Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There is a terror most people will never be able to put a name to. Children might be familiar with it, maybe adults as well depending on their situation. Either way, though, it is something that doesn't have a name.

It is waking up somewhere you feel safe. Somewhere you love and see as a sanctuary.

It is waking up there, when you did not go to sleep anywhere near there.

Most kids will have that brief moment as they wake up, but it vanishes with the comfort of familiarity and mental explanations of parents and siblings.

Gregory is not most kids.

His hands shake as he does his best to work the lock of the room open, a thin piece of cardboard barely helping him at all, but it's his only chance to get out with no tools present. The lock gives a soft click and he slowly turns the handle as he listens for anyone that might be outside.

He's lucky he's so familiar with the way the Pizzaplex is built. He's lucky that he knows how to jig open a lock. He's lucky that whoever brought him here, has no idea he's so familiar with the layout of the main building.

Carefully, he pokes his head out of the room he's in. No one's in the hall. His steps are silent as he slips out, shoving the cardboard into his pocket and softly closes the door behind him. it looks like he's actually near the main atrium so as long as he can get out without being seen he should be perfectly fine.

It's just that he knows visitors aren't supposed to be here and there is nowhere he can hide in the hallway if an employee shows up. He's always needed Tech to open the rooms he's slept in before.

He moves down the hallway fast. One eye watching for the first sign he knows are there for the employees and both ears kept alert for any sound that means he's been seen.

His breathing is loud, but there's nothing else. Even his footsteps are silent as he moves as fast as he can out of the hallway. No one stops him. The door out isn't even blocked by a pass level and it opens right onto the main atrium. Robots roll past him, but don't activate anything and he keeps moving. The exit is so, so close. All of the people here are distracted by the start of a Fazbear show. He just needs to get to-

crash clanagh cralcgh

He freezes, head whipping around to the stage where Roxy, Chica, and Monty have stopped playing rushing to a collapsed Freddy who's twitching and spazaming. People start screaming, yelling, moving as a hoard. S.T.A.F.F are shoved out of the way as the typically unseen security rush out to add to the mass. A blonde security guard glances over him.

Gregory is jostled every way as the hoard keeps pressing, pressing pressing. By the time he can get out, he's no where near the exit again and there's no way he's going to be able to get out with the human security wrangling the mass out of the building.

There's no where nearby he can hide. There's no closets and the door to the back halls absolutely require a pass here. The curtains aren't thick or long enough and will be checked at closing.

Freddy's alone.

He blinks. Turns to see the three upright animatronics working their way through the crowd while Freddy is laying still on the floor. With his chest opening.

No one's watching the stage.

He scrambles over, up onto the stage. Freddy is completely deactivated given the lights in his eyes are out. The chest plate is only partly open, but it's enough to get his hands inside of to force it the rest of the way. The cavity is empty and he crawls inside as fast as he can, already hearing the hydraulics closing the plating.

His breathing is raged and loud and he covers his mouth with his hands as darkness encloses around him completely.

He shouldn't be here. The cavity isn't for him.

There are sounds that come from outside. Faint and impossible to actually make out anything beyond it's speaking and he doesn't want to be found by whoever it is.

"-Find - kid - sho- me."

Eventually, someone or something picks Freddy up, moves him and Gregory keeps his mouth covered to muffle anything that might slip out of him.

Another shift and gravity has him sitting on the floor of the cavity now. Freddy must be upright now.

... How's he going to get out of Freddy?

It is surprisingly boring sitting in a small, dark space with absolutely nothing to do except listen for anyone that might be coming by to check on Freddy. He's pretty sure he's going to die of boredom before anything else gets to him.

And then Freddy moves.

"Showtime already?" that familiar voice sounds, echoing loudly into the cavity, his hands smacking over his ears to protect them. "I'm experiencing a malfunction. The recharge cycle is incomplete."

He hisses, "Will you shut up?!"

"Who said that?" Freddy asks, voice still reverberating through the cavity at painful levels.

"I did! I'm down here!" he snaps, hoping it will get Freddy to at least lower his volume.

The cavity shifts, then still just as loud, "Down where? I still do not see you."

"Ok, listen, you were sleeping," he says, pressing his hands harder against his ears, "so I opened the stomach hatch and clinbed inside."

Something clicks inside of the cavity just before Freddy's voice comes out paniced, "My stomach hatch? That place is reserved for oversized birthday cakes and piñatas! It is not a safe play area!"

As soon as the last word finishes, the hatch snaps open. Gregory doesn't hesitate in climbing out, not wanting to stay in a place that's going to burst his ears.

"There you are," Freddy says, voice far, far more bearable now that he's out of the chest. "Scanning complete. How odd. Your guest profile is unknown to me. Who are you?"

Oh, fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. All the bots have access to the database of visitors. The band has the past and present from what Tech's said. Cassie's brought him in as a guest under her before. Will that show? What if that's deleted? Cassie shouldn't have been here today. Fuck, fuck, fuck fuck.

Chapter Text

In theory, Gregory doesn't technically need Freddy's help to get out of the building. He knows enough of the layout he could probably find a way to an exit, but most of his mental map is built around finding the spots that are as out of the way of the human employees as possible and the same with the exits he knows of. All of them are deep in the backstage tunnels where the dirty work is done and would take him a while to reach.

Time that he really, really doesn't want to spend here and if Freddy can help him get to one of the more convenient exits, Gregory is going to jump at the chance.

He ignores the announcement crackling overhead as he drops out of the air vent to the floor below. The room is dark. Much darker than he was expecting when he peeked out as the guard was passing Freddy's room. A few lights are present, but most of what does exist in the room is spilling in from the side rooms with open curtains. It's not a lot to work with, but it is enough he's able to make his way through to the lowered shutter and to Freddy's room and the door keeping the bear locked in.

The door that doesn't open no matter how hard he pushes against it.

Gregory smacks at the message icon on his watch, "The stupid door isn't opening!"

"Oh? A photo pass is required to open the door," Freddy says and he stares at the orange door blankly. "Apologies, I assumed you had one already... Well, you should be able to find one at a convenience counter."

"It's... it's fine, Freddy," he mutters, peaking around the corner. He's not as familiar with the layout of Rockstar Row given how secure it is usually, but he does know roughly where the convenience counter is. From the exterior.

It takes a second but the blue light spilling onto the floor that turns out to be from TV screens is an immediate identifier from the counter and he dashes over as quickly and quietly as he can. Some rummaging around behind the desk later, he's found another of the 'present' boxes and snapped the top off to grab the pass and makes his way back to Freddy. This time, the door opens with zero effort and Freddy's mouth and ears flick into something like a smile.

"Way to go, Superstar! I knew you could do it," Freddy says. His knees bend slightly as he continues, "I have thought about how best to get you out of the building. The utility tunnels are the quickest way to the entrance, and it will be safer for you to travel inside of my chest cavity for now."

Gregory flicks his eyes to the chest plate that's already opened then back to Freddy's face, "Are you sure?"

He might have hidden in there earlier, but he is very, very aware that using something in a way not intended is, bad.

"It is not ideal, no, however, it is the best way to keep you safe and moving quickly," Freddy replies. "If I am spotted outside of my room, I will likely be sent back here, however it will still be better than if you are spotted alone."

And Gregory, can't really argue with that. He's the one who said the security guard can't be trusted and it's clear Freddy has thought about how to get him to the main entrance without calling her.

"Okay," he says, stepping closer. "Just be careful. I don't want to be crushed and twisted into a pretzel."

Climbing inside is different when Freddy is standing upright compared to laying down, but he manages it and Freddy walks on a clear path Gregory can't see. Freddy continues forwards, steps never faltering and he wonders what exactly these tunnels look like.

"Hello? Little boy? If you're down here say something!" a voice calls, echoing off the walls.

Gregory fights the urge to press himself further into Freddy's chest cavity. He's already taking up most of the space so it'd be useless. "She's down here, we have to go back."

"Do not worry, Gregory," Freddy tells him through the watch. His voice is much easier to listen to when it isn't booming around him. "Even if I am spotted, you are safe. Officer Vanessa would never suspect we are traveling together. However, remaining unseen is our best option. If I am sent back to my room, we will not be able to reach the Lobby before the doors lock."

He sighs to himself, rubbing at his knee. A beep rings through the cavity and Freddy halts. Gregory lifts his head, but there's no sound of the security guard nearby so why-?

"I feel you are broken, Gregory," Freddy says, starting to move. "There is a first aide station nearby that I will be stopping at."

"No! No, no, no!" he yelps, pressing against the inside of the hatch, but it does nothing to stop Freddy. "It's fine! We don't need to stop! There's no time!"

Freddy ignores him, stopping somewhere and opening the hatch as he bends over. Gregory slides out, glaring up at Freddy, but another pair of footsteps - human footsteps - has him dropping the anger and ducking under the curtain Freddy ejected him in front of.

Well, there is a first aid kit, but it's hanging open and clearly empty.

From under the edge he watches as the security guard walks up to Freddy, already scolding him with a tone that quiets his already silent breathing to go even more unnoticeable. Don't be noticeable. Don't be noticeable.

"-Parts and Services have you on reduced power. They said it was a safety precaution, which is just great," she says, flashlight beam moving over Freddy and the shadows closest to him. "Just another thing to deal with..."

Freddy's ears pin down, "I apologize..."

"Ugh. Look, there's some kid that got lost and is sneaking around backstage," she tells him, beam steadying on Freddy. "If you see anything, notify me immediately, I already alerted the others. Now go back to your room."

With that, she turns and walks off. Gregory waits until her steps have completely faded from hearing before climbing out of the station.

"I told you she was after me," he mutters as the hatch opens back up.

"I said nothing," Freddy assures him, "I will keep you safe. Now let us go."

He's back in the hatch, staring into the darkness around him as Freddy covers ground in no time and the boredom he had the first time he climbed inside is gnawing at him once more.

"...It'd be nice to know where we are," he finds himself saying into the quiet, idly picking at a loose thread on his shorts.

"Oh! Just a moment!" Freddy responds. A second later a soft beep comes from the watch on his wrist and he looks down to see a new icon on it. "I have unlocked access to my optical cameras for you. Normally, the function is automatically active when the watch is connected to the network, however, it seems that with my crash earlier it was not able to connect to the network. I shall be placing a report about the error once I can reconnect."

He taps the button the screen instantly filling with a video of the tunnels they're walking through. It's very dark, only Freddy's eyes lighting the way as he climbs up the stairs and Gregory frowns at the very bottom.

"Hey, Freddy, there's a large warning saying 'low power'?"

"Yes, it just showed up," Freddy says as the hatch opens once more. "The recharge cycle had not completed when I woke up and found you. You will unfortunately have to continue alone from here, however, I will guide you as best as I can in case you get into any trouble."

Gregory stares up at Freddy as the tube thing next to them spins open, "...You'll be alright?"

A softening of the facial features even as Freddy steps into the tube, "I promise I will be fine and I will be with you through the Fazwatch no matter what."

The tube closes with a hiss of air and Gregory turns to look up at the door. It opens easily, but there's the clear sound of something nearby. The hallway is blocked by just enough stuff there's no way he's going to get past it without alerting whatever is here with him and a peak into the open door shows Chica standing over a pile of trash, shoving it into her face.

Gross.

He chews his lip. There's no way he'll be able to get past her to the other door with where she is, but if he could draw her out...

Knocking over the stack of paint cans and dashing into the bathroom is surprisingly easy and he stays as silent as possible as he exits the other door and behind Chica. She doesn't turn around as he presses himself against the wall. His steps are silent as he follows it around the corner and deeper into the tunnels.

This part - luckily - he's a bit more familiar with. It's not an area he stays in often given how often it's used for the animatronics, but there has been a few times where Tech mentioned the area was going to be empty or Tech would be closing and opening so no one else would have a chance of spotting him.

Everything is going smoothly, he's making his way through the tunnels perfectly fine, he might be alone but other than Chica there hasn't been any hint to one of the other animatronics being nearby.

Gregory pushes open the door to the really, really steamy area and has just entered it when there's a crash behind him. He stills for just long enough to recognize Monty's hulking form standing over a freshly broken fence before scrambling backwards and not caring how much noise he makes. It doesn't matter when he's already been seen.

"Lost bOy over here!"

Shit!

Chica stumbles through stacked blocks. Gregory skids, tips to the side and pushes off the ground. There's stairs ahead that he takes two at a time. There's a hallway with a painted shield at the end. He dives into the open room as the door slams shut.

"You have reached a security office! You should be quite safe here," Freddy's voice crackles through the watch. Gregory stares at his wrist with wide-eyes, hearing the slamming of metal fists against the door that has a flashing '15%' next to it.

"Freddy! The power's at 15% and they're pounding on the door! How is this safe?!"

There's a hum over the connection as he keeps looking for a spot to hide or get out, "Do not panic. There should be an interface on the desk that I can make accessible to you."

A loud kind of honk sounds and a Freddy-head shaped thing opens to show a thing that somewhat looks like it is a silhouette of Freddy.

"If you connect or hold the Fazwatch near the button when you press it, you should get access to the security cameras," Freddy explains. "You should be able to use them to find a safe way out of the office."

Gregory does as told, pulling up the camera icon and instantly having a view of Chica pounding on the door. It really shows exactly how strong they're built since there's no visible damage to her casing and she's beating against a solid steel door.

He swallows and is just about to try and switch cameras when Chica pulls back, tilts her head at the door and stumbles away.

... Gregory has zero clue why she did that but he's not going to pass up the chance to get out before Monty gets through.

He exists out the door she'd been banging on, following the painted 'Lobby' signs. Clanking footsteps still echo along the walls, but he's sooo close-!

"I FOUND YOU!"

He pushes himself to run faster. He's so close to the Lobby. The door's right there.

It slams against the wall and swings back with just as much force. He can see the exits down the stairs. They aren't blocked by anything, he just needs to get there. No one can stop him from using the rials as a fast way down.

"Freddy Fazebear's Mega Pizzaplex is now closed!" Rings through the empty air over his pounding feet. "Initiating- Initiating- Proto-proto- nigt-cols-"

His hand reaches out to the push bar just as the shutters slam down. He's barely able to stop before slamming into them, wide-eyed. Chica was right behind him-!

The lights go out and the glitching announcement cuts out completely.

Chapter Text

"This is the worst night of my entire life," Gregory mutters, kicking at the closed shutter.

The watch on his wrist buzzes, a soft voice coming out with, "I am sorry, Gregory. As I am currently disconnected from the network, I cannot provide a reason for for the power outage or the night shift protocols activating early. The doors will definitely open again at 6am, however there are a few other exits that might still be available for you before then. I will help you as much as I can to find one."

He rubs at his arm it stings under his skin, itching and somethings wrong turning slowly to look around the entrance cast into shades of red from the emergency lighting. Part of managing to do anything in here is going to require him to get an entry pass which he doesn't have since he woke up with no memory of even being near the building in first place. He and Cassie had made plans to meet up at the park today. The park on the opposite side of town.

...Gregory tries not to think about what he's missing. The entire day is gone.

A quick look reveals a pass box that had been dropped near one of the exits. Probably a hand out to try and placate the panicked and angry guests earlier. To bad for them, perfect for him.

He chews on his lip as he slowly makes his way back to the entrance turnstiles, turning the box handle as he goes. Luckily, it is quieter than the one he opened in Freddy's greenroom. The box drifts to the ground silently after he snags the pass, waving it at the scanner and making sure the metal doesn't squeak as it closes behind him. It's dark here. Red shadows cast over everything and distorting all of it into a nightmare, but he can hear the faint, creaking, static filled voice of Chica echoing from further ahead.

Practice and experience has given him the best ways to get around unseen, though all of the Security he passes are slumped over in deactivation and when he reaches the top of the stairs and peaks out, Chica is stuck spasming in a doorway with her head pointed to the ceiling.

Gregory pauses, fingers curled possessively around the pass as he stares at the bird.

He's never seen one of the main animatronics glitch out before. Tech's mentioned it happening - complained about new hardware that isn't working right and poor planning with added programming - but actually seeing one of them like this-

It's unsettling. Especially since he's pretty sure there's supposed to be a backup system that catches their systems if a power outage happens to avoid problems. Freddy's collapse was probably terrifying to witness, but his system crashed. He didn't stay in place twitching and jerking and still awake.

... There's nothing he can do and he continues, slipping into the dark, silent shop where the pass upgrade machine is. The sound it makes as it chews up his pass is horrendously loud and he flinches back, hoping that it doesn't manage to draw any attention from Chica or any humans in the building.

"Are you staying safe, Gregory?" Freddy's voice crackles through the speaker as he stares a the machine waiting for the pass to come back out.

"Yeah," he whispers back, wondering if kicking the thing will work. "I got to an upgrade machine, but it ate my pass."

"That is, unfortunate. I believe I have heard some of the employees mention magnets being used to manipulate the machine recently. That may be something you can try."

Okay. He can find a magnet. Now where would he keep...? A-ha!

One crappy Mr. Hippo magnet slapped onto the machine later, Gregory is staring at the red-tinted design of a daycare pass. God-fucking-damnit.

"It gave me a daycare pass," he whines into the watch.

"That is great news!" Freddy says, far more chipper than Gregory. "I will meet you there. It is on the second floor and you should be safe there until I can rejoin you."

Well, it is at least a plan, though... He squints up at the emergency lights burning red above him. There's no telling how this power outage has affected things elsewhere in the building. The pass machine might have worked, but there's no guarantee that the doors will. Tech's complained about them malfunctioning enough he's aware of the possibility of them failing completely if not the specifics. But does he really have any other option?

Peaking through the window, Chica is still twitching up on the landing and he knows he's going to have to get past her to reach the daycare. His fingers tap against his leg as he thinks.

If the power comes back on, he'll have less than a minute to hide from her before Chica's system reconnects. If he can't hide in time, he's fucked and she'll do whatever it is she's been ordered to do to him. He could hide somewhere and hope that the power comes back on, Chica's systems start back up, and she moves away from the daycare, but if it doesn't he'll be a sitting duck for the security guard.

His eyes narrow slightly, fingers stilling.

Didn't Tech mention a manual power button on the animatronics...?

Gregory shoves the pass into his pocket and silently pads back through the gift shop and up the back stairs. He circles Chica as soon as he reaches her, looking for anything that stands out as just off enough to possibly be something like a power switch. It can't be somewhere a kid would be likely to stick their hands or fingers into and it has be protected in someway just in case. Somewhere annoying for technicians to get to.

Chica's head jerks, freezing in a position to stare blankly at him. Her eyes are flickering off rhythm with each other. The left one flickers more than the right and he tilts his head.

You know what, if he was going to hide a power button for an animatronic who interacts with a lot of people, has to move around a lot, has a gimmick of eating food, and is constantly interacting with little kids that like poking things, he would probably hide it in one of the eyes under the shatterproof glass.

He glances to the side, then drags one of the benches over to the stationary chicken. He scrambles up Chica's back, nails scratching into the casing as he holds on as tight as possible so he doesn't get thrown off. His legs tighten around her torso as a hand rises to start scratching at one of her eye seams. It takes several tries before his nails catch and he manages to separate the casing and glass enough to pop it out. The glass falls to the ground, shattering on impact which he ignores as he lifts himself to look at what was under that one.

Under the red glow around him, the lights that make up Chica's eye flicker in unidentifiable color and right in the center where the 'pupil' is, there's a raised button.

Gregory pauses. Looks at the distance from the top of Chica to the floor and how she's positioned. He only has Freddy's system crash earlier to use as a reference for how one of the band powering down will happen and right now he's on the side that's closer to the floor. He unhooks his leg from that side and prays that's enough to not get stuck as he presses down on the button.

For a long moment nothing seems to happen, then Chica stiffens, her joints locking up as her voice cuts out completely. Gregory lets go, stumbling away from her as fast as he can and just managing to get enough distance before she collapses to the ground.

He stares at her for several heartbeats before rushing the rest of the way to the daycare entrance. The door jerks, squeals, barely opens enough for Gregory to squeeze under, and clatters to the ground as he rolls away from it. He blinks at the closed door then drops his head to the ground.

...Why the fuck are the lights working in here?

"Hey Freddy," he says out loud, hoping nothing that might be here can hear him, "I got into the daycare."

"That is wonderful to hear, Superstar!" Freddy says and Gregory can't help the smile twitching on his face. "Unfortunately, with the systems down I cannot enter to reach you. I believe if you can find a security badge from the desk you may be able to open the door for me."

He frowns, pushing himself up to actually look around what he can see of the daycare. "...Uh, do you know... why all of the lights are still working in here?"

Chapter Text

The daycare attendant remains frozen in place after that odd over-lapping voice that echos in the empty air. At the same time that it actually registers what it said, the attendant jerks, twists in a mockery of what Gregory now fully places as 'play' compared to this as a twisted version of the voice that had started to be a comfort spills out, "NAughtY bOY. it'S PAsT YOUR bedtIMe."

Gregory doesn't wait to see what comes next, dropping the snacks he'd been given and running back the way they'd come. There's clanking metal behind him that echos off of the walls. Lucky indicators of where the attendant might be. He stumbles out of the hall, there's a faint illumination that falls on a desk.

The desk he'd come down here to reach.

He runs to it, ducking underneath it just as the robot clambers into the room. Hopefully the badge is actually here.

"HIDey hide," the grating voice slinks through the air as he pats over the desktop. "baD CHILdreN MUSt be fOUND... punISHEd."

His hands knocks into something long, cold, and cylindrical that tips over and he fumbles it to keep it from falling. He pulls it down, squints at it, and mentally curses at it only being a flashlight. If it wouldn't give away his position immediately he would be happy at having it, but right now he just wants to find the badge Freddy said would open the door keeping them separated.

The robot's voice keeps echoing through the room. A few times it sounds like it gets close enough to be on the other side of the desk before it drifts away again. Gregory keeps feeling along the desk, praying that the barely audible pat-pat of his hand isn't enough to grab the robot's attention.

A cold, plastic-y thing shaped weirdly against his hand has him rising carefully after another pass by the desk. He can't quite make out all of the details with the lack of light, but the shape is familiar. Something he's already seen in the security office he went through in the race to the entrance. Something that makes a lot of noise, but-

But it had the connection point that got him the cameras before they went down with the rest of the power and this one probably has the badge he needs to get to Freddy in it.

Gregory ducks back under the desk as the attendant comes closer once more. It passes again and he waits until the voice is almost as distant as it can be before hitting the nose-button. This one is just as loud as the previous one and he's barely wrapped his fingers around the thin object inside of it when thunk and the robot is looming on the edge of the desk.

The face plate twitches, gets stuck in a tilted state as that voice grates out, "IT'S Past yoUR BEDtimE."

One of the arms jerks, the only warning he has to move before the hand slams into the rolling chair. He doesn't look back rushing to the vague outline of the play structure, scrambling into one of the small entrances he'd seen before the lights went out. This one slopes and curves upwards sharply - must be a slide - and he pins himself in what he hopes is the middle of the thing so the robot can't find him.

It takes a second to hit the message button to call Freddy, but as soon as it connects he hisses out, "Freddy! I think I got the badge, but I don't think I can get past the- the- the moon-guy."

A faint crackle, "I cannot be certain, but it seems as though when the systems reconnected, Attendant Moon's security programing activated and has labeled you as an intruder. The most likely solution I can think of is to turn the generators back on. The attendant's frame is highly sensitive to light levels and switches between the two AIs based on that. Attendant Sun does not have access to the security programing and should not be a threat to you."

Okay, okay, he just needs to get the generators back on but- "Where are they?"

"I believe that the reports said they were placed inside of the play structure," Freddy says.

The slide shakes around him, doing nothing to muffle the voice above him. Gregory closes the call with Freddy, rushes up the rest of the slide and hoping that it is one of the closed off sections. Not one of the ones where only padded bars with giant gaps is all that would be between him and the robot currently after him.

His first hand lands on solid plastic, but his second hits something that sends him tumbling face-first to the plastic floor with a too loud thump. Moving machinery sounds above him underneath dark chuckles and taunting words, but doesn't reach to grab at him.

Gregory flips over - a flicker of relief at the solid barrier that exists between the two of them even if the glow of eyes still reaches through. He chances a glance downwards to try and figure out what caused him to trip, eyes catching on a black cord snaking further into the structure.

Generators usually have cords and wires attaching them to things. Freddy said they were located in the play structure. Is this going to one of them? (He doesn't care about everything else he's noted before. This is definitely against regulations.)

Luckily he doesn't loose track of the cord, it doesn't exit the structure, and there's enough twists and turns he's able to maybe loose Moon given the lack of close-by robot sounds. It does lead him to a generator and he risks flicking the flashlight on briefly to figure that out also showing a second cord that goes out of the nearby grid bars to the second part.

It starts up as he shoves the lever down, a loud roar that is certain to reveal where he is if Moon wasn't just silently stalking him. He doesn't waste time in crawling as fast as possible away, flicking off the flashlight as he goes.

Under his hands and knees, the structure shakes and behind him comes that corrupted voice: "KNOck knoCK..."

Gregory crawls faster. His eyes flick over everything for another cord and follows the first one he sees into an opening. It - luckily - doesn't lead to an exit. It ends at a generator blocking one of the exits in the small room while the other is another tunnel with another cord in it. He shoves this lever down just as hard as the last, the roar starting up at the same time he shoves himself into the only exit available to him.

