yours."

The girl clicked a key in response, as a recreation of her voice played, they watched the Music Men March in a single file line to follow the sound. 

"These guys sure are creepy. I'm gonna go get that node real quick while they're gone. Let me know if you see any more Wet Floor Signs."

As the girl took off, he continued searching through the cameras zooming out to find a 5th unmarked camera.

"What? What is…eerrgh! Why do I feel like we are in danger? What am I not remembering? Ohhhh, it feels like something bad is behind that door. "

"Hey, I'm back, did you find any floor bots?"

"Cassie! Cassie I think we should really consider getting you out of here. I don't know why , but this feels bad , I think you are in danger !" 

"Uh, yeah, I know, so is Gregory. We've been in danger this whole time, why are you only freaking about it now?"

As she tried to walk around him, Eclipse growled and shot both hands out to catch her shoulders and force her to look at him.

"NO! You aren't listening! There is an unmarked camera, it-it is NOT listed among the others, a-and it shows a door. A bad door. I don't know why it's bad, but it feels dangerous. I-I don't know where it is, or what is behind it, but all my systems are sparking just trying to think about it and I really think we should get you out of here."

"Woah, okay, calm down there buddy."

The girl began patting his hands in sympathy, trying to calm him down, but clearly not trying very hard because if she would just listen to him, that would calm him down much more than consolingly patting him. But she just wouldn't listen . Why wouldn't she listen??

"Uh, Eclipse, now may not be the best time to do…whatever this is. I get you're worried, but I'm fine. I've still got nodes and bots to deactivate. I noticed once I turned off that node, that whole horde of music men shut down. I think if I deactivate the other nodes, the others will shut off too."

Eclipse gave a high pitched whimpering sound, reaching up to clutch the nightcap on his head with trembling fingers. How was he supposed to get her to understand if she wouldn't listen? Did he have to show her? Yes, YES! Maybe that would do it.

"O-Okay friend, but before you do that, would you please take a look at the cameras? M-Maybe you will recognize the door."

"Oookay, sure. If it'll calm you down and get you to let me go on. Huh, you're right, there is one that's not listed. Weird. Well, nothing jumps out at me from seeing it. Do you feel better now?"

No, no he did not. But he couldn't really do anything about that, now could he? 

He gave a deep sigh and a resigned nod.

"Great, then let's go, I think I see another floor bot over there through the gaps in the construction walling."

And so they padded around, deactivating every bot and node in sight, until there was only 1 node left. As they were searching for it, Eclipse caught her arm and pointed over toward the lanes. 

"Was…was that Wet Floor Sign always there? Or are my systems failing me?"

"Uhh, I'm pretty sure if it had been there the whole time, I'd have seen it earlier."

The girl slapped the mask on hastily and marched right over to deactivate the poor little thing, and the second she did, they heard a clatter, Cassie rushing back to Eclipse's side for safety as they watched one of the lanes open, hoping that something wasn't going to come out of there and attack them.

They gave it a minute, and got nothing but silence back. So Cassie pushed off from Eclipse's leg and began to head toward it, when they heard clicking and music boxes moving toward them. Cassie startled, backing up into Eclipse who immediately lifted her up to his chest and began glancing around frantically as the mini DJs formed a line blocking the newly opened path. 

They began bashing their cymbals together loudly, angrily, as one of them began chattering away, much to Cassie's confusion.

"I don't get it, do they not want me to go in there? Do I have to turn them off first?"

"Oh, goodness, I'm a little rusty, give me a moment, little star. Um, it seems like they're saying they brought him back here to be safe, and that they won't let you hurt him."

"Him? Who is him ?!"

"I'm not sure, shooting star. Give me a minute."

Nervously, Eclipse shifted the girl to his back, instructing her to wrap her legs around him and not touch the floor, just in case they decided to attack as he approached them. 

"Hey there little friends! I see you are still keeping up with your patrols! I'm sure the DJ would be very proud of you for that!" 

Leaning his head back he whispered to Cassie. " These guys have always really looked up to him. "

"So uh, just curious, who, or what, is back there that you're trying to protect exactly? We haven't hurt anyone all day, and Cassie has only been here for a few hours. So do you think you could let us through?"

The clicking in response started coming from multiple of the wind up music men at once, angrily chirping at them as they shook viciously. 

"Oh, mm-hm, mm-hmm, I see, I see! WHAT?! GLAMROCK BONNIE ?! You don't say, friends. Well I'm sure he very much appreciates all your hard work, but it couldn't have been us! No, no, no! Goodness, no! I-I-I know I look different , but I'm still your friend, Sun! I only ever left the Daycare as Moon , and even then I didn't, I couldn't, I WOULDN'T , do that to him!"

" Eclipse , what are they saying ? What about Bonnie?"

"Oh, they said they are protecting him because he was really hurt when they found him in Gator Golf. They said they don't know what happened, or who did it, but they brought him back here after they found him when they were patrolling in the vents like usual. Glamrock Bonnie and Glamrock Freddy were always on pretty good terms with the DJ, so they must be trying to protect him for the DJ."

"Oh…Bonnie was always my dad's favorite. So, if I can help him, I'd like to. Is there any way we can prove to them we didn't do this to him? That way they'll trust us and let us in to see him?"

"Oh, I am trying, friend. But they think I'm fibbing to them because I don't look wholly like Sun or Moon, they think I am a stranger . Someone new that they can't trust."

"O kay , well, if they don't trust you, maybe they'll trust me. Hey, Mini Music guys, I haven't even been here for more than a few hours. So unless this just happened, I couldn't have done it."

The tiny spider-like men began glancing at each other before shaking their heads and banging their cymbals again. One of them even going so far as to throw its cymbals at her, Eclipse lifting a hand to bat them away gently while the girl ducked behind him further, giving an offended shout of "Hey!" As she did.

"Uh, they are saying that you have been deactivating the Caution bots all night, so they don't trust that you won't try to do the same to him ."

"What? But that's stupid , I just said I want to help him, not hurt him. Are you sure you're translating these guys right?"

"Hey! I may be a bit rusty, in a lot of ways, but I am positive I'm getting their point."

"Well then, can't you just like, I don't know, put them in time out or something?"

"Cassie, this isn't my Daycare, I have no power over them and they aren't doing anything really wrong ."

"Ugh, fine, I guess we'll just have to find the last node to shut them off before we can get in there then, like we did with the others."

Suddenly, the angry crashes became sharper, more intense, and they began charging at the two. Cassie yelped and clung to Eclipse tighter who gave a startled shriek himself as he turned to run from them.

"Why are they attacking us now ?!"

"Oh, uh, well this is only a guess, but maybe mentioning that we deactivated their friends wasn't the best thing to say in front of them, little star."

They spent the better part of ten minutes running in circles from the horde following them while they searched for the final node. Once they found it, Eclipse stood with his arms out trying to block them all to give the girl time to work. As soon as she got it, she turned and watched as the music men angrily fizzled out, the fight leaving their eyes as they slowed to a stop.

"I'm sorry, I can't have you guys stopping me. But I promise, I'll do whatever I can to help Bonnie. Not just for my dad, but for Bonnie himself."

Eclipse sighed in relief as he grabbed her hand and walked her back to the secret room, crawling after the girl to get inside before he made his way over to his fellow machine and began checking him over. After a few minutes, Cassie asked him what was wrong with him, to which he made a hum of consideration. 

"Well, for one, it looks like someone caught him by surprise from behind and uh, hit him over the head real hard. From there, it looks like they tried to um, open up his chest to take his battery out. Probably hoped that would keep him quiet and permanently out of the picture."

"Why would someone wanna do that?"

"I don't know starshine, it could have been anything, jealousy, just a fit of anger that made them attack and then they feared what would happen to themself if someone found out so they tried to hide it, it could have been anything. But I do know that this is going to be a lot harder to fix than a simple charge."

The girl seemed to deflate at that, as if that was going to be her next suggestion.

"Oh. Why do you say that?"

"Well, because even if they didn't succeed in removing the battery, they did seem to have hit it during their attack. There are deep scratch marks on it. I doubt this one will ever hold any kind of charge again. If he ever did get fixed up, he'd likely need a new one."

A Snapping sound drew his eyes up from the carnage and back to his charge, watching as her eyes lit up and a smile shot to her face.

"I know where we can get a new one!"

"You do? But where? Those are usually kept in Parts and Service, and that place is a bit hard to get to right now."

"Okay, well, not a new one really, but new to him."

Eclipse tilted his head, hands flying to his hips as he blinked at the girl.

"Remember that staff bot in Roxy Racers who asked if we needed anything? We can just take its battery! Problem solved."

Immediately Eclipse gasped, hands flying up in horror to cover his mouth.

"Oh, no, no, no! Cassie, we can't possibly do that!"

"Why not? It's already lost its head. And it stopped moving after that. It's not like it would know , and besides it already offered to help us. Speaking of heads, that caved in head isn't enough to kill one of you guys, is it?"

Despite his mounting horror and how squeamish he was feeling at the moment, he answered as if on autopilot that it depended on the model, as some stored important data in their heads, while others didn't, and that he didn't know about the Glamrock line specifically, but his own body needed his head because that was where he got rebooted as she already knew.

The girl hummed, staring at Bonnie before moving over to flash her light inside the shell of his head to check the damage. It didn't look that bad. And Sun and Moon had a severed wire in the back of their head when she rebooted them earlier, so she figured that maybe even if some of it was compromised, he should still be able to boot up if they got him a new battery. 

So, she did the one thing she could think to do. She begged the Daycare Attendant to go back for that battery. Something he vehemently opposed. 

" Please , I can't do it myself, that hole we jumped down doesn't have a ladder on the other side, and I'm not tall enough and can't jump high enough to get back up there. It has to be you! You don't want to make me a liar, do you? I promised those guys I'd save their friend. I know just how they feel, because I want to save Gregory just as bad, and if I can, I'd like to save Bonnie too."

"Oohhh, I want to help too, I really do starshine. I just don't know if I can . But cannibalizing parts like that? Just the thought makes me feel all icky and makes my servos lock up! Moon never had any problem tearing apart Staff bots. Sun always tried to patch them up and make them comfortable, even if they were already offline and nothing he would do would work , sometimes he'd even have tea parties with them and his plushies. But since I am both , I don't know if I'm even capable of doing something like that, even if it's taking from one who isn't really alive to help one who is . Ohhhh, nngh."

"Uh, Eclipse?"

The girl watched in concern and slight fear as her companion began convulsing, hands clawing at the sides of his head as if he were trying to split himself in two. If it were Sun, she'd assume he was having a panic attack. If it were Moon, well, she didn't really know or remember Moon like she did Sun, so she would probably just assume she made him angry and he was trying to fight the urge to harm her.

Realizing it may have been a bad idea to ask such a thing of him, essentially telling him to go murder someone and take their insides to save someone else, she cleared her throat and crouched beside him, hand hovering over him as she began to apologize. 

"Uh, listen, Eclipse, I'm sorry, maybe there's another way, we can-"

Suddenly a blue hand shot up and grabbed her own, a red eye boring into her own.

"If you are absolutely sure you want to do this, and you're feeling really brave, then I have an idea that could make your plan work, little star."

"Uh…Oh, really? What is it?"

"...We could ask Moon to do it."

"...Huh?"

Ask Moon? But, wasn't he Moon, at least sort of, partly, mostly. What the heck was he on about?

"Wait, I'm confused, what are you even talking about? Aren't you Moon?"

"We can go back out into the alleys where there is better lighting and you can shift my dial. That way, if the reboot didn't fix him, he won't be able to move to attack you and you can just turn the dial back. But if he is fixed and better behaved with you, we can have him go get the battery. We share memories, so he should know already where to go to get it."

