It was just like any other night when the Diner closed and one by one all the other employees eventually left. Between Steven, Henry, and William saying goodbye, only Davon Miller stayed behind to keep an eye on things. He'd act like a zombie before 3 pm but he'd usually show up around 5 and come to life just after 7 pm. He'd stay until 7 am where he would then leave and head off to bed as Steve took over for the day shift.

He waved Henry off for the night before locking the main entrance behind him and turned to glance over at the two animatronics on stage. Spring Bonnie was once again facing Fredbear with his ears slightly curled forward to show that it was in a relaxed mood. Fredbear had his ears pinned forward and blue eyes lit up with a gaping and soundless mouth. This was the second time that Dave had seen behaviour like this between the two robots. Only that one time when they had all been over here before the trial had started - a few days after the accident - had they all seen this interaction.
Henry had checked Fredbear's systems daily and insisted that there were no bugs clinging to the system. There couldn't be - Fredbear was an animatronic that ran on a charging cable, it had no access to anything outside of its optics and voice box. The microphone and guitar were detachable as well as its hat. The giant, light-brown bear had nothing that could interfere with its mainframe.

Except Bonnie.

The tall, golden rabbit could repair Fredbear via voice command if it was needed and it could even move the giant bear physically. Bonnie was wired up to some kind of artificial intelligence, Dave had been told, however, that AI had seemingly been short-circuited. So whilst Bonnie was far more capable than his counterpart, he too had no access to any interference such as communications, radio, or the internet. The two robots were completely cut off from all other forms of technology and they were cut off from themselves as well.

But.

Dave was beginning to theorize that Bonnie's AI was somehow sentient. Henry had laughed it off and William had outright admitted it to him. That yes, Bonnie could learn. He could learn to read faces and respond accordingly in almost any given situation. That's why William trusted the damn thing because it knew how to behave and it could learn by watching the employees and children.

It creeped Dave out to know just how self-aware the technology inside a furry, mechanical rabbit could be and if at any given moment it could turn on them. William had scoffed at the paranoid man and stated that he had just been watching far too many sci-fi films. Perhaps he had allowed his mind to wander just a bit with such nonsense but in the dark of night and in the loneliness of the security office, Dave spent his nights watching Bonnie and he could tell when something felt off.

He let the two massive animatronics be for now as he scouted the building to double-check that all the doors were locked and tripped with loud fire alarms. He made sure to bolt tightly every window that faced the outside world and tonight - he glanced warily at some of the vents before he walked himself back to the lobby area where the stage was.

"Boys?" He called out as he saw that the curtains had drawn themselves shut.

Dave warily climbed the set of small stairs on the side and walked behind the curtain.

"Fredbear needz to be charged." He could hear Bonnie respond to him.

"Alright," Dave called out as his eyes scanned the shadows. "I'll meet you at Parts 'n Service."

There was no vocal response from Bonnie but he turned in the direction of heavy, mechanical footsteps as he heard them slowly move off to that room. Dave then returned to the reception desk and killed the main lighting of the Diner. It soon went pitch black with distant street lights twinkling out on the main road like small stars. He inhaled softly as he grabbed his flashlight and clicked it on.

He headed at a casual pace back down the hallway so as to not disturb or startle the animatronics if they heard him running. Dave did feel slightly safer when he was with them - they'd crush anyone's bones if someone broke in to harm him, them, or trash the place. That wasn't to say that they were inherently violent - they were remarkably tame and mostly calm. They knew how big they were and had been programmed with gentle touches so as to not hurt the children or break anything that they interacted with.

Dave eventually made it to the back room and grunted as he pushed the door open. This room was always eerily dark and he did not like it. But it was one of the most important rooms in the entire building due to the fact that the animatronics needed their "health" checked daily. Henry's words, not his.

He sighed as he shone the flashlight over Fredbear who was sitting in the corner with his mouth open and he was sitting on his bottom with his limbs lifelessly splayed out.

"What?" Dave frowned as he stepped closer to investigate.
Fredbear shouldn't have shut down like this. He couldn't - not without Henry or William telling him to.