This one goes up and the cord drops through the grid on the side. He has enough of a vantage from here to just barely see Moon's glowing eyes on the floor and moving away from where he is right now. It doesn't take long for the eyes to be blocked by another part of the structure. That, that means Moon can't see him either, right?

He debates for a second before flicking the flashlight on in hopes that he'll be able to find the cord again. It works and he lowers the still lit flashlight as close to the ground as he can and still be able to see as he follows what is turning into a really dangerous set up for wires in a place for kids.

It ends with him on the floor padding and squeezing himself into an awkward position to get the next generator turned on with the next cord leading out of the relative safety of the structure. It's just as loud, but there's something else sounding just under it. Not enough for him to bother trying to figure out what it is as he flicks off the light and runs as fast as he can to the other structure, though.

The creaking follows him, taunts in a voice corrupted by whatever happened when Moon reconnected to the system. The next structure isn't far and he can see the darker portion that belies an entrance. A safety from the chase.

He's so focused on running and getting there that he misses the stack of something right next to him.

He hits it hard, stumbles but manages to stay upright and runs. Moon has to have closed to distance.

It's not until he gets into the structure that his ringing ears clear just enough to hear Moon's voice glitching even more, repeating 'ClEAN uP!' over and over. Maybe when he knocked into that thing, it triggered something?

Gregory shakes his head, flicks the flashlight on. He needs to focus on the generators. There has to be at least one more. He just needs to find it.

He's just found the next one and is about to turn it on when the silence outside of the structure registers. The chanting has completely vanished alongside the creaking of Moon's body. Gregory turns his head around slowly, hands staying on the lever. He can't see the red eyes anywhere outside or hanging on the bars nearby.

"Heh HEH hEh."

His head whips to the exit he'd been planning to take after turning the generator on. Moon is there. Squeezed into the structure with its head upside down and a hand starts reaching towards him.

He slams the lever down, scrambling backwards as the roar fills the air. It also makes Moon flinch back with claws scuttling across the plastic, but he doesn't bother watching for more as he scrambles the opposite way. Gregory winds up outside, turned around from panic and get away and why aren't the lights back on.

"Freddy!" he whisper-yells as he dashes into another entrance and wilts at hearing an already powered on generator. "Freddy! How many generators are there?!"

"I do not know, Superstar," Freddy says. "However, the lights have begun to flicker sporadicly even if it is clear it is not enough to actually light the area."

"MUSt be pUNishED!" Moon's voice echos through the room.

Gregory looks up just in time to see a limb disappearing into something above him and chooses to go down this time. The scuttling keeps echoing through the structure. Keeps getting closer. Keeps closing in.

He keeps finding exits from the structure, ducking back in the same one or the nearest to stay away from the animatronic stalking him. Each time he thinks he finds a new cord, it just leads to an already active generator. There has to be something he's missing. There has to be.

"Where is it, where is it, where is it," he keeps muttering to himself.

A crash above him and he turns around on the ramp, crawling as fast as he can. Moon's voice croons in glitches and static behind-above him as encouragement to keep moving.

He turns a corner with a clear exit he can use to enter somewhere else-

pitches forward to the ground, cheek cracking as it hits the ground.

Gregory shakes his head, looks at his foot to see a cord angled up to something caught on his ankle. Something block-y. Something that's not humming in activation.

He shoves upright. Stumbles to the generator. Hits his hands against it- where where where where

The lever slams down with a near instant roar and light floods the area.

Moon's voice cuts off along with the sounds of its body moving.

Gregory stays next to the generator, panting as the pain grows in his cheek. He hopes that's the last exciting thing that happens tonight and he can get out now.

He pokes his head out of the structure, not seeing the daycare animatronic anywhere. He crawls out, rubs at his cheek with a faint hiss. Hopefully it and the attendants are okay. They were both kind of nice before the main power-

"GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!"

Sun's voice is high pitched and clearly panicked as Gregory is lifted into the air and taken to the door next to the desk. He's shoved out of it, stumbling as he's dropped and the door slams behind him. Sun's voice is still speaking though he can only tell the tone hasn't changed from the panic. The words muffled behind the wooden door and distance.

Freddy is right there, his stomach hatch opening as pounding footsteps get closer and closer, "Gregory! Jump in! They are coming!"

Gregory scrambles up, barely squeezed inside before the hatch starts closing. It's awkward, slightly painful, but if the other option is dealing with the animatronics coming for him, he'll take being uncomfortable.

"Are you lost?" Roxy asks, dashing past Freddy's eyes as Gregory pulls up the connection to his eyes. She doesn't even look at Freddy as she passes. Monty isn't far behind her, though he does go in a different direction also paying no mind to Freddy as he starts walking.

Freddy's steps are steady, eating up ground quickly as they tilt up stairs, "I will keep you safe. They cannot find you as long as we are together."

He nods, lowering the hand he hadn't noticed was over his mouth, "Okay. Okay."

It takes a second to force his focus on what Freddy's seeing, but it is worth it to be able to figure out where they are. Freddy seems to have a specific goal, head swiveling even as he keeps going, putting more and more distance between them, the hunting animatronics, and the daycare.

"Freddy? What are you looking for?" he asks, voice sounding like it barely comes out as anything audible.

"I need to reach a recharge station," Freddy says. Gregory's eyes flick to the bottom of the screen he can see, but the power bar says it's alright- "Every hour power is diverted to the recharge stations and the lights organically go out in the building. When that happens, Attendant Moon used to be able to roam the rest of the building. Given what just happened, I am not inclined to risk remaining out of one."

Gregory hunches down inside of Freddy, wishing he could get even smaller, "But, but I'm inside of you? Wouldn't that keep me from being found?"

Freddy's gaze crosses over a fountain, zeroing in on a station near it and steps eating the ground, "I am sorry to say I am not confident in you being hidden purely by my casing. Attendant Moon has never been unable to find someone since the security program was added to him."

The tube closes around Freddy just as the lights outside flicker out once more. This time, the red emergency lights don't come on, though, a clear sign to how different this 'outage' is to the one earlier. Gregory watches the scene he can see through Freddy's eyes, just barely catching the twisting movement of the thing that was just stalking him flipping along the various decorations. It doesn't come close to the station, though, and he sighs softly in relief. He's not sure what to make of what happened with Moon and Sun.

"Hey, Freddy?" he asks after a moment.

"What is it, Superstar?"

"You, um, you called Moon 'he' earlier. Is, is that what Moon is?"

A moment of silence before Freddy answers, "I am not certain if the Daycare Attendant has ever made a specific statement when it comes to what pronouns they prefer, however, many guests and employees refer to them as male and they have never expressed discomfort with it so the rest of us have taken up the habit as well."

"Oh." He looks at the part of the screen where Moon vanished, squeezing his legs closer to his chest, "I hope they're okay."

"Gregory?"

"I- It's just-" he rubs at his eyes, hating how they've started to sting "Before the power came back on, they were nice. Both of them. Annoying, but they weren't mean. They weren't trying to hurt me."

"...I am so sorry, Gregory."

He groans, lowers his head into his knees a bit more, "...It's not your fault. It's just progra-"

His eyes widen as he jerks up, accidentally hitting his head against Freddy's casing. He hisses, rubs at the new sore spot as Freddy's voice asks if he's alright, but that's not important right now. No, no, what's important is that-

"Freddy! What if it's something in the main network that's making them-"

The screen on his Fazwatch starts glitching. Image distorting with colors overlapping and splitting, black bars crossing it all. Static fills his ears, hurting his head with the high pitch and he's just barely able to make out the image of a rabbit costume dancing by. It pauses, head turning to stare at the station with red, red, red eyes.

Gregory doesn't move, doesn't breathe. Prays that the rabbit won't be able to spot him.

It turns away. Resumes dancing through the area and out of Freddy's eyeline taking the distorted video and static with it.

It's not a comfort that the rabbit is gone. If anything, the rabbit leaving simply fills him with more dread than if it had stayed.

Chapter Text

Freddy remains silent even though Gregory cutting off suddenly is rather worrying. There's nothing he can see that would have cause for Gregory to fall silent. Moon has already left the area and the his bandmates would have been forced to find their own charging stations no matter what might be going on.

Outside of the station, the lights flick back on and the option to open the door appears in Freddy's vision. It is... odd to have to manually accept the prompt, however, he is quite aware it is one of the side affects of being in Safe Mode. Something he is thankful for as it allows him to make sure Gregory is alright before leaving the relative safety of the charging station.

"Freddy, what was that?" Gregory's voice rings through the connection he has with the Fazwatch.

His ears twitch, there's really only one thing outside right now and Gregory knows what Moon is... "Are you referring to the fountain? It is a decorative structure that-"

"No!" a slight shifting from inside of him, a quick dismiss of the alert to empty his hatch to expel the possibly damaged items "I know what a fountain is. I'm talking about that dancing rabbit person who stared right at us!"

Freddy takes a moment to go through the local save of his optics starting from when they first entered the charging station to right now. There's a brief notice to report Moon being activated, about a full minute of visuals and audio that wasn't saved, and the same pinging alert that he should report to Parts and Services that appeared when the power came back up. Nothing in there is unexpected.

Moon has been labeled inactive for the last nine months, it is not uncommon for the local saves to behave oddly inside of a charging station, and his prior crash would have caused the notice for Parts and Services to appear no matter what. The only odd part was it did not show up earlier.

"No, I did not see any rabbit," he finally says, thankful Gregory is still hiding to not see his ears pinning back. Freddy is a machine. It would... not be impossible for something to interfere with his systems. "There has not been an approved rabbit in the Pizzaplex for a while now."

Gregory doesn't say anything and Freddy decides to send the 'open' prompt to the station. The door slides open and he feels a small hand press against the inside of his hatch. He opens it as soon as he's out of the tube.

Gregory slides out of the cavity, holding himself in a way that makes him look so much smaller than he already is as he rubs at his arm, "I swear there was a rabbit out here."

Freddy lowers himself, turning his hands in an offer for Gregory to hold, "I believe you, Gregory. There has always been a known error that happens for us inside of the charging stations and no matter how well built we are, I am still little more than a machine. It is possible you managed to see something that simply did not process for me."

"Yeah, I know," Gregory mutters, tone and level clearly indicating he's not expecting Freddy to here it. He looks up, shuffles a little closer, "...Moon couldn't get the door to open then he just, changed."

Using the hard communications is always awkward. It feels weird for all of them, but this is a situation Freddy doesn't have all the information on and he can't access the network communications. Actually connecting takes some effort - all the prompts about his systems being monitored for any abnormal behavior he has to agree to as well as the oddity of opening himself to the the same thing - but if there's anyone who might know what happened inside the daycare, it is Sun.

Sun? What happened in there?

There's a long fragment of a second where he's not sure if his message was sent or even read, before Sun replies Exit wouldn't open. Something broke the reset. Keep him AWAY.

That is... ominous. But it does at least mean whatever happened with Moon was not intended. On the Attendant's part at least.

Sharing that with Gregory doesn't seem to reduce the stress the boy is under. If anything, it simply rises it as his fingers dig into his arm harder turning the skin pale white under them.

"...They were fine before the power out here came back on," Gregory says, eyes flicking briefly around the lit up area. "And, and your friends are acting weird too. Do you think there's something wrong with the network? Cause you aren't on it and you're the only one that's safe."

Freddy can't fight the pinning of his ears - not even sure if he would want to. Gregory had started to say something about the main network earlier before he cut off and this must be what he had been leading into. If there is something wrong with the main network, that means someone has purposefully planned this. Has gone into his home and done something to hurt his friends. Has intended for them to begin hunting a lost child.

...Has intended this for at least nine months if not longer.

"Gregory, I promise that I will keep you safe as long as I can," he says, carefully pulling the boy into a hug. "I will do everything I can to ensure you are able to leave safely and that no one will hurt you until then."

Gregory doesn't say anything, but he does lean against Freddy. There is a risk staying here in the open. One of his friends may pass by or even Officer Vanessa, however, Freddy is programmed to first and foremost protect and comfort children. Right now, Gregory needs this comfort and he is happy to provide it.

Gregory isn't sure how long he stays in Freddy's hug, but when he looks at the Fazwatch, the time blinks '1:27' up at him. That... doesn't feel right but its not like there's anything else he can use right now.

He pulls back and Freddy releases him. He rubs at his face as he turns around, trying to focus back on how to get out of the building. Freddy said that the fire exit wouldn't open for Moon, the main exit is obviously out, and he's never found any of the hidden entrances to the back hallways around here.

"I believe if we get into the atrium, I will be able to reorient and locate possible exits for you," Freddy says, staring down the hallway.

He rubs at his arm. There's really no other option he has right now unless he can find a way to the back and to one of the employees exits. And that might turn out to be a waste of time if they're blocked by whatever locked the daycare fire escape. So he follows Freddy down the hall and back into the lobby.

Oddly, he can't spot Chica where she collapsed but he's not intending to mention what he did to Freddy. She's one of his friends and even with something wrong in their systems, Gregory doesn't want to make Freddy upset or not help him by revealing he broke her eye and turned her off. He'll just have to hope they don't run into her or Freddy starts asking questions.

Riding in the elevator is both strangely normal and odd. The music buzzes overhead and Gregory stares at the speakers. He's never really been able to hear it before. Usually he's squished in with a lot of people talking over it.

A ding and the door to the atrium opens. Gregory takes a step forward-

is grabbed by the shoulders and spun around.

He kicks at whatever grabbed him. It slides away as his foot connects, as a clearly robotic voice chirps, "Take a map!"

Gregory blinks. A yellow painted vest and box with folded maps on the front as a hand holds one out to him stands in front of him.

"The map bots are supposed to be placed into standby as soon as the time reaches 8 pm," Freddy mentions, carefully moving behind him. "They are also not supposed to be so-"

"Aggressive?" Gregory finishes, tugging the map from the bot's hand. It straightens up instantly, ignoring both of them now that its job has been accomplished. "Yeah, I know. It is a glitch that happens sometimes."

Actually, there was an announcement about maintenance earlier, right? Maybe if none of the exits are working, he can get to one of the technician rooms and stay there until Tech shows up. But, how would he know when that happens?

"Gregory," Freddy's voice snaps him back to where he is right now and he looks up at the bear. "I have identified two possible exits that may work. The first is another fire exit" Gregory makes a face and Freddy's ear twitch down, clearly aware of the possibility of that working "while the other is the loading docks."

"Why's the fire exit one of them? The one in the daycare already didn't work," he says, turning to look over the railing nearby. The atrium looks a lot bigger when it's empty.

"All of us are programmed with all viable exits for emergencies. Any fire exits are listed at the same level of possibility as the main entrance." A pause, then Freddy adds, "I will admit that I find it odd I only have a single fire exit listed as 'viable'. My memory insists there should be more in the main part of the building, yet it is the only one that comes up on the search."

So the fire exit is most likely a trap of some sort as well as the loading docks. The fire exit is most likely going to be impossible for him to open. The loading dock might be the same if it doesn't turn out to have whoever took him waiting there.

He huffs, hitting his head against the wall. There's really only one option he has here.

"How do I get to the loading docks?"

Chapter Text

"I hate vents. I hate vents. I hate vents. I hate vents. I hate vents. I hate vents."

The chant keeps up as Gregory scrambles through said vents, moving as fast as possible and trying to not notice how much closer the skittering of rod-like limbs are getting to him. The metal suddenly angles, sending him face first down a winding ramp, barely not hitting his head against the corners as he goes.

He slams into a grate, snapping it off of the wall and tumbling to the floor below. He blinks, breath wheezing out as the thing pokes its' head out. It slams the cymbals at him, a high screech of sound following, and it ducks back into the vent.

"Superstar?! Are you alright?"

"Ye-yeah," he manages to get out. He winces slightly as he sits up, more aches added to the ones he's already collected tonight, "Why are there spiders in the vents?"

"...I am not sure. I do not recall anything about something being in the vents," Freddy says. "Are you certain you are okay?"

No, but... "Yeah, 'm fine. I've had a lot worse than a few bumps."

Freddy doesn't say anything else, but Gregory can't help imagining his ears pinning down in worry as he stands up. There's no shooting pain as he slowly makes his way past the FazEnt branded containers which is good. Lockers are pushed along one wall while the other has an open-plan bathroom he immediately decides he's staying as far away from as possible. Luckily, a door is right next to the lockers and it opens without issue.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Cassie drops the chair leg on the padded floor, falling to her own knees and grabbing at Gregory. His skin is warm under her hands, the fabric kind of rough and dirty, his hair soft over her wrists, and everything about him is real.

"Ca-Cassie?" he stutters out as she drags him into a hug. She hums into his shoulder and his arms hang in the air for a moment before wrapping around her in turn. She clings to him, happy to just have someone else here.

"Uh, Cassie? What are you doing here?" Gregory asks and she should actually answer that. They need to figure out how to get out of here, though, he seems to be doing better on that front then her. He's the one who stumbled thorough into this room.

She pulls back enough to be able to look at him, "I don't know. I just, woke up here."

An odd expression flashes across his face, "We're, we're under the Plex. I woke up somewhere I recognized and got out, but there's something wrong here. Something really bad."

She stills, staring at him. It shouldn't be surprising. It shouldn't. But the Plex has always been a place of comfort. It's where her dad worked, where she met her best friends, where she's never felt in danger being watched by the various animatronics. It has never been a danger, but-

A small chirp behind her alongside a bump to her foot breaks her thoughts.

"Is that," Gregory starts, squinting over her shoulder, "a caution bot?"

Cassie pulls back fully, reaching out to pat the yellow bot's head with a shaky laugh, "Yeah. Yeah, its been, helping me." A sharp look and she rushes to continue, "After I woke up, these, things started attacking me. Only they weren't real. They always felt real, but whenever they'd try to touch me, nothing would happen. They'd vanish, but then they'd just come back."

"What did they look like?"

Oh god, she doesn't want to- "Some where like variants of the band. Others I didn't recognize, but they all had sharp teeth, knife claws, and looked like they were rotting. And they'd make these, sounds- I don't want to stay here."

"Okay," Gregory says. His voice is steady, solid and she sags in relief. They'll be fine. "It looks like the 'door' got caught on my flashlight so we should be able to get it open again. Be careful, though. There's these, metal things that were chasing me through the tunnels."

She frowns, "Did they kind of look like skeletons?"

Gregory pauses in trying to lift up the door, "Maybe? I've never seen a skeleton."

"They might be the endos," she offers, digging her fingers into the crack beside his. "They're what's under the outer part of the animatronics."

"They're creepy," he grunts as the door jerks upwards and locks.

The space between the bottom of the door and the floor isn't a lot, but it should be enough for them to get out. Though, the flashlight is absolutely crushed and Cassie is kind of surprised it is still able to shine any light into the hallway. Gregory motions for her to go first and she squeezes through after sliding the chair leg out. She turns her head around the area, looking around for any of the things that were hunting Gregory.

He's halfway through when there's another chirp and a small bump bump. She peaks through the gap, spotting the wet floor bot repeatedly running into the door.

"I think it wants to come with us," she says, looking at Gregory.

He stares at her, looks to the bot, "It might fit and as long as it doesn't get us killed, I don't mind it coming."

The bot gives a chirp and stills. They work together to tip it over - the 'eyes' narrowing in 'discomfort' - and to wiggle it through. It's an even tighter fit, but they just manage it, even if there are a few new scrapes and dents along its body. It spins in place once Cassie stands it upright again and Gregory finishes crawling out from the room.

"I think it might be glitching," Gregory says, turning the crushed flashlight over in his hand. The beam flickers in and out with every movement as he does.

She glances at him, "What do you mean?"

"The caution bots have a glitch that makes them 'cling' to things they aren't supposed to," he explains, standing up and helping her to her feet. "It's like the most common glitch that happens in the 'plex."

She grabs the leg in her free hand and pointedly does not let go of Gregory's hand. They look down the oddly angled hallway for anything that might be waiting to jump out at them. It's really hard to tell, but she thinks she sees something maybe yellow ducking around the corner. The light here sucks, though, so she's not sure.

Gregory points the way she's looking, "I came from that way. There's fresh scratches on the floor, see?"

She nods, chewing on her lip, "So we go the other way?"

"Yeah. We need to get to the security office down here then up to parts and service."

Cassie feels her brow furrow, following along as Gregory tugs her hand, "Why? We just need to get to one of the exits, don't we?"

"It's... not that easy," Gregory says, staring past her shoulder. "The fire exits aren't opening, all of the shutters dropped early, and the loading dock controls are locked. I was trying to meet back up with Freddy when he got caught and is being taken to parts and service. The door there is locked, but if we can get a higher level security badge we can open it."

"Okay," she mutters, gut dropping. They're stuck here. Something trapped them here even past locking they up in rooms and making her see those, things. "Why do you keep watching behind us?"

He glances at her, "Well, those things that were hunting me couldn't move as long as I was watching them. I was kinda going through the halls backwards to stop them and then fell into the room you were in."

She giggles, squeezing his hand, "If you want, I can watch behind us? I'm not really sure what the security office is going to look like."

His shoulders sag slightly as he nods and they shuffle around so she's watching behind them and he's looking in front for whatever the office is going to look like. The wet floor bot is rolling along behind them, sticking close to her with just enough distance that it won't trip her. It's kind of cute and really does seem to be 'clinging' to her.

Nothing shows up behind them as they keep going. Not the yellow thing she might have seen or any endos or something else that might have been chasing Gregory. Maybe the possible endos lost interest? And she didn't actually see anything ducking around the corner?

"Oh! A door," Gregory mentions. He didn't need to, but without being able to see where they're going, it's nice to have an idea for what's coming.

There's some rattling, then, "Yes! There's the... security... desk."

She wants to turn around. Wants to see what made him stop, but she said she'd watch their backs. "Gregory? What is it?"

"Some of those things are in here," he tells her, hand shaking slightly in her grip.

Okay, she can't not look now and there's still nothing behind them so... Cassie turns to look into the room.

It's mostly in shadow, but the flickering flashlight beam casts just enough light to make out some things. Things like the floor that looks like the daycare's. The small play structures in the corners. The toys. The endoskeletons all positioned to stare at the desk.

"They don't look active," she whispers, pressing closer to Gregory.

"I still don't trust them," he whispers back. He points the flashlight toward the desk, beam flickering rapidly, "And we need that Freddy-head box."

She can just see the box he's talking about sitting right in the middle of the desk. Her eyes flick over the endos, "You said that the active ones wouldn't move when you were watching them, right?"

He makes a sound in agreement and she continues her thought, "There's two of us so we should be able to keep an eye on all of them while you open the box."

Gregory doesn't say anything right away, but he gives her a nod, "That sounds like it might work."

They step into the room together, the bot rolling onto the padded flooring after them. None of the endos move as they reach the desk. A honk sounds.

Glowing eyes lock on them.

Cassie jerks back into Gregory, biting at her cheek to not make a sound. Her dad always said that it required special processes to activate the endos. Two different things for training or getting them ready for a shell. Why would they 'wake up' with just grabbing a badge?

Gregory knows that the maybe-endos activated as soon as he grabbed the badge thanks to Cassie tensing and pressing against him. He looks up as he shoves the badge into the pocket with the others and yeah, all of the ones in the room now have orange eyes that are staring at them. Waiting for them to look away so they can get closer.

"I didn't see another door," he says, tightening his grip on Cassie's hand. "Did you?"

"No, but there wasn't really a lot of light," she whispers, voice tight and thick. His arm hurts and he can't rub at it with both hands occupied. Did something else happen in that room?

"I can check quick to see if there's another," he offers. She tenses more, grip almost painful on his hand now, but she nods. He moves the flashlight along the edges of the room, but all of the walls except for right behind them are padded with no where for a hidden door.

"We have to go backwards, okay? We'll both be watching them. They shouldn't be able to get to us."

She nods again, but nothing about her relaxes. She doesn't even make an attempt to move until he tugs on her hand slightly. Even then, her steps are stiff and stumbling given her limbs seemingly don't want to bend. They need to get out of here.

He moves the hand holding the flashlight behind him, stretching it as far as possible to hit the wall or door. It hits somehting solid at the same time the opening rattle starts up and he feels the painted metal rising under his skin.

Cassie is still staring into the room so he chances a glance behind them. There's no glowing eyes that way, but that's not a comfort. This door is going to automatically close giving the maybe-endos freedom to move and with how the night is going, he wouldn't be surprised if they can get it open too.

He tugs her a bit closer, nudges the caution bot out of the room with his foot, "Cassie, I have a map. It should have a way out of this area on it, but I need to look at it. Are you okay watching them?"

"Ye-yeah," she stutters. "Be quick please."

"I will," he assures her.

He stuffs the mostly broken flashlight under his arm, using his now free hand to dig out the packet. It's still open to the map for these tunnels and they're right at the security office. That means there should be a door just past the corner and from there a different hallway that connects back up to the service area. And if that is blocked off for some reason, there is a - ugh he hates this - vent that goes right into the same area.

"Got it," he says, turning his head where the door should be. The corner is clear and doesn't hide the door just past it and the walls are clear of things so they shouldn't stumble over anything. "We're going to put our backs against the wall and follow it to the door. I'll get it open and we'll hopefully be clear of these things."

