We crept through the atrium down to the first floor. As we approached the daycare lobby, I asked Michael, "So, where would Moon's chip be?"

"The theater backstage," Michael answered.

"Ugh, I hate that place," I groaned. Michael looked at me confused.

"There were tons of endoskeletons down there," I explained. "I only managed to escape because I had a Faz Cam."

"But they're all so friendly!" Sun chimed in. Maybe they were when Vanny wasn't around, but now they're one of the worst things I've ever encountered here.

"No, they tried to strangle me if I stopped looking at them," I said.

Michael's eyes gazed down to the bruises on my neck. "So, they did that to you?" he asked, pointing towards it.

"Yes and no," I replied. At this point, the bruises the endoskeleton had given me would've faded by now, but since Freddy had done the same, my neck was still as black and blue as ever. I rubbed it, feeling a little embarrassed by my bruises. "I'd just really prefer not to go down there," I said nervously.

Michael pushed open the door to the daycare and sighed. "You're not leaving my side again," he said, "so you're coming down with me."

"Oh! I can watch Gregory while you go!" Sun suggested, but Michael shook his head.

"We should stay together as much as we can, so you're joining us, too," Michael said.

I really did not want to go there. I anxiously scratched the new bandage on my arm. The last endoskeleton I saw wasn't one that had attacked me, but was the one that was currently in my house. The image of my mom flashed before my eyes, and I started breathing heavily. Was that what they did when they finally managed to take hold of you?

I stammered out of nervousness, "I-I don't think I can face one again– woah!" Sunny had stuck his head through the gap between my legs and stood up properly, forcing me onto his shoulders.

"Now they won't catch you!" Sun said defiantly. I grabbed onto the triangles sticking out of his head to balance myself, and once my head stopped swirling I glanced around, amazed at how tall I was now. I don't think Sun realized he managed to stop my panicking, but I thanked him in my mind for it.

"We're so high up!" Bowtie yelled excitedly. I remembered how happy it was when it sat on top of my hat. I can only imagine its enjoyment from three times the height.

I finished collecting myself and said, "Well, you should know that the endoskeletons will try to grab you and stop moving once you look at them. When Monty and I fought them together, it didn't count Monty's sight."

Bowtie gasped with an idea. "Michael can look one way, and Gregory looks the other! You'll cover so much ground," it said.

"Yeah, and with that height, you'll be able to see the whole place," Michael said, looking up at me.

I still wasn't entirely convinced, and Michael could see right through me. "You've got a team now. It's not going to be as scary as before," he said, trying to reassure me.

"Right! Look what you've managed to do alone! It'll be so much easier with us by your side," Bowtie added. I was starting to feel embarrassed. This was getting too sappy.

"Haha! We're Gregory's guards!" Sun said happily.

"Gregory's guards!" Bowtie started chanting, and soon Sun joined, Michael hesitantly following as well. "Gregory's guards! Gregory's guards!"

"Okay! Okay," I interrupted them, covering my flushed face. God, I hope I'm never seen in public with them . I already felt humiliated around them, I couldn't imagine the feeling with other people seeing this. "Let's just get this over with," I sighed.

Michael laughed at my reaction, but he led the way down to the theater. We made it to the platform with the desk, and through the overhang we could see the endoskeletons spewed around random spots in the area.

"There's a lot more than last time," I commented.

"You see that?" Michael said, pointing towards a poster on the wall. "That's where the chip should be."

At least we wouldn't have to go super far into the backstage, otherwise we'd have to worry about being cornered. Michael pressed his back along Sun's. Sun had to move slowly down the stairs so that Michael could move backwards. I kept my eyes in front of me, trying not to focus on one specific endoskeleton in fear that another would prop up.

Either this system worked really well, or the endoskeletons weren't on, as I wasn't even able to hear them move. Sun approached the poster and ripped it off the wall. There was a small hole, so he stuck his hand inside.

"There's nothing in here," he said.

"Try the sides," Michael said. Sun moved his arm around some more.

"Nope, nada!" he said.

"Damn, they must've moved it somewhere else," Michael sighed.

I started panicking. "Where would they put it?"

"Any ideas?" Michael asked Sun. "Hmm... nope!"