"His spring locks are open!" Dave screeched as he realised that there were no eyeballs in the suit's empty, black eye sockets.

"What?" Dave nearly jumped out of his skin as he heard a voice behind him and rapidly spun on his heel.

His light washed over Spring Bonnie and Fredbear who were staring at him with blank expressions. Spring Bonnie was noticeably massive when Dave was up this close but he could just see past him to realise that Fredbear was standing behind the rabbit. The bear's blue eyes were still inside their sockets and now that he had a good look at him, Dave realised that this Fredbear was a brown colour.

"Wait." Dave quickly turned around to face the other bear but when he did, it was gone. There was no bear sitting lifelessly in the corner of the room and Dave widened his eyes in shock.

"Fffredbear i-i-i-z right here!" Bonnie piped up and loosened his jaw to grin as he gestured behind him.

"I... Did you see that?" Dave craned his neck to glance at the two robots standing behind him. "There was another bear."

"What bear?"

"There's two bears!" Dave scanned the entire room with his flashlight as his heart skipped a beat when he found nothing. "Bonnie, there were two bears!"

Bonnie slowly closed its jaw as its green eyes carefully looked around the room to see for itself. There was a tense moment of silence before it eventually responded: "I do-do-don't see anything."

"Watch out there, pal!" Fredbear responded in one of his generated lines. "You could have ran into somebody!"

"I almost did!" Dave huffed as he stepped away from them. "I'm going to call Henry. This place is starting to freak me out."

Bonnie slowly tilted its head to look down at Dave as it lowered its ears to appear to him as non-aggressive. "I will take care of Fffredbear."

"Yeah, fine. Just don't mess with any of his programming. You know Henry won't be happy if you change anything." Dave gave the mechanical rabbit a stern look.

Bonnie gave a nod and soon shuffled out of Dave's way as the night guard soon stormed out of the room. He risked a wary glance over his shoulder back at Fredbear who was staring right at him up until Dave entered the security office to access the twenty-four-hour phone. He had memorised William and Henry's numbers respectively but since this was Fredbear and Dave was nervous, he decided that it was Henry's problem for the evening.

"Emily." Henry's tired voice answered after the fourth ring and Dave almost felt guilty as he checked the time.

"Hey, Boss, it's me, Dave. I... I'm sorry that I called you, I am but I really need you to come down to the Diner."

"What's wrong?" Henry yawned.

"Its... I saw two Fredbears. An' I know you're gonna ask if I have been smokin' again 'n I assure you, Boss - I swear it - I haven't. You know I ain't drunk, either."

"Two Fredbears?" There was a pause. "You sure it wasn't just Bonnie standin' next to him?"

"Yes! An' I'll tell you how I know somethin's not right - the thing I saw - Henry, its spring locks were open."

There was an even longer pause before Henry asked him to repeat what he just said.

"The spring locks were open. I mean, its eyes - there were no eyes in its head. It wasn't standing, either. It looked lifeless."

"What colour was it?"

"Like... I only saw it for a moment but I think it was either brown or golden."

"An' you saw it where?"

"Parts 'n Service."

"Alright," Henry grunted. "Call William. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Are you sure? What if he-"

"He knows. Trust me, Dave, he'll want to hear this for himself in person."

Dave nodded and soon let Henry go to call William Afton and inform him.

"You said that it was yellow?" William asked when he turned to see Dave standing at the entrance to the Diner.

"I think," Dave frowned. "I only saw it for a moment an' when I turned around, it was gone."

William then turned his head to look at Henry with slight worry in his blue eyes. Henry shook his head with a small blink and waved them off.

"Dave's just probably very tired." Henry quietly muttered as he stood outside the Diner next to his friend.
They watched as Dave got into his brother's van and the Miller boys soon drove off as the rain began to flutter gently down.

"He said that he saw a lifeless, yellow bear in the service room, Henry." William hugged himself tighter as a wind picked up and harshly nipped at them. "There's only one thing that comes to mind when I hear something like that."

"If he saw the suit here of all places, then who put it here?"

