A Guard's life

Peace and Love

A/N:
So sorry for being late ;u; AGAIN.

-

It was quiet, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence.
It was a sleepy silence of the dead of the night, at the time the moon was the highest and lit the whole area up with silver light.
The kind of silence of sharing your room in the dark with someone, quietly admitting to secrets and glad to find out that indeed, you were not alone.
Rest.
For Phone Guy, it was rather intimidating in a way. Never had he expected Mike's body to be able to contain such an amount of peace, much less for him to openly share it like this.
Then again, this wasn't really Mike, was it?
They sat together in the living room on the couch, listening to the quiet sobs and gentle noises from the other room.
A family.
Uncertain Simon looked over, inspecting Mike, whose eyes still radiated a soft gold, staring into a world only he could see.
Finally, their glances met, the smile on Mike's face widened.
"... sorry about this. It is probably very rude to take over a body unannounced. But... I can't take on any other form at the moment."
Phone Guy wanted to say something, but fought himself for a few seconds until it finally came out. "You... are Fredbear...?"
Everybody knew about Fredbear, the REAL Fredbear.
People in the factory whispered about him, when the day was stretching long, when the sun set and they got a bit more friendly and risky with each other. Rumors spread easily at the factory around at that time and Fredbear was one of the all-time favorite stories.
Some of the Phone Guys claimed they had seen him. On Friday or Saturday, after an especially odd week.
They claimed he looked like a real bear- almost. But he glowed and was giant. Wore a purple top hat and tie.
They said he had a voice, powerful, yet soothing, capable of echoing through the whole restaurant, no matter how big it was.
When he arrived, everybody would stop in their actions.
And then he fought evil.
That was how the stories went.
Evil could be everything in that story. Whatever was planning on wrecking the restaurant that week. There were many thing that wanted to destroy the restaurant, those were the more believable parts.
Personally, Phone Guy had believed that the stories were exaggerated. Sure, there were ghosts and spirits, he wasn't about to doubt that, but... that kind of story was stretching it. It was hard to believe in good sometimes, the depressing stories about lost souls were far more plausible.
Now though... looking in that golden glow... he was willing to believe that maybe there had been more to his fellow phones stories than he had given them credit for.
Kindly the being chuckled. "... not... quite. I wouldn't call myself that, it's close enough for now though."
In all this weirdness, there was one thing nagging on his mind for a while now. "Is... Mike okay?"
"Is Mike ever okay?" There was no real humor in these words, but it wasn't meant to be a mean jab either. It sounded a tad sad if anything... but seemingly most of his words seemed to have an echo of sorrow in it. "He isn't in any pain or anything, if that is what you ask. At the current moment I don't even think he is aware... which probably good for his nerves."
"I don't, uh- I don't think that is good for him. He'll probably freak out and want to know what happened." Fiddling with his nails, he coughed nervously. "Not knowing what you were doing for a certain amount of time is... really freaky."
Quietly and frustrated the spirit sighed. "I know. I'm not proud of this. If all would work like it should, then I would TELL Mike and ask him to help- I can't just... willy-nilly show up with... a physical body... and I can't seem to reach Mike most of the time. He is... preoccupied... and his pills are making it worse. They're... spreading the mind around, I grow tired-"
His words had sped up, and while all his emotions seemed slightly muted, the distress he was experiencing was clear.
Worried the man reached out to softly rub over his friend's- or at least the creature in his friend's body- shoulder.
It helped.
"There is... so much sadness. Sadness makes them- makes me tired. Anger isn't much better. Sometimes I'm scared that we will just... slowly turn to stone or sludge. We have to act. But whatever action we take just... seems to make it worse and now guilt mingles with sadness. We need help. But I cannot reach people without doing damage." At this point there was some sort of... echo...? "... we need more help. You- you aren't our enemies. Ignorant, but not evil. And you want to help, don't you?"
There was something in the way he looked at him that made Phone Guy be hyperaware of the fact that he didn't really act like it.
Yet, before he could attempt to justify himself, the other being continued.
"I know Mike wants to. I don't think he could help himself. But... he makes things so difficult too..."
The waves of hot shame crashing through his body made Simon slightly irritable. "... do you want me to tell him to stop taking his pills?" Not in a million years.
Thankfully that wasn't the case.
