Chapter Text
Will’s first day went off without a hitch, to the naked eye. Since Vanessa’s checks on the robots were so thorough there hadn’t been a whole lot to do. Just sit back and wait for the day to end. Simple, right? No. Absolutely not. Without any kind of work or distraction the three consciousnesses in him were plunged into a great deal of inner turmoil. A swirling whirlpool of confused ideas churned inside their head, only visible to the outside through wide, glassy eyes. They sat around for most of the day in all honesty, arms folded tightly against their chest as if the touch was adding some kind of stability. Blackjack sat with them but he too was quiet, as he had been ever since encountering his body. The end of the day could not have come slower, but it arrived eventually.
Will could hardly believe it was over as he stumbled out of the doors and into the warm air of a dry September evening. “So, Blackjack, where’s this apartment?”
“IT IS A 20 MINUTE WALK FROM HERE, GIVE OR TAKE.” Blackjack explained. “BUT DO YOU REALLY WANT TO GO STRAIGHT THERE? THERE WON’T BE FOOD OR ANYTHING, I IMAGINE. I COULD HELP YOU BUY-”
“Let’s just go. Please.” Will begged. The longer they stayed in public, the longer they had to hold it together and even Dave was starting to struggle with that. “I- I can’t- Let’s go.”
“IF YOU ARE SURE.” Blackjack obliged. “FOLLOW ME.”
Will nodded and the dog set off at a slow pace. Will trailed behind, somehow moving slower than the dog’s already slow speed. Walking wasn’t necessarily hard for them, but they were starting to feel dizzy and lightheaded and the dry, hot air wasn't helping.
"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Blackjack stopped after a while, noticing that something seemed wrong.
"I...Don't feel good…" Will said, speech slurring a little. "I'm just- I think- Really worn out." Peter raised a thumbs-up and did his best to force a smile onto their face. "It's fine, don't worry. Let's go, ok Jack?"
"..." Blackjack frowned at Will. A memory flickered in the back of his mind, a time Peter had stumbled home drunk after being convinced to drink. The slow, broken up speech and the constant assurance that he was fine were all too familiar to the dog all of a sudden. He shook it off. The lost soul tried not to think about the time he spent alive anymore. “ALRIGHT. IT’S NOT MUCH FURTHER.”
The rest of the journey passed quietly, with both Will and Blackjack too caught up in their own thoughts to strike up any kind of actual conversation. They only spoke again when they got closer and started asking for specific directions. Blackjack led them up to where they’d be staying with...a little difficulty. Trying not to look like they were talking to themself when speaking with Blackjack was no easy feat. Sure, there technically wasn’t anything stopping them from speaking to him normally but that would be drawing unwanted attention and that was the last thing any of them wanted at that point in time.
After a little bumbling around and a few mistakes, they finally arrived. The apartment was nothing noteworthy. Small, barren and clean enough. At that moment though, Will wasn’t paying a whole load of attention to his surroundings. They simply found the sofa and crashed.
Blackjack padded over cautiously with his ghostly form now visible. “ARE YOU...ALRIGHT?”
“I- No- He- It’s all- We’re- Too much- Don’t understand- Conflict- SHUT UP!” Will slapped their own arm. “Take it in turns guys, for fucks sake. We learnt this earlier.” There was a sigh, then a pause before, “You know what? I’ve decided I liked it better when you couldn’t swear, Peter.”
“Gee, thanks. Honestly Dave, what would I ever do without your endless supply of helpful commentary?”
“No need to get sarcastic, come on. I thought your whole shtick was being like...a nice phoney?”
“My sister just died and I’m stuck in here with you, her murderer, and Steven, who despite what he thinks, is making his anxiety very apparent.” Peter responded. “I think I’ve got a right to not be feeling the best.”
Their facial expression shifted a bit, letting in some of Steven’s shock. “You can hear that?”
“We can feel it. It’s not pleasant.”
“Ye-Yes, well I can feel your grief. It’s...strong.”
Peter stiffened at that comment. "Stay out of that."
"That's...That's not really easy for me to do."
"Ughhh…" Peter burried their hands buried in their face. "And you guys wonder why I'm so grumpy with you."
"There's nothing wrong with grieving, I get-"
"You don't get shit , Dave!" Peter snapped. "Not sure if it slipped your mind, but you’re the one who killed her to begin with!"
"I'm not proud of that."
"Then, why -"
"I don't know, ok!?" Dave snapped back, matching Peter's levels of agitation now. "Because Henry told me it was a good thing that we were doing, and I trusted him. Because he did weird shit to my head and I didn't feel bad about it in the moment. But for some stupid-ass reason I do now, so if you could maybe stop rubbing it in my fa-"
" Enough!" Steven spoke over Dave, refusing to let him finish. "Honestly, if you two had still been working for me, you'd have just been fired on the spot."