"I didn't. I took those suits home and then dropped yours off in March 1982. You remember that? Bella answered an' you weren't home so she told me to just leave it in the shed out back."

Henry hummed as he nodded before he turned and carefully held the door open for William. The two headed inside as Henry relocked the entry door after them before he turned and sighed, watching as William switched the main lighting back on. The Diner was brought back to life as light flickered on throughout the halls and rooms.

"Bonnie!" William called out as he came around the reception desk.

"I guess I should call mine?" Henry glanced at him.

"Not yet, he's probably still charging."

They lifted their heads as they soon heard the metallic, heavy thud of Spring Bonnie's footfalls. As the golden animatronic rounded the corner, its face lit up upon seeing them.

"William!" Bonnie's artificial eyelids narrowed and its ears folded forward to express joy.

"Hey, buddy." William smiled and soon walked over to greet the rabbit as Henry checked outside before following after him.

"Dave gave us a call and said that he saw something in the back room. Did you see what it was?" William pointed at Bonnie with a raised brow.

The rabbit slowly shook its head from side to side. "No. That room waz-z-z empty when we arrived."

William nodded. "Is Fredbear charging?"

"Yes."

"Can we see him?"

"Yes!" Bonnie nodded hurriedly. "Iz he not your fffriend?"

William looked over at Henry who gave a tired smile. "He is - an' we're just worried about him. Dave said that he saw somethin'."

"Another Fredbear?" Bonnie asked as it raised a brow to copy William's suspicion.

"Yes." William nodded with his hands on his hips. "Bonnie, there is something that we need to tell the both of you but only if Fredbear is alright and only if you are not lying to me."

"Ok." The rabbit nodded and soon turned to walk back down the hall that it had emerged from a few moments ago.

The two men soon followed after with a quiet look shared between them. As they stepped inside the room, William squinted against the dim, flickering light to try and make out for himself what exactly could be seen in this room.

"You didn't check the shed before you left, did you?" He asked Henry.

"No." His friend sighed and bowed his head. "I thought you still had it. I could call Bella?"

"No." William shook his head. "Best not to worry her about such little, silly things. She'll probably start seeing it in her nightmares if you do tell her."

Henry scoffed and shook his head before he looked around as well.

Bonnie was standing over Fredbear as the other sat on the floor with his ears pinned forward but his eyes unseeing. His own head was bowed but Henry and William could still see his baby blue eyes and could clearly make out the shade of brown that was his fur.

"He-He-He-Henry and William have arrived." Bonnie bent slightly over Fredbear to check on him as he informed the mechanical teddy bear. "They were worried about you."

"I am alright, szu-szu-uperstar!" The bear lifted its head to grin at the rabbit before it turned its gaze on them.

"Charge's at 78%," Henry told William as he came over to check behind the bear's head. "He's probably been here since Dave called."

William gave a nod before he turned to Bonnie. "How are your systems going?"

"I feel great!" The rabbit grinned and closed its eyes as its ears stood tall.

"That's good. Would you care to take a walk with me?"

Bonnie reopened its eyes to look down blankly at William for a moment.

"Yes," William nodded. "Together. We'll have a walk together."

"Just be careful, Liam. Don't go too far." Henry muttered over his shoulder.

"I'll be alright." William offered him a small smile and waved it off.
Bonnie gave a nod and blinked as William ushered the voice command. William watched as the spring locks slowly loosened and pulled away from the endoskeleton inside. Bonnie's eyes retracted up inside his head as his skeleton was carefully pulled apart like a jigsaw puzzle and expanded outward to allow room for William to fit.

William inhaled and exhaled heavily before he carefully climbed into the animatronic suit and felt Bonnie mere inches from his own skin. It had been a while since he had stepped inside the suit and being this close to Bonnie brought him a strange euphoria that he hadn't experienced before. Just inches from his fingertips, he could feel Bonnie's fingers twitch and his circuits whirl as they held back the metal. At his chest, he could feel the cool and sharp metallic bits brushing up against his shirt. His shoes felt heavy but he knew that there were fewer spring locks down there to puncture him - a design to ensure that a lock would not go off when moving a large shoe about. As the suit slowly sealed up behind him, William released a soft breath and peered through the eye sockets of the suit to look down at his friend.

