Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

They had thought it was going to be a routine check. Techs were still trying to find ways to fix Moon so the Daycare’s nap time could be reinstated.

Moon grumpily figured they would try and fail again to “fix” him. Sun tried to send him reassurance, maybe this time was the one!

Moon did not acquiesce. He was surprised the entire Pizzaplex didn’t close down after a child had gotten locked in one night and a fire broke out. Apparently some anonymous donor- probably a very invested fan or collector- had pulled for the Pizzaplex to fix up and reopen. Most of the star animatronics were horribly mangled, Roxy missing eyes, Monty missing his lower half, Chica missing… most of everything. The damage had occurred the same night the kid was trapped. It almost seemed dubious to blame the kid for the horrible state of the main cast of the show, so the staff were mostly left scratching their heads on what the heck happened. The fire was blamed on the kid, though, so Fazbear Entertainment could prove that their facility was not a natural fire hazard. Oh yeah, and the worst part was Freddy’s head had gone missing. They had to make a new head and re-code his entire personality from scratch, along with re-coding everything else for that matter, as all the important parts were in the head. The kid had gotten away, though. And the single human security guard that should have prevented all that was nowhere to be found.

The expenses on the repairs were such that it honestly would have saved more money to scrap the entire pizzeria, given it wasn’t the only one in the state, especially with all the rumors and bad PR. But, well, when handed shovels of money, what else was corporate to do, not take it?

They were wheeled into the Parts and Repair room, into the protective cylinder. The lights were on and Sun mode was activated. Not that it made a difference, as Moon could still feel and hear everything. The lights used to flicker pretty badly, but it seemed they had been recently replaced, burning brightly.

Anything to keep the moon contained.

However, one upside was that, after that incident with the child, everything in the Pizzaplex felt… clearer. Like a dark fog had lifted. Moon himself was concerned to find his memory hazy afterwards. He was also confused why the lights were always on and Sun had seemed to be doing everything to keep him out, locked far away from the surface, buried deep.

When the Pizzaplex almost closed, the company had even gone as far as to disconnect from the power grid before everything started hurriedly being put back online and fixed up. Moon had finally been able to come out once dark mode kicked in. Sun had fought him. He still couldn’t quite understand why, but he didn’t shut out Sun like Sun had shut out him. There had been hurt, confusion, queries, followed by delight. It had seemed he was “fixed” all on his own. Then they found how many corrupted files Moon still had. At least they were no longer affecting his behavior… and sanity, according to Sun; though he still refused to give full details on why he had ardently kept Moon locked out until then.

Incidentally, despite being considered the most dangerous among the animatronics during his “insane era”, even having several “incidents” with human staff, apparently (details omitted), they were the last to get looked over. The techs had disabled movement from him and Sun’s shared frame, strapped them securely to the table, and made sure they were all outside the protective cylinder, letting the inner animatronic maintenance arms do the work. Moon internally sighed as he felt him and Sun being forced into sleep mode. Maybe this would fix everything. Maybe they could fix the corrupted files that were still glitching and confusing his memory… Maybe he should learn to drop the habit of being so cynical and pessimistic all the time.

~*~

Moon felt his systems waking up and immediately knew something was wrong. Sun wasn’t there. Sun wasn’t there. Sun WASN’T THERE.

He had been awakened in a standing position, and apparently had been moved to the Daycare before activation. Why wasn’t Sun there?

He felt frozen in place. The world was fundamentally wrong. Why were there bright lights? It shouldn’t be possible for him to be out with bright lights. Their light sensors should have forced a switch. But SUN WASN’T THERE.”

“... Moon?”

That voice was familiar. Moon stopped rapidly tearing through his files in an attempt to find some trace of Sun and finally focused on his optics. Sun was standing a few feet away, across from him. Sun was standing there. He was looking at Sun. They had shared one body for so long that it felt like the world broke. Or his mind. Maybe he was still insane. Sun was standing in a frozen position, hands partly pulled away from his face, probably going through the exact shock Moon was.

They had been ripped apart.

Chapter Text

Moon felt physically locked in place, unable to cope with this, frozen. He became vaguely aware of the presence of techs in the room, their background mumble beginning to come into focus.

“Well, it's not attacking anyone yet.”

“Maybe something broke when the transfer happened…”

“Just give them a moment, they may be computers with high learning, but this is a fundamental change from what they’ve adapted to.”

“Do you think we finally solved the aggression problem?”

“Maybe we should leave the room and watch the security feed instead… give ‘em some space to process.”

Moon had locked eyes with Sun now. They couldn’t communicate directly anymore. All it took was a thought before. Now it felt like they were a million miles away. Even so, he could almost feel their mutual agreement to stay frozen in place until the techs left. Moon became aware that, unlike Sun who was standing free, a chord was plugged into the back of his head. He realized he was probably plugged into a maintenance computer on one of the mobile carts from Parts and Service. Probably just in case they needed to quickly shut him down.

There was some more mumbled discussion. Then someone very slowly, and very carefully unplugged the back of his head. It was a mildly unpleasant sensation. Then the human staff departed, leaving Sun and Moon alone in the room.

~*~

Their idea for a “fix” had been to rip them in half!? Moon looked down at himself, then over at Sun— and every time Sun entered his field of vision the world just felt so wrong. Did that mean they’d built a whole new Daycare animatronic and transferred every file that made him him into it? Which one was their original frame, which was the copy?

Sun seemed to be coping slightly better, though to his advantage he’d been alone (when he'd been keeping Moon shut out) a lot more, recently. Moon put his hands to his faceplate, hunching over and covering his eyes, hissing static in distress. Sun was slowly making his way toward him, as if careful not to startle him. Moon wasn’t sure what Sun’s intent was— maybe to comfort him— but Moon flinched away as soon as Sun was about to reach arms length. He retreated to the opposite wall of the Daycare as far from Sun as he could get, still covering his face. The lights had been left off in half of the room. It was at least a little darker here, feeling less wrong and exposed in light that he should never be able to see except from a distance. Never be able to be in.

Sun’s voice, with a slight strained note of static hugging the edges, cut through his thoughts again, “M-moon?”

Moon lowered his hands, hunched over still, dropping to all fours like a cornered animal ready to fight.

Sun was shaking slightly, still making small steps forward, hands raised placatingly, the bells attached to Sun’s wrists jangling with nervousness, “M-moon… i-s that y-y-y-ou?” His voice was glitching stress, rising to a pitch of barely restrained panic, “D-d-do you remember me? Do y-y-y-ou kn-kn-know who I a-am?”

Moon froze, realizing what Sun was asking. He had just assumed that Sun was his Sun. Was the piece that used to be part of him— was him. But from Sun’s perspective, if there were too many corrupted or unusable files that made up Moon…. They may have simply deleted what remained of Moon from Sun and made a brand new Moon from scratch. At least the large golden statues in the entrance of the Daycare that showed the two of them were now accurate. No longer sharing one body. Two.

Sun was still drawing closer, shaking harder, probably concluding Moon’s reaction to be from lack of recognition rather than a response of horrified recognition.

Moon slowly straightened up until he was in a normal standing position, “It’s me.”

There was a garbled burst of glitchy notes and static as Sun made some sort of cry of relief, hurling himself forward to grip Moon in a tight hug.

Moon reeled back slightly against the weight, but stayed in his standing posture, not raising his arms. Not hugging back. Because he shouldn’t be able to.

Sun didn’t seem as bothered, squeezing tighter as if the two could become one again if he squeezed hard enough, babbling in his relief, “Oh Moon, I was so so scared, I woke up and you weren’t there I searched all my files but I couldn’t find you anywhere but then I saw you, but then I wasn’t sure it was you and I was sososcaredtheydeletedyouforever!”

Sun broke down into the facsimile of sobs, voice box crackling with static from the strain.

Finally Moon hesitantly lifted an arm up, then gave a light pat pat on the back. He let his arm fall limp to his side again, not sure what else to do but stand helplessly.

He decided to reiterate the two words that seemed to have the most positive impact on reassuring his friend, “I’m here.” The second time he said it more soothingly, like he would to one of the little ones at naptime after waking from a bad dream.

Except they were still in this bad dream. And they weren’t going to wake up.

Chapter Text

One of the techs and the manager were in the room. Once again Moon was plugged into the mobile maintenance computer as they did one last diagnostic scan to confirm there were no errors.

“See, finally fixed,” the tech sounded relieved, as if all burdens of the world had just lifted from his shoulders. Apparently the “fix the moon problem” had been around for a long time, with techs looking more and more incompetent as time stretched on with zero progress.

The manager tapped her arm, “So they’re ready to go?”

“Well, uh, yup. I guess so. Lights on, lights off, no problem from either of them, other than some processing from the change, but their reaction times are getting faster and faster. That’s the Fazbear learning chip for you.”

“Good. We'll open up the Daycare then. It’s about time this place started running smoothly.”

Wait. What? They were opening the Daycare? Now? Sun and moon locked eyes again, both able to read panic in their body language. It was almost like looking in a mirror. A horrible, wrong, mentally breaking mirror.

They weren’t ready. There was no way they were ready. Yes, the learning chip had helped them process. Yes, they had adapted and learned to read each other’s body language for nonverbal communication. They had been the same person, so it made sense that their natural inclinations for body language would match.

But… Moon still felt wrong in the lights. And Sun still hated the dark, baggaged with the double association of the terror he used to feel knowing the “bad Moon” would get out. Freezing up as if he expected something horrible to happen. …They still had to talk about that, but Sun had dodged the subject with cheery determination.

They were still adjusting, so Moon didn’t push him on it. Yet.

The diagnostic check finished, everything green, and with that, the tech and manager excused themselves. There were clicks and the scraping of shutters, and just like that, the Daycare was now open.

Sun and Moon met each other's eyes again, both feeling near-panic. Whelp… ready or not, they didn’t have a choice.

~*~

Moon stood near the back wall, feeling paralyzed. The Daycare was bright, there were screaming children running everywhere, and everything felt unnaturally colorful. At least Sun was in his element, slipping back into cheerful routine as he watched and played with the kids. There was one human staff member behind the security desk. She occasionally gave him (him specifically) a nervous glance now and then. Probably having heard about whatever it was Sun wouldn’t tell him about.

Moon, on the other hand, was in the opposite of his element. It still felt fundamentally wrong to be out when the lights were bright. He wasn’t used to dealing with children when they were this energetic, active, and noisy. He literally only came out when the lights were already off, and the children were tuckered out. The most he’d get is the occasional child that didn’t want to sleep and threw a tantrum (though that could get quite loud), or a child waking up distressed from a nightmare, and he would gently soothe them back to sleep. He didn’t even know what he was supposed to do with this much movement and sound. So he just stood stock-still.

He’d noticed three of the kids who came in had worried faces. And when they’d seen him, they’d had looks of fear and outright terror. He had tried not to flinch when Sun awkwardly reassured them that the moon man wasn’t going to hurt them, and he was here, so everything was a-okay.

Sun hadn’t told him that he’d apparently traumatized children before naptime was discontinued and the lights were always on. What had he done? What had he done!?

As Moon started fretting about this, filing uselessly through his memory bank (anything that had even been vaguely associated with the “fog” was now gone), he was distracted by a little girl toddling up to him. Using facial recognition, he called up her registered profile, his suspicions confirmed as he saw this was her first time at the Daycare. He was hoping she’d get distracted and go toddle off somewhere else, but instead she walked right up to him and tugged on his starry pant-leg.

“Pway wif me.” It wasn’t quite demanding, but it had that matter-of-factness about it that meant it was an order, not a request. An endearing rudeness that only a toddler could pull off.

Moon wasn’t sure what to do. He was programmed to help children sleep, not play with them. He literally had no idea what to do. He tried to give a panicked plea-for-help look to Sun, but unfortunately Sun was so caught up with the swarm of children around him that he didn’t notice— Which should be the case, as the children needed watching more than Moon (if only the staff lady got that memo)-- but he still felt a slight bitterness at his need for help being unnoticed. He felt a horrible sinking aloneness.

The toddler tugged on his pant leg more insistently. Using demanding eyes instead of words.

He had no choice. He had to adapt. Hey, they had the most sophisticated learning programs of all the animatronics in the Pizzaplex, so…. time to put it to use…

Moon slowly uncurled his fingers that were balled into fists, rigid by his side, forcing himself to relax from his unnaturally stock-straight position. The toddler picked up on his more relaxed posture, and yanked his pant leg, still curled up in her little fist, to lead him over to the play tables.

Moon tried not to let his discomfort show, trying to mimic what Sun did, trying to make it look natural and like he wanted to go nearer to the play tables where the majority of loud swarming children were. Yup. This was going to be fun. (He wasn’t made for fun, he was made for peaceful quiet nap times). She sat down on one of the kid chairs, finally letting go of his pants, and Moon sank to a cross-legged position across from her. She gripped a crayon very deliberately in her grubby little fist, then began scribbling over a forgotten drawing that another kid had started. Moon tentatively picked a clean sheet of paper and a crayon of his own. He had it hovering over the page uncertainly for several minutes before he realized he didn’t know how to draw.

Drawing was Sun’s domain. When it was naptime, lights were out, and kids couldn’t even see well enough to draw. It was something he never needed to learn.

His thoughts were interrupted by a, “Look,” as a drawing was shoved in his face.

He held the edge carefully with his fingers, pulling it back so he could see it properly, “Wooow, that looks amazing!” he said gently, encouragingly. He had no idea if it was or not. He hadn't even learned the visual processing needed to recognize basic 2D shapes and discern what this mess of lines and color was.

She seemed satisfied, pulling the paper back and drawing some more. Moon looked down at his own blank page. …Couldn’t it be naptime already? It was so unfair. Naptime was only a small sliver in the day compared to the light and bright and NOISE.

His thoughts were interrupted again, “What’r you drawring?” The little girl pushed up on the table in order to see what Moon had been “drawing”.

He hastily scribbled the first shape that came to mind. He held it up for her to see, “A star!” A single vaguely star-shaped scribble in the middle of a blank page. At least he hoped it was star-shaped. It was harder for his A.I. to discern 2D shapes than 3D ones.

Whether it was convincing or not, the girl seemed satisfied, plopping back down and doodling on her own sheet.

Moon almost jolted with surprise as she threw out another question with no warning, “Are you gon’ draw a night sky?” She didn't even look up.

Moon bit down the response of sure, which didn’t seem like the appropriate tone for a child, and quickly settled on, “Of course.” After a way too long awkward pause, Moon scribbled a second “star”. Then another. Then another.

A shadow fell over them, “How are you doing!”

The familiar voice of Sun caused Moon to jump again at the suddenness (and loudness) of it. Apparently Sun had finally noticed Moon and decided to check on him.

“Drawring.” The little girl replied, not fazed in the slightest, still focused on her masterpiece.

Sun was scrutinizing Moon’s “drawing.”

Sun murmured quietly so only Moon could hear, “No no no, all your stars look exactly the same. You need to make them all different.”

Moon didn’t look up at Sun, actually feeling offended.

Sun had switched his attention to the little girl's mess of colors and squiggles, “Wow! That looks really good! You’ve been working hard on this!”

The little girl just ignored him, still coloring.

Sun switched back to his whispered-critiques-to-Moon voice, “If you make them all identical, it will look like it was made by a machine.”

Moon slowly tilted his faceplate up to stare Sun directly in the face, “We are machines.”

Sun huffed, “But we can’t let the children know that. They think of us as people, friends. Make them different.”

Sun was pulled away by several noisy imps yanking on his pant legs yelling, “Sunny, play with us!” unnecessarily cacophonous, yelling over each other out of sync.

Sun let them drag him away, leaving Moon alone again.

‘Make them different he mentally grumbled to himself. He didn’t even know how. He tried, though. As frustrating and overwhelming as this whole situation was for him, he didn’t want to just flippantly ignore Sun’s advice. He knew he was only trying to help. Had Sun… always been this… grating? Not that Moon disliked Sun or ever wanted to think poorly of him, but it had felt… different when they were both sharing the same head. Back then they understood each other completely, feeling exactly the feeling the other wanted to convey. Now Sun felt distant and ... disconnected. Moon tried making a different shape that he hoped also had some kind of resemblance to a star. Then tried to make another, and another. Well… they may not all be star shapes, but at least making each one different was getting easier.

The little girl stood up, the chair tilting back slightly. She planted a finger right onto his page, “You're doing it wrong.”

Moon looked up at her, not sure what to say. Did his stars look nothing like stars? Did they look too much like they were “made by a machine?"

"You have to color the sky." She grabbed a blue crayon and began to scribble on his page without permission.

Ah, the bluntness of children.

She lost interest just as quickly, then left the table completely.

Leaving Moon alone with his empty sky.

~*~

Finally it was nap time. The lights dimmed, and Moon didn’t miss Sun flinch and resist the urge to crouch down with his hands over his head. Now it was his turn to be in his element. Moon put a hand on Sun's shoulder, causing him to flinch again, and pointed over to the three terrified children, huddled together in the dark. The ones who feared him.

“Sun, I would like you to help them get to bed, I don’t think me approaching them will be wise, right now.”

“Wha-bu-” Sun started to splutter.

Moon gripped Sun’s shoulder more firmly— (It was weird, it was so weird, waking up outside of his “body” and even being able to do this), “It’s alright, just lower your volume and direct them to the nap area. Help them set up their little beds. Tell them… tell them the moon won’t go near them…”

There was a miserable static crackle of sympathy from Sun, and he carefully made his way over to them. In the meantime, Moon fell into routine, helping the other Little Stars get their bedding, resolving any fights over blanket patterns and plushies, playing soothing melodies on his music box (he wondered if Sun still had their old (new?) music box. Had they transferred it over to Moon? Was Sun’s the second frame? He’d have to ask Sun about the music box later.

Soon all the children were softly sleeping. This had always been Moon’s favorite part. Sitting in the middle of the naptime area, surrounded by the rhythmic breathing of peaceful sleeping children, music box playing through gentle tunes.

Sun, on the other hand, was fidgeting so bad Moon worried the jangling of his bells would wake some of the children.

He sighed, standing up, moving carefully- practiced- not making a sound with his own bells. He put a hand on Sun’s shoulder, causing him to flinch again. Sun turned his faceplate up to Moon, head tilting in inquiry. Moon put a finger to his plastic grin, just in case, and gently pulled, leading Sun over to one of the play tables outside the nap area.

Once they had distanced themselves enough, Moon finally spoke, “Here. This way you can stay occupied while I handle nap time.”

Moon helpfully placed some drawing and general craft supplies on the table in front of Sun, then headed back to watch over his sleeping wards.

He hadn’t got three steps when he heard the quiet static of Sun making a throat-clearing noise for attention. Moon resisted the urge to make an exasperated sighing sound, and turned to look back.

“Erm…” at least Sun was keeping his voice box at low volume, “I can’t see in the dark.”

Oh… right. Moon was the one with night vision. “I’ll be right back,” Moon whispered. He quietly picked his way over to the naptime area. He slid open a drawer containing differently shaped night lights, the battery powered kind where you push the center to turn it on. After getting three or four, he headed back over to Sun.

He placed them in a circle around Sun’s workspace, and clicked them all on, one by one.

They lit up the area just enough, and after a moment’s hesitation, Sun started doodling, making quiet humming noises as he did.

Moon internally sighed. Now it felt like he was babysitting all the children and Sun. He tried not to resent it, taking his place back in the middle of the sleeping children, music box playing favorite lullabies once again.

~*~

A child was having a nightmare, making small noises of distress and tensing up. Moon stopped himself from instinctively heading over, checking the child’s profile first. Of course. It was one of the children who’d been traumatized by him. He looked over to where Sun sat. Sun had heard the noises of distress, too, sitting up rigidly, head tilting in inquiry when he and Moon’s eyes met. Moon beckoned him over. Sun leaped up, bells jingling, before he remembered and switched his movement to being slower and quieter, trying not to set them off again. He made it over to Moon, who turned and pointed to the upset child. Sun started to head right towards them. Moon grabbed the back of Sun’s frilled collar, making a low hissing sound in warning. Sun turned his head 180 degrees to look at Moon, body language confused and a little hurt.

Voice box lowered beyond human hearing, but not beyond Sun and his own, Moon whispered, “Don’t just wake her yourself. Your face is similar enough to mine that you could still scare her.”

Sun motioned his arms in a what am I supposed to do? gesture.

Moon pointed to one of the naptime drawers, “Grab a plush— a Sun plush. Gently brush her arm with it to wake her. Make sure the plush, not you, is the first thing she sees. She’ll still be startled for a moment. Then remind her you’re Sun, and tell her everything will be alright, and you’ve brought a friend to protect her while she sleeps. Then give her the plush.”

Sun nodded a little uncertainly, but obediently picked his way over to the drawer indicated. He started to pull open the drawer too fast, making a scraping noise. Moon hissed, but Sun had already frozen, realizing his mistake, and opened it much slower and smoother, lifting it slightly so it didn’t make a sound. His hand hovered uncertainly over the contents.

Oh, right, he could barely see. Moon spun his faceplate once in annoyance. Sun turned his head to look at him pleadingly. Moving his hands behind his head, Moon splayed his fingers to mimic Sun rays. Sun’s head tilted up in an Oooh motion, and he felt around the plushies ‘till he felt out one with unmistakable sun rays.

He tip-toed back to the child, now crying and squirming slightly in the grip of her nightmare. He followed Moon’s instructions to the letter, even managing to force his normally instinctively energetic voice into a soothing tone that was close to Moon’s own.

Moon sighed with relief. Thinking about why the nightnare happened, the relief coiled back into worry. What he’d done to make children, the very thing he was programmed to soothe and comfort, afraid of him? Come closing time, Sun would not be able to squeeze his way out of giving Moon the details. He needed to know.

Chapter Text

The Daycare had finally closed, with the rest of the Pizzaplex closing soon after. Now it was just Sun and Moon in the Daycare. Alone.

Moon stood in a slightly hunched over position, pointedly staring at Sun. Sun was sitting near one of the tables, fidgeting, and trying desperately to pretend not to know what Moon wanted.

“Sun.” Moon finally spoke.

Sun flinched at the tone, fiddling with the bell on the tip of his slipper, “Y-yes?”

“Tell me. I … I need to know what happened…”

Sun whipped his faceplate up at him, “No you don’t”

Moon filed through the recorded memories, seeing the way those children had looked at him… “Yes I do,” he rasped quietly, “I need to understand exactly what I did that scared those children so badly… so I can begin to help them no longer be afraid.” His voice had dropped to a soft whisper.

Sun tensed, then slumped lower, turning back to fiddle with the bell on his shoe.

Moon tilted his faceplate, confused. It was almost like Sun was waiting for someth-

*Click the Pizzaplex is closed. Security protocols activated*

Moon froze with shock.

Sun looked up with too much innocence in his voice, “O-oh, looks like it’s time for you to make your rounds.”

Moon’s faceplate spun counterclockwise in surprise before righting again, “Since when am I part of security?” He was a Daycare naptime attendant for crying out loud. Why would something that was meant to lull children to sleep be part of security.

Sun looked at him slowly, suspiciously, “You… don’t remember?”

Moon shook his head. That should be obvious enough.

Sun slowly stood, faceplate clicking a bit left, then right. He spoke slowly, carefully, “Do you… actually remember me? Or… or did you just say you did because you could tell I was distressed… and you were just acting on your programming to comfort someone who’s upset?”

Moon shook his head, “I do remember you. You specifically. I distinctly noticed when you weren’t there,” Moon paused, calming down, “I remember everything… but… but I don’t remember being part of security… or hardly anything that happened after.”

Sun tapped the unchanging grin on his faceplate thoughtfully, “Hmm… then maybe the corruption that made you… bad… had something to do with the security update they installed in you. And the other animatronics, too… all the Glamrocks have a security mode that goes up when the Pizzaplex closes, and they started acting a little weird about the same time you did, not that I see them much from here…”

That’s right. Neither of them were authorized to leave the daycare. There was no reason for them to. But now that security mode had switched on, Moon suddenly felt the itch of his protocols urging him to leave, “How long have I had security mode?”

Sun tilted his head slightly, “A couple years, now.”

Oh. Moon was missing two years worth of memories.

“But, hey! You’re all fixed up now!” Sun threw his hands wide in a forced gesture of cheer.

Moon stared at him in that way again.

Sun’s pose wilted slightly.

“You’re still dodging my main question.”

“Well, you still need to do your rounds! Very important! Who knows if another crazy kid will sneak into the Pizzaplex, after all!”

Moon continued to stare.

Sun shrank down, going back to sitting, hunching in on himself, almost like a guilty child who knew he’d been caught.

“Sun.”

“Okay okay! But— I- you really do have to do your rounds! So… Y- you should do that.”

“Sun” Moon heard a slight growl enter his voice.

Sun flinched back. Like he was afraid.

Afraid of Moon. Moon took a step back. He knew Sun feared the dark because of negative associations, but he didn’t know Sun feared him specifically.

Sun was aware of what his involuntary flinch had implied, “No, Moon-, its not-”

Moon reeled away, stumbling towards the door, “Fine!” Everything was wrong wrong wrong. Sun shouldn’t be afraid of him. Sun shouldn’t be keeping secrets from him.

“No, wait- Moon! Please! I’m sorry, it’s just-”

Moon thrust open the Daycare doors and stepped over the threshold. He slammed the doors behind him to shut Sun off. He stopped a few steps beyond the door. Shut Sun off… it just felt… that was just so fundamentally wrong. Even when Sun had tried to quarantine Moon in the back of his mind, cutting him off from their senses, he’d still been there. They’d still been able to feel each other’s presence. Know the other was there…

Moon turned around and opened the doors up again. Sun was crouched there, knees up to chest, head buried, shaking slightly. He looked up at the sound of the door hinges.

Moon was silent for a moment. Finally he spoke, very softly, “Sun, please… I need to know.”

Sun’s body shifted in confusion, “Why?” he asked in a pleading tone.

Moon tried to think of a way to explain it that Sun could understand. He couldn’t think of any, so he responded in an equally pleading tone, barely above a whisper, “Please?”

Sun’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Okay… after you do your rounds though.”

Moon wasn’t quite satisfied yet, “Promise?”

Sun nodded, not able to look at him, “Promise.”

That was all Moon needed. Sun would never break a promise to him. He turned and, much more gently, closed the door behind him.

~*~

He searched through all the files connected with security. Apparently the company had even installed more wire rails for him to connect with outside of the daycare. Normally they just called down the wire and used it to “rescue” kids drowning in the ball pit, or use it to do tricks, or catch a child trying to climb the outside of the play structures. But now he could use it to practically span the entirety of the Pizzaplex from the air. It made sense, given that being able to travel effortlessly through multiple floors in this big open building would make him more effective.

He called down the wire with a signal, and it dropped down obediently. Moon hooked himself on and let it lift him, going on autopilot while he processed. Now that he thought about it, he did have several qualities that made him an effective night security guard. The wire that could take him almost anywhere, or allow him to drop down on an intruder unseen. Nightvision. He even had access to security feeds. It occurred to him there might be a way to wirelessly contact Sun. They were so used to simply thinking to each other, that it hadn’t even occurred to him. The process felt like it would be slow and clunky in comparison. It was worth a try though, to ease communication and not have to talk out loud. He tried. Signal blocked.

As he drifted over the atrium, Moon frowned to himself. Was Sun unconsciously blocking him? Or were communications purposely jammed? Why? Perhaps it was so if one got infected or corrupted again, whatever virus one got wouldn’t be transferred to the other wirelessly.

