CALL OF THE SHADOW [Freedom AU Book Eight]{FNAF/UT}

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Time felt gruelingly slow for the two who sat waiting in the Royal Guard Captain's office. Toy had her arms wrapped around herself, her distress plain as day, while Vixen did her best to remain collected for both their sakes. She kept her hands clasped upon her lap, looking almost entirely calm—her soft tail's swinging motion being the only giveaway of her true emotions.

"V-Vixy?" The fox's ears perked at hearing her sister address her by her old nickname. She looked over to the chicken in the seat next to her. "I-I'm scared... What if something bad happened t-to him?" Vixen's expression softened, as she put a hand on Toy's shoulder. "We already l-lost Fred... we can't lose B-Bon t-too..." Her voice was slowly beginning to tremble even more. "They'll... find him, I'm sure."

"Y-You can't b-be sure, Vix!" Toy looked up to her sister, tears welling in her turquoise eyes. "Y-You don't kn-know!" Leaning over, Vixen wrapped both her arms around her sister's subtly shaking form. "Cecelia, listen to me," She began, as she felt the chicken's arms slowly come up to reciprocate the embrace. "We can't lose hope. The Guard will find him, I just know it."

"B-But-"

"They found Bonnie last summer, didn't they?" Toy fell silent a moment, before shakily nodding. "They'll do the same for Bonbell, alright? You've just... You've got to trust them." Vixen heard her sister sniffle quietly, nodding again. The two pulled back as they heard Undyne finally enter the room—a manilla file folder in hand. As the Guard Captain went over to her desk, she took notice that Toy had obviously been crying. Taking the small box of tissues from the corner of her desk, Undyne offered with, "...Tissue?"

"...Thanks." Toy quietly answered, taking a tissue to wipe her eyes with. Putting the box back, Undyne placed the file a top her desk. It seemed to be considerably full. The Captain opened it, and took a moment to glance over the contents. Vixen spoke up. "Have you... found anything, yet?"

"Well, as we speak, the dogs are following your brother's trail, starting from his house. I'm waiting for an update on that." Undyne began, looking up to the two sisters. "While they're out doing that, I've had some of my guards here at the station looking through any and all files on you brother we can get out hands on."

"Why?" Toy asked, puzzled. "We're trying to determine if Bonbell left on his own accord, or if he was abducted." Undyne began, before hesitation hit her for a second. "... Look, I don't want to sugar coat anything here, but from the information we've gathered already, it's starting to look like he disappeared on his own." The two exchanged confused looks, which Undyne quickly noticed. Looking to the file's contents again, she continued. "After looking at his health records, we're getting a bit of an idea of why he might've just left like he did-"

"His... health records?" Vixen unintentionally cut Undyne off, her look of confusion growing. Undyne looked back up to the fox. Her and her sister shared a look that told her they had no idea what she was talking about. "You... do know about your brother's mental health struggles, don't you?" Toy had a growing look of shock on her face, as Vixen's heart slowly sank. Unable to find her voice, the fox just simply shook her head 'no'. Undyne mouthed a quiet 'oh' in response, glancing back down to the files. "... Then, you should probably take a look at these documents."

"... A-Are we allowed to?" Toy asked, as Vixen quietly took the papers Undyne was handing her. "From what I was informed, Fredrick had listed you both to be Bonbell's official next-of-kin, and he and Bonbell both signed off papers allowing you both access to this information should anything happen to Fredrick." Undyne explained, before then adding, "... But, I just sort of assumed they'd told you some about what was going on."

"... They didn't." Vixen slowly answered, looking over all the information on the papers. Toy leaned over to get a look for herself. As the two read over the information they'd been given, Undyne noticed one of the secretaries poking her head in. "Erm- Excuse me a minute." She excused, getting up to leave the room again, leaving the sisters alone once more.

"Why didn't they ever tell us about this?" Toy asked, earning a mere confused shrug from her sister. "I don't know." Vixen confessed sadly, this whole revelation upsetting the both of them. "I thought... we told each other everything..." Toy commented, her worry growing. Feeling a few tears finally well in her yellow eyes, Vixen slowly shook her head. "So d-did I..."

After a few minutes of reading went by, a morbid thought popped into Toy's head. "Vix," She began, low tone entirely serious. Her sister looked up to her. "Y-You don't think Bon would..." She couldn't even bring herself to say the words. Vixen seemed to understand what her sister meant, her heart nearly dropping. "I..." Vixen hesitated to answer truthfully. "... hope the Guard finds him, safe."

~~~

A.N. Oof, that got kind of heavy-

Ik I said chapters would be longer now that we're in the home stretch, but this one was better off being a bit shorter, a bit more to the point. Saturday's chapter will be another behemoth, though, so there's your heads up~

(Also, there was a few itty-bitty implied references back to the newest part in 'Between the Moments'-)

Until Saturday, my dear readers!