I heard the endoskeletons turn on. Great, so they were off the whole time. I wasn't facing any of them, Michael was the only one who was turned to them. I felt a bit lightheaded. I wanted to stay on Sun's shoulders out of fear of the endoskeletons reaching me, but I also felt so dizzy being up this high.

"I-I need to get down," I said, pulling on Sun's collar.

"No, stay up there. Sun, let's go to the backroom," Michael ordered. "Right-o!" he agreed.

Sun turned and I got a look at the endoskeletons to the side. Su moved forward, with Michael close behind, until he opened the door to the room with all the leftover cardboard cutouts. "Anything inside?" Michael asked.

"No," I said. There wasn't anything inside, other than weird cutouts of the animatronics in costumes. Michael shut the door behind us and said, "Good."

He dusted his hands off and put one of the cardboard cutouts in front of the door, using it to block it from being opened.

"Put me down now," I whispered quietly to Sun. I was feeling so overwhelmed. He complied and leaned down, and I hopped off his back.

Banging started coming from the door Michael had locked. "Great, now we're cornered!" Bowtie yelled. I was too shaken to say anything.

"They just wanna say hi!" Sun said, though no one believed him.

"Here's the plan," Michael said, walking closer to us. "We'll wait for them to pile on top of each other. Then, when we open the door, Gregory and I will stare them down while Sun goes around and searches every nook and cranny in this theater. Sun, once you find it, or have searched everywhere, you'll come back to us. Okay?"

"We're still totally cornered!" Bowtie said frantically.

"As long as we've got a pair of eyes on the doorway, we'll be fine," Michael said. He turned towards Sun and said, "Be quick. Check under props, the stage panels, and if you can, reach the overhang of the theater. It should look similar to Roxy's chip."

Sun saluted like a soldier in the military and said, "Yes, sir!"

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Bowtie yelled at Michael, clearly ticked off.

"We don't have much of a choice now," Michael said. Bowtie didn't say anything back. It reached up and rested its head on my shoulder to try and calm me down.

Michael reached out the door, holding onto the cardboard cutout as he counted down, "Three, two, one!" He tore it away from the door and once the door opened, a pile of the endoskeletons stumbled into the room, all their thrashing coming to a halt once Michael's and I's eyes landed on them. Michael used the cutout to push over the remaining endoskeletons that stood outside our door, causing the closest ones to fall down onto their backs.

"Okay, go," Michael ordered Sun. He gleefully hopped over the pile, giving one that had its hand stuck up in the air a high-five on the way out. Michael and I stared down at the endoskeletons, some of them hanging out near the doorway, while others had fallen face-first into the backroom with us.

I looked at their dead, empty eyes, unable to shake the feeling of upcoming dread. As much as I wanted to look away, I couldn't. I tried not to think of my mother's body rotting away in her bathroom, but their limbs intertwined with each other on the pile, becoming a giant mesh of metal and wires, reminding me of the way their parts plunged into her organs. I was starting to feel faint again.

Michael reached over his arm to me and pulled closer to him, giving me a small side hug as we stared down. He rubbed my back, rotating in circles as a means to comfort me. He knew how I was feeling right now.

"I hope this doesn't mean the other chips were also moved," Bowtie broke the silence.

Michael sighed, "It probably does."

"What are we going to do then?" Bowtie asked.

"We'll find them, no problem. If Roxy's is any indication of where to find them, it'll be easy," he said. He motioned towards the endoskeleton pile in front of us. "Unless these guys show up again," he added, irritated.

I scooted closer to Michael, feeling his coat against my cheek. He squeezed my hand gently and asked, "You okay, bud?"

"I can't unsee it," I mumbled. Michael thought for a moment. He couldn't tell me to look away, the extra pair of eyes brings a layer of security to us, so he had to come up with another way to keep my mind off it.

"Look there," Michael said, pointing between the gaps of several metallic limbs. "Don't you think that looks like a cat?"

It did, sorta. The silhouette between the gaps lined an awkward oval and two shapes sticking out the top. "Yeah, a little," I said.

"And there," Michael continued, aiming his finger to another weird shape, "that's the side of someone's face. See?" He dragged his finger alongside the shape. It curved inward for the forehead, struck out at an angle for the nose, and curved in again for the chin. I giggled a little, "Yeah."

