Chapter Text
It didn’t take long for Foxy, Jeremy, and Gregory to make it to Fazer Blast. Gregory was practically running the whole way with Foxy on his heels and Jeremy catching up behind them. They made it outside the front entrance before the others could’ve made it even to the kitchen elevator.
The doors leading inside were closed by left unguarded. They didn’t automatically open, but Foxy was able to pull them apart with only a little strain since they were closed but not locked.
“Do you notice all the Staff Bots are gone…?” Jeremy asked quietly.
“They are?” Gregory looked around. Even though he wouldn’t have been able to see any other Staff Bots from here, he did notice that they hadn’t passed any coming in. “Weird…”
“Bunny must’ve deactivated them… Sent them somewhere…”
There was something eerie about that. Jeremy should’ve been relieved that there weren’t any security bots patrolling or attendant bots blocking them but instead it only made the place seem more abandoned.
He snapped his attention back to the doors though as Foxy got them cracked open enough that he could reach in above him and help. They got the doors open and headed into the lobby for Fazer Blast.
Fazer Blast too was empty. No Staff Bots, no music. The lights flickered a bit and as they stepped in there was a weird shift from the floor. Foxy’s head snapped up and Jeremy froze up.
“Did the floor just move?” he asked.
Foxy’s hum confirmed as much.
“That can’t be good…” Jeremy mumbled.
But any consideration the two could have was ignored as Gregory slipped past and started to head towards the door to go into the Fazer Blast arena. Nothing was working right, but the automatic doors in here at least seemed to be working like usual. They made their way deeper.
Only to find themselves stopped at the last hurdle. Making it only to the gearing up rooms for the laser tag before the lack of automatic functionality caused them to hit a brick wall. There was no way to get through the last doorways into the arena proper.
But thankfully, Gregory had an out.
“There’s a vent over here. Maybe we can go through there,” he said. He wound them around to a back corner where there was a securely covered vent.
Foxy got the vent pried open in no time flat, then Gregory crawled in, Foxy behind and Jeremy leading up the back. It was a tight squeeze but doable. Especially since it was getting them past doors that couldn’t be pried open so easily.
Or it did until they hit the fan. A big fan blocking their way that, like many of the functions of the Pizzaplex, was off. Gregory grabbed it and tried to shake it.
“Ugh, come on!” It didn’t budge and he struck it with his fist, to no give. “Oww!” He hissed and shook his hand, then moved the fan a little. He couldn’t move it but… “I think I can squeeze through…”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jeremy volunteered.
“Why not? If I get through then Foxy can break the fan, right?” Gregory offered.
“Ya think ya can squeeze through there without getting stuck?” Foxy asked. Jeremy tapped frantically on his foot. “Err, maybe it ain’t such a good idea. We’ll slide out and switch out.”
“No, it’s okay! I can do it!” Gregory said persistently.
He pushed the fan blades around until he made himself a hole at the right angle and then pressed into the corner and tried to squeeze through. It was painful, the blade jabbing into his skin as he dragged himself through.
All the while Jeremy called after him, “No, wait, wait! You’ll get stuck!”
And that gave him more drive to keep pushing through. Gregory managed to get his shoulders past and then had to push and pat at the nearly frictionless walls to try and pull himself through the rest of the way. It was Foxy grabbing his foot, giving him a foothold to push back on, that got him through the last push and into the vent.
“There ya are, Lad! Now slide on back but not far. I want to see ya but I don’t want to clip ya,” Foxy instructed.
Gregory scooted back and Foxy began to deal with the vent. Hooking on it and pulling to no avail. Tapping on it, fiddling around and looking.
“What kinda fan is this? Ain’t there usually screws ‘er somethin’?” Foxy mumbled.
As he worked, Gregory scooted further back into the vent anxiously, trying to get the signal back on his Fazwatch. He pressed the button.
“Freddy? Can you hear me?”
Nothing. He tapped the button repeatedly, on and off.
“Freddy? Freddy! Hey! Can you hear me?!”
There was a crunchy, staticky sound and Gregory inhaled sharply, holding the watch to his ear with baited breath. Sure enough…
“…gory…”
“Freddy! We’re coming, we’re almost there!” Gregory called. The response was smothered in static. He turned over and began to crawl through the vent. “I’ll be right back!”
“Lad, where you goin’?!” Foxy called.
“Just trying to get a signal! I’ll be fine!”
“Don’t go far! Bah, there he goes,” Foxy grumbled. He gave the fan a frustrated little punch. “Bloody thing. Iff’n I was turned ‘round, this thing’d be blown right through.”
“Think we can crawl back out, switch places, and you can kick it out?” Jeremy offered.
“Maybe. Worth a shot.”
They started the slow process of trying to crawl backwards out of the vent, Jeremy having an easier time and pulling Foxy along by the feet.
Meanwhile, Gregory started to run towards the backdoor of Fazer Blast that would lead into the basement area. The closer he got, the clearer the voice was. Still loaded with static and the words cut off, but the voice itself was more audible. It was absolutely Freddy’s voice.
Gregory ran up to the door leading to the basement and tried it, and found that it wasn’t locked. Possibly left open since the night with Vanny. Gregory didn’t question it and instead descended into the darkness that was only broken up by the dull neon lights inside.
The stairs led into a hallway, even darker than before. He pushed along into it, falling the wall with his hand.
“Freddy?” Gregory called down the hallway. “Freddy, can you hear me?”
He heard a crackle of static over the Fazwatch but no response.
The temperature dropped as Gregory stepped into the next room, one loaded with servers. He could see his breath but little else, with the small lights from the servers flickering and too faint to make heads or tails of most of the room. He ventured further and halted only when he heard movement, a plastic squeak.
Gregory shined his Fazwatch ahead like a flashlight.
And found Glamrock Freddy standing in the darkness. His posture slumped in a strange way and his back towards the boy, but he was still standing there.
“Freddy…?” Gregory called.
Freddy’s head twitched and then cocked. He slowly straightened up his back, his head lulling, and then began to turn around and look over his shoulder.
Gregory’s stomach dropped as he saw his face.
Glamrock Freddy’s eyes were strangely darkened, only illuminated by small dots of light in their pupils, and some sort of slimy black sludge was oozing out of them like tears and stained down his face. It looked ghastly, and Gregory took a frightened step back.
“Fr-Freddy?” he squeaked.
“Gregory…?” Freddy stared at him before stiffly turning to face him. He stepped over his own feet in an awkward shuffle and his head lulled almost bonelessly. His arms hanging at his sides limply. “Gregory… Why are you here…?”
Something was very wrong with Freddy, but… he wasn’t attacking him. He didn’t run up and try to bite him or anything, so Gregory stayed. His guard stayed up though. Prepared to run if it turned out Freddy was being controlled by something else, like Bunny.
“Because of Bunny. I came to help! And to find you,” Gregory said.
“You shouldn’t have… It’s dangerous… Something’s wrong with me…” Freddy said. He shuddered a little and flexed his fingers.
Gregory grimaced but stood his ground. “Did… Did Bunny hurt you?”
“He’s… Screaming…” Freddy gave a heaving choke, like a sob. “I’m scared.”
Nowhere near as scared as Gregory suddenly became, because he was starting to realize that there was more wrong than Freddy’s face. Something deeper. Freddy didn’t talk like that, he didn’t get scared like that. Either something went really wrong or…
Freddy suddenly went still. His eyes seemed to lock onto Gregory. Then he began to slowly straighten up further before taking an awkward shambling step forward.
Gregory stepped back. “What are you doing?”
“I will… protect you,” he said. “I couldn’t protect the others… but I can protect you…”
“What others?”
“…Here…” He fumbled at his chest before catching onto his stomach hatch and pulling it open.
A few loose, oil slicked wires fell out of his chest and hung towards the floor. They twitched and writhed like they were reaching for something. Gregory’s mouth dropped open in aghast.
“There’s roooom inssiide. Insideeeherewherehe cann’t find uss.”
“No,” Gregory said instantly. He looked up at him. “Freddy, you’re freaking me out!” Freddy took a shuffling step towards him. Slow and lurching like a zombie. “Get away from me! You’re not acting right! You’re- You’re not Freddy!”
“Greeegorry…?”
But Freddy kept coming, so Gregory turned and began to run back the way he came. His heart pounding, his eyes wide and struggling to see in the darkness, stumbling over steps but forcing himself forward. He could hear Freddy’s heavy footsteps following behind him.
And his voice calling through the room and through his Fazwatch.
“Where are you going…? Come back…!”
“It’s not him, it’s not him,” Gregory reminded himself. No guilt, no hesitation, he had to run now.
He got down the hallway and was rounding on the stairs when the heavy footsteps started to thunder behind him. He whipped his head back and caught sight of the ominous glow of two white pinpricks of light cutting through the darkness and closing in fast.
He yelped and bolted up the stairs, tripping on the last step and falling through the door. He turned back just as Glamrock Freddy lurched over him. Those eyes boring into him. The wires dangling over him.
“Grrre-e-egoryyy, pleaasse. The purrrple man is hERE. He will FInnnd usss. He will hurrrt you.”