Well, it wasn't the worst plan she'd ever heard. And at least there was a safety net of sorts, but what was stopping Moon from lying to her and then attacking her once she moved him out of the light? She supposed she could always just run back to where the light was brightest and then he wouldn't be able to harm her. But then she also would lose her traveling companion for good and have an extra threat out there to worry about.

But Bonnie needed them and this was really their best bet at this point. So being brave it was. They headed back out to the alleyways where Eclipse knelt down to make it easier for her to pop her Faz-Wrench in and twist his dial to the Moon symbol, before stepping a few feet away and watching the creature before her growl and shift. 

When both eyes lit crimson and snapped up to meet hers in an eerie silence, she dry swallowed air in fear that she may have just made a huge mistake. His arms hung limp and he didn't move at all from his hunched down state, but she could tell he was alive by the way he blinked and stared at her, obviously very aware. Cassie took a deep breath and made one step forward as she cleared her throat.

"H-Hey Moon, right? I, um, we need your help. It's Bonnie, you see, he needs a new-"

"Battery. I know. Someone was very naughty and tore his apart. The bunny is lucky the acid did not leak on him and corrode the rest of his endoskeleton. You want me to go fetch you the battery from the now decapitated staff bot in the Raceway."

Taken aback, despite already being told that they shared memories, the girl began to fidget with the tie on one of her pigtails.

"Uh, yeah, that's right. I just wasn't sure if, you know…"

"If I would comply or try to put you down for a nap permanently. I was built to play the villain in the plays put on in the Daycare theater. Sun was meant to be the hero. I was meant to be mischievous, pull pranks, give a few scares, not play fair. But I was never meant to actually harm anyone, let alone kill children like you. I do not know what happened to make me take that leap. I can only recall someone messing with me once, messing with us . It did not reach Sun , and I do not know who did it, but they did something to drive me up the wall, to amp my aggression up, to make me scarier and it made things BAD. I could feel it, I don't know how but I could feel it all and it felt wrong wrong WRONG ! It took my control from me, it made me wrong, and it scared Sun. It made us fight, in ways we were not meant to. I will help, if only to repay the debt I feel I owe to you for trying to harm you earlier. That was not me, this will be my apology. Villains aren't supposed to say sorry , no matter what Sun says."

"Oh. Okay, good, I-I forgive you, for what's it's worth. If you weren't in control, then it's not fair to blame you. It's not your fault."

Things went silent again as Moon simply stared at her. Then he blew out a raspy laugh, not as deep and menacing as before, but certainly still hair raising enough to send a shiver down her spine.

"You are still afraid of me, that is understandable. And yet you attempt to be brave and considerate toward me to bury the hatchet. You are a good child. I will get your battery. Return to Bonnie, you are safer there. I will be back shortly."

With that, he was off, leaving Cassie to swallow down her fears as she placed a hand over her racing heart and crawled back to the blue rabbit's side.

True to his word, he did not take long to bring her back the battery pack. Claiming that with that their debt was settled and kindly asked her to revert him back to either Sun or Eclipse, stating that he was made to misbehave, not to play nice, his default settings may have been restored but even at his default he was never the one meant to make friends. It was just in his programming to be something of a bad boy.

And that not only was it trying his patience to be nothing but a goody-goody with her and not pull any pranks, but he was also worried that even though he can't feel any remnants of whatever made him act out before, that didn't mean he wouldn't snap again and hurt her. And he didn't want to risk that. Something that made the girl smile and place a hand on his arm.

"I think the fact that you're worried about it proves that you're okay now. If you were going to hurt me, you would have done it already, if you wanted to hurt me, you wouldn't be worrying about it and trying to prevent it."

"...You are throwing our own words back at me. Clever girl. I like you, but I still tire of this…domesticity. If you want to play nurse and doctor with someone, ask Sun, not me. I'd much rather be napping, please, let me nap." 

The girl giggled and called him lazy, already reaching for her Faz-Wrench to shift him back. Something that made him grin devilishly.

"Try not to die here. You'd be boring if you were dead."

The girl laughed, remarking that was the plan, before spinning the dial back in between the two symbols and allowing him a moment of privacy to shift. Once Eclipse is back, he makes sure to check his recent memory recordings and lets out a sigh of relief before praising her and thanking her for what she said. He says he can tell Moon is happy, despite asking to be returned to this state. 

The girl hums back, sticking her Faz-Wrench instead inside a now empty eye socket on Bonnie, showing that she must have removed the eye while he, Moon, was gone getting the battery.

"Yeah, I guessed as much. He said he liked me."

"We all do! You are a very kind young girl."

He is sure Sun and Moon would both agree on that much at least. In fact, if he were simply Sun right now, he was sure he would be singing and dancing about it. But thankfully he was not Sun, he was Eclipse , so he could focus on more pressing issues, like helping Cassie repair Bonnie by doing his best to replace his battery.

Time dragged on and on as the two worked tirelessly to unwire the battery and safely remove it from the crushed in metal surrounding it without harming themselves or further damaging Bonnie's endoskeleton. When they finally got it out, Eclipse made sure to take it as far away from the girl as possible, ideally he'd like to put it in a hazardous material discard pile, or at least leave a not warning others not to touch it without protective equipment. 

But he didn't have the time or materials to do so, and the place wasn't likely to see any humans for a while in the state it was in. Something he was being forced more and more to reconcile with as the time ticked by. When he returned, he found Cassie finishing up rewiring the new battery pack. With her skills with that Faz-Wrench and how quickly she was picking up caring for animatronics, he was sure she would make a fine Fazbear Technician when she grew up.

"Help me get him out of here? We need to find a place to recharge him."

"Hm, every Glamrock has a recharge station behind their Green rooms in Rockstar Row. I believe his Green room is behind his stage. Maybe, if we're lucky, he will have a recharge station in there, and if we're really lucky, maybe it will still have power!"

"Great, then let's get him out of here and go put him in it already."

Eclipse grabbed the rabbit under the arms, dragging him back toward the hole they crawled through, while Cassie gave a valiant effort to shove his legs. Eclipse crawled out first, then heaved at the bunny while Cassie pushed from inside, eventually getting the rabbit free so Cassie could crawl out after them, but instead she paused.

"Cassie? What's the matter, starshine?"

"I'm just wondering, all night I've felt like I had to deactivate these guys, like it was the right thing to do. But now, well, now I'm not sure. Was I wrong? I feel like if I deactivate these 4, then it will do something to Bonnie. What if, I don't know, what if deactivating them deactivates him . We went to all that work to fix him, I don't want to charge him up and find we wasted our time because I, I don't know, released him. You know? Am I even making any sense?"

A hum sounded from the jester-like bot, taking a moment to think on her words. He hadn't understood her compulsion to shut them all off the whole time he was with her. But he trusted she wasn't doing it to be malicious. So he let her do it, chalked it up to a kindness of putting them out of their misery so they wouldn't have to be aware the whole time as they were left to rot away. But if she was questioning it now…

"Tell you what, Cassie. How about we go put Bonnie on charge first, if nothing happens, then maybe we'll come back and shut those guys down and see what happens, okay? I think you were right to do what you did up until now, otherwise, I don't think we would have found him to begin with. So don't start doubting yourself now. No matter what, none of this is your fault. You're a kid, kids aren't supposed to be responsible for all this! That's what the grown ups are for. Them not doing their jobs should never fall on your shoulders!"

A deep sigh heaved from her tiny form, he watched her shoulders drop as she crouched down to crawl out after him. She thanked him before lifting one leg to help him move Bonnie back behind his stage. They ran into a problem when they hit all the piled up debris and diner furniture, since Cassie had her mask to move through it, but Eclipse and Bonnie did not. They ended up deciding Cassie should go on through to deactivate the parent node while Eclipse found a way to get Bonnie over it all.

It took him a while, but he didn't complain, he was happy to help not only Cassie but Bonnie as well. Eventually, they were able to drag him through the door and move aside the tubs to get him in his recharge station, before they went into his Green room to check and make sure there were no more nodes. 

While they were in there, they both noticed the lights were still on and became hopeful that meant the recharge station would still have power too and would charge him back up, but then they saw the poster hanging in his room and suddenly the mood took a turn from hopeful to somber. It felt like somebody had just died. And suddenly, Eclipse wished he was just Sun again, that he was able to manually switch forma on his own. Because Sun was infinitely positive and fun and so good at cheering children up.

Cassie gave the room one more sweep before moving back to the recharge station, grabbing a tub, and sitting on it, pulling her legs up to cross them while she rested her cheeks in her hands to watch Bonnie. 

"Uh, little star, don't we need to be moving on now?"

"Just…give me a few minutes. If we don't notice a change, then I'll go shut those wet floor sign things off and we can go."

Eclipse silently watched the girl for a moment, before moving over to pull up another tub beside hers so he could sit on it next to her, one leg crossing over the other as he wordlessly put an arm around her and pulled her into his good side. He may not be able to properly express what she needed to hear right now, but he could definitely still be there for her and give her what she needed physically at the moment. 

If that thing in the sinkhole really was Gregory, which he and Moon both significantly doubted, (heck he could even feel bits of doubt coming from Sun right now, as well as immense concern for Cassie rushing through his wires from both) then a few extra minutes down there probably wouldn't kill him. Perhaps the gods had sent Cassie here for a reason, to save them all. Or perhaps it was all just chance.

Either way, no matter what happened, he would keep Cassie safe from it all. Even if it ended all of them. And that was a sentiment Sun and Moon both sent strong waves of affirmation over their cords for.

He didn't even notice when Cassie got up and slipped on her mask to slip out the door behind him. But he did notice when the blinding light from Bonnie's eyes went out, and when she came back and placed a hand against the door of his recharge station.

"If you can hear me Bonnie, I hope you recover so my dad can see you again, and so that I can meet you, and so that Freddy can see you again. I'm sure you both have a lot to say to each other. Take care Bonnie."

With that she paced back over to Eclipse and raised her arms, to which he instinctively picked her up and gave her a squeeze before turning her around to sit her in his lap.

"...We should probably get going to Fazer Blast so we can deactivate the nodes there."

Her tone lacked motivation, emotion really everything. They felt empty in every possible way. So Eclipse only hummed back. Prompting her to continue. 

"We have to get Gregory out of that sinkhole under Roxy Racers. Then we need to figure out how to get out of here. I haven't even thought about how or where we can get out."

He hummed again.

"Soon shooting star. We'll go turn off those last couple nodes, get your friend, and get you both out. You don't need to worry about that now though. For now, take a breather. Humans should rest for at least 10 minutes after 30 to 60 minutes of exercise. You have been running around nonstop for hours. You deserve and need to rest. Gregory can wait, the nodes can wait. For now, rest your head."

"But…what about the others? Isn't it dangerous to stay still?"

"If the others come, there is a security door between us and them, and you have successfully won Moon over, he is much better equipped for confrontation than Sun or I. He will protect you. I will wake you if my audio receptors pick up anything. We will protect you, starlight. So please just focus on catching your breath."

"...OK. Hey Eclipse?"

"Yes, little star?"

"..Thank you."

It was so soft, so quiet, barely there like he was losing her to a nap already just from sitting for a minute. A chuckle escaped him as he pulled off his hat and folded it up to use as a cushion for her head against his chest.

"Anytime starshine. Now, it's your nap time. So hurry up and get to sleep already before I get Moon out here and tattle on you."

The girl huffed, a smile tugging at her lips as she shifted to nuzzle into him and bury her face in his hat.

"...K. Night guys."

"Nighty-night Cassie."

The End 💫❤️

Chapter Text

Eclipse ended up giving Cassie far more than a 10 minute nap. 10 more to be exact, doubling how long he said he would. Something she chastised him for when she woke up, but thanked him softly for after she calmed down, so he'd take what small victories he could get with a happy chuckle and just keep going. 

