"Welcome back to another pivotal night of your thriving new career, where you get to ask yourself: 'What am I doing with my life?', 'What would my friends say?', and most importantly: 'Will I ever see my family again?'."

Well, this is exactly what I wanna hear as I go into work. 

"We understand the stresses of a new job, and we're here for you. To help you reach a more stable and relaxing frame of mind, we offer several musical selections to help make this elevator ride as relaxing and therapeutic as possible. We offer contemporary jazz, classical, rainforest ambiance, as well as a wide selection of other choices."

Hm. This oughta be fun.

"Using the keypad below, please type the first few letters of the musical selection you would prefer."

As the keypad appeared in front of me, I rolled my eyes, knowing full well I wasn't going to get what I wanted; however, that didn't stop me from attempting to type out "Rainforest".

"It seems you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will auto correct it for you. Thank you for selecting: Casual Bongos."

Huh. Not as bad as I was expecting.

As the music played in the elevator, I sat there and thought about my current situation. When I came into work that night, I went up to Tyler and asked him about his grandfather. 

"You said he designed all the animatronics ever made in the Fazbear line, right?" I asked.

"Yes, that's correct," he replied with a proud smile. "Ol' Gramps knew what he was doing. His designs were very innovative for their time, and they still are!"

"That's another thing I wanna ask: these animatronics you're using now, the ones in the Circus Baby Gang? Are they they new designs or...?"

"Well...maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but we kinda recycled some of Grandpa's old blueprints before he passed."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"Well, since Circus Baby and the gang never really got their proper debut, his last wish before his untimely death last year was to have them properly introduced to the public using the same design as they had back at their original conception!"

"Everything is the same?"

"Well, their voice lines have been upgraded to be a bit more modern, but other than that? Yes, they're the same exact design. Gosh, even today they're still innovative! He really was something special, wasn't he?"

"Yes, I guess he was. Well, I better start my shift, then."

"Very good. Have a good night, Ms. White."

"You too, Mr. Afton."

You know, it's weird to think about how even after several decades after their original creation, these animatronics I'm caring for are still incredibly advanced. I guess Tyler was right: William Afton was a true genius ahead of his time. I wonder what he could've accomplished if he pursued a career other than animatronic entertainment.

"Now that your elevator experience has been customized to your needs and you're thoroughly relaxed," HandUnit suddenly announced, "it's worth mentioning that due to your lackluster performance yesterday, your pay has been decreased by a substantial amount."

Excuse me???

"Please enjoy the rest of your descent."

Tyler, you son of a bitch! Is this your way of punishing me for my meltdown after my shift yesterday?? And this "raise" you mentioned was just the way to get my normal pay??

Before I could think too hard on the subject, the elevator stopped and the red button started flashing. Good timing; I was about to choke a bitch. If, you know, there was a bitch to choke in the immediate area.

I pressed the button, exited the elevator, and began crawling through the vent.

"Due to unforeseen malfunctions from today's shows, your nightly duties will require you to perform maintenance that you may or may not be skilled enough to perform."

Well, I'm generally very good with robotics, so we'll see what you've got, Handy.

"It became necessary for technicians to attempt to disconnect Funtime Freddy's power module; however, they were unsuccessful. Allowing them to try again would be an inefficient path forward, as we would need to allow six to eight weeks for recovery and physical therapy."

I stopped crawling and let what he just told me sink in. This could require six to eight weeks of physical therapy?? It can't be THAT hard to remove a power module...can it? Anyway, I then crawled the rest of the way through the vent and back in the primary control module.

"You will need to reach the Parts and Service room on the other side of Funtime Auditorium to perform the procedure yourself. Let's check on Ballora, first, and make sure she's on her stage."

You're the boss.

I walked to the left side of the room and pressed the light button. When I did, I was greeted with a confusing sight. 

Ballora was definitely on her stage...I think. Her head, legs, and torso were all separated and were each being held by one of the smaller ballerinas on stage! Was I just tripping, or was Ballora torn apart??

"Great! It looks like everything is as it should be in Ballora Gallery!"

Whatever you say, dude...

"Let's check on Funtime Foxy. It's important to make sure she's on her stage before entering."

