A New Start
Chapter 3: The Lie of '97

Itwas almost noon by the time Scott had woken up. He sat up in his bedand put one of his hands to the side of his head, instantly coming onwith a headache. Last night... Last night was a drain.Last night, before all of... 'that'happened, he had made sure to turn off his alarm clock so he couldget the maximum amount of sleep. I mean, it wasFridaynight after all, so why not? However, that...

Thatdidn't really work, as you can see.

Stillhalfway-asleep, Scott dragged himself out of bed. He dragged his feetas he made his way toward the bedroom door, ignoring his room'scondition. Just another thing he had to fix later... He was prettyglad he had a whole bunch'a coffee downstairs, though. All he neededto do was drink some of that, and he'd be ready to deal with whateverthe world had in store! But to do that, all he had to do wasto get down there. Just had to get down there and brew up a nice...frothy... cupp'a--

“Mornin',pal!”

Scottjumped at the voice and grabbed both sides of the doorway, freezingin place. He hadn't been awoke for a whole two minutes, and now he'shearing voices?He looked left in an effort to replace the voice's owner. Then, helooked right.

Oh.

ToyBonnie was standing a few feet away from Scott, clutching his guitarhappily. When Scott had finally looked in his direction, theanimatronic waved.

“...O-Oh,uh... Morning, Bonnie,” Scott said, beginning to calm back down.Despite the fact that the animatron looked significantly less creepyduring the day, Scott couldn't shake the memories of the previousnight. “I... I see you've found your guitar,” Scott added,glancing at the aforementioned object. A small part of him wonderedhow the bot managed to replace it in the first place. He thought hestowed it deep in the basement. Toy Bonnie nodded in reply.

“Uhuh!It took me almost all night, but I foundit!”,the bunny said, holding it up in triumph. “You wouldn't believewhere it was, either! I found it in a box in some dark, kinda spookylookin' room down some stairs! Th'box also had some weird, like...partsin it too. Like, animatronic parts... You would'a thought the staff'dmake my guitar easier to replace...” Toy Bonnie's voice drifted off abit as he put his hand to his chin, pondering something. “...S-Say,speaking of animatronics, could I ask you somethin'?”

Scottnearly jumped at the question. He had been spacing out in all thetime it took for Toy Bonnie to speak, and had only come back to focusjust now. Being tired does that to you. Plus, there was that weirdfeeling you get when you start to hold a conversation with a robot...

What,don't you get that feeling too?

“Oh,yeah, sure. C'mon, you can ask while we walk,” Scott replied beforemotioning for Toy Bonnie to follow him as he began to walk down thestairs.

“Well,firstly... When are the others supposed to come on?”, Toy Bonniebegan. “I noticed that while I've been up all night, the otherswere... Well - deactivated!”, he explained. “What's with that?”

“Well,that's simple,” Scott said as the two reached the bottom of thestairs. “I haven't turned them on yet.” They turned, heading intothe kitchen. Once there, Scott got to work on brewing his much-neededdrink. Toy Bonnie, meanwhile, stopped to take a look around the room,processing Scott's reply. He soon returned his gaze to Scott, headtilted.

“Butwhy not?”

Scottshrugged as he focused on his coffee maker, trying to get it to work.“Haven't had the chance to.”

“...Iguess that makes sense...,” Toy Bonnie uncertainly replied after abit of thinking. Maybe this pizzeria had only recently opened! “Oh– I just realized! I haven't asked your name yet! It's-- It'sScott, right?”

Scottpaused, then looked at Toy Bonnie. “How'd you know?”, heinquired, brow arched. Toy Bonnie shuffled a little, seeming a tadbashful.

“Iheard you talking to yourself last night...,” he finally said.

Scottblushed. “...Oh,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. Hereally shouldstop doing that...

“Yeah...Say, what'cha doin, anyway'?” Toy Bonnie asked, approaching Scott.

“Justmakin' some coffee,” Scott replied as the animatronic peered overhis shoulder.

Andso, Scott got to live his lifelong dream for the better part of anhour. The awkwardness of the previous situations faded away as he gotto speak to his favorite character about various miscellaneousthings. Once the coffee was done, Scott drank as he watched ToyBonnie practice playing his guitar. In contrast to last night, todaywas definitely much calmer and more enjoyable. That is, until ToyBonnie asked...

“Hey,when do we open?”

Scottnearly choked on his coffee. He quickly swallowed what was in hismouth and sputtered. After a while of casual conversation, thequestion had come so suddenly, and he wasn't quite sure how to answerit. On one hand, he could simply go...

'Wedon't open. It's been ten years since the actual pizzeria closed andnow, you live in my house. The children you used to perform for areall in college or grown up, and have probably forgotten about you.'

Wouldn'twork, would it? The poor bot would most likely be shocked and, well,depressed. So, instead...

“U-Uhh...Soon,” He vaguely replied, before taking one last sip of his cupp'ajoe. Satisfied with that answer, Toy Bonnie beamed.

“Great!You know, it feels like I haven't performed in ages.Say, you should probably get the others turned on too. Can't havethem lazing around while I do all the work, y'know! Heheh!”, theanimatronic said jovially, before turning around. “While you dothat, I'm gonna have another look around. Gotta make sure I know myway around this place!”