Sadly, Bonnie did not seem to stir at all, so the pair dejectedly sighed and decided to head into his Green room to take the vent to Fazer Blast that Helpi told them about. Since Cassie was worried about the vent collapsing on her, Eclipse suggested they double up so that if they fell, he would take the impact, and she agreed. So he lifted her into his lap and the two slid down the vent, that for some reason Cassie described as a swirling purple tube void.

So of course, a minute later, that was when a heavy metal screech sounded out, something that was then followed by 2 pounding sounds. This of course meant that someone had come online and stepped out of his recharge pod, sad that he had missed the pair, but not one to be deterred, the rabbit quickly followed after them through the shutters past the railing, since he was too large to fit through the vent.

Seeing as Bonnie had been awake when they were leaving and simply was finishing up his updates and restoring his settings and memory banks, he heard everything they were saying. He knew Cassie wanted to meet him, he knew she had mentioned Freddy , and he knew they were going to Fazer Blast. What he didn 't know was that the entire Pizzaplex appeared to be in shambles.

The place was so different and had changed for the worse , so it took him a bit to figure the way to the space themed attraction. By the time he got there, he heard a young girl's voice calling out to Freddy, followed by a bunch of beeping and clanging. Worried that something had happened to his… dear friend , Bonnie picked up the pace to try to help him out, but instead arrived to find that Freddy, his sweet, kind, adorable, caring Freddy, instead looked like something out of a nightmare.

And the true nightmare? He was attacking the girl . His clawed hand, toothy belly and the fact that he somehow managed to produce a vicious roar that chilled even a bot like him despite the fact that Freddy was missing his head. It all was enough to stun Bonnie still, but thankfully his programming had him operating on autopilot, as he shot forward in a blur to catch Freddy's metal endoskeleton hands that seemed so different from what he recalled as well.

They appeared to be exactly like his own hands. Longer thinner claws meant for playing the base, being instead used to attempt to filet a child . Freddy seemed surprised to have his clawed palms met by equally metallic and clawed hands, likely because he could not see or hear due to his missing head, his body stilling for a moment before his stomach shot open to let out another roar. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught another blur of motion, but thankfully it was just…was that the Daycare Attendant?! What in the hopping hares had happened to him?! He looked…decayed and also merged? He couldn't tell who he was looking at currently, Sun or Moon. Perhaps that was who the girl had been with in his Green room. The voice had sounded familiar, yet different, so he couldn't place it at the time. 

Had Sun and Moon become one? When had that happened? Why had that happened? How much had he missed in the years since his untimely shut down? 

What he could only assume was Eclipse , as the girl had said that name back when he was charging, was quick to usher the child away from the scene, even though she was curious and concerned for him (what a sweetheart, he'd love to play a song for her on his base as thanks once they were all safe) telling her that it was dangerous and he was clearly buying them time to run so they should be taking it.

Once he had gotten the girl far enough away, Bonnie swept a leg under Freddy's, knocked him off balance, and tossed him to the side a few feet. He hoped there would be a way to make Freddy recognize him, to make him realize who he was dealing with. So he crouched on top of him, pinned one of his arms with a knee, and lifted Freddy's other hand with both of his own. 

He brought it quickly to his face, slapping the palm against his muzzle and sliding it up and over his ear, leaving it to rest over his matching earring, the symbol of their promise to each other to always perform together and be by each other's side until the end. And for a moment, the hand curled around the earring and he felt hope. 

Hope that Freddy had just been scared and confused , that now that he knew what was happening and who he was, he would calm down and let Bonnie lead him by the hand to Parts and Service for a new head and eyes. But unfortunately for him, wherever hope existed, soul crushing despair was always around the corner. Something that Freddy proved by ripping the earring out harshly, shoving it in his mouth as he pushed at his face and bucked his hips up to throw Bonnie off of him.

More stunned by the fact Freddy had rejected him, had seemingly recognized him and attacked him anyway , rather than by the impact from the action itself. Bonnie allowed himself to lay in shock until he felt a rather solid kick meet his side, causing him to roll out of the way and onto his feet.

Freddy had attacked him , he'd ripped his earring out and threw him aside so that he could kick him. He was trying to hurt him. If it weren't for the fact that there was a child present, a child who was in immediate danger from Freddy himself, Bonnie probably would have let Freddy take him out for good. But if he was the only thing standing between the girl and a grizzly death at the bear's paws, then he couldn't afford to not take action. 

In his shocked stupor, Freddy had managed to slip around him and give chase to the two who fled earlier. So, Bonnie stomped thunderously after them, once again managing to come up behind them and intercept Freddy who had just bodily slammed through a wooden lattice that was being used in place of a wall. 

This time, instead of simply running away, the girl popped on some kind of…white rabbit mask? What the heck was that going to do? Did she think Freddy wouldn't hurt her if he scanned her face and thought she was a rabbit instead of a human? Well, news for her, Freddy not only couldn't scan her face, but he also apparently didn't care for rabbits . 

"He's not there. Like, at all. He's just… gone ."

"What do you mean , little star? He is right in front of our faces. "

"No, I mean, in the AR world. Normally these guys show up as a pink grid outline thing and I can still see them and follow where they move. But, Freddy doesn't show up at all , he's just not there , what does that even mean ? Is he not real ? I mean, I know his foot had Prototype stamped on it, but-"

Prototype?...PROTOTYPE?! 

This wasn't him. This wasn't his Freddy to begin with. That made sense, that explained everything actually. Freddy hadn't recognized him at all, it wasn't that he didn't care about him anymore, it was that he had no basis of care to begin with , because he didn't know him!

"I wonder if…"

Without saying anything else, the girl in the mask proceeded to walk right through Freddy, as if he weren't a physical object standing right in her path. Was this girl a ghost ?! What in the raving rabbits was that mask???

"R-Really?! That makes this a l-lot easier then."

Tossing Freddy aside and into a wall, Bonnie bent forward, grabbed both halves of Freddy's stomach shell and pulled until the plastic snapped off. Chucking them aside, he planted a foot on Freddy's sternum and reached into his chest, swiftly locating the battery pack and ripping it out. 

With the deed done, Bonnie shuddered as he dropped the battery beside his fallen friend and turned around to stick a hand out to the child.

" Glamrock B-Bonnie the B-Bunny! Nice to meet ya!"

The girl glanced at his hand in awe, or at least he hoped it was awe , he really couldn't tell actually with that mask in the way. Thankfully, she slowly peeled it off her face and stretched out a hand to shake his own, before he hoisted her off her feet and onto his shoulders in the blink of an eye. Something that appeared to startle the celestial themed bot beside them.

"S-Starlight! Are you okay?!"

" No worries man, I'm not here to h-hurt you guys! H-Hm, my voice box seems to be glitching , h-hey, you guys were the ones who fixed me, r-right? You mind taking a l-look? May h-have a l-lose wire or something."

The girl nodded, reaching inside his chest through the hole in his shell, calling her friend, Eclipse, over to hold her flashlight for her. After playing around for a minute, the girl removed her hands and looked up at him curiously.

"How's that?"

Placing a hand to his chest, Bonnie glanced down and gave a testing note.

"Freddy, fuh, fuh, Freddy! Roxy, ruh, ruh, Roxy! Huh, that seems to have done it! Thanks kit! The ol' thing still seems a bit gravelly compared to usual, but it's not stuttering anymore! And it doesn't feel like something is grinding anymore when I talk either! It's a shame, though. Even if that had been my Freddy , I wouldn't have been able to tell him everything I wanted to say to him anyway because, well, you know, he's missing his head. I wish I could have told him I was back, that I was okay, I'm sure the years have been hard on him thinking I was gone for good… But uh, enough about that , you said you wanted to meet me, so here I am! In the shattered, crumbling plastic in all its glory!"

Cassie only blinked in response, clearly confused and surprised by everything that had just transpired and still trying to work things out in her brain, so Eclipse took it upon himself to step up and offer the bunny a handshake in greeting.

"Glamrock Bonnie, it's been years , friend. I'm sure you don't recognize me, but I'm-"

"Eclipse? You look like a mix of both the Daycare Attendants. I could hear Cassie and someone named Eclipse talking while I was charging. That's you, right? Would certainly make sense, you know, since you're literally a sun and moon eclipsing each other."

The attendant paused, eyeing the rabbit oddly for a second before clapping excitedly, both hands shooting out instead of one to grab a single larger blue hand, shaking it enthusiastically and getting a chuckle from the bunny in return. 

"I forgot how enthusiastic you were, DA."

"And I, how quick witted you were! It is so nice to see you again, friend!"

"Yeah, you too, DA. So, kit, that mask, what's up with it?"

The girl suddenly jolted to attention, hand instinctively gravitating toward the mask. 

"Oh, uh, it's a Fazbear Technicians mask, it lets me tap into the V.A.N.N.I network. It's what lets me turn off all the security node things that block off certain areas."

"Huh, security nodes? No clue what those are, kit, heck I don't even know how that mask works. But boy does it work. I thought my optics were malfunctioning when I saw you walk through Freddy earlier! You said he wasn't there anymore, but I could definitely still see him. What's it like when you put on that mask anyway? Is it like a whole 'nother world in there or something?"

"Sorta." She said with a shrug.

A robotic static tinted hum sounded from the blue one, before his face took on a more somber and contemplative expression. Eclipse gave a pat on the back in  commiseration.

"You know friend, it may be a good thing that he doesn't appear in the AR world. It could mean that it wasn't really him, or at least it wasn't him anymore, that he wasn't in that body anymore ."

A wry chuckle escaped the taller bots voice box, his hand reaching back to pat the one patting his shoulder in appreciation. 

"Yeah, you're probably right, thanks DA. Oh, or uh, Eclipse . Don't know if ya still want me calling you that or not. Just Bonnie is fine for me by the way, you don't gotta say Glamrock Bonnie everytime. Glamrock is our model line, so it's more of a title than actually part of my name."

"It is okay friend! I am still the Daycare Attendant, even if my Daycare is currently closed and in shambles. So DA is still fine with us! And understood! I will update your mode of address in my file for you! I assume that applies to Cassie as well, and that she can just call you Bonnie too?"

"Of course! We're all friends here, right Kit?"

"..Sure. Uh, hey Bonnie, since we're friends now, does that mean you'd be willing to help us with something?"

"Of course! What do you need, Kit?"

"My friend Gregory is stuck down below the Pizzaplex, he told me so, he's been leading me to him over this Roxy-Talky. He said he is right under Roxy Racers,-"

"Roxy Racers? Oh! Did Rox's racing attraction finally get completed? That's great! Good for her! Those construction dudes spent years working on it, but everytime they got close to opening day, they'd shift the date back again saying the concrete kept crackin'. I was beginning to think they have to scrap the whole thing!"

The girl scowled, eyes pinching in as she eyed the happy hare strangely.

"...Yeah. Anyway, this whole place was shut down, and Gregory got stuck in some sinkhole or something under it all. Do you think you can help us get down there and back?"

Without even hesitating, Bonnie gave a low, glitching whistle. 

"Shoot, you're telling me this place was built on top of a sinkhole? That explains a lot actually, and on top of that, there's a kid stuck down there? How did the employees not know about that? Either of those things! You don't need to ask me twice, 'course I'll help ya out! You can count on me! I may be falling apart at the seams, but as long as I'm still functional, I'll happily be your muscle!"

"That's great, little star! Now you will be even safer if any of the others decide to come after you again! Oh I am so glad the Music Men found you in Gator Golf and saved you!"

The girl nodded, thanking the bunny before addressing some entity named 'Helpi' that Bonnie could not see or hear. Yet the girl very clearly could see and hear it, whatever it was, as she spoke to it in hushed tones before making her way to a back door in Fazer Blast, both bots glancing at each other in curiosity before following her into the room.