Moon tried a different tactic, accessing the profiles of the children at the daycare from the network. They both had free access to these profiles and could edit and update them accordingly. Moon found one from a child that had only visited once six years ago. She probably wasn’t coming back. He updated her profile: let me know as soon as you see this. He figured no tech would bother checking a six year old profile and find out. So the only one who’d see his message and reply was Sun. Even if Sun didn’t notice it yet, he could tell him about it when he finished his mandatory patrol. After Sun finally explained everything, of course.

~*~

Security was… boring. At first he had looked at all the different attractions of the Pizzaplex with wonder. After a first pass, though, the only things of mild interest were the endless armies of S.T.A.F.F. bots roaming about on set paths, some mopping the floors, others with little security caps and flashlights.

Moon continued his circuit moving on to Rockstar row. On the way there he’d spotted two of the Glamrocks in their themed attractions, Roxy roaming her raceway, Monty on the catwalks above Monty Golf. Chica for whatever reason was hanging around the kitchens. It occurred to him he hadn’t seen Freddy at all. Given Freddy Fazbear was the main mascot, and the whole ‘plex was themed after him, it struck him as odd.

Seeing as he was already in Rockstar row, he checked Freddy’s room out of curiosity, having to peek between a split in the curtains behind the glass. Freddy was sitting there, somewhat rigid, seeming lost in thought.

Oh, right, this wasn’t “Freddy.” At least, not the one he’d known… well, if their scant interactions could be described as knowing. He was about to shrug it off and leave when he realized that Freddy might be having similar troubles adjusting. Worse, actually, given that he’d just been programmed from scratch and been forced to perform on a stage, interact convincingly with crowds of people the whole day, and probably perform birthday parties. Even if he could fall back on his programming for that and coast along, it still had to be stressful. Moon remembered the start of the day when he’d stood, paralyzed by the wall, hoping no one bothered him. Freddy hadn’t even had that as an option.

Moon decided to drop in and see how he was doing. He had the wire lift him up to a vent. Before he even thought, the tips of his fingers had split slightly to reveal claws, and he was spinning his wrist to unscrew the vent, using said claws as a makeshift screwdriver. …Wait, he had claws? Why did a napti- Oooh right. Sun had them too. In case of emergencies, a child tangled in the play structure netting, needing to be cut free before they panicked and injured themselves. Or an injured child needing clothing cut away from the damaged area before it infected the wound. Moon realized he’d forgotten because he had all new associations with his security protocols. He paused on the third screw, realizing what that meant.

He was glad they were at least filed as “last resort” for incapacitating criminals.

He finished the last screw, carefully lowering the vent cover to the floor, making no sound. It was only when he had started crawling through the vent that it occurred to him this shouldn’t be normal for a naptime attendant either. Oh well.

He got to Freddy’s room, the vent cover on this side strangely missing. He made a note of that and filed a report. One of the human staff would see it in the morning.

He peeked in. Freddy was just staring distantly at the wall.

He tapped the inside of the vent with metal knuckles to announce his presence, "'Sup."

Freddy looked surprised, to say the least, "Oh, hello, I don’t believe I've seen you before."

"Nope. Naptime attendant. Not allowed to leave the daycare during hours.”

Freddy tilted his head, confused, “If you are not allowed to leave the daycare, then why are you here?”

“Security patrol. Different protocols for closing hours.”

Freddy looked down for a minute, miming scratching his head with a claw. He looked up again, “Am I in trouble?”

“No I…” Moon switched from his crouched position into a more relaxed one, propping the bottom of his faceplate on one hand, “Just wanted to talk. Check up, see if you were alright.”

“Oh!” Freddy seemed surprised, “Well thank you. I am…… Well, I am feeling quite overwhelmed, but, I think I’m getting it okay.” He paused a moment, as if not sure what to do next. Then he focused on Moon again, “How are you doing?” he asked hesitantly.

“... Kinda in the same boat. Not exactly, but I had 2 years worth of my memories lost, and have found myself suddenly adjusting to unexpected change and things I was never programmed for. Given how stressful it was for me, I thought I’d check up on you.” Moon shrugged.

“Ah… I see. Well…” Freddy trailed off, like he was not quite sure what to say, staring in front of him while he thought. Finally he looked at Moon again, “Thank you. I hope… I hope you are doing alright, too.”

Moon nodded. Now he wasn’t sure what to say. They both sat in silence, a sort of solidarity forming out of their mutual confused awkwardness.

Finally Freddy spoke up again, “Well, I appreciate this. And… and if YOU ever need someone to talk to, you come see me, superstar!” He paused, the last word sounding like a programmed line, “Woops.” he seemed surprised it had slipped out.

Moon chuckled quietly, “Thanks, maybe I’ll take you up on that.” With that he retreated. He hadn’t really been programmed to socialize with anyone other than sleepy children. And Sun didn’t count. That had felt painfully awkward. He doubted he would ever try that again.

~*~

Moon re-entered the Daycare. The time between the building opening and guests arriving was pretty short. But Sun had promised.

True to his word, Sun was patiently waiting, holding something behind his back.

Curious, Moon tried to move to look, with Sun shifting slightly to hide it, “How was patrol?” he asked chirpily.

“Muh.” Was Moon’s response.

Sun tilted his head, not quite sure where to go with that, “Okaaaay. Weeeell, I know I promised… So while I waited for you, I made some things to… to help with the explanations? Maybe?” He seemed to be losing confidence in whatever he was holding behind his back as he spoke, pose going from expectant to hunching slightly.

Moon simply waited. He knew his patience would always outlast Sun’s.

Sun made a staticy sighing noise, then thrust what was behind his back at him, “here!” he seemed to be forcing himself to do this before he changed his mind.

Moon took them. Booklets. Sun had hand-made, colored and drawn, a couple little booklets, the binding even secured with string. Moon slowly lowered to a crouch, placing the booklets carefully on the floor, handling them like they were the most precious treasure in the world.

Sun started to fidget impatiently, partially out of embarrassment, Moon guessed.

The first booklet was titled “Read Me First!” He turned the cover page. There was an illustration of Sun hugging Moon, the sky split in half with day on Sun’s side and night on Moon’s. Unlike hugging Sun for real, there was no sense of wrongness with that picture. Sun had illustrated plenty of these for Moon when they had still been one. The words on the bottom, in Sun’s own made-up font read, “No matter what, we will always be best friends forever, so never EVER worry about that : )” That actually filled Moon with dread. That meant the rest of the contents must be really really bad. He turned the page. An illustration, split in half again, showing Sun playing with children, and moon putting them to sleep. He was starting to get unsettled that each illustration kept.. . (splitting them in half) Moon ignored it and read the text, “Once upon a time, the Sun and the Moon watched over the daycare!” It read cheerily. Moon turned the page. An illustration of Moon during naptime looking less happy (even though their faceplates couldn’t change expression, that was ignored for this illustration) “But one day the Moon started to feel bad.” Turn the page. Moon looked creepier, children no longer being depicted asleep, but scared, “Moon started getting more insistent about the rules, more cranky about children being quiet and asleep.” Moon’s fingers shook slightly as he turned the next page. This illustration of him looked outright scary. “Moon started to get so cranky that children got scared of him, no longer feeling safe when the lights were off.” Moon turned the page so fast it almost ripped, slowing down and finishing the turn more carefully. The final page depicted Sun and Moon happily watching over the Daycare again, “But one day Moon got all better and then everything was alright. No one was HURT.” Sun had gone out of his way to emphasize that. Moon felt some relief wash through him. At least he’d never physically hurt any of the Little Stars… Not that psychologically traumatizing them was much better… but if he’d just been a bit scary…a bit pushy… a bit bossy…. Maybe the damage could still be undone.

Moon placed that book carefully aside, and picked up the second one. The second was titled, “Damage Reports.” This one was only two pages, the inside of the cover and the back. No illustrations this time, just lists of security reports on injuries. Moon’s fingers gripped the booklet harder, pages crumpling slightly. His hands were shaking as he silently read the injuries. That was… a lot of people, most of them security and staff… a few guests (no children). And most importantly, no deaths. He hadn’t killed anyone. Moon went slack, double checking the paper just to make sure.

Sun was fidgeting uncomfortably, waiting.

Moon let the booklet drop from his hands. He was stunned. No deaths, sure, but that… that was a lot of people. No wonder the lights had been stuck on on ON. No wonder Sun had tried to shut him out. He wondered (hoped) if he had shut Sun out when he had gotten bad. Desperately hoped Sun didn’t have to witness any of that through their shared vision. Though… the fact that this one wasn’t illustrated, and was simply a list of reports after the fact, seemed to hint in that direction. Maybe Sun hadn’t been the first to shut him out. Maybe he’d shut Sun out first. He couldn’t remember, but maybe Sun had been alone for longer than he’d first thought. He felt… well, an animatronic couldn’t feel sick exactly… but it was whatever the equivalent would be called.

“Are.. are you okay?” Sun had come over to him, crouching down to his level, voice laced with anxiety. Moon hadn’t even noticed him approaching, “Moon?” He squeaked in a small voice.

“I’m sorry.” Was the first thing that came out of Moon’s voice box, though he wasn’t exactly sure what he was apologizing for, it just felt appropriate.

Sun wrapped him in a tight hug, “It’s okay, it’s okay- you're okay. Okay?”

Moon nodded numbly.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Sun continued confidently, “It was a bad update, that’s all. Bad data. None of it was you, because I know you, and you wouldn’t do that, not on purpose, not ever!”

“.... Okay.” Moon had to agree. Sun had a good point, and he felt that was the only way he could cope with it.

“You're okay.” Sun said again, patting his back a little.

Moon was not okay.

Chapter Text

Things finally settled into a routine. Moon was getting a bit better during playtime, mainly ending up doing one-on-one games or crafts with the shyer or quieter kids.

At one point Sun did his best to convince two of the terrified children to approach Moon so Moon could apologize for scaring them and show them he was nice now (the child who had had the nightmare had not returned since). It had… sort of gone… well… ish. They backed away again as soon as the interaction was over, still looking at him nervously. Moon internally sighed. That was the best they could do for now.

Naptime went much smoother. Sun had gotten used to quietly doing crafts in the dark, his work area surrounded by nightlights. Moon could handle the rest, only needing Sun to help the two children he’d scared get their sleeping mat and blankets.

One thing Moon used to do as he sat and played different songs on his music box had been to chat with Sun. Sun used to excitedly list off all the crafts and games he was going to play as soon as the children were awake again while Moon listened patiently.

Now it was quiet, too quiet. Sun was unable to communicate with him unless they talked out loud. He had told Sun about the note, but reading the ever expanding back and forth wasn’t quite the same as being together used to be.

Moon tried not to think about it. Tried not to think about the “incidences” he’d caused either. The injuries. Nope, definitely not thinking about that. That was his current coping mechanism. Just pretend it wasn’t there. He knew it wouldn’t last, but he couldn’t handle focusing on that for now. Compartmentalized, pushed aside.

Absolutely nothing was wrong.

(Absolutely everything was wrong).

~*~

Closing time, it was security patrol again. Moon was on the wire, barely paying attention, doing the rounds. He’d dropped in to talk to Freddy one more time after the first. It was slightly less awkward. It had felt familiar as Moon relaxed and patiently listened to Freddy stressing out about the other Glamrocks. They seemed to be pointedly ignoring him, not even looking at him after a show, never talking to him, as if they had all silently agreed not to acknowledge him. Freddy couldn’t figure out what he had done wrong. He’d tried to be his most polite, and tried apologizing for anything he wasn’t aware of.

Moon had pointed out that the old Freddy had been close to them, all four of them together since the pizzaplex was built. He suggested they were still mourning the loss of their friend. And even though Freddy looked, acted, and was programmed to be like their friend, it didn’t change the fact that he wasn’t the same one. His advice? Be patient, give them space. He couldn't assume because it was programmed in and displayed in all the marketing around the Pizzaplex that their friendship was a default, taken for granted. He had to assume he was starting from zero, and get to know them from the ground up.

Moon felt his advice was lacking, he didn’t know if the Glamrocks were actually mourning or just spiteful. He didn’t want to bother opening up any conversations with the rest of them to find out.

Either way, Freddy was at least a little encouraged to have an explanation and a game-plan.

Moon hadn’t felt like going back. He was barely coping himself.

~*~

Moon was distracted from his musings when he got a security break-in alert.

He was startled a moment, frozen on the wire as he processed. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to him that he was in security mode for a reason. That he’d actually have to follow through on his protocols for when this exact scenario occurred.

Another thing to shove into the compartmentalization box.

He had the wire swing him over. Whoever it was had entered from the rooftop fire escape. Given that the shutters were closed, locking down every other entrance of the pizzaplex, it almost made sense. But the door could only be opened from the outside with a security badge.

Moon waited, hanging above the exit from the fire escape stairwell. A figure peeked out, cautiously looking left and right. But not up. Never looking up. Their mistake.

The figure took one step, foot now officially in the pizzaplex, and Moon dropped down in front of the intruder, a solid clang of metal on tile, crouched almost spider-like, eyes glowing red from the night vision settings.

The person (a child!?) jerked backwards into the safety of the doorway, eyes wide with terror and recognition as he looked at Moon.

He did not run back up the way he'd come, though. Moon had been hoping he could just scare the intruder off and file an alert after. He wasn’t feeling up to touching any living thing in security mode. It… was how he’d done the most damage according to the incident reports.

Instead the kid reached into the side pocket of the yellow backpack he wore, determined expression on his face, and— oh it was a flashli—

“AAaagh!” Moon flinched, covering his eyes with his hands, scooting away from the offender and his offending light. He could hear the footsteps, entering the pizzaplex again.

Moon’s protocols were screaming at him to apprehend the intruder.

It took Moon a moment to realize light didn’t bother him anymore. He was so used to the experience of sudden light— not enough to cause him and Sun to switch— to result in something akin to pain. But, that’s right, he’d been standing in the brightly lit daycare no problem.

Once he realized that, he slowly lowered his hands from his face, taking the flashlight beam straight on.

The kid stopped moving forward, freezing. He turned the flashlight off, then back on again, full force, right in the eyes.

Moon couldn’t stop an instinctive flinch, but that was it. He stood slowly, rising from his crouched position. He was just moving efficiently, but he guessed his movements probably came off as creepy and uncanny to an organic being.

Now the kid looked scared. He turned his flashlight on and off again in quick succession, Moon flinching slightly less each time it beamed at him. He took a step forward. The kid’s eyes went wide, backing up, back into the stairwell.

“That’s right, thaaat’s riiight. Back up you go.” Moon said softly.

The kid stopped backing up. Apparently Moon had been scarier when he was silent.

There was something else in the kid’s expression now, confusion? Calculating? “They fixed you?”

Moon stopped moving forward, a bit confused as he realized the kid had just addressed him. Moon tilted his head, “You knew me unfixed?” He asked softly.

The kid nodded, still looking wary, but not as terrified.

Moon thought for a moment, “When did you meet me unfixed?” Moon was thinking of the Daycare kids, combing through their profiles, all of the ones who had abruptly stopped appearing around the estimated date he had been at his worst.

“The last time I broke into the Pizzaplex.” The kid stated.

Wait.. the last time? This child’s profile was not registered in the Daycare. Or the Pizzaplex, for that matter.

Moon allowed his voice to drop lower, a slight growl and some static thrown in, “And what were you doing the last time you broke into the Pizzaplex.

Some of the fear returned to the kid’s face with that tone, but he masked it by getting defensive, “That’s none of your business,” then he stopped, looking confused, “You… don’t remember?”

Moon desperately searched through his memory files, coming up blank. He left a note to Sun, hoped he’d check, see it soon, get back quickly. "What was the name of that kid who was trapped overnight at the Pizzaplex, do you know?” He was starting to suspect who this kid was, but it almost seemed unbelievable. Like hearing a tall tale and then seeing the larger than life characters just out and about, existing in the real world.

Meanwhile, the kid was narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Moon’s continued confused silence, “Wait, are you the same moon guy? Or did they scrap him and make a new one?”

Moon decided to feel insulted at how casually the kid had said “scrap him”. As if that wasn’t the equivalent of permanent death for an animatronic. Before he could state anything, Sun did indeed get back to him, “I don’t know, I never asked his name.” Great. Wait. Asked his name? As in Sun had met him. Moon shuddered. The kid had somehow wrecked the other animatronics that night— he could have wrecked Sun the same way. That didn’t seem to be the case though, thankfully.

Moon finally replied, “I’m not scrapped, no. .. I just had a few…” hundred “Of my memories deleted. Anything that got corrupted or was formed while I was… broken is gone.” He allowed some bitterness and vitriol to enter his voice.

“Mmhmmm,” The kid said, tone thoughtful, eyes still squinted with slight suspicion.

Moon wasn’t sure if that meant the kid didn’t believe him, or was seeing if there was a way to exploit him. Moon decided he did not like this kid. He pointed back toward the stairwell to the fire exit, “Out.”

"No."

…Okay, now what.

The kid was looking at him with interest now.

Moon was feeling increasingly uncomfortable.

Putting the flashlight back in his backpack, eyes not moving from Moon, he took a large step forward, purposely, toward him.

Moon flinched back.

He thought he saw an eyebrow cock. The kid took another purposeful large step forward.

Moon hissed and stepped back, voice staticy with threat and distress.

An amused smile was playing on the intruder's lips, "Are you afraid of me?" He almost sounded incredulous.

Moon lowered to that threatened animal pose, on all fours. He unsheathed his claws for effect, "No. Afraid of breaking you." He let his voice come out deeper, slightly garbled, a bit of a growl to it.

The kid flinched and took an involuntary step back himself.

So the kid was still scared of him. Moon stepped a hand closer, claws clinking on the tile, "Security protocol, set to apprehend." Boy, was he gonna bluff this one. Banking everything on scaring the kid right back up the fire escape.

It almost worked, the kid taking an unsteady step towards safety again- then something set in his face, "Do you wanna know why you were broken in the first place? You said you were missing memories, right?"

Moon froze. Was this kid seriously bargaining with him? He held back a defeated sigh. His bluff had been called. He could push it further, could leap towards him, feign like he was going to slash with his claws.

He didn't want to risk it. Didn't want to traumatize the kid. Was still trying to undo the damage he'd caused.

Moon slowly stood up, rising again to his feet.

He saw the kid relaxing, trying to hide his relief with a cocky look. Moon ignored his offer, "Why are you even here, kid? Whaddya want?"

The kid got that set determined look on his face again, "I need some parts from the Pizzaplex. Just an endo. There's tons of those creepy things in the tunnels beneath this place, no one will notice if one goes missing."

"Just an endoskeleton!? Do you know how expensive those things are!?" Moon spluttered in the closest facsimile his voice box could muster to convey sheer indignation.

The kid had the audacity to just shrug.

Moon narrowed his eyes, "Enough. Nighty night. You're up past your bedtime."

The kid snorted, "What are you gonna do?" He taunted.

Moon took a step forward.

The kid didn't budge, confident, intent on calling his bluff again.

Another step forward. Pretend it's naptime mode. Pretend it's a Little Star.

The kid's posture shifted from confident to slightly uncertain.

Another step, arms reaching out (claws most DEFINITELY sheathed at this point).

A hard glint settled in the intruder's eyes as the kid steeled himself, determined Moon was bluffing.

One more step.

Moon surprised them both by lifting the kid up, gripping under his arms.

For a moment they were both startled. Moon heard himself saying, "See? Everything's fine. No one's hurt. No one's injured. Everything is fine. No one's traumatized."

The kid looked down at him, "I think you're traumatized."

Moon was so shocked he dropped him.

"Ow! Geez, watch it!" The kid grumbled picking himself up and checking for injuries.

Moon was stunned, "... Can animatronics get traumatized?"

The kid flashed him an annoyed look while checking a bruise on his knee, "Obviously."

Oh. Moon lowered to a squatting position, resting his arms on his knees. The one productive thing that had happened is the kid was now back inside the stairwell, and Moon was blocking the entrance. Much to the kid's mild annoyance.

The kid huffed and crossed his arms, "We both know you don't have it in you to hurt me, so are you going to move? Or just sit there?"

"... What's your name, kid?"

Taken aback by the abrupt change in subject, the kid stumbled a bit, "Gr-Gregory. It's Gregory."

Moon looked at him suspiciously, "Is that made up?"

"No" The kid glared at him.

Moon just shrugged, "You just seemed so uncertain about your own name."

"That's because I wasn't expecting you to just throw that question out," the kid— Gregory snapped, "So do we have a deal or not?"

Moon tilted his head, giving Gregory a strange look. This child was certainly interesting. Not acting at all like an average ten-year-old. Or eleven-year-old. Whichever age he was. "Somehow I doubt the information you have is worth the equivalent of me ignoring every order my programs are screaming at me and letting you steal expensive equipment."

Gregory considered for a moment. "How 'bout I give you a hint now, and you can decide if you want to hear the rest or not."

…Sure. Why not? Humor the kid, then maybe he could convince him to leave. His protocols told him he should have detained the intruder and contacted authorities 10 minutes ago, but it just didn't feel right when the intruder in question was a child.

"Fine," Moon relented.

"So," Gregory started, confident, "There was an evil zombie robot hiding in the basement of the Pizzaplex making all the robots evil and crazy— except Freddy, because Freddy was in safe mode."

Ah, of course, evil zombie robots. Should have expected as much. He had almost been on the verge of taking this kid seriously.

Gregory was waiting for his response.

"...Riiiiiiiiight" Moon said, voice box tuned to drip with all the sarcasm he could muster.

"I mean it!" Gregory insisted, "How else do you think all the animatronics went back to normal! It wasn't a… a software OR hardware issue, right? So what else can it be?"

"...Evil zombie robots is the only explanation left, I suppose." Moon stated dryly.

Gregory glared at him.

"Look, kid, it's late, you're up past your bedtime— do you have a parent or guardian?"

Gregory chose not to answer that, "Fine. You steal me the endo, and then I'll go."

Moon tilted his head again, "Why do you even need an endo, anyway?"

Gregory thought a moment, "Well, I don't need the whole thing, just the body. With all the limbs attached."

So.. everything but the…. Head. Moon straightened suddenly, posture defensive, "You." His voice was threatening again. "You're the one who took Freddy's head!"

Gregory took a surprised step back, one foot on the bottom step of the stairwell. He was starting to look nervous again.

Moon just stared at him intensely, "Were you the one that destroyed the other animatronics? Did you take Roxy's eyes too!?"

Gregory took another step up the stairwell, "I had no choice, they were trying to kill me! The stupid lockdown made it so I couldn't get out. Blame the building's dumb security," he added, defensively.

Moon stopped at that. He and the Glamrocks had been infected by "the badness" as Sun had called it. Maybe they had all been out of their minds. Maybe he…"Did I try to kill you?" Moon asked softly. Gently.

Gregory was on the third step up, hand gripping the railing a little too tightly. He swallowed. Nodded.

Moon slouched in on himself. He didn't know what to say. What could he say?

Gregory took a step down, "It… it wasn’t your fault. It wasn't any of your guys's fault…" Gregory looked like that had just occurred to him as he said it, "That bad guy made you all crazy."

Moon was silent a moment. "You mean the evil robot zombie?"

"Yes!" Gregory said, as though Moon was finally getting it.

Riiiiight.

"Look," Gregory took another step down the stairwell, "You all tried to kill me, and I saved you all, so you kind of owe me, now."

Ah, the blatant manipulative audacity of children, "Saved us?" Moon stood, turning to his faceplate to glare at Gregory, "Monty's entire lower half was damaged so badly they had to remake his spine. Chica was crushed so badly they almost couldn't save her personality chip, you know, the part of her that's basically her. Roxy was traumatized so badly by whatever you did to her that she can hardly bring herself to actually enter a racing kart and race, the thing she was programmed to love. And Freddy is… Well Freddy is essentially dead as far as the other animatronics are concerned, dead and replaced by an impostor. It doesn't matter that new Freddy is doing his best, you tore their friend away from them. And Sun and I have been ripped in half—!" Oops. Moon hadn’t meant to say that last part, static choking slightly as he cut himself off too late, frozen in aggressive mid-rant posture, leaning forward, arms back.

Gregory's eyes were wide. He was very still.

Moon slumped, still standing but hunched over. He suddenly felt tired. "Yeah, you sure fixed us, kid."

Gregory slowly sank down, sitting on the second step of the stairwell, hugging himself, eyes still wide.

Great. Wonderful. Pro: A child had finally realized the consequences of his actions. Con: Moon you idiot, weren't you actively trying NOT to traumatize children?

Moon sank down as well, sitting on the floor, "Sorry," He mumbled.

Gregory still didn't say anything. Moon could see tears glinting in his eyes, could see the look of a child fighting not to cry, fighting and failing.

No matter how tough or cocky Gregory tried to act, he was still a kid. Moon should NOT have lost his temper at him, and probably should have been less… visceral in his descriptions.

He could hear quiet sniffles echoing in the stairwell, Gregory desperately trying to muffle them.

Moon didn’t know what to do. So he did the thing he was programmed to in order to soothe a crying child. He played a lullaby on his music box.

The sound helped a little to cover Gregory's sniffles, echoing up the stairwell. The kid was wiping his face desperately, his cheeks wet with tears.

Moon hummed a little along with the song.

Eventually the crying died down.

After a long stretch of silence, Gregory spoke in a small, fragile voice, "I'm sorry."

Moon was quiet, mulling it over. "I'm sorry, too," He used his soothing nap time attendant voice.

Gregory gave another sniff, voice getting a bit stronger, but still with that fragile edge, "Is everyone okay now?"

Moon considered how to answer that question, "... Monty's back together, Chica seems fine again, acts like nothing's wrong. Roxy was able to race today (he was scrolling through the day's security camera footage for the information), and I gave the new Freddy advice on how to become friends with his new bandmates." Moon made sure to keep the same gentle tone, no vice, no bitterness. And he didn't feel any, anymore. At least not towards what happened to the glamrocks. They were okay now… weren't they?

Gregory sniffed again, "What about you? What did you mean you and Sun got cut in half?"

Moon looked down at his hands resting in his lap, "That one…. That one isn't really your fault. I don't think any of your actions resulted in that. That was just something management decided to do." He couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice with that one.

"But…" Gregory still looked confused, "What do you mean ripped in half?"

Moon was silent, trying to find a way to explain. A child friendly way to explain. "Do you remember the Daycare attendant statues, in the child pick up area? How it shows both Sun and me as separate entities?"

Gregory thought a moment before slowly nodding.

"We're like that now. Not one, but two."

Gregory tilted his head, confused, "Why is that a bad thing?"

Moon flinched. He tried to keep the anguish out of his voice, "We— I… We used to always be together. Never alone, never apart. We could talk to each other any time. We could feel what the other was feeling, know exactly what the other wanted and needed. Know what we were thinking. Sharing excitement, sharing experience, sharing hardships. Everything, all of it, together…"

Gregory had gone still again, not with fear this time, he was listening, really listening.

"Now…" Moon continued, "It's like we're—… the disconnect, the distance… it's like… Sun is 93.495 million miles away."

Gregory tilted his head, face scrunched up at the unexpectedly specific number, "Why… why that far away?"

"... That's how far the earth is from the sun," Moon said softly.

Gregory was silent as he tried to imagine the distance.

