No...

Not this again...

"You were the last person she was seen with!"

"I talk to many people, you can't just—"

"Oh save me the crap, you want me to believe she disappeared right after shaking your hand?!"

Its been a week since their last fight, and you start your shift with animatronics arguing in the backstage rehearsal area. The voices of both Monty and Bonnie reverberated the walls, and you could only guess that the rest of the animatronics will soon be here—after being notified of the ongoing... conflict.

Honestly, you should be used to this, the arguing between Monty and Bonnie has been going on for about a month now, and not even a miniscule of harmony exists other than after your long sermons about coexisting in peace.

"What is it this time, Monty?" you were tired, the "thrill" of keeping them both in check now faded, and all you wanted was to end the argument for the night, continue on with your duties, and hope that another conflict wont arise for the rest of the night.

You spent more time with Monty nowadays, since you wanted to understand his innermost thoughts and feelings and try to work around those barriers to unite the animatronics in civil tolerance. But it appears, civil tolerance simply is an incomprehensible concept for both Bonnie and Monty. Despite the attempts made by the newer animatronic to reconcile with the other, the alligator was adamant in disassociating himself from any trace of Bonnie's civil attempts. At this point, you were beginning to doubt Monty, was he really just this unreasonable and insecure? Should you be more... strict when it comes to him?

You've been giving him all considerations that not even Freddy has ever received (not that he needed any), and yet... its like the alligator forgets every single thing when confronted with Bonnie.

Should you have him checked by the Tech team or—

"Some kid went missing yesterday, and the last person with her was this doucheba—"

"Monty." You warned, once again, about his word choice.

"Whatever, Bonnie was the last guy with the kid before she went missing. I seen it with my own eyes! He's—"

"And you concluded solely due to an interaction witnessed by you? Have you not considered other human entities who may have been in contact with the child other than Bonnie?" Finally, the sensible animatronic arrived in the scene, with Chica and Roxy in tow. They didn't even need to ask what was going on—it was self-explanatory, given the pattern of events.

But you were baffled.... Missing child? Again?

"Wait a sec, a new missing child case?" you repeated—mostly to yourself than to any of the sentient animatronics around. You and the security has yet to solve the other ongoing missing children cases, and now, a new one? Do these parents simply never learn to keep an eye on their kids? At this point, they should consider leashing the wrists of their kids for their own safety—and your sanity. "Since when? Why wasn't I—"

"The news was disseminated just this evening, about an hour before the Pizzaplex closed for the night. I was previously briefed by head of security during those hours, I suppose, we could keep a lookout for any sign of the child." The orange animatronic explained, same with a tone of seriousness and at the same time—weariness. Tired was the guy after a whole day's work—and he needed to recharge soon. But after catching wind of an "argument" occurring at the backstage rehearsal, he knew he had to once again change his priorities set in his task logs.

"Exactly, and I'm damn sure Bonnie has something to do with it, heck, he was the one LAST SEEN with the kid!" Monty once again pointed both arms towards the quiet animatronic to emphasize his point.

Even so, if Bonnie really was the last person seen, then maybe he could provide data on where he think the child went to? After all, should the child get trapped somewhere—you can find them—anything to stop the onslaught of new cases while accomplishing at least one.

Just one.

"Look, you're right, I was with her. But that doesn't mean I did her harm! She wanted to play with me, so I humored her. She went off to look for her parents after, and I went on stage for the quarterly performance." The blue animatronic justified himself, holding both hands up with an attempt to make himself seem a little more... pliant and harmless.

But of course, Monty just couldn't be held back. "See! As a responsible animatronic, you should've accompanied her to look for her parents than to leave her be! She's a child for crying out loud!"

"But I have a performance too—"

"Objectively speaking, Monty has a point. We animatronics have obligations to entertain, but also to ensure safety to the maximum possible extent. Should children be lost, they should be accompanied in search of their guardians or be surrendered to Customer Service for assistance. This is regardless of performance protocols, as safety protocols are superior compared to our initial operations." Freddy invertedly cuts Bonnie off mid-sentence. Sure, he was disappointed how Monty once again starts war with Bonnie, but it makes sense in a way, Bonnie still had his negligence in this.