"I don't want to do any more harm to him. But this is my reasoning for taking him over in the way I do. I don't think we have much time left to waste." Slowly he breathed out, grabbing something. "... I did enough of that for all of us."
All he wanted was help.
Sounds simple enough.
Actually wait, no it doesn't, because no action has been proposed yet.
... which made Phone Guy rather nervous.
Was that spirit hiding something?
"U-uh... what, uh- what do you want me to do?" Instantly a hesitation had taken ahold of him.
What do you want us to sacrifice?
"Free them. That is our priority." His voice was now weak and tired out, he barely could sit upright anymore. "... afterwards... we will face Orange Guy and William. We will kill them."
Okay. So that was in it for them. Getting rid of two dangers to their existence.
Phone Guy could get behind that.
"H-How do we free them?"
"They're... kids, Simon. Make them happy. Please- please make them happy..." Resting his head in his hands his voice seemed to become more and more distorted and further away. "... that is everything we ever wanted... please though- tell Mike I'm sorry. I don't mean to take... from him like this... I lack choice."
With that he tiredly blinked, the gold disappearing between some of the disorientated eye movements.
There wasn't an immediate change in his body language, except a visible tension creeping up on his shoulders.
Reaching out for to rub his shoulders reassuringly once more, anxiously Phone Guy waited for Mike to be aware enough to react.
Finally Mike glanced at him again, making a low grumble. "... what were we talking about...? Fucking... spaced out for a bit..."
Mildly worried Phoney leaned closer. "For how long?"
"I don't fucking know, I don't have an internal fucking clock!"
"What is the last you can remember?"
Somewhat torn Mike shrugged. "... the restaurant?"
"That w-was HOURS ago-" Distressed he stared his friend down, deeply disturbed. How hasn't he noticed that Mike wasn't Mike?!
Well- he HAD noticed, but he thought it only was... Mike being weird, not really-
He was a horrible friend, wasn't he?
Mildly uncomfortable Mike shifted in the chair. "... did I do something stupid?"
"Not... technically. No. You, uh- you helped a lot..." Where would he start? "... w-we, uh... went into the forest and managed to uh- help out Jeremy and Mr. Cross, but, uh-"
"But...?" Expecting the worst Mike stood up and began pacing.
"Well, the, uh- we- well, they are fine, but-" Interrupted the sudden loud noise of machine roaring and the sound of metal clashing on metal.
A noise, intense, it killed off all thought.
Within a second Mike had grabbed the nearest heavy object, ready to fight back-
Thankfully confusion halted him, as instead of a machine barging in, rushing towards them with a scream and an open maw, there was Ethan, looking around a little stressed, but not as wide-eyed and terrified as you'd expect a man who has a seven foot chicken behind him to be.
Ignoring Mike holding a chair like you would hold a sword, which was by far not the weirdest thing he ignored today, he turned to Simon, his words firm, quiet, and filled with suppressed anger. "... I will take Evelyn home."
Now he was faced with two baffled people staring at him.
"Who?"
"Where?"
"My daughter. I will take her home." The man said as if that was a normal to take a giant death machine containing the soul of his daughter into his normal-life apartment.
"She." Vaguely Mike moved the chair around into their direction. "You expect to fucking manage to bring that THING into your-"
"SHE IS NOT A THING!" The sheer power of his rage managed to make Mike stop in his tracks. "SHE IS MY DAUGHTER!"
It was dead quiet, even the robot had frozen up.
At least until more clicking sounded and from behind, the three other robots had been prompted by the screaming and now where checking on the situation- scared, it seemed, they kept their distance.
No child enjoyed hearing people scream.
Being faced with a rage almost on par with his own, Mike actually stepped back and somewhat calmed down. "I'm- sorry. She. You are right."
"I shouldn't have screamed- I'm the one who is sorry." The words were more directed at Chica, as he looked behind himself to heck on her.
"Yeah, we both fucked up here." Nodding Mike declared the situation as finished. "But that doesn't change anything about the fact that YOU JUST FUCKING SAID TO MY FACE THAT YOU PLAN ON TAKING YOUR SEVEN FOOT, RUSTING DAUGHTER THROUGH THE FUCKING CITY INTO WHATEVER HELLHOLE OF AN APPARTMENT YOU LIVE IN! HOW THE FUCK IS SHE SUPPOSED TO FIT!?"
"Stop screaming in front of my girl! What manners is she supposed to learn from that?!"
