Day 4x4 - Crocodile Tears

"You have to believe me!"

Your heart was still beating rapidly. There'd been too many close calls in the past few days. You knew you'd be fine but your chest still hurt slightly. Not to mention the other 'injuries' you had accrued today.

But never mind yourself.

Now that you had a bearing and time to breath you start to assess the situation. You look up to the monstrous animatronic above you. While he did save your life and Bonnie's, you couldn't help but tremble at his presence.

In-between wheezing and shallow breathes you manage to spit out "S-so yo-you're the DJ?"

DJMM looks down and flashes you a full smile. The inside of his mouth looked like a lava lamp with clouds of notes flowing in it. The DJ was also playing some sort of techno music very quietly. It echoed from his head.

"That's right." He boomed. "I heard your little kerfuffle." You noted some reverb in his voice, perfect for large stadiums.

"You must be (Y/N). I've heard a lot about you." A gloved hand descends in front of you. You shake one of the finger tips.

The DJ's attention was then turned to Monty. He was still struggling, albeit weaker now. It was clear to Monty that he would not be going anywhere.

"Now then. What do we do with you." The DJ says. His voice was deep with a curious inflection. With his thumb he pet Monty idly. He just tried to duck and avoid the DJ's belittling but was unable to move. He was starring daggers at you, furious and thinking this was some sort of trap you laid for him.

The DJ looks back to you, expectantly.

"Can you just hold him for now? I need to talk to him." You muster. The DJ nods.

You noticed you've been tensing your shoulders the whole time so you let them down. A stress headache builds and you feel the back of your head and forehead began to hurt. You rub the back of your neck idling, trying to massage the stress away.

Regaining your composure and taking a few deep breaths you get ready. There was no way Monty could hurt you, you repeat in your thoughts. Your goal was to find the truth.

You get a little closer to Monty. "Can I speak to you now?" You ask as nicely as you could.

Monty just grunts at you, brushing you off.

His struggling has pretty much stopped. Even his tail which was swaying outside of the DJ's fingers had relaxed. He was still angry but perhaps he would be more receptive now. He wasn't flailing his arms about thanks to them being trapped.

It looked like he wasn't going to be cooperative. You decide to just speak and hopefully he listens.

"Look, you don't need to say anything. Just listen. Please."

"Okay." You say begin.

"As of today I have officially become the senior technician here." Monty's eyes widen when you say that.

"Oh, my." You hear the DJ mutter under his breath.

"I'm in charge of you all."

Monty looked as if he were going to say something but stops. He head sinks down, defeated. To Monty, you weren't just some shmuck anymore. You were one of the bosses.

"And I don't intend on leaving." Your voice cracked upon saying that. You clear your throat. It took a lot to keep your composure after nearly dying twice in a few hours.

Just before you could continue your watch gets a call. The ID read, VANESSA and the location was listed as CENTRAL SECURITY. You answer it.

"Oh thank god! (Y/N)! Is everything alright? I've been trying to reach you! I'll come right now and get Monty. We can take his battery out and have management deal with it in the morning." Vanessa sounded frantic and far more emotive than you had seen so far.

She seemed genuinely concerned. Monty, on the other hand looked terrified at Vanessa's proposal. His struggling resumed again, anger being replaced by fear. Even though he did try to attack you, seeing his frantic like this made you feel bad.

"Thanks but...don't worry about Monty. It's under control. I just need to talk to him." You assure Vanessa.

"Are you sure? There's no way he can be put in lockdown right now. If he gets free later. It's not going to be safe tonight."

"Really, it's okay. If anything happens I'll call you."

"Hmm, arg-, well. Alright. I'll be monitoring from the control room. If I see anything happen I will be there with the others, ASAP." She sounded unconvinced that you had it under control but allowed you to continue.

You thank her for watching and hang up.

Monty's eyes were wide. The threat of a total shutdown terrified him. Or maybe it was because he thought that this would decommission him. The DJ noticed his squirming and tightened his grip slightly. Not enough to hurt him but enough to stop his fidgeting.

"I guess this is it. It's over. I-I'm just not cut out for this. I give up." Monty said quietly. He hung his head in shame.

You had more than enough reason to end this right here and now but there was a part of you that didn't want to see him shut down. You wanted to know the truth. Plus, it wouldn't be good for the other band members to suddenly lose one.