"You know what, Emily?" He began in a silvery voice. "I have missed this."

Henry chuckled. "That's because Bonnie was designed for you - not Fredbear? So I hope you do feel more comfortable wearin' him over the other."

"Slightly." William clicked his tongue in response before he turned to face the door. "I'm going to shut the lights off - meet me at the security office?"

"Does Bonnie need any charge?"

"No." Bonnie responded overhead where his voice box had slid above William's skull.

William gave a wink to Henry as they turned and soon carefully traversed out of the service room. William kept his breathing steady and was aware not to breathe on the metal mere inches from his face. He went at a slow pace as they walked down the hallway together.

"So," William quietly began. "Are you going to tell me what has been happening here?"

There was a tense moment of silence as Bonnie did not respond until after William's third footfall.
"There are... Strange thingz happening here."

"Like?" William halted as he inhaled deeply to stop himself from panting. It had been a while since he had worn Bonnie and had forgotten just how heavy and slow he felt whilst inside the mascot.

"You yelled at me, last time." Bonnie almost sounded sad and William tried not to flinch too hard as he heard the sound of circuits whirring above his head.
"Sorry," the rabbit swiftly realised what it had tried to do and quickly halted its mechanical movements.

It had tried to lower its ears over its forehead in a display of guilt or shame and upon moving its endoskeleton without William's consent must've been a horrifying ordeal.

"It's alright!" William quickly spoke as his heart pounded loudly in his chest. "Just give me some warning, next time."

Much like William, it also appeared that Bonnie had forgotten how to properly behave whilst they were merged together. It did not scare William as much as he figured Bonnie's ears to be more of an involuntary movement rather than a deliberate one. Though that didn't make any sense and they both knew it. Bonnie's endoskeleton was supposed to surrender to him - which meant that all the animatronic should've been able to do was speak. It couldn't see where they were going and it knew that any movement along its central frame could cause William to end up badly hurt. Its ears were on that central framing, and even if the ears could not penetrate into William's head, it still meant that Bonnie had moved his central skeleton and any flinch along that framing could result in a spring lock snapping back into place.

That would not be ideal.

William knew that if just one spring lock was going to revert back to animatronic mode; then a million others would soon follow suit. One by one, they could pierce his skin first, causing him to bleed everywhere. His screams would set off the facial plates and cause Bonnie's eyes to come down and smash into his skull whilst the animatronic held his limbs stiffly in place. Then the chest cavity would -

"William?" He blinked as he heard Bonnie above him. "You are scared."

William tried not to give a nod as he felt the metal brush against his forehead after attempting to do so. "Mhm."

"Shall I release?"

"No," despite his fears, William had wanted to embrace Bonnie like this again to show that he still trusted the rabbit by exposing himself to the dangers of doing so. In hopes that Bonnie would equally trust him back and tell him what was going on.
"I am alright. Yes, the spring locks still scare me but I know that I am safe with you."
He had to hope that he was because he didn't know how he would feel or what else he could do if Bonnie were to kill him in such a cruel and cunning way.

"And I promise this time that I shall not yell at you." William steered them back to their original conversation as he continued back on his trek down the hallway. "As long as you tell me everything - I will not get mad. I will not get disappointed. I might get surprised, yes, but that is a normal response to the unknown."

"Surprised."

"Yes." William felt like he was talking to a child and he knew that to be the truth in some way - Bonnie was only coming up on his fifth birthday in a few months' time and he didn't mind being patient with the rabbit.

"Surprise - deh. Past tense?"

"A verb or adjective. Used to describe someone's feelings or thoughts. You remember with Cassidy? I was very surprised by how clever you were that you could hear her on the tapes all the way down in the office."

Bonnie went quiet as William smiled - blissfully unaware that the giant, mechanical bunny was thinking of something else entirely.
William paused as he reached the main building and looked across the lobby to where the reception desk was.

