"Hey, are you doing alright?" James asked as you passed by him.

You replied with a quick, dismissive glare. He was about to say something, when Foxy growled, silencing him.

The suitcases you were dragging along with you suddenly became much lighter. You looked down, to see Molten Freddy's cables helping you. You glanced back to them and saw Freddy crawling close behind you. He giggled.

"Thank you," you chuckled, walking over to the office.

You opened the door, then yelped upon seeing Baby standing immediately on the other side. She looked at you peculiarly, tilting her head some.

"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you to be standing in the middle of the gosh darn room like this," you told her, pursing your lips.

"My bad," she apologized, though sounding a bit 'sly' about it.

"'Your-our bad,' " Foxy mocked, crawling under the doorway into the room.

"I'm surprised--" You closed the door behind you as Foxy pulled in the rest of his wires--"you didn't kill James."

"I thought hard on it, but I had heard what you said, so I decided against it."

"Heh, you-you thought 'h-hard' on- . . . (Y/N), what are-are you do-ing?" Foxy questioned, seeing that you were opening your suitcase and pulling things out.

"Setting up a place to sleep," you murmured, unfolding a blanket and spreading it out underneath the desk.

"A p-place to-o sleep?" Freddy blurted. "Why-y, you've al-ready got-ot one-one!"

"What do you mea- AH!"

Freddy grabbed you and pulled you off the ground. He lifted you over him--so your legs were dangling by his sides--and pulled the two of you up to hang from the ceiling.

"How is this supposed to work?" you wondered, holding on to him to balance yourself.

"What do-do you m-mean? You just lay d-down-own on me-e."

Freddy tilted his head, putting his hand on the bottom of your back and pulling you down. Your hands slipped out from under you and you landed on him, your chest against his. You raised your head to come nose-to-nose with him, his hand remaining against your back.

"I-I mean, how are you supposed to keep me up the whole time I sleep? Won't you lose your grip or something?" you worried, a blush tinting your cheeks.

"N-nope-ope!"

"Speaking of which, how the hell do you even have a grip? What are you grabbing with?"

"My wires!"

"Well, yeah, I know that. I meant like- . . . What are you even holding on to?"

"The ceil-eiling."

"For fuck's sake, you smart-ass piece of- . . . lovable mess of wires," you grumbled, looking away from him.

"Lov-ovable my a-ass," Foxy scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Foxy, piss the fuck off! This is especially no time to be here!" you snapped, glaring at him.

"What's-at's that meant t-to im-ply," Foxy huffed.

"It's implying the fact that there's no time for you to be here, or rather that there's no time that I want you to," you replied snarkily.

"You do-o realize what-what sit-uation you're in-n?"

"Yeah, I'm basically giving you a lap dance."

"This is-is a sucky lap-ap dance, th-then. But that's no-t what I-I'm talking about. I'm talk-ing about--" Foxy flipped you and him upside down, making you latch around him in fear--"thi-i-is!"

You gasped. "Fucking--"

"Yeah, th-that's what I-I-I thought."

"Fuck you, you bastard!" You looked down, then slowly unwrapped your legs from around his waist. "I can fucking get down on my own, asshole."

Foxy grabbed your wrists to pull them from around his neck, making you exclaim. You looked up, to see that it was actually Freddy. He gently lowered you down to the ground.

You sighed out a breath of relief. "Thank you."

"Way-ay to r-ruin my fun, Fre-eddy," Foxy scoffed, folding his arms.

"Piss off," you groaned, dusting yourself off.

"Where have you been, anyway?" Baby wondered, making you look back at her with wide eyes.

"Oh . . . Oh, we just went over to James's place and then my own place, to pack my stuff," you replied as you subtly tossed a pillow and blanket underneath the desk. "It went rather quick since Freddy helped me with most of it."

"Why couldn't he have gone with you yesterday?"

"Are you saying that you would've rather had him leave so you could get some peace?" you laughed, sitting down in the chair.

"Both him and Foxy." Baby nodded.

"Hey!" Foxy grunted.

"I can't blame you," you chuckled, wiping a fake tear from your eye.

"What a-about Ba-llora?"

"What, you're trying to compare Freddy's hyperactive self and your annoying, asshole-ish, incompetent self to Ballora?"

"In-incompe-te-ent, a-annoying? Ex-excuse me! I am-am not--"

"I-I've been hav-ing to put up-up with all of this, and more-ore, for-or 5 years," Ballora grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I feel sorry for you," you snickered, covering your mouth to hide your grin.

"This is-is all James-ames's fault! Ju-ust let m-me fucking kill-kill him al-ready!" Foxy ranted, raising up.