"Oh, there's the bastard boss I knew! I was wondering when you'd arrive."
"That- That wasn't an invitation to argue with me, Peter."
"BOYS." Interrupted Blackjack. "I KNOW IT IS NOT THE LATEST BUT...PERHAPS, MAY I SUGGEST GOING TO SLEEP? IT COULD...IT COULD HELP CLEAR YOUR MINDS. TOMORROW CAN BE A FRESH START."
"..." No one said anything aloud, but Blackjack could practically hear the internal conflict. "Alright."
Blackjack nodded, relived. He wouldn't admit it to them, but all this arguing was worrying to him. Had this been a bad idea?
'One of them couldn’t have handled it alone. I couldn't have brought them back as individuals…' Blackjack reminded himself. 'Dammit, Fredbear. Why did you have to disappear when I needed you?'
'....Where did you go?'
Blackjack snorted at his thoughts, frustrated by letting himself get caught up in them again. He bounded through the apartment, where Will had already found the bed. Their shirt and trousers had been abandoned on the floor, left as a problem for their future selves to deal with. They weren't asleep though, far from it. Wide eyes tirelessly examined the room's ceiling, not even remotely closed. Blackjack hopped up on the end of the bed. He fidgeted, realising that he was no less restless than his companions.
"You're not going to be able to sleep either, are you Jack? You haven't really changed that much, you know that?" A weary grin met the soul from the other side of the bed. "Want me to gently talk you sleep, like I used to have to do?"
That was Peter talking then. Blackjack squirmed uncomfortably, knowing what he was talking about. Jack had been plagued by nightmares for a long time after his parents deaths. He'd tried to hide them but Peter, who annoyingly had seemed to have superhuman hearing, had more often than not managed to catch when he was awake. He'd come in and help Jack calm down and get back to sleep. Between that and a 1 year old Dee to deal with, Blackjack wondered how his older brother had managed to get any sleep at all. The dog burried his face in his paws in annoyance. Why, oh why, was he thinking about his old life at home again? He'd taught himself not to do that in too much detail for a reason. It hurt.
"NO." Blackjack declined. "TRY THAT ON STEVEN AND DAVE. SEE HOW THAT PANS OUT FOR YOU."
"Oh, very funny." Will yawned. "What's he even gonna talk about, doggo? Your brother's honestly one of that most boring guys I've met. No fun whatsoever."
"You don't think any of the Phone Guys are fun." Peter complained as they rolled over onto the opposite side of the bed.
"Untrue, Steven was fun to wind up."
"And- And Peter wasn't?"
"Well, put it this way - Would you rather see someone get so inexplicably pissed off that they explode with the nuclear force of 7 suns in an impeccable outburst or just get grumpy and tell you to leave?"
"Is...Are you trying to compliment me?" Steven asked, baffled.
"Is it working?" replied Dave.
"I don't think so, no." Steven said.
"Well then no, I'm not." Dave decided. "Continue as normal."
Blackjack snorted, bored of the back and forth. "I SEE THE WHOLE, 'SLEEP' IDEA IS GOING WELL."
"The thing about sleep is that, ideally, you want to 'turn you brain off'. Does it sound like I can do that?"
"NOT REALLY, NO." Blackjack admitted.
"There you have it then."
"IF YOU ARE TIRED TOMORROW YOU ARE NOT GETTING ANY SYMPATHY."
"You were being sympathetic before?"
Blackjack winced. "I WAS TRYING." But had he really been trying though? Now that he thought about it, he'd been way too preoccupied with thinking about Jack to pay much notice to how his friends were doing. He hadn't even really noticed anything was wrong until they'd gotten here.
He decided he'd try and do better tomorrow.
"Are you feeling weird about Jack?"
Did they just read his fucking mind? Blackjack sighed, reluctant to talk about it. "YES. I SUPPOSE. HOW DID YOU KNOW?"
"Because you were talkative as hell until he showed up, doggo. Doesn't take a genius to work out."
"...I WAS JUST CONSIDERING SOMETHING. PERHAPS WE ARE GOING ABOUT THIS THE WRONG WAY. MAYBE I COULD HIGHJACK MY OLD BODY, STOP THE MADNESS FROM THE INSIDE."
"High- Jack . Nice." Dave smirked. "Dave, that wa- But trust me. Putting souls back in dead bodies? Never ends well. Especially one as rotten as yours."
"MY SITUATION IS DIFFERENT TO YOURS THOUGH. I HAVE BECOME SOMETHING MORE THAN JUST A WANDERING SOUL."