"I still hear Cassidy." Bonnie spoke plain and quiet - like how a scared child would.

William frowned as he heard not only this statement itself but also how Bonnie presented it to him. He promised the rabbit that he wouldn't get upset so he had to try his best to remain calm. Especially since the fucking spring locks were poised and ready to strike with every little movement.

"That's alright, Bonnie." William started their way over towards the desk as he spoke. "Tell me how you hear her."

"I so-som-timez see her too. In Ffffredbear'z mouth."

William slowly came to a halt as this new information was brought to him. He blinked as he processed it and put two and two together. So that's why Bonnie stared whenever Fredbear had its jaws wide open. Bonnie thought that it could see a child in its mouth.

"Maybe it's just the metal shining off the light?" He had tried to calm Bonnie but it came off more arrogant and he knew that he probably sounded stupid to the rabbit. Disbelieving and disregarding what Bonnie had seen was perhaps not the best way to tell him that he might've just been seeing things.

"She can see me too," Bonnie spoke again. "She talkz to me."

"Well," William sighed softly as he stared over at the desk. "What does she say?"

"She sayz that she doezn't know where her mom iz. She wantz her mom to come back."

William felt a heavy stone drop in his stomach as Bonnie told him that. None of what Bonnie had told him was what Cassidy had said on the cameras so maybe it was either a malfunction in the other's memory or Cassidy was actually still at the Diner.

"Bonnie." William began in a stern voice. "I sincerely hope that you are not lying to me, friend. Do you think that Cassidy is here but we cannot see her?"

Bonnie hesitated to respond and William couldn't blame him. His creator was prone to being unpredictable at the worst of times and if William believed that Spring Bonnie was malfunctioning, then that meant only one outcome.

William would have to terminate Bonnie.

William didn't have plans yet to exactly do that but he was thinking of taking the other offline for a few months to find the bug, reinstall some new eyes, and fix his partner up.
If Bonnie believed that there was nothing wrong with him, then there was simply no need to take him offline to comb through his programming - even if it was only for a few months. But on the other hand, if Bonnie lied to William, then that was just as bad an outcome. Because William did not take lightly to lying from humans, so how exactly would he react to one of his creations gaining the ability to lie and to him of all people?

Bonnie did not respond for quite a while as it was deep in thought of how to get out of this mess safely - 'safe' as in not hurting William and ensuring that Bonnie did not fall into his trap. Safe as to hold back his own spring locks in case the human inside moved undesirably in a fit of sudden rage.

Was he even capable of that?

Bonnie knew Bonnie. No one understood you better than you did. Bonnie hadn't been all too familiar with being worn by William in a few years. It was usually Jessica who gave him his test runs and she was always careful with his inner parts. She was small and Bonnie knew that she could maneuver out of him swiftly if need be. This was something that he hadn't even thought of; moving his endoskeleton whilst there was a human inside him and moving it so that his spring locks could not snap back into place.

"Bonnie?" William asked after a moment of nothing but sheer silence.

He sounded on the verge of worry and the rabbit could not blame him. Bonnie did not wish to hurt his friend, and hence why he was going to do this. William would understand - he had to. There was no progressive way that Bonnie saw himself coming out of this if he lied.

Bonnie slowly shifted his spring locks back and it felt like all of his 'muscles' were being used at once. Akin to that of a human's system; Bonnie was inflating himself just a bit further but also doing his best to keep track of all 79 spring locks and physically hold them away from William. His right ear twitched as he felt his optical eyeballs shift suddenly.

"What are you doing?"

He had to calm William down before the other realised what was going on. It would become too difficult to follow his release orders if he had no strength to unseal himself due to him holding back his entire skeleton from crushing said human inside.

"I am not lying to you." Bonnie stated plainly after he felt the spring locks in his fingers shift away from the human ones.
"I saw Cassidy here. In Ffffredbear'z mouth. She said that she found something and now-"

Shclink.

That wasn't good.