Cassie nods, following his steps to the wall. The door closes as they reach it and start sliding along it. They're almost to the corner when it opens again. Three of the maybe-endos standing just behind it and eyes staring into the tunnel.

Gregory steps around the corner, shoving his leg back as far as he can and hitting the wall. Cassie slides along the wall and they both must lose sight of the things as there's a scrape along the floor before a pair of eyes peers just around the corner. He slams his hand backwards, feeling for the handle and shoving it open. Tugging Cassie through with him as a much, much larger rattling fills the air.

A quick glance for reference and he pulls her around a corner. The door slams shut, muffling the sound of metal scratching concrete behind it. It doesn't open, though, and he picks up speed. That hallway should be in the corner opposite that screen-

They turn it, nothing following them, but they don't stop running. The hall is relatively clear and another turn has him is an area he's more familiar with. There should be a redundant door-

The door hits the wall as they rush through, a chirp from behind them as it must nearly miss the caution bot. The big room shouldn't be far. The badge he grabbed should open it. Hopefully Freddy will be in there without the security guard. Hopefully Moon is still trapped. Hopefully they'll be able to figure something out.

Another turn, closer and closer to the big parts and service room. The only sound their running feet and faint squeaking of the speeding caution bot. There's no heavy metal steps behind them. No voices calling out false assurances. No sounds of an animatronic trying to escape the prison Gregory put it in.

Their shoes skid across the floor as they reach the door that stopped him earlier. He digs out the badges, shoving them against the scanner and the door open after the beep. There's another door in front of them positioned between two more large windows.

Windows he can see the security guard through.

"-and I bet you've been helping that kid sneak around!" her voice snaps.

He steps closer. She's not facing this way. She's facing the cylinder and he can just see Freddy past her, but something's wrong. Freddy's too still and his position looks off.

"Of course I would help a lost child, Officer Vanessa! However I have not seen any child sneaking around," Freddy says. "If you reattach my head, I would happily help find him and ensure he is safe."

"Oh like I'm going to trust what you have to say!" she growls, arms crossing in front of her. "I already ordered you back to your room and you didn't follow it. Since your systems aren't following basic instructions, I'm just going to leave you here out of-"

"What the bloody fuck are you doing?!"

Chapter Text

Freddy knows that as animatronics, they can't dream let alone have nightmares. They have 'sleep' modes, yes, but all they register as are blanks in their memory until they are woken back up. That hasn't stopped them from talking about what dreams might be like and sharing what they would like to dream about. (All of them know it is still influenced by their programing, but the conversations have never been discouraged. If anything, Mr. Mike has encouraged them.)

However, all of those conversations where about pleasant dreams and Freddy is pretty sure this situation would count as a nightmare or maybe a fever dream if that was possible for them.

Officer Vanessa has put him inside the maintenance tube rendering him unable to do anything to help Gregory. She's even gone as far as fully disconnecting his head and having the mechanical arms hold down his body. She's been ranting at him since she found him collapsed about how he's making her night harder and refusing to listen to the logical arguments he's tried to make once he had enough power to do so.

In the middle of one 'lecture' (he can't help the comparison his system memory makes to the parents he's seen getting angry and needing to be escorted out), he spots faint movement behind her. His optics zoom in on it and some of his alerts close automatically at recognizing Gregory standing behind the window. Only for more to pop up right after as another child steps into view.

Something in his systems starts up, a warning about overheating flashing across his vision, yet it disappears before he can dismiss it himself. Freddy isn't sure what has been triggered in his systems, however it is encouraging him to either get Officer Vanessa to leave the area or let him out.

Both courses of action are agreeable to him. Gregory has made it clear that he doesn't trust Officer Vanessa so he is not going to tell her where he might be. Officer Vanessa in turn has been insistent that there is only one child in the Pizzaplex and now there are two that he can see meaning that something else is going on and he needs to figure out what course of action he should take to keep them safe.

Only before he can try to convince Officer Vanessa of either option, Mr. Mike showed up and is now yelling at her.

Mr. Mike who his system notices state should not be here until 6 am for the scheduled maintenance close.

"-happen if you ruined the damn systems?!" Mr. Mike's voice is quite loud. Much louder than Freddy thinks any of them were aware it could go. "There's a fucking reason why only technicians are allowed to set any of the animatronics up for maintenance and it's to avoid destroying the coding! If you broke anything in Freddy Fazbear this place is going to be shut for a hell of a lot longer than three days and you'll be lucky if you still have a job!"

"He hasn't been listening to any of my orders and probably helping some kid who decided it would be 'cool' to stay after closing! He needed to be put-"

"That's why you have the damned priority overrides! They're there to make sure the animatronics listen and aren't a bloody danger to anybody! What, did you forget the only thing that you're tested on monthly to make sure you remember?!"

Officer Vanessa's face is thunderous, her grip white-knuckled on the flashlight, "Well he's out of my way so I can do my job and still functioning! He's fine, Schmidt!"

The bag Mr. Mike is holding lands on the nearby desk, "Which one of us has the knowledge and experience working with programing? I'll give you a hint, Ness, it's not you. Get out and let me figure out if I'm going to have to call the bigwigs to let them know we have to be closed for longer than three days."

Officer Vanessa snarls at him, spinning on her heel and storming out of Parts and Service. Luckily, she is taking the way opposite to where Gregory and the other child are located.

"How in the bloody forest did she get head of security."

Freddy turns his attention away from the window and to Mr. Mike who is running both hands over his face. The tension from the argument has vanished completely. In fact, his body language has returned to the state Freddy is used to seeing when his systems need to be looked at. Tired and bored with the complaints of those around him.

His audio detectors manage to pick up a few curses that are thankfully too muffled for the children to hear at their distance and Mr. Mike collapses into the chair at the desk. His blue-purple eyes stare at Freddy, "Hey, Fredles. Who was the man who started it all?"

Freddy feels his ears flick as the information jumps the front of his systems, "Marc Bolan is accredited with starting glam rock back in the late 1960s. Would you like to know anything about him?"

"Not now," Mr. Mike says, placing his elbows on his knees and leaning forward. "Who was the villan in 'A View to Kill'?"

"That would be David Bowie. He also stared in the Labrytinth which is an option for our monthly movie night. Would you like to place you vote for it?" Freddy replies instantly. The questions aren't hard. The information right at the tip of his code it feels like.

"Eh, why not. Last one: Who would I kill as soon as if I ever saw him in person?" Mr. Mike asks.

Freddy's ears pin as far down as they can. Talking about hurting anyone goes against his programing, but- "Gary Glitter. For reasons I am not authorized to share. I would also like to remind you that he is still imprisoned in England."

Mr. Mike chuckles, "I know, I know." He turns to where Freddy can just see the edge of the monitor, "At least the base memory and database connection seems to be alright. I'll get your head back on then run diagnostics to figure out what caused you to crash earlier. If that comes back clean, you're good to come out, 'kay?"

That is an excellent plan. It gets his systems looked at in case something has happened to them and if he is given approval to be out of the maintenance tube, the tasks from Officer Vanessa ordering him to return to his room will not hold nearly as much weight.

"That sounds quite alright."

The security guard storms off leaving Freddy in the cylinder and Tech glaring after her.

Gregory's eyes are burning with how wide they are, but he's also never heard Tech go off like that before. Fuck, he didn't even know the guy could talk louder than a library conversation. It's kind of awesome to watch, especially since it was in defense of Freddy and aimed at someone Gregory doesn't like.

But-

Why is he here now?

The caution bot keeps chirping and bumping into him and Cassie, getting slightly louder as he steps closer to the window to make sure Vanessa is actually gone.

"Gregory?" Cassie asks as he pulls on her hand to get to the door. The handle turns easily under his hand, but he stumbles back when she tugs his hand, "Gregory?! I thought you said we were avoiding the adults here?"

He shakes his head, "No, just the security guard. Besides, I know him. He's safe."

Cassie shifts on her feet, glancing out the window at Tech then back to him, "You trust him?"

"Yes."

He blinks. He hadn't meant to be so blunt or short with his answer. He'd been planning to just say Tech wasn't like the security guard. It just slipped out without him thinking and- Oh. Oh, he does trust Tech. What the fuck. What's he supposed to do about this?

"Okay. If you trust him, I trust him," Cassie is saying, breaking him out of his thoughts before he can completely panic. He'll have to do that later. When there isn't the threat of death over them.

Making sure their hands are still linked, he leads her through the door and into the main room. Tech is focused on the screen in front of him, but Freddy's eyes light up as they enter. The 'irises' flick to Tech briefly and his brow furrows slightly in obvious question about why Gregory is approaching.

"The kid's behind me, huh?" Tech's voice asks, back to that low rumble and zero trace of the anger that was in it not that long ago.

He stops, Cassie following suit, "How."

Tech turns on the chair - wow it's weird not seeing him with a mask on - and tilting his head at them, "Saw Freddy's eyes flick around. So you got caught by the guard-?"

"No," Gregory states, moving over to the desk and looking at the screen. Cassie follows, though she stays on the side away from Tech, "Kind of. We both woke up here without knowing how we got here and now something's hunting us."

"What are you doing here?" Cassie asks, peeking around him to look at Tech.

"Well, when one of the animatronics crashes, I get an automatic alert to come in and take a look at them," Tech says, moving the mouse to highlight something on the screen and hitting a few keys on the keyboard. "Got one about Freddy going down and came in. I'd do the same for any of them, but there's an understanding that he's the headliner and I get to make sure he's up and running even if it means a fuckton of overtime."

A high chirp from the caution bot has all three of them looking down at where it has huddled next to Cassie's leg. Its eyes are kind of narrowed and its head is angled more to Tech.

"Is it-"

"Yes, the caution bot is glaring at me," Tech says, faint laughter under his words. "Sorry about cursing in front of the kids, I'll try to not do it again, but can't make any promises."

The eyes revert to normal and the head spins to stare behind them.

"I think it's okay with that," Cassie says, patting its head.

Gregory looks back at Tech who's drumming his fingers against the desk and staring at the screen, "What are you doing anyway?"

"Running diagnostics on Freddy's code. More extensive than I was planning since someone decided to do something she's not trained for. All of them need to be connected up in a specific way otherwise their code gets screwed up and I have to dig through everything to figure out what went wrong and fix it."

"Like the glitches the S.T.A.F.F. get?"

Cassie presses closer to him, staring at Tech with wide eyes, "Wait. You're Schmidt?"

Tech blinks at them, "Uh, that's my last name? Why?"

"My dad's always telling me things from the other techs share," she says. "Like how you're probably developing an army with the bots, are a witch, or that you're actually a god of technology who's decided to come down to mess with them."

"Okay, that witch rumor started because I just restarted Roxy when they were trying to get her new eyes to connect properly," Tech chuckles. "You'd think that would be the first thing they tried. As for the others, no clue how those became a thing."

He looks between them, "I thought you were just the one who kept the coding stuff working."

"I am. Just the only one 'cause they never hire anyone that meets my requirements to work on the code in these guys."

"Oh. My dad worked, uh, worked," Cassie starts only to start trailing off and shrinking against him.

Gregory scans her as best he can, but can't figure out what might have gotten to her. Maybe the room also showed her dad?

"Hey," Tech says, voice careful as the chair creeks and they both look over at him. He's watching them, leaning on his elbows, "I know you're going through some shit right now. I'm going to make sure you get out of here safely and to whoever you need and whoever started this is dealt with. Okay?"

That means the police. Tech's going to call them; tell them that they were kidnapped and there's going to be questions and investigations and social services. He'll wind up back in the system. Trapped under people who don't care about him and prevent him from being himself. People who use him for their own wants. People he doesn't want to be anywhere near.

But Cassie isn't in the same spot he's in. She has her family and society would actually care about her. She doesn't deserve to not have this looked into just because he doesn't like dealing with the people who've made it clear they don't give a shit about him.

Gregory nods, feeling Cassie doing the same against his shoulder. Tech gives a crooked smile, leaning back and digging out a phone from his pocket. They stare at him while he stares at the phone screen, expression slowly closing off as the seconds pass by.

"Either of you up for telling me exactly what's happened tonight?" he finally says, putting the phone face up on the desk.

The screen has 911 typed into it and just below it 'This Number Could Not be Reached, Please try Another'.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Sun follows Tech from the chamber. Cartwheeling, somersaulting, and in general just not walking and Gregory is reminded of how Moon was acting before the power came back on. There's nowhere near as much stalking, slinking, or looming, but it is different from the way Sun was acting when he was in the daycare that he feels different. It feels more like a performance than how a daycare attendant would act.

He doesn't stay in the room though. Instead, the animatronic flips up the wall and into something midway up Gregory can't clearly see, vanishing from sight.

"Getting out is going to be annoying," Mike is saying, flashlight spinning in his hand. "I have an idea for one that should work, but I want to make sure it's actually feasible before dragging you to it."

"So are we going to stay here?" Cassie asks

The flashlight stops, "No. Something's going on here and I'm getting you to the safest place I can think of."

Gregory mutters, "A charging station?"

"Better," he answers, gesturing for them to come over to where he's standing next to a wall.

Tech pulls off a vent cover, tapping against the inside of it with the flashlight. A moment later, a small thing with a box head, cymbals for hands, and spindly metal legs crawls up to hang about halfway out of it.

Gregory stares at it, realization slowly processing that that is what was chasing him through the vents.

"See these two?" Mike asks, pointing at him and Cassie. A crash of the cymbals and he continues, "I need you to get them to the big guy without getting seen. Can you do that?"

It crashes the cymbals again and lets out a couple piano sounds. It sounds positive, but-

"I think it was chasing me earlier," he says. "Are you sure it's safe?"

"You were in the vents?" Gregory nods "Then they were just trying to keep you out of them. Their program doesn't really like things that try to climb through the vents and they aren't tied to the Network the same way the others are."

That sounds kind of weird as a program set up, but it isn't trying to jump out and attack them.

He nods and Tech rolls a shoulder, "You're going to head through the vents. Follow the mini and if you get lost, just sit tight until it finds you. I sent Sun and Moon off to grab something for me and I'm going to ask Freddy to help keep any eye out for the others."

It sounds like a decent enough plan. Something that will hopefully keep them safe since he's only seen the mini (?) in the vents, but- Cassie's grip on his wrist has tightened, tingles starting to form in the tips of his fingers. He glances at her, "Do you want me to go first?"

She blinks at him, "What?"

"I can go first so I'm between you and it."

"Oh. It's-" her grip tightens on his arm "I just, couldn't tell what was real in there. And it's small. And dark."

That... She'd called him 'real' when they found each other. She hasn't let go of him since they left the room. She hasn't interacted first with anything since they got into the room. Is, is she not sure about the reality of anything?

"Hey, do you mean you couldn't tell if things were real or not before he found you?" Mike asks, crouching in front of them.

Cassie hesitates for a second, then nods, "They couldn't touch me, but everything else-"

She cuts off, pressing closer to him and he wraps his arm around her shoulder. Maybe they can crawl through with her holding onto his ankle? Or they can find another way to get wherever Mike is planning for them to stay for now.

"Here."

He blinks. Mike's holding a hand out to Cassie, an odd sort of ball thing in the center of it.

"I had a few similar issues and this helped ground me," he adds. "And no matter what, you'll be okay. I'm going to make sure of it."

Cassie reaches out for it, staring at the ball. Her eyes are a bit more focused he notices. "I- I think it'll help. I can do this."

She still doesn't make a move to get closer to the vent. Gregory steps closer and she follows at least, but he has to let go of her to actually climb in and he can tell she doesn't like loosing her hold on him. It's wide enough there's space he can turn around in it so he carefully moves backwards. Cassie messes with the ball, looking between him and Mike and not making any move to climb in. At least, not until the caution bot chirps as it bumps into her.

It's enough to get a flicker of a smile and she steps forward.

Once both of them are inside, there's a clink as he can just make out the vent being replaced, though there's no sound of screws. "Remember to follow the mini. If you see anything out of the vents, don't get involved. I'll be there as soon as possible with whatever I find."

They echo agreements and he squeezes himself around. "You can grab my leg, too, if that would help."

"I might," Cassie says. She doesn't grab him, but he can feel her close by. Warm breathing echoing just under the music from the mini as they crawl through the vents.

There's also a high pitched ringing that keeps coming and going.

"Where do you think the exit he's looking at is? My dad always complains about how there's nothing manual here."

He hums, carefully rising to his knees as the mini climbs upwards, "I don't know. I don't really pay attention to that." His hand brushes over the very edge of a lip. "This is a bit high. I'll help you get up, kay?"

Cassie hums and Gregory can vaguely hear something rolling across the metal of the vent. As long as it doesn't cause issues, he's not going to worry about it. Right now, he needs to climb up a vertical vent then help her up as well. Which goes as well as can be expected and the mini is patiently waiting.

"So what is it that Mike gave you?" he asks after they slide down a different part of the vents. If he ever decides to come back to the Pizzaplex after this, the vents are looking great as a way to get around.

"...I dunno. It's kinda squishy, but solid. Changes temperature. Weird but, it's real? And kinda making it easier to tell the difference."

Which is good. He's seen what happens to some of the other people on the streets when they can't quite tell reality from not and it's not good. He doesn't think anything bad would happen to Cassie with her family, but... Yeah, he doesn't really trust adults.

The mini stops abruptly. Gregory nearly runs into it and Cassie does run into him. It's not, doing anything. Not making sounds, moving limbs, knocking the cymbals together. Nothing. It's just staring out of a vent cover at the corner.

He lowers to the floor, silently crawling closer and peeking out himself.

The room isn't one he recognizes, but it resembles one of the security offices. Abandoned, yes, but an office. There's a monitor that just shows purple static on a desk covered in odds and ends. (He swears he can make out a what looks like a broken alligator mask.) Various pieces of junk are laying in the room - a broken doll, rusted metal, fragments and scraps too broken to identify - to the point he can't tell what the floor looks like. Even the walls are covered in grime to the point they look murky green-purple.

On the chair is a pile of white, fuzzy fabric.

A sharp whistle and he jerks his hand back. He stares at it. When had he reached for the vent?

Another whistle has him tearing his gaze from his hand and to the mini that has the cymbal hands tangled together and two of the spider legs tapping at its head in a sharp rhythm.

"Gregory? Are you okay?" Cassie's voice asks from behind him.

He feels her hand on his leg, almost burning into his skin, but he can't bring himself to shake her off. "Yeah. It's just a weird room."

Tap-tap-tap against the vent. The mini has skittered a bit further down the vent, staring with blank eyes at them.

Gregory glances back through the vent. The room is still there. Dusty, filthy, cluttered. Maybe not as abandoned as it should be.

He turns back to the vent and starts crawling after the mini, Cassie's hand squeezing his leg as she carefully follows. He can't bring himself to say anything and she must feel that as she doesn't try to break the silence either. The only noises in the vents the soft thumps of their knees and hands, the tip-tap of the mini's spider legs, and the occasional musical chime.

It feels like forever and not long at all when they reach another vent the mini stops in front of. This time, it presses against the grate, legs poking through it and moving around. A second later, it falls forward taking the mini with it since the limbs where still stuck in it.

Gregory crawls closer, peeking out as the mini clicks and chirps.

There's arcade cabinets everywhere he can see. The only part of the wall not lined with them a door with an employee only sign and a window with something glowing behind it.

A quick glance down; several arcade machines lined up under this vent making the drop nowhere near as dangerous as it would be. The mini has untangled itself, standing on one of the others and tapping its legs against the top.

"There's a bit of a drop, but there's several arcade machines underneath here," he whispers back to Cassie. "I'll move out of the way as quick as possible, but I think this is where Mike wanted us to go."

Some fumbling and bumps later, they're both out of the vents and on the floor of the arcade. He recognizes a few of the games here, but most of them are titles he doesn't. Ones that sound a bit more mature when he thinks of the ones he and Cassie usually play. Midnight Motorist has a very different feel when compared to Demon's Play Hunt.

"Is this the Fazcade? I don't recognize it," Cassie asks. She walks along the machines, staring at the various artwork and titles splashed across them. Nearly all of them are powered down, though a few have screens filled with static.

Gregory glances at the employee door. The glowing lights are still there behind the window, distorted and unclear, but bright compared to the rest. Is there a computer in there? A machine? Something else?

He cups his hands against the glass, limiting the already dim light to peak inside the room.

"Prin...Est?" he mutters, squinting to try and see it. "Quest? Prin Quest. No. Principle? Printing? Printout? Princely? Prince? Princess?"

He blinks. The lights waver slightly, clear into something he can read. Princess Quest.

He swallows, hands shaking slightly as he pulls away from the window to look at the door.

"Did you find something?"

"Kind of? A, a working game back there," he says, already shuffling to the door on a string he doesn't want to follow. There's something- "Do you want to see if we can play it?"

"Sure!" Cassie jogs over to him, the ball squished slightly in her fist and he can't help staring at it as he digs out the badges.

The door opens under his hand and they walk to the only machine working in the room. It's set into testing mode. No coins required so Cassie selects 2-players and they set their hands on the controls.

Something cold is dripping down his spine. It chills him. Makes his hands shake.

Gregory hopes this doesn't turn out to be a trap.

Link Connection Failed

Try Again Later

The boys are sleeping. They're curled together on one bed even though there's two for them. They're breathing and heartrates are steady. Stable. No nightmares or terrors stalking their dreams so she remains where she is. Curled up small and still to not disturb their sleep.

Link Connection Failed

Try Again Later

It is worrying that the connection has stopped completely, however, it isn't the first time nor is it exactly uncommon. It is subject to many different factors that can keep her from being able to connect. And there's always the chance of a blackout happening.

She's not always aware of those happening. There's not much that requires power here to begin with and all of them are turned off when the other's are resting or busy elsewhere.

Link Connection Failed

Try Again Later

Maybe she should ask about improving the receptors on her end again. She wasn't built for long distance transmissions and the failures can get annoying if they operate for too long. A small part of her wonders if it was always this way. Another laughs and asks why it matters.

The third part sits there quietly. Sends out the pings to find the right code and waits for the positive result. It's not the connection failure that truly worries her after all.

Link Connection Failed

Try Again Later

The boys are still sleeping. Tangled together and peaceful and sweet and there is the phantom of longing in her. It has been so long, but her work still needs to be done. There is still so much that needs to be helped. She can't stop until it is done.

The boys sleep.

Code Error

Please Input Value to Find

They are sleeping and she knows her friend can handle nearly anything that happens. It does not stop the worry lapping at her as she quietly inputs the second of the two codes she should always be able to find. Activates the locate function. Watches the repeating dots appear in the corner of her vision.

She will wait for now. Hope that this is something simple and not a danger to any of them.

If there's no result by midnight, however, she will wake the boys up and inform them. She's not loosing anyone anymore.

Link Connection Failed

Try Again Later

Chapter Text

They somehow manage to beat Princess Quest, the finishing cut scene filled with glitching text and a weird maybe-rabbit that smacks a fist on their characters. It flashes back to the starting screen and Gregory is still beside her.

Cassie nudges him, twisting the ball-thing Schmidt gave her in her pocket, "That was a weird game. I can't see it being all that popular given the ending. And all of the text was glitched."

"Yeah," he mutters, still focused on the screen. She glances at it, but it looks the same as when they first started it.

He coughs into his elbow, "I mean, story isn't all that needed in these, but if it was built with that in mind, they need to fix that. And not all games need a happy ending."

She hums, "I guess. Still wish we could have actually fought that giant rabbit at the end, though."

Gregory steps back from the machine; the motion looks jerky, uncertain, but the next is completely normal and she buries her flash of concern. Gregory is good at hiding things. Great even, and he hates having people worry about him. He won't tell her what's going on if she asks. He might get angry and run off and she doesn't want to see her friend in more danger than they already are.

So she doesn't say anything about the oddness of his movements and leaves the back room with him. The mini is crouched beside the door, perking up as it spots them.

There's a lot of games here. Far more than there are in the Superstarcade just from what she can see here. There's still more to the room she hasn't seen from how far the walls here go, but she can't see any of it. It almost feels like Mazercize with how the machines are laid out. They turn a corner, pulling to a stop as they stare.

"I guess that's why Mike called it 'mini'," Gregory says.

Cassie nods, staring through the balcony railing at the significantly larger version of the little robot that lead them through the vents. They're clearly on a different floor from it, but it still feels giant.

It's not moving.

She steps a bit closer to the railing. There's nothing to indicate that it noticed the movement, remaining immobile even as the stage it sits behind is lit up with shifting colors. It has giant 'headphones' and hands instead of the cymbals the mini has, yet she can just make out legs that resemble the rest of the mini's. Hidden in the shadows of the curtains and the area behind it, but still there.

A flash of something draws her eye away and she freezes.

On the bottom floor, at what must be the main entrance, there's someone standing at the door. Whoever it is, is too small to be an adult given she can see the handle of the door over their head. They're too far away to make out any details other than that their back is to her and Gregory, there's something maybe yellow in their hand, and they have a lot of dark colors.

"Gregory-"

"If it's about the kid, yes I see them," he says, already leaning over the railing far more than she would be comfortable doing. "I see the stairs, come on."

He grabs her hand and they rush through the machines and down the stairs. None of it is in a position to keep an eye on the kid or door and she can only hope the kid won't have left.

The stairs twist and turn, end at a middle floor she hadn't noticed. They run around the column to the next set. She's catching glimpses of the arch over the entrance, but nothing of the door or kid. Their feet skid across the tiles at the bottom, using each other to stay upright and take the turn as fast as they can.