"I won't let them shut your down." You say.

Monty instantly looked up.

"And I'm not going to replace you either. You mean too much to this plex and your fans. It won't happen."

Monty looked suspiciously at you. He was studying you for any catch, tell, tick or any twists in your words. It was too good to be true. He didn't believe you.

"I'm not lying." You were stern.

A wave of guilt splashed across Monty's face. "D-do you really mean it?" Monty asked. It had been the most innocent sounding you had heard since you first met him. He didn't even have his accent there.

"Yes." You say firmly. "But first, I want to know why you hate Bonnie so much. Will you tell me?"

Monty shook his head. "You won't believe me. Nobody has."

"Try me." You cross your arms.

Monty broke eye contact and looked away. "I-I can't."

You take a deep breath. "You know I could have turned on Bonnie anytime. But I haven't. I want to know what happened first. And I need to know what happened that night. I want to know the truth." Saying that managed to relax Monty. You were lying of course but Monty was too stressed to notice.

"I. I-I okay." Monty took a deep breath as he got ready.

"I didn't always hate him. We used to play games together. It was always a friendly competition. But-but one day he changed. He got some upgrade. It made him weird, made everyone act weird. I saw it the night before." Monty shook slightly. "T-those endos. They took him, held him down and did something to him. He-he was like a brother to me." Monty paused. He looked distressed.

"They changed him."

"He started acting weird, he sounded different, he wasn't the same! T-The-there was just something off about him. When we were playing golf that night he started making fun of me, egging me on, but then he-" Monty paused. Judging by how frantic he was getting this wasn't easy for him to get off his chest.

"He took control of me! He forced me to kill him! It was all static and distorted. He made some kind of sound and I just blanked out! When I came to. Bonnie was gone. I would never have killed Bonnie. He made me do it!"

"So Bonnie forced you to kill him?" You ask. Something didn't add up. Not to mention how the body ended up in the race course. And why he suddenly hated him.

"That upgrade did something to him. I went to his room each night after to find him but I never did. One night I saw those endos working on him. They were taking parts of him out. I tried to confront them but I saw the static again. And I just woke up in my room. They made me the new bassist, told me that Bonnie was being repaired."

"Uh-huh."

"I never saw Bonnie again but I heard him. But then Bonnie came back! And he was different! He would take over not just me, but all of us and make us do things. Digging, I saw people disappear. I saw those ears! I know it was him. I saw the glow of his eyes!" He started getting angry again.

"Hold o-"

"I can't remember most of it but I knew he was behind it. I vowed to find wherever he was in the plex and put an end to it! On the nights I was free I searched but never found him."

"That's why you hate him?"

"You have no idea what he made us do! He used to be my friend! He wasn't Bonnie anymore!"

"Whoa, just a-"

"And those bots! I know they were behind it too. I smashed a lot of them trying to find that damn rabbit!"

"Wai-" He was too deep in his train of thought to respond.

"The others didn't believe me! They didn't want to accept what was happening, pretended it didn't! Even Freddy, that sappy, good for nothing-" Monty trailed off.

"But then that child stopped him. I don't know how, but what he.." Monty paused as he stared away. "He-he....freed all of us. He won."

"And now you want to bring him back! You can't! Don't do it! Please!" He was practically bawling now.

"Okay, okay. Just relax. Relax." This was a lot to take in. It was a far cry from everything else you had heard about Bonnie so far. You were shocked. and had a lot of questions.

"You gotta believe me!" Monty said. He was getting anxious again, wasn't sure if you thought he was telling the truth. You yourself weren't sure either. Compared to what Roxanne, Chica and Freddy had all claimed this was extremely unusual. There was a lot to consider.

The DJ had become bored during Monty's testimony. The lies and the mystery weren't interesting t o him in the slightest. He was emitting techno music but quiet enough so as to not disturb you and Monty. He was zoned out listening to the rhythmic kicks and snares.

While Monty had said a lot there was one thing that clearly stood out to you. It was only earlier today that Roxanne had said Monty was the one that got an upgrade. She never mentioned anything different with Bonnie and she never mentioned getting an upgrade herself. There was also the whole 'Bonnie came back' which was a first but one contradiction at a time.

"So let me get this straight. Bonnie got some kind of upgrade that made him change. Then he forced you to kill him?"