"I can't argue with that, you're right, but still. Jack won't just sit by and let it happen, he's going to try and force you out. And even if you get in...Ah...Man, I bet you know this already…"
"YOU WOULD BE SURPRISED. SOULS RETURNING TO THEIR BODIES IS INCREDIBLY RARE. EVEN IN THE FLIPSIDE, IT IS A RELATIVELY UNKNOWN PHENOMENON."
"Oh, wow." Blackjack could hear the surprise. "I actually know a whole lot! Henry wrote whole papers on the practice. Ok, so the thing is is that it's impossible to put a whole soul back in its body. Proven fact. You can put most of it back, but whatever you do, you're gonna lose part of it. And that incomplete part is just gonna wander the Flipside, confused and missing half 'is memories. It's not fun, trust me."
Blackjack shivered. "DAVE...WERE YOU HENRY'S TEST SUBJECT FOR THAT RESEARCH?"
"Yeah. Can you believe I only just got my full soul back?" asked Dave. "Oh, wait, that's-"
"THAT'S…?"
"It's nothing. I just realised something, that's all."
"CARE TO SHARE?"
"...." No reply. They were thinking. "What's the situation with our souls? This isn't gonna fuck them up or anything, is it?"
Well that was random. Probably not the actual realisation, Blackjack decided. Still, this was a question he could answer. He'd play along.
"YOU STILL HAVE SEPARATE SOULS. THEY ARE NOT IN DANGER." Explained Blackjack. "WHY, WHAT ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT?"
"I dunno...What if they started to merge or something?"
"SOULS MERGING IS NOT SOMETHING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED. I THINK YOU WILL BE FINE." Blackjack flicked an annoyed ear. "EVEN IF THAT WAS A THING, YOU THREE ARE FIGHTING SO MUCH THAT I DOUBT YOUR SOULS WOULD EVEN START TO DO THAT."
"Hey, we've stopped now!"
"OH? SO YOU HAVE." Blackjack yawned and rolled over. "MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY AND SLEEP THEN. I KNOW I'M GOING TO."
"Yeah, ok. You're probably right." They squirmed and slid further under the bed covers. "So this is an actual bed….? It's way nicer than my desk.." Steven murmured as the three started to nod off. "I think I could get used to this….."
Blackjack was about to say something about that comment when he realised that the three were finally silent and that getting them talking again wasn't a great idea. Besides, he was growing tired as well. The dog closed his eyes and fell asleep on the end of the bed, careful to avoid sleeping on Will.
And he dreamed.
Or, maybe not dreamed.
Vividly remembered a past experience in excruciating detail? Yeah, let's go with that.
The first thing he noticed that he was human, young too. Why, he still had hair. Weird. The next was that he was in his family's old house, sitting alone at night.
And that he was scared.
Peter wasn’t home. He said he'd be home by 9:30, but here Jack was, sat alone at 12:40, waiting for his older brother. He didn't dare go to sleep though. He couldn't. An unknown amount of time passed. Blackjack wondered what he was doing here. 'Provided it still can, the subconscious of a lost or damaged soul may forcibly show itself past memories to try and prompt some kind of change.' Blackjack vaguely recalled. But he wasn't lost or damaged.
Right?
The front door opened. Holy shit, finally! After what sounded like a little bit of tripping, a man clumsily stumbled into the room where Jack sat. Blackjack felt a stab of guilt. The man was Peter. He'd actually forgotten what his brother had looked like before having his head replaced for a second.
"Peter! Finally! What took you so long?"
"...Traffic…" Peter said slowly.
"You don't drive."
"Ah………....fuck…"
"Are you alright?" asked Jack, growing increasingly concerned.
"Mmmmm fine, just…." Peter practically fell onto the sofa, next to Jack. "Juuust tired, alright. You should really...really go to bed now. ….Yeah, you do that."
But Jack didn't didn't go and do that. He sat and watched his brother for a bit. Peter smelled, Jack realised. He'd smelled that kind of smell before, at Christmas and his parents' birthdays.
"Shit, have you been drinking!?"
"'Ssss fine, Jack. Was only...Uhhhh...It was only…"
"....How much did you drink?"
"....I don't know." Peter admitted. "Haha...haha...Oh, I'm going to die...Oh, this'll be the end of me, won't it?"
"Let's hope not." said Jack. "Please. Not you too."
"They said it'd be good for me, Jack." Peter chuckled. "But….But….But…."
"But what?"
"It wasn't, heh heh…" Peter continued. "I don't think I've ever felt my head this bad. Funny how that happens...Ha..."
"You're not making sense, idiot…" Jack got rude, but only as a defence. "That's...That's really not funny, you know?"
