To follow up my own question, I needed this within my code:
Code:
eval('$navbar = "' . fetch_template('navbar') . '";');
I find that weird, since I didn't need the header or footer, etc. but I needed to call the navbar.
However - links, etc. were all wrong since the navbar template isn't pathed correctly (would need to add $vboptions[bburl]/ in many places I'm assuming).
Just thought I'd update.