Chapter Five

(Second POV)

Dammit, dammit, dammit!

A loose wire snagged your foot, and you stumbled again, but somehow you managed to regain your balance and keep rushing through the dark tunnels at the fastest pace you could muster on an injured leg. You had scrutinized the thing before, but the Fazwatch that Freddy gave you really was useful like he said it'd be. Without its map guiding you, you'd probably end up getting lost down here forever.

Bonnie Bowl was close now. Just a few more turns. You hoped you wouldn't be too late.

Your thoughts were racing at the same speed as your feet. Freddy had been radio silent since you'd left the kitchen. How was he even planning to give you any instructions on a dead battery?

Maybe he only said that to distract you to get you away and somewhere safe...?

He would definitely do that.

You were only one left turn away from Bonnie Bowl before you almost tripped over your feet coming to a halt so abrupt that your shoes had surely left skid marks on the floor.

How far were you from the maintenance room right now? Could you still make it before his memories were erased?

Heart pounding relentlessly in your chest, you looked to your watch to find the directions there, but before you could open the map, Freddy had finally sent another message.

You're close. Keep going. I promise everything will be okay. Please trust me.

You grit your teeth at the message, knowing this wasn't the time to waste feeling conflicted. You knew as well as Freddy certainly did that you would stand no chance against either of those animatronics alone, so whatever Freddy had planned was your only real option now. You just hoped beyond hope that it was an actual plan, and not a suicide mission for himself just to save your life.

Bitter tears stung your eyes in frustration at your own helplessness, Please don't be lying. Please don't be lying! Please give me something to help you!

With your thundering footsteps following you down the corridor, you finally rounded the last corner, pushing through a final pair of heavy double doors to find yourself standing in the middle of a large bowling alley. Your chest was heaving as you tried to catch your breath, tentatively stepping in further and scanning your surroundings. A quick survey found no sign of anyone or anything else in here but you, not even a lone staffbot. In your hurry, you'd completely forgotten about needing to worry about hiding from those things, so you were fortunate that none of them were here to catch you recklessly out in the open like this.

The bowling alley itself was huge, but well-maintained, and similar to the other attractions you'd seen with bright neon lights everywhere. However, this attraction had one key difference that caught your eye instantly. Next to the large concessions counter at the back wall, there was a small stage shrouded by tightly shut red curtains. It must have been for Bonnie, you'd supposed, and the realization nearly made you wince.

Unlike the others, Bonnie had always loved the spotlight and being able to perform on stage. He must have been pissed to get crammed into a small corner of the pizzaplex like that while Freddy and Chica were able to perform out on that huge stage without him. Not only that, but according to Freddy, even Foxy was getting his own movie or something, so that must have stung all the worse for Bonnie to watch everybody else get so much attention while he was delegated to this humble stage.

Another notification on the watch stole your previous train of thought.

There's a hidden room behind the last bowling lane at the far right of the alley. Pass under the curtain to get there. Hurry.

A hidden room? What exactly was back there that Freddy was banking on so heavily?

Wasting no time to think about it further, you followed his instructions, heading to the bowling lane at the end of the alley. Sure enough, after you pushed past the curtain at the very end of the lane, there was a giant hole in the wall at the back, large enough for you to shuffle your way through into the room waiting behind it.

As you took another step forward, a pitched sound of tinkling metal echoed in the room. The small bolt that you'd accidentally kicked had rolled across the floor, before coming to a rest as it joined the giant heap of scrap metal in the middle of the room, drawing your gaze with it.

Laying there atop that mound of scrap, motionless with open, lifeless eyes, its limbs broken and bent in all the wrong ways...a blue animatronic...with those distinct and familiar bunny ears.

"Bo..."

Your heart caught in your throat, your vision blurring behind a well of tears.

Suddenly, you could almost hear Freddy's voice echoing beside you, There's something that will help us there.

Freddy wasn't talking about some spare battery or a weapon for you to use...he was talking about Bonnie.

Your legs shook unsteadily, but you dared a few steps closer, until your knees gave way and you collapsed beside his body. Loose screws and shards of scrap metal that surrounded him dug into your knees enough to cut you through the fabric of your pants and draw blood, but that pain was dulled by the overwhelming horror filling you as you took in the sight of your old friend. His chest was ripped open, deep claw marks outlined with the faintest residue of green paint left by the attacker. There was only one animatronic in the building with green coloring like that.

You bastard, you snarled at the image of that cursed gator in your mind, his cocky grin and terrible sneer, I'll find a way to make you pay for this. For everything. I swear—!