The wires writhed and reached for him.
“Get away!” Gregory slapped them aside and scuttled back. Quickly getting to his feet and running into the maze.
But Freddy was following right behind him. Gregory ducked into the maze to lose him and within seconds of panic was completely disoriented. He yelled out desperately.
“Foxy! FOXY!”
And Foxy, who was halfway back out of the vent, snapped his head up in alert.
“Gregory?!”
“FOXY, HELP! HELP!”
Without even a moment to think, Foxy scrambled forward towards the fan to shove through. One failed attempt to ram with his head and he snapped, shoved through, and grabbed the blades in his jaws and twisted. And in that violent head moment he broke the whole thing loose, then shoved it down and crawled through.
“Way’s clear!” he called back.
“Yeesh! Did that hurt?!” Jeremy replied.
“Yar.”
Didn’t hurt as much as Bunny would once he got his hook into him. It had to be him. It had to be him. And THIS had to be a trap.
“Hurry an’ stay close!” he warned.
“Right behind you, Captain!” Jeremy called.
He clamored after him, crawling over the fan. Something metal caught his clothes and tore but it didn’t reach his skin, so he pulled free and kept up with Foxy who was rapidly getting away from him.
“That better not be Bunny or I swear- I swear I’m going to just- I’m going to kill him!” Jeremy vented. “What am I even saying? This is all my fault. I should’ve never-!”
“This ain’t nobody’s fault but his! He knows what he’s doin’!” Foxy quickly deflected.
“Right! Right…”
They followed Gregory’s trail through the end of the vent and out the opening into the Fazer Blast arena. Meanwhile, Gregory was sprinting across that arena trying to escape the heavy footsteps that seemed to surround him on all sides. Freddy clumsily bumping and charging through as he frantically searched for him.
Gregory had gotten himself entirely turned around and ended up running into an area underneath one of the upper platforms. Usually a good place to hunker down during a game, but he doubted it would slow down Freddy now. He could already hear his thudding footsteps catching up.
“Gregory…?! Come back, please…! I will protect you…!”
There was a shelter nearby. They were pretty useless during Fazer Blast, but where Freddy was now Gregory knew he would see him if he tried to make another run for it. He was practically cornered.
Without a second to waste, he climbed into the shelter and hunkered down. Looking out of the small seeing slit and trying to see where Freddy was, to no avail. He could hear him stomping around nearby, calling for him.
“Greeeegory-y-y…”
Gregory shuddered and moved his backpack in front of him as though preparing to beat Freddy away with it. Did he have his camera?
He cautiously unzipped his backpack. Slowly, methodically, as quietly as he could before slipping his hand into his pack and feeling around. His hand landed on, ironically, his Fazerblaster. He grabbed onto it tightly.
Maybe he could use it instead. If he shot Freddy in the eyes it would have to slow him down without seriously hurting him, right? He told him what happened with Foxy, why they didn’t shoot in the eyes, what they did to the Glamrocks.
But… could he really shoot Freddy? Was he really going to shoot Freddy in the eyes?
“G-G-Greeeegorryyy…”
Gregory tightened his grip on the Fazerblaster and pulled it free from his backpack. No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t shoot Freddy, because that wasn’t Freddy.
“Even if it was Freddy, he’d understand. He’d tell me to run and to fight back if I had to!” Gregory thought to himself. “Maybe… Maybe it’ll turn him back to normal?”
Okay, that was stupid. How would shooting Freddy in the eye cause him to stop being possessed? Then again, his eyes did look pretty weird-
The footsteps were suddenly right behind him. Gregory clamped his mouth shut and held his Fazerblaster up, drawn ready to shoot. Freddy was right beside the shelter now, but he couldn’t see him. He cautiously leaned forward to peek out of the slit to see.
When suddenly he was grabbed by the back of the shirt and hoisted out of the shelter. Dropping his backpack but clinging to his Fazerblaster as he whipped his head to see Freddy’s hollow, oozing eyes.
“Therre you aree…!”
“Let GO!” Gregory shouted. Then promptly shot Freddy in the eyes.
The bear only twitched his head a little. It wasn’t until Gregory emptied the gun of its charge and then threw it into his face that he was finally let go, landing on his feet and half on the shelter, and made another run for it. Running out from under cover and into the maze, with Freddy running after him.
He didn’t get far. He only got around a bend before he was suddenly hoisted up again. Except this time it wasn’t by Freddy, but Foxy. Grabbing him up and swinging him behind him before facing down the incoming threat.
Said threat came barreling so hard into one of the walls that he knocked it over. He collapsed along with it, landing facedown like a fallen statue, but staggering upright light a giant action figure brought to life. Stiff and wobbly, awkward and somehow impossible.
“Bloody ‘ell, Freddy?!” Foxy cried out. “Freddy, what’re you… what… what…?”
Freddy lifted his head and their eyes locked. The ominous lights staring straight through Foxy and him unable to look away, going as rigid as a board.
“Something’s wrong with him! It’s not him!” Gregory cried, shaking Foxy’s arm.
“He’s possessed!” Jeremy cried. Just from the tilt of Freddy’s shoulders to the way he shuffled like he couldn’t handle his own body. Gregory was right, it wasn’t Freddy. It might’ve not even been Bunny. He grabbed Foxy’s shoulder. “We’re going to have to run for it!”
But Foxy was frozen solid. Jeremy frantically shook his shoulder and he teetered on his feet.
“Foxy?! Foxy! Hey!”
He yanked him back and Foxy fell into him, and Jeremy held him up and leaned around to look him in the eye and found an alarming sight. It was pitch black with a singular white dot in the center, matching Freddy’s own two.
“That fast?!” Jeremy shook him insistently. “Hey! Foxy! Fox- Gabe! You can resist it! Pull back, pull back!”
Freddy didn’t even touch him, how could it possibly spread to him?!
Foxy inaudibly mumbled.
“What?”
Freddy took a lurching step towards them out of nowhere. Jeremy looked up with wide eyes and gritted teeth.
“Freddy, stay back! I have a taser!” he bluffed. He then reached for his waist and whipped out radio to contact the others. “Guys, we need- Wha- What?”
The moment he pressed the button the radio began to spill forth garbled interference. Static screams twisting up with faint voices underneath. It sounded like kids talking. Not young kids, but teenagers. Whatever they were saying, Jeremy couldn’t decipher.
“That’s what my Fazwatch was doing! I don’t know, it’s like it scrambled Freddy’s brain and all the electronics!” Gregory shouted. He grabbed ahold of Foxy’s other side and tried to pull at his arm. “We have to- mmph- get out of here!”
Jeremy tried to pull too, but by then Foxy had seemingly dug his heels into the carpeted floor and refused to move. Instead standing like a board as he stared down Freddy.
“Ugh, Foxy, come on! MOVE!” Gregory shouted.
“Snap out of it, Gabe! We’ve got to get out of here!” Jeremy tried to reach through to him. He leaned in front of his face, blocking his view of Freddy.
Foxy muttered again, but this time, at this angle, Jeremy heard exactly what he said.
“It’s hilarious.”
“What?” Jeremy asked uneasily.
Foxy tilted his head slightly in his direction with that thousand-yard stare. Those lit pupils pointing blankly ahead, seeing through him instead of looking at him.
“Hey.”
“Hey?”
“Guys.” Foxy’s jaw opened and clicked shut as the words struggled out. “I think… the little man said heee wants… to give Frrrrrr a big kiss.”
Jeremy’s brows furrows and mouth dropped open. In one sentence Foxy was able to creep him out and totally confuse him.
“Foxy, what the hell are you talking about?!” Gregory shouted.
“Gabe…” Jeremy pressed pleadingly. He could hear Freddy take another heavy step. “What do you mean…?”
“Let’s give this little man he wants to get even close and personal,” Foxy rambled. His words stringing together incoherently. “He will love it. He will love it. He will love it.”
But it was with those words that finally helped Jeremy piece together what he was saying. He had an idea of where they came from, he knew what they meant.
He had been told them once.
“It’s always hangin’ over me head,” Gabe confessed.
It was a late night at the pizzeria and Jeremy had stayed over to clean up and hang out, though with Tabitha and Louise still there it hadn’t transitioned from one to the other yet.
Marionette had just left with Mike and headed home when Foxy suddenly sat down on his stage looking more forlorn than usual. Jeremy sat with him; an arm tiredly draped around him and got him to open up relatively easily considering that it had still been early in their relationship.
“Just creeps up sometimes.”
“You can’t beat yourself up about it forever. Look, Mari’s doing great! You two are best buds now! It happened and it was bad but you more than made up for it, Gabe. You’re a better person now. You’d beat up kids like that. Like you, I mean, not Mari.”
Gabe scoffed a little but seemed to appreciate the sentiment.
This was usually when he would change the subject and hop fully back into pirate character. Back to the jolly captain he was supposed to be.
But instead, he tilted his head to peek up at Jeremy, almost timidly.
“Can I tell ya about it…?”
Jeremy was confused. Why would he have to ask-?
