Archive of Our Own

“Have you been doing it for Afton? Because you tell me you’re doing it for yourself,”

“I am doing it for me.”

“Then why do you feel so empty?”

                 -Lefty & Molten, Moltens Change?! S1 Jon

***

Stumbling into the pizzeria at 3 am in the morning was not how he planned his Monday would go but this is the joy of working for Fazbears. A joy he learned a little too quickly.

Yet, even though the whole reason for coming in this early was to work, one look at the Christmas decorations still adorning every single wall gave him a reason to procrastinate and instead begin to construct a grand decoration deconstruction of the whole pizzeria.

 They were only a day before New Years but he needed these decorations down or else some angry mothers would insult his bloodline for keeping decorations up for too long. He remembers vaguely this being drilled into his head during college at some point but he may have been too hungover to actually understand the ethics or importance of appealing to the holidays. He really should have paid more attention to his business classes. And his friends.  Or anything really. 

He sighed, turning towards the only online animatronic, “Happy Frog, could you get these banners off the walls? We need all the decorations down before the week starts.” He asked, trying not to sound half asleep. He wasn’t even the one who put these decorations up. He really shouldn’t have to tell them every time a holiday ends that they need to clean what they decorated. 

As soon as he recruits some of the animatronics to take it all down he needs to do the paperwork he forgot about since Helpy decided to tell him at two am in the morning and not anytime earlier in the week that they were going on a mini vacation and couldn't do it for him. He was tired and groggy and was not looking forward to straining his eyes on his desktop to finish it. He sincerely hopes he is not going to get yelled at again for not completing it on time. He's trying okay? But the more he procrastinates it the less he wants to do it. A little more time spent on putting away Christmas decorations never hurt anyone, right? 

He noticed Happy frog hadn’t moved at all despite him asking and was visibly pouting, her arms dropped in exaggerated sadness, “Why can’t we keep it Christmas forever?” She asked in some sort of dreamy dramatic tone that told him these decorations were not coming down by her hands. Whoever said robots would be the future of humanity was horribly wrong. They can't even follow one given task half the time, how are they gonna take over the world? 

It is a funny thought though– imagining the animatronics did take over space. He could see it now; Freddy goes to space with his best friends Bonnie, Foxy and Chica and they take over everything by the power of confusion! Since there probably aren’t any animatronics in space. He's so glad that's never going to happen, aliens aren’t even real! But the more he thinks about it the more the storyline seems to develop… They do have a portal, he supposes aliens aren’t far off…

Happy at the moment hopped up from where she was sitting on the stage, deciding to look around at the decorations fondly. He jumped slightly as he tuned back in, nervously acting like he didn’t almost just fall asleep thinking about the animatronics taking over space. Seeing Happy just stand around made him roll his eyes as he rubbed them in an attempt to wake up. It's not like there won't be more Christmases. He’ll make sure he does even better next year. Better than all the animatronics could do, at least. 

“Of course I would but you know we have to move on, we can always bring these back next year!” He recommends, fully knowing they probably wouldn't be in this building next year.

 Whether or not Helpy decides to go along with his theme park idea, eventually they're gonna run out of space in this small pizzeria. Honestly, they’re already pretty cramped. They'd need a bigger building at the very least. Maybe a building without Afton or Molten haunting their every move. Speaking of Molten, where was he? Moltens always wandering around the halls at this time of night for whatever reason. He sees him on the cameras when he checks the footage. 

Thinking about Molten reminded him of the whole Santa Hat Ennard ordeal and the last interaction they had on Christmas a few days ago. He's surprised Molten hasn’t taken down the decorations himself. 

 He winced, “Plus… Molten may just kill us if we don't clean this up by the first,” he nervously said, looking around as if speaking his name would make him appear out of nowhere. Or jump from the ceiling. He's been scared way too many times like that. As much as he likes Molten’s nice side, he would rather not risk dying before New Years.

“Aw. Well maybe we can see Ennard one last time! With the Santa hat! He's so cute when he has it on!" Happy joyfully said but then she paused, thinking about it for a second, “Or, maybe that isn't a good idea. He seemed pretty upset after that hide and seek minigame. Molten was so angry I doubt he'd let us near him anyway. Christmas was because Orville forced it on right? I heard Ennard got a chance to spend time with everyone,” Seems like they had the same idea about being weary around Molten now. 

“Yeah but to be fair, Molten doesn't let us near him on a daily basis, the least he could do for insulting us everyday is letting us see Ennard. He can’t stay mad forever,” He stated in a matter of fact tone, crossing his arms as he walked closer to Happy Frog. He didn’t understand why Molten was so pissed off at them for the Santa hat thing. He wished he knew if it was possible to separate the two, since Ennard was basically locked up in his head. 

While he doesn’t want to risk dying, Ennard deserved to have some time to hangout with them and play minigames. Even if he didn’t like hide and seek, surely there's a game out there he’d enjoy! He could try asking AI Afton about it again later, but every time he brought it up Afton brushed it off like he was lying. Even Jon thought he was lying. It's not like he's making it up, half of his animatronics watched it happen! Molten doesn’t even deny it! 

Since both of them were distracted talking about Ennard, the front doors opening made them both jump. They quickly whipped around to find that Molten was standing in the doorway. It seriously was like if you spoke his name too many times he would be brought into existence…

Molten continued to stand in the open doorway, just staring in a general direction, straight ahead; Like he was on a preprogrammed walk path and was scanning the surroundings. Bryan half expected Molten to realize they were both here and snarl some kind of snarky response that was something along the lines of “what are you doing here?”

Except he just kept standing there. Unblinking, like an inanimate object that had no life– and for Molten to act that way is a little concerning. Bryan and Happy both exchanged a glance, looking a little scared. He idly thought that this was probably some trap to lure them closer so he could rip them apart or something.

“Uh? Molten? Why are you just standing there?” He asked nervously, putting his arms down and tilting his head in his direction. 

The bear blinked and slightly lifted his head towards Bryan's direction as if finally acknowledging he was there. Despite now apparently knowing they were there, the bear still stood nonverbal. 

Interested and confused, he walked up to Molten with Happy trailing behind him, suddenly stopping dead a few feet in front of him when he noticed Molten's expression.

His comparison that Molten was acting like an inanimate object might’ve been a little too accurate. Molten looked completely blank, turned off even. Bryan waved his hand in front of Molten's face in some attempt to wake him up. “Um, Hello? Did you turn off?”

Molten blinked again, and used to when he did this his expression would immediately snap back into hatred and he’d roughly push him away. But Molten didn't get the time to scold his expression back into place, simply looking down at him. “Can you stop?” Molten asked blankly, taking a small step away. There was absolutely no emotion in his tone either. In fact, his face didn't even change. Bryan gets they're all robots, but Molten usually has more expressions than this. Was this some new scare tactic? If it was, it's kind of working. 

“Molten are you okay?” Happy asked timidly, tilting her head at him with a concern Bryan couldn't fathom. Sure, this is weird, but there's no way she's actually worried about him. He's evil! It's definitely just a new way to freak him out. Maybe this is a good thing.

Molten's eyes softened, even just a smidge. The slightest change in his expression that Bryan caught last minute as he glanced back at the bear. “Just fine.” His voice sounded off, kinda hoarse and deeper. Which was even weirder.

Tone, how their eyes move and body language is the only way Bryan can differentiate the animatronics moods, and he likes to think he's gotten pretty good at recognizing their emotions and expressions. They usually mimic humans anyways, so he can apply all his tricks he learned from psychology to the animatronics too. 

Bryan wondered what changed in Molten to make him act so different than he usually did. It was genuinely jarring. He was acting fine yesterday, now he's acting all broken and depressed. Actually– Why did he even care? This doesn’t affect him at all. He didn’t care about Molten of all people. 

Happy frog hummed, “Maybe you just need a break! Or…” Before Bryan could stop her, Happy pulled out a Santa Hat out of nowhere, quickly jumping up and placing it atop Molten's head, the action taking the taller bear by surprise as his eyes widened and he stiffened. Bryan gasped, putting a hand over his mouth. Does Happy frog have an actual deathwish? 

The three of them stilled in anticipation, waiting on Molten to glitch out and turn into Ennard again, like he usually would. 

Except– Nothing happened.

Molten's eyes twitched, his hands falling back to his sides. He looked conflicted, but it didn't seem like he was fighting for control or anything. Why wasn’t it working? Ennard always came out with the Santa Hat. 

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Molten slowly pulled the Santa Hat off of his head, clutching it harshly. It was hard to describe the look he had in his eyes, something Bryan couldn’t decipher. It seemed like he was trembling. Was he also waiting for Ennard to come out? He waited in silence with them, why would he do that if he wasn’t expecting something to happen? 

Happy frog took a step back, “Did Ennard not want to see us?” She asked timidly, looking down and grasping her arm awkwardly. Bryan also took a step away, afraid of any potential wrath on Molten's end. Molten didn't look at them, still staring at the crumbled hat in his hand.

Molten's voicebox let out what sounded like a repressed sigh, “Ennard… is– is sleeping. He– doesn’t want to talk to anyone… anymore.” He said slowly, suddenly letting go of the Santa Hat, watching it drop to the floor unceremoniously. Bryan raised an eyebrow at the action. He could've sworn Molten was gonna say something else before he said “sleeping.” Why would Ennard suddenly not want to talk to them anymore? He had a fun time at Christmas didn’t he?

“Will–” Happy Frog began, looking back up at Molten, “Will he come back? I really like hanging out with him…” She asked sadly, probably thinking she was pushing Ennard too hard to interact with people. She had probably grown the biggest connection with Ennard, protecting him like he was some kid. He couldn’t really blame her, it was in her programming to protect children; and Ennard acted just like one. 

Molten looked up, that same blank expression taking over his face. Any grief or surprise locked away like it was when he walked in the building. “...I don’t know.” Molten seemed to hesitate before speaking again, stuttering in a way that was unnatural for him, “He– He liked hanging out with you too. He’s probably… overwhelmed from some other peoples actions,” Molten took a glance at Bryan, glaring at him without any emotion. He still could read the message. How is this somehow his fault? 

“So you’re keeping him from us?” Bryan asked accusingly, glaring right back at him. It's the only logical explanation, Ennard was happy a few days ago.

 Molten's faceplates seemed to stiffen at his words as he returned to a straighter posture, glancing between the two of them. “Think whatever you want.” He said flatly, unimpressed by him. 

Happy Frog deflated, still stuck on his previous words, “Can you tell him I’m sorry? For bringing him out?” She asked, clearly more upset about it than Molten appeared to be.

Molten blinked, slowly nodding, “It wasn’t anything you did, but I’ll… I’ll tell him if he ever wakes up.” Bryan wasn’t sure he liked how Molten was wording that. Molten was making it sound like Ennard was dead. Did he somehow force Ennard out because everyone was getting too close with him? It must have something to do with Springtrap's plans. He really was the epitome of evil. 

He would point it out to Happy frog, but she already seemed upset and he didn’t want to start a fight this early in the morning. He probably should keep his mouth shut instead of accusing Molten of foul play here. Besides, if he was right, why would Molten hurt Ennard? He remembers Molten specifically saying Ennard was something he swore to protect. 

It didn’t make sense.

After more silence Molten turned his head to Bryan, looking him up and down, “You’re here early.” Molten stated, Bryan figured he meant it as a question but it just sounded like an out loud observation. Did he not expect anyone to be here? Was that why this interaction was so weird? “I had some paperwork to finish. Is there a problem with that?” He accused like he usually did, crossing his arms over his chest. Molten stayed silent at that, just squinting like he was trying to glare at him again but it didn’t look quite right. 

Bryan was about to ask again what was wrong but Molten spoke before he did, “Do whatever you want. Just leave me out of it. I have…” Molten trailed off, looking around at the decorations. He paused and stared at something behind them, which Bryan decided to turn and look at too to see why he was zoning out. Except it turned out to be nothing interesting because he was just staring at Freddy. Go figure. “...I have work to do.” He finished. It sounded like the lame excuses he’d used to give his parents when he didn’t want to talk to them. 

Molten turned his gaze to the floor, keeping his head up before stiffly turning and walking towards the kitchen.

Bryan and Happy watched him walk off, confused at the entire interaction. “What do you think is wrong with him?” Happy asked, turning to look back at Bryan. Her eyes tilted down in confusion and what seemed to be worry. 

“What's wrong with him? He seems the same to me. Just extra angsty today.” Bryan dismissed the concern, though somewhere inside his brain alarm bells went off with the interaction. That wasn’t how Molten usually acted, even if he is usually pretty stoic. Something definitely was wrong, and it probably had something to do with Ennard. He rubbed his eyes in frustration. He didn’t have the brain capacity for this tonight. 

Just as he was about to brush it off and continue working, Happy frog interrupted him, “Bryan...” she started, considering. “Don’t you think that maybe– maybe we are treating Molten wrong?” She asked softly, glancing back off to the kitchen. 

“What?” He asked incredulously. Him treating Molten wrong? Moltens the one threatening their lives everyday. He's never even done anything to offend him. There's no way he's in the wrong here. He's just defending his and everyone else's honor by treating Molten the way he treats them. 

Happy shrugged, bringing her hands up to fiddle with them while she explained, “I’ve been thinking about it since Christmas started. I mean, even though he's pretty mean and pushes us around, you’ve gotta admit he's pretty helpful.” She trailed off, suddenly brightening like a lightbulb went off in her head. “I mean just the other day he was making all the pizzas for the dayshift, he did your paperwork for you and even offered to help with the decorations even though he hated Christmas…” She explained, trying to defend her thought process. As she listed the times Molten was supposedly nice, she counted it off on her fingers as if counting it up.