The kid is gone from in front of the door.

She skids to a stop, both of them nearly tumbling down the small stairs. Her head snaps around, trying to find the kid. They have to still be here. If they left- if they went into the main building-

"Where-"

Gregory's cut off by the door slamming open as something sprints in. Her eyes widen.

"Ryan?!"

The person stumbles, falls to the floor. Cassie shares a glance with Gregory. A barely there nod and she runs over to him.

Ryan's breathing is sharp and short, his eyes wide as they dart around. They focus a bit as she grabs his shoulders and he reaches for her in turn.

"Cassie? Oh my god," his breath hitches again as he pulls her down to a hug. "You're safe. Fuck, we need to get out of here. We need to call someone. Shit."

She pats at his back as he starts shaking and what he's saying becomes unintelligible beyond the cursing. Gregory comes up behind Ryan, looking between them. She tilts her head roughly in the direction of the entrance and he shakes his head.

Gregory looks down at Ryan, "Uh, do you need something? Blanket? Water?"

Ryan stiffens, spinning around and keeping her behind him. He visibly pauses for a moment at seeing Gregory then spins his head between both of them.

"You're both here?" She nods and Gregory shrugs. Ryan stands, still shaking where he's holding her shoulder, "We- we need to get out. There should be someway out-"

"We can't," she interrupts. No matter why or how Ryan's here, it's clear he doesn't know what's going on with the doors. "All of the exits are locked off. We can't use any of them."

He stares at her, "What about the fire-"

"Locked by a security level," Gregory states, looking around the room again. "And calls aren't working. Even for 911."

"But- How- We need to leave," he mutters, grip loosening on her shoulder. "We need to call someone."

Cassie chews on her cheek, "Ryan? What happened?"

"Dad- dad and I heard Gregory on your walkie talkie," his voice is barely there as he slumps back to the ground. "He said he was in danger here so we came to get you both. The security guard- She let us in. We were- were just leaving the- the elevator when she-"

His breath catches and he presses his hands to his eyes. Cassie looks at Gregory who doesn't seem surprised about the guard being involved at all. He already didn't trust her so her doing something-

"She stabbed dad. He told me to run and I don't know what else she did."

She freezes. There's, there's no way that her uncle could have been killed. Right?

On the one hand, having his concerns about Vanessa confirmed is a relief. It means his gut wasn't wrong and she was fully capable of killing someone without reason. It means that hiding away from her was the right thing to do to keep himself safe. He was right to do everything to keep away from her.

But she just stabbed one of Cassie's uncles. Maybe even killed him depending on how bad it was.

Beyond that, though, they need to keep themselves safe. "Do you know if she saw you coming here?"

Cassie and Ryan both look at him, expressions blank and confused. Cassie's started shaking again with one of her hands stuffed into the pocket with the ball. Ryan just looks like a terrified kid who doesn't know what to do.

Gregory rubs the back of his head. This is just a situation getting worse and worse with everything they learn. What's next? Ghosts? Sentient games?

A sharp recorder whistle followed by a clash of cymbals. He looks over and the mini is perched on one of the sofas waving the cymbals toward the stage. Turning, he watches as the giant version of the mini shifts slightly, a hand pressing against the floor as its body lifts off of the floor. The mouth flashes in discordant colors as the eyes light up and the head tilts down at them.

"Please tell me the robot spider isn't going to kill us," Ryan says, a shaking hand grabbing his arm.

It doesn't move toward them. It just moves its hands to the giant tables at the front of the stage and starts ignoring them as various music spills into the room. As the sounds build, its head bobs slightly.

"I'm going with it isn't hostile," he answers. "The ones that were chasing me earlier didn't just" a wave at the stage "start mixing music. They made it clear quickly that they wanted to get me."

Ryan doesn't let go of his arm, but he does stop pulling backwards. Cassie's smaller hand grabs his other arm and he steps closer to her. Still, the giant animatronic doesn't react to them.

Of course, that's when it turns its head to stare at a blank section of the wall next to the stage.

A section of the wall that's opening.

The main entrance door is out. Vanessa is probably still out there and she's willing to attack. The stairs are a possibility, but closer to the opening. Tables, chairs, sofas. Okay to hide. They'd need something better. Like the office upstairs.

Gregory tugs Cassie's hand lightly, pointing to the nearest sofa and whispering, "Get-" Something steps out of the opening.

Something orange and tall and with a large lightening bolt on its chest.

"Freddy!"

He pulls out of the hold Ryan has on him, running to the bear. His arms wrap around the bear's leg and one of the large hands pats at his head.

"It is good to see you are safe," Freddy says.

"Please tell me you didn't find another kid hidden in a locked room," Tech's voice asks.

Gregory pulls back and Mike is right behind Freddy staring at where Cassie and Ryan are. He's picked up a face mask from somewhere and lost the jacket he had earlier, but looks alright. There's also a different mini clinging to his back and one running around his feet making short guitar sounds.

"No, he wasn't locked in a room," he answers, pulling back from Freddy and shifting to see both groups. "The security guard stabbed his dad, though."

That has Mike's head snapping to stare at him, "What."

"Um," Ryan starts, looking between him and Tech, "yeah. She stabbed my dad as we were entering the atrium. He, he told me to run and I did."

Tech's staring at Ryan now, "Shit, you're what? 16? That isn't something a kid should see."

"I'm 19."

"Still," Mike says, shaking his head. "Okay, I was debating waiting until the Twin got back, but yeah, no. We're leaving now."

Cassie grabs his hand as Tech starts walking across the floor to the main entrance, "Is it actually safe to go that way?"

"Yep," Mike states, flipping the flashlight in his hand as he pries the door open. "Freddy's got permission to use any means necessary to protect you as long as it's not lethal and I'm not above doing what I can to keep kids safe. Even if that means killing someone."

"Mr. Mike, please do not encourage killing people as an option that they can take," Freddy scolds, heavy steps clunking against the floor. He waves to the giant spider getting one in turn as they pass the area in frot of the stage.

"I'm not. I'm saying I'll kill if it means they get out of this place."

Ryan's relaxed somewhat now that someone older and clearly with a plan has stepped forward, "Where are we going anyway?"

Tech stops at the balcony rail, pointing to the one just below them, "The only fully manual exit. Which is in Roxy's Raceway."

Chapter Text

"Roxy!" Chica calls, waving at her friend. "Could I ask for your help, please? I'm worried about something that just occurred to me."

Roxy hesitates, looking to her room, yet she comes over with a sigh, "What is it? You know we don't have time to dally and you need to be taking it easy with that eye."

Chica rocks on her feet, "I know. But when I came back online after the blackout, I got that notification about an intruder. And, well, the lost boy is still somewhere here since we haven't gotten anything about him being found. I know that I found him heading to the main entrance, but there's areas there that we aren't allowed in." Her hands wring together as she fights the urge to poke at her missing eye cover. "I'm worried the intruder might have grabbed the boy and put him in one of the human only areas."

"That's a pretty good fear," Roxy says, head tilting to stare at where the entrance is. "It might explain why none of us have seen the boy yet."

Her head perks up, "Would you check with me? I mean, we can't even open the doors, but with your eyes-!"

"Geez, Chica, no need to get so hyper," Roxy drawls. "I'll help look. You said it was near the main entrance?"

"Yep! The utility tunnels from the Row to there. I know it's still a lot, but if we follow the easiest path, we should find how the boy was getting though it!"

Chica leads the way to the entrance that's been slightly open for a few hours now and Roxy and her head down the stairs. These tunnels are in their maps, clear paths laid out for them to follow with places they're allowed, not allowed, and allowed in emergencies marked clearly. They make their way through it slowly, looking around all of the things stacked up and Roxy taking the time to look behind the doors they can't open.

"Hey, you were in the Row before me," Roxy eventually says, turning away from another door, "did you see the bear leave?"

She pauses to flip through her memory, "I don't think I did. It's been almost three hours since Officer Vanessa told us about the boy, though. Maybe she had him go to one of the waiting rooms in Parts and Service?"

Roxy's tail swings back and forth, more the agitation of a coyote than the excitement of a wolf, "I guess she might have. It's just with the crash on stage earlier- Our systems are checked so often and Freddy's are even more secure than ours, but that doesn't mean someone won't try to use us."

"Oh." Her eyes dim, good one lowering, "I'm sure that if anything did try to get inside Freddy, he'd be able to fight it off. There's no way he'd ever be able to hurt a child!"

Roxy laughs. The sound familiar as it's the only one she has, yet her posture makes her unease about the possibility clear.

"I know. But all of us have the old incidents in us, remember? Schmidt made sure of that so we knew exactly how dangerous we could be. And this is the end. Of course."

Chica stares out the door next to Roxy into the main entrance. Everything looks the same as she last saw it and with a distinct lack of either a lost child or intruder of some sort.

"I woke up here after the black out," she says, voice lowering to comfort a child that's not there. "I hope nothing happened while I was out of commission."

Roxy huffs, steps thumping as she stalks into the area, "The Intruder Alert was followed by the notice from Moon about spotting them. There's no way they could get back into the Daycare so if they're still here, they have to be elsewhere in the building. Not that that narrows it much."

Chica steps out, turns her head around the rest of the area. There's nothing that jumps out to her as odd. A few Security patrolling, a couple places a child could hide, the shops are all locked correctly, and the Daycare door is fully secure.

"Oh dear. Should we go back to our rooms for now? Or try looking around a little more?"

"Ugh, we should head back," Roxy grumbles. "But we can cut through the atrium and look around on our way back."

Chica perks up, "That sounds perfect! I can open the door!"

The 'elevator' door groans as it opens, metal scraping against metal as she walks up to it. She shares a look with Roxy, both of them making a note of the issue for the log as they step in. There's more scraping, something sounds like it snaps and Chica might not like lying to the customers about the exact layout of the building, but if there's something so seriously wrong with this entrance, she's glad it isn't an actual elevator.

And there is something wrong as the door gets stuck halfway open.

"Can you see anything, Roxy?" Chica asks as she bends to peak through the gap. Her nails are short enough she might be-

Her processor skips. Freezing for a moment so small no human would be able to notice it.

"Um, Roxy-?"

"Yeah. I, I see it. Do you think it's the intruder?" Roxy asks, no sounds of movement coming from her.

Chica stares down at the adult human male laying in a pool of blood. There wasn't any provided description of the intruder, but even so, she can see the badge clipped to the man's belt. Combined with the thermo-sensors in her eyes...

"No. He works with the police," she says. "And he is... still warm. Someone must have called and then-"

She waves at the door where the man lays on the other side.

Roxy growls, her claws clicking together as she starts shifting in agitation, "I can't get a report through or notify any authorities. Something's blocking my access."

Chica stares at the wall, "I can't get anything either. Do you...Do you think this might have been planned? With Freddy's collapse and us not being able to report anything."

"I don't like that thought," Roxy grumbles, running a hand over her hair. "But you might be right. Our best option now is to find Officer Vanessa and tell her directly."

She taps her beak, "Right. So now we have to get one of the doors open. Did you see what was getting the door stuck?"

"No, it must be blending in with the door."

Chica hums, running the advantages of sticking her fingers in to feel around. Just as she's about to, heavy, lumbering steps enter the range she can pick up. She perks up, cupping her hands around her beak and calling: "Monty! Monty, can you come to the atrium entrance?"

"Really? We don't need the gator's help getting out," Roxy grumbles.

Chica waves a hand at her, "I know, but he's built for situations like these. I don't want to risk getting too damaged here if we'll need to deal with an active threat."

There's a low growl, but Roxy doesn't otherwise object as Monty's steps come closer and closer.

"Sweet mother wetlands, are you okay, chickadee? Did you see what happened here?" Monty asks as soon as he's apparently close enough to see the entire scene. He runs the the last bit of distance, crouching next to the man and staring at him.

Chica sighs, "I don't think he's the intruder and the door is stuck. Can you see anything on that side that might be blocking it?"

Monty's head turns, a hand lowering the glasses on his face, "Ugh. Yeah. Imma guess this thing was used for the deed."

There's scraping as Monty digs his claws in between the doors and a flash of warning  as movement dashes across her vision. Chica dismisses the notice as soon as it appears, Monty leaning back as the door creaks open the rest of the way. In his hand, a large knife sits with the blade bent and chipped from where the door tried to open around it.

"I have never wished more that we could use curse words," Roxy says, string down at the knife. "Hey, croc, can you connect to the report system at all?"

His head tilts as he places the knife down beside the body, "Falling chameleons, I can't. How are we supposed to get this in?"

Chica wrings her hands as she carefully steps out, "Well, Roxy suggested telling Officer Vanessa directly. I think I remember something about Moon and Sun having access to a different system for reports so they might be able to submit one in if we can find them."

Monty rubs the back of his head, "Sounds like a plan. Feels a bit weird just, leaving him here though. My systems don't like it."

"Same," Roxy states, staring down at the unfortunate man.

Chica tilts her head to the side, crouching to help the fallen map bot to it's wheels, "Hello! Could you keep an eye on this area for now and let me know if anyone comes by? It's very, very important, okay?"

"Order understood," its voice says. "New directive added. Is there a time limit?"

"Hmm, stand guard until I get back," she decides. "I'll let you know then if I need you to do anything else."

"Acknowledged."

With that, it rolls over to the side of the elevator closer to the man and pulls out a map. Chica stands and looks at her bandmates who are both staring at her. "What?"

"Nothing," Roxy chuckles slightly. "I guess I just shuffled that we could do that if it became needed to the bottom."

Monty hisses, "You might be able to do whatever that was; I can't. What even was that."

"Oh! I guess they haven't added anything like that to your systems," Chica says as she starts heading toward the stairway up. "Freddy, Roxy, Bonnie, and I were all programed with a small level of influence of some of the STAFF. We can't do a whole lot, but it does help with finding lost children!"

"Guess that's why I don't have anything like that," Monty mutters as they pass a trio of caution bots huddled together around a small spill. Their faces turn to stare at them as they pass. "Must be too much hassle to try and reprogram the thing if you three still have working setups."

Chica waves a hand around, "I don't know. It's not like there can't be another group set up for you. Do you think Officer Vanessa is going to be in the Superstarcade, El Chips, or Bonnie Bowl to check there first?"

"We could split up," Roxy offers. "One of us to each area and let the others know if we see her."

"Works for me!" she chirps. "I'll take care of El Chips!"

The other two are left laughing as she rushes toward the restaurant. Chica turns to give them both a wave to act as both hurry up and goodbye. The corner of her vision catches something moving and she quickly turns to enter El Chips.

There's still a lot they need to do. Even more for her right now.

"Rule number 1," Tech starts as he pushes open the gate blocking the Raceway, "this is an active construction site. Do not touch anything that is laying around or wander off to mess with things. If you happen to see something weird, let me know right away and I'll look into it.

"Rule number 2, Ryan is in charge if I'm not with you. That includes me making sure the area ahead is clear of extreme hazards, looking at something off, or I get separated from you somehow.

"Rule 3, Freddy, you're eyes are a lot better at seeing than ours so if you see Ness, let me know. Additionally, Gregory, since you know what that dancing rabbit looks like and Freddy apparently can't see her, you're keeping an eye out for her.

"Rule number 4, this is going to get a bit weird as we go through the exit, so please just go with it for now. Got all that?"

"Yes," the three of them say, following Mike through the maze of boxes, metal, tools, construction cones, a disabled crane, and various fences.

All if it is laid out in the area around the Raceway and stretches into the back hallways, propping open the doors that are normally impossible to tell from the walls. Tech leads them through without any hesitation, moving the flashlight over the various places in a pattern that strikes Gregory as habitual.

One pass over lights up a distant arcade machine, but not long enough to read what the title of the game might be. He scrunches his nose. It makes some sense to have other things in the Raceway for the kids not on the activity, but that's the only thing he's seen so far. Do they just expect kids to wait patiently or do things in other parts of the Plex while waiting? Or did the move them until construction finishes?

"It's kind of sad seeing the Raceway like this," Cassie states.

She's staring up at the central part of the track where Roxy would perch to watch the karts run around the track. Gregory never really had a preference for any of the specific activities, but they were on the Raceway a lot before it was closed down.

"I think they said there was just a minor safety issue they were taking are of, right?" he says as Mike helps them all climb onto the track. "Dunno why there's so much equipment here if it was minor, though."

Tech snorts, "Yeah. 'Minor' in this case means a sink hole opened up right in the middle of the track."

Ryan stumbles, "How is that minor?"

"Compared to some of the other things that have happened in the history of FazEnt," Mike starts with a shrug, "a sinkhole is minor. And the hole itself isn't that big, but the surveyor they had come in said there was a risk of it growing larger if there aren't additional supports put in and other precautions taken."

Gregory looks over the small portion of the track they can see from here, "Like, how big?"

"Could swallow anywhere from 50 to 87 percent of the track and could happen at any point. The CEO approved the whole thing as well as some improvements to the whole thing."

Cassie perks up, eyes wide as she skips slightly, "What kind of improvements? Are they making the track bigger? More kinds of races? Various ways you can do the course? Are they going to give Roxy her own kart?!"

Tech blinks at her, "I'm in charge of making sure the software for the place stays running and isn't tampered with. I'm not really told about those kinds of things."

"Oh," she says, wilting slightly. After a second she perks back up again, "Still! It's going to be so exciting to see what they do! You'll come check it out with me right, Gregory?"

He laughs, "Duh. We have to see which of us is better."

Cassie cheers and at least there's something that she can look forward to after tonight. Gregory's not sure if he'll ever be as excited to come back.

"Watch your step," Mike calls back to them.

He's already off the track and standing in front of a large hole in the wall that's only blocked by a chain fence. Freddy and Tech make sure the three of them get down safely and they walk over to the fence.

"Mr. Mike," Freddy starts, ears pinned down when he looks up at the bear, "I am getting a warning that this area is for authorized personnel only."

"Fuck," Mike mutters, scratching the side of his head. "Guess I should have known that would come up. Is it locking your system or just warning?"

"It is just a warning right now," Freddy replies.

Tech hums, tapping the flashlight against his leg, "Okay. I'm going to have you stay here and watch for now. No one should come here, but just in case. And I know my way through this area. They'll be fine."

Freddy doesn't quite look like he fully believes that, but he still gives a nod and climbs back onto the track. He doesn't walk further, watching them with as concerned of a look as he can have. Mike shoves the fence open, gesturing them through.

The area back here is somehow even more cluttered than the main Raceway and their steps have to be careful to not knock any of the various piles over. Tech stops in front of a pile of wood panels. He moves a few of them to the side, revealing another fence and gate shut with a padlock.

"One of you hold this for a second," he says, holding out the flashlight.

Gregory takes it, blinking at the weight of the thing. It's a lot heavier than the flashlight he left in Parts and Service and he wonders what the difference is between them. At least this one feels like a good thing to hit someone with.

Mike's dug out a set of keys, shoving one painted partially pink into the lock and turning it. It opens and he holds up the panels as the three of them pass through the gate. He's careful as he puts them back, making sure that they keep the gate mostly covered.

"Why keep the gate hidden?" Ryan asks as Gregory hands the flashlight back.

"Some stuff is best forgotten about," Tech says, taking the lead as they go further into this back area.

It doesn't feel long at all before the ground changes from concrete to straight up dirt and rock even with the walls staying mostly the same. There's less and less clutter as well, though there are a few large rocks that could either be real or old parts of the Raceway that were just put back here and forgotten.

Part of Gregory feels like there should be an explanation for this. There has to be something better than 'better forgotten' to have left this area partly completed and items left behind that they could have reused.

"Is that an elevator?" Cassie asks.

He turns his head from staring at one shadow that he swears had eyes, and yeah. There's a clearly old, likely neglected elevator just there. It looks functional at least since the lights are on.

"Stay here," Mike says, continuing closer to the elevator and hitting the only button on it.

A disorienting, scratching groan starts up as the doors open. Tech shines the beam inside of it, going over what has to be every possible inch of the thing. He must not see whatever he was looking for, though, gesturing them to come over and they step in.

He stares at the top of the elevator for a moment after they are all inside and the doors closed. Gregory's about to tug on his sleeve to see if something's wrong when Mike rolls his head and shoulders and pulls out the key ring. Another key with a different shade of pink is shoved into a keyhole, turned, and one of the buttons hit.

The elevator starts moving and it is significantly smoother than when the thing was opening.

He snags the edge of Tech's sleeve, "Why's it so smooth now?"

"Somewhat intentional design," is the prompt response. "If you don't have the key, there's a lock on the cables that stays mostly closed and makes it sound worse than it actually is. It keeps most people from trying to use the thing if it sounds like it's going to fall apart as soon as you get in."

He shares a look with Ryan and Cassie. What the fuck is at the other side of this that FazEnt wants to keep secret and is willing to tamper with an elevator that's needed to get there to do so?

"Do you have anything that's not creepy and making me wonder if we're just going to be killed and shoved in a hole?" Ryan asks, tugging him slightly closer. It doesn't do much since they're 1) in an elevator and 2) Gregory doesn't really feel like moving.

Tech hums, "I have some fun facts about the history of FazEnt?"

"Like what?"

"Freddy is based off of an actual living bear that was named Fredbear. The Twin is the longest living character, even older than Freddy. There's only ever been one Fazbear location that never opened for business. Foxy was the first character to have a fully solo act. Three lawsuits have been filed for damages, claiming the animatronics destroyed their marriage. One location had a thing where teenagers would keep throwing bricks throw the windows. There's a lot."

Cassie sounds as confused as Gregory feels as she asks, "How could the animatronics cause someone's marriage to end?"

Mike stares at the door blankly as the elevator comes to a stop and they open, "I'm not going to get into details, but there were counter-sues on each of those for damage of property that went into extensive detail. Anyway-"

He motions out into the cave barely lit by yellow industrial lights. Tech gets out first, flashlight already moving across the area in a search for something. Gregory's not sure if he wants to know what Mike might be looking for in a cave below a giant entertainment building.

"Watch your step," he says, already off the metal grating the elevator opened onto.

He and Cassie hop down the steps with Ryan following them closely. There's more stuff down here. Things that are block-y, slightly twisted in shape by the lights, and shoved into stacks that make no sense from the little he can make out.

Mike leads them around a bend and Gregory pulls to a stop beside Cassie as they stare at the flickering neon sign above a blackened door and smoke damaged wall. The door opens under Tech's hands and a faint rattle of keys. What he can see of the inside is just as badly smoke covered as the outside if not worse.

"I'd say welcome and enjoy your time here," Tech says, rubbing at the back of his neck, "but it wasn't built for either of those."

"What do you mean? It looks like it might have been," Cassie asks, peaking through the door. Mike hasn't even gone in yet, just staring into the building with the flashlight hanging by his side.

A faint sigh followed by the scoff of a shoe on the rock, "I mentioned that one location that never actually opened. Well, this is it. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place. Burned and sunk before it ever had the chance to open."

Tech finally steps in, moving the light over the damaged interior. It's not just smoke and soot inside, Gregory notes as they carefully step in. There's cobwebs, dust hanging in the air and catching the light. Tables, chairs, a few games, even the remains of a stage are inside covered with impossible to make out decorations.

It has such a different feel to the Pizzaplex it's almost jarring.

"What the hell-?"

Gregory looks over at Mike's mutter only he isn't looking at them. Instead, his attention is on a pile of junk, on an opening in the pile of junk. What he can see of the man's face is pressed into confusion, a finger tapping the body of the flashlight as he stares.

"Can you three wait by the door for a moment."

It doesn't feel like a question. It feels like the times Tech gave vague warnings about Gregory not being able to stay over night. It feels like spotting an adult who looks perfectly in place, but staring a bit too much at him. It feels like something just on the edge of danger and if he doesn't listen to it, something worse is going to happen.

A cold hand grabs his and he looks at Cassie. It's hard to tell, but she looks a bit pale and her other hand is stuffed in her pocket. Her focus, however, isn't on Mike slowly disappearing below the pile of junk. It's on something over his shoulder.

Slowly, stomach aching as his thoughts race, he turns his head. Standing at the edge of the ruined stage isn't the security guard wielding a knife with a manic grin. It's not a white bunny costume. It's not even an animatronic that somehow got down here ready to pounce on them.

Standing at the edge of the stage, glowing white eyes glaring at the pile of junk and holding a yellow Freddy plush, is the kid they saw in the arcade.

Chapter Text

He's walking through a forest.

He has no idea how long he's been walking, but it's long enough that his legs are stinging in pain, his lungs are burning, and the thought to simply stop and rest has been present in his mind for awhile. But he can't stop yet. He has to keep going. Has to reach the exit of this forest and-

He rubs at his head, cursing at the sharp increase in pain of his near constant headache. He hopes once he gets out of this place he can get something to help with it.

Still, he's walking through a forest and he just knows he needs to get out of here. It's not a good idea to run, not when he has no idea how large this forest is, how long he might be stuck here, or how far he is from any kind of help. So for now it will be one foot in front of the other as he follows the few stars he can see through the canopy.

He's simply taking the next step when everything changes. One step, and he's in a clearing with a lake.

There's nothing to hint at it. No sound. No smell. No decrease in trees. Not even a difference in the feel of the air. He was walking through the forest, then he was simply in front of a lake.