"It sounds crazy but I would never have hurt him. We were friends! They did something to him. They-"

"Are you sure you're remembering right? I heard it was you that got the upgrade that day." You state. Unless of course, Roxanne was lying, but then you'd have bigger issues.

"I-No. It was Bonnie! I saw them! They put something in him. The endos held him down! He was trying to break free!"

"When did you see them holding him down? This is on the night he died, not when you saw him getting worked on later." Based on Monty's testimony Bonnie had gotten the 'upgrade' and was then worked on, sometime later.

"I-I saw it with my own eyes! They broke into his room. Several of them! He was screaming!"

Your mind was racing. Wait a minute, how could he have seen it? Monty's room was in Rockstar Row and Bonnie's was halfway across the plex.

Unless that boarded room in Rockstar row was Bonnie's? But even then how would he have seen them hold Bonnie down? That room was past Chica's too, how did she see nothing? How did Freddy or Roxanne not notice either?

Wait, was Monty always in Rockstar Row or was that after Bonnie died? Either way there was no way Monty could have seen what he was describing unless he was confusing memories?

"Are you sure you're not mixing up memories?"

"No! Those were two separate things. I know what I saw!"

It looked like he was telling the truth. You also didn't think him intelligent enough to lie like that. That could only mean one other option but you doubted it. If so it would change your whole perspective of the animatronics.

"Could you describe the room you saw Bonnie in? The one when you saw him getting the upgrade, the first time."

Monty looked curious at your suggestion and took a minute to think.

"There was..there was grass, it was dark, there were patterns on the floor, they were green. There were...golf clubs. It was..." Monty trailed off. He froze, staring at you.

He came to the same realisation as you. "Monty..I'm not sure how I can put this but the upgrades done. That had to have been you. Not Bonnie."

"T-that's impossible! I could-! I..! No!" He started sobbing. He couldn't cry but was making the noise as if he were. At the very least you were glad it exonerated Roxanne's testimony.

So the animatronics were advanced enough that they could disassociate from trauma. You were impressed with the AI but felt really bad for Monty. If that was one part what else happened?

"I-it was me." Monty said, tone nearing silence. "I did it." He was just staring down.

You were slowly piecing things together. So Monty was attacked by endos that did something to him. He disassociated from it believing it was Bonnie. Maybe some kind of control? Everyone wasn't acting weird. He was. You were sure of it.

"What of the second time you saw Bonnie? Could that have been you instead?"

"No! At least...I-I don't think. No, no. I went to his room that time. They took stuff out. I saw his ears. I know that wasn't me!" He doubted himself now, his view on reality having been flipped.

That corroborated with what Roxanne said about Monty being unable to remove those parts on his own. SO Monty was egged on, or controlled or something and killed Bonnie. Then later on the 'corpse' had parts extracted.

Well that answered that. There were still a few more things that you weren't sure about.

That didn't explain how the body ended up in the race course, why the endos acted as they did and more. You were getting ahead of yourself.

You were broken from your train of thought. Monty looked like he was having an emotional crisis. He was completely deep in thought, it was like his mind was re-arranging itself. You weren't happy about this either and could only imagine the things going through his head now.

"Stay with me. I still have some questions. What do you mean Bonnie came back?" You say calmly to Monty. You didn't want to lose him.

"Aa-afftter I saw those endos working on him I never saw Bonnie again. N-Not directly. Every few nights he would take over us and make us do things. Not just me. All of the band members. One night he had us digging for something. We couldn't resist. Other times it was just static but I saw people screaming. I heard his laugh. I saw his ears when I could see. He was there, commanding."

You had hoped he was mis-remembering otherwise there would be even bigger problems. But he said all the others did it. Monty clearly had a lot of trauma, you wonder if it was related to his outbursts you'd heard about before.

"It all stopped that night when Gregory showed up. He broke Freddy out of it somehow. Fought all of us, Bonnie made me try to kill Gregory but Gregory won. He freed all of us from Bonnie."

He must have been referring to the SB-9 incident. But this was the first you had heard of Bonnie having any connection to it. Surely he couldn't have been turned on at any point? Nobody even knew where he was until just recently, so said the Rep. He was also in terrible shape when you found him. Unless there was additional damage done by Gregory? If Gregory even fought him.