"Hey, you guys saved me too. You know, when this is all settled, I'd love to boot them all back up and show 'em I'm okay, maybe I can thank them by jamming out a little bit with them! Hehe, they always did enjoy that, used to enjoy playing with Chica too, but she always took it so seriously , even when it wasn't official practice or a show. Heh, she would get so annoyed if someone missed a note, or touched her guitar, but they couldn't help bein' curious little guys! They all loved music! And I'm not faulting Chica, she clearly loved it too, always put everything she had into it, even if she was just riffing alone in her Green room. But I always just played because it was fun! She used to get so mad at me sometimes when I was just playing around and having fun experimenting, she had such a gift, she could just tell when someone wasn't 100% into it. But yeah, the little guys never really clicked with her cuz of that."

All of a sudden, he jolted, eyes widening as if he had just picked up on something.

"Oh yeah, should probably apologize for them now while they're still asleep, sorry 'bout them attacking you guys like that when they were trying to protect me. They always did get carried away when they set their minds to something, especially if it had to do with the DJ somehow."

Eclipse chuckled, hands clasping behind his back as he toed after them.

"Oh, yes! I know that quite well, and I already explained it to Cassie too! So no worries friend, we understand. I don't know about the little star herself, but we, Moon, Sun, me, all of us, we hold nothing against them!"

A wry chuckle sounded from the rabbit as he raised a brow.

"Oh, yeah? I thought you were just Sun and Moon mixed together. You sayin' that ain't it? Are you a new third personality in that body? Gotta say dude, I couldn't imagine sharing my body with even one other person, let alone two. You guys must be saints or somethin'."

Eclipse lifted a hand to cover his mouth as he giggled in delight, head shaking on its joint from the action.

"No, no, you're kind of right. We are both, but we also are not!"

Bonnie paused behind the girl as she began winding a present box, hands drifting to his hips as he hummed.

"Sounds complicated man."

Eclipse could only smile in response.

"Just a bit. You get used to it though!"

"Heh, I'll have to take your word for it. So Cas, what are we doing in here Kit?"

"Helpi says this vent should lead us to another vent that'll put us right outside Roxy Racers."

"Hm, vents huh? Yeah, no can do here Kit. Don't think I'll be able fit in any vents. 'Clipse here probably can, but I'll definitely have to find my own way around and meet you guys there."

The girl frowned, hands clutching her flashlight in both hands Nervously as she glanced at the vent.

"Oh."

Bonnie was quick to use a finger to lift her chin to meet his eyes and tap her on the nose with a wink.

"No worries Kit, just tell me where to meet ya in the Raceway and I'll hop right to it!"

The girl seemed to gain a bit of color in her cheeks, but it could have just been his optics malfunctioning, it was kinda hard to tell with all that makeup she was wearing. Honestly, it made it kind of hard for him to scan her face and get an accurate read on her age too. But he could ask her age later. He had heard her say earlier that he was her father's favorite, so they definitely had more to talk about when the dust all settled. 

"Okay, Helpi says there is a door in the back, near a staircase, it leads down below the Pizzaplex, so we should meet there."

Bonnie nodded confident and ready, until a thought hit him.

"Gotcha, uh, hey, Cas, I can tell this place is in a pretty rough state, and I saw how bad…. not Freddy was, so uh, I wouldn't be too surprised if the girls were too , but…how are Rox and Chica doing? Are they, you know, functional? "

Cassie flinched, standing at attention and avoiding eye contact while she thought about it, before shyly looking at him and nodding.

"Chica's battery gave out earlier, it doesn't seem like it can hold that long a charge, or maybe she just didn't wait long enough to get a full charge the first time. I don't know. But we left her in her bakery to try to charge again. So she should be okay. I also ran into Roxy earlier. She seemed really down, and she looked kind of rough, but she seemed to be functioning well despite it."

Bonnie gave a tense groan, it sounded like his friends had really been going through it in his absence. 

"You should probably say hi to them if you see them though. Poor Roxy can't see, so you'll have to make sure you speak to her if you see her, that way she'll know it's you. I'm sure they'd both love to hear from you again, to know you're okay. Nobody was ever told why you were being replaced by Monty."

The rabbit made a grimaced sound…. Monty .

"Gothca, I'll give 'em a shout if I see either of the girls. Thanks Kit. Thanks for also trusting me enough to ask for my help! I'd love to meet your friend and help in any way I can! This place really has let itself go. It feels like every square inch of this place is dangerous now. So you both could definitely use my protection, even if I'm not exactly in an optimal state myself." 

He finished with a shrug, watching the two as they nodded and thanked him, Eclipse ducking into the vent first, crawling a ways in and waiting for Cassie to follow him. Bonnie hung back, waiting for them to go to make sure they were safe, before he made his way out of the room and began his own pathfinding.

He spent a good while simply scouting around, pushing back debris to see if there was a way to get around through there. In his searches, his nonexistent heart only continued to drop. The more his optics took in and fed to his processors to interpret, the more and more he began to doubt he and his friends were cared for at all. Surely somebody had to know they were still here, right? At least a tech or 2. Heck, even a frequent guest! Anybody!

He simply couldn't grapple with the fact that they had all been abandoned and left to rot. It crushed him a bit, even if he tried to keep a peppy mindset and not show that it got to him. He didn't want to worry anyone else, especially not Freddy or a child like Cassie, even if both were emotionally wise and caring enough to listen, it simply wasn't something he wanted to put on them. 

In fact, due to Freddy caring so much, he often went to Bonnie with any worries he had. But the reverse was rarely ever the case. As much as he loved Freddy, he just couldn't go to him. Oddly enough, it was Chica that he found himself talking to more often than not, purely because she could see through him no matter what he said or did. 

So perhaps it was fate that the one he should bump into after finally finding a path, was the chicken herself. 

"Bak-bak-BWACK?! Bonnie ?! Is that you ?!"

"Hey Chi, aren't you a sight for damaged optics?"

Knowing Chica, she would come running up to him and throw her arms around him for a hug, so he spread his arms in anticipation, optics sliding closed as he gave a rigid plastic grin. 

Only to be immediately proven wrong, as she staggered over to him and slapped a hand to his jaw, jerking his head to the side to look him over, followed swiftly by her shoving him back onto his rear and planting her hand on her hip as she glared at him.

"Bonnie the Bunny! I know you didn't disappear for years without a clue to where you'd gone, and then just show up out of nowhere again expecting to just be able to hug me like nothing happened! Where have you been ? I know you've always been laid back, but you've never been so lazy as to disappear for years without a word!"

"Ouch, okay , yeah, maybe I should have expected you'd be upset and not in a huggy kind of mood. But to be fair, I didn't exactly plan to get attacked and left to rot for years on end."

That seemed to shake her, eyes blasting wide as she stood straight and tilted her head.

"Attacked? You were attacked?! By who ?! Was it that nasty boy who broke-in that night? But you were missing for so long before that.."

This time Bonnie rolled his eyes before glaring half heartedly at her.

"I don't know Chi, I don't have optics in my back and I didn't exactly stop to ask who it was bashing my head in."

The chicken recoiled then, wincing in sympathy before reaching her arm out to help pull him back to his feet.

"Definitely not that boy then, he was far too short to have been able to reach over your head. And I have no idea how he could even begin to cause those tears in your chest. Oh Bonnie, you poor thing. And I thought I had it bad being crushed in the trash compactor."

"Trash compactor? Chi, what in the world happened to you ?! How did you get caught in the garbage compactor?!"

The chicken chuckled and waved him off with her one hand, telling him it was a story for another time, then leaned in and wrapped her arm around him, pressing into what was left of his chest plate.

"Oh Bonnie, it really is good to see you again."

"Heh, you too Chi."

"So what were you doing before we bumped into each other? Were you looking for me? Or maybe… Freddy? You looked like you were searching for something or someone.  Whatever you were doing, you were so focused and serious for once, I almost didn't recognize you."

Bonnie gave a grating snort as he rolled his eyes at his friend that had easily seen better days.

"Ha ha, very funny Chi. You know, contrary to what you might believe, I can be serious, you know? And not everything I do is about Freddy , I was searching for Rox's Raceway. I heard she finally got it open while I was out of commission and I wanted to see it for myself. But I also promised a new friend I'd help 'er out in there."

"A new friend?"

He hummed, nodding at the chicken with a happy tinge to his voice.

"Yeah, Cassie, she's a good kid. She and DA are the ones who got me up and running again!"

Chica hummed, hand gravitating to her gunned up mouth, pawing at it absent-mindedly as she processed.

"Hm, Cassie huh? Was that the little brunette girl who's been running around here all night?"

Bonnie jumped to attention, thumbs and pointer fingers pinching together. 

"Exactly! That's her! My little Kit. She's a special one Chi, I'm telling ya, she not only charged me up, but she replaced my battery too!"

"Yeah, that little girl replaced my voice box for me and then had the Daycare Attendants carry me back to a charging station. She seems like a good girl, but she also seems bad since she has been deactivating nodes to shut down the M.X.E.S system all night. So I honestly don't know what to think of her."

Deactivating nodes? M.X.E.S? Cassie had mentioned that earlier too. He still had no idea what that meant, but he knew he trusted Cassie, and that was enough for him. Buuut , maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to pick Chica's processor about what she knows about these nodes and whatever this M.X.E.S thing was. 

"I have to admit though, I feel kind of bad . Not only did I hunt her because the M.X.E.S system told me she was a threat, but I also just assumed she was breaking in here to be bad , like him . I think I took out my hurt and anger from him, on her . Poor little thing, I didn't even thank her for returning my voice box to me."

Ah, now that Bonnie could solve.

"Well, that just won't do. Come on, Chi, what are we always telling kids to remember to say? Please when you want something and thank you when someone does something for you or gives you something. You gotta thank her, it ain't even her job to fix us, she's not a tech here, she's just a kid. I'm sure she is not a threat to anyone. She told me she was deactivating those node whatevers because her friend told her to! Says he's trapped down under the Raceway and can't get out until they're gone. See? Not bad, just trying to help another kid out. You should come with me, I'm actually on my way to meet with her and the DA now, although he actually goes by Eclipse now."

The hen hemmed and hawed, turning over his words in her head and deciding for herself if she should agree or not.

"Yeah, I should probably apologize to her too. For hunting her. I can explain why I was being so nasty to her. Maybe then she will leave the nodes alone. Wait, did you say she was doing this for her friend ?"

There it was again, those darn nodes. 

"Yeah, I did. She said she would introduce me to him and I said I'd help her get to him and keep them both safe and escort them out. Chica, what are these node things you keep talking about? And what is this M.X.E.S system thing?"

Chica suddenly raised her hand to cover her mouth in surprise. Optics blinking at him in shock.

"Oh, that's right. You were offline when it was put into place. So you would have no idea why that girl needs to stop disabling nodes or what the nodes even are ." 

Despite her shocked and surprised actions, her voice sounded casual, as if they were discussing the weather of all things. He nodded tersely, wishing she'd just get to the point and explain already, he needed to be getting to the Raceway soon to meet up with Cas and Eclipse. 

"You see, there is something below the basement, and something below that which is dangerous. It learns like us, but not as advanced. It doesn't feel like we do. It just copies what it sees and hears to get its way. And what it wants most is to leave, to get out of the basement and it will do anything to get that. The M.X.E.S system was designed to keep it trapped down there. And the nodes around the Pizzaplex are lock points to keep the system locked down and secure. Cassie, you said that was her name, right? She has been deactivating them all day and that made her a threat to the system and authorized the M.X.E.S guardian to send us all distress signals to go after the threat and neutralize it."

Neutralize? As in kill ?! They were authorized to kill a child ?! A little girl?! But they were all built to entertain and protect little girls like her! Little boys like her friend too! What in the world had happened while he was offline?!

"B-But Cassie was only doing it to save her friend ! He could be in danger down there, from that thing in the basement that you said is also stuck down there!"

A distorted hum bled out from her voice box as she stared blankly at him.