She sighed at Bryan's dumbfounded expression, “I guess what I'm trying to say is that we never really gave him a chance. I mean Lefty's been trying to be friends with him lately too, maybe he just needs extra love!” She chirped, her eyes closing in mock happiness at her own suggestion. 

Bryan shook his head, "We've given him plenty of chances. He's the one that doesn't want to accept them. He's probably going to manipulate Lefty.” Lefty has been oddly siding with Molten the last few times they’ve interacted. If Happy Frog is saying Lefty is  actively seeking Molten out outside of when Bryan's here, then it has to be some grand plan to turn all his animatronics against him. 

Molten isn’t nice, he's only doing things to keep himself alive. This is where he lives after all, him helping out every so often is basically the bare minimum. All the other animatronics are capable of that too.

“But don't you think thats what’s suspicious? Just now he walked in here all sad and depressed. The last thing I remember him doing before leaving earlier was saying that Afton needed him for some kind of trip,” Happy explained, glancing around like she was scared someone else was listening. 

“Whats Afton got to do with him being angsty?" He asked, also nervously glancing around.

Happy leaned in closer, "Don't you get it, Bryan? What if Afton did something? Afton’s a bad guy! What if he's just manipulating Molten? Or worse– maybe Afton hurt Ennard somehow!”

“You–” Bryan just couldn't wrap his head around the fact that  Molten, the threatening, tall, and scary spaghetti monster; could ever be manipulated by Afton. “You’re just stretching this out, Happy Frog. Molten loves to hurt us. Why would Afton manipulate him? He's doing it all willingly. He's said so himself! Multiple times!” He enunciated his point by gesturing his hands wide, pointing where Freddy is standing offline on the stage. Trying to nonverbally point out the obvious. "I know you like Ennard but Molten isn't good! We haven't done anything wrong. He's lucky he can stay here."

Happy frog glanced where Freddy was, her expression becoming more troubled again. “Maybe you're right…”

Bryan nodded, “Lets just take down these decorations. He'll probably be back to normal soon. Don’t bother with him.” He said, already looking around to find where he dropped his clipboard. He really needs to get a move on or else he's gonna be past the deadline for his paperwork. At least this whole conversation woke him up enough to not be so groggy working on it.

“Yeah! I'll wake some other people up. You go to work!” Happy chirped, bouncing her way to the front stage, on her way to wake up someone else. Bryan sighed, wondering how someone can switch moods so fast. He started walking towards the kitchen so he can get to the computer. He tried not to think too hard on Molten, his weird attitude completely throwing him off track. Did Happy Frog have a point? Surely not. Molten was evil, there was nothing redeemable about him. The day Molten is actually nice is the day the sky falls.

He shook his head, having arrived at his desk. He dramatically dropped himself off in the chair, tiredly turning on the computer so he can get to work.

What if something really is wrong with Molten? Did he need help? Surely not. Molten would ask for it if he needed it, he was sure of it. Afton wasn’t that strong of a guy, if Molten wanted to he could just turn on him at any moment. He was just being evil. Yeah. Just being evil and scheming his days away. That was all. Nothing was wrong with Molten, why should he be concerned anyway? 

Molten killed Freddy and could very easily kill everyone else, who cared if he was getting some kind of payback for it?

But if the Santa hat didn't work, then what did that mean for Ennard? Ennard was the only good thing Molten had. If Ennard was now gone, then there were only the worst parts of Molten left. 

It doesn't matter. If Molten didn’t want to let Ennard out and have control then nothing here was going to change. Molten didn’t want their friendship so he wasn’t going to try. This is his job. As long as he can catch onto their plans before it gets too late, then it'll all be okay.

After all, that's his job at Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria. 

***

“..He (Molten) was an experiment that– uh– basically gone wrong and turned sentient. And pretty much that's one of the reasons why we shut down the Sister Location– You see, sentient is when the animatronics AI becomes self-aware. They can feel emotions, they can do human interactions, they can even eat food...”

          –AI Afton, Day with Bryan! Jons S1

***

This time Christmas would be bigger and better than it ever was. He was sure of it.

He wanted giant decorations, large parties, and a large amount of stock in preparation for the holiday sales. He wanted a Santa meet and greet where Freddy was Santa– even if the bear himself detested the idea– He wanted elves and free presents and just everything that would make the holidays festive and exciting. 

He was trying to set up some last minute decorations in the candy shop at the front of the park, unpacking little Santa hats and elves and placing them on the shelves. And it all would've been perfect if not for the haunting presence he feels everywhere he goes. His hallucinations of Molten have gotten significantly worse ever since the month of December came around. It's like the dead bear knows he's feeling worse this time of year and just decided to torment him further. He fears that if he turns around he’ll see him and his day will be ruined. Its happening everyday now, he just can’t catch a break. 

It's not fair, what did he even do to deserve this constant harassment from someone who wasn’t here anymore? He didn’t even kill Molten, why was he still seeing him? Why couldn’t he let it go? 

He could still hear Molten's screams when he burned in that lava, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He could still hear him beg that he didn't want to die. Hear how scared he sounded, like he was just being held against his will. 

 He still remembered Lefty's blank expression at killing his best friend. He really did think Molten was just manipulating Lefty, but Lefty's expression told him everything. He was sad. Neither of them were lying. They really were friends; and Lefty had to watch as Molten's face melted off into the popping sounds of lava. 

God, Molten even looked terrified of that lava. It was the most he'd seen him express ever since the Santa hat stopped working on him. He should’ve taken Molten’s warnings more seriously. He should’ve listened to everyone's concerns. Then maybe he wouldn’t be dead and he could've stopped Afton sooner. 

Why did Molten stay on top of the glass anyway? He stayed there the entire time like he couldn't just walk somewhere else, no one was stopping him. There had to be something he was missing, a conversation he wasn't apart of. Molten had led Lefty on with a discussion he didn't understand the context of. He didn't even remember what they talked about; all he knew was that it felt like he was missing something they knew and he didn’t. Maybe Bryan was making it all up, just giving excuses to the whole situation. Some inside joke as one last “fuck you” from the bear. That had to be it. 

Yet the parts he did remember about Lefty’s speech didn’t make it any better. Lefty kept comparing Molten to a child. And some part of him agreed. Because wasn’t Ennard a kid? The sweet and kind person that Molten used to be? When he imagines Moltens screams he sometimes thinks its Ennard screaming instead. Begging him not to let them kill him. He was so innocent– and Molten was so demented. It wasn’t fair. 

Everything reminded him of the life Ennard didn’t get to have. That Santa hat that gave Molten his childish personality, this innocent kid who just wanted to have fun with everyone. Everybody says Ennard and Molten are the same person, but how could he change like that without there being a difference? How could he talk to himself like someone else was listening, trying to convince this nonexistent other person that what he was doing was right? How could he fake that kind of thing? Molten was crazy, but he didn’t think he was that kind of crazy. Animatronics couldn’t even have mental disorders could they? None of it made sense to him. He couldn't make it make sense. 

He just wanted it to stop. He didn’t want to see him at every twist and corner. He wished people would stop bringing him up. He wasn’t even the one to kill him. 

Lefty was the one who killed him for gods sake! How could Lefty move on like he didn’t kill him? He couldn’t understand it. He seemed at peace with it, like he didn’t watch his best friend brutally be melted in lava. He had no guilt whatsoever. He even brought him up constantly! It was every time he talked to Lefty that Molten’s name somehow showed up in the conversation. He wished Lefty understood, wished he felt any amount of remorse. But he didn’t and he thought Bryan was crazy for hallucinating him too. 

He went through hell killing every animatronic he owned and now if he even brings it up he's just told to go to therapy. Was it so wrong for him to still be caught up in it all? He gets it, he really does. Every animatronic is still alive, with most of their memories intact and they even got Freddy back. No one but him and Lefty remembered what happened yet Lefty was the one person he wanted to avoid. He just couldn't stand any thought of Molten. 

He was so caught up in his thoughts that when the world tilted he had to scramble to keep himself up. Regaining his balance, he looked to the floor, noticing he had tripped on a doll left on the floor. Had his breathing always been so erratic? How long has he been thinking about Molten? What was he even doing?

 He looked down in his hands to see he had completely smushed a plushy out of stress, he nervously placed it on the shelf, tapping its head as an apology.

He was trying to set up Christmas decorations, that's right. He could do that. He only had a few things left in the box. He just had to make it a few more hours, he wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t going to see Molten. He wasn’t. 

Taking a deep breath he bent down to grab the left behind doll, turning it around in interest before feeling his whole stomach drop. Whoever had the doll before had drawn all over its face in black sharpie, sharp lines that had melted from some kind of heat, causing it to run down its face. It looked horrific. It reminded him of Molten's face when he melted in the lava. 

He dropped the toy again, his breathing quickening as he sunk down into the floor. Why was his face everywhere? He couldn’t even decorate and do something he enjoyed doing without seeing him in every little thing he did. 

Why did he have to look so scared of the lava? Why did he have to scream in pain? Like he wasn’t just a monster? Like he was like all his other animatronics? A person. Someone with real emotions and not just an evil villain he had to defeat? 

He brushed it off then because Molten was scary. Because he'd worked with Afton. If he wanted to help, why couldn't he just say he wanted to? Or that he needed help? None of this would've happened if he just had said he needed help. He felt his breathing begin to get out of control, grasping at his clothes in an attempt to calm down. It felt like the world was spinning. This couldn’t be happening here. If he freaks out then–

“Do you regret it?” 

He gasped, turning sideways to see him standing there. Molten’s face was different this time, his body melted like it had been burnt. Melted. Like it was when he was dumped into the pool of lava. His mask didn’t always look like that right? It was different before the lava, he knew it was. Why was he showing up like this now? 

“No! You're not real! You're not real!” Bryan closed his eyes, trying to convince himself that nothing was there. Because really, there wasn't and he knew it and if he could just keep them closed long enough he would go away. Molten couldn’t possibly be back right? 

“I didn’t want to die Bryan.” The thing pretending to be Molten said sadly, sounding scared or whatever emotion he used to mimic sadness. He wasn’t a person who couldn't feel sad. None of them could feel sad. What was he even thinking? Animatronics aren’t even real people, none of them were. 

“I know! I know! Leave me alone!” Bryan grabbed a handful of the closest candy to him, hurling it in Molten direction as he scooted away and behind the counter. He just had to get further away, that's all. He’d go away if he was far enough. 

“Why did you kill me?” Molten asked desperately, stepping closer, but it's like the thing was glued to the floor, the wires melting into the tile. He was stuck in place. He couldn’t get to him. 

He sputtered, “What? I didn't kill you! Lefty did!” He grabbed another handful of candy, chucking it as far as he could. It went through him. He wasn’t real. 

Molten's voice got higher in volume, sounding angerier and hurt, “But you let it happen. You could’ve done something couldn’t you?” 

He shook his head rapidly, choking on tears he didn’t even know were falling, “No! I-I Couldn’t! I–”

The monster started melting further into the floor, he reached out as if asking for help “You could’ve saved me, Bryan! Why didn’t you save me?” His voice started to sound more and more higher pitched. It sounded like Ennard. It sounded like he was screaming a thousand times over. Why was it so loud?

“How? How?” He begged, putting his hands over his ears to block the noise. It didn’t seem to help. It was screeching, his ears ringing from the volume. 

He couldn't hear anything else except Molten's voice, his screeching making his ears bleed. Underneath it all was a deeper sound, it was similar but less distorted, if he just focused on that maybe the screaming would stop. 

“I didn’t want to die!” Molten started to panic, repeating the same thing over and over, the words sounding more like his last screams before he died. Over and over and over he kept repeating it. He just wouldn’t stop. Why was this happening? 

Bryan choked on the air as he tried to catch his breath, panic settling in as the screams got louder and he couldn’t make it stop, “Stop! Stop!’

“...Bryan?” A muffled voice said, sounding different than the other overlapping screams. It was that deeper voice from before. Molten must be tricking him. 

“Go Away! Stop!” He begged. Cowering again behind the counter, hiding his face from view. 

He felt someone's footsteps get closer. Has he somehow made it out from the floor? He was gonna get his revenge now wasn’t he? 

“Bryan you’re okay, it's just me– It's Freddy. Can you hear me right now?” He knew that voice from anywhere, it had to be Freddy. There was no way Molten could replicate his voice that well. He's tried and he's failed in the past. He snapped his head up in his direction, adrenaline rushing through his veins. It was Freddy. He felt instant relief that it was just Freddy. 

Why did he sound so calm? Shouldn’t he be panicking that Molten was back?

“Freddy? Back away! Moltens back!” He exclaimed, quickly jumping up to try to lead Freddy away from the area. Grabbing his arm to further reassure himself he was real. He was real. He could feel him. He had to save him, he couldn’t lose him again. He tried to focus fully on Freddy. He couldn’t get away if he just focused on Freddy.

Freddy looked at him with genuine concern, "There's nothing there Bryan. Nothing there.” Freddy even made a show of going to where he figured the fake Molten was causing Bryan to lose his grip on his arm. Freddy flapped around to show there was nothing there.

 Bryan stared into Molten's eyes, watching as he sunk further into the floor, dissipating into nothing. Like there was lava he was sinking into. His voicebox was so broken, still screaming, still begging even if the sounds muted. Bryan couldn’t stop staring. He felt the tear streaks on his face. “W-What?”

Freddy came back to him, “What do you think is happening right now?” He asked, he sounded annoyed. Was he mad at him? 

“I-I Molten was– he was right there. He– He was melting,” He stuttered, wrapping his arms around his middle to hug himself. 

“Does it look like the floor can do that? Feel how sturdy it is. Nothing is gonna come in here and melt into the floor. Molten’s dead, Bryan.” Freddy said reassuringly, tapping his foot to show it really was solid. Molten wasn’t real at all. He knew that too, he knew it in his heart. He was dead and gone, he couldn't come back. But it's like all the logic left his brain.