"NONE AT FUCKING ALL! SHE'S DEAD. SHE DOESN'T NEED MANNERS ANYMORE!"
"SHE- She's-" Ethan's voice gave out.
While it was objectively true, it wasn't something you should say to a grieving man's face and now it finally even broke through Mike how absolutely bad he behaved.
Putting down the chair he was holding, he sat down.
"Listen. Fucking ole buddy ole pal." God, he hated himself for using that phrase. "All I meant to say was that there is no realistic way to bring her back to your home. And even if, what would she be doing there? If you leave her here, she can at least walk around outside a bit."
"I will not leave her out of my sight again."
"You don't have much of a choice here."
In order to keep the peace, Simon interrupted. "You could... stay here for as long as you need to..."
Glancing at the Phone, he slightly shook his head. "Why would I sleep in a house with a person that has no issues covering up murders?"
Both of them paused at that.
Fair enough.
"... there aren't any other options, you are aware of that, right?" Simon didn't disagree with what Ethan said, but he simply knew that Freddy's would force him to act in a way he didn't like, no matter what.
Freddy's made you eat yourself.
And finally, it seemed as if this fact seeped into Ethan's resistant mind too.
Ethan had seen things and situations in his careers.
A lot of it accidents.
Some of it desperation.
There was some egotism, some disregard for the worth of human lives too.
But that wasn't the first thing his mind jumped to, as he stared into the expressionless rotary.
Nature though seemed always a bit crueler.
It had been a burning victim.
The burns weren't the thing that killed him though.
The shirt he was wearing, out of artificial fiber... it has melted onto him.
Hardened again when the fire was quickly extinguished.
The form had fitted to the person's body.
Wouldn't expand anymore.
Wouldn't let him breathe anymore.
He suffocated.
It had haunted him, the thought.
Having something press itself up to you, killing you by simply taking the place you gave away.
The helplessness when faced with such a force that refused to directly engage, yet still would overwhelm and kill you.
Ethan wasn't claustrophobic and happy about that.
But right now he felt as if he was cornered and about to be squished and could very well empathize with those that had said condition.
They just stared at him.
Not attacking.
Simply cornering him with reality.
Not much of a choice.
Feeling cold metal on his back he tensed up for a bit, before realizing it was just her.
She rubbed her head against his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.
It reminded him painfully much of the times she played cat and dog with her brother, trying to purr and rubbing her head against her dad's hand when they were picked up and carried to the table, so they could finally start eating together.
Then it was a game.
Now she had no choice. No arms.
No choice.
Nobody was pressuring him.
They only offered him two horrible choices.
Slowly he turned away to pet her reassuringly, trying to smile to show her it all was fine.
Three more pairs of glowing eyes were staring at him expectantly from behind her.
Jacob, Paul, Isaac, Timmy... Evelyn.
One was missing.
It somewhat freaked him out that it had taken him so long for that gut-wrenching realization to hit.
The killer took five.
Always took five.
One more than suits available.
Why?
What did he do to the last body?
Ignoring his own situation, he quietly tried to figure out who was who.
"Paul?"
Freddy quietly roared and stepped back.
He didn't look happy about hearing the name.
It was somewhat hard to imagine that in this horrifying body there was the soul of a child.
Vaguely he remembered a picture of the kid, with big, brown eyes, smiling at the camera, a little gap between his front teeth.
The memories were always accompanied by hysterical sobbing.
A little lost he looked at Bonnie, simply going down the list. "Isaac?"
None reacted.
Well- they ALL reacted, but only slightly.
They turned their heads.
Following their glares, he ended up staring at Mike, who didn't even notice, having his head in his hands now, seemingly trying to calm his distress.
Understandably confused, Ethan looked back at them. "I- he?"
Possessing him?
Was that ever possible?
The robots didn't seem quite sure, now their glance wandered between him and the guard. Foxy made a noise that was scarily close to a whine and Bonnie stepped a closer to the other robot, seemingly to calm him down.
Or- WAS that him?
Has one of them been taken away by the killer, managed to escape and-
--- no, that was impossible. The age didn't match up.
The possession thing didn't match up either, they looked at the company records, the man hadn't worked at Freddy's, back when the disappearance happened.
It was quiet for a while and with a small breath, he continued. "Jacob?"
Foxy whined louder and Bonnie tried to pat him.
That answered that.