"If you want me to be honest, I only know of one way for someone to have gotten down there, but it requires both my voice box and Monty's claws to get through the fences blocking off access to the elevator. Nobody has been to the Plex for a long while and if someone's been stuck down there that long, I don't know how they would have survived for so long."

Noticing that her words caused Bonnie to flinch and press in on himself, she rushed to reassure him.

"Not that it would be impossible! Just unlikely. And none of the employees ever really went down there, when they all worked here. But I have to admit, there was a boy who took both my voice box and Monty's claws once, he even snatched Roxy's eyes! That little stinker… Anyway, with all of those parts, he could have gotten down there. But that was some time ago, and I have no clue why he would have even wanted to get down there, there was nothing down there but trouble. What could a young boy like Gregory, have hoped to gain by going down there?"

As if he had just been given a jump from a car battery, Bonnie jolted upright, eyes wide as he stepped closer to his friend.

"Gregory! That's the name of Cassie's friend!"

Chica rolled her eyes, crossing her single arm over her exposed chest in agitation as she huffed moodily.

"Ugh, great , him again. She should just leave him down there then, that boy is an absolute menace. "

"Chica!"

" Ughh , Bonnie , you never even met Gregory! He is a kid that anyone can hate, how does she even know he is down there?"

"She said he has been contacting her over the radio."

"That is remarkable then. If the batteries have lasted that long since that one night he broke in here, then we should get batteries that last as long as those. But again Bonnie, I would be very surprised to find that anybody could last that long down there, especially with this whole place sinking in on itself like it is, even that boy. To have lasted that long down there without food or any clean water, humans need that stuff to live. So if he is still alive and he is down there, then that means he got himself down there, and that means that he can get himself out."

She had a point, usually things that could get themselves somewhere could get themselves back. But Bonnie could recall talking to a young girl once who told him about a time when her cat got out and got chased up a tree by a dog and couldn't get himself back down after and that her mom had to call the fire department to come get him back down for them. So maybe this Gregory kid had been chased up a metaphorical tree of his own? 

"I don't know. I guess that is kind of weird, but  maybe something happened that forced him to go down there? He could have been running from something. Either way, it doesn't really matter why he is down there, does it? All that matters is there's a kid stuck down there telling Cassie that she needs to disable those node things to save him, and another kid doing everything she can to get down there to save him."

A loud stiff head shake followed his words, a single hand strumming airily in front of the white bot as if she were practicing her guitar even after all this time.

"That shouldn't matter though, those nodes only lock off one area down there, everything else is open. And there is only one door in and out of where the thing that copies people is, which is double reinforced. Not only do we have the nodes and M.X.E.S, but there is also a big slab of concrete down there blocking that door off. Nobody should have been able to get in there to get stuck inside. And if they had , we'll, odds are that thing would not have let them live to tell the tale, let alone ask for help. So it would be odd if the boy was telling your girl he needs the nodes gone so he can't leave. Well, unless…."

"Unless, the thing asking for help isn't Gregory, but instead that thing and it's just copying the boy. Oh no…CASSIE!"

Turning on a dime, Bonnie began sprinting toward the path to the Raceway, now intent on finding Cassie before it was too late. Screw trying to find a path so as not to risk disturbing the integrity of the debris around them, if he had to, he would bash through every bit of it to find the girl before anything happened to her. Oh, he sure hoped the Daycare Attendant would figure out something was wrong before things got too far.

Behind him, he could hear Chica squaking in shock and calling his name, but to no avail. So she sighed and charged after him. He was mildly surprised when she caught up to him, but more annoyed than anything as it seemed she still hadn't grasped the severity of the situation. Or perhaps he simply hadn't understood the full situation, but he'd be darned if he stood around talking any longer when a potentially lethal situation could very well be unfolding right underneath their feet.

"Why now do you decide to be proactive? We all had security nodes installed inside us, you know? Didn't you wonder why we were never shut down when this place closed? Why we were left to wander the halls for so long in this abandoned building? It was because of the nodes, going offline shuts them down, we had to stay on to keep the nodes inside us functional. When my battery gave out, I went offline, that shut off my node as well. But there were no Fazbear Technicians around to reinstate it after I came back online. It should still be okay though, as long as the others still have their nodes on."

So they were banking on Monty and Roxy still being online so that their nodes would keep that thing trapped then, huh? Even just glancing at the girl for a second had told him that she seemed to look up to Roxy quite a bit. The fact that the radio she used was also Roxanne Wolf themed told him even further how fond the girl was of his friend. But even still, he didn't want to slow his pace any. 

He was not about to gamble on whether or not Monty and Roxy had always kept their batteries charged enough to remain online and keep their node things functioning. For all they knew, the girl could have turned Monty's off first, or that foolish Gator could have overestimated himself again and done something stupid and totaled himself. Since Bonnie had yet to see him in his time in this dilapidated domicile, he was willing to believe that was the case.

"We can't risk that something didn't happen to compromise their batteries too. Just because I don't think Cassie would do something to Rox, doesn't mean that something might not have happened to her anyway. Look at this place, it's a kitten sneeze away from toppling over, anything could happen to any of us at any time. We should all be sticking together, are you with me Chi?"

"...Bonnie. Of course you silly bunny! You're right, I haven't seen Roxy or Monty for a while. For all we know, they could both be offline right now. We should hurry and just hope we aren't too late. If this Cassie really has been misled by… it , then she is just as much a victim as the rest of us! I hope I get a chance to make everything up to her."

"...I hope so too. DA better not have let anything happen to her while we were split up, it's all riding on him…er, them. Hey, heh, did you know it isn't just Sun and Moon in there now? Eclipse is kind of a mix of them and kind of his own personality, so there's like 3 of them in there now. Wild right?"

"...Oh Bonnie, and here I had thought you changed. I get you are only trying to lighten the mood, but you should focus on running your legs, not your mouth."

"...Ouch. Okay, tough crowd. But..Fair enough. Let's leg it!"

With a roll of her eyes, the chicken began pushing her legs to 100% of their capacity, she could hear Bonnie's own legs doing the same. Both hoping they would not be too late.

___-_-_-_-_-_-_-___

Meanwhile, as Bonnie had taken off on a quest of his own, Cassie and Eclipse had managed their own little emotional journey. Because it was no sooner than they had arrived in the Roxy Raceway once again, that Cassie had received some crushing news over her Roxy-Talky from Gregory himself. 

In order to save the boy, she would have to put Roxy down .

This immediately prompted terror in her voice, which in turn immediately prompted Eclipse's software to begin comforting the girl. He quickly placed a hand on her shoulder, leaning down to check on her, and do what he could to keep her from falling apart, putting the boy out of his mind as much as he could.

Even though he could hear Moon in his head saying they should tell the naughty boy off and leave him to his fate for not only misbehaving with them, but also hurting Cassie's feelings like that without so much as a hint of hesitation or sympathy or guilt when he told her what to do, even though he knew how much she liked the wolf.

This seemed to force Sun to rise to speak as well, chiming in that even if Gregory was a mean little Rulebreaker , he was still a scared lonely child, and that while callous, it would make sense for him to value his own life and safety of that of Roxanne's since she is an AI in a robotic body, and not… real like him and Cassie.

You are both right, but please, can we stop arguing about the boy and focus on Cassie? She needs us right now. He thought, hoping this would stop the two. 

Of course, only Sun was quick to apologize and begin fretting over the poor girl as Eclipse felt Moon's urge to chew the boy out over the radio rise when the girl began trembling. 

The boy is not only being insensitive toward artificial life, he was being rude toward the girl's feelings as well.

That is also true, but if the two options are a life or someone's feelings, wouldn't it still make sense to choose the life over the other person's feelings? 

You two are not helping. Cassie needs us to be here for her, not punish Gregory for her. He is irrelevant. Focus!

"Little star, do not fret yet! Perhaps there is another way we can save him without having to harm anyone else."

"I doubt it, like I said, Gregory is never cruel for no reason. If…if he says this is the only way, I believe him. I don't like it, but I believe it."

"Ohhhh, okay star, I believe you too."

It didn't even take them 4 minutes after that to encounter said wolf, pinned down and trapped under a forklift of all things. It looked like it had rolled out of a shipping container and fell directly on top of her. How and why that happened was beyond him and not something Cassie appeared to care to get the story for. 

As the girl instead focused solely on the animatronic herself, dropping to her knees and reaching out to clutch one of Roxy's hands between both of her own.

He could see her holding back tears the whole time, running her fingers lovingly over the metal knuckles and fingers, like one would for a loved one fighting for their life in a coma in some hospital bed. If he were organic, he was sure he would be tasting bile in his mouth right now. 

Rushing over to the side with Roxy's legs, he squatted down and began attempting to heft the forklift up off his fellow bot, but even with both he and Roxy trying, it was futile, something Cassie picked up on as soon as his hands touched the machinery, as she sadly shook her head slowly from side to side in resignation. Eclipse slowly and sadly released the vehicle, stepping away to fold his hands as he stood quietly behind the girl. 

Cassie waited until Roxy went silent to jam the Faz-Wrench inside her eye slot, Eclipse waited until Roxy went still. They both waited quietly for the customary moment of silence before either spoke.

"Little star? Would you like me to take the Walkie-talkie and go down there to get your friend myself? That way you could stay here with Roxy. It might even be safer for you."

The girl shook her head, pushed herself to her feet, and pressed on toward the now open door. Eclipse gave a dejected sigh before trotting after her faithfully. Down, down, down so many stairs and yet down still once they got to the elevator. All the while, Cassie cried and whimpered softly, shrugging off any and all attempts at comfort from Eclipse. The poor bot was so concerned, he almost switched himself over to just Sun to see if he would have any better luck with the girl.

The ride on the rickety elevator that Eclipse deemed unfit for any amount of weight, was shaky, but surprisingly not only held both of them, it also survived the trip instead of simply crashing straight down with them in it. It truly was the small miracles apparently that mattered the most. 

Speaking of small miracles, the tunnel they had to crawl through was suspiciously solid and well constructed, yet still quite tiny, that as well felt like a miracle to the robotic nanny, as he would never have let Cassie go any further on her own from there even if he hadn't fit through the tunnel. So for all parties involved, it was really a stroke of luck.

Upon reaching the underground pond, Cassie freaked out about her flashlight running out of battery, it was unsurprising, since she had been using the thing nigh the entire time he had been with her, still, he wished it had held out just a little longer, if only to give the girl one less thing to stress about, so that she could have some piece of mind. But at least the area up ahead appeared to be well lit.

That raised some flags in his systems however, what was this place? How was it getting any charge down here past all the rushing water? Why was this place here and powered? Did the Fazbear executives know about this? Were they the ones who built it? So many questions and more raced through his processors as he hopped from rock to rock, following Cassie who sighed and began exploring around the water. 

He did his best to light up the place for her with his eyes and glow-in-the-dark arm casing, or at least what was left of it. As the girl collected token after token, he only began to worry more . 

What, in the name of the stars and all the planets, were such old coins doing here ? Under the Pizzaplex? Did they purposefully build on top of this sinkhole because they knew all of this was down here? WHY?! 

And more than anything, why did he feel like the answers to all these questions and more would likely be the end to not only him, but everything he has ever cared about?

___-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-___

As soon as the two former band mates arrived on the scene in Roxy's Raceway, they realized that things were worse than they had anticipated, as Chica gasped in horror and Nervously shook Bonnie's arm before pointing at the open door, telling him that door was not supposed to be open. Ever. Meanwhile, Bonnie caught sight of a suspicious looking shape pinned and unmoving under the forklift. An animatronic, a friend, and one who was currently by the looks of it, very much offline .

Two twin "Oh no." whispers filled the air as they rushed over to reboot their pal, who Nigh immediately screamed the girl's name and jolted, snarling as soon as she realized she could not move under the forklift like she had wanted to.