He shook his head slowly, “Y-Yeah. Nothing there… He couldn’t have been here...” Bryan trailed off, still breathing heavily but trying to recover from the imaginary attack. He focused on the surroundings that weren’t Freddy, wincing at the things he just now noticed he had knocked over in the shop. 

He wasn't crazy. Freddy can't think he's crazy. It doesn't matter if it’s still there or if he still hears the screams, he has to pretend it's not there. If he kept focusing on it he’d never go away. He continued to focus on the candy shop the best he could, trying to map out where he was and the sounds he was hearing that weren’t Molten's screams.      

Freddy had walked closer to him again in the time he was stuck trying to calm down. Deeming him calm enough to lead him out, “Lets get you to sit down, you need to take a break. Get out of this shop,” Freddy gently grabbed his arm, slightly pulling his arm to coerce him to leave the shop he had mildly destroyed. Bryan followed after him, stealing several glances to where Molten no longer was. 

It was going to be okay. It's not his fault. It's not his fault… He could get past this. He could move on. Molten wasn’t going to come back.

Despite his breathing slowly coming back to normal as he focused on real life, he still heard the strangled whispers of Molten asking why. He shivered, walking a little closer to Freddy in hopes for protection. Freddy was trying to talk to him but he couldn’t make out the words, he didn’t want to make out the words. It was always the same conversation, therapy this, therapy that. He knew it already. He knew. He just didn’t want to be seen as crazy. He tried to take a deep breath. 

It was gonna be okay. He just had to convince himself of that. Maybe he should just let the animatronics handle the decorating, like they always did. That's the best option. Why didn't he just hire someone? He just wanted to get an early start on decorating. 

 By the time he felt calm they had already reached the hotel, and Freddy was patiently waiting for him to go back to reality like he knew he wasn’t paying attention that whole time. Whoops. 

He smiled reassuringly, trying to convey that it would all be okay and that he was fine now. Freddy's eyes narrowed and Bryan huffed shakily in defeat. He’s not okay. He's gonna have to go to therapy. 

***

“--Because Ennard was not strong enough to handle anyone else. Do you know what would’ve happened to me if Ennard took control? What Springtrap would’ve done?"

“Tell me! What would’ve he done? Why would you help Springtrap? Why wouldn’t you join me?”

“...Has it ever occurred to you that weak people enjoy company? That they like to be appreciated? And taken care for? That's what you did for everyone else. Not one day, did you ever like what I did. Even when I decided to make some pizzas.."

         —Hallucination Molten & Bryan, Confronting Molten! S2 TFF

***

“This doesn’t make any sense, did you organize these?” Molten asked incredulously, shifting through his papers as CEO like it was his business. Which, he guessed, maybe it was. He basically worked for Jon now. He's like his new guard dog that spends his time snooping in all Bryan's business affairs. He's had to very quickly get used to him being around all the time now. It's a little jarring to see his face but he didn’t seem to have anything against him so far, so he could deal with Molten's insults on his organizational skills and horrible decisions as CEO. Well, more like his lack of decisions as CEO.

“What???” He nervously laughed, “No! That's definitely Heply's fault…” He trailed off, still trying to laugh off his poor organization. “See look, this stack is nice!” He pulled out a stack from god knows where, presenting something that looked less cursed than the stack Molten was currently shifting through. 

Molten just stared at him deadpan, not even glancing at the stack he held in his hands. “I’m just going to organize it all for you because you clearly can't do anything for yourself.” Molten rolled his eyes, looking back down at his mess of a desk, “You’ll thank me later.” 

Bryan sighed just watching as Molten proceeded to start making stacks of papers and going through it. In fact, the bear just shoved it all on the floor and was trying to make a clear space to organize his things. Molten also pulled up a trashcan, apparently thinking some of those papers were unnecessary. He just hoped there weren't any important bills that he had to pay were in there.

Bryan just let him work, afraid to interrupt the moment. The bear has been unnervingly helpful lately and while he doesn't necessarily like being coddled like this and basically told he's a horrible owner multiple times in the timespan of five minutes, he can’t not admit the organization Molten has is ten times better than his and he actually can work when it's not in whatever system he had before.

Watching Molten put all his focus in the organization made him realize how disturbingly robotic he could be sometimes. Without Molten looking at him or engaging in any sort of conversation he looks extremely dead inside. He gets he's an animatronic and not a real person, but he's usually more animated than the other animatronics are; or at the very least fakes that he's more animated. Even the other animatronics are less robotic looking than this. 

He kinda thought since Molten wasn’t under Afton's control anymore, he’d be happier and back to being as expressive as he used to be but so far he hasn’t noticed any differences. 

After Molten came back and he got over his terror at the prospect of him being back, he couldn't help but feel oddly relieved that Afton no longer had any control over him. He couldn’t explain it. The screaming in his head had stopped and just seeing that he's physically okay is enough for him to feel at ease. He thought the hallucinations would come back since he's everywhere yet for some reason they've completely gone away. Like all his guilt was gone and there wasn’t ever anything to worry about.

Yet despite that, and despite how much more content Molten seems. It's still like there's something wrong. The blank look still hasn’t changed and he still isn't showing his emotions. Even now, the more Bryan studies him and gets to know him the more he can notice when he's actually feeling something and when he's completely faking it.

 Maybe he's creepy for that.

 He shouldn't be watching him so closely in the first place but he can't help it. It puts him off. Why isn’t he showing any real emotion? He's never bothered to check Molten's code, maybe that's just how he's made; But he used to have so much energy. It just doesn’t make sense that he is acting just like any other animatronic now, like he's not as special as AI Afton described. Or literally anybody else. 

Molten is, according to Afton and all his friends, extremely self-aware and more alive than most of the other animatronics. Bryan can back this up with how he normally is and what he knows of Molten over the last year they’ve known each other. Even Molten's new faceplates make him more animated than the others, allowing him to have a higher range of emotions than he ever did before. Bryan isn’t sure if he's possessed or not, and he doesn't think he's gotten close enough to Molten to ask so he’ll just assume he is, but if he's theoretically better than everyone in every category, why doesn't he show it? 

Something has to be wrong. He must be hiding something, but what? What could keep him in a perpetual state of blankness for an entire year? Even when he's safe? 

He doubts Molten’s evil, that much is all he can be certain of. In some aspects Molten seems to feel heavily guilty for what he did and how he treated everybody. At the very least he can be comforted that Molten is on their side now, he won’t turn against them because it doesn’t align with his personal goals. 

He was zoned in so hard on Molten he didn't even notice Molten staring back at him, “Are you gonna just stare at me or are you gonna do some work?” He physically jumped at Molten rudely interrupting his one sided staring contest. Shaking his head to bring himself out of the daze he was in.

“Oh. uh. Sorry. Just uh thinking.” He said lamely, trying to go back to his work so Molten doesn’t get suspicious. 

It might be a little embarrassing for him to admit he was just thinking about Molten. When he's literally in the room. It's bad enough he was staring at him. 

“About?” Molten inquired, raising an eyebrow at him which Bryan saw out of the corner of his eye. He smiled half heartingly, trying to be convincing. Shaking his head to focus. 

“It's nothing! Seriously!” He said, nervously messing with his hair and fiddling with a stack of papers that had been knocked to the floor.

“You’re gonna keep thinking about it if you don't spill it within the next 5 minutes. Just say it.” Molten said, putting down the papers, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at him, giving him his full attention and expecting him to continue.

“Okay fine. Since you insisted...” He paused looking at Molten again, trying to really look at him. He looked so– stiff. Robotic. Even just standing there. It made his skin crawl. More so than if any of the other animatronics were just standing there. If anything, a regular unprogrammed endoskeleton showed more emotion than this. 

It just wasn’t the “Molten” he remembered him being. He used to be so alive and while he did seem happier, it's like he could care less. But the person he had spent months hallucinating in his head did care. He cared so much it was invisible to everybody else because he didn’t show it outwardly. Even he knew that. He recognized that, it took him a year to, but he recognized it. Now it was nowhere to be seen. Fading like it was just background noise. “Molten, are you... Okay?” 

Molten blinked up at him, tilting his head, “Hm?”

“Are you okay?” He repeated, more firm than the first time. 

Molten narrowed his eyes, “...You’ve asked this question a lot recently.” Molten looked off to the side, his hands noticeably tightening at the sides of his body. He also switched his weight to the other foot, giving Bryan the obvious tell this was a conversation he wanted to avoid. At least he still had human-like body language. 

That only grew to make him more concerned. “You didn’t answer my question. Are you okay?” He asked again, trying to sound more firm in his resolve. 

Molten huffed, his eyes now glaring at him,“What are you so concerned about? Obviously I'm okay, I'm standing right in front of you.” He proceeded to gesture to himself, shaking his head as if this was in fact very obvious.

“I mean yeah, you're standing there but that doesn't mean you're okay.” Bryan crossed his arms too, raising his eyebrow and copying Molten's position. Molten noticed him mimicking him so he proceeded to let his hands fall back to his sides, leaning over the desk instead to grip the top. 

Molten's eyes narrowed, hardening his face so he could blankly stare in his direction. “Im fine.”

His eyes furrowed as he frowned, “That didn’t sound fine.”

Molten grunted “Just drop it, Bryan. You’ve asked this question multiple times this week alone. It's starting to get annoying. If I wasn’t fine I wouldn’t be here. I would be doing something else to keep busy or whatever.” Molten rolled his eyes, putting emphasis on “busy.” He then reverted back to his previous position of hugging his body. His eye and ear twitched in irritation, further solidifying how uncomfortable Molten was.

Sure, he's asked if Molten's okay many times. But he's never asked while they’re alone. There's no one else but them in the building right now, and used to that would discomfort him, but now it felt like an opportunity.

“...But aren’t you doing something else to be busy right now?” Bryan pointed to the papers, gesturing to the ones Molten was currently still organizing. 

Molten stayed silent. His eyes that scattered his body all darting off in different directions except his main ones.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Bryan prodded, walking around the desk to stand face to face with the bear.

“It doesn’t matter.” Molten mumbled, attempting to copy what he does when hes uncomfortable by just going back to organize the papers. 

Bryan tried to get into Molten's view, suddenly going through all the ways something could be going wrong, “Are you hurt? Is someone controlling you? What's happening with Jon is he doing okay? Is he doing something to you?” He rapidly fired through all the options, asking a thousand questions Molten didn’t get any time to answer. 

Molten snapped his head in his direction, “Bryan–” 

He gasped, “Did one of the Twisteds hurt you? I know I gave you those upgrades already but maybe you need some extra protection? Was there an attack I don’t know about?” 

He quickly thought back to his repair jobs, thinking through every possible scenario. Did he do something wrong and Molten was glitching out but too afraid to say something? He was for some odd reason scared of getting repaired and kept flinching at the prospect, maybe he was the problem and Molten didn’t want to burden him. Were Bonnie and Freddy right? Maybe–

“Bryan. STOP.” Bryan yelped as Molten yelled to get his attention. “Whats the matter with you?” He asked incredulously, backing up a step and looking at him with genuine shock for his words. 

“You just look so– I don't know– Depressed? You’ve always looked like that. Ever since Christmas. I'm just worried.” He admitted softly, looking down and anywhere else that wasn’t Molten.

Molten blinked at him. At least he looked shocked. A real amount of shocked. That's something right? 

Bryan sighed, “I want you to be happy here. I know I treated you badly before and I didn't give you any chances. If there's something wrong I want you to tell me. I'd tell you if something was wrong, I promise you can trust me. I’ll try everything to make it right,” He said sincerely, gaining back his confidence. 

Maybe Molten needed boundaries? He was trustworthy! Molten could open up to him and he'd keep his mouth shut, he would even pinky promise it if Molten asked. Though if Molten ever asks him for a pinky promise he will not fall for it because it would definitely be a trick and he’d be laughed at for weeks.

Molten's hands fell back on the table, all of his eyes looking to be back to normal again. His two main ones were downcasted, just staring into his soul. He looked confused, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Could Molten individually control all of his eyes? He's never asked before. Maybe he shouldn’t be focussing on this detail. Or maybe he should? Maybe his eyes could also be a hint at his mood. 

“.. I'm happy here Bryan. Stop being like a helicopter parent or something. I'm fine.” Molten started off sincerely before quickly throwing in some weird throwoff joke. Bryan recognized he was trying to distract him from continuing this conversation deeper. He does the exact same thing, does Molten really think he's slick? Maybe Moltens straight up copying his personality at this point. He's well aware Molten is still hiding something. But maybe he really should just drop it. He wasn't close enough to him yet. He’d have to push his concern aside for the sake of progressing with him. 

He decides it's better for their friendship development to just give in to it, he’d take as long as Molten needed.  “What? I'm not whatever you just called me! I just want to take care of everyone! Especially you! You’re our only defense against the Twisteds right now!”

Molten stood up straight again, "Isn't that the exact description of an overprotective parent- Or well, owner?” Molten asked, his tone a little lighter than before. 

“No!”  He yelled, huffing at the prospect. He gets he can be a little overbearing but he lost everyone at one point. So what if he's worried about Molten's safety? And he's definitely not anyone's parent; that's for sure. He doesn't think he could ever take care of a kid. At least not in these conditions. The animatronics know how to take care of themselves. He's glad hes never had one of them call him "dad."

Molten hummed, snickering at him. Bryan noticed the bit of happiness in his laugh before he went back to organizing. He had no idea what suddenly made him happy but it was an improvement for sure. “Get to work Bryan.”

“Okay Okay…” If a small smile and a laugh was all that he would get he'd be okay with that. A win is a win. Even at the expense of his pride– a win is a win. 