You almost didn't notice your watch alerting you of new messages until it began to shake with the notification. Forcing yourself to tear your eyes away from your friend's broken body, you looked down at what Freddy had sent.

Blank message after blank message—he was probably just trying to get the watch to vibrate to get your attention again—then a message containing his next instructions.

I know. I'm sorry for asking you to do this on your own, but this is our only hope. Bonnie's suit looks bad right now, but he isn't too far gone. With his suit like that, he wasn't able to make it to a recharge station on his own before his battery completely depleted, so he's not able to move right now. Don't worry. Sending some power to his suit will wake him right up. There's a small generator in the next room, and a pair of jumper cables on the shelf beside it. Connect those cables to the generator and to Bonnie's suit, and it should be enough to allow him to get up.

Head swimming, you shakily stood to your feet, stumbling into the next room.

Generator...jumper cables...

You were moving on autopilot as you followed Freddy's instructions. The shock of seeing Bonnie in such a state had taken hold of you so strongly that your next actions were a total blur, contained in memories so fuzzy that all you could recall from those moments was the overwhelming nausea wracking your body as you worked. By the time you'd finally regained some sense with your darkening vision finally clearing, you were once again knelt beside Bonnie, this time holding the ends of two jumper cables in your trembling hands.

Where do they go? Anywhere should be fine, right?

The cables snapped loudly against his suit's metal frame, and the following noise of running electricity made you sure that everything was properly connected.

One second, two seconds passed, agonizingly slow as you held your breath in anticipation for something, anything from him.

Then, suddenly, light flashed from behind his eyes—you didn't blink, but your vision instantly became obscured by the fabric of someone's shirt, arms wrapped tightly around you in an all too familiar embrace.

"Princess!" His familiar voice exclaimed in your ear, breathless and surprised and overjoyed all at once.

It was him.

And he remembered you.

His name left your lips in a pathetic whine, "Bonnie..."

You grabbed desperate fistfuls of his clothing as you returned his embrace, your eyes spilling tears you knew you didn't have time for but couldn't stop. One of his hands tangled itself into your hair, pressing you further into him as you wept, and he burrowed his face into your shoulder, shaking and shedding tears just the same as you.

Ugly, honest sobs tore from your throat, muffled by his shoulder you were crying into. His chest rumbled around you with what must have been disbelieving laughter breaking through his tears. What a cacophony the two of you made—weeping and laughing there in the middle of a pile of scrap metal in that dark room.

You clung to each other like children refusing to let go of their safety blanket, as if the world around you had simply disappeared and you were all each other had left. The only reminder of the reality beyond this room was the incessant buzzing of the watch on your wrist telling you it was time to wake up.

You were the first to pull away, but Bonnie fought the end of the embrace until you'd finally managed to push him away enough to look at his face. Even still, he was clutching your arms so tightly it was as if he was afraid he'd never see you again if he let go. Fresh tears were still falling from his ruby eyes, and his lips twitched like they didn't know whether to smile or stifle another sob.

Another moment passed, your Fazwatch tirelessly trying to get your attention to no avail as you both took good looks at each other—seeing the lasting marks the years apart had left on you both. Apart from his new clothing which was unfortunately very tattered, he looked much the same as you remembered, with his garnet eyes and charming face. Only, the signature violet hair you'd always associated him with was now the same light blue shade as his new animatronic form. Though it was a bit of a jarring difference at first glance, it still seemed to suit him well—or, rather, you doubted there was a hair color Bonnie couldn't make work.

Bonnie raised one of his trembling hands to cup your face, his touch as his skin made contact with yours was so very, very gentle, as though you were just an illusion he was terrified to break. You gripped his hand over yours, his watery eyes widening at your touch.

"I'm here," you told him, willing yourself to be strong for you both.

You swallowed thickly, nodding, "I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere."

He believed you.

Finally, his lips shot up into that beaming smile you'd missed so much, his eyes sparkling not just from the pale light in the room reflecting on his unshed tears.

"I knew you'd come back," he said softly, "I knew."

He sputtered out another laugh, tears spilling from his eyes again as his shoulders shook with the sound, "You kept me waiting a while, Princess."

"Glad to see you're okay, Bonnie, but we have an emergency. Can we move on now?"

You both blinked in surprise at Freddy's voice. It had sounded as though he was there in the room with you, but you quickly realized the noise had instead come through the speakers of your watch.

"Ah!" You hastily wiped your face, sniffling to stifle the stream still flowing from your eyes, "Right, we don't have time right now."

Bonnie tilted his head at you, looking positively lost. His inquisitive stare was practically begging you for an answer.