For all they know, the missing child case was due to the child getting lost, or abducted by another adult—hopefully not.

"I understand my mistake, but I don't accept Monty accusing me of kidnapping." Bonnie spoke with a straightforward tone, not bothering to sugarcoat the actions and words of the other. In the end, any attempts would be unfruitful at all.

"Yeah right, kidnapping is a nice term. How about abduction?"

"Monty."

"What? Don't say I'm wrong because I'm damn sure I'm right." Monty cut in when Freddy tried to give him a disciplining tone. He just know it—ever since Bonnie appeared, everything just started to go wrong. They were already so peaceful before the animatronic re-emerged, and now—the incidents they all dreaded came to existence once more.

"Look, let's trace back to what happened. We wont be getting anywhere through throwing accusations left and right. So, start from the beginning—CALMLY." You emphasized the final word, directing it towards Monty specifically.

Given that there was still some semblance of reluctance, the animatronics obeyed in settling down to paint the clear picture.

"Okay, let's start from the beginning. So, a little girl was reported missing just this evening, and she last visited the Pizzaplex yesterday." You began, recounting the information you've received just now.

The authoritative animatronic tilted his head. "Officer (Y/N), dear, it is not exactly starting from the beginning. I retrieved her guest profile from yesterday, aged seven, red pigtails, pink dress. Checked in with her parents at exactly 11:43:02 AM on the 22nd day of February. Her parents checked out at 3:29:45 PM of the same day and returned once again at 3:52:33 PM to report the incident to management."

The words Freddy let out were puzzling. "So, the parents just assumed the child was with them? They didn't bother to check prior leaving the premises?" you inquired, seriously, any parent would ensure they have the custody of their children before leaving, unless the parents didn't bother?

"Retrieving customer service case log 1479, the parents alleged that they were with a child, it was late when they discovered that it was not their child. The aforementioned child was returned to their respective parents, but the respective child of the concerned remains unfound." The animatronic followed, spending a few moments to browse through the directory logs for the specific case file.

"Okay, pretty irresponsible, but okay." You breathed in, then out, your eyes gazing at everyone in the area—seeing Monty mumble something, but you didn't question nor gave it much thought—it was probably another insult or accusation towards Bonnie.

"Pft, yeah, and it so happened the kid in question was last with Bonnie Bum Bum here—"

"Monty."

"What? I'm stating facts! Check the cameras, 2:57:32 PM at the West Arcade camera 03. Come on, retrieve it, you'll know what I mean." Monty extended a hand with fingers curled inward while pointing at Freddy in a provocative manner. Though the other animatronic knew better than to challenge the alligator, the said animatronic went standby to retrieve the logs internally.

It took around a few minutes before Freddy could review all the information. "Indeed, but Bonnie and the child in question separated ways after ten minutes, Bonnie making his way to Bonnie Bowl, and the child going eastward." He confirmed, checking each and every reaction—mainly yours, since as the security guard in duty, you were most qualified for an opinion on this matter.

Moreover, this earned a look of disdain from the alligator, "Really? Who knows if the separation was directed to begin with? This guy could've told the kid to go somewhere, meet him somewhere or—"

"Do you hate me THAT much?" Bonnie had to be blunt—regardless of any justification, he will just be left in the sea of accusations. This wasn't to undermine his integrity as part of the band but shatters his own morale—whether programmed or not, remains the same as the aforementioned value.

"You realize it just now?" the animatronic spat out, as if acid could run from his tongue, his sharp retort acidly billowing with an obvious intent. If animatronics were free from administrative and programming restraints, murder could've been ensued—or rather, brutal decommissioning—similar to the accusation towards Monty prior Bonnie's early "retirement", as the management would call.

"My patience is not long." You commented, loud enough for Freddy to hear, and the animatronic in question emitted a sound akin to a person clearing their throat, the noise enough to catch the attention of the two animatronics who repel and collide like magnets on loop.

"Bonnie, would you mind reiterating what you last said to the child? What was the conversation about?" Freddy questioned, shifting his attention away from the green alligator, and towards the bunny instead.