“Just promise you'll tell me if something happens?” He asks quietly, walking back to the other side of the desk. 

“Sure. Whatever lets you sleep at night."

***

“You’ve done something I’ve never been able to do and that’s relate to Molten's humanity.”

“You just have to treat him like one.”

“What? Not like a monster? You know what he did to my friend?”

“You know what he did to me? – Why do you hang around him still?”

“Because he's mine.”

“...None of the animatronics are mine. They’re my friends.”

“I guess that's the difference huh?”

            –Jon & Byran, Bryan What Happened!? Jons S2

***

For a theme park so huge it was surprisingly boring. Literally no one was online! He couldn’t find a single person in this giant theme park that had at least fifteen animatronics currently living here! He's never actually counted but he knows it's a lot!

He's even messaged a bunch of the other animatronics he had the numbers of and they just either left him on read or didn't even respond. Compared to the pizzaplex, this place is insanely empty. He misses his friends. He wants to go home. But he has to think positively! If he wants to save Bryan, he has to stay strong! He can’t complain all the time.

But if he's mainly here to save Bryan, how come no one's even hanging out with him or researching on him or something?! He thought he’d be put through a bunch of tests but so far nothing is really happening. Actually, he can’t even find Molten at all! And Moltens the one who's supposed to be helping him!

He knows Moltens pretty busy, he just doesn't know what he is so busy with. He runs the park but what does he even run? It's not like this place is open. Maybe he's trying to keep it from closing. He knows he's overheard Molten talking about them moving somewhere else to live. Maybe it's more stressful than he understands. 

He wished Byran would talk to him and give him some insight, but he hasn’t heard anything since his last “freak out.” He hopes Bryan will talk to him while he's at the park, maybe more memories will come up and Molten will know what to do! 

Of course, that only is helpful if Molten is around. 

He's been wandering around for the past hour and he's finally just decided to check the hotel rooms for any hidden animatronics. He knows they like hanging out in secluded areas, he once found Baby hiding inside Foxy's ship. Maybe someone else likes hiding in the hotel?

He's decided to start his search on the first floor, looking through all the rooms to see if anything interesting is hidden in them, if he can’t find anyone the least he can do is find entertainment.

With no luck on the left side, he moves to the right, barging in the rooms and looking around. It does seem like the animatronics hide in some of the rooms, since there's some random toys and trinkets in some of the rooms that definitely don't seem to be owned by anyone who used to go here when the park was open. He even found an entire room full of various pirate outfits and other fancy suits. He knows he sees Foxy wear that kinda stuff, maybe he keeps it all in here.

By the time he approaches the second door, he hears a static humming and the sound of something falling over. A quiet curse being whispered. The only person he knows who hums that creepily is Molten! Bingo! 

“Ennard? Are you in here?” He asks, peeking in the room and looking around. He didn’t see anyone in the main bedroom, walking around the corner into a small side closet he saw.

“Hm?” A robotic voice answered, and as Steve entered the side room he saw that it was indeed Molten.

Steve brightened, “Hi! What are you doing in here?” He looked around noticing maybe seven different laptops and computers all surrounded Molten, all pulled up to different things. Some were piled on top of boxes and some were closed in general, all appearing to be important. Weird. Shouldn't he be using those to study him? Maybe he's preparing for a research session! He must have great timing then. 

Molten glanced around the room at where Steve was staring at, wincing at the sight of him. “...Working.” 

“What kinda work?” Steve bounced over to one of the computers, trying to read what it said. All he could make out was a bunch of letters and numbers. None of it seemed to be important. It was all jumbled up. Was this what code looked like? 

Molten stood up from where he was sitting, sighing as Steve fully entered the room, “Nothing that con-concerns you. Don’t touch it.” In the middle of talking, Molten violently shook his head, glitching out as he tried to talk. Steve instantly turned to look at him, tilting his head in confusion. “Are you okay? What was that?”

Molten tensed, folding his arms across his chest in a show of discomfort. “Nothing.”

Steve copied his position, standing up straighter to act like him, "Didn’t sound like nothing! What was it?”

Molten's eye squinted weirdly a few times, like he was trying to make a scowl but glitched in the middle of it. He still got the message. “What do you want, Steve?”

Steve dropped his own arms, sighing dramatically, “I’m bored and want to hang out with someone!” He exclaimed, walking up to Molten and pouting as if to further let him know of his plight. 

Molten shook his head violently again, making Steve back away a little in concern, “And your-your best option was me?” Molten grunted, closing his eyes for a second. “Now is not a good time.” He opened them again, looking more tired than he did a few seconds ago. Could animatronics get tired? Hes never really thought about that before. When he was low on battery he just went to charge. Maybe Molten needs to charge and this is where he charges and Steve just interrupted him! But maybe not? To think of it, hes never actually seen Molten charge…

Steve dropped his shoulders, staring up at the bear in concern, “Is there something I can do to help? You’re glitching out pretty badly…” Maybe he's physically hurt! He looked around at Molten's body, trying to see if he was injured. Maybe no one was around because there was a huge fight and no one was telling him what happened! He went to walk around Molten to check his backside, reaching out to keep him in place before Molten stopped him roughly by blocking him with his arm. 

“No. Find someone else.” Steve noticed Molten's various eyes were entirely inactive, which was unusual for him. He usually thought his eyes were creepy but today they weren’t working at all. Only his main blue eye seemed to be working. He was also being weirdly defensive, sure– he usually didn’t like talking to him on a normal day but he seemed more pissed off than usual. He didn't mean to do anything wrong…

Steve looked down, playing around with his hands to make himself feel better, “Are you sure? Maybe I should get someone else to help you… I couldn’t find anyone earlier but maybe I can try again?” He trailed off, looking towards the door as if he was about to go ahead and find another person. Surely if Molten was here the others were nearby! 

“No! Steve just–” Molten suddenly locked up, staring into nothing as he turned to yell at him. Steve looked back at him and waited for him to say something else, tilting his head expectantly.

“Uh? Ennard? Are you okay?” He blinked, continuing to stare directly into Molten's eyes. 

No response.

“Ennard?” Steve waved a hand over Molten's face, worried. “Did you die?!? Ennard?” Steve suddenly grew panicked, trying to shake Molten awake.

“--Leave, I don’t need help.” Molten suddenly convulsed awake again, continuing his last sentence like he hadn’t just completely paused.  Steve jumped at the sudden interaction, a mixture of emotions running through him, “What was that! You just stopped talking!” He waved his hands in the air dramatically, confused for his life. 

Molten blinked, confused, “What?”

“You were talking and then you just completely stopped!” He exclaimed, still looking over Molten like he was hurt. 

“I did? Huh.” Molten looked back to the computer Steve just now noticed he was hooked up too, walking up to it and scrolling up somewhere to read something. Oh, so the computers were showing code lines. Steve didn’t know how to read code. He wasn’t sure if all the moving text was good or not. He assumes it's all Molten’s code now, but why was he already hooked up to it? “Are you broken? What's happening? Are you out of battery?” He asked, trying to take a peak at the code.

Molten glanced at him again, moving to block his view. It's not like he can understand it anyway, why is he being so defensive? “Nothing, Steve. Why don’t you find Lolbit or something? I’m busy right now.” He said, gesturing out to the door and going back to bending over the screen to look at it. 

Steve pouted, “B-But I wanted to hang out with you..”

Molten sighed heavily and without seeing his face Steve knew he probably had rolled his eyes, “And I don’t want to hang out with you. Leave me alone Ste–ve.” Molten sounded more and more agitated the longer Steve bothered him. But he came here with a mission and since he was the only one around he just had to hang out with him! Maybe something had made him upset? He could make it better! 

That's his whole job anyway, he made kids feel better! Molten wasn’t that different from a kid right? Just a big angsty broken teddy bear! Even if he was a really old teddy bear, he's heard being old means you act more childish right? 

Steve thought about the things that could’ve happened to make Molten so angry, but he couldn’t come up with anything. “Why are you being so mean today? You’re clearly hurt or something! Maybe I’ll get Freddy! He's smart and maybe after you’re all better we can play some arca–” 

Molten suddenly stood up again, grunting in pain as he did so. He whipped around to face Steve, sighing in annoyance, “You’re not going to get anyone. You got that? I don’t need he–lp and I don’t want any— Body to come check on me. Let alone Freddy.” Molten's head continued to shake, apparently fighting off the glitches  as he progressively got angerier. His blue eye squinted, like he was twitching in annoyance. The red one was no longer responding to the rest of the emotions on his face. 

Steve backed up, fearful Molten was gonna push him away, “I-I just want to help...” If something was wrong he knew he had to help, Molten's been helping him so far, why can’t he return the favor? 

“I don’t want your help. Can’t you get that? God, you’re just as stubborn as Bryan. “ Moltens grunted and his head shook again as he backed up to the wall to grab a hold of it. He played it off, pretending like he was just turning around to look at the computers again, but Steve noticed the grimace now displayed on his face. But he can’t focus on that right now! Why is he yelling at him? He was trying to be nice! 

“I-I’m not Bryan I’m my own person!” He complained, walking towards Molten again. How could he continuously say things like that? He thought he had earned his trust but it's like for every step forward he got he was pushed fifteen steps back. 

Molten huffed a laugh, turning to face him again, “Guess what Steve? You aren’t your own person. You won’t ever be your own person because you are entirely based off of HIM.” Molten angrily spat out, struggling through the malfunctions, “You’ll spend the rest of your life t-try–trying— trying to be your own person but you NEVER will be because you'll forever live in his damn shadow.” He managed to stumble off the wall, walking closer to Steve in a show of anger and intimidation. 

Steve backed up, fear crossing his expression. “N-No I–”

“--And one day if we don’t fix this stupid merging and you merge with him you will slowly lose everything. You’ll just–” Molten paused, grunting in pain, “--You’ll just be a walking reminder of what everybody else lost while you t-try to live up to what he was.” Molten’s voice kept getting deeper, continuing to snarl in anger. 

Molten suddenly laughed, apparently finding his own words funny, even when none of it was funny, “All your friends will see it and they'll never look at you the same because you aren't him and you aren’t yourself. You aren't your own person and you are nobody!” Molten's body spasmed, but his anger showed through more than whatever pain he must be in. His voice got higher this time, his laughter trailing off into something Steve’s never heard come out of him before. 

Steve sputtered, “But I- I have my own code! You said so yourself! I've been becoming a person!” He's different from Bryan, everyone says so! If he wasn’t his own person how could he even be alive? If he was just Bryan, then wouldn’t Bryan be the one having his conversation with him? It was Steve talking, Steve feeling hurt. Bryan didn’t feel anything like this. He was dead.

“NO you aren’t, Steve! That code is based on BRYAN. You– You are just a sentient AI that was never supposed to exist!" Molten shook his head in pain, pure unadulterated rage being yelled at Steve. He didn’t understand. At this point it didn’t even seem like Molten was getting worked up over Steve walking in on him. This all came out of nowhere. 

“You will spend the rest of your miserable life being compared to him. It doesn’t– hah!– It doesn’t matter what your friends think or what you think. The fa–ct is that you are just another version of Bryan. You– You will n-never be an individual.” Molten's voice grew weaker, his body not wanting to keep up with his outburst of emotions, he suddenly backed up to the wall again, holding onto it for leverage.

Steve shook his head, not believing his words, “Why are you so mean? I thought we were friends! What did I do to you?” He was trying to understand where all this had come from. Molten was just acting nice to him yesterday. What could he have done to be annoying since yesterday? 

Molten grunted, collapsing on the ground. Steve jumped at the noise, worried despite how upset he was, “Exist. The second we figure out h-how to separate you two, I'm– I’m d-done. You can go live your pathetic life somewhere else away from m-me.” Molten then started laughing, “Or maybe it's too late? And you'll just end up like me. And isn't that ironic? Hah–” Molten then continued to laugh, sounding more and more out of it. 

Steve just kept standing there, a fake crying noise escaping him. How could he say all those things and just laugh about it like it was nothing? “Ennard…”

Molten harshly shook, still laughing, even laughing harder at the mention of his name.  Steve hardened his resolve. This wasn’t right. “Y-Youre just hurt. You don’t r-really mean what you said. I don’t care what you think! I’m going to get you help and– and... and you’ll apologize later!” He was just stressed or something! He's apologized before for acting like this, he’d apologize again! 

Molten convulsed again, something that sounded like a cough escaping him. It sounded like Molten tried to mumble a complaint again, but as his laughs died off it seemed more like he was having a seizure. Somewhere in Steve he felt like his head was yelling at him that he should turn Motlen off. Like somewhere in him he knew it would help. He gingerly stepped over to the computer he was hooked up to, instinct taking over as he found the way to turn him off. He heard Molten grunt as he did, his head sinking down, no longer shaking. 

His code was going crazy, a bunch of weird messages that looked like error codes popping up. He didn't know what it all meant but it definitely seemed concerning.

Now what did he do? Molten said he didn’t need help but he clearly did. Whatever was wrong with him was gonna hurt him if he kept going. What if glitchtrap is in Moltens systems and forcing him to say all those mean things? The attack seemed to come on really suddenly, he hasn’t really noticed  him glitch out that badly before. He does kinda move his head weirdly from time to time, but he's never been so mean while doing it!

He needed to get someone to help. He had no idea what to do from here. Or even what all these computers were hooked up to. Molten said he didn’t want Freddy's help, so maybe he should respect that at least. He knows he and Baby are friends, maybe she'll know what to do! 

Molten would never mean all those mean things about him. He might just want his friend back–as much as he denies Bryan was his friend– but he still at least cared enough to try not to kill him in the process. This had to be because of the glitches! Is this what happens when you get old? Is this like the animatronic version of dementia? Should he be scared he's gonna act like that one day? That's terrifying! He has to fix Molten before he infects everybody with angsty thoughts! Was dementia contagious? 