They were both quiet for a long time, mulling things over.

Moon checked his internal clock, "Four hours until opening."

Gregory figited a bit, "Could I still have the endoskeleton?"

Moon sighed deeply, "Why do you want it?"

Gregory hesitated, deciding how to word it, "I have a best friend, too. My best friend in the whole wide world. But.. right now, he can't move around, or do anything. He tries to hide how much that bothers him, but I can tell he misses being able to move around, and… and give hugs, and go on walks… n'stuff." Gregory was looking at his knees. His voice had that fragile edge to it.

Oh, right. Gregory had Freddy's head. Of course Freddy would want to… not be just a head. He couldn’t imagine— or he could almost imagine.

Gregory was still staring at his knees, a look of frustrated hopelessness on his face.

Moon internally groaned, naptime comfort protocols screaming at him. He really couldn't allow it though… really couldn't… right? No of course not, he couldn't allow stealing, that was wrong.

Gregory sighed, "I'll go… I'll figure something else out." He rose unsteadily to his feet, taking a step up the stairwell, gripping the railing as he wobbled slightly.

Right, of course the kid was tired. He’d been up all night.

He watched as Gregory took another unsteady step upward.

On the next step he almost missed his footing— he could barely keep his eyes open.

That did it. Moon walked up to help him.

Gregory gave a jaw breaking yawn, then mumbled, "sorry."

Moon wasn’t even sure what Gregory was apologizing for, "Kid— Gregory, I don't think you're gonna make it up this stairwell… and I definitely don't trust you to make it down the fire escape ladder on your own."

Gregory attempted to give Moon a pointed glare, succeeding in looking tiredly grumpy, "And who's fault is that?" He mumbled, accusatory tone only managing to sound tired.

Well… to be fair it was Moon's fault. Delaying him. Yelling at him. Making him cry. Moon had an idea forming, but— but he was already breaking so many protocols, his programming screaming that everything he'd done up until that point and everything he was about to do was wrong wrong wrong WRONG! Against the rules!! But… Fazbear software was way more advanced than it probably needed to be— had any right to be, really. The Glamrocks had figured out how to find loopholes or to straight up ignore their protocols for years. The important thing was knowing how to hide it so the company didn't find out.

Gregory had made four more stairs before nearly falling asleep on his feet, Moon's hand on his back being the only reason he didn't completely fall over.

That's it, "I'm taking you to the Daycare," Moon said softly. He allowed Gregory to tip backwards 'till he was in his arms.

Gregory mumbled some sort of response, but Moon wasn’t able to catch it. Gregory was asleep the moment he was safely cradled, gentle but secure.

Chapter Text

The Daycare doors slowly opened as Moon awkwardly pushed inside, carefully closing them without dropping his precious cargo.

Sun had lept up from a craft table, an unfinished project sitting by a pile of finished ones.

He skipped over happily, arm raised in an enthusiastic wave, "Oh, you're back early! How did—" the question cut off, Sun freezing mid-skip as his eyes locked onto the sleeping form of Gregory.

"I can explain—" Moon started— not quick enough, interrupted by incoherent noises from his counterpart.

Sun's static spluttering finally burst into a word, "Banned!"

Moon startled, "Wha—"

"Banned! He's banned from the Daycare, nuh-uh, nope. Get him out of here!" Sun was now pointing aggressively at the door, sounding frantic.

Moon didn’t budge, confused.

Sun crossed his arms, putting his foot down (by literally stomping on the padded Daycare floor), "If you don't get him out right now I'll call security!!"

Moon gave Sun a look, "I am security."

"I- uh… oh." Sun's energy petered out, pose drooping slightly.

Moon tried again, "Why is he banned?"

"Because!" Sun threw his arms in the air for emphasis, "First he slides into the Daycare after hours which I didn't mind so much because ItGetsLonelyHereAtNight— but!! Then he knocks over some stuff and makes a mess, and while I'm cleaning that up, he sneaks behind the security desk which ISN'T ALLOWED! And won't listen to me when I tell him that, and THEN he turned off the lights!!" At that last part Sun had shrank to his knees, hands over his head.

Oh. Moon worked up the courage to ask, "Did I hurt him?"

Sun tilted his head slightly, "Nooooo…" he seemed uncertain, like he was rewatching the memory to double check.

"How do you know?"

Sun let go of his head, tapping his faceplate as he recounted, "Well, because the lights went back on, and he was still in the Daycare— I could hear the generators going, which means he managed to crawl through the play structures to turn them all on… and he didn't seem hurt… But I wasn't taking any chances, so I banned him from the Daycare to ensure the lights stayed on on ON!"

Moon shuddered, remembering where the generators had been before the recent re-opening. Chords strewn everywhere, generators just sitting in sections of the play structures, where any kid could have accessed them. It was a miracle no one had gotten hurt. Or sued. He was glad they had all been moved after the reopening in neat rows next to a wall, chords taped down, and a painted wooden box over them that could easily be lifted by an adult if they were needed, but not a child. Much better.

On the other hand…"Sun, the lights don't need to stay on on on anymore," he reminded gently.

Sun was still sitting hunched down. He had been fidgeting with one of the ribbons on his wrists when he stilled. "...Thats- thats… yeah, I… I guess so."

Moon continued patiently, "Sooo, the reason he was banned isn't a problem anymore."

Sun was silent.

"And," Moon continued softly, looking back down at the child in his arms, "He's not traumatized by me anymore. At least, as long as I don't act scary…"

"Oh." Was all Sun said. He was staring at the floor.

"He needs a place to sleep," Moon finished bluntly.

Sun looked up, posture more relaxed, "Doesn’t he have a place outside the Daycare for that?"

"If he does, he's too tired to get there." So tired, in fact, that their somewhat loud arguing hadn't so much as caused him to stir. Gregory was out cold, plain exhausted.

Sun looked at the floor again, arms draped forward across his legs, bouncing slightly in his crouched position, "If the Daycare opens and an unexplained child is found sleeping here, we could get in a lot of trouble."

"He could sleep in our room," Moon stated without hesitation. He had thought this through.

"Wha— but our room's so dusty, and disorganized! Andwehaven't cleaned it!!"

Moon projected his grin through his voice box, "Then you'd better clean it before I get there," he made a slow purposeful step toward the staff door that led to it.

Sun scrambled for the cleaning supplies so fast he tripped over his own feet, turned his momentum into a roll, and sprang back up into a full sprint without losing any speed.

Moon couldn’t suppress a chuckle as he continued to slow-walk "threateningly" towards the door, Sun scrambling to get in ahead of him, rushing up the stairs with cleaning supplies under his arm.

By the time he made it to the top, Sun had done a decently fine job given the short amount of time he had, the place frantically dusted and the piles of boxes and one disassembled S.T.A.F.F. bot organized in the corners and against the walls. Moon had no memory of that S.T.A.F.F. bot or how it got there. He distinctly avoided thinking further on that.

Sun was in the cleared space in the middle, desperately scrubbing the floor.

"Sun, could you go get a sleeping mat, blanket, and a pillow?"

Sun looked up, arm still scrubbing, "But- the floor-"

"Relax, I'm not gonna put Gregory down on the floor" Moon rolled his faceplate because he couldn't roll his eyes.

Sun paused, "...Gregory?"

"Yup," Moon said patiently.

Sun hesitated a moment more, then scrambled away with a quick, "Okay."

Moon checked his charge. Battery 24%. Not low enough to be alarming, but still low enough to be concerning. The one wall space without boxes piled against it was the spot with their charger. The company should really install a second one in case they both ended up at low charge at the same time. In the meantime, careful scheduling would have to do... Moon wished it wasn’t needed in the first place.

He walked over to his charger sitting down carefully, settling Gregory in his lap so his hand was free to plug the charger in.

Sun came back up shortly, looking around wildly for a second, as though afraid Moon had vanished on him, before spotting them. He'd had the foresight to grab two sleeping mats, given that the floor of their room wasn't padded like the nap area, stacking one on top of the other.

Moon lifted Gregory in his arms, holding him out for Sun to take.

Sun made fretting motions with his hands before finally reaching out to take him, trying to mimic the way Moon had held him. Holding Gregory carefully, like he was made of glass, Sun moved to the center of the room and laid him on the carefully arranged sleeping mats.

Sun awkwardly settled the blanket around him, carefully placing the pillow under his head.

Moon was dissatisfied with the result, but didn't say anything. He'd rearrange the pillow and blankets later when he finished charging.

~*~

After his charge was full, Moon carefully removed the backpack from Gregory, rearranging the blankets and pillow more optimally.

Sun had been put in a cleaning mood after preparing their room, and was down in the Daycare proper, giving the cleaning supplies a workout.

Moon was still holding the backpack in his hands. Now he could see it was from the Pizzarplex, themed after Freddy Fazbear. The kid must've stolen it the last time he was here.

After a moment fighting (or more strongly convincing) his programming, he unzipped the backpack. Yes, it was programmed into them not to snoop through a child's personal belongings, but Gregory was an intruder. And he needed a suspicion confirmed.

He carefully pulled out the contents, laying them out in a sort of grid.

There was the flashlight from the side pocket. There was a Freddy themed walkie-talkie (also stolen). There was a Freddy plush. Of course, absolutely vital for a break-in (in a child's mind). Moon even scanned it. Nothing but stuffing. Just a literal comfort buddy. And, aha, there it was. A security badge.

Moon scanned it, and came back with the profile for Vanessa. She was the security guard who'd disappeared the night Gregory had been trapped in the Pizzaplex.

Moon startled when the walkie-talkie came to life with a sudden burst of static, "Gregory! Is everything alright? Have you found an endo yet? Where are you right now?"

The voice sounded like it belonged to a woman. What were the chances this was Vanessa? At this point Moon would have bet his personality chip the chances were 100%. For all he knew, an evil robot zombie had been haunting the Pizzaplex, after all. He wasn’t sure anything else could surprise him at this point.

He picked up the walkie-talkie as another message came through, "Gregory? Hello? Are you there? Please answer."

Moon didn’t want another person breaking into the Pizzplex to go find Gregory. He pressed down the button on the side, "Gregory is sleeping."

The walkie-talkie was silent, and Moon realized without context that probably came off as extremely worrying and creepy.

Finally the walkie-talkie hissed to life, "Who are you?" The voice was full of threat and thinly veiled worry, shaking slightly.

"Naptime attendant," Moon couldn’t think of anything else to say.

The response was not what he was hoping for, "What did you do to him!?"

Moon hissed and turned down the volume on the walkie-talkie. Gregory stirred just slightly before settling again.

"I'm fixed," he snapped. He was starting to get tired of this.

After a pause, "So he's ASLEEP asleep? You didn't hurt him?"

Oh. She had really interpreted his first response badly.

Moon winced, "Yes. Other than a bruise on his knee he is fine, tired and resting."

Immediately the walkie-talkie crackled to life, "How did he get the bruise?"

Moon flinched. Right. Right, he had dropped Gregory. Moon decided these short back and forths weren't encompassing the context necessary for assuaging her fears.

Moon pressed the button, made the noise of a deep intake of breath as a subtle warning that this would be long, and relayed his entire interaction with Gregory from when the boy first set off his alert.

After he finished, the walkie-talkie was silent. Finally the slight crackle of static, a deep, tired sigh, "Well thank you, I guess, for not turning him in. Do you have a plan to get him back out of the daycare once he wakes up?"

Moon didn't.

The person on the other end interpreted his silence correctly, "When Gregory wakes up, tell him to stay there when the Daycare opens. Let him mingle with the other kids. I'm going to go in and pick him up. Neither of our profiles are officially registered. I need you to fight your programming that won't allow you to let an unauthorized adult pick up a child. Make an exception for Gregory."

Moon had an immediate response to that one, "What if someone who is not you comes in to pick up Gregory?"

Another silence as she thought. Then a crackle, "How 'bout a code? I'll look at you, and say, 'evil zombie robot', I doubt anyone else will think of that, and I'm referencing the conversation you had with Gregory. Will that do?"

Well… she had a point…but did she have to reference that part? Moon pressed the button, giving a tired audible sigh of his own, "Yes. That will do."

~*~

Sun used the wire up to their room— a balcony that opened over the ball-pit served as a secondary entrance. The room proper was hidden by a theatrical red curtain. Moon looked up as he pushed through.

Sun walked down the stairs of the railed platform that connected to the balcony and into their room, putting his hands behind his back, bouncing on his toes, "Soooo… I heard all that while I was cleaning."

Moon nodded.

"Do you actually trust that person?"

Moon shrugged.

Sun made a dissatisfied noise. He looked down at the contents of the backpack, going from relaxed to stressed when he realized, "Moooon! You can't just look through someone's stuff without permission! These are all Gregory's personal items!!"

At least Sun was keeping his voice box volume low.

"Security protocols," Moon stated flatly.

Sun changed to a suspicious posture, but decided not to push him on that, instead just placing the items carefully back in the backpack, rezipping it, and setting it next to Gregory.

He sat down beside Moon, absently staring at the sleeping child.

Moon shifted his posture so he was shoulder to shoulder with Sun, also watching Gregory.

To an organic being, two robots watching a child sleep was probably incredibly creepy

Moon internally sighed, "Do you want to play a board game?"

Sun made a happy noise and immediately sprang backwards over the balcony rails, through the curtains, and into the ball pit.

Moon stood up and moved to the balcony himself. He stepped onto the edge of the "mini stage" that overlooked the Daycare, balancing. Sun had already popped out of the ball pit and was heading for the game closet. Moon chose to take a more dignified descent, calling down the wire and having it take him to the edge of the ball pit before dropping him off.

He didn't exactly care for board games, but Sun loved them.

Sun had one already set up and was bouncing excitedly at one of the play tables, comically folded up in one of the kiddy chairs.

Moon chose to sit cross-legged on the floor.

~*~

They were in their 56th round of Clue when they both heard Gregory stirring and a mumbled "What the?" from their room.

Sun called down the wire first, taking the shortcut to the balcony, leaving Moon to navigate the stairs. Moon filed a request for a second wire installed in the Daycare, alongside the previously filed request for a second charger. Given Freddy's vent cover was still missing, Moon doubted the human staff would actually do anything.

Moon reached the top of the stairs, hearing Sun boisterously explaining the plan to Gregory.

Gregory looked like waking up to Sun's energy first thing without a full night's sleep was not helping in the slightest, "Can't I just leave now?" Gregory mumbled grumpily, rubbing his eyes.

"Sorry, friend! The Daycare opens in 4 minutes and 33 seconds! Speaking of which, you should go down to play soon! Hopefully people will just assume you got dropped off extra EXTRA early!" Sun was punctuating each sentence with energetic hand movements.

Gregory blinked, starting to wake up a bit more. He gave Sun an accusing look, "Didn't you ban me from the Daycare?"

"Well, as long as you behave, you're unbanned for now! But for real this time, no going behind the security desk!! And no turning the lights o— I mean… the lights are fine now… heh." Sun cringed slightly as he caught himself.

Gregory threw his blanket off and pulled his backpack on, "You're not gonna call security on me again?" He asked flatly.

"Moon is security! And he says it's okay, so there." Sun shot back.

Moon spoke up, "Technically not security right now. I'm off the clock."

Sun spun his rays exasperatedly, "You're not helping!"

Moon was surprised to see Gregory have a relieved look upon spotting him. Well that was an improvement.

Gregory stretched up on tip-toes, trying to peek through the curtain above, "Should I go down now?"

Sun tilted to the side as he counted down the seconds, "Um…. Yes, now."

Gregory walked up the raised platform that led to the exit into the ball pit, pushing through the curtain and looking down eagerly, one hand gripping the railing behind him as he leaned forward, "Can I jump into the ball pit?"

"No!" Both animatronics chorused.

Gregory gave them sour looks, settling his gaze on Sun specifically, "You get to dive into the ball pit!"

"Yes! Because I am a robot and not a delicate squishy human being with more easily breakable parts!" He declared.

Gregory grumbled to himself, moving back to use the boring stairs, instead.

Sun snickered to himself.

Moon gave him a look, but was already guessing what he planned to do.

As soon as Gregory reached the bottom and exited the staff door, Sun leapt up onto the balcony edge and did an over-exaggerated dive, complete with a mid-air somersault.

Gregory was glowering at him as he innocently popped out, skipping over.

Moon decided to console Gregory by also taking the stairs, though, when he reached the bottom, Sun had already situated Gregory at a table with some coloring and art supplies.

One by one, children filed in. Sun fell into his usual routine, running to the entrance to greet every child by name, or register any newcomers.

Moon decided to walk over and hang out with Gregory. He'd already established a habit of hanging out with the more introverted children during playtime hours, so it wouldn't seem unusual.

Gregory had a sulky expression on his face, one hand supporting his head, the other doodling what looked like a comic. Moon had gotten better at deciphering 2D shapes since his first playtime experience.

Moon started on his usual go-to, a night sky. While he drew he watched the security feeds, flipping through the building to see if he could spot Vanessa. Her employee profile was still in the system, though she was marked as no longer working here (was there a way to formally fire an employee if they seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth?) He was a tad concerned that if she just strolled into the Pizzaplex she could be recognized. That might go badly.

He caught someone making a b-line to the daycare that matched her body type. He briefly caught her face in the corner of a camera feed before it was blocked by a huge bubble of pink gum. The woman had dark hair (Vanessa was blond) and was wearing oversized sunglasses, obscuring most of the top half of her face. Every time she entered a camera feed, she had a huge bubble of gum blown up, effectively obscuring the lower half of her face. As an ex-security guard, she probably knew where each camera was located to time her bubble.

Genius disguise. It would fool any human employee, but with the Fazbear state-of-the-art facial recognition Moon was employed with, all he needed was that brief glimpse to match it.

No need to worry about her being caught, then. She must've dyed her hair or put on a wig.

As she approached the Daycare entrance, Moon stood up to greet her there, multi-tasking between the security feed and his optics to avoid bumping into children.

She opened the door and he was standing right there. She flinched slightly, then spoke, almost without missing a beat, voice lowered to try to disguise it, "Hey evil zombie robot, I'm here to pick up Gregory."

Moon rolled his faceplate and headed back over to the craft table. Gregory was watching him curiously. Apparently Vanessa's disguise was so good not even Gregory recognized her.

Speaking softly so only Gregory could hear, Moon gestured behind him towards the door, "Vanessa's here."

Gregory looked suspiciously at the gum chewer, "Thaaats… not her."

Moon rolled his faceplate again, "She's wearing a disguise, she used the passcode."

Gregory allowed Moon to take his hand and lead him to her. As he got closer she looked at him and grinned, lifting her sunglasses to reveal hazel-green eyes. Gregory pulled out of Moon's hand, returning her grin in relief and recognition as he jogged up to her, "Is that a wig?"

She reached out to take Gregory's outstretched hand, "Shh, and yes," Vanessa blew another bubble as she led Gregory out of the Daycare.

Moon and Sun felt themselves relax. The constant warnings from keeping Gregory here after hours, and without a Daycare pass, finally gone.

Mission accomplished.

Chapter Text

It was closing again and Moon was doing his rounds on the wire. He was flipping through security feeds like flipping through channels on a TV when nothing good was on. Just S.T.A.F.F. bots roaming around their pre-set paths. He was somewhere over Roxy Raceway when he was startled by a shout.

"Hey you! Get down here!!"

Moon paused, dangling on the wire, looking down. Below him was Roxanne Wolf. He cautiously lowered the wire, staying a healthy three feet or so out of reach. Roxy was famous for being one of the more moody, or testy animatronics, a bit unpredictable.

Roxy glared at him, "Where is he?" She growled.

Moon stared, "What?"

Roxy snarled, "Don't play dumb!"

Moon decided not to acknowledge that statement, "Please give context, where is who?"

"I know you had him, I saw him inside the Daycare!"

Gregory, Moon realized. Of course, of course Roxy would hold a grudge. She had been trashed the night Gregory had been locked in, and was the most sensitive (programmed to be) about her appearance. Less hurt (they didn't have a central nervous system) than her pride was wounded. Moon almost asked how she had seen Gregory (through the wall?) when he remembered Roxy had unique eyes. Something like X-ray vision (so yes, through the wall). Moon wondered why the heck Fazbear Entertainment had decided to give Roxy of all animatronics x-ray vision. So he asked, (mostly to avoid addressing the Gregory issue), "Why do you have x-ray vision?"

Roxy flipped her artificial hair and rolled her eyes, "It's not x-ray vision, not exactly, it works different than that. And it's so I can see if there's any kids in go-karts through the raceway walls and avoid slamming into them when I round a turn," She huffed. Then her body language shifted to aggressive again, "Now you answer my question. Where. Is. He."

Moon tilted his faceplate incredulously, "What are you gonna do if you find him?"

Roxy growled, hunching over like an animal, "I'm gonna k*static*ll him!!"

Moon stared in shock. One, there were some words the animatronics were not allowed to say, given they were mascots/role models for children (if Roxy could be considered a role model). Second, he hoped she was just talking emotionally and not literally, because otherwise that implied she was still infected by "the badness".

Moon tilted his faceplate counterclockwise, "Roxy, are you actually saying you are going to willingly harm a child?"

Roxy growled at him.

"Roxanne Wolf," Moon snapped sharply, "Imagine Gregory's standing right in front of you. What are you going to do?"

Roxy released some threatening static animal noises before finding speech, "That little punk! If I get my claws on him, I'm gonna, I'm gonna… really give him a piece of my mind…." She trailed off as she realized she didn't have it in her to actually act on how she felt.

Moon gave an internal sigh of relief. He lowered the wire so he was a bit more at eye level, legs folded cross-legged in mid-air, "If it makes you feel better I already had a talk with him and he realized the consequences of his actions. And to be fair, you were not in your right mind at the time."

Roxy growled and huffed. She couldn't deny it. They all knew something had been wrong. Damaged memory files may have been deleted, but there was almost a ghost feeling of what had happened, just with no visual records.

Roxy seemed to be wavering, so Moon gave one more gentle push, "And he cried. A lot. I think he is genuinely sorry."

Roxy grumbled to herself, head lowering.

Moon decided while Roxy was still in a rare listening mood to give a push in another direction, "Why are you ignoring new Freddy?"

She snapped her eyes back onto him, glare renewed.

Moon had the wire pull him up a couple more feet in response.

She snarled again, "Because that is NOT my friend. I'll play pretend for photos and stage shows, but that's it!"

Moon continued in his gentle Daycare voice, "New Freddy is not your old friend, I'll give you that, but new Freddy is doing his best, and he's drowning."

Roxy cocked her head, giving a confused look at his choice of wording.

"He's been newly activated, not even a month old, and has been thrown in the deep end with shows, birthdays, photos, guest appearances, forced to pretend he's someone he's not. And all of you are just ignoring him and leaving him to flounder."

Roxy actually looked solemn (grudgingly solemn) at Moon's little speech. She was silent for a while, fan getting louder as her systems went into overdrive while she considered. Finally she mumbled, "And what exactly do you want me to do about it?"

Moon leaned his faceplate forward to try to convey a pointed look (his and Sun's faceplates were not as expressive as the Glamrocks. Or expressive at all), "Just talk to him. Even if it's only a single compliment after a show. It will do him wonders."

Roxy snorted, "Maybe I will, maybe I won't. You're not the boss of me."

Moon sighed. Well, whether she decided to or not was up to her now. He felt he'd done what he could.

He had started to lift back up toward the ceiling when something else occurred to him, he halted his ascent, dropping a couple feet back down. He felt this was important and probably should have been mentioned sooner, "Oh yeah, original Glamrock Freddy isn't dead. If that makes you feel better."

Her jaw dropped, ears perking up with shock. It took her a moment, voicebox stuttering as she struggled to settle on what to say, "Then… then… Where is he!?"

Moon realized the next statement could undo all his hard work from the beginning of their conversation, "Gregory has him."

Ears flattened, jaw dropping again, "He- he WHAT!? He STOLE him!?"

Moon shrugged.

She snarled again, swiping at the air, "When I get my claws on him I'll- I'll..."

"...Really give him a piece of your mind?" Moon finished helpfully.

She hunched over and growled sullenly, "Well if you see that brat again, tell him to bring Freddy back!"

Moon tilted his head, considering. What would happen to new Freddy if old Freddy was returned? He spoke carefully, "Freddy himself doesn't necessarily seem like he was stolen. The way Gregory talked seemed to imply Freddy's going with him was mutual."

Roxy stared for a minute, unnaturally still. Finally she burst out, "You mean he abandoned us!?"

Moon didn’t know. He'd have to ask Freddy's head himself. To be fair, though, at the time all the animatronics were malfunctioning and dangerous, and the Pizzaplex might have been on fire. Freddy may have thought that there wouldn't be a Pizzaplex to return to. Is that why Freddy had wanted a body, aside from all the practical reasons, so he could come back? "I don't know," Moon finally admitted

Roxy growled darkly to herself, ear's still flat, hunched position more limp. Hurt.

Moon didn’t know what else to say. Not at all subtly, the wire slowly began lifting him up and away from the unpleasant conversation.

To no avail, Roxy was looking up at him again, "Why was the kid back here again, anyway?" She asked.

Moon paused in his ascent, "... Freddy wants a body. He is still just a head… kid thought he could traipse in here and waltz out with an endoskeleton."

Roxy actually gave a snort of laughter at that. As much as she hated Gregory, she'd still been programmed with a fondness for children. That was the demographic she was meant to interact with, after all, "Did he manage to steal it?"

"No."

She gave another snort, this one more derisive. She turned and stalked off down her Raceway.

Oookay. Good, the conversation was really over this time. Moon had the wire lift him back up to the ceiling. He made sure to stay out of sight for the rest of his rounds.

He wasn’t feeling up to another unpleasant conversation that night.

Chapter Text

When Moon received a security alert from the fire escape, he knew it was Gregory. It didn’t matter whether it matched up logically or statistically, or the fact that any number of criminals out there might target a Mega Pizzaplex drowning in money; he knew it was Gregory.

Sure enough, as Moon had the wire pull him over, there he was, standing just outside the fire escape stairwell, this time looking up with his flashlight pointed at the ceiling.

Moon sighed, Gregory was even expecting him this time. He allowed the wire to carry him into the spotlight, lowering himself down ‘till his feet touched the ground, Gregory’s gaze following his descent.

The floor reached, Moon let the wire unhook and withdraw.

Gregory looked up at him Grinning.

Moon was trying to shift his body posture to make it clear he was glowering, “Do I even need to ask?”

Gregory’s grin didn’t falter, “I have a new plan. Me, Freddy and Vanessa discussed it, and it doesn’t involve stealing this time.”

Moon’s faceplate clicked to the left, “But it still involves breaking and entering?”

Gregory scowled, “I tried to sneak into the Pizzaplex all day today, but I couldn’t manage.”

Moon sighed, “If it doesn’t involve stealing why did you need to sneak in.”

Gregory turned serious, “Because if we paid for a day pass, we wouldn’t be able to afford the item I’m going to buy from the gift shop. I have the money with me in the back-pack, I’m gonna leave it on the counter and everything.”

Moon tilted his head in the other direction, curious now, “And what is it you’re going to buy exactly?”

Gregory grinned again, “One of those new Helpy robot toys! Freddy says his chip should be compatible with it! Vanessa knows someone who can safely transfer Freddy’s personality chip and memory drives into the little Helpy toy!”

