Dark clouds gathered over the pizzeria. The sky trembled as rain poured down from above; the lights inside and outside the establishment flickered as lightning lit up the sky. Deep within the pizzeria, up in the security guards’ station, three men and a woman gathered around their coworker, trying to offer him comfort.
“You have to be strong for her now, Mackey,” one of the men said gently, “I know losing Didi is rough, but you can’t afford to mope. Now that you have a child, you will have to be the strong one… for her… for yourself.” “For Mildred.” The woman added, “She’s only a baby and, with her mother gone… I guess you’ll be filling both roles for a while.”
“Why not get the gang to help?” the second man said, “I mean, they literally exist to take care of and entertain children.” “Yeah, but not infants.” The third man scoffed, “I doubt even Chica, as gentle as she is, could be trusted with a newborn.”
“I wonder how they’re taking it. Didi’s death,” the first man sighed, “Gotta be rough on them.” “I just got done talking to the bots.” A voice groaned; the group turned as a second woman entered the guards’ station, “They’re all taking it pretty hard; even the puppet won’t come out of his box.” The first woman sighed, taking off her cap and running her fingers through her hair before putting it back on, saying, “What about the fox? How is he, you know… holding up?”
“Foxy will be fine,” Mackey said with a heavy sigh, “The old salt’s got other things to worry about right now, anyway. Like his most recent trip to the repair center. I heard that his right optical unit malfunctioned. Apparently it’s functioning just fine now, more or less. It’s just… the color’s changed and nobody knows why.”
“And you don’t think you should maybe, check up on that?” the first man asked, “Isn’t keeping these hunks of metal and fluff operational kind of your prime directive here?” “Yeah, come on, Mackey. Be nice.” The one woman said, “You know how Fox felt about Didi. I doubt the old guy’s going to be ‘fine’… not for a while yet, anyway. Just give the poor creature time to grieve.”
“Grieve? What do you mean grieve?” the third man scoffed, “It’s a robot, just a machine, just like all of the others. They don’t even know what the word ‘grief’ means.” “You’re wrong about that,” Mackey said, shaking his head, “None of them are just robots. These guys… they’re so much more than just machines. And none of them knows grief more than the fox… trust me on that one.”
“What’re we gonna do, Freddy?” Chica drawled, “Without Didi, we got no advocate; we’re as good as cannon fodder now.” “Don’t talk like that, Chica.” Freddy pleaded, “We’ve still got Mackey on our side. He knows how much Didi cared for all of us. No way he’d allow us to be left to rot like our predecessors. I trust him. We’ll be well cared for; I just know it.”
“Yeah, but can we really trust Fazbear Entertainment to take good care of all of us?” Bonnie asked, “You know what I mean, Freddy, and don’t even try to pretend like you don’t. If any of us gets banged up bad, we’re brought straight in for stitches, soldering, whatever we need. That security… puppet… thing is too floppy to really get hurt, and Mr. Cupcake is little more than a prop. Uh, no offense.”
“Some taken.” Chica huffed as her little companion let out a hiss. “But, Bon’s got a point. Didi was the only one making sure we all got equal treatment by the maintenance folks. It was one of her conditions for working with the company in the first place. Now that she’s gone… I’m scared, Freddy. I’m scared and y’all know I don’t scare easy.”
“I’m not. Well, not for us, anyway.” Bonnie chuffed. “I understand what you’re saying, guys.” Freddy nodded. “Right now, we should try not to dwell on what might be and tend to what we know is. Didi is gone, and she’s left behind a child, one that is going to need our support and guidance at some point down the line. That goes for all of us.” “Yeah, we know.” Bonnie sighed. “But… what about Foxy?” Chica asked, “Do ya think he’s… gonna be okay?”
“I’m… not sure, Chica.” Freddy sighed. “I think Foxy… just needs a little time.” “Time that we do not have,” a voice droned; the four bots turned to see a face glaring down at them through the curtain. The security bot slinked onto the stage, sneaking over to where the trio were standing and said in a droning robotic voice, “With Didi gone, it will be up to us to protect this place. To keep it safe until her young one is ready and able to take over her mother’s position.”