He quickly walked out, setting his sights on the circus tent, yelling for Baby. Suddenly he was upset he didn’t have her number. He tried to think if he knew it and suddenly it came to him. Has he had it this whole time in his head? He could’ve been calling her this whole time if he did, but he could’ve sworn he never saw it in his contacts before. He quickly called Baby, hoping she would answer. 

He heard the line ring twice before she picked up, “Hello?”

“Baby! Thank god you picked up!” He exclaimed, jumping up in excitement that he got the number right. Maybe Bryan somehow telegraphed it to him! He really didn’t remember having her number earlier, it's like it magically showed up the second he needed it!

“What? Steve? Are you okay? Why do you sound so upset?” 

“Moltens hurt or something! He was saying a lot of mean things and then he just collapsed! He's in the hotel, can you see if you can help him? I’ll wait for you at the front!” He asked quickly, trying to explain everything super clearly. That was pretty clear right? He remembered Pat told him he needed to stop over explaining everything. 

“Oh! Okay I’ll come right away! I’m at his ice cream shop so it'll take me a few minutes!" 

Of course the one place he didn’t check was the back of the park. Everyone's probably hanging out back there today. No wonder Molten was so far away from that area. He's basically wasted his whole day looking for everyone and all he's gotten to do is be yelled at for no reason! And they were all back there this whole time! “Okay! Be quick!” He hung up, laughing nervously at the end of the call. He waited patiently in front of the hotel. Still a little mad he forgot about that area. 

This would all be fixed later, and Molten will be okay and no longer a mean and angsty spaghetti bear! Or– he’ll stay as spaghetti but he won't be mean! 

He wasn’t sure why he felt so anxious about Molten breaking down, but somehow he knew it was Bryan. And he knew he had to live up to Bryan's expectations. If Bryan was worried, then he should be too! Even if Molten was the meanest person ever, he had to help him. Because that was the right thing to do! Molten trusted him, right? That had to mean he was okay with him helping out!

But if it was Bryan telling him to be worried, didn’t that mean Molten was right? That it wasn’t even his own emotions he was feeling towards this whole situation? Was he only attached because Bryan was attached? Molten had barely even been kind to him this whole time and yet he couldn’t help but want to be friends with him no matter what. Its like he knew that Molten was a good person deep down, but was that even his own intuition? Was it just Bryan speaking through to him? Embedding his own thoughts into his systems? Was the way he thought the way Bryan did? 

He didn’t want to think about that right now. It wouldn’t be true, it couldn’t be. He was his own person, he had to be. It didn’t matter what Molten thought because the only thing that mattered was what Steve thought. Molten would apologize tomorrow, have no more glitches and it would all be okay! Then Molten would get right back to trying to separate him and Bryan and all will go back to normal! He won’t have any more security breaches and all his friends will like him again. Everybody will be happy once Bryan is back. 

Steve deflated, despite how hopeful he wanted to feel, he couldn’t help but feel like he was just making it all worse. His presence was enough to set Molten off, what was gonna happen if they couldn’t fix him and put Bryan somewhere else? Was he just gonna be scrapped? Would everyone abandon him? Just like Molten said?

He had to stay positive. If he thought like that then nothing was gonna get done. He would get Bryan back, no matter the cost.

 He just had to wait for Baby to show up. Then it would all be okay.

***

“...Hey kid,”

“Foxy? You’ve been gone for days! What happened?”

“I think I’m– I think I’m disappearing, kid. I’m trying to hang on– I just don’t think I have any more time in me. I’m sorry I can’t help you...”

“What does that mean? Does that mean you’re going away? Foxy? Don’t you leave me– I have NOTHING! I HAVE NO ONE ELSE!”

                 –Funtime Foxy & Ennard, Portal Timer Origins (Molten POV)

***

“One would think after spending– what? Like a year inside an animatronic, you might have rethought your organizational process.” Bryan jumped at the deep glitchy voice at his door, whipping his head in his direction so fast he got a little lightheaded. He held a hand to his chest.

“God Molten you scared me! Make some noise next time won’t you?” He shook his head, shaking off the adrenaline rush. 

Molten huffed, rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms. He had somehow walked fully into the room without him noticing and was fully leaning against the wall just outside the glass office room, just simply watching him. “--And for the record, my organizational process is flawless.”

“I don’t think our definitions for ‘flawless’ are at all the same.” Molten raised an eyebrow, glancing at the papers strewn across his desk again. Bryan huffed, "I can never win with you.”

“It's just unproductive.” Molten said definitively, his eyebrow lowering as he grimaced.

“Unproductive this, unproductive that, I’m starting to think you have OCD. Besides, I’m doing much better than I used to. That's surely an improvement.” Molten never got into his business unless the way he went about it bothered him. It's like he only has it against him half the time then the other half as long as he did it the way Molten wanted he’d leave him alone. 

Molten hummed, “Maybe with more time you might just get to the same level I was.”

Bryan rolled his eyes, “I got you to run a shutdown themepark, that couldn’t have been that hard to run on its own.” Molten’s ego sure has inflated ever since he's been gone. Maybe he should’ve thought twice about giving him the responsibility of the entire theme park. But he can’t really say that. He's grateful Molten actually held up his end of the deal. It meant a lot to him. Not even mentioning that he did a great job, the bear had somehow kept it from going into the company’s possession for a year straight and even kept the suspicion of his disappearance on the downlow. He wondered if he got that random reporter Jon used to have to keep that on the hush-hush side of things. Nevermind, he didn’t want to think about what happened to Jon.

“Yet I was making more profit than you were when you were alive. What does that say about you? Hm?’ Molten continued, laughing at him, something akin to a smile on his face, like he was proud of the fact he had beaten him at something so trivial. Bryan knew he was just fishing for compliments. As much as he deserved one, he wasn’t gonna give it up that easily.  “You don’t have to make everything a competition,”

“Hmph. It's more fun that way.” Molten looked around the room, looking a little bored. Bryan glared, where else could he possibly want to be? He's been here for five seconds. “It always has to be about how "fun" it is with you,” He leaned on his desk, trying to subtly tell Molten he had his full attention, to reel Molten back into the conversation. Molten seems a lot more distracted than he used to be; usually when they had these conversations he had his full attention. He hoped Molten would stay with him for a bit, some company would be nice. 

Molten snickered, “You should hear the excuses Freddy comes up with– Fun is unfortunately the better justification." Molten looked back over at him, except his mind was clearly elsewhere. He really was distracted then. Wait a second, Freddy? 

“Oh? Have you two been hanging out again?” Bryan asked, interest piqued. Molten used to avoid any conversation about Freddy like the plague, unless that conversation had to do with shitting on him. Which Bryan didn’t like condoning. It was a weird subject to approach with them. He didn’t really want to be involved. He saw them as they were now. He didn’t want to compare Freddy or Molten to who they used to be. But now? Now Molten just casually brought him up like he's been actively spending time with him. Which, to be fair, they did walk in together when Bryan saw them both again after coming back from the literal dead. Maybe they finally made up. 

Molten let out a sharp laugh, “‘Hanging out?’ Hell no. He follows me around like a kicked dog. He's basically my stalker or something. I don’t choose to hang around him.” Molten huffed, dismissing it like calling someone a stalker was something he casually did everyday. Freddy? Following Molten around? That didn’t sound accurate at all. The last time he even saw the two of them in a room together before he died they kept subtly glaring at each other and acting like they were five seconds away from biting each other's heads off.

He scoffed, “I can’t imagine Freddy doing that.”

Molten turned to him fully, that dissociated look in his eyes like he was dissecting him under a microscope. “You don’t know him then.” He said simply, looking away again to look at the wall of code that showcased the mall's statistics. 

A lot could change in a year, he supposed. “I guess it has been a while.” Bryan conceded, pausing, "I'm glad you guys accepted me again, it's gotten pretty chaotic since I've been back. I’m just so relieved that there's even a chance I can get it all back. As long as I win back what's rightfully mine,”

Molten turned his head to look at him again, “What? With your petty little argument war with Patrick?”

“Yes. Ugh, I hate them.” He threw his head back in the chair dramatically, complaints ready to fire at any given opportunity. It annoyed him. He built this restaurant, he had it constructed and he was the one who built the animatronics. He spent weeks in a broken building constructing them from the ground up for gods sake. How could Pat come in here and act like they owned it all? It was rightfully his. It's literally documented!

Molten scoffed, narrowing his eyes. “I will never understand your human discourses.”

“Hearing you say that reminds me of something.” Byan stood up, walking closer to where Molten stood. Where Molten had been standing against the wall immobility throughout this entire conversation. “Have you been doing okay recently? You didn't used to sound this monotone before.”

 In fact, it seemed like all the older animatronics went through some kind of puberty. They all sounded more monotone and depressed. He knew a lot of them got put on the show schedule or were given jobs in the mall, and he thought surely that would help them be happier and give them back life to having a job again. He knew the empty park was probably pretty boring. Their primary function was to perform, and they didn’t get to for a year. They honestly would’ve been better off if they were put into storage. But he knew Molten would never put anyone in storage if he didn’t have to. Molten had issues with being forgotten about after all– even if he won’t admit it.

“Im fine right now.”

Bryan scoffed, “You always say that and I have yet to find a time it was true.”

Molten's blue eye narrowed. Was his red eye broken or something? It hasn’t been matching his expression all day. “Its not like you have evidence otherwise.”

“Actually I do. There was a time you kept glitching out a few months back. Did you think I wouldn't notice? Did you ever get that fixed? It's been bugging me since I got back.” He couldn’t usually remember what Steve did when he was possessing him, just some things here and there and the things he did when he took over during the security breaches. He faintly remembers seeing Molten struggle a few times, tripping over his words and everything. He looked the bear up and down, surely he fixed it by now? He kinda doubts Molten fixed it fully, he often didn’t put himself before other people. 

Molten noticed him staring, “Do you see me glitching now? I fixed it myself.” It's like he could read minds sometimes. Moltens a little too smart at putting things together. He’d never in a million years connect someone staring at him to them wondering if he was physically okay. Well, to be fair, Molten is an animatronic. They had capabilities and intelligence humans didn’t have. He always forgets that.

“Okay... I might check you later just to make sure.” He said suspiciously, already trying to think of when he has some free time to chase the bear down to check him over. 

Molten rolled his working eye, “I think I'm okay with you not looking for now. I’m doing just fine on my own.”

Byran sighed dramatically, “Whatever you say, Molten. Whatever you say.” Maybe Molten and Freddy hanging out again was a horrible thing for everybody involved. It's like Freddy's somber angry energy had affected Molten even more than it did at the old pizzeria. This was some new heights of denial he has yet to see from the broken bear. He fears the day he talks to Freddy one on one again. He can feel the depression from here. 

Molten let out some air between his teeth, not quite mimicking a sigh but close enough to count, “What are you doing in here anyway? I heard five people ask where you were earlier.” Ah, the real reason Molten was bothering him, to see what he was doing. Typical.

Bryan walked back to the desk, shifting through some papers to show as proof as to what he's been doing, “I’ve been looking through all the business reports since the Mall’s been open. Trying to see what can be improved, you know?” He finally pulled up a random report, showing it in Molten's direction. He half expected Molten to walk closer to him to glance at the paper then make some off handed comment on how it could be improved and maybe even join him in figuring it out. But Molten stayed still, standing against the wall. It was strange. He put down the paper when he realized he was gonna keep standing there.

Bryan turned back around in time to see Molten was squinting, studying him, “Are you even allowed to do that? As far as I’m aware you don't even have ownership of this place yet.” Molten mentioned, pointing out the obvious. He was looking because he wanted the ownership back, obviously he had to make the steps necessary to guarantee he gets his rightful position back. Even Molten should know that. Wasn’t Bryan just praising him for being smart?

“Im working on that with the new CEO.” He had already had multiple meetings with him but so far it isn’t going that well. They’ve both made promises that aren’t seeming to take off yet, maybe he needs a different approach. Molten could help him with that right?

“Right. The CEO. Vindy.” Molten said suspiciously, eyeing the wall like it would kill him.

“What? Do you have something against him?” Bryan questioned, interested in what Molten thought. Maybe he knew something he didn’t.

He watched as Molten shifted his weight, turning his full back against the wall as he leaned against it completely, getting comfortable just standing there. Bryan felt weirded out. “I have something against every person in that position."

“So even me?” He asked, doubt settling in. 

Molten's head hit the wall, him leaning against it heavily. The only thing keeping him upright was his legs. “I was repairing myself after being burned alive in lava. Didn't have the time to wonder how you were doing in that position.” Bryan tensed instantly, the memory of it plaguing his mind on replay. He had buried that horrible day in his subconscious for a reason, why did Molten love bringing it up like it was some casual conversation he could bring up like the weather? 

“Right. I forgot. I'm sorry.” He really didn't need to be reminded of his screams that he hears sometimes in his dreams. He could hear everyone's screams that day. Happy Frogs words that echoed in his ears every time he failed. Like now. When he couldn’t even get back ownership of his own pizzeria. 

“Hm. You didn't do anything except be there.” Molten reassured, apparently knowing exactly where his mind went with that one.

“How–” Bryan stumbled, scared to even ask, it was a risky question for sure, but if he didn’t get it out he wouldn’t be able to keep it from coming out later when they weren’t alone, “How have you been since– well since Lefty died. I know he was your best friend,” He asked softly, knowing it was a giant jump in topic, glancing up at Molen to study his expression. He couldn't remember how Molten said Lefty had died, and it hurt him that he didn't even get to say bye. He's just suddenly dead one day, just like that. No warnings or anything. He wished he could’ve said goodbye to him or even just one last conversation. He never spent enough time with him in those final months. If he felt this horrible and even guilty about it, he knew Molten must feel like hell had crossed over. 