Helpy was a sort of secondary mascot, resembling Freddy, design inspired by a version of Freddy from a sister location that was more circus themed. While Circus Baby’s Pizza World had been shut down long ago due to gas leaks, Funtime Freddy’s design (probably due to his connections with the main mascot) had survived and been repurposed into a sort of troubleshooting helper mascot.

Huh, so it even had its own toy line now. Those must be recent, because Moon couldn’t remember the last time Helpy had any physical merch or representation before, just being a digital A.I. only visually present on the various screens and help boards around the place.

Another thought occurred to Moon, “And this toy… doesn’t have A.I. of its own?”

“Nope!” Gregory replied, apparently ready for that concern, “I saw another kid with one, asked if I could look at it. All it has is a voice box, you press a button and it says a pre-recorded line. I made sure!”

Moon made the sound of a deep breath, “... Okay… I’ll help you get it… if you promise not to break into the Pizzaplex ever again.”

Gregory rolled his eyes, trying not to make a pouty face, “Fiiine. After this I shouldn’t need to.”

Moon nodded, “I’ll…. Just… loop the security feeds.” Which was something that was very against protocol, but Moon didn’t want to take any chances of either he or Gregory getting into trouble if staff happened to notice the missing toy and check the long-ignored security feeds.

Gregory looked at him with a mischievous gleam in his eye, “Wait, you can do that?”

“No.” Moon stated.

Gregory gave him an almost hurt confused look.

Moon wagged a finger, “As far as both of us are concerned, I can’t do that.”

Gregory gave an Aaaah expression, then winked impishly at him.

Moon sighed. That would have to do for now, “You wanna take a shortcut? Or are you afraid of heights?”

Gregory looked confused for a moment before he saw the wire come down and hook onto the latch on Moon’s back. Gregory grinned eagerly at him, bouncing excitedly.

Not afraid of heights then.

Making sure Gregory was firmly secure in his arms, Moon circumvented the escalators of the mall, wire moving ‘till he could gracefully set them down on the first floor right at the door of one of the gift shops near the entrance. He waved a hand over the electronic lock. Security mode also came with security access. The door slid open.

Gregory walked right in, seeming familiar with the layout. Moon caught sight of backpacks, walkie-talkies, and flashlights that matched Gregory’s own. Probably commandeered from this exact gift shop. One of the new merch pieces, and more expensive ones, was the brand new “Helpful Helpy!” toy. Gregory stood on tip-toes trying to reach it. Moon didn’t even need to be asked, already getting it down. It made sense that a brand new expensive product would be put on higher shelves.

True to his word, Gregory unzipped his backpack and pulled out a plastic baggy full of cash, placing the Helpy Bot carefully into his pack. He reached up to set the bag hesitantly on the counter.

Moon tilted his head. A pile of cash, contained or not, looked suspicious. Moon sighed and walked behind the counter. He tested his security access on the cash register. He was actually a bit surprised when it popped open with a ding. Then again, the human staff had probably given the animatronics general security access at night, assuming (and rightly so) that no animatronic under normal conditions would have any interest, or even knowledge of what to do, with cash.

Gregory was craning on tip-toes as Moon pulled open the baggy, “What are you doing?” He looked like he wasn’t sure if he should be concerned or just confused.

“Less conspicuous,” Moon muttered, putting the money in the matching slots.

Gregory cocked an eyebrow. Moon already knew he was going to say something snarky before he spoke. Gregory lived up to his expectations, “You know, for a security bot, you’re sure good at breaking the rules.”

Moon's only response was a growl. He was pleased that Gregory didn’t flinch this time, just grinning cheekily at him.

Legal not-crime properly covered up, Moon headed back around the counter and toward the doors, Gregory following closely behind. He opened them up and—

There was Roxanne Wolf. Glaring through him and straight at Gregory. Moon could only guess she’d been glowering outside the door ever since she’d spotted him and Gregory. Moon tried very hard not to think that was funny. This was a potentially dangerous situation.

Gregory’s eyes had gone wide and he darted behind Moon, trying to hide behind his poofy jester pant legs.

Roxy continued to glare right through the Moon, eyes not leaving Gregory’s location.

“Hello, Roxanne Wolf,” Moon said cordially, smoothly.

Roxy ignored him, giving a low growl.

Moon tried again, “Here to give Gregory a piece of your mind?”

Roxy shot him a glare, a quick flick of her eyes from him back to Gregory again.

Gregory’s grip on Moon’s pant leg tightened, “I’msorry,” He squeaked.

Roxy leaned forward, snarling, “You’re darn right you are!”

“Good,” Said Moon, not budging an inch, “Now that apologies are all in order, we can—”

An almost barking growl cut him off, “You think sorry is gonna cut what you did!?”

Moon felt Gregory crouching down now, making himself small, “I had no choice! You were trying to kill me!”

Roxy growled and flattened her ears, but she took a couple steps back.

Moon was just thinking things might actually calm down when Gregory added, “So we're even now, right? Fairs fair!”

Roxy straightened up, posture brimming with offense and rage, “Even!? Fair!?” her voice box was crackling and breaking as it strained to convey her sheer anger.

Moon tilted his faceplate back and down to look at Gregory, “Roxanne Wolf doesn’t like bargaining or being manipulated, I suggest you go back to expressing genuine remorse,” he instructed quietly.

Gregory nodded, eyes wide, “I- I’m sorry. I guess… maybe I went a little overboard— but, but! I didn’t know what else to do, you were so scary, and I was so scared! I- I’m sorry, I was just— I wasn’t thinking, I was just scared!”

Roxy started to calm down, letting out a huff, “Fine. But don’t let it happen again.” She turned to Moon, pointing, “And you! Get him out of here! You’re lucky I was programmed to be a rebel, otherwise I could report you for breaking so many rules right now.” She flipped her hair and stalked off back to her raceway.

Gregory was silent, still wide-eyed, not quite sure it was safe yet.

Moon gave a slight shrug, “Apology accepted I guess,” He turned and placed a hand on Gregory’s head, tousling his hair, “C’mon, let's get you out of here so I can stop breaking the rules.”

Gregory gave a bit of a breathy laugh, still a little shaken from the scare.

Moon stepped out of the gift shop, calling down the wire and reaching his arms out to Gregory.

Gregory wasn’t moving, he was looking contemplatively at the floor.

Moon waited patiently; he knew the look of a child working themselves up into saying something.

Gregory’s brow furrowed a bit, “Should I… should we… “

Moon waited.

Gregory lifted his head and looked Moon straight in the eyes, genuine remorse shining in his own, “Could you take me to the other animatronics so I can apologize?” He blurted out.

Oh, uh… hmm. Moon wasn’t too sure how that would work out. Roxy was more posturing and bluffing. Monty however… Monty straight-up had anger issues. And some self-control issues. And Chica… honestly he wasn't sure how Chica would react. She'd been the most badly damaged of the four.

Gregory was looking up at him pleadingly, “Please? It’s… it’s the least I can do.”

So help Moon, the child looked like he was about to cry. How was he supposed to say no to that!? Not to mention this was a very good lesson for a child to learn… having remorse over and seeking to make up for wrongs or hurts they had caused.

“.... Ooookaay,” Moon started, very slowly, tilting his faceplate left, then right a little as he formulated the safest way to do this, “Do you mind apologizing from the air? I think it will be safer up there…”

Gregory nodded.

Moon repressed a sigh. Whelp. He’d been purposely avoiding the other Glamrocks. Roxy he couldn’t help, she had sought him out. But Monty? Monty wasn’t much for conversation, always too quick to take offense or throw out insults. And Chica… Chica was a bubbly airhead who wouldn’t shut up once you got her going. Absolute nightmare for an introvert. Could animatronics be introverted? Moon just mentally shrugged. Why not? They had proven they could be about anything else at this point.

Gregory secured in his arms, Moon lifted them up and toward gator golf.

The wire could go up and down fast, but going horizontally took a bit longer.

Gregory spoke up, “Wait a second, why didn’t you check the security cameras before leaving the gift shop?” He was giving Moon an accusing look.

Moon responded patiently, “There’s no point checking the cameras right now because I’m still looping them. I mean, because I'm not doing that.”

Gregory snickered.

Soon they were in the steamy swamp of gator golf. Or at least the best representation of a steamy swamp with all the dehumidifiers ensuring excess moisture wouldn’t mess up any animatronic’s servos.

Moon drifted over the catwalks, spotting Montgomery Gator almost instantly. He hovered over him, considering how best to get his attention.

Moon was saved the trouble when Gregory piped up, “Hey Monty! Up here!”

Moon winced and hoped this wouldn’t go too badly.

Monty whipped his head around left and right aggressively, before finally looking up.

He tipped his star-shaped sunglasses down, “You, troublemaker, back for more?”

Gregory shook his head, “No, I… I came to apologize. For hurting you.”

Monty scoffed, “As if you could hurt me, troublemaker. ‘Sides, from what I hear you weren’t the only one on a rampage, so call us even!”

Well now. It seemed Moon had been judging Montgomery Gator too harshly, not to mention inaccurately. Moon wondered how in the world he’d gotten such a bad impression of him.

Monty replaced his sunglasses, “By the way, whaddya doin’ with that creepy moon man, anyway?”

Nevermind. Moon had been accurate from the start.

“He’s helping me apologize to all of you. Actually… he’s the one who helped me realize I owed all of you apologies…”

Monty tipped his sunglasses again, this time up in surprise, “Weeeell now, that’s a surprise to hear! So ol’ Moony’s treatin’ ya alright?”

Yup, Moon’s first impression had been very correct. Monty was the worst.

Gregory grinned down at him, “Yeah! He’s actually really nice! Even though he acts like a grump.”

Well thank you for that Gregory. Someone else was being added to Moon’s Least Favorite Person list (jokingly if Moon was being honest). Moon of course, outwardly stayed stoically silent. This wasn’t about him.

Monty threw back his head and gave a long loud laugh, “Good to know! Well, you better skedaddle, kid, don’t make a habit of comin’ here after hours anymore,” he tilted his sunglasses down again to look Gregory in the eye, “Capiche?”

“Yeah,” Gregory said with a laugh, “ Capiche.”

Moon withheld an exasperated groan as he lifted Gregory up and away.

Gregory looked up at him, “You were awfully quiet. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Moon let the groan out now, “The less I say the shorter the interaction.”

Gregory cocked an inquiring eyebrow, “You don’t like Monty? I think he’s cool.”

“Well good for you,” Moon grumbled.

Gregory snorted, “You’re not jealous are you?”

Moon rolled his faceplate, “Hardly. He just…..irks me.”

Gregory’s brows came together, confused, “Irks?” He said the word like he’d never heard it before (probably because he hadn’t.)

“Rubs me the wrong way,” Moon clarified.

Gregory nodded thoughtfully, seeming to be thinking of something.

“We have to land for Chica,” Moon said, hoping to end the topic of Monty.

Gregory looked at him confused, then looked around as Moon lowered them to the floor.

Moon led him through a staff door and into a hallway, passed some Fizzy Faz storage tanks, and to another set of double doors, “She’s inside this kitchen,” he said, gesturing.

Gregory looked a bit nervous, “I thought you said I’d apologize from the air.”

Moon sighed, “There’s no wire rail access inside here. Besides, Chica’s the least dangerous of the four. Aside from Freddy maybe…”

Gregory started to move uncertainly toward the kitchen door. He paused, looking back at Moon, concern and slight betrayal on his face when he realized Moon had made no move to follow, “Aren’t you coming with me.

Moon internally sighed, accepting the inevitable. He reluctantly walked past Gregory through the double doors.

He heard Gregory’s voice from behind him, “Do you dislike Chica, too?”

Moon didn’t have time to respond, interrupted by a loud clatter of pots and pans and something that sounded like a trash bin being knocked over, followed by a loud, ear-splitting squawk.

Moon flinched, crouching to his knees and putting his hands over the sides of his head— not that that helped in the slightest. He felt paralyzed, he couldn’t move—

“Oh goodness Moony! You gave me a scare! Lurking there in the doorway like some sort of boogeyman!” Chica snorted at her own sentence, though Moon couldn’t fathom how it was funny in the slightest.

Gregory was looking at Moon anxiously on tip-toes, “Are you alright?” He asked.

Apparently Chica’s shriek hadn’t had the same effect on Gregory, “Ju-ust peachy.” He managed to ground out, voice box staticing something hard.

Chica came over, head tilting this way and that like an actual chicken, oversized earrings clattering against the sides of her head with each movement, “Goodness, but I really am sorry! Automatic reaction, you know. Sometimes I still forget I have this special voice box. I try not to do that, really, it seems to bother the rest of the band something fierce, too!” Then she switched her attention to Gregory, “Well heeeey there! You’re Gregory, aren’t you! I remember you from—! Well, I don’t actually remember, but you seem familiar! I’m so glad you’re alright! Did you find your parents? Did that nice security lady take you home? Where is she by the way? I haven’t seen her— or any night guards really— since after I was booted up again! Oh, are ya hungry? Do you want pizza? Or perhaps you’d like a photo—”

Moon had reached his limit, and whatever weird paralyzing effect Chica’s voice box had on him had worn off, “Chica!”

She paused instantly, head jerking to the side curiously, “Yes, Moony~”

Where had that nick-name even come from!? He hated it. No, wait, focus. This wasn’t about him, this was about Gregory. Tamping down his irritation, Moon kept his voice even, “Gregory has something to say to you.”

“Oh!” Chica seemed delighted. To her immense credit, she seemed to take visible effort in keeping her beak shut and waiting patiently.

Gregory blinked, still reeling from that unrelenting chatter Chica had just unloaded on him. He cleared his throat, “Um, I wanted to say I’m sorry for… erm, luring you into the garbage crusher and… kicking you in the face.”

Chica waved a hand dismissively at him, “Water under the bridge, sweetheart, I hardly remember that part anyway!”

Gregory looked at her suspiciously, “Really?”

“Oh, absolutely! I delete all non-essential unpleasant memories! Everything is A-okay!”

Oh, no wonder she was such an airhead. And incessantly cheerful, too. Moon wondered if that was actually a good coping mechanism for an animatronic, or if he should be concerned about that. Moon ultimately decided not his problem. He wasn’t a robot therapist, and he certainly wasn’t going to attempt to try any time soon.

Gregory seemed relieved that his actions had no lasting harm, “Okay.”

Moon looked around at the dim kitchen. Then at Chica. He tilted his faceplate, “Why do you keep hanging around the kitchens anyway? It’s not like you eat.”

Chica brightened, “Oh! But I actually can! A little— it’s mostly for advertisement stuff and promotions, I have a food storage container. But that’s beside the point! You see, the thing is… the thing is…” Chica actually got a little sheepish, tapping the tips of her fingers together, beak opened slightly to mimic a bit of a cringing grin.

Moon waited patiently. Chica’s patience was probably even shorter than Sun’s.

Gregory’s patience was apparently shorter than them both, “What is it?” he asked curiously, looking slightly concerned.

Chica sighed, arms going limp at her side, “Well, you see, my “main attraction”, other than Mazersize, is Chica’s Bakery! Normally I like to hang out there and try to craft new recipes! Some of the crazy stuff I come up with actually ends up on the menu! And when it does it’s so fun!” She waved her arms outward in her excitement, then got a bit somber again, “It’s just that, in the past my Bakery kinda got moved around. It’s not as big as the other attractions, and they kept shifting it, using the rooms it used to be in for other things, and… well, my memory’s a bit foggy and I can’t for the life of me find it or remember where it is!”

Ah, that was why Chica had been wandering aimlessly around the kitchens, “I could help you find it,” Moon offered helpfully before even thinking.

Chica lit up, jumping up and down in her excitement, “Yay! Thank you so much Moony! You’re such a nice guy! You’re like, my bestie now!”

Please no. Moon fought back an audible groan. This was the worst possible outcome.

Gregory spoke up, "But, um, later, right?" He gave Moon a pointed look.

"Right, later." Moon backed out of the kitchen, heading back to the main part of the ‘plex, Gregory following close behind.

"Okey dokey~ thank you so much! See you Moony!"

Once out of that area, Moon made sure he had a secure grip on Gregory before taking him up and back to the fire exit.

~*~

He had just put Gregory down when he heard the familiar crackle of the walkie talkie in Gregory's backpack.

Moon tapped the backpack, “Gregory, I think Vanessa's trying to contact you."

"Huh? Oh," Gregory slipped the backpack off, unzipping it and fishing around for the walkie-talkie.

" — are you there? Did you get the toy? Was Moon as eager to help as you said he'd be?"

Gregory must've known Moon was trying to glare at him because he grinned impishly, "Well you were, weren't you?" He pressed the button on the walkie-talkie, "Yup! The Helpy bot's all paid for! And Moon even personally gave me a lift there and back again!"

Moon grumbled darkly to himself, letting out a muttered, "wasn’t eager."

Gregory had still had the button pressed while Moon had been angry-grumbling, he could hear a slight laugh in Vanessa’s voice as she replied, "Okay. I was starting to get worried 'cause you were taking a bit long."

"Sorry about that," Gregory sounded sheepish, "I… I wanted to apologize to the Glamrocks. Moon helped me."

"Aaaaw, okay. Well how nice of him!"

Moon let out another audible grumble.

"Anyway, mission complete! I'm waiting at the bottom of the—" Vanessa's voice was suddenly broken by sharp bursts of static crackling, then suddenly cut back in, " -Pizzaplex! I got worried and came in after you! I'm trapped at the bottom of the Pizzaplex!"

Moon and Gregory stared at the walkie-talkie, then slowly looked at each other.

Chapter Text

It sounded just like Vanessa, same inflections, same subtle inconsistencies human voices always had. Moon could even pick up slight breaths here and there.

But he could tell, looking at Gregory, that the abrupt tone shift was a little disconcerting. Especially after the suspicious amount of static in-between.

Gregory looked back down at the walkie-talkie, confused.

Moon put a hand on his shoulder, “I would have gotten an alert if anyone else came in through this stairwell. Or any other entrance for that matter,” he hissed.

Gregory looked up at him, even more confused. He slowly moved the walkie-talkie back to his mouth, pressing the button, “Um, Vanessa, could you repeat that? I didn’t quite catch that…”

“I just told you! I got stuck somewhere underneath the Pizzaplex! Real genius move, I know,” They could practically hear the eyeroll in her voice, “So, would you mind coming down here and helping me out? I’m in a little bit of a pickle. And you have my security badge, so I need you to open the door.”

Gregory and Moon looked at each other again.

Gregory looked so lost, face scrunched between suspicion and concern.

Moon calculated, decided, “Before the signal got interrupted, it sounded like she was going to say she was waiting at the bottom of the fire escape ladder. Given that’s not as far away, I suggest you make your way down there to confirm if Vanessa’s there or not.”

Gregory nodded, face serious, “Yeah, okay. That sounds good… but…,” He looked back down at the walkie-talkie, worry lacing his features, “What if she’s not there?”

Moon replied calmly, “Then you come back up here to me and we search the lower areas of the Pizzaplex. If she is simply at the bottom of the fire escape ladder, and you do not come back here before opening time comes, I will assume she was waiting there, and you are safe.”

Gregory looked at Moon anxiously, “W-what if it’s a trap? What if someone else is waiting down there.”

Moon made an unhappy noise. He’d very much prefer to go with Gregory and confirm for himself… but there were heavy duty protocols in place to ensure no animatronic could (willingly) leave the building. He spoke softly, apologetically, “I’d go with you if I could, but I can’t. As far as every code is concerned, I physically cannot leave this building. Besides, if it were a trap, why would… whoever, be luring you back into the Pizzaplex and away from the fire escape?”

Gregory looked down, biting his lip, “What if Vanessa got caught and she was subtly warning me away from the fire escape ladder?”

Moon rolled his faceplate at that one, “I’m pretty sure suddenly convincing you she was trapped in the Pizzaplex would be less subtle than simply shouting into the mic, ‘Gregory I got caught, don’t come down here.’”

Gregory considered this carefully, “Okay, you’ve got a point there…”

“Okay, revised plan. You sneak back up the fire escape, look over the edge and see if Vanessa’s waiting at the bottom of the ladder, if she is, you can come back here and tell me. If not, I promise we will personally tear apart this Pizzaplex ‘till we find her. Deal?”

Gregory looked relieved, “Deal.” Face set with renewed determination, he made his way up the exit.

Moon waited patiently, trying not to let worries and frets wear away at him.

He heard Gregory’s voice echo down the stairwell, “She’s there! It’s all good, she even waved at me!”

Moon stepped into the stairwell, looking up and confirming that it was indeed Gregory. He gave an ‘okay’ sign.

Gregory waved at him before disappearing from view.

Moon only let relief course through him a bit before worry took over again. What in the world had been up with that weird fake Vanessa message? It had been scarily convincing, the only thing giving it away was the static and tonal whiplash from laughing and encouraging to desperate and somewhat apologetic.

What in the world was that?

And why had, whatever it was, been trying to lure Gregory?

Then another scarier thought occurred to Moon.

It had hijacked a Fazbear walkie-talkie.

An item children were most likely to have.

Oh he did not like this. He did not like this at all. So the bottom of the Pizzaplex it had said? The lowest points on Moon’s internal maps were the two basement levels of the Pizzaplex, mostly containing staff, utility, and parts and service tunnels. Well then, to the basements Moon would go… but first… doing this alone was probably foolish. The other animatronics needed to know.

One of their primary functions was to protect children, after all.

~*~

Moon sent out an emergency ping to all the Glamrocks, instructing them to meet up at the Daycare, which he was on his way to already.

He walked in the door, Sun jumping up to greet him.

“Oh! You’re here early again!” Sun stood on tip-toes, checking his arms to see if Gregory (the reason he’d been back early last time) was there.

Moon said nothing.

Sun stopped, picking up tension and seriousness from Moon’s pose, “Erm… what is it?”

Sun fidgeted uncertainly at Moon’s continued silence.

Moon honestly wasn’t trying to be dark and mysterious. There just seemed to be so much to explain he couldn’t think of a way to easily break it down and summarize it for Sun, so he was waiting for the other Glamrocks to arrive before launching into an explanation.

Sun seemed to sense Moon’s seriousness wasn’t directed at him or anything he had done, so he just continued to fidget uncertainly, bouncing on his heels a little.

Finally the unmistakable clatter of the Glamrock’s came from behind him. They were heavy pieces of machinery, not designed with the acrobatic abilities he and Sun had that allowed for some measure of stealth.

Sun looked very surprised to see all four of the star attractions showing up at the still open Daycare doors, freezing in place from either pure shock or because he was starstruck (the Daycare kids made them sound quite impressive after all, and Sun had little opportunity to get to know them or formally meet them).

Roxy was the first to arrive, “What’s this all about? Did something happen to Gregory!?” Were the first things out of her mouth.

Aaw, she did care.

Next Monty came clattering up, “Hey! Where’s the little troublemaker? You didn’t lose track of the squirt, did you?”

Monty was still proving himself to be the worst.

Chica arrived next, mimicking being out of breath (for dramatic effect, probably), “What’s going on? Is everything okay? No one’s hurt, are they?”

Last of all Freddy arrived, looking very lost and confused.

Sun perked up and waved enthusiastically, “Hi new Freddy!” Moon had shared his conversation snippets with Freddy to Sun.

Freddy lit up and waved back, “Hello there!”

The other three Glamrocks seemed to notice Sun standing there for the first time, Roxy’s jaw dropped slightly, “Wait, there’s two of you? I thought you shared a frame and just switched modes.”

Moon and Sun both visibly flinched.

“New update.” Moon ground out, voice strained.

To their credit, the other animatronics seemed to sense the unspoken hurt and hardship, and stayed respectfully silent.

Moon continued, “Not the point of this meeting, though. I have some very concerning news.” Moon outlined the final interaction he’d had with Gregory, explaining the odd tonal shift and the very scary idea that Gregory’s Fazbear brand walkie-talkie may not be the only one capable of being hijacked.

He watched their expressions shift from confused to serious. Even Sun managed to look somber.

Roxy broke the silence first (of course), “So what do you want us to do about this?” She growled.

Moon shrugged, “The only thing I can think of is scouring the basement levels of the Pizzaplex. Those are the lowest points I can think of.”

Roxy nodded.

Sun figited, looking down, “I wish I could help…” he sighed.

Monty tilted his head inquiringly, “Why not help?”

Sun spread his arms, “I can’t leave the Daycare without staff permission. It’s using the same code and protocols that keep us from leaving the building,” he sighed helplessly.

Before Moon could finish feeling properly morose at the fact that Sun would be waiting there, worrying all by himself, Monty spoke up, “Hey, gimme yer hand for a sec’,” Monty reached out toward Sun, just past the frame of the big double doors.

Sun tilted his head, confused, reaching out his hand obediently, “Oookay, but how come?”

Moon hissed at Monty, “Watch your claws.”

Monty ignored them both. As soon as Sun’s hand reached his, he clamped down on it and yanked Sun across the threshold.

Moon jolted in surprise as Sun let out an involuntary squeaky shriek of surprise.

He stood on the other side of the threshold for a moment, balancing on one foot, frozen. Sun slowly turned to look back into the Daycare from outside.

Monty tilted his sunglasses down, now sounding apologetic, “I hope yer not gettin’ too many error messages for that.”

Sun relaxed and burst out laughing, waving a hand at the threshold, but unable to make it pass through, “My systems have no programming in place for this scenario.”

Moon made a concerned sound, not sure why that was funny.

Sun looked at him, laughter still in his voice, “My internal map didn’t know what to do, so it flipped. It now thinks this,” He waved his hands at his surroundings, “Is the Daycare, and that,” He gestured back through the door, “Is outside the Daycare, so now I can’t voluntarily go in!” He broke down into giggles.

Chica burst out laughing too, with Monty letting out a chuckle.

Roxy rolled her eyes, “I am both simultaneously disappointed and impressed at the things the employees miss and overlook about this place, and us. I can’t believe they never noticed that bug.

Sun just continued to giggle, then jumped up, arms up in a happy pose, “But now I can help!”

“Good for you superstar!” Freddy said excitedly, not caring this time as the programmed nick-name came out. Or maybe it was on purpose, Moon didn’t know.

With that, the troupe of animatronics headed for the nearest staff entrance.

~*~

They’d decided to split up into groups to better scour the lower levels of the Pizzaplex.

Sun, of course, insisted on being with Moon, so Roxy and Chica paired up, with Monty going with Freddy.

Moon casually directed Roxy and Chica to investigate the utility halls near parts and service, given Roxy’s eyes would help them navigate in the dark, while Freddy and Monty were directed towards the loading docks.

He knew Sun was still uncomfortable in the dark. He was almost 100% sure that whatever had been hijacking the walkie-talkie would not be in the well-lit main staff halls. His restlessness at knowing he had cut himself off from discovering anything useful was pushed aside for Sun’s sake. Whether Sun was actually aware of this or not was hard to tell.

Sun bounced excitedly from room to room while Moon shuffled down the hall, hunched over slightly, arms limp, walking straight down the hallway just behind Sun.

“Oh wow! I’ve never seen the lost and found before! I wonder if any lost items from our Little Stars are there now? Oh, and oooh! Is that a security office! …Are they always going to be empty? Or… or is the company just having hiring problems do you think… didn’t there used to be humans here at night, too? Oh! Oh! What’s that room! Aaww… I can’t access the digital lock. Can you open it, Moon? I don’t have the clearance.”

Moon repressed a sigh and patiently unlocked the closet for him.