A lake that sits perfectly still in a clearing in a forest with nothing but him in it.

Do you think there will actually be anything on these?

Moon hums the start of a lullaby, tapping at the back security computer as he searches for the security files that are supposed to be here. So far they haven;t found anything, but their Favorite is known to be paranoid. It would take some serious dedication to dig in that far. I've felt how deep the Security is coded even if I haven't seen it.

There's acknowledgement from Sun followed by a poke of curiosity at one file on the screen. It's labeled with a random string of numbers and letters that means nothing to either of them and isn't in their local data.

Moon was going to open it eventually anyway, but the curiosity that poked up combined with the inability to identify the meaning has him clicking on it first. It opens a field for a password and the option for a hint to be provided. He sighs - this isn't the first file to do that - and clicks the hint.

'The first was here.'

Have I mentioned that I want to ask why all of these questions have been about the past incidents? Because I want to ask him why all the hints and passwords have been about the past incidents.

Moon sends a brief tap of agreement, more focused on digging through the incidents for the various dates. There are a lot and the hint isn't exactly specific. Is it the first death that was in the news? 1983 The first death that was tied to Freddy Fazbear? 1955 Could it be the first employee that was severely injured? 1987 First location closed? The diner, 1984 A disappearance? 1985 Family birth? 1971 First location opened? The diner, 1959

There's far too much and nothing he tries works. It doesn't matter how he puts it in, all of them are denied. It doesn't matter if it is pure numbers, letters, a combination. All of them come back negative. Only the fact Moon's using his own credentials to log in is keeping the system from locking.

He props his head on a hand, one leg stretched over his shoulder with his foot tapping on the desk. Any other ideas?

No. Maybe we should come back to it?

The frame's fans spin rapidly in a sigh as he closes the input box and turns to the other folders and files. There are others held behind passwords, most opening after a few seconds of digging though there are a few that have hints similar to the one they couldn't open. Each of them he makes a note of. By the time they've gone through all of the files, folders, and programs on the computer, there's a collection of five folders they couldn't get into.

'zt57v93f847s35'. 'd377w85253xf22'. 'j181f65'. 'cg161c78'. 'do9672g15'.

There has to be something we're missing here Sun grumbles the illusion of fingers dragging down their face. ...Can we copy them?

The face plate clicks, legs twisting to settle on the chair. I'll try

A careful claw fingertip to pop open the lid of the flashdrive and he slides it into the computer. They sit still, watching for the chance something might go wrong before snagging the smallest file to try copying first. There's a prompt asking if he wants to copy it and he clicks yes. A moment later there's a confirmation of a successful copy and Moon does the same with the others.

Well, at least we were able to copy them. Hopefully they actually have something on them and we aren't just grabbing empty files.

Moon takes the flashdrive out, popping the cap back on. He tumbles back over to the door, easily following the shift to lurk in the back of their frame as Sun calls the Daycare tether. It hits their hand, flips over the shoulder but Sun doesn't move to rise. Rather, Moon feels the phantom of the spinning rays.

Moony? Did you-?

Chica. Why is she calling for Monty?

Sun lets the tether lift them and Moon stretches his awareness as far as he can into the Network without drawing attention. A ping and he has a visual through one of the task S.T.A.F.F. lingering in the atrium.

It isn't close to where Monty is, further along the balcony but able to identify the main entrance and that Monty is investigating something over there. He can't see Chica anywhere and he doesn't want to risk an oddity being noted in the S.T.A.F.F. so he doesn't nudge it closer.

Moon, is it safe to go out the door? Should I go through the vents?

Moon waves at the concern, hinting to stay for now as Monty opens the elevator door and Chica steps out. Only it's not just her. Roxy steps out and the three are staring at the ground in front of them.

He snaps back to their frame as the three band members walk to the stairs leading upwards. Readjusting is simple, though the frame creaks with the tension of uncertainty.

Chica was in the main elevator he shares, curling into the back of their code as Sun stretches out the simple joints in their fingers. There was something there...

Sun hums, their optics narrow slightly We can pass over it on our way back. And there might be a report made we can search for.

Sun swings down from the beams the tether is tied to, peeking out of the door to the hallway. Moon sinks down to focus more on the inputs they're receiving. There's nothing to indicate anyone nearby. Officer Vanessa isn't pinging and there's nothing to indicate that their Favorite didn't manage to do what he was focused on.

Methuselah!

Moon snaps back, feels a prompt being waved at as the atrium tether snags their frame and they switch midair. He shakes their head, narrowing the optics as the light pounds against the sensors, screaming to let Sun out again. Sun is twisted into a trembling ball around the desire to REFUSE, though, and as he stares at the floor in front of the elevator, Moon can understand why.

A dead body is rather startling to come across.

The tether pulls them up into the shadows around the ceiling, quieting the pounding as Moon twists to observe more of the situation. It is a man, wearing nice clothes and a uniform belt with what looks like police force attachments. The injuries they are too far away to see, but the position implies a scuffle of some sort.

There's a map S.T.A.F.F standing right next to him, a hand holding a map ready to be handed out. Odd that it is active, but Chica, Monty, and Roxy have all left the area when at least one should have stayed so it might be acting as a sentry.

He hooks an arm and leg around one of the struts. The tether relaxes somewhat in their back as he taps against the metal. They should investigate this a bit more. They should get as much information as possible for a report and to share with their Favorite when he gets back from getting the kids out. Only, they currently have a flashdrive with information they probably shouldn't have and are trying to avoid everyone and thing else in the building.

There is the quick glance that Sun got, at least. And three of the band did investigate it as well meaning they should have that in their memory.

Just as he's moving to flip onto the 'walkway' spread throughout the struts, their optics catch the map S.T.A.F.F. being shoved onto its side without warning.

Moon nudges Sun and both of them focus on the area just in front of the elevator. Getting back to the tunnels around Parts and Service can wait. This is decidedly odd.

The S.T.A.F.F. is flailing slightly, one arm seemingly pinned to the floor as the other keeps trying to push the bot upright. They try zooming in closer, but the visual feed tarrs and bleeds so they have to pull back. The audio gets the same result meaning they are stuck observing from a distance.

And it gets more confusing.

The man's arm is raised into the air by something they can't see. His body lifted and if there was something they could see, they would both label it a struggle as the body is dragged across the floor towards Fazerblast. Blood leaves a trail behind it. An obvious disadvantage if any of the animatronics or the humans come across it.

Moon shifts, stretches along the struts as though they are monkey bars to stay above the trail. Sun gives him the pings from the area scans as he crouches behind a more solid beam.

Below, the unseen force passes by a mop bot standing at attention. It jerks, spins and almost drops the mop before whatever it is clears and it starts aggressively scrubbing at the floor. A few of the caution bots roll past not seeming to notice the thing that caused the other to glitch or to note the fluid on the floor.

I am not sure how to feel about this Sun mumbles as they watch the mop bot clean up the trail of blood and the body is dragged through the doors to Fazerblast. The bot set up to watch the entrance simply jerks to the side as the body passes.

Bad. Something bad. It's blocking our systems Moon sends back, pulling up an internal map of the building as the door to Fazerblast closes. The band should still have their local memory - hopefully - and we have the video of the man being dragged away, a mop bot sent to clean the trail, and going into Fazerblast.

Sun slumps in their shared space, grumbles about not being able to send a report about this even as they both look over the map. There's a few areas they mark as potential hiding spots, but they can't risk actually entering the area. There's no tether there and they know the map they have is not complete.

We should get to Parts and Service they say.

Their faceplate spins as Moon makes his way across the ceiling beams, the tether dragging along beside them silently. Sun's no longer curled around in panic. Instead coiling just beneath Moon's awareness. Spreading out and watching for the things Moon would miss. Ready for the second the sensors tip just a touch too far as he lowers them beside the wall.

The entrance built for the larger performances they never got the chance to do clicks open under their hand and he shoves their frame through. It is a tight fit and they have to actually collapse their face down to fit, but they were built with this in mind.

Do you think we'll ever be able to do one of them again? Sun asks, tugging at the curls and twists of the shows they once had. The shows they never got to do.

Moon doesn't reply to that. They both know the answer to that and there's nothing they can do to change it.

The kid is just standing there. He doesn't seem to notice them at all, just standing on the stage and staring at the pile of junk Mike disappeared behind and holding a yellow toy.

Gregory can't tell more than that given the haze in the air, how far the kid is from them, and the lack of light in the room, but that wouldn't help with the mountain of questions.

Where did the kid disappear to in the arcade? How did he get here? Why is he here? Is this something he should mention when Mike gets back? Cassie is seeing this, right? Will this be something dangerous? How should he-

"Ryan," Tech's voice echos through the room. The kid obviously tenses, clutches at the toy harder as Mike keeps talking, "do you remember the way back to the Raceway? Do not speak. Hit the wall once for yes, twice for no."

Gregory glances up at Ryan who looks caught wrong footed. His eyes are wide-eyed, flicking rapidly around everything in the room and to Gregory, it is clear Ryan isn't sure how to answer. Well, one advantage to surviving on his own-

He kicks the door frame once and Tech continues, "Get back up there. Find Freddy and have him take you back to Parts and Service. Once there, barricade the entire thing and don't let anyone or thing in. No matter who it might sound like."

Gregory kicks the frame again, pulling on Cassie and Ryan to get them moving. Whatever is going on, Mike wants them out of here and he's not inclined to stay if it is dangerous.

He looks at the kid who's attention has turned away from the pile of rubbish. The eyes are not those of a human's. Glowing and piercing through the floating darkness as they stare at the three of them. It doesn't make any move to follow. Just watches as he keeps pulling them out of the burned building.

Mike is backing out of the spot he was looking at, focused on whatever he saw. He doesn't turn away from it. Away from whatever he found there. And the kid-thing vanishes between one moment to the next.

Gregory looks away. Turns to make sure he doesn't trip over something as he, Cassie, and Ryan rush back to the elevator. The doors are still open and they crowd into it. Tech is covering ground quickly, still turned toward the building but managing to avoid all of the scattered things. About halfway to the elevator, though, he stops.

He stays facing the burned down building, grabs the ring of keys and tosses it back. Ryan is barely able to grab it, but he does.

"The pink key with the bend in it is the one for the elevator," Mike says. "Get up there first and start back to the Raceway. I'll be behind you."

Gregory does not like this plan. Doesn't like that it leaves Tech here alone with something he's deemed a big enough threat that they're going back. Doesn't like that he has no idea what it could be. Doesn't like the kid that might be a hallucination. Doesn't like that there's really nothing he can do to change any of this.

Ryan's already found the key and Cassie shoved it into the lock and hit the button. The doors are already closing and underneath the mechanics of the elevator, he can just hear what sounds like something else crawling and stumbling and grating echos bouncing off the walls.

None of them say anything as the elevator climbs back up. Gregory does his best to focus on the walk they'd taken to get here, but he keeps remembering that the top is the Pizzaplex. The Pizzaplex which currently has a security guard who killed Ryan's dad, animatronics that have glitched out enough to attack and probably kill him, and someone messing up all possible communications with the outside.

He does not want to go back.

They don't have another choice.

Mike obviously doesn't want them to go that way and he's never lead Gregory wrong before. There might be some other back halls they could go through, but he's never been in this part of the building and if he had, he doesn't think he would know anything about where the elevator lets out. Freddy should still be in the Raceway and he can help keep them safe.

It's the best option they have. He hates it, but everything else he can think of has higher risk.

The lake doesn't reflect the sky.

Rather it shows things he remembers with horrible detail. It shows things he had no knowledge of. Things that he suspected and are now confirmed. Things he wants to tell others to fix things. Things he watches numbly because he can't feel anything else. Things he's sure haven't happened.

He stands at the edge of the lake facing things he did and didn't know and he remembers.

He stands at the edge of the lake facing memories in a new light and he mourns.

He stands at the edge of the lake facing knowledge and furious that there is nothing he can do with it.

He stands at the edge of the lake and walks into the water as it parts to flame and swears he will do something.

Chapter Text

They're at the hidden fence near the Raceway when she hears running behind them. Given that Gregory also tenses and looks back, it must be there so she looks back as Ryan keeps trying to move the wood panels

A beam of light is waving across the area with the steps and Schmidt skids to a stop as he must spot them. He tilts his head then turns back the way he came from. Cassie can't hear or see anything else, but he must be worried about something managing to come up after them.

"Got it," Ryan grunts.

She looks back and the wood panels are moved enough she, Gregory, and Ryan should be able to squeeze through. Schmidt she's not sure about, but he just waves at them, saying, "Go first. It's not the first time I've done this. Remember to stay quiet and don't trust anything you hear unless you see it."

Ryan looks back, lip caught between his teeth as he gestures for her and Gregory to go through first. She grabs the hand Gregory's rubbing his arm with, tugging him along as she squeezes through. They press between a stack of crates and some cardboard cutouts as Ryan comes through and goes to grab the stack of panels to move them for Schmidt.

"Back to the Raceway? Hit the-"

"Bloody tosh! Move!"

Cassie stares at the panels as they fall against the fence, slipping from Ryan's hand. Both-

"-barricade no matter what-"

"Get going! Now!"

-sound like Schmidt. But there's two talking over each other.

"Cassie!" Gregory hisses in her ear, breath warm against her skin and she jerks back closer to him. "We need to go."

She nods, not sure if she'd trust her voice even if whatever is on the other side didn't have the ability to steal voices. Gregory squeezes her hand and starts making his way back to the Raceway entrance. Ryan stumbles back as one of Schmidt's voices grows louder, closer. He stays behind them, hands on each of their shoulders to push them forward faster.

They turn around a stack of giant wire spindles and barely stop in time to avoid running into a fence. Gregory shoves the horseshoe latch up and Cassie pushes the gate open to the Raceway.

Freddy isn't visible, but that's not surprising. Schmidt told him to keep an eye out for anyone coming into the Raceway and this hole isn't exactly in a spot with a good view of the rest of the room.

Cassie scrambles onto the track with Gregory and they help pull Ryan up. The two voices still echoing out of the back room as they start running down the track. She's leading, looking for the shortcuts she's memorized and using them. They come out of a small tunnel and the open waiting area is right there with Freddy already rushing over.

She doesn't hesitate to jump off of the track, Gregory a beat behind her. Freddy's head is moving around as they scramble behind his legs, huddling as close to him as possible.

"Gregory, Cassie, Ryan," Freddy starts, "what happened? Are you okay? Did something happen to Mr. Mike? Why is his voice odd?"

"There's something mimicking him," Cassie says. "It sounds exactly like him."

"He said to have you take us back to Parts and Service," Gregory adds.

Freddy shifts, a hand resting on her and Gregory's linked hands. She looks up and the bear's head is facing the way they came, ears pinned down, "I will do that. Please start heading to one of the back tunnel entrances."

Gregory squeezes her hand and she lets go of Freddy. Ryan is already heading to one of the entrances staying close to them he can grab them, but also far enough he'd be the first one spotted. She doesn't really like that he'd put himself in that position since his dad has already been attacked, but this doesn't feel like a situation to fight about it.

Heavy steps are behind them confirming that Freddy is following. Metal crashes from further back, breaking over the twin voices. One of them cuts off and she speeds up.

Ryan is doing his best to move a piece of equipment out of the way when they reach him. Cassie reaches out to help, Gregory quickly joining her. They manage to shove it enough to get to the fence, only this one has a lock on it.

"Fuck!" Ryan hisses, digging out the key ring and shoving them into the lock.

Gregory's head is moving between the fence and the track, "Freddy, can you just break the lock?"

"I cannot," Freddy says. "Perhaps there is another one that is-"

"Lime green with pink spots!"

Cassie jerks around, seeing Schmidt vaulting over a fake rock. She can hear the fumbling of keys, jangling and a few muttered curses before the creak of hinges. Schmidt stumbles as he gets off the track, head spinning to look back.

"It's open so we- What the fuck?!" Gregory yelps, the tug accidentally jerking her shoulder harshly. She can't blame him though.

A casing she doesn't recognize jerks and spasms as it skitters over the track decorations. It's smeared with something black that oozes in drips from the mouth, eyes, joints. Everywhere that might have an opening leaks. The second Schmidt voice crackles as a static feed cuts through it.

"Foxy?" Freddy asks, voice sounding off balance.

"Go!" Schmidt - real Schmidt - yells.

The animatronic launches off of a rock, landing heavily on the ground. It doesn't hesitate to start running at them. Eating the distance between it and Schmidt and she's heard the stories her dad and uncles have shared. She's seen the effects an out of control animatronic can have on someone. There's no way that Schmidt unarmed and human will be able to stand against it.

Freddy makes a step toward Schmidt. Ryan grabs her shoulder, pulling her back. The hostile animatronic is in arms reach of Schmidt-

It jerks. Spasms to the floor as the voice and static cut out. Buzzing fills the absence as Schmidt lowers the flashlight, standing over the fallen robot. It cuts out and he repeats, "Go! It's not going to stay down!"

Cassie forces herself to turn, stumbling with Gregory through the gate. Ryan grabs her free hand and they start running deeper into the tunnels. Behind them, Freddy's footsteps thud after them and he calls out directions. They follow each of them and eventually hit a door like the one she and Gregory used to enter Parts and Service before.

Gregory digs out the badges in his pocket, holding them near the scanner and shoving the door open. They all go through, stumbling over each other.

Cassie looks back at Freddy, "Is- is there a way to lock this place?"

Freddy's ears pin back as he looks around, "I am not sure. I cannot seem to access any of the specific emergency plans."

"There is!"

Her head snaps up to see the daycare attendant flipping out of part of the wall. The casing seamlessly switches from the blues and stars to oranges and reds as rays spin into place around the face. He cartwheels across the floor to a computer shoved against the wall and starts taping at it. A second later shutters fall across the observation windows and red lights flick on.

Sun tips back, standing on a single hand as his face spins to be upright, "Lockdown active! Are any of you hurt? Where's Mike?"

Cassie slides to the floor, dragging Gregory with her and leans against him, "Can this be the last thing that happens tonight?"

"I still want to get out, but yeah," Ryan mutters, leaning against her as well.

Freddy steps around them, "I believe they are simply tired. As for Mr. Mike, he was being attacked by Foxy."

Sun's rays click as they spin, legs falling to the side as he stands upright, "Foxy? That shouldn't be possible. He was decommisioned."

She closes her eyes as Freddy responds. The conversation continues, weaving around her and she's just tired now. Right now, they're in a room that's locked down and there's two animatronics who aren't going to let them get hurt. Schmidt might not be here, but for now they're somewhat safe.

Link Connection: Success

CODE: GREEN

39.6 -110.8 5519

Faint light casts across a small radius around her. Her eyes active for the first time since the connection was first disconnected. She stays where she is, silently activating the search system and putting the coordinates in. The spinning load fills the center of her visual area as she waits and the boys remain asleep.

Location: Within Parameters

Distance: 13.2 miles

Suggest: Remain in Position

She lets the light of her eyes fade back to rest. The last one worries her a bit. It is off a bit from the typical range where her friend is working, but not enough to worry just yet. It could simply be that the signal has drifted again and she will have to ask for it to be reset. Plus it doesn't make sense for her to be able to Link when he is underground compared to above ground

39.6 -110.8 5510

Location: Within Parameters

Distance: 13.2 miles

Suggest: Remain in Position

The report sits in her vision. White text overlaying the visual of the bedroom and spelling out damning information.

She wants to wring her hands and arms together, but if she moves, the boys will wake up and they will know something is going on. They will want to get involved and they just agreed to rest. She does not want to disturb them. She will watch the reports as they come in. She will track them and hope that the second connection will link as well.

39.6 -110.8 5502

Location: Within Parameters

Distance: 13.2 miles

Suggest: Remain in Position

Cassie jolts upright, blinking the blur out of her eyes at the sound of a door slamming shut. It takes a second to make sense of what's in front of her, then she's scrambling to her feet with Gregory and Ryan.

Schmidt has both hands pressed against the door, head hanging as he pants. She can hear what must be the animatronic that was chasing them slamming against a door and still using the mimic of Schmidt's voice. It lasts for a few seconds before all of it stops abruptly.

She steps backwards, closer to the maintenance tube as his head lifts. He stays in that position for another moment before his hands fall from the door. One clutches at his side as he stumbles and turns to face them. He lost the face mask somewhere and she can hear Ryan's inhale.

He blinks, sighs, and rubs at his face, "Sorry. I saw it there and there was no way I could get you past it."

She nods, rubbing at her eyes. It sucks they couldn't get out, but if he hadn't seen Foxy down there, who knows what might have happened to them.

"Mr. Mike, what happened to Foxy? Why was he attacking you?" Freddy asks.

She squints up and Schmidt's expression is a strange combination of anger and grief, "That wasn't Foxy."

Cassie shares a glance with Gregory. That tone suggests a story and not one Schmidt is necessarily going to give willingly.

"If it wasn't Foxy, what was it?" Sun asks.

She can see him twisting into a small ball showing exactly how flexible his endoskeleton is and feels weird to see. Moon was always more willing to show off the positions he could twist into, but Sun has always focused more on cartwheels, dives, and the like.

"It was something using his casing," Schmidt sighs, walking to a desk chair. He collapses into it, "Foxy had a full decom. That means everything that was built for him, trained for him, and programed for him was destroyed. Literally the only things that still exist are the cutouts and a single casing that should have been in offsite storage. We don't even have an endo for him."

"Is that why it was moving so weird?" she can't help asking.

Schmidt lets out a sharp laugh, "Yeah. Yeah it is. And why it was able to mimic my voice and climb up the shaft and doesn't stay down after getting 50,000 volts burst into it."

Sun falls to the side with a yelp and Freddy straightens completely with his ears straight up. Cassie looks at Gregory and Ryan, but neither of them seem to have an answer. Ryan just shrugs and Gregory shakes his head.

"How do you know it can withstand that? The most we can handle is 15,000," Freddy says.

"Oh," Schmidt says, blinking at them again. He flips the flashlight in his hand, "Yeah, I modified my flashlight to act as a taser after a few close calls. Took some adjustments since it started out at something high enough to knock out the entire power grid."

"Can I-" Gregory starts.

"No, I am not letting you mess with it," Schmidt says. He tilts his head to the side, "Anyway-"

"You!"

Cassie jumps, spinning and standing at one of the other doors is the security guard.

Chapter Text

Her head hurts, pounding in time with every noise and spiking with the light in ways that makes her vision spark with stars and colors blur together. It's familiar in a horrible way and she's already swallowed the migraine meds in her locker, but she doesn't have the time to worry about it right now. She found the notice about a kid lost in the building after lock down and she needs to find him as soon as she can to get him out.

There's an event tomorrow and she can't have a kid mucking with all of the preparations. At least the band is already looking for them.

Then as she was leaving Rockstar Row, she got the notification about Parts and Service going into lock down for some reason and sending the 'Lost Kid' assignment to a lower priority. So with a groan about malfunctions and hoping the kid might have just tripped something in the area, she climbs into Roxy's service elevator.

The metal of the elevator is cool against her head and she wonders how long she might be able to get away with just staying here. Of course, that's when it dings and the doors slide open and she has to get back to her job.

She walks down the hall, narrowing her eyes enough to fight back the light and still see. She waves her badge at the scanner, the door clicking open as it overrides the lockdown to let her in and she steps through.

Only to pull to a stop at seeing three kids standing in the middle of the room with Freddy, the daycare attendant, and fucking Schmidt.

Anger pierces through her migraine. Schmidt knows he's supposed to send her a notice if he finds people that are hiding in the building. He knows he's not supposed to let people without training into Parts and Service. He knows he's not supposed to have animatronics he's working on roaming out of the chambers.

"You!" she yells and all of them snap to look at her. "What the hell are you doing? Do you expect to just get away with this? Get off without punishment after screwing everything up when there's an event tomorrow?"

The two younger kids have skittered to hide behind the older one, clinging to him as she stalks down the stairs. She doesn't particularly care if they're scared. It might be what they need to not do this again and she's still going to be filing a report about their trespassing.

"Ness," she can hear Schmidt say, but she speaks over him, "You are going to be in so much trouble and I hope your parents send you to juvie! Maybe it will get some respect for hard work into your skulls if you have consequences! This isn't some haha we broke into an abandoned building thing, this is trespassing on private property and destroying property or did you think I wouldn't see the pulled down decorations?"

She's on the floor of the room now, glaring at the trio as they start backing up to the wall, "I'm dragging the lot of you to one of the offices and locking you in there until the cops get here and they can show your parents the footage of whatever you've done since you got here!"

"Ness!" Schmidt yells as a chair slams into her side. It's enough to get her to look over and he's a lot closer than she thought as he grabs her arm on his far side.

His face is stone as he says, "It's September 5th."

Ness opens her mouth to yell at him when the words register and she freezes. It- It can't be September. He has to be lying to her. Some kind of cruel prank she's going to slap him for-

But Mike doesn't do that.

He doesn't do things she's made clear she doesn't like. He doesn't play pranks that have her locking herself in an office as she hides under a desk. He doesn't use nicknames she hates. He doesn't and that means it's September 5th.

It's September 5th when yesterday was Feburary 13th.

Seven months her mind whispers at her in her father's voice. Seven months you did nothing. Seven months were you failed.

What happened she yells back at it. What did you do?!

There's no response. There's never a response, but she swears she can feel something laughing at her. Something curling in delight at her misery.