"Let me check..." Bonnie muttered out, his thought process running for a few moments, probably skimming through his memory drive to check any recent logs—or to find the specific record with similar attributes, such as the time and date of encounter. "Well... we were talking about her favorite song, she asked me to play it in Bonnie Bowl, but I told her to seek permission from her parents before she wanders around but..."

"But...?" you pressed on, slightly leaning closer with the intent of gathering more information—as if space and distance was an issue, which was not.

"... I remember seeing Officer Vanessa earlier. I think she was assisting the child to find her parents. With that assumption, I left and never saw the child since." Bonnie continued, elaborating every information left in his record logs. Then, he looks over at Monty. "Happy now?"

"No." Monty bluntly spoke up, arms crossed and tail swishing lazily behind him—but with tension. "If you were following the protocol, you'd assess where her parents are, and if undetected, will escort the child to Customer Service to handle it, not leave her to wander around to hell knows where. Tell me, did you consider the protocol in this situation? For your information, its in the Animatronic Operations manual under Chapter 67: Customer Handling – Child Separation from Parent. Oh wait, did you even check? Man, sucks to be you—"

"Monty, please." You inhaled deeply; a nagging headache started to throb in your head. Seriously, you always known Monty to be hard to handle but not THIS stubbornly trying to get his point across.

Wait, animatronics read manual? Or do they scan them? Isn't those protocols integrated in their systems automatically? Are they really capable of ignoring it if so?

If that's the case, then the protocols aren't efficiently implemented to begin with, or was this due to Freddy's leniency with said protocol enactment?

You were no expert, why are you fumbling about it now? Freddy will handle those admin and techy stuff, not you---err, maybe the real tech staff.

On the far corner of the area, leaning against the wall was the other two animatronics absent from the scene earlier—having arrived only a few minutes ago after getting a report from the staff bots that the other two were once again—to no surprise, in conflict.

"Do you think its connected to the past cases?" Chica inquired—actually uttering a word ever since they arrived. They were both silent at first, observing and listening in on the miniscule of an investigation spearheaded by you and Freddy—much to your dismay of handling also Monty.

"Not sure, the data logs of previous cases were safeguarded, I have no access even if there was a residual record." Roxy shook her head, her gaze immediately landing once again on Monty, then at Freddy, then at Bonnie—finally, you, but she looked at Bonnie again—there was something about him that... she can't even put a finger in... "Too many things are happening all at once—most are unfortunate events going wrong. But even so..."

"--... even SO, isn't that NORMAL already? I mean, for all of us—and Officer (Y/N) too. This isn't even our hundredth case—" Chica rambled, getting carried away with her words before Roxy mumbles something with crossed arms.

"... There's something about Bonnie... this is different, not like the shenanigans we're all used to... there's something off about Bonnie's behavior... I can see through other animatronics but... he's different." Roxy narrowed her gaze as she eyed the blue animatronic up and down. Her eyes enables her to see through walls, and that includes checking on the physical endoskeleton of her fellow bandmates as a security and safety precaution in the event of system failures due to physical endoskeleton defects.

"What do you mean? We have the same endoskeleton models, right? Well, no, not EXACTLY but—"

"He has a different model." Roxy eyed Bonnie one last time before turning her gaze to the other animatronic beside her. "I don't know if I'm overthinking this or—to be fair, Bonnie was from the original models, and when Bonnie was decommissioned, a new endoskeleton model was being signed by Fazbear Entertainment. Maybe... they didn't bother upgrading Bonnie when he was recommissioned."

"You're thinking too much of it, its Fazbear Entertainment, when was safety a no. 1 priority?"

"You make it sound so criminally construed. Fazbear Entertainment does consider safety—"

"But minimally, right?" Chica gave this bright smile that Roxy fail to counter time and time again.

With a shake of the head, Roxy pushes herself off of the wall, stretching, and turning to leave through the dimly lit hallways. "I'm going for a race, you coming?"

Chica glanced at the other animatronics—and you, before looking back towards Roxy. "Well, beats doing nothing, let's go."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After all the issues piling up your shoulders, perhaps continuous and simultaneous workloads truly wasn't advisable for you. You're not an animatronic, and you get tired as well.

After considering Freddy's—almost pleading—request, you finally agreed to rest up and take the day off. That "day off" consisted of an 8-hour long sleep, and an hour's worth of household care. You once considered sleep to be an activity utilized by the weak—but the real weak entities are the ones who function without sleep. Again, you weren't some sentient robot, at some point, you'll just collapse.