“Oh woooow! Look at all those cleaning supplies! And tools, and boxes! Oh! But for having so many cleaning supplies, this place sure is dusty!” Sun bounced on his heels thoughtfully before closing the closet door, “Moon, are you alright?”

Moon was caught off-guard, somewhat distracted with considering if he should respond to any of Sun’s excited questions and ramblings or not, “Yees? Why are you asking?”

“Well…” Sun skipped down the hall at a slower place, pausing at another security office door and peeking in curiously, “I figured, since we got split, and how awful and shocking that was… that you probably just needed time to recover… but it’s been… a while, now…”

Moon stopped walking, “What… what makes you think I haven’t— that I’m not okay? What specifically?” If Sun told him, maybe Moon could cover it up so Sun wouldn’t worry.

Sun made a sighing sound, moving now at a walk only a little further ahead, “Well, it’s just… before we got split… before the badness infected you… you used to be a lot more… fun? Like, you definitely had a mischievous streak, and you loved jesting as much as I did… Um, did that…,” Sun twisted his upper body to look back at Moon, voice small, “Did that get deleted?”

Moon tilted his head to the side, fishing through his older memories from before the two-year memory gap. Sun was right, he had been much more fun. In lieu of everything, though, he hadn’t felt up to being mischievous. He remembered sometimes during nap time, when Sun got bored of waiting, and the children were in a deep enough sleep that the music box was wasted on them, he’d sometimes dance around on the tops of play structures and even dance on top of the security desk, hopping from one foot to the other (just short of setting off the no behind the desk rule) to entertain and tease Sun.

Sometimes he’d do tricks on the wire, pretending to swim through the air, or crawl around in odd poses that he’d never let a Little Star see him in, for fear it would look creepy, just because he could and no one but Sun was watching.

He hadn’t felt playful in a long while.

It almost seemed he hadn’t really felt much of anything since the split. Other than anxiety, panic, irritation, and of course horror (at what he’d done and been like).

He finally gave a languid shrug, “No, that part didn’t get deleted, as far as I can see. Sorry, Sun… I guess I just haven’t felt like being… fun, recently.”

Sun made a distressed thoughtful noise, tapping his faceplate with a finger, “Do you… do you think maybe my influence made you playful? You were programmed for calm nap times, not fun play times like me… now you seem more focused on that side of things…”

Moon shrugged again, though he wasn’t sure Sun was looking in his direction anymore.

He passed Sun and kept going.

Sun seemed to wake from his contemplations, skipping ahead to catch up with Moon, falling into place beside him, “Sorry, it’s not a criticism… I just noticed you hadn’t gone back to being like how I remembered, and I was worried, is all.”

Moon sighed, “You don’t have to worry about my memories, or if I’m not the same Moon, or if I’ve forgotten you okay? The two years after the security protocols were added are the only missing pieces, everything else is intact, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

Sun shook his head, “That’s not what I’m worried about.”

Moon gave him a look, head tilting with confusion, “Then what are you worried about?”

“That you’re sad.”

Moon stopped abruptly.

Sun stopped too, but continued his line of thought, “Not just a short boohoo sad like the Little Stars get sometimes, but like, a deeper sad… like poor Timothy who had to take a pill at a set time otherwise he didn’t feel like playing or eating or any of the important stuff kids his age normally do. Are you that sad? Are you deep sad?”

Moon knew the answer. He didn’t want to say it out loud. But now that Sun had said it, it was like a puzzle piece slotting into place. Of course, he didn’t have chemicals or an organic brain that could miscommunicate or pour out too many natural chemicals in a way that would lead to depression, as traditionally understood. But he felt tired. Not physically, he was a machine. But he still felt tired.

Sun seemed to have interpreted Moon’s silence correctly. Moon hadn’t even noticed his own body posture changing to be more slumped over, faceplate tilted down to look at the floor. Sun was patting him on the shoulder, “You know, I think it’s okay to be sad sometimes. I don’t think it’s good to be deep sad all the time, but it's not really something you can help, so don’t blame yourself for that. Like I said, this isn’t a criticism, just an observation.

Moon said nothing.

Sun continued unperturbed, “And, well, if your deep sadness gets too much, I’m right here. And I’ll help you in any way you need, even if it just means sitting next to you and being with you while you're deep sad, okay?”

For the first time since the split, Moon wrapped Sun in a hug.

Sun had only tensed in surprise for a microsecond before returning it tenfold.

When Moon had enough he let go, and Sun did likewise. Moon finally managed a quiet “Thank you.”

Sun simply nodded.

They walked in silence for a while, though Sun couldn’t resist breaking into skips every now and then.

After a while Sun gauged it was okay to break the silence, “By the way, what do you think we’re looking for exactly?”

Moon shrugged, “I have no idea, actually. Some sort of technology that stands out, or doesn’t belong? Something that could interfere with a walkie-talkie.”

Sun paused to investigate another closet, opening the door with Moon’s help, “Hmm… do you think it would be in this area? I’m sure human staff fill these halls during the day… what are the chances it would just be out in the open here?”

“Low,” Moon finally admitted.

Sun closed the closet door, “You know, if you think it might be in a darker place, I think I’m ready to handle that now,” He looked over at Moon, voice box adding a joking tone, “You don’t have to coddle me, you know.”

“... Sorry. I just don’t want you to be distressed.”

“No more than I want you to be distressed! But we’ll help each other! You help me learn there’s nothing to be afraid of in the dark, and I’ll be with you when your deep sad! Deal?”

“... Well, alright. Those double doors over there lead down to the utility halls.”

Sun nodded and they headed over.

~*~

Sun and Moon almost had a scare when they bumped unexpectedly into Roxy and Chica heading out, Roxy grumbling. She was annoyed that they’d been having to leave by the hour to recharge their batteries before coming back, glaring enviously and somewhat pointedly at the two Daycare animatronics. Moon just shrugged. It wasn’t their fault Fazbear Entertainment had seen the practicality in giving them both much longer lasting batteries. After all, small energetic children couldn’t afford to not be watched during their stay while their caretakers were off charging.

Half an hour before opening, they all met back up at the Daycare entrance.

No one had found a thing.

Moon couldn’t think of any other place that counted as the "bottom" of the Pizzaplex, so he was stumped. The only thing he could think of to do was to have them keep up their searches nightly, and watch children using their Faz watches (which also included a radio) or walkie-talkies during the day, and make sure those devices never mentioned words like "trapped" and "bottom of the Pizzaplex".

Monty helpfully shoved Sun past the threshold and into the Daycare, in which the bug in his system simply switched back to normal, eliciting more gleeful giggles from him.

Moon had not forgotten Sun’s quick mention of how lonely it was at the Pizzaplex at night when he’d been recounting his first visit with Gregory.

When the other Glamrocks had left, he turned to Sun, “You know… I don’t see any reason why I couldn’t just pull you out of the Daycare myself when I have to go on my security patrols. Then you could explore, or talk with the Glamrocks, or accompany me. You wouldn’t have to be all by yourself, waiting anym—”

Moon didn’t get any further before he was pulled in an enthusiastic hug and practically drowned as Sun yelled, “ThankyouThankyouThankyouTHANKYOU!” while bouncing up and down excitedly.

And nights wouldn’t be so lonely for Moon, either.

Chapter Text

Sun and Moon were both struggling, for once, to focus whole-heartedly on their core programming. Both were still feeling antsy at the presumed danger still lurking somewhere below the main building of the Pizzaplex.

Sun’s voice had just a slight tinge of anxiety to it that he tried desperately to hide as high energy. Moon was drawing night sky after night sky in an attempt to distract himself. Trying to make each one different.

They got a door signal that meant another child had used their Daycare pass to enter the outer area. Usually one of them went to the doors that opened into the play area to greet the child, check to make sure their profile was registered, and make sure to log which parent or guardian was authorized to pick them up. Moon glanced up and saw that Sun, while having got the door signal, too, couldn’t break away from the children surrounding him at the moment, one literally holding his yellow and maroon striped pant leg and in the middle of asking him a question.

Moon stood up and headed for the door. Sun relaxed when he saw Moon was on it, and crouched down to better listen to the small boy with glasses now that he could give his undivided attention. Moon reached the doors just as they admitted the new child. Moon scanned their profile as they walked in looking up at him.

Wait, he recognized her—

“Moon!" The girl ran toward him and flung her arms around him in a hug.

Moon lowered to a crouch, wrapping his own arms around her in turn, “Cassie,” he said with wonder. She looked older than when he’d last seen her.

Luckily and unluckily Cassie had stopped visiting the Daycare before Moon's “bad years”. Luckily because it meant Moon hadn’t scared her, unluckily because of the reason she had stopped going to the Pizzaria. Her father had been an engineer here before the… accident.

Moon pulled away, “Cassie, it’s been a long time since you were last here,” he said warmly. His voice had a softer tone than he usually used, even when using his nap time voice. He and Sun didn’t officially have a favorite Little Star. They loved them all equally of course. But if they did have a favorite….

Cassie’s expression switched from joyous to confused as she realized who she was hugging given the lighting, “Wait… how…” Then she looked over and saw Sun, who had noticed her now, too.

Sun gave an overly enthusiastic wave of pure excitement, “Cassie!!” he bounced slightly despite the fact that three young children were attempting to climb him— which he was subtly brushing off and positioning himself to make their jobs harder (children weren’t allowed to climb on the animatronics. Not that that stopped them from trying, of course.)

She looked from Sun to Moon, confused, “When….?” She started, trailing off uncertainly.

Moon shook his head slightly, “New update,” he whispered, managing to hide his bitterness, “It’s okay, we’re… getting used to it…”

She looked at him concerned.

This is why Cassie (unofficially) was their favorite. Given her dad had been an engineer who’d even helped build some of the more recent Glamrocks, she understood that they were essentially robots, but she also saw them as people. Not mistaking them for being identical to humans like most children (and even some adults did), but understanding that they were their own unique thing.

“We’re okay,” Moon assured her gently.

She nodded, taking his word for it. Then she looked down, worry overtaking her initial delight.

Moon tilted his head, “What is it?”

Cassie bit her lower lip, then reached around and pulled her Roxy backpack off, unzipping it and hunting around inside.

While Roxy was indisputably her favorite, Sun and Moon actually came in second over the other Glamrocks. That was rare. Sun and Moon weren’t even considered on the roster for most children, given they didn’t have any flashy performances— less rock and roll and more medieval old-theater jester design, with their stuck-grin masks and non-animal theming. Sometimes Moon wondered if he and Sun had originally even been meant for this Pizzaria mega mall, or if they had been bought elsewhere and shoehorned in later.

Cassie had finally found what she was looking for, pulling it out of her bag, determined expression on her face.

It was a Roxy themed walkie-talkie.

Moon felt his metaphorical heart sink. Oh no.

"I need your help," Cassie whispered, "I was gonna ask one of the Glamrocks to help, but I couldn’t manage to get the chance, they were all super busy and I couldn't get close 'cause of the crowds."

Moon placed a hand over the walkie-talkie, causing her to look up at him, then gestured quietly toward the play castle located by the ball pit "moat". There weren't any children playing there, currently.

She nodded conspiratorily, and Moon took her gently by the hand to lead her there.

Once safely inside a section of the castle, Moon asked, knowing with dreadful certainty what the answer was going to be, “So what’s going on?”

She was staring at the walkie-talkie again, “I got a message from my friend. He needs help, I gotta find him!”

Moon repressed a sigh, “Can I hear it?”

She nodded, pressing down the button, “Where are you again? I’m still looking!”

“Cassie! I told you! I’m trapped at the bottom of the Pizzaplex! You have to hurry, it’s so dark down here!”

Moon flinched back in shock, “Gregory!?”

Cassie looked up at him, a little startled at the outburst, “Yeah, he’s my friend.”

Wait. Gregory had friends!?

Wait, no— that wasn’t the important part, “How did you meet him?”

“A few days ago he saw me with the new Helpy toy, one of… one of Dad’s old friends gave it to me for my birthday. I invited Gregory to go to my party, it’s in a few days… I was hoping maybe… he sounded like he’d really actually show up…” She frowned, looking down.

Moon winced, an old memory and heard-through-the-grapevine information resurfacing.

Even though Cassie had become the animatronics' darling, often present and chatting with them eagerly while her dad had done routine maintenance on them, she had trouble getting along with kids her age. It… probably didn’t help that, back then, she’d had a tendency to brag constantly and proudly about how her dad worked at the Pizzaplex, and she got to have special privileged one-on-one time with the stars.

Later Sun and Moon heard her excitedly trying to invite every kid in the daycare to her birthday party, completely unaware of her unpopularity. Roxanne Wolf was her animatronic of choice, of course, for her birthday party pass.

That was the day the accident had happened. And apparently no kids had shown up. Only Roxy, and an empty party room, with her wondering why her Dad hadn’t come even though he promised.

Sun and Moon had only heard about this when they’d asked one of the Glamrocks why Cassie had stopped coming to the Daycare while being escorted to maintenance. Apparently her dad was all she’d had, which explained why he took her to work so much… hard to find a sitter willing to work on “Faz time”, given the company was infamous for calling in employees to fill in for this or that at any hour.

Moon put a gentle hand over the walkie-talkie, eliciting a confused look from Cassie, “That’s not the real Gregory,” he said softly, “It’s a fake.”

She looked at him incredulously, almost bordering on hurt or betrayed, “How do you know?” She was more confused than accusatory.

Moon suddenly found himself in a pickle. How to explain how he knew. … without mentioning that it was because Gregory had broken into the Pizzaplex last night.

Moon decided on a different tactic, he tapped the walkie-talkie twice, “Because I heard a fake message exactly like that before, and it was when I knew for a fact that the person whose voice I heard was not at the bottom of the Pizzaplex, and completely unaware that their voice was being used.”

Cassie’s eyes widened at that. Then she looked down at the walkie-talkie, “How can you be sure?”

“... Because I met Gregory just yesterday," (It was technically after midnight, but who cares about details, anyway), “I personally saw him leave the building.”

She looked at him, confused, “How?”

Moon tapped his eyes, “I can access the camera systems. Part of a security update I got… in the past two years…”

She then looked down at her walkie-talkie with alarm, as if it might turn into a snake and bite her, “Who’s sending these bad messages! What do they want?”

“I don’t know. Last night, Sun, me and the Glamrocks tried to find out. We searched the entirety of both basement levels, but we weren’t able to find anything.”

Cassie’s brow wrinkled as she thought hard, “Um… it doesn’t say the basement of the Pizzaplex. It says at the bottom of the Pizzplex.”

Moon tilted his head, “Well, I suppose, but nothing lower is on our maps.”

Cassie bit her lip, “D… Dad once took me to a place that wasn’t officially on the grid. They were building a Foxy log ride, and he let me ride in it before it officially opened… but… something went wrong? Or, or the money stuff didn’t work out… and it never opened in the end. In Roxy’s Raceway, there’s actually lots of places that… that lead off the grid that might go deeper down.”

Ah. That would at least partially explain why Roxy’s raceway was always undergoing repairs in various sections. None of those sections seemed to have been fixed in the slightest even after Moon’s missing two years.

“Thank you Cassie. We’ll look there next. Don’t believe the walkie-talkie, and if you hear any other kids getting messages like this, warn them about it.”

Cassie looked so serious as she nodded, though some anxiousness was coming through, “What should I say? W-what if they don’t believe me?”

Moon internally sighed, but somehow, given the age-demographic, he figured this would work, “Tell them an evil zombie robot is hijacking the walkie-talkies, and they should inform the nearest Glamrock so they know about it and can beat up the bad guy.”

She nodded, now confident, “Okay!” her spirits had lifted now that she had a game-plan.

~*~

Moon escorted Cassie back to the crafts tables where most of the hubbub was located. Sun, managing to deftly step out of the crowding children, could finally give Cassie a proper greeting and a hug.

Sun and Moon tried to subtly give Cassie the time of her life, trying not to make it too obvious they were suggesting games or crafts that catered to Cassie’s likes.

Given the slight sadness that never seemed to leave her eyes, it was good to see her laugh and play, and even start getting along and having fun with the other children.

Moon wished there was more they could do for her.

Sun hoped she’d be coming again. He felt hadn’t given her nearly enough laughter and hugs.

Chapter Text

As soon as the clock hit closing time and Moon’s security protocols clicked into place, he stepped out and yanked Sun across the threshold. He led the way to Roxy’s Raceway while explaining his plan, “I’ve just sent a ping requesting the Glamrocks meet us at Roxy’s Raceway. We’ll fill them in on what Cassie said, and rely on Roxy’s eyes to see which places lead down the furthest. Given these places are most likely off the maps, we’ll team up in pairs again and use the Monty Method-,” (He kinda hated that he couldn’t think of a better name than that,) “-to push and pull each other into the out-of-bounds areas. We’ll have to rely solely on our optics this time.”

Sun nodded along as Moon explained, trying to stay focused while he mentally gaped at all the sights and sounds around him. Lucky he had a computer for a brain, otherwise he’d have to ask Moon to repeat himself. Multiple times over, probably. As it was, it took all his self-control not to cut off Moon while he was speaking to make awed commentary on everything about him. He’d only ever got glimpses of the lights, size and neon glow on his way to maintenance and back.

Moon wished he could give Sun a proper tour, but they had a higher priority right now.

When he arrived, he saw Roxy looking quite smug. Chica and Freddy were already there, with Monty just walking up from the direction of Gator Golf.

Moon wondered if Roxy had a right to look smug, given the hijacker might be lurking under her raceway.

“I’m a genius.” She declared.

Moon tilted his head, confused.

Chica subtly hid an eye roll, Freddy was looking expectantly, and Monty tilted his sunglasses down and gave her a sarcastic uh-huh look.

Roxy’s stomach-hatch opened (normally there would be a present or birthday cake inside to surprise kids who’d paid for the party pass, all the Gamrocks had one), and pulled out a familiar, worn Roxy walkie-talkie, and a newer looking Roxy themed faz-watch.

Roxy was clearly waiting for some reaction other than staring. When she didn’t get it, she snorted and rolled her eyes, “Listen,” She emphasized, as though they should’ve caught on already. She pushed a button on the Faz Watch, “Okay Cassie, go,” Then she held down the talk button on the walkie-talkie, holding the watch close.

Cassie’s voice spoke from the watch, “Gregory! I’m still looking, where are you again?”

The walkie-talkie crackled to life, responding in Gregory’s voice, “Cassie! What’s taking you so long, please hurry! There’s something down here with me, it’s trying to get me!”

Monty, Freddy, and Chica were staring open-mouthed. Moon and Sun would have been if it were physically possible.

That… that was genius… all except for…

Moon stepped forward, “Where’s Cassie? Those watches don’t have range outside the Pizzaplex.”

Roxy snorted, “I hid her in my salon until closing.”

Moon almost started to berate her for breaking the rules when she stopped him with a pointed look. Oh… right…

Monty guffawed, “First Moon, and now you Rox? Looks like all of us are turning into troublemakers!”

Roxy tossed her head, flipping her hair irritatedly, “That was her idea.”

Moon looked across the raceway to where the salon was located. He saw Cassie watching through the window. She waved excitedly when she spotted him looking.

Moon put a hand to his faceplate, dragging it down slowly. Before he could say anything, he was interrupted by a security break-in alert.

At the fire escape.

Seriously!?

Everyone looked at Moon with concern as he suddenly lowered his faceplate into both hands and made incoherent grumbling noises.

Sun cautiously moved a hand towards his shoulder, hesitating a bit, “Moon… you okay?”

Moon gave an exasperated sigh, “Security alert” he ground out, calling down the wire and having it lift him to the fire escape.

The other animatronics watched him go, then looked at each other, expressions ranging from concerned to confused.

~*~

At this point Moon wondered if this would become a nightly occurrence. He hadn’t reported any of Gregory’s… adventures… but he was starting to seriously consider filing a request for better security on the fire escape door. It’s not like they’d even see it if he did though…

This time he was about 95% sure it had to be Gregory again.

Oh… the other 5% was standing next to Gregory.

Great. Wonderful. Vanessa had come, too.

WHY DID EVERY MEDDLING HUMAN HAVE TO BE IN THE BUILDING ON THIS NIGHT!? HAD THEY PLANNED THIS!?

Instead of shouting, Moon avoided Gregory’s line of vision and dropped silently behind them.

Gregory was still searching the ceiling for Moon with his flashlight. Moon snuck up ‘till his faceplate was right at Gregory’s ear.

“You promised you wouldn’t break in again,” He whispered.

Gregory shrieked, almost leaping an impressive one and a half feet into the air, twisting around and stumbling backwards on his butt, scrambling away from Moon, heart pounding.

Vanessa had also reacted. She had a taser out and pointed in his direction. Whoops.

Moon withdrew, stepping back quickly and returning to his full height.

Vanessa gave him a look, “Was that necessary?”

Gregory stood up, brushing himself off to hide his embarrassment, “Geez, what was that for?” he snapped.

Moon ignored Vanessa and looked straight at Gregory, “You promised you wouldn’t break into the Pizzaplex ever again,” He growled.

He was more than a little put-off to see Gregory just cock an eyebrow at him.

Vanessa held up her badge, cheeky look in her eye, “Technically he didn’t. I did.”

Moon stared for a minute, then slapped his faceplate for the second time that night, “UuuUuUugh… seriously!?” He dragged a hand down his face again, “Did you three plan this!?”

“Yes.” Gregory said simply.

Oh. Great. “And when were you gonna put your robot buddies in the loop?”

Gregory rolled his eyes, “Now. Sooner, if you hadn’t jump-scared me,” Gregory added, glaring accusingly at Moon.

Moon leaned down to his level, “I’m not sorry.”

Vanessa stepped between them, rolling her eyes, “Children, please, we have more important things to worry about tonight. We’re all here for the same reason, She held up the walkie-talkie for emphasis, "This,” She was interrupted as it crackled to life, the facsimile of her voice begging Gregory for help again. There was an awkward pause as they waited for the walkie-talkie to crackle out, “-has to go down,” She finished.

Moon was silent for a moment. Well… they were right…

Moon glanced at Gregory, then looked at Vanessa, “Did you have to bring children down here?”

Vanessa returned his stare, “And leave Gregory home alone? Oh yeah,” She rolled her eyes, “Brilliant parenting advice.”

Well… sarcasm aside, at least that confirmed Gregory had a home, “And Cassie?” He shot back.

Gregory scowled, though not at Moon, “That thing almost tricked her again,” he said darkly.

“So,” Vanessa took over, “We decided the safest course of action would be to keep all three of us together so we could know when the thing was lying. Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem very smart, but it is desperate, and it’s been getting more convincing and manipulative with its excuses as we listen. It may be easy to outsmart now, but I’d rather nip this thing in the bud before it gets the chance to learn from this and get smarter.”

Moon sighed. Why were humans so infuriatingly stubborn, “Fiiine,” he relented.

Something seemed to occur to Gregory, perking him out of his residual grumpiness from being startled, “Oh! And that’s not all!” he swung his back-pack off, unzipping it and reaching down inside.

He pulled out the Helpy toy. The toy turned its head from side to side, taking in its surroundings, then focused on Moon, raising one hand in a wave, “Why hello there, Attendant Moon.”

Moon startled back. That was Freddy’s voice. THE Freddy’s voice. The tone was more confident and warmer than New Freddy’s. His deeper tones seemed laughably humorous when paired with the dinky purple and white toy it came out of.

Moon thought of New Freddy’s reaction to this. Moon thought of Roxy’s. Oh boy, this could go… badly.

Seeming oblivious, Freddy piped up again, “I am here to help! Well, in any way I can at this size,”

Gregory turned the toy to face him, “You’re gonna be a huge help, Freddy!” He said, utterly confident.

Moon looked down at the little toy as Gregory set Freddy on the floor.

Freddy waddled over and looked up at him expectantly, sensing Moon had something to say.

Moon tried to think how to explain this lightly. He decided to start with a question, “Freddy… why did you come along, exactly?”

The little Helpy bot smiled warmly up at him, “I have come to assist Gregory. And I would very much like to see my friends again, and make sure they are all okay. I… hope the band was able to play without me.”

Moon was glad his faceplate was immobile, he didn’t think he could hide a wince otherwise. That’s right. Gregory didn’t know about New Freddy. So it made sense that Freddy hadn’t realized he’d been so easily replaced either. Moon made a simulated deep breath to buy him more time as he tried to formulate the words to put it gently, “Well… the band… has been… doing.” Wait, no, that wasn’t a complete sentence, “Weellll?” He added belatedly.

Freddy started to look concerned.

Moon tried again, “Well, I mean, uh… they’re… doing shows…”

Freddy managed to make the limited expressions of the little Helpy toy look stern, “Attendant Moon, what are you avoiding telling me.”

Moon sighed, going slack, arms dangling. Might as well rip off the bandaid. “They… built a new Freddy…”

The Helpy toy’s eyes widened for a moment, then looked sad, “I… figured that might happen. I… am the face of Fazbear entertainment, after all,” He looked down at his tiny hands, “Well… I used to be..”

Gregory flinched and glared at Moon.

Moon ignored him, because as much as he hated to, there was still more to say, “And, I’m pretty sure you hurt Roxy’s feelings… uh, leaving like that, and not coming back.”

Freddy lowered his head with shame, looking at the floor, “...I shall have to apologize to her… but I couldn’t leave Gregory alone until I knew he was safe…” Then he looked up, “What about my other band mates? Do they feel the same?”

“I don’t know,” Moon said honestly.

Freddy nodded sadly, making a small sighing sound, “Either way, I at least owe them all an apology. After all, if Gregory was brave enough to apologize, “ He drew himself up to his full height, the effect falling short since he barely reached Gregory’s knee, “Then I can be, too.”

~*~

It was decided Moon would head back down and fill in Sun and the band while Vanessa, Gregory, and Freddy took the escalators down, since Moon couldn’t short-cut all of them at once on the wire.

Moon lowered himself back to Roxy's Raceway. Cassie had left the Salon and was among the other animatronics at this point, standing between Roxy and Sun, one hand in each of theirs.

Moon suppressed the feelings of aaw, that’s cute because nothing about the overarching situation was cute.

All eyes were on him. He gave a grumbling sigh, “Gregory and Ex-security guard Vanessa have entered the building to join us on our hijacker hunt.”

Immediately there was an explosion of outbursts from each animatronic.

Roxy’s ears went back, “What!? What in the world do they think they could do?”

Monty threw his head back, “HA! Troublemakers!”

Chica’s head jerked back and forth between everyone, “Sh-should we be reporting any of this?” Then she suddenly brightened, “Oh! Officer Vanessa’s okay!”

New Freddy scratched his head, utterly confused, “Erm, who is Gregory and Vanessa?”

Then Moon decided to rip the bandaid off, “And Gregory brought Freddy, too.”

Immediately there was silence.

The silence continued as all eyes followed the group in question down an escalator, watching as they walked up to the group.

Helper Freddy was currently hugged to Gregory’s chest like a plush toy. He raised an arm and said, “Greetings.”

Roxy glared at him, shoving her snout in his face, “You ditched us!”

Gregory took a startled step back. He was used to a bigger animatronic being between him and Roxy.

Helper Freddy looked morose, eyes downcast, “I am so sorry, Roxy, but I had to make sure Gregory was alright. I… I was so confused, wondering why my friends were trying to hurt him, so I made Gregory’s safety my top priority. I got… very damaged at some point but Gregory managed to retrieve my head. The building was on fire. I didn’t know what to do. I saved Gregory, and Gregory saved me,” He looked back up at Roxy, exuding earnestness, “I am so glad all of you are okay.”