You shake your head. Until now Bonnie had never been mentioned as part of SB-9. Unless this was something that even the reports failed to mention. Monty remarked that he couldn't see 'Bonnie' for a lot of it. You guess it must have been some sort of glitch or something that prevented it. That would exclude everyone's summary of events except Gregory. Damnit, more questions!

"I've been repairing Bonnie for 4 days now. When I first saw him he was still just as injured as when you presumably killed him. Covered in dust, crushed or fell, golf club smashes on his legs. He hasn't been active since the incident. Not that I could find anyway."

"T-that's impossible. I know it was him controlling us. I saw him. He was prancing around trying to gut Gregory! I couldn't control myself then just as before. All I saw was static and those DAMN EARS! And that laugh! It was Bonnie's!" He said exasperated. It was like you were watching him lose his grip on reality in real-time. He was still crying slightly.

This whole thing must have been hard on him. You wanted the wrap up the questioning.

Despite having no connection to Bonnie's death this put Gregory as a person of interest.

If anyone would know about Bonnie re-appearing it would be him. You make a mental note to ask him later.

"You don't understand. The others, they'd known each other for a long time, longer than me. I-I always felt like the odd one out. When Bonnie was gone I thought-I thought maybe they would see me more." Monty admitted.

Where was this coming from? You were sure but if he wanted to get it off his chest. If anything it gave him another motive. You weren't sure.

"That's why I couldn't tell the others, they wouldn't believe me. They knew Bonnie longer than I did. I-it was just me. Always just me trying to stop him, from my golf course away from everyone to now."

Monty was still extremely stressed. In-between the DJ's grip and having to retell painful events he was halfway to a nervous breakdown.

There had to be something you could do to ease him. Then it hit you. There was something special you noticed earlier about Bonnie. Maybe Monty had the same feature?

You get closer to Monty. "May I?" You reach for Monty's head.

"W-What are ya-" "Just relax." You calmly say. Based on how you had analyzed Bonnie's shell you assumed this would work. You place your hand just to the side of Monty's snout and start scratching. At first he flinches and seems annoyed but a few moments later he leans into your hand. He was enjoying the feeling. You move your hand directly under his snout and start scratching there. Instinctively he lifts his head up, allowing you full access to scritch and pat all the way to his throat. He was melting in your hand.

Monty emitted what almost seemed like a purr. He was in heaven. "O-o-oooohh." He moaned. After a minute of this you switch hands. He had completely relaxed and leaned into you.

He eyes locked on to yours and it seemed as you scratched that they flickered slightly. He was in awe at this.

You eventually let go, him trying to follow you.

"Feeling better?"

Monty nodded silently. You wondered something. "Have you always been really aggressive?"

"Yes. I-Well-I-Maybe. I need to think about it." You guess that in-between the stress of 'Bonnie' making him commits evil acts and his hunt to stop him made him irrational and paranoid. That would have explained the outbursts he had. Though it is also possible that if he still had that 'upgrade' then it could explain his aggressiveness. But judging by the conversation he didn't seem as aggressive anymore. Maybe Gregory had done something to stop it?

Maybe placing the idea that he was over-aggressive would cause him to think about it later and change.

"So Gregory stopped Bonnie?"

"Yes he did. He..he-stopped-well he beat Bonnie. I-I-he-I don't know how he did it."

The statement seemed a little off with him breaking eye contact as he tried to say it. There was some detail it was like he glossed over.

He'd been through enough already, you thought. There was just one more thing you wanted to ask.

"Why were you worried about being replaced then? You have your own area." You noticed that during the questioning he had somehow gotten his arms free. He was twiddling his thumbs idly. The DJ had been paying attention to other things and had loosened his grip.

"I...like the band. I don't want to stop playing just because Ol' Big Ears is back." He admitted.

"I like the shows, playing and the concert." Monty said quietly. It seemed that while there was a worry of Bonnie returning to wreak havoc, Monty was still worried about his place in the band.

"I want to be the singer eventually." He said, barely above a whisper.

You shrug. "I'm sure we can work something out. There are plenty of bands with two bassists. Flipper, Magma, Pinback...Or two vocalists. Or You could also just play a different instrument too. What about a saxophone? They're cool."

"Well. I-I, maybe. They do look kinda cool." He said. Finally, it had seemed like he had calmed down.

"Don't forget, I'm a technician. I'll find out what's wrong with Bonnie and fix it. Okay?"