Scottnodded in acknowledgment, and Bonnie left. After putting his coffeemug in the sink, Scott got to work on the other Toys. He hadunscrewed the backs of the remaining three's heads and made a greateffort in removing their 'FacRec' Chips.

Hewished he saw Toy Bonnie's chip when he was finagling with the bot'shead last night...

Regardless- After making sure that Toy Freddy and Toy Chica were switched on,and allowing them time to actually boot up, Scott had gone andcarried the mangled Toy Foxy into the basement. ...With muchdifficulty, concerning her weight. He had aimed to sort herout later. When he had come back upstairs, Toy Freddy (Let's justcall him Freddy from now on, for simplicity) and Toy Chica (Ditto)were already up and about.

“...--isn'tthe pizzeria,” Freddysaid. Scott only managed to catch the end of his sentence.

“Yeah,I know... You don't think we got... well, scrapped, do you?”, theother inquired. The first bot shook his head before replying.

“Wecouldn't've. If we were, we'd be in a warehouse or... or a junkyard.We wouldn't be here, would we?”, Freddyasked.Chicaseemed to think it over for a moment, before responding.

“Yeah,I guess you're r--...”

Itwas at that moment that Scott cleared his throat and awkwardly waved,instantly gathering both bots' attention.

“O-Oh!Hi there!”, greeted Freddy, waving in a rather jerky, robotic way.“Are you the manager here?” Chica gave the bear an incredulouslook.

“Areyou kidding? He's obviously the technician.”, she replied, beforelooking at Scott. “Right?” Scott opened his mouth to reply, butwas cut off by Freddy.

“Hecan't be the technician. He doesn't even have a uniform!”

“Bythat logic, he couldn't be the manager, now could he?” Chicasnapped back. Realizing his own silliness, Freddy put a hand to hisface. Chica triumphantly nodded before looking at Scott once again.“Say, Mr. Technician, how long've we been out? Feels like it's beenyears!” Scott gulped. He felt like he was this closeto being found out. It would only be a matter of time...

“U-Uhh,n-not that long. J-Just a few months, actually,” he lied. Freddygrinned. “Well, that's a relief! Though, why did we have to berelocated here?” he inquired, turning and looking out thewindow. “This feels less like a pizzeria and more like, say, ahouse...”

Scottgulped. Again. The longer this went on, the more he regrettednot coming clean. He adjusted his collar, looking around a bit, andprepared to speak. It was now or never, and he'd rather go with the'now'. Or, he would've went with the 'now', if it weren'tfor...

“Chica!Freddy! Heeeeey!”

Bonniebounded down the stairs, nearly stumbling as he did so, and quicklywrapped Freddy in a nice, tight robo-hug. He wished he could hugChica too, but his arms aren't long enough!

“It'sbeen so long since I've seen you two powered on! At least, I thinkit's been a while! Maybe it hasn't! Oh, who cares?! I'm just gladwe're aaaall together again!”, he exclaimed. Freddy gently, yetfirmly pushed the bunny away before exchanging an uncertain look withChica, who shrugged.

“I'm...very confused,” the bear finally said. Bonnie grinned.

“Don'tworry 'bout that! I'll tell you everything while I show you around!C'mon!”, he exclaimed, eagerly pulling the arms of both bots.Reluctantly, they followed.

Asthe three left, he sighed and let his shoulders fall.

Well,that happened..., he thought.

Therewas absolutely no way he was gonna keep that rabbit, let alone allfour, convinced that his house was a pizza parlor. It barely lookedthe part! He should've told them the truth when he had the chance...

But,let's not mind that now. Being ever the optimist, he figured thatperhaps he could tell them later! Turning around, he made his wayback down the stairs. At the bottom would be a single, dim lightilluminating the mangled Toy Foxy as well as toolbox on the floorNext to both objects would be a much larger box, filled with variousanimatronic parts – things such as spare facemasks and panels.

Scotthad a fox to fix.

Forthe rest of the day, Bonnie had given the other two bots a touraround the house. Occasionally, Chica would ask questions such as...

“Why'sthe Kid's Cove sign mounted on the wall like that?”

Towhich Bonnie would shrug in response. More often, however, Chicawould call him out when he'd visit rooms that he had already shown.In fact, as the tour dragged on, that's all it became! It seemed asif, in his excitement, Bonnie forgot which rooms he had shown andwhich he hadn't. Much to Chica's chagrin.

Freddy,however, didn't care all that much. In contrast to Bonnie's andChica's passionate feelings of excitement and frustrationrespectively, Freddy just felt... content. He felt that he and theothers were given another chance. A weird, new pizzeria to roamaround in, new kids to entertain and play with. They were allgiven...

Anew start.

Freddylooked about as he followed the other two bots, silently enjoying hisnew surroundings. He soon slowed his pace as he came across a window,and took a moment to stop and look outside. He could make out so, somany lights nearby and in the distance. The lights of cars,buildings, and airplanes. The animatron let his artificial mindwander as he observed these strange things as they contrasted withthe dark night sky. His gaze drifted up slightly as he saw somethingespecially fascinating!

Itwas a large airship, lazily drifting above and in the distance. Onits side was an electronic sign, displaying in yellow letters what hecould infer was an advertisement. The bear squinted as he read whatthe marvelous blimp had to say.

'Celebratethe season of love at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! 50% discounts fromFriday 14thto Sunday 16th1997!'

'1997!'