Roxy backed away, returning to full height with a dissatisfied snort.

New Freddy was staring at the Helpy toy that spoke with his voice, “What is going on?”

The two Freddy's stared at each other.

Finally Helper Freddy spoke up, voice slightly strained, "Hello. How are you doing?"

New Freddy was hesitant, "I am… doing my best. I… I don't understand. I was led to believe I had replaced someone who looked just like me. Were you the lead singer of the band?" He sounded so confused.

Monty threw his head back, guffawing loudly at the image of the Glamrock's all up on stage with the tiny helper toy as their lead, equally tiny microphone in hand.

Moon suppressed a chuckle. This was serious, there were higher priorities right now.

Speaking of which… Moon spoke up, "Here's the plan, we all search deeper down, and the three squishy humans stay up here out of danger."

His plan received immediate push-back from the squishy humans involved.

Cassie's voice rang out first, "But I know how to get there! None of your internal maps have the way marked!"

Vanessa spoke up, "Besides, you don't even know what the threat is, whether it's human, A.I., or just an algorithm. I used to be a software tech. Even if we can't find it, I could set something up to block the signal, at least.

And finally Gregory, "And if it's another evil robot Zombie, I'm an expert at dealing with those."

The other animatronics stared at Gregory, expressions all basically saying what?

Except Moon, 'cause he'd already been over this. Moon looked to Vanessa, "What's the actual truth of what happened?"

Vanessa turned to him, deadly serious, "It was in fact, an evil robot zombie," there wasn't a hint of a joke in her eyes.

Moon stared at her, "How? That… that doesn't compute with my logic programming."

Vanessa snorted, "the real world doesn't always live up to the logic people think it has. Or at least in this world it doesn't. Maybe in another world your logic would be on point, who knows," She gave a sour look at nothing.

Moon shook his head. Okay, fine. Time to update his logic programming, he guessed.

"Um," Sun raised a hand. The group turned to him, "Could we… could we maybe at least try talking to… whoever's behind this— if there is a who? I mean, at least at first? Maybe this is all just a big misunderstanding?"

Roxy growled and shook her head, "Nuh-uh, they messed with Cassie, whatever it is, it's going down!"

"Please?" Sun insisted, "Just at first?"

Roxy rolled her eyes, "Fine."

Monty cracked his knuckles (or made a very good impression of doing so), "Enough with the jaw-flapping, let's get going!"

Chica stuttered a little, "B-but wait, are we really going to take the humans into potential danger?" She tilted her head to the side worryingly.

Gregory spoke up, "We all decided it would be best if us humans stuck together, and we all traveled in one big group. That way that thing doesn't have a chance to trick any of us while we're all here."

Moon tilted his head, "Why can't you humans just stay in a group up here?"

Gregory turned serious, "Remember when I told you that thing almost tricked Cassie again?"

Moon waited for Gregory to continue. He was curious about that.

"It switched from mimicking me, to mimicking your voice."

Moon froze, joints almost locking up in shock. But how, when— then he remembered. If it was listening over Faz walkie-talkies, then it would have gotten a sample of his voice during the night Gregory had stayed in the Daycare, when he'd talked with Vanessa.

Moon felt a shiver go through him, "Fine, then we all stick together."

Cassie bounced slightly, "My turn to help, the old log ride is this way!"

She was still holding Sun's hand (Roxy had let go at one point when confronting Helper Freddy), leading him on, with the rest moving to follow.

The Animatronics positioned themselves toward the outside of the group, keeping the humans in the middle.

Eventually, after winding through haphazard walls formed from temporary safety barriers and caution tape, and going down stairwells that intercepted from the utility tunnels, all the animatronics jolted to a halt. Any further would be "outside" the building.

Cassie was trying in vain to pull Sun forward another step, Sun simply standing there with his arm held limply, unable to move further, as if there was an invisible wall.

Vanessa gave a sweeping look at all the animatronics, "Oh, right… did none of you consider this before starting your 'mission'?"

Monty strolled forward smugly, "Watch!" He tilted his sunglasses down and looked at Cassie, "I'll hafta ask you to let go and get outta the way, little missy."

Cassie giggled, then nodded, moving back to where Gregory was standing.

Monty gave Sun an unceremonious shove, and he stumbled through the "barrier".

Sun turned around, hands in the air, "Ta-da!!" He shuddered suddenly, leaning forward and gripping his head, "Oh WOW! There is no map here. Ha… haha, it's like I'm standing on air." His voice sounded strained, belying the false cheer he was trying to put into it.

Chica and New Freddy exchanged alarmed looks.

Roxy strolled forward, "Your turn Mont'," she suddenly shouldered violently into him, causing him to stumble across the barrier himself, just barely stopping from face-planting, long tail swishing for balance.

Roxy walked as far forward as she could go, reaching a hand out while growling, "No one's going to shove me across."

Monty started to reach toward her.

Roxy bared her teeth at him, "Not you," she snapped, "Your claws'll scratch my casing."

Monty drew his hands back in an okay, fine! Gesture.

Roxy was staring pointedly at Sun.

"Oh!" He squeaked, then ran forward trying to reach Roxy's hand. The barrier and map-flipping bug combined so that it looked like they were both struggling to reach through an invisible glass pane.

Moon hadn’t thought of that. It seemed paring up like in his original plan wouldn’t have worked quite like he’d pictured.

Gregory let out a snicker at the display, both of them starting to look like a silly mime act.

Moon snuck up behind her, “Sorry Roxy,” Before she could react he pushed on her upper back, getting her arm through the “barrier” just enough for Sun to get a grip.

Sun yanked back as hard as he could, straining to use his lighter frame to pull Roxy's heavier one through. It was sort of almost working.

Monty gave a snort, then carefully reached his arm around Sun's torso (watching his claws— Moon made sure) and walked backward, dragging Sun and vicariously pulling Roxy through.

Once on the other side, Roxy huffed and flicked her hair, crossing her arms, trying to cover up the embarrassment of five seconds ago.

Next Moon shoved Chica through, with Sun and Roxy grabbing her hands when they could reach 'em and pulling back for good measure.

New Freddy was looking more and more uncertain.

"You okay?" Moon asked, preparing to shove him through.

Freddy made a motion that resembled a nervous swallow, "We are breaking so many rules, right now." He said quietly.

Helper Freddy spoke up behind him, "Sometimes there are more important things than rules. Like people's lives. It's not the human's fault that our coding is so rigid, but there are hundreds of children that could be in danger right now, and protecting them is more important than our rules."

New Freddy looked back at Helper Freddy when he spoke. Now he solemnly nodded. He turned to Moon, "I am ready."

Moon took a few steps back, then ran up and tackled him through. Freddy was the second heaviest of the group. Roxy, Sun, and Chica were all ready to grab him and pull him the rest of the way through.

New Freddy straightened up on the other side, rigid, "Oh my, this is quite unpleasant."

"You'll get used to it," Roxy scoffed.

Now it was Moon's turn. Another flaw in his initial plan. Without anyone to push them, one animatronic would always have to be left behind, except…

"You ready?" Came Vanessa's voice from behind him.

Moon nodded, still staring at the invisible barrier (though it technically existed only in his head).

"Okay, kids," he heard Vanessa behind him, "I'll need your help for this, are you ready?"

He heard giggling from Cassie and a (too) eager "yeah!" from Gregory.

"Okay, on the count of three. One, two, ..."

Moon found himself tensing and forced himself to relax completely. He started to play his music box as a distraction, getting as far as two notes when—

"THREE!"

He felt something slam into his lower back, jerking him forward while two other impacts shoved his legs, causing him to stumble off balance, falling through what his head told him was impenetrable.

Immediately he felt Sun grabbing him by the bell on the end of his iconic starry sleep cap to pull him the rest of the way through. Luckily it was fastened tight, so children couldn’t just yank it off.

The other animatronics helped Sun, grabbing Moon’s shoulders and arms to yank him the rest of the way through.

Once over the threshold, he felt an unpleasant stutter shock in his system, his map glitching as it tried to account for his position before settling to avoid a crash. Moon found himself off the grid. As far as his internal map was concerned he was simply floating in a black void. Moon shuddered, looking quickly down at the ground, confirming it was still there. Now he understood why Sun had described it like "walking on air."

They were out of bounds.

Chapter Text

After all the trouble that the animatronics just went through, Moon felt a tiny bit bitter as all the humans casually walked passed the "invisible barrier".

The area ahead didn’t look like they were in a Pizzaplex anymore, becoming more cave-like, but with broken boxes and construction tools and vehicles scattered here and there.

After a bit of walking they came to an elevator.

Vanessa looked at it dubiously, "Does this thing still work?"

Gregory walked up and pushed the button. They heard mechanical whirring as it came to life with a *ding*, the doors sliding open.

The elevator looked pretty big, but not big enough for three humans and six 7~ foot tall animatronics.

Vanessa considered a moment, “Cassie, ask the walkie-talkie hijacker if it’s at the bottom of this elevator.

Roxy opened up her stomach hatch and sighed, “I didn’t know you’d be coming with us. Guess we didn’t need to use the watch trick….” She handed it to Cassie.

Moon couldn’t help but wonder who paid for the two brand new Roxy Faz watches. Or had Roxy just… “gifted” them?

Cassie pressed the button, “Where did you say you were again? There’s an elevator in front of me, did I come to the right place?”

Moon startled back as he heard his own voice crackle from the walkie-talkie.

“Yes, you have to go down through the elevator. Gregory got knocked unconscious by some falling rubble, and my leg is trapped. Once you get down here, I’ll hand you Gregory. Take him to Sun, he can do first-aid, then come down later to help me out, but Gregory is the first priority right now.”

Moon shuddered. That really did sound like him, using the calm soothing nap time voice. He caught sight of Sun also shivering uncomfortably.

Vanessa took charge again, “Alright, down the elevator we go. I think we might be able to squeeze in two groups. First, me, Gregory, Cassie, Old Freddy, and New Freddy will go,” She looked at Moon, “Then you, Sun, Roxy, Monty, and Chica, next.”

Moon objected, “Should the humans go first with minimal protection? I don’t like that. I think most of us should go down first, then you.”

In answer Vanessa held up her taser, pointing to it, “One, I’m not completely helpless. I know what setting to have this on to stun an animatronic. Two, just in case this hijacker is able to hack you guys, too, I thought we’d come down first so it can’t use any of your voices to trick us, and three, I don’t feel comfortable letting the kids out of my sight, so the humans are staying in one group,” she finished.

Moon thought about that, still feeling a bit undecided.

Helper Freddy spoke up from Gregory’s backpack, “Do not forget, I am also here. The other me and I will keep them safe while we wait for you to come down.”

Gregory had moved Helper Freddy so he had his arms and head poking out of the backpack, resembling a baby carrier. Moon tried very hard not to laugh at that, since Freddy’s deep voice just made it funnier. The situation was far too serious right now.

Moon hadn’t thought of a scenario where the animatronics themselves could become a threat to the charges they were trying to protect. Though… perhaps it’s because he didn’t want to acknowledge that it still might be possible. It had already happened once, after all.

Moon relented, “Alright.”

His group watched the others walk in, crowding just a bit uncomfortably. The doors shut, and they waited as the elevator went down.

And down.

… And down.

Moon was just starting to get nervous, Sun already fidgeting and bouncing anxiously from one foot to the other when the mechanism stopped. Moon pressed the button to bring it back up again.

Sun let out an exaggerated groan and fell backwards, “More waaaiting!” he whined, arms and legs splayed.

Moon honestly felt the same, trying to resist the urge to fidget himself. He glanced at the others. Roxy had a plastic red hand mirror that she also apparently kept in her hatch, using it to fix her hair.

Monty was leaning against a wall and mimicking taking a snooze (or maybe he’d actually entered sleep-mode).

Chica walked over to Sun, “You alright?” she asked looking down.

Sun made a sighing sound, “Yeees, I just wasn’t programmed for waiting. Moon has all the patience.”

They were interrupted when Cassie’s walkie-talkie (Roxy-talkie?) went off, crackling with Moon’s voice from inside Roxy’s open stomach hatch, “Have you gone down the elevator yet? I calculate you should have reached the bottom by now.”

Roxy stared down at it wide-eyed, looking like she didn’t quite know what to do.

Moon thought quickly, “The watch! Tell Cassie to tell it she is at the bottom of the elevator, then let her use the watch to talk to it like you did before.

Roxy nodded, confidence back as she went into action.

After Cassie remotely reassured the hijacker that she’d made it to the bottom, they were all relieved when the elevator dinged, announcing it was at the top.

The five of them crowded into the elevator together.

Monty grunted, “Watch it!” He pushed Sun away, who’s rays had clipped his sunglasses.

“Oops, sorry!” Sun squeaked, trying to move.

“Hey! You almost poked me in the eye!” Roxy growled at him.

“Sorry, sorry!” Sun squeaked.

“Leave him alone,” Moon said in a dangerous voice.

They all went quiet.

Moon briefly wondered if all the animatronics had grown afraid of him to some extent during those two years…

He didn’t think about it, instead contorting to reach Under Roxy’s arm and past Monty’s tail to press the down arrow. He also grabbed Monty’s tail and moved it out of the way of the doors just before they closed.

“Oy!” Monty shouted indignantly, his voice echoing tinnily in the now closed container.

Roxy flinched, “Not so loud, meathead!” her ears flattened.

Suddenly Chica cried out in a hysterical voice, “You all want LOUD!? I can do LOUD!!”

They all went quiet again. None of them wanted to be paralyzed by Chica’s voice box.

After a bit Roxy hissed quietly to Monty, “Stop stepping on my foot!”

“That ain’t my foot,” Monty grumbled back.

Moon inwardly sighed. They were going to suffer through this the whole way down…

~*~

When the elevator finally reached the bottom, doors opening, they all tumbled out unceremoniously, looking right out of a cartoon show.

Vanessa cocked an eyebrow at them, “Everything go alright?’

Moon, let out a pent-up groan, not feeling like getting up just yet.

Monty suddenly lifted his head, looking around wildly, “Hey! Where’re my shades!?”

Chica also groaned, starting to pull herself free of the pile, “On your head,” She pointed tiredly.

Monty was hoisting himself up, still stressed, “They’re not on my head, I can’t see ‘em!”

Sun was the next to untangle himself, “Further up on your head, here ya go!” He quickly slid them back down over the Gator’s eyes.

Monty straightened, looked around, then grunted, giving Sun a nod of thanks.

Poor Roxy, eager to be the first out— and therefore closest to the door— had been on the bottom of the pile.

She grumbled about the gator breaking something, but her casing seemed intact.

Vanessa was grinning by the time they all pulled themselves up, “Ready to go?”

Moon made a shooing motion with his hand, “Lead on,” he grumbled.

Vanessa led the way, her Gregory, and Cassie now equipped with flashlights.

Moon looked around curiously while Sun gave a nervous shudder and moved to be closer to the humans with the lightsource.

The place was now a cave proper, the ceiling stretching up far above them. It was tall enough that there was even some slight fog, or dust perhaps, obscuring Moon's vision of the very top. There were old thick copper pipes jutting out from some of the walls, and a few mobile lamp rigs set up. Strangely, a few were even still glowing, the Pizzaplex’s power apparently reaching down here. It looked like there had been a concrete wall between the rest of the cave and the elevator at some point, but it had long since crumbled away, a few support beams sticking out of the edges, twisted, glinting dully in the haphazard light.

As they headed further, there were signs that construction had been attempted at some point, mangled fences and collapsed supports strewn everywhere.

And this massively deep cavern had been under Roxy’s Raceway? … No wonder the place was always under construction…

Roxy, also looking around, seemed to be thinking the same thing, “I hate to say it, but I think my attraction needs to be shut down… If this place collapses while kids are racing…” She shuddered, not completing the sentence.

Moon silently agreed.

After turning a corner they all stared at an ominous tunnel. It was large enough for them all to fit through, but small enough that everyone above Gregory and Cassie size would have to duck, almost to a crawl.

Moon nudged his way to the front, “I’ll go first,” he declared. He was hoping someone would ask him why (he had it all reasoned out), but no one did, seeming to gladly shuffle out of the way. Moon repressed a sigh. All his explanations about having night vision, technically being the head of security, and being flexible enough to navigate more easily would have to be shelved.

He started down. He was also prepared to brace himself in case someone slipped, given the tunnel's gentle downwards slope got more pronounced the further along it went. Moon wondered who in the world had drilled down here and why. What were they after? What were they looking for? Why didn’t they just fill this whole cavern in and focus on ensuring Roxy’s Raceway was stable instead of this?

He could hear the clatter of the others following behind him.

Moon made it to the tunnel exit, an ominous red lighting was shining from… somewhere. There were no more signs of construction or civilization, just an outright cave now, smaller and narrower. Moon waited at the entrance, helping his team-mates step down from the tunnel and onto the pile of rocks underneath. With the children he simply picked them up and lowered them himself to ensure they wouldn’t get any bruises or scrapes— though Gregory seemed to have already gathered his fair share already, too excited by their spelunking adventure to feel them, judging from his grin and the eager gleam in his eye. Cassie was looking less certain, so Moon offered her a hand, which she took gratefully.

After a short walk and a turn, the ominous red light was replaced by an eerie green glow. Moon scanned the source. Bioluminescent mushrooms? Weird. So now there was an entire unique mushroom biome under the Pizzaplex. Add that to the pile alongside the robot zombie, then.

Moon picked up an unfamiliar sound. He ran it by all the random sound bytes that were programmed into his system early on. He came back with a match. Waterfalls?

Indeed. Rounding another bend, there were small waterfalls pouring into the cave from above, the ceiling growing higher again at this point. And below, of course, was water. All the animatronics stared.

After all this. After fighting to get through the “barrier”, after surviving the elevator ride. Their one weakness. A foot deep puddle of water. Moon sighed, going slack. Seriously? Is this where they’d finally be stumped in their progress?

There must have been some kind of algae in it that tinted the water a deep red. Unfortunately it was a very large puddle, Moon estimated it was 18 feet or so before the cave floor rose up and dry rock could be seen, along with a smaller cave entrance visible beyond.

Moon started scanning around the room, seeing if there was a path around, or if they could climb the walls.

Monty strolled forward, cracking his knuckles, “Whelp, looks like it’s my time to be the star.” He grinned.

Moon looked at him blankly.

Monty turned around and gave a pose, pointing to himself, “This Gator is waterproof.”

Moon staired… waterproof? Really? Well, given there were water hazards in his own attraction, Moon guessed that made sense. …Why weren’t the rest of them waterproof!?

Monty stepped into the water. Some of the animatronics couldn’t suppress a cringe or a flinch, despite the Gator’s claims. Moon’s estimated one foot deep extended to about one and a half, then two to three feet toward the middle before going shallow again at the other side.

Monty strolled back, “Alright, who wants ta piggyback first?”

There was silence.

New Freddy raised his hand, “I’ll go first,” he offered.

Everyone stood back and watched as the two tried to figure out how best to balance Freddy safely out of reach of electrocution. They settled on Freddy standing up, balancing with his feet on Monty’s shoulders, at his full height. Monty strained a little under the weight, but carried on forward, trying to keep his movements slow and steady. He had to move left, then right, to avoid some smaller waterfalls that poured out near the middle of the pool.

Moon gave an inward sigh of relief, feeling the animatronics behind him collectively relax when New Freddy stepped down onto the dry rock on the other side, waiting at the entrance of the other cave.

Roxy insisted on going next. She was built a bit more agile, and crouched on Monty’s shoulders like she was crouched in a racing kart.

Chica was extremely worried about her balance being off, but she was also the smallest (by inches) and lightest of the group, so Monty held her above him like a mattress and walked her across that way.

Monty waded back towards them once he’d set Chica safely on the other side. Moon noted that the three humans had elected to stay behind, holding their breaths and relaxing in relief each time a robotic friend made it to safety.

Monty reached them, looking from Moon to Sun, “Alright, which one first?”

Moon looked at Sun. Time to show off, then. He turned back to Monty and instructed, “Hold still for a minute.”

He stepped up onto the Gator easily, then turned around and held out his hands to Sun.

Sun, bouncing eagerly once he caught on to Moon’s plan, sprang forward, doing a somersault and ending with a handstand on Moon’s hands, each gripping each other to hold steady, then Moon raised him over his head. This is what their frames were built for. They were acrobats. Well… Daycare attendants now, but their baseline programming had never been removed, the Daycare program just being added on top of everything that was already there.

“Great. Cool. Way to steal my thunder,” Monty grunted under the strain, turning and heading for the other side.

Oh, right, whoops. They both may have had lighter frames than the Glamrocks, but combined, they were probably heavier than Freddy.

Luckily it seemed the Gator could take it.

Once safety was within reach, Sun sprang off Moon’s hands, did a backwards somersault, and landed on his feet in front of their waiting friends, hands in the air, “Ta-da!!”

Moon also leaped off Monty, doing a forward somersault, reaching out for Sun’s shoulders, vaulting off of them, and landing on his feet in front of Sun. He raised his hands half the amount Sun had, and said, “Ta-da.” with absolutely zero feeling or energy behind it.

The Glamrocks were all staring.

Chica burst into enthusiastic clapping, shouting, “Whoo!”

Roxy snorted and grumbled, “Show offs.”

New Freddy also clapped, “Wowee, I didn’t know you could do that!”

Sun was bowing to his audience, each bow punctuated by a “Yes, thank you, thank you!”

Moon also gave a bow. Just one single bow. Now he was ready to move on.

Moon looked back to check on their human entourage.

They were still in the water, having waded in behind them.

Vanessa was staring with her mouth agape, at a loss of words for once.

Gregory had let out a, “Whoa!” at some point during the performance.

Cassie was giggling and clapping her hands.

Moon gave a bow to them, too. Okay, he was actually bowing for Cassie, but he was pretending to bow for all of them.

They all gathered at the entrance to the next cave and stared.

Moon had been mistaken. This was more like a cave-shaped hole in the rock with what looked like a storage room inside, complete with shelves and boxes.

Okay, this was weird. So much for all signs of humanity stopping after a certain point.

As they picked their way through, Moon noted the floor was even tiled, and the wall had a checkered stripe along it, similar to a typical diner or Pizzaria pattern. Odd.

After they made their way out of the storage room, they entered what appeared to be… a building?

This was really odd. Why was there what looked like a broken down Pizzaria in a cave? Even if it had originally been built on the surface, and had slid down due to a sinkhole or something, that still begged the question on why someone thought it was a good idea to build a giant pizza mall on top of said sinkhole.

Moon shook his head slightly. Forget Roxy’s Raceway, this whole building should be closed down. Though… that probably wouldn’t be good news for them… Their existence was based on this Pizzaria staying standing. Moon sincerely hoped the structural problems were just relegated to Roxy Raceway. Though, that did seem to be the case…

If they survived this, Moon was going to file a report requesting the massive caverns under Roxy Raceway be filled in. Maybe someone would find that request so odd, they’d actually look into it.

In the next room, they were all suddenly startled when Gregory yelled and pointed, “Is that it!?”

The animatronics jerked, all ready for action as they followed Gregory’s hand.

Sitting in a pile of junk, crumpled, but still upright looked like some kind of robot. Its head reminded Moon of one of the flying saucers from Fazerblast.

Roxy was scanning it with her eyes.

Vanessa stepped forward and squinted at it, “Is that a candy cadet?” She poked it.

The machine simply crumpled over.

Roxy finished her scan, “I don’t think that’s it,” She said disappointedly.

Sun went over to it, righting it again, “M-maybe when we find the actual problem, we could fix this poor thing up. It… it could give away candy in Fazer Blast! Maybe…”

Vanessa made a face, “I’m pretty sure if you presented this to the company, they’d just scrap it, seeing the state it’s in.”

Sun wilted, then perked back up again, “Maybe we could fix it up! In secret! Or… or maybe ask a nice tech to.

Vanessa reached up and put a hand on Sun’s shoulder, “If it’s in this bad of shape, there may not be anything left to save. Besides, Candy Cadets are ancient, I’m pretty sure it never had A.I. Just like the Helpy Toy,”

Sun sighed and nodded, “Okay…” He gave the ancient robot a gentle pat on the head.

The way forward was down a short stairwell, the wooden stairs somehow still intact, creaking and groaning under the weight of the animatronics. They decided it would be wiser to go one at a time to avoid over-encumbering the stairs.

At the bottom, after heading into the next room, Gregory paused, “Wait a minute…” he breathed, “I recognize this place.”

Helper Freddy pushed himself up, looking around, “Ah! We have seen this place before, but only through cameras…. This is where that evil robot zombie was.”

Moon stared. Before he could voice his question, Roxy beat him to it, “How did you defeat it?”

Freddy pointed, “For some reason there are rooms with burners in them. Perhaps an old type of heating system? We used those to keep him from… hacking me.”

Roxy was nodding along as Freddy spoke, “So you burned it, and that got rid of it?”

Freddy spoke slowly, “Well… no, that’s not quite how it happened.”

Roxy made an impatient noise.

Gregory picked up where Freddy left off, “There was this weird… blob down here. Like a tangle of wires and animatronics. I don’t know what it was, but I think it really really didn’t like the evil zombie robot, because it grabbed it, and… then we never saw it again. But, whatever it did must’ve worked, because all of you aren’t crazy any more.”

Roxy stared at him open-mouthed, then leaned forward accusingly, “You never defeated the evil robot zombie, liar, a tangled blob did it for you!”

Gregory scuffed a foot, “Well I helped.” he muttered grumpily.

Vanessa was grimacing, “It better not be him again, or so help me…” She muttered under her breath.

Moon was starting to feel nervous. Buried Pizzaplexes, old defunct robots destined for the scrap heap, and apparently an evil robot zombie that could control other robot’s minds was possibly still at large. None of his programming was equipped for this.

Gregory was shaking his head, speaking to Vanessa in a low tone, “No, trust me, that guy’s gone. And even if he isn’t, I got him out of your head, he can’t control you anymore.

Moon wasn’t sure he heard that right. What?

Vanessa caught him staring, she made a tired face, “Later,” she sighed.

Okay, fine then. Just find the hijacker that was mimicking people's voices, and take it apart. Later would come later. (he hoped).

The group had started moving again when Roxy spoke up, “Uh, hate to tell you, but our batteries are getting low,” now it was her turn to grimace, “I didn’t think it would take so stinkin’ long to get down here.”

Helper Freddy spoke up hesitantly, “Well, there is… actually, one charger still down here. But I don’t know if it’s safe.”

They all looked at him.

He cleared his throat awkwardly, “It’s uh, the charger W— the evil robot zombie was using to keep its body active.

Vanessa was rubbing her forehead, “I’m not sure I wanna chance it.”

Gregory was thinking hard, “But if the virus part of the evil robot zombie is purged, and the physical form got destroyed, shouldn’t it be safe?”

Helper Freddy piped up again, “I could try it. My batteries are also low. If something bad does happen, I would be much less of a threat than the rest of our friends.”

Now that his best friend was potentially risking danger, Gregory seemed to hesitate.

Helper Freddy pushed farther, “Gregory, our friends need to charge. If they run out down here, I’m not sure they could make it back to the surface again. I don’t want them to end up like that Candy Cadet. And if something does go wrong, I am sure you and Vanessa could fix it.”