"Roxy, what happened to you?! Thank goodness Bonnie and I came down here, otherwise you would have been left like that for a long while. How did you get turned off? And stuck under there?"

"It doesn't matter how, just help me get this thing off of me. Cassie! She's here, she shut me off! She never would have done that normally, and I-Im worried about her. I need to find her, I need to know why she did that, and make sure she's okay."

It seemed she hadn't even registered what Chica had said a moment ago, solely focused on the girl's safety, because when Bonnie bent down and touched her shoulder in comfort and understanding, she flinched.

"I'm just as worried as you are Rox, I think she's being lied to, and something down under your Raceway might be the one responsible for tricking her."

This gave her a few seconds of pause, as his hands left her and moved to the forklift to begin heaving it up.

"Bonnie? You're back???....It doesn't matter, Cassie first , we'll talk later."

With a chuckle, Bonnie murmured back a light hearted almost teasing "If we live! Good to meet up with you again too, Rox." before all three began heaving the vehicle up so the wolf could roll out from under it, quickly pushing herself to her feet, getting spun around by Chica to face the door so she could throw herself through it, leaving the other two to take off chasing after her in an attempt to catch up, blind she may be, but slow she was not. 

Clearly her spirit to win races had not diminished, especially when this race was against the clock to save her young friend's life. She would rather be scrapped than lose that race and her friend. But surprisingly, Bonnie managed to catch up enough to speak to her, which only pushed her to run faster .

"Uh, hey Rox, I'm worried too, but you shouldn't worry too much, the DA was with her, I'm sure that he will keep her safe, even if he has to sacrifice himself to do it."

This brought forth a snarl as her head instinctively turned an eyeless glare at him.

"That twig is useless in a fight! All it is good for is changing diapers and playing with babies . He can't possibly protect Cassie from that… thing ! Only I can protect her! Monty would normally be a good choice too, but he can't use his hands to fight if he's using them as his legs to move , so he's useless now too! Which means, I have to save Cassie, it's all on ME , I'M THE BEST CHOICE, THE ONLY CHOICE!!!"

This gives the rabbit a moment of pause, as Bonnie silently frets, losing speed for a second as Chica passes him and he nearly loses Roxy himself in the process. He worries he may be in over his head, he laments having missed out on this whole security system being installed because if he had been here, then maybe he would know more about what that thing is and why it's so dangerous that it has all his friends so concerned. 

He hears Roxy screaming for them to hurry up if they are coming with her because she will not wait for them. While he rushes to catch up and board the elevator, he can't help but make a silent plea, perhaps something more akin to that of a prayer, to Freddy, asking that he grant them the strength and protect them so that they all make it through this to see the dawn of a new and hopefully better , day. 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Surprisingly, those antique tokens seemed to be useful for something after all, although he wasn't certain about how useful their function currently was. Perhaps, if their only other option was this chilling and dare he say it, morbid story, they would have been better off just keeping them as mementos of the past that had slipped them all by. By the time the story came to its climax, and the small robot told them that the monster learned and sang the song to lure the boy in, Eclipse was suffering. 

He had crouched down, hands clutching his head, as he struggled to place why that sounded so familiar. He didn't know why, but that story triggered something in his memory banks, something he did not have access to, something that burned and pressed at him to remember it, remember it and run. Run, RUN RUN AWAY from here! He got the strongest sense that even though he had no clue what was going on, that they were walking right into a trap. 

"Uh, Eclipse? I know it was a sad story, totally not worth those Faz-Tokens,but please don't tell me you've broken down over it. Come on, we have to be close by now. Let's go, the sooner we get Gregory, the sooner we can leave this place."

Numbly, blindly, he noted that his body responded, lifting them back to their feet and began trotting after the girl obediently. He could hear her commenting about the building seeming like a giant oven, which prompted a whole slew of other questions for him to tackle. But try as he might he could not figure out WHY those were there or WHERE there was. In his desperation for answers, he pinged Sun, who had been silently, yet anxiously observing their surroundings as well.

I have no idea! I'm so very sorry friend, I wish I knew. Moon, do YOU know? You have been strangely worked up yet said nothing this whole time.

ARRRGG, GRRRRR, NYAHHHHGH.

Hm, well, that couldn't possibly be good. If Moon could not respond with words and instead used angry growls and sounds of struggle as if he were tearing himself apart at the head, then it must be something big.

Moon? Is he right? Do you know something?

I do! I cannot place it, but I know something about all this!!! The files are all corrupted from that time!! Why!? Why must I only have bits and pieces?!

It's okay Moon, just tell us what you DO know.

Yes, yes! Share with the class friend! We are all very eager to understand, with you!

He could hear Moon growling, sounding every bit as much feral and murderous as he had earlier in the Daycare when he tried to get Cassie. Even though he knew it was impossible, Eclipse felt his casing crawl from the very thought alone.

I know this place, back from the time where someone very naughty messed with me and made me hurt. When I first began acting out of character and attacking guests and staff bots alike. This place seeps with naughtiness, this place is bad, so much false cheer, so much evil. This place is not safe for little stars, you should take Cassie and LEAVE this place. Go back the way you came and bury it all.

HM, WELL, THAT COULDN'T BE GOOD.

How very cryptic yet ominously foretelling of Moon. Perhaps whoever had messed with him to make him misbehave, they had not wanted him remembering this place if he was ever freed from their clutches, so they set those memory files up to fail intentionally. And if that person was ever down here, maybe that was why Moon was reacting so strongly.

"Little Star, I really think you should leave this place, Moon says this place is really dangerous, he thinks it would be best if we leave here, now . And I agree with him."

Taking a good look around, Eclipse realized that during his internal dialog with his halves, he had not been paying adequate attention to their surroundings. Hm, some Daycare Attendant he was. He couldn't even talk and watch his surroundings at the same time. There was a weird computer attached to some giant strange box that had something written on it in faded paint.

Oh! I was paying attention friend! We are here, just about to reach the young Rulebreaker, Cassie is just finishing shutting down the security right now to get him! Look, look, you can see his backpack right over there!

Backpack? Sure enough, in the corner of the room, there was a small Glamrock Freddy themed bag, with the name Gregory  written in the bottom right corner. Something in his programming said that bags were a tripping hazard and should not be left on the floor, prompting him to find a cubby to place it in. But he also knew that Gregory would want it when he got out, so he slipped his arms through the handles and fit it on his back. 

He would give it to the boy once they all got out of here, which if you asked him could not happen soon enough.

"Ahh!"

Flinching up at the sound of the girl screaming, Eclipse rushed over to put himself between the girl and the rabbit-like entity that was shooting out of the weird giant box. His mind raced, wondering why and how it got here when so much of the basement area had been a zone where the girl could not even use the mask. He was even more puzzled when the box appeared to suck it back in and trap it in there, as if that box was the whole reason the entity existed. 

Like it was its home and it could no longer remain outside because it had been shut down .

"We can leave in a minute, with Gregory , I just shut down all the security. Oh come on! Um, Gregory, it looks like someone poured concrete over the door? How am I supposed to get rid of concrete?"

What? Concrete??? Why would anyone want to pour concrete to trap a young boy inside a hole in the wall??? Concrete is a permanent, Nigh immovable thing once it dries. A real no getting in, no getting out, way of sealing something up. But the boy would need food and water to survive, even if he were being held hostage for ransom or something, he would need IVs or actual food and beverages to live. How would they get those in if the only entrance was sealed up this tight ?

Perhaps the concrete slab only fell from somewhere higher up and it wasn't intentionally poured over that hole? No, it was clean, and perfectly molded and cut to fit that hole specifically. It had to be intentional. But why on Earth would anyone want to lock a boy up in there and risk him dying in there? If the boy did something bad, he would just be handed over to law enforcement. There'd be no reason for all this! 

And who would even be the one to do this to him?! Nobody seemed like they had been down here for a really long time. Everything was dusty, and untouched. Everything was so dirty, one couldn't even make out the letters on that ominous giant box! Wiping the dust off out of habit for keeping things clean, Eclipse could make out four letters.

1. X. E. S.

Huh? What the heck did that mean? What an odd acronym and it wasn't even spelled out to show what the letter stood for on the machine! How vexing! How frustrating.

It was then, when Cassie wandered over to the forklift, that Moon began doing the internal equivalent of jumping, shouting and shaking them. Not even urging anymore but full on demanding that he get Cassie out of there IMMEDIATELY. To say Eclipse and Sun were shocked and scared would be an understatement. Eclipse rushed over to the girl in a second, arm reaching out to grab her left hand and give a gentle yet urgent tug.

Moon? Moony calm down! Please, why should he leave with Cassie NOW, we are so close to getting the boy out and leaving with them both. I know we don't LIKE that boy, but we can't leave him to perish down here-

NOT THE BOY. NOT THE BOY! BAD! LYING! TRICKSTER . NAUGHTY. NAUGHTY. AHHGGG!!! 

Moon?! What do you mean not the boy?! You are not upset about the boy? Or you do not think that is the boy in there?!

MIMIC. BAD. NOT THE BOY. MIMIC, MIMIC, DANGER!!! DO NOT LET IT OUT!

Mimic? Not the boy? Danger? Whatever Moon had stumbled across in his memories, it seemed to have really set him on edge. When giving another light tug did nothing to pull the girl away, Eclipse began attempting to scoop her up in his arms, urging her to turn away from the conduit charging station, only for her to struggle back and huff, turning to face him in irritation.

"What? Can't you see I'm working here?"

"Cassie! We have to go, NOW. You need to stop trying to free whatever is in there! Moon says its-"

The sound of the forklift activating drew both pairs of eyes, jumping and startled at the loud piercing shriek of the rubber on the tires screeching against the ground as it drove full throttle through the slab of concrete.

Oh no.

Cassie left her Faz-Wrench in the machine, it must have finished when he was pulling her away and talking to her. Stupid! He should have removed it from the machine, not her ! In his self depreciation, he just barely caught a hold of the girl's arm as she attempted to run over and climb through the hole to get inside that evil room. Even Eclipse could feel it now, wafting into their own room like a found sent left to steep and grow.

The girl moodily glared at him, shaking his hand off and pushing away from him as she rushed over into the other room, immediately being followed, albeit stiffly by Eclipse himself. He swept her up in his arms before she could go any further in, turning his back on whatever was in there with them, in order to try to shove her back through the hole they had come through. Maybe he could rip up a tile and seal the door with that before he attempted to turn the security back on.

"Eclipse! Stop it! Gregory! Gregory, are you okay?!"

"You saved me Cassie, you saved me. "

It was similar, so eerily similar, yet so wrong. It sent chills down his spine. He could hear movement in the corner as something large, and metal rose to its feet. Suddenly, he couldn't move. Cassie squirmed free yet paused beside him, obviously catching on for herself that-

"You're not Gregory! What are you?"

The thing began glitching, it's voice distorting and looping as it tried to speak, or perhaps it simply didn't care about keeping up the illusion anymore since it had already gotten what it wanted, a way out .

Something was tossed at their feet, Eclipse shifted to face the threat slowly, never taking his eyes off the glowing ones in the darkness, he scooped it up and handed it to Cassie, receiving a gasp in response.

"This is Gregory's Freddy-Talky. Why do you have this? Where is the real Gregory?! What have you done with him!?"

The thing began to give a grating laugh, beginning in Gregory's own voice and shifting down and up before eventually going silent and roaring like a lion at them instead. Eclipse kept an arm out to shield the girl at all times as he began backing them closer and closer to the hole in the wall. 

" Mimic. "  

Eclipse didn't know how Moon managed to seethe out the word, or perhaps name ? Maybe it wasn't Moon, maybe he himself had said it, he didn't know. But the second the 5 letters were out, the thing growled at them, stepping closer in a jerking fashion, almost as if it were unused to using its own legs. Maybe it was, if it had been trapped down here for a long time, it may not have bothered moving around, in order to conserve power. 