Oh. Because he was afraid that Jeremy would judge. He was afraid that Jeremy would blame.
But how could he? He knew Gabe had picked on his younger brother when they were kids, but now they were the closest he had ever seen two siblings. Marion obviously loved him and forgave him. How could Jeremy ignore that and focus on something that happened over ten years ago?
Okay, maybe he was a little biased…
“Sure!” Jeremy said a little too enthusiastically. A little too cheery for the assurance he was trying to give. “I mean, sure. Not like- If you want to. You can tell me anything.”
“Maybe not everything…” Gabe mumbled.
“One time I stole panties from Allmart and then showed them to my friends to prove I had a girlfriend,” Jeremy bluntly admitted.
In hindsight, he could’ve probably chosen a less embarrassing story- from how Gabe snapped his head up at that with an immense amount of confusion. Jeremy gave him a half-smile and a half-shrug. Yup, it happened.
“Huh…” After a second, Gabe chuckled. “Al’ight, ya got me there. Did it work?”
“Yeah, but I think they caught on once said girlfriend never showed up.”
“Aye, that’ll do it,” Gabe said. Sounding thoroughly amused. He definitely would be laughing about that later.
Though he then ducked his head again.
“We were- about what happened- we were at the old diner… It was his birthday. There was gonna be a party at the diner fer him. Eh, not fer him. It was, ya know, a publicity thing. Parties always looked good fer business. The only reason He ever arranged fer somethin’ that big. Maybe for Lizzie. Henry would’a done it, Henry was doin’ all our parties fer a few years after Mom… That ain’t important.” Foxy shook his head.
“I was with my crew. We were messin’ with him again and I- I don’t know. I don’t know where it came from, but I got this horrible idea. This stupid idea.”
His fingers dug into the fabric on his leg. They too had fabric on them, it wasn’t like he would tear anything, but Jeremy still reached down and grabbed his hand. Letting him squeeze his instead of risk his suit at all. Gabe gladly did so.
“And that idea was, yknow, to do that.”
They both knew what ‘that’ was.
“It was so stupid. Don’t know where I thought it was a good idea. It was his birthday and here I was, just… ‘hey! Let’s go give Fredbear a big kiss!’ And God, it was the biggest mistake of my life… that I can remember off the top’a my head,” Gabe muttered the last part.
He was silent for a long pause. So long that Jeremy thought he was going to leave it there, but before he could say anything Gabe continued.
“We dragged him to Fredbear kicking and screaming…” he said quietly. “He was crying his eyes out. I didn’t care. Didn’t even think twice.”
But that wasn’t true. He cared now, he was thinking about it now. It was enough to convince Jeremy that he was remorseful, but it did little to relieve Gabe’s guilt. Marion forgiveness hadn’t even done that- they had really only just become close again, it was too soon to assume all was well.
“It’s okay, Gabe,” Jeremy assured.
“It’s not though. It’s not okay,” Gabe said lowly.
“…Maybe it’s not, but it’s getting there,” Jeremy tried.
Apparently, this was the right thing to say as Foxy patted his leg and slouched further against him.
That wasn’t all of it. He had told him more after that. More about what happened following the accident, but that wasn’t important now.
What was important now was that for some horrifying reason Foxy was repeating things he said during that accident. Not in some past teenage voice either, not a verbatim mimicry of the memory, but in his own blend of Foxy and Gabe melding into one.
Something was very wrong here, and it was beyond Bunny.
And right as he realized that, Freddy made a choking noise. His whole body shuddering as he staggered closer towards them, closing the already impossibly short distance. Jeremy looked back and found the bear standing over him, teetering at full height.
Was he coming for Gabe? Jeremy wasn’t sure but he had a feeling in his gut. It wasn’t about Gregory anymore, and he spun around and shielded Gabe with his body. Trying to block the bear’s line of sight from either, the light glinting on his glasses’ lens in an ominous way before-
GvEiErEbRaFdAgIbKsIsBaGlErI
He was in the diner. It was clear and foggy. The diner, the smell of pizza, the soft glow of the overhead lights. That warm sensation that came standing underneath those lights. The diner was always comfortably warm even though it wasn’t ever truly comfortable.
He was getting tugged along by the arms. To his left- who? He couldn’t see, but to the right it was Chris. Chris leaned into his vision and began to speak, and he said:
“Gabe.” His words strung into mush. “He wants to get up close and personal.”
Gabriel opened his mouth and words of agreement poured out.
“You heard him. Gabe. Closer.”
Gabriel turned his head forward and looked up at the looming form of Fredbear standing tall before him. Its illuminated eyes staring down through him. A creeping fear began to swell in his chest but it was so dull and flat that he couldn’t truly acknowledge it.
As though he wasn’t even really there. He could smell the pizza and feel the warmth, but he felt so entirely detached from the moment. Like it wasn’t real.
Staring into those empty eyes.
But then Chris was suddenly in front of him. He was grabbing and shaking at him.
“On THREe.”
Fredbear violently grabbed Chris by the shoulder and shoved him out of the way.
“One.”
Fredbear grabbed ahold of Gabriel and began to hoist him up towards his mouth. Its jaw opening wide to reveal the gaping darkness inside.
“Two.”
And from the depths inside he could hear his younger brother crying and screaming. Pleading to be let go as he’s dragged to the mechanism of his own murder.
There was a moment of clarity, and in that moment with his mind together Gabriel didn’t fight back but instead spoke up.
“Mari…” he choked.
Fredbear hesitated.
“I’m sorry…”
Fredbear stayed frozen, still holding Gabriel aloft with his jaw cocked open and an absent expression. Yet somehow Gabriel had made some form of piece with his decision. This was where he was supposed to be and he accepted it. He would accept the same fate as his-
“…Gabriel?”
That wasn’t Fredbear.
“What…?”
And in a jolt the diner was gone, and he was being hoisted up easily by Glamrock Freddy. The bear’s mouth gaped in preparation to crunch down on the fox’s head, but frozen in place now. Dotted eyes staring back at him in silent horror as Jeremy banged on his side and took swings at him, trying to pry Foxy out of his grasp.
Everything clicked back into place for Foxy, along with what he had heard and seen. And whose voice had come out of the bear.
That hadn’t been Freddy’s voice, or Bunny’s. It had been-
“Mari…?”
Freddy stared back with a hollow realization. His mouth twitching and his pupils shifting before it spoke again.
“Gabriiiell?”
It was definitely Marionette. And his voice grew in distortion and panic.
“GabrRRiEL?!?”
At once Glamrock Freddy threw Foxy to the ground. Not aggressively, but in a panic, and he landed just as heavily. Jeremy was quick to pull him up, using all his strength to drag Foxy up onto his feet.
“That’s not Mari!” he warned as he got Foxy up. Though an agonized cry from Freddy got him doing a double take and a reconsideration. “Is it…?”
“NonoNo I don’t want thisss…” Freddy slurred out. His eyes rolling around as he clawed at his head. “What did I do…? Gabe… GAb̴̛̠ë̸̖́!”
“I’m here!” Foxy pulled back against Jeremy’s arms to try and get to him. His eyes clear but pulled by sheer desperation. “Mari, I’m here!”
“Don’tdon’tDON’T comme CLOSE…!” Freddy desperately shouted. Marionette’s voice a strained echo following right behind each of Freddy’s thundering words, but it was clear that only one of them was truly talking. He clawed at his face with both hands. “SomethiNg’s WRONg with ME…!”
“Marion, listen to me!”
Foxy tried to reach up towards Freddy and the bear looked at him with wild panicked look. Like their roles had been reversed in who tried to bite who.
“What’s going on here? Why are you in Freddy?” Foxy pried, trying to stay calm.
“He’s here…!”
“Who, Freddy?”
“HE’S in herrre. It’s so hot,sohotsohotBURNING wIIIrrres in my SKIN! Sammy’s screaming S̸c̷r̶E̶A̴m̷I̴N̴G̷!̷”
Freddy was clawing at his head and Foxy grabbed his arm to try to yank it away. “Marion, stop that! You’re going to hurt yourself!”
“I’M…! I… I’m…?”
Freddy stared at Foxy with an eerie calmness considering the frantic babbling that had just occurred. His fans going into overdrive trying to combat the heat- even when Freddy himself didn’t feel so hot. Though that familiar burn of infection stung Foxy’s hand. He ignored it, holding on tightly.
“…That’s right, yer gonna hurt yerself,” Foxy continued. Breaking the heavy silence. “I’ve got ya, Mari. We’re here. We’re gonna fix this and take ya home.”
He ignored the way Freddy’s face started to blur back into Fredbear’s when he made eye contact. His head was a little clearer now, he wasn’t fooled by what he was seeing. Wasn’t tricked by the sting crawling up his arm. This was his little brother, and he was scared and in pain.
“I… can protect you…” Freddy said distantly.
“Ya don’t need to-.”
“I’m sorry. Freddy. I’m sorry. I’m sorrrRRy.”
Foxy felt his heart start to sink. He suddenly recognized that distorted tone. Confused, scared, certain.
“Marion, whatever you’re planning on-.”
