Forever To Be Free. (Finale of That Time in 1987)

The Haven

Bonnie's POV

Ben requested that everyone should go to his house to take a break from all of the havoc, so they agreed to take him back to his home. Bonnie felt strange about seeing Ben this way. He looked as though every ounce of innocence had been sucked out of him. Indeed, it had, but he looked the part as well. His blue eyes had gone grey and were twice as big as they were before. His skin was pale and tightly strung against his bones, making him look like a living skeleton with shorts and long, stringy hair. 

"I'll make the portal to your house, Ben," Fred said in a gentle voice. He put his arms out and ripped open the air, creating a large portal. This portal looked different from the others Bonnie had seen. There wasn't any emptiness or colorlessness. She could see through the portal a playground, like the ones she would find in peoples' backyards. 

Ben's eyes widened. "That's . . . that's my house!" he rasped. "My playground! My balloons! Take me in there! Hurry!"

Bonnie watched as Freddy carried the little boy toward the portal, stepping in and onto the ripe, green grass. Chica and Foxy followed, Bonnie on their tails. 

Ben was practically scrambling to get out of Freddy's grasp, eager to finally be home. Foxy and Chica rushed up to keep him secure, knowing that the young boy was too weak to be walking around.

Bonnie also approached the boy silently, her eyes filling up with tears for two reasons; one, the innocent young boy that they once knew was finally back. Two, the innocent boy they once knew was completely beat up and bruised. She was joyful and scared and sad and angry all at the same time. Bonnie sucked in a breath and let out all her emotions with a simple exhale. Her eyes turned to Ben's. "Ben, shhh . . ." she pacified.

The boy instantly fell limp in Freddy's arms, his head lolling back so that he could see Bonnie's. He whispered, "Bonnie . . ."

He twisted around and landed sprawled on the ground. He scrambled to his feet and jumped up to Bonnie, throwing his arms around her and rasping a sob. 

"Ben . . . oh, Ben, you're finally home!" she whispered.

Ben looked up at her with a hopeful expression. "Can you take me inside?" he rasped.

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah, I'll take you inside."

*   *   *   *   *

Bonnie put Ben into a blue striped shirt and shorts, slipping bright red shoes onto his feet and a propeller cap on his head. He limped to the other side of the room, where there were a bunch of balloons taped to the wall. He grasped one in a white fist and grinned widely. "Balloons!" he squealed.

Bonnie laughed and took the boy downstairs. Ben's house was really nice. It had two floors and a big spiral staircase. The kitchen was also nice. The sink was a glimmering silver, with curly knobs for hot and cold water. The refrigerator was a pure white. Brown cupboards lined every inch of the kitchen, other than the  other kitchen appliances. So far, the room and the kitchen were the main parts she had seen of the boy's house. 

"You should go outside while I make some food for us all," Ben requested.

Bonnie looked at him quizzically. "You've been locked in a giant metal box underground for the past half year, and the first thing you want to do is cook? Don't you think we can get some snacks from the fridge?"

Ben laughed. "I don't think you realize how much I love cooking. Trust me, I can whip up some good spaghetti."

Bonnie's mouth salivated at the thought of steaming bowls of spaghetti. "Uh, alright. I'll keep you some company so that you don't . . . I don't know . . . cause an accident."

Ben looked at her with an insulted expression. "I'll be careful, but I guess that some of my motor control has gone out the window. You can stay here and talk to me, especially since most of the company I had was a psychopathic purple man."

The purple haired girl laughed. "Alright."

Ben started on getting some water boiled on the stove. He grabbed some raw chicken from the freezer and placed it in the sink, where there was hot water waiting to thaw it out.

He got out a few sauces and ingredients like Alfredo, tomato sauce, cheese, and some seasoning. He let it sit there and went by Bonnie to sit down.

They stared at each other for a long time. Bonnie could see in Ben's eyes that there was something he was holding back.

"What is it?" Bonnie asked.

Ben broke from her gaze and set his eyes on the counter. "It's so scary now."

A sigh escaped Bonnie's throat. "Yeah. That we can agree on."

"Have you guys fought any battles against Jonathan?" Ben asked, his big eyes shifting to the pot of water, which now had a light steam coming off of it. 

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah."

"Explain to me."

And that's exactly what Bonnie did. She told him about when they fought in New York City, watching all the buildings come crumbling down to a fine dust. How Jonathan had squadrons and squadrons of savage, bloodthirsty animatronic animals ready to murder them all. 

But, she also told them how they succeeded. How her and Foxy had fended off an entire multitude of them with just one blast. Ben's eyes were wide with excitement as he listened to her tell the story.

Then, her eyes fell when she was reminded of what Freddy had told her about Jonathan.

"And there's something else I need to tell you," she said.

"What?" Ben asked. "Is it another amazing story?" His face shone with hope.

Bonnie's eyes welled up with tears. "We . . . we can't win this."

Ben's hope faded away. "What?"

"We can't win this at all. Freddy proved that to us."

"What do you mean by that?" Ben's eyes started to go frantic. "You guys are heroes! You can't lose hope now! We can devise a plan to stop Jonathan--"

"He's immortal," Bonnie interrupted.

There was only a moment of silence after that. Bonnie stared at the table, feeling Ben's stare rubbing at the side of her face.

Ben broke the silence. "Wh-what?"

Bonnie sighed, not wanting to break this boy more than he'd already been broken. "Freddy tried to kill Jonathan. He took a steel pole and rammed it through Jonathan's back, but he didn't die. His wound healed up. Ben, I'm so--"

"Water's boiling," he said plainly. Ben got up off of his stool and walked around Bonnie to the water. He took a cluster of spaghetti and plopped it into the pot, turning down the temperature and turning on the timer for twelve minutes. 

And he just stood there, silent. He stared into the bowl of boiling noodles, letting the steam billow up at his face and part into two different paths upward.

"Ben, don't do that," Bonnie mumbled. "You'll get a steam burn on your face."

"What good does it do?" Ben croaked, his voice raspy and sad at the same time. "We're all dead anyway."

Bonnie wanted to say so much. She wanted to tell him not to lose hope. That they could still find a way to stop Jonathan. But, she'd already told him that there wasn't any hope. That there wasn't any way to stop the world from falling into chaos. She stayed silent.

Ben turned his head back to Bonnie. His deer-in-headlights eyes glimmered with tears. "What are we gonna do?"

Bonnie looked outside, seeing her friends on the playground outside, laughing like little children. It was like they were all twelve again. Ben was right. What would they do?

"I don't know, Ben," she murmured. "I really don't know."