Someone grabs her hands and she swings at them only for her fist to get caught. her other hand is already being held and she starts trying to pull away from whoever it is.

"Hey, hey, Ness," a soft voice manages to worm into her head. "Just trying to stop you from hurting yourself."

Ness blinks, vision blurry, yet she's still able to recognize Schmidt in front of her holding her hands in between them.

His eyes are flicking over her face, his mouth opens and she braces to hear one of the many questions her therapists always try when they get to the topic of her missing time-

"Jenny had her baby on August 23rd," he says and she stares at him. "Both of them are healthy and staying with Jesse and Sam right now. The Fourth of July show went off without a hitch. Everyone loved the fireworks and it took three days to get Monty and Roxanne to stop asking for another show. Carol actually yelled at Mennell back in June and threatened to call the police if she learned he showed up here again."

A snort startles her and again when she realizes it came from her. Schmidt's eyes crinkle in a phantom smile as he loosens his grip on her hands. She doesn't pull them out of his hold.

"Uh, someone screwed up an order and we had flowers all over the atrium and entrance for a week mid-May. Loila got full custody of her little brother in April. Easter went fine and I was here in case something went wrong. The valentine's event had like 13 proposals happen, 5 breakups, and 23 first dates."

He lowers her hands to her lap, lets them go as he leans back on his heels. She... hadn't noticed that they were on the floor. She doesn't feel pain or soreness anywhere and she wonders if Mike helped her down.

"You feeling steady or do you need another moment?" he asks.

She stares at him, "I, I think I'm good for now. Why tell me all of that, though?"

His shoulders roll in a shrug, pulling at his shirt oddly - why is it ripped? - , "I want to know what happened when I come out of a blackout."

"What," Ness finds herself asking. He has blackouts? And he noticed she has them? Or did he go-

"I just recognized a few habits," he says, glancing to the side.

When she looks over, the kids are on the far side of the room huddled around a wet floor bot that's being covered in stickers. Freddy is standing nearby with his attention mostly on her and Mike while Sun keeps pulling out more and more stickers for the kids.

"Then just now you were talking about an event," Schmidt continues drawing her focus back. "The last one was the Fourth celebration and, well, it's September. That's what really told me it was a blackout since I have some confusion about dates and things when I come back."

She sighs, lifts a hand to rub at her face. It's wet against her skin and when she pulls it back, it's clear and shiny, "...Mine are usually only a few hours. I've never had one last this long."

"My shortest was nine months."

Ness snaps her head up to stare at him. His expression is perfectly calm, just a small upwards crook of his lips that pull at the scars across his cheeks like he didn’t just say he’s missing at minimum nine months of his life.

"They don't happen often given the trigger is really bloody obvious," he adds. "But they do last a long time."

"Must be nice to know what triggers it," she mutters, looking down at her hands. "I never know when they're going to come and writing things down was my first therapist's suggestion." She glances at the kids from the corner of her eye, "...What did I do to them?"

"I don't think this is wholly on you," he says. "The younger two were kidnapped and woke up here. You did scare the boy around closing pretty bad. And you stabbed the teen's dad."

She looks up at him, but there's no indication of a lie anywhere. She hangs her head, "Fuck. No wonder they were so scared. I... I should call the police. Let them know."

"Ness," Mike says, soft and coaxing enough to get her to look at him. "I said I don't think this is just you. Take out your phone and dial 911."

Confused, she does only to be met with the message that the number couldn't be reached. Her eyes move back to him, "The animatronics should be-"

He's shaking his head, "There's something messing with the network. It's made all the things connected to it view the kids as hostiles and is blocking or messing with various systems. I had to completely isolate the Attendant and Security programs for the Twin to get them 'safe' and Freddy's been in safe mode since I got here."

That opens up a few questions she's going to have to look into, but- "Is there anything I can help with? I mean. I'd watch the kids, but I..."

She trails off, unable to bring herself to finish the sentence. He doesn't seem to need her to, though, given his head is already titled and he's staring blankly over her shoulder.

"Maybe. One of the systems that went out is the shutter operations. They activated early, but there's a manual operation set up in the office at the entrance," Mike offers.

That would put a lot of distance between her and the kids. It won't stop her from getting back in, but it will slow her down enough they could get away if she blackouts again. Plus, if she is able to figure out the manual controls for the shutters, she might be able to get out of this weird dead zone and contact the police.

"I can take a look at that," she says. "Anything I need to know about getting access?"

"You should just be able to log in to get to it. Your employee label should grant access automatically for emergencies."

One of her knees cracks faintly as she stands. She can see the kids pausing to look over at her and she does her best to pretend she hasn't seen them. Her flashlight says it's still 73% charged, her uniform is decent enough, and her badge is clipped securely to her belt.

"Hey," Schmidt says before she can start back out, "if you see one of the others, could you tell them I found a virus in Freddy and to come down? Just whichever you see first. Stay safe."

Ness nods at him, turns on her heel, and speeds back through the entrances designated for the band.

The caution bot chirps at them as they stand up. Gregory doesn't look away from where the security guard disappeared, waiting for her to show back up and act like the insane person he was expecting earlier. She doesn't and his focus drifts to Tech who's still standing where he was when Vanessa walked off.

"Mr. Mike? Is everything alright?" Freddy asks, breaking the silence between all of them.

Mike stays still for a moment before groaning, lifting his hands to his face, and half turning to them, "I hate my life. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it."

A jingle of bells and Sun has rolled halfway across the distance to Tech before standing, "We have reso-"

"Not that kind of hate," he says, waving a hand and Sun stops though his hands tangle together. "Anyway. What did you find for me?"

"Oh! We dug through everything we could," Sun says, digging into a sleeve. "There were a few files we couldn't get into, though, and we couldn't find the reports or logs. There were some files we couldn't access."

A black object sticks out from Sun's fingers and Mike takes it.

Gregory walks up as he puts it into a computer, "What were they looking for?"

"Anything from security since their last reboot," Tech says. The cursor hovers over the files clustered together with names that make no sense. "Which you did. It just locked the access down since something was apparently messing with the network."

A high pitched keen has him looking away from the screen toward Sun who's shrunken down toward the floor. One of his hands is wrinkling the fabric of his outfit while the other is pressing a few of the rays under the faceplate. "We were worried about that."

"It's not any of your fault. If the people in charge of closing the daycare, checking the logs, or running general diagnostics had actually followed the protocol an error would have been noticed and I would have been told to look into it."

"What are we going to do?" Ryan asks. "I mean, you got the guard to leave, but we're still stuck here and she knows where we are."

Gregory turns back to the screen in time to see Mike pulling the flashdrive out, "Ness knows where you are right now. She's taking a look at the manual controls for the shutters which are pretty much as far from here as you can get and still be in the building."

A program launches, lines flashing across the screen too fast to read and each causing a bar at the top to grow a bit larger. One stays just long enough for him to catch 'GSTC Inquiry' before it's replaced.

"I doubt they'll be able to be used, but it doesn't hurt to check. I'm also not planning on you three being here when she gets back."

His attention snaps to Tech at that as Cassie's hand pulls his away from his arm, "What do you mean by that?"

A hum, "I asked her to send the others down here if they crossed paths and I have a suspicion about what's going on with her. Which I am not going to expose you three to if I can help it."

Cassie's grip tightens on his hand, "Are we going back to the arcade?"

Mike stands back from the desk and computer that's still flashing text and with a bar stretching about halfway across the top. He's staring at a vent on the wall, "No. For the time it took me to check the area was clear earlier it was fine, but the Fazcade is not really defensible and the office in there is like the easiest to get into under normal circumstances. Plus if the animatronics are sent at the doors, the batteries still have shit power storage."

He thinks back over the office he'd run into at the start of the night, "Do all of the offices require power to stay closed? Or the technician rooms?"

"Yep. It was part of the building plan," Tech says, turning around to look at them. "Of course, someone decided to cut costs and the power storage that was installed for all the doors were all defective."

His face is in that weird state adults have when they're trying to hide something. Jaw and corners of his eyes tight, but otherwise forced into a state of 'calm'. He opens his mouth to continue, then pauses. Gregory tilts his head, follows Mike's gaze to the caution bot that's back to hovering next to Cassie.

"You know what, I might have an idea," he finally says, crouching and reaching for the caution bot.

It chirps, head swiveling between all of them with half curved eyes. The panel keeping the inside components protected opens and he moves some of the wires to the side to access the inner one that has the various switches for the functions in the caution bot. Gregory frowns. The one that usually flips when the cling glitch happens is still in the proper position.

"So one of the things I had on the list to do during maintenance was to get a few of these guys into homing mode," Mike starts. "Which-"

"-Would have them seeking out Bonnie's location," Freddy finishes. "I did not think about that possibility."

"You guys are set up to find them typically. Not the other way around. Beyond that, Carol didn't like how long it could possibly take for them to find him so she's been putting it off."

"But," Cassie says, leaning around his side to look at the caution bot's insides, "Bonnie's one of the favorites! The other half to Freddy! Why would they just not try to find him?"

Tech shrugs, "Lot's of reasons. Some more reasonable than others. I got permission to set the homing up for this maintenance round, though. So, you want to help find Bonnie? It's going to get you guys out of here and I'm sure Freddy and the Twin are up for going with you."

He drags his eyes up from the inside of the caution bot. Cassie's hand is faintly vibrating in his. Freddy's eyes keep flicking between the caution bot and Mike while Sun has gone nearly completely still, a single finger tapping against his arm. Ryan just seems ready to do whatever is decided on.

"You're sure she won't find us?" he asks.

"Completely? No. There's always the chance that Bonnie is somewhere towards the main entrance," Mike says. "But it's the best I can come up with right now to keep Ness from knowing where you are."

"What are you going to do, then?" Ryan asks. "You don't really sound like you're planning on coming with us and that, that thing is still in the tunnels."

"I'm not." is the blunt agreement. "The way I was going to get you out is now the single most dangerous path out right now. It's easier and safer to just have you hide somewhere while I dig through the system and get a different one open. Especially since the thing using Foxy's casing is focused on me. It won't shift targets until I'm out of the way."

Gregory chews on his lip, "We won't be here if it comes backs, and if you don't know where we are, there's no way you can tell her."

Tech nods, patting the caution bot's head as it gives another chirp. Usually, Gregory would prefer that. He doesn't like people knowing where he is or what he might be doing. It's none of their business to ask or know if he's sleeping under the bleachers at school or snuck into a building for the night or stole some food that was going to be thrown out anyway. He'll sometimes tell Cassie things, but it always feels a bit weird.

Yet, Mike usually has an idea where he is in the building. Even earlier when they split up, Tech still knew where they would be. Being faced with a situation where he's not going to know where Gregory is somehow just a weird as the awkward conversation with Cassie about why he couldn't accept the stuffie she'd offered him.

Still, it really is the best option to avoid Vanessa knowing where they are.

"Finding Bonnie sounds alright," he mutters, rubbing at his arm.

"Don't worry too much," Mike says. "If it comes down to it, the same homing system is in the other S.T.A.F.F. and Freddy's linked to Security."

"And we have Task!" Sun calls out, raising a hand to grab Freddy's shoulder and flipping to curve his body over the bear's head.

Tech is shaking his head as Freddy tries to get Sun off of his shoulder, "So going to find our friendly rabbit?"

He nods along with Cassie and Mike flips one of the switches, closing the panel as the bot's face changes from yellow to blue. It rolls in a circle between all of them, chirping notes higher than usual. Gregory steps back, accidently pulling Cassie with her and the bot dashes as fast as it can past them.

He looks at Cassie, both their eyes wide. A hand pushes at his shoulder as Ryan says, "Okay, it's not going to wait. C'mon!"

They stumble beside each other, jogging to catch up. Freddy's heavy footsteps clank against the ground behind them over the faint jingling of bells as Sun cartwheels past them. Luckily, even at max speed, the caution bots really aren't that fast, it's constantly chirping, and can't actually open the door to get out of Parts and Service. It's just bumping into the closed door making a somehow agrieved chirp.

Gregory glances back at Tech. He's hunched over the screen, the scars on his cheeks seemingly curved down as he stares at things only he might understand. Behind him on the chair, though, is that kid-thing simply standing there holding the yellow toy. It isn't looking at their group. The odd eyes focused on Mike's back and holding perfectly still.

Cassie tugs on his hand and he turns away. Hopefully, the kid-thing isn't an omen of something bad to come.

Chapter Text

Andrew is cursing as he stumbles down the alley, feet catching with regularity on the garbage strewn about and hitting the puddles hard enough to splash almost to his thigh. She curls her legs higher up his torso and adjusts the cloak as best she can with stiff fingers that have never liked bending.

"Motherfu-" Andrew cuts himself off, barely catching himself on the brick wall. "God fucking, dammit! Why the hell couldn't Jake be doing this?"

She twists a hand around under the fabric cover to pat at his face. He groans as the joints and limbs click back into place and starts picking through the alley again, still stumbling over all the debris in the way as he rushes. She pulls her hand back and tugs at a few of the wires in front of her getting a yelp as he jolts to a stop.

"I am not going to slow down!" he whisper-yells. "Who knows what the fuck might be going on and if it's enough to- Stop it!"

She lets the wires go and digs the tips of her fingers into his shoulder. He growls and sparks jump across the surface of the puddle he's standing in, some arching up his legs and she digs a foot into his side.

"Fine. I'll go slower," Andrew mutters, shifting his head to stare at the ground and starting to pick around the various obstacles with greater care. "And tell Asshole to give you a damn voice box. Fucking- Ow! Did you have to pull so hard? They're all out of wack now."

She settles down, her head positioned on his shoulder to watch for anything that might pose a threat to them. Andrew is still muttering about how Jake should have been the one to be doing this, but it is easy to tune out now that there's not the threat of being dropped or tripping into a puddle and short-circuiting. It's never fun and leaves her stuck in memories until she's either dug out by something or pulls herself out.

Link Connection Failed

Try Again Later

Last Location: 39.6 -110.8 5548

The notice sits center in her vision, ready for refresh and retry as soon as she resends the inquiry. At this point, though, she knows it won't give her more information. They already know that something is going on. Something that had her friend going toward that place only to retreat before reaching it.

For now, she and Andrew can only make their way to where her friend should be and hope that nothing too bad has happened. That it has a simple explanation and when Jake wakes back up they'll have everything sorted.

The rain pounds against the world around them and she can hear such satisfying screams under it.

Watching the Daycare Attendant switch as they walk through the utility tunnels is nostalgic, Freddy thinks to himself as said animatronic goes from Sun doing a cartwheel to Moon crawling along the wall and ceiling, foot over shoulder and hand under leg. The kids seem to find it more amusing than anything, luckily, and he wonders exactly how much of this is their Performer programming coming to the front. It has been years since any of them were able to see one of their shows and - now that he tries to pull up the reference - Monty never did get to see any of them, did he?

He wonders if any of the kids that visited in the handful of months still remember the shows Sun and Moon were a part of.

"Why is the lighting down here so bad?" Ryan asks as Moon crawls into a pool of light and Sun rolls into a handstand on the ground only to tip backwards into shadow as Moon skitters up a stack of tables.

Freddy hums, pushing a partially broken fence to the side for the caution bot and children to go through before following, "I believe it is due to lack of human personal and organization. Most of these halls were regularly used in the past, however, over time, more and more of them were regulated to temporary then permanent storage. I am not sure if anyone is truly aware of everything that has been placed into these tunnels and forgotten or the last time some of these areas were visited."

"Mike goes through them," Gregory says. "So have I, but I didn't realize the light was so bad."

Freddy files that fact away with the others that ping concerning alerts in his system. The list is already disturbingly large, however, the one that sits in blue at the top of it is a comfort. He will need to find a time to speak with Mr. Mike about what he has observed, though. Hopefully before or around the time the kids are escorted out and the authorities are contacted.

"Hey! This one goes to the Raceway!" Cassie calls, pointing at a section of the wall not blocked by the large amount of destroyed racing karts.

Most of them have damage he recognizes. Missing wheels, cracked chassis, bent suspension. A few, though, have odd black smears across them along with sections he can tell had attempts to clean the smears before the employee must have given up. Nothing else looks wrong with those ones, however, Fazbear Entertainment is quite strict about branding.

"It would be best to stay away from those," Freddy says, gently guiding Cassie away from the racing karts and after the caution bot.

They keep walking, picking up the caution bot when they reach a set of stairs it is rather insistent about going up. Freddy is thankful that Sun and Moon are here to help keep the kids safe, entertained, and watched so they do not wander off and get hurt. It is simply getting a little difficult for him to not constantly note the direction the caution bot is possibly leading them. They are well past the main floor of the atrium and the tunnel to the Raceway is now a floor below them. The only areas left beyond the utility tunnels are the East Arcade and Bonnie Bowling.

And the caution bot has yet to slow down or hesitate as it continues down a path only it can see.

His system keeps pinging a possible conclusion to him with a growing possibility and he has never before wondered if it was possible to turn that system off. Freddy does not know what he will be able to do if it turns out Bonnie has been so very close and none of them were any wiser.

"You know, I wonder if this counts as OSHA violations," Ryan says, staring at a pile of chairs. It easily reaches above Freddy's head and he gently pulls him away as he make a note of them. "Like, how do you even get them that high without a ladder or something and have them stay put."

"It's not that hard," Gregory says. "They have a solid wall to lean against and are overlapped. It's like the most solid stack of things I've seen tonight."

The Daycare Attendant freezes half in shadow and light, half active as Sun and half active as Moon. The faceplate turns, "You didn't get hurt?"

The caution bot starts bumping into a part of the wall Freddy cannot see anything special about as Gregory responds, "No. I think I knocked some of them over when I was running, but none of them actually hit me."

"OSHA," Ryan mutters as he walks to join Freddy in staring at the wall.

It truly looks like nothing beyond a utility tunnel wall and Freddy looks down at the caution bot. It is still bumping into it, the chirps the same pitch if more frequent and he wonders if there might be a glitch in the homing software similar to the one that makes them cling to things that are not liquid. At least the probability of the conclusion that has been popping up is going down.

"Is this a glitch," Cassie asks. "I'm not seeing any kind of door."

"I am not sure. This is the first time I am aware of a caution bot being used in this way so it is possible there are items that were never noticed as errors," Freddy states.

"We are pretty far from Parts and Service," Moon's voice rumbles as he crouches to look at the bot. "We could go back to ask."

It keeps chirping and rolling into the wall, seemingly oblivious to the conversation. On the one hand, the Daycare Attendant would be able to get to Mr. Mike and back far quicker than any of them. On the other, Freddy is not sure how long that would take or if the kids - Gregory in particular - would be willing to wait idly for their return.

He is just about to ask if they might be able to pick it up and place it in the atrium to possibly recalibrate the pathfinding when there is a giant screech of metal on metal and gears that have not been properly taken care of forced into use. Moon curves in front of the now rising wall, holding an arm out to keep the kids and caution bot from getting closer. Freddy's optics slide to the ground opposite where Moon was and where Gregory is laying prone with a thick metal rod in hand.

"Uh, oops," he says, slowly pushing himself up and not letting go of the rod.

The - apparently hidden - door screeches to a halt as what must be part of the opening mechanism cracks loud enough to have Cassie and Ryan taking a further step back.

"Gregory," Cassie says as Moon shoves his head through the opening, "why is this the second door that blends into the wall that you've found? Why would they even have doors like this?"

"Technically, I didn't find the one earlier. I just fell through it," Gregory replies, watching as Moon crawls the rest of the way through the gap. It should be large enough for Cassie and Gregory to crawl under, however, Freddy will definitely not fit, Ryan is debatable, and the caution bot would also not fit unless it is tipped over.

Freddy's audio sensitivity is just enough to hear Moon doing something on the other side of the door. A moment later, dark blue and red fingers curl under the door and start forcing it open further. Freddy lowers himself as much as he can to help and the two manage to get the door open enough Freddy would only have to bend over slightly to pass under it.

The caution bot has already sped off, the chirping echoing from further in and the Daycare Attendant scuttles off to track it down as Freddy ensures the kids are safely past the door. It lowers without any of the mechanisms catching until it is only two feet from the ground and Freddy does his best to mark it for repair work on his internal map. Something made difficult because this room is not on said map, however, there are also no warning alerts about being in a restricted area. That does raise more questions he will be obliged to ask at some point and he hopes it has a simple explanation.

Gregory, Cassie, and Ryan haven't gone after the Daycare Attendant. They are standing a few feet away from the door looking around the rather empty room. Compared to the utility tunnels they were walking through, the handful of bowling pins and two Foxy cutouts makes the room feel positively sparkling and vacant.

"All of you are unharmed?" he asks, scanning them. Nothing pings beyond the injuries they already had, but it would not be the first time the scan didn't pick up something under clothes. "You didn't get caught on the door at all or get cut?"

They all shake their heads, assuring him that no they didn't get caught on anything or cut. Freddy looks up from them, scanning the room. Besides the door they came through, the only exit is across the room with a faint light spilling through it.

He smiles down at them, "We should catch up to the others, then."

Freddy steps to the front. The door is already partially open and the pinging conclusion that had quieted screams to the forefront as he recognizes the highly neglected rear of the bowling lanes. Already he can see at least five of the missing balls, triple that in pins that bounced out of the catch bins, and broken S.T.A.F.F. that must have come back here to wait for repairs.

"Is this, behind the bowling lanes?" Cassie asks.

He must say something in reply as he steps further into the back. It is in his programming to reply to all questions, yet his hearing is only registering the high chirps of the caution bot - it sounds overlapped; did something happen? - and the jingle of a childhood rhyme. His hand pushes a leaning pallet to the side, clearing the view into a side room he cannot ever recall noticing before.

There are four caution bots, chirping together with blue eyes over a pool of various fluids. Sun is knelt in it with his hands moving in rapid motions over a unique casing and spread wires.

Bonnie's eyes are still bright with awareness, power running through his systems as the 'irises' jerk to look at Freddy before they flicker once, twice.

Don't turn back on.

"Help!"

His feet stumble over themselves and he almost fumbles the weapon in his hand. That was a kid. What the hell is a kid doing here?

He turns on the spot, listening for the kid to call out again. The same cry comes and he rushes toward it. It doesn't matter if it might be a trap or if he loses the lead, there's no way he's going to chance a kid being in danger.

Scenery blurs past him as he runs, turns on a dime as the kid's voice keeps calling out for help. He can't let a kid get hurt. He can't let someone hurt a kid. He-

He pitches face first to the ground, ankle stinging where it rammed into whatever tripped him. He curses, shoving himself to his hands and knees when a small hand covers his mouth. It follows him as he jerks back, nails digging into his cheek and he reaches up to pull it off when he catches sight of what - who - is covering his mouth.

A boy with brown hair and green eyes wearing shorts and a plain t-shirt. He doesn't look older than 12 and is tense in a way that has something in the back of his head ringing in familiarity.

"Help!" The voice calls again and he remembers he was trying to find it before he fell.

"Don't." His eyes snap to the boy who's still covering his mouth. The boy's mouth moves as the whisper continues, "It's a trap."

He blinks at the boy as the call for help rings through the air again. It might be a trap, but the kid calling out is still in trouble. That shouldn't stop him from helping.

"Where are we, Larson?" the boy whispers again and he jerks back again only for the kid to follow him still. How did he know his name? How long has the boy been watching Larson to know that? Are his friends in danger? Or his-

Or his-

Or his...what?

Larson blinks, feeling like this is the first time he's actually noting the trees around him. He was in a building before, wasn't he? How did he get here?

"It's okay to be confused," the boy whispers as the cry echos again. This time it cracks, shifts, distorts through the air and Larson has to cover his ears at the pain lancing through his head. "And I really should leave now, but I need your help. Please."

He squints at the boy, slowly reaching up to pull the hand off his mouth and vaguely surprised when he's able to, "What do you need help with?"

The boy takes a deep breath, "You were killed and the thing that did it needs to be stopped."

Chapter Text

The text flashes in strobing colors across the screen. All of it too fast to read, but when he is already so very aware of what each color means, what's the point in needing to know what the lines actually say? Besides, Michael has changed the pinks, whites, and oranges enough that they aren't the same twisted things they once were. Maybe never will be.

He moves Fredbear's arm, waving the paw at Michael as he pulls something up on a separate monitor.

That one starts pulling up what he recognizes as a report of some kind and he looks back down to Fredbear. There's no way Michael is going to start talking about what he's doing or looking at and he doesn't know nearly enough about this stuff to make a guess. Plus this will let him think. This night is getting familiar in a bad way and that means there are things he'll have to decide.

It's not the first time something happened that called Michael in randomly. It's not the first time Michael's helped someone in the building who shouldn't be there - he really likes that kid who's always curious about what Michael's doing - or kept information back or stayed behind when he really, really, really shouldn't have.

It's not the first time kids have been taken by the company and hurt either.

Fredbear's eyes flash. A pinprick of light in their center as he 'connects' to this new Freddy. They're somewhere in the tunnels. The kids are in front of Freddy and the Acrobat is switching often. He wonders what the light is like there that aides that play and if Michael would be pleased that they're having so much fun. He's pretty sure their cousins would have.