You cleared your throat, shook your head as if to somehow realign your focus, and then faced Bonnie, "It's a long story. Freddy got taken by some other animatronics a few minutes ago, and they're taking him down to maintenance to erase his memories of me again. I don't have time to tell you everything now, but I promise we'll talk later! Right now, I really need your help so we can get him back. Can you move okay?"

As you finished, Bonnie's vermillion eyes shifted upwards, looking a little dazed.

You panicked, "I-I'm sorry everything is happening so quickly! I-I just...he told me to find you, a-and fix you, and I-I know it's a lot to take in—!"

He didn't seem like he heard you at all, his expression slowly falling into a scowl.

"B-Bonnie?"

With a swiftness that your eyes couldn't even perceive, he'd snapped back up to his full height with a sharp inhale.

"All right," he sighed deeply, sounding a little...annoyed?

You stared up at him owlishly as he stretched his arms above his head and then across his chest, obviously adjusting to moving around again.

How long has he been stuck back here like that anyway? You couldn't help but wonder.

His attention fell to the live jumper cables still clinging to his red shirt. Despite a loud, defiant zap from them as he took hold of them, he plucked them off effortlessly before tossing them over his shoulder to hit the floor behind him. Then, he looked down at you curiously, his familiar red gaze filling you with such warm nostalgia, "We've gotta go save Freddy right? Why are you still sitting down there?"

You blinked, snapping out of your stupor, "Oh! Um, sorry!"

He extended a hand to help you up, and you winced as you got to your feet. Between the wound Monty had dealt you and the scrap metal digging into your knees that was probably worthy of getting a tetanus shot for, your legs were a little worse for wear, but there was no time to worry about that now. You brushed your hands over your knees, knocking off the loose screws and bolts and scrap metal attached to your pants, and felt a few small streams of blood trickle down your legs. Bonnie frowned in earnest worry at the sight of the growing dark stains on the fabric of your long pants.

"Princess, that looks like that hurts. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

You looked down at your watch, finding a final message from Freddy: Bonnie knows where the maintenance room is. He'll show you the way. Vanessa won't be there for a few more minutes, but Moon is still guarding the room. Be careful.

You looked back up to Bonnie to meet his curious stare, "He said Vanessa isn't there yet so we still have time, but someone named Moon is guarding the room. Do you know anything about him?"

"Moon?" Bonnie blanked out for a moment, his gaze drifting to the ceiling, and then a profound grimace crossed his face, "Yikes."

"Yikes?" You squeaked.

If Moon was indeed the same animatronic that had so easily taken down Freddy in the kitchen, you can understand his reaction.

Your voice was frantic, "What do we do?"

His gaze flickered back down to you, and the obvious panic in your expression made him startle, his eyes shooting wide for just a second. Then, a familiar, easygoing grin quickly overtook his expression.

"No worries, Princess, I'll talk to him," Bonnie waved his hand dismissively and shrugged, finally exuding that characteristic confidence you knew so well, "Just leave it to me. You take care of Freddy."

He pivoted swiftly on his heel to head back out of the hole you'd entered from, but you saw something unnerving settle in his expression before he had turned his face. The quiet, deliberate words he uttered next sent a chill racing down your neck, "We should go now before that two-faced, cold-hearted witch gets her hands on him."

The way he snarled out that colorful nickname wasn't lost on you, but there was certainly no time to unpack that right now. Without another thought about it, you stumbled over the pile of scrap in the center of the room and rushed to keep up with him.

"Uh, yes, you're right! Lead the way please!"

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(A/N: I'm trying so hard not to make these updates monthly but summer is over and I am getting swamped irl rn. I didn't originally intend for this chapter to be so short, but I haven't finished the rest of what I planned to put in this chapter yet and I didn't want to put off updating any longer, so here is what will hopefully be the shortest chapter of the series. I hope you all enjoyed it anyway, and I hope I can get some leniency for the length of it considering this chapter marks the return of everyone's favorite bunny!

It's been entirely too long since I've written a non-(extra-)mentally deranged bunny boy, and considering where the last book left off it's ironic that in this one, all the other animatronics lost their memories and forgot you, and now Bonnie gets to be the sane one. How the tables turn indeed!

And fear not, he's still sassy as ever, if you couldn't already tell by his reaction to Freddy's rescue mission interrupting your reunion.

And you all may or may not have noticed that I wasn't very descriptive with his clothing, but I did mention him wearing a red shirt, rather than the red tracksuit his animatronic suit wears. I'm sorry I just could not put my boy in that outfit T-T

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I'll do my best to finish working on the next chapter soon so it shouldn't take another month to post. See you all then!)