Software Error

Pursuance

9 long minutes pass by in my impatient waiting by the door as I finally see Freddy and Gregory approaching. "Lyle! Where were you? We called you but you didn't respond." Gregory says, happy with my appearance. I hesitated about what to say, I had all that time to think of a possible response but the words fell out of my head the second he asked a question. Should I tell him? Would he even believe me?

"That rabbit lady stole my Faz-watch after I entered a room, I was in there for almost 2 hours. I didn't know where you guys were so I went to the last and found to find a Faz-watch so I could check the time. That's when I realized it was nearly 6:00 so I just waited." I just hope Gregory doesn't press me on any details, "Did anything else happen?" I guess nothing goes right for me today. "I, uh, well would you look at the time! It's 6:00 AM. You're free to go home, Gregory!"

Freddy and Gregory look at me with skeptical expressions, before they instantly turn into ones of concern. Gregory goes up to the front doors of the pizza plex before turning around to the two of us. Freddy walks up to him and kneels down in front of him. "Gregory, you can finally leave and go home, and I would like to be able to see you go with a smile on your face, but I feel there is something more in the pizza plex; I would appreciate your help in finding out about it." Gregory seems to think about this ultimatum.

"I... I want to help. Kids are going to keep going missing if we don't do something." Gregory says resolutely. I'm pretty surprised by his answer before I smile at him. The two of them must've found some things out during the time I missed them. I guess I should've assumed I'm not the only kid who'd gone missing. But these sound recent... it must be related to that rabbit lady.

"Excellent! Here, I found a spare party pass so we can explore more of the pizza plex." Freddy hands Gregory a party pass he had on him. Freddy then takes a look at me, and that's when I realize he looks a bit different. He has... Monty's claws? And his eyes look like Roxy's. "Say, Lyle, did you find anything when you were looking around?" I scratch my ear embarrassedly, "Well, I found a bunch of notes scattered all over the place, but I stored them all on my Faz-watch that got stolen. I don't think they were that important though. I also found this strange room in the maintenance tunnels. It's like a model of an older Freddy's. I found an older version of me in there with no endo or head. It was... really creepy."

"That does sound quite strange...do you think it was related to you in some way?" Freddy asks innocently. I open my mouth but no words come out. "Well..." I lose my sentence. "Well uh..." Grammar gets thrown into the void. "Yes." Gregory looks at me suspiciously, "Yes and...?" "Just... just yes." "..." I get some awkward stares in my direction. "Well, let's head over to Fazerblast. It's the only place we haven't been to." Freddy says, steering the conversation away from that train wreck.

We head over to Fazerblast in relative silence. I speak up, "I, uh, well... sorry. I just... I don't really want to talk about it. It's pretty unbelievable." Freddy looks at me. "Well, I do not think it would get any better if you don't talk about it." "I don't think you're wrong, I'm just having a bit of trouble accepting it myself. It feels like someone just told me 2+2 actually equals 5 instead of 4." "That's a strange metaphor..." Freddy says, pondering its meaning. "It's the best way I can put it." "Well, let's talk about it later after we explore Fazerblast then."

Gregory hands the party pass to the animatronic by the door so it leaves. "I guess I can get some real firepower now. This camera from Monty Golf isn't really cutting it since it only has 1 charge." Gregory says holding out a Freddy-themed polaroid camera. "Why do you say that?" "Oh, I guess you didn't know. The animatronics short circuit when they are exposed to a bright flash. It stops them in their tracks. I've had to use it a couple of times." Gregory answers. "Must be one bright flash..." We enter the elevator the animatronic was guarding.

Gregory runs around all over the place without us, thankfully there aren't any security bots around. They'll probably be active soon though. Our first stop was a security office. Gregory gets another badge upgrade and a pass to go to Bonnie Bowl. Freddy looks a little sad when Gregory tells him about it. I didn't even know Bonnie was part of the pizza plex.

Looks like the security bots are already active, Gregory has us though so it's fine. That is until we get to Fazerblast ourselves. Freddy insists that we can't go in there because "animatronics outside of the Lazer bots are not permitted in there." I try to shrug Freddy off because I mean, seriously? Tonight I think every protocol has been breached. But Freddy remains a stickler for the rules, so I can only watch as Gregory goes in there alone because there is no way I'm getting out of Freddy's grip.

Some time passes as Gregory gets into the Fazerblast game and Freddy talks to me. "Lyle, I actually held you back because I wanted to talk to you." I tilt my head, confused. "What did you find out in that room?" Of course, it's about this. "Before you blow me off Lyle, please hear me out. You know I want to help you and you are clearly still caught up on whatever you learned in there. Is it related to those glitches you've been having?" "Freddy, you don't understand. They aren't glitches. They're the epitome of deja vu." "What do you mean?" "They are the memories and thoughts and feelings of a kid who died in 1989." "What?! I'm, I'm not sure I follow." "I'm not Lyle the Lynx, Freddy. But I'm not quite Lyle the Human. I've... changed. I'm... well, I'm Lyle. Period." "But... how?" "I don't really know... that bunny lady said something about "remnant". All I really understood was that it sort of kept me there. Waiting to be pieced back together. It messed with my consciousness when I got turned on... the pieces of Lyle's conscious melding with a programmed A.I." Freddy quiets down at my confession.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." "I really just want to get Gregory out of here now." "It feels like there is more to that than just goodwill." "I'd broken a promise that day, and I still feel really bad about it. I don't want to break another one." Freddy puts his hand on my shoulder. "Lyle..." Freddy doesn't say the rest of the sentence, but somehow, those soulless eyes of his express everything. "Thanks, Freddy." I give him a hug. "No need to thank me." He hugs me back.