“Yeah, we know that, you plonker.” Bonnie groaned, “What’re you doing out of your crate, anyway? Shouldn’t you be back there watching over the Prize Corner?” “Unlike you, I have other duties to attend to besides entertaining rowdy children.” the robot sassed, “Shouldn’t you three be at your stations by now?”
Bonnie’s ears twitched in irritation as he crossed his arms, stomping his foot before grabbing his bass and heading over to his spot on the right-hand side of the stage. The puppet made a noise that almost sounded like a chuckle before turning and making his way across the backstage area.
“W-where are you goin’?” Chica called as she snagged Mr. Cupcake’s platter, “The Prize Corner is that-a way.” The puppet said nothing as he slipped past the curtain, earning a flustered groan from the animatronic avian, “Ugh, I never did like that freaky thing. Lord only knows why Didi built it in the first place.”
“Now, you don’t mean that.” Freddy sighed, “Let him go, Chica; we’ve got other things to worry about right now. Not to mention a show to do.” Chica rolled her eyes and helped Mr. Cupcake onto his platter before sashaying over to her spot near the left-hand side of the stage, letting out a huff as Bonnie turned her way and gave a teasing wink and a kissing noise.
“Knock it off, Bonnie. I’m not in the mood.” Chica hissed. “Oh, give over.” Bonnie sassed. “Behave, you two.” Freddy said as he took his spot between them, flinching as Chica shouted, “He started it!” “Bollocks.” Bonnie huffed. “Enough! Both of you.” Freddy snapped. Bonnie and Chica both let out a grumble as they turned away from each other, getting into position as the ‘showtime’ sign down in the prompt box lit up. Freddy groaned, rubbing his face and shaking his head as he said, “Oh boy… something tells me this is going to be a long night. A very long night.”
As the band got ready for the curtain to rise and the music to start, a mismatched pair of eyes watched from the shadows, eyeing the band with frustration and envy. “I fail to see what good staring at them will do, Captain.” Mackey sighed. “Certainly won’t get you back on your own stage any faster.” Foxy let out a growl, flipping his eyepatch back down over his right eye and growled. “Awa n bile yer heid.” Foxy snapped, “Ah’m no up to talking to onybody, so why deh ye do us both a favor and bolt.”
“Drop the jargon, would ya?” Mackey groaned, “You keep talking like that and the next time you go in for maintenance they might go poking around in your CPU. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to have your linguistics tweaked.” “Shut yer gob!” Foxy barked, “Ye deh know whit Ah’ve lost… whit we have lost. Ah’d sooner be three sheets to the wind than stuck in this… this hell! Whit nothing to look forward to but waiting fer my warranty to expire. Ah am just… Ah am tired, matey. Ah am well and truly knackered. Not to mention screwed!”
Mackey sighed, shaking his head as Foxy galloped past him, scampering behind a set of hospital curtains. “Foxy, please. I do understand where you’re coming from. I… miss her, too. But, I promise you, I’m not going to let you fall to scrap.” “Ah ken,” Foxy sighed, “But, yer just wan lowly employee… Fazbear dennae give two shites aboot ye or me. Whit makes ye think ye alone can keep me in wan piece… ‘specially now that ye have a wee bairn to take care of?”
“I’m not sure,” Mackey sighed, “But I’ll figure it out. You and I both know that Didi would never forgive me if I didn’t do all I could to keep you from rusting away. I promise you, McPherson… you’ll be alright.” As Mackey turned and walked out of Pirates’ Cove, Foxy huffed, growling softly as he glared at the man through his one eye and said, “We’ll see, Mackey… we’ll see. Ah just hope that ye’ll be able to keep yer wean safe from… them. Fer all our sakes. And if ye can’t… than Ah will.”
