Finding Freedom {Freedom AU} [Book Two](FNAF/UT)

Chapter Thirteen

  On this night, Puppet had found that he had slept like a baby for once. Maybe he'd been tired out that day? He probably had been, considering how many birthday parties had been booked that day alone.

The restaurant had been open for what had already felt longer than it really had, and business truly was still booming. Management was regretting not using the Fazbear gang along with the Toys all those years prior.

With how soundly he'd slept, Puppet was somewhat surprised that he'd woken up before the others. Pushing open the lid of his giftbox, the Marionette slowly began to get out.

Not long after he had, did the Marionette noticed a couple of kids in the corner of the room. They looked to be twin siblings—a girl and a boy. The boy was holding onto a yellow helium balloon with a single red stripe going around it, and his twin sister had a pair of purple juggling balls with a pink stripe across each. The two appeared to be around five or six years old, and were sitting close to each other, cross-legged on the floor.

Slowly going over to them, Puppet could tell they were trying to be quiet. Either that, or they were shy. "Hello there." Puppet greeted. The two looked to him. "The pizzeria closed hours ago. Can I ask what you two are still doing here?"

The boy answered first. "The humans told us to stay in here." Before his sister added, "They brought us here in a big truck. It was a looong drive." Puppet looked a bit closer at them, before it hit him.

These kids weren't technically human. They were like everyone else, but obviously not animal looking. More like Ballora and Baby, except, these twins had a more normal skin tone. "Oh, how silly of me." Puppet began again. "I remember now. I heard you two were coming." He crouched down to their level, since his height was probably intimidating.

"Do you two have names?" The boy nodded, before he answered. "I'm Balloon Boy. This is my sister, Juggling Jenny!" JJ smiled, put down a juggling ball, then gave a small wave. Puppet smiled back, before introducing himself. "It's nice to meet you both. My name is Puppet."

"Do you know where we are?" BB asked curiously. "We're at a place called, 'Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria'." Puppet answered him, before his own curiosity made him ask, "Do you remember where you were before the long truck drive?"

JJ and BB exchanged confused glances, unsure how to answer. "I remember we were in a big tent." JJ started. BB continued. "There were lots of people. Some were being mean to the others and made them sad."

"Do you remember any of the people that were sad?" The Marionette prompted. Both of them shrugged.

"How long were you there for?" The two shrugged again. "We don't know. We don't really remember." BB answered, and then JJ added with, "We do remember we were excited to go someplace new!" She said, lingering excitement in her tone.

Not wanting to have a bad first impression by asking these two kids lots of strange questions, Puppet left it at that. Instead, he told them, "You'll like it here. I think everyone here will like you both very much." The twins smiled.

Later on in the night, Vixen and Fredrick had made it their personal duty to introduce the dubbed 'Balloon Twins' to everyone. They had just about finished, and as Puppet had said, everyone seemed to take a liking to them.

As Puppet stood back and watched the kids interact with everyone else, something kept nagging at him. Something he couldn't explain. The nagging feeling kept bringing him back to that strange night, almost a decade ago.

Looking across the room, the Marionette could see Freddy and Gold engaged in what looked to be a casual conversation. While continuing to look at the golden bear, it was obvious he wasn't as young as he'd used to be back in the days of the diner. Had it not been for the shutdown of the Family Diner, Gold would've been retired from performing one way or another.

Puppet then looked to Freddy. Just looking at the two, the age gap was still obvious. Come to think of it, except for faint scars from the small cuts and slashes he'd sustained when they'd arrived to the now burnt location, Freddy didn't look like he'd changed all that much.

The Marionette looked around the room to everyone else. He noticed the same thing about them. It was almost as if time itself had been frozen for all but Gold. Puppet shook his head, trying to ignore the thought. The idea itself was ridiculous. No way were they 'frozen in time'. That would be impossible.

So, having shaken that thought from his mind, Puppet went to catch up with the new twin additions to the gang.