Soooo, Collage's gotten kind of in the way of me publishing this chapter, but it's finally here! I'm going to try and not let there be so much time between chapter releases. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!


ps: I didn't find a good enough name for this chapter so it doesn't have one yet. Might change that later.

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The next morning, she was standing in front of the building again. She had left her apartment very early, so she could uphold her cleaning duty. It was only a couple of minutes past 6. She immediately made her way towards the daycare, skipping her usual morning coffee. She could always get one later. She waved at a few of the security and cleaner bots as she walked past. Then softly pat a caution bot on its head when it moved in front of her, letting her know about the puddle she was about to step into. "Thanks friend." She said, moving around the puddle as she smiled at the little bot, it giving her a seemingly happy beeping sound in return.

As she got closer to the Daycare, she automatically looked at her wrist. "Oh right, no Fazwatch". She said to herself. She always liked to check for messages before starting her day. She should probably request a replacement for it. On another note, she had managed to hide her bruises from the previous day with some make-up. She hoped it would withhold people from asking too many questions.

As she came closer and closer to the Daycare, her eyes landed upon a shape moving further ahead. She recognized a human. More precisely, she recognized Josh. What was he doing there so early? And why was he here again instead of at maintenance? He had noticed her too, within seconds she felt him wrap his arms around her. "Thank God, you're okay!" He exclaimed. After which he took a step back, softly grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes, a look of concern coming off of his face. "You are okay, right?" She nodded.

"Why are you here?" she asked, Josh looked at her, dumbfounded. "Why am I here? I was worried sick about you!" He began. "Haven't you seen all the mails? Several customer complaints about the daycare came in yesterday evening, if I had seen them earlier, I would've come to this part of the building way sooner, but you were already gone by the time I checked my mails. I couldn't contact you, so I've helped security with trying to figure out what the fuck happened. But all the camera feed's busted. We couldn't recover any of it." Jeremiah tried to understand all the information that was given to her. At the mention of cameras, her heart had skipped a beat. She had completely forgotten that the daycare had several cameras that would have recorded every bit of what happened yesterday. "Ho, wait a minute. What's wrong with the cameras?" She asked. Josh shook his head, finally letting go of her shoulders, though she hadn't noticed he was still holding on to them. "We don't know!" he half-shouted, frustration clearly showing in his face. "We were checking them for more clarity on the situation. Ellis wants us to know more about what went down before they'll allow us to take action. But when we got to the 1:07p.m. mark, it all just froze. All camera's located in the daycare area froze up, and only started running again after 1:40. We haven't been able to recover any footage between that time gap. We don't know what went do-" Josh cut himself off and looked at Jeremiah.

"But you know." Jeremiah's heart sank. She wished she could vanish right now. She wanted to just tell her friend about all the things that had happened, but she knew that out of all the people she knew here, Josh was one of the few that would be able to get the animatronic decommissioned in no time. She still hadn't figured out why a part of her wouldn't allow her to let that robot be destroyed, she just couldn't. There was a bit of a silence between them. Josh seemed to think for a minute. If he was going to stay silent for any longer, Jeremiah might just walk past him towards the daycare. But then he sighed and looked back at her. "I-. I want you to be honest with me, Jeremiah." He began. "We've heard from the first aid team that you told them you had fallen down, and hit your head. They also told us that you had some weird bruises that didn't add up with your story." Jeremiah looked at him. "You've talked to the First Aid workers?" she asked. Josh shied away for a second. "Not directly, I overheard a conversation they had with the boss. Anyways, one of the customer complaints specifically mentioned that something seemed off about the animatronic, and that it had terrified her son. The other complaints weren't as useful, but all mentioned something having scared their kids during nap-time. Since the nap-time footage is missing, I would like to hear from you what happened. I want to know if Moon was acting weirdly, if he hurt you. After all, he's my responsibility now, and I will handle him accordingly."

Jeremiah looked at him in confusion. "Your responsibility, it was Emanuel's project, wasn't it?" she asked, attempting to distract her colleague. "You know Emanuel, he never has his hands free, he basically got handed a new project minutes after he declared The Daycare attendant finished. Which is why I was assigned as his assistant, so that this animatronic had a proper main handler. But that doesn't matter that much. I still want to know what happened."