I gazed over the piling, spotting any shapes that I could form together to look like something else. "There!" I said, pointing at an indent. It curved at the top with a straight line at the bottom, with what I presumed was an endoskeleton's head that was smashed in the center. "It looks like an eye."

"Oh, good one!" Michael complimented. Bowtie peered over suspiciously to get a look around.

"That one's a duck!" Bowtie said. There were two round ovals, one looking as if it was a duck's bill.

We searched for odd shapes in the pile together, not once moving from our spot. When Sun returned, his permanent smile somehow seemed even brighter than usual.

"Did you find it?" Michael asked.

"Yes!" Sun exclaimed, pulling it out and dangling it from its keychain. It had "M" in black and white, and attached was a flash drive that looked similar to Roxy's, although a bit smaller.

"Perfect! Let's get out of this stupid theater," Michael said, lightly nudging my side.

Michael ordered Sun to pick me up on his shoulders once again. Then, while I gazed down at the endoskeletons with my new range of vision, Michael stepped over them to the other side of the door, turning around to face us afterwards. Sun then followed, and I heard the endoskeletons behind us begin to rise. I spun around to look at them, but once Sun had made it to the other side and he was no longer blocking them from Michael's vision, there was no movement from them. We kept an eye on them as we continued back up the steps into the theater.

When Michael shut the door behind us, I sighed with relief. "I'm never going back there ever again," I groaned, placing my elbows on Sun's head and resting my head in my hands. Bowtie laughed behind me.

"Not even for a show?" Sun asked.

"God no!" I shouted. Why would I wanna see a kiddie play like that anyways?

"So, where was it?" Michael asked.

"Under the floorboards of the stage. You were totally right!" Sun said. Michael did suggest checking the stage's panels. I wondered if he had assumptions as to where all the other chips would be, too. Sun knelt down, letting me get off his shoulders once again.

"Is it just Moon's?" I asked. It only had an M on it.

"Yeah, it is," Michael said. He put out his hand, expectantly waiting for Sun to drop it into his palm. He did just that, and Michael held onto it tightly. "Sun and Moon are too different personalities in one body. Their battery powers both, but their motherboard splits them into two."

Sun wiped away fake tears. "You really did build me," he said, full of emotion. Michael snickered at Sun's sudden show of feelings.

"Okay, Sun, turn around. I'm going to insert the chip," he said. Sun happily spun, turning his back towards Michael. "Oh boy!" He chirped, excited to have Moon return back to normal.

Michael reached up and I watched as he pushed the chip into the slit in the motherboard behind his head. It made a few electronic sounds before he pushed it in even farther, making it practically impossible to take out, if not for the keychain at the end.

"Is it done? Is Moon back? Can I–" Sun didn't get to finish his ramblings before his power suddenly shut down, slurring his speech until it came to a halt. He fell to his knees, though lucky for him, his strong stance kept him from falling over.

Michael and I stared at the still body for a while, but when he realized that Sun wasn't turning back on, Michael shifted around. "Hm, odd," he said.

I looked at him worriedly. "Odd? What do you mean, odd ?"

"It doesn't usually take so long," he replied. He tapped the wiring in the back of Sun's head, but I really didn't understand what he was doing.

"Is it working? Is he going to be okay?" I asked.

"The chip's stuck inside, so it's still converting information to his system. Vanny must've rewritten everything," he said. I still didn't really understand what he meant, but I assumed it just meant that it was going to take more time for Moon to fully recover.

"What should we do now?" Bowtie asked.

"We could drag him down to parts and service and get him a new head. Can't imagine this one's going to last any longer," Michael said, lightning knocking the side of Sun's head with his fist. His face was definitely falling apart, which I assumed was from the fall he had taken from Gator Golf, not to mention his shoulder almost falling out of its socket.

I had a feeling at some point in our quest we'd go to parts and service, but considering what happened the last time I was there, I had an uneasy feeling about going. I wasn't really sure if I was ready to be in that room again.

"But what if we run into trouble on the way?" I asked Michael. It was a reasonable excuse. We had no clue where Vanny or any of the other animatronics were, and I was worried they'd spot us moving around while carrying a big hunk of metal.