Gregory still didn’t look convinced.

Cassie piped up, “If you're worried about the station itself, I could just pull some wires from somewhere else and hotwire them to the animatronics. Same as using it to charge a car. I saw some tools and things I could use for that in the upper storage room we passed through earlier.”

They all looked at her. She put her hands behind her back and scuffed her foot, “Sorry, I should have remembered your guyses charging time and thought of doing something sooner.”

Moon shook his head, “No no, better now than never, that’s great Cassie, we’ll try that.”

Vanessa, Cassie, Gregory, and Helper Freddy took the trip back up the stairs, leaving the heavy animatronics waiting.

Moon had objected, of course, but they’d simply left their walkie-talkies and watches with them, so they wouldn’t be distracted. They didn’t want to put unnecessary strain on the stairs.

After a bit they were back, Cassie now sporting a pair of rubber gloves as she set to work on following through with her plan.

One by one the animatronics got charged up, even Sun and Moon topping off, though they didn’t really need it.

Once finished. Cassie grinned, “Alright! Now we’re ready for anything!”

Chapter Text

The path through the building continued to spiral down through another set of stairs.

Moon heard Gregory grumble, “Why are there so many stairs!?”

Thankfully these stairs were steel, not wood like the previous ones. Less thankfully, they were broken at the bottom, making the final step to the ground a tad steep, and a bit precarious from the rubble.

Moon lifted Gregory down, just to be safe, despite Gregory grumbling, “I can get down myself.”

Cassie gave a peppy, “Thank you, Moon!” As he lowered her down.

He gave Gregory a meaningful look, which Gregory rolled his eyes at.

As they headed down further, Moon could see some eerie green lighting illuminating the rubble choking the area. More luminescent mushrooms. Moon hoped that didn’t mean there was more water nearby.

The steepness straightened out, and they had to duck through what almost looked like a small mine shaft before it opened out into another checkered tile room.

As the others filed into the room behind him, Moon gave it a scan. It seemed they’d finally reached the end of the line.

This room was lit by an orange emergency light, still glowing strong after all these years. What a waste of electricity. The Pizzaplex’s power bills must be through the roof, and he bet no one was left who even knew why. The room was in poor condition, though not as broken down and cluttered with rubble as some of the previous places they’d been.

Three odd things stood out. One, there was a forklift sitting in the middle of the room, parallel to the walls, not left haphazardly like the others they’d passed earlier. Secondly, there was an ancient computer monitor sitting on a workbench over by a smaller section of the larger room. And thirdly, the old monitor’s cord was plugged into a massive computer sitting on the floor, taller than Cassie and Gregory. The Computer didn’t look like any historical model, seeming custom made. As Moon walked toward it to investigate, he could see another odd thing. The fork lift was facing a wall with a fresh looking concrete slab in a perfect square, plugging up the entrance to another room. It was unusual because the concrete was far too intact, and much cleaner compared to the grimy floors and rest of the area.

Vanessa eyed the computer. She walked over to it, “Is this the thing that’s hijacking the walkie-talkies?”

She pressed the ON button of the computer monitor, “It doesn’t look like anyone’s been down here for ages. If it’s an old algorithm that’s malfunctioning… or that someone left on purpose, I’ll see if I can shut it down.”

The computer finished starting up, the screen displaying a message, “Security protocol set-up incomplete. Do you wish to continue?”

Vanessa stared at the message, not comprehending, “What the heck does that mean” What security protocols?”

Moon pointed to the concrete, “Maybe the security protocols are to keep people from getting to whoever, or whatever, is hiding behind that.”

Vanessa glanced over at it. She seemed unconvinced, “Why would whoever even need security protocols when there’s a concrete wall blocking them?”

Cassie piped up, “There’s an iron shutter at the top of that space, maybe they were trying to figure out how to get it closed, and when they couldn’t, they just gave up and went with the messier but still effective concrete.

Vanessa’s brow was furrowed as she thought, “Kinda a sloppy job.”

Gregory shrugged, “Well, this whole place is a mess. Maybe that shutter was too bent and broken?”

Vanessa sighed, “Something isn’t adding up here. Is the source of the voice this computer, or something behind the concrete?”

Cassie perked up with an idea, “Oh! Why don’t I just use the walkie-talkie and ask?”

After considering it, Vanessa agreed.

Roxy walked over and opened her stomach hatch so Cassie could grab her Roxy-talkie.

Cassie pressed the button, “Gregory, or, Moon? Where are you? I’ve gone as low as I possibly can, it’s a dead-end!”

The walkie-talkie crackled to life in response, “Good, you’re close. It’s behind the wall, the concrete wall. There should be a way to break through it from the computer.”

Moon still shuddered at hearing his own voice. Also, that thing was indeed not that smart. Had it seriously expected Cassie to believe that it and “Gregory” had somehow neatly gotten trapped by a recently made and perfectly formed concrete wall by accident? How would they even have gotten trapped behind it if the wall was already in place?

Vanessa was typing at the computer a bit, then stopped, brow furrowed, “Well, the way I see it, there are two ways this could go. I’m starting to think someone purposely trapped whatever is hijacking the walkie-talkies behind that wall. The more I look around, the more it seems this,” She gestured to the giant CPU, “Was set-up to put blockers in place to stop this thing’s signal from going beyond this room. There’s some sort of incomplete M.X.E.S. program. I have no idea what the letters stand for, though. It seems whoever tried to set this up got interrupted or wasn’t able to finish setting the blockers in place.

So… I could either finish coding in the blockers… or we could smash the wall with the forklift— it’s rigged so that I can activate it from this computer and cause it to move forward at full speed— and we could deal with whatever is behind that wall directly.”

Monty spoke first, slamming his fist into this hand, “I say we smash the wall and take it out!”

Roxy tossed her head, “I agree, that thing messed with Cassie. I’m gonna tear it down!”

Sun waved his hands in a wait wait motion, “M-maybe it wasn’t trying to lure children specifically, maybe it can only wirelessly access Faz brand walkie-talkies, maybe it just wants out! M-maybe it can be reasoned with. Could we at least try being nice to it first?”

Chica piped up, “Yeah! If it’s just lonely, it might not have anything bad planned and just wants to be free?”

Gregory scowled, “If it wanted to be free it could have just been honest instead of trying to manipulate and trick everyone it talked to.

New Freddy scratched his head, “Maybe it doesn’t know how to be honest…” he lit up, “Perhaps we could teach it?”

Helper Freddy shook his head, “If this thing was benevolent, then why would someone have gone to such lengths to try and keep it trapped?”

Cassie spoke up, “Maybe the person who trapped it here was bad.”

Vanessa was studying the computer, “Well, a human definitely built this… I think there’s a good chance whatever’s behind that wall is a threat, otherwise the human could have just dismantled the hijacker instead of building this elaborate stuff to keep it down, so I still think there’s a high possibility it’s dangerous.”

When Vanessa finished, everyone looked expectantly at Moon.

Moon started slightly. Why were they all looking at him now? Since when had he become the final decision-maker? … Well, he was technically head of security… and he had been most active in spotting problems and coming up with plans…

Moon made a throat clearing sound. He could see Sun ringing his hands anxiously from the corner of his vision, “I think we should give this thing one more chance. Cassie, or Gregory, you can inform it through your walkie-talkies that you are onto its lies, and give it a chance to come clean and make a plea for itself— if it’s capable of that. We’ll decide what to do from there.”

Cassie and Gregory did a quick rock paper scissors to decide who got to ask. Cassie won.

Cassie pushed down the button on her Roxy-talkie, “Um, hi there. Just to let you know… I didn't come down here alone. I’m in this room with the real Moon, and the real Gregory. I know you’ve been lying to me the whole time.”

Her Roxy-talkie responded almost immediately in Moon’s voice, “They’re fakes,”

Moon leaned over to the Roxy-talkie, “Sorry, but you’re not fooling anyone,” he growled.

The response took a bit longer this time, switching back to Gregory’s voice, “Cassie! There’s an evil Moon in the room with me! He tricked me and he won’t let me go, please help me!”

Gregory pushed the button on his own Fredbear themed walkie talkie, “Nice try,” he said flatly, “But I’m here, too.”

After nearly a full minute of pause, Cassie’s walkie-talkie crackled to life again. This time it’s voice seemed to be a cut together compilation of different audio clips, voice and tones mismatching almost every syllable, “I-I-I wa-ant out. T-trap-ped. P-pl-s help.”

Well then, it seems it finally stopped pretending.

Cassie pressed down the button, “Look, if you're nice, then of course we’ll let you out. You never had to lie to begin with.”

The thing responded in a whole voice clip this time, “I’m so sorry,” The tone sounded more like a mother apologizing to a child. It felt so off and out of place.

Cassie looked around at the others, then pushed the button again, “So… are you nice then? You’re not trying to hurt anybody?”

The thing responded, voice distorted and glitched again, “N-n-nice, th-en.”

Sun made a relieved noise, clasping his hands to his chest, “Whew. So it really was all just a big misunderstanding.

Moon shook his head, “I don’t trust this. It’s just saying what it thinks will get us to free it.”

Chica raised a hand, “Well… If I’d been trapped in a room for a long time I’d say just about anything to get someone to let me out…”

Roxy growled and flattened her ears, “Then why was this thing trying to lure children?”

Vanessa rubbed her forehead tiredly, “Maybe it can’t tell the difference. It seems to only be able to hijack Faz walkie-talkies, it wouldn’t have the opportunity to talk to somebody else.

Helper Freddy added his piece, “I… do still think it’s suspicious that it mimicked voices instead of simply instructing whoever was on the other end to inform someone more capable of helping with its situation…”

Moon spoke up as well, “Not to mention the lengths someone went to in order to keep it down here instead of just dismantling it. It’s suspicious.”

New Freddy tilted his head, thinking hard, “Maybe… we should free it, but with caution? Perhaps the human just got scared and made an inaccurate judgment on whatever’s behind that door. Humans… are prone to over-reacting irrationally when scared. Like when I accidentally startled guest Karen Slidell, and she threw her Fizzy Faz soda at me and used inappropriate language.”

Vanessa opened her mouth like she was about to object, then seemed to change her mind, “Well, yeah… I guess humans aren’t exactly masters of rationality.

Sun piped up excitedly, “So then! Our mission is to befriend it!”

Monty grumbled impatiently, “Whatever, I just wanna see something get smashed. I don’t care if it’s a wall or a hijacker. Enough Jawflappin’!”

Cassie held up her Roxy-talkie one last time, “Okay, we’re gonna get you out, so stand clear of the cement wall, we don’t want to accidentally hit you, okay?”

The thing responded in a glitchy, “O-o-ka-y.”

Vanessa turned to the computer and typed a few more things in, “Alright,” She said in a commanding tone, “Everyone stand clear of the forklift.”

They all obediently backed away. Roxy made sure Cassie was protectively behind her, so Moon subtly did the same with Gregory, who shot him an annoyed look, but contented himself with peering past Moon at the concrete wall, not wanting to miss seeing it smash, either.

Vanessa looked at them all one last time, making sure everyone was clear, then pressed the button.

The forklift sprang to life, shooting right at the concrete and punching through it like paper. They could hear it crash into something else beyond the room before the sound of its engine (and more crashes) faded into the distance.

They stared at the newly made entrance, the room beyond was completely pitch-black except for some light far in the back, where the forklift had continued on and disappeared from sight.

Everyone was completely silent as they waited for whatever to come out.

There was the sound of displaced rubbled sliding and crumbling. Moon heard the groan of mechanical parts. Was it an animatronic? Moon couldn’t see yet, as it was off to the side still, away from the path of the rampaging forklift.

Eventually it shifted to the center of its room. Two red lights, blinked to life in the pitch-darkness. If those were eyes, that thing was tall, about as tall as Sun and Moon who gave Freddy a run for his money when straightened to full height.

Gregory was hitting Moon’s leg with a slight panicked edge to his voice, “It has red eyes, it has red eyes! That means it’s evil!”

Moon took offense at that, “I have red eyes!” he snapped.

To the rest of the group, only the movement of the two red dots gave away the sort of lurching motion it was making toward the doorway. Moon’s night vision, of course, could see the thing in full detail. It was, indeed, an animatronic of some sort. Specifically an endo-skeleton, no outer shell. It didn’t resemble any of the many back-up endos that were strewn about the utility halls of the main Pizzaplex. Moon could see its body was mis-matched, compiled out of multiple different models, some of its parts even looked hand-made from scrap.

How long had this thing kept itself running and functional? Moon guessed there had to be a charging station in there, because there was no way this thing was running multiple nights in a row without one.

The thing hadn’t stepped past the doorway yet, seeming to prefer hiding in the darkness. It spoke, “H-hi I-’m Gregory.”

Gregory glared at it, “No you’re not.”

It lurched forward a little, “H-hi I’m -I-I-’m,”

Then in a sudden burst of speed that took Moon by surprise it lunged at Gregory.

Moon was glad he’d put Gregory behind him, sidestepping to cover Gregory better and pushing forward with his hands to stop it.

Now that it was out in the open, Moon could see it was taller than him. And heavier, Moon reeled back from inertia as it impacted into him, desperately trying to keep his footing to avoid getting knocked into Gregory himself. The thing continued to lunge forward, hand reaching for the boy, making unpleasant shrieking and grinding noises.

“Hey! Get off him!” Roxy ran forward and leaped onto the thing, yanking backwards to try to pull it off of Moon.

Moon heard Monty’s voice just as he managed to shove the thing away from him, “Gangway! Look out!”

Roxy objected, “Wait! I’m still o—”

She was cut off as Monty plowed into the thing, knocking it sideways and away from Gregory.

Except now it was closer to Vanessa, who was still over by the computer in the smaller part of the room.

Vanessa had backed against the wall out of the way of the tumbling animatronics.

The thing reeled up and grabbed Roxy by her hair.

“HEY—!” Was as far as Roxy got before it tore her off of it and threw her into a wall.

Moon winced as he heard something crack.

Monty was up again, claws ready, posture low, like a professional wrestler waiting for an opening, before lunging at it.

The thing clamped down on Monty’s head with both its hands, one of which had sharp claws.

Monty shoved forward, tearing at the thing's torso with his own claws, trying to push it off balance.

The thing continued to apply pressure to Monty’s head, the Gator’s plastic casing cracking and snapping, followed by the unpleasant groan of the mechanical parts getting damaged from the pressure.

With a *POP* something important broke. Monty jerked and twitched before collapsing in a heap.

Moon stared in horror, shocked that his friends were actually getting hurt. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go.

Monty’s attack had not been in vain, however, as the thing’s torso had taken severe damage, pieces removed, and wires flayed.

Its movements were now more shaky, uncertain, and it struggled to keep its body upright.

Roxy had managed to pull herself up when she saw Monty collapse, “How dare you hurt my friend!”

She gave a howl that sounded half between an actual wolf and electronic screaming, leaping at that thing again, trying to bite its head.

It stumbled backwards, then slammed Roxy into the nearest wall.

Roxy didn’t let go, even though Moon could hear more casing crack.

It slammed her again. And again.

Chica ran forward, looking terrified, “STOOOP!” she screeched.

The thing shuddered to a stop, paralyzed.

Unfortunately Roxy was too, her grasp loosened, sliding down to the floor.

Moon took advantage of the things paralyzed state. He ran up to it, clamped his hands on its head, and with a twist and a jerk, ripped it off.

With the head still in his hands, he had turned to see Sun staring at him, hands over his mouth, horrified.

The thing's body fell to its knees, then collapsed in a heap.

Moon turned the head around so he could see the back, using his claws to rip the metal casing off. He carefully pulled free the three most important pieces. The memory drive, the back-up, and what might be either a personality chip or a simple software chip, he wasn’t sure. He let the head drop from his hands, holding up the pieces so Sun could see, “I’m just making sure it can’t hurt anyone else, as long as these are intact, it’s technically alive. I was protecting it, not killing it. Perhaps we could plug these into a less capable body and try reasoning with it from there.”

Sun let out a shuddering sighing noise, relaxing with utter relief.

Cassie walked over, “Whew, that got scary. Maybe we could put it in another Helpy toy and work with it from there after we fix Monty and Roxy up.”

Moon went to respond when suddenly everything went fuzzy. His audio and optics glitched out, only hearing some kind of whining noise in the distance, his vision suddenly going haywire. Moon had just a split second to send an emergency ping out when he realized what was happening.

*Emergency Ping: STAY AWAY! I’M NOT SAFE!*

He felt his arm reaching for Cassie.

New Freddy ran forward, gently scooping Cassie to the side and slamming into Moon in the same motion. He felt himself fly backwards before impacting the floor, skidding a little.

Unfortunately Moon could feel his other hand still holding the hijacker’s mechanical parts firmly. He felt his body get up. Vanessa was now the closest human. He lunged for her.

He felt the taser, and then himself jerking backwards as Vanessa bolted to safety.

It hurt. He wanted to curl into a ball from the shock, but the thing forced him to move anyway. He thought he heard Chica screech again, his body locking up in response.

There was noise like panicked yells, screaming. He couldn’t tell which were from humans and which were from animatronics.

Distant, fuzzy, Vanessa? “Gonna have to turn the taser up to try to shut him down!”

He heard an anguished, “NooOO!!!”

That sounded like Sun.

The stun wore off, he made another move toward them.

Chica screeched again.

The stun from the screech wore off faster that time. He felt himself suddenly sprint forward, grabbing Chica’s head and (no!) slamming it down into the ground. He heard the plastic of her casing crack. Chica didn’t move

His body turned toward the humans.

New Freddy slammed into him again, this time grabbing him in a bear hug.

He felt something grabbing at the hand with the hijacker’s parts in it. He felt his hand jerk, sending it flying. He managed to catch a glimpse of Helper Freddy impacting a wall, some of his limbs breaking off.

He heard Gregory shriek, saw him run over as Helper Freddy slid down the wall and onto the floor.

He heard an anguished wail again, sounded like Sun.

Something hard slammed into his hand. He felt some fingers breaking.

The fuzziness suddenly stopped. Moon twitched as his optics and audio suddenly snapped back into full function.

He looked down to see Sun had smashed his hand with a chunk of cement, succeeding in knocking the pieces from his grasp.

Sun had the block raised over his head. Before Moon could manage to say something, he brought it down hard on the offending pieces. Moon heard them smash.

He struggled in Freddy’s arms, “I- let go, I’m better now! I’m not—”

Sun sent the block down on them again.

Moon winced as they were rendered into even more pieces.

And again.

And again.

“Sun, SUN STOP! Freddy, I’m alright, now. PUT ME DOWN!”

Freddy released him, startled.

Sun was bringing the slab down again.

Moon caught Sun’s wrist with his good hand, “Sun, STOP!”

Sun startled, jerking to look up at him.

Moon relaxed his grip, “It’s enough. It’s enough….”

Sun numbly looked back down at the pulverized pieces, practically powder.

The rock tumbled from his hand, Sun jerking away from the scene like he’d been burned, hand going over his mouth, he’d been on his knees, now backpedaling away from the small mess, a panicked keening sound coming from his voice box.

Moon lowered to his own knees, following after him and catching him in a hug.

Sun was rocking back and forth now, his voice box finally rendering into words, “I’m a mu-rder-er,” He wailed, voice glitching on the forbidden word.

Moon squeezed him, patting his back, “Sshh, shh, no you're not.”

“I k-ll-ed it!”

Moon’s voice was a gentle murmur, “You saved me, you did it to protect the others. You're not a mu-rd-er, you're a hero. It was self defense, it was for protection, shhh, you're okay, Sun, you're okay.”

Moon didn’t know if Sun could even hear what he was saying at this point, having broken down into inconsolable sobbing noises.

He was only vaguely aware of discussion happening behind him. He heard Chica’s voice, so apparently she was okay. He thought he heard Roxy. Was that Cassie saying something? Maybe that next sound was Gregory responding.Thought Vanessa’s voice joined in, too. He wasn’t paying attention to any of it though.

None of that mattered. Only Sun mattered, and Sun was upset, and Sun needed him.

That was all that mattered.

Chapter Text

Moon couldn’t really remember what happened next. He’d shut down all peripheral non-essential programming, focused entirely on comforting Sun. He was vaguely aware of someone pulling him and Sun to their feet. He thought he remembered sitting on the floor of the subterranean storage room. Thought he saw Cassie and Vanessa doing something with Monty, Gregory running back and forth with parts and tools.

He didn’t know how they got across the water again.

He thought he vaguely remembered him and Sun in Parts and Service, someone doing something with his hand.

He felt numb. Stunned. In shock?

He wasn’t sure how, but somehow they had ended up in their room at the Daycare. Moon felt he should do something, so he plugged Sun in to charge.

Sun had at least stopped sobbing and rocking, but now he was just quiet and still and that made Moon feel worse. Sun should never be quiet and still.

When he calculated Sun had finished, he plugged himself in. He wasn’t sure he needed it, but he didn’t know what else to do.

At some point he’d started holding Sun’s hand, though he couldn’t remember when that had happened. He didn’t let go, hoping it was somehow grounding Sun, feeling like it was keeping himself in reality, as well.

He wished they were one again. He wished he could be in Sun’s head, know how he was feeling, talk to him directly. Soundwaves just weren’t enough.

After he finished charging he just sat there numbly, shoulder to shoulder with Sun, neither moving.

He couldn’t think about today. Didn’t want to think about what happened.

His internal clock gave him an alert ping.

*Five minutes ‘till the Daycare opens*

Oh no… he couldn’t do this. Sun couldn’t do this. The one human staff who had sat behind the security desk had long stopped coming after Moon had been established as reliably safe.

They weren’t ready. They were less ready now than when they’d first woken up from being split.

Moon set out an emergency ping

*Daycare: Downed animatronic; recommended the Daycare close.*

After a bit, an annoyed tech walked in. He stared at the two of them a moment, taken aback by their positioning (they probably didn’t look very downed), then shook his head, plugging his laptop into their heads in turn to run diagnostics. He scratched his head, muttering, getting more confused as everything came up green. He tried restarting them. Tried rebooting them. Ran every uncomfortable troubleshooting scan he had before throwing his hands in the air, and grumbling that he’d try again in the protective cylinder that evening.

The Daycare didn’t close, but it sounded like they’d cobbled together enough human staff to cover for them.

Moon was startled to hear Sun make a little noise of relief, feeling his posture relax just a little.

“I’m sorry,” Sun mumbled, “But I— after what happened I— I couldn’t— I can’t be with the Little Stars right now…” Sun’s voice had gotten small.

Now that Sun was talking again, Moon relaxed, too.

He gave Sun’s hand a squeeze, “That’s alright. … I’m not up for it either.”

Sun had gone still and quiet once more.

Moon shifted uncomfortably, trying to think of something to say to get him talking again. Asking Sun if he was alright seemed pointless, since of course he was not alright. Moon wasn't sure if he should press in and make Sun talk about it, or if he should change the subject and try to lead Sun's mind away from it.

Though… in his own experience, not thinking about certain things hadn’t proven to be an effective tactic.

… Maybe they should talk about things…

Moon steeled himself, “Sun… I think we should talk.”

Sun made a small confused noise before finally managing, “About what?”

“Everything. My getting infected by the badness, us shutting each other out. The split. And finally… the most recent thing. Enough dancing around it, enough not thinking about it. Enough trying to distract each other from unpleasant thoughts and feelings. The only way we will be able to move beyond it, is to move through it. Head-on.”

“... Oh.”

Moon took a deep mental breath, "You start. The earliest time of unhappiness for us was at the start of my two-year memory gap, when I got infected with the badness. Tell me about it, what was it like for you?"

Sun made a small unhappy noise. After a moment of silence, though, he finally started. “... I remember then. We had just got back from maintenance. Your security updates were newly installed, and I was asking you all about them. As time went on, though… you started to get more… impatient? Crabby? And started using less and less words to explain yourself. You… started to take your irritation out on the Little Stars, getting so upset when they broke the rules, or were even a little noisy. I… I was so confused and shocked. I kept trying to talk you down, imploring you to stop scaring them. One day… you… you snapped. Told me…. T-told me I was annoying, and bossy, and you were sick and tired of me constantly nagging you… and then…. It was like you just… slammed a virtual door in my face. All of a sudden… I was alone in my own head. I tried to talk to you… but there was just a wall there. It didn’t matter what the lighting was, what mode we were in… I was completely cut off…”

Moon put hand over his mouth. He felt sick. He could feel himself shivering slightly. Moon remembered that time he'd physically slammed the door on Sun. How Sun had been curled in on himself, quietly shaking when Moon had opened the door again. He was so glad he'd turned back and opened the door again.

Moon hated himself for every time he'd let thoughts of Sun being annoying or grating cross his mind.

Sun wasn’t finished, though, "Then, after that, I ended up in maintenance a lot… they were trying to fix you, figure out what was wrong. Occasionally the wall would crack open, and I'd try to reassure you, and talk to you. Sometimes you’d apologize… but that happened less and less as time went on. Then one day I was told that nap times in the Daycare were being discontinued, and the lights had to stay on. Once I… I was left in maintenance when the tech was called off to some sort of emergency. I wanted to know what happened. I know I'm not supposed to, but I checked the computer and…. That's when I saw the incident reports. The injuries. I… I didn't know you'd actually been hurting people. I was so scared, so scared, it's… i-it was like you'd died and been replaced with another person. That's when I tried to keep you locked out afterwards. I was scared of you… of what you'd become…. That's… that's why, when the badness faded, I didn't know and kept you shut out tight. I'm so sorry, Moon, I didn't know when the badness faded… I didn't know…"

Now Moon felt like curling into a ball and rocking back and forth. Instead he squeezed Sun's hand tighter and struggled to get out the words that he felt were most important to say in that moment, "Thank you for telling me."

Sun made a whimper, but nodded.

Moon wondered if it was his turn to go next, but his thoughts were interrupted when Sun let out a bitter laugh.

"You know, when the lights went off, and you came back, and your wall was finally down, and you were groggy, and confused, and seemed like you, I thought everything was going to be okay. The maintenance would fix all your files up, and everything could be just like it was. I only had you back for a few days… then you were gone again when I woke up. It's like," Sun gave another bitter laugh, this one bordering on hysterical, "It's like I lost you again. Gone, shut out. Alone all over again." Sun hunched over, drawing his knees up to his face, body shaking as though wracked with sobs.

Moon leaned over and wrapped his arms around his other half. He didn’t know what else to do.

"That's why," Sun was still shaking, "That's why I k—lled that thing. It's… it's like it was taking you from me. I… I couldn't lose you a third time. I couldn't, I just couldn't…"

Moon began rubbing Sun's back, "It's okay…" he murmured, "You did save me… I'm not gone. I was never gone. And if they try to take one of us away for good we'll… we'll use the Monty Method to break out of the building if we have to."

Sun sat up in shock, staring at Moon. At first he seemed frozen, then Sun's processors began whirring as the gears of his mind kicked in, "... How… how will we charge?" He asked in a small voice.

"We could hotwire ourselves, like Cassie showed us."

Sun tilted his head, still considering, "I… I hope it doesn't come to that, but… you would really do that for me?"

"Absolutely," Moon said, "You are most important," he leaned back in to give Sun another hug.

Sun made a sobbing sound somewhere between relief and sorrow, leaning in and finally hugging Moon back.

Moon didn’t let go 'till Sun finally relaxed and released him.