“The only way out is to let go let go leT GO Of HIM!”
And he was pushed off and back into Jeremy. Harder than he might’ve intended, causing Foxy to get somewhat knocked off his feet and stumble into the blond who struggled to keep them upright.
The moment Foxy let go of Freddy’s arm, Freddy reached up with both hands and grabbed his head before beginning to twist and yank at it.
“MARI, DON’T!” Gregory screamed.
“MARION, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” Foxy yelled. He lurched forward and grabbed ahold of one arm, planting a foot on Freddy’s leg and pulling back with all his strength. He managed to pry back one of his arms. “THAT’S NOT IT! STOP!”
But Freddy lurched and shoved him back and then staggered a few steps away. He grabbed his head tightly and twisted, pulled, and ripped. Wires pulling out, fragile neck pieces snapping and creaking as in one quick yank his head was ripped straight from his neck.
Gregory screamed. Foxy screamed. Jeremy swore, and swore, and swore under his breath repeatedly.
Freddy dropped his head and his arms at his side. Gregory dove onto the carpet and barely caught it in his hands, almost dropping him right afterwards before clutching it to his chest. Holding Freddy’s head tight as his headless body staggered, threatening to fall forward on him.
Foxy lunged forward for him, to push it away, but it leaned back on its own and fell against the maze wall. It collapsed underneath him, pulling down some of the panels with him with a loud crash. Then an eerie silence, save the twitching of Freddy’s internal servos.
Gregory looked at Freddy’s head in shock before hugging it tightly, his eyes burning with tears. No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t have.
Foxy was frozen over him. Staring at Freddy’s headless body with an open jaw, a raised eyepatch, and wide-eyes. It would’ve been comical if the situation wasn’t so horrifying.
Then Jeremy stood behind them. Unsure what to do, in a similar form of shock. Though he wasn’t frozen up like Foxy, just reeling. He yanked his eyes off of Freddy’s body and instead down at the crying Gregory, and then back to the still Foxy. He slowly reached out with both hands, putting one on Gregory’s shoulder and resting one on Foxy’s back.
He had to say something. He had to say something.
But right as he started to fumble into a sentence, “I don’t know-.”
He was interrupted by the last person he expected.
“Gr-Gregory?”
Gregory’s eyes snapped open at the voice coming from his chest. He pulled the head away from him, looking at it in shock.
“Freddy?!”
For a moment Freddy’s eyes were still blackened out with not even the pinpricks of light in them. Before he blinked and they were suddenly clear. They rolled up to meet Gregory.
“Gregory! What in the world are you doing here? And why are you crying?” Freddy asked worriedly.
“Wha-HOW?!” Gregory blurted out.
“How what?” he asked. His eyes squinted with concern, but it was clearly him. His way of speaking, his expressions, his voice. It was him.
Gregory couldn’t hide his elation as his mouth broke into a huge grin. Eyes still tearing up as he pulled him into a tight hug against his chest. “You’re alive! We thought you were dead!”
“Thought I was dead?!”
“How are you even talking right now?!” Gregory asked. He pulled Freddy’s head back to let him answer, seeing the bear’s thoroughly confused look.
“Bloody ‘ell, Freddy!” Foxy hunched over to look him in the eye. “Is that really you?! Where’d the- Where’d… Where’s…” He turned back towards Jeremy. “Where’s Mari…?” he asked soberly.
Any relief Jeremy had on his face was quickly wiped away.
“Foxy? You are here too?” Freddy asked in confused. He then groaned and blinked. “Urgggh. Something is wrong. I feel strange, and my chest speaker is not working? In fact, I cannot feel anything beneath my shoulders.”
“That’s because it’s over there,” Gregory said, turning Freddy’s face to see his body.
Freddy gave a startled shout at the sight of his body.
“Is… Is that my body…?” he squeaked, or the closest thing to a squeak from his baritone voice. “Why is my body over there?!”
“You were- You ripped your- I don’t know how to explain this, it’s crazy,” Gregory rambled. “I think… I think Mari took control of your body and then he was chasing me around? And then you ripped your own head off!”
“He was tryin’ to let you go, I think…” Foxy mumbled. Gregory steered Freddy’s head back towards him. “What happened, Freddy?”
“That is a good question. I remember… Hmm…” Freddy looked around thoughtfully as he struggled to remember. “I… I was called to the employee cafeteria downstairs. Something was wrong, but I do not know what. I was in the elevator when… No… No, I left the elevator. I was walking down the hall when I heard a voice.”
“Mari’s?” Foxy asked.
“No. Bonnie’s. Err, Bunny’s.”
“Oooh no,” Jeremy muttered. A sentiment Foxy shared.
“Ya saw Bunny?” he asked.
“I saw… I… I saw…” Freddy’s eyes slowly widened. “I saw… something terrible.”
“What, Bunny?” Gregory asked.
“I… I do not know. I cannot even remember what it was, but it had his voice and it looked like… There were wires.”
“Oh God, it’s Ennard,” Jeremy muttered again. “Then what? Did he grab you or?”
“I… I do not know. Everything went dark.”
“Well, yeah. I’d say so. Your eyes were all blacked out and you had this oily ooze coming out of them,” Gregory said. He wiped it with his finger and showed it to the bear. “See?”
“That looks like… That looks like the black oil that Bunny was crying,” Freddy said.
“He said Bunny was there… Screaming,” Gregory said uneasily. Wrinkling his lip in detest. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“That ain’t good,” Foxy said bluntly. He had that thousand-yard stare again, which Jeremy noticed. He put his hands on his shoulder and squeezed, trying to offer support.
But he knew a possession when he saw one. He knew what they saw and heard, and it didn’t bode well. Especially since Marionette was now cut free from Freddy and still missing.
But Foxy wasn’t the only one who was overwhelmed. Gregory was starting to tear up again as he looked between Freddy and his fallen body. His mouth wrinkling for a different reason now, and Freddy took notice. After all, Gregory was one of the few things he could see at this angle.
“Oh, Gregory. Do not cry. I will be fine!” he tried to assure.
“Yeah, but you almost died!” Gregory blurted out. “And now you’re- How’re you going to live without a body?”
“Do not worry, that can be fixed! This is not the first time I have had my head removed, you may recall,” Freddy said with a chuckle. “We will just stroll down to Parts and Service and reattach my head. I will be good as new.”
“O-Okay…” Gregory sniffed and wiped his face with his arm. “I’m just… I’m really glad you’re okay.”
“And I am glad to see you again. Though I wish it was under better circumstances…” Freddy said apologetically. “…Imagine that I am hugging you, because I cannot.”
Gregory finally cracked a smile. “Okay, but you owe me one.”
Foxy seemed relieved that Freddy was alright, but… not as much as he should’ve been. Jeremy noticed his quietness and understood right away. Freddy was fine, good. Marionette was not. Marionette was still missing and that brief glimpse of him ripped open an old wound with it.
“Hey,” Jeremy said quietly. He guided Foxy a little to the side while Gregory and Freddy were still talking, so they wouldn’t be listening in. “What happened back there… You know Mari didn’t mean that. He would’ve never done that on purpose. You saw how shocked he was.”
“I know,” Foxy said dourly. Finally making eye contact with eyes filled with fear. “An’ that’s what scares me.”
“Maybe it was Bunny?”
“Whatever that was, it wasn’t Bunny,” Foxy said, lowering his voice so the other two wouldn’t hear.
Jeremy wasn’t sure what gave him chills, the cryptic way he said it or the fact that he knew it was true. This was beyond Bunny. Why else would he be screaming?
“Do you think you can help us get down to Parts and Service?” Freddy asked, clearly asking them instead of Gregory. Foxy turned back towards them, covering up his concern.
“How d’ya figure we’re gonna get yer rear end up ‘an down there?” Foxy asked.
Freddy hummed thoughtfully. Silently wondering if there was any possibility to move his body himself, despite not being connected to it. So much in the Pizzaplex was connected wirelessly. Perhaps if he really focused he could still exhibit commands to his own, unmanned body.
“Can’t we just ask the Glamrocks for help?” Gregory suggested.
“Might just get Sun in here,” Foxy mumbled. He nudged Freddy’s body with his foot to test its heaviness. Only to have it suddenly jerk. “Whoa!”
Freddy’s body started to lurch upright, pushing itself off the floor awkwardly and stumbling up to its feet. Shifting and rotating on its feet in a struggle to keep its bearings.
“Get back!” Foxy barked. Either at it or at the others, hopping back and whipping out his arms to shield the others and pull them behind him.
But Freddy’s body simply righted itself and stood there. Legs bent in a little, feet pointed awkwardly, arms and shoulders slack.
“No, it is alright! That was just me!” Freddy said. “I thought maybe I could ping my own body and get it to respond. I can barely believe that it worked!”
“Wait! Does that mean you can still use your body?” Gregory asked in surprise. His face then fell. “And was that a pun?”
“Yes! And, er, no. Well, no to both. I cannot properly use my body until we return my head. But, it is awake and upright! Foxy, Jeremy, if you two can lead my body we can head down to Parts and Service and reattach it. And find my friends as well…” Freddy’s features softened. “I am very worried about them.”