"H-hey, not-ot without m-me!" Freddy objected, pouting.

"Wha- What do-o you mean 'with-out' you? W-we're stuck-uck together! There is-is no without-out you," Foxy argued.

"Ugh, I-I can't w-wait to be apart from-om you guys," Ballora groaned.

"What m-makes you so-so sure we'll e-ever get apart?" Foxy sneered.

"(Y/N) will h-help us." Ballora looked to you. "Won't you-ou-ou . . . please?"

"I mean . . . I'll try my best," you muttered, scratching the back of your neck. "How would I even do that? Is it possible?"

You looked to the rest, who all shrugged. You put your finger to your chin in thought, looking down.

"Now that I think about it, if everything that happened actually happened, you guys could've just made yourselves invisible, or whatever it is you do that keeps other people from seeing you," you explained.

"Can-an we even s-still--"

"Woah, woah, woah- This means that I'm actually dead. I'm, like . . . a ghost. But wait, if I'm still a ghost, how the fuck did I have a traumatic brain injury from that car wreck?"

"H-hold on."

Foxy punched you in the arm, making you wince and grip it. "Ow! What the fuck was that for?"

"You-ou can still get h-hurt, you j-just can't be killed by any-thing."

"Oh . . . So, that means: if I'm torn into tiny pieces, I'll still live through it?"

"I d-don't kn--"

"Let's test-test tha-at theory, shall-all we?" Freddy laughed.

"N-no-o-o!" Their eye flickered between purple and yellow.

"What happened to my Fredbear," you croaked. "It's almost like we had never met."

"Huh, th-that's funny: it's al-most as-as if he for-orgot about you," Foxy babbled sarcastically, rubbing his chin.

"Yeah, by the way, Foxy." You reeled your fist back, ready to punch him.

"I-I wouldn't do that, be-cause Freddy c-could feel it-it," Ballora stopped you.

"Oh, right. Well, so would you."

"Eh."

"Is that your kin- . . . Oh, I get it. You'd rather Baby hit you, wouldn't you~?"

You smirked and waggled your eyebrows suggestively. Ballora's eye glowed faintly.

"Oh-ho-ho! I knew it~" you sang mischievously.

"Hm?" Baby hummed.

Molten Freddy's eye flickered back to orange, indicating that Ballora had left. He giggled.

"So you guys' eyes still glow as blushing," you murmured.

"What is it?" Baby wondered.

"Ballora has a ki--"

"N-nothing-thing!" Ballora interrupted you as a wire wrapped around your mouth.

"--and it's y--"

The wire got tighter and more followed suit, shutting you up. Baby tilted her head, looking between you and Ballora. You attempted to pry the wires away as Ballora chuckled nervously. You huffed, folding your arms. The wires slowly unwrapped, Ballora making sure you kept quiet.

"S-sorry," she whispered into your ear.

"Why didn't you guys just separate after you left the pizzeria, by the way?" you questioned, scratching the back of your neck. "Or did you guys not know how to?"

Baby nodded once. "We didn't know how to."

"Well, why didn't you guys just go back to using your human forms, then?"

Baby and Molten Freddy looked to each other, then slowly back to you. You looked between them, raising an eyebrow.

"Should-ould we sh-show her?" Ballora asked her quietly.

"Show me what?" you hummed.

Baby sighed. ". . . If you'd like."

"What?"

Freddy giggled, before he morphed into a glowing ball. You smiled, a wave of nostalgia washing over you. It all drained--along with the blood from your face--when Molten Freddy reformed as a human. Your stomach churned at the image: Molten Freddy's wires were replaced with intestines and their arms were bare of skin, their muscles visible; most of the muscles in their face were gone-- showing their bones and brain--their jaw was unhinged, and one of their eyes were gone, tissue hanging out.

"Holy shit," you quavered, eyes wide.

"That's why we couldn't, and still can't," Baby told you.

Molten Freddy suddenly shifted into the glowing ball, then back to his animatronic form. They let out a sigh, looking down.

"Are you okay?" you worried, leaning forward in your chair some.

"It-it just h-hurts," Ballora croaked, holding her head.

"Shapeshifting?"

"No--"

"It's a-a pain to take that form. Our whole-ole body is bas-ically an open w-wound. It fuck-ucking sucks."

"I have to find a way to at least fix you guys up. Isn't there some other form you can take in the meantime? One that's part animatronic, part . . . organic?" you suggested, tapping your finger against your chin.

"We-e can t-try!" Freddy offered, before disappearing into the orb.