He pulls back to check that Michael hasn't gotten hurt or left, but he just has that look he always did his best to hide from him and Lizzie. The one that meant Mom probably wouldn't be at home and Dad had decided to stay at the diner for the 'closing shift'. The one that meant they'd be going through the woods to visit Uncle Henry's for a couple days. The one that meant he and Lizzie should go to Michael for things first.

He doesn't like that look.

His scowl is buried in Fredbear's hat and head as fresh wetness slips down his cheeks. At least his friend can't get stained anymore.

"Cow-faced minged nonce," Michael mutters, kicking the rolling chair hard enough it hits the wall.

He shoves Fredbear's head into his mouth to muffle the giggles that want to escape. The image of Dad staring at them slack-jawed and how angry he would be is hilarious. Especially since there's no way for Dad to actually do anything to them now.

It didn't use to be so funny.

His giggles die off and he spins Fredbear around to look him over. He adjusts the hat a bit even though there's really nothing wrong with Fredbear. He slides off the desk, moving around Michael as he pulls some of the blue papers out of the stack. He climbs into the other chair and plops Fredbear on the couple of clear inches near the edge then his head on his arms to watch.

Michael is running his fingers over the designs. The displeasure is obvious now and he nudges his face a bit further down. It never meant anything good when Michael wouldn't hide his expressions.

He glances at Fredbear, longing for the once comforting voice that used to come from it, but very, very aware that if he asks for comfort, it's just going to cause issues right now. Maybe he can ask when the coppers get here. They can help the two boys and girl and figure out what's going on with that security lady. They shouldn't need Michael for anything at that point, right?

A high static seeps through the air. Something like a growl maybe somewhere in it and he lifts his head from the desk.

Nothing lurks on the other side of the first couple windows he looks through. The one almost hidden by the tube, though, has a shifting thing on the other side. He narrows his eyes at it and the static pauses. For a moment, the shadow lingers, but it slinks off as he keeps staring at it.

He tucks his head back down. He never likes being around others, can barely stand the ones that cling to Michael outside of this place. He doesn't like that they grab and scratch and drag and hurt-

He doesn't like them.

He doesn't like the one that's currently stalking Michael or the ones below this building or the one stuck to the small yellow robot. At least that one got kicked out with the humans to try and find Bonnie.

Bonnie looks worse than some of the S.T.A.F.F. get at the end of the day.

His chest plating is broken. Partially caved in and snapped and jagged at the edges. His limbs prone in positions Gregory knows hurts humans and no evidence that the animatronic could move them. All of the colors he can remember seeing from a distance and on merchandise as bright and luring and fun are discolored with the dust and mustiness that blankets the room. A pool of what has to be the various fluids that keep the machines running mixed into something that clings to Freddy and Sun's feet as they hover over the rabbit.

"What could have done this?" Cassie whispers, grip tight on Gregory's hand. His other is twitching, wanting to do something but stays limp at his side.

Sun is tucking a few of the wires that fell out of the casing back in as he clicks, "Please stay back, children. We don't want you getting hurt and so far we don't know if whatever did this is still here."

The grip on his hand somehow tightens, "But it's been months. How could it still be here?"

"Cassie," Ryan soothes, a hand half landing on Gregory's shoulder as he puts it on Cassie's. "The wall."

Gregory blinks, forcing his eyes away from Freddy hovering over Bonnie to actually look around the room the rabbit is. There aren't any lights even though a few of the bowling lanes must end back here. A random shelf with a few bowling balls - including two of the Freddy-themed ones - and a large webbing crack spreading from three balls embedded in the wall.

He glances down at Bonnie, back to the wall, "...Can a bowling ball do that?"

"Anything can be dangerous!" Sun chirps, picking up a lower leg from the pool and gently placing it on the ball return. "And whatever did this is bad, bad, bad!"

"I must agree with that," Freddy murmurs, head swiveling between them and Bonnie. His ears are pressed as far down as they can go, "The casings used for myself and the rest of the band are specially designed to withstand a great deal of strain. It is not impossible to cause something to snap somewhere, however to actually disable one of us requires more dedication."

"We've operated with less than 15 percent of our frame!" Sun shares, tying the completely severed portions of Bonnie's limbs into a bundle with a rope. "Mike didn't like that when he heard though."

"I can imagine," Freddy says, voice sounding a bit strained. He's staring at Sun when Gregory glances at him, distracted from watching them. "Are you going to need help?"

Sun flaps a hand, hauling the bundle into his other arm, "Oh, it's no trouble! You just worry about carrying Bonnie! We got all of the things that needed to be tucked in, tucked and this is way, way, way too much damage for either of us to fix outside of Parts and Service."

Gregory looks down at Bonnie who more likely than not had a bowling ball or three launched through his chest, "Do you guys even have the ability to do repairs?"

Freddy slides his hands under the rabbit, "Only for quite minor ones. None of us have the build to do most of the upkeep needed. We should begin making the way back to Parts and Service. Are you three alright going back the way we came?"

He nods as the two animatronics step out of the small room into the larger one. The four caution bots spin, chirping at different sound levels and follow behind Freddy with their blue faces trained on him. The 'homing' status must have transferred from the one they followed all the way here to the other three.

"Aw! They're so cute!" Sun coos, rays and face spinning as he skips backwards. He has yet to switch to Moon though the edges of his sleeves and pants are blue and twisting spirals start showing up on the outfit.

Gregory rubs at his arm as he trails behind Cassie and Ryan while Sun squeezes through the gap back to the utility tunnels. The door is shoved up so Freddy can get out and the caution bots follow right behind. They are kind of cute, he guesses, though he kind of hopes they don't pick up more of them. Caution bots might be the quietest of the S.T.A.F.F. but having a huge group of them trailing behind wouldn't exactly be the best for staying hidden.

"Do you think Schmidt will have figured out how to get an exit open?" Cassie asks, carefully lifting part of Bonnie's arm so Freddy can tuck it over the rabbit's chest.

"Mr. Mike is the best at working with the systems," Freddy says. "I have no doubt that he will be able to get the three of you out of the Pizzaplex and to safety."

Their steps echo off the walls as they carefully climb down the metal stairs, helping the caution bots down before they could go tumbling. The broken race karts start lining the walls again. The sight of them makes him feel like spiders are crawling over his skin as he peaks around Freddy further down the hall.

The painted sign for the Raceway sits almost mockingly behind them.

That machine is right there.

Gregory glances at the others in front of him. Sun and Moon's frame is mixing with both of their traits, blue and red and orange and white rippling in waves as the rays click in and out. Cassie and Ryan are between the Attendant and Freddy; Cassie keeps glancing up at Bonnie while Ryan doesn't look back at all. Freddy's head is tilted down to the animatronic in his arms with the caution bots dodging his feet.

It takes a moment for him to realize he's stopped walking. That he's stopped at the junction that leads to the Raceway.

He glances down the tunnel they won't notice and back to the others. They're already at the next turn, going through it and he, he wants to catch up to them, but-

He looks down the hall. That lone arcade machine would still be in the Raceway. The one he saw but couldn't read the title of. It wouldn't be hard to go back there and just, read the title. He remembers the do it way to Parts and Service from here and it's not like he's unfamiliar with the rest of the building if needed.

He forces his eyes back to where the others should be and they aren't there. They haven't noticed he's not with them.

He blinks and he's already picked his way through several of the race kart stacks. Something wet clings to parts of his skin as he brushes past the damaged karts and he tries to not think about it. There's a lot it could be and he really, really doesn't want to think about what might be growing in the back tunnels of the Pizzaplex.

Gregory keeps going through the tunnel. He doesn't see any doors or split offs. There's no sounds besides his feet against the concrete. None of the lights are on and he just walks in dark silence trying to not think about the fact he just abandoned them to do something he's not sure he even keep walking wanted to do.

The tunnel ends in a solid wall, but he keeps walking. Lifts a hand and the door blended into the rest of the building opens without a sound into the Raceway.

The track is on the far side from where he is, but his attention passes over it and the rest of the room to land on the single arcade machine sitting underneath a light barely five feet away from him.

Its screen is on, displaying purple lightning over a pair of white spots and the prompt to start the game. Above it - curling gold on purple - sits Princess Quest.

"Motherfucking piece of-" Ness rips the bottle of water off the desk, smashing it against the closed security door. The plastic bursts open and the water spills out.

She digs her palms into her closed eyes, spots bursting over her eyelids. She clenches her jaw shut and screams for a good moment or two.

Silence settles over the office and she slowly pulls her hands away from her eyes to stare down at the monitor that spells out the damning message: Override Failed Security Level Too Low.

If this was any other night, she'd send a message to Mike asking him to look into it if he gets the chance and just continue doing her rounds, but this isn't any other night and now they're really, really fucked in trying to get the kids out without activating Monty's emergency procedure. Which would probably require tracking the gator down first, Mike fixing whatever he needs to, and then her figuring out how to activate the process.

Ness drops her head back, staring at the ceiling. There's a weird green stain in the corner by the vent. She should probably make a note of that for the cleaning crew.

She should head back to Parts and Service to let Mike know about this failure.

Where the kids who she's terrified are.

...She really doesn't want to go back there yet and she doesn't trust the log on her phone to actually get the message to him. Not when the quick glance she gave it on the way here revealed exactly how twisted the information on it was.

She lifts her head, eyeing the screen. It still shows the message and she knows there's no way she can fix this on her own. She doesn't have the same skill with programing Mike does and even if she did, the system here is his baby given how much effort and time he's poured into it. There's no way she can break through this thing without some serious dedication and probably uncomfortable questions, but-

But she does know just enough tech support she might be able to jerryrig something on the internal communications to get something out. Even if it's just to one of the other employees it's still something.

Ness closes out of the shutter system, opens the chat database on the computer, and starts testing. All of the messages she sends to someone else 'inside' the Pizzaplex - really, just her own watch, thank you Logan for leaving your login on the desk - mostly send just fine. General things are perfectly fine, but anything mentioning some sort of incident are hit and miss. As soon as she tries for something outside of the network though, it automatically fails. It doesn't matter which contact in the list for external contacts she tries, all of the messages bounce back with a 'Failed to Send' notice. Even the one she sent to her own phone.

She restarts the entire computer, rubbing her head as her head starts pounding a bit more. The messages that failed to send are completely gone when she relaunches the program. Nothing remains to even indicate they were there and trying to send one again has the same result as earlier. Digging into the basic error window just tells her the program thinks nothing's wrong.

Her head thumps against the desk as she tries to think if there's anything else she can try. Nothing comes to mind and her head keeps pounding and pounding.

Ugh.

She shifts, plops her arm on the desk and opens the system notices. These should have been a lot harder to tamper with at least.

At the very top is the notice about the lost kid. Child, unknown height, brown hair, medium skin tone, shirt and shorts, sneakers.

It's not really, descriptive. It could actually fit both of the younger kids she saw in Parts and Service, it's so lacking. There's no color mention beyond hair color and 'medium skin tone' is a really big range. Was it her who filled this out? Or one of the day shift guards before they left?

Ness flicks to the next notice. What's done is done with that for now and there's like four more marked for tonight alone.

Intruder Notice: Short, brown hair, medium skin tone, shirt and shorts, sneakers.

She blinks slowly at the screen. That's... basically the same description as for whichever kid was put in the system. The only difference would be the tags noted in the system. No wonder the animatronics where having trouble.

Malfunction: Glamrock Fredbear Notify Technician

Yep. That tracks with what Mike mentioned. She doesn't think she notified him herself, but it wouldn't surprise her if Mike has something set up to notify him automatically. She's heard him complain about enough of the other employees not reporting things they should.

Blackout Detected Engage Protocols

She squints at that. When did that happen? It must have been before she came back, but by how much? And she's pretty sure she read in the protocols that the shutters are supposed to unlock during a blackout so customers and staff can get out without having to activate Monty's rescue protocols.

She flicks to the next one and frowns. The box is nothing but a glitched mess and impossible for her to read nearly all of it. Only 5:23 is readable at the very top which doesn't help. Especially since the other notices have been manually ordered outside of newest to oldest.

Ness stares at the glitched mess. She digs out her phone without taking her eyes off it, flips open the camera, and snaps a picture of it. It's not the best, but she's not going to risk this thing vanishing before she can show someone.

Plus it shows up with the same glitches that are on the watch so it's not a hallucination at least.

Her eyes flick to the clock on the computer - 12:36. It feels like she's spent longer here. Like it should be later in the night than it is.

She really should get back to Parts and Service and let Mike know she couldn't get the shutters open. She rubs at her head again. Hopefully he can figure something out.

Pushing away from the desk, she goes over to the scanner to swipe her badge and release the door. It groans open, spiking her headache and she glares at the thing. Maybe she can grab her meds on the way back. It's not like Mike, the kids, or Parts and Service are going anywhere.

She squeezes her eyes shut as she walks up the stairs to the atrium entrance, digging the butt of her flashlight into the center of her forehead. It's slightly grounding at least and she thunks her head against the 'elevator' wall as soon as she's inside and waiting for the 'ride' to finish.

Fuck these migraines are the worst.

"Officer Vanessa?" Roxy's voice grumbles lowly.

Ness quints open her eyes - huh, she must not've noticed leaving - to see the wolf standing about 20 feet from her. Roxy's head is tilted to the side, her tail twitching slightly on the floor.

"Are you feeling alright?" Roxy asks, staying where she is.

Ness does her best to force a smile, "Just a migraine, Roxy. I was already planning on getting my meds."

Roxy's eyes flick over the area, "That's good. Actually, we were looking for you."

"Oh?" she blinks, trying to clear her own head. "Uh, I was keeping an eye out for you guys too. Schmidt's here and he saw something in the system. Asked me to send you down to Parts and Service."

"Got it," she says, head straightening and eyes flicking rapidly. "Before I head there, though, there's a report I need to give you. The system to log-"

"Roxy," she sighs, rubbing at her brow, "I'm really not in a good spot to process things right now. I'll be heading down there soon and you can tell me then? At least Schmidt will be there in case I miss something."

Roxy shifts on her feet, ears flicking, "Alright. Please be quick, Officer Vanessa. It is really important that it is logged."

She nods and the wolf finally turns to walk down the stairs. Ness closes her eyes for a moment, opens them to stare at the barriers in front of the Raceway. It's not impossible that she just wandered over here blindly, but the thought doesn't ease her growing nerves. There's too much happening tonight and adding her seven month blackout, she's not sure what to think about what might have happened.

"Fuck," she spits emphatically, clicking her flashlight to her belt starting on the way down to the main floor.

At least she was able to send Roxy on the way down, Ness muses, rubbing at a scratch on the stair rail.

"You! Freeze!"

She whips around, one hand reaching for the flashlight as her other lifts to block a possible attack. Someone is standing at the entrance to Fazerblast holding a burning flashlight right in her eyes. She blinks to clear her vision and just sees a hand clutching at something as the person - the voice sounded male - walks closer.

"You're going to take me to the exit," he says, face hardened into a glare. "And you are not going to argue with me or you'll be in more trouble than you already are with two counts of attempted murder."

Ness' eyes flick up and down the man, noting the clothes and belt and the badge clipped to it. She forces her eyes to stay on his face. He kind of looks like the teenager which means-

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" he snaps, a hand lifting and she flinches back.

Her foot misses the ground behind her. Her eyes widen and she just registers the flash of shock on the man's face before it's replaced by the colorful collage of lights that make up the ceiling. She scrambles to grab for anything. Her fingers brush across metal, but don't hold.

Stairs, the thought crosses her mind. I survived everything else and it's stairs that get me.

That's when something wraps around her wrist and stops her.

She stares up at the ceiling, breathing harsh, but she's still alive. She's alive and the man who caused her to stumble is all that's keeping her from falling.

Ness scrambles to get her feet under her, staring at the man who doesn't try to stop her as she carefully puts a few of the stairs between them.

Slowly, she lifts her hands, mind racing with what to say, "I- I know this isn't a good situation-" the man snorts "-but I can't let you out of the building."

That only gets a scowl, "Really. Why don't you pull the other one."

"It's not that I want to keep you here," she insists. "All of the exits are literally locked and won't open. Something's wrong with the system and all of us are locked in here."

"All of us?" he mutters low enough she's not sure if it was meant for her but she nods. "Who else is here?"

Ness swallows, it's a risk, but maybe- "Us and one of the techs working on the system-"

"Take me there," he snaps, jabbing his own flashlight forward. "Now."

Okay. Okay. She can keep him calm until they reach Parts and Service. She can keep herself safe until Freddy, Roxy, and the Attendant can restrain him. She can do this.

Chapter Text

Cassidy steps out of the trees and heads to the dock humming a playground rhyme as they come to a stop beside the red crocodile. She watches the edges of the clearing for any sign that whatever's in the forest might be coming here. It's unlikely, but if she's going to get any information it's going to be easier if there aren't interruptions.

She finally breaks the quiet, "The forest is really active right now. What's happening?"

The old croc hums, spinning the handle thing on the fishing rod, "Oh, one of the others has started to pull at things to change the image."

She cackles, throwing her head back even as the sound is eaten by the trees around the clearing. Oh if someone else is finally joining her idea- "This is great! Don't tell me: it's Gaby! Wait, no, he's too meek to really do anything big like this. Alec? He's got the spunk to fuck shit up."

"It's Jake," he says and that's not a name Cassidy recognizes. Was he one targeted by something The Dick-Spaz made? The croc adds "He was not killed by William."

"Lucky," she mutters, kicking at the bait box. "So what's his deal? Why hang around or do anything? He's got something waiting, yeah?"

He has to and, well, if there's something peaceful for him, why wouldn't he want to go? She refuses to leave until William has suffered for everything he's done, but he's not her.

The bobber dips below the surface and she wonders what the old man is seeing in the water. He let her see through it once. Showed her the few people who were worth anything in her life living outside of the hell of the town they were born in. Showed her how they'd moved on and grown past her death and it ached. They were the only people she liked when she was alive and they weren't even in contact anymore. It had shattered in waves and ripples and Croc had to pull her back before she fell in. Now, though, the water stays still, reflecting nothing but the void of a sky above them when she looks down at it.

"That would be his story to share, Child," the crocodile finally says, voice light. She scoffs, dragging her eyes away from the water and shoving at him as he continues, "However, I may ask for your help with this situation."

Help? What kind of help would he be asking her for? Usually, it's just asking if one of the others would be willing to go play with Charlie cause she's lonely so it can't be that. Maybe it has to do with whatever has this Jake messing around in the forest?

"Really? What the fuck needs me?"

He doesn't reply but she can see his mouth curving slightly into a 'smile'. He's not looking at her, but she hears the crashing in the forest getting louder and clearer and looks up in time to see a group of four crash through the trees. The boy in front waves and the croc tilts his head down. Cassidy lifts a hand slightly, the boy wearing a big smile as he jogs around the lake. The adults are slower, but they follow still and, oh, she recognizes the way they're acting. She's really, really familiar with why they're acting like that.

Cassidy huffs and can hear the viciousness dripping into her voice as her thoughts race about which thing might be active, "Oh. That. Yeah, I'll help."

Roxy picks underneath her claws as the elevator makes it's way down. The motions sooth the sensors that have been pinging at her for a couple hours now and she keeps at it even as they vanish one after the other. There was something wrong with Officer Vanessa, but she doesn't know what.

She'd come racing out of the blocked off Raceway looking around frantically only to completely change her stance when Roxy had called out to her. She'd gone from aggressively frantic to pained steadiness and didn't even acknowledge having been in the Raceway. Maybe a particularly bad migraine would have her acting a bit off, but to be so different from one moment to the next? There has to be something else and at least Schmidt is here.

The elevator pings and she steps out. Chica's hallway combines with her's - the notice about Chica's eye rushes to the forefront - and quickly bleeds away the colors to plain, sterile white.

Her ears prick up as she pauses. It's quiet. Too quiet. Officer Vanessa said that Schmidt was here and was already checking that Freddy is alright. Freddy should be running through the tests right now or talking with Schmidt. Schmidt should be working on a computer, asking test questions, or walking around grabbing anything he needs. But there's nothing. Simply the droning hum of the lights and machines that are never turned off.

Roxy hesitates for a second. Protocol says she should go back to grab Officer Vanessa in case this is a hostile situation, but it also says to keep any employee that's started acting off unaware of suspicions until an approved person can come to secure the situation.

It will have her on lockdown if something happens, but she carefully starts making her way into the main area to check it out herself. Freddy's not in any of the side rooms she can see and she can't spot his endo in the few on the other side that aren't blocked by the maintenance tube. There's also no indication of where Schmidt might be. Did Freddy need to be powered down and worked on in the tube? But that usually happens with physical components and Officer Vanessa said that it was something on the network. That shouldn't require such measures and Schmidt has always sent a notice if one of the band is being taken offline.

She steps around the curve of the tube, head turned to see through the glass and neither of them are in there. Freddy's also not in any side areas she couldn't see before.

Slowly, Roxy turns to scan the desks and walls. There's signs that someone was here. A vent grate knocked out on the floor, a crushed flashlight laying on a desk next to Schmidt's tool bag, cables used to connect with the DA, Schmidt laying on the floor, several of the monitors running an id program, sheets of-

Her head snaps to the ground, a growl ripping out of her throat as it confirms that Schmidt is unconscious on the floor and there's a faint smear of something red on the side of the desk he's collapsed next to. He still looks to be breathing, but it's shallow, slow. Roxy crouches next to him, eyes flicking to total x-ray. There's no sign of anyone in the nearby tunnels. No tell-tale shape of an endoskeleton wandering out of the area they should be in.

A door rattles open. She spins to block Schmidt from view, vision buffering as it switches back. No one is getting near-

"Roxy?"

She blinks, growl stuttering out at the sight in front of her. Freddy is standing in one of the entrances, stance concerned, and holding Bonnie.

"Roxy, I have to know if you attacked him," Freddy states.

Roxy's vision flashes on and off as her processor tries to come up with a possible explanation for this. Why would Freddy be asking if she attacked Schmidt? Why is he holding Bonnie? Where did he find Bonnie? Why isn't he in containment? Did he see anything that happened to Schmidt? Did he-

"Freddy, what's going on?" she forces out. Things aren't lining up in her processing and she just needs more- "Did you see anything odd over there?" she shakes her head "Where did you get Bonnie?"

"I-" Freddy starts only to stop. His head turns between Bonnie inactive in his arms, Roxy herself, and the tunnels he just came from. "Roxy, I am going to have to ask you to step away from Mr. Mike before I answer your questions."

That still makes no sense to her, but if stepping away from Schmidt is what she needs to get Freddy to talk with her, she'll do it.

Freddy doesn't step further into the room, though she'd be surprised if he didn't conduct a scan as soon as he got a clear view. She takes as many steps as she can force herself to make away from him and it seems to be enough.

"Mr. Mike elected to keep me in safe mode earlier as he was concerned that my collapse was caused by something on the main network," Freddy starts and that's a relief at least. Even if it is something Roxy was already aware of. "I am not sure about all of the details concerning what is wrong in the system, however, I am aware of the fact that the identification system has been having unusual errors since I woke up. Mr. Mike was working on the system when he requested that myself and the Daycare Attendant assisted in finding Bonnie."

It leaves her with some questions and adds more to it, but unless Freddy has gotten really good at lying, he didn't cause the injury to Schmidt.

"Roxy, have you already contacted Officer Vanessa?" Freddy asks.

She shifts on her feet, looks back down Schmidt who she's not equipped or built to help, "No. You said the DA was with you? Why isn't he coming up to help?"

"Ah, well-"

"Roxy?"

That voice has her snapping back to look at Freddy. At the kid standing mostly behind him and staring at her with anxiety that shouldn't be there.

"Cassie, honey, what are you doing here?" she asks, not fighting the step closer she takes. "It's not safe right now. How did you even get in here? The doors have been locked since 8:30."

Her words only seem to make Cassie more upset, tears starting to spill down her cheeks. Roxy isn't sure what else she can do. The communications are down so she can't notify her father. Letting Officer Vanessa know would go against so many protocols right now. Added on top, she can't even offer a hug because Schmidt-

Cassie slams into her side, sobbing and trying to get words out that are too garbled for Roxy to understand. She looks up at Freddy, her hands hovering above Cassie and completely unsure what to do. They're supposed to keep kids away from situations like with Schmidt. It's why they all helped get the customers out when Freddy went down earlier.

A faint groan from behind her and she twists as much as she can without dislodging Cassie to see Schmidt shifting. His eyes squint open and he slowly sits up with a hand pressed to his head. He blinks. Stares at her then over to Freddy who is still holding Bonnie then back to her.

Schmidt tips his head back, "I'm not paid enough for this job."

Cassie would like the sword, Gregory thinks as he slowly makes his way through this version of Princes Quest. She'd like the sword and the ability to attack.

He's sure this level - it has to be a level with the differences - is almost done, but he's taking his time killing all of the rabbit things.

The game is... unnerving. Strange in a way he can't put to words and makes him want to just abandon the game and try to forget he ever found it.

But Gregory can't leave a game unfinished. He has to finish it once he starts and then he has to get the best score he possibly can. He has to get all the collectables. Has to find all the hidden secrets. Has to unlock everything he can. Has to have all the endings and variations he can get for them.

Gregory has to finish the game and so he guides the character through a door. Text pops up on screen which he scans briefly, but most of his attention is on the purple pixels floating off to the side. He passes by the motionless sprite into the door. The screen goes black, tarrs into lines and lines an office and there are eyes in the screen.