"Timmy...?" Wasn't much else left, was there? An annoyed snarl from the broken bunny-bot confirmed that the question was stupid, but indeed he was correct with his assumption.
At least that was now figured out.
"Jacob, Timmy, Paul." It was... weird. In a way, he found them. He found five of the many missing children Freddy's had taken.
Lost and found.
Looking at Evelyn, he hesitated, knowing that he still had to make a choice.
Her glowing eyes almost hurt to look into, white rings of light, unreal in every possible way.
This was his daughter.
This was now the body of his child.
Her eyes were focused on him, wandering over his face, probably barely recognizing him after all these years.
Gently he reached out and petted her.
There was no way in hell he would leave her alone like that ever again.
"... I will stay here... with them." He needed to protect them.
Simon nodded in agreement.
The righter of the wrong answers.
Stepping towards the table, he sat down with the two others, now feeling gathered well enough again that he could discuss where to take things from here. Not that he trusted that they would help, but he was interested in their view on things.
If they lied, he was certain he would know now.
When he lowered himself, Mike finally looked up again and stared.
The tension in the room rose exponentially and the animatronic slowly moved into the room, aggravated by the adults.
Both sides looked at each other, then Ethan leaned forward a bit, watching their expressions closely.
Sometimes staying quiet was the best option if you wanted to make someone talk.
Phone Guy was calm.
Mike wasn't.
A few more minutes it stayed quiet, until Mike finally snapped. "What do you still WANT?"
"Justice."
"Fucking HELL. Do you even hear yourself?" He snarled in response.
"You obviously barely care, but I still do." His words were calm. Testing the water, seeing if he could figure out what was going on in that head.
There were many reasons for people to ignore horrible things, but they still had justification, albeit weak ones.
"You really think I don't fucking care?" Baffled the Guard looked at him. "Listen here you fuckhead, if Dave were about to murder a bunch of kiddens on my watch, I'd rip his head off myself!"
"Then why aren't you doing it right now?" Coldly the man responded. "It happened."
"Aren't you a fucking cop? Shouldn't you-" There was no noise made, it only took one look to make the answer clear. Slightly uncomfortable Mike moved in his seat, a bit away from the table. "You don't fucking understand. Those bots- kids, plenty of times, tried to rip my head off too. I got SMASHED by a springlock suit and I have NO fucking idea how I survived that, just because a handful of bratty spirits wanted to take me along like a screwed up after-life accessory. Nobody here really is someone I'm fucking rooting for!"
One more long pause.
A pained, thin noise from Foxy, quickly joined in by the others, as they felt mistreated with that judgement.
"And instead of acting, maybe teaching those LITERAL children better-"
"LITERAL children? THEY AREN'T LITERAL CHILDREN, LOOK AT THEM."
"They contain their SOULS. Their BEING. For me, it's them... and they- they deserve to take their revenge. This has gone on for way too long and seemingly nobody manages to stop it in a less extreme way. Human law has its faults."
Finally, Simon spoke up, his voice thoughtful. "... you want to kill Dave?"
"OF COURSE- yes. I will kill him." These words were said with the confidence only dark nights alone in your apartment, haunted by your past mistakes could breed.
He had thought about this.
Often.
Long.
It wasn't RIGHT, but that didn't make it not fair.
Fair.
Eye for an eye and when the whole world was blind, nobody would finally be able to come after the vulnerable anymore.
... or how did that saying go?
"Okay." It was almost surprising how nonchalantly Simon spoke those words, as if Ethan instead of threatening to kill the man made the plan to merely call him out on bad behavior. Then again, what did he expect of a man who had tolerated a child murderer on his premises? "But it won't be easy."
"I will do whatever it takes." That was the truth, without a doubt.
Expressionless the Phone nodded. "We tried a lot to kill him."
"Like what?"
"From the top of my phone, uh- poison, stabbing, pushing him into the ball pit, springlock failure, working with Matt, we send him to Vegas with a pack of cocaine in hopes he would overdose and crucifixion."
That sounded ridiculous enough to be the truth. In a world of machines carrying souls, immortal killers and the same Phone-headed people who all acted the same way every time they met... in that world the thought of people conspiring to actually crucify someone...
Still, there was some disbelief left.
"A real crucifixion?"
"We build him an actual wooden cross! Can't get more real than that, can it?" The Phone seemed rather certain that he did it right. "It took DAYS to build that thing and have it be sturdy enough to support human weight!"