It was a few seconds before they took on a different form. When they did, they appeared almost exactly like they had been, except their face was furry. Molten Freddy blinked a few times, seeming to be adjusting to the new body. Freddy then looked up at you and grinned.

"How's that?" you chuckled, grinning back.

"Good-ood!" Freddy exclaimed.

"It took us-us a second to f-figure it out," Ballora pointed out. "What-at do you th-think of it?"

"I like it! I think it's cute."

Ballora gave Freddy control as you reached your hands toward them. You ran your finger through the fur on their face, cupping their cheeks. You tilted your head, smiling softly.

Freddy took his hands and cupped your cheeks, mimicking you. You giggled, grabbing his hands and lightly pushing them away.

"Baby, can you do it? Half animatronic, half organic," you questioned, looking over at her.

"I can try," she replied, looking down to herself.

She morphed into the usual glowing orb, and a few seconds later, she formed back into a solid body. Most of her body was animatronic, since most of her was too broken--just like Molten Freddy. Her facial features were organic, though, along with her hair.

"Is this it? How is it?" Baby raised an eyebrow, comparing herself to the others.

"You l-look beau-tiful," Ballora assured her.

"Oh." Baby blushed some, looking away. "Thanks."

Ballora smiled, then widened her eyes, a blush forming as she realized what she had said. She pushed Freddy forward, leaving him to take control. You snickered, making Freddy giggle with you.

". . . So, I should've probably questioned this a lot sooner, but how are you guys sentient? I remember that little girl and how you guys used to- . . . Yeah . . ."

"Elizabeth is her name. She gave me the ability to form my own soul. As for the others, the children they captured and--subsequently--killed, aided them in gaining their own souls."

"Oh . . . Oh, kind of like- . . . Shit, what is it . . ? Tsukimagamas- No, that's not it--" You took your phone out of your pocket--"Hold up, I've got to look this up. This is gonna bug the shit out of me if I don't figure it out."

You unlocked your phone and pulled up your search engine. You hummed, typing in "object gaining soul." You waited for it to load, and when it did, you immediately found your answer.

"Tsukumogami!" you exclaimed, holding up your finger. "Yeah!"

"Oh . . . I have no idea what that is," Baby murmured.

"Well, it wouldn't be exactly what you guys are--unless you were created 100 years ago--but I did say 'like.' So, yeah."

"C-cool!" Freddy gushed.

"Yeah . . . Anyway, you've got to move over, Fred. I need to order and print things," you told him, chuckling and gesturing for him to scoot over.

"Can-an we help?" Freddy gasped hopefully, moving beside you.

"Well, I don't really know how you'd do that. Ah, shite! I've got to shoot my landlord a text first, before I do anything else."

"Wh-why?"

"To give him a 'week's notice.' " You turned your phone on again and unlocked it. "I'll tell him I- . . . Uhh- I found a new place, so I will be moving in a week. Er, I don't- . . . know what else to put."

You hummed, thinking on it. You reached over to the terminal and started to order things in the meantime. Freddy watched the circles go around, intrigued.

Eventually, you figured out what you could text your landlord, so you sent it to him. You started to print things, the printer noisily doing so.

"So, what's your plan?" Baby asked.

"Hm?" you hummed, looking over to her.

"What do--"

"You choose now to try to talk to me- Give me a few seconds . . ." The printer went silent. "Okay. Now, what was it?"

"What do you plan to do?"

"In what context?"

"In the context of us."

"Well, that's not really my call. It'd be yours," you stated, tilting your head. "So, what do you plan to do?"

"I- . . . don't know. I don't know what to do." Baby looked over, scrunching her eyebrows.

"Well . . . We could start with fixing you guys up, or finding a way to," you mused.

Baby nodded, smiling, along with Freddy and the others. You smiled back, looking over to them as you started printing things again.

There was a knock on the door when the printer stopped, making you and the others look over. The door slowly cracked opened, and James poked his head in. He was given glares.

"Hey--"

"Wha-at do y-you want?" Foxy snarled.

"(Y/N), Emily's here," he stammered, avoiding eye contact with the others.

"Already? Doesn't she have a few more hours left?" you mused, your eyes wide in bewilderment.

"Savannah said they got out early. I don't know why. But, Emily's waiting for you."

"Well, alright. I'll go on out there, then, I guess."

| | | |

(A/N) As you could've already told--from the title alone--this chapter was meant to clarify some things up that some of you may have been confused about. If there's anything else that I didn't mention, that you'd like me to clarify, just comment it. (I won't give it away, though, if it's something that will be written on in the future.) If you had already commented and asked about it in one of the chapters of this book or the first, tag me in it so I can answer it there ^^