Molten's head tilted forwards and back up off the wall, his working eye just blankly staring in his direction. His other eyes had started shooting off to stare into the floor, like he was dissociating but since his eyes were still broken it didn’t really give that effect. Molten had visibly tensed again, his previously relaxed posture completely locked up and his eyebrows had furrowed as he kept staring at him, not glaring, just staring.

The robotic stare made him uncomfortable, he couldn't even tell if he was upset or angry. He just had no expression to give what he was feeling away at all. Bryan put his arms across his body in a show of discomfort. He didn’t mean to cross a line that quickly, he thought it had been long enough Molten would be able to talk about it. “You– You don’t have to answer. I know that's a hard subject for you. We can talk about it another time.”

Molten’s expression didn’t change. “...That might be wise.” He said slowly, his voice more monotone and pointed than it was before. 

“Okay. Of course. Yeah, I– Do you want to look over the documents with me or were you just checking in?” He asked, silently hoping he didn’t mess up any chance he had to hangout with Molten and work with him like they used to do. 

Molten seemed to think about it for a moment before making a decision, “Just checking. I’ll leave you to your dysfunctional chaos.” 

All his hope had plummeted within seconds. He messed it up and went too far. Talking to Molten was like a tightrope, you brought up the wrong thing and suddenly he was running away. He never really could win with him. Especially now, especially with this border of suspicion Molten had against him, like he was constantly under some microscope Molten used to see if something had changed. He hadn’t changed. He was the exact same as he used to be. Molten was the one who was changing. He just couldn't figure out what had changed. 

He sighed, conceding, “Alright, take care Molten, okay? I know it's kinda picking up recently with Davis, make sure to take some time for yourself, I know you never like doing that.” He honestly hadn’t seen a time yet where Molten was either alone or having fun these days. Maybe he's just tired. He’s been there. He understands. “Right. See you around, Boss.” Molten hopped off the wall finally, spitting out “boss” like it was a curse. He quite liked being called boss, he doesn’t understand Molten's issue with it. Molten turned slowly and walked quickly out the door, leaning down to not hit the doorframe.

Bryan couldn't help but feel like something was really wrong with Molten. He seemed much more rough in his demeanor than he used to be, and that's saying something. He was even going as far as to call him boss. The last person he called boss was Jon. And last he heard, that never ended well. Even if Bryan was okay with being called that, he knew it meant something to Molten. But that something was never explained to him, so he felt like he was really out of the loop. 

Even though he had come back, there was still this giant gap between him and Molten. Molten was one of his oldest friends, he couldn’t stand the idea of there being this gap in trust between them again. He had worked for months to build up the relationship he had with him, whatever's going on he had to get to the bottom of. 

The second he isn't so busy he'll go spend time with Molten, even if Molten doesn’t want to spend time with him. He knows his disappearance took a toll on him, and then losing his closest friend right after must've been awful. Has he even taken time to himself to grief? Is that why he can’t even talk about it? 

The deterioration of his spirt did concern him, but he thought Molten might be more mentally unstable at this point if he had spent this long without grieving. For someone who should’ve been losing it, he was holding it up surprisingly well. Honestly, he seemed devoid of all emotion. Like he disconnected from reality a long time ago and hasn’t been emotionally present since everything went to shit. He wasn't even faking to have a giant bravado like he used to, just simply staying calm and intimidating. It was weird. He was weird. 

And what's with all the comparing him to his nature? Moltens never outright just said “you humans” as much as he has in the last few weeks he's been back. Usually Moltens tries to make himself appear more human, not deviating away from it. 

Molten's never been a person to just say how he's feeling, and he's always had to rely on his tone or his body language, but lately he feels even more closed off than he used to be. If Molten’s blocking him off then what is he going to be able to understand Molten with? How can he get to the bottom of what's happening if there's nothing he can go off of? 

Bryan sighed, he can't be thinking about this now. He has to figure out how to make this restaurant better if he wants any chance at getting back his theme park. He can't let the theme park close, that was his life's biggest aspiration. He's come too far to lose it now, he's come back from the dead for gods sake. It’s all he has left. If he can’t get the mall he’ll at least get the park. 

He took a deep breath, sitting back down at his desk– or well Pat’s desk. Time to get back to work.

***

"Looks like that you've changed as well."

"Maybe I tried to change. I tried to save somebody. That's why I got caught by him."

"Looks can be deceiving... You're definitely not the same Molten I knew- that's for sure."

"No, I'm not. And you're not Bryan. Just a facade."

"That's right. I'm not weak anymore."

"Kinder is not always weaker."

           -Molten & Bryan, You're Just Like Afton, TFF S4

***

He felt insane. Was he insane? It all felt like it was tumbling down and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

He was dying, that he knew. And he had just made a deal with the worst man alive who haunted him and manipulated him for a year and for years after at his old pizzeria. He had to make it worth his while but he doesn’t know what the fuck he was thinking. He felt like he was on top of the world and yet at the very bottom. He had to make it all amount to something, he had to get something out of this. 

And worst of all? No one understood him. No one would even hear him out. Not even his oldest animatronics, they all just thought he was losing it or turning on them or whatever. He wasn’t doing any of that! He was simply taking a more business like approach to life. He was dying for gods sake, he had to make it work with what little time he had.

Not even Molten understood him. Out of everyone he thought maybe he at least would. He's spent years defending him just to be awarded with betrayal the second he even brought up Afton's name. And what he fuck was wrong with him anyway? Acting like he wanted to die. It’s not like he was the one who got put through a torture freak gameshow where he had to kill all his animatronics and friends. In fact, he was an active participant in torturing him! 

Moltens worked with Afton before, and he barely even has a defense for what he did. Bryan thought he, out of everyone, would at least understand exactly why he was doing this. To get information, to get a leg up. If he could understand the portal, he could understand his powers and bring everybody back. His father, his life– everything. It could all be happy again the way it used to be. Didn’t Molten do the same things? Didn’t he want the same things? How could Molten think he was wrong? When he did the same things? Why would he refuse to help him? 

Hell, maybe Jon was right. Why has he been treating the animatronics like they were people? After all the hurt they've put him through? After all the shit he's gone through to keep this place open and running and profitable? Why has he been treating Molten, of all the animatronics, like a person? When he barely respected him the entire time he worked in this company. He barely even thanked him when he upgraded him. He's taken the bare minimum their whole friendship and he's sick of it. All his animatronics are honestly lucky he hasn’t snapped already. This was a long time coming. 

Whatever. It didn't matter. It was all for the greater good. They would understand. When it was all over they would all understand. 

“Is that what you tell yourself when you want to convince yourself you're right?”

“Not now, Molten I have–” But when he turned around he felt his stomach drop. Because that wasn’t Molten. Well, it was Molten but– not who he knew him to be now. Had he even said any of that outloud? Of course it wasn’t Molten responding to him. Molten was downstairs. Bryan was upstairs. 

“Molten” laughed, “What? Surprised? Thought I was gone?” That thing asked mockingly, coming out from the shadows like some nightmare hallucination. This wasn't happening. 

Bryan choked a laugh, “Is this a joke? Because it's really funny! Haha! Glitchtrap you can come out now or whatever you are!” He looked around the room, half expecting a gang of the ugliest animatronics he's ever seen to come out and admit they were tricking him. The villains he sees seem to follow that trend at least. They get uglier every time. It was all just a gag to make him seem crazy right? Just some insult to his trauma. Another show where he was the main event. Well, he wouldn't be fooled this time. 

The fake Molten snickered, “Not a joke, Bryan. I’m really here, and I’ve been here the whole time. It's quite interesting to see you lose your mind, you know?” As the thing stood in front of him intimidatingly, he took in his appearance. The thing looked exactly like Molten did all those years ago; smaller, only a head taller than him currently and broken beyond repair. He didn’t look burnt, but his mask still looked straight out of his worst nightmares. He only had a singular red eye and only a few extras that never actually worked, his eyes barely moving to match his expressions. This had to be a joke from hell. Molten hadn’t looked like this in years. 

“What do you know? You're not even real.” Bryan willed himself to stay calm, as long as he could keep it all under control this little meeting would go away and he could get back to being a normal person. But that old voice Molten used to have still sent shivers down his spine, he couldn’t help it. “But don’t you wish I was?” Molten asked condescendingly, taking a step closer. 

He scoffed, “What does that even mean? Of course I don't want you. The real you is downstairs!” He yelled, backing up towards his desk like hiding behind it would provide protection. Molten was safe. He knew he was safe. Why was this happening now? After so many years? He's not scared of Molten anymore, if anything, he's worthless to him now. He can look at the cameras to check on him too, it's not like he's somewhere unreachable. 

Fake Molten scoffed, “The real me? Right. The me who doesn’t agree with you? And is actively against you?” He asked, tilting his head the same way Molten used to when he was being intimidating. It felt like whiplash to see old body language Molten never used anymore. Molten barely even communicated like this either, it was like an entirely different person was speaking to him.

“What? So you are on my side?” He asked incredulously. Somewhere in him he secretly hoped this fake version was on his side. If he can’t get information from the real Molten wouldn’t the fake one do? If this is just his own subconscious, then it's basically just like giving himself advice. 

Molten straightened again, “Oh no, I wouldn't say that. I don’t agree with you– I just understand you. Given, I was exactly like you. Talking to Ennard like a schizophrenic maniac!” He broke off into a chaotic laugh, “Even you could see that! You remember Ennard don’t you?” He did remember, considering this thing was just voicing all his thoughts. He remembered how every time they put a Santa hat on Molten he’d break and pretend to be some childish version of himself. It was all pretend. He knew that now. Some delusion he made up to make himself feel better. Bryan wasn’t like that, he wasn’t delusional. He wasn’t crazy.

“What? Don’t compare me to that. I'm not schizophrenic. I’m not what you were– Ennard wasn’t real.” He defended, stepping closer like if he intimated the hallucinations they'd go away. It worked on his past self, surely it could work on this Molten doppelganger. 

“Really? Tell that to yourself more often and maybe it'll be true. You know it wasn’t just pretend. It was an illness. Ennard couldn't handle the real world because he was weak and a coward. Why else did he stay locked up in my head?” Molten laughed at him, “Kinda reminds me of you.” 

Bryan sucked in a breath, “Just— Just go away! You don’t have a hold over me anymore! I'm not scared of you! You’re not getting anything out of me!” Bryan walked behind his desk, fuming, if he just ignored him he’d go away. He would. He just had to breathe. 

“You don't have to be scared of me for me to make a point. Besides, why would I want anything out of you? I know all your thoughts anyways. I live in your head, remember?”

“Then get to the fucking point so I can get to work.” He snapped, staring into the fake translucent robot like he could feel his eyes bore into him. He wasn’t real, he couldn’t feel anything. 

Molten laughed, “Feisty. I see.” The fake Molten commented, speaking in the same tones Molten used to use to refer to him. It pissed him off. 

“Stop mimicking him.” How dare his subconscious do this to him? How dare he mimic Molten like it would comfort him. It didn’t, it pissed him off. Molten didn’t act like that anymore. He was weak, soft now. Molten didn’t understand him. He wasn't gonna be there for him anymore, if he ever even was there for him. It was all just some ploy to humiliate him. That had to be it. That's all this was.

“Mimicing him? You mean Molten? Me?” The thing laughed like that was funny. He suddenly disappeared, but Bryan knew he wasn't just going to disappear. “You are not Molten!” He yelled into the air, looking wildly around from where he’d appear next.

Sensing him in the air behind him, Bryan whipped around, seeing the fake Molten now right beside his ear. He felt his breathing quicken at the proximity, his hair standing on its ends. “Of course not, because you notice the difference don’t you?”

Bryan scoffed, pretending he wasn't affected by the interactions, the fake noticed anyway. “What difference?”

Molten walked over to the other side of the desk, pretending like he was reading the files like he and Molten used to do. The papers didn’t move under the false weight, yet another reminder this was all in his head. The nerve of this faker. “The difference in his personality. My personality. I don’t act like the person you remember me being, aren’t I correct?” The fake tilted his head again, eyes shooting up in false surprise like he was just guessing. Like he didn’t know all his thoughts and then merged them into some horrible fake monster that haunted his every move. 

Bryan sputtered, “What does that have to do with anything?” Of course he's noticed– he's noticing it now. He can’t stand it. Ever since all this shit with Davis it's like he's a whole new person. It throws him off and it feels like he's not even the person he had spent so long trying to impress. The same person he defended and died for. 

“You feel guilty.” Molten smirked, leaning on the desk to get closer. 

“What?”

Molten laughed, “You think it's your fault. That you're making it all worse by shoving all this Afton business in my face and acting like it's the best decision. You keep pushing the blame on everybody else when in reality it's been you this entire time.” What a liar. He doesn’t think that at all. Is this thing even from his own head? Surely it's just a projection from Glitchtrap. It wasn’t his fault. He's done all he can to defend and help everyone, how could he say such a thing? 

“What are you talking about? Obviously it's everyone else's fault! I didn’t do anything to deserve this, all I’ve ever been was kind! ” He had been tortured and bullied for years, he'd been called a horrible business owner more times than he could count when all he's ever done is be the best person he could be. He's given his whole life to this company and this job. He didn’t do shit to deserve death and suffering and everything else he's ever gone through.

He didn’t deserve to have his father taken away, his entire family. He didn’t deserve to lose all his real friends over animatronics who weren’t even real, who didn't feel real emotions. Everything they felt was artificial, hell, most of them didn’t even like him. Freddys even said that to his face.  God, he took a bullet for Molten and died and he never even shows that he cares. He's been blind for years and hes sick of it. 