“Aye. Us too,” Foxy said. He let his arms drop and turned to Freddy, keeping his eye on his headless body. “We’re all here lookin’ fer Mari, Ennard, and Carlton. Bunny went mad an’ took the lot of ‘em. Brought ‘em here and set off some sorta lockdown.”
“That is terrible!... But… I cannot say I am surprised. After whatever it is that I saw. Something terrible is happening here. I am evidence of that,” Freddy said somberly.
“We’re lookin’ to get into the main security office. Any ideas?”
“Hmm… I believe only the security staff or an animatronic with level nine security clearance would be able to get into the main office during a lockdown. I am afraid I will not be any help in this state.”
“Hey. We ain’t askin’ ya to do anything but stick around,” Foxy said, patting Freddy on the top of the head. “We’ll take ya down. We’re headin’ down anyways.”
Freddy brightened up. “I can always count on you, Cap’n.”
He could.
But not everyone could, Foxy thought. It was a cold thought that chilled the otherwise comforting warmth that radiated from Freddy.
“So, what do we do? Hold hands and walk him down?” Jeremy joked, gesturing a thumb towards Freddy’s body.
“That is a faztastic idea, Jeremy! My body is now awaiting commands I cannot give. If you lead it, it will surely follow.”
That wiped the smile off of Jeremy’s face. He slowly looked back to the headless Freddy with a disconcerted stare.
Then he inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled a mumbled, “Yeah, I guess that might work…”
Which is how they found themselves heading down the stairs into the darkness underneath Fazer Blast, Foxy on one side and Jeremy on the other, holding hands with a headless Glamrock Freddy while Gregory led the way while using Freddy’s head as a makeshift flashlight. Freddy’s eyes did a better job than three flashlights combined.
“The stairs leading down to the utilidors are not far. Though we may have trouble with the door… Nothing a firm hand will not be able to fix! We will be at Parts and Service in no time at all,” Freddy assured. He had a tone as bright as the glow from his eyes. Too bright for the situation; he was clearly trying to compensate.
Freddy wasn’t oblivious. He could easily tell that something bad was happening. Less from their explanations but from Foxy’s somberness. The usually brash and hardheaded captain’s lingering silence. He knew it was something more than whatever happened between them in his possessed state, and he did what he could to take over in lightening his burden.
Jeremy only wished he could be that much of a help, but he wasn’t much better off. Now that the shock wore down, what they had witnessed and the ramifications of it…
What was he going to tell Mike? What could he tell Mike? Except that he knew in his gut that Marionette wasn’t up in that security office. Bunny wasn’t either. They were somewhere else. Somewhere.
He looked across Freddy’s chest at Foxy. Foxy’s face was cast in shadow but he could see that thousand-yard stare had made its return. He wished he could comfort him in some way.
But for now they could only continue down, down into the darkness. Freddy as their lone light. Gregory as their guide.
And Marionette haunting their every thought.
---
If you asked Mike how he had gotten himself into this situation the answer would’ve almost always been the same. A locked door, a non-responsive elevator, or Marionette.
And in this case it was all three that got him into that humid vent, crawling on his hands and knees behind a speedy Bonnet. He didn’t know how the little pink bunny did it, but she was a master of scuttling through the vent despite her only reliable traction being the shallow grooves on her palms.
Scott was behind him. Maybe a little closer than he should’ve been as Mike almost kicked him twice while trying to clamor and keep up with Bonnet. Michael was bringing up the rear and despite barely fitting in the shaft, despite looking like he was struggling to get through, he was keeping up well with Scott.
It wasn’t the first time Mike had been in a vent and it sure enough wouldn’t be the last. Maybe it was that familiarity that was getting into his head, making him get lost in his thoughts. Lost in memories that decided that this was the best time to pop up.
Memories of crawling through that burning pizzeria trying to survive. Of that setup at that facility, where Marionette got snared in a vent and barely got loose. Crawling through Afton Robotics, popping out the other side with Marionette popping up right in front of him. Not just vents, crawling through those caves with Marionette out in the desert.
Marionette was so excited to see that cave. He was so excited to see the world. Even if it was a lousy- eh, slightly cool- cramped cave.
It didn’t feel right that he wasn’t here. It wasn’t just them being apart, it wasn’t just missing him, it felt wrong. Like he was gone for good. And that made Mike paranoid because there was no reason to feel that way. Marionette had been kidnapped; he didn’t disappear off the face of the earth. It was just the vibe of this place getting to him.
He wanted to go home, but he couldn’t go home without Mari. There was no home without Mari.
How in the hell did he let him get in that trunk? Why did he play along with that stupid plan? What was Bunny going to do, he was all talk. He would’ve budged. He would’ve cracked. Bring up Ness as a bargaining trip. Send him to the hospital after her. Get Jake on the phone to talk him down. Something. Something.
Anything except let him get in that trunk. But he didn’t even fight it until it was too late.
Marionette wasn’t okay. He was sick. Mike knew something was wrong, that he had been more rundown. Maybe because of stress, maybe because of lack of sleep, it didn’t matter. He was supposed to be protecting him while he was vulnerable and he practically handed him over to some sick little loser who thought Marionette owed him something.
Mike didn’t notice that he was starting to move more frantically, more desperately, until he almost kicked Scott again. Which he only noticed because Scott chimed up.
“Heh. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re aiming for me,” he joked. Trying to lighten the mood.
Normally Mike would’ve appreciated that, but this wasn’t normal. This wasn’t a time to be joking.
“If I was aiming for you, Scott, you’d know it,” he snapped.
“Uh…” Scott faltered.
He didn’t have to see Scott’s face to know that he had an expression like he had been slapped.
Mike instantly regretted it. “That was a joke,” he tried to excuse, softer.
“That sounded like a threat,” Michael casually added in.
And if Michael noticed it then Scott absolutely did.
Mike sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m just a little on edge. I’ve got a lot on my mind,” he apologized properly.
Scott accepted it without a hitch, sounding apologetic and a little awkward himself. “Hey, it’s okay! I know how you feel…”
He did, Mike realized a little too late. Scott losing Ennard was barely different than him losing Marionette. It must’ve been especially awful having to watch that creep possess him and parade around in his body. At the very least, Mike had been spared from that. Scott had to sit here with the knowledge that Ennard was currently being manhandled.
God knew what Michael was going through. Between his little brother and his best friend, he had lost most of his support group to some crazed guy in a rabbit suit. Again.
“It was bad timing on my part. Sometimes I run my mouth,” Scott continued.
“So do I. Don’t worry about it, I was out of line,” Mike insisted. Only then did he look up and notice the vague pink blob in the distance had disappeared. He pulled up his flashlight all the way to look only to see no sign of Bonnet. “Oh no. We lost her.”
“Bonnet?”
“Yeah.”
“I was afraid of that…” Scott tried to look past Mike’s shoulder. He cupped his mouth and called down the shaft. “Bonneeeet!”
After a beat a voice called back. “Heeeeeeerrrrreee!”
“She really got up there,” Scott said. He then called again, “Wait there until we catch up!”
There was no response.
“She may have not heard you,” Michael said.
“No, she heard me. She’s just pretending she didn’t so she can keep going,” Scott said knowingly.
They kept moving, trying to catch up with her, and it wasn’t long before Bonnet called back again.
“I think I found a way out!” she said. There was a clanking noise that echoed through. Bonnet gasped, “There’s people in here! I think we made it! We found- Hey! HEY! Let go of me!”
Mike’s head snapped up. “Bonnet?!”
“Help me! Help me!” she cried. There were other voices too.
Mike started to hastily crawl down the vent. Scott tried to keep up, yelling from behind him.
“Hey, stop! Let her go! Can anybody hear me?! HEY!”
“Hey, is there someone down there?” someone called back.
Mike went around two short and abrupt corners and found an open vent cover midway down the next shaft. That was the way out and that’s where the voices were coming from.
He clamored up and looked out to find two guys standing there, one of them holding Bonnet out like she was going to bite him- she probably would’ve, and a room crowded with people behind them. Most of said people sitting huddled in a group in the center of the room.
He stuck his upper half out and held out his hand. “Yeah, that’s mine. I’d like it back.”
“Uh, sorry. Here you go,” the bigger guy awkwardly said. He started to hand it back, continuing to hold her out as Mike climbed out of the vent.
Bonnet reached for him eagerly and settled into his arms. Well, until Scott climbed out and then she practically crawled out of Mike’s arms and into his. But Scott was grabbing for her anyways so Mike took no offense.
“Where did you come from?” a second, befuddled man asked.
“Well, my folks used to live in Minnesota but they moved south to be closer to family-,” Mike started.
“Hey, Chaz! Some guys got in from outside!” someone out of the way called.
Oh right, Chaz. Mike recognized that name. He stole a glance at Scott and noticed he looked particularly interested, so apparently he did too.
Sure enough, a familiar fluffy bearded technician- funny, he didn’t look nearly as much like a wolfman the last time he saw him- pushed through the workers clustered around the vent. Mike expected him to recognize him immediately, but instead his eyes went right to Scott and he even got a tired smile.