It just so happens that you were dropping off your laundry at the laundry shop to pick up the next day, since you have no time to do it yourself, and your focus wasn't mentally present anyways. You checked your wrist watch—there's still an abundance of time before your next shift, with the afternoon sun basking the outside world—one you rarely take the scene of.

With so much time left, its not everyday you get to enjoy the scenery outside the four corners of the Pizzaplex. Right after dropping the laundry, you took the time to venture out into the community park near the laundry shop. The park was a small man-made public place with benches, trees, and flowers along dirt—and sometimes, cobblestone paths. With birds and—squirrels? Habituating the trees, pigeons making a mess on the grass as they scouted for seeds scattered around by the elderly folk who spends their days reconnecting to nature.

You took a few minutes take a stroll—breathing in the fresh air not deterred by the air conditioning, the sound of distant traffic could be heard from a few meters away.

You barely had the chance to sit down on an empty bench—with a pigeon pecking on the wood, your phone rang. The funky chime of the Pizzaplex theme song blaring, scaring the poor pigeon to take flight, and disturbing the tranquility of the somewhat empty park. You were surprised for a moment—before grabbing the device from your pocket and checking who dared to interrupt your moment of respite. But you froze—it was...

You answered the call with a swipe of your thumb, bringing the rectangular device up to your ear. "...Rose?"

"Finally! I've been calling for ages!" she exclaimed through the other line, making you flinch back and pull the phone away from your ear to prevent the wreckage of your eardrums. As much as you would love to complain—this is Rose we're talking about! You haven't heard from her since she was (practically abducted) by her lineage a month ago. You were dumbfounded—unsure what to say.

"Is it really—"

"Duh! Who else could it be? Its not like you have more than one best friend."

"Harsh, and I missed it so much." You mumbled and leaned against the wooden backrest of the bench, comfortably bringing your phone back to your ear knowing she wouldn't shout anymore.... Hopefully. "How have you been? Wait... how were you even able to contact me? Weren't you restricted?"

"Who the hell can restrict someone like me? Told them I'd run off if they keep suffocating me, so, I was granted call privileges—under the assumption that I wont contact a hitman or an escape buddy." She humored, the usual jokes and banter often exchanged between two friends.

It felt like... the last time they shared cake was.... Decades ago....

"So? What's up on your end? You and the robot hit it off?" you would've spat out your drink... if only you had one at the moment. "Come on, spill the juicy details! You to kissed yet?!"

"Rose... jeez..." you took a second to compose yourself before thinking of a logical response.... If any. "You do realize that's... physically impossible, right? Well... maybe on the cheek but--- but that's about it! It's not that substantial or anything—other couples do a lot more, you know?"

You sounded way too defensive for your own good.

"Right, cause someone with no relationship experience knows which is substantial and which is not. Look, I know you're embarrassed about this arrangement—but you love him, don't you? Do more! The only thing you can't do is to fuc—"

"Okay, okay, enough with it already. Freddy and I... we're not really in the... stable side... at the moment." You admitted, it was... true, in a way. The romantic and cheesy days of forbidden love were... no more. You enclosed yourself in spending time with Monty to prevent him from feeling left out—you invertedly deprived Freddy of the attention he rightfully demanded—at least, subtly.

"it's the... its complicated stage? Why?" she inquired, usually, she would ask a lot more follow up questions without waiting for your initial response, but this time... she knew how serious you were.

"Well..." you sighed, you didn't really anticipated how this joyous meeting would turn into a confession of some sort... besides, you don't have anyone to talk to about this... "I'm sure you've heard that Bonnie came back..."