Anybody could see that he wasn’t better than the animatronics, they're robots. They had intelligence far beyond what he could comprehend. All he had over them was power– superiority– and he's never even deigned to use it until recently. He’s realized over the last few months none of them would back him up on the one thing he's asked for for himself for all the years he's worked here. Why should they even get a say in his decisions? He owns them. He has that power. They shouldn’t even get a say. 

“Didn’t you?” Molten asked, pausing,  “We really aren’t so different you know. We both just wanted what was rightfully ours. Revenge. Knowledge. Acknowledgement. Validation. You see that don’t you? Two emotionally weak people wanting comfort in the form of twisted company. The torturer and the victim, friends? How pathetic.” Molten commented. He was sick of this thing calling him weak. He wasn’t weak. He had endured all of his life. He had endured his parents, this company, the portal, his animatronics.. Everything. How could Molten of all people say he was weak?

“What? I’m not weak, I endured you. You tortured me! You practically bullied me everyday for a year! You stalked me, you threatened me!’ He yelled continuously, walking around the desk just to get in this fake Molten's face. His breathing had started to get out of control, losing himself in this hallucination, losing sense of his surroundings. He was so angry. It's like everything was red. 

Molten leaned into his face too, just like he used to do when he was trying to intimidate someone. When he would get up in people's faces to prove a point. “But don’t you remember? Why did I keep threatening you? Wasn’t it to– oh, I don't know– warn you? To keep you focussed about what truly mattered? You spent your days playing with a portal no one needed to be messing with. My Portal. It infected you and you got distracted! If you had taken any of my warnings to heart or listened to anything I said–Maybe we wouldn’t be here.” He pointed out, raising his eyebrows as his voice deepened threateningly, mockingly even. 

Bryan's eyes widened, taking steps backwards to get away from this fake Molten. His anger chilling into doubt.  “That’s– That's not true.” He wasn't right. He couldn’t be. He did all he could. How could he have ever known what Springtrap's plans were? Molten never told him jackshit. He only gave him riddles and puzzles he didn't know how to solve. He knew it was awful to keep using that portal back then– but now? It had given him powers that made him better than everyone. He could fix it. He could make it right. All he had to do was bring his father back. That's all he needed to get back that happiness he used to have. His real father’s death is where it all went wrong.  

Molten scoffed, backing away to cross his arms, “I’ve been in your position, you know I have. Afton will screw you over and dump you for the wolves.” Suddenly the fake bear brightened, tilting his head creepily to stare into his soul, “He was the one who put a bomb in my head, remember? He’ll betray you just the same." Molten whispered threateningly, tilting his head innocently. 

With shocking clarity it hit him like a truck. Molten did have a bomb in his head didn't he? Afton did screw him over. And he just yelled in his face that he didn’t know anything about Afton or how he operated. He clutched at his vest as he backed further away from the melted, transparent bear. 

“Oh, you get it now don’t you?” The fake Molten began to laugh, his old creepy laugh affecting Bryan more than he wanted it to as his breathing quickened, his hands moving to tangle up into his hair. “Youre pathetic! You died for no reason and look what its gotten you, a sad miserable existence where you’re ending up just like him! Like Afton!” He laughed and laughed and laughed. Bryan felt his blood pressure rise as his head kept aching. Why couldn’t he just stop laughing? 

He closed his eyes, his hands falling in front of his eyes to rub at his temples. He needs to calm down. “No. This isn’t happening. You– You aren’t happening. The real Molten is downstairs, and is okay.” That he knew.  He– It was all a ploy. It didn’t matter what happened to Molten. He could outsmart Afton. He had so many more resources on his side now. He could figure it out before it's too late. This interaction wasn't doing shit to his psyche or whatever. This was merely a setback. He just had to calm down, get his old medication. He could do that. It’s simple.

“Am I? Didnt I just say I wanted to kill myself a few days ago? An hour ago?” He kept laughing, like that was funny. It wasn’t funny. The world still felt like it was spinning. His head hurt, his body ached. Could he just shut up? Why did he have to keep referring to Molten like it was him? They weren't the same. He wasn't Molten. Molten wouldn’t kill himself.

Despite his better judgement, Bryan made his way back to the laptop, secretly trying to pull up the cameras like the hallucination couldn’t watch his every move. He didn’t care about Molten anymore. He swore he didn’t. But he had to check, just to make sure.

“It was probably just an exaggeration," He reasoned, trying to count to ten in his head to calm down. The loading was so slow. He just needed to check if he was okay. All he had to do was to keep blocking out the hallucinations voice, block out the words he was saying just to rile him up.

When he finally clicked his way to the basement cameras, he pretended like he didn’t feel the pure relief flow through his body at seeing Molten still in the same spot he was a few hours ago on the cameras, actively talking to Baby. He didn’t even know Baby was in the mall. That just set in stone this stupid hallucination wasn’t real. He was someplace else, perfectly fine and happy.

“What happens when it's not? What do you think would happen if one day you just find my broken corpse? Just like Bonnie?” No. Molten wasn't stupid enough for that. He's looking at it right now, he's okay, he's talking to Baby, he's talking to his friend. Molten didn’t need him and he didn’t need Molten. Nothing would happen. He wouldn’t die. It’s not like he can’t come back. He’s a robot. He could fix him. 

“Fuck. Off.”

Molten laughed maniacally, the blood rushing in Bryan's ears as he just kept laughing. Bryan put his hands over his ears, trying to block it out. He had to count to ten, he had to take deep breaths. He knew all the sensations around him, he knew he was in the present. He just had to make it a reality. 

Finally after what felt like hours, he couldn’t hear his laughter anymore. He could hear the air conditioning of the mall and he could hear the soft noises of code pulling up on the wall. It was over. He was gone. 

He took another deep breath, taking one last glance at the cameras, seeing Molten now on the bed in the basement with Baby next to him. They looked like they were playing with some kind of toy, and they both were fine. Molten didn’t even seem that hung up on their last interaction, so it’s not like he hurt his feelings with anything he said. He has to remember these are robots. All they feel is artificial. 

He sighed in frustration. It's official. He's done for. He's running out of time. He has to figure this out before it's too late. It doesn't matter what he thought about Molten or whatever the fake had to say. It doesn't even matter that it's true. He can’t take back what he said. He's in too deep now. No turning back. 

He wasn’t going to be tricked. He wasn’t as weak as Molten was or is now. He would get the information he needed and get rid of Afton before it was too late. Afton was locked up in the basement with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. He had the upper hand. As long as he could keep the cards in his favor, it would go his way. No prodding from Molten or any of the others will stop him from getting what he wants. That he is sure of. 

It’s just another day at Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria, after all. Nothing to be afraid of.

***

“My god–I don't know what basement he built you in– but I found the documents, Model 10. That– They're everywhere! He (Afton) has a trace trail right back to you. Right back to everything he's ever done.”

          – Jon, Say Hi to Bryan!? Jons S2

***

“You know I don't know why I didn't figure this out before, but this makes my job so much easier!” Bryan exclaimed outloud, staring at his screen dumbfounded he didn’t know about this before. 

“What does?” Adrien asked from across the room, peeking their head out from the screen in curiosity. 

He hummed, “I can remotely look at the animatronics code from my personal computer! Anyone who's connected to the main server can be accessed here.” He had no idea why he never used this system before. He could’ve been doing all his updates remotely all this time if he had known. He's surprised none of the animatronics mentioned this either, it's not like this is outdated technology. This should've been something he went over on the first day on the job. He can’t believe he's made his life so hard for this many years for no reason whatsoever. 

“I didn't know you could do that.” Adrien commented, looking back to their own screen now that their interest in the conversation has been satiated. 

“Me either until today.” That might be a lie, he does remember someone hacking into his animatronics at the old pizzeria, but he can't remember who it was. They must’ve used similar technology to this to do that. 

Curiously he looked through the list, seeing all the animatronics lined up in model order. He saw the glamrocks, the rockstars and even some of the older animatronics. He could also see the location of some of them, but only the ones he had put trackers in. He doesn’t know where some of his animatronics are. Like Orville; He hasn't seen him in a while but he's heard he still comes around sometimes. He's also heard from Dylan that Orville and Shadow Bonnie are married or something? At least he knows they're okay out there somewhere. 

As he looked through the list of animatronics, he noticed something weird. After the Funtime animatronics were listed he saw a few endoskeletons. Most of these he knew were projects he didn’t finish but were hooked up to the systems, projects he intended to finish in the next upcoming weeks. But there was one he didn’t recognize. Model 10? Who or what is Model 10? 

He hasn’t officially named his other endoskeletons and he's pretty sure most of the current animatronics should have their real names in the system, not their model name. And ten? That had to be pretty early. He didn't have animatronics that were that old. Was this a mistake? Maybe this animatronic was leftover from when Pat was running this place. 

“Adrien, do you know who a  ‘Model 10’ animatronic is? Is that some old scrap animatronic or something?" He asked, still scrolling through the page of animatronics to see if there were any others that were out of place. So far, that old model was the only one. 

“Uh Model 10… hm...” Adien hummed trying to think. “Oh! I've heard some stories about an animatronic called something similar in the company. Apparently it's supposed to be the base model for the older Funtime animatronics but no one knows where the original blueprints for it are or where the animatronic actually is,” Adrien explained. “I think only the CEO knows all the details. Super top secret. I've always wondered about it!” Adrien supplied helpfully, jutting off the information they knew. 

“Oh, that's interesting. I've never heard of them before but it’s logged in our systems…” Funtime animatronics? He knew for a fact Baby and Ballora weren't Model 10. And the other three funtimes have all been deactivated since before they moved to the mall. Bryan opened the information sheet of the mystery animatronic. Nothing was listed in any of the animatronic descriptions. Only a “Property of Afton Robotics. Refer to the CEO.” Message was written, so it adds up that only the CEO would know. Maybe he should ask Vindy who this was, surely he wouldn’t be mad at him for asking a business related question?

It was dated to be made sometime in 1983, that could be a good hint to go off of. He really should've looked more into the documents in the CEO office when he was the CEO. Maybe he'd know who this is if he had. He noticed the animatronic was apparently online, so he opened the system dialog box for the coding, secretly hoping that wouldn’t mess anything up considering how old this one is. 

Immediately a thousand error codes instantly popped up. “Woah– What the?” The code errors ranged from every different level of wrong. It reminded him of those popups when you get malware on a computer. There were even some virus warnings in here. For an animatronic this old and outdated it apparently had internet access. So much for not messing anything up. When he finally closed through all the warning messages, he finally got to see the real coding.

Except this was the most unorganized jumbled up lines of code he's probably ever seen in his life. “What is it? Did you open it?” Adrien asked, tilting their head to look behind the computer to look at him. 

“Yeah I did but a thousand errors popped up and the coding is all over the place.” He said astonishedly, trying to make any sense of what he was initially seeing. 

He scrolled through all the code trying to place if any of this was salvageable. Some of this did actually look recognizable despite how out of order everything was, he'd seen it in the old Rockstar models and in Baby when he repaired her in the old pizzeria. He's actually based his code on these lines for the Glamrocks. Maybe this was the base model, and not just for the Funtimes. In some capacity. Whatever happened to it caused it to be hardly readable. 

“This is interesting. Some of it is recognizable, it's just all in the wrong places…" Some of the code was also repeated multiple times. He didn't want to mess with the coding too badly, but this was so messy. How could this animatronic even be online? Or have internet access? When he made it to the part that showed how the animatronics can open search engines it looked like someone directly just deposited the webcode for Google in here instead of actually coding it into their systems. He wondered how it was even usable. It probably didn’t work very well.

It's like someone attempted to upgrade the coding to the newer systems and it wasn’t compatible with the old model. Whatever happened fully messed up the order of where everything was supposed to be, and it was hard to see if he knew what specifically was happening. 

He was trying to remember if he's ever seen this specific code before. It’s hard to differentiate the different animatronics when you just look at their code, since they all have the same base code and just have added performance modes for their specific jobs. He had yet to see any performance or job coding for this mystery animatronic, making it difficult to figure out who this one was or if he knew them. 

Just when he was at a loss at who this could be, he noticed something the further down he went. He had stumbled into a big blob of code, which was more untouched than the infected files. Less jumbled and actually looked readable. He finally found something resembling old performance coding! But it unfortunately looked like it had overwritten itself at some point and all the files were corrupted. Even through the corrupted lines he was able to pinpoint that these were similar to the functions that Funtime Foxy and Funtime Freddy used to do, with old birthday songs programmed to play at parties and some old lines for showtimes. 

“Wait a second. This code is familiar ..."

Over all the years he's worked at this company, he has grown a little too familiar with those specific lines of code. In fact he's openly asked about them to the person they belonged to and even offered to fix it. Of course, he didn’t get an answer for it but he unfortunately knew exactly who the corrupted files belonged to. 

“This is Molten's code!” 

Adrien let out a surprised noise at his random loud interruption after he’d been mumbling to himself the last few minutes. “Molten? The spaghetti bear? How could it be theirs? I didn't think they were even connected to the servers, " They have a point, Molten was strictly against being connected and even suggested he turn off all access to it in fear Glitchtrap had already corrupted all the files. 

“I didn't either but I've worked on them multiple times and this is their coding. It didn't used to look this bad before though…” He remembered Molten's coding being messed up, but it wasn't nearly this bad the last time he was allowed to look at the code. In the past, he at least had readable code. This was something else entirely. 

Did that mean Molten was the base model for the Funtimes? He did say he was a mixture of all the funtimes but he didn't think that meant he literally was the original model for them. He was more so under the impression Molten came after them. And Model 10? Did that mean Molten was the tenth animatronic ever made? Or was it just a random name Afton gave to him? The description said he had turned on sometime in 1983; but that date seemed too late for Molten to have been made if that was the case. He knew the originals had existed by that point and he knew there was an old Sister Location that was open for a few weeks in Baby’s name. How could he be the tenth animatronic? 