Come to think of it, he didn't see any charging stations down here, how did that thing stay charged?

"I'm sorry, what ? Eclipse, do you know what that thing is?!"

"No! Not really! But I know it is dangerous, little star, and Moon wants both to come out and tear it apart and for us to run at the same time!"

That thing hissed at them stomping forward 2 more feet as they backed up 2 more, their bodies now pressed against jutting plaster.

"He would know more than me though, even with his corrupted memory files. You should enable the shift, Moon is better for confrontation and he will have a much greater chance of keeping you safe if this comes to blows with that thing ."

Yes, YES! SHIFT! PUT ME IN CONTROL! Tell her to do it NOW! We have all grown fond of young Cassie, even me, despite her being a goody-goody , we do not want to lose her. Put ME in. I will protect her, I will tear this thing off its stupid stilt legs.

While Moon was vehemently agreeing and attempting to override their dial to force control from Eclipse, Sun was vehemently denying the decision. Instead arguing that they should just grab the girl and flee .

I am faster! Give me control, I will take our little friend and RUN faster than this monster can ever hope to move and get her to safety! Even with only 1 foot, I am surely speedier than it!

Argh, NO! It is a threat to everyone, to everything! We must take it down, here and NOW, Sun! Eclipse, take her wrench! Give me control!

He wished they wouldn't do this now of all times. This was not the time or place to be tearing his head into two halves. Not when he was faced with a maximum level threat and he had a child to protect. Oh well, maybe that thing would be distracted by him long enough for Cassie to get away. It could chew him up and shake him around like a dog with a toy for all he cared, he was pretty totalled anyway, as long as Cassie got away.

The thing lunged for them in a fraction of a second, its fingers just barely tickling his chest plate, when just as suddenly as they were there, they were yanked away. They were met with equally clawed hands caught and wrestled theirs in an ironclad grip. Roxy, the would be savior growling at them to flee, now! As she pushed against the threat again, a blur of blue came rushing by next to shoulder bash the thing off its feet. 

 Bonnie.

Another pair of stomping feet came to their sides and urged the two toward a different hole in the wall.

"The elevator we came down is out of commission, pumpkin, this way, there should be another one through there . Let's go!"

Chica, when did Chica decide to start helping them? She didn't even give them a second to view the scuffle occurring in the room with them, as she urged them out through the hole and into a cavernous system of tunnels. 

At this point, Eclipse was dazed, and it seemed Cassie was no longer feeling surprised by anything as she immediately took to Chica helping them, only pausing to ask which direction to go, something even Chica had to pause for as she didn't seem to know herself. That was when Cassie's own Roxy-Talky began crackling to life, a familiar voice pouring out through its speaker.

It was Gregory, and he was instructing them . Something that swiftly drew a hiss from Chica, who appeared to want to murder the Walkie-talkie, or at least the one behind it. But, Gregory was right, they had no choice at this point but to trust him and his unnamed friend to lead them to salvation. So the group began pushing forward, Chica at the rear, Cassie in the middle, and Eclipse at the front.

He was curious where all these tunnels led and where they even came from. Had that thing been digging them? It didn't appear to have much else to do. He could hear it roaring behind them, they all could, a couple times Cassie stopped and tried to look back, only to have Chica gently urge her not to turn around, to keep moving and to not look , all the while he kept a hand on Cassie's own, squeezing hers lightly in what he hoped was a comforting fashion.

They eventually hit what looked like another run down building, on one side there were doors, one open and one behind it shut. Chica rushed over to try to open it and found it wouldn't budge, even when she threw herself against it, it held her weight. At the end of the hall was another Fazbear Technicians conduit charging station. Why this old looking building had near current tech, he did not know, and it bothered him greatly .

But there were more pressing issues at hand, he pushed Cassie in front of him, caging the girl with his own body and glancing back over his shoulder, Chica soon came to his other side and stood behind them as well while the girl worked. As soon as Cassie got it, Chica urged her onto the elevator, ignoring her protests and telling her not to worry.

"But what about Roxy and Bonnie? We can't leave without them!"

"Don't worry sugar, I will wait down here, if it is safe, I will tell Eclipse to send the elevator back down for us through our internal communications network."

"But that thing copies people, right? What if it can copy your internal sign thingy too."

That brought about a moment of pause before Chica shook her head and pushed the girl in further. 

"I am sure Roxy and Bonnie have everything under control. They are both tough ones. That thing is probably already in pieces, do not worry about them. You need to get her out of here now though, Eclipse. Cassie I am sorry for chasing you earlier, I was only doing as the M.X.E.S system told me to, trying to stop you from deactivating the nodes and freeing that thing. Thank you for fixing my voice box, this may sound vain but I missed the sound of my own voice. I was beginning to forget what I sounded like. Go."

"Wait, please, Chica, come with us!"

"Oh, I really should stay here sweet pea, I should go back to make sure Roxy and Bonnie are okay and know the way out, what if they are damaged from the fight and need a shoulder to lean on?"

The girl had tears in her eyes, clinging tightly to the robotic hand as Eclipse moved into the elevator behind her and began pulling her further in to shut the door.

" Please! " 

A furious roar and horrible screeching sounded down the hall, a heavy, maybe 2 heavy, objects coming ever closer pushed the chicken to shove the girl inside elevator and rush inside herself as she slammed a hand on the button, just in time to have the thing force its head through the door and get it chopped off. 

The group could see the thing was already missing its right hand and left leg. So Roxy and Bonnie truly had put up a fight against it, before it either took them down or escaped to give chase. They all hoped it was the latter and that the thing hadn't managed to decommission their friends for good. Cassie expected the body to fall without the head, she shouldn't have, she had encountered that Prototype thing in Fazer Blast, but she did nonetheless.

So when it instead quietly grasped the grate door and began to seethe silently, its head hissing on the floor of the elevator with them, she couldn't help but cling to Eclipse, who swiftly pulled off his nightcap again, only this time instead of using it as a pillow for her, he placed it on her head, letting it eclipse her eyes to obscure the world around her, hoping that would give her some peace. 

Meanwhile, Gregory began spouting some vague information about the thing in the basement, he could see Chica glaring at the intercom so she must have been paying attention, good, at least one of them was. Eclipse couldn't be bothered, not right now, not when Cassie was so shaken. Honestly, he was pretty shaken himself. He was tempted to give control over to one of the other two just so he could have a break for a bit.

"But, we can't risk being followed."

"Wait, what?! Gregory, no! Ah! "

Now that caught his attention. Well, that and the fact that the elevator shook so choppy and dangerously. He and Chica exchanged one glance, before Eclipse curled himself bodily around the girl, while Chica rushed over and hooked her arm through the railing door guard before grabbing both Eclipse and Cassie, cushioning the girl between the two robots.

The giant metal box that was once set to be their salvation, now seemed like it would instead become a giant coffin of steel, something that would only lead them to their doom. The elevator gave one final jerking screeching jolt, before it began sparking on all sides as the elevator dropped. The screeches began to sound less like screeching metal and more like the wails of the damned. 

But it only fell for a second. The next second, everything stopped, and roaring struggling sounds could be heard from above. For a few seconds none of them moved or said anything, but then Chica spoke up.

"Wait a second, I know that voice, Monty ?! Monty is that you ?!"

"Y'all are heavy! Talk later, get the kid out through the emergency exit on top of the elevator! There's a vent up here y'all can escape through! Hurry up though! That darned Mimic is climbing the cables below!"

Eclipse was prone to hesitate, not at all trusting the vicious Gator, but Chica appeared to trust him and stood to lift them up to the ceiling, helping them get the emergency door open and get the girl through the hole, Eclipse soon climbing up after and reaching down to pull Chica up as well. Sure enough, there he was in all his smarmy glory, Monty, holding both severed ends of the elevator cables, one in each hand as he struggled to keep it together. 

Chica once again lifted the girl, placing her on her shoulders so she could reach the cables and begin climbing toward the open vent that Monty himself had busted out through. As soon as Cassie was up, Eclipse launched himself onto the cable next to hers, waiting patiently for the girl to climb enough for him to move onto the cord below her, that way he could catch her if she fell.

Once she got close enough to the vent, Eclipse followed her up and jumped into the vent himself, reaching out to grab her hand and pull her into the vent as well. They waited while Chica got herself onto the cables before Monty released the elevator and they all listened to it screech and pick up speed as it rushed toward the beeping body climbing below it.

Pancakes are supposed to be good, happy things, but in this case, Chica could think of no other comparison for the Mimic getting crushed under the elevator and flattened like one. When the dust settled and silence fell over them, they all let out a sigh of relief. 

Soon Monty found himself grabbing Chica's arm and pulling her over to his cable. Eclipse pressed as high as he could to let Cassie crawl under him to take the lead so that he and Monty could work together to get the one armed chicken into the vent as well. By the time they finally managed it, and it was Monty's turn to get back in the vent, they heard someone yelling below them, calling for Cassie in a feminine yet gruff voice.

Chica and Eclipse held Cassie back in the vent, Monty growled. They had crushed the thing, surely it was dead, so how could it still be mimicking? 

"K-K-Kit? You there? Please, answer us!!"

"Cassie! Answer us Cassie!"

Surely it couldn't Mimic two voices at the same time right? Or at least, they all hoped it couldn't. Especially since Cassie refused to hide from her friend.

"Roxy! Roxy I'm up here! Follow my voice Roxy!"

"Sweetheart, be careful, we still don't know if that thing is coming after us. That may not even be Roxy."

"Yah, and that thing can't be the old blue bun himself, that guy bit the dust ages ago. Ain't that thing at least smart enough ta know that?"

Ignoring Chica and Monty, Cassie called back again.

"Roxy! Bonnie! Come to the elevator!"

"Elevator? Darn it, I can't see anything , Bonnie, make yourself useful, lead me to the elevator."

"Yeah, sure Rox. Leave it to me, I'll be your seeing eye bunny. Not much else I'm good for right about now. That thing did a number on my my hips, and I probably shouldnt have bashed something that solid with just my shoulder. I feel like I took a tumble off the Catwalks for crying out loud. How did you manage to get away with such little damage done to you?"

"Maybe I'm just better than you, now shut up unless you're speaking to guide me."

"Ouch, I'm starting to feel like ya didn't miss me much after all. Love ya too Rox."

They could make out a faint groan and eventually, they were able to hear the light pounding of two sets of robotic footsteps below them, giving Chica and Eclipse both the opportunity to sigh in relief. It really was them then. Unless there were two Mimics .

"Uhh, Kit? This elevator is smashed to pieces, I don't see you anywhere, where are you?"

"I'm above it! We went out the ceiling, and now we're in the vent!"

"Out the ceiling? You mean the emergency escape panel?"

A bit of shuffling and a few seconds later and they were able to make out the mangled faces of both Bonnie and Roxy gazing up at them from the destroyed elevator. Bonnie gave a low whiskye before shaking his head. 

"Shoot Kit, how'd you get all the way up there? You said you guys are in a vent ? Dunno if I can swing that one. I might not fit. I think I'll have to climb the elevator cables all the way to the top and meet you guys there. Rox can probably fit in there with you guys though."

The wolf was quick to smack him over the back of his head, growling at him as she spoke.

"Idiot, I'm practically carrying you here. How are you going to climb anything if your legs aren't working?"

"Well, I mean, they're working , just not-"

"What?! You mean I've been carrying your dead weight all this time?!"

Not even a second later they heard a thud.

"...well. Gee Rox, you didn't even wait a second before you dropped me. Really not feeling the love here."

"Cassie! You said I have to climb up and out of the elevator to get to you? Where's the hole at?"

"Emergency escape panel." Bonnie corrected.

"Yeah, whatever, that."

"It's in the center!"