"Fine then. What haven't you tried? Acid?" Vaguely he asked, trying to find a starting point. His eyes wandered over to the animatronics.
"Hard to come by these days, but uh- well, we tried it with a bucket full, he recovered rather quickly." There were actually company logs for each attempt on Dave's life.
"But you haven't submerged him forcefully in the stuff yet?" Nasty death.
"It's, uh- a bit hard to get ahold of the guy." Slightly worried Simon inspected him. If they didn't manage first time, the revenge would be horrible. Last time they got away with it, mainly because of Orange Guy's instability.
Meanwhile Mike grew more aggressive, as he started to suspect that Ethan wanted to rope his friend into helping out with something senseless and dangerous, to fulfill his own stupid revenge fantasy. Slowly he sat up, watching the detective closely.
"You say he's hard to kill. How long until he's up again?"
"Uh- depends? What do you have in mind?"
"Starting simple. What if I shoot him into the face?"
Intentions were clear.
"Uh, I think- well, usually he manages to escape the police, even under gunfire. Let's, uh- say five minutes? Maybe a little longer- the uh- police sometimes doesn't instantly check on the, uh- body when they think they got him, and he's always gone without fail." It was hard to average out the time.
"Five minutes is enough if I prepare well." Nodding to himself, his plan slowly seemed to take on form. "The fire, at Freddy's. That was no accident, was it?" Anger overshadowed his tired face. "You tried to get rid of the children."
"It's a bit more complex than that, uh-" Phoney wasn't sure if he would be believed. "We wanted to get rid of Dave and Orange Guy and set the spirits free. They made it out, somehow. A-Apparently they ALL made it out, SOMEHOW! We really, uh- wasted our time and effort. As you can see, that may be why we are a little, uh- apathetic. No matter what we do, it results in, uh- things getting worse, for us. Now we are stuck in a restaurant that Dave made, it's slowly expanding to be a h-hecking amusement park so we are GUARANTEED to not be able to keep an eye on Dave."
"I will have to lock him in."
Mike scoffed. "That would be best. But where?"
"The restaurant of course." As if that was a given.
This finally resulted in Simon's first stronger reaction. Almost an overreaction. "NO. The restaurant- if it goes down, we ALL go down. We could- I'm willing to help, as long as restaurant stays up."
There was no bigger reaction from Ethan, neither confirming, nor denying that he wanted that help
Both sides were looking at each other, trying to figure out where the other one stood in this silent war. Could the other one be trusted? Were they getting exploited?
After a tense minute or two, finally Ethan nodded. "Then we have to lure him away from it."
Sitting down fully again- Simon hadn't even noticed that he had been on the verge of standing up - the Phone took a deep breath and agreed. "That's uh- not impossible, not in the slightest. I could probably, uh- give him a task in a certain area...?"
"Anything that comes to mind?" While his voice was neutral, Mike got the distinct feeling that the man actually said 'If you want to save your restaurant, then you better find an alternative.'
Anger flooded back in, disproportional even for the level of stress he experienced. For FUCK'S- no- not NOW. They didn't NEED that NOW.
Instead of trying to tolerate his mood-swing, he took a pill and swallowed it.
Did he have one already recently?
His mind felt foggy- no, not foggy- his brain felt like the screeching of the highest note on the violin.
A feeling like a sound.
His head hurt badly, the only thing calming him was that he knew the pills would set in extremely quickly.
"I, uh-" Thankfully the Phone-headed man didn't have much of an issue with the tone of the guy, probably because he had his marbles together and didn't imagine some sort of ill-intended in it. "Still got to- uh- figure that one out. We'll find something soon, for sure, we... we only have to look around for a bit."
The first sunrays managed to break through the wooden area, creeping up in spots along the walls. Noticeably the animatronics retreated from the room, prompting Ethan to stand up. They avoided looking at the frame from which the light poured in, it probably hurt their sensitive mechanical eyes.
Without any further acknowledgement of the two humans, the detective walked towards the robots, planning on finding a place where they could rest properly again.
Softly breathing out the more aggressive of the two leaned back, feeling not happy with the situation. "We're really doing this? A-fucking-gain?"