He reached out a hand to him. “There’s a sight for sore eyes! How’s it going, Boss?”
Mike’s brows shot up and he looked at Scott who shook his hand.
“It’s going somewhere alright. Can’t say in the right direction.” Scott noticed Mike looking at him questioning and pulled his hand back to gesture between them, still holding Bonnet in the crook of his other arm. “Chaz, this is Mike. Former night guard at Freddy’s and current Foxy wrangler.”
He put his hand on Mike’s shoulder as he continued. “Mike, this is Charles. Former worker at the old Freddy’s and current mole.”
Those brows raised even higher and Mike looked at Chaz incredulously. “You’re the mole?”
“The mole be I. Fitting now that we’re all buried down here,” Chaz said with a sigh. He then stuck out his hand, which Mike shook.
Abe and Tommy had come up behind Chaz and the latter was currently squinting at Mike.
“Don’t we know that guy from somewhere?” Tommy asked.
“The hospital. He’s Vanessa’s friend,” Abe clarified.
“Which one?”
“Our Vanessa.”
“Ah, Blondie. Good.”
“What happened in here?” Scott dared to ask. He had glanced across the room and noticed the damage, and the collapsed corner in the back.
“I think it’d be easier to leave it at ‘everything’s gone to hell’. Because that’s what happened,” Chaz said disgruntledly. “You’re not going to believe what we’ve seen down here. Something’s outside. FREDDY’S outside and he’s glitching out. Wight got dragged off by something and, uh…”
He hesitated.
“And…” Chaz leaned in and lowered his voice. “The, uh. The screens came on. Started showing old Freddy’s footage, the stuff FazEnt wouldn’t want getting out.”
“Like what…?”
“Like everyone here saw Will kill those kids.”
Scott stared at him. Then he gave a dry half-laugh and an incredulous look, as though thinking he was joking. Chaz’s face was like stone. Scott’s face sobered up quickly in quiet horror.
“That’s not all they saw either,” Chaz said, looking towards Mike.
“Please don’t tell me I was on there,” Mike muttered in blank shock.
“No! No,” Chaz said. More so he was wondering if Mike knew what he was about to say. He had to, he was a former Freddy’s worker too. He looked between him and Scott. “There were some blips of the very much not haunted animatronics moving on their own. And everyone saw them.”
“Of course they did…” Scott pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Not as bad as seeing the former owner’s little afterhours sessions, but now I’ve got a room full of people thinking the Pizzaplex animatronics are haunted too. And right on schedule, Freddy’s out there acting funky. Grady had the door open and got scared back inside.”
“Whoa, whoa, wait a second,” Grady- apparently, since Clay pointed at him- spoke up. “What do you mean haunted ‘too’? Are you talking about those ghost rumors?”
“No, he’s talking about that abandoned motel outside’a town. It’s a real hot spot for drumming up the dead,” Tommy said sarcastically. “No duh, Grady! We just watched a bunch’a kids get killed! Or heard it. I sure wasn’t looking.”
“You believe that?” another guy asked Chaz.
“Believe- we saw it!” Tommy cried. Whipping a hand towards the staticky screens. “What did I just say?!”
“Not the- Not THAT! The ghost stories! That the animatronics were haunted, you said-.” He turned to Chaz. “You said all that stuff was just rumors.”
“I did not say that. I said talking about those rumors was going to get me fired,” Chaz clarified. He looked tiredly at the guy. “It’s about time you learned the truth.”
“You can’t really believe in ghosts… You wouldn’t,” Grady said. “Okay, the animatronics are malfunctioning. Makes sense. But ghosts?”
“I believe it,” a woman added in. “Something’s always been… off with them.”
“That’s just the personality chips. They’ve always been glitchy. You change one thing and suddenly Freddy thinks he’s Chica.”
“Freddy said he thought he was human. What if-?”
“Freddy’s standing out in the hallway right now with oil spurting out of his eyes acting like a zombie. What do you make of that? It’s glitch.”
It was around this point that Mike put together that the group surrounding them were probably all technicians working under Chaz, but he did little to argue with them. He just let them continue to sort it out, unaware that someone else was losing their patience.
It wasn’t Chaz, though he was getting there. Sighing again and giving a direct, “Frankly, I don’t care if you guys believe in ghosts or not. The bottom line is that those old animatronics were haunted. Not these ones. End of story.”
“You mean those old broken-down ones at the old Freddy’s? Those were even more broken than these!” another technician argued.
“Y’know, this is really sick,” Stanley intervened. “We just saw real actual evidence that some serial killer murdered a bunch of kids and Freddy’s and we’re arguing about whether or not the animatronics are haunted?”
“I know you’re going through a hard time after what happened to Ray,” Grady began.
Chaz whipped on him. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”
Grady back peddled a little. “Sorry, I… This is all just a lot to take in. I know you want to believe that there’s a second chance in all this-
“Believe whatever you want. That is exactly what allowed him to walk free.”
Michael’s gravelly voice cut straight through the back and forth. It sounded more inhuman than ever, and neither Mike nor Scott were sure if it was on purpose. They looked back at the vent expecting him to continue.
What they didn’t expect was for him to drag himself out. Sticking his ears and head out, looking up to size up the technicians with an unimpressed glaze to his eyes, and then lumbering to his feet. His joints squeaking and clicking as he did.
Scott’s mouth dropped open. Chaz’s eyes went as wide as saucers. “Whoa. We’ve got a live one,” he said in quiet awe.
Grady made something like a gagging noise and stumbled back. One woman gasped and covered her mouth. Abe looked like he was going to be sick- funny, Michael thought. If it wasn’t for the layers of carpet deodorizer he bathed this suit in he would think they were recoiling from the smell. Maybe they still were; ‘Orchard Nectar’ never was very appetizing.
They were all horrified at what they were seeing. He was used to that. He knew what he was and he was glad, glad to make them see it. To face it.
But Scott strode up and grabbed his arm. Half to help him up and more so to shove him back in.
“Michael, what are you doing?!” he shout-whispered. “You’re going to expose yourself to a whole roomful of people!”
“What are they going to do? Tell the police a rabbit man broke in? Better yet, maybe they can tell them about the body they pulled from their elevator,” Michael said dryly. He continued pulling himself to his feet, using Scott’s arm as additional leverage. “I don’t think Dr. Taggart or his cronies will let a word of this get out. Might affect the brand image.”
Scott didn’t seem convinced. If anything he shifted from being extremely concerned to being that and a touch exasperated. Eyes narrowing suspiciously as though he saw straight through Michael’s decision and saw something else driving it.
“Let them look the truth in the eye and deny it then,” Michael said with more finality.
But when the truth was Michael risking his own safety to reveal himself to Fazbear Entertainment workers, how did that have any value? Scott knew what those workers were thinking, because he knew what he would’ve done if he was a manager in this situation.
Deny. Cover up. Quiet down. Hush up. Wipe it all away. Seeing isn’t believing when you’re looking at a Fazbear Entertainment non-disclosure agreement… Or up at Fredrick Fazmann as he stood above your broken, half-dead body. And Scott had no doubt that Jimmy Wight would be just like him.
And Scott was more than prepared to tell Michael all of that, despite the fact that they were standing in front of a bunch of staring technicians.
But also, they were standing in front of a bunch of staring technicians. So he didn’t even have a chance.
“You’re that guy,” Grady choked. “The guy who…took those kids…”
Both looked over at the man like he had just butted himself in out of nowhere, then were reminded of their audience. Thankfully, due to the crowding those located in the center of the room hadn’t noticed him yet. Though they had likely caught wind of someone getting in from outside.
Michael knew that accusation was coming but he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of offense.
“I’m in that suit, yes, but I am not the man you saw using it. Just the one who was trapped in it,” he said. “He used me to avoid his own punishment and now I carry his burden.”
“So, you’re not…?”
“No. I worked at Freddy’s. I died in this suit.”
“I was with you all the way up until the end,” Tommy chimed up. He swept an arm out and nudged Abe with the other. “Wouldn’t you believe our luck! Here we are talking about haunted animatronics, and one just HAPPENS to show up! In some really old, nasty bunny costume that prob’ly came outta the back room.”
“Do I look like a suit that came out of the backroom?” Michael said with growing irritation.
“As a matter of fact, tough guy, ya do,” Tommy cracked. Managing to keep up his smirk despite the situation. “Ya look like you came out of a Halloween store- AND! Don’t think I didn’t notice how quickly you showed up after those sPookY~ videos.”
Michael’s eyes widened and then narrowed at the suggestion. All that frustration that made him want to do something desperate and stupid came right back.
“Now I’m not sayin’ that Wight gettin’ dragged into the wall wasn’t some elaborate prank, but I am sayin’- Hey!”
Michael grabbed Tommy’s arm roughly and started to pull him over.
“Hey, wait!” Abe reached to stop him, but Michael put a hand up to stop him.
“I’m just giving him what he wants. Real, undeniable proof. It’s only fair since he has doubts,” Michael said with barely disguised frustration. Like he was biting down his words.