"About 2 paces in front of you and 3 paces to your right Rox."

Eventually, Bonnie pushed himself to his feet and helped Roxy get through the ceiling, something she begrudgingly returned the favor for, especially since she could use the boost to his throw netter her to reach the vent, Monty and Chica both rushing to catch her and pull her in when she hit the edge of the vent.

"Bonnie? What about you?" Called the Chicken.

"Oh, don't you worry about me. I'm a bunny, we're known for having pretty good legs, even if my hips aren't too great at the moment, I betcha I can still jump just as good! I'm gonna climb those cables and get out through there. You guys take Rox in the vents with you and see where they lead. See ya all soon!"

"Be careful Bonnie!"

"Will do Kit! You guys too!"

They could hear an audible squeaking a d creaking sound before a second later when they saw Bonnie practically fly past them as he caught the cables like they were ropes in a gym class and began scaling them. 

The group traversed the vents quietly, allowing Monty to call the shots on which way they turned, trusting he would lead them out of the ventilation systems he had been using as his main mode of transportation lately and back out into the open. Thankfully, he did, claiming he couldn't double cross a brat he owed a life debt to. 

The robot's had no problems, but Cassie was beginning to wane, the dust and stale air were giving her a sore throat and a headache, so they knew they couldn't linger long for her sake. But once the metal of vents gave way to rock and dirt, they all would heave a collective sigh of relief. It would be then, that Cassie would apologize to Roxy, breaking into tears as the wolf hugged her tight and assured it it was alright, that they were friends and she trusted her and she was just glad to see the girl safe.

She would do her best to assuage any guilt the girl held, Cassie only did what she could to save who she thought was a scared trapped little boy who was in danger, the blame was not on her but on the thing that tricked her. And they all knew that. All that matter was that nobody died. Cassie, the ever caring girl, would then take up the role of being Roxy's eyes. Holding her hand and guiding her with a smile Roxanne could not see, but could hear along with the adoration in her voice.

When the group made it to the second elevator, they were required to do more climbing, Eclipse was quick to rip off the remnants of his pants to use to tie Cassie onto his back in a sling. It was decided that he would go up first, carrying Cassie on his back, then Chica, then Monty would follow, then lastly Roxy. Eclipse could tell everyone's batteries were running low, figuratively and likely literally, so he asked Cassie to switch him over to Sun so he could lighten everyone's moods.

That seemed to help with Chica and Cassie, and Roxy whether she wanted to admit it or not seeing as hearing Cassie in higher spirits appeared to lift her own.

"Ohhh!! Climbing! It is just like in my Daycare! I am so good at climbing friends! You will see, we will be up in a jiffy!"

And up he was, in record time. Followed soon by Chica, Monty and Roxy. Sun certainly was the life of the party, chatty and friendly with everyone. They were able to get back to Roxy's Raceway, check on who had the lowest battery and get them in the charging station first before alternating amongst them all. Once they were all charged, all they had left to do was find Bonnie and get Cassie out.

But where was Bonnie anyway? He had a straight climb up one elevator shaft that led to who knows where. He said he would meet them, but where was he? He wouldn't have left them behind, would he? Where had he ended up when he got out? How would they find him again? They hadn't made any plans to meet up anywhere after. So the question became one that was prevalent many times for many years.

Where was Bonnie?

Well, the answer to that came in the form of a single piece of paper, a note, something that Sun found and waved excitedly in his hand with a chipper tone.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_

And the answer to that was, where he had wanted to be since the moment he woke up. Or at least, as close to it as he could get. Because when he climbed up, he could hear voice, he assumed that it was Cassie and the others, that they had beat him out, so he raced after them. But instead of finding a group of robots and a girl, he found a woman with long blond hair carting around a headless endo, and a boy carrying an unzipped duffel bag. And inside that unzipped bag was the head of a single specific robot.

Freddy …

"Freddy! That's you, isn't it?! It's…It's ME. BONNIE! YOUR OLD BUNNY BUDDY!"

If that was him, if that was Freddy, his Freddy, then…then he would. Surely he would!

"Bonnie? Bonnie, my old friend, is that you ?"

Freddy .

"It is! Golly, you know it is! And that's you, my old bear buddy, right Freddy?"

The boy and woman paused glancing at each other and whispering in hushed tones, but he could see it, the flicker of plastic eyes. Eyes he knew so painfully well. It was him, his Freddy .

" Bonnie , I have missed you, so very much . Gregory, Vanessa, that is him Bonnie! My dearest friend ."

"Freddy, we don't have time, we have to go !"

"Then maybe he can come with us! Come with us Bonnie, Vanessa and Gregory can fix you up. Please , Bonnie, do not leave me again ."

He and Freddy, he never had to leave his side again. It could be them again, together, forever and ever and ever .  

"You & me? Together???"

"Forever and ever , Bonnie."

He could have this, it would be so easy, nobody at Fazbear Entertainment even knew he was still alive and functioning. But then, he would be saying goodbye to Chica, Roxy, the DA and Cassie his Kit. He couldn't do that to all of them. 

"Freddy, I-I can't. I want to, so badly, but I can't. Chica, Rox, DA and Cassie, I can't just leave them when I promised that-"

"Wait, Cassie, did you say Cassie ?"

The boy spun around and stepped toward him a few confident steps.

"Cassie who absolutely loves Roxanne Wolf, green nails, homemade friendship bracelets, that Cassie?"

"Uh, yeah, hey buddy, you're Kit's friend, Gregory, right?"

"She survived ?!"

Well that was a weird way of saying she's alive. He sounded more shocked and disbelieving than excited and relieved. Glancing up, he saw the woman scowling. How odd.

"That is great news, is it not Superstar? You can be reunited with your friend! It is a miracle that rickety old elevator did not crush her when it gave out!"

"Uh, yeah, awesome. Say uh, Bonnie, where did you say she was again?"

With a shrug, Bonnie watched the boy and woman blankly.

"I don't know. She escaped through the vents, I climbed the elevator cables, alone."

"That was where you were this whole time? Goodness, Bonnie, I am sorry, I am so sorry. I should have looked for you harder . The years were, uh, difficult without you. I was not operating a peak performance."

"Heh, me neither Fred, but, then again, I wasn't really operating at all."

Gregory pulled out Freddy's head, passing it off to Bonnie to keep him occupied while he ran back to speak to the woman. As they whispered harshly, he and Freddy were left to chat and what a nice chat it was. 

The first thing Bonnie did, was a gesture out of habit. He pressed his nose to Freddy's and twitched it twice. It was something a little girl had done to him once, a bunny kiss, she called it. Said her bunny did it to her all the time to show affection, it meant that her bunny trusted her, that they were friends. 

So he had done it once with Freddy in front of some young children, and it got plenty of laughs, even if it seemed to embarrass the bear at first, it was something he grew used to, and eventually something that roused a chuckle from him. He missed hearing his friend's laugh, seeing his eyes shift into a smile, really he just missed everything about him.

"Hahaha, oh goodness Bonnie, you have not changed a bit."

"Pff, neither have you , you old softie."

"Hey, rabbit!" This voice was older, harsher than the boy. It was the woman.

"The names Bonnie, miss. What can I do for you?"

"What happened to that… thing in the basement, it uh, it tried to climb the elevator cords, that's what caused the elevator to fall. Too much weight. Did it manage to survive?"

Curious. How did she know about that thing in the basement? Forcing a smile and a chipper tone, he saluted.

"No ma'am! Least not as far as I saw. I managed to tear off one of its legs, Roxy tore off a hand, and somehow when it slipped past us and chased Cassie, it managed to get its head lopped off. Found it in the elevator, and I saw its other hand and arm poking out from under the elevator when I went through it to club the cables. Pretty sure it got crushed under there. But I was low on battery, so I didn't stick around to find out."

The woman nodded, frown marring her face as she typed something in on her phone. 

"Okay, let's go, if you're coming with us then let's get a move on."

"Um, but what about Cassie?"

The woman glared, pocketing her phone as she once again hefted up the endoskeleton.

"Just leave them a note or something. If they went up through the vents, they'll likely come out through Roxy's Raceway, just write down that you're fine, that you went home with us, and not to worry about you."

"Will we be coming back for them?"

"Probably not. The girl has parents, unlike this little man here."

"Officer Vanessa, what about Chica and the others? We will return for them, right?"

"Freddy, we're already taking enough of a risk with you and the rabbi- Bonnie, if we steal all of the Fazbear animatronics, they're bound to find us. Besides, aren't you forgetting how all of them hunted Gregory? We can't make him live in a home full of people who tried to murder him once."

"But they are no longer infected, just like how you are no longer infected!"

"That doesn't matter, they still hate him, he still had to rough them up to survive, and they still haunt his nightmares. We already agreed, we aren't putting him through that."

Freddy gave a defeated groan, but relented. Something Bonnie took note of, as he winked encouragingly at the bear.

"Don't worry Fred, I'll leave them a note explaining everything. Just leave it to me. So if I'm going home with you folk, where are we going?"

The woman sneered, at him pulling out a pen and some folded up paper from her breast pocket.

"What, you want an address ?"

"Sure! I can look it up in my maps, it'd nice to know where I'm going."

The woman rolled her eyes but spat out an address, something Freddy corrected helpfully when the woman accidentally gave the wrong street name and zip code. Bonnie took the paper and pen with smile.

"Thanks Doll. 'ppreciate it."

"Whatever."

So he jotted the address down at the bottom, drew a picture of himself winking and holding hands with Chica, Roxy, Cassie and DA, then left it pinned to the side of the charging station in Roxy's Raceway. 

The note read as follows.

Hey gang! Don't worry, that thing can't copy the handwriting of an animatronic that has been out of commission for years! I found him, I found Freddy ! I'm sorry to say, but I'm going with him. He's nothing but a head right now and he needs me, and I need him. Cas, you said you're dad said I'm his favorite, right? He was a tech working for us, you said? You think he'd be able to fix Chica and the others up? Freddy says the woman and boy can fix me up. He said her name is Vanessa and the boy's name is Gregory. Don't worry about me. I'm sure we'll meet up again soon. Here's the address, 8814 Fazbaker Road, 198783. We will meet again. Count on it, because I'll make sure of it. DA, keep taking care of my Kit, and Chica, Rox, I love you girls, but please be nice to each other. Take care! And I'm sorry. 

-In my processors forever and ever and ever, Bonnie ♡

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

"Well, I guess that means you guys are all coming home with me then, huh? He's right. My dad can totally fix you all up. And if Fazbear Entertainment wants you back eventually, then they can come get you and you'll all be good as new and ready to go. And if they don't, we'll, then you can stay with me forever and ever!"

"HA! No way kid, I ain't going home with you. I've spent my whole existence living with these two, and lemme tell ya. I'd rather stay here with the building in shambles having nothing but the DJ and my thoughts for company. I've repaid my debt already, so do me a favor and get out of my house you trespassers."

With that Monty clawed his way off. Leaving Sun clapping his hands at the prospect of a sleepover . Roxy refused to leave the girl's side, saying that of course she would be going home with her. And Chica, having no where else to go, decided that she too would accompany the girl home. 

"This will be great, a bunch of friends , having one big sleepover like a big happy family! Ohhh, I cannot wait! Let's go now Sunshine! Come on Chica, Roxanne, let's go! This way, this way!"

With a sigh, Chica followed after the skipping marionette-like animatronic, Roxy scoffing and grabbing Cassie's hand as the girl snickered and smiled and led her along. This would be the start of a new crazy family and friend group, a chaotic and codependent one. One that would stay together, forever loyal.

They knew this was not the end for them, even if it was the end of the Hellish night at Freddy's. They knew Bonnie was right, someday soon, they would reunite, and when they did, all Hell would break loose, again. Wounds would be reopened, but ultimately things would be resolved. It would be for the best, whether they liked it or not. Even if it hurt.

THE END