"Do we have any choice?" Looking equally as miserable, Simon inched closer to the table, to rest his arms on it. "... they will go up against each other and if you, uh- ask me, that detective can use all help he can get. One of them is going to end up, uh- well- winning. If Dave wins this time again, he will even BETTER prepared for the next, uh- you know. Sooner or later he will come after us, Mike. You know that, I know that, we-"
Breaking off he stared into the dark color of the table, not actually seeing it.
This was a disaster, but all in Freddy's was-
W-
Wait?
The tips of fingers had touched his and he snapped up to check if it actually was what it had to be-
Red in the face and facing away as if he could somehow pretend to not being doing it on purpose, Mike had bit by bit slid his hand closer, now they were touching.
Unsure of what to say or do, Simon simply watched him, which slowed him down, yet did not make him stop. His cold fingertips were followed by the much warmer rest of the hand, until their hands were laying on another.
With a small bit of force Mike pushed his fingers apart until he could intertwine them.
The guy's expression still was obscured, as he looked into the other direction, his voices sounded hoarse and incredibly determined.
"if we do it together, we will get through this."
Phone Guy's breath stopped, weirdly enough.
It was so odd-
He had a hundred other things to think about, yet this managed to blast aside all his fears.
And so he smiled a smile only Mike would be able to see.
When Mike felt Simon retracting his hand, he cursed himself.
OF COURSE THIS HAD BEEN THE WORST FUCKING MOMENT.
OF FUCKING COURSE!
WHAT DID HE FUCKING THINK?!
THAT NOW GETTING ALL MUSHY AND TOUCHY WOULD BE IN ANY WAY APPRECIAT-
Then he realized that Simon hadn't actually fully retracted his hand, only so far that he could turn it around and was now sliding back into position, tightly squeezing his.
"I believe you."
His heart hurt almost in his chest, it pumped so fast, his face burned and prickled. Quickly he glanced at the Phone and knew he never had seen him so at peace before.
... Simon trusted him and he would do whatever it took to make good on his words.
Together they sat like that, looking towards the rising sun.
The same sun that also shined onto another apartment with a very different duo.
Jeremy hadn't slept, not in this night.
Unlike his companion, he barely had exhausted himself after all- a fact that made him a little guilty, but he knew that not everybody was cut out for everything... it was much better that he did what he actually could.
As the first rays of the sun hit him, he was almost finished stitching the cloth back together.
Why, look at it, you could barely see the part is had gotten damaged!
The mechanics inside he wasn't able to do a LOT for, but he had tried to bend things back in shape with whatever tools he could find around and used glue on all places he could.
Now he kept the animatronic on his lap, carefully holding it so it wouldn't be haunted by potential nightmares.
The sun kept creeping over the horizon, until finally the whole room was filled with light.
That and the fact that there was no music reassuring him, quickly resulted in the animatronic waking up.
Naturally this resulted in the Puppet floating upwards, protectively wrapping itself around Jeremy, while looking around, as if expecting one of the animatronics to have followed them home.
Calmly Jeremy smiled as he waited for his friend to reassure himself that there was no danger around, before gently tugging him down and hugging him.
"Thank you for protecting us."
For a moment the Marionette froze up, then sighed and hugged him back, a sensation that somehow, despite everything, felt unfamiliar to him- the act of hugging made him feel so... vulnerable. Being unable to freely use your arms...
"You said that yesterday already. Three times." Softly he petted over the boy's soft hair. "... this is partially my fault."
"No, it isn't! You're just- you know what, let's not focus on that for now, you won't listen anyways- the kids are still with us!" Excited Jeremy let go of the spirit, looking at him. "You know what that means! We can tell them goodbye, Marion! Ah- what am I saying!? We can bring them proper peace now! Maybe even get their families- or- well, maybe they wouldn't want that because it's been so long- the point is that we can do it RIGHT this time!"
Irritated the machine kept petting over him, not really understanding his unbroken optimism.
"They would have been at least finally done if they were burned..."
"But it wouldn't have been right." Said with a certainty only people who have no idea what they are talking about could have. "They deserve better. Something kept them here in the first place and I don't think a nice bonfire would have solved that anyways, even if they would have been forced to move on!"
Bonfire.
That was one way of describing a whole restaurant burning to the ground in a storm of howling flames.
"Fire brings rest. Cleansing one's self." Or something like that, the Puppet never had figured out how it worked. All he knew was that fire made pretty much everyone lose their grip on this reality.
"So does happiness!" Looking up at him with a confident smile, Jerry put his hands onto his hips, in an energetic move. "And happiness is the better way!"