"Yeah, it was all over the news the other day, tons of people from the airport landed there just to see Bonnie" she commented, probably recounting the days where Bonnie was such a buzz. Sure, she already knew about Bonnie coming back but it took about a few weeks before the news was broadcasted worldwide in the entertainment news. During that time, she was already out of the country when the news exploded in the broadcast stations. "Why? Did he malfunction or—"

"No, not a malfunction... you know about Bonnie and Monty's whole decommissioning feud, right? Well... Bonnie retained his popularity, and... it kinda... left Monty in the shadows. He became... I dunno, violent? I spent most of my time hanging out with him, so that he wont feel so alone... but of course, Monty and Bonnie still were in hot waters, fighting here and there and..." you paused, pursing your lips, feeling the chapped skin scratch against your upper lip. "... Freddy and I often... got into disagreements because of that... Freddy is... objective, as usual but... I can't help but feel that... he's holding bias and prejudice against Monty..."

"I see... who knew robots could act so childish, no wonder they're described as human-like." She butts in, "Have you told Freddy these... feelings...?"

"Yes... but... he doesn't understand what I mean. Sure, he's lenient enough to let Bonnie adjust but... for Monty... I don't know, how can someone be objective but bias at the same time?" you were frustrated, confused and... you don't even know what to say anymore, this is all so confusing.

"Don't you think you're being biased too? You're more onto Monty's side, but have you tried listening to Freddy and Bonnie?"

"Yes....? Most of the... time... it's just... it's hard, I feel like... I don't know Freddy anymore...." True as it might, the Freddy you're seeing now was far from the Freddy of before. He acts so... different now.

"You need to talk to them, but don't take sides or ask for objective on what happened between you all... just... talk things out, properly." It sounded like she was scolding you, but her insight wasn't... one to overlook.

No one would see their flaws until someone else points it out.

After all, human beings are complicated creatures, they deflect and deny anything that goes against their principles or image, and closed-minded do they live in the presumption of denial. Who would admit their wrongs? Who would accept defeat that easy after fighting for something they once presumed was "right" to begin with?

Maybe... she's right, you were being quite bias about this, maybe Monty's not unreasonable but... you are?

Maybe you're the unreasonable folk.

"I have to go; it was nice talking to you again. We'll stay in touch, yeah?"

"Yeah... talk to you soon."

The call ended without much of a humorous salutation, and tranquil silence once again grazed the park. You took this moment of silence to assess everything mentally, to think it over again from the beginning to the present. Perhaps, she was right, you weren't objective as well.

Were you influenced by emotion? By the desire to keep the band intact? You don't know.

You didn't even want to know.

After some time has passed, you decided to get up and move forth in whatever endeavor you have to begin with. Two hours spent in the park seemed to clear your thoughts after that conversation with Rose, you didn't even notice the time passing by too quickly.

You still have a few hours before you report to work for the night shift, and maybe a trip home to take a shower doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. So, with short steps into long ones, you started trekking the path home—since the atmosphere and climate is well enough to enjoy for the time being.

But as you were strolling and about, you noticed a familiar figure by a local pharmacy—blond hair tied in a ponytail, and the infamous security guard uniform which resembled yours...

"Vanessa?"

You uttered, not too loud to attract too much attention, but enough for the woman to turn towards your direction. Her eyes looked surprise, its not everyday you can run into a coworker outside the workplace, hardly, if it may.

"(Y/N)... its... a small world indeed." She replied, her tone flat and concealed of any emotion... it was... her normal tone, based on experience. "Are you on leave?"

"For the morning, yeah... I'll be on duty tonight, though...." Your eyes trailed over her form... she looks normal... save for the obviously sleep deprived looking eyes covered by light make up. "Are you sick?"

"I'm fine... I have to go." And without another word, she turned around and was about to take her leave--- but you suddenly grasped her arm.

"Hey, wait—" but the abrupt hold led to Vanessa stopping, the plastic bag she was holding slipped past her fingers, tumbling down on the concrete pavement, the contents bouncing out of the packaging, rolling onto the ground.

You eyed the bottle firmly—even if your vision wasn't a perfect 20-20, you can still see the label. "Sleeping Pills...?" you muttered, letting Vanessa go, allowing her to quickly pick up the bottle and stuffing it inside her plastic bag, concealing the bottle. "Vanessa, are you—"

"Mind your own damn business." She slapped your hand away when you reached out, and she walked away as if nothing happened.

You were left dumbfounded...what was that all about? Was she really... using sleeping pills? She did look sleep deprived... is it even prescribed by a medical professional? What the hell?

Hopefully... she isn't in... turmoil. Best talk to her later when she's finally... receptive.