Sun made the sound of taking a deep breath in, and a slow breath out, "Okay, now it's your turn."

Oh, right. It was one thing to make great speeches about facing things head-on. It was another thing to follow through. Moon took a deep "breath" of his own… and came up blank. He didn’t know where to start. Or how to start. He made a frustrated noise.

Sun reached over with his hand to give Moon a reassuring pat on the shoulder, “It’s okay, you don’t have to rush into it. Just take your time. I know you like to gather all your thoughts together and plan out your words before you start speaking.”

Moon nodded, forcing himself to relax, taking more faux breaths. They didn’t have the same effect as they did on humans, but Moon had his fake “breathing exercises” installed to help Little Stars that might need to calm down, whether from high excitement or fear. He didn’t know any other way of calming down, and he liked to think they helped…

Don’t rush, don’t put unnecessary pressure on yourself. Just start somewhere. Just start.

“Bad.” Moon finally got out.

Sun waited patiently for a moment, before seeming to realize Moon needed a little more help coaxing out his feelings, “Can you tell me what’s bad?” he asked gently.

Moon tried not to be frustrated at himself as he tried again. Just a few nights ago with Monty he had prided himself in keeping his thoughts and feelings contained and shoved aside for the priority— Gregory’s apology. Now that same “self-control” was making it hard to get his thoughts and feelings out.

Moon took another deep breath and tried again, “I feel bad.”

“Bad about what?” Sun continued patiently.

Moon felt himself shiver slightly, “Bad about everything.”

Sun tilted his head, seeming to be choosing his next words carefully, “Can you define everything for me?”

Moon shuddered, “Being bad… hurting you. Hurting others. Scaring Little Stars. Scaring Gregory. E-everything. Everything I ever did.”

Sun seemed to cut-off his immediate first response, thinking a moment, then speaking slowly, “Do you want me to refute your ‘everything you ever did being bad’ statement? Or… do you want me to just keep listening?”

Moon made a sighing sound, “Just keep listening. Ignore inaccuracy. Getting how I feel out is more important right now than if my reasons are ‘right’ or not.”

Sun nodded. When Moon didn’t continue, Sun gave another gentle prompt, “Alright, can you tell me more about what ‘everything’ means?”

Moon tried to take another breath, but felt himself shudder. He had to continue. No. He wanted to continue, “I… I feel like I’m bad. Like I’m wrong, broken. I did things I should never do, and can never undo. Like that’s stuck to me forever, and nothing I can do will make it go away. No matter how nice I try to be, no matter how much I help… that badness will always cling to me. Those injured people— those scared children— will forever be scarred, whether mentally or physically, by what I’ve done.”

Sun cut off some sort of hurt noise, instead just squeezing Moon’s hand.

Moon appreciated the amount of self-control it must be taking Sun not to launch into refutations or insist (no matter how true it might actually be) that it wasn’t his fault, but bad code and a badness that had overtaken his mind to the point where he could barely even be considered himself. That didn’t matter. Sun could point that out all day 24/7 and Moon just couldn’t be convinced. Perhaps logically, but not on a deeper emotional level.

Moon took another deep breath, “I’m sorry I shut you out.”

Sun took great effort not to respond right away, thinking hard and carefully choosing his words, “I’m sorry I shut you out, too,” He said quietly.

“I forgive you.”

Sun leaned against him, “And I forgive you, too.” Moon could hear a bit of a relieved smile in Sun’s tone.

He let out a shuddering sigh, feeling like a small weight had been lifted off him.

Something else occurred to Moon, “I-I’m… I’m sorry for… for calling you annoying… for… for even daring to think that. I’m sorry.”

Sun wrapped him in a hug. Once again his processors were in overdrive as he fought his automatic response and chose carefully what to say, “Moon… do you wanna know a secret?”

Moon pulled away, looking at Sun confused.

Sun continued anyway, “My secret is… sometimes… I think you’re bossy or too uptight.”

Moon just stared at him.

“So… if I sometimes think things like that about you, I think it’s okay to think things like, like I’m a bit annoying sometimes, because you know what?”

“... What?” Moon felt obligated to say.

“Because I still love you even if I feel you’re really bossy and uptight.” There was a slight sound of a suppressed giggle.

Moon mulled it over, “It’s… okay?”

Sun laughed, “I think friendship isn’t about thinking no negative feelings about the other person. It’s accepting that they sometimes have traits or things about them that you don’t like, or that rub you the wrong way, but you think to yourself, ‘you know what? I love them anyway’, because the reason we’re friends is far deeper than just feelings. It’s a bond that’s stronger than fleeting annoyances, and we know each other’s good traits, and appreciate each other for them. So it’s okay to have some things we don’t like about each other, because they’re so much smaller than the time and care we’ve poured into each other up until now.”

Moon slowly nodded, letting it sink in. He allowed a small voice inside him to think it’s okay to think Sun can be grating or annoying once in a while, because it’s not bigger than all the reasons you appreciate him for. Moon let out another shudder, feeling as if another weight had been lifted from him, “Okay…” he barely spoke above a whisper, “Thank you…”

Sun nodded confidently, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and giving him a squeeze.

Moon took another deep shuddering breath, trying to think if there was anything else.

The silence stretched on, and Moon was starting to suspect part of himself was sabotaging his efforts by forcefully not thinking of the “anything else.”

Once again, Sun gave him a nudge, though even he seemed like he didn’t want to bring it up, speaking in a small voice, “Do you want to talk about… um… when that…thing— no… when the animatronic from deeper down took you over?”

Moon did not want to talk about it.

Sun gave him another reassuring squeeze, “W-we don’t have to talk about that now. We don’t have to force ourselves to do this all at once. We’ve done a lot already. And… and we’re still trying to process what happened, right?”

Moon shook his head, “You went all the way. I want to be fair to you. I… it was just… fuzzy. Odd. Terrifying in a kind of… numb way. Like I couldn’t believe what was happening even when it happened. And then it was over and… I’m just glad nothing permanently bad happened….I ….” Moon made another deep breath in, deep breath out noise, “Thank you for saving me. Thank you for stopping me.” He made sure to look Sun in the eyes when he said it.

Sun cut off a whimpering sound, and solemnly nodded.

Moon relaxed finally, feeling all out of energy. He stared at the floor. Out of his peripheral he saw Sun do likewise.

After a long moment of silence, Moon spoke up, “Could you help me with something?”

Sun turned to him eagerly, “Anything,” he declared.

Moon started to suppress a sighing sound, then thought what the heck, and let it out, “So… I kind of promised to help Chica find her bakery…”

Sun was already bouncing up and down excitedly, “Of course I’ll help!!”

~*~

At closing time, the tech came back to find Sun and Moon standing, apparently functional, and greeting him like nothing was wrong. The tech shook his head and chalked it up to a delayed troubleshooting scan finally kicking in some time after he’d left.

Once the Pizzaplex was empty, Moon let Sun use the wire, freely “flying” around the building for the first time. Sun carried Moon by gripping both his hands firmly, a little nervous. Moon wasn’t worried, though. As animatronics, they didn’t have to worry about their hands getting tired or slipping. Once locked into place, they were locked into place. Moon even had Sun let go of one of his hands so he could point to various places during Sun’s “tour”.

Working together, Sun surveying with his optics, and Moon flipping through the cameras, they finally found Chica’s Bakery. Its latest location was somewhere behind Monty Golf for some reason.

Moon directed Sun to where Chica was, currently lost in the kitchen of the El Chips restaurant on the 3rd floor.

Sun waved enthusiastically when they’d found her, “HI CHICA!”

Moon instinctively ducked back and behind the doorway, putting himself and the wall between Chica’s inevitable screech of alarm at being startled. It had been an automatic reflex, and he walked back in somewhat sheepish, apologizing to Sun for not warning him and rubbing his back ‘till the stun wore off.

“Wowie! That sure was a… different experience!” Sun said, trying to stay positive for Chica’s sake once he could move again.

Chica was covering her face with her hands, “Oh my gosh, I’m sooooo sorry!”

“No no!” Sun waved his hands, “It’s my fault for startling you! Anyway, we have good news!”

Chica perked up at that.

Sun allowed for a dramatic pause while he did a spin, ending with his arms up in a ta-da pose, “We found your Bakery!!”

Chica actually jumped up and down with excitement, “You did!?” She looked at Moon too, “Thank you sooo much!”

Moon gave a little shrug, “I did say I would help, so…”

Sun was caught up in Chica’s enthusiasm, “C’mon! C’mon! It’s this way!” he gave an overexaggerated beckon and ran off excitedly to lead the way.

Chica ran after him, and Moon followed.

~*~

Chica was ecstatic, running from one section to another, picking up various tools and commenting things like, “I remember this! Oh! This is still here!” and, “Hey! They left my recipe drawer intact!”

Sun was bouncing happily on his heels as he watched.

Moon was less enthusiastic, remembering a previous conversation he’d had with Chica…

When she calmed down enough, she found an apron and began gathering supplies, “Do you wanna watch me cook?” she was beaming.

Before Sun could speak, Moon cut in, “Chica…”

They both looked at Moon curiously, hearing a seriousness to his tone.

Chica cocked her head, “What?”

To move beyond, one must push through head-on, “... Can we talk… about that thing you said before… how you delete all ‘nonessential’ bad memories?”

Sun went still.

Chica, however, was unperturbed, “Oh, that! Do you want me to teach you how to do it?” She asked chirpily.

Sun winced.

Moon shook his head, “No Chica, I think you should stop doing that.”

She tilted her head, puzzled, “Why? Do you want me to just be sad and miserable?”

Moon shook his head, “No, but I— look… I … the last time we had maintenance, when they…when they split Sun and I… I also lost two years worth of memories. Even if they were all bad memories, I still wish I had them, because then I could still use them, learn from them. Bad memories aren’t something to run from… they can be turned into something to help others. To say, ‘I understand, I’ve been through that, too’ or… something like that…” Moon trailed off in a mumble, not sure he was being convincing, or if he even believed all that himself. Would he even want those two years of badness and hurting people to suddenly pop back into his head?

Sun piped up, “I know! Chica… you delete those memories because you don’t know what else to do with them, right?”

Chica was looking uncertainly between Moon and Sun. Moon hoped this conversation wouldn’t become another “non-essential bad memory” that got deleted.

Sun continued, “Could we try something? Pretty please? Just once?”

Chica was looking more uncertain and confused, she tilted her head and spoke slowly, “Oookaay, what is it?”

“Next time, just the very next time you have an unpleasant experience, can you hang onto it just long enough to come talk to me and Moon about it? Come to the Daycare, you’re always welcomed after hours! You can tell us all about it, and then let us know how it feels afterwards! Please? Pretty please?”

Chica rubbed her arm, “Are you telling me… you want to hear me whine and complain about all the things that make me unhappy?”

Sun nodded enthusiastically, “Of course!”

Chica seemed to go slack with relief, “The only person who did that before was Freddy… but it didn’t seem fair to dump all that on New Freddy… and it got too bad to just ignore and pretend it wasn’t there, so I…. well…”

Moon shook his head, “No more. Me or Sun will listen. If you want…” Moon internally braced himself, determined to do this, “I can drop by the Bakery sometimes during my security rounds, and I’ll listen to you if you need it, okay?”

Chica looked from one to the other, looking like she was either going to burst into tears (metaphorically) or squeal with joy. She ran forward and embraced them both in a hug, “Thank you! Thank you so much!” she made a sniffing sound.

“Of course!” Sun declared, hugging her back.

Moon gave her an awkward pat pat.

Chica pulled away, looking so grateful, “If either of you two need anything, and I mean anything, you can ping me anytime! I mean it!”

Sun threw his arms wide, “And same to you!”

Moon let out a sigh of relief. After everything, he was starting to feel like he needed a break, though.

“Um, Sun, Chica? If it’s okay with you two… I should probably finish my security rounds… will you two be okay hanging out while I do that?”

Sun had tensed a minute, but then switched to nodding enthusiastically, “Of course, Moon! I won’t be alone, I can watch Chica bake! Right?”

Chica gave a jump of delight, “Of course! Just don’t work too hard, okay?” She waved at him happily.

Moon gave a small wave back, then backed out of the bakery, letting the wire come down and take him up.

He hoped Sun was really okay with this, but sometimes he just needed some… quiet.

Though, he had a feeling Sun understood. They had used to be one after all, and even when they had freely shared headspace, Moon had his moments of needing to be quiet and “alone” then, too.

~*~

After, Moon returned to find Sun and Chica getting along just fine. Made sense, they were both excitable extroverts. Moon took Sun back to the Daycare and helped him across the threshold.

Once inside, he asked, “Are you… are you up for running the Daycare today?”

Sun was quiet for a while, bouncing slightly on his heels. He titled his head, then finally said, “Yeah… I think I can do it.”

Moon nodded, “And… and if you ever need a bit of a break, I’ll … try to fill in if you need to step away for a moment, or anything.”

Sun beamed at him, “Thanks, Moon.”

As the minutes ticked down, they both stood at the entrance doors, ready to face the day.

Chapter Text

Moon didn’t feel up for security that night. Doing physical rounds felt pointless, and he wanted to be with Sun. His protocol’s were still itching annoyingly at him to go on patrol, though. He stepped outside the Daycare’s threshold to make the reminders stop, then simply stepped back in. Apparently that’s all it took.

He decided to help Sun clean up the Daycare. Since his security updates, it was Sun’s turn to clean up every turn, and that didn’t seem quite fair.

Sun had looked at him with some uncertainty when he’d offered, “But… if you’re gonna hang out, wouldn’t you rather do something fun?”

Moon shook his head, “No, I want to help. And…. I’m not really up for fun.”

Sun had simply nodded, and they got to work.

~*~

Moon was on his knees refolding nap time blankets after they’d been washed, processing everything that had happened when he was interrupted by a door ping for the Daycare. Confused, he flipped up the camera just in time to see Roxy push her way in.

This was a very unusual event. The Glamrock’s weren’t blocked from entering the Daycare, but it was a bit out of the way from their own attractions.The only other visit Moon could remember was before their split, when a kid had adamantly refused to leave, clinging to one of the play structures so tightly Sun couldn’t remove him for fear of hurting him. The solution had been to call Freddy Fazbear himself to lure the child out with a promised present. It had worked, the kid happily holding his Faz watch ‘till he realized he had been tricked and threw a fit as his parents dragged him away, embarrassed out of their minds and apologizing profusely for causing a scene.

Roxy had walked over to him and sat down.

Moon turned to look at her, questioningly. He had no idea what to make of this, he hadn’t gotten any alert pings.

Roxy broke the silence, “Hey, how ya doing?”

Instead of responding to her question, Moon asked, “What are you doing here?”

Roxy gave an impatient huff, “I was worried so I came to check on you two.”

Moon was incredulous, “You… came to check on us?”

Roxy rolled her eyes, “No, I came to check on the blankets you’re folding,” She said flatly.

Moon started to chuckle, then broke out into full laughter, partly tilting his head down into the blanket he was holding.

Roxy gave him an eager look, "Oh? You like snarky humor, do you?"

Moon lifted his head and leaned toward her intently, "I love snarky humor," he hissed, as though offended she had merely used the word "like".

Roxy perked up in delight at this, “Well, coulda fooled me! And here I thought you didn’t have a sense of humor,”

“Oh I have a sense of humor, I just usually have higher standards than most people can dish out,” he looked at her pointedly.

“Really, so my blanket jab met your higher standards?”

“Actually it was so bad I had to give you a pity laugh.”

Roxy was grinning, opening her mouth for another jab back when they were interrupted by Sun’s voice echoing frantically from one of the play structures.

“Whoa! Hey! Time-out!” Sun slid down a slide head first, catching himself at the bottom with his hands, turning it into a forward roll, then sprinting over to Roxy and Moon, standing over them anxiously, “There will be no name calling or mean-ness in the Daycare!”

Roxy rolled her eyes, “We weren’t being mean, we were snarking.”

Sun hopped from one foot to the other anxiously, “What’s the difference?”

Moon answered, “Our snarkiness doesn’t have the goal of hurting each other’s feelings, it has the goal of making us laugh.”

Sun was poking the tips of his fingers together, still a bit uncertain, “Well… I guess I did hear Moon laugh…” he trailed off.

Moon felt the unspoken words were probably for the first time in two years or something like that.

Roxy folded her arms, nose in the air, “Well, now that you know, you can leave us to our snark battle now.”

Moon looked at Roxy, “I’d hardly call your pitiful attempts a ‘battle’.”

Sun threw his arms up exasperatedly in an I give up motion. He stood there for a bit, watching them continue to go at it, then suddenly perked up, running off somewhere.

Moon and Roxy were in too deep for Moon to really see what Sun was about to get up to. At least he was cheerful again.

They stopped abruptly when Moon and Roxy both realized Sun was now behind them, standing over to them. They looked up to see Sun holding an armful of plastic colorful spheres from the ball pit.

Before Moon could even ask, Sun let go with a grand sweeping gesture, showering both Roxy and Moon in colorful bouncing spheres, “Oh, sorry,” his voice was laced with sarcasm and barely suppressed giggles, “Did I rain on your parade?”

Roxy stared at him for a minute, then her expression went flat, “That’s it.”

Moon stumbled to his feet, alarmed, as Roxy picked Sun up and threw him across the Daycare, Sun letting out a startled “Whoop! Waaah!” before plonking into the ball pit.

Moon let his voice box get that creepy garbling growl, “Nobody throws Sun.” He'd already called the wire, grabbing Roxy’s arm and pulled her into the air with him.

Roxy floundered, startled, eyes wide as Moon carried her across the Daycare.

They stopped, hovering over the ball pit. Roxy was looking down, then she looked up at Moon, “Don’t. You. Dare.” She growled.

Moon let go.

She let out a startled cry and also fell with an undignified *plonk* into the mess of colored spheres.

She burst back to the surface, making a noise like gasping for air, and struggled toward the edge, grumbling to herself.

“No you don’t!” Like a gleeful shark, Sun popped out and grabbed Roxy, dragging her back in.

Moon hovered over the childish display, chuckling to himself.

Roxy burst out again, “You jerk!” She yelled up at Moon, trying to glare, but it was ruined by her grinning, “Get down here!” She jumped and made a swipe at him, but Moon simply lifted the wire further up out of reach.

“Hey! There’s only one wire in the Daycare, no fair!” Sun grabbed an armful of ball pit balls and began throwing them at Moon.

Moon chuckled again, holding out a hand to deflect them. Occasionally he’d catch one and throw it back at Sun, who’d respond with indignant splutters.

Their mayhem was interrupted by a new voice from the Daycare doors, “Hey!”

They all paused, looking to see Montgomery Gator there.

He lowered his sunglasses, glaring at them all threateningly, “Are you all havin’ fun…. Without me!?”

With that he moved his starry shades back into position, and sprinted towards the ball pit

Roxy put her hands up, “Wait! No No No—"

She was interrupted as Monty leapt and came down on them in a belly flop, making an impressive *Whomp* sound, little plastic spheres springing up everywhere in an imitation of a splash.

Roxy floundered off balance trying to shove the heavy gator off her, “Jerk! You could break something!”

Succeeding in shoving him off, Roxy splashed a bunch of the colored spheres at his face as if they were playing in an actual pool.

Sun the shark leapt up from behind Monty giggling like a maniac and climbing on top of him, trying to unbalance him and push him under.

Moon looked at all the chaos happening below. Something needed to be done about this. He sent out an emergency ping to Chica.

*Emergency Ping: Photo request at the Daycare*

~*~

Chica was humming to herself happily, rolling out dough for Fizzy Faz flavored cookies. She’d have to have the humans taste-test it and let her know if her new recipe was any good or not. As she flattened it with a rolling pin, she was interrupted by an emergency ping from Moon. Her head jerked up as she processed what it meant and what it could be. Was there trouble? Did something happe— … wait, photo request?

Chica’s eyes narrowed as she took on a deadly serious expression. Her time had come.

~*~

The mayhem and tom-foolery were still ongoing when there was a distinct *click* *flash* that caused them to freeze.

“Whoops,” Chica hurriedly turned off the flash on the camera she was using. Luckily none of the animatronics had been looking in that direction, otherwise the sudden light would’ve had the same paralyzing effect as Chica’s screech.

Roxy was the first to recover, “Chica!? Why did you take a picture!?” she screamed in rage and alarm. Then she mumbled under her breath darkly, “If that photo gets out my cool image will be ruined.”

Chica, smiled chirpily, pointed innocently at Moon, “Moon asked me to.”

Moon chuckled as they all slowly looked up at him.

“MOON!” Roxy snarled, attempting to leap up out of the ball pit at him, while Moon only laughed at her from his lofty position.

Sun put his hands on his hips, “That’s it! You’re getting down here!”

“Am I?” Moon shot back, cheekily.

Sun turned to Monty, “Monty! Put your hand out, palm up, over the ball pit!”

Wait, what was he going to…?

Monty stared a second, before shrugging and doing as he was told.

Sun stepped up onto Monty’s hand, balancing with one foot, Monty easily able to handle his lighter frame.

Sun positioned himself, looking straight up at Moon, “Now LAUNCH ME!”

Moon held his hands up, “Wait, n—”

He was cut off as Sun smacked into him, gripping tight and laughing maniacally.

Moon felt Sun’s hand unhook the wire from his back.

Moon reached up to uselessly grasp at the wire as it retreated back into the ceiling, gravity dragging him down.

He and Sun impacted with a *ploff* into the ball pit. Moon, pinned down by Sun, looked up at Roxy and Monty, their frames seeming to tower over him. Monty had a fist in his hand, and Roxy was grinning with an almost mad look of glee in her eye.

Moon reached his hand out above the ball pit as they all dogpiled (animatronic piled?) on him, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice as he yelled, “Mercy!!! Meerccyy! AHAHAHAahahah!”

~*~

Chica was still snapping picture after picture. When New Freddy walked in. He’d been looking for his… acquaintances (friends?) and finally wandered over to the Daycare when he’d heard excessive amounts of noise. His eyes widened at the scene.

Chica was standing in front of him, he could see her back as she, too, witnessed this.

New Freddy spoke with alarm, almost hoping Chica could de-confirm what he was seeing, “Chica! The others are torturing attendant Moon!” Moon was screaming and shouting mercy, breaking out into uncontrolled bouts of laughter. Why was she just standing there?

Chica’s head jerked back to look at him, an uncharacteristically intense gleam in her eye, grinning madly, “I know, isn’t this great!” Then she turned back and Freddy could see she was snapping pictures of the whole ordeal.

New Freddy gaped at her in abject horror.

~*~

Eventually the Glamrocks had to crawl out of the ball pit for their hourly recharge.

Sun spotted Freddy with a look of frozen horror on his face, and immediately ran over to reassure him that no, Moon was not being tortured, he was just a drama king. They’d been playing and having fun.

Monty gave Sun a shove out the door so he could escort Freddy to a charging station while continuing his string of reassurances.

Moon heard Freddy mumble, “Having fun looks scary…” before he left.

Moon made a note to include New Freddy next time they had fun, so he could be properly shown that it was not, in fact, scary.

Chica walked over to him, “Hey! So, um, do you want me to give you a digital file of these photos? Or maybe I could print them, if you want?”

Moon broke out of his own thoughts and looked at her. He almost said no, when an idea occurred to him, “... Yes, please.”

Chica brightened, “Do you want all of them, or just some of them, ‘cause I was taking so many pictures there are some that look like duplicates. Like, there are slight differences between them, but they’re still super similar. And digital or printed?”

Moon tilted his head, considering, “... All of them, please. And printed”

“Okay dokey! You got it! I can get these to you later tonight! I gotta recharge first, though, buh-bye~!”

Moon would have to ask Sun for help when he came back from escorting Freddy.

~*~

“A photo album!? That’s a GREAT idea!” Sun was bouncing up and down excitedly at the play table.

Moon tried to hide his sudden self-consciousness, “I don’t know how to make one, though. No programming for crafts…”

“Of course I’ll help you!” Sun jumped up and began running around the craft area, pulling out construction paper, glitter glue, and other supplies.

Moon went to their room and retrieved the box that had all his night sky practices in them. Moon wanted to throw them away, but Sun had insisted on keeping them all. They were kind of boring, but would make good backdrops for photos, he figured.

They set to work, Sun showing him how to properly use safety scissors and making pages and little triangle cut-outs to hold the photos in by the corners, carefully placing them on the completed pages with glitter glue.

Chica came back when they were halfway done, a stack of photos in her hands. She looked down at what they were doing, then gasped excitedly, “A photo album! That’s a great idea!”

“That’s what I said!” Sun replied happily, “Moon thought of it!”

Chica laid the photos out in order from first to last, numbering them on the back, then handing them to Sun so he could put them in their places.

After they finished, they reviewed all the pictures, laughing at the expressions, and the blurred photo when Moon was falling into the pit. Chica had even turned around and snapped a photo of New Freddy’s horrified expression. She didn’t do it to make fun of him, it just seemed so funny.

Sun glanced over at Moon. Something seemed off about his posture, “Moon, is everything all right?”

Chica also looked over, had her photos not turned out like he wanted?

Chica almost asked, when she felt Sun put a hand on her shoulder, as if asking her to pause.

In the silence, Moon seemed to finally get his thoughts together, “Chica, you aren’t in any of them…”

Right… she had been taking the pictures, so of course she hadn’t shown up.

Sun suddenly straightened, “I know! Who says this is the only time we could ever have fun! Tonight may not have been planned exactly, but maybe we could have fun in other places! Ooh! Ooh! I know! Chica! We could go to your bakery next and all cook together! We can hand off the camera between me, Moon, Roxy, and Monty— well, Monty might struggle to take pictures with his claws, but that way we’d all get a chance to be in the photos! And we don’t have to stop doing fun things together! In fact, after we bake together we could play Monty Golf! Then we could do Fazer Blast! Or- or race in Roxy’s Raceway!”

Chica’s excitement finally burst out in a squeal (causing Moon to flinch), “Let’s do it, let’s do it!”

Moon spoke up, “We probably don’t have time to do all that tonight.”

Sun was unperturbed, “That’s okay! We could plan a fun outing each night! There’s no reason for us all to just be isolated and sad when we could be having so much fun together!”

Sun had an excellent point. Why hadn’t they all done this sooner?

Chica was beyond excited, matching Sun in happy bouncing.

~*~

They still had time that night, so Chica left for her bakery, planning to send an emergency ping to the other animatronics with the subject titled “Baking Help” once she got everything prepared. Not that she needed help. In fact, she’d be helping them out since none of them had ever baked before.

~*~

Sun and Moon were in their room, Moon watching as Sun settled on the best place to put the photo album for now. They’d be adding more pages to it later.

As Sun carefully set it inside a box that still had some packing foam, he tilted his head curiously, “Why printed? If you let Chica send you a digital album, you could look at it any time without having to physically get this out.”

“Digital files can be corrupted and erased,” Moon responded quietly.

Sun said nothing, still looking into the box as he realized. Then he gave an affirmative nod, “Well, this way we get to make the album together! And we could even share the photos with everyone all at once later!”

They got Chica’s Emergency Baking ping. Sun sprang to his feet, turning to Moon and bouncing excitedly, “Let’s go let’s go let’s go let’s GO!”

They headed to the Daycare doors together, Moon pulling Sun across the threshold.

Moon was actually looking forward to it. Monty attempting to bake anything, or even hold the measuring equipment with his claws, was something Moon needed to see.

~*~The End~*~