He pulled the somewhat dumbfounded shorter man over to the vent, putting him between him and the opening and his back to the rest of the crowd.
With Scott whispering a heated exchange with Chaz, it was Mike who tried to step in and stop whatever was about to happen. He reached for his shoulder.
“Hey, wait. Stop and think before you do anything crazy. You said it yourself; it doesn’t matter if they don’t believe- GEEZ!”
And with one sudden motion, Michael reached into his own mouth and pried it open. All the way open. Forcing the suit’s mouth all the way until Tommy and only Tommy had a clear view of the skewered skull trapped underneath. Everyone else just got to see the back of his head opening uncomfortably far, even if it was ‘just a suit’.
Tommy’s mouth opened in a silent scream. Exaggeratedly stretched but not a peep made it out.
Scott whipped back around. “What happened?!” Catching Michael in the act. “Michael, you didn’t!”
Michael let his mouth snap shut as an answer. Then gestured with his thumb, directing Tommy back to where he was. Tommy walked away from the exchange as white as a sheet and as stiff as a board.
“He’s real,” he stated.
“What did you see?” Abe asked uneasily.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Holy- You flipped that open like a Pez dispenser! Did it hurt?” Mike asked.
“Excruciatingly, but it was worth every second of it,” Michael replied.
Scott clasped a hand over his face. “God, give me strength.”
“At least he didn’t bite him!” Bonnet chirped.
“Not to lay it on, but that sounds an awful lot like him,” Chaz mumbled to Scott over his shoulder.
Scott sighed and dragged his hand off his face. “That’s his son.”
“The one who always wore the Foxy mask?”
“No, the one who went to college.”
“College really was my only accomplishment,” Michael said deadpanned. He looked at them. “And I hate to burst your bubble, but the Pizzaplex is filled with ‘live ones’.”
“What?” Chaz looked confused but then seemed to figure it out on his own. “Oh, no. I know what you’re thinking, but no. Those are personality chips that make them act like they’re real people. It’s all preplanned.”
“But you don’t actually believe that, right?” Mike challenged. Not upset, but unconvinced. “You’ve seen them. They have thoughts and feelings. They do stuff just because they want to. They think, therefore they are. They’re alive, and I don’t think anyone can fake something that real.”
“Except maybe Edwin Murray,” Scott mumbled under his breath.
“It’s not the same. We all know- well, the three of us know- what it was like at the old place. This isn’t like that,” Chaz affirmed. “They’re not zombies wandering around dazed. Not knowing what’s going on or who’s going to hurt him. These guys are programmed to be their characters.”
“I know for a fact that the Sun and Moon’s real name is Andrew and he was killed at the old Freddy’s. The broken Sun, his name is Jake. Chica remembers being alive as Funtime Chica, before she was refurbished with any chip, and Freddy remembers being the technician whose body you found.”
Chaz’s confidence was wiped away in a second. Something strange crossed his face. He shook his head to deny it, “No. That’s not it.” But he looked bothered.
But before he could continue, Scott turned towards the entirety of the group. Or most of it, pointing a finger at them and swinging it around towards the others.
“This doesn’t leave this room,” he said firmly. He pointed at the floor. “Everything, everything we’re discussing right now stays HERE. Because if those higher ups find out that you know any of this, you’re done. You’re getting wiped off the map. You’ll be scraping gum off gas station floors for the rest of your life and you won’t know why.”
“Wight doesn’t seem that dangerous,” Abe said skeptically.
“Actually, Wight’s probably dead…” Grady cryptically added.
“If you think Wight’s the one running this show, you’re in for a rude awakening,” Scott continued. “We have evidence that Fazbear Entertainment is just a cover for a company called Talgart Industries… Or Tagbert Industries. One or the other.”
“That’s crazy,” someone said.
“No, wait. He’s onto something…” Stanley said. Once doubtful he now seemed to be swayed. He shook a finger at Scott as he looked to Grady and Chaz. “Talbert. That was the guy who took Ray’s body away, remember? The guy who’s working with Mr. Wight. There’s always been something weird about him.”
“Something fishy about their deal…” Chaz said lowly. He was looking towards the floor, clicking together puzzle pieces in his head.
“I noticed that the discovery of a body at the Pizzaplex somehow managed to evade the news,” Michael said coldly.
“You know how it is. Peach Days start coming around and it’s all anybody can talk about,” Mike added sarcastically.
“But that’s not important right now,” Scott redirected. “We came down here to get the security office keys. And find you guys, but we need those keys to get in and lift the lockdown.”
“Good. Somebody oughta do it,” Chaz said, snapping back to attention. He gestured at Tom. “Tom, give him your keys.”
Tommy blanched. He slowly looked at Abe. Abe unhooked and held up his own little ring of keys. Tommy gave him a relieved thumbs up.
Mike held his hand out and Abe passed them over. “Thanks.”
“Is there another way out of here other than the vent?” Scott asked Chaz.
“No… Unless… Unless we can pull open the other vent and climb down through the access shaft. Drop down into the utilidors.” He took a deep breath. “…We’ve been sitting around here too long anyways.”
“The door’s entirely out?”
“As long as Freddy’s out there, yes,” Grady said.
“What exactly is going on with Freddy?” Mike asked.
“He’s glitching out or something,” Stanley said.
“That wasn’t a glitch, whatever it was,” Grady disagreed.
Scott was already onto the next task, looking around the room. “Okay… Okay. We need a tarp or a tablecloth. Something to cover him with.”
“Scott, they’ve already seen me,” Michael said.
“Only these guys have. There’s at least two dozen people sitting on the floor over there who just saw your ears and that’s enough.”
Chaz thumped Scott’s shoulder to get his attention. “Hey, you know. With this guy here we could probably pass off this whole thing as a hoax.”
Scott looked like he was considering it for a second, but then he got this look. Like he suddenly realized something, and it jarred him. He shook his head.
“No. They… They should know. Maybe Fazbear Entertainment won’t recover from it this time.”
“They’re all under NDA,” Chaz reminded.
“Then maybe they won’t come back,” Scott said more dourly. He looked towards Abe and Tommy. “This is a dining room. There has to be a tablecloth in here somewhere. Check that side of the room.”
Tommy snapped out of his lingering horror to give him a ‘are you serious?’ look while Abe just went ahead and started going to look. Tommy went with him and they came back shortly later not with a tablecloth but with a dirty drop cloth left from when the cafeteria was repainted.
With Michael somewhat covered, and Scott directing a sort of wall of technicians- technically Chaz getting them to do it- they started to migrate to the far side of the room.
Mike looked around and couldn’t help but count up the amount of distraught people stuck in that room. Some of them staring towards them, likely having seen Michael. All of them having seen William Afton in his prime, and possibly more than that.
He caught sight of the guy who came to visit Natalie and Ness at the hospital. Sitting there with his head in his hands looking distraught. Luis, right? It wasn’t a good time to ask.
It wasn’t a good time to ask anybody in this room anything. They all looked shaken to the core. A couple in the back even arguing about what they had seen. If it was real.
It was right around this time that Mike felt it creeping up on him.
Up until this point he had been fine. All things considered, he thought he was handling this all pretty well. Marionette being taken by a crazed rabbit, the Pizzaplex being taken over, and now a room full of witnesses not only seeing all of those kids getting murdered and possibly Marionette putting them in suits but Michael presenting himself, his Springtrap self, to an entire group of people who could and would talk and god help them if they go to the police or the news-
Ah, there it was! Right on schedule, the creeping fingers of panic starting to tighten around his throat. His vision beginning to tunnel in as his head got that wobbly feeling.
“Come on, not now,” Mike coaxed himself. “I can have a freakout later. Pull it together.”
Deep breaths. They didn’t seem to really help, but deep regulated breaths as he half-heartedly listened to Michael go back and forth about how real he was. Would’ve been funny if it didn’t sound like he was talking on the other side of the room.
Right when Mike was fighting his own battle, finally starting to get the upper hand, Scott put an arm around him reassuringly. Squeezing him in a one-armed hug.
Mike felt a flush of embarrassment, thinking Scott saw him and recognized what was going on and was trying to help calm him down. But when he looked at him he realized that Scott was watching the scene of Michael and the technicians with a downright dismal look. He hadn’t noticed, he was just reaching out to comfort him because he could.
Because he too was shaken.
Mike sobered up a little. He put his arm around Scott’s shoulders in return and rode out the rest of the nausea and tightness in his chest with someone likely feeling the same thing.
They stood there watching as Chaz and one of the technicians tried to get a maintenance hatch open. Michael lost patience and stepped forward preparing to yank it open himself only to stop short when a strange rumble echoed through the walls. Someone began to panic.
“It’s coming back!” the technician assisting Chaz choked out.
“It’s not coming back. That’s the… That’s the boiler. That’s got to be,” Chaz mumbled.
“There’s something wrong with the boiler too?” Scott asked in shock and dismay. “And what- what’s ‘coming back’? You mean Freddy?”
“Something big tore through here and dragged Wight off through there.” He pointed to the collapsed wall.