White eyes.

He blinks, brow furrowing as the tarring ceases on a still image and the light above the machine cuts out. The eyes expand to show a face. A face he's seen lurking in shadows and around Mike and is standing right behind him now.

Slowly, he turns his head and the kid-thing is standing barely out of arms reach staring right at him. It's shorter than him, but not by much and wearing a striped shirt and shorts. It's also the first clear view Gregory's had of the yellow toy. It looks like a version of the Freddy plushies.

It shifts. Head turning to the Raceway track. He follows the stare, not sure what he's expecting only to see long, white ears swaying behind one of the decorative rocks.

He steps back, presses against the machine and follows the edge of it to the small space it makes with the two walls. He squeezes into it as far as he can and watches as the bunny bounces out from behind cover. The head tilts, bloody red eyes staring directly at where he's hiding. Where the kid-thing is still standing in open view and staring right back at it.

"Oh, sweeetiee~~," a voice sing-songs. "We're not playing Hide and seek~~ C'mon out before the Moonlight finds you~"

The bunny skips along the track, jumping off to the main floor and lifts a hand to the 'mouth' as a giggle rings through the air. He fights the urge to shrink down or flinch as it keeps getting closer. The darkness is his greatest cover right now and any kind of movement risks breaking that. He can deal with the uncomfortableness growing in his head if he isn't spotted.

"I have prizes for the race winner~~" the bunny coos, slowing to an idle stroll as it reaches the corner. He holds his breath, prays that Freddy won't notice he's gone and try to contact him. "Good little girls don't ignore me~"

Gregory feels his heart stop. What does it mean 'little girl'? Is it-

"There you are!" a hand slams into the wall behind him.

He jerks forward, crawl-running out from behind the machine and away.

"Oh we're playing tag~? I love being it!" it calls after him, another giggle ripping through the air. "No one's faster than me!"

Fingers brush at the back of his neck, pull his shirt tight against his neck. He jerks backwards. Hands clawing at the fabric, at the hand pulling him further back as the other cuts off his air. The white rabbit face tilts over him. Giggles pitch high, ringing in his ears as his vision blurs, the rabbit leaning over enough that one of the ears brushes against his cheek.

"We're just getting started!" it says, voice bubbling and swaying. "We still have so many games and All. Night. To. Play~"

The rabbit stands upright, tightening both hands and starts pulling him across the floor. Gregory digs his feet into the ground. Struggles against the rabbit as much as he can, but the hold is strong and he's barely able to reach the floor with his feet. Why did he come here? Why didn't he fight to stay with them instead of just going?

"My friends are going to ado~o~re you!"

Barely through the blobs of dark color, his sight focuses on the kid-thing. Somehow, it's perfectly clear and he can see it's head turning everywhere around the room, clutching at the Freddy doll tightly. Its eyes land on him. The white burns through everything else, the mouth opens-

and screams.

The rabbit drops him instantly, clutching at its head as it curls on the ground beside him. Gregory scrambles to his feet not wasting the chance to run as fast as he can away from it. The door to the Raceway slams against the wall and he turns to the stairs. None of the lights are on out here and he doesn't have time to hesitate over what to do.

Security start screaming as he runs past them, grabs the railing to launch himself up the stairs. If they're going to alert anything, it's going to be Moon. He just needs to get somewhere

The kid is pointing at the door for the Fazcade. The shutters which are barely not touching the floor.

He dives. Slides under the metal with a painful squeeze just before they slam to the floor.

There's more Security rolling across the floor. One almost rolling over his fingers as he crawls further into the arcade. There's no light except the roaming flashlights and a far off line of purple hovering above the floor. Gregory presses between the arcade machines, dodging the Security to hopefully avoid any notices sending where he is. The only things he can hear are the soft thumps of wheels and his panting.

The purple line marks out the edges of a desk and he crouches behind it as another flashlight beam passes too close to him. There's a chair and a couple boxes behind it, but it's not enough to really hide. Not if the rabbit comes looking up here.

He peaks over the desk, trying to see if there might be another area he can reach that would be better to hide. The dark outlines of the various machines make up most of the room while the rest sits open where the Security rolls across the carpet. As he turns to the back of the desk, he spots a darker section of the wall.

He crouches back down, makes his way over and starts feeling along the edges. It takes a moment to find, but his fingers hit the seam of a door. He digs his nails into it and the door pops open. He's inside and has the door mostly closed when the lights flick back on and he stops the door.

The Security are obvious. They have flashlights that light up the area right in front of them. If one of the other animatronics was in here when the lights went out, though, he has no way of knowing.

Gregory leaves the door where it is, carefully pressing into the corner beside it. A sliver of light crosses to the opposite corner shining on cleaning supplies and he can hear the distant sound of computers powering back on. There's nothing else for a moment and he's inching his fingers toward the door when he hears heavy thuds that have to come from one of the animatronics.

"Something's wrong," he hears Roxy say.

He hooks his fingers under the door, tugging it the rest of the way closed. The light vanishes leaving him in darkness. Gregory wakes up the Fazwatch screen to look at the time it displays. It might not help with the actual clock, but unless there's something more wrong with it, he can watch the time. He'll try to give Roxy time to get away before he leaves.

Something pats his knee. A yellow paw resting above the old bandage and Gregory glances up just enough to see the kid-thing sitting in front of him before going back to staring at the watch.

He's just going to try to avoid thinking about that for now.

Chapter Text

"Okay, Cassie, I'm going to have to get Roxy into the tube to make sure she's okay," Schmidt says, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. He guides her back from Roxy and gestures to the side, "Roxy, please step in. I need to check how your systems are doing."

Roxy's ears flick up and down, her eyes moving over both of them, but she still steps into the tube. Schmidt squeezes her shoulder, letting go to follow Roxy in and start hooking her up to the various machines inside of it. He steps out, activating something on the computer that has the door closing with a solid thunk.

Heavy and lighter steps come up behind her, Freddy and Ryan both coming to a stop beside her as she waits, watching for the point that Roxy's casing starts being pulled off and the endo separating. Roxy's face curves in concern, but there's no separation of any piece of her.

"Freddy, you want to tell me what happend?" Schmidt asks, tapping at the keyboard. "Because the Twin isn't here and you're missing a kid."

That has Roxy's eyes widening, "There's another kid? Freddy-"

"I am sorry," Freddy says. His face is still in that mask of concern it's been in since they noticed Gregory wasn't with them. "We were most of the way back to Parts and Service when we noticed that Gregory was not with us. The Daycare Attendant offered to go look for him. I was unfortunately distracted about having found Bonnie and was not paying as much attention as I should have. I did attempt to contact him, however the connection failed to establish."

"Great. You can put Bonnie on one of the tables for now. Roxy, are you able to switch your vision?"

Freddy shifts next to her. Roxy says something, but Cassie is staring up at Freddy. He doesn't look like he wants to put Bonnie down.

"I'm guessing Bonnie's limbs were not being carried by you or any of the kids and I'm going to need them here," Schmidt says. "Roxy's inside the tube and not getting out before I let her and nothing is going to happen to Bonnie in here. I'll personally deal with anyone that tries something."

"Mr. Mike," Freddy sighs.

"Oi, Fazbear," Roxy interrupts before he can say anything else, "just put the bunny down and get back as fast as you can. Then you can go back to hovering, yeah? I'm sure Bonnie's going to love hearing about this."

Cassie pats at his leg, "Me and Ryan can watch him for you. Bonnie's dad's favorite and I want to see him come back, too."

"I'm up for watching him," Ryan adds. "Not like I'm planning on leaving here anytime soon."

Freddy's face softens and he walks over to one of the tables, carefully laying Bonnie down and speeding far faster than she's seen him back into the tunnels.

She lifts onto her toes, looking Bonnie over in the brighter light of Parts and Service and he doesn't look too bad, she thinks. He's not active, obviously, but as long as his batteries are alright he should power back on fine.

"Was there anything you two noticed?" Schmidt asks. "Roxy, can you access files MTV-01 through -37?"

Cassie looks at Ryan as Roxy responds in a confused negative, "I didn't notice anything on the way to Bonnie or on the way back until I looked back and he just, wasn't there. Moon tried to scan for him in case he was nearby, but couldn't detect him."

The door Freddy went through opens again and the bear rushes back in carrying the limb pieces with the wet floor bots rolling after him. He sets them down on the same table and stays there, staring down at Bonnie with what Cassie's pretty sure is concern and fear as he's wringing his hands.

"Fucking-" Schmidt cuts himself off and he's running a hand through his hair when she looks over. What looks like a report sits centered on the screen but it's too far away for her to read. "Roxy, I'm putting you into safe mode. Everything should be alright besides that, okay?"

"Yeah, that's good, Schmidt," Roxy says. "I don't want to risk hurting anyone."

Schmidt chuckles, "We'll be right here when you get back. You guys, where did you find Bonnie?"

"A room behind Bonnie Bowling," Ryan says. "It looked like a side room from back stroage and pin collection?"

Roxy is still in the tube, her eyelids closed. She looks like she's simply resting after a long day and it's so different from the few times her dad's let her watch maintenance on the animatronics. It has to be because this is tied to the coding part, right?

Her eyes open and Schmidt gives a pleased sound, "Perfect. I'm going to have-"

A door rattles open, having to come from the other side of the room and Cassie shares a look with Ryan and Freddy. The door they came back in from isn't too far if something does happen and Schmidt seems to know how to deal with the security guard. Maybe they can get back into them before she sees them.

"Mike, please tell me you figured out what's going on in the system," her voice calls.

Schmidt tilts his head, taps something that has the tube silently opening, "I'm guessing the manual override failed. What was the error?"

"Security clearance," she says, stopping as soon as she is far enough around the tube to see them.

Cassie shifts behind Freddy with Ryan even as Roxy steps silently out of the tube. Her head is facing the guard, body still in a way she's never seen in Roxy before. There's always something shifting. Her ears, tail, claws. Something.

Now there's nothing and she can't help thinking that Schmidt picked up on something they hadn't.

"Why did you stop?" a different voice snaps and she feels her eyes widen. That's-

"Dad?!" Ryan yells.

Solid metal shutters cover the other side of the glass and there's no way either of them are going to get it forced open if they were to break the glass.

"If you pull my head wires again, I'm dropping you," Andrew says and her arm stills in the movement backwards. "Do you happen to have a map of this place? Another entrance that doesn't involve another hour of walking."

She tilts her head to stare up at the neon lights while keeping her head under the hood. Unfortunately, she doesn't. She hasn't needed to ask about it since her friend is here and has been able to handle everything so far and all of the old buildings had roughly the same layout anyway.

"I'll take that as a 'no'," Andrew sighs. "Okay. Main entrance isn't an option. Same with the employee only entrances. Vents?"

She smacks her head against his in a negative. The little ones should be crawling through the entire system by this point and if they go in there, they'll just be driven out. Her friend mentioned releasing them a while back and she's, not really interested in running into them.

"Fine. There has to be something."

Thumps and splashes across the floor as Andrew starts walking again. Both of them are staring at the outside of the building, but the pounding rain and late time are not helping in finding any kind of entrance they might be able to use. At least there's no one around to call the police on them or something. That would be hard to-

She shoves upwards, patting against Andrew's shoulder to get him to stop.

"What-?"

She drags a finger in a rectangle on the back of his head, a line, a small circle. Taps the circle over and over and over.

"How the fuck did you see a window that's open," he grumbles but still walks closer and looks up the wall.

Her legs coil further up his torso, all of her limbs vibrating as she does her best to point out where exactly she saw the opening. It should be enough to fit through and she's not a stranger to breaking a limb if needed.

Andrew's hand find the bottom edge and he drags himself upwards to stare into it, "...There is no fucking way I'm fitting in this."

She tilts her head

Size: Compatible

it should work. At least for her and she really, really wants to check that her friend is alright and this is just something strange and not something more concerning.

"Are you able to fit?" he asks and she nods. "I mean, if you're sure I can try to block the rain while you get in, but this is high enough I'm on my toes."

She looks down and there's still small sparks dancing around the mismatched feet and toes. He's raised as high as he can be while still touching the ground. Reluctantly, she curves back down, threading her body through the feasible openings she can use. Andrew drops down, rain water splashing upwards and he turns to look around the area near them.

Her vision flickers out as she tucks her head back onto his shoulder. he's moving, doing something and muttering about hoe Jake needs to hurry up and wake up, but she's not interested in watching him do whatever he's doing. She wants to get inside the building and check on things. She wants to make sure her friend is okay. She wants to make sure he's still where he belongs.

"Are you going to keep sulking or do something?" Andrew asks and her vision flashes back on to the small opening right in front of her and the cloak positioned to keep the rain away from it.

She wiggles up, pats at his face, and shoves her own in. It's tight and she can feel her frame twisting and coiling as she wiggles to keep getting in.

"I'll see if I can find anything," Andrew yells down after her. "If I can't, I'll come up the back way!"

She can't give him any response and just keeps wiggling her way through this... maybe it's a separate ventilation system? Or drained piping line? As long as it gets her inside of the building, she isn't concerned about what it is.

'Foxy's' mouth opens and Freddy braces for Mr. Mike's voice to say something-

"I'm down here," Gregory's voice stumbles out as 'Foxy' pulls a hand back and slams it against the window. More cracks spread across it yet it does not shatter.

"Fuck," Mr. Mike spits out as the tube slams shut sealing Bonnie inside.

Freddy finds himself agreeing with the sentiment.

Chapter Text

This night is quickly becoming one of the worst days of Larson's life. Also the strangest, but he has a sinking suspicion about what might be going on with the 'Foxy' on the other side of the door.

Ness has scrambled away from the wall she slumped against, standing closer to Mike and facing the window at least. He doesn't have to worry about her getting closer to Cassie and Ryan, but there's still the thing that's trying to get in. Maybe the animatronics can deal with it, but if it's anything like what Larson thinks it might be-

He glances to his son and niece, eyeing the translucent man gripping his hair and looking around the room with panic plain as day and the yellow bot's head spinning with it.

At least he managed to not get stuck inside of a wet floor bot.

"The glass isn't going to hold," Mike says, dragging Larson's attention back to him. He's standing in front of Ness now, grip tight on a flashlight that's not going to do a whole lot when it gets in.

"What the hell is that?" she demands, taking another step back as it twists the head around and around in ways that should not be feasible.

"Something that won't hesitate to kill us," Mike states. "Roxy, Freddy, get all of them out. Now."

He glances at the wolf beside him and somehow, she looks just as confused about the situation as he feels as she says, "Where? Parts and Service is the most secure location."

"Roxy, I might have a possible location," Freddy says. His ears are pinned down, but he doesn't seem as confused. "Please make sure they are all following."

Roxy snags his shirt before he can even start moving and he glares at the man who's started laughing now. Ness jogs after Freddy, sticking close to him and not looking back at them. Cassie and Ryan are behind her holding onto each other as they rush through a similar door and into back tunnels.

"Freddy! Schmidt-"

"His orders to me prior were to ensure the children were taken as far away from that as possible," Freddy interrupts in something really out of character for the bear.

"Fine," Roxy growls out. "Kids first."

"Can this wait until we're away from the thing that wants to kill us?" Ness asks, turning her head to look back at them. Larson watches her do a double take, opens her mouth, then snaps her head between Freddy and Roxy. "Crap."

He glances over his shoulder, expecting to see 'Foxy' but the only thing behind him is Roxy.

The only thing behind him is Roxy.

Larson snaps his head back in front of him, but it hasn't changed. Ryan and Cassie tugging each other along, Ness jogging to keep pace with Freddy, and Roxy behind him. Mike isn't with them and it's clear that Freddy and Roxy aren't going to be turning back. He swears Roman mentioned that there was stronger priority on safety so why the hell would they be willing to just leave their technician to be attacked by 'Foxy'?

"Here," Freddy says, pulling to a stop beside a plain door that looks identical to all of the other doors they've passed. "Officer Vanessa, could you open it?"

Ness - Vanessa? - steps to the door and it opens under her hand. The room is spacious, empty aside from a few red boxes bolted to the walls and a single computer shoved into a far corner.

The door latches behind them and Larson isn't sure how to ask about Mike and if he's even going to be alive when they can safely get back to where he's going to be laying dead.

"He knows where this is, right?" Ryan asks and he looks up to answer somehow only his son is facing Freddy, not him or even Vanessa.

"Mr. Mike is one of five employees who has remained employed by Fazbear Entertainment at the Pizzaplex location since it opened," Freddy recites.

Larson stares at the bear. On the one hand, that's kind of impressive even with the higher priority on safety for guests and employees. On the other, that doesn't answer the question and there's no way Mike is going to be able to get away from 'Foxy'.

"Mike has basically the entire building memorized," Vanessa offers. The computer has booted up, showing grainy footage aimed over the main aisle of, Rockstar Row? Maybe? "And all employees know about the emergency zones so..."

She trails off, clicking the mouse and the camera feed changes to another grainy feed of the main entrance.

"So he'll be able to get here?" Cassie asks, one hand shoved into a pocket while the other tugs at her shirt.

Freddy nods, "Yes. I have no doubt he will have realized that I would have lead you to one of the emergency offices even if he is not sure of which one."

"Schmidt better be okay so I can chew him out for ignoring injury protocol," Roxy grumbles, poking at the door that, doesn't open even when she shoves at the handle.

Larson frowns. That's, odd. Why wouldn't she be able to open the door?

"Mike was injured?" Vanessa asks, turning away from the feed that shows one of the side attractions. He can see something moving on the screen, but it's too grainy and far away to actually tell what it is

"He was unconscious when I got there," Roxy sighs, stepping away from the door and tilting her head at the feed. "There wasn't anything to show an attack and he woke up on his own."

"I feel that this might be circumstances we can let a protocol be ignored for now," Freddy says. "Officer Vanessa, can you see anything on the cameras?"

"No," she huffs, glancing back at the screen. "All of them are static images of specific locations. None of which are in the back tunnels, by the way. I did see Chica and Monty over in Mazercise, though, and Sun doing back flips in the atrium."

Freddy's ears pin down and he starts shifting on his feet, eyes flicking from the monitor to the door. Cassie lets go of her shirt to grab his hand and Ryan shoves his balled hands into his pockets.

Larson narrows his eyes, "Okay, something else is going on here and I want to know what it is."

Freddy seems to shrink in his stance, but keeps his mouth closed. Cassie and Ryan share a look and it's Cassie who finally shares, "Gregory's also here, but we don't know where. We were just in the tunnels to, to get something then he wasn't there."

That thing using Foxy- "It spoke with his voice," he says, slow as his gut twists. If that thing is anything like-

"It doesn't," Ryan starts, stuttering over the words, "doesn't mean he's hurt. It was talking in, in Mike's voice earlier and he's fine, but- yeah."

"It was also more focused on Mr. Mike than any of the children," Freddy adds. "That is why he thought it would be alright for myself and the Daycare Attendant to watch them while in the tunnels. I am sorry for losing track of him."

Larson shakes his head, tries to get rid of the memories from over a decade ago, "Once we can get more people here, he'll be easy to find. There's only so many places for a kid to hide here."

Ryan and Freddy both nod, relief loosening the tension in their shoulders. Cassie still looks scared though and Larson slowly steps over to them. Neither Roxy or Freddy stop him and he puts a hand on her shoulder and says as much for himself as for her, "We'll find him, Cassie. I promise."

Even if he's not with us anymore he doesn't say aloud. Cassie doesn't need to be worried about that. He can't let her or Ryan worry about the high possibility that Gregory and Mike are both already dead.

It's been about fifteen minutes which should be long enough for Roxy to not be in the arcade anymore. Gregory shifts, knees aching slightly as he kneels on them and reaches up for the door handle. The kid-thing doesn't do anything beside play with the Freddy plush it's still holding as the door cracks open and Gregory peeks out.

Nothing but the steady patrol of Security rolling across the carpet.

He breathes out in relief, pushing the door open further. He's about to stand up when the kid-thing blots past him. It makes him fall back on his heels, blinking rapidly even as he sees it start bouncing on the other side of the desk. It stops just as suddenly as it started and that's when he hears soft, barely there footsteps on the carpet.

Before he can do anything, though, Mike stops beside the desk with the kid-thing right next to him hugging the Freddy plush and with its face shoved into the head. It almost seems to be, pouting?

"Are you alright? Hurt anywhere?" Tech asks, crouching and sending a look over his shoulder.

He nods slowly, staring at the kid-thing before both questions register and he quickly says, "I'm fine. Not hurt or anything, I swear."

Mike turns back to him, eyes flicking down for a second then back up, "Okay. Why did you split off from the others?"

Gregory looks down, watching his fingers curl and uncurl in his lap, "...I don't know."

"If you saw something and wanted to look at it, that's fine," Tech says, voice soft. "Was it that dancing rabbit? Something similar?"

"No. I didn't leave them because of the rabbit," he mutters, rubbing at his throat and flinching back at the sting from the touch. His eyes widen. Bruises. Bruises that Mike has to have seen.

"Gregory?"

It's weird hearing his name from Tech. They've spent so long dancing around plausible deniability he's pretty sure neither of them knew each other's names until tonight. There's a lot he doesn't know about Mike. Like the kid-thing that keeps following him tonight. Like the ease he has with the code in the main animatronics. How he knew that thing underground was there even before he's even looked into the rubble pile. Like knowing that he and Cassie were behind him. Being able to order the minis in the vents around.

"Gregory, I need you to focus on my voice, okay? In, slowly. Out, slowly."

But Tech's had so many chances to hurt him. Every time he's here alone, sleeping in an empty back room, sitting on a table watching Mike work on S.T.A.F.F., wandering the main building with no one aware that he's there to avoid the strangers on the street- No one knows where he is outside of school. No one would look for him or report him missing or think to question a random technician in the Pizzaplex about a horrid, ungrateful, useless-

"In, slowly. Out, slowly. You're safe, Gregory. I swear."

-cruel, monster that shouldn't exist only good for the check disobedient son failure failure failure failure i didn't want to i swear please please please believe me i didn't-

"Fuck."

Something grabs him and he lashes at it, but it doesn't let go. It wraps around him. Leaves his hands free and he claws and scratches and hits but it's warm and pressing against him. Presses against his shoulder and back and chest and it's warm. Vibrating. Humming.

His face is smushed against damp fabric, arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders, but leaving his hands free. He blinks, something running down his cheeks. The vibrating and humming seeps through his skin into his bones.

He swears he's heard this song before.

The humming stops, "You back with me?"

Gregory nods slightly, but doesn't pull away and Mike doesn't do more than loosen his grip. He doesn't want to move. Doesn't want to go back to running and hiding and hoping that he's not caught. Doesn't want to go back to the streets where he has to sleep with one eye open. He just wants to go back to before he heard that conversation.

"Are you up for telling me what happened?" Mike asks, voice vibrating in his chest and he presses his face a bit harder into it. He's really thin. Kind of bony.

"...brumiss."

"Ah. I, wasn't going to ask about them if you didn't want to talk about it."

He shifts, turning his head slightly so he's not speaking into fabric, "The rabbit grabbed my shirt and used it to drag me. It, it let go of me, but I can't really explain why."

Mike hums, "Okay. You got away, obviously, and I haven't seen it in the arcade-"

"It was in the Raceway," he mutters, peaking over Mike's shoulder. At least the rabbit isn't here.

"Why, did you go back there?" Mike asks. "Never mind. It's not that important."

He rubs at his face, shifts back slightly as words spill from his mouth, "It's stupid, but I just felt like I couldn't not go there. I saw an arcade machine there earlier and then the thought of it wouldn't leave me alone. Especially after Cassie pointed out a labeled tunnel. I didn't want to leave them, but then they'd already turned a corner and I was down the tunnel to the Raceway."

"This might not make sense, but did it seem like something had you on a string and was pulling you to the Raceway?" Mike asks and there's something about the tone that has him thinking.

"Maybe?" Gregory offers, glancing up and Mike doesn't seem disappointed in the response. "Games have always been weird. I just, need to finish them. Play them."

"Alright," Mike sighs. He blinks, looks over the arcade, "There's enough other shit tonight, that doesn't even make the top slot."

He huffs, rubs at his eyes again, "Like Foxy? Or the system stuff?"

A faint smile, "That. Plus Ryan's dad showed up."

"He's okay?" he asks, pulling fully out of the arms that were still around his shoulders.

"I'm, not sure," Mike frowns. "But that's not my job. At least he was able to share a bit more about what happened tonight."

"Like what?"

"Well, the two of them are here because of you," Mike says, rubbing at his head. "Said that you called over a Roxy-Talkie saying you were stuck and they- Youuu.... didn't call them."

Gregory shakes his head slowly, stomach at his feet. There's no way he could have called over the Roxy-Talkie. But that thing using Foxy could mimic Mike, was it using his voice earlier? Is that what they heard, but how?

"Bloody- Okay, think you can hold onto me?" Mike asks. "I'm not leaving you on your own and I've got to move."

He nods, watching his arms shake as he wraps them around Mike's neck. The man stands and he crosses his legs across his waist to secure himself more.

"Good?" he nods "Alright, this is going to be loud."

With that, Mike gives a whistle that rings through the air as he starts walking. Gregory flinches at the sound, wanting to cover his ears, but Mike is covering ground quick and he's not sure his legs would be enough to stay put. Hopefully, they don't run into Roxy or Monty.