Wait; didn't he say that Funtime Foxy was a "he" yesterday? Eh, whatever.

I pressed the light button on the right side of the room and immediately noticed that the stage was empty. Oh, no...

"Great! It looks like everything is as it should be in Funtime Auditorium!"

Uh...no it's not! I tried pressing the red 'controlled shock' button, but it wouldn't press or do anything! Well, this is just perfect...

"There is no need to check on Baby tonight. Please refrain from entering unauthorized areas. Proceed directly to Funtime Auditorium."

I sighed as I bent down to look at the vent that would lead me to the Funtime Auditorium. I then slowly turned towards the vent that led to Baby. Part of me wanted to just get my nightly chores over with, yet a part of me was curious...

If these robots truly have sentience, then the only animatronic that truly and properly seems to have any knowledge of what's going on here is Circus Baby. As crazy as it sounds, maybe I can get some information from her if she's active. 

I then quietly whispered "screw it" to myself and dashed towards Circus Baby's vent. I quickly crawled though, hoping I don't get punished for this. The last thing I need is another dock in pay. 

After reaching the other side of the vent, I entered the room and saw it was just as dark as it was yesterday, as if the power was never restored. Maybe because there was no need to check on Baby, they didn't power up the place. Huh. Maybe I was just wasting my time. I then turned around to head back towards the vent.

"Did you know that I was on stage once?"

I jumped up in surprise as I heard that familiar female voice. I turned around and saw nobody there, which was honestly to be expected.

"It wasn't for very long; only one day...what a wonderful day, though!"

Man, I felt crazy, but if my theory on the intelligence of these machines was accurate, I needed to prove it.

"What happened on that wonderful day?" I asked into the darkness.

There was silence at first. I thought I had wasted by breath. Then, it happened: a response.

"I was in a small room with balloons and tables. No one sat at the tables, though...but children would run in and out! Some were afraid of me...others enjoyed my songs! Music was always coming from somewhere else...down a hall..."

I was flabbergasted, to say the least. Either that was the world's greatest coincidence, or Baby actually understood me and replied to my question! Was I actually right about these robots?

"I would always count the children. I'm not sure why... I was always acutely aware of how many there were in the room with me. 2, then 3, then 2, then 3, then 4, then 2, then none. They usually played together in groups of 2 or 3."

What an odd feature...it sounds like she was programmed to keep count of the amount of children in her presence. Was that some sort of surveillance feature to make sure no child was lost or something?

"I was covered in glitter," Baby continued in a joyful, reminiscent tone. "I smelled like birthday cake. There were 2, then 3, then 5, then 4..."

"You must have a really good memory," I told the voice. I then instantly felt stupid; she's a a robot! They stereotypically have the best memories in existence!

"I know I do. I can also do something special; did you know that?"

"Maybe. What can you do?"

"I can make ice cream! Although I only did it once...there were 4, then 3, then 2, then...1."

The way she said "one" made me feel a bit uneasy.

"Something happened when there was 1...a little girl, standing by herself...I was no longer...myself. And I stopped singing. My stomach opened, and there was ice cream."

This wasn't sounding too 'wonderful'...

"I couldn't move. At least, not until she stepped closer...there was screaming for a moment, but only for a moment. Then other children rushed in again, but they couldn't hear her over the sounds of their own excitement."

My breathing was starting to get a little heavier as she continued her story. If I wasn't mistaken, I'd say she just described a terrible, terrible event. And it had something to do with her programming, I'm sure of it.

"I still hear her sometimes...why did that happen?"

That last question...she didn't sound like she was asking it regretfully; she sounded sincerely curious as to why it happened, as if she had no clue.

"I don't know," I admitted to her, "but I promise you I'll see if I can figure it out."

"Really? Thank you."

"You're welcome. Well, I better get back to work."

"Very well, then. Goodbye."

Without hesitation, I crawled back through the vent so I could get as far from her as possible. Part of me was freaked out at what I just experienced, but another part of me was curious about that robot's code and why she did what she did. Perhaps a bit more research should be made into Circus Baby...

But for now, I gotta fix Funtime Freddy.