'This place sure has changed.'

Honestly, he wasn't even sure how long had passed in that cold, damp, forsaken back room where he'd finally made his choice. He still didn't regret that choice, at least not really. He did, however, regret not making it sooner. If he had, he most likely wouldn't be being forcefully dragged from room to room in this stupid mockery of his miserable past. Maybe it was poetic how everything seemed to have come full circle, but that was him just trying to make light of his conditions.

'The first one to rise, the last one to fall.'

There was a lull in the noises that now consumed his world as he had a chance to get his bearings. Spring Bonnie was currently in one of the long hallways that ran from north to south. Seeing as the only doors were on the east side he could safely assume he was just outside of her hallway.

'Fudgesickles,' he thought angrily to himself.

With this guard's insistence upon keeping him in the end hallway (which while a very smart decision on their part, was highly irritating and obnoxious on his). It was only a matter of time before-

"Hello!" He heard from no particular place. The sound of the young boy's voice echoed throughout the long hallway until it slowly died out, leaving him in silence once again.

Welp, into hallway 7 he went.

The little paper dolls hanging on the ceiling and the presents stacked in the corner would be cheerful, were it not for the partially lit head of one of his old friends on the floor just beyond them. That was also excluding the mildewed looking walls and dim lighting. He couldn't see her, but that was no surprise. She'd likely either hid or vacated the room altogether when she heard the sound cue.

It'd only been a few days since he'd been found and stuck in this place, but Afton was taking full advantage of the fact there was a guard to do… whatever he thought they were doing; he had no clue. Spring wasn't entirely sure, but he was probably too crazy to make real sense of it. It had been a while, but he was gaining power again since Spring had been moving around; lest we forget his sudden murderous motivation.

Speak of the devil and he shall come. Spring began to the pressure of Afton's influence in the back of his mind. Seeing as how they were so far from the guard still, Spring chose to save his energy for if they got closer. Receding back to his sort of 'safe spot' within his programming, he sat back to watch as the static got louder and louder.

Ş̴̠͚͕͛̔͝o̵̡̬̼͉̓ú̸̮̯̏͋̒L̴̡͚̪̝̑s̸̡̱̩̓,̴̩̬̉C̷͇͙̯͋ȓ̷̝̱͇̈́̅͒E̶̻̜̘̐A̴̢̝̬̋t̴̮̎͝ͅi̶̡̮͐͆̆̈́ȏ̸͙̟̯̬͌͐N̶̠̱͌̓̏,̴̔͋̍͜ ̴̗̯̃̓L̴͕̳̖̹̾ì̸̪͑F̸̦͙͝e̶͙̍̎̓̊,̵͙̿̊ ̸͖̬̮͗̕Ḑ̵̨͍̯̽E̴̛̗͒̓͠a̴̢͖̫͒̒̓ͅẗ̸̟́͒H̵̨̟̠̘̍͝,̸͇̑ ̸͍̦̲͒̒̍P̴͉̥̈̑̒i̴̥̞͍̙͗̂e̷̹̘̘͉̕C̵̫̤̩͆̿̂e̷̜̝̼̒̃̐͝s̸̗̝͋̀͠͝,̶̠̖̊ ̸̠̦̄̒͝P̴̞̟̻̤͆͋͐a̷̩̓̀̾͌ͅṛ̷̩͍̳̉̊Ṱ̸̆ş̷̣͍͋̉,̴̧͖̘̆͜ ̴̝̩͖͚̈͐͠l̸̢̺̠̂̽͘͝i̷̯̙͐̀̒̉F̶̟̑́͜͠͝e̸̜̮̾̇͌,̴̢̠͈͉̇̔̇ ̴̪̺͕̹͂c̴̜̹̒̀̕R̷̛̟̻̖ͅe̸̥͕̅̃̏̃ä̷͕̯́́͘T̸͕̉Ì̸̟̤̩̭̔͘o̷̧̿̃̆͝N̵͔̓

She had prepared everything. She'd gotten the balloons, the cake, the cupcakes, and gave her deepest apologies to everyone who deserved them. All that was left was to figure out what to do with this indigo-colored, malformed amalgamation that was representative of all the souls they'd wrongfully killed and lives they'd broken. Such fun. She'd been in the suffocating darkness of the soulscape for who knows how long just trying to get this last piece of the puzzle before she could finally set everything right. It was endlessly frustrating.

Marionette looked around the 2-Dimensional room for clues as to what on earth she was supposed to have the bunny do and noticed that the bunny was looking down, not like Goldie who was looking down at the children but straight through the floor of the stage. She willed him down, and after a few glitchy seconds, he plummeted into the very first "mini-game" she'd completed.

'Now what?'

Looking around again, she noticed Balloon Boy's eyes were pointed to the left of the box, so left she went. She fell into a dark abyss for a short while until she saw a child, just sitting there crying. From what she could remember, this was Jonathan, the child who had possessed Bonnie. Despite the bunny's somewhat disturbing appearance, the giving of cake brightened his mood, and Marionette found herself pulled back into the physical realm, back in room 8. She could feel the child's presence again, but Charlie was strangely quiet. A gentle nudge prompted Marionette to get to the final piece of her convoluted plan to free the souls of the children.