"Well, sitting here like waiting ducks isn't any better. We should at least try to get some progress done," Michael refuted. He stretched out his arms in preparation before kneeling down and pushing up Sun. He flung him over his shoulder, though he must've been heavier than Michael expected since he let out an exhausted grunt. Once he had Sun in an easy position to carry, he got ready to leave. I sighed once I realized there was no getting out of this.

"Do you need help?" I asked. I couldn't imagine that being very comfortable.

"No offense," he said, smiling down at me, "but I don't think you'll be much help."

"Full offense taken!" I yelled, crossing my arms, annoyed. I was exaggerating a little as I knew he was probably right. Still, he could've let me try.

"Oh, don't be like that," Michael assured me. "You can be the lookout."

Someone's gotta keep an eye out to ensure no one's nearby or in the room ahead of us. I nodded to show my adoration for that idea.

I peeked through the doors we used to make sure the coast was clear before Michael followed. When we were in the entrance lobby, I looked over the railing to see if there was anybody at the bottom. When I didn't see anybody, I motioned for Michael to come along before running down the stairs.

"Don't go too far!" Michael yelled from the top. I stopped in my tracks and waited for him to reach me. I was at the platform that connected the two stairs together.

"How heavy is he?" I asked when Michael had come to my side, still carrying Sun over his shoulders.

"Well, not too bad," Michael said, though his face looked concentrated as he walked, as if he was ignoring how much Sun weighed. "He's really just an endoskeleton with clothes on."

He was definitely the lightest out of all the attractions here. The heaviest part of him was probably his head, while the rest of his body seemed relatively equal.

"How'd you make him, anyway?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh," Michael sighed, letting his mind wander as he thought. "Let's see... the idea came to me after my first son was born. Taking care of a young toddler is exhausting," he said. He looked around at the pizzaplex scenery, avoiding looking at me. We made it down to the bottom of the entrance. I opened the backdoor and peered through, gazing down the stairs to make sure no one was there first.

"I was in school at the time for robotics," he said, seeming proud of that accomplishment. "My wife worked full time, and daycare was... expensive. 'Course, I wouldn't end up making the first Sun and Moon until, I wanna say, three years later?"

"Woah, so Sun and Moon are like, super old," I said. Michael glared at me, not pleased with my implications, but I laughed at my own joke.

"The betas are very old," Michael explained, "the ones that helped babysit my kid. They were separate animatronics, and they were also much smaller. They became part of the rental facility around the time he turned six. That's when I started working on this Sun and Moon."

No wonder his kid had such a fascination with animatronics. He was put in the care of two when his mom and dad weren't around, and if his dad worked on them at home, it only made sense for him to indulge in the hobby. He was destined to enjoy robotics.

"So, the originals are now rentable babysitters?" I asked.

"That's one way to put it," Michael said.

"That's... kinda cool," I said. We had made it to the bottom of the stairs and started walking through the underground tunnels. It wasn't particularly dark, but Bowtie pulled out my flashlight just so I could see the very ends of each hallway.

"Yeah?" he said, though it was more like he just breathed it out. I nodded. He gave me a warm smile. "If we ever get the chance, maybe I'll take you to the rental facility. It's got tons of old animatronics there," he said.

"Really?" I gasped.

"Sure! Plus, you'll meet Foxy. He's always been a favorite of mine, ever since I was young," he said. I figured as much, considering the Foxy mask he had worn and his reaction to Foxy being removed from the pizzaplex.

"Is Bon Bon there?" Bowtie suddenly asked. Michael shook his head.

"No, the circus animatronics have been... destroyed," he said.

"What? Why?" it yelled, surprised.

"It's complicated," Michael said.

The circus title sounded familiar. He had talked about them on the ride to my house. "Weren't the circus animatronics the ones who scooped you?" I asked, though I quickly covered my mouth when I realized how invasive and insensitive that question was.

"Hah, yeah," Michael confirmed. He looked away, a little embarrassed.

I rubbed my injured arm uncomfortably. I hoped I didn't upset him. The answer to why the animatronics were destroyed seemed obvious now. They were just too dangerous to be around.