"I suppose...?" Unsure Marion agreed, hoping that his friend wouldn't get any stupid ideas from that.
"See! And now we can give them what they deserve!" Excited the boy started pacing around. "Now, we will have to talk to them though and find out what they want!"
"... I don't think it will be that easy."
Firstly, because the kids didn't seem all that fond of their former leader, even if he couldn't fully blame them for that. Secondly, even if they were, they struck Marion as... not quite there. Their bodies had been damaged a lot and to resist the fire they had molten deeper into the metal, strengthening their attachment to a point they almost forgot their former self.
He'd rather cut off his metaphorical tongue than to tell Jerry that.
Naturally, the kid instantly pushed for the reason. "Why not? Mike calmed them, they looked fine!"
"MIKE? Mike didn't do shit, it was-" Shortly he broke off. "Fredbear. My friend. He calmed them and you can thank the universe that he was there, otherwise... we would have had more issues."
"Fredbear?" Surprised Jerry stared at the animatronic, trying to take in the implication of this new information.
A lot seemingly went through his mind, his face turned from one, into two question marks, even THREE, until suddenly it turned into three exclamation points and he looked up at the animatronic again. "Does that mean you could possess me?"
It took him aback that this was the first thing Jerry had wanted to know, but slowly he shook his head. Hot shame filled his non-existent stomach and quietly he reminded the boy. "I already did, once."
"Really?! When? What did you do?"
"... when Freddy's burned down..."
Pausing to think, Jeremy tried to recount the event.
There wasn't much aside from Marion's screaming and crying.
"... okay- I don't remember much of it- I blacked out...? It's a bit fuzzy, I think- ah, never mind, you made me black out?" Nodding to himself, seemingly this made a whole lot of sense now to him. "Does that mean- you can use me to walk around outside and talk to people?"
The way he said it sounded creepily enthusiastic.
"Not... quite. For one, I need to be close. Also, you would have to bleed."
"Why?"
Good question.
"I-" Confused he shook himself. "It is an access point for me. The body is... akin to a thick shell. Blood makes it easier to get a grip, as long as it is connected to the flow still."
"But Mike wasn't bleeding." What a fucking CLEVER BOY, MY GOD, HE IS SUCH A SMALL EINSTEIN-
"Fredbear doesn't work like me. He doesn't need the blood."
"Because he's stronger?"
Another good question.
A bit stung he nodded. "Partially. But, he also... his spirit... he isn't... he's is a bit different..."
Dread.
Cold, dead dread, it still overtook him, despite it being years.
Uncomfortable he changed the topic. "I wouldn't want to take you over Jerry. Why, if I could simply ask you to help?"
... yeah and when he wasn't willing to help, then...
Today was heavy with guilt.
The kids hated him.
... but he did what he thought was best for them, right?
He did the only right thing.
Clutching his claws, he focused on Jeremy's trustful voice to forget about the issue.
"Fair enough, that makes sense... it's good to know though, in case you ever need to talk to someone in person without letting them know it's you!"
Oh, so willing to give up his bodily autonomy to help out.
... why.
Once more he carefully petted him. "Thank you, Jeremy. Also- thank you repairing me."
"Oh, I barely did anything, don't worry! We should probably have you looked over properly at some point though."
Yeah. No.
"I do not think that will be necessary." Uncomfortable the Marionette stretched his arms, then floated away, bringing some more distance between him and his human companion. His voice had a far more serious and grave tint. "Alright, Fitzgerald. You want to save some kids, don't you? We tried the easy route, it didn't work. Now we will try the hard route."
Excited Jerry's faced turned into two exclamation marks again and he saluted. "Yessir!"
"There will be trouble on the way, you understand that, don't you?"
"Yessir!"
"There is a potential for them to lash out."
"Many hurt people do! That doesn't mean they are not worthy of help!"
A small pause ensued as Marion wasn't quite certain to ask the final question.
"They might ask you to kill."
"... and I will teach them that revenge never bring happiness. You can't get back what has been taken from you this way."
The Marionette couldn't respond.
Jeremy just smiled.
Finally, he snapped out of it. "Well then. We better prepare for our round two with the robots."
"What... about work?" Hesitant Jerry reminded him.
"Listen, do you want to help or no? I need your focus here!"
Demanding asshole.