Gliding quickly through the attraction, and no doubt startling the guard if he happened to see her, she came across an old picture of herself giving a cake to a small child. Steeling herself, she reached out. Her black, slender fingers brushed gently against the withered and torn paper as the 6 AM chime rang.

Spring shuddered as the 6 AM bells sounded out and he regained full control over his body. The witching hours where Afton could control him had ended. Having seen Marionette streak through room five like a bullet only a minute ago, he decided to go see what she was up to, not that she'd stick around when she noticed him coming. And she would notice him coming. In his decaying and dilapidated state, he wasn't exactly stealthy. Even if he were, there wasn't much that escaped Mari's notice, especially after '75.

It was admittedly lonely in the soon to be abandoned attraction. It was far too quiet and reminded him far too much of that lonely back room in the restaurant, with the faint sounds of life that managed to drift through the ventilation system...

...until they abruptly stopped one day..

He missed performing and being around people. Mostly though, he missed his friends. He hadn't seen Goldie since they were retired, and Spring was sealed in that horrible room, and Mari...well, they weren't friends anymore. He had screwed that relationship up a long time ago. He missed messing with Goldie with her and all the japes they'd pulled on the staff when things were better and no one was dead. He really should've listened to her all those years ago, he could've avoided this whole mess.

Entering the room she had fled into, he saw no sign of her.

'Maybe she'd gone to the guard room?'

Turning around he headed, off to the office. He looked through the glass, and still saw no sign of the puppet.

'Hmm. Where would she have gone in such a rush?'

The guard was gone, which was normal for this time, what was unusual was the extra haze in the air. Did they decide to install a smoke machine? But wasn't smoke from smoke machines white?

Then it hit him.

This was no fake smoke, this was fire. Just as the realization hit him, he saw the orange flames begin to lick up from beneath the desk.

'OH SUGAR-HONEY-ICE-TEA!'

Rushing into the office, he saw that the bobbleheads that were usually on the desk, as well as the guard uniform, had been used for kindling. Spring could only watch in horror as the ventilation alarm went off and his servos froze up from the noise emanating from just above his head. The red lights began blaring, sending him into further despair.

Spring hated the color red.

Red meant blood, like the blood from Afton's crimes, cruelly ending the lives of too many children too early. Blood like the from the night guards, many of which shouldn't have died in the first place. But right now, red meant fire. Fire like the inferno that was about to consume him.

The fire lit the thin paper covering the desk, which quickly erupted. Mustering up every ounce of strength he had, Spring slowly limped his way out of the office. Just as the fire made its way to the trashcan, the inferno tripped the building's fire alarm, freeing him from being drawn to one specific source. The idiots that built the place hadn't thrown in a sprinkler system, nor did they put in any fire extinguishers. Humans sure were dumb sometimes. Just then, it hit him that there was still an unaccounted being somewhere in the building.

"Marionette! Mari! Where a-a-are yo-" His voice box shorted out before he could finish his warning.

Mari was smart, surely she'd know what the fire alarm meant and would… what? What could they do? Leave? He knew Mari could go wherever she pleased but he'd tried before, they'd hooked him up to some invisible red barrier so that he couldn't wander out, which meant he was essentially stuck.

'Think, think, think, where was the least flammable place in this building… the metal vents!'

Turning around, he made his way into the vent that went from cam 7 to the room just outside the office. Wedging himself halfway between the two rooms, he stayed there and waited. Within minutes he could hear the crackling of the flames, and the metal vents around him began to heat up.

'Come on Spring,' he frantically thought to himself. 'think of it as a warm indoor heater on a cold winter night.'

Thick black smoke began to pour in and fill the air in the cramped vent. Spring began to crawl towards the opening.

'No! I... won't... die... here...!'

The last thing he remembered before his systems shut down from overheating was the faint sound of Afton yelling something.

The children's souls were free!

At last, Marionette had given them their happiest day. After all the mistakes and pain they'd been forced through while being tied to this mortal coil through her own misinformed attempts to help them, they were finally free to move on; no strings attached.

Smiling to herself as she emerged from the dreamlike state she was in, a tired Marionette was confronted by a scene that was the exact opposite of happy, or even positive period. Her beloved, well, not despised, hallway was in flames. The cute paper people holding hands were burning, and Marionette could barely see through the black smoke that was swirling with ash and embers.

Quickly looking around, Marionette knew her only available exit was into the room with cameras 9 and 10, which looked promising as there was an exit just through the room. Picking her way carefully, yet swiftly over the flaming debris, she made it to the doorway before there was a horrific cracking noise from above her. She refused to look up and simply tried to move even quicker through the fiery wreckage. She was only a few feet away from freedom when the roof collapsed, burying her slim black and white form beneath it.

'Spring... I know you're in there somewhere...'

It was unbearably hot, and she was pretty sure her internal music box was now damaged, given the pain she felt in her chest. She had no idea how her endoskeleton was fairing, so she simply curled into the smallest ball she could manage with the heavy ceiling pinning her to the ground. She cursed her small stature and flimsier build, any other full-sized animatronic would have few problems dragging themselves out. All she could do was close her eyes and wait as the fire ran its course, and hope that she didn't go with it.

'I'm sorry.'