Monty sighed. He wasn't happy about the arrangement but there was little choice he had in the manner. "Alright." He said quietly.

"I'm going to let you go now. Can you promise not to attack me?"

"O-only if you do that thing again." It worked. He was totally hooked.

"I will. I just need to get back to work on Bonnie first."

"Awww. Okay."

"Hey DJ, You can let him go now." You motion to DJMM. He just nods and lets Monty go. You are on alert for a few seconds just to make sure he didn't try anything but he didn't.

"I'm sorry about earlier. I just. I didn't know. I just-I need to do some thinking. There's...there's a lot going on." Monty said apologetically.

You nodded. "Don't worry. I will make sure nothing happens to you."

"Thank you." He said quietly.

Vanessa hadn't left the security room the entire time. Although she couldn't hear the full conversation she got bits and pieces. She was carefully studying body language. When she saw you had successfully defused the situation she at first relieved. Then she was impressed you had managed to calm Monty down without resorting to violence.

As she watched let out a huge sigh of relief.

Behind her was Chica also watching, trying as quietly as she could to eat from the nearby waste bin.

"I'm going to go back to my room, or what's left of it. Ma battery is running low." Monty said, accent returning. It looked like he yawned. He started to walk past you to the arcade exit. You give him a wide berth.

"Wait." You say. There was one other thing you remembered.

Monty turned slightly, looking over his back. "When they worked on you, do you know what they put in you?"

Monty put a finger on his chin as he thought. You felt bad forcing him to remember all these buried nightmares but it had to be done. "I can't-I can't remember." You note that down.

"Got it. Thanks Monty."

"Alright kid. Have a good night." He said continuing to walk off. He walked with his head down, tail drooped down too. Mentally he was exhausted and his battery level was running low as well. He looked defeated, his tail dragging sadly on the ground.

You were still sceptical about Bonnie's connection to whatever went down last year. One thing you knew for sure was that you needed those case files if there were any. You plan to leave a note for the rep to get some answers.

You also thank the DJ who slinks back into a tunnel seemingly bored from the whole ordeal. You would like to have spoken to him more. But, there would be a time where you'd have to work on him. Judging by what you knew about the SB-9 incident and Bonnie's death he had little to do with either.

The walk back to parts and services went by as a blur. You were far too lost in your thoughts this time. Was Bonnie behind everything SB-9? Was he behind the disappearances? What forced Monty to kill Bonnie? Was Monty lying? It didn't seem like it. But no other animatronic had mentioned Bonnie re-appearing. Surely if Bonnie had shown up to wreak havoc Freddy would have mentioned it.

You were so entrenched in your thoughts you hardly noticed the rooms changing as you went from the arcade to the main hall to where you fought Monty the first time to parts and services.

Now that you knew it was Monty that killed Bonnie it took a load off your mind. However that was quickly replaced with the accusations that Monty levelled onto Bonnie.

In the end getting Bonnie's testimony would be key. However there were still a few more opinions you needed to get. First of all you still hadn't spoken to Sun or Moon. They may know something. You consider going there right now but you remind yourself you hadn't actually done any work tonight. You decide to go closer to the morning to visit Sun.

There was also the matter of Gregory. Monty claimed that he had not only seen by fought Bonnie. Based on what Freddy said, Gregory was the 'hero' of the whole incident. Maybe you could get his number from Vanessa? He supposedly beat Bonnie and went face to face with him. The kid was part of this.

Matter of fact, wasn't Vanessa also present during that incident? Maybe she knew something? No, she said she hadn't met Bonnie before. Wait a minute, but she did act really weird when she saw Bonnie. Maybe she wasn't telling the truth when you first asked her. You note that down, another person to ask. Great.

Sitting down at your seat you sigh. There was still so much to do. Your headache had gone away and it was like you were breathing in fresh air. You felt refreshed and determined; Ready to work.

You stretch your arms in preparation.

Looking down, you notice a piece of paper that had flown off earlier. It had been stepped on. It was a handwritten note from the rep about there not being a specific deadline to turn Bonnie on by. It mentioned that whenever it was ready they could easily get everything in order in a day. Well, at least that gave you more time to sort out this rabbit's secrets.

For now, you wanted to actually do some work. It would help you think. Rubbing your hands together you resume work on ol' big ears'.

The next chapter is called A Hare, A Gator, A Bear.