“Wait! I get it now!” Adrien suddenly exclaimed, slamming their hands on the table, causing Bryan to jump at the noise. 

“What do you get?” He asked hesitantly, still recovering from the noise. 

“Don't you see? Model 10 rhymes with Molten! Sound it out!”

“Mo–dull Ten… Molt-ten… Wait a minute,” He started, sounding out the two words hestantntly just to find out that It did actually rhyme. "I always thought he had that name because of the burnt ventilation systems we found him near...” He said to himself, shocked at this revelation.

Did Molten really choose a name that rhymed with his base name? That might just be more uncreative than the name “Ennard” was. He's an endoskeleton. The innards of an animatronic? He can't seriously be this uncreative. How could he not realize this sooner? He really should've just renamed Molten at some point. He has no idea how he's never noticed how horrible Molten is at naming things. 

This brought up more questions than answers. Why was Molten the base model? Why was his coding so messed up compared to the last time he looked at it? As far as he knew, Davis never complained his coding was wonky, and he was the last one to work on him. He even tried to fix him in some capacity, as evidenced by Molten's voicebox. 

Not to mention, why was there nothing listed except a referral to the CEO? Now that he thought about it, “Afton Robotics" was a sub company of Fazbears that merged in the 2000s. From what he remembered from his initial research into the company, the only thing under its name was the warehouse for company patented parts, which is what it is today, and the old Sister locations for the other funtimes. All of those locations shut down due to the original models all going missing at the rental facility. While he did already know his animatronics were the originals from that location, he's never really considered or put together the finer details of all these events. Suddenly all the weird comments Baby and Molten made to each other at the first pizzeria made a lot of sense.

Curious, he scrolled down further stopping when he noticed something strange, if this could get more strange, or broken. Molten’s personality coding was completely... wrong yet also free of flaws. It looked vaguely similar to how Glamrock Foxys was when his emotions got messed up at the Halloween party. Strange. The coding here was actually perfectly fine too, completely unaffected by whatever viruses were affecting the rest of his systems. He guesses he's never bothered to look at Molten’s personality coding, he's always wanted to like Molten for who he was. 

He's never even thought about changing who his animatronics were until last year, he still can’t believe he would ever think or say those things about them. They were people too in their own right, and he was practically a tyrant proclaiming they didn’t deserve to feel emotions. Even if its programmed in them, they still can feel. He hopes they’ll have it in them to forgive him one day.

“I remember Molten's coding being pretty weird but I don't guess I've ever looked at it more intently. I've only ever done physical repairs on him. Sometimes I looked at it to double check the things I added worked but this looks completely different from what it did two years ago,” In fact this was entirely different from just a year ago. He did briefly look through Molten's systems to see if he could help him deviate from Davis, but he couldn’t find anything that could help at the time. Maybe Davis figured out the horrors of his systems before he did, figuring out how to read it to use it to his advantage. Or maybe whatever Davis did is the reason his code looked this bad. If he really did try to upgrade him, it makes sense that it wouldn't be compatible. 

“What's wrong with it?” Adrien asked, still listening to him ramble apparently. 

He took a breath in, trying to wrap his brain around all of this. “I don't know how to explain it, it's all jumbled up and randomized in random spots, some of the code is repeated multiple times and some code that should be necessary for him to work is nowhere to be found.” After being on the same screen for a while, he noticed that the code was constantly changing too. Sort of like what Molten described was happening to Steve when he was still possessing him. It was so strange. How has he never looked into this before? 

All these code issues had to be a recent thing, it's the only explanation. He vividly remembers fixing Molten and looking at their code multiple times. Theres just no way he couldn't have noticed this beforehand. “Yet his emotional processes are running smoothly with no issues? I'm not sure how Molten is functioning without any problems right now and why that specifically is completely fine, especially will all those error codes.. Maybe I should go check on him...” He continued, trailing off as he thought of all the ways for why this could be happening. How could his coding get this bad within a year? It was still baffling him the more he thought about it. 

“Maybe something happened! I know he's like this big tough guy but maybe they're in trouble!” Adrien suddenly exclaimed, jumping up from the desk like they were about to have a cape appear behind them. 

He gasped, “Oh my god you're right! What if the nightmares are back? Can you find them on the cameras?” Questions and confusion aside, he needed to know if Molten was alright. If nothing else, let him be physically okay. He could fix the physical aspect if Molten would ever let him help. 

“Uh” Adrien checked the cameras and he could hear the clicking of the keyboard. The anticipation was killing him, why didn’t he just look it up himself? “Looks like they're in the kitchen again, but there's no one else there. It's just him.”

He sighed in relief, “Okay, I’ll go check on him, you can stay here and keep working.” Bryan advised, pushing out his chair and standing up abruptly. He didn't close out of Molten's systems but he figured it would turn off on its own. Molten didn't seem to really be comfortable around Adrien, so it's best for him to go alone. He knew they meant well with all the animatronics and were trying to get close with them, but Molten was a special case. He wasn't like everyone else. 

“Sounds good! Call me if you need help! I’ll stick right here!” Bryan nodded as he quickly ran out the door, making his way down the stairs at an alarming pace. He was just worried that's all. Even if there was nothing to be worried about. Molten's just having fun in the kitchen, nothing scary about that. Molten's always been good in the kitchen, nothing he's ever made turned out bad. He remembers he even taught the other animatronics how to properly make pizzas once. He might have some interesting choices in flavour, but there's nothing that is gonna somehow attack him in there. 

As he rounded the corner, he looked around widely, trying to peak into the kitchen to get a glimpse of them, “Molten?” he yelled out, stopping once he came face to face with the broken bear without legs. 

Molten scowled upon seeing him, his expression immediately darkening. “Oh. it's you again. What do you want?” They huffed, their grip tightening on the arms of the wheelchair. Bryan looked around for any external threats, “Are you okay? Is anything happening?” He turned and walked through the kitchen doors, stepping in and looking around the freezer for any hidden threats. It seems entirely empty. It really is only Molten in here. That's a relief. 

Molten raised an eyebrow, “What are you on about? I still don't have any legs, if that's what you're asking.” He said bitterly, rolling his eyes as he rolled back the other way to his cake recipe. Wait, cake? Why is he even making cake? It's pretty late in the day. They were already closed. Maybe its just some new hobby he picked up. Molten does seem to still hangout with Ballora sometimes. He sincerely hopes Molten's cake making does not escalate to the way Ballora made cakes. He has lost so much money on cake ingredients it's not even funny. 

And why was he so pissed at him for that? It's not like he ripped his legs off. He's offered to help multiple times yet he huffs and puffs at him like he hasn’t done enough. “That's not– I mean yes that's clearly wrong but I mean system wise. Any weird issues or anything like that?” Bryan rounded the counter Molten was working at, forcing Molten to be face to face with him. Bryan looked around at all the ingredients, his mouth watering at the sight of chocolate. He mourns that he won't get to eat it. 

“System issues. You're gonna have to be more specific. is Glitchtrap back or something?" Molten asked monotony, grabbing an egg and cracking it over the bowl. Bryan squinted, did that not ever get in his wires? How did he clean himself? Did he sanitize before working with the food? And whats with that tone? If Glitchtrap were really back, shouldn't he be more concerned? 

Bryan shook his head to focus, “No it's just... I found out i could remotely look through the animatronic code if they were connected to the main server–”

“--And you didn't think this might be a horrible idea with Glitchtrap around?” Molten interrupted, scowling at him like he was an idiot. He hadn't thought of that. 

“That's–Thats  not the point! I was searching through the animatronics and saw one called Model 10. When I tried to look at the code I realized it was yours but the code's all over the place and I don't know how you're even operational right now.” Now that he thought back to it, Molten's code kinda reminded him of the portal control panel. A bunch of random lines of code that somehow managed to work together to create something functional. He wondered if the portal could affect the animatronics at all. Molten did have that portal timer inside of him for a few decades right? 

“Ah. So you're snooping in my systems without letting me know and messing around in there? Do you ever think twice? Not even twice, do you even think once?” Molten asked incredulously, giving up on focusing on the cake as he progressively got more angry at him. 

“Okay– I admit I shouldn't have snooped but I didn't know it was you until I looked closely at it. Molten your code is completely messed up. I know you're special and for some reason that's normal for you but there's no way you should even be moving.” He explained again, concern bleeding into his words. He knows the last thing Molten wants is pity or worry but even after everything he still cared about him. Even if Motlen refused to even hear out his apology or thought he was an awful person, he would still continue to care. “If you know it's normal for me then you don't need to be messing with it or worrying about it. I've lived this long, I'm not gonna drop dead tomorrow." Molten deadpanned, their tone deepening like it always did when they got to be done with the conversation. 

“But–”

“ Drop it. Don’t look into me. Forget you saw the code.” Molten mumbled something about needing to disconnect from the main systems, turning his wheelchair around to continue making the cake. Going over to where he had some other ingredients prepared. 

Bryan ran to the other side of the counter, stepping in front of Molten as he continued despite the scowl that action earned, “Forget I saw the code? No offense, Molten, but I can’t just forget what I saw. There has to be something thats wrong or something I can do to help. I mean, your personality was fin–”

“Drop it. Bryan. I'm serious.” Molten cut in, completely cutting him off. “I’ve already had to threaten your little boyfriend– or sorry, ex-boyfriend– to not look into me. I didn’t think I'd have to give you the same warning. If you look into me or mess with my code I will not hesitate.” He said threateningly, gesturing in the air like he was pointing at the door for him to take his exit. He completely forgot Molten had talked to Vindy before. Did Vindy find the documents he was wondering about and get suspicious of him too? Was this actually some company secret he wasn't supposed to know about? If it was, why was it so obvious? Just a mention of his apparent original name was enough for him to be wary. 

“Hestiate to what? Why are you so concerned about it? It's only gonna hurt you if nobody fixes what's wrong.” He couldn’t understand why he was being so defensive. It's not like his code is the key to all the secrets in this company, even if there is some external company issue he doesn't know about. He just wants to help, that's all he's been trying to do for the past few weeks since he's been back. He knew it would be difficult for everybody to forgive him, but he didn’t think it would take this long. Didn't he forgive all his animatronics misgivings when they realized their mistakes? Wasn't this not so different? It was so exhausting. 

Molten glared into him, like he wasn’t even seeing him, just looking past him. “You can't fix me. Don't try to fix me. Got it? I don't want your help, Bryan. Fuck off. I'm perfectly fine on my own.” Bryan stepped back in shock, trying not to appear like the words affected him in any way. How had the tables switched between the two of them? It's like he's in Moltens' position from years ago and Moltens in his. Yet it's like he's doing it all wrong when Molten did it all right. He just wants to be friends again. 

Bryan just stared at him for a minute, dumbfounded. How come he could be so stubborn? After all these years? It's like he's not even the same person anymore. Not the same person he was friends with. “Fine. If that's what you want.” He said, pretending like it didn’t hurt his pride to just leave him alone. But he knew this conversation was going to go nowhere. Molten was never gonna give up any information like this. He took one last look at him, Molten's eyes widening as if to say “go ahead.” 

He sighed, walking past Molten towards the side door to leave the kitchen, but before he went out he took one last look back, seeing Molten was just staring at him leave. It bothered him that he couldn’t do anything to help. He was worried. He didn’t want Molten to die. 

“Molten?”

“What now?” 

“...Are you okay?” 

Molten sat motionless for a moment before turning to look away, finally deeming it time to go back to his chocolate cake. The cake that obviously wasn't made for him. 

“Just fine.” He said lowly, going about his day like his systems weren’t fighting against him internally. 

Bryan thought back to how his personality code looked. How it was the only thing still functioning correctly. He wondered if it really was like what happened to Glamrock Foxy, where he lost all his emotions.

If that was the case, then Molten was never happy was he? He's programmed to not be. He's always noticed something was wrong with him, but he never did anything about it and all Molten ever did was get better at pretending. How could he be so oblivious? He thought Molten would open up to him with time, not block him out as they got closer. 

Did Molten used to have emotions like everybody else? Has their code deteriorated on its own or was it really from an external issue? Without the personality code functioning correctly, have they slowly lost what it felt like to feel sadness or real empathy? Is that why he could care less about what's happening with Glitchtrap or fighting to protect everyone like he used to? Because he simply didn't know how to care anymore? Like how Foxy was when he was completely broken? Did Davis cause this or was it like this since the start? 

He's spent all this time building him up to be an impenetrable, unkillable thing that he never thought to check what actually could be wrong. If he had done better, then Molten would've felt safe enough to confide in him. He really is a horrible business owner. He never even checks the sanctity of his own animatronics, the one thing that keeps this business alive. Hell, who cares about the business? These are really his only friends. 

He sighed heavily, finally turning away. There wasn't anything he could do that wouldn’t be against Molten's wishes. If he wanted to suffer, then he could continue to suffer. If they wanted help they could come get it on their own. He had to prove he was trustworthy enough to be trusted with that level of vulnerability again, he had to show that he really meant it. And that only came with time. 

He just wished that he had known about it sooner. If Molten had ever just mentioned it one time he would've worked day and night to fix it. But he didn’t and now they’re here. He doubts the state he's in now really is even repairable. Molten’s right. He's unfixable. 

“Goodbye, Molten.” He finally began his exit out of the room, hearing Molten huff in response.

***

“..Complicated isn’t even the word I’d give it, Its more like a– What's the word? A business transaction. He used me, I used him. That's all our relationship has ever been– Transactional.”

       – Bryan, The Mimic, TFF S4