Jeremiah shrugged her shoulders. "I already told the first aid workers what happened. The animatronic had nothing to do with it." she tried to keep her voice as neutral and steady as possible. She could see in Josh's eyes that he didn't believe her, not really. "Fine." He said, as he took a step back. Jeremiah nearly let out a sigh of relief, but managed to keep it in. There was one thing she did wonder though. "Are you going to do something to the animatronic?" she asked. Josh just shook his head. "I can't really do anything, at least not if I don't want to get fired. I'd need an official bug report or request for discontinuation from you or someone who worked with him in the last 24 hours if I wanted to do any serious work. Or a lawsuit would work too. So, unless you change your mind, there's really nothing I can do." There was another silence. Jeremiah's head was spinning, she didn't understand her own feelings. She still hated that animatronic, she hated it a lot. But then she thought about the previous day, after nap-time. She thought about the look it gave her, the seemingly genuine sadness and stress it was going through. And she just couldn't bring herself to get it decommissioned. Why were feelings so complicated? Why did she feel this way even. She didn't care about that piece of fancy metal, right? No, she didn't, she couldn't, she was sure of it. All she had to do was tell Josh now, and all this complicated bullshit would be over. She opened her mouth, and words stumbled through. "I.... I should go to the Daycare. I'd like to start my shift if you don't mind."

She couldn't bring herself to say it. Josh seemed to look disappointed. "Yeah, I should probably head home. I've been here for like, 24 hours. But Jeremiah, before I go, just know that I care a lot about you. More than you probably realize. So please, if anything happens, or if the animatronic does something to you, let me know. I would never forgive myself if the robot I worked on hurt someone I care about."

With that, the two of them headed in different directions. Josh's last words hadn't really stuck with her, instead, she was thinking about the robot, halting in front of the entrance to the daycare. It seemed as if there was a whirlwind going on inside of her. All her senses were screaming at her to stop acting ridiculous. To just let her dislike for the robot guide her actions. But there was something that kept her from just being honest, something she didn't understand. It seemed to be small, yet strong. "Get your shit together." She scolded herself silently. She was frustrated, but she'd have to figure this out later. She knew someone that might be able to help her, maybe she should pay a visit later today. But her job came first, and she had a daycare to clean.

She finally opened the daycare's doors, only to be faced with an already tidied up place. She made her way inside, looking around in confusion. Nothing looked like it did the evening before. "Hello there!" A loud voice echoed around the playground. Jeremiah nearly got a heart attack from the sudden sound, she turned around and saw the animatronic approaching her from a distance. "I'm sorry, but the Superstar daycare isn't opened yet..." The animatronic began speaking in its enthusiastic tone, but calmed down when it realized who it was talking to. It slowly came to a halt, its faceplate shifting into a more nervous look. "Oh, euhm, hey Jeremiah. How are you doing today?" The animatronic's words seemed kind of forced, as if it wasn't sure that was a question it was allowed to ask.

"Other then my sore neck and wrist, I'm fine." She said, allowing a massive sarcastic undertone to seep through. "Oh, of course, we're really sorry about that." The animatronic was avoiding her eyes. She decided to drop off her belongings behind the desk. Thinking for a minute, while the silence lasted before deciding to break that silence and make a bit of small talk. "And, how have you been?" she decided on saying. "I see the daycare's sparkling clean. That wasn't how I left it." out of the corner of her eye she was able to see Sun's surprised expression as she talked to it. "I'm fine, I'm fine, don't you worry about me! I cleaned up the place after you left. I hope you don't mind?" Jeremiah shrugged. "It means I have some time left to say hi to the rest of the staff. And to get my coffee." She murmured, about done with the formalities. She was about to leave when she heard a sudden "Wait." She turned around, facing the still nervous-looking animatronic. "What is it?" Jeremiah asked, her eyebrow raised. The robot hesitated for a moment. "Why did you lie about what happened yesterday?" he asked her. Taken aback by the question, Jeremiah just responded with a simple "What?" The animatronic hesitated a bit longer. "I mean, Moon did something terrible to you. And we both know you don't like us. You have enough reasons to want us gone, so why did you lie to them? Why did you protect us when you didn't have to?" Jeremiah could feel those weird, conflicting emotions again. It frustrated her. "My motivations are none of your concern. I'm giving you one last chance; all you have to do is behave and leave me alone. You better not mess this up, I won't cover for you again. Oh, and on a sidenote, I heard from Josh that the camera's conveniently stopped working during Nap-time. I suppose neither of you had something to do with that?" Sun smiled nervously. "Well, I told Moon he shouldn't mess with the camera's, that he shouldn't misuse his camera access. But he refused to listen to me." Jeremiah gave him a curt nod. "Well, I advise you not to do that again. It might have worked out this time, but it probably won't next time." The animatronic started nodding. "Of course, I'll make sure this won't ever happen again. And thank you for allowing us a second chance. We won't disappoint, I promise!" Jeremiah rolled her eyes, she was doubtful of that. She left the daycare, promising to be back by the time the place opens. She checked one of the few clocks that were present in the Plex. She decided she had enough time to go get a new Fazwatch, get a coffee and visit Rockstar Row.