“It must’ve been huge,” Mike mused. “You’re sure it wasn’t the DJ on the fritz?”
“No, it was a bunch of wires. They were moving on their own...”
Scott went pale. There weren’t that many living bundles of wires prowling the Pizzaplex…
“But after it showed up, tearing up the place, we started noticing some grumbling and rumbling from-.” Chaz pointed off towards the wall. “That direction. It, whatever it is, is huge. We’re thinking it might’ve messed with the pipes. Did something, and now the boiler’s acting up.”
“And that’s bad,” Mike half-questioned. Scott looked at him in moderate surprise. Oh, okay. It WAS bad.
“Ohh, that’s an understatement.”
“If that thing put extra pressure in the pipes or changed the pressure outside the pipes or did something- did anything, really. Then we’re looking at- you know, with a boiler of that size, we could be looking at…” Abe attempted to explain. He huffed at his fumbling and looked to Tommy. “Help?”
“Imagine a can of pop getting shaken up and blowing open,” Tommy explained. “Now imagine it a hundred times bigger and leveling the whole building.”
Extremely bad. No wonder they were less concerned about the wire ‘thing’ that kidnapped Wight-
“Aaand up to speed on Bunny’s plan. Use Ennard to kidnap father-in-law and drag him off somewhere. Possibly up to the security office.”
-but that meant they were all sitting ducks.
“Then what was everyone just sitting around for? Why weren’t you trying to get out?” Mike asked.
“Do you see any way out? We’ve got a torn down ceiling and a blocked door.”
“And a fully intact vent that we just crawled in through,” Mike said matter-of-factly.
“Hey, you didn’t see those wires, man! Those things can get through there they can get through anywhere!” Stanley defended.
Mike glanced at the hole in the wall. If they were talking about Ennard- “You’ve got a point. Sorry.”
“No, you’ve got a point. We’ve got to do something or we’re all dead one way or another…” Chaz said pensively.
There was a brief pause. A second. Two. Then Michael held out his hand out to Mike.
“Radio, if you would.” Mike unhooked it and plopped it into his hand. Michael pulled it up and clicked the button. “Jake, we found-.”
Only to be met with harsh feedback. He recoiled from the radio, staring at it in confusion as the garbled noises and distorted voices spilled through.
“At least the screaming stopped,” Grady mumbled. Michael heard it though, and he made an uneasy note to remember it.
At the very least, it meant that they were cut off from the others. Which made that ticking timebomb even more dangerous.
“So, you didn’t come alone?” Abe asked Scott and Mike. “That’s good, right? They’ll call for help.”
“There’s others but… they won’t call unless we tell them. As far as we knew-.” Scott cut off while gesturing between him and Mike, briefly recalculating their story for why they were there. “…As far as we knew, there was some sort of big meeting today and we snuck in to listen in, and the next thing we knew everything was under lockdown!”
Nobody seemed to question the story. At least, not out loud.
“Which means… Nobody’s coming,” Abe finished.
“Not unless there’s a working phone in here,” Mike said. He could tell that there wasn’t when the suggestion went without a response.
Chaz turned back to the maintenance hatch and gave it one last, strong tug. That with the metal bar Grady was using to pry caused the hatch to finally open with a loud crack. A gust of sour air came out, no doubt rising out of the tunnels below.
“Okay,” Chaz said. He stood up, dusting off his hands, and turned towards the others. “Here’s the deal… Someone has to check on the boiler.” He looked around. “Anybody here know anything about boilers?”
Nobody volunteered. Stanley and another technician looked at Abe and he looked back wide-eyed. He knew what would happen if things went south, but that didn’t mean he knew anything about fixing them.
“…No takers. That’s fine. Most of the stuff in this place is automated, right? We’d be able to figure it out on our own. There’s got to be a shutoff or something. So!” Chaz clapped his hands. “Who wants to be a hero and help me out? …Come on, someone’s got to help. We don’t do something and it might blow on us. I need extra hands.”
…Well, just because he didn’t know anything didn’t mean he couldn’t help. Like he said, everything at the Pizzaplex was automated. Maybe it was just a matter of turning knobs…
Now Tommy, on the other hand, had no interest in volunteering in running around in the death zone with glitching robots, wire snakes, and the possibility of getting stuck around a bunch of pipes preparing to blow. Though maybe that guy had a point, maybe it was about time they tried to find a way out of here. Maybe from that same vent?
Tommy looked at Abe-
Ah hell, he knew that look. That weird look Abe was giving Chaz right now, he was considering it. Standing there with a distant, nervous look. He was about to make himself a hero.
He was about to go screw around with the same boiler that he warned was oh-so dangerous. With absolutely zero idea of what he was doing.
Tommy gave a long sigh and let his shoulders drop with exasperation.
“Ah hell, I’ll do it,” he said. Abe looked at him with surprise and Tommy nudged him. “Better than dyin’ in here. Am I right?” He noticed someone giving him a disturbed look past Abe and waved. “I’m kidding! I’m just kidding.”
“Anybody else?” Chaz asked. “Please. If it’s just us, I’m going to kill him.”
“I’ll come too!” Abe volunteered. Tommy clapped him on the back with a tight grin.
“Somebody other than these two?... Nobody else? Okay. That’s… That’s what I have to work with.” Chaz sighed and looked at Scott with his brows raised. “Miss being the one in charge?”
“I miss my leg. Does that count? No thanks.”
Within some minutes, the six- and Bonnet- squeezed through the maintenance hatch and made their way down. It took another tight squeeze through a narrow service tunnel to make it to the ladder that led down into the tunnels. Soon they found themselves walking through the dark, dreary utilidors. Mike and Michael lead the way under Chaz’s directions.
“We’ll take a left at the end of this tunnel and hit some stairs. Then we split up. You guys’ll keep heading down in that direction until you hit the next stairwell and we’ll… We’ll figure out how to get to the boiler room from here.”
“You don’t know where it is?” Scott asked.
“I know where it is, I just don’t know which way’s going to be open. We can’t wait for the security lockdown to lift, we’ve got to GET to that control room.”
“Right.”
“…Hey… Before we do, though…” Chaz’s voice dropped. He took a steadying breath. “You, uh… Michael, right?”
“Right,” Michael said briskly.
“Right. You said…” He quickened his pace to catch up beside him. “Why do you think Freddy’s that technician? Where’d you hear that?”
“He’s been telling Foxy he is,” Michael answered simply.
Chaz stared at him. “…Foxy’s still…?”
“He’s still the one in the Foxy mask. Yes.”
“And he’s been here?”
“That too.”
Chaz looked back at Scott incredulously. Scott put up his hand. “It’s a long story.”
“And this is a real long stroll, so let’s hear it,” Tommy volunteered. “I’ve gotta know how Foxy’s involved with all this.”
“The same way everything at Freddy’s is,” Michael said tiredly. “It’s all connected once…”
There was a tremor through the tunnel. Michael went silent while Chaz, Tommy, and Abe all stopped in their tracks. Listening, feeling, and surely enough the tremors were growing worse. More violent, shaking the structure in the distance. It wasn’t the same as when the boiler rumbled though. It was something less targeted.
Something that seemed to be getting closer.
“You still have that radio?” Chaz whispered. “Turn it on. Now.”
Mike pulled it off his belt. “Are you sure?”
“It’s the only way we’ll know where it is. The voices get clearer when it’s closer,” Chaz said. His eyes were as wide as saucers. “I left mine back with the techies. We’re going to have to use yours.”
Mike looked at the radio for a second and then forward down the utilidor tunnel. The darkness yawning back at him. There was plenty of room for something to come towards them.
But then again, maybe that’s what they wanted. They wanted to find Bunny and Ennard. They had to figure out where he was.
He licked his lips and pressed the button, intending to say something.
He didn’t expect to hear sobbing on the other side. And screaming. Panicked, frenzied sobbing and terrified screaming, and begging. Voices blending together into a strange frenzy of noises. Voices filled with agony and fear. They didn’t sound right. They didn’t sound real.
But one voice was very clear. His heart lurched and his eyes went as wide as Chaz’s.
It sounded like Marionette. He recognized his crying.
“Mari?! Mari, is that you?!” he called into the radio. “Mari, can you hear me?! It’s me, Mike!”
“Mike…?”
Marionette’s voice sounded shaky and… strange. Almost airy and distant. Like a hollow echo through a tunnel.
The rumbling was increasing. There were more noises travelling down the utilidor tunnel.
Abe grabbed Tommy and Chaz and hastily pulled them towards a little ridge in the wall. Scott tried to do the same with Michael and Mike, trying to take Tommy’s example, but Mike wouldn’t move. Even when Michael considered it, Mike stood there firm, shirking off the grab and stepping forward.
“Mari, it’s me! I can hear you!” he called into the radio. “Where are you? I can come get you, just tell me where you are!”
“Mike… M.mMmiikeeMiiikkmikemikeMIKE!”
The sound got closer. It was almost deafening as it melted together with the screaming over the radio. At it closed in on them.
Mike hadn’t considered until that moment, that very moment, that it might not be him.
And then he saw.