Bonnie began to panic as he heard the telltale sound of a spring lock snapping back into place. William had heard it too but he wasn't screaming yet. The AI tried desperately to find exactly which lock it was that had sprung back into place and as its mind became overwhelmed by the thought, William spoke.

"That wasn't us."

Bonnie froze as it tried to process what was going on. Why was William so calm? Didn't he just get impaled by a piece of metal somewhere in his body?

William grunted as he tried to turn around and carefully Bonnie obliged.
"Tighten your skeleton, you're too stiff like this." William grunted as he tried to fluidly move with the suit.

"Are you sure?" Bonnie felt incredibly guilty when he realised that William knew what he had been trying to do and realised just how close he came to accidentally injuring not only his close friend but his creator as well.

"Yep." William inhaled sharply. "Put your skeleton right up against me, back where it belongs. The more you strain yourself, the more power you're going to lose and you know what happens when you don't have power."

"I default."

"And that is not good. Ok?"

"Ok." Bonnie sadly responded.

If the spring animatronics ever lost power - they'd black out. Equivalent to a human blacking out when they needed oxygen - fainting, if you will. When one of the 'suits' fainted, the spring locks snapped back into place involuntarily and that was very bad. No one ever piloted the suits on low power and they had only witnessed a 'faint' once with Fredbear during his first day of operating. William still remembered the look of fear plastered on Jessica's face when it had happened.

The two slowly worked together to simultaneously turn around and allow Bonnie's endoskeleton to carefully and comfortably slip back into place beside William. "Don't ever do that again."
William sternly told him and narrowed his eyes down the hallway.

"Ok." Bonnie agreed since he told himself not to nod - that would crush William's neck and ultimately kill him.

The two were heading back to Henry as fast as they could safely go. William was sure that he heard a spring lock go off but he couldn't tell where from or why. He had panicked as well after hearing that noise but after feeling no pain or blood, he was certain that Bonnie's suit had not gone off. And if Bonnie hadn't spring locked, then that meant that Fredbear had. So he had to hurry to check on Henry. There were no other noises that followed after that earlier sound so that told them that only one spring lock had gone off. There was no screaming either so William had hoped that his close friend was alright.

The two slowly made their way back to the Parts and Service room and as William carefully opened the door, he was somewhat hesitant to see what had happened.

"The fuckin' head!" William breathed a sigh of relief as he heard Henry's voice.
"It rolled off an' almost gave me a damn good scare!" Henry chuckled after his initial grumble as he turned to see Bonnie return.

"Are you alright?" William's voice was slightly muffled by the suit but he was relieved to hear Henry not only talking but laughing as well.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Henry grunted as he pushed himself up off his knee and stood back. "One of the circuits in his head must've come loose. I fixed it an' activated the spring lock to see if that would keep it in place 'til I find a stronger tube."

"Has it rotted?"

"It didn't look like it. No rust but very... Slippery. I couldn't see what was on it exactly but I fumbled twice an' it almost escaped." Henry explained.

"Bonnie, release." William muttered and soon stepped out of the animatronic once it did.

He was curious and needed to see this for himself. He walked around as the rabbit sealed itself back up and knelt beside the bear. He carefully tilted its head forward to squint at the metallic endoskeleton neck hiding beneath the fur.

"It should be safe to touch, all the spring locks are in place." Henry stated as he helped hold the bear's massive head.

"You frightened me half to death, you know that?" William smirked over his shoulder. "I thought that Bonnie had slipped. I was prepared to start screaming your name out."

Henry chuckled. "Then you thought that I had done somethin'."

"Exactly." William nodded as he turned around to lean back over the animatronic. "You don't know what it feels like to be trapped in such a slow way with nothing on your mind but the worst when you hear one of those locks going off."

William inhaled softly and he delicately let his fingers slide over the back of Fredbear's endoskeleton neck.
"Mm," he nodded. "It feels cold and slimy but there's nothing there."

"I know."

They both knew that the metal should've been warm due to the charge of electricity running through the robot.

William leaned back on the heels of his shoe to narrow his eyes at the bear's blank face. "We'll talk to Steve in the morning. I'll stay here whilst you go grab a new cable."