"Idiot...Ha...Oh man, Jack, you wanna hear something?"
"....Sure?"
"I miss being your brother."
Jack grew even more uneasy. "You are my brother."
"Mmm not…" Peter protested. "Now 'mm like….Your dad, or something. 'Legal guardian'. Whatever."
"Oh." Jack didn't know how to respond. Any traces of the more mature mind of Blackjack within the dream were long burried.
"I want Mom and Dad back. I want fight you for stupid reasons again….haha...Isn't that weeeeird? I hated doing that." Peter laughed. "Did...Did you know that when Mom and Dad died there was some council guy who cake and spoke with me. He said….He said…'You don't have to do this, Son. We...can take your siblings...outta your hands'. Well, jokes on him! I took you both anyway because I couldn't...I couldn't fuuucking stand the thought of leaving you! And now I'm tired, and I'm drunk, and I've fucked my ankle!"
"Wait, wait wait, you what?" Jack looked down at Peter’s leg to see his trouser leg was rolled up and that there was something tied around it. "How did you get home?"
"Caroline doesn't really drink...Gave me a lift." Peter explained. "She's nice….and pretty...and sensible...Ah fuck! Alcohol! Never again! Not for a long time, at least-"
"How about 'never again'?" Suggested Jack.
"That's an good idea, yeah." Peter agreed. "See this? Thisssss...This is why I couldn't send you away. You're a good kid, Jack."
"Thanks?"
"You're welcome."
Blackjack just couldn't understand why his soul had dragged this memory back out. Was it because of earlier, when he'd faintly recalled this? He supposed.
And Blackjack wasn't the only one dreaming.
Steven was surprised by this - dreaming wasn't a very common occurrence for him and when he did dream it was always vague nonsense that he could never make sense of. Now though? This was clearly a Freddy's location. More specifically, it looked a lot like location 14, his old location. Looking around the room, he couldn’t really see many people he recognised and the whole place looked at little bare in comparison to how Steven remembered it. Maybe this was before he worked here? He glanced at some of the people walking by. Searching for anyone he knew. ….He squinted at a nametag. Was that...Harry? But alive? Harry, the fifth ever Phone Guy, here, alive and phone-headless? Definitely must've been before Steven worked here.
"Dave?" Well, shit, now there was another man he didn't know running up to him and for some reason he was calling him 'Dave'.
"You said you wanted me to take a look at your suit, right?"
"Yeah, I do thanks." Steven's mouth moved without him saying anything and Dave's voice came out. Wait, fuck. Was this...Was this something that happened to Dave ? That could make sense, Steven guessed. Dave had been with Freddy's for longer than he could remember.
"So, what's the problem with it?" The man asked. "I mean, you're still alive, so I assume it hasn't set off on you."
"Nope. Little bits of metal keep popping loose and jabbing me, that's all."
….Steven got the feeling Dave was lying. Yeah, no, Dave had been in multiple springlock failures before. He was lying.
Why was Dave lying to this man?
"Oh, nasty." The man agreed. "And that probably equals a higher risk of it setting off on you, which we don't want, do we?"
"Nope!" Agreed Dave. "No deaths around here, no thank you."
"Especially not with what they're doing to the dead employees now…" The man whispered. "Did you hear about that?"
"I've heard rumours, but they're outlandish, even by this place's standards." Dave said. "Spill the beans."
"Alright so, the last few guys who got brought back? Friends with a guy named Abel. When they died he...I guess experimented on them? And brought them back from the dead."
'No way. No way he actually brought the dead back."
"I hate to break it to you but uhhh...Yeah. He kinda did. Kinda . There was...a catch."
"Well, don't keep me waiting, what was it?"
"Their heads are phones."
"... What ?"
"You heard me." The man reiterated. "Their heads are phones."
"You're pulling my leg," Dave laughed. "You're a funny guy, man. But come on. Phone-heads?"
"No, no, listen!" The guy protested. "I'm not messing around this time, I promise. They're really like that, I've seen them."
"That's...What the fuck?" Dave struggled to find the words. "Why?"
"Don't ask me, I haven't got a clue!" said the man. "All that I know is that I don't envy your job right now."
This was so weird. Steven had to wonder what the fuck had compelled their brain to do this. Had Dave been thinking about this recently? Why? He looked at the guy Dave was walking with again but drew a blank. No immediate names came to mind. The guy's voice was familiar, but that was kind of a given. He'd worked in this location because it was close to where he lived. Same place, similar voices, right? Maybe he was one of Dave's victims...Oh Foxy, was he about to witnesses a murder? Was Dave about to lure this man into the saferoom and kill him? That would explain why he didn't recognise the guy…
But Steven never found out what happened next, because he woke up with a jolt.