"Alright, fine! I will focus!" Jerry nodded. "I still have an off day anyw-"
A giant yawn interrupted him.
Bingo.
Marion grabbed him and pushed him into bed. "To have enough focus, you need to be rested, so let's start with that."
There was only light pushback, because if Jerry liked it or not, his body was still human and still demanded to be taken care of to some degree.
When he finally laid in bed and listened to the Marionette's quiet humming to help him sleep, he hoped he wasn't all that missed at work. Taking a day off during the approaching weekend? Pretty bad.
Usually people didn't tend to notice his absence though.
Maybe he was lucky.
For a while he pondered what the others could be doing right now.
Probably something important.
Maybe they were already in the restaurant, planning on how to best help the robots!
Dave and Old Sport could be repairing them right this instant!
Oh, how he would love to be there.
At least listen into what they were talking about right now...
... they would explain everything he missed to him though, if he asked nicely, right?
Oh.
Sweet, stupid Jeremy.
The actual current happenings were not so... productive.
"... and that's why grapefruit are like the rude, entitled grandpas of the fruit world. Like GEEZ, why so fucking bitter? Your grandkids stopped visiting you for a reason you old raisin!"
Deeply interested Dave nodded at the elucidation of the angsty teen. "Yeah, I get it. But Imma tell ya, I like grapefruits! They're pink 'n pretty!"
"Yeah, until they're like- not? They're more red than pink. Also, pink is the WORST color. Literal bitch color." Scoffing the teen shook his head.
With a smile Dave extended his neck towards him. "Say that again and I will cut open you stomach and pump it full of pink glitter until you die a slow and agonizing death."
Unimpressed the teen stared back. "Understandable, have a nice day."
They both looked up as Old Sport returned from the door he had been standing at, looking out.
"And? Ya see 'em?"
"No one in sight." Dissatisfied the Orange Guy sat down besides Dave, his pupils flickering an almost unnoticeable bit. "... what are they doing...?"
In an attempt to calm his friend down, Dave inched closer and put an arm around him. The guy tensed up, but did not fully refuse him, a relief to the Purple Guy.
"Ay. Phoney can't be far, ya know that. And even if they ran off, where's the big deal?"
"The big deal, Dave-" The words were snarky and the word Dave had an especially harsh emphasis "- is that I do not WANT them to run off. They get to leave when we tell them to. If they actually ran off, I swear to god, I will come for them."
Unnerved Dave shifted, but to his credit, he didn't even think about removing his arm. "Won't be a big deal, will it? Hell, if we wanted to, we could ask the factory to do all the leg work!"
"It is DISRESPECTFUL and it ANNOYS me."
Amused the teenager looked at him. "Would've expected you at this point to be used to disrespect. You look like a clown. You look like a shriveled up orange peel someone hid in someone else's bag to prank them and attract flies. You look-"
"Shut your fucking mouth right now." Surprisingly- or maybe not- it was Dave who freaked out.
Irritated Nemo glanced at him, then shook his head. "Yeah. Love people who can take some teasing. Best people."
Then he left, knowing he wasn't really welcome, not anymore.
Looking after him, Old Sport showed teeth, and not in a friendly way. "If we didn't have bigger issues, I would go and teach him a lesson."
Finally being unable to take the anger radiating from his friend, Dave leaned in and hugged him tightly. "A-are ya alright, Sportsy? Really, it ain't like ya to get all worked up about somethin' like that. We both know he's gotta come back. Why are ya so angry?"
"... not like me, huh?" At first he had tensed up even MORE his fingers twitching, but with a sigh he finally relaxed and hugged Dave back, burrowing his face in his friend's shoulder.
This simply gesture was already enough to send sparks though the guy. "Doin' better?"
"... somewhat. You're right. They will be back." Gently he sighed, before sitting up again and pushing Dave away, his tone becoming harder again. "But then we will have to find out what they were planning, understood?"
"Sure thing, Sportsy! But for today, let's do somethin' to piss Phoney off when he comes back! He's gonna regret leavin' us like this!" Motivated the Purple Psycho jumped up. "I say, we make every button in the place make a rubber-duck sound, what'cha think?"
"Rubber-duck, PLUS activating the cat alarm!"
"Deal!"
With that they stormed off.

-

A/N:
Gotta... do more Davesport focused action dammit.
Why am I such a